flattering prospects they had in view for their women and children, of keeping two coaches instead of one, but the labouring poor who are the victims of the half brewers and half chemists, will see without regret this society reduced to humble jaunting-cars, if the duties on window-lights were remitted or diminished at the expense of such combinators and monopolists.

In our next we will give an ac. curate list of poisons used in Dub. lin brew-houses.

For the gratification of our Country Readers, we insert the celebrated Letters of SARSFIELD, which appeared in that respectable Paper The Evening Herald.

LETTER I.

TO THE MOST REV. DOCTOR REILLY,

sions in Parliament on the nomination of Catholic Bishops by the Crown; and on that subject I shall deliver my sentiments (indeed I might safely say the sentiments of the nation) with the candor of a Freeman, as well as the respectful feelings of a Catholic. In submitting to your Lordship's consideration the following reflections I am solely influenced by the love of my dear country; which, altho', perhaps, the most highly favoured upon earth by the bounties of Nature, has, for centuries past, been the melancholy abode of woes and lamentations unparalelled.

Poor Ireland! too long unfor tunately distracted; your homeprospects, however, begin to brighten. Your own enlightened sons of every persuasion at length see their common interest-They have detected and exposed the Machiavelian Policy of Divide and Conquer," too long and too successfully acted upon by the Common

Bishop of Armagh.

MY LORD-Placed, as you most deservedly are, at the head of the Irish Church, the eyes of the nation are at this moment fixed on you, and attentively watch your conduct on the most interesting subject that ever affected the honor or the interest of the Irish Catholic; for, in the opinion of an admiring world, he as yet enjoys the most enviable inheritance, the honor of a National Hierarchy, unsullied by any compromise with political power, and deriving additional lus tre from a series of such persecutions, on the score of religion, for three hundred years, as have neyer been equalled in any age or in any country.

1

You already perceive my Lord, that I allude to the recent discus

addresses (happy presaged) they have proved to the world, that they feel they have been seduced, and that all, except a few blasted old stagers, burn with the same patr otic fire. But I have been involun

tarily led away from my purpose, I shall, therefore, more as an Irishman than as a Catholic, proceed to shew 1st, that the Advisers and Abettors of the present odious measure are the last men living whose opinion on this occasion deserves to be attended to-2dly, that this ar rangement, if carried into effect, will naturally produce the degrad-" ation of the Clerical Body in the Peoples' mind, and eventually Revolution in the Country-Lastly, I shall take the liberty of addressing to your Lordship a few practical remarks on the present state of things, recommending at the same

time,

time, to your most serious perusal, certain steps to be adopted in the line of your duty, which to me seem to be of the last importance. On reading the report of Mr. Grattan's inimitable speech in the late parliamentary debates on the Catholic Question, when I came to that part (as it is reported) where he said, "He had a proposal which he was instructed to make from the Catholics of Ireland, viz. to invest the Crown with the power of nominating their Bishops on condition of their receiving compleat Emancipation in return," I really smiled through pity for the poor old man, and apologized for him in my own mind by supposing, that he was again imposed on by some such artful conjurer as had formerly led him into the mysterious secret of the of the invisible French Party's existence in this Country; and could not avoid applying to himself what, on a similar occasion, he so elegantly said of the late Mr. Flood, That he was too old a tree of the forest to be transplanted into a foreign soil." But when Mr. Ponscnby, as in the report given of his speech told the House" that the King would thus become virtually the Head of the Church," and for the truth of this his assertion quoted the authority of Doctor Milner, Agent to the Irish Bishops, I freely confess I experienced strong sensations of humiliation and alarm in common with every religious man of your persuasion in the land-By religious men I mean those only who sincerely believe the Doctrine of the Church and conscientiously adhere to its discipline; not your Latitudinarian Gentry who have received a Deistical education in the Voltairean schools of the Continent, or by mixing with the fashionable world at home; and who, instead

of being attached to their own, would most gladly abolish every Church on Earth to make room for their favourite system of epi curism.

