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This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copy order if, in its judgement, fulfillment of the order would Involve violation of the copynght law. AUTHOR: HER RL '.JAMEo TITLE: A ITER TO TANT ENGl '^HMA^ PLACE: LONDOrJ DA TE : 1836 Its COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES PRESERVATION DEPARTMENT Master Negative # BIBLIOGRAPHIC MICROFORM TARGET Restrictions on Use: Original Material as Filmed - Existing Bibliographic Record ■ W 1. »■ ", n M m -•m- mj m j fm ^ - i i» i _i . ■ j, »» ■■-■ '* mw ip n - iiiMfc»fcOt, 93.'p.42- JVl a'h at-. Rav(_ Jam- 5 jman, "Lovidon 1836. hi2^r- navL-Uamas. Lallar to a protastant Lnmisn- 0. 3 P- \ 'A'*. 14- of n vol ■)f initnfthiels. TECHNICAL MICROFORM DATA REDUCTION RATIO: FILM SIZE: ^3£,^^ IMAGE PLACEMENT: lA QIA) IB IIB DATE FILMED:___2_,^23^y__?^3 INITIALS j^_?_f_ HLMEDBY: RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS. INC WOODBRIDGE, CT 1 I X r. yvj^.au,.^^f!r,Tl ,T- c Association for information and Image IManagement 1100 Wayne Avenue, Suite 1100 Silver Spring, Maryland 20910 301/587-8202 Centimeter 1 2 3 iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiili I FT T Inches TTT 1 5 6 7 8 liiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiiihiiiiiiii I I I 1.0 I.I .25 10 11 12 TTT 13 J 14 15 mm |TTTTTTTTT|iTi lo 2.8 2.5 |5.0 y^ B^^ 2.2 1^ ill 3 6 |7I lil^s 12° us 2.0 l£ •i .. biUu 1.8 1.4 1.6 1 MflNUFflCTURED TO flllM STflNDFIRDS BY fiPPLIED IMflGEp INC. i\- 7^ JYo. 14. LETTER TO A PROTESTANT ENGLISHMAN. BY The Rev. JAMES MAHER, ADMINISTRATOR OF THE PARISH OF CARLOW, IN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF KILDARE AND LEIGHLIN. LONDON: JAMES RIDGWAY AND SONS, 169, PICCADILLY 1836. m I. i I PHIMLD BY RItHAUD TAYLOR, RLO LION fOU^il, FLLET SlRLtT. A LETTER, S)C. ^c. TO A PROTESTANT ENGLISHMAN. " It is against such priests as Malier, who disgrace and prophane the sacred mi- nistry that we have laboured and, tliank God, triumphantly, to turn the hearts of our English readers."—- The people are but automata, of whom these spiritual tyrants arc the unresisted movers."—- Protestants see what is before them. In England no Church ; in Ireland worse than no Church, the barbarous and demorali- zmg despotism of Popery." — Times. Sir, X OU are not unaware of the immense labours of the Tory press to decry the Catholic priesthood of Ireland : nothing less than their extermination appears likely to satisfy the fury with which they are assailed. I do not exaggerate when I say, that the object nearest at heart with some of these journalists seems to be to represent that body in such a light,— as such irreclaimable enemies of liberty and order,— as to make it imperative on society in self-defence to rise up and at once by some speedy expedient tret rid of them altogether. r j r & For what other purpose have we been one thousand times denounced in the columns of the Tory press as ruffians, sui-pliced ruffians,— spiritual ty- rants,— wretched impostors,— vulgar, coarse, hateful tyrants ; and a^ain atrocious hypocrites,— sacerdotal miscreants,— wolfish fiends,— a brutal priesthood ! For what other purj^ose have living agents, ministers of dis- cord, been sent through the country to awaken in every village the cry of No Popery ; to set man against his fellow ; and to infuse into others that spirit of religious intolerance which seems to animate themselves ? Having exhausted its rich vocabulary of vituperation upon the Catholic clergy at large, one of these journalists at length descends to particulars, and points me out by name as a fair specimen of the " spiritual tyrants '' the " sacerdotal miscreants" of Ireland. ' The vindication of the character of so humble an individual as I am from the slander of the Torj^ press is, I am ready to confess, of no consequence to the public. And as for me, I humbly thank Heaven that it is not in the power of calumny to trouble that peace of mind which an unaccusing con- science bestows. But why is an individual thus calumniated ? It is hoped by throwing obloquy on the Catholic clergy to stay the progress of reform m Ireland; and to turn public attention from that enormous national grievance, a sinecure Church Establishment, known to the people of that country only as a heavy and oppressive burden, a cause of discord and disunion. Assailed as I have been, not as a private individual, but as a A 2 ^»»'r itfar^^ member of a large and influential body, as a ftiir specimen of its worst members, my defence has some claim to public attention. Allow me then, in the first place, to observe, that though pointed out by name as a disgrace to the Christian ministry, I am not aware up to this hour of any specific charge, save one, having ever been preferred against me. To this one, to which I had an opportunity of replying, permit me to call your attention. The subject is interesting only in as much as it serves to illustrate the spirit of that party which is labouring to excite your hatred and ancient prejudices against your fellow-subjects the Catholic