At present it may suffice to say, that the Letter to Mr. Smith, the Second Letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe, and the Letter to his Son, which here follow in order the Fragment on the Popery Laws, are the only writings upon this subject found amongst his papers in a state fit to appear in this stage of the publication.  What remain are some small fragments of the Tract, and a few letters containing no new matter of importance.

TRACT

ON THE POPERY LAWS

THE PLAN.

I propose, first, to make an Introduction, in order to show the propriety of a closer inspection into the affairs of Ireland; and this takes up the first chapter, which is to be spent in this introductory matter, and in stating the Popery laws in general, as one leading cause of the imbecility of the country.

CH.  II. states particularly the laws themselves, in a plain and popular manner.

CH.  III. begins the remarks upon them, under the heads of, 1st, The object,—­which is a numerous people; 2ndly, Their means,—­a restraint on property; 3rdly, Their instruments of execution,—­corrupted morals, which affect the national prosperity.

CH.  IV.  The impolicy of those laws, as they affect the national security.

CH.  V. Reasons by which the laws are supported, and answers to them.

CHAPTER II.

In order to lay this matter with full satisfaction before the reader, I shall collect into one point of view, and state as shortly and as clearly as I am able, the purport of these laws, according to the objects which they affect, without making at present any further observation upon them, but just what shall be necessary to render the drift; and intention of the legislature and the tendency and operation of the laws the more distinct and evident.

I shall begin with those which relate to the possession and inheritance of landed property in Popish hands.  The first operation of those acts upon this object was wholly to change the course of descent by the Common Law, to take away the right of primogeniture, and, in lieu thereof, to substitute and establish a new species of Statute Gavelkind.  By this law, on the death of a Papist possessed of an estate in fee simple or in fee tail, the land is to be divided by equal portions between all the male children; and those portions are likewise to be parcelled out, share and share alike, amongst the descendants of each son, and so to proceed in a similar distribution ad infinitum.  From this regulation it was proposed that some important consequences should follow.  First, by taking away the right of primogeniture, perhaps in the very first generation, certainly in the second, the families of Papists, however respectable, and their fortunes, however considerable, would be wholly dissipated, and reduced to obscurity and indigence, without any