the present day, passes for a great deal more than it is worth, simply because it is the wish and the interest of one party to believe it, and the other does no doubt our wisdom will be, to have it well fixed in our minds, that, whatever the sagacity of statesmen may contrive, and however they may adjust or endeavour to adjust those great questions on which the political world are divided-we should expect and prepare for a continuance, and an exasperation of hostility against the church in which we minister. "And how shall we prepare-shall we send to the enemy while he is yet at some distance, lest we, with our ten thousand men, may not be able to resist him with his twenty thousand? Shall we go back disheartened from the honourable post which we have not feared to occupy, and which many have maintained to the glory of God in the salvation of souls? Shall we adopt new principles, and assume an altered port, and shrink from the work to which the word of God has called us, to which, by our ministerial engagements we are pledged, and say with the slothful man, there is a lion in the path, we may not cast ourselves away unprofitably. No, brethren, we have set our hands to the plough-the time for looking back is past. We have engaged ourselves in the service of a church founded in the blood of Christ and his Apostles-restored through the instrumentality of men who sealed their truth in death; we have ministered in its holy ordinances, and been blessed by its precious counsels, and enjoyed that edifying tranquillity of life to which its servants are invited. If the time has come when unequivocal proofs of our fidelity and gratitude are demanded, we may not refuse to afford them. We know that the cause in which we are engaged is holy;-we may not dishonour it by the unworthiness of its supporters. All who have entered on the work to which we are summoned, should have fully counted the cost of their undertaking, and embraced the duty because it was dearer to them than life. Our qualifications should be befitting their work, who are to be champions for divine truth against all its enemies. Our exertions should not be the transient ebullitions of unthinking men. We must not be contented with sending out rash and unsustained activities which may appear with promise of summer days, and droop their wings and die when the dark hour is at hand. We must be prepared to sustain ourselves through the storm, and against it. We must cultivate a patience which provocation cannot overcome, and must confirm ourselves in a resolution which, in the midst of strife and peril, shall remain undaunted. Where our voice may not be heard, our faith, and hope, and endurance should be seen; and where we are heard, and our words regarded, we should imitate the divine example of Him who arrayed the strongest truths in the gentlest language; so that even the stern of heart, touched by our grave remonstrance, shall abandon their purpose of scornful reply; and though they may not be convinced, shall respect. "We have indeed already cho-en our parts.-We have kept well fixed in our minds the distinction between the spirit of the Church which is opposed to us, and the individuals who are its members. The genius of the system is one thing; the souls of those who embrace it of quite a different nature. With the former we can have no fellowship, but-for the souls of men-Christ's blood has been shed-his mansions in heaven have been purchased--his Church on earth has been founded and preserved; and we in latter days have not been slow to warn his redeemed and erring children against the dangers of an unscriptural system, and to call them within the sphere and sound of the saving Gospel. It has pleased the Lord to send down a blessing on our endeavours,-to satisfy us by happy proofs that there are no moral fetters from which the truth cannot set free, and to hold out to us the encouragement, that, of the numbers who now throng the courts of an impure worship, many may come forth who shall support the cause of true religion, and adorn it. And, shall we, with encouragements of this nature, be dissuaded from our duty-shall we be overcome by hearing that prejudice is too stubborn, and hatred too fierce, and the times too disorderly to allow of a rational hope that our exertions may be useful? No. If we are thus addressed, we may demand-whether the prejudices which stand in our way are more massive or more fixed than the deep-rooted mountains? Is the hatred which menaces our Church of more fell malignancy than the evil spirits who cried out unto the Lord, What have we to do with thee Jesus, thou Son of God? The devils, in Christ's name, were subject to his Apostles; we have his assurance, that, if they spoke in faith, mountains would remove, and that even not take sufficient pains to show that it is altogether unfounded. The Roman Catholics, as such, support no Protestant establishment. The monies which are paid to those who may be called ecclesiastical landlords, would not remain in the pockets of the payers, if tithes were altogether done away, but must go, in the shape of so much increased rent, into the pocket of the lay landlord. All the tenants are concerned with, is the agreement upon which they have conditioned to hold their land; and if there be any thing in that agreement against which their conscience revolts, the time to object would be before they consented to enter into it. But having