Church, and the Papal supremacy; and no notice is taken of relics, images, and pictures, for these have long since been laid aside in the enlightened part of Germany. Their Churches have but one Altar, without any ornament furniture, excepting a simple crucifix. The address is dated from Falkenham, Nov. 2d, 1826.

or

The following extract will throw some further light on this subject. It is dated, Berlin, Feb. 24.-"An event which has lately occurred in Silesia has caused some sensation here. In several villages of the circle of Liegnitz, which is inhabited partly by Catholics and partly by Protestants, the latter, who live on the best terms with the former, had given them Bibles to read, which were soon in the hands of many Catholics. The Prince Bishop of Breslau, M. Von Schimonsky, was no sooner informed of this, than he sent an ecclesiastical counsellor to the villages, to induce the Catholics, by exhortations and threats, to give up the Bibles. He assembled the Catholic bailiffs, and called on them to assist him in the execution of his Mission. The bailiffs refused, and declared that they were themselves among the number of those who were guilty of reading the Bible, and threatened, as some persons affirm, that they would all go over to the Protestant religion, if they were importuned any further on the subject. The ecclesiastical counsellor, therefore, returned, re infectà, and made his report to the Prince Bishop. Hereupon the Bishop is stated to have claimed the assistance of the civil power, with which request the chief President Von Merkel, did not think it advisable to comply."

A Bremen Paper contains some further proceedings of the Roman Catholics of Silesia, which will be found curiously interesting :

"Silesia, April 16.-We have already spoken of the highly important event, which will sooner or later have considerable influence VOL. I.

E

on the whole Catholic population of this province, namely, the changes, which the inhabitants of twelve villages in Silesia, with the co-operation of their Clergy, have proposed to make in their (Catholic) form of worship. The Bishop of Breslau has applied to Berlin on this subject. Privy Counsellor Selmedding, a Catholic, who directs the affairs of the Catholic Church in Berlin, is gone to Silesia to inquire into the matter on the spot. This, however, instead of setting the business at rest, only made the inhabitants of the villages in question, more firm in their adherence to the changes they had made. They applied directly to the King, petitioning him to sanction the changes they proposed, which included the abo lition of the celibacy of the Clergy -permission to read the Bible the singing of German hymns, and the reading of the Mass in the German language. To this the King replied "That as they did not belong to the Protestant Church, but were Catholics, he could not do this; the best they could do would be to apply to the Pope for his dispensation. Should this be refused, then they might give him notice of it, and should they be then inclined with their religious views to join the Protestant Church, he would support them in their design." The Bishop of Breslau, to whom they have applied with a petition to the Pope, has been placed in rather a perplexing situation. However, he has sent the petition to Rome, and the decision of his Holiness is now anxiously expected, though it cannot be doubted that the petition will be positively refused, because considering the enlightened views that have spread among the German Catholics, especially those who live among Protestants, it may be confidently anticipated that in a short time the Papal See would be assailed with similar petitions from half of Germany. The above twelve villages have a population of 8,000, or 8,500 in.

habitants, most of them in good circumstances, and who have long

. been distinguished by their industry and good morals."

We need scarcely report that a meeting for the formation of the above society was held in London, at Freemason's Hall, on Monday 21st May. We are unwilling, however, to omit all notice of so excellent an institution, and shall therefore give the leading particulars, together with the speeches of Capt. Gordon and Lord Farnham, as having a more immediate connection with the state of Ireland and the progress of the Reformation. The meeting, it appears, was very numerously attended, and among others, by the following distinguished individuals, most of whom took some part in the business of the day:-Viscount Mandeville, Earl Winchelsea, Lord Carbery, Lord Farnham, Hon. and Rt. Rev. Bishop of Litchfield and Coventry, Bishop of Salisbury, Lord Barham, Earl Roden, Hon. Greville Ryder, Hon. Jas. King, Hon. J. J. Smith, Hon. and Rev. Gerard Noel, Sir T. Baring, Bart., Sir R. Inglis, Bart.; with many Members of Parliament, and clergymen of different persuasions.

The object of this society is stated by Capt. Gordon to be threefold:-1st, To enable clergymen and gentlemen, engaged in promoting the Reformation in Ireland, to avail themselves of the co-operation of existing institutions to such an extent, as may be necessary to meet the local demand for the books and instruction which they dispense -2d, To take up a ground yet unoccupied, viz., to defray the expense of publishing useful books, and generally to assist individuals and associations in the diffusion of authentic information, suited to the wants of parishes

and districts:-and 3d, To turn the attention of the British nation toward that mass of ignorance which it nourishes in its own bosom, by circulating religious instruction among the Irish resident in London, upwards of 130,000 of whom, from the bogs of Connaught and Munster, were to be found in one district, as well as in that county which, if he could not call it an imperium in imperio, might be truly designated as Ireland within England.

