own Catholic version to the poor, the English Catholic Board took the alarm, and the Clergy resisted this benevolent design with all their power.

So lately as the month of February, 1816, the Committee of St. Patrick's Schools in London have been extensively issuing a string of Resolutions, the main purpose of which is to prevent the poor Irish in St. Giles's from reading the English Bible at another Charity School!-See First Report of the Irish Catholic Schools, Second Edition, 1816.

In MR. DALLAS's further observations upon the evils likely to arise from Bible Societies, he appears to consider the knowledge of Astronomy necessary before persons can understand the Scriptures." In Theology" (says he, p. 252.) " as in natural

66

Philosophy, the uninformed mind cannot of itself embrace “even the most incontrovertible truths: the raising of the "dead, and the rotation of the earth, are alike incomprehen“sible; what is not immediately intelligible is not impressive; "but when once we have been taught to observe the motion of "the heavenly bodies, and are made sensible that the power "which would assign certainty of operation to Nature, must "be equal to the suspension of it, Astronomy and Reli"gion open upon us, and we fly to Newton and the Testa"ment; and seeing truths unfold themselves, we willingly "take much on trust in both; certain that books where we "find so many demonstrations, are not intended to deceive us in any one point, and the resurrection of our Saviour "becomes sooner solved than the precession of the equinox." Now, although no one would reject, or think meanly of the collateral evidence to the truth of Revelation which natural Philosophy affords, it is worse than idle to suppose, as is done throughout the above passage, that, in order to understand the Bible, men must be more or less natural Philosophers. Does MR. DALLAS require to be informed, that many of those persons who have most firmly believed in Revelation, and have most faithfully adhered to its precepts, have been at the same time among the most illiterate of mankind, and that multi

66

tudes have been ornaments of the Christian faith through life, and have derived their whole consolation from it in death, who knew nothing about Newton's Principia, or Locke on the hu man Understanding; while perhaps others who have even edited Newton (as the Jesuits did) have been utter fools in spiritual things, and worse than children in their estimate of the distinction between right and wrong? If MR. DALLAS admits that great learning may exist, where true wisdom never had a place; and if he allows the possibility of measuring the stars, and being at the same time ignorant of God, to what purpose is the exaltation of human science as so indispensable a thing in the attainment of piety? and what necessary connexión does he discover between the sublimest mysteries of Revelation, and "the precession of the equinox?"

The Popish Court of the Inquisition condemned the Astronomer GALILEO to perpetual imprisonment as a Heretic, for having discovered and published incontestable proofs of the mo tion of the Earth! MR. DALLAS will not deny that the Inquisition has been in all ages the great engine employed by Papal Rome, for establishing and perpetuating her own empire of darkness and cruelty: how then can he contend in the face of such a fact as this, that science, in general, has derived any aid from Popery, or that Popery has shewn any attachment to Astronomy in particular?

In concluding his remarks on a Religious Education, MR. DALLAS has manufactured a most elaborate eulogium upon DR. BELL, for his system of education; and Dr. Bell will no doubt feel himself highly honoured by the company in which he is placed, and for being permitted to share in the compliments which MR. DALLAS has at the same time bestowed on the Jesuits, for what he calls "their admirable system of Educa❝tion."

MR. DALLAS, in concluding his Book, takes credit for "the "sentiments of loyalty and of religion which" (he says) "have ❝ in such a work fallen from his pen:" but it will probably require a more microscopic attention on the part of the critics,

than even they are in the habit of bestowing, to discover any peculiar instances of such sentiments, especially of the former; while less learned readers will certainly feel some doubts how far the defender of the Disloyal, can have advanced the cause of Loyalty, or how far the advocate of the Irreligious can have promoted the interests of Religion. Until that sort of attachment which the Jesuits have ever evinced for Monarchy and Laws, can justly be denominated Loyalty, and that kind of Religion which they have professed can properly be called the Religion of the Gospel, we may fairly be permitted to entertain some doubts upon the validity of the claims to Loyalty and Religion, which have been advanced by their Patron and Admirer.

