that they should be received, upon their bare word, to give us poor and ignorant Protestants the advantage of their great abilities and wisdom in administering the concerns of our establishment both in church and state.

Indeed we cannot help being strongly of opinion, that Sir J. C. Hippisley himself must at least begin to suspect that other persons have passed the same judgment upon his labours as ourselves: for he does himself admit and lament that those grave and enlightened personages by whom the Romish Church is governed, whether at Rome, or here, or in Ireland, are shewing themselves extremely ungrateful for, or at least insensible to his great exertions in their cause. For although throughout the whole of these speeches, and their appendices we are reminded of the intimate footing upon which he had stood with the Pope and his Cardinals; in the first speech, (p. 8.), he appears complimented by them for his "magnanimity and incomparable zeal," (grande animo e zelo senza pari); and, (p. 25.) he declares that he had been in very intimate communication with the ministers of the late sovereign Pontif:" yet towards the close, (p. 87.) hẹ lets out, rather despondingly, that "his labours in the cause seemed, from what he had lately heard, to be less valued by his friends on the other side of the water:" whether meaning by that his Italian or his Irish friends we will not take upon us to determine. And in his second speech, (p. 40.), after saying that he would confidently look forward with anxious expectation to the period when all those misconstructions [of which he complains] would give way to the force of truth and the revival of reciprocal confidence," he observes that "it was well known that himself had recently stood in a situation most flattering to his own feelings: -accredited as he had been by the whole" [Roman, we presume] Catholic Nobility of England, and a most respectable body of others professing the Roman communion, to urge their cause in Parliament," yet," (fattering as this must be to a true son of the Church of England, such as he is, or professes to be) he adds, "as his conduct and opinions were not wholly in unison with some of these honourable persons as to the precise means of attaining the object, and especially as his proposed measures had been so actively discredited by the misrepresentations to which he had alluded--he had declined altogether the honourable trust which had so long been confided to him, and he wished rather that it should devolve upon one whose opinions had not been questioned as to the provisions of enactment most suitable to the cause;"He goes on to state that he shared this obloquy with "the most eminent characters in either House of Parliament," (not all the most eminent, we presume); and manfully declares that "himself was fully prepared to breast the full surge of popular obloquy, founded as it was on

misrepresentation, and to console himself with the conscientious discharge of his duty, not less to his fellow subjects of the" [Roman, we presume again] "Catholic communion, than of the Establishment." Happy, thrice happy Sir John! we must be allowed to add, happy, thrice happy in being so well satisfied with himself, and being able so to console himself, amidst toils and labours which are not only thankless, but repaid with ingratitude and obloquy! That it is thus that he has been served by those whom he soothes with the appellation of Catholics is clear: and we are quite sure that his "fellow subjects of the Establishment" not only do not acknowledge, but do not even see the extent of their obligations to him. Yet he will go on-unlike that fainthearted and pettish Roman, who when he was attacked in a similar manner, left his country, and would lay his bones in a strange place, ("Ingrata patria, ne mihi ossa habeas") he persists in serving both these discordant and jarring, as well as ungrateful, sets of creatures, even against their will! Certainly this can only be accounted for from the persuasion which he expresses,

no man can

doubt," he says, (in his last delivered speech, on the 24th of April 1812)" of the "successful termination of their" [the Roman Catholics']"cause :" and that which he goes on to declare, that "he cannot be insensible of the distinction of having his name coupled with the fame of an act" [what act? of parliament ?] which was to restore so meritorious a class of his fellow subjects to the full benefits of the constitution." (p. 40.)

We learn from this, that Sir John is fond of distinction; and, in truth we have long suspected something of this kind: nay, we have sometimes thought that the sending these two respectably sized pamphlets into the world, was merely for the purpose of obtaining "distinction", for Sir John, by shewing in what a graceful manner he could speak of himself. The earliest recollection which we have of Sir John, is that of seeing him on his return from India, many years ago, driven about in a carriage calculated, both from its colour and form, to attract every eye; and to provoke the question "quis Homo hic est ?" We then lost sight of him, and after some time beard of his being at Rome, and there running a race with Jenkins the banker, for the honour of officiating as master of the ceremonies to the Pope, and introducing to his holiness the young travelling nobility and gentry of this nation. Eventually Sir John (then Mr.) Hippisley got the better of Jenkins. Probably the same friends who obtained for him his situation in India, procured him the means of "addressing his Majesty's ministers," and of becoming the organ of communication between them and Pius VI. whose favourable "disposition to this country," he says, "had been particularly marked:" as indeed it could not be otherwise;

The

since our temporal interests, and his, (and to their temporal interests the Popes have ever been sufficiently alive) were precisely the same. consequence was that Sir John was enabled, among other achievements, to effect that service which is so flippantly and contemptuously noticed by the learned Irish Barrister who has drawn up the famous (or infamous) statement of the grievances, now under prosecution; and of which Sir John, not without reason, complains.*

