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 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 schools→→→ known 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, &e. 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 Legislator, 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 in this United Kingdom, including a perfect list of their subscribers and different means of support, &c. I do not throw out this suggestion with any view to overrule such hostile institutions, or interfere with the management of, them: for I abhor all kinds of spiritual oppression, or restrictive proceedings, nor would I wish ever to extend the hand of one person in authority to meddle with their religious concerns. An inspection and report of the actual case is all I want, to convince Protestant Statesmen of the growing evil of Popery, and to show what is the direct practical tendency of our improvident conduct for the last forty years. LETTER III. SIR, THOUGH I should be one of the last men in this kingdom to wish for any interference with the religion of those who differ from me, by positive restraints or legal prohibitions; yet every government has a perfect right to know what progress is made, or effects arise, in the State, from any other religion than that which is deemed national, and what number of converts there may be, as well as what principles or means are employed for propagating such religion. If unrestricted liberty be granted, or only solicited, to teach the mass of the people, it is highly proper for the Legislature to ask whether the Petitioners and religious teachers do not promulgate doctrines subversive of civil society, or at least injurious to the settled form of government: otherwise, a legal encouragement and effective support may unwittingly be given to a set of men (like Mahomedans) who hold it right and just to use corporeal force, or inflict temporal chastisement, or even to maintain their religion by fire and sword. It is on this ground, I conceive, that some kind of evidence or security is reasonable to be demanded of those who claim political power, by which their full allegiance and entire submission to the existing Government may be discerned; for, without some specific and significant test, as proof, such religious professors may be placed wholly out of the reach of law, and obtain by artifice that supreme rule in the State which properly belongs to other persons. Whether or not the sign of complete loyalty should be strictly religious, or whether any other than a religious test, applying itself to the conscience, can be devised for that salutary purpose, is not now the subject of my inquiry: I am only hinting at the necessity of a Parliamentary investigation, by means of which the exact number and quality of all Popish establishments or charities should be well ascertained, prior to any discussion of the general question respecting UNCONDITIONAL CATHOLIC CLAIMS; and I consider this the more important, because I see vast multitudes of noble and wealthy people daily coming forward to promote Popery, by the indiscreet exercise of a most benevolent feeling, creditable indeed to their own hearts, but silently and gradually sapping the foundations of TRUE Christianity (as established by the Reformation) in the British empire. This remark, Sir, leads me back to various elementary schools, &c. under the entire control of Romish Priests, but in a great measure maintained by Protestant Laymen, many of them existing in the metropolis; and though my observations will apply chiefly, yet they are not meant exclusively so, to the "Benevolent Society of St. Patrick," an institution which once was, with much reason, patronized by the great and good of all parties who wished well to Ireland, though now made the tool of numerous Roman Catholics in England, guided by their Vicars Apostolic, to serve a po |