But if I was unable to reconcile such a denial to the contracted principles of local duty, what answer could I give to the broad claims of general humanity?  I confess to you freely, that the sufferings and distresses of the people of America in this cruel war have at times affected me more deeply than I can express.  I felt every gazette of triumph as a blow upon my heart, which has an hundred times sunk and fainted within me at all the mischiefs brought upon those who bear the whole brunt of war in the heart of their country.  Yet the Americans are utter strangers to me; a nation among whom I am not sure that I have a single acquaintance.  Was I to suffer my mind to be so unaccountably warped, was I to keep such iniquitous weights and measures of temper and of reason, as to sympathize with those who are in open rebellion against an authority which I respect, at war with a country which by every title ought to be, and is, most dear to me,—­and yet to have no feeling at all for the hardships and indignities suffered by men who by their very vicinity are bound up in a nearer relation to us, who contribute their share, and more than their share, to the common prosperity, who perform the common offices of social life, and who obey the laws, to the full as well as I do?  Gentlemen, the danger to the state being out of the question, (of which, let me tell you, statesmen themselves are apt to have but too exquisite a sense,) I could assign no one reason of justice, policy, or feeling, for not concurring most cordially, as most cordially I did concur, in softening some part of that shameful servitude under which several of my worthy fellow-citizens were groaning.

Important effects followed this act of wisdom.  They appeared at home and abroad, to the great benefit of this kingdom, and, let me hope, to the advantage of mankind at large.  It betokened union among ourselves.  It showed soundness, even on the part of the persecuted, which generally is the weak side of every community.  But its most essential operation was not in England.  The act was immediately, though very imperfectly, copied in Ireland; and this imperfect transcript of an imperfect act, this first faint sketch of toleration, which did little more than disclose a principle and mark out a disposition, completed in a most wonderful manner the reunion to the state of all the Catholics of that country.  It made us what we ought always to have been, one family, one body, one heart and soul, against the family combination and all other combinations of our enemies.  We have, indeed, obligations to that people, who received such small benefits with so much gratitude, and for which gratitude and attachment to us I am afraid they have suffered not a little in other places.