by their pertinacious disobedience. The immutable maxims of the Catholic Church cannot be in the least altered by the Judges of a lay-tribunal, and one that is not Catholic, to which true Catholics should have been ashamed to have recourse for the sake of making war upon their holy Pastor. Such Judges are no other than a curse and infamy to those who have dared to call on them for judgment. Most sorry am I for the censures which will be launched against all those who have taken any part in the matter; and if it be true that two Ecclesiastics actively co-operated with their proceedings, (one of whom must of course have been Mr. Zino,) they will only have to attribute to themselves the necessity under which this Sacred Congregation will be laid to cause them to be interdicted from any exercise of their sacred ministry,

'I have nothing more to add, except to enjoin on you that you afford every support and assistance to the worthy Monsignore Bishop, Apostolic Vicar, encouraging him to oppose, always, indeed, a patient, but an unconquered, firmness to so great excesses of an impious prepotency, and to maintain with vigour a cause which is no longer his own, but that of the Catholic Church."

Let the reader mark that sentence in which British subjects are threatened for having appealed to a British tribunal, and that tribunal denounced as infamous and accursed. Can any language be more seditious than the following, addressed to a Consular Agent in a British colony?" Somiglianti giudici non sono sino di maledizione ed infamia por quelli che ardirono di provocarli." Of course this is the accustomed style of the Court of Rome; and yet we hear that a semi-diplomatic, but clandestine, correspondence is carried on by

* From the use of the verb provocare, I should judge that giudici in this sentence must have been giudicij in the original letter, but that it has the adjective somiglianti connecting it with the antecedent giudici in the preceding sentence.

means of an Englishman resident in Rome for that purpose. This may be incorrect, although currently reputed to be true; but the country should know whether it be so, and if so, whether such a correspondence be lawful.

It would have been beside our purpose to notice the quarrel with the Bishop of Heliopolis, had not the antiPopish feeling of the more numerous and respectable portion of the population of Gibraltar been clearly elicited therein, a legal decision given in which custom was recognised as valid to the utter overthrow of every ecclesiastical principle of Rome in that town, and another occasion afforded to the Papal Court to display, in regard to British judicature, the spirit by which it has ever been characterized, and ever will be, while the forbearance of God, and the blindness of man, allow it to exist.

CHAPTER XI.

1841. Correspondence with Cadiz-Printing in GibraltarEnlargement of the Mission in that Town-Persecution of a Schoolmaster in Aljeciras-Quarrel between Spain and Rome -The Pope's Allocution-Replies thereto-Ineffectual Struggle of a Portion of the Priesthood-Seditious Placards, &c.— Confiscation of the remaining Church Property—The Clergy pensioned.

THE Mission to Spain was still reduced within a very narrow compass. Weekly correspondence with Cadiz was continued, and the little party of Protestants met together on Sundays; but only two short visits could be paid to that city. The press, however, was kept at work, and some addition made to the quantity of printed material for the evangelization of the country. And the work of distribution still went forward, although not on so large a scale as could have been desired.

The Mission at Gibraltar acquired new strength by the erection of a commodious building at the south, containing a spacious school-room on the ground-floor, fifty feet by twenty-five, and an oratory above, of the same dimensions. In the Spanish congregation a few communicants were added, of whom there was every reason to believe that they were in earnest for the salvation of their souls. This was the best of all, inasmuch as each true convert brings his share of spiritual influence, is another pleader before the throne of grace, and effectively contributes to the permanence of the little church, which may be the means ere long of spreading vital religion over the adjacent province. But, on the other hand, the Missionary Society at home was pressed by

urgent claims, beyond its ability to satisfy, from Stations where such opposition as that experienced for a time in Spain has not to be encountered; so that no further efforts, beyond those of the single Missionary at Gibraltar, were made. It is hoped that this unsatisfactory state of things will not continue much longer; and in view to the introduction of a brighter period, the reader is earnestly referred to the suggestions with which this volume closes.

One of our Schoolmasters spent some time in the neighbouring town of Aljeciras, where he acquired a knowledge of the language, and, by intercourse with the people, removed some prejudice, and imparted some religious information. While witnessing the utter irreligion of the inhabitants, he was stirred up to pray; and we may hope that his petitions, recorded in heaven, will not be unanswered. But nothing was hazarded there; and the little extra outlay thus incurred, was more than recovered by him as teacher of the English language, in which capacity alone he acted, a precaution taken in anticipation of the event which soon followed. The parish Priest there insisted that, as he was under my influence, the royal order of 1839, already cited, should be put in force. His Spanish friends resisted this as long as they could; but at last, although there was no sufficient ground on which to justify such a proceeding, he was arrested in the street at mid-day, cast into prison, in spite of the remonstrances of the Baron de Carondelet, the general officer commanding that district, and after a night's incarceration, was marched out at the lines opposite Gibraltar at the point of the bayonet. But it is most gratifying to be able to make honourable mention of the Baron, the Commandant Rivas, and other of the chief inhabitants, who unequivocally expressed their approbation of his conduct, and interfered on his behalf, as did the British Vice-Consul, although some

what tardily, disheartened, perhaps, by Lord Palmerston's instructions.

Spain became the theatre of an open conflict between church and state, which will probably give a new character to the ecclesiastical history of the country; and as it is not the chief intention of the writer to put forth an account of his own proceedings, or of those of his own church, he will not apologize for occupying a few more pages by mere translation, as the documents so published possess the highest historical authority; and we have now to study the history of the Spanish, as distinct from the Roman, Church, and almost Protestant in respect of discipline. And if this transition is being made under the direction of Divine Providence, it may lead to a doctrinal and moral reformation. We will hear the parties litigant state the case for themselves.

On the second day of March, Pope Gregory XVI. pronounced the following allocution in a consistory of Cardinals at Rome. The copy before me is in the Spanish language. I have not a copy of the original, but presume that the version is correct :

"VENERABLE BRETHREN,-It is now more than five years that we have been deploring, in your assembly, the unhappy events relating to religion in Spain, and the acts, and numerous decrees, which in that country attack the rights of the Church. We addressed to you an allocution, which should be published, in order to induce the Government of Madrid to other and sound ideas, or, at least, that our Apostolic disapprobation of all that had taken place might appear in a solemn and definite form. Since that time we have abstained from other public and more severe complaints; not that they have ceased in Spain to afflict the Church with new injuries, but the continued supplications of our venerable brethren, the Prelates of that kingdom,

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