- she advanced courageously towards it, and after an apparently careful examination walking all round, ventured upon the further experiment of endeavouring to ascertain with her paw, touching it in various places, whether there was really any thing to be apprehended from it; still not finding any motion, our philosopher of the Newtonian school, satisfied with this complete investigation that she had nothing to fear, seated herself quietly by the fire; and the next time she saw it in motion, sprung gaily forward and enjoyed her triumph by playing with the object of her former terror. IRISH CATHOLIC SCHOOLS, AT ST. GILES'S, IN THE FIELDS, LONDON. Our opinion on the general deficiences of the lower class of Irish in respect to that instruction which is now become a necessary of life, is well known. The following Excerpta from the first Annual Report of these Schools, is not calculated to change our sentiments. This Society, formed for improving the condition of the poor Children of Irish Parents in St. Giles's and its neighbourhood, by teaching them Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic, has existed upwards of two years, and it has been enabled to accomplish the ends proposed by its establishment, if not to an extent equal to the wishes of its Subscribers in general, yet doubtless beyond the expectations of its Founders. A decided and active hostility agaiust these Schools has been manifested by some of the Roman Catholic Priests; for which the Committee can assign no cause, except it be the introduction of the Holy Scriptures as the School-book for reading. These Priests have exerted all their influence over the parents, and have availed themselves of the religious prejudices existing among them agaiust an Institution supported by Protestants, to induce many of them at different times to withdraw their Children from the Schools, or prevent their coming. There have been admitted into the Schools since their first establishment, 361 Boys, and 236 Girls; in all 597. Out of this number 346 have been so far instructed as to read the Scriptures; as also to write, and understand the common principles of arithmetic. Above 40 who have left the Schools are in service. The present number of the Children in these Schools is 80 Boys and 65 Girls, amounting in the whole to 145 Children. During last winter, a statement was made to the Committee by the Master, that the Children were prevented from attending the Schools by the want of clothAn appeal was in consequence ing. made upon the subject to the benevolence of the Public, by an advertisement inserted in the Times and other neswpapers (Jan. 11th, 1815), which produced the sum of 841. 2s. 6d. This was expended in clothing, consisting of new and secondhand garments for 175 Children; viz. caps, shoes, and stockings, with second hand dresses for 98 Boys; and new frocks, tippets, shoes, and stockings, for 77 Girls; together with 24 new bonnets for the female Monitors [The Society enlarges on the opposition experienced from the Catholic Priests: for which, no other reason is known, than the use of the Scriptures in teaching the Children. Some instances are adduced.] On the 22d of June a person, mother of two Children, informed the Mistress of the School, that when she went to confession to one of the Priests belonging to St. Patrick's Chapel, he turned her away four different times from his knee, and refused to give her absolution, unless she took her two Children from what he called bad and improper Schools.' The woman, notwithstanding, refused to comply with his request, and has gone without his absolution, rather than deprive her Children of the benefit of the Institution. The following interesting account is extracted from the School minute-book, May 15, 1815. Honoria Goggin, a child ten years old, died this morning; she belonged to the School from its commencement. Her father reports, that, when the Priest, who attended her, could not prevail on him or his wife to remove his Children from these Schools, though he used both promises and threats, he urged the dying child to make it her last request to her parents, that they would take her brothers and sister from the St. Giles's Catholic Schools; I judged that every Catholic would prefer Scripture lessons to the books formerly made use of in schools, such as the Fairy Tales, Arabian Nights, Tom Thumb, Jack the Giant-killer, Irish Rogues, Seven Champions, Whittington's Cat, &c. which only tended to fill the minds of the children with the most ridiculous and nonsensical but the child (notwithstanding his entrea- Through the existence of this Society a considerable number of Bibles and Testaments have been circulated among the Roman Catholics in the neighbourhood of St. Giles's. Many of the Children, also, are in the habit of taking home their books and reading the Scriptures to their parents, who cannot read. Multitudes of Children of Irish labourers are to be found in various parts of this metropolis, and particularly in the neighbourhood of these Schools: almost all are plunged in the most abject ignorance as well as poverty; and exposed [That the opposition to the Bible is not the work of those Priests, only, who cannot read it, and who probably never examined a complete copy of it in their lives, (as was the case with the French emigrant Clergy which sought refuge in England)—but is authorized and commanded by Superior Ecclesiastical power, the following documents, signed with the writer's name, place beyond a doubt. The first is an Extract from Bishop MILNER's Pastoral Charge to his Clergy, March 30, 1813. Part II.