wholly unfit and unable he was to take any active part in public matters: he conjured them " never to entertain any thoughts of choosing him except they would first promise him to take upon themselves the whole government of the church." The election having gone on in his favour, "as soon as Montalto perceived that above half the votes were for him, without staying till the scrutiny was ended, he leaps out of his seat, throws away his staff, that had hitherto supported him instead of a crutch, into the middle of the place, and begins to stretch out himself, insomuch that he soon appeared half as big again as he was before; but that which was most surprising, he fetches such a lusty hem, that a young man of thirty could scarce reach. We may well think that the cardinals were startled at this sudden alteration. . . . . And, a little while after, he that had scarce strength sufficient to enable him to cough, roared out the Te Deum with such a thundering voice, that the roof of the chapel began to shake." One more trait of Sixtus V. This renovated man, when Medici told him that he seemed to have a different mien and air from what he had whilst a cardinal, "I was looking then," says he, "for the keys of Paradise, and therefore held down my head; but now I have found them, I lift up my eyes to heaven, having nothing else to seek for on earth."

Just so, in the "nineteenth century," has English Popery contrived to blind the eyes of the enlightened spirits who verily believed her to be crippled, asthmatic, and all but defunct, and who now stand aghast at the demonstrations of health, strength, and longevity which she delights to parade before them. We, who in vain warned our headstrong brethren, must now be content to help them against the further encroachments of this unmasked. hypocrite, and meet, with a determined heart and vigorous hand, the attempt to grasp at enlarged influence. Compared with its former self, English Popery has, indeed, attained to gigantic dimensions; but, compared with the Protestantism of England, it is a mere speck-a poisonous weed, that creeps. along the surface of our garden, here rooting a runner, there twining itself round some heedless plant, that will ultimately droop and die beneath its destructive influence. It will be a work of time, of labour, of patience, to undo what our extreme neglect has done, and eradicate this prolific, persevering weed; but if, on any one given point, English Protestantism would concentrate its force, and make a full display of its extent, we should soon see the intruder expelled.

Among other things, the Directory treats its readers to a view of the new mass-house, now erecting in St. George's-fields, and which appears adorned with a towering steeple and spire. It is by such feelers that Popery makes its way; they do not like to venture on the thing itself, in the very teeth of an Act of Parliament, until they have ascertained that the picture excites no

manifestation of a desire to repress their insolence, and to vindicate the laws. The "Magazine" for January has a very selfgratulatory article on "The Past Year," penned in a more cautious spirit than usual, and breathing so much charity, meekness, forgiveness of wrongs, and hearty affection for their "dissenting" brethren, that it naturally excites suspicion. There is an article in this number, headed, "Deacon Palmer's Abjuration of Protestantism," containing extracts from the very absurd pamphlet lately published by that gentleman, and shewing the untenableness of his notion, that any possible union can subsist between the church of England and the Popish church. They animadvert on "the delusive idea, that the corporation known as the Established Church of England is a branch of the one Catholic and Apostolic Church," and invite the deacon to follow the example of Messrs. Spencer, Sibthorp, and others. There is also a most revolting article, entitled, "Extract from a Book of Homilies, A.D. 780," furnished through the hands of Mr. Spencer, by an apostate American Episcopalian clergyman. It is an ascription of praise to Mary, atrociously blasphemous, and sadly proving, with respect to those who are led into this deadly snare, that they come under our Lord's description of the proselytes whom the Scribes and Pharisees compassed sea and earth to gain. We have rarely met with a more disgusting effusion than this consignment of Mr. Connelly to Mr. Spencer. Two other gentlemen have recently come before the public in pamphlets connected with their apostasy from the true faith. Mr. Sibthorp's most wily production will be noticed in its place; Mr. Wackerbarth's hair-brained effusion, as it can only extort a smile from any class save one, may be briefly glanced at here. The one class to which we allude is a very numerous, and, in some cases, a dangerous one; and we presume Mr. Wackerbarth is just formed to work on their less cultivated minds, by means of language so coarse and ungentlemanly, that it cannot be intended for any above the rank of a pauper. The main point which this renegade ostensibly seeks to establish is that of clerical celibacy; and, under colour of enforcing it, he draws a picture, well calculated to exasperate the destitute portion of the community. He He represents all ecclesiastical property as being entrusted to the clergy, solely for the benefit of the poor; and that the destitution of so many among them is entirely owing to the misdirection of those abundant supplies into the channels of domestic and social expenditure. Thus he stirs up the poor to regard the married clergy as robbing them of a sustenance which God, and the Church, and the State, too, had set apart for them, in order that they, the ministers of religion, may enjoy the prohibited gratification of domestic affection! He heads this section of his edifying pamphlet, "Concubinage of the Clergy," and with a special view to the not very delicate taste of those whom he

