Fragments of a Tract Relative to the Laws against Popery in Ireland [1765]

John Morley has written perhaps the best summary of the historical origins of the penal laws against Irish Catholics, and of their effect upon Ireland during the eighteenth century. Edmund Burke's writings on Irish affairs, and especially his Tract on the Popery Laws, are a detailed elaboration of what Morley has summarized. The whole system of the penal laws was fed by "informers", who received a share of the fines levied or of property confiscated. Burke noted that the penal laws prevented Catholics from attending schools, or establishing their own, or even from sending their children abroad to be educated. These laws even extended to the keeping of arms for "the right of self-defence", which Burke called "one of the rights by the law of Nature". For the first time in his political writings, Burke set forth his belief in the Natural Law as the basis of a just and free social order.