Footnotes
[1.] Milton's Prose: A Lecture delivered in the Museum of Irish Industry, St. Stephen's Green, by the Right Hon. Judge Keogh: The Irish Times, June 1, 1865. [2.] We print the words of the judge as we find them, though it seems irreverential, not to say worse, to compare a regicide, and a man who denied the divinity of Christ, to the apostle of the nations. Though Milton was gifted with the highest natural powers, yet, not having the qualities of a true Christian, he was only like sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. [3.] Works of Samuel Johnson: Dublin, 1793, vol. v., p. 72. [4.] The Works of John Milton. London: Bickers and Bush, 1863: vol. iv. pp. 411, 412. [5.] It is entitled A Treatise of True Religion, Heresy, Schism, Toleration, and the best means to prevent the growth of Popery. [6.] “As for tolerating the exercise of their [the Catholic] religion, I answer, that toleration is either public or private; and the exercise of their religion, as far as it is idolatrous, can be tolerated neither way; not publicly, without grievous and insufferable scandal given to all conscientious beholders; not privately, without great offence to God, declared against all kind of idolatry, though secret”—Milton's Works, already quoted, vol. v. p. 413. [7.] See Bayle; Dictionnaire Historique et Critique: art. Milton, note o; also Johnson's Works, vol. v. pp. 95, 96. [8.] Quarterly Review, October, 1825, p. 446. [9.] Milton's Works, Bickers and Bush; vol. iv. p. 428. [10.] See the Edinburgh Encyclopædia, articles “Copernicus”, and “Gallileo”. [11.] See The Martyrs of Science, by Sir David Brewster; or the Edinburgh Review, July, 1844, p. 173. [12.] See Martyrs of Science; or the Edinburgh Review, July, 1844, p. 174. [13.]
It is singular that the sufferings of Irish Catholics should meet with more sympathy from an English Protestant clergyman than from an Irish Catholic lecturer. The relations between our country and “our glorious deliverer” are thus described by the Rev. Sidney Smith:—
“The war carried on in Ireland against King William cannot deserve the name of a rebellion: it was a struggle for their lawful prince, whom they had sworn to maintain, and whose zeal for the Catholic religion, whatever effect it might have produced in England, could not by them be considered as a crime. This war was terminated by the surrender of Limerick, upon conditions by which the Catholics hoped, and very rationally hoped, to secure to themselves the free enjoyment of their religion in future, and an exemption from all those civil penalties and incapacities which the reigning creed is so fond of heaping upon its subjugated rivals.
“By the various articles of this treaty, they are to enjoy such privileges in the exercise of their religion as they did enjoy in the time of Charles II.; and the king promises, upon the meeting of parliament, ‘to endeavour to procure for them such further security in that particular as may preserve them from any disturbance on account of their said religion’. They are to be restored to their estates, privileges, and immunities, as they enjoyed them in the time of Charles II. The gentlemen are to be allowed to carry arms; and no other oath is to be tendered to the Catholics who submit to King William than the oath of allegiance. These and other articles King William ratifies for himself, his heirs and successors, as far as in him lies, and confirms the same, and every other clause and matter therein contained.
“These articles were signed by the English general on the 3rd of October, 1691; and diffused comfort, confidence, and tranquillity among the Catholics. On the 22nd of October, the English parliament excluded Catholics from the Irish Houses of Lords and Commons, by compelling them to take the oaths of supremacy before admission.
“In 1695, the Catholics were deprived of all means of educating their children, at home or abroad, and of the privilege of being guardians to their own or to other persons' children. Then all the Catholics were disarmed, and then all the priests banished. After this (probably by way of joke) an act was passed to confirm the Treaty of Limerick,—the great and glorious King William totally forgetting the contract he had entered into, of recommending the religious liberties of Catholics to the attention of Parliament”—The Works of the Reverend Sidney Smith. London: Longman and Co., 1854, pp. 272, 273.