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pence, and having witnessed with trembling solicitude three successive adjournments what must have been your feelings, Sir, and those of your worthy fellow Protestant Privy Councillors, when the tidings of the fatal division was poured into your astonishing ears!

Never can I forget those looks of terror-those features of dismay--which at the moment made the Ministerial Benches resemble a collection of condemned felons rather than grave Legislators! The visage of Sir John Nichols would have become the Knight of the sorrowful countenance himself--Sir Wm. Scott's learned lineaments were extended beyond all reasonable dimensions the glowing countenance of Mr. George Rose was suddenly over cast with foreboding clouds and your illustrious pe ruke appeared in the most shocking state of brain-haired consternation Lords of the Treasury looked as link-boys, when their torches are suddenly extinguished; and the ancient band of placemen and pensioners tremble like heretics ready to crackle in the rising flames of Catholic ascendancy! The terror- struck minority could mutter nothing but "fire and fury !". "The state is overturned!" said the knowing Mr. Croker." The Church is destroyed!" exclaimed the orthodox Manners Sutton; "What will become of us!" said the gentle Mr. Bankes; and "The Lord deliver us!"' cried the pious Mr. Wilberforce.

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Such were some of the first dreadful effects of this most horrible resolution, a resolutiou

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begotten by bigotry, born of discontent, and bred in rebellion in short, a resolution to consider of the best methods of reconciling and uniting all orders of the people of this great Empire!

Whether we look backwards or forwards, on this side or that, the prospect is equally alarming, and the mind equally bewildered : -What good Protestant can henceforth dip into Fox's Martyrology without some sad surmise that it may one day or other be his fate to add another glowing page to that flaming history?-As to our worthy Deans and Chapters, and Bishops and Curates,-all those who have mitres on their heads or in their heads, their melancholy case is pitiable in the extreme. They must feel already tied to the stake, and no possible hope of escaping the torture, but by renouncing all the fond heresies of Prettyman's Theology acknowledging the divinity of the host-and kissing the Pope's toe!! Even the poor but unconscious Curate can no longer see his leg of mutton roasting, with out fearing lest his turn should come next; and the well-fed Dean may now ejaculate Noli Episcopari, with real sincerity, from a devout dread of the pains and penalties of fire and fugot! Pious Huntingdon, although a sinner saved, will begin to quack even in his miraculous breeches, in spite of his bank of faith! An honest tradesman will now never set eyes on the tax-gather

* Element of Theology by Dr. Prettyman, now Dr. Tomline, Bishop of Lincoln.

er, without thinking of the Holy Inquisition-after knocking the ashes out of his last pipe, he will be able to dream of nothing but an Auto de Féand will while harmlessly hugging his loving spouse, start with sudden horror at the idea of being bound to a flaming faggot! Such are the small specimen of the innumerable miseries, which this never-to-be-forgotten and ever-to-be-lamented Resolu

tion must inevitably engender. And, Sir, how greatly must our surprise and indignation be aug. mented, when we reflect that this fatal measure has been adopted, in defiance of the most argumen

tative remonstrances of the most exalted functionaries of the state, and the most solemn warnings of the most venerable dignitaries of the Church? What, indeed, shall be said of the Resolution, taken in the very teeth of such a triumvirate as Sir John Nichol, Sir William Curtis, and though "last, not least," yourself.

After having listened to such authorities, who can bear with patience to be reminded of the ephemeral opinions of a Fox, a Pitt, a Burke, or a Chatham? Such men might be great in their days, but does not the proverb assure us, that a living Ass is better than a dead Lion? Then, had you not that illustrious body the light of Europe and the Sun of science Sion College, on your side? Had you not also the Vicar, Churchwarden, Sexton, grave-diggers, bell-ringers, lamplighters, and scavengers of the Parish of Shoreditch? and, to crown all, had you not the Ward of Billingsgate itself? Did not the right worshipful company of

fishwomen, in common air assembled, most solemnly and most soberly declare, that if the Pa pishes were once allowed to sell soles, the Protestant ascendancy would be struck as flat as a floun der? Against such incontrovertible arguments, what were the flimsy reasonings of a Plunkett, or the meagre eloquence of a Canning?

Yet amidst this scene of terror

and dismay, some slight gleams The resolution, indeed, is beyond of comfort may still be found. The resolution, indeed, is beyond all reach of remembrance, and will be formed in spite of all the committee, it is to be feared, But Church opposition!

and

State are not yet quite demolished; the conscience of the King is still in the keeping of Lord Eldon the key of the Treasury still remains in the pocket of Lord Liverpool - Lambeth yet looks up to a Protestant Archbishop-and the horseguards is still safe under the protection of the pious Bishop of Osnaburgh! To which we may add, as sources of some little consolation, that the Pretender is dead, the Pope in a prison, and the Devil himself no longer peeping over Lincoln.

Let us, then, be allowed to cherish the fond hope that England, Scotland, and Ireland, may yet escape from the fate of Shadrack, Meshac and Abednego, and run the race of futurity without being compelled to pass through the fiery furnace of Popery! Let us devoutly pray that our Protestant Sinecures may never be filled by wretches who believe in purgatory--that our tithe-pigs may never be singed by Catholic fire

brands and that the harmless balls, for which Ireland has so long been famous, may never be exchanged for the destructive ones of Papal Supremacy! In one

word, let us seriously hope that the toe of his Holiness may never become the head of our Church. Q. IN THE CORNER. Review, March 7, 1813.

GLEANINGS, &c.

Christ and Reason identified. JUSTIN Martyr asserts, that

Christ the begotten of God, is nothing else but reason, of which all mankind are partakers, and whoever lives by reason, tho' they are esteemed atheists and worshippers of no God, are Christians:-such were Socrates, and

the like."