— The others are from letters which appeared in the Catholic Orthodox Journal. We leave them to the refiections of our Readers: they need no Comment from us.] Societies have been formed, and incredi"Of late years you know that numerous ble sums of money raised, throughout the other communions, for the purpose of disUnited Kingdom among Christians of to all those seductions to vice and crime which these evils, when combined, too surely give rise to. Painfully numerous are the instances in which they have led these unfortunate beings to seek a daily subsistence, not merely from beggary, but from criminal depredation. The Com-tributing Bibles gratis to all poor people mittee are happy to add, that no instance of criminal misconduct has been discovered among the Children, while attending these Schools. [The Master, who is an Irish Catholic, assigns good reasons for the preference given by the Society, and by himself, to the Book chosen as a vehicle of instruction, over others, to which recourse has been had by his Countrymen. He says,] who are willing to accept of them. In acting thus they act conformably to the fundamental principles of their religion, which teach that the Bible contains all things necessary for salvation, and that it is easy to be understood by every person of common sense.' But who could have imagined that Catholics, grounded upon quite opposite principles, should nevertheless show a disposition to follow the example of Protestants in this particular; by forming themselves also into Bible Societies, and contributing their money for putting the mysterious letter of God's Word into the hands of the illiterate poor, instead of educating clergymen, even in the present distressing scarcity of clergy, to expound the sense of that word to them? Yet such has been the influence either of public opinion, or of politics, upon several The extreme poverty of some hundreds of our countrymen, struggling against a tide of prejudice in this metropolis, the neglected state in which many of your Children were heretofore left, in consequence of the difficulty of obtaining admission for them into Roman Catholic Schools, and of your unwillingness to send them to such as were avowedly Protestant; a sincere wish for your own parti-Catholics of both islands at the begining of cular good, and the future prosperity of your children; a desire of removing the prejudices generally entertained against the natives of Ireland, and a prospect of a mutual union, by social intercourse, with our fellow-Christians of every denomination; were the motives that induced me, after the most mature deliberation, to undertake the superintendence of The St. GILES'S CATHOLIC SCHOOLS. this 19th century! As it is highly probable that the prevailing Bibliomania may soon reach this district, I think it my duty to lay down a few maxims on this subject, which, in the supposed case, you will not fail, my dear brethren, to impress upon the minds of your people. 1. When our Saviour Christ sent his Apostles to convert the world, he did not say to them: "Go and distribute volumes of the Scriptures among the nations of the world; but, Go into the whole world, and PREACH the Gospel to every creature." Mark, xvi. 15. 2. It is notorious that not one of the nations converted by the Apostles or their successors, nor any part of a nation, was converted by reading the Scriptures. No; they were converted in the way appointed by Christ, that of preaching the Gospel, as is seen in the Acts of the Apostles, Bede's History, &c. 3. The promiscuous reading of the Bible is not calculated, nor intended, by God, as the means of conveying religious instruction to the bulk of mankind. For the bulk of mankind cannot read at all; and we do not find any divine commandment as to their being obliged to study letters. It is evidently a much more rational plan to put the Statutes at large into the hands of the illiterate vulgar, telling them to become their own lawyers, than it is to put the text itself of the mysterious Bible into their hands, for enabling them to hammer their religion and morality out of it. As to the text itself of the Bible, the Catholic Church, so far from locking that up, requires her Pastors to study the whole of it assiduously, as being, by excellence the Liber Sacerdotalis; and she imposes an obligation upon them, under, the guilt of a grievous sin, as you well know, to recite no small portion of it, every day of their lives. She moreover recommends the reading of it to all persons who have some tincture of learning, and an adequate knowledge of their religion, together with the necessary humility and docility to dispose them (in common with her first Pastors, and the Pope himself) to submit their own private opinion, upon all articles of faith, to the belief of the Great Church of all nations and all ages. adopt for undermining the Catholic religion, whether throughout the wide-extended missions of the holy and victorious Xavier, in the eastern world, or in the sister islands. Because they are aware, that if these simple souls can once be brought to lay aside their rule of faith, the Word of God, as authoratively expounded by the Pastors of the Catholic Church, and to set themselves up to be their own teachers, the grand desideratum is at once accomplished: they cease to be Catholics-they could since, whatever else they may become, not, as I intimated before, hit upon a more of the London Catholics, nine tenths of effectual method to undermine the religion whom are indigent Irish. The Catholic Pastors can