this mistake, and that is, that the forfeited lands are purchased
indiscriminately by Catholic and Protestant, and that the Catholic
purchaser never objects to such a title. Now the land so purchased
by a Catholic is either his own family estate, or it is not. If it
is, you suppose him so desirous of coming into possession that he
resorts to the double method of rebellion and purchase; if it is not
his own family estate of which he becomes the purchaser, you suppose
him first to purchase, then to rebel, in order to defeat the
purchase. These things may happen in Ireland, but it is totally
impossible they can happen anywhere else. In fact, what land can
any man of any sect purchase in Ireland, but forfeited property? In
all other oppressed countries which I have ever heard of, the
rapacity of the conqueror was bounded by the territorial limits in
which the objects of his avarice were contained; but Ireland has
been actually confiscated twice over, as a cat is twice killed by a
wicked parish boy.

I admit there is a vast luxury in selecting a particular set of
Christians, and in worrying them as a boy worries a puppy dog; it is
an amusement in which all the young English are brought up from
their earliest days. I like the idea of saying to men who use a
different hassock from me, that till they change their hassock they
shall never be Colonels, Aldermen, or Parliament-men. While I am
gratifying my personal insolence respecting religious forms, I
fondle myself into an idea that I am religious, and that I am doing
my duty in the most exemplary, as I certainly am in the most easy,
way. But then, my good Abraham, this sport, admirable as it is, is
become, with respect to the Catholics, a little dangerous; and if we
are not extremely careful in taking the amusement, we shall tumble
into the holy water and be drowned. As it seems necessary to your