nation Oath, than the partial repeal of those laws which has already taken place.

We have thus endeavoured to give the substance of the two letters which Lord Kenyon addressed to the king; but we shall cite the first letter at full :

"The Act," says he, "for the union of England and Scotland has made the church establishment in the two countries essential and fundamental parts of the union, and has declared that the acts of the two countries for securing the respective church government shall be, and continue at all times coming, part of the terms of the union-that I understand to be the necessary construction of the words of the 11th section of the act.

"The Coronation Oath enacted in 1 William and Mary requires the king to maintain the Protestant reformed religion established by law.

"The 8th section of the Act of Union shows that by religion established by law is meant the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government of, the church. This includes the king's supremacy and the various orders of ministers, and the provision which the state makes for the decent support of the clergy. The doctrine and discipline are regulated (inter alia) by the Acts of Uniformity, and the Liturgy as it stands enacted by the Statute of 13 and 14 Car. II.

"To overthrow any part of the Church Establishment, as I have now stated it, would, as it seems, militate against the Coronation Oath, as in the Stat. 1. W. and M. and the Act of Union, and contravene an essential and fundamental part of the Act of Union.

"In order to preserve the Established Church, several Laws have been enacted, subjecting those who dissented from the Established Church to penalties or disabilities, and these have pressed sometimes upon one denomipation of Sectarists, and sometimes upon another, as the temper of the times or the supposed necessity of the case required. Papists and Conventiclers have in their turns felt the rigour of Statute Law.

"The Statute of 22 Car. 2. c. 1. for preventing Conventicles, and other Statutes of like tendency, existed at the time when the Coronation Oath was framed and enacted by 1 W. and M. c. 6., yet in the same Session of Parliament, the law called the Toleration Act was made. Several indulgencies both in England and Ireland, have been since granted to several Denominations of persons dissenting from the Church of England. Those regulations have been supposed by the makers of them, not to be hostile to the Church of England, as by law established, but merely to repeal, or lessen the rigour of penal Statutes, which, though thought necessary at one season, were deemed expedient at another time, and under different circumstances.

"So long as the King's Supremacy, and the main fabrick of the Act of Uniformity, the Doctrine, Discipline, and Government, of the Church of England, are preserved as the national church, and the provision for its Ministers, kept as an appropriated fund, it seems that any ease given to Sectarists, would not militate against the Coronation Oath, or the Act of Union.

"The proviso, which was rejected on 28th of March, 1689, as appears in

the 10th Vol. of Common Journals, p. 69, might possibly be rejected as being thought unnecessary; for it is observable from printed History, that in that very year a commission issued, authorizing several Bishops and other learned men, to revise the Liturgy and Canons, and prepare such alterations as they should think expedient.

"Though the Test Act appears to be a very wise law, and in point of sound policy not to be departed from, yet it seems that it might be repealed, or altered, without any breach of the Coronation Oath, or Act of Union. The temporary Bills of Indemnity, which have so frequently passed, have in effect from time to time dispensed with it in some degree.

"It should seem that the Chancellor of Great Britain, would incur great risk in affixing the Great Seal to a Bill, giving the Pope a concurrent Ecclesiastical jurisdiction with the King. It would be contrary to the Coronation Oath, and subversive of a fundamental part of the Act of Union."

We now come to the letter of Mr. Pitt to the King, which is the most important and interesting document in this correspondence. We sincerely recommend it to the attentive perusal of all the admirers of this great statesman, whether they be friendly or hostile to Catholic Emancipation. It places the honour and integrity of Mr. Pitt in the most favourable light, while it displays his ardent loyalty to his King, and the sound and enlightened views which he entertained on a great question of domestic policy. The topics of which Mr. Pitt chiefly urges in this letter to prove that full religious liberty to Catholics and Dissenters, would be attended with no danger to the Protestant Establishment, are the comparative weakness and inefficiency of those bodies: the formal and solemn disclaimer by the Catholics of all those obnoxious tenets, so long, (and in our opinion) so falsely attributed to them—the total change in the circumstances of the country, and the general state of Europe, which had afforded a pretext for those penal laws, and, lastly, the opportunity afforded by an extension of religious freedom to the Catholics and Dissenters, of exacting from them tests not repugnant to their religious feelings and principles, but offering a more effective and more reasonable security to the constitution, than any now existing. We regret that our limits will not permit us to cite the whole of this admirable letter ; we can only make room for the following extract, which is as much distinguished for the perspicuity and nervous condensation of the style, as for the excellent sense, and acuteness of perception which it displays.

"For himself," says Mr. Pitt, "he is on full consideration convinced, that the measure would be attended with no danger to the Established Church, or to the Protestant interest in Great Britain, or Ireland: that now the Union has taken place, and with the new provisions which would make

