able. This is the very fallacy: either the religion is suppressed and disguised, or it is more or less contradicted; and the individuals, instead of being real Romanists, are so far real Protestants *. And the very circumstance, that the

that 'Truth is mighty, and will prevail '-I presume, as it did in Italy and Spain, when the Reformation was suppressed in those countries, and in France, when Dragoons were appointed defenders of the Gallican Faith.

During the present march of intellectual libertinism, and in order to complete the career of emancipation so happily begun, if-servetur ad imum, &c.—I should not altogether despair, that a petition from the involuntary tenants of certain mansions, supposed to be necessary to public security, would be candidly admitted, and that a motion for a general gaolrelease need not anticipate unanimous rejection.

Who is not mortified and ashamed to find the illustrious, but (be it remembered) condemned, FENELON, reduced to the necessity by his church of issuing a Mandate to prepare his flock for the beneficial acceptance of the indulgences of a Jubilee, and furnishing the only instance, known to a diligent inquirer, of the specific, and lowest quantum of, alms necessary for that purpose? The fact was denied by two eminent Roman Theologians to the Minister of the Hague, C. CHAIS. 'Je la tient pourtant, he adds, 'de très bonne main & j'ose actuellement en parler avec confiance, après ce que j'ai lû dans le Recueil des Mandemens du grand Archevêque de Cambrai, l'illustre Fenelon. Entre ces Mandemens est celui qu'il donna en 1707 à l'occasion du Jubilé que Clement XI. avoit publié pour obtenir du Ciel le retour de la paix. Le plus sage et le plus pieux des Evêques s'y exprime ainsi. Au reste, comme il faut, selon la Bulle, faire quelque aumône, nous reglons que chaque particulier qui ne sera pas dans une impuissance véritable, donnera au moins trois sols pour les pauvres malades, exhortans tous ceux qui sont dans état de donner davantage de le faire à proportion de leurs facultés. The reference is, 'Recueil des Mandements de Messire François de Salignac de la Motte Fenelon, &c. Paris, 1713, page 75.' Lettres sur les Jubilés, &c. Par CHARLES CHAIS, pp. 830, 1. The passage may be found in the collected edition of the Archbishop's Works, Paris, 1817, &c., tome xviii., p. 512. I observe, that the precise sum to be given, as alms, is specified in the Bolla de la Cruzada de Urbano VIII, as

excellence which they possess is the genuine growth of our faith, is most perversely and un

it appears in the Voyages du P. LABAT, at the end of the first volume, where, after the purchaser's name, it is added, disteis in peso de plata ensayada, que es la limosna que avemos tassada, &c. I have in my possession a copy of one of these Bulls, para el Principado de Cataluña for the year 1828; and although it has some prudential variations from the former, it still ventures to state the amount, (which, as Labat affirms, is the minimum,) immediately after the name, which is inserted in writing, and is, Jusepha Casanes. That statement, immediately following, is, scontribuistei con la limosna de siete sueldos y tres dineros de ardites, moneda catalana, &c. In this Bula of the late Pope Leo XII., there are, at the end, enumerated the days on which souls may be liberated from purgatory—Dias en que se puede sacar anima de purgatorio. The disgraceful submission of the abovenamed eminent Romanist to the heresy of his church, in justifying the withholding of the scriptures from the people, is substantiated, and justly reprobated, by Mr. BLAIR, in his Letters on the Revival of Popery, Letter xxiii. pp. 152, 3. The piece containing the doctrine is a Letter to the Bp. of Arras, entitled, Sur la Lecture de l'Ecriture Sainte en langue Vulgaire, in the collection of his works, tome iii., pp. 381-413. The argument is, that originally the liberty was allowed in full; that with increasing degeneracy restraint became necessary; that the necessity began to manifest itself with the Vaudois and Albigenses, and the subsequent heretics, Wicliff, Luther, and Calvin-all supported by sufficiently abundant authorities of the times, and even by the Roman Index, though nominally disallowed in France, and the whole is fitly comprised in the concluding sentence-Enfin, il ne faut donner l'Ecriture qu'à ceux qui, ne la recevant que des mains de l'Eglise, ne veulent y chercher que le sens de l'Eglise même. If the writer had included in his hypothesis the degeneracy of the clergy, of Rome in particular, his conclusions upon the subject would have been different and juster. It might easily be anticipated, what use would be made of this perverse argument, and the authority of the individual who has condescended to use it. I have before me an Italian translation of the Letter by GIUSEPPE BRUNATI Prete, printed at Brescia, 1824, with notes. The principal object of those notes is, to apply the argument in opposition to the Bible Societies, whether British or Foreign; and they record, with exultation, its efficacy to that effect, both in the original language, and in the different languages, into which it has been translated. The notes,

