be justified or excused by, or under pretence or colour, that it was done for the good of the church, or in obedience to any ecclesiastical power whatsoever. That it is not an article of the Catholic faith, neither are they thereby required to believe that the Pope is infallible, and that they do not hold themselves bound to obey any order in its own nature immoral, though the Pope or any ecclesiastical power should issue or direct such an order; but, on the contrary, that it would be sinful in them to pay any respect or obedience thereto.""

Again, in the 12th Article-

"They further solemnly, in the presence of God, testify and declare, that they make this declaration, and every part thereof, in the plain and ordinary sense of the words of their oath, without any evasion, equivocation, or mental reservation whatsoever, and without any dispensation already granted by the Pope, or any authority of the See of Rome, or any person whatever, and without thinking that they are or can be acquitted before God or man, or absolved of this declaration, or any part thereof, although the Pope, or any persons in authority whatsoever, shall dispense with or annul the same, or declare that it was null and void from the beginning.'"

13th Article, again

6

"The Catholics of Ireland,' far from claiming any right or title to forfeited lands, resulting from any right, title, or interest, which their ancestors may have had therein, declare upon oath, that they will defend, to the utmost of their power, the settlement and arrangement of property in this country, as established by the laws now in being. They also, disclaim, disavow, and solemnly abjure, any intention to subvert the present church establishment for the purpose of substituting a Catholic establishment in its stead. And, further, they swear that they will not exercise any privilege, to which they are or may be entitled, to disturb or weaken the Protestant religion and Protestant government in Ireland.""

14TH ARTICLE.

"Whilst we have, in the foregoing declaration, endeavoured to state, in the simplicity of truth, such doctrines of our church as are most frequently misunderstood or misrepresented amongst our fellow-subjects, to the great detriment of the public welfare, and of Christian charity; and whilst we have disclaimed anew those errors, or wicked principles which have been imputed to Catholics, we also avail ourselves of the present occasion to express our readiness at all times to give, when required, by competent authority, authentic and true information

upon all subjects connected with the doctrine and discipline of our church, and to deprecate the injustice of having our faith and principles judged of by reports made of them by persons either avowedly ignorant of, or but imperfectly acquainted with, the nature of our church government, its doctrine, laws, usages, and discipline.

"This declaration we approve, subscribe, and publish, as well that those who have formed erroneous opinions of our doctrines and our principles, may be at length undeceived, as that you, dearly beloved, be made strong in that faith which you have inherited as the children of saints, who look for that life which God will give to those that never changed their faith from him.'-Tob. ii. 18."

This is signed, as you see, by every Roman Catholic bishop in Ireland. Now, I only ask every man who hears me-I care not what his rank, his politics, or his religion may be-I only ask him to compare the principles which they here in this document so solemnly abjure, with those which you see and hear, they in this book patronize and propagate. Can any language aggravate the simple fact, that the name of every bishop who patronised this Bible in 1818, and who was alive, is appended to this document in 1826? Here you have them secretly patronizing and propagating these notes to this Bible in 1818, and here in 1826 you have them, under the guise of a pastoral address, publicly appealing before heaven and earth to the God of the Bible, that they abjured the doctrines inculcated in every page of these notes.

Who can possibly appreciate-who can possibly conceive-the horrid mutual consciousness of fraud, of treachery, of perjury, that must subsist between these men, when the priests saw the bishops holding out these oaths and abjurations to deceive the Protestants of this empire, while they knew that they were secretly propagating among themselves and the people the doctrines of Dens's Theology and M'Namara's Bible? Dr. Murray, the very year, 1825, when he was giving that evidence which you have heard, to the Committee of the House of Commons-that very year, when he was holding out to them Bossuet, and Holden, and Verron, as the standards of his Church-that very year the secret standard of his own diocesan conferences was Dens's Theology. The very year 1826, when he signed this document-this pastoral address-that year the standard of his own diocesan conferences was Dens's Theology. Here are in my hand the questions of his conferences for them both; and with these irrefragable facts, while he propagates this Bible, in which it is declared that our worship is "no better than the howling of

VOL. II.

G

wolves" that we are " to be abhorred to the depths of hell"-that we are to be persecuted and extirpated the first convenient opportunity; while he approves and patronizes, and holds up for his clergy, in 1832, the principle that it is his duty, as a bishop, "to purge his diocese from heretics," he addresses the Protestants of the united empire, and calls them all "Beloved Fellow Christians." I hold in my hand a sermon preached by Dr. Murray in Dublin, on the 1st of last November. This was the sermon quoted with such triumph at the meeting at Brighton, by Mr. Carew O'Dwyer. Permit me to read the following passage. Speaking of the institution, in behalf of which this charity sermon was delivered, he says—

