ceeded this joy, when I learned that these my "dutiful children," were suffering the most sanguinary and unrelenting persecution that ever aggrieved a Christian people." O my children! how have I been deceived by the agents of the British government! they told me your liberty, property, and the undisturbed possession of your religion; nay, that you were allowed in your writings, to defend your own religion and attack that of the state: they told me that a college had been built for the education of your clergy; that you were serving as officers in their fleets and armies; pleading, as barristers in their courts; acting as magistrates through the country, and returning members to the Imperial Parliament. They assured me that you were experiencing much kindness from your Protestant fellow countrymen, who contributed to your charitable institutions, and helped you to build your chapels. Deluded by these false statements, I was rejoiced at your fancied prosperity, while you, alas! were enduring a "most sanguinary and unrelenting persecution."

I had heard, indeed, that several of my children in Ireland had been put to death; but, O the deception! I was told, it was for treason and rebellion, and yet they were suffering for the apostolic faith. Spirit of the sainted Murphy of Boularogue! how have you been traduced to me! O, my sons, that fell in what I was told, was a rebellion, were you then, indeed, but martyrs to your religion?

How can I dwell upon the dreadful scene which your emphatic words so vividly depict before me. I have read of the persecutions which desolated the primitive church, and have heard of other persecutions too, in which, in one country alone, a million of persons are said to have been put to death; but, O, what is this number, great as it appears, when compared with the multitude of my children, that must have perished in Ireland during this "most sanguinary persecution that ever aggrieved a Christian people !"

What tortures must ye have suffered, my beloved children! In the account of former persecutions, I have read of decapitation, crucifixion, gallowses, gibbets, manacles, pedicles, thumbscrews, fire and fagot, rocks and pullies, slow fires, red hot

gridirons, and boiling lead; but what are any or all of these compared with the means of torment to which you must have been exposed? say, are my fears unfounded? or have the most powerful agents in nature been, indeed, resorted to for your destruction?-Have steam-engines been erected, at one blow to flatten you like pancakes, or to chop you as small as herbs for the pot? or have vast galvanic batteries been raised to sweep away thousands at once in this "most sanguinary and unrelenting persecution that ever aggrieved a Christian people."

O, how vain are the hopes of men! and how soon are our fairest prospects clouded. I heard with delight, some years ago, that a cross was erected in the front of one of the established churches in Dublin: I rejoiced at this, as one step towards the restoration of the ancient faith; surely, said I, when the cross has got to the outside of the church, we may soon expect to see it within: but oh! I fear it was intended as an instrument of torture! say, O say, how many of my children have been crucified on it.

Tell me, I pray, who are the inquisitors, who are the torturers that are charged with your destruction? Are they the clergy of the established church, or the apostates from our faith, who have been so well paid for their defection? Are they the schismatical Cossacks, the Methodists, or those vile peculators and heritics, the Bible Men?

Painful as the detail may be, do, my children, send me a full account of all your sufferings, that it may be handed down. to futurity as an imperishable monument of your faithful adherence to the apostolic see. O, that the spirit of those, who wrote the legends and lives of the saints may descend upon you, to enable you to describe the unheard of horrors of this "most sanguinary and unrelenting persecution."

But how, my children, amid the rage of such a persecution, could five millions of you agree to the letter which you sent me? Surely, you could not meet to discuss the matter, or let it be known that such a measure was in contemplation: a few of the boldest of you, I suppose, assembled, at the risk of your

lives, and wrote the address, which you knew contained the sentiments of your suffering brethren.

The address was presented to me by a secretary to a deputation, but no deputation appeared. Your address soon accounted for this extraordinary circumstance; it suggested the idea that your persecutors had seized the deputation, and that the secretary alone had escaped. The same agents of government, who, as I was just informed had arrested your two great champions, when going, in single combat to maintain your liberties and religion, had also, I concluded, seized the brave men who, at the hazard of their lives and fortunes, were going on a mission to the holy see. Heroic souls! should your lives be the forfeit of their Catholicity, may the green turf of Erin lie lightly on your heads, and posterity imitate your virtues.

