Letters which had appeared, in the first instance, in the TIMES newspaper, and which had been answered by some Letters inserted in the PILOT newspaper: the latter were soon transferred from the columns of that newspaper to the pages of the Orthodox Journal, a Monthly Magazine, published in London by a Catholic Editor, patronized by the Catholic Body, and breathing a spirit of the most bitter and unrelenting hostility towards the Ecclesiastical, Political, and Civil Government of this Protestant nation-but serving at the same time to establish in the strongest way, the liberal and tolerant character of a Church, a Parliament, and a Government, which can all in their turn be content to endure, without resentment or anger, the periodical attacks of the very persons who are reposing in security under the broad shade of their mild and benignant sway!

The Letters in question partake of the character and genius of the work upon which they were thus engrafted. The arguments contained in those Letters would not, of themselves, have rendered any answer necessary; while the vindictive and opprobrious terms in which those arguments were conveyed, would not, upon any recognised principles of courtesy and good breeding, have entitled their Author to a reply.

These Letters were followed by a work of MR. Dallas, entitled, "THE NEW CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE JESUITS DE"TECTED AND EXPOSED," a title sufficiently extraordinary; because, unless MR. DALLAS meant to include in the Conspiracy, the Abolisher of the Order, Pope Clement XIV. and his cotemporaries, all of whom flourished nearly half a century ago (and in which case it is no NEW Conspiracy), it is difficult to conceive who these formidable Conspirators are, who have thus occasioned so much uneasiness to their assailant.

The Letters in defence of the Jesuits, appeared to MR. DALLAS as auxiliaries of too much importance to be omitted in his work, and he therefore reprints them in the conclusion of it; by which act, he adopts as his own, the invective and abuse which they contain, and for which it is to be regretted that he

should have thought it necessary to his purpose to have made himself amenable.

It appeared, on consideration of MR. DALLAS's performance, that the course pursued by him throughout the whole conduct of it, would give to any simple refutation of his work the character of a mere controversy by which the ends of truth were not likely to be effectually promoted, and which could hardly be expected, if it stood alone, to interest the public at large; it therefore seemed that for the purpose of establishing, in the first place, the accuracy of the brief" Account "of the Jesuits” already published, a more full and complete history of that Order had become necessary, which might be strengthened by ampler testimonies from various historical sources than could have appeared in a mere summary of their history, while, at the same time, it would be equally necessary to reply to such parts of MB. DALLAS's statement, as might require fuller observations than could be introduced in the regular progress of the history.

The following History will be found to have adopted for its basis and foundation the History of COUDRETTE, although without systematically following that work in all its parts; there being much in the work of COUDRETTE, which would fail to interest an English reader, and would have swelled a volume, before perhaps too much extended, to a still larger compass. It is not among the least honourable testimonies in favor of the work of COUDRETTE (which first appeared in the year 1761), that it had a principal share in leading to the suppression of the Order against which he thus entered his protest in the face of the world: a protest which has to this hour resisted all the attacks of its enemies; and which, in order to be answered effectually, must be divested of the voluminous references to well-known facts, and well-authenticated histories, with which it is at once illustrated and supported.

The exposure of the Jesuits, although the chef-d'œuvre of this Author, was not the only work in which he had been engaged against the advocates of Papal intolerance and super

stition, having, in an earlier period of his life, written against the celebrated Bull Unigenitus, for which he was imprisoned first in the Castle of Vincennes, and afterwards in the Bastille.-The literary research which was necessary in preparing his History had nearly deprived him of his eyesight.

As far as his personal character is concerned, he was universally regarded as a laborious, active, useful, and disinterested Ecclesiastic, and one to whom his own Country in particular, and the world at large, were under considerable obligations *. It is no small testimony in favor of COUDRETTE's History of the Jesuits, that PROFESSOR ROBERTSON has principally founded his account of the Order upon it; since it is well known that he was not accustomed to consult works of equivocal authority, or to be influenced by writers upon whose correctness and veracity he could not depend.-If ever there was a genius who painted for posterity, it was ROBERTSON; and no man was more careful in a general way, in the selection of his colours.

