in an age of increasing knowledge, than systems of superstition, it may fairly be presumed, that whatever may be the lungings of Popish abettors after their halcyon days, Popery is not likely to recover its degradations and its fall on that part of the Con tinented ac

Extending our survey therefore through the last twenty or thirty years of events on the Continent, we would console our selves with the conclusion that Popery has been diminished y and we would fondly hope that the diffusion of light, clearer and more powerful than has yet been instrumental in dispelling the errors and correcting the practice of a people who were once so duped and oppressed by the ministers of Popery, will, prevent the attempt again to enslave them; or, should it be made, will overcome opposition, and lead to results of a most desirable and felicitous kind.

But that within the above period Popery has revived in Great Britain, is, we think, incontrovertible; the proofs which Mr. Blair produces of this fact, are strong and convincing. The causes of this increase in the adherents and converts to Popery, are deserving, we apprebend, of an investigation which, it should seem, they have never yet received. We cannot now enter upon the consideration of them, but we would recommend the inquiry to our readers, and particularly would we advise the writer of these letters to direct his thoughts to it, as a subject pregnant with salutary instruction.

With the exception of this last particular, the change in our internal religious relations, Mr. Blair assigns as his proofs of the revival of Popery, the re-establishment in many places, of the dormant or suppressed institutions of the Church of Rome, particularly the restoration of the Jesuits, the Pope's best Bulwark, as this Order has been emphatically named, and the re-opening of those horrible instruments of tyranny, the sprison-doors of the Holy Tribunal of the Inquisition,' profanely so called. But these are occurrences of very recent date: only five years ago, the Order of Jesus' was an abolished Order, and the doors of the Inquisition were unhinged and broken. With the events of the last five years, therefore, the revival of Popery is identified by Mr. Blair, and it is well worthy inquiry how such a connexion has been established, and how such results have been produced.

ea We certainly do not mean to represent Popery in any other light than that in which it is proper it should be placed. We entirely accord in sentiment with the Author of these letters, as to its character and tendency; and we shall willingly and cordially do him the justice to recommend to the attentive perusal and consideration of our readers, the statements and arguments which the bast furnished. We feel it a most important duty to

guard the best liberties of mankind, and to secure their highest interests, and a fair full disclosure of the nature and history of Popery, we certainly think to be one of those means." We could wish that these letters had in some respects been different; but > as they are, we find enough in them to induce us at once to thank the Author, and to do our best towards exciting the public attention towards them.

The spirit and object of these Letters may be ascertained from the following queries.

Sir, allow me to ask you, Whether Popery be an evil? Whether it does not still exist? Whether it has undergone any radical change since the days of CRANMER and LUTHER? Whether the Papal religion be not in fact unchangeable, and every where the same, because deemed infallibly true? Whether or no we be indebted to those Martyrs, by whom the Reformation was introduced into Great Britain? Whether we ought not to feel grateful for the blessings of a subsequent Revolution in 1688, by a different class of heroes? Whether you be prepared to revoke all the legislative Acts of, our pious forefathers, by which the full exercise of religious and civik liberty has so long been ensured?....Whether you really think that a Protestant Church can long co-exist, and flourish with Popery, in Ireland, if a hundred Lay-Papists shall sit in Parliament; and if the, bulwarks of our present, Constitution be undermined, in order to admit them? Lastly, I ask, Whether you then would, or could consistently, refuse Popish Prelates and Apostolical Vicars a place (if it be demanded) in the House of Lords, or prevent their devoted friends from filling all the chief judicial offices in Ireland?

Sir, these are most serious and weighty questions; which, if you cannot answer in an instant, should make you pause, and reflect before you again vote for legislative measures that may possibly be fatal, and are not denied by yourself to be hazardous, to our best national privileges. pp. 11, 12.

The Third Letter commences with the following paragraph.

