Mercer Chronicle

THE MERCER CHRONICLE. 69
I.
The following curious documents, of which 32 folio volumes
exist in MSS. in Trinity College, being records as to some of
the Mercer Family, are inserted in the " Chronicle " so as to give
us a picture of the times, a.d. 1641.
They are inserted not to prejudice us against the Irish people,
but against the Roman system, which could justify such atroci-
ties ; they point out the way in which an Earthly Priesthood
can work to compass their ends !
The Irish as a people have many splendid traits of character ;
and we have not met a people on earth with whom we could
fraternize, or love more, than with this people. As a proof of
my assertion, the English of every age have become Irish, and
that, too, without descending to be Soman !
The Priests have seen this, and hence the endeavour to stir
up their poor flocks against the English ; to keep tJiem known as
English even after centuries of residence in the Emerald Isle.
Mark Dr. Moore's advice to his friend Edward Lake, " go back
to England ; " no English must remain in Ireland, their enter-
prise, their cleanliness, their comfortable houses, all the result
of superior intelligence, contrast badly with Irish apathy, Irish
dirt, and Irish cabins. Some of the Irish will think. This opera-
tion the Priests fear ; some of the Irish will remember the
ancient days when the Irish did not live in cabins and scrape an
acquaintance ivith the pig ; this memory the Priests dread, be-
cause in those days there were no English, and it proves that
the Irish if left to themselves can be educated, and comfortable
and clean, but then they would not be ignorant, and would not believe
the Priest !
"What more monstrous than to believe that English prosperity
is the reason of Irish misery ? But now that the enlightenment
of the times does not allow of a Dr. Moore to hint at a cutting
of throats by insurrection, we are threatened with a Fenian
Invasion I ! ! and some people would say the Priests have nothing
to do with it ! Stuff ! if not the Priests, where are the Jesuits ?
Rome is Infallible ; she cannot alter ; the blood of St. Janu-
arius must liquefy once a year at Naples ; dolls, &c, must be hung
up at the shrine of the "Queen of Heaven" at Lyons; and