For this, however, we must be permitted to add, that the honourable Baronet has very well continued to repay himself, by taking an opportunity of introducing" (to use his own words) "the con"current testimonies of statesmen and other eminent public characters, "though tinctured with much flattering personal allusion." He has given us a list of these great names beginning with Pitt-Fox-WindhamBishop Watson-Bishop Bathurst-and others (whom he does not name) of the Episcopal bench: and to those great names, and no names, he adds, "those able divines, Dr. Parr, Dr. Butler, Dr. Maltby, and Dr. Valpy, "divines sanctioned by the highest patronage and confidence, (quære, of their own, or of others?) to superintend and direct the education of the rising generation." He tells us, moreover, one thing which we cannot, or rather wish not to understand, that "his own constituents" (not the electors of Sudbury, we presume, but the Roman Catholics)" are placed under the tutelary charge of the venerable and enlightened prelate, Bishop Bathurst.”† Now we really thought that Bishop Bathurst was a protestant divine, and that his "tutelary charge" had been to watch over certain protestant inhabitants of the diocese of Norwich. If among the various private and confidential commissions with which Sir John tells us that he was honoured by "his holiness the Supreme Pontiff," (as he obligingly calls him) there was one by which the good Bishop was appointed a general vicar apostolical over all the Roman Catholics in these dominions, we must confess that it is and always has been a secret to us. Nay, we think too, more espe cially considering the nature and purport of those xxxix articles which his Lordship has subscribed, and which are not yet abrogated, that the secret might as well have been kept from the public, as we are sure it has been kept from that respectable prelate. At the same time, we acquit the worthy baronet of any the least intention of hurting his friend; (he tells us by the bye, that "from the earliest period of his life he has had the happiness to

He complains, as Colonel Fullarton once did, that he is set down as a "commis," or clerk; instead of having proper respect shewn him. It is also said, rather grossly, that "his patent" (of Baronetage)" is a just satire upon the state." (V. last delivered speech, p. 97)

† Ibid. p. 99.

"be connected in the closest friendship with the worthy prelate);" for, according to what he says himself, he has no idea that there is any essenual difference* subsisting between our church, under her present confession of faith, and that of Rome; nay, he is extremely shocked that the bishop of Durham should treat the doctrines of the Romish church as "idolatrous and blasphemous, and sacrilegious;" and therefore Sir John may have done all this under a full persuasion that he is only carrying into execution the plant of Archbishop Wake (which he talks about) to effect the union of the two churches: but still as there are yet some obstinate men who will contest these matters with him, we really think that Sir John should have used more discretion, and not have let out that which may operate to the prejudice of his friends; more especially when he has not (as we are sure in this instance he has not) their permission.

the

In going through these details of "the life and opinions" of the worthy baronet, we have kept, as the reader will do us the justice to remark, most strictly to our object, which was to account for the situation in which (to use the phraseology of Dr. Milner) "the aforesaid" baronet is placed, and part which he is now acting on the great theatre of the world. Nothing that we have said, we are persuaded, is at all calculated to wound his feelings: nay, we are sure that, in thus holding him up to the notice of the public, we are doing what is very agreeable to him. The reader will here see by what natural and easy steps Sir John has arrived to that "distinction", with which he is evidently so flattered; of being not only in general and in common with some others, an advocate for the Roman catholie claims, but actually the representative of the whole body of Roman catholies in parliament; a character which certainly has not hitherto been borne, nay, we believe had not before been desired, by any protestant. For a man who is fond of "distinction," certainly a more effectual or a more easy method of making himself talked of, could hardly have been devised, than by thus assuming an office so novel, so singular, and apparently so contradictory. Moreover, if the reader will but go on to consider what it was that Sir John thus took upon himself;-that he undertook to represent not only the laity, but the priesthood of the Roman catholics; and not only the subordinate clergy, but the prelates; nay, not

* The differences are clearly displayed by the Bishop of S. Davi l's, in the Protestant and Papist's Manual, price 1s.

The plan of the archbishop was to unite the English and Gallican churches.

We say this, presuming that Sir John is a Protestant, as we must trust he is; nay, we give him credit for being really so, and not, as John Wilkes is described in a ludierous song;

"Mahomet was a cheat, John Wilkes is no impostor,

"He cares no more for the Alcoran than for the later Noster."

only the English and Irish Roman catholics, but even the Pope at Rome and his cardinals; he will see how much it might have been expected that every thing should happen which has happened; that he should finish by giving satisfaction to nobody, and by being abused by some, at least, of the parties.

A few words will make this still more clear.

Whoever has well considered the nature of the Romish religion, and the course which in practice it has held from its first aspiring to power, must have observed that it has always contained within its body two descriptions of persons; those whom we shall call "the thoroughpaced;" and the others" the mitigated" papists. We use the word "papists" (let us here say it once for all) not invidiously, but as the only one that can adequately, and without great circumlocution express our idea. We use it, as it is used in the statute-book, for all those who in any way adhere to the Pope as their spiritual head. To mark our meaning more plainly in the outset, we shall say that at this moment under the latter class, the " mitigated" papists, we should range Sir John Throckmorton, Mr. Butler, Dr. O'Conor, Mr. Berington, and generally those who, having signed, have also abided by the Declaration and protestation made by the Roman catholics of England in 1789.* The "thoroughpaced" are those who think with Dr. Milner the "pater atque princeps" of this class; among whom are included most, if not all, of his brother Vicars Apostolical, Mr. Francis Plowden, Mr. Baldwin Janson, and a few worthies of that stamp in England; and, we are afraid we must add, almost all the Papists of Ireland, or at least that part of them who have any religious opinions at all. Now in the first commencement of the Papal usurpations, and quite through the dark ages, it may be observed, that this distinction shewed itself chiefly, at least as far as nations or men in authority were concerned, in struggles for power or for temporal interests. Transubstantiation in its grossest form, the worship of saints, images, and relics, even when most unquestionably idolatrous, were an offence only to the poor, despised, and persecuted Waldenses and Albigenses, but no way alarmed the consciences of kings, knights, or lords. But there were other doctrines which touched their worldly possessions most sensibly, and these provoked constant opposition. First, the deposing doctrine; and, after that, the various methods by which the Popes drew to themselves the presentation to benefices, and obliged Prelates and Priesto to do homage to them at Rome, or to compound for the omission with large sums. Nay, even the doctrine of Indulgences, although already submitted to in many cases, as holding out indemnity for sin; when carried

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