abandoned all hope, and which I have been so often determined to quit for ever.

Sæpe vale dicto multa sum deinde locutus

Et quasi discedens oscula summa dabam,
Indulgens animo, pes tardus erat.

But I am reclaimed from that infidel despair-J am satisfied, that while a man is suffered to live, it is an intimation from providence that he has some duty to discharge, which it is mean and criminal to decline: had I been guilty of that ignominious flight, and gone to pine in the obscurity of some distant retreat, even in that grave I should have been haunted by those passions by which my life had been agitated—

Quæ cura vivos, eadem sequitur tellure repostos.

And, if the transactions of this day had reached me, I feel how my heart would have been agonised by the shame of the desertion; nor would my sufferings have been mitigated by a sense of the feebleness of that aid, or the smallness of that service which I could render or withdraw. They would have been aggravated by the consciousness that, however feeble or worthless they were, I should not have dared to thieve them from my country.-I have repented-I have staid-and I am at once rebuked and rewarded by the happier hopes that I now entertain.—In the anxious sympathy of the public-in the anxious sympathy of my learned brethren, do I catch the happy presage of a brighter fate for Ireland. They see, that within these sacred walls, the cause of liberty and of man may be pleaded with boldness, and heard with favour. I am satisfied they will never forget the great trust, of which they alone are now the remaining depositaries. While they continue to cultivate a sound and literate philosophy-a mild and tolerating christianity-and to make both the sources of a just, and liberal, and constitutional jurisprudence, I see every thing for us to hope. Into their hands, therefore, with the most affectionate confidence in their virtue, do I commit these precious hopes. Even I may live long enough yet to see the approaching completion, if not the perfect accomplishment of them. Pleased shall I then resign the scene to fitter actors-pleased shall I lay down my wearied head to rest, and say, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen their salvation,"

COURT OF ROLLS.

MERRY versus RT. REV. DOCTOR JOHN POWER, R. C. BISHOP OF WATERFORD.

THE FACTS ARE AS FOLLOW.

IN 1804, Mary Power made her will, bequeathing a considerable part of her property to the Rev. John Power, and others, in trust for charitable purposes. Her brother Joseph, then a merchant in Spain, was her next of kin, and residuary legatee: he died intestate, and his son, the now plaintiff, came over and took out administration to his deceased father, and brought a suit in the spiritual court, to set aside the will, as unduly obtained, and as disposing of a large property to papists, and for superstitious uses. In that court the plaintiff applied for an administrator, pendente lite, and was refused. The present bill was filed, praying that the effects might be brought into court. This bill was filed only a few weeks; and now, before the defendant had answered, a motion was made by doctor Vavasour, for a receiver; and that doctor Power, the acting executor, should be ordered forthwith to bring the effects into court; he relied on the affidavit of his client, the plaintiff, charging that the will was obtained by fraud by the defendant, Power, and that at best it could not be sustained, as being a trust altogether for popish uses. The motion was opposed by Mr. Prendergast, who strongly argued against the imputations thrown out upon the conduct of doctor Power, by the name of this "one John Power, a popish priest." He insisted, that under the whole circumstances there was no colour for impeaching the transaction; that the bequests were most praise-worthy; that there had already been a decree of this court obtained by the trustees of charitable donations, affirming the legality of the trusts, and that it would be unprecedented for a court to interfere in this way, and before an answer 30 40*

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came in; or any delay or resistance, on the part of the defendant, to put in his answer. Other gentlemen, on both sides, argued very zealously for their clients.

His honor, (Mr. Curran,) said, that if the question had been brought forward upon the mere rule of the court, he should not have thought it necessary to give many reasons for the order he intended to make; but pressed so strongly as it has been, both by the arguments themselves, and perhaps more so by the style and manner of putting them, as well as the supposed policy which has been called in to aid them:

"I think," said his honour, "I ought to state the grounds upon which I mean to act in my decision. First, then, it is urged, that this is the case of an insolvent and wasting executor, having fraudulently obtained the will. As to insolvency-to be an executor it is not necessary to be rich; integrity and discretion are the essential qualities of an executor. If the testator thinks he has found these in an executor of humble means, this court has no power to control him; he may bestow his property as a gift to whom he pleases: it would be strange if he could not confide it as a trust to whom he chooses. I know of no necessary connexion between wealth and honesty;-I fear that integrity is not always found to be the parent or offspring of riches. To interfere, therefore, as now sought, with this executor, would be little short of removing the will. But it is said this will has been obtained by fraud, practised by this "one John Power." No doubt this court has acted, where strong ground of suspicion of fraud, and danger of the property being made away with, have appeared; but, do these grounds now appear to this court?

