because there was no Romish Archbishop consecrated during the time that Archbishop Agar filled the See of Cashel. This, I undertand to be the fact; but the fact is, also, that the anecdote which I have detailed took place when that Prelate was Bishop of Cloyne, which he was from 1767 1779: during which interval there was a Romish Bishop consecrated for that See, who was enthroned in the manner and with the circumstances which I have mentioned. I am Sir, Haughton, near Darlington, Yours, &c. THOS. LE MEsurier. THE POPE'S NUNCIO AND THE SPANISH CORTES. THE resident Nuncio at Cadiz, notwithstanding the manly expostulation of Cardinal Bourbon, (see the leading article in our last number, p. 566) and the fair warning which was vouchsafed to him, has proved incorrigible. The flimsy web which he had spun, was brushed away; but, like a true intriguer, he went to work again, not weary in evil-doing. Of course the eyes of the acting Spanish government must have been turned upon this friend to that terrible instrument of Popish domination-the inquisition. He was detected, and sent out of the country. We transcribe the following paragraph, which originally appeared in the Conciso, published at Cadiz on the 9th of July. "The Nuncio, M. Gravina, has received from Government his passports to remove to Sicily, on board the frigate Sabrina, and his temporalities taken possession of, for having continued obstinate in his blameable conduct in respect to the extinction of the inqui sition; a conduct which has been so fatal in the English Parliament to the Catholics of that kingdom." How flagrantly bad the Nuncio's conduct must have appeared in the judgment of Spain, we may gather from the supposed ill effect of it on the cause of the Romanists in this country, entertained by the people of the Peninsula. But it was not the behaviour of M. Gravina that proved fatal to Mr. Grattan's Bill ;-it was the experience which Britons had of the intriguing nature of the Romish religion, the eagerness with which it pursues proselytism, and its restless, jealous, and ambitious spirit, which render it unfit to be invested with political power, and incapacitate its professors from acting as members of the Legislature, without danger to the liberties of the country and the safety of our Protestant constitution. In our last we supplied what appeared to us a proper answer from the Cortes to the Irish Roman Catholics, should they address that august body; and, now, we could point out an object far more becoming the attention of our Hibernian brethren, than an application to the Cortes to interfere between the Parliament and the Roman Catholics of the United Kingdom; that is, provided they are resolved, at all events, to communicate with the Spanish Legislature ;-viz. an address to the following effect:-" Tolerated as we are in this happy country, and allowed to worship God according to our consciences, we are desirous of evincing our gratitude to our native land, and procuring to the members of Protestant churches in Roman Catholic kingdoms, the same privileges which we ourselves enjoy. We entreat you, therefore, by all that we mutually hold venerable in our common religion, to extend to the Protestants resident in Spain, that liberal toleration which is indulged to the Roman Catholics in Great Britain. Let it not be said, that whilst we uninterruptedly exercise all the rites of our religion, the Protestants in Spain, whose commercial industry enriches it,-whose arms defend it,-are deemed heretics, are obliged to worship God, like the primitive Christians in the time of pagan persecution, by stealth, and when they die are denied even a place of sepulture. Let us have the happiness of procuring toleration for them, and let us give the world a practical proof, that our zealous attachment to the church of Rome, does neither extinguish in our bosoms the feelings, nor stifle the suggestions of Christian charity." IRISH INTELLIGENCE. JOHN MAGRE, the printer and publisher of the Dublin Evening Post, was found guilty of a libel on the Duke of Richmond on the 27th of July. The trial commenced on the 26th, many hours of which were consumed in captious objections to the jurors, witnesses, &c. properly reprobated by the Attorney and Solicitor-General. Mr. Magee is a young man, and a Protestant, we are confident that if he does not quit his connexion with Papists and democrats, he will live to repent it. "Trial by jury" is the boast of Britons, and it is a pity that it should ever have been made the cry of a party. The seditious are not attached to trial by jury on principle ;— in case of an acquittal they extol it to the skies, but if any of their adherents, or their tools, be convicted of libel or any other crime, they detest the honest jurors, or threaten them without remorse. Some of the gentlemen who pronounced Magee guilty have received anonymous letters threatening them with assassination.-We received information of this fact from a friend in Ireland; we have since read a copy of the letters sent to the jurors, printed in the Dublin Journal of August 5th. EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM MALTA. In passing a shop, I saw a large bunch of grapes; the woman who kept the shop, observing my admiration of the fruit, came, talking to herself in her native tongue, invoking her saint to assist her in getting the best possible price for her grapes, or rather to cheat me by selling them, if she could, for four times their value. She muttered to her saint," I have had no luck the whole week,-lost a hen ;-no eggs;-pray let me get what I can!" I bid her just a quarter of what she asked, which was, at the same time, a fair market price : she crossed herself, fiew in a passion, and asked her saint what she had done to be so deserted?" have I not lighted a good lamp before you every night? did I not spend two dollars on your birth-day? I am constant at mass, and yet you are never pleased, nor even now stand by me to profit of this English heretic; but thanks to God there are more saints in the kalendar.