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to a certain point, and made to drain the countries of vast treasures which were thus transferred to the Popes or to their creatures, was felt as a great grievance. All this occasioned various measures to be taken against the See of Rome, and those who went along with it in all its pretensions : : among which the whole body of the clergy were sure to be found, and for a reason assigned by a most learned, as well as candid, Romanist*, that they had much rather depend upon the Pope, being one man, only, than stand exposed to be every day called in question by the officers of the crown before the civil tribunals." Hence, in this country, arose the statutes of Provisors and Præmunire, always imperfectly executed, as Dr. Troy himself admitst, and in fact only executed according as the monarch had the requisite vigour, or his subjects and he happened to agree in making them respected. After the Reformation, the difference by degrees extended itself to doctrines, for then the grossness of the Romish superstitions having been exposed and rejected in so many countries; and the diffusion of knowledge through the press, then recently called into action, having made it more difficult to keep any body of men in complete ignorance, more especially in countries where any freedom of discussion was allowed; and it being found that the old method used by Harding, and Saunders, and others after him, would not do; different modes were devised of softening down and making more palatable (according as it might be deemed expedient) the grosser and more revolting doctrines; and thus even in those matters which all men consider as properly of Faith, more latitude (of explanation at least) has been taken, and in some respects, allowed to be taken by the Romanists in this kingdom. This also has naturally led to a freer discussion of the Pope's pretensions to temporal domination, and a more explicit disclaimer of them. Still, although this has been permitted by the Popes, ex necessitate rei, yet has it always been accompanied with great hesitation and reluctance on their part. They have adhered, as much as possible, to their standing and invariable maxim, not to renounce formally any right or power which they have ever enjoyed and in this, of course, they have had the Vicars Apostolical as well as the great body of their Clergy, dependent as they are upon the See in every respect, subservient to their will and attentive to their directions. This will sufficiently account for the transactions, (disgraceful as they are and must be in the eyes of all who have any value for honesty and plainness of dealing,) which took place in 1789 and the two years following; when the Vicars Apostolical, after having, with all the * Richerii, Hist. Concil. General. in Præfat.

† Supplementary Appendix to the First Speech, p. 23.

VOL. I. [Prot. Adv. Feb. 1813.] 2 H

principal Roman Catholics, made and subscribed a solemn declaration and protestation, not only refused themselves, to follow up the measure with an oath every way agreeable to it, but prohibited under pain of spiritual censures, every one else from doing so.* We have now therefore, on one side, the mitigated Papists, who are ready to disclaim upon oath all belief in the infallibility of the Pope and the power of unconditional absolution in the Priests ; and on the other, the thorough-paced Romanists who hold it unlawful to make such a disclaimer. We may, I believe, safely push this farther, and say that the first class are ready to give all reasonable security to government for their loyalty, and to allow to his Majesty not only a negative upon the appointment of their Bishops, but possibly an actual nomination of them the latter, so far from granting this, consider it, (that is, since they have changed their mind upon the subject) as an absolute abomination that an "uncatholic" King, as they are pleased to call our Sovereign, should in any way intermeddle with the discipline of their Church. And they, or some of them, tell us in the most insulting manner, that he may very well appoint the Dignitaries of our Establishment, because that which we call our Church is merely the work of man; but their Church which is wholly divine, must in all its parts, be administered by its faithful children only. Now the reader, who may have read Sir John's account of himself, will see that those whom he most appropriately considers as his constituents, arc the mitigated class; at the same time he has been in full correspondence, and in the habit of interchanging compliments with the thorough-paced party. His principles then, being on the liberal scale, he had also to conciliate the Bigots: and up to a certain point he might do this; because the Popes and their adherents, in order to gain their ends, and as long as there were hopes of gaining them, have always been ready to dissemble, trusting to the chapter of accidents to bear them out with as little loss as possible. However, the violence of the Irish Papists, and probably the factious views of some of their leaders, has brought on a crisis rather prematurely, and driven their Prelates (for there is a re-action in ignorance and superstition) from the concessions to which they were advancing, however trivial and insignificant, back to their old intrenchments of absolute and undisguised Popery. The necessary consequence of which has been, that the worthy Baronet, be-praised and complimented as he once was, has necessarily been given up by the heads of the party, their Lordships, the Prelates, on both sides of the water, and has had to undergo the reprobation and abuse of that sprightly gentleman Mr. Francis Plowden,and his learned associate Counsellor Clinch.

(To be continued)

These extraordinary documents with all the signatures and correspondence are pub lished by J. J. Stockdale, price 5s.

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brief Statement of the Rise, Progress, ana Decline of the Ancient Christian Church, and its gradual Change to the PAPAL APOSTACY, by a Departure from the plain Dictates of the Gospel. A Letter to the Right Hon. Lord Kenyon, by Sir John Jervis White Jervis, Bart.

We have only room to announce this publication to our readers. It will not become us to sacrifice truth to our zeal against Popery. The writer of this Statement is not correctly informed in the history of the primitive church. He represents episcopacy as a political establish

nt, as growing out of the state, instead of being an apostolical institution. It is no wonder, therefore, that he considers the Church government of this country as preferable to Presbyterianism, only on account of its greater consistency with our civil establishment. He is, however, a zealous friend to Protestantism. He justly observes, that "the restoration of the Papal power would be ruinous to the world, and that the absurdities which were practised by it, are strong arguments for résisting every attempt to revive or sanction the practices of Popery in the land."

DINNER GIVEN AT KILKENNY TO THE FRIENDS OF

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.