priests of Ireland. What, then, is the nature of the offence with which I was charged ? In the course of my ministry, in the town of Carlow, I visited, as a clergyman, an old woman, at the request of her sister, who represented her to be a person addicted to drunkeimess and other immoral habits. I sought, by ex- hortation and reproof, to reclaim her from vice. My labours were fruitless : they afforded her, however, an opportunity of calumniating me. Having, as a Crown witness, on a previous occasion, prosecuted to conviction an innocent man, for some alleged violation of law (a circumstance which se- cured to her the favour of certain Tor\' officials), she volunteered to swear I do not say that she was solicited to swear— that I had called her inju- rious names, and threatened to drive her out of the parish. Her testimony it was deemed advisable to consider as most important. It was right to make the most of a case which offered even the slightest chance of bring- ing to order one of the " surpliced ruffians" of the Tory press. Accord- ingly a Mr. Singleton, who has been raised (for what services we have never heard,) from the condition of a common policeman to the office of police chief and magistrate, most judiciously and boldly put his hand to the good work. This discerning and active officer, by the lights with which nature blessed him, magnified the affair at once into an alarming conspiracy against the laws, and after sundry innuendos, having summoned up suflicient courage, he announced, from the seat of justice, that a Catholic priest was implicated in the plot. Yes, he accused me by name, in open Court, of con- spiring against the laws, and also of a base attempt at defaming the cha- racter of a Crown witness, the old lady referred to above, who was, he as- sured the Court, a most respectable woman. The Conservative faction re- joiced with exceeding great joy, and the scurrility of the Tory press on the occasion knew no bounds. Having flung these vile calumnies upon me in the face of a Court of Justice, Mr. Singleton most probably thought the matter would have ended there. A Catholic priest was publicly stigma- tized as a conspirator against the laws ; what more could the Tory faction desire ? and as for the proofs, they cared not about them. Unwilling to remain under the imputation of one of the most serious offences that could be preferred against a loyal subject, I called upon Mr. Singleton either to prove the charges, or tQ retract them ; and although he could not prove them, — nay, so utterly groundless were they, he did not even attempt it, — yet he deliberately persevered in his most unjustifiable and wicked course of declining to retract them. Having sought redress from this magistrate in vain (no, no, he would not withdraw his charge, no matter how false,) I prayed the Government to grant an inquiry into his conduct, which, after some delay, was obtained. The day and hour of trial having arrived, Mr. Singleton thought it more prudent to make the amende honorable than to abide the result of the in- vestigation ; he dragged himself, therefore, into Court, where, three months before, he had uttered his gross and groundless calumnies, to retract them, and make the following full and humiliating apology. " Mr. Singleton is ready to declare, and now does declare, that in using in Court the language complained of by Mr. Maher, on the 7th of November last, he did not intend to apply that language to Mr. Maher, nor did he at all allude to him. "And with respect to the language complained of by Mr. Maher, in his memo- rial, as used by Mr. Singleton on the 14th of November last, in Court, Mr. Sin- gleton is now fully convinced that he was led to use that language by misinfor- mation as to facts ; and Mr. Singleton is also convinced that Mr. Maher's cha- racter as a loyal man is perfectly unimpeached, and his conduct perfectly correct." This misinformed magistrate, so ready to make false charges, so slow to retract them, this Mr. Singleton, from whom I wrung the reluctant apology, is the veiy person whose testimony The Times delights to quote against me and the Catholic clergy. Living in the same neighbourhood with me, he denounced me publicly, and continued for months to consider me as a conspirator against the laws ; but having the fear of a court of inquiry be- fore his eyes, he immediately discovered that my character as a loyal man W£is perfectly unimpeached, and my conduct perfectly correct ; and he dis- covered also that his respectable old woman, the Crown prosecutrix, was a perjured witness. By retailing the gross and groundless calumnies of these misinformed men, and adding new ones of their own ; by the adoption of that wicked maxim, " Fortiter detrahe et aliquid semper adhaerebit," the Conservative party hope to destroy the character of the Irish Catholic priesthood, whose services in the cause of Reform they can never forgive. The Tory jour- nalists very gravely assert that I (my name is given to the public,) disgrace the sacred ministry ; in a word, that I am the very type of everything