1 of extreme obstinacy and prejudice.* Now I should be glad to know what Catholic author ever wrote expressly in defence of persecution, as an article of divine faith, which has been received by all Christians, at all times, and in all places, according to the rule of St. Vincent, so often refered to. Some writers may, nay, doubtless, have appeared to extenuate, or even justify the interference of the magistrate, when the doctrines of religion have been opposed; but these mistakes, to give them no harsher a term, are unfortunately not confined to Catholic writers.+ The learned Bossuet has been accused, and not without some show of reason, of defending this doctrine of magisterial interference in the suppression of herecy; but it should 99 * See "Popery always the same." + The defenders of the Catholic faith in these days write with much more candour, and allow of a much greater latitude of explication in definitions of heresy and heretics, than did the writers of earlier times. See Charity and, Truth; or Catholics not uncharitable in saying that none can be saved out of the Catholic Church," by the Rev. Dr. Edward Hawarden. It is a thick 8vo. vol. published in 1809. The reader will peruse with advantage, a little pamphlet, published at Gloucester, in 1811, entitled "the Protes tant's best Guide, &c. But above all, he should read the Miscellaneous Tracts of the Rev. Arthur O'Leary, particu larly the Essay on Toleration. There is an almost irresistible strain of wit and irony in this gentleman's writings, mixed, in some instances, with that tincture of sophism for which the priestly defenders of the faith are but too conspicuous. In his Defence of the Divinity of Christ, a subject, which, more than any other, has a tendency to "try the spirits" of our Christian controvertists, he is quite as liberal as most of the Protestant advocates of the same doctrine. * When magistrates are engaged in be remembered, that the arguments used by the Bishop of Meaux, in defence of this hateful tenet, are not drawn from any article of faith, or any decree of Council, but, as Dr. Milner* properly remarks, "by an argumentum ad hominem, or a reference to the doctrine of the founders, and other most illustrious writers of the Reformation on the point in question." The passage referred to in Bossuet,+ has, perhaps, been misunderstood by Bishop Hurd, and his copier, Dr. Sturges; and this misunderstanding has arisen out of a supposed false translation of the French word souffrance, which, Dr. Sturges eontends, means toleration, and not suffering and the connexion in which the word stands would appear to countenance such an application of the term. "There is no need," says Bossuet, "of explaining myself on the question, whether or no preserving the peace, and protecting the innocent, they ought to be had in the highest veneration and respect; but when they depart from the proper line of their office to lay their hands on religion, "whatever they touch they flyblow, and leave it to ferment and fester" a figure once most unjustly applied against laborious ministers of Methodism. See Annual Review, vol. i. art. Myles's Chronological History of the Methodists. Christian princes have a right to use the sword against such of their subjects as are enemies to sound doctrine and the Church, the Protestants agreeing with us on that point." He then cites Luther,* Melancthen,+ and Jurieu, as also the established discipline of the Reformed Church of Geneva, in support of his assertion and opinion; aud concludes by saying, "Il n'y point d'illusion plus dan gereuse, que donner la souffrance pour une caractere de la vraye eglise." There cannot be a more dangerous illusion, than to regard suffering (or patient endurance) as a characteristic of the true Church; 66 nor do I know," he adds, amongst Christians, any besides Socinians and Anabaptists, who oppose this doctrine."§ But if Bossuet, or any other writer, have defended this execrable opinion, to what does it amount? Certainly not, that it is taught in the creeds, catechisms, and devotions of all Roman Catholics; and I contend, that no article is considered, as a tenet of the Church, that is not so conveyed. The tenth book of Bossuet's "Variations," from which I have been quoting, treats principally of "the Reformation in England, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and on the civil wars of *Luth de Magist. T. iii. + Calvin opusc. p. 659. Ibid. 600, 659. Jur. Lyst. ii. c. 22, 33. If the Bishop of Meaux did indeed mean, by the word souffrance what we generally understand by toleration, the Socinians and Anabaptists ought to feel grateful for the undesigned compliment. Would to God that all Christians would be careful to number among the"" Notes of the Church" this divine right of unbounded toleration, or rather of unlimited freedom in matters purely religious! France, which he accuses her of fomenting, and which, he affirms, were produced by a leading principle of the early Reformers, that it is lawful for subjects to levy war against their Sovereign, on account of religion;* a position as false, and almost as dangerous, as the one I have been reprobating. It is not, however, to the opinions of this or that individual Doctor, Bishop, Pope, or Priest, that we are to look for the genuine doctrines of the Church. No communion admits a more extended range of speculation, or a more unlimited freedom of mere opinion, on points not universally admitted as articles of divine faith, than the communion of the Church of Rome. To this day, various are the differences of minor points of religious opinion, and on several branches of Christian discipline, among Catholics; and warm, I wish I could not add, sometimes even bitter and acrimonious, are the disputes which. they maintain among themselves.