of this description can with any honesty or decency be attri buted 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 "interest may be affected!"

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!!!

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 scurrilous 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 unsatisfactory 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

sider the peculiar dangers of the present crisis, and the probable consequences of the revival of the Order of Jesuits and their unobstructed establishment in the heart of our own Empire. It will be easy to shew that what has been so inadequately performed by the Author, might have been executed with far greater ability by others; but one consolation no man taketh from him -the consciousness of Integrity. It is the simple desire of benefiting his beloved country, which has been his ruling motive throughout this work; and whatever may be the reception which his attempt may experience in the world, he dares at all events to make his appeal to a higher tribunal, for the purity of his intentions and the simplicity of his object.

1

A

HISTORY OF THE JESUITS.

CHAP. I.

ORIGIN OF THE JESUITS,

Ir has been observed, with truth, that as the constant purpose of God is to extract good from evil, and to overrule, for the best ends, the malevolent or mistaken designs of man; so the general aim of man, when not acting under the influence of divine illumination, is to bring evil out of good, and to convert those appointments which were designed for the advantage and happiness of the world, into so many occasions of misery and mischief to himself and others.

Of the truth of this position, the early History of the Jesuits affords a remarkable example.

THE REFORMATION OF RELIGION was an event which promised incalculable benefit to mankind: like the faith which it professed to purify, it had "the promise of the life that now "is, and of that which is to come:" in proportion as it elevated the spiritual condition of man, it raised him in the scale of sentient beings, and advanced his temporal interests: while it opened to him prospects full of immortality in a future state of being, it decidedly meliorated his lot in the present period of existence-it at once delivered his soul from the ignominious bondage of sin, in which a religion of forms had enthralled it, and, at the same time, rescued his mind from the shackles of an usurped dominion: while it secured the free agency, and promoted the real interests of the immortal spirit, it placed a guard at the same time about the person of its

possessor; restrained the incursions of arbitrary power; resisted tyranny in every form; and fostered civil liberty, without encouraging licentiousness. The worship of God was thus purified of its dross, and purged of its secularities; and the throne of monarchs was placed on its only secure foundation-the affections of the people; while those affections were perpetually fed and nourished by a grateful sense of the religious and temporal privileges which can only be enjoyed or appreciated under such a state of things.

No sooner, however, had THE REFORMATION, which was fraught with such blessings for mankind, appeared in the world, than it became the main object of all who "loved "darkness rather than light," to oppose and overthrow it; in other words, to bring all the evil in their power out of the elements of so much good: and, as if in direct contradiction to the fable of the monarch who converted every thing he touched into gold, the undeviating policy of such persons appeared to be to extend and perpetuate the counterfeit currency of the Romish corruptions, and to depreciate and destroy whatever bore the stamp and impress of Heaven.

In order to this, they selected Instruments the best adapted to their purpose; for, of all the enemies of THE REFORMATION, the most subtle, the most powerful, and the most implacable were THE JESUITS.

Raised up for the specific purpose of obstructing the march of a purer system, and of opposing, with all their power, the diffusion of spiritual light, and the progress of civil liberty ; these mighty advocates of the Papal and Ecclesiastical dynasty did not, in any measure, disappoint the hopes which were formed of them from the beginning; but fulfilled, in every particular, their high destiny, and were only not successful in utterly extinguishing the light of truth throughout the world, because they entered the lists against the Most High, and sought, under the guise of Religion, to compass the most nefarious ends by the employment of the most unhallowed