that is detestable in Popery. To charges so vague as there is no other mode of replying, I will be permitted briefly to state what has been the life of that priest whose offence, as a clergyman, entitles him to the special notice of the leading Tory prints of the empire. On this subject, however, I cannot venture to indulge in more than a very few observations. The rule of the parish in which I officiate requires the attendance of the priest in the church every morning, to begin at 7 o'clock, winter and sum- mer, the duty of prayer. Every morning in the year, not on Sundays only, the duty is performed. The remainder of the day is divided between the other duties of our office. In the church we remain administering the sa- craments, consoling the afflicted, relieving the troubled conscience by re- ceiving the confession of guilt, reproving, exhorting, encouraging, instruct- ing ; sometimes inculcating the sacred duty of restitution. That our la- bours are not without fruit, the public journals from time to time bear ample testimony. The provincial bank, not long since, in the Dublin Evening Post, gratefully acknowledged the receipt, through the agency of three Catholic priests, of several thousand pounds. Sometimes we are oc- cupied in aiding parental authority by the influence derived from our sa- cred character to bring back to the path of duty the obstinate or foolish child; sometimes in assisting the magistrate to preserve order, and to se- cure obedience to the laws. Even I, who am denounced as an agitator, a suq)liced ruffian, strange to tell, have lying before me the letters of two IM I magistrates, one of them of high Tory politics, acknowledging tlie vecei])t of nearly thirty stand of arms, which 1 have succeeded in taking out of tlie hands of those\vhom local oppressions had banded together in illegal com- binations, and commending in ver)- flattering temis my exertions in pre- serving peace and order. Again, as arbitrators, or peace-makers, we are not unfrequently employed in healing those dissensions which trouble the harmony of private faniilies ; or perhaps we are summoned to take our stand at tlie bedside of pestilence, to administer the consolations of religion to a dying brother; or, as sometimes happens, forced by the miseries of the un- provided poor, we go out to ask alms ostiatim for their relief. When the close of day withdraws us from the busy scene of active life, the evening is devoted to study, to prayer, and repose. Such, in a few words, is\he life of an Irish Catholic priest ; such are the labours, the objects, the pursuits, the everyday duties which fill up tlie whole time of the ver}- individual whom the'Xory press poir.ts out by name as a " surpliced ruffian" who " tlisgraces and jirofanes the Christian mini- stry." I have no other business on earth. Houses, lands, merchandise, ser- vants, dependents, possessions of any description, I have none. The ser- vice of the altar, the duties which the divine precept of charity imposes, the care of the poor, the neglected and despised poor of Ireland, are my only concern. The wliole of my life, since I have been called, about fifteen years since, to holy orders, has been devoted, with veiy little interruption, to the dis- charge' of tlu» duties of my office ; with pleasure I can now reflect, and with truth affirm, that not one 'day, nay not one hour (I speak deliberately) of that period has been lost in scraping together and laying up those treasures which the moth and rust consume. No moment of dissension, no angry feeling on the subject of temporalities, ever occurred to interrupt the har- mony which exists and has always existed between me and those committed to my care. His ministry is of no value, his labours are useless, who cannot say with the Apostle, " I seek not the things that are yours, but you." I loathe beyond the power of expression the hypocrisy, the deceit, the sordid soul of that parson or priest who, with the Gospel in his hands, ex- horts us not to put our trust in the uncertainty of riches, and who, not- withstanding, seems as eager in the pursuit of wealth as those who deny Christ and his saving word which we preach. The life of such a man, no matter what his professions are, is a practical denial of tlie Gospel. That disinterestedness and contempt of this world's wealth have not been with me a mere speculative opinion, the following narrative w ill aft'ord some evidence. I had not been long in the mission when I received my appointment to one of the richest livings in the diocese ; which living, or to use a better word, benefice, I have, about twelve months since, resigned, at the suggestion of my bishop, who considered my sei'\'ices more necessary elsewhere, and I have accepted in its place a curacy worth about £70 a year. This sum, together with a small pension which my family allows me, is a most abundant provision for one whose business it is to teach the doctrines of Him who, " being rich, became poor for our sakes." The change has brought me a great increase of labour, a diminution of income — more duty, less