Who were those who, among the Protestant party, threw the shield of their name and influence over their Catholic neighbors and friends?
Who, need I ask?
The pious, the humane, the charitable, the liberal, the benevolent, and the enlightened.

Those were they who, overlooking the mere theological distinctions of particular doctrines, united in the great and universal creed of charity, held by them as a common principle on which they might meet and understand and love each other.

And indeed, gentlemen of the jury, there cannot be a greater proof of the oppressive spirit which animates this penal and inhuman code than the fact that so many of those, for whose benefit it was enacted, resisted its influence, on behalf of their Catholic fellow-subjects, as far as they could, and left nothing undone to support the laws of humanity against those of injustice and oppression.
When the persecuted Catholic could not invest his capital in the purchase of property, the generous Protestant came forward, purchased the property in his own name, became the _bona fide_ proprietor, and then transferred its use and advantages to his Catholic friend.

And again, under what roof did the hunted Catholic priest first take refuge from those bloodhounds of persecution?
In most cases under that of his charitable and Christian brother, the Protestant clergyman.

Gentlemen, could there be a bitterer libel upon the penal laws than the notorious facts which I have the honor of stating to you?
"The facts which have placed the prisoner at the bar before you are these, and in detailing them I feel myself placed in circumstances of great difficulty, and also of peculiar delicacy.