entitle them to a very different treatment from that which they now experience.

What good cause can possibly exist for the pointed scorn and hostility uni formly evinced towards the Catholic Hierarchy of Ireland, we are utterly at a loss to imagine. In every class of christians, and in every religious society, there is probably some hier archy or other, though all under different titles. For the purpose of providing a succession of ministers, of defining rites and discipline, of maintaining internal subordination, and of restraining from vice and impiety by the authority of sacred functions, it has been deemed expedient, in other dissenting congregations, to prescribe certain forms and powers of ordination, gradations of rank, and cases of correction or of exclusion, when the gross misconduct or pernicious example of individual members calls for censure. The protestant dissenters have also: their districts, their congregations, synods, elders, readers, &c. Why then should similar internal regula-. tions amongst the Catholic Clergy afford matter of alarm and grievous offence? Besides, it is to be recollected that in the Catholic Church of Ireland a regular Hierarchy, and gradation of clergy, have existed immemorially with appropriate districts, in which they respectively officiate; and that their congregations consist, not of a handful of gentry and tradesmen, but of an immense proportion of the people, at least five-sixth parts, comprising persons of every order and degree in society. No person, not prepossessed against the sacred order generally, will pretend that the existence of such a Catholic Hierarchy in Ireland can possibly prove injurious to the morals or principles of the people. Long experience has proved the contrary. It has shown, in abundant and brilliant testimony, that the Catholic Hierarchy of Ireland, unendowed, unsalaried, unpatronized as

they are, have deserved highly of their country; and that their piety, benevolence, patience, fidelity, conscientious discharge of their sacred duties, their uniform virtues, decorated by splendid talents, assign to them a rank of estimation not inferior to that of any spiritual order that has appeared since the earliest ages of christianity. It must therefore be admitted by every reflecting man that a prudent Legislature, viewing this subject wisely and liberally, should immediately adopt the most comprehensive measures for the effectual relief of the Catholic Clergy. It should place this estimable class of men in a situation, not merely of connivance or bare permission to fulfil their duties, but of actual facilities and marked public encouragement for that purpose, and this without any compromise or stipulation whatsoever.

VIII. "The Law forbids the per"manent Endowment of any "Catholic Clergyman, House of "Worship, School-House, or "other pious or charitable Foun"dation for Catholics."

Whilst the members of all other religious persuasions in Ireland are permitted to provide for the permanent maintenance of their respective ministers of worship, and of the establishments connected with their respective tenets, the Catholics alone are denied this permission.-Reproached, as they frequently are, with the poverty of their clergy, the misery of their peo ple, and the supposed ignorance of their poor, they are forbidden, by law, to resort to the necessary measures for supplying these deficiencies.

The Catholics, though they see in silence that all the National Charities, Legislative Endowments, and Pious Funds, are absorbed in Protestant Institutions, and monopolized by the Ruling Class, yet have not claimed their proportion of those Grants,

(To be continued.)

MEMOIRS

MEMOIRS OF ROBESPIERRE. Maximilian Isidore Robespierre was born at Arras in 1759. His father, a barrister in the Superior Council of Artois, having ruined himself by his prodigality, left France long before the Revolution, established a school for the French at Cologne, and went into England, and thence into America, where he suffered his friends to be ignorant of his existence. His mother, whose name was Maria Josephina Carreau, was the daughter of a brewer; she soon died, leaving her son only nine years old, and a brother who shared his fate. The bishop of Arras, M. de Conzie, who afterwards showed such aversion from the principles of the revolution, contributed to send Robespierre to the college of Louis le Grand, where he had got him admitted on the foundation. It is said that even in his childhood he was gloomy and wicked, though timid, and that this temper, which he restrained before his masters, past with them for love of study, and gained him the favour of some among them, whilst others foresaw the blackness of his soul. The Abbè de Proyart, the master, was the dispenser of the remittances which the bishop of Arras made to him; and the Abbe Aime, canon of Paris, of whom he was afterwards the persecutor, allowed him his table. M. Herivaux, one of the professors, an admirer of the heroes of Rome, contributed greatly to develope the love of republicanism in him; he surnamed him the Roman, and inces santly praised his already declared love of independence and equality. More diligent than is usual at that age, he went through his studies with considerable credit, and even gave hopes, as to talent, that he was far from realizing afterwards. In 1775, when Louis XVI. made his entry into Paris, he was chosen by his fellow-students to present to that Prince the homage of their gratitude. Becoming a barrister in the Council of Artois, he wrote