SIR,

'Though I should be one of the last men in this kingdom to wish for any interference with the religion of those who differ from me, by positive restraints or legal prohibitions; yet every government has a perfect right to know what progress is made, or effects arise, in the State, from any other religion than that which is deemed national, and what number of converts there may be, as well as what principles or means are employed for propagating such religion. If unrestricted liberty be granted, or only solicited, to teach the mass of the people, it is highly proper for the Legislature to ask whether the Petitioners and religious teachers do not promulgate doctrines subversive of civil society, or at Feast injurious to the settled form of government: otherwise, a legal encouragement and effective support may unwittingly be given to a set of men (like Mahomedans) who hold it right and just to use corporeal force, or inflict temporal chastisement, or even to maintain their religion by fire and sword." pp. 16, 17.

To the correctness of the principle which is thus assumed by the Author, we are not by any means prepared to give our assent, nor do we think that Mr. Blair himself is prepared to admit the substantial, justice of the position he so strongly" asserts. Every government unquestionably possesses the right of watching over the interests of civil society, and therefore the cognizance of civil objects is entirely appropriate to the office of the civil rulers; but to religious objects their authority cannot with justice be directed. Over the religious opinions of their subfects, rulers possess no right of interference; their competence has no other range than the effects' that arise in the State, which are opposed to its well-being, and this right is irre spective of men's religious tenets and profession. Mr. Blair would not employ positive restraints or legal prohibitions in the service of the State, against persons who differ from himself in religious profession; but can these be excluded from the office which he has assigned to Government? Can any doubt be felt, that the teachers of religious doctrines which are opposed to the tenets of the national' religion, have ever, at the commencement of an active dissent, been represented as in hostility to the settled form of government, and as promulgating doctrines subversive of civil society? What other character did Christianity. itself assume in the eyes of the Jewish Legislature,' at the time of its original propagation?

Mr. Blair animadverts with great severity on the countenance and assistance afforded by many Protestants, to the erection of Roman Catholic Chapels, and particularly notices the build'ing of Moorfields Chapel, on a most advantageous piece of 'freehold ground, kindly and generously offered by the City of 'London.'

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This eligible and central situation" for an immensely capacious Mass House, in the very heart of the metropolis, is afforded most cheerfully by its pious Citizens, at a time when Roman Catholics are clamorous for secular power, and are ready to seize the reins of civil Go vernment as one of their political rights!!! Thus shall we soon beholdA TEMPLE RAISED FOR THE TRUE WORSHIP OF GOD, NOT UN"WORTHY OF THIS GREAT CITY." See an Address, in the Laity's Directory for 1819; signed "WM. POYNTER, Bishop of Halia, V.A.L," i. e. Vicar Apostolic of the London District. Now may we therefore cry," POPERY FOR EVER.",

66

66

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Sir,, I am obliged to be serious; for I really do not write ironically, or in extravagant language, when I say that these symptoms of public, liberality," by the leaders of a vast concentrated population, strike me with awful apprehensions of what may follow at no distant period! flow is the fine gold become dim Surely we have degenerated from the faith and piety of our martyred Reformers in the days of bloody Queen Mary! Where, Sir, are the noble principles of young

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Edward and his Preceptor? Has not the glory of our English Reformation, departed? Never, never would I revive the accursed spirit of persecution; but I would recall the fervent piety and zeal of pristine times, which gave birth to Cranmer, Ridley, Farrer, Latimer, Tindale, Frith, Barnes, Coverdale, Rogers, Bradford, Taylor, Philpot, Hooper, Jewel, Fox, Parker, Nowel, Hooker, &c. men whose names and Christian views were once dear to even the Citizens of London, and whose memory You cherish in the deepest recesses of your heart. Bot what would THEY have said of Protestant Statesmen, Magistrates, or Mer3 Chants, who offer their land, or money, or influence, to build a splendid Popish Mass House almost on the spot where Reformers had preached and Martyrs died? Did our forefathers toil, and bleed, and burn, for such" liberal' descendants as these? Yet this case is by no means uncommon in other large towns: nor can we wonder if Maynooth and Stonyhurst Colleges next shall become the archetypes of similar edifices, near Waterloo Place, or St. Stephen's antiquated walls. Then will British candour and liberality have arrived at the very height of per fection!!! pp. 40, 41.