After Lord Viscount Mandeville had taken the chair, Capt. Gordon, as provisional secretary, was called upon to state the claims of Ireland, and to explain the nature of the society about to be formed. We shall now subjoin that part of his statement which refers to the moral condition of Ireland.

After expressing his incompetence to the task which he had undertaken, he said, that as he had had the opportunity of witnessing year after year, scenes which made him familiar with the moral condition of Ireland, he would state some facts, which would enable the meeting to judge whether there was not a sufficient ground-work already laid for their operations.

This, he said, had been justly termed the age of experiment; by which, he supposed, it was meant, that we had reached a period when men chose rather to judge of facts, and to form principles from observation and experience, than from the dogmas of philosophers. Now, an experiment had been made upon the Irish people by the priests of the Roman Catholic religion; and he was prepared to contend,

and to prove, from the testimony of the Catholics themselves, that that experiment had altogether failed. If it could be proved, that the Roman Catholic system had failed to produce those effects in Ireland which a religion ought to produce, then it was time for those who felt desirous of benefiting that country to introduce a better. Had the ministers of that religion established a bond of union amongst the people of their charge? had they sealed the lips of the blasphemer? had they reformed the drunkard? had they destroyed the murdering disposition of the assassin? had they shielded the cottage from the fury of the midnight murderer? had they given an impulse to the skill and industry of the people? had they afforded them religious instruction? He would leave the Catholics themselves to answer. these questions, and refer to facts rather than opinions-facts, not resting upon his own authority, or that of any other Protestant, but on that of the most intelligent and influential of the Roman Catholic communion. He held in his hand a pamphlet written by the Rev. Dr. Doyle, which was addressed by that gentleman to the whole Catholic body, and designed to point out the necessity for increased means of education. It described the moral condition of Ireland generally, and was written by one of the most intelligent and respectable of her ministers. The writer stated, that very few indeed of the Catholic peasantry could give any satisfactory account of their faith; and if their conduct was examined, it would be found marked by theft, drunkenness, debauchery, and numerous other vices. The Sabbath was generally neglected, or given up to the most low and degrading occupations. Rioting, drunkenness, singing, and dancing, formed their engagements on the sacred day. He (Captain Gordon) believed that nine-tenths of the Catholics lived in the indulgence of those vices which, the apostle Paul had said, would exclude men from the

kingdom of heaven. What he had said was founded on the testimony of the most respectable and intelligent Roman Catholic priests, who held as high a standing in the body, and who exerted as great an influence, as any in Ireland. Their evidence served as a general description of the moral condition of the lower orders in that country. He would add one observation from his own experience. It could not be expected that the Roman Catholic priests would expose the examples of bigotry and superstition in their own congregations; and therefore, the incident he was about to relate had not received the sanction of their authority. He believed that few were ignorant of what were called the great stations in Ireland where the Catholics voluntarily submitted, on particular occasions, to certain grievous penances; but what he had witnessed occurred at one of the minor stations. He had been paying a visit to a friend in Connaught; and it happened that at that time the festival at the well of St. Lesser was to be celebrated. He had expected that about five hundred or one thousand person's would have assembled; but his surprise was great when he found that there were not fewer than twenty thousand persons on the spot, and that seventy or eighty tents were erected in order to supply them with provisions. The station boasted of a holy well, a holy stone, and a holy tree. The ceremony began with the sprinkling of water; after which the votaries crept three times round the well on their bare knees, which, coming in contact with the sharp stony bottom left by the recession of the water, were shockingly làcerated. They next went to the stone, where they performed similar devotions. From the stone they came to the tree, which they invoked also on their bare knees, and kissed repeatedly. The ceremony lasted three days; and as the number shifted three times each day, he should suppose that

during the whole period there were at least two hundred thousand persons present. After that painful penance had ceased, they began drinking and rioting, and every species of low debauchery was perpetrated during the three days.

He

Was such an exhibition, he would ask, not a proof of the extent to which the lower orders were sunk in a gross and debasing superstition? Was that superstition not as debasing as any which prevailed in Hindostan? In the one case, worship was paid to "stocks and stones;" in the other, immaginary power was shadowed forth in various fantastic shapes, or the elements of nature were worshipped in their simple forms. Whence, then, came these superstitious notions; and whence was derived the authority which rivetted them so deeply in the minds of the Roman Catholics? They arose, in his opinion, from the religious belief of the people-from the influence of the Roman Catholic system of faith, and its practice by the administrators of that system. would not enlarge in the definition of what popery was, as it was seen in the meridian of Rome or Italy, or in any of the other Catholic countries in Europe. He would confine himself to the Irish borders, and there he saw enough of its sway to bear him out in the conclusion to which he wished to arrive. Its negative effects were to be seen in the endeavours of the administrators of the system to oppose the education of the people; for, before this country shewed a disposition to afford them the blessings of education, no priest discovered a wish to promote education in Ireland. When the education of their flocks was undertaken by the Christian benevolence of this and the sister country, did they concur in the plan, or express a desire to support a Society instituted for that purpose, although the principles were liberal and unexceptionable? No: it was proved that they resisted every attempt