instruct, and do instruct their people, at the present day, in the manner they have instructed them in all days since those of Christ, much better than these lay Evangelists can teach them, with the help of Bibles; though they stereotyped all the linen in Ireland into Bibles; and the labouring poor of Ireland, without a single Bible in a village, know more of the revealed truths of the Gospel, and can give a more rational, as well as a more detailed account of them, than the same class of people can in this country, which the Bibliomanists boastingly call THE LAND OF BIBLES. I am, &c. J. MILNER, D. D. [We further learn that the Rev. Pe ter Gandolphy-whom we promoted some time ago to a Cardinal's hat, for his zeal and services, in behalf of the papacy-has taken upon him to PREACH against these Schools:--the tenor of his discourse and of Bishop MILNER's arguments, are effectual justifications of the opinion that the Catholic Religion and the Bible are completely opposite, inconsistent, and insupportable, to, and by, each other.] Thus much unquestionably must be conceded to the religionists in question, that, in furnishing every human creature, Master and Mistress were grossly abused The effect of this sermon was, that the as far as they are able, with a copy of the Bible, in one or other of the sixty lanand pelted with mud, &c. while returnguages into which they have translated it;ing from St. Patrick's Chapel; their Chiland teaching them to gather their religi-dren were beaten by others from St. Paous information from the bare text of it, trick's Society; a mob collected about the without comment, catechism, or articles; School-house, and broke the windows they act in strict conformity with the oriwith stones and brick-bats; which inginal and essential principle of Protestant-jured many of the Girls, and among them, ism, and of every other şect which has aban doned the universal primordial Church. The Bible-distributors act with equal consistency, in the means which they the daughter of the Master and Mistress, who received a hurt, by which she has become a cripple: and, within a few days, one hundred and eleven Children were withdrawn from these Schools. National Register: FOREIGN. AMERICA BRITISH. rica, under the Direct Tax Law, is 57,746,771 dollars; of which considerably more than one-half is stated to be for slaves. The rate of taxation in this State is ascer tained to be 23 cents. on every hundred dollars value, or one-third of one per cent. on the actual value of the property taxed. The direct Tax amounts in North CaQUEBEC, Nov. 28.-The public will ob-rolina to 47 cents, on every 100 dollars of serve, that by a Proclamation in this day's Gazette, the Army Bills are called in to be redeemed in cash. All interest on these Bills will consequently cease, agreeably to law, after the 8th of next month. Army Bills redeemed. real estate. We take the earliest opportunity of laying the following article before our readers it contains the whole of our information on a subject, certainly of great interest to nautical men. These Bills were first issued under the authority of an Act of the Provincial Legislature, passed on the 1st August, 1812, shortly after the declaration of the late war Perkins's New Invented Ship Pumps. by the United States; it is believed that at From the Philadelphia Register. the time they were issued the public serA trial was made Dec. 14th, at Wilvice could not have been carried on without them. The faith of the British Go-ling's Wharf, of Jacob Perkins's newly vernment was pledged by the Commander invented ship pumps: the effect exceeded expectations. of the Forces for their redemption; they have almost invariably maintained equal current value with cash; and the public faith is now honourably redeemed. AMERICA: UNITED STATES. an British Seamen discharged. New York, Dec. 9.--Already has a diligent enquiry taken place on board of our ships of war for British seamen, and such as are found will be discharged, but not given up to your government. This measure will be carried into effect with a hearty good will, inasmuch as we cannot find employment sufficient for our own mariners in times of peace, and because of the sound policy of trusting the defence of our ships to our countrymen, rather than to the caprice or bravery of foreigners. Deficiency of Clergy, Presbyterian. These pumps are worked in all cases by a greater or less power, and without the severe stress of muscular labour which is required by the pumps in common use: they raise a much greater column of water than any others, even under the effect of powerful machinery, Their construction has been reduced to great simplicity. The shaft consists of a wooden trunk made of boards or plank, and the valves are formed of a stem of iron or brass, or even of wood, sliding diagonally in the pump through its whole length, from bottom to top; to which stem two triangular valves are affixed by leather hinges, which move up and down, fitting the corners of the shaft or pump, and occupying the whole diameter of the draft. It is said that there are now in the United States, about two hundred Churches, or congregations of the Presbyterian Connerion only, which are destitute of Pas-is performed on the deck of the vesse! by tors, though able and willing to support them. State Banks: enquiry. The Senate of Georgia appointed a Committee to confer with a Committee of the House of Representatives, on the conduct of the Directors of the Bank of Augusta, in refusing to pay specie for the bills issued by them, when presented for payment: