security against rebellion, worth all the oaths of allegiance and ecclesiastical arrangements:" No. LVII. p. 124, Nov. 1817.-But, Sir, do we certainly know that all cause of discontent would then immediately subside? that political rank and influence given to a few, might not lead to secular cabals and efforts for employing the many? that Papal ascendancy, uncontrolled, would be a blessing to the population of Ireland, and especially to the Protestants? that our greater mass of British subjects would not be clamorous, and violently resist such domineering preponderance? and that the admission of tried enemies into the citadel of State, might not generate a spirit of constant rivalry and discord in our legislative or judicial proceedings? We have no ground to believe domestic Popish Laymen would desert the principles of their Priests, or oppose their fixed prejudices against every branch of Christianity but that of

ROME.

Sir, allow me to ask you, Whether Popery be an evil? Whether it does not still exist? Whether it has undergone any radical change since the days of CRANMER and LUTHER? Whether the Papal religion be not in fact unchangeable, and every where the same, because deemed infallibly true? Whether or no we be indebted to those Martyrs, by whom the Reformation was introduced into Great Britain? Whether we ought not to feel grateful for the blessings of a subsequent Revolution in 1688, by a different class of heroes? Whether you be prepared to revoke all the legislative Acts of our pious forefathers, by which the full exercise of religious and civil liberty has so long been ensured? Whether you really think that a Protestant Church can long co-exist and flourish with Popery, in Ireland, if a hundred Lay-Papists shall sit in Parliament; and if the bulwarks of our present Constitution be undermined, in order to admit them? Lastly, I ask, Whether you then would, or could consistently, refuse Popish

Prelates and Apostolical Vicars a place (if it be demanded) in the House of Lords, or prevent their devoted friends from filling all the chief judicial offices in Ireland?

if

Sir, these are most serious and weighty questions; which,

you cannot answer in an instant, should make you pause, and reflect before you again vote for legislative measures that may possibly be fatal, and are not denied by yourself to be hazardous, to our best national privileges.

I am willing to hope, that, if your numerous occupations afforded more time for investigation, you are disposed to peruse the records of former ages, and certain official documents of the reigning Pontiff, in order to gain that information respecting this object which is imperatively required: for, as a late British Senator justly observed, "It is a melancholy truth, that the best informed on other subjects, Philosophers and Statesmen, are often most ignorant of this, which vitally affects the interests, the feelings, and the honour of millions of the people, and the security of the empire itself." You will pardon my freedom in quoting such a very "melancholy truth," advanced by a Gentleman whose deep researches entitled him to give an opinion so worthy of your candid considertion.

TOLERANT CHARACTER

--

The chief points on which I propose to offer some remarks, are -1. THE REVIVAL OF POPERY- -2. ITS IN3. ITS POLITICAL TENDENCY 4. ITS ENCROACHING DEMANDS AND USURPATIONS. I only request your calm and attentive perusal of what may be submitted to you. If it should be proved that Papal bigotry is greatly on the increase, that its forces are more numerous in this kingdom since granting the elective franchise, that the principles and practice of Roman Catholics are as intolerant as ever, that their religion still is, and always must be, secular and encroaching; I shall have shown the danger of giving them high political power, and the certainty of producing an endless litigation with us as Protestants.

SIR,

LETTER II.

IN attempting to demonstrate the revival of Popery, I need do little more than refer you to the religious state of Papal Europe at present, compared with what it was twenty or thirty years ago; and to the simple fact of some thousand Protestants having annually enlisted into the ranks of the Latin Church, from the inhabitants of Great Britain, during the same period! You are aware that the dormant or suppressed institutions of the Church of Rome are, in many places, revived and re-established. I more particularly ought to remind you of "THE POPE'S BEST BULWARK," as the Order of Jesuits has been emphatically named by an English apologist for Popery; and likewise the re-opening of those horrible instruments of tyranny, the prison-doors of the "HOLY TRIBUNAL OF THE INQUISITION," blasphemously so called! We have therefore an holy Church, an holy set of Dungeons, and an holy regiment of Prison-keepers, to carry on the holy work of Christianizing the nations which are willing to bow down to this merciless Dagon!