Before MR. DALLAS, therefore, had permitted himself to speak in disrespectful terms of COUDRETTE, it would have been well if he had considered how such an opinion was to be supported. To say nothing of the ability of the author in question; the peculiar merit of his work is, that he has sustained every assertion which he has advanced, with its own proper authority; quoting with the utmost accuracy the several documents to which he refers, and leaving nothing to rest upon his simple and unsupported testimony.-In order, therefore, to invalidate the credit of this writer, MR. DALLAS must at the same time get rid of the concurrent authorities of two centuries: he must not only succeed in discrediting a writer upon whose character for honour and veracity no one has as yet been able to fasten an imputation; but he must also succeed in inducing the world to consign to the same contempt

* See Dictionnaire Historique, and Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary, Art. Coudrette.

a number of faithful Historians both Catholic and Protestant, a variety of Public Acts, Official Documents, Parliamentary Decrees, Royal Proclamations, Papal Bulls, Sentences of Universities, and Mandates of Bishops: nay, further, he must succeed in annihilating the writings of the Jesuits themselves ; especially those on the subject of their criminal casuistry, which, unfortunately for his argument, are put too plainly and indelibly on record for him either to deny their existence, or to explain away their guilt: he must do more; he must shew that the different nations, societies, and individuals who have, with one consent, stated their grievances and miseries so feelingly and loudly at various periods, from the commencement of Jesuitism till its suppression, were either utterly mistaken upon the nature of their own case, or else engaged in a confederacy which is without a parallel in history, for the purpose of injuring and destroying the most innocent and irreproachable of men, who had no other crime than seeking the instruction and happiness of their persecutors.

MR. DALLAS appears to feel something of the difficulty, if not impossibility, of consigning to the same oblivion which he has destined for COUDRETTE, the "cloud of witnesses" which that writer has produced; witnesses the most unexceptionable; witnesses of different nations; of different religions, of different languages; not acting in concert with each other; living in the very times in which they write, spectators of the various events which they record; and having, for the greater part, no conceivable interest in the invention and propagation of falsehoods which they must know would be refuted as soon as published: the opponents of the Society can in fact afford to spare all that COUDRETTE himself has ever written, so long as his authorities abundantly establish whatever he has advanced,

MR. DALLAS, under a conviction that it would not be enough to lay the ghost of COUDRETTE, unless he could at the same time silence the other spectres which troubled his repose, proceeds with all possible sang-froid to dispose of all the histo

rians who have presumed to speak evil of the Jesuits; and ít, is fit that the public should observe, with what a bold and sweeping hand, the grave and reverend authorities of ages are displaced in every instance, where they have borne any testimony against the Jesuits.

A principal object of the following Reply will be to place in its true light this attempt of MR. DALLAS to falsify the recognised facts of history. There is something peculiarly disingenuous and inadmissible in this mode of conducting an argument; but which, fortunately for the interests of truth, carries its own refutation on its front.

In thus extinguishing the lights, and sinking the buoys of history, MR. DALLAS is bound to inform us what he would propose to substitute in their stead. Is the world now for the first time to be left at sea without any better means of shaping its course, than his system would provide? In what other way are we to arrive at a knowledge of the truth, than by an appeal to the evidence of experience, and the records of antiquity? We have, as it We have, as it were, forced upon our consideration at this time, the phenomenon of a great Catholic Order, once flourishing, opulent, and powerful; afterwards abolished by the accredited Head of the Catholic Faith; and now restored by the same authority: we have absolutely no other means of gaining accurate notions respecting the character of this Order than by a reference to history; we have no other means of ascertaining, whether the Pope, in reviving this Order, has conferred a blessing, or inflicted a curse upon his own Church, upon the Protestant Church, and upon the world at large: we have no other way of coming to a right estimate of the nature of our own obligations, or the extent of his errors.In this Protestant Country, it will not be taken for granted that a measure is either wise, or good, merely because it originates with the Head of the Catholic Church; because all our experience, both as Christians and as Englishmen, furnishes us with primâ facie evidence that, on this very account, it will be neither.