You well know, my Lord, than in the language of the Gospel, the latter description of man are the Tares of the Church, and no more Catholics than Musselmen, except in name, which they retain from the mere accident of having been born in a Catholic Country and of Catholic Parents —These are, however, the men who unfortunately for the cause they affected to es pouse, have of late years chiefly thrust themselves forward into all Catholic Assemblies, and aspired to Leadership, whilst their Countrymen of vastly superior talents, but of modest reserve, sat silent, in the back-ground, filled with honest indignation! Their fine speeches were read with grateful admiration in every corner of the kingdom by those who know them not, and were considered as the honest effu sions of pure patriotism; whereas on a close view, their motives are easily ascertained to be far from honourable; for if they are not in the full enjoyment of a snug pension, the fault does not rest with them-Never has it been refused when offered by even the worst administration: and as we have already a plentiful harvest of our pensioned and expectant baristers so we can observe some of our lords and baronets, if not by them. selves, at least in the persons of their near relatives receiving the rewards of their prostitution.If the labourer is worthy of his hire," the converse of the proposition is not less true-He who receives hire must work, and it is impossible to serve two masters.--Hence the shameful dereliction of principle at

ways

ways observable in those pensioners, by proxy, or in person, whenever the cause of their country is at stake. Hence the extraordinary exertions of those renegadoes to divide their unhappy countrymen, which I have witnessed with emotions I cannot now describe, when they well knew that the general good could only be procured by a cordial union and co-operation of all. It is really disgusting to see associations of such non-descripts styling themselves "the representatives of the Catholic Laity," and expressing in public companies their hopes, that the bishops will not at this important crisis offend the laity by refusing to surrender the right of nomination to the crown!!! -Poor wretches little do they understand the feelings of the great body of the Catholics, who hold affected patriotism, but real Deism in the most sovereign contempt

The high respect, my lord, which I have for your acknowledged judgment and great penetration forbids me to admit, for a moment, the probability of your acquiescing in this fatal scheme; and I entertain the same sentiments for the entire of your bench, if you except two or three, who, altho' proverbially amiable in every other respect, have, with a more than boyish vanity, courted the tainting smiles of base courtiers, or the more degrading favours of bigotted corporations, ever ready to rewards all those who assist them in keeping Irishmen strangers in their native land; But when I hear the name of Doctor Milner given in support of their assertions by Messrs. Grattan and Ponsonby, and observe that these assertions, after such a lapse of time, and relative to so important a topic, still remain uncontradicted, I must

conclude that something like tampering on that subject did occur on his part, and notwithstanding the Doctor's great character, I cannot but recollect the kindness of his countryman, Pope Adrian the 4th, on a former occasion, in complimenting Henry, the 2d with the right of conquering the Wild Irish, and exclaim with the poet "Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes."

Not to speak of the King's Coronation oath, which (according to the Great Doctor of Laws, the celebrated Patt. Duignan, now said to be a privy counsellor) binds him in conscience, as head of the church, to promote the interests of Protestantism, which by the bye are not, in matters purely spiritual or immediately connected with the same, very much in unison with those of Catholicity, I shall state a few cases of themselves sufficient to expose to the meanest capacity, the dangerous tendency of this plan. Suppose that in your lord. ship's diocese, a clergyman of extraordinary zeal and abilities arises, and, like another O'Leary, succeeds in unmasking the canting hypocrites of the day, who, under the false cloak of religion, seek to promote their own selfish views, by defeating the chief end of society, which is the happiness of its members, and by violating the divine precept. "Love God above all things and your neighbour as your self," without the observance of which man, be his faith never so strong, abides in death. Under these circumstances, suppose further (said the supposition is very reasonable) that the voice of your diocese proclaims aloud this tried champion of that faith (which he considers himself obliged to defend at the risk of life) as the only fit person to be called to fill the situa

tion

tion of your lordship's coadjutor or successor; what might naturally be expected in this case? Exactly the same course of enquiry that would be pursued in every other episcopal procuration; viz. the name of the candidate submitted to his Majesty in council, and the opinion of that privy counsellor, in whose district he resides, taken as to his character &c. &c. Now my lord, to complete the picture, I suppose it possible that ths Right Hon. Gentleman, who is to propronounce on the fitness of the person to be elected, was so far blinded by intolerance as to have advertised publicly for a Protestant Black-smith in a county, where for the last sixty years, there has not been one Black-smith or Mower of the established Church; and to have encouraged colonies of Swadlers, Socinians, and Muggletonians to settle on his estate to the exclusion of a Catholic tenantry, the miserable descendants of the aboriginal proprietors; is not beyond a possibility of doubt, that his mistaken zeal would induce him to use all his interest in order to procure the worthy Priest a Veto? Would not the same inference be equally true in a district represented, in a similar, way, by a man, who would say openly" that your religion is Only fit for knaves or fools?" or by ene who would declare all those of your communion "Rebels in the⚫ry and ready to reduce that theory to practice on the first opportunity" and so of all such, thus making the ignorance, the culpable silence, or the sycophancy of the Priesthood their best recommendation to a bishoprick!!!

