to consider well, e'er it be too late, that a Reform is necessary, not in one, nor in two, but in several points of Discipline, in the actual state of the Irish Church; that the want of this Reform is becoming more apparent every day; that it is manifesting itself to our own Laity; that it is encreasing with the increase of our population; that we might as well attempt to arrest the course of the Sun, as endeavour to conceal this necessity from our own people, or to prevent its operation, without altering the present system; that if a reform does not commence from ourselves, in a spirit of true Christian humility and disinterestedness, it must commence from others; and that then, those seasonable remedies, which ought to originate in the kindness of friendly admonition, will be inflicted, even by our own people, in a spirit of passion which is always blind, anger which is always intemperate, and Religious hostility which never confines itself within the bounds of Christian moderation.-Is there a Parish in Ireland, the population of which has not doubled within these last thirty years? Is

there a Priest who does not acknowledge that he has too many people to attend to? How many Parishes are there that ought to be divided into two? Is there one Priest more now in these Parishes so doubled and quadrupled, than there were thirty years ago? Have not you and I seen Women far gone in child birth, fast until after sun-set, waiting for older and more infirm people than themselves, to receive the Sacrament first? And are not murder and rapine encreasing in proportion as private confession is hurried over, and the Priest's examination is less severe ?

XV. I would humbly and earnestly entreat of our Bishops to consider, that there is no instance, and there ought to be none, in the history of the Christian Church, in which the Bishops of any Catholic Country elected their own Successors, or bequeathed their own Dioceses, as the Bishops of Ireland actually do, by their own private choice; a private arrangement, in which Simony, for ought we know, but certainly favouritism, reasons of flesh and blood, and worldly propensities, must necessarily pre

vail against honest exertions; and a Cunning Priest, who will stoop to vile artifices, and prostitute his sacred character at the shrine of adulation and falsehood, must, in the natural course of human events, have a better prospect of preferment, than he who, possessed of generous Christian magnanimity, dares to be just, even at the hazard of a Mitre, and preserves untainted that honourable Apostolical poverty, which detests hypocrisy, and scorns the arts of dissimulation.* "Ne quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid

veri non audeat."

XVI. Shall it be said in England, shall it be known in Gath, that at the very moment when petitions for Emancipation, are pouring into P-t from every County in Ireland, we are yet

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"Hujus mundi sapientia est, cor machinationibus tegere, sensum verbis velare, quæ falsa sunt vera ostendere, quæ vera sunt falsa demonstare. Hanc qui sciunt, cæteros "despiciendo superbiunt. Hanc qui nesciunt, subjecti et "timidi in aliis mirantur, quia ab eis hæc eadem duplici"tatis iniquitas nomine palliata diligitur, dum mentis "perversitas Urbanitas vocatur. Hæc sibi obsequentibus "præcipit honorum culmina quærere, adepta temporalis gloriæ "yanitate gaudere, &c." S. Gregor. Moral. 1. 10, c. 16.

so little alive to the true principles of Liberty, as to witness with cold indifference an avowed Despotism, which S. Paul styles Dominatio in Cleris, rivetting the chains of slavery at our doors. Shall we demonstrate that we are unworthy of Emancipation by our neglect of the most laborious, and most deserving portion of our Countrymen, the Parish-priests, who, however strangers they may be supposed to the fashionable fooleries of civilized life, will, however, on nearer acquaintance, be found not deficient in that useful knowledge, which qualifies them for being the friends of the poor? Men who start up from their uneasy repose, in the pelting storm and darkness of a winter's night, and undertake a dangerous journey of eight or ten miles, traversing dreary mountains, or wading through rivers and marshes, to administer the comforts of Christianity to the distressed!

Is it not a well known fact, that some Men of the second order of Clergy, Men whose learning, morals, and modesty, qualify them for the highest stations in the Church, have been denied employment by their Bishops, and thrown

for subsistence on the benevolence of the public, for reasons in petto?

Is not every Priest in Ireland liable to be thrown upon the wide world for subsistence, without any responsibility on the part of the Bishop, who need only withdraw his faculties, without assigning a cause? And yet, do not the Canons positively enjoin, that no Clergyman shall be deprived of his office, or suspended, as we term it, without the cause being alledged, and proved, and committed to writing, "causa allegata in scriptis et probata?”

Now, if these facts are as I state them, and I call upon you and the public to enquire, then, I ask, is this the boasted Independence of the Irish Hierarchy are these the Glorious Liberties of the Irish Church? Is the responsibility of Law never to be known in that Church?

Is the good sense of a nation, famed for quickness of perception, keenness of wit, and vivacity, to be cajoled by the hypocritical canting of Men, who would dispense thraldom thus in bountiful profusion, and generous liberality to others, and reserve Independence only for