TO THE PROTESTANTS OF SCOTLAND.
Letter I.
"I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: How then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?"—Jer. ii. 21.
In name you are a numerous body, but when the duties are contemplated which that name imposes, those entitled to it will be found to be few. Deduct the false, the faint-hearted, and the erring, those blinded by interest, or by a presumptuous vanity founded on ignorance, and it will be obvious that your cause is generally deserted. The population of our country has increased, but the dissemination of your principles has not been proportionally enlarged. The influence you once possessed over the government and national counsels, has passed to others—formerly your concealed adversaries, but who now find it unnecessary to disguise their triumphant hostility. You have now Popery invading you in every quarter, and in every form. One-third of the European population of the British empire (Ireland), have for years been placed directly and avowedly under Popish patronage and domination. Not only are the superstitious ceremonial and monastic establishments of Popery paraded and rendered familiar to our eyes, but in all the colonies of the empire, Popery has of late been favoured, patronised, and elevated to dominion over the Protestant population. The serpent is gliding around, and entangling us in its folds, rearing aloft its head; and its progress has been rapid. It has, during some past years, held, directly or indirectly, the seat of power and official emolument around the British throne; and they who resist its poison, must prepare to renew the strife, whatever form it may assume, in which their fathers contended, and to renew the sacrifice of personal and private interest to which they submitted. A firm phalanx of Papists, patronising men destitute of sound principles, has given to those men an ascendency in the state. For that patronage, payment has been made by a government acting in subserviency to the Popish priesthood—giving countenance to the merciless persecution of all Protestant clergy and people in Ireland—and fostering, by liberal supplies of money, the rearing in the Popish College of Maynooth of men destined to extend the dominion of Popery, and favouring the progressive establishment, in all the dependencies of the empire, of that system of superstitious intolerance, ignorance, and servitude to priestly domination, which form the pillars of the Romish supremacy over men and nations.
The most singular circumstance attending the present state of the British empire is, that it is by your aid—by the aid of Scotland and of Scotsmen—that supreme power has been attained and held for years by a Popish faction—and that Popery is now advancing fast to permanent dominion over the land. Ay, this has occurred by the aid of the religious Presbyterians of Scotland or at least of Scotsmen who style themselves, and for aught I know do, in some delusive sense, imagine that they are, Presbyterian and even Calvinistic Protestants. By them, combining with the Popish priesthood of Ireland, the powers of the British monarchy have been vested in men whose tenure of office and emolument has depended on their subserviency to Popery. Thus by your aid the poisoned cup is held to our lips, and the viper is fostered which was trodden down by our fathers, whom a severe experience had reared up into a race of wiser and better men, in an age of more discernment and more unyielding integrity. At political elections, questions have been put to the candidate about various matters. Would he give boundless admission to foreign corn—would he extend the political suffrage—would he vote for the ballot to protect you in your cowardice, as if a cowardly people could be a free people? But in our great cities and counties, which of you has enquired whether a candidate professed true Protestant principles, and had determined to support them against the hostility of Popery, whether open or insidious?
