difficulty in another way.-But even supposing, says he, that this Letter is genuine, it does not therefore follow that this doctrine is Catholic; for Saints, however respectable for learning and sanctity, are often great fools!" Cæteroqui nemo, quantumvis eruditus et Sanctus, non "iterdum hallucinatur, cæcutit, labitur."

Thus will the Sycophants of a Court, sacrifice the fame and character, of one of the greatest Fathers of the Western world, one to whom half Europe is indebted for the lights of Science and of Christianity, on the Altar of vile flattery, and interested adulation!

3. The Compilers of a Periodical Publication intitled the Literary Panorama, were not aware of this motive for adopting the name of Columbanus, when, in their Number for October 1810, they insinuated that the principles asserted in my first Letter, differ from those of that greatest Father of the Irish Church!-There are readers and writers who decide upon all matters, without having previously qualified themselves for such decisions, by the laborious ordeal of inquiry, and the drudgery of application. There

are others who suppose, from the foolish productions of some of our writers, that Catholicity is a system of anility, fit only for vulgar or imbecil minds; a belief in goblinism, witchcraft, fabulous miracles, and legendary tales.

Those who only skim the surface, who have a mouthful of every thing, and a belly full of nothing, having imposed this foolish notion on themselves, infer directly that whenever any Man writes common sense, he ceases to be a Catholic; and therefore the Panorama Oracle prophecies, that the writer of Columbanus ad Hibernos, can never pretend to the honour of beatification!

But who is that professor of Christianity, or where, except under the lash of Buonaparte, or at the elbow of Cardinal Mauri, breaths any Irishman, who would not take as an affront, and an indignity, any compliment paid him at the expence of his Religion.

4. I have chosen the name of Columbanus, because he was a sincere Catholic; an enemy to the intrigues of Popes and Nuncios, if any

Nuncios existed in his times; because he distinguished the abuses of Courts, and the superstitions of the vulgar, from the genuine doctrines of the Catholic Church.

Were I to chuse the name of any other great Man, I would prefer that of S. Jerom, for the same reason; or that of S. Bernard, whose work De Consideratione, addressed to Pope Eugenius IV, is justly styled a master-piece of advice and instruction to the Head of the Catholic Church.

§ III. Refutation of a Speech delivered at the general meeting of the Catholic Committee, in July 1810.

1. One of those vile prejudices, or rather one of those mad assertions, calculated to mislead my Countrymen, and to impose upon them a blind Mahometan faith, very different from the Catholic, which first suggested to me the necessity of such a work as this, was deliberately made, and heard without opposition, in a speech delivered at a full meeting of the General Committee of the Catholics of Ireland, so lately as

the 14th of July last.-The Orator contended that every argument which applies to the exclusion of foreign influence in the nomination of our Bishops, applies equally to the exclusion of Confession, and of every Article of the Catholic faith;-and then, exulting in this magnificent argument, una magnifica......he appeals to the Chairman, whether it does not put an end to all further discussion and inquiry!!

2. I should have hardly believed that any Irishman, even Doctor Duignan, would have ventured so far, as to degrade the Religion of our Ancestors, by thus indentifying it with the intrigues of foreigners, and the profligacy of an Italian Court! The Catholic Religion existed in Ireland, many centuries before any foreign influence in the nomination of our Bishops was heard of, either by our Clergy or by our Kings; and during that period, it produced more Saints, than it has since the 12th century, when foreign influence first began to be known.

I little expected that any Irishman would have ventured to say in such an audience, that the Catholic Religion can no longer exist

without the interference of a Rinuccini, who dared to imprison our Nobility and Gentry, in 1646, for no other crime than, because they had agreed to an honourable peace with their Lawful King; or without the interference of a Cas

tabala, who, in 1810, dares to inform us, that he and the exclusive Doctors, the foreign influenced Bishops of Ireland, have decreed that Ireland shall not enjoy the liberties of the Galican Church!!-This was the language, which the Legate Pandolf used, when, seated under a Canopy, he compelled King John to appear bare-headed before him, to resign his Crown to the Pope, to lay that Crown at his, (Pandolf's) feet, and then, after keeping that Crown some days in his custody, to receive it in the same humiliating attitude, on the ignominious condition of a feudal Vassal, and a yearly rent!

3. Our Catholic Statesmen, who enacted laws against foreign influence, never objected to Confession, or to any other Article of Catholic Faith; but they prohibited, under penalty of confiscation and death, the suing for, or obtaining from the Court of Rome, Archbishopricks,