pay. But do I consider myself poor ? Far indeed from it. True it is I have no earthly possessions. I have never expended one shilling in the pur- chase of any description of worldly treasure. According to my reading f of the sacred text, no one can serve two masters. I have long since made my election. My resolution is fixed. Death, whenever he comes to me, shall find my cotters empty. Yet I am not poor, for I possess that which not all the wealth of the Established Church could purchase, namely, the affections and hearts of those for whom I labour. For such treasures what would not the devoted Apostle of the Gentiles give ? or the beloved Dis- ciple ? he whose bosom glowed with unconquerable zeal ; he whose soul was love. It will be said, " that not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom God commendeth." The maxim is of Divine origin. But is it not expedient to speak the truth when assailed by the grossest calumnies? The duties of the sacred ministry I have discharged ill or well ; God alone is judge, before whom I humble myself with the deepest sense of my unworthiness : but no man can say that projects of personal aggrandise- ment, or any sinister leaning to the things of this life, have drawn me aside from the discharge of these duties, even for an hour, since I have declared before the altar, in the words of the psalmist, " Dominus pars haereditatis meae, et calicis mei, tu es qui restitues haBreditatem meam mihi." The source of that strong and reciprocal attachment between the Catho- lic priest and his flock, and of his influence with them, against which mo- dern sectaries so bitterly yet so unavailingly rail, may be discovered in the faithful and affectionate discharge of those lowly and unostentatious duties to which I have just pointed attention. Of the depth and strength of this feeling many instances could be given. The following will serve to show how that priest whom the Tory press designates " a surpliced ruffian," a " spiritual tyrant," stands with his flock. A drunken Orangeman, about four years since, presented at me a loaded pistol ; perceiving the danger to which I was exposed, one of my parishioners, to cover me from my assail- ant, threw himself on the direct line between us, resolved that the assassin's bullet, if it should reach the priest's breast, should bear upon it the heart's blood of one of his flock. The Orangeman fired, and wounded a man who stood near me. On this occasion the peasant took the post of danger ; how often, times without number, has the priest returned the favour ? Regardless of his own safety, or rather trusting to the protection of Heaven, he enters the house of pestilence, ever ready, when the expiring Christian requires his ministry, to sacrifice life rather than neglect the duty he owes to his flock. If this picture of our life and avocations be drawn in true colours, — and it cannot be denied, unless by those who would prove that we have no ex- istence at all, — has the Tory press dealt fairly with us, aye, or w^th you in England, in labouring to impress your minds with the conviction that your fellow-subjects in Ireland of the ecclesiastical order are nothing better than a horde of savages, traitors to God and man, whom you ought at once, and at any expense, to set about exterminating ? Though denounced as miscreants, ruffians, &c. &c., our offence is not that our lives are at variance with the divine precepts of the Gospel which we preach. Neglect of duty, — the shameful abomination of rich sinecures, — taking and dissipating abroad the revenues of the church, whilst the flocks are left to the hireling at home, — enormous pluralities, the great scan- dal of Christianity, and non-residence of the pastor, in violation of his or- \ I » >i '■■■ -s*;.;^S!b^&^'SS; dination vows.— exacting priestly dues at the point of the bayonet, wliilst we preach to others contempt of riches ;— these are not the offences laid to the charge of Popery in Ireland. It is not said that we have asserted our legal right to a few shillings against the widow at the expense of her chil- dren's blood ; we may be loaded with every term of reproach, but it is not said, cannot be said, that we have gathered tithes with blood-stained hands, or hewed our way into the peasant's fannyard over heaps of his slaughtered kinsmen ; we are not accused of having disgusted the ear of Government with repeated applications for the police and military, to be employed agamstour sinful flocks, but our flocks notwithstanding, and "heirs to the kingdom." What a triumph to the unbeliever when he sees the mi- nister of the meek and humble Redeemer w ho preached his Gospel to the poor; when he sees the minister of such a Master backed by an infuriated drunken police, quarrelling with the half-naked starving peasant for the tithe of all the wealth he possesses, his wretched potatoe-piti Is it thus (the infidel may well exclaim,) you deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow your divine master? thus you sell all, and give to the poor, that you may have a place in the Kingdom? thus