they would not do it; and therefore I am justified in saying that the bishops of Ireland and the people who co-operate with them, despite all human ingenuity, and all the malignity of British councils, have within their grasp the power to countervail their designs, and to carry out repeal in spite of every possible resistance."-The Nation, Saturday, May 20.

When Dr. Higgins was pleased to

make the announcements and to utter the menaces which we have cited from the great organ of the repeal party, his declarations were received, as might naturally be expected, with various sentiments; but they awakened very general attention, and not a little alarm. Those who had resisted evidence, stronger, perhaps, than wise men have ever neglected in any other case, against the Church of Rome, read the speeches of Dr. Higgins with indignation and surprise: some became convinced by them of error in which they had too long indulged; some sought a subterfuge against conviction in the assumption that the speaker was an obscure man, and without the authority which could give consequence to his assertions. We apprehend this illusion has been dissipated. The statement of Dr. Higgins has been affirmed in the silence of those whom it immediately concerned. It has acquired authority by the progress which makes a papal bull become law. It has been published, and "not reclaimed against." For the obscurity of the right reverend prelate, it is factitious and imaginary. No Roman Catholic bishop in Ireland, we boldly affirm, ought to have been less obscure-none ought to have been more observed. Dr. Higgins an obscure man!! We confidently affirm the contrary. In his own church his reputation is high. He was elected professor of dogmatic theology in the college of Maynooth, after an examination of five days, in the year 1826, while he was yet a young man. that year he gave evidence before the royal commissioners such as fully vindicated his title to be noticed. From his professorship, we believe, he was elevated to the Roman Catholic bishopric of Ardagh, of which he had been originally "a subject." For the services rendered to his church since he was set on one of its thrones, we refer those who list to the pages of the

In

"Catholic Almanac ;" and we have no hesitation to affirm, that the notices of him in this annual are enough to prove that they who accuse the right reverend repealer of obscurity, simply prove that they themselves are troubled as regards Roman Catholic ecclesiastics with the disease of "not marking."

Our feelings, we frankly confess, when we read the speech of Dr. Higgins, were tinged with alarm, principally because we regarded it as the manifesto of one who is among the ablest of the body to which he belongs. We understood that the dinner wasa temperance banquet-that there were not the ordinary excuses for indiscretion. We were convinced that a speaker who was to occupy such a post as that of a Roman Catholic bishop, acknowledging a courtesy to himself and his episcopal brethren, must have carefully studied his subject and weighed his words; and we found it difficult to avert the alarming inference that his announcement was made, because they who knew best the circumstances of Ireland thought the utterance of it consistent with safety. This was our fear. In the intelligence communicated by Dr. Higgins there was no new subject of alarm. had long been cognisant of the predi lections as well as the principles of the Roman Catholic bishops; but we did see matter of alarm in the fact that it was held prudent to make so plain a notification of their political sentiments.

We

No government can contemplate without feelings of very deep anxiety. a state of things like that which Dr. Higgins has thus daringly disclosed. No government can be reputed upright or wise which will not feel that, in consequence of such a disclosure, its duties have become more arduous. That the hierarchy of the Church of Rome in Ireland-a church in which, or rather over which, the bishops exercise an authority not less absolute than that of the old oligarchy of Venice-shall, one and all, entertain a settled desire to accomplish a measure which must have as its result the dismemberment and downfall of the British empire; and that, while one or two of these high functionaries maintain amicable relations with the state, and are channels through whom government favours are distributed to the

Roman Catholic people, all their brethren lend themselves to a system of agitation which is designed to create and exasperate a hostile feeling towards England; and finally to extort a repeal of the legislative union from the weakness or the fears of the cabinet or the parliament; all this indicates a state of difficulty and a danger which the least thoughtful can scarcely contemplate without apprehension. The danger is one which it demands wisdom, and knowledge, and resolution, such as are bestowed on few, to meet in such a manner as to overcome it.

