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by the manacles of bigotry, and degraded by the inveteracy of moral and intellectual darkness-can but too seldom be brought within the reach of the experience of past ages, the light of history, the guidance of reason, or the suggestions of common sense. And since it is an undeniable truth, that, Religion, gives the tone to the conduct of every individual, and body of men; we may be tolerably certain, that they who are taught to have no better reason, or cause for their belief, than the worshippers of Mahomet, who, do, in truth, exceed in rigour even the veriest oloistered recluses, or solitary monastic devotees of your system,-that they who have no brighter light than the wretched victims of Juggernaut's car, or of the Hindoo's burning pile, -do not require to proceed far beyond the limits of habit, example, superstition, bigotry, fanaticism, and ignorance. In short, it is a futile labour to proceed with them. And of such I take my leave. I feel it a more important duty to inflict a summary castigation, on their Lords and Masters. Nor will the base, and cringing truckling of fear and policy, mar a full exposure of their achievements. I hope to have the approving sanction of every disinterested friend of true religion, government, and order, in seeking to raise the universal cry of scorn, contempt, and indignation, against the vile machinations of the present union of Liberals, who tolerate every thing but Christianity :-of Papists, on whose banner, is emblazoned their unchanging motto, of exclusion, intolerance, and persecution; nay more, whose legislating representatives, to their zeal for popery, have added, -as every person who knows any thing of Irish society is well aware, a boasted profession of infidelity; and whose patriotism is nurtered by the alms, mercilessly, wrung from the pockets of their vassals, when their Executions and Mortgages had been more honourably paid, by an industrious attention to their professions and trades at home:-and finally of Dissenters, who to the two former, joyfully give their assistance and concurrence; whose principles cannot be better ex

pressed than in the language of one of your own celebrated and distinguished Jesuits, who, with such aptitude and truth, in his work which he dedicated to Lewis XIV., declared of the Presbyterians, that

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they were naturally enemies to kingly government, and the fiercest of the Protestants for extirpating of Catholics*." It is true, Sir, that you have not held D'Orleans' opinion of these drudges of sedition; whose Faith is Rebellion ;-and whose Religion is Faction; for, I have before me, at this moment, a public journal, in which I read, that, at the accustomed, jocund, festivities of a Presbyterian, Arian, installation dinner, you charitably gave your hand of brotherly love to one of these liberal professors, amidst the loud bacchanalian roars of applauding hundreds! I had, certainly, until that period, flattered myself, that the principles inculcated by the primitive creeds of the Universal Church, -to say nothing of the countless oaths and curses of the Roman Creeds, would have never been dragged from their venerable pedestal, to deck the triumph, and flatter the ignorance, of those, whom you cannot but regard, if you are true to your Church, as heretical, blaspheming, impudent usurpers of the ecclesiastical functions, and avowed foes to the Apostolic order. Of this extraordinary, but characteristic example, of the present times, on a future occasion, when more important matters are discussed, I hope, you will not forget, that all this sort of charlatanry, whether local, or general, will have the advantage of a liberal review. I expect, that the charity of modern professors, and that the liberality of the Press, will not be withheld from the guardians of Truth; particularly as the former are now indulged by the highest Law Officers of the Crown, in giving vent to the grossest, and most horrid blasphemies.

I remain, Sir,

Your humble servant,

OVER HALL, February 20, 1833.

WILLIAM BAILEY.

* D'Orleans' "History of the Revolutions in England," Book ii., year 1678.

INVALUABLE GEMS,

FROM

The best Writers, and the most approved Authorities.

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"The truth is, there are a few aspiring demagogues, whose tongues seem to be hung by the middle, so as to wag at both ends. Cobbett more than insinuates, in his last Register but one, that O'Connell's great aim, in all his noise and bustle, is to secure precedence and profit to himself. Suppose that he and a hundred more had obtained their object, what benefit would accrue to Ireland generally? What difference would have taken place in the condition of the people, to prevent them from rebellion, when they had an opportunity? I shall be told, perhaps, that then the mouths of the clamorous would be stopt; that O'Connell, and Sheil, and all the rest, in snug profitable places under Government, or rather at the head of the Government, would be the most loyal and peaceable men in the world. Very true; this sop might stop their mouths; but for every hundred mouths so stopt, there would be a thousand opened. It would be impossible to stop them all with snug places; discontent and clamour would be increased tenfold; the great body of the people would remain poor, ignorant, and miserable as ever; and ready to obey any incendiary who should excite them to rebellion. But, after all, it does not clearly appear how, or by what means, O'Connell and his companions would be satisfied, and have their mouths stopt. Their first step would be into Parliament; but that would yield no profit, while it would increase their power of annoyance tenfold. This would not silence them, or prevent them from struggling for pre-eminence, by which government would be annoyed, public business interrupted, and the discontent of their partisans greatly increased, from belief that they were unjustly kept back from the honours and emoluments to which they think themselves entitled. But 1 shall suppose they have attained to the highest and most lucrative offices would this satisfy the people of Ireland, or make them more content than they are? No, indeed; but it would increase the clamour of the Popish population, and redouble their efforts to obtain the ascendancy, the reestablishment of their religion, the supremacy of the Pope, the possession of the tithes and church lands, and the recovery of all the property that has been forfeited in successive rebellions since the reign of Elizabeth. That their hearts are set upon such a revolution, some of their orators are at no pains to conceal. Cobbett himself avows it. He says it is little short of madness to think of bringing Papists into Parliament, and at the same time preserve the established order! His incessant clamour about the plunder of the Reformation is to keep alive in the minds of the Irish the hope of having it restored; and if Papists in Parliament would contribute so effectually for the accomplishment of this, how much more if they were in the cabinet and the ministry? In short, the more power they acquired, the greater would be the discontent and clamour of the people, until they had put down the Protestant establishment, and brought the whole kingdom under subjection to a superstitious, idolatrous, and insolent priesthood! That such a revolution is most desirable, no true Papist will deny; that Papists in power would labour to bring it about, is certain from the nature of their religion; and I have an apprehension that in less than half a century it will take place, because a great proportion of British Protestants are ignorant of their religion, cureless of its privileges, and willing to surrender them!!!"-(The above is an extract from a popular, but talented vindication of the Reformation, written before the Emancipation Bill, by M Gavin, author of " The Protestant." The writer, was certainly an intelligent, ingenious man, and is lately deceased. He composed his book in answer to the coarse ribaldry, impudent effrontery, and shameful ignorance of Cobbett; who among his various motley expedients, for earning an honest livelihood, was hired by Papists, to write against the Reformation. Cobbett himself can best inform his rabble disciples whether his strong propensities to Bone and Relic worshipping, first recommended him to the job! If so, his present title of M. P. is particularly appropriate to designate the worshipping Minister of Paine's bones and doctrines! The honorable gentleman once scribbled a grammar, dedicated to shoemakers and and shoeblacks. In it he frequently styles the House of Commons, when it represented the rank and property of the Kingdom, the House of Tyrants. Pray does the honorable member, now, when he himself is one of the number, consider it worthy of being literally, and legitimately styled "The House of COMMONS"!!!