Alas my children! your address furnishes internal evidence of the wretched situation to which your persecutors have reduced you. You are not yourselves; your sober mind, your sound judgement, your recollection itself is gone: you forget in one paragraph what you have said in the preceding one: at one time you consider the subject of your remonstrance to be of a religious, at another time of a political nature;—at one time you think I should interfere in it, at another you think I should not: but this is not the worst symptom of your melancholy state, my "dutiful children." You even menace the holy see; you threaten, that if I do not act as you require, the first consequence would be a general indignant revolt against the framers or favourers of the detested system, without regard to rank or station; and it is not difficult to imagine that so lamentable a breach would lead to such a state of distress and dissatisfaction, as might end in the dissolution of that confidential connexion in spiritual concerns which at present so happily subsists between the Holy See and the Roman Catholics of Ireland. O, my children, I see here that the demon of persecution has turned your brains; I see the madness to which your enemies have goaded you. You are ready to raise a rebellion against your most Holy Father, and, like the heretics of the

Reformation, to revolt from the successors of St. Peter, for your attachment to whom you have already endured nearly three centuries of persecution.

O my children! my heart bleeds for you; I feel the dreadful state to which persecution has reduced you; and must, even against your own wishes, rescue you from it. Your government says, the veto is the only obstacle to your emancipation, I must coincide with it; my paternal feelings for you, compel me to grant it; for, what is there which your father would not do to rescue "five millions" of his "dutiful children" in Ireland, from the most sanguinary and unrelenting persecution that ever aggrieved a Christian people.

From our palace at Rome.

PIUS VII.

So keen and transchant was the irony of this extraordinary document, that the Catholics of Ireland, with Mr. O'Connell at their head, saw an insult heaped upon them, for which scarcely any subsequent atonement could be made. It was evident that the Rev. Mr. Hayes, the delegate to the see of Rome, had given great and unpardonable offence to his Holiness, and thence the Catholics concluded, that he was adverse to their proceedings, or that he did not deport himself with that attention to their interest, by which the conduct of the head of the church ought to be distinguished.

Under these circumstances, Mr. O'Connell called a meeting of the Catholic board, which was held at D'Arcy's tavern, to take into consideration the conduct of the Pope towards their delegate, and to draw up a remonstrance to his Holiness, as proceeding from the whole body of the Irish Catholics, touching the disrepectful manner in which their application had been treated. As it might be supposed, Mr. O' Connell took the lead at this meeting, which was at first only of a preliminary nature, being chiefly occupied in hearing the defence of Mr. Hayes, who declared that he was truly sorry, he had on any account, incurred the displeasure of the sovereigu pontiff, and that he would by the next post write a letter to Rome, ex

pressive of his submission to the decree of the Holy Father and imploring forgiveness.

Mr. O'Connell immediately, in allusion to the declaration then made by the Rev. Mr. Hayes, said with much emphasis, that it made him regret that the Catholic board had selected a priest as their delegate. This, as might have been easily supposed, was considered, as not a very courteous insinuation on the part of Mr. O'Connell, but he declared he was authorized in making the remark, which he had done, on account of the singularity of the proceedings, which engrossed the attention of the whole Catholic population of Ireland, who considered that they were lying under the displeasure of the Holy Father, on account of an insult, which had been offered him by their own delegate. "There were also," said Mr. O'Connell, 66 some circumstances attached to the transmission of the remonstrance and the receipt of the reply from his Holiness, which required immediate explanation. Mr. Hay, the secretary to the Board had declared, that the answer of his Holiness had certainly been opened, and again resealed in his presence, an act which Mr. O'Connell deprecated, as disrespectful to the committee of the Catholic board, and placing in the hands of their enemies an instrument to question the validity of the document; he was therefore anxious as this was the first document that had been received by the Catholic body from Rome, that its authenticity should be fully ascertained, and he should therefore move that a sub-committee be appointed to inquire into the authenticity of the document produced by Mr. Hay, and to supply the board with an accurate translation of it.

This motion was seconded by Mr. Mc'Donnell, who inquired, why the document had not been brought forward in a straight forward manner, for it was a fact well known, that a second copy of the answer of the Pope had been received, and had been exhibited to certain individuals.

Mr. O'Connell said he doubted the authenticity of the document, and censured in very strong terms the character and integrity of the lay court at Rome. He called upon Mr. Clinch