Speculators on the condition of Ireland have long been divided into two schools, or classes, in the judgments they have pronounced respectively on the agitation and disorder by which our country has been disquieted. Some have ascribed the disorder to religious or moral-some to social causes. The question at issue between these parties is now, we apprehend, only as to the degree in which each of the disturbing influences exerts itself in producing a result to which both, in some degree, contribute. A similar distinction is observable in the parties who have made public their opinions on the agitation for a repeal of the union (we confine our remarks to those who think the agitation formidable)-some regarding it as a religious movement, others as a national. These parties too, we apprehend, will learn that the distinction between them is not material. In Irish Romanism the national cannot be separate from the religious; and this is, perhaps, the great peculiarity of the Church of Rome in Ireland. Elsewhere, indeed in every other country, obedience to the church, and love of country, are two distinct principles of action or endurance which correct, and limit, and modify each other. In Ireland alone, they combine; and the power which they create becoming united, is a principle of hostility to England. To the Romanist bigot, England is a rock of offence as the great stay of the Reformation; to the Romanist of strong Hibernian sympathies, England is an object of hatred, as the nation which clove down his country's liberties, and degraded and impoverished the families of her defenders. The English Romanist, if he be conscious of a love of country, may withstand the behests

of Rome, where obedience to them would be detrimental to his country's interests and honour; and Rome, in its subtlety, will avoid, if it be possible, a struggle with a principle so strong as patriotism. In Ireland, a decided Romanist, in the very same proportion as his feelings of what he terms patriotism are strong, will be disposed to find it a recommendation of any precept issued by spiritual authority, that it be such as England would disapprove or deprecate. This is an advantage which Romanism has obtained in no country on earth excepting Ireland. Here, alone, Roman bigotry can be found arrayed in a dazzling eclat of patriotism; seditious patriotism can recommend itself as the minister or handmaid of religion. In truth, the two principles, the religious and the national, are now taken into one system, in which Romanism supplies the purpose, and patriotism or tionality the passion; the one directs, the other constitutes the moving force. It is a formidable combination.

na

"I pledged you long since, not only through this county but throughout this vast diocese, extending through seven counties-I have pledged you all to temperance (hear, hear, hear.) You have kept that pledge under the most glori ous morality. I want you all here today to take another pledge from me. I stand here uncovered in the presence of Almighty God, while I administer it to you, and let no man answer me in it who is not sincere in his determination to adhere to it. Let no man answer it for the mere value of a shout, or that cannot put his hand to his heart and say, in the presence of the Deity, that he is determined to co-operate with the Liberator. (A tremendous cry of, we all pledge ourselves, followed by enthusiastic cheers.) THAT IS THE HOLIEST PLEDGE THAT I OR ANY OTHER MAN EVER AD-.

MINISTERED."-The Nation, Saturday, June 3.

The holiest pledge that ever man administered!! Thus is the purpose to effect national convulsion and dismemberment baptized with religion. Surely it is unnecessary, or rather, it is mischievous to distinguish longer between the religious and the national, or even to imagine them separate in the repeal movement. The only question which ought to occupy the mind of a legislator, or a minister, is, how are these combined influences to be dealt with?

The Roman Catholic bishops in Ireland are favourable to "repeal," and the masses at their command are passionate to accomplish that portentous measure. What is to be done by the government? There are three courses obvious-to yield-to conciliate to resist. The first policy, we suppose, will hardly be adopted-at least, not immediately. The danger and difficulty must become more obvious and graver, before a British minister will venture to announce the craven resolution of hauling down the unionjack. The two other courses are worthy of a brief consideration. Ought a minister of the British crown to resist the efforts of the Roman Catholic ecclesiastics in Ireland—or, should he endeavour to conciliate them? By this latter alternative we mean-should he prostrate the establishment of the Catholic church-or else, raise up an establishment for the Roman? To endow the Church of Rome, or to dis-establish the Church of England, would probably be accepted by the "hierocracy," as a measure of conciliation. Would it be possible to buy off the Church of Rome from repeal at such a cost, or by such a sacrifice? We deliberately answer no. "We waive the quantum of the sin" altogether. We regard the question neither as moralists, as Protestants, nor as Christians-we consider merely under a political aspect, as persons who know something of Ireland; and we record our deliberate opinion, that the minister who should allay the present ferment in Ireland by such a process of conciliation as we have imagined here, might possibly have purchased some quiet hours for himself in parliament, but would have

won them by the betrayal of his country-would have confirmed Roman Catholics in the determination to make their country independent-animating them by the spectacle of England's submission, and by the reasonable hope that the obstacles were removed which

have hitherto kept back many Protestants from swelling the repealers' ranks. The Roman Catholics of Ireland, we hold it a fixed principle, cannot be bribed, either by the endowment of their own church, or the impoverishment of ours, into an abandonment of the purpose to make Ireland independent. May they be resisted with effect and how?