DISSERTATION I.

A few general reflections on the Majesty and Sublimity of the truths and objects included in the contemplation of the religion of our Divine Saviour-a brief review of the important results accruing to the Social System from its connexion with the Civil Polity-this connexion as at present usurped by the Papacy, and blended in its assumption of Spiritual, and Secular, universal domination, whereby it may be said, it makes Common Cause with Sectaries, who resist this union, is contrary to the plain warrant of Scripture, the usage of all Antiquity, and the first principles of framing a Christian Societyoccasional remarks on the duties of Ecclesiastical and Civil governors in particular reference to the present perilous laxity, and unprincipled policy, of dangerous Factions-and interpersed with various other topics suggested by the preceding subjects, illustrative of the Author's general design, &c. &c. &c.

A MORE important question can never come before the eyes of man, than the investigation of what are the human means most calculated to advance, protect, and establish the vital principles of our pure and holy Religion. In the all-comprehensive subject of Religion, is involved every thing that concerns mortals here below, whilst, beyond the troubled ocean and eventful vicissitudes of human affairs, its heart-cheering

[Continued from Note, p. 67.]

We are reluctantly obliged, to lay before our readers, still more horrifying, accumulated heaps of Pontifical filth and lewdness. We will terminate the hideous portraiture, with but one more quotation out of Baronius relative to the eleventh century. I am satisfied the impartial Protestant reader, will not require any further proofs of Bernard's veracity; and I should suppose that the holy monk's Saintship, will command some confidence and reverence, from his special worshippers. Of the eleventh century, Baronius writes, -" that it was by Dithmarus styled the iron age, because iniquity did then abound, and that many did then discourse and believe, that in this very age Antichrist (!) was to come, and the world was to have an end; and the corruption of manners VOL. I.

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promises unfold to the delighted view, of the humble and obedient follower of its heaven-taught precepts, a blissful haven-unruffled by the agitating storms of life;-disclose to its faithful votaries an enlivening prospect of the unchanging joys of an endless eternity of undisturbed repose ;-and inspire them, even in this lower world, with the glowing fervour of an ennobling ambition, to soar far above the littleness of time, or fantasies of sense, and to aim at the possession of a loftier prize. In the contemplation of these momentous truths, there is an awful grandeur, which surpasses the utmost stretch of human imagination,

which then (saith he) was very great, especially among the Ecclesiastics, might easily persuade men that it would be so" (Annal. A. D. 1001. Baronius here quotes the authority of Dithmarus, Bishop of Mersburgh, in Misnia. He died in A. D. 1028; having written a "Chronicle of his Times," which was printed by Reineccius in 1584, folio; but was afterwards re-edited by the celebrated Leibnitz.-Moreri.). It were quite in vain, then, even for the most unrelenting Jesuit, to cavil at the confirmatory sentence of our Protestant Mosheim; whom I do not now quote, to enlighten, but rather, to receive illumination from these Romish Historians. In his review of the tenth century, he says, -" the history of the Roman Pontiffs, that lived in this century, is a history of so many monsters, and not of men; and exhibits a horrible series of the most flagitious, tremendous, and complicated crimes, as All Writers, even those of the Romish communion, unanimously confess!" (Eccles. Hist. Cent x. Part ii. chap. ii. §. 2.). And of the eleventh Century he writes, "all the records of this century loudly complain of the vices that reigned among the Rulers of the Church, and, in general among all the sacerdotal orders; they also deplore that universal decay of piety and discipline, that was the consequence of this corruption in a set of men, who were bound to support, -by their example, their authority, and their instructions, - the sacred interests of religion and virtue. The inferior orders of the clergy were also licentious in their own way; few among them preserved any remains of piety and virtue, we might add, of decency and discretion. While their Rulers were wallowing in luxury, and basking in the beams of worldly pomp, and splendour, they were indulging themselves, without the least sense of shame, in fraudulent practices, in impure and lascivious gratifications, and even in the commission of the most flagitious crimes!" (Eccles. Hist. Cent. xi. Part ii. chap. ii. §. i.). I cannot restrain myself, here, from making an observation; though, doubtless, it may excite the spleen of the ignorant and bigotted Romanist, as it certainly will call forth expressions of pity and surprize from the enlightened Protestant. For, Romanists can never

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