—I have changed twice, I will try again-'tis impossible to be worse off." I asked her in her own language, to her very great surprise, when she should change her saint? She said, "Oh! very soon." I told her she had better change her principles, and turn honest, and then see if her saint would not be better pleased. She muttered some curses, and went into her shop with a very angry countenance. VINEGAR-HILL, SCULLABOGUE, AND WEXFORD-BRIDGE. We have long wished for an opportunity of shewing our respect for our valuable correspondent Fidei Defensor, by attending to his request expressed in the note at p. 378, to give from "Sir Richard Musgrave's most authentic history," an account of the massacres at Vinegar-hill, Scullabogue, and Wexford-bridge. We are happy in being able to do as he desired, before we close this first volume of the PROTESTANT ADVOCATE. We take the following passages, as we find them, ready to our hands, in the appendix to the Rev. J. W. Butt's pamphlet intituled "the Origin of Orangemen :" (see Prot. Adv. page 604), and we feel a pride in acknowledging that this is not the first obligation under which we lie to that gentleman, "Massacre on Vinegar-hill.* "The rebels committed such Protestants as were not fortunate enough to retreat to Wexford with the loyalists, or to escape into the woods, to a prison on Vinegar-Hill, formed by the walls of an old windmill; and then proceeded to try them by a court-martial, which sat constantly for that purpose. The only charge against them was their being Orangemen, which was synonimous with Protestants. On the morning of Tuesday, the 29th of May, they put to death twenty-four persons of the established church, by shooting some, and piking others, in front of the rebel line; of whom one was Mr. Henry Hatton, port-rieve of the town of Enniscorthy, an innocent, únoffending gentleman. They burned the glebehouse of Enniscorthy to ashes, but converted the out-offices into stores, for holding provisions and arms for the camp. "A committee of twelve, consisting of some rebel officers and three priests, viz. fathers Roche, Kearns, and Clinch, and at times, Father John Murphy, continued constantly to sit, and to superintend and regulate the concerns of the camp, and the newly established republick. When the business of the day was over, they dined together at a table regularly furnished with the best viands which the country could afford, and with delicious wines, taken from the cellars of the neighbouring gentlemen. "They sent gangs of assassins round all the adjacent country, commanded by rebel officers, in quest of Protestants, who seized such of them as could not make their escape, and committed them to prisons at the foot of the hill or in the town. "The walls of an old windmill, on the top of the hill, served as a fold to contain the victims who supplied the sacrifice of the day; and when the rebel ranks were on parade, they were led forth and butchered in their presence, and as a regale to them; and what was very singular, the executioners often knelt down, crossed themselves, and said a prayer, before they immolated the victims, who were frequently almost famished before they were led to execution, from the bad and scanty food with which they were supplied. "The camp was constantly attended by from ten to twenty priests, * A mountain twelve miles from Wexford. + In a confession of faith, found in the box of a Priest, at Gorey, were the following articles-"We are not to keep our oaths, with heretics." "We are not to believe their oaths, for their principles are damnation.” “ We are bound to drive heretics out of the land, with fire, sword, faggot and confusion." who daily said mass at the head of each rebel column, and afterwards pronounced an exhortation to animate them in the extirpation of heresy, and in the exclusive establishment of their own, the only true orthodox faith. "Every morning, when the rebels paraded on Vinegar-hill, they put to death from fifteen to thirty Protestants in their presence, as an amusement to them. And this was done with the solemnity of an execution under a judicial sentence. "The gangs of pikemen, who were sent to roam the country in quest of Protestants to supply the grand slaughter-house at Vinegar-hill, could not restrain their thirst for blood, and often killed their prisoners on the spot where they seized them, though contrary to the orders of their leaders. "On the thirtieth day of May, William Neal, Henry and Bryan,' his sons, were seized at their house at Ballybrennan, by a band of assassins, who were sent from the camp in search of Protestants, and were conveyed to Vinegar-Hill camp. Michael Maddock and Joseph Murphy were leaders of the party. The former called them Orangemen, meaning Protestants, and wanted to kill them as such, but was over-ruled by some others of the band. Bryan Neal offered them his horse and cow to liberate them, but Maddock said, "that the cattle of all Orangemen belonged to them already." "When they arrived on Vinegar-hill, Murphy said he would not bring in any more Orangemen, unless they put them to death directly; on which a conference was held, when the father and the two sons were immediately condemned. They first led out to execution Bryan, who begged they would shoot him, instead cf torturing him with pikes. One of the rebels. said he should not die so easy a death; and instantly struck him on the head with a carpenter's adz, which made him stagger a few yards: but he was soon brought back, when one of them stabbed him in the side with a spear, another in the neck, and a third shoved them aside, and shot him. William, the father, who was then brought forth, solicit ed to be shot; and having complied with his request, they put him on his knees. The executioner missed fire at him three times, on which Father Roche, the general who attended the execution, desired him to try whether his firelock would go off in the air? he accordingly tried and it succeeded. Father Roche then gave him a protection and ordered him to be discharged, having inputed his escape to Divine Providence. Murphy and Maddock were near neighbours, and supposed to be the intimate friends of the Neal family, who had no suspicion that they had harboured such sanguinary hatred against them, on account of their being of the |
