that the possessors of national property are no more likely to have their feet dragged by ghosts than their neighbours. Then taking the young heir aside, he offered to lie in the bed in his place, if he would keep it a secret, and would promise to wait one day more before he gave up the property. This proposal was accepted, and the young kinsman took possession of the other youth's bed for that night. Between twelve and one o'clock, he heard some person gently open the window, and at the same time he beheld a phantom enter, who came up as if to speak to him with a threatening gesture. "So far so good;" said he mentally," as he mistakes me for another person, spirits are not omniscient." He then slipped out of bed as quietly as he could, seized the phantom with both his hands, and threw him in a moment into a little dark closet, which he shut and locked very carefully. The spectre finding himself a prisoner, began to cry out for mercy; but the youth went to call in his neighbours, who soon recognised, in the semblance of a ghost, a young abbé, who although as yet only in deacon's orders had been desirous to give a proof of his zeal for the church of Rome.

CATHOLIC INSTRUCTION IN THE PRESENT

DAY.

The instruction given in the Catholic faith is at this moment the same as in the twelfth century; not a

particle of the most absurd superstition is withdrawn from the catechisms with which the minds of the youth are imbued. The very celebration of her daily services, so often repeated, and ever the same, the service of the mass, is at once such a defiance of all reason that no improvement can ever be hoped for. They that will deify a bit of bread, that after a certain number of prayers have been said, will think the bit of bread is a God, the Saviour of the world, and at the tinkling of a little bell to announce that the puraculous transformation is completed, will abjectly fall on their knees, and bow down their heads and worship this bit of bread, now become the Almighty Maker and Ruler of Heaven and Earth; such persons are beyond the pale of reason, and having swallowed this camel, need not strain at any gnat which may come in their way. Let any one take into his hand the common catechisms in daily use in Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, read and decide for himself, and say if there be the least improvement in the doctrines usually taught; or let him peruse the Catholic catechisms taught in London, and he will find in them the same errors, although more cautiously expressed. If it be not to be expected, nor demanded of the Roman Church that she should formally disavow the errors of former centuries, and if her proud claim to infallibility forbid the humiliating confession of having ever erred, why can she not allow her gross superstitions and evident absurdities, the imposition of which must stultify the understanding, to slip into oblivion. If they must stand in the articles of

the infallible Council of Trent as a memorial of what the Church has stamped with her unalterable approbation, yet they need not now appear in every book addressed to the young, nor be so impressively dwelt upon in every modern catechism made for their perusal and instruction. But so it is, and in the meridian splendour of the nineteenth century, the Church of Rome envelopes her sons in all the gloom and darkness of the ninth. She will not allow the Bible to be put into the hands of her children;-she teaches them the grossest absurdities as the revelation of heaven; and she guards her people from holding communication with those who might open their eyes, as the most deadly of sins. If our countrymen, who visit Italy, will take the trouble of reading the printed list of deadly sins stuck up in the churches beside the confession boxes, they may find, that reading the hooks of heretics, and holding conversation with them respecting religion, is classed along with "aiding and abetting the inroads and devastations of Mediterranean pirates." In fact, an English or Dutch Protestant, who would show the absurdities of transubstantiation, paying money for masses to redeem souls from purgatory, and the adoration of the Virgin, would be viewed in a worse light, and as a more dangerous and wicked enemy than the captain of an Algerine or Tunisian corsair.

WHAT ARE THE CATHOLICS?

What are the general character and conduct of the Catholics as a body?

In the first place, who are their leaders? If they be led by their aristocracy, property, intelligence, and virtue-by men having a deep stake in the public weal, and having their interests identified with the good conduct of society-this must operate powerfully in their favour. Are they so led ?-No. O'Connell is the only one of their leaders who is connected with their upper classes, and possesses fortune, and he is a practising barrister. In his public character, this person continually wallows in the lowest depths of stupidity, blackguardism, and depravity. His speeches never display a gleam of political science, or rational argumentation; they consist of villanous misrepresentations and brutal scurrilities, profusely garnished with tawdry metaphor and puling interjection. The rest of their leaders are hungry lawyers and newspaper writers, strangers alike to family and fortune. The speeches of these men resemble those of O'Connell: they can only utter lies, slanders, and sedition. It is scarcely possible to read the atrocious productions which are published in the newspapers as the harangues of O'Connell and his gang, without being astonished that human nature can sink so low in guilt and pollution, and that their parents are not in every quarter held to be the shame and bane

of society. These degraded and despicable men are the acknowledged leaders of the whole Catholic body. The rank, property, knowledge, and integrity of the Catholics cannot be seen-they have no weight. It is known that they are utterly impotent when opposed to these leaders.

In the second place-What are the Catholics in religion? They are in the highest degree bigoted, fanatical, and intolerant. They manifest the most deadly hatred to the religion of the State. Their hostility to the circulation of the Scriptures, and the diffusion of genuine Christianity, is sufficiently known. Their chapels are used as political schools of the worst character; they hold their political meetings in them, and they do this sometimes on the Sabbath. From the altar of his God, the ignorant Catholic is taught every thing in politics that can make him a wicked man and a guilty subject. They have had public dinners on the Sabbath, at which songs were sung. They are the abject bondsmen of their church. According to the newspapers, O'Connell, at the Clare election, prostrated himself to his Bishop in the public street before the multitude. If he really did this, we hope the degraded idolatrous slave will never again be permitted to stand erect in the presence of free men. While they are thus, the despotism of their religion is used to compel them to trample on the bonds of society, to violate the laws, and to fill Ireland with wickedness and guilt. Their religion exists to suppress genuine Christianity, and teach almost all that it prohibits. O'Connell and his gang have supplied