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being all for the Catholic priest. For extreme unction, which is deemed a necessary passport to heaven, the poorest pay 1s.; and 5s. is the price of a mass for the dead. The charge for a high mass, where ten or sixteen priests assist, is 58. each, with one guinea to the (Catholic) priest of the parish. Here, then, are evidently a good many pickings. In fact, some of the priests, in large or opulent parishes, can earn 900l. per annum; so that, whether to supply their poverty, or to secure their independence on foreign aid, a grant is altogether unnecessary. It would express fear; and they would see through the attempt to wheedle them. It would only render them more arrogant, and more ambitious.

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XXII. In the English Catholic church, the jurisdiction formerly exercised by secular and regular chapters, has passed into the hands of four vicars apostolic; a form of government first established in the reign of James the Second, and confirmed by a decree of the Sacred College in 1745, as well as an apostolic sanction of Innocent the Twelfth, in 1746. Enjoying their power only during the Pope's pleasure, these vicars apostolic are termed "Titular Bishops," from having the name, and, as they think, the title, but not the actual possession, of the dioceses in which they are placed. As disqualifying and penal statutes were removed, the zeal of the Catholics augmented, and

their prospects of power and dominion revived. Protestant districts have adopted the Catholic creed in Ireland; and that is the only country where Methodism does not gain ground. The Catholics in England and Wales amount to about four hundred thousand; in Ireland the estimated proportion is five millions of Catholics, to two millions of Protestants.

No indulgence has effected any improvement in their bigoted and intolerant disposition. The spirit of Catholicism is unchanged-unchangeable; and the clergy are as devoted to the Pope as they were in the dark ages. The only pledge they will vouchsafe is the oath of allegiance, and that in an equivocal and quibbling sense. Concessions they scorn, as demanded by heretics; and oaths, it has been said, are to THEM, mere bands of withe to shackle a giant. They are utter enemies to the education of the poor, the establishment of schools, and the dispersion of the Scriptures. A few exceptions to this general character may be found: Wall, bishop of Waterford, in 1819, enjoined the free circulation of the Bible; but as a body, they hate the light, because they cannot endure it, and make a pretence of patron

* In 1823, a letter of a lover to his mistress was produced in a Court of Justice, commencing thus: "The rescript of Cardinal Quarantotti is to me not more imperative than your mandate."

izing a Rhemish Bible, fraught with errors, and beyond the purchase of the poor.

Among many eminent characters, of whom the British Catholic church may justly boast, we may distinguish the names of Challoner, O'Leary, Hay, Milner, Poynter, Hussey, and Troy.

The chief places of education for the English and Irish Catholics abroad, are, the College of secular clergy at Douay, and the Jesuit Colleges of St. Omer and Liège. Stonyhurst, near Wigan, is their principal college in England; whence has recently issued a tract, entitled "Protestantism CALMLY considered," disclosing the notion of calmness, and the modest unaspiring views entertained by the Catholic church. In Ireland, they have a Jesuit College at Castle Browne, where one hundred and fifty Catholics are educated; but their chief seminary in that country, is the Royal College of Maynooth, founded in 1795, by an Act of the Irish Parliament, and supported by the Government of the United Kingdoms; as a means of securing, by a domestic education, the loyalty and patriotism of the priesthood. Here two hundred and fifty priests are educated. Eight thousand per annum had been the grant of the Irish Parliament; to this extent the faith of the country is pledged, but to grant more is unreasonable. The Whig administration, in 1807, granted an enlargement of the sum to 13,000l. for the erection of new buildings; while they ventured

on indulgences tending to the propagation of Popery. These measures would have afforded advantages to the Catholic clergy, in which the established religion had no participation. It is well to provide for the Catholics a pious and laborious clergy, to rectify the dangerous abuses of their ecclesiastical administration. Enlighten their minds, institute schools, disseminate the word of God; but beware of indulgences incompatible with the safety of the state, or hazardous to the Protestant religion.

Note.-Catholic booksellers are multiplying in London, and circulate three periodical works: the Orthodox Journal, the Catholic Miscellany, and the Catholic Spectator. The whole body look brisk, and promise themselves great things. Education is the wand that will dispel their visions.

CHAPTER XXV.

ON CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION.

Contents.

I. Restraints imposed on Popery, in Prótestant and even in Catholic countries.-II. On Toleration, as opposed to Emancipation.-III. On the Arguments in favour of entire Emancipation.—IV. Emancipation considered as a Right.-V. Emancipation considered as likely to improve the Condition of Ireland.-VI. Emancipation considered as likely to consolidate the Strength of the Empire.-VII. Would entire Emancipation actually conciliate the Catholics?-VIII. The Character and Tone of the Catholics.-IX. The Position, that the Religion of the Majority, should be that of the State, considered; and the Use likely to be made of it by the Catholics.-X. What are we risking in trying the Experiment?-XI. Mistaken Notions of the Irish Catholics: their Temptations.—XII. Ambitious Character of Popery.-XIII. Its intolerant Character.-XIV. Its persecuting Character.-XV. Its Character as a Religion substituted for Protestantism.-XVI. On the proposed Securities.-XVII. No constitutional Security but in the Renunciation of Papal Supremacy by the Catholics.-XVIII. Prospective Advantages of this

Measure.

I. THE Vesting of the SUPREMACY over the Church, and over the State, in two distinct

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