whether, by such conduct, the charter under which the Bank was established, was not forfeited? Taxes: Valuation on: Slaves. The assessment or valuation of the lands and slaves in Georgia, North Ame The pumps are worked by a rope fastened to a ring in the stem of the valve, and drawn over a sleeve or block at the top, or ears of the pump, and the operation the seamen drawing a rope as they walk. In order to produce the greatest effect from their labour, both pumps are worked at once, and by the bight of the rope being carried through a pully at a distance from the pumps, one of the vaives descends as the other rises, thus working alternately, so as to keep a column of water wholly in motion in one or the other pump, for an uninterrupted distance of 20 or 30 feet, or according to the length of the pump. The advantages of this improvement in raising water beyond the common mode, are evident in every part. They may be made at sea, at any time, by a carpenter 20.) Commerce. Trieste, Oct. 15. Within these three days there have arrived here 12 American ships, richly laden, from Baltimore, having performed their long voyage in 42 days. BELGIUM. with his common tools, of such boards or which the Nobility of the Archduchy of planks as are taken out for the ship's use: Austria are said to have destined one miland under any casuality they may be lifted lion, and the rest will be paid by his Mato the hatch or any other part of the yes-jesty himself. (Allgemeine Zietung, Dec. sel where required. By the great length of the stroke of these pumps, the whole column is kept in motion for a considerable time together, and on that account less labour is required than where repeated action is made on a body of water in a state of rest-another great advantage is derived from a less loss of water at opening and shutting of the valves, which takes place much less frequently; also, from there being less play in their movement-while the peculiar construction of the triangular | the Mayors, on the subject of the donavalves, accommodates them to any wear of the pump, and allows a passage through them of large substances, whilch so frequently choak the valves of the present ship pumps. The manner in which human labour is employed in this operation, con stitutes a most valuable part of the invention. In the labour of the common pump, it is well known, that the strength is most painfully exerted by the repeated and vio lent action of the muscles of the body; indeed, by what we may call an action of the body on itself; and the severity of this exercise in times of difficulty, can only be appreciated by those who have witnessed it. But in the mode adopted for this useful invention all unnatural and excessive exertion is avoided, and the effect is produced in a more ample manner by the seamen walking about the deck of the ves: sel, in alternate changes backwards and forwards, the labour being chiefly given by leaning the body on the drag of a rope. The comparative advantage therefore is such, that by this means the seamen pump without fatigue for half a day at a time, and produce by their labour a constant ascent of a column of water of 25 square inches, delivering at the rate of 320 gallons per minute, or 90 tons per hour. AUSTRIA. New Palace: new Theatre. Vienna, Dec. 14.-The plan for the reparation of the fortresses blown up in 1809 by the French, as well as for the building of a new palace, is completed, and is sent to his Majesty for his approbation. The beginning of this great undertaking, in which several thousand discharged soldiers will be employed, will be made about the first week of March_next. The expense of building a new Palace, with the rebuilding of the Theatre, which is to be pulled down, is estimated at three millions and a half of florins in silver, towards Dock-yard; presented. The Governor of the province of Antwerp, has addressed a circular letter to tion made by the King to the city of Antwerp, of the magnificent basing constructed there by the French government-a present which will be of the highest advan tage to the whole province. These basins were begun in 1805, and the plan being successively extended, contained, in 1813, 1 ships of the line, 7 frigates, three brigs, and five corvettes, carrying 1,994 can non. Country occupied. tons were taken possession of in the name of Phillippeville, Dec. 20.-To-day our Canhis Majesty the King of the Netherlands, to the general satisfaction of all the inhabitants. dated the 9th, his Majesty has revoked, as Leyden, Jan. 11.-By a Royal Decree, injurious to the extension of trade and ma nufactures, as well as to the price of the Funds of the Netherlands, all consents granted before his accession to the throne, relative to the placing of capital in fo reign funds, under whatever denomination it may be. EGYPT. Wahabees Defeated. state, that his Highness MAHOMMED ALI, Letters from Egypt, of the 25th July, the reigning Viceroy, who had undertaken personally the late expedition against the Wahabee Arabs, as well for the purpose of recovering the Holy Cities, as for removing the obstacles with those marauders continually opposed to every channel of trade and commerce both by land and sea, has at length terminated it with complete success. After driving them from Mecca, Medina, and the ports along the coasts of the Red Sea, taking possession of their inland capital, Turable, &c. the strong hold on which they chiefly depended, he has effected their total defeat by pursuing them to the remotest confines of their widely-extended territory. He has been absent nearly two years. |