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I offer no further contradiction to this last unblushing falsehood, than a reference to the rescript, and a difference from all those, who construe the unfounded words of the instrument hæc tam optata lex, into high applause of the whole bill. You must be sensible, Sir John, that I cannot vindicate the impeached accuracy, without somewhat encreasing the volume of my historic pages. I hesitate not to affirm, as an Orthodox Catholic, that Church Government is solely carried on by spiritual jurisdiction, that spiritual jurisdiction resides eminently, potentially, and in plenitude in the visible head of Christ's Church upon earth, from whom it flows mediately or immediately to the members of the dispersed churches: that the unbroken chain of this jurisdiction is traceable through the successors of Peter up to that Prince of the Apostles himself, of whom St. Optatus said in the 4th century, Qui claves regni Cælorum communicandas cæteris, solus accepit, who alone received the power of the keys to impart to others that as order and mission therefore can only be validly derived from that source,

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and malice, defiled the columns of several London Journals of January 1815. << It is said, that the Veto has been assented « to by the Pope, that M. Quarantotti's rescript has been con<<firmed by his Holiness: that Dr. Murray, who was under << stood to have been sent over by the violent party of the Ca<<tholics, expressly to influence the Court of Rome against the « concession of the Veto, has been ordered to return to his « occupations in Ireland: and that Dr. Milner has been dis«graced, and if not stripped of his titular rank, laid under <<< severe censure.»> The low malice of setting afloat such known falsehood, of such malevolent tendency, and such vindictive impotency, to annoy, teaze, and perplex the winds of millions interested in the result of the measure, reminds one of the spiteful malice of lewd beggars, who blow vermin through quills upon those, who refuse them alms.

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to attempt to bring the exercise of that exclusive prerogative and power under the coutroul of the Civil Magistrate, as the proposed Relief Bill evidently purported, could not be tam optata lex, a very desirable law to any man holding this docOn this account the venerable Hierarchy of the Catholic Churches of Ireland unanimously resolved, on the 26th of May, 1815, that «< certain « ecclesiastical clauses or securities therein contained are utterly incompatible with the disci<< pline of the Roman Catholic Church, and with << the free exercise of our religion; and that we «< cannot, without incurring the heavy guilt of << schism, accede to such regulations.» You are misled and deceived by your instructors in this, as you have been in many other points, if you fancy, that the great majority of the English Roman Catholics, with Bishop Milner at their head, are not in perfect unison with the Irish Hierarchy. I have told you (perhaps ad nauseam), that in becoming one of us, you were initiated into the heterodox school of Dupin, without becoming a member of the university of Pius VII. Vouchsafe, most worthy Baronet, to throw back your thoughts, to the whole of the proposed Relief Bill, and to the reechoed scholium upon it by your friend Monsignor B. Quarantotti; and as the zealous, though temperate advocate of religious freedom, recollect, that the great mass of his Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects have always been, and ever wish to be, known to walk in faith with the venerable Hierarchy of the Irish Churches, and not with that set of religious non-descripts, who in 1791 intro

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* First Blue Book, p. 2. Vide my Case stated, published in 1791, p. 145, and alibi passim. Also my History of Ireland, vol. 5, p. 790, where I obsere in a note, that the leading abet

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«duced themselves to the notice of our laws, and << that in a very marked, and pointed manner, as a description of persons wholly unknown to them before, the Protesting Catholic Dissenters: » to whom you were so devotedly attached, as to declare in the House of Commons on the 31st of May, 1811, that « as long as you had a seat in that << House, you should never consent to any Bill without a clause in pursuance of those resolu<tions of the Committee of the Catholics» (i. e. the Protesting Catholic Dissenters). And when you shall have repassed all these various coincidences in your mind, I make free to recommend to your closet lecture some verses of the * 18th chapter of the earliest ecclesiastical history we have of the Christian Church. You may thence trace the first unwarrantable attempt upon spiritual jurisdiction, and how it was treated in the times

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tors of Veto in England were (with some subaltern Neophites,) the Protesting Catholic Dissenters, « whom the late Mr. «Burke assured the author, he considered, as having gone <<< more than half-way over to Protestanism; and he waited <«<with extended arms to give them the fraternal embrace, << when once they should have crossed the line.»> This was spoken by Mr. Burke in the presence of Sir Henry Tichborne, Bart., to whose memory and testimony the author appeals.

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Acts VII. v. 13, etc.. Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost. And when Simon saw, that through laying on of the Apostle's hands, the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, saying: Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may ceive the Holy Ghost. But Peter said unto him, thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought, that the gift of God may be purchased with money; thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of thy wickedness; and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. For I perceive, that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.»>

of the Apostles. Prithee, Sir John, take from me in good part one general warning. Nothing so effectually damns a cause, as charging the adversary on the outset with falsehood and calumny. They were the oldest weapons and tactics of the enemy to Christian truth. «We have found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Cæsar (1). « And the Chief Priests and Scribes stood and vehemently accused him.» «(2) If thou let this man go, thou art not Cæsar's friend: whoever maketh himself a king, speaketh against Cæsar. You see, Sir John, the alleged incompatibility of spiritual supremacy with civil allegiance is a pharisaical device of some standing in the annals of Christianity.

As you, Sir John, have thought proper, and Mr. Speaker Abbott by not checking you has acquiesced in the propriety of your coupling me and my writings and opinions with your motions for printing for the use of the members the rescript of Monsignor J. B. Quarantotti of the 16th of February, 1814, and the constitution of Pius VII. of the 7th of August, 1814, I must be supposed by others to be in some manner connected with both these subjects. I submit therefore rather to a duty, than claim a privilege, in delivering my thoughts with freedom upon each of these documents. Under your motion they are now in the hands of all the members of your House: and by inserting them in the appendix to this letter, I wish them to be in the hands of as many readers of the reports of your speeches, as must have wondered at the forced obtrusion of my name, writings, and opinions, into these debates.

* Luke 23, 2.

(1) Ib. 10.

(2) John 19, 12.

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I have often reminded you, Sir, that it was a task of difficulty, and necessarily a work of prolixity, to unravel a plot of many years hatching: especially when carried forward by persons felt every where, seen no where. The weight of the visible labour is performed by deputy and it has been your constant lot, Sir John, to have been fancied an useful tool in the hands of some manager or other. I said in my History of Ireland* (perhaps not accurately in your judgment) « The Honorable « Baronet was amongst the admirers of, and believers in Mr. Pitt's professions: he was honored <«< with such a portion of the great man's confidence, as just qualified him to perform the part allotted to him without being initiated into the « denouement of the piece, which that crafty intriguer was then getting up. >> Without verging very widely from historical accuracy, I feel myself well warranted in representing you acting under similar relations (to a less great man undoubtedly), as to the rescript, which you have with such greedy anxiety served up to the table of the House of Commons. I cannot too frequently nor too earnestly enforce, that this extraordinary document, is the denouement of the projects of the newly-introduced strangers to our laws in 1791: and I beg leave to remind you this year, as I did last, « (1) In sifting and weighing evidence, circumstances apparently trivial, sometimes form the firmest << links in the chain.» My remaining task will be plain sailing to judge of a written document, which speaks for itself: and which, I am at full liberty to treat without reserve, since it has been

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* Vol. 3. p. 835.

(1) Hist. Let. to Sir J. C. Hippisley, p. 9.

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