you go into the house and salute It, saying " Peace be to this house" ? thus you learn of Him who was meek and humble of heart? thus you inten)ret the golden rule of Christianity, of doing to others as you would that others would do unto you? thus you prove yourselves to be the salt of the earth, the lights of the world ? How insulted and reviled and abused art thou, O holy Keligion I by men Chris- tians by name, but very pagans in heart and practice ! It is not said of us that we have been summoned into Court, tried, and sentenced to pay the penalty of having inflicted the highest injury on domestic happiness. Nor have we fled from justice and episcopal revenues of yearly thousands, under the imputation of crimes too gross to be more than hinted at. We are not accused of forcing conscience to support a creed or doctrine which is ho- nestly rejected, or of carrying on a war against the people committed to our spiritual care of processes, latitats, civil bills, and subpa,^na.s in every court of the kingdom. These offences are not laid to our charge. It is not on any of these accounts that the Tory press has denounced us as a brutal priesthood ; no, e.iiphatically no. With all our sins and imperfections upon our heads, if we had only the virtue to array ourselves on the side of Tory- inTtitufinTTn ^^'^^' ^PP^^'^f «" ^"^1 "y^^^^tice which have crept into the institutions of our country, and in opposition to the rights and liberties of the British people, we would be lauded by the Tory p?ess as parac^ons of sacerdotal per ection. Our crime is our love of liberty, ou^ ha'red of' in- C' VT^"! ^"/'^ertions to return Reformers to Parliament. This is the head and front of our offending. The zealous and hearty cooperation of the parish priest with his flock in his struggle for equal rights isTlie offence which constitutes him a ruffian. Exertions the most streLous, labou^ in season and out of season, provided always they be directed agalnst^nd not in favour of, the rights of the people,'do not' in the sg st ^gl^^^^^ fee or injure the sanctity of the clerical character. Yes, I proclal it we do love liberty. There do not breathe in the universal voHd men more fondly, more firmly, more enthusiastically attached to civil and reliZis iberty (we know by experience what it is to be deprived of these blTsS than the Catholic priesthood of Ireland. t^icssingi,; But, Sir. is there nothing in the circumstances of unhappy Ireland to [*t^ justify tlie part ,vluch I, as a freeholder in my native county, and otiiers I am ready to admit that the Christian pastor, as a common rule of ac Uon ought to confine himself to the discharge of his spiri"ual 7unctio^ Religion sends not her ministers either to th? magisterial bench Hhere I have seen them discharge the most weighty duties of thetr miiltry in couTs^nH "■'''.•'"■ *''! '"T"'^- "♦■ tithe),%r\o lift their mitred Ss "n courts and parliaments, where the priest, it is said, sympathizes too much .vith the great too little with the people. He who ough"^^ to be de"ot"d to Ws aUeTtio^i w,>h'r'r'"' '>V'"1.--W' -*-l«l "of divide and dttract his attention with the business of politics. The clergyman who habitually Ss'no^h:r"T"";V"*"*'^™pr''=»"'''^™^'-"--^^ Dlic'l fl"/^"'r*"'' i''"'^*''* '" ''"y ^'""-"'•dwed society, there is no proper Fh!?.! ?''''' P'"^''"= ""'^o '" >"i«governed Ireland. Mark well the difterent creumstances of both countries. Your aristocracy, thou^ sometimes found i„ opposition to the nation, yet in feeling and 'afreet"on by education and interest, is English, thoroughly and sincerely £^0^1^ secLX'"' "ff"- '"'f ^'"'^' ^"-""S'y ftel that the only permanen? a d secure basis of tlieir order is the happiness and well-being if the commu- nity at large Honoui^, titles, historic recollections, old associations bind them up and identify them with the people. Hence, in every district, the rpubH^win.''' ' ''"''"'"■ ''^"' *" '"'''=*' '° ^'^' «'^ig>'^«"d '^ftect to nf iff "'' y"" ''*?,^ ""'•'"^ '■''^'' '"te'^g'-nt. wealthy, educated, capable of self-government, lovers of liberty, foes of oppression, proverbiall/iust How admirably and efficiently would the enlightened patriots of thi.^ IC. direct and animate the people, if the higher orders failed to do their duty t , Ji°'! r° *i" *'"' '''r'="™*'tonces of Ireland. Here it may be said there garch}, m feeling, m religion, by prejudice and education, opposed to their country ;_on the other, the body of the people the victims of every species ot oppression, to whom this world or the world's law has never been friendly 1 hat law has been so administered, until lately, in their regard that they have been taught to consider the whole machinery of government and law rather as a hateful scourge than as a means of protection deservin<' their respect or support. " The Irish gentry have no sympathies, no community of feeling with the mass of the people. The laws under which they were educated, impiously proscribing the national faith, taught the favoured few to regard their fel- low-subjects as enemies in the land, a degraded caste, fit objects of pains and penalties, tolerated only as hewers of wood and drawers of water to the state religionists. Brought up under such a system, is it surprising that a majority of tiie gentrj- are united together as one man in opposition to tae people .