taken their land upon condition of paying tithe, and having received an abatement of rent in one shape, in lieu of what they pay in another, nothing can be more barefaced or dishonest, than to continue to keep possession of their ground, and enjoy the advantages of the leases under which they hold, and yet plead conscience in bar of their solemn engagements! But, to do our peasantry justice, they now see into this, and laugh at the man who proposes to befriend them, by robbing the clergyman for the purpose of enriching the landlord. They perceive, clearly, that that is a transaction in which they have no interest at all; and if ulterior objects were not in prospect, which lead them to consider the plundering system valuable as a precedent, and to regard the landlords themselves but as the trustees of the spoil and pillage by which they were enriched, at the expense of the proscribed and persecuted clergy, no love of adventure of which they may be supposed possessed, could induce them to throw the trees-emblems as they were of his blessed kingdom-would (not cast away but) plant themselves amid the waves of the unfruitful sea, if the voice of faith commanded. And with these words written for our learning, ringing in our ears, shall we dread that the holy cause to which we devote ourselves can be deserted? Never-We may be unfaithful-we may forego the most honorable duty to which we have as yet been called, and renounce our part in the work of maintaining Christ's Church-but that Church will not be forsaken-other defenders will be found, other instruments will be raised up, and when the hearts of men have been tried, and the unsound have been made known, the adversity which tried them shall give place to a serene and joyous season, and the thanksgivings of those who were faithful to the end shall arise from a Church which no evil has befallen. This is the unconquerable assurance upon which our constancy may sustain itself. Identified, as we ought to be, with the Church, we expose ourselves to no real hazard— -we are not as those who encounter difficulty with a resolution to try fortune, with a hope that their wisdom may prevail, and endeavour to endure with fortitude the evils to which discomfiture may expose them. We cannot be discomfited, for we know, whatever be our own estate, the cause to which we are attached is safe from the calamities whereby we suffer. Our duties are on the earth, but our support, and our direction, and our encouragement, and our cause, are not placed amid this earth's contingencies. Are we stripped of worldly goods? Perhaps the spirit with which we contend is of the kind that "goeth not out but by prayer and fasting." Are we lost to the world's eye in the deep obscurity to which neglect and poverty may consign us? Perhaps the word of faith by which huge prejudice is to be removed, must be spoken in the central caverns of the mountain. And should a more awful proof of fidelity be required-this is a thought which belongs to our meditations and our prayers-it may not be made a subject, even here, upon which it is fitting to discourse; but this may be said,--the blood of a righteous man, in a righteous cause, never yet was shed unprofitably ;-and-a better father, a better protector than we can be, will guard the cherished objects of our tenderest care, if, in our adherence to the cause of divine truth, we be called upon to give them up. Of this we may be fully assured, in whatsoever circumstances or station we are placed, we have been conducted thither by a wise and merciful Providence, and are appointed to perform a work, in which the interests of mankind are deeply concerned, and (if such considerations can influence us) in the performance of which, if we be supported, by a true, lively faith, we shall experience all the happiness of which our condition on earth is susceptible." away so much of their time upon those perilous marauding expeditions, where there is so little profit, and no little danger. This is a subject upon which we shall not at present enter; suffice it to say, that matters are occurring every day which must make all who are reflecting,amongst our proprietors,feel that the system which they have encouraged against others, may yet recoil with a fatal reaction upon themselves. They may yet be made to disgorge more than their own share of church plunder. We are, however, glad that the oppression of the Roman Catholics, in being obliged to pay tithe to a Protestant establishment, has been alluded to; inasmuch as it has given rise to one of the most interesting and valuable documents that has ever appeared in Ireland. We alluded to the returns produced by Mr. Martin's motion in the Conservative Society, of the property held, respectively, by Protestants and Roman Catholics, together with the amount of tithes to which they are liable. By these, as far as they have as yet gone, it appears that, beyond all proportion, the bulk of the property is in the hands of the Protestants, and that they are the individuals who are chiefly responsible for the payments which are made to the clergy. From a return of twenty-three in the possession of Roman Catholics, no more than 9,439; and that the composition, payable by the former, amounts to 14,5371. 8s. 34d.; while that paid by the latter amounts only to 7281. Is. 54d. two parishes, from different diocesses, It appears, from a return of thirtymade at various periods, that the acres in the hands of Protestants amounts to 368,781 ; those in the hands of Roman Catholics, to 16,194; while the composition paid by the former amounts to 11,3497. 