I am well aware that "the selfelected representatives of the Catholic Laity" will put me down as a hot-headed bigot, totally unfit to

live in these enlightened days: but, with every possible contempt for their purchased or purchaseable opinions, I flatter myself I have sufficiently proved to every impartial mind, that instead of a succession of zealous and learned bishops, the present anomalous system would shortly afflict us with men of a very opposite description in every part of the kingdom, than which nothing could be more fraught with mischief to King or Country-For it is an undoubted fact, that the safety of the state depends on the salutary restraints of religion more than on the terrors of the civil law; and that without a due respect for the former, the latter cannot long continue to this we have the concurrent testimony of all unbiassed writers.-But that respect is always proportioned to the sancity, the learning and the zeal of its ministers-therefore, if you suppose these ministers devoid of the necessary zeal, learning and sanctity, they lose their respectability and become degraded in the eyes of the people It is fresh in the recollection of every amongst us that the French never could succeed in their nefarious purposes until they first degraded their clergy. Deism and Atheism were the natural and inevitable consequences of degradation, and Revolution with all its horrors soon followed in their train.

man

Bench to guard their flocks against these dangers; to point out to them the melancholy consequences which might flow from the slightest indiscretion on the part of their poor people; in a word, to teach themt to wait in Christian patience until it shall please his Majesty to call to his Councils men of more friendly dispositions towards them. For, if we credit the newspaper reports, it Has been lately declared by nearly all the men in power that we shall never advance in political consequence. Lord Hawkesbury is reported to have said "that the Catholics cannot justly complain of more than Protestants, nothing being required than they should take the necessary oaths (that is, as I understand it, to take the baths of supremacy and abjuration and thus become Protestants even a= gainst conscience) and that they never should receive more privilege than they had at the time of the Union, altho' Pitt, his great prototype, had frequently declared that to be the only means by which they could expect emancipation from domestic tyranny.--Lord Westmoreland, on the Bank Charter Bill, last week, is said to have informed the House "that no further concessions should be granted, and our old friend Lord Redesdale "is convinced the more the Legisfature grants, the more the Catholics will claim and perhaps insist upon-Father Perceval will have no objection to give them something when there is a change m their Religion, alias, when they become Protestants or Swaddlers.-But Saint Wilberforce let the Cat completely out of the Bag, for he is reported to have informed the House "that in case of their granting the prayer of our Petition, he was certain the people of England,

whom he knew well, would not consent to it." And as to what they have to expect from the unpeachable veracity of Lord Castlereagh, who never heard "that an Irishman was flogged by authority of Government in 1798 ! ! !" or the liberality of our Foster Father, who has, for so many years, commanded the invincible Lives and Fortune's Legion," there cannot be a second opinion in the land.

I apprehend I Have already trespassed too long on your Lord ship's patience, and shall therefore conclude the present letter with my most ardent wishes for the success of your exertions in the cause of our afflicted countrymen.

July 1, 1808.

SARSFIELD.

LETTER II.

TO THE MOST REV. DOCTOR REILLY.

Titular Primate of all Ireland and Bish p of Armagh:

MY LORD,

Nations like individuals, have their characteristic virtues and vices; their noble and elevated ideas of honour, or their cold peddling, calculating inclinations; their proneness to commiserate want in whatever shape it may appear, or their hardness of heart, proof against every generous call of hu manity, unless backed by the autho rity of the Tar-gatherer; their sprightly forgiving temper, or their gloomy vindictive disposition. Thus, whilst our dear neighbour, although enriched by the commerce and spoils of the universe, has his gloomy visitations of the shooting hanging, and throat-cutting months

of