THE Irish Papists have been in the habit for three years past of giving feasts in celebration of religious liberty! to which they invite a few Protestants, who, from factious motives, or from ignorance of the baneful tenets of the Popish creed, are inclined to grant them, unqualified concession.*

Such a dinner was given by the Papists of the county and city of Kilkenny on the 15th of October last, to certain friends of the Talents,

* At such a feast given last August to the Bishop of Norwich in Dublin, there were many persons who had been deeply concerned in the treasonable proceedings in Ireland, from 1792 to 1798, and in the insurrection which took place on the 23d of July 1803. We doubt not but that the Right Rev. Prelate will be much shocked to receive assurance of this fact.-We need not remind his Lordship of the circumstance which took place at Lort Castle-Coote's, his brother-in-law we believe; a deputation was appointed to wait upon him on the part of the Romanists, in order to do him honour; but Lord CastleCoote would not permit the deputation to enter his house. Did the Bishop's zeal and libetality go so far as to induce him to receive this party of Papists at an inn? In a room hired for the purpose? Can honour THUS accrue to an English Protestant Prelate ? This is a strange way of achieving honour /

some Protestant noblemen and gentlemen who are desirous of distressing, and, if possible, overturning the present- administration. Among the Protestants who attended it by invitation, were the Earl of Besborough, Lord Cloncurry, the Hon. James Butler brother of the Earl of Ormond, the Hon. and Rev. Richard Ponsonby, the Hon. Mr. Lambe and Mr. Grattan.

Major Bryan, whose intemperate zeal and busy interference in. promoting the views of his fellow votaries are well known, was placed in the chair. (Of him more in the sequel.)

He gave as a toast, "the friends of civil and religious liberty all over. the world!" Every person, whose mind is not clouded with ignorance, must regard this as a severe sarcasm on the Popish religion, as its fundamental principles are founded in persecution, and inscribed in blood; and their practical effects have been experienced in a more woeful degree in Ireland, than in any other part of Europe for the last three hundred years. In short, Popery, properly so called, is nothing but a system of human policy, which emanated from the avarice and ambition of the Popes, on the close of the 11th century; and was formed for the sole purpose of subverting every state, and of destroying every individual that would not acknowledge their supremacy and the doctrines of their church. The Chairman gave, in their turn, the healths of all the Protestant guests, who praised the loyalty, liberality, and humanity of their hosts, and declared that they never would remit their exertions, till they had procured -what they must have known they already possessed in the utmost extent-religious toleration. When Mr. Grattan's health was drunk, he said, among other things, in the course of a long speech, "you have shewn your enemies,* that you understand the nature of that liberty you demand, better than they do who deny it to you. They cannot have learned how to enjoy it, since they will not share it with their fellow subjects. You have verified the prediction of your friends-you have realized their warmest hopes. † You have proved that you greatly deserve what you nobly desire. The zeal, the temper, the spirit, the patience,

He stigmatizes the Protestants as their enemies, though a Protestant parliament, in a spirit of Christian charity, repealed the penal laws; and, in its Wisdom! endowed a college at Maynooth, for the education of Popish priests.

The opposition in the Irish parliament professed to be warmly attached to thre Papists, from the same motives which actuate the Talents at present, viz. to compass their own purpose by working upon their deep-rooted disaffection; but as this is done at the risk of exciting a rebellion, is it not a dangerous expedient? Did the Papists realize the warmest hopes of their friends, in 1798, at Scullabogue, Wexford-Bridge, and Vinegar-Hill?

the calm perseverance with which you have prosecuted your claims, furnish an admirable example of what cool firmness and steady moderation can accomplish in the advancement of a good cause.'

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It unfortunately happened, that KILKENNY was the most inauspicious place which they could have chosen for a feast of religious liberty, as it has exhibited stronger proofs of Popish treason and intolerance, than any other part of Ireland, for above a century and a half; and yet the Chairman gave as a toast, "the Earl of Ormond and the friends of civil and: religious liberty in the county and city of Kilkenny."-I shall state some curious facts relative to Kilkenny from the most authentic historical documents. The Irish Papists had many years in contemplation the horrid and destructive rebellion of 1641. Even Macmahon, titular bishop of Raphoe,: acknowledged to some members of the privy council, of whom he solicited pardon, that he and others had been employed in the year 1634, to solicit succours from the Pope and the Kings of France and Spain, to carry that rebellion into effect; and it appears, by the voluntary confession of Lord Maguire, a leader in the conspiracy, that application had been made for the same purpose to Cardinal Richelieu, so early as the year 1628. Hugh Oge Macmahon, another leader in it, who was arrested in Dublin, on the 23d of October, 1641,† in the night of which the insurrection was to have taken place, confessed, that all the Popish lords and gentlemen in Ireland, were in the plot: that twenty-one persons from each county were to assemble in Dublin, in order to surprize the castle; that all the forts and strong places in the kingdom were to be seized; and that they had stationed men in all parts of the kingdom, to destroy all the English and Protestants that night, and that the most active exertions of government could not prevent it. The allegations of him and many others, as to these facts, are to be found in Temple, Borlase, and Nalson; and subsequent events afforded unquestionable moral evidence of their veracity.

* The Irish Papists have endeavoured, for 300 years, except when penal laws imposed a salutary constraint on them, to effect two objects, viz. the extirpation of heretics, and a separation of their native country from England; and now they want political power for the same purposes; and no doubt they greatly deserve it !-Soon after they obtained their grand emancipation in 1793, they organized a treasonable conspiracy which exploded in a dreadful rebellion in 1798. For the last three years the inflammatory speeches in the Catholic Committee (as it is called) have been little short of treason. They have never ceased to abuse the government in the most opprobrious language.

The perfect resemblance, in all its points, between the rebellion of 1641 and that of 1798 is too remarkable to be permitted to pass unnoticed.-See "Character of the Irish Roman Catholics illustrated."

The insurrection and massacre in 1798 were to have been simultaneous and general.

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