MR. DALLAS, in his last paragraph, remarks farther upon "the new Conspiracy" (as he terms it) formed against the Jesuits, which he characterizes as "possessing all the malig

nity, if not all the talent or power of the old one." How far the evidence adduced by MR. DALLAS, as to the existence either of an old or a new Conspiracy (properly so called) against the Jesuits, has established his assertions to that effect, may be safely left to the judgment of the public. That in every period of their history, the Jesuits have incessantly attracted the opposition of their own Church, of Sovereign Princes, of Parliaments, Universities, regular Governments, public Societies, and private Individuals, will be readily admitted; but MR. DALLAS, in choosing to state this point abstractedly from the fact of their having drawn down such opposition on their own heads, by their own conduct, determines only to give one view of a question, and to suppress the other: and as to his designating this opposition by the invidious name of a CONSPIRACY, it is about as just and correct an account of the matter, as if a Defender of depredators and marauders were also to entitle the opposition, which all honest men are agreed in giving to the schemes of such men, "A CONSPIRACY.” With regard to the character of "malignity" which he Imputes to the new Conspirators, it may be asked, how motives

of this description can with any honesty or decency be attributed to such persons, whether in or out of Parliament, as have endeavoured to inform the public upon this great question? The evident impropriety of such imputations, as applicable to a member of the Legislature, has induced him to except SIR JOHN HIPPISLEY from such a charge, and not to insert his name in the Bill of Indictment for a Conspiracy which he has, with so much gravity, preferred against others; and this, notwithstanding his former observations upon SIR JOHN's attack of the Jesuits.

The Conspirators consist (says MR. DALLAS) of "men "who have dared to warn the Clergy against instituting "schools for instructing Children in the national religion, of "Jacobinical Philosophers, materialists, votaries of reason " and eternal sleep, and perhaps some Catholic Clergy, whose be affected!"

"interest may

After this Catalogue raisonnée of the Conspirators against the Jesuits, MR. DALLAS at length sums up by observing, that he “trusts he has proved enough to convince his readers "that the Jesuits have been calumniated, that their destruc"tion was effected by the malice and envy of their Enemies,

on the one hand, and by the pusillanimity of their proper "Protector" (Pope Clement XIV.) "on the other; that as "far as authority extends, there is a great and brilliant "balance in their favor; that on the ground of reasoning, "the proof of their virtue, as well as of their religion, does "not fall short of demonstration IN THE ACCOUNT OF THEIR "INSTITUTE; that they are not at war with Protestant Go“vernments, whose Catholic subjects they are well known long "to have trained up in loyalty; and that the small number now in this country, have completed those proofs of loyalty, by a solemn oath of allegiance to the King:" while the simple fact is (as has been before observed), that they have taken no oath whatever to this effect, but one directly opposed to it !!!

66

Such is the summary, finally drawn up by MR. DALLAS,

It is the object of the preceding REPLY, and of the following HISTORY, to shew upon what an unsound foundation such assertions rest.

The same observation will apply to the string of assertions, contained in the Letters which appeared in the Pilot Newspaper, and the Orthodox Journal, which MR, Dallas has reprinted in his Book. In considering the gall which the writer of those Letters has mixed with his ink (to advert to a remark of BURNET upon SIR THOMAS MORE), one is strongly reminded of HOOKER's observation: "To your railing I say "nothing; to your reasons I say as follows."-To the scurri lous and offensive language of those Letters, no person can be expected to give any answer; but to such reasoning as they contain, it is presumed that the Reply to MR. DALLAS and THE HISTORY which follows, will be found to afford no unsa tisfactory refutation.

It only remains to observe, that the task of examining his Defence of the Jesuits is now brought to a close. That task was begun under a conviction that if a man, possessing only a single talent, is likely, by producing it, to assist in supporting the cause of truth, and detecting the obliquities of error, he would not be justified in hiding that single talent in a napkin: this task has been conducted with some degree of labour, amidst many interruptions, and with no ordinary consumption of time: it is now presented to the Public, in the humble hope that some advantages may result from it. At all events, its Author will have the satisfaction of knowing, that if, at any future period, this Protestant, happy, and envied nation shall be found to have surrendered some of her best privileges and safeguards either in favor of the Jesuits, or those of their communion; so fatal an act of political suicide will not have been committed without previous warning of the consequences, nor without the production of those salutary cautions which are supplied by the light of history, and the evidence of experience. It will be easy to undervalue the motives by which he has been actuated in calling upon his countrymen, to con