"the true Church, and cannot be saved.' One of them inquired of her, if she was bringing up her children as Pro "testants? She answered in the affirmative. He replied, "So you are bringing up a brood of Vipers for Hell, to go "there with yourself.' This relation I had from the widow, "who told it weeping, and it can be attested by many respect"able persons who were present. I might fill many pages "with similar accounts.

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"It is well known that the Catholic Priesthood is raised up from among the lowest of the people, and taught in a "College, where hostility to the Protestant religion is one of "their fundamental principles. And what can you expect "from an ignorant people, under the unbounded influence of “such men, leaving the Pope out of the question altogether? "I do not see, in their present state, what pledge they can give "to Government for their future loyalty and good behaviour. "An oath of allegiance will not bind, while a Priest can break "it, and absolve them; as in many instances they did in the "Irish rebellion of 1798.

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"In a Letter from the County of Cork it is observed, “As "to an increase of liberality in religious sentiment, we expect no such thing from Irish Papists. Their doctrine of exclu"sive salvation is their glory, nor will they abate one jot or "one tittle of it. That the Irish Popish clergy are as much ❝ devoted to, and dependent on, the Pope, as they were three "hundred years ago, is an incontrovertible truth; and that "they will give no pledge beyond their oath of allegiance, "nor make any political accommodations by a Veto, or "the nomination of their Bishops, is with them now a fixed point; and indeed, as to concessions, they treat them with contempt, and refuse to make them with a proud abhorThus they refuse us salvation; they look on our "Ecclesiastical Hierarchy as an heretical usurpation of their " rights and dominion: they refuse a political pledge for "the allegiance of their superior Clergy, and laugh at all "sort of concession to a Protestant government; and yet they

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❝rence.

"insist upon leading our armies, presiding in our courts, "and with a Popish population to return themselves to the "Imperial Parliament ! ! Let but a Popish majority possess "the elective franchise in towns corporate, as in the counties ❝of Ireland, and let but Papists become eligible to sit in "Parliament, and I will venture to prophesy, that in less "than seven years, there will not be a Protestant representa"tive from Ireland, in the Imperial Parliament. Alas for "the Protestants of this ill-fated country in that day! Alas "for the honour, the rights, yea, the very existence of the "Protestant Establishment in our Church in that day! Who "then would not shield the religion of our fathers from the "cruel, bigoted, and infuriate spirit of a Priesthood, illiberal "from principle, persecuting from habit, and accustomed to ❝ exercise a usurped domination over the conscience and judg"ment of the ignorant and superstitious?

"With their present hostile views of Protestantism in "every form, and their declaration of that hostility; with the "refusal of all concession, accommodations and pledges to a "Protestant Government, and at a time when they thanklessly "demand, and are determined to extort what they call their rights, from the Government; I conceive, that to make "further advances would betray a bad policy, and a weak and pusillanimous disposition."

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The following is an Extract from the Petition of the Protestant Noblemen, Gentlemen, Clergy, Freeholders, and Inha、 bitants of the County of Cavan, presented in November, 1812:

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"We entertain the most cordial affection for our fellow"subjects of the Roman Catholic religion, and heartily rejoice at the repeal of those laws which affected their persons "-their property-and the free exercise of their religion. "But we beg leave most solemnly to protest against the claim

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now advanced on their behalf, to be admissible into the "offices which constitute the Government, or to seats in the "Houses of Parliament; a claim inconsistent, as we conceive, "with the safety of the Established Constitution in Church

and State, and dangerous to the connexion between Great "Britain and Ireland.

"We beg leave humbly to represent, that the Roman Ca"tholics, in this part of the Empire, are a numerous class, ❝forming a strong, distinct, and connected party; under the "government of a Church, the rival of that which is esta "blished by law, retaining at this hour as its head, a claimant " to all the dignities and possessions of the Church of Ireland, ❝holding his title to be little less than of Divine Right,'— "a party, which, from the Reformation to the Revolution, "maintained a constant struggle for the supremacy in church "and state. The wisdom of the great and enlightened cha❝racters who conducted the Revolution was not able to devise any other expedient for effectually securing the existence "and continuance of a Protestant Church establishment, than "that of excluding Roman Catholics from the Throne, the "higher offices of State, and the two Houses of Parliament;

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for they well knew that no such anomaly could ever exist together, as a Roman Catholic government and a Protestant "Church. But, should Parliament be induced to condemn

this principle, and to admit the Roman Catholics to all the "higher offices of the state, your Petitioners do not see on what “principle their admissibility to the Throne can be denied.—

They demand perfect equality with their Protestant fellowsubjects, and boldly state that nothing short of this will satisfy them: as long as they are excluded from the Throne, "and the possessions of the Church, they cannot consider ❝themselves on such an equality. We confess we are not "prepared to sacrifice to their demands the Protestant Constitution of these realms *."