against the magistrates of St. Omer, those of Arras, and the States of his province; and though little esteemed in his body, on account of his irrascibility, he obtained a place in the academy of Arras. The political troubles of 1788 heated his brain; he was soon remarked in the revolutionary meetings at the beginning of 1789, and the tiers-etat of the province of Artois afterwards appointed him one of their deputies to the states-general. On his arrival at the assembly, he at first obtained very little influence there; and he was even considered, during this first season, only as a gloomy man, capable of every thing, but gifted with very little ability. However, though the want of eloquence did not permit him to vie with the orators, who then shone in the tribune, he began to acquire great power over the populace; and Necker, in consequence, cajoled him in the meanest manner, on the 19th of June. For some time he paid court to Mirabeau, who despised him; yet he accompanied him so assiduously in the streets and public squares, that he at last surnamed Mirabeau's ape. It is not that he was attached to that celebrated man, but he flattered in him the idol of the people, and took care to withdraw from him, as he saw him losing his popularity. The first time that he made himself remarked in the constituent assembly, was on the 20th of July, 1789, when he opposed a scheme of martial law, and from that time endeavoured to legitimatize insurrection. On the 27th he warnily attacked M. de Castelnau, French minister at Geneva, on whom had been seized several letters which could not, however, be construed into any thing suspicious. On the 24th of August, in a speech in which he attacked despotism, tyranny, &c. he conjured the assembly to pass a decree for the liberty of the press, as a guarantee of the public liberty. On the 28th, at the time when France was

was

decreed to be a monarchy, he wished to oppose this declaration, and made some allusion to a republic; but not having had courage to speak out, the assembly, suspecting his intention, imposed silence upon him. Ever ardent in denouncing, he endeavoured, on the 5th of September, to criminate Laselle, second commander of the Parisian national guard; but the general voice again closed his mouth. On the 5th of October he inveighed virulently against the king and the ministers, on occasion of some reflections which the monarch had permitted himself on some decrees presented for his sanction; and on the 8th he renewed the same invectives against them. On the 5th and 6th of October he appeared not to take any very decided part in the efforts of the factions who had concurred in bringing on this event, and contented himself with ha ranguing, on the 5th, the woman who accompaniad Maillard to the assembly. On the 21st of October he expatiated for a long time on the misfortunes of the people, and on the crimes and conspiracies of the government; but his speech produced as little effect as one that he had made the next day, to prove that the man who has not a pennyworth of property has as much right to be an elector and eligible as a proprietor. He afterwards successfully accused the states of Cambresis on the 9th of November; M. d'Albert de Rioms on the 14th of December; and the parliament of Rennes on the 15th of the same month. On the 23d he solicited the right of citizenship in favour of jews, actors, and execution

their will. On the 18th of June he was chosen secretary; a few days after he invoked the justice of the nation in favour of ecclesiastics advanced in life, and demanded that their allowances should be proportioned to their wants. As a distinguished member of the Jacobin Club, he took a very active part in the affair of Avig. non; and, on the 18th of November, he strongly urged the union of Franche-Comte with France. In January, 1791, he spoke several times on the criminal law and showed then, as well as on the 27th of February, on the subject of the emigrants, and on the 19th of March in a debate concerning the priests, a moderation which was supposed to be so foreign to him, that he was suspected of some secret motives. On the 30th of May he declared in favour of the abolition of the punishment of death; and this man, who was, a few months after, to make rivers of blood run, maintained that this punishment coulg have been invented only by tyrants. A secretary having the next day read a letter, ia which the Abbè Raynal censured the greatest part of the proceedings of the assembly, Robespierre rushed into the tribune, and endeavoured to cover this old apostle of liberty with ignominy. On the 21st of June, at the king's departure for Varrennes, he showed the greatest dejection; but as soon as that prince had been arrested, his hope of overturning the monarchy did but increase, and he laboured with all his power to bring on the insurrection which took place in the Champ de Mars, on the 14th, 16th, and 17th of July. On the 14th, in the tribune of the assembly, he vehemently attacked the principle of the king's inviolability, hoping to have him brought to trial; but at the end of the meeting, seeing that his opinion was rejected, notwithstanding the petition presented in the same sense by the factious persons, he again began to fear for himself, and demanded that at least they

would