part of the plan, it could never give any such weight in offices or in Parliament, either to Catholics or Dissenters, as could give them any new means (if they were so disposed) of attacking the Establishment. That the grounds on which the laws of exclusion now remaining were founded, have long been narrowed, and are since the Union removed: that those principles, formerly held by the Catholics, which made them be considered as politically dangerous, have been for a course of time gradually declining, and, among the higher orders particularly, have ceased to prevail. That the obnoxious tenets are disclaimed in the most positive manner by the oaths, which have been required in Great Britain, aud still more by one of those required in Ireland, as the condition of the indulgences already granted, and which might equally be made the condition of any new ones. That if such an oath, containing (among other provisions) a denial of the power of Absolution from its obligations, is not a security from Catholics, the sacramental test is not more so. That the political circumstances under which the exclusive laws originated, arising either from the conflicting power of hostile and nearly balanced Sects, from the apprehension of a Popish Queen or successor, a disputed succession and a foreign Pretender, and a division in Europe between Catholic and Protestant powers, are no longer applicable to the present state of things. That with respect to those of the Dissenters, who it is feared entertain principles dangerous to the Constitution, a distinct political test, pointed against the doctrine of modern Jacobinism, would be a much more just and more effectual security, than that which now exists, which may operate to the exclusion of conscientious persons well affected to the state, and is no guard against those of an opposite description: That with respect to the Catholics of Ireland, another most important additional security, and one of which, the effect would continually increase, might be provided, by gradually attaching the Popish clergy to the government, and, for this purpose, making them depend for a part of their provision (under proper regulations) on the State, and by also subjecting them to superintendance and control.

"That, besides these provisions, the general interest of the Established Church, and the security of the constitution and government, might be effectually strengthened by requiring the Political Test, before referred to, upon the preachers of all Catholic or Dissenting Congregations, and from the teachers of schools of every denomination."

"It is on these principles Mr. Pitt humbly conceives a new security might be obtained for the Civil and Ecclesiastical Constitution of this country, more applicable to the present circumstances, more free from objection, and more effectual in itself, than any which now exists—and which would, at the same time, admit of extending such indulgences, as must conciliate the higher orders of the Catholics, and by furnishing to a larger class of your Majesty's Irish subjects, a proof of the good will of the United Parliament, afford the best chance of giving full effect to the great object of the Union, that of tranquilizing Ireland, and attaching it to this country."

Mr. Pitt then expresses a hope that his Majesty will deign to weigh attentively the reasons which guide his political conduct on this subject; and that, if after mature consideration, his Majesty

should find no grounds for altering his opinions, he would then consent to release him from a situation which he could no longer fill with honour to himself, or advantage to his Majesty's service. In conclusion, Mr. Pitt mentions his willingness to remain in office till his Majesty shall have made some permanent arrangements for the formation of a ministry, provided that in the interval, no use shall be made of the king's name to influence opinions on the question at issue.

This letter is followed by another from the king, stating how long he had entertained opinions adverse to the full repeal of the laws against Catholics, and expressing a hope that Mr. Pitt would not continue to agitate this question. An expression, however, which his Majesty drops in the course of this letter, namely, "I cannot help if others pretend to guess at my opinions, which I have never disguised," calls forth an answer from Mr. Pitt. In this letter, after expressing his regret that his Majesty's opinion should be so unalterably fixed, he observes, that his retirement from office must necessarily be accelerated by the circumstance that his Majesty could no longer prevent any use being made of his name to control or influence the opinions of men on this subject. He then tenders his resignation, which his Majesty in a subsequent letter accepts. The correspondence is concluded by a letter of the late Duke of York to his late Majesty, in which that amiable, but weak prince, testifies his hearty concurrence in the views of his father.

Circumstances have prevented us from giving any more than an analysis of this interesting correspondence. The importance of the subject required, perhaps, a fuller notice at our hands; but it is not impossible that we shall have occasion to recur to it, as the public are in expectation of a pamphlet on this subject from the pen of Mr. Butler. X.

LITERARY NOTICES.

THE long promised work of the Right Hon. Lady Mary Shepherd, "On the Perception of the External World" is at length given to the public; and a most extraordinary work it is. It refutes, in the most satisfactory manner, the sophisms and wild theory of the Protestant bishop Berkley, and is equally successful in overthrowing the arguments of David Hume against miracles, and the false doctrines of the numerous host of conceited and impudent Scottish writers of the modern school, who have followed him.

A Reply to the Rev. G. Townsend's Review of the Declaration of the Vicars Apostolic, and his Appeal to the Catholic Laity, by a young divine of Ushaw College, is expected shortly to appear.

Just published. The Chart of Health, and Domestic Medical Guide. By an eminent Physician, beautifully printed on a large sheet of drawing paper. In the press, and speedily will be published, in 1 vol. 8vo. the Reasons of the Laws of Moses, from the " More Nevochim" of Maimonides, with Notes, Dissertations, and the Life of the Author. By James Townley, D.D.

It is sweet when are fading the rose tints of even,
And the pale stars are shining like glimpses of heaven;
Oh! tis sweet at that moment, when all is so still,
To give bounds to the spirit to roam where it will.

It is then that our childhood, by memory's spell,
Summons up all its pleasures in thought's lonely cell;
And the throbbing of terror, the hate of control,
Like forms on a mirror, flit over the soul.

It is then that our passions are melted away,
Like the mists of the morning, by Reason's soft ray;
That the veil of the future is rent for the eye,
Whilst Hope gaily pictures the scenes that pass by.

It is then that the spirit of friendship appears,
With its meeting, its parting, embraces, and tears :-
Like sweets drawn from poison, is pleasure like this,
Though the loved-one be absent, yet still it is bliss.

And sweet is this moment for spirits of love,
When no trammels impede them from soaring above;
When the evening is sleeping on blossoms and flowers,
Oh! 'tis making an Eden of this world of ours!

B. A. R.

STANZAS.

OH! it is a chilling thought

To think that death will sever

The links that love hath wrought,
As if to last for ever.

'Tis like the Upas tree

That withers what springs near it;

Whate'er our joy may be,

This, this alone can sear it,

C. M. VOL. VIII. NO. 67.

H