"Real and deep distress is alone the object of its care; and wherever that object attracts its eye, the discriminating features of religion are wholly lost in the melancholy prospect. In the true spirit of charity it beholds in the suffering victim a man and a brother, and the measure of his wants is the sole measure of its compassion. When will this heavenborn spirit be infused into every bosom, and banish thence those unnatural antipathies which have spread so many miseries among us? When will the fiend that delights in discord be no longer able to awaken those religious animosities which extinguish in the hearts of brethren all the tender charities of life, and sever every tie by which their gracious parent intended to unite them in affection? Of all the passions that degrade the human breast, religious rancour is the most unjust, it brands, as an enemy, the man who never injured, and it does so, merely for his conscientious obedience to what he believes to be the voice of God, calling him to the pursuit of happiness and immortality. And what is, if possible, more abominable still, an alleged zeal for the honour of that God and of his religion, is made the pretext for this unchristian feeling. If a brother be in error, when nothing less than his own eternal happiness is at stake, surely religion can inspire no sentiment in his regard but that of tender pity for his misfortune. Like the good Shepherd of the Gospel, it will endeavour to reclaim its wandering child. It will hold up the torch of truth to throw a glare on the precipice to which the path of error may conduct him; and if every human effort fail, it will recommend him still to the mercies of that God, whose creature he is, and by whose judgment only he must live or perish."

Now, when we see a man stand in the presence of that God who searches the heart, professing openly before men to inculcate the principles of this sermon, while it is as demonstrable as the light of day,

that he secretly inculcates the doctrines of these books-what can be his prospects in a religion such as this, when he comes to meet that God in judgment? If a man makes professions of kindness and charity, the first impulse of the heart is to believe and trust him; but when you demonstrate on such evidence the falsehood of the profession, I tell that individual that I think his sermon is infinitely worse than the notes of his Bible. I far prefer the open atrocity of persecution in the one, to the execrable hypocrisy of charity in the other. If Dr. Murray is sincere in this sermon-if he is awakened to feel these as the opinions of a Christian, then let him come out boldly from the persecuting superstitions of the Church of Rome. Let him come out from the persecuting principles of those canons which he calls infallible, and which he has sworn to observe to the latest hour of his existence-let him repent, and come out, and tell the nation that he sees they are not only fallible but false-let him confess, that so far from being the dictates of the Holy Ghost, they are, as they truly are, the dictates of the devillet him do this, and then I'll give him credit for sincerity, and will believe him; but while he holds these canons as infallible-while he swears to maintain them-while he is proved to propagate these principles in such books as these, and then holds out such hollow professions of charity in a sermon-they cannot possibly impose on the credulity, for they are an insult to the common understanding, of the nation. I believe there is not a child in this assembly that will not deliberately pass the second resolution.

The third resolution, which I have the honour to submit is as follows: "That from the documents laid before this meeting proving the hostility of the Roman Catholic hierarchy and priesthood to the Protestant religion-the ignorance and subjection of the Roman Catholic population to their priesthood-the union and organization of priests and demagogues in their efforts to subvert the Protestant church in Ireland -and from the growing numbers and influence of Roman Catholics in Great Britain, it is the opinion of this meeting that there is just cause of alarm at the power of Popery, as exercised against the sacred blessings bequeathed to us by our forefathers-Protestant freedom and Protestant religion."

Before I advert to the documents on which I found this resolution, I anticipate an objection which may be made, that, in speaking of the union of priests and demagogues, I am entering on a political view of the question; but it is a very different thing to show the fact, that the po

licy of the popish church is to endeavour to subvert the Protestant religion, and to go to meet their policy with counter-political movements or efforts. It is the business of a man of sense to look to the facts to mark how Popery is endeavouring to subvert the blessings of our Protestant freedom, and to put down the Word of our God. But it is a very different thing to say you are to meet them by the movements of politicians. I confidently assert, that no politicians, to whatever party they belong, whether Whig or Tory, Radical or Conservative--no political power or energy, or system, can meet the evils of Popery: therefore I renounce their aid—I disclaim all power of any party on the subject. I care not for politicians--I appeal to Protestants and Christians of every sect and party, and to them I say, It is your business and mine to examine this fact, and to see what cause there is to fear, as Protestants and freemen, that our rights and privileges, that the proclamation of the Word of our God, shall be put down by Popish policy or Popish power. The weapon, to meet Popery with, is not political manœuvre, but truth and the Bible. Then let us denounce the power and policy of men, who would deprive us of our Bible, and of the freedom of using our Bible-who would deprive the poor Protestants of Ireland-and who have already deprived the poor Protestant children of the daily instruction of their Bible in the national schools— who have deprived the poor Roman Catholic children of their Bible, and the poor Roman Catholics, who long for that Sacred Volume, who are lifting their eyes to heaven for a dawn of light, "more than they that watch for the morning." It is our privilege, I say, and our duty, to denounce the iniqutious policy and power that would intercept that light of heaven from their eyes. I had the honour, and I never felt a higher honour conferred on me, to be allowed to read, in the Rotundo of Dublin, a petition signed by three thousand three hundred and more poor Roman Catholics against the Board of National Education. But I must revert to my resolution.

It is not necessary to show, by any further documents, the hostility of the Roman Catholic hierarchy and priesthood to the Protestant religion; but in order fully to develope the union and organization of priests and demagogues, I must call your attention a little farther back than the present day, to the year which immediately succeeded the signing of this same pastoral address--I mean the year 1827. In that year Mr. Sheil made an appeal to the priests of the Church of Rome. I must lay before you this appeal, and the response it met with through