That the fires of Jesuits and Inquisitors are not again relighted in Europe, is owing to God's great mercy, and the cautionary measures taken by Statesmen, who have not lately joined hand-in-hand with the agents of superstition; but how long we may be preserved from the reeking altars on which burnt sacrifices have too often been immolated, will (under GoD) depend upon the quantum of political power conceded to Papistical Rulers and Legislators. It is POWER, Sir, and nothing but POWER, which is now wanted. This is the lever by which the world may be moved :-give POWER to those lamb-like Priests, who already tear and burn

our Bibles, and they will be quickly metamorphosed into Tigers-fierce, cruel, relentless, and thirsting for human

victims.

To obtain secular power, it is requisite to increase the number of adherents, and then to multiply their institutions for worship and for education. I must be very brief in showing, that this is done, not merely in Europe at large, but at home, in our own country: and here I am not at a loss for facts, because Roman Catholics themselves have boldly told us the truth; for they boast of their numbers, and publish lists of their English schools, academies, colleges, and chapels,-which are occasionally alluded to in their periodical Magazines, Journals, Newspapers, and circular Addresses to Protestants, who (very unwisely!) promote such charities all over this kingdom!! On the very day I write this (March 17th), many of our British nobles and gentry, in the fulness of their Christian zeal, are meeting at one of the largest taverns in London, to aid, with their money and influence, extensive metropolitan schoolsknown to be purely and exclusively Popish-known to have deviated from the original plan of their institutors, so as wholly to shut out Protestant Irish sufferers, and only to admit those who fall prostrate before the shrine of St. Patrick; great numbers of whom (though mere children) are said to have just affixed their influential names to the last Roman Catholic Petition, lying for consideration on the table of the Commons' House of Parliament !+

Lest the above fact should be called in question, as too barefaced a specimen of Popish policy to be credited, I must refer to a printed "Letter to His Grace the Duke of NORFOLK," signed "WM. EUSEBIUS ANDREWS," in the last

† In what manner the St. Patrick's Benevolent Society has wholly departed from its original plan, and thereby forfeited the support of Protestants, is explained in LETTERS III. and IV.

Number of the Orthodox Journal and Catholic Monthly Intelligencer for February 1819. The Editor therein reproaches the "British Catholic Board" for its artful, insidious, and degrading mode of gaining signatures to their late Petition; and he charges this Board with condescending to obtain names by means of "Runners employed to attend the various Catholic Clubs which assemble for BENEVOLENT PURPOSES," and by Charity-school" boys from ten to twelve years of age," as well as by people" who entered for devotion" at the various Chapels in London, &c. He states, that, after his letter of February 18th was written, “he had been informed that Circulars were sent round to the different Catholic charity-schools in the metropolis, ORDERING

THAT ALL THE BOYS THEREIN SHOULD SIGN THE VETO-PETI

TION OF THE SELF-NAMED BOARD. Now, let it be recollected, Sir, that distinguished Protestants (Lord CASTLEREAGH and Mr. CANNING are among the number) do therefore select boys, and actually educate them, on Popish principles; while they embody and array themselves in battle against our Protestant Laws, our Protestant King, our Protestant Constitution, and Protestant Church!!! Is this fair or consistent policy? Is it not, rather, treacherous dealing? Thus do our generous and unsuspecting fellow Protestants continually help to build chapels, erect colleges, and support schools; all expressly designed to overwhelm the simple benefactors in ruin, whenever strength enough is acquired by Papal agents to pull down our present national establishments. This system of proselytism is doubtless well understood by the Vicars Apostolic, and wonderfully admired at Rome.

I beg, Sir, most earnestly to suggest to you, as a Le gislator, the propriety and necessity of an authorized return being made to one of the Houses of Parliament; which shall specify the exact number and quality of the Popish seminaries, chapels, and charitable asylums, of all kinds, now