S. $41826 DEDICATED TO THE EARL OF LIVERPOOL. POPERY AND THE POPISH QUESTION; BEING AN EXPOSITION OF THE POLITICAL AND DOCTRINAL OPINIONS OF MESSRS. O'CONNELL, KEOGH, DROMGOLE, BY THE REV. GEORGE CROLY, A.M. F.R.L.S. LONDON: PRINTED FOR G. B. WHITTAKER, AVE-MARIA-LANE. 1825. 415- ΤΟ THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF LIVERPOOL, &c. &c. &c. MY LORD, To your Lordship, as the head of a Ministry which has led the Empire to the height of glory; and as one of the chief hopes of the nation in her resistance to the rash and dangerous claims of Popery, these pages are dedicated by Your Lordship's most obedient and faithful Servant, THE AUTHOR. POPERY AND THE POPISH QUESTION. AN eminent member of Government has lately said, that "there is a great inert mass of opinion opposed to Catholic Emancipation," There can be no doubt, that such is the fact; that the empire contains a vast majority firmly attached to their religious liberties, but who, being loyal on principle, and having no factious and personal objects to pursue, wish, in general, to leave public affairs to take their course, and are, above all things, reluctant to degrade their lofty and sacred cause, by even a seeming appeal to popular passion. Yet there are periods when this inertness may have all the hazardous results of indifference. And if there ever was a time, when it was essential to throw back that imputation; to give a free, and direct expression of the national B |