The Author attempts to prove, in these Letters, that the genius of Popery is ever the same, and it appears to us that he does prove it with complete success. The principles on which the Roman Catholic Church still acts, and the motives by which she is governed, are developed in a forcible manner, from the authentic documents which the rulers of that Church have so recently furnished. No doubt can, we think, be entertained by any impartial reader, that what Popery has been, its directors at Rome would wish it to be again. Could they release it from the control under which it is at present placed by the prevalence of knowledge and an enlightened practice, the result, and some of the best effects of Protestantism, they would instantly set it free, and accompany its resumption of its dormant attributes, with their expressions of high admiration and delight. Every thing that Protestantism includes in its elements, would be put down, and nothing would be permitted to exist but what belongs to Popery. To this part of Mr. Blair's work, too much attention cannot in our opinion be given; and every reader of his collected proofs must be convinced that the radical, the, unchanged and unchangeable character of Popery, is Intolerance. They will become sensible, if on such a point they are not already persuaded, that whatever may be the mildness and charity of some Roman Catholic writers in our own country, and their professions of liberality, it is not from them that our opinions must be formed, but from those whom they are not permitted to control; from the measures which the Vatican has suggested, and from the declarations which it has sent abroad. Mr. Butler may be prepared to allow liberty to his neighbour, in religious opinions and practice different from his own; but Mr. Butler is Shulegast edi va shem

not the Roman Catholic Church,' and this allows of no liberty in religion: it proscribes every other profession as heresy, and it looks to every species of dissent, with a determination to destroy it. Can it be supposed, that if circumstances permitted, the court of Rome would not at this very moment suppress Protestantism in all and every of its forms? And would not the dependants of the Vicar of Christ' be found ready at their posts, to direct the instruments of destruction to the mark? We would answer every insinuation and every assertion made by liberal Roman Catholics,' that the spirit of past ages is extinct in that communion, by the production of facts which they cannot invalidate. The Rulers of your Church, we would tell them, declare every species of religious profession out of its own pale, to be heresy, and that no heresy is to be spared. They are animated by implacable hatred to Protestantism, and wish for nothing so much as an opportunity to root it out for ever. We would direct the attention of Protestants, not to Mr. Butler's books, but to bulls and proclamations from the head quarters of Popery, at Rome. From these they may clearly perceive what Popery is determined on accomplishing, if ever an appropriate state of circumstances should be found to suit its wishes. Butler, we well know, owes implicit obedience to his own Church, and is totally destitute of authority as an interpreter of her will. How much of truth there is in the following passage, our readers will do well to inquire.

Mr.

Doubtless, Sir, you know that the Popes have also delegated certain powers to four Vicars Apostolic, absolutely to govern all the English and Scotch Roman Catholics who will submit to them. The tyranny with which they execute their ecclesiastical function, has often been loudly complained of, and is sometimes very annoying to both the Priests and Laymen of that communion: but it is the opinion of many great Statesmen, that such Apostolical Agents "should be expressly prohibited, within this realm," from any longer exercising their unconstitutional powers; in which opinion the late Speaker (now Lord Colchester) quite agrees.

In bis admirable Speech of May 24, 1813, on the "Relief Bill," his Lordship said, "The Apostolic Vicars are the direct diplomatic agents of the Papal See, governing ccclesiastically HALF A MILLION of His Majesty's subjects in Great Britain. By their offices they are bound to execute the mandates of the Pope, without the power of hesi tation or deliberation; and these mandates, so delivered, the great majority of the English Roman Catholics have conceived themselves conscientiously bound to obey. This was the complaint loudly made by the English Roman Catholics in 1790; and it is for their protection, as well as for our own safety, THAT NO SUCH OFFICE SHOULD BE TOLERATED WITHIN THE KING'S DOMINIONS."

-i ' In particular, he recommended that "some provision should be made (by the Legislature) for imposing an effectual restraint upon spi