* See, for many other Letters, and much valuable information on the present state of Catholic Ireland and her Priesthood, the series of Letters and Papers lately published by the PROTESTANT UNION SOCIETY, which are sold at Bickerstaff's, Essex Street, and other Booksellers. In that work will be also found an able and triumphant answer to MR. BUTLER's pamphlet in favor of "Catholic Emancipation."

The intolerant and exclusive character of Popery in Ireland, and the bigotry and hatred with which a purer system is regarded by its Professors, will appear farther from the constant and inflexible opposition of the Priests to the system of Education, the increase of Sunday Schools, and the diffusion of the Bible; they resist in the most determined way the introduction of sacred or human Learning, except as connected with their own principles, and they exert their whole influence (which is very extensive) against the dispersion of truth and the light of science in Ireland: a greater crime can hardly be committed in the eyes of a Priest, than that one of his Flock should encourage a Sunday School or a Bible Society; and their efforts to keep the people in darkness and ignorance, afford the best proof that they dread the influx of knowledge as at war with their whole system, and furnish the strongest argument for increased exertions on the part of our Government, and of all the real friends of Ireland, to enlighten the public mind by educating the mass of the population, which is the best and only antidote of Papal and political abuses, and the most effectual means of overthrowing Idolatry and Superstition, and of weakening the dominion of man over the conscience of his Brother.

very

Enough perhaps has now been said in proof of the political crimes of the Irish Catholic Priests, and also in proof of their bigotry and intolerance towards Protestants. It would be no difficult task to shew that the state of personal morality is at a low ebb indeed in this body; and innumerable examples might be adduced, all tending to prove that corruption of practice exists in Ireland to an awful extent, among the Ministers and Teachers of a corrupt religion. To enter into details on such a subject, or to cite particular examples, would be at once invidious and inexpedient. To those who are in any degree acquainted with the interior of Catholic Ireland, little need be said on a subject of this nature, since their whole experience will confirm the assertion which has been made. In the capital of Ireland, indeed, as well as in the cities and larger towns of

the Empire, considerable caution is observed by the Priests in concealing their vices; and it is even possible that a conviction of the necessity of preserving appearances, and avoiding scandal, may in many instances operate to restrain them from the grosser vices, and tend to produce considerable attention to external decency in those towns and villages, however, which maintain little intercourse with the Metropolis, and have scarcely any connexion with the higher and more respectable classes of Society, the depravity of the Irish Priesthood is deplorable: their licentiousness with reference to the other sex is of the most notorious description; and there can be no doubt that their very religion itself, in a variety of instances, is made subservient to the pursuit of their object, and the furtherance of their purposes. This passage will be perfectly intelligible to those who are familiar with the internal state of Ire land, and with the powerful influence of the Priests over their deluded and benighted flocks; and such persons will be abundantly able to confirm the accusation which it involves: this influence is of such a nature, that there is no punishment to which an illiterate Irish Catholic of either sex would not submit, rather than betray or speak evil of the Priest, whose benediction is considered as the highest advantage which can be enjoyed, and whose curse is more deprecated than any temporal evil. Many of the Priests of Ireland have a female constantly residing with them under the name of a niece, which designation is perfectly understood in that country; while others, who choose to avoid the reproach of incontinency at home, make ample amends for the privation by profligacy of a more general description.

DRUNKENNESS may be considered as a vice almost indigenous to the Irish Catholic Priesthood: the instances of the addiction of the Priests to this vice are innumerable; its universality among them has in a measure lessened the horror with which it would otherwise be regarded: many Priests have not only injured their health by their excesses in this particular, but some have actually perished in fits of drunkenness; there