seeks at once to rouse into turbulence and to allure into Popery, he talks of "babby-slavering bishops," of "the baby-and-bedfellow system," and roundly maintains that to rob the poor and to degrade the character of the clergy were "the objects of the Reformers in separating from the holy see." It is curious to see how the true grievance shews itself, from time to time, in the progress of this most vulgar and indecent tirade. He says, of what he calls "the church," "It is clear that her ministers must be as much as possible disengaged both from the ties of the world and from the fear of the civil power. They must be men who will not submit to the encroachments of the State, but be ever ready to give their lives and liberties, or worldly goods, in defence of those rights with which the Most High has invested his holy church, and the poor whom he has chosen for his heritage." But, alas! "when a clergyman has a wife and children, he has given so many hostages to the civil power for his patient, or rather traitorous, submission to any iniquitous usurpation that power may choose to attempt." This, we well know, is the real policy of that licentious provision, the celibacy of the clergy. Accustomed to seek the gratification of their animal propensities without the formation of any abiding, endearing, softening tie; shut out from the enjoyment of those social connexions by which, according to the ordinance of God, society is held together, the Popish priest is a wretched, isolated being, debarred from his rightful share in the general happiness; wrapped up in dark, gloomy selfishness, intent only on the aggrandisement of his own order-the domination of his ecclesiastical club over all other institutions, from royalty downward, and with nothing to lose, nothing to endanger, when called on to make a desperate plunge into rebellion, rapine, and murder (vide Wexford, and other parts of Ireland, in 1798), for the advancement of the great idol on whose shrine he has immolated all the kindly feelings of his nature. No, Popery does not allow her priests to give "hostages" of fidelity to the laws of any land where she may plant her hoof. She will not "legalize" the concubinage of the clergy: with her the "babby-slavering" part of the business does not devolve on the paternal bishop or priest, but on the poor, gulled layman, who fondles as his own the doubtful offspring, or submissively winks at the guilt which he is taught to believe becomes a virtue in his wife and an honour to himself when committed with the man who forgives his sins and franks his soul to heaven. Indeed, the subject is one from which Romanists naturally shrink, Romish laymen especially; and we are not surprised to find the "Tablet"-the Editor of which is evidently a layman, and sometimes writes as if he had not always worn the shackles of Popery—administering a rebuke in language strikingly opposed to that of the new convert. He fully vindicates the clergymen of the established, or, as some affect to term it, the Anglican church, from the charge, and legalizes their marriage,

by reminding Mr. Wackerbarth that they are all laymen, and thereby beyond the reach of any censure referring only to the clergy; and, moreover, that a Protestant married clergyman, on conforming to Popery, is not required to put away his wife that he may become a Romish priest, but informed that he is a layman, and by his marriage must remain so, being wholly disqualified from holding orders in the communion of Rome. It strikes us as a peculiarly happy coincidence, that Mr. Sibthorp, Mr. Spencer, and others who are considered to be on the threshold over which they have stepped, should have chanced to remain single all their lives!

While on this subject, we must notice a circumstance, laughable indeed, but yet so expressive of the intense desire to fasten any sort of odium on Protestantism, that it almost merges the ludicrous in the disgusting. At Southampton, there dwells a gentleman of fortune, named Kenelm Digby, a member of the Romish communion. He lately received on a visit the new prize, Mr. Sibthorp, and hospitably entertained him. On that evening, a fire was discovered in the upper part of Mr. Digby's house, which was nearly extinguished by the efforts of the servants alone, until, unhappily, it caught a gutter, by which means it extended more widely, and destroyed much property, in furniture, clothes, books, and papers, altogether occasioning a very heavy loss to Mr. Digby, with whom, so far, we should heartily sympathize, and sincerely regret the calamity; but what will our readers say when they hear that this fire, breaking out at the top of the house, is, by Mr. Digby himself, most gravely attributed to PROTESTANT FANATICISM, the conflagration being, as he conceives, the work of an incendiary, who set fire to the top of the house from a pantry window below, and all for the purpose of conferring on Mr. Sibthorp the crown of martyrdom, and of ensuring to Mr. Digby and his family, if they escaped with their lives, the blessing of being persecuted for righteousness' sake.

We gather these particulars from Mr. Digby's published letters in the "Tablet," and we perceive the outrage is traced back to the inflammatory tendency of a sermon, preached on the preceding Sunday, by a Protestant clergyman, who had the uncharitableness to warn his flock against the sin of apostasy. Not content with once bringing the matter forward, poor Mr. Digby persists in repeating his story, and reiterating his imputations from week to week, plainly hinting that the lambs of the Pope's church are all quaking in their fleeces at the persecuting aspect of their neighbours, the wolves of the Protestant church.

But a pretended alarm, leading to preparations ostensibly defensive, has generally been the first step in the preconcerted onsets of Rome. Let us not, therefore, in the contemptible folly and silly malignity of the insinuation, overlook the warning it is calculated to convey.

PROTESTANT QUESTIONS FOR PARLIAMENT.

As parliament is on the point of assembling, the following seem the principal subjects on which it is desirable that petitions should be presented to the representatives of the people.

The first in importance is the Repeal of the Annual Grant of £9000 to Maynooth. And this is the more necessary, as the Papists have been applying to government for an increase of the grant. The following petitions have been presented in the course of the last four years:→→

The last session was shorter than usual, and terminated by a vote of censure on the late ministers, which led to a dissolution of parliament.

2nd. Against any grant of money for the establishment or maintenance of Popery in her Majesty's colonies.

3rd. Against the National System of Education in Ireland. 4th. For an inquiry into the outrages committed at the late elections in Ireland.

5th. For a correction of the abuses in the Irish system of registration.

6th. For the restoration of our essentially Protestant constitution in church and state.

It is to be hoped that returns will be moved for to give information on the following points:

Of all sums of public money advanced by government for repairing Popish chapels or glebe-houses in Ireland, or for any purpose in aid of Roman-catholic worship in Ireland since 1830.

Of all sums of public money advanced since 1830 for the outfit and conveyance of Roman-catholic bishops or priests or missionaries to any of her Majesty's colonies, or to India.

Of all sums of public money advanced in the colonies or in India, out of the local revenues or otherwise, for the support and maintenance of the Roman-catholic religion, or any other religion besides that of the Established Church.

A return of the Board of Management of National Education in Ireland, the members of whom the board consists, and the rules and by-laws by which it is governed.

A return of all public grants discontinued and withdrawn from Protestant objects and institutions either at home or in the colonies since 1830.