8s. 9d.; and that by the latter, to no more than 274/. 15s. 9d. It appears, by a return of seventyone parishes, made from different diocesses, upon the 11th of November, that the acres in the hands of Protestants amount to 532,396 2r. 7p.; those in the hands of Roman Catholics, to 24,716 Ir. 37p.; while the composition paid by the former amounts to 28,117ł. 12s. 1d.; and that by the latter, to no more than 3957. 10s. 83d. "Such," observes Mr. Martin, “are the five great and corresponding results to which we are clearly led; and now, by combining all these results together, and forty-one parishes in Ireland; prewe have a grand return for two hundred senting the result exhibited in this simple statement, viz. Protestant Roman Catholic parishes. a. parishes from the diocess of Kilmore, Landed property in two hundred and forty-one it appears that the acres in the possession of Protestants amount to 357,254; those in the possession of Roman Catholics, only to 6,573. And that the tithe composition paid by the former amounts to 7,921. 19s. 44d.; Protestant Tithe Composition 82,531 9 104 while that paid by the latter amounts to no more than 1077. 11s. Id. It appears, from a return of seventythree parishes in the diocess of Leighlin and Ferns, that the acres in the possession of Protestants amount to 439,618; those in the possession of Roman Catholics, to no more than 14,477; while the composition paid by the former amounts to 20,655l. Os. 11d.; and that by the latter, to no more than 331l. 3s. 54d. It appears, from a return of fortytwo parishes, of different diocesses, produced on the fourth of November, that the number of acres in the possession of Protestants is 274,703; those Roman Catholic do. r. p. 2,023,257 2 7 £. 8. d. 2,337 2 5 Let the reader now say how far the assertion is borne out by the fact, that the Roman Catholic population are burdened by the support of a Protestant establishment. We may add that, in any case where the Roman Catholic considers tithe a grievance, he may get rid of it even so easily as by surrendering his lease. But, as the result of every inquiry, parliamentary or otherwise, into the nature of church property, in this country, has only tended to establish the moderation of the clergy, so the doctrine and the discipline of the establishment, the more they were examined and considered, the more they approved themselves to men's minds. Mr. Croly's pamphlet abundantly shows the manner in which educated and reflecting Roman Catholics were beginning to regard the articles and liturgy of the church of England. Indeed, our church only required fair play, and our services, that common justice should be done them at the hands of our ministers, in order to their speedily becoming universally acceptable and engaging to the people. But just as they were about to take root, and to flourish, they are to be cut down and destroyed. And, just as superstition was about to stop payment, when a docket of bankruptcy was about to be struck against her, her exhausted finances are to be recruited from Protestant property, and her influence restored! Such is the wisdom, and such the virtue, of those to whom the destinies of this great empire are, at present, entrusted! But we will not despair. There is in Mr. Croly's pamphlet much that must awaken the serious attention of our rulers. Superficial men may collect from it that there will be no peace in Ireland, until the Romish priesthood are paid by the state. Our inferences have been very different. The grounds upon which we have formed them are now before the reader, and of their soundness he must judge. But we will be disappointed if he should consider them the result either of religious bigotry or political resentment. Our feelings towards the Roman Catholic community are those of charity and peace; and it is because we love themselves, that we are compelled to oppose their system. That system appears to us fraught with the gravest moral and political evils; and, while it exists, it is, in our judgment, vain to expect a healthful state of public feeling in Ireland. Base, therefore, and derelict, in our duty, should we be, if we did not strenuously lift up our voices against it. Mr. Croly proposes the only plan by which its influence can be perpetuated. In him, as a sincere Roman Catholic, all this is meritorious. But he cannot be more anxious for the continuance of his church, than we are that it should be removed, and its place supplied by something better. Indeed, in his view of the matter, the value of his measure must appear, from the very earnestness with which we have resisted its adoption. It is perfectly natural in him to desire that which must tend to the prosperity of what he believes to be a system of truth; we can have no such wish, as our convictions respecting its nature and tendency are very different; and, although we would not raise our little finger to persecute Popery, neither would we build a buttress for the support of it, now that it is tottering to its fall. thing to endure, it would be another, and a very different thing, to perpetuate an evil; and, as Swift observed, long ago, we are perfectly aware of the difference between suffering the thistle to grow amongst us, and wearing it for a posie. It is one |