graciously converted into an argument to its injury. Thus is charity made to defeat herself by being exercised on objects inversely as their

which are pretty extended, and distinguished by ability, discover, as we have before had an opportunity of observing, both the intimate knowledge and the lively interest of Italy, in what is going forward in Britain and Ireland with respect to religion. The translator quite concurs, and exults, in the opposition given to the Bible Society by individuals in this country. Some of these opponents may feel fortified by the following information of their faithful coadjutor. Oggidi cresce, si sostiene, e propagasi l' incredulità coll ajuto della Bibbia, mi scrisse l'anno andato un dotto Ecclesiastico, che ora è onorato tra le prima dignità della Chiesa, p. 48. Neither the original author nor the translator and annotator have adduced, as they might have done, a very worthy authority for the conduct of their church-Mahomet. Versutus ille pessimus astuto consilio libros veteris et novi testamenti suis sequacibus non reliquit legendos, nec etiam disputationem permisit iniquam faciendam, ne hac occasione sua falsitas detegeretur. Fasciculus Temporum ad ann. 714. The author was WARNERUS ROLWINK, a Carthusian monk. The fact, which is the more striking as well as painful, for being exhibited in the instance of such a person as Fenelon, of the uniform and necessary hostility of genuine Romanism to the diffusion and knowledge of the Scriptures, is justly and forcibly substantiated in Antichrist, Papal, Protestant, and Infidel. An Estimate of the Religion of the times: comprising a View of the Origin and Genius of the Roman Catholic Religion, and of its Identity with every form of nominal Christianity. By the Rev. JOHN RILAND, pp. 209, &c. The main and supremely important object of the work is, to prove the utter insignificance of merely nominal Christianity; and, in concurrence with Mr. Rose's State of Protestantism in Germany, demonstrates, that the simple name of Protestant confers no necessary superiority over professors of the religion against which their opponents protested and protest. The present work has no immediate bearing upon a distinction, which, however, ought always to be assumed; and any comparison instituted between the two denominations of Christianity should, in justice, be confined to the genuine and direct tendency or effect of each; when it will possibly appear, that the unchristian Protestant and the christian Romanist are each produced in equal opposition to their respective principles.

merits. Thus does truth suffer in the house, and at the hands, of her professed friends.

All this, and much more, of such unnatural reasoning and conduct might be easily, and indeed most easily, accounted for, on the supposition of either perfect ignorance, or perfect indifference for the Christianity, which, with the necessary addition of protestant to the name, this favoured nation professes. Of the principal agents, and first-movers, in the antiprotestant party, this, or even worse, might probably with truth be affirmed. Tros Rutulusve is their motto. But of some this certainly is not the fact: and their case is for that reason more the matter of lamentation. In real protestants we expect and may require, not only the profession, but an ardent love, of the purified religion with which their country is blessed; and we cordially participate in the indignant and honourable feeling, with which Mr. Wilberforce stigmatizes Dr. Robertson's 'phlegmatic account of the reformation; a subject which,' he justly adds,

we should have thought likely to excite in any one, who united the character of a Christian Divine with that of an Historian, some warmth of pious gratitude for the good providence of God *.'

* Practical View, &c. ed. 1797, pp. 386, 7, Note.

Neither is our concurrence less sincere with the late judicious and profound Dean Milner. 'I own it is with much pain, and awful foreboding of consequences, that I have observed some of our wisest and most enlightened statesmen appear to entertain such sentiments of the present state of the Roman Catholic religion as to me are wholly unaccountable, except on the hypothesis, either of almost a total ignorance of both the religious and political parts of the Papal system; or, certainly, of an irreverent contempt and carelessness respecting the one, and a dangerous misconception of the other*.* Were I disposed to fortify these sentiments by other authority, I should select a work professedly written upon the subject some years ago, and never refuted or even plausibly answered. I mean, the Revival of Popery, in Letters addressed to William Wilberforce, Esq. M. P. by the late WILLIAM BLAIR, Esq.; and it would certainly be well for the nation, if those who find time to legislate, would likewise find time to qualify themselves, by proper information, to do so without injury to interests, of which they are the

Sermons, vol. i. pp. 30, 1. He had before written, Several persons, and even some of our leading Senators, suppose that Popery has long since been abundantly meliorated. But I wish they may not be nearer the truth, who think that the spirit of Protestantism has sadly degenerated.' Church of Christ, vol. iv. Preface to Second Part.