to instruct the people-that, in spite of all our solicitude on their behalf, and in spite of our anxiety to strip the system of education of every appearance of proselytism, they broke up the schools, and did all they could to oblige the well-wishers of Ireland to give up the experiment of scriptural education. He did not censure the motives of the priests, without being able to produce sufficient grounds for doing so.

He had heard much of the disposition of the Roman Catholic priesthood to promote education and peace throughout the country; and had heard it echoed and reechoed from all their meetings, that they had exerted themselves in the most praiseworthy manner for the education of the children; and the result of their exertions was stated to be, that not less than 400,000 children were inmates of the schools. Unfortunately for them, a document had made its appearance which gave a minute analysis of the extent, to which, and the parties by whom, Irish education had been promoted. He alluded to the Second Report of the Irish Commissioners on Education. From that it appeared, that there were in Ireland 11,823 schools, containing 568,964 scholars; and he asked to what proportion the Irish priests laid claim of that number? It was sworn before the magistrates-for be it remembered that the statement was not founded on surmise or bare assertion-that there were only 352 schools under the Roman Catholic priests, which contained 33,529 scholars; and thus, on the aggregate, it would be seen, that there was only one school to every seventh parish in Ireland, or, in other words, they only included the thirty-third part of the total population. It appeared, then, that after every means had been exerted and every energy applied by the priests, they could only produce that unfavourable account of their labours. Did it prove a wish on their parts to educate the

population? or, rather, did it not prove that the Catholic clergy bore an uncompromising hostility to education, where Scripture-reading formed an element of instruction? The very best of these Catholic schools were regulated by a society connected by a bull of the pope, called "The order of the Christian Brothers;" and certainly it was the best adapted in referrence to the system which the priests were resolved to uphold. In the Commissioners' report it was stated, that the chief work taught to 'the youth was the catechism of Irish history, a composition of the most inflammable description, and whose tendency was in the highest degree anti-social. It was composed by a Roman Catholic bishop, and until the system was brought to light, avowedly used in every school.

He had now to inquire what the system had done for the existing generation, and for the adult part of the country. In the first place it withheld from them the Word of God, or at any rate its perusal was not sanctioned by it. [In proof of this assertion the captain referred to the evidence of a Mr. Dogan, we believe, a zealous and conscientious Catholic, who lamented the prevailing neglect of the interests of the people. He stated that many of the peasantry could not distinguish the difference between the Testament and any other works presented before them, unless they were told it by the Bible Society; and that in many parts they did not know what the Testament was.]

But the system did not stop with the mere withholding of the Scriptures: active attempts were made to suppress them entirely there was a bonded conspiracy against the book; and when it was consigned to the fire or tossed into the river, Dr. Boyle was found lauding the bigotry which thirsted for its destruction.

In this country many drew a knowledge of popery from the Council of Trent; but they would

be far wrong in thinking that the books circulated in Ireland embodied the principles or enjoined the precepts which that memorable tribunal had inculcated. [Here the captain read parts of the books and catechisms of the Irish Catholic Church, composed by Bishops Buller and Rutley, and which being circulated under the authority of the hierarchy, every priest inculcated on his congregation and was bound to teach the doctrines there set down. In the first, the Roman Catholic Church was declared to be the only true Church, and that none could be saved out of its pale. In the second, all congregations were styled faithful who professed allegiance to the pope and partook of the Sacraments appointed by the Church; and those who did not adhere to these points were designated infidels, heretics, and excommunicated persons. And in the third, certain marks were described by which a Catholic displayed his agreement in communion with the Bishop of Rome.] The captain said, he noticed those parts of the creed, in order to show how every youthful mind who had passed the regular system of training, was taught to look upon his Protestant companion-it might be his benefactor, his playmate, or his nearest relative-as thrust beyond the pale of salvation. These catechisms were put into the hands of youth in the room of the Book of Salvation-of that Book which gave the first glowing impressions of every thing that could elevate and ennoble the mind, of that Book whose pages communicated the doctrines of eternal truth. The popular works were of the most motley description. Some of them were styled, "The Seven Members and Ministers of Rome;" "Captain Grant and the Highway. man" "The Feast of Love;" "The Garden of Love;" "The Devil and Dr. Faustus ;" and the "Catechism of the Irish History," &c. These books were allowed to be circulated freely among the peo