- The laws themselves have worked our ruin. The arbitrary power vested in landlords and churchmen of taxing, through exorbitant rents and tithes, the industry of the peasant, is as destructive of virtue and every feeling of patriotism and humanity in the higher orders as it is pro- ductive of wretchedness and crime in the lower. By making tyrants of one party and slaves of the other, the law has demoralized both The i 10 11 tyranny of a majority of Irish landlords, flu'lr hatrccj of tlio pro])l(' aj^ainst whom tlu'y have declared a war of cxti'miiiiation, and t\w Mammon- seeking of the parsons are absolutely without parallel in any eivilized country in Europe. Rents are now, as well as iu the days of Swift, srpieezed out of the very l)looir ])roj)erty, and j)roscribed education, that in their ignoranct; they might not know their rights. This savage code, the disgrace of British legislation, has too lately ceased to be th(; law of the land to afford sufKcient time for the growth and formation of that intelligent, opulent, educated mi«ldle class of which I'Jigland is so justly proud. Such is and was the condition of Ireland when the thrilling call for Be- form and the correctioti of every abuse, raised by the people and echoed by The Times, was heard throughout the land. What part, in accordance with their sacred calling, became the clergy, in these circumstances of their country, to act? One of the ablest Ijiglish writers of the present day (s«'(» Tfiit's ]\hiff(izine), fn'<' from all j>rejudice, has disc^ussed the subject with great ability. His o])inions deserve attention. " In Ireland (he says) the priesthood have l)ecn called to supply to a trampled helotry, in the first place, the want of natural leaders among the gentry ; in the second, the want of an educated and independent order it^ farmers, merchants, and manufacturers. The Catholics piiu'd in miseral)l(' thraldom for conscience sake; a wicked and inscdent ascendancy erected its hlooiiy crest in exulting tri- umph over their prostrate rights. At length, wrong had overpast the limits of endurance ; the nation, expanding in physical and intellectual projjortions, chafed against its crackling bonds ; the time was ripe, and the millions panted to strike for liberty. Then came the (piestion, Who sliall rule the wilderness of free minds, and organize the discordant and tumultuary elements, which alone can work a moral revolution? Not the Protestant aristocracy : they were, almost to a man, foaming with the raiiid fury of intolerance. Tlie Liberal Protestants were few in number; and the Catholic nuisses, sunk in penury and disheartened by disap- pointment, were incompetent to furnish, in every locality, enlightciud and fearless assertors of their wishes — wise to plan, hold to execute, and, above all, possessing indisputable claims to the respect and confidence of their compatriots. All eyes turned upon the [)riesthood. Eminent in intelligence, eminent in influence, filled with earnest affection for their native land, and ready to resist the authors of its misery, from whose harsh control they, almost alone among Irishmen, could claim exemption, they were thrust, by the overmastering necessity of circumstance, into the front of the battle, and obliged to form the advanced guard of the national force. The object of the geiu'ral movement in a special manner justified their junction with their tlocks ; duty to their countiy ancl their religion rendered it im|)erative. They incited and directed the energies of Catholic Ireland ; they kindled its pa- triot enthusiasm, and bound its children in a holy brotherhood ; they gave body and prevalence to popular sentiment; evoked the almighty spirit of opinion ; and were the auspicious heralds — may we not say the main producers ? — of an event, the most wondrous in the mode of its accomplishment, the most momentous and far-reaching in its results, which for ages the world had witnessed. Thus it was that the priesthood first brrame agitators ; and thus it is that they are still often driven to the arena of politics. They stand between an alien aristocracy and a country ground down by its avarice and heartlessness. They stand, in default of a native gentry in which that country might confide, in default of a middle class which might govern and sustain its suffering multitudes, — the advisers and guar- dians of the community, in seasons of public peril, when the landlord would overbear his tenants by tyrannous violence, and make them perjurers before their God and traitors to their most sacred social trust." Does the priest, forced occasionally from the sanctuary, {ind oidy for a short time, by circumstances such as are here described, to jirotest before heaven and <'arth, in the assenddy of men, against the oppression of his country and the wrongs inflicted upon the people — does