Here his honour recapitulated the facts sworn to, and said: I see no semblance of fact to sustain such a charge. Who does this "one John Power, a Popish priest," turn out to be?—I find he is a catholic clergyman—a doctor in divinity, and the titular bishop in the diocess of Waterford. And yet I am now pressed to believe that this gentleman has obtained this will by fraud. Every fact now appearing repels the charge; I cannot but say that the personal character of the person accused, repels it still more strongly. Can I be brought, on grounds like those now before me, to believe that a man, having the education of a scholar, the habits of a religious life, and vested with so high a character in the ministry of the gospel, could be capable of so

detestable a profanation as is flung upon him?-Can I forget that he is a christian bishop, clothed not in the mere authority of a sect, but clothed in the indelible character of the episcopal ordersuffering no diminution from his supposed heterodoxy, nor drawing any increase or confirmation from the merits of his conformity, should he think proper to renounce what we call the errors of his faith? Can I bring my mind on slight, or rather on no grounds, to believe, that he could trample under his feet all the impressions of that education, of those habits, and of that high rank in the sacred ministry of the gospel which he holds, as to sink to the odious impiety imputed to him?-Can I bring myself to believe such a man, at the dying bed of his fellow-creature, would be capable with one hand of presenting the cross before her lifted eye, and with the other, of basely thieving from her those miserable dregs of this world, of which his perfidious tongue was employed in teaching her a christian's estimate?—I don't believe it; on the contrary, I am (as far as it belongs to me in this interlocutory way, to judge of the fact) as perfectly convinced that the conduct of doctor Power was what it ought to be, as I am that the testatrix is dead.

"But," said his honour, "I am called on to interfere, it being a foolish bequest to superstitious, and those popish, uses! I have looked into those bequests.-I find the object of them is to provide shelter and comfortable support for poor helpless females; and clothes, and food, and instruction for poor orphan children. Would to God I could see more frequent instances of such bequests! Beautiful in the sight of God must it be-beautiful in the sight of man ought it to be, to see the dying christian so employed--to see the last moments of human life so spent in acts of gratuitous benevolence, or even of interested expiation.-How can we behold such acts, without regarding them as forming a claim, as springing from a consciousness of immortality? In all ages the hour of death has been considered as an interval of more than ordinary illumination; as if some rays from the light of the approaching world had found their way to the darkness of the parting spirit, and revealed to it an existence that could not terminate in the grave, but was to commence in death.

"But these uses are condemned, as being not only superstitious, but popish uses. As to that, I must say that I feel no disposition to give any assistance even to the orthodox rapine of the living,

in defeating even the heterodox charity of the dead. I am aware that this objection means somewhat more than directly meet the ear, if it means any thing. The objects of these bequests, it seems, are catholics, or, as they have been called, papists, and the insinuation clearly is, that the religion of the objects of this woman's bounty calls upon me to exercise some peculiar rigour of interference to abridge or defeat her intentions. Upon this point I wish to be distinctly understood; I don't conceive this to be the spirit of our existing law; nor, of course, the duty of this court to act upon that principle in the way contended for In times, thank God, now past, the laws would have warranted such doctrines. Those laws owed their existence to unfortunate combinations of circumstances that were thought to render them necessary. But if we look back with sorrow to their enactment, let us look forward with kindness and gratitude to their repeal. Produced by national calamity, they were brought, by national benevolence, as well as by national contrition, to the altar of public Justice and Concord, and there offered as a sacrifice to atone, to heal, to conciliate, to restore social confidence, and to give us that hope of prosperity and safety, which no people ever had, or deserved, or dared to have, except where it is founded on a community of interests, a perfectly even and equal participation of just rights, and a subsequent contribution of all the strength-of all the parts so equally interested in the defence of the whole.

"I know they have been supposed to originate in religious bigotry—that is, religious zeal carried to excess-I never thought so. The real spirit of our holy religion is too incorruptibly pure and beneficent to be depraved into any such excess. Analyze the bigot's object, and we see he takes nothing from religion but a flimsy pretext in the profanation of its name; he professes the correction of error and the propagation of truth. But when he has gained the victory, what are the terms he makes for himself? Power and profit. What terms does he make for religion? Profession and conformity.-What is that profession? the mere utterance of the lips-the utterance of sounds, that, after a pulsation or two upon the air, are just as visible and lasting as they are audible. What is the conformity? Is it the practice of any social virtue or christian duty? Is it the forgiveness of injuries, or the payment of debts, or the practice of charity? No such things. It is the performance of some bodily gesture or attitude.