† To take the opinions, therefore, of any one man, or any number of men, short of the universal Church, as articles of faith, were to the highest degree improper and erroneous. * See Mr. Butler's interesting “Account of the Life and Writings of James Benigne Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux," p. 71. In collecting the materials of this work, I have amassed a vast pile of Catholic Controversy in pamphlets, and larger volumes, that would surprise, perhaps, undeceive many Protestants, who imagine that Catholics never differ but they damn; never dispute but they divide. They form no part of the picture I engaged to draw, and I have not thought it necessary to portray these differences on the same canvas which is occupied by a delineation of the religion of Roman Catholics. 180 POETRY. RETROSPECT. HAIL, Canterbury, seat of antient fame, On the Sufferings of Christ, Love drew him from his paradise, Here for a time this heav'nly plant But envious frosts, and furious storms, This tender flow'r at last bow'd down O narrow thoughts, and narrow speech, Help, O thou blessed Virgin-root To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, All highest praise, all humblest thanks, Now and for ever be. Amen. N. GILBERT, DR. DUNKIN'S DESCRIPTION OF IRELAND. Translated from the Latin, in English verse. Far westward lies an isle of ancient fame, Her fruitful soil for ever teams with wealth, The Princess of Wales. SIR, S the situation of the Princess of Wales has excited the attention and feelings of the public in a remarkable manner, I send, for the information of your readers, who may not have much time to spare, nor inclination to procure the elaborate publications on the case, a brief account of the spirit of the principal evidences examined against her. "The Book," after giving the commission under which the four Lords, Erskine, Spencer, Grenville, and Ellenborough, held their Investigation, produces, first, the Deposition of Robert Bidgood, who had lived with the Prince twentythree years in 1806-He went to the Princess in 1798, and had lived with her ever since. He stated that Sir Sydney Smith frequently came to Montague House, was there early in the morning, by ten or eleven o'clock, and staid very late at night. That one morning he saw him in the blue room, without knowing how he came there; that the footman had let no one in, but he might come through the private door of the Park, if he had a key:-he never observed any appearance of the pregnancy of the Princess, He one day saw Capt. Manby kiss the lips of the Princess, in the reflection of the looking-glass, as he stood on the steps waiting. That when the Princess parted with him, she appeared as if she had been crying. Capt. Manby was frequently at Montague House, and at Southend, in 1804: he suspected that Capt. Manby frequently slept in the house, and this suspicion extended to the ser vants generally. His deposition, respecting the child brought in 1803 to the Princess, proves only the concurrent testimony of its mother and father, that it was brought to the Princess, who took it under her protection. The Deposition of Wm. Cole, who has lived with the Princess ever since her marriage, states that he had observed the Princess too familiar with Sir Sidney Smith; one time they were sitting very close on the sofa, and upon his entrance, her Royal Highness caught his eye, and they appeared a little confused. One night before this he saw a man go into the house from the Park, wrapped up in a great coat, whom he " suspected to be no thief." He was removed from Montague House after seeing the Princess and Sir Sidney sitting on the sofa together. About July, 1802, he observed the Princess to have grown larger, and to be thinner towards the end of the year. He had no idea of the Princess being with child. Mr. Lawrence the painter came and slept in the house, and one night, after the ladies had retired, he was with the Princess in the blue room; sometime afterward, when he supposed he had gone to his own room, he went to see that all was safe, and found the blue room door locked, and heard a whispering, and went away. Such is the substance of the evidence of these two principal informers upon the Princess's delinquency! Frances Lloyd, who had lived with the Princess twelve years, deposes to the bringing of the child by its mother, and that it was. four months old when brought; that one morning early she saw |