These are grave questions-but the answers are not difficult to find. The power of Roman Catholic ecclesiastics appears to be very great, and to have had, of late years, a very formidable increase. This must be acknowledged. It is truth. But it is remarkable, the power of the Romish priesthood over their people has been increasing in the same proportion as it seems to have been felt in its ascendancy over the state. The history of education will furnish an example in point. In the year 1812, a commission, appointed by the crown, found four thousand six hundred schools in Ireland, in about six hundred of which holy Scripture was read. It was proposed by the commissioners to have two thousand four hundred schools erected, in which the clergy of the Established Church should appoint the masters, and preside over a system of scriptural education, and that there should be a number of supplemental schools established, in which the Bible need not be read, but scriptural extracts should be used during the hours of general instruction. Finally it was determined that the experiment of the supplemental schools should be tried on the plan proposed by the Kildareplace Society. The Roman Catholic priests disapproved of the rule that the Bible was to be read; but they could not influence their people to unite with them in opposition to the dreaded system. The people could not or would not understand the righteousness of an objection to the reciting of Scripture. The result proved that they would not. In the year 1824, a second commission found that the schools in Ireland had increased to the number of eleven thou

sand eight hundred and twenty-three, scriptural schools to the number of eight thousand and three: that is to say, the number of schools had, within the twelve years, increased nearly threefold; of schools in which Scripture was read, more than thirteenfold. A little longer, and masses of the Roman Catholic people would have been confirmed in that degree of mental independence which the constitution of Great Britain pre-supposes in those who are to exercise its privileges; but in the moment of need, the British government stepped in as has been ever its wont, and restored to the Roman Catholic ecclesiastics the captives who had almost effected their escape. Since the establishment of the anti-scriptural system of education, which is called national, in Ireland, the power of the priesthood has been very greatly augmented, and the dispositions of the people abandoned to them have become what they are now, far less favourably disposed to England (this admits of no doubt) than when England was less disposed to concession.

But the power thus acquired by "the hierocracy," exercised as it is, is not of the kind which contains a promise of permanence. It rests upon a secular rather than a religious basis. It has been fostered by unhopedfor success, and is now triumphant in a system of agitation from which far greater success than has yet been achieved may be rationally hoped for. Such a power has not within itself a principle of endurance. If hope be withdrawn from it, the people over whom it is exerted will not long be patient of its pressure. As it has converted politics into religion, it has abased the sentiment of piety and faith -it has disenchanted minds from the captivations of old superstition. Were England now to meet the menace of the Roman Catholic bishops with a dignity worthy of her name-were she to withdraw from them facilities for acquiring and maintaining influence which she has given them, and they have turned against her-were she to say-You have avowed your desire to accomplish a measure which, in the judgment of all wise men, would be ruinous to the empire; I will give you no new powers to assist you in such a scheme-those which I have lent to you I recall. Were England

thus to leave the ecclesiastics of the Church of Rome destitute of the aid and countenance she has hitherto afforded them, their power over the Roman Catholics of Ireland would soon cease to be dangerous.

If the government were disposed to adopt this policy of resistance, which implies no more than that the state will not abet what the laws and the constitution condemn, it must be bold enough to inquire into the system of instruction for which it has made itself responsible by endowing the Royal College of Maynooth. It is, indeed, a wondrous retribution to be plagued with its own device. In order that a national rather than an alien feeling should be cherished in the Roman Catholic priesthood in Ireland, a domestic college is instituted and maintained by the state; and when that college, according to the testimony of Mr. Wyse, has told on the country, it is found that the national spirit it has fostered is estrangement, if not a more hostile principle, from England. priests are the most conspicuous in every menacing demonstration, and the bishops it has raised up are, one and all, ardent repealers. Surely it would be advisable to explore the educational course which England seems thus to have countenanced to her own sore detriment; and to ascertain whether or not the grave charges which have been preferred against it, have a foundation in fact.