Dr. Priestley has a similar sentiment. "Should a man," says he, "be found, who really believes in a future life of retribution, and governs his conduct by that faith, so as to be as per fect as a Christian, to him Christianity would be superfluous."

Not many Mighty called.

If the conversions, so cominon at this time among a certain class of Christians, are the miraculous effect of divine irresistible grace, how comes it that no Kings, Dukes, or Princes, are thus miraculously worked upon; and that very few conversions take place among the learned? Has God an enmity against his anointed servants? - Does he "despise knowledge?"

Vice less dangerous than Error, "If the question should be put, whether it be not, upon a ge

neral consideration, a greater crime to propagate heresy-than course of life? it is."

we affirm that "" It is not without reason that some persons are actuated by a stronger zeal against heretics in opinion, than against libertines in practice."

Fiddes's Theologia Speculativa.

Old Parr's reason for Conformity.

the religion of the King or Queen that were in being: for he knew that he came raw into the world, and accounted it no point of wisdom to be broiled out of it."

"He held it safest to be of

Taylor's Old, Old, very Old
Man, Harl. Cat.

Money the strength of a Fortress.

While Sir Gilbert Talbot was Governor of Calais, the King, Hen. VIII. sent orders to have the place well fortified; to which the Governor replied, "that he could neither fortify nor fistify without money, of which his Majesty had sent him none."

Phillips's Shrewsbery.

REVIEW.

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(Concluded from p. 144.)

ONE of the most interesting and valuable portions of the whole book is the seventh and last Section, which treats" of Persecution, and the violation of faith with heretics." Though we have already indulged at great length, we cannot resist the desire to copy from the following page. (435.)

In writing of persecution, as it has been maintained by some Catholics, it is proper to repeat, that such a spirit and conduct are directly opposed to the Religion of the Roman Catholic Church.*. To talk, therefore, of the Church

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as a persecuting Church, is to libel and defame the religion of our ancestors. If this were not the case, then all Catholics who

do not practise persecution are bad Catholics; they would be considered as departing from the. rules and obligations of their religion, and would receive the spiritual censures which attach to every wilful deviation from the faith and discipline of the universal Church. Yes:-if the religion of Catholics taught persecution, then we should find prayers, creeds, articles, and charges enforcing coercion and severity against the opponents of the Church; and bulls, anathemas, censures, and excommunications would abound against all those who should refuse to persecute, hate, and destroy heretics. It would be a sin in the eye of a good Catholic not to inflict misery on the body of his religious neighbour who should differ from him, and it forms a subject of confession to all the faithful who should neglect to propagate the truth by means of force. But who heard of a mass for the yet hanging of unbelievers? What general council has decreed, ex cathedra, that whosoever does not burn heretics without doubt shall perish everlastingly? Did ever any Catholic lady go to confes sion, bitterly lamenting that she had not poisoned her heretical husband, or any husband that he

ever

had not strangled his infidel wife? Was any monarch ever deposed, or any kingdom interdicted, because all the non-conforming subjects had not been hanged, drawn and quartered? And what is the price of an indulgence for having neglected to rob and plunder a Protestant? I repeat it-if persecution be a tenet of the Catholic Church, how erroneously have the biographers of the mild, the excellent Fenelon, estimated his merits as a Catholic. The almost seraphic Madame de Guion, the truly devout Mons. de Renty, and the pious Thomas à Kempis, were all hypocrites, and contumacious despisers of the religion which they professed, and to whose interests they appeared to have been so sincerely devoted. And what should we say, in that case, to the great body of English and Irish Catholics of our own day? What inconsistency appears in the conduct of such Catholics as the Earl of Fingal, who, with others, took up arms in the County of Meath against his rebellious brethren, and in defence of a Protestant government, and an here. tical monarch !* How supine and negligent is the conduct of such men as the author of the Lives of Abelard and Eloisa,† the learned and liberal author of Hore Biblicæ, or the friend of the pious and excellent, but afflicted Cow

* See Mr. Wakefield's Account of Ireland, vol. ii. p. 367. Whoever would become perfectly acquainted with the true state of this oppressed and injured country, will find ample gratification in the perusal of this invaluable publication, which has but just made its appearance.

+ The Rev. Joseph Berrington.
Charles Butler, Esq.

VOL. I.

per.

Men with whom numerous highly respectable Protestants have thought it honour to be ac quainted, and who never yet manifested the most distant disposition to persecute others on account of their religion.

There is another consideration worthy of regard, on the supposition that persecution is a tenet of the Catholic Church, which many Protestants have imagined to be the case :+ I believe it will be granted, that there is not a single article of faith to be found in any acknowledged Catholic Catechisin, Creed, or Council, which has not, at one time or other, been defended from the press, and been urged upon the people as essential to their final salvation. It is with the Catholic article of divine faith, as Mr. Pope declares to be the case with the universal system of nature, from the chain which if you strike either a "tenth or a ten thousandth" link, it is equally broken. The religion of Catholics, according to their ideas, as it admits of no additions, reither does it allow of any deduc tions. So cominon is this opinion, that Protestants have even charged it against the Catholics as a mark

* Sir John Throckmorton, Bart. See the Letters of Cowper, in Hayley's Life of that poet,

+"If it be true," says Dr. Sturges, "that persecution was not a part of the Roman Catholic Religion, all of us Protestants must have been long under a most egregious mistake." This observation owes its origin to what Dr. Milner said, "that if Mary was a persecutor, it was not in virtue of any tenet of her religion that she became so," than which a more just remark could not have been made. See Sturges's Reflections on Popery, p. 52, and Milner's History of Winchester, vol. i p. 355.

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