saken brethren? And, when these Catholics were active supporters of the laws, were they not sure to become as obnoxious to the Rockites, as the Protestants? Is there any man living who will say, that, if the rents and tithes belonged to Catholics, the peasantry would utter a single murmur against the payment of them? It is roundly asserted, that the Protestants provoke the Catholic peasantry to their present conduct, by oppression and insult, but where are the proofs? The Catholics hold the chief share of the Irish press -they have a number of Opposition members in the House of Commons and they have Earl Grey in the one House, and Mr Brougham in the other, as official organs, ready to say anything in the way of complaint that they please, and still no proofs of Protestant oppression are brought forward. The Protestants, no doubt, hold the power in Ireland, and so do the Tories in England. The Protestants there, are truly enough full of party spirit; and the Tories here have their share of it. But would the Whigs be justified, by the Tory preponderance and party spirit, in declaring that they were oppressed and enslaved, and in becoming incendiaries and assassins? If not, who shall excuse the Irish Catholics, by maligning the Irish Protestants? Accounts are at this very time reaching us almost weekly, that the Catholic ministers, by the aid of mob force, violate the laws and usurp the rights of the Protestant clergy. This is indeed insult and oppression; but who are the guilty? and who are the sufferers? If the calumniated Protestants were what they are represented to be, our ears would not be shocked by intelligence like this. Passing by everything else, it is possible that one part of the lower orders of a country may insult and maltreat the other part; but this cannot be the case among the Irish peasantry, when they consist almost exclusively of Catholics. It is established by convincing proofs on the one side, and the absence of all proofs on the other, that the Protestants do not tyrannize over the CathoJics-that if they be inflamed with party spirit, the Catholics are equally so-and that, while this spirit only leads the former into such excesses as parties in this country are constantly guilty of towards each other, it leads the latter into the commission of the

most appalling crimes. It is proved by everything else, as well as by the declarations of Captain Rock, that the peasantry are led to commit their dreadful atrocities by their religion. Their cry is not-redress for wrongs, or revenge for past, or present, injuries! but-exclusive power for Catholicism, and destruction to the Protestants, because they are Protestants! Whatever they may have suffered from the Protestants, they now suffer nothing; the generation that suffered is no more; that which exists has only existed to receive, and still, like the Puritans of old, they carry on a religious war of aggression, usurpation, and extermination. We must examine their crimes in detail, to be fully aware of their frightful enormity. Their horrible burnings, houghings, and assassinations, have not been the work of a few weeks of phrenzy, but of years of cool-blooded system,they have not been confined to a few particular spots, but have spread over a very large extent of country-they have not been prompted by the inflamed passions of a few individuals, but they have taken place in fulfilment of the deliberately-chosen plan of the whole body of the disaffected, and, therefore, they have been in ef fect the deeds of a very great portion of the whole Irish peasantry-and the victims have been, not alien enemies, but children of the same soil, innocent men, whose only offence was, the exercise of a clear right, and some of them great benefactors to this peasantry. These terrible and sickening atrocities have been perpetrated in the name of religion! The perpetrators of them have been furious fanatics, abundantly supplied with religious teachers of their own persuasion, and the blind and devoted slaves of these teachers!!

Now, is there any man living, who, in looking at the brutal ignorance and hellish crimes-the fierce fanaticism and the slavery to their church, of the Irish peasantry, can lay his hand upon his heart and say, that there is not something fearfully wrong and dan gerous, either in the doctrines of this church, or in its discipline and conduct? Granting that the last genera tion, and previous ones, of Catholics were oppressed by the Protestants, how happens it, that, when the oppressed and the oppressors are now

mouldering in the dust-when those who now live of both religions, consist only of the benefactors and the benefited-how happens it, that the Irish peasantry thirst as ardently now for the extermination of the Protestants, as they ever did in the worst times of Protestant oppression? What keeps alive this dreadful, this devilish, animosity, when they now suffer nothing from the Protestants, scarcely ever come in contact with, or see one, and are so completely under the control of their priests? Allowing that, from the infirmity of human nature, difference of religious opinion may make bodies of men detest each other, what makes, speaking alone of the lower classes, the conduct of the Catholics to be so much more criminal than that of the Protestants? What makes the lower classes of the Catholics, so much more ignorant and wicked than those of the Protestants? And why, when the Irish peasantry are plentifully supplied with Catholic priests who have unlimited control over them, are they sunk in the lowest depths of ignorance and depravity?