Its

The Church of Rome in these countries has a rare advantage in its opposition to the government: namely, that of feeling assured that its assaults are not likely to provoke reprisals. It is a very singular, although an incontestable, fact, that, in her relations with the state, Romanism frequently adopts the air and language of menace and defiance, frequently accompanies and exemplifies its language with acts of hostility, while the state, however irritating these acts and expressions may be, never once intermits or withdraws her bounties and favours from the formidable and refractory rival. Bishops and priests combine against the Established Church, excite popular violence, not against its doctrines, against which, perhaps, a sense of duty might urge those who thought them dangerous, to protest, but against its revenues, in which clearly persons of a

different religion, who really had no share in the burden they imposed, could righteously have no concern. No matter, the state proceeded as usual paying for the education of the clergy who thus daringly opposed it, and showing its sense of their criminal clamours only by mulcting the body against whom their fury was directed, and compelling the landed proprietors to pay directly an imposition which they had previously paid at second hand. The state recently in its favour towards ecclesiastics of the Church of Rome, committed to them the education of the Irish people-at least proclaimed that education must be conducted agreeably to the principles of their church, and rendered the proclamation emphatic by denying aid to the clergy of the Established Church. What is the acknowledgment of Romanism? It is made in the speech of Dr. Higgins, in the announcement that all the Roman Catholic bishops are at heart ardent repealers, and have declared themselves such. Ought the rejoinder of the state to be some new favour? Would not Romanism be more abstinent if she had reason to apprehend that menace, and assault, and injury, were sure to provoke a severe and just retaliation ?

But it may be said that an inquiry into the system of education pursued at Maynooth could have no effect on the repeal agitation by which the country is now disordered. This would not be altogether correct. Such an inquiry, well conducted, would intercept many a copious source of most pernicious agitation. At the same time it may be true that such a measure would not meet all the exigencies of the present crisis. There are two things to be done. The agitation which now affrights the country is to be suppressed or allayed the source of future agitation is to be cut off. To effect the one, government must turn its attention energetically to the tumultuary meetings by which it has been proclaimed, "repeal" is to be carried; to effect the other, it must explore and reform the system of education provided, at its cost and charge, for the Roman Catholic clergy.

It is said that the repeal demonstrations are to be permitted with no greater discouragement than that stimulating check, if the Hibernicism may

be indulged to us, which the Lord Chancellor of Ireland has so ingeni ously applied. It is also very confi dently rumoured that Maynooth is to remain unventilated. Nay, it is more than insinuated that Romanism is to be endowed in Ireland; and shrewd reasons are assigned to justify a measure which may have the effect of protecting the British minister against so grave an inconvenience as might arise to embarrass him if the people of Ireland were to become united. We pass away from these rumours, and, whe ther they be idle or well grounded, we beseech attention, from all who have authority or influence, to a matter which seems to have been too generally neglected. While the nation listens to the portentous menaces of the Ro man church, and looks on inactively upon the gathering hosts which are to be the vast armies of repeal, what provision is made for keeping together the band of Irish Protestants upon whose union and loyalty the best interests of the empire may soon be dependent? It may be said that the principles in which they have been brought up should keep them steadfast, and eloquent scorn may be vented, even on the suspicion that they could be led astray. But surely the subject is too momentous to be so lightly disposed of. If Protestants are led to think that England is untrue to them, what principle can stand firm against such a dispiriting conviction? They have remembrances which will awaken too often, and which may become too powerful to bear up against. The corporations transferred from them, the yeomanry disbanded, the Orange society, that great break-water of Protestantism in Ireland, dissolved; and, while they have been thus left comparatively defenceless, their adversaries permitted to assemble in numbers sufficient to appal stout hearts-permitted to utter sentiments and to avow purposes of a character the most menacing, the most exasperating! Surely, when under such circumstances, the memory of what they have been required to surrender presents itself to their troubled minds, there ought to be some provision made that they shall not lose their trust in England, as they remember how she has recompensed them, and as they see how she indulges their and her enemies.