lu; betray, by do- ing so, the causes (d* ndigion, profane his nunistry, and play the part of a spiritual tyrant? Again, Sir, read some of the late newspapers from Ireland; — the last dispatches from (M()n<'gath, Inniscarra, Charleville. How many tithe recu- sants have been kilh'd and wounded ! how many hundreds driven, on the eve of winter, from tlu; lands which their forefathers tilled — their only crime a conscientious adln^rence to the religion of their ])arents! The sun in its course sees nothing like the everyday sc<'n(is of that unha])py land. Mini- sters of Christ (diarging their flocks at th(! head of an armtid scpiadron of police, or loading with their anointed hands — the R('v. Mr. Ber(\sford ad- mitted the fact — the nuiskets by whicdi the lives whom Christ died to save were sacrificed. " The divine ordinances," says an able writer, " with which they seek to move the hearts of the; people, an; the artillery. They ex- pound and I exaggerated the; evils of this accursed system, which has driven peace, nay civilization, from our shores? Take not my account of the matter. Beneficed clergymen, whose testimony cannot be suspected, have denounced thci system in language sufficiently strong. " I have spent a long life in Ireland, and most of it in close connexion with the clergy ; and I can bear my testimony that, since the earliest period of my recol- lection, tithe has heen the fruitful source of litigation, violence, and hatred." " The visit of the proctor, or the invasion of the driver, the summons before the magistrate, or the process to the (luarter sessions, these alone awaken in the recollection of many a Roman Catholic family that such a being as their Pro- testant minister exists. These are, alas! the letters of commendation which he brings, the fruits wliich he exhibits, the pastoral visits which he pays to them." *' Do not the Church and the population seem like two hostile armies just on the point of commencing operations, and rushing to an onset at which the peace- ful Christian shudders ? " Rev. II. IVoodward, Rector of Fothard, Co. Tippcrary, in his printed letters, pcujes 29, 30, 31, addressed to the Rt. Hon. K. G. Stanley. " The very nature of the Irish Church property has interposed obstacles to her utility. It is such as necessarily to bring the clergy and their parishioners into fre(iuent and vexatious collision, often compelling the former to the sordid and repulsive task of litigating for their property, and throwing the latter into a state \ ■ I- 12 of feeling the most unfavourable for any moral impression." — TJwughis on fJie state of the Established Church. By the liev. John J. Hussell, M.A., Archdeacon of Clog her, p. 6. The Rev. M. James has drawn the character of a majority of the Esta- blished Clergy with a full and accurate knowledge of his subject. He has visited Ireland, and seen men and their proceedings with his own eyes. He is not a renegade from his order, not censured by his bishop, nor abandoned by his flock. He is not a hired itinerant calumniator, nor a worship])er of Mammon, nor a disciple of Moloch. A few such men, who have the vir- tue to speak the truth, who prefer one immortal soul to the wealth of the Establishment, would go a great way to redeem the character of the body. His words are : " What does this Church, and what do these Irish churchmen ? They stick to their right, as they call it, — nothing moves them from it. Hate, rage, every fierce passion of corrupt nature inflamed, and its wild mandate executed, — sighs, tears, agonies of distress, shrieks of horror, streams of blood, — society convulsed, civil strife, national uproar, — a great and glorious empire torn asunder, broken, or likely soon to be, into feeble fragments, and its light, which, under God, is the light of the world, half quenched, — nothing of all this seems to have the least effect on these men. They are utterly unconscious of it all. Of the ill, the enormous ill, which they do, they see nothing; and are alive only to the comparatively little and unimportant ill which they suffer. They are entirely taken up with them- selves, they have no pity but for themselves — they lament nothing, and no one, but themselves — themselves, and the cruelty of not paying them the wages which they have never earned — to which, before God ! they have no right ; and in con- senting to receive such wages are guilty even of great wrong." — Letters touching tlie Church in England and Ireland, addressed to the Archbishop of Dublin, S^c, by the Rev. Maurice James, Rector of Pcmbridge, Herefordshire. What a patient, what a forbearing people we are ! Is there on the face of the earth any other people who would endure all we have already suf- fered? And what has England gained by the privations, suflerings, pe- nury, and starvation of the Irish people? The sons and d(»pendents of a corrupt oligarchy, professing Protestantism but trampling the Gospel under foot, obtain the means of living in luxur}^ and indolence. Voila le tout. What, on the other hand, do you lose ? Are you not taxed heavily for our divisions ? Is it no loss to have the British empire paralysed in one of its most important members? — no loss to have your fellow-subjects poor, dis- contented and uncivilized, processed, exchequered, and now and then shot, because they seek to save their wretched means of subsistence from the grasp of the pampered pluralist, the non-resident parson m honi they know not? — no loss to have the Grey administration, the Wellington admini- stration, the Melbourne administration, and, again, the Peel-Wellington ad- ministration, broken up by the Irish Church question ? — no loss to have so much of the time of the Legislature engrossed by it to the prejudice of great national interests? — no loss to have the avenues of industry closed, the springs of national wealth dried up, English capital, which could be vso beneficially invested in Irish speculations, cast to every quarter of the globe ? But I must not proceed. Is it such a mighty oflence (and this after all is the only question be- tween us and our revilers) to seek, by the legitimate means of sending Re- formers to the British House of Commons, to put an end to those evils which attiict our country ? Do wp stand before you, as the Tory editors 13 represent us, " sacerdotal miscreants, selfish, coarse, and hateful tyrants, surpliced rufl^ians" ? Are we not rather, as honest Reformers, seeking de- liverance, through good report and evil report, from injustice and oppres- sions such as no other country of Europe (persecuted Poland alone ex- cepted) has to endure ? Let the honest men of England judge between us and our industrious, eloquent, untiring, and, I suppose I may add, well- paid calumniators. Adopting the language of Inspiration, we may appropriately conclude in the words of the first teachers of Christianity : " We are weak, but you are strong ; you are honourable, we without honour ; we are reviled, and we bless ; we are persecuted, and we suffer it ; we are ill spoken of, and we en- treat ; we are made the refuse of this world, the oflscourinsr of all even tUl now." I have the honour to be, &c. &c. London y March 21 y IbaO. JAMES MAHER, Printed by Richard Taylor, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. PAMPHLETS LATELY PUBLISHED BY MESSRS. RIDGWAY, I Jnd to be obtained, by order, tlirouyh all Booksellers. 1 On fundamentals. In Octavo. One Shilling. One or Two References on the Subject of FUNDAMENTALS ; in Reply to a Letter of the Bishop of Down and Connor, addressed to the Viscount Melbourne, upon the Question of the Agreement on that subject between the Churches of Rome and England. By a Country Incumbent. •* Here a controversy does naturally arise, that wise people are unwilling to meddle with, what articles are Fundamental, and what not." — Bishop Burnet on the Articles, Section XIX. IRISH CHURCH REFORM. CORRECTED REPORT OF THE SPEECH OF THE RIGHT HON. THE VISCOUNT MELBOURNE, on the SECOND READING of the IRISH CHURCH REFORM BILL. Is. CENSUS OF THE POPULATION OF IRELAND, 1835. Abstract of the First Report of the Commissioners appointed to Inquire into the State of Religious and other Instruction in Ireland ; distinguishing the Number of each Religious Sect in every Benefice and Parish ; together with some Remarks in Explanation of the Nature of Parochial Benefices, and of the Principles on which the taking of the Census was conducted. By William Tighe Hamilton, Esq., Barrister at Law, one of the Com- missioners. In 8vo. price 45. 6c?. A REMONSTRANCE AGAINST THE CRY OF "NO POPERY." By W. ToRRENirM'CuLLAGH, Esq., Barristcrut Law. Second Edition. 1*. \ t TForks published by Messrs. Ridgway. THE IRISH CHURCH. The Reform Association to the Reformers of England, Scotland, and Wales. 4s. 6d. per Dozen. A FEW OBSERVATIONS ON RELIGION AND EDUCATION IN IRELAND. By the Rev. Edward Stanley, A.M., Rector of Alderley Third Edition, with Additions. Is. PARLIAMENTARY TALK ; or, the Objections to the late Irish Church Bill considered. By a Disciple of Selden. Third Edition, with Additions, '^s. " This p?--ut pamphlet bears internal evidence of the information and talent of a writer who must have access to the best sources of information in the one case, and ability to treat h.s subject in the best manner in the other."— Zi/m/ry Gazette. '' As may be supposed, the publication from which those masterly passages are taken has commanded the attention of the best-informed political circles. It is an important service to the good cause.'' -~~Ej:amtner, Jaunary 3. CORRECTED REPORT OF THE SPEECH OF THE RIGHT HON. VISCOUNT MORPETH, in the House of Commons, June 26 on mtroducmg the Measure of Irish Church Reform. \s. THE SPEECH OF THE LORD VISCOUNT HOWICK in the House of Commons, July -i'i, 1835. 6rf. A FEW PLAIN WORDS TO SIR ROBERT PEEL. 6rf. On LORD BROUGHAM'S PALEY. In Octavo, 2s. Remarks occasioned by Lord Brougham's Paley's Natural Tlieolocnr Illustrated. Inscribed to the Liberal in all Sects and Parties. By Thomas Martin. "^ H ai*-- I I 1^- \ ] I. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 0032212305 f 1 SS&f'or I U % \ i '^!i!te>*«si*.' ^ •"■!*»«■ »i-