These are searching questions, and touch the very vitals of the Catholic Church of Ireland. We know full well, what contempt and mockery are cast upon those who speak of this church anything but eulogy, both in Parliament and elsewhere; but for this we care not. It is the poor, blind, guilty, and miserable Irish peasant, and not us who write, who must suffer from the refusal of Parliament to be told of this Church's misconduct. We may be called bigots, and we know not what told that our words ought to have been spoken some hundred years ago and informed that the Romish Church has abjured its monstrous doctrines and pretensions, and abandoned its spiritual and civil despotism. We shall only deign to reply to this, by pointing to the PRESENT Miracles," to the PRESENT proclaimed belief of the Catholic Church and Catholic Board of Ireland in them, and to the PRESENT state of the Irish Catholic peasantry. To those who love truth and reason, we will speak; and we will say nothing that we do not conscientiously believe to be truth and reason.

A great part of the nation is at this very moment declaiming against the Catholic Church of Spain and Portu

gal, as the source of the most terrible evils to these countries-very many are vituperating the Protestant Missionaries, as men who are producing great mischief in the colonies-not many years since, the Edinburgh Review made a tremendous attack on the Protestant Dissenters of almost all denominations, on the ground that they were inflicting fearful injuries on the country-and the Whigs have been for some time, and are at this hour, making war upon the Established Church and its clergy, from the belief, as they say, that these are doing harm to the State. Now all this proves, what, in good truth, needs no proof whatever, that it is believed by all parties to be possible for a Church, or a body of religious teachers, to plunge those whom they lead, into great evils: it proves likewise, what has been so often proved by history before, that even the Romish Church is capable of being the parent of the most grievous ills to individuals and nations; and it proves, moreover, that the doctrines of a Church may be harinless and even pure, and yet its discipline and the conduct of its functionaries may be highly mischievous and dangerous.

Upon this ground we take our stand. Speaking here as politicians alone, we will put out of sight the doctrines of the Catholic Church, and speak only of its conduct, and the effects which it produces in Ireland. Now the peasantry are savagely ignorant, and as savagely wicked; although their priests, from the peculiarity of their duties and powers, are continually coming in contact with, and have despotic authority over them, in regard to religious conduct. This is of itself quite sufficient to prove their Church utterly worthless as a teacher of religion. But does this Church content itself with being merely worthless? The peasantry are prohibited from reading the Scriptures without note and comment, sound expositions of Christianity, and almost all works whatever, calculated to dispel their mental darkness, and correct their depravity. They are prohibited from entering any place of worship save their own, from becoming familiar, and intermarrying, with Protestants, and they are restricted from inquiry and discussion. Now, who issue the prohibition? Who are those who thus

dare to usurp so large a share of the Sovereign power-thus exercise authority which the Government itself does not possess, for the purpose of depriving so large a portion of our fellowsubjects of their legal rights and privileges, and sinking them to the lowest stages of blindness, guilt, and slavery? The Catholic Priesthood! The prohibition is not merely one of terms it is not rendered effective merely by threats of future perdition-it is effectually enforced by means of what is, in reality, a grievous penal punishment, of what amounts to the loss of character and bread, if not of life. It is in vain that Ireland boasts of possessing the liberty of the press-this priesthood exercises a censorship over the press with regard to the lower orders, which completely suppresses almost everything that ought to circulate. It is in vain that Ireland boasts of living under the British constitution a tyranny, which laughs alike at laws and rulers, and triumphantly maintains its system of espionage and terror, keeps the great body of the people in the most abject state of mental and bodily bondage. It is in vain that the Protestant Clergy seek to impart to the people good feelings and conduct-the Catholic Church declares, they shall not be heard. And it is in vain that the Government, Parliament, all political parties, and the whole British nation, call in one voice for the instruction and liberation of the Irish peasantry-the omnipotent Catholic Church responds in triumph -They shall not be instructed, they shall not be set free, they shall remain what they are!

We are well aware, that this terrible power is secured to this Church by law; but we may be permitted to say, that it ought not to be possessed by any Church, or any body whatever, when all men agree, that it ought not to be possessed by the Government itself. We may be permitted to say, that if anything but a Church-any combination of laymen, even the Church of England, were to possess this power, it would be immediately consumed by public indignation, although its organization, functionaries, creed, and conduct, might be exactly the same. So much for the instrumentality of the Catholic Church in producing the peasantry's deplorable ignorance and consequent depravity;

Vor. XV.

we will now inquire, how far it is instrumental in producing their hatred of the Protestants and disaffection.

Looking at the thousand and one religious bodies which compose the people of England, he must be blind indeed, who cannot see that it is the constant endeavour of the leaders of each, to prejudice their followers against all the others-who cannot see, that it is their interest, and even duty as honest men, to do it, on the principle on which conscientious Whigs and Tories labour to bring each other into disrepute and who cannot see, that this must be the case so long as these bodies endure. The press perhaps is not quite so much jaded with theological controversy as formerly, and Ministers of different persuasions may perhaps exchange gracious bows with each other; but dissenting pulpits-and in good truth what else can they do?-are still engaged in an interminable war. Granting that the doctrine alone is attacked-Can you excite prejudice against the doctrine, without exciting prejudice against those who profess it? Can you teach the religious man to abhor atheism, without diminishing his esteem for the atheist; and can you fill the Catholic with hatred of Protestantism, and yet prevail on him to be the Protestant's friend? If you can accomplish this with bodies of men, you can leap over the Moon, and do anything whatever, that the Eastern enchanters were in the practice of doing. Perhaps the rich and intelligent, who form the contemptible minority of each body, are not worked up into a much stronger feeling than compassionate dislike of the other bodies; but the ignorant and passionate, who form the overwhelming majorities, are inflamed with animosity towards all who differ from them. At this very moment, the members of the religious sects among the lower and middling classes, are railing against each other as furiously as ever. Two individuals, and it is only barely possible, may argue and dispute-may be rivals and may endeavour to make proselytes among each other's followers, without ceasing to be lukewarm friends, but, with bodies, it is utterly impossible.

The Catholic Ministers are, not only acted upon by the same natural laws, which act upon the Ministers of other religious bodies, to compel them to 20

teach their flocks to despise other creeds, and consequently the followers of other creeds, but they are acted upon to do it, by almost every other motive that can influence the heart of man. The Protestant bodies found their different creeds upon ambiguous and controverted texts of scripture, which divide in opinion, not merely the ignorant, but men of splendid talent and learning: they have nothing to conceal, they teach nothing that is capable of being refuted by physical proof, and their members may see and hear what they please, without being in much danger of being induced to change their religion. But the Catholic Church stands upon falsehood, imposture, ignorance, and credulity. It has by its legends and superstitions, its relics and pretended miracles, its glaring falsifications of scripture, and its monstrous assumption of the attributes of the Deity, placed itself in such fierce hostility with the Bible and common sense, that nothing but the barbarous ignorance of its followers can save it from ruin; and the thread of life of this ignorance consists in hatred of the Protestants. Reconcile the Irish Catholics with the Protest ants-suffer the former to converse freely with the latter, to read their books, and hear their clergy-and they will be brought into a blaze of knowledge and feelings, of facts and demonstrations, which must inevitably, either reduce their church into an impotent sect, or destroy it altogether. If the Irish Catholic Church have any regard whatever for its own existence, it must make it its grand object, to keep the hatred of its flock towards the Protestants at the highest point possible. Again, the Protestant sects never sustained any loss from the Established Church; in their war against it, they have constantly disclaimed all wish for its temporal possessions, and have merely insisted that there ought to be no national church whatever. But the Catholic Church once was, what the Church of England now is it regards the latter as a sacrilegious usurper, by whom it has been discrowned and stripped of its possessions-it holds its title to these possessions to be still sacred-and, animated by its interpretation of the prophecies, it looks forward with confidence to the moment, when it shall regain them, and again become the

established church of the empire. The Church of England and the Catholic one, are, in the religious world, what the Tories and Whigs are, in the political one; they war, not merely on account of opinions, but for splendid dignities and emoluments; and the victory must be decided by a majority in followers. So long as the great body of the Irish people remain blind, disaffected fanatics, so long will they virtually have no other temporal head than their Church, and it must be this head-it must be an imperium in imperio, its followers must be a distinct people, hostile to all others, and obeying nothing but itself, save from compulsion-or it must cease to be mighty for the attainment of its wishes, and even to hope. The esteem of its followers for the Protestant ruler, would be fraught with the extreme of danger, for it would give to this ruler powerful influence, which he would use to enlighten them, and consequently to destroy Catholicism. Our Protestant sects have nothing whatever to gain by disaffection. They neutralize each other's political power for anything but general defence. Every one of them well knows that, were it to attempt to procure any peculiar aggrandizement in the state, all the others would join the Established Church and the Government in resisting it; and every one of them well knows, that no state necessity, and no wish on the part of Government exist, for stripping them of followers. But the Catholic Church of Ireland is followed by nearly the whole of the people; and so long as it keeps them disaffected, or, to use a softer word, in a state of dislike, to the Government, it is the most powerful political body in the country, when political power is essential for its existence. Imperious state necessity, and the Government and Parliament, call for the proper instruction of the people, but it dare not instruct them, and it dare not suffer them to be instructed. It is therefore involved in a conflict with public good and the general government, on a question which affects its own life; and it is only the disloyalty of the people which enables it to retain paramount authority over them, and thereby to overawe the government, bind up the hands of the Protestant clergy, and remain in security. Admitting that, as many intelligent men continue to be Catholics,