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Spain; and of various other crimes which rendered their expulsion no longer a matter of choice, but of absolute necessity. The Moors of Valentia, in particluar, were declared "apostates from the Christian faith; and were, besides, so obstinate and inflexible in their infidelity, that whatever means should be employed, no hopes could justly be entertained of their conversion."

When the nobles of Valentia were informed of these proceedings, they presented a remonstrance to the king, pointing out the impossibility of the measure in such strong terms, that Phihip promised that six families out of every hundred should be allowed to remain in Spain, as well as all the infants under four years of age, provided their parents and guardians had no objection to this arrangement. The dismay and despair which seized this unhappy people are beyond all description, when informed of the king's intentions respecting them; but every precaution had been taken to prevent their making any resistance; troops were placed in various parts of the country through which they were marched by thousands to the southern provinces. The Moors unanimously rejected the offer that was made them, of allowing six families in every hundred to remain in the peninsula, and violently and firmly refused to leave any part of their families. Many of their children, under four years of age, were, however, stolen, and many were torn from them by force! Some few of the most courageous had taken arms, and fled to the mountains for protection, with their wives and children, but they were very soon driven from their haunts, and 3000 perished by the sword. The remainder, to the amount of two and twenty thousand, were transported to Africa, except the children under seven years of age, who, by a refinement of cruelty, were sold as slaves by the soldiers.

What an affecting picture must the departure of the Moors have presented! so many thousands of unhappy beings driven like flocks of sheep from their native fertile plains, and compelled to seek a home amidst the burning sands

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and desert shores of Africa. can paint the anguish of a scene like this, or describe the frantic grief of those unhappy mothers, whom a barbarous and mistaken zeal had deprived of their beloved and smiling infants? Who (to use the pathetic expression of a modern historian) could contemplate this "sorrow of sorrows," without feeling his heart beat high with indignation at the short-sighted and cruel policy of Philip and his ministers ? Oh, 'tis excellent To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous To use it like a giant.

Is it at all suprising that the Moors, who had suffered so much from the vo taries of Christianity, should feel reluctant to embrace a faith, the professors of which had convinced them, by their actions, that cruelty formed its principal ingredient? The prisons and dungeons of the Inquisition had witnessed the agonizing death of hundreds of their countrymen. If, instead of torture and the rack, the clergy of Spain had painted the Christian religion in its true and sublime colours; if they had followed the example of its benign founder; and, like him, had practised the virtues of meekness, patience, charity, and good-will towards men, how different might have been the result.

The humanity of the barons of Valentia presents a striking contrast with the unchristian conduct of those whose profession should have taught them mercy and compassion.

The Moors of Valentia and Grenada departed first, to the amount of 140,000 individuals, men, women, and children; of these 100,000 are said to have suffered a variety of deaths within a few short months after their embarkation for Africa; some were shipwrecked; some were thrown overboard by the Spaniards; many died of hunger; many were massacred by the African Bedoweras, and many perished from the inclemency of the weather. about six thousand who set out for Algiers from Conastal, one single person only reached the destined goal! The misfortunes of these unhappy people, though well known in Spain, did not excite any feelings of remorse; their

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brethren were compelled to follow their weary and now hopeless steps; and nearly half a million of the most industrious and most indefatigable subjects of Spain were thus cruelly and wantonly sacrificed. Her loss was irreparable, and to this present day the effects of this expulsion of the Moors are severely and deservedly felt in the Peninsula.

(From the British Critic, for April, 1821.) Review of a Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocess of Killaloe, at the Primary Visitation, Thurs day, August 3d, 1820. By Richard Mant, D. D. Bishop of Killaloe and Kilfenora. 8vo. 62 pp. Rivingtons. THE Bishop of Killaloe has been early in the field. A few months only had elapsed from the date of his consecration, when, as he observes in the opening of his Charge, he called his Clergy together that he and they might "have the mutual benefit of forming a personal knowledge of each other, as a preliminary to that good understanding and brotherly intercourse" which, he trusts, will in future subsist between them.

The observations which he felt himself called upon to address to them, on this occasion, were, of course, to be considered as introductory to the topics on which he might afterwards feel it necessary to enlarge; and as intended to give a general idea of the points to which he wished their attention to be chiefly directed. It was not possible that, in so short a space of time, he should have been able to obtain any precise and accurate knowledge of the particular state of every parish in his very extensive Diocess: but he expresses himself in terms of thankfulness to his Clergy, for the readiness with which they have afforded him much valuable information; and he has been enabled, even in this his first Charge, to take such a view of the general state of the Diocess, as will be gratifying to every zealous member of the united Church; and may, perhaps, operate to disabuse some, who have given too hasty credence to the evil report of her enemies.

To those who have been taught to believe, that the office of a Protestant Clergyman in Ireland is a mere sinecure; that either he has no church in which to officiate, or if a church, no congregation to instruct or pray with; that his communications with his parishioners are chiefly made through the medium of his tithe-proctor; and his connexion with them, more than of a non-resident landlord, than of a careful and industrious pastor:-to such persons we recommend a careful perusal of this interesting Charge. They will then see, how much progress has been made towards remedying the real evils which did exist; and how greatly those which remain have been exaggerated; they will find no reason to believe, that, even under the discouraging and afflicting circumstances in which the established Clergy have been placed in Ireland, they have been careless in improving any opportunity of usefulness afforded them; or negligent of the means of improving the Ecclesiastical condition of their country, which have been provided by their superiors in the Church or the State. And from the general tenor of Bishop Mant's observations, we think we are justified in concluding that, due regard being had to the scanty amount of the Protestant population in his Diocess, the public ministrations of the Church are well attended, and its influence upon the opinions and conduct of its members proportionably efficient.

We pass over many useful remarks on the mode of performing divine service, on the behaviour of the congregation, on the administration of the sacrament of baptism, and on the duty of catechising, that we may be enabled to lay before our readers, somewhat more at length, the observations of the Bishop on that topic, which more immediately concerns the Clergy of Ireland; and comprehends, indeed, one of the most urgent, as well as the most difficult, of their duties. We allude to their conduct towards that very large proportion of their parishioners who are still involved in the darkness and errors of the Romish superstition.

At any time, and under any circum stance, the task imposed upon a Pro

testant Clergyman, surrounded by a Roman Catholic population, and vigilantly observed and unceasingly opposed by a priest, who regards him as a rival, and an intruder, as well as a heretic, would be sufficiently formidable. But its hardships and its perils are now increased tenfold by the prevailing liberalism of the day; by the strange medley of interests, which have rendered so many of the Protestant laity of Ireland avowed advocates of Popish claims, and at least indifferent observers of the struggles and hazards of the established Church.

It is not to be doubted, that every Clergyman will feel an anxious desire to exert all the influence, which properly belongs to him, so far as it can prudently and usefully be exerted, in extending the knowledge of pure religion, and contracting the sphere of operation of that corrupt system of Christian faith and practice, by which he perceives the people committed to his charge to be peculiarly beset and entangled.

But when he finds, that he will not only have to contend with all the arts and subtleties which the teachers of that corrupt system can invent or employ to retard his progress; not only be called upon to endure the labours, and to brave the personal dangers, which beset the zealous preacher of truth to a population bigoted to error, and moved by interest and passion, operating upon poverty, ignorance, and a character constitutionally irritable, to vex and persecute him; and when his ardour is further damped by the persuasion, that those to whom he might have looked in other times for approbation and support, will perhaps slight or censure him, as a bigot or enthusiast, instead of defending him in his well-meant endeavours to fulfil his duty-in such discouraging circumstances, it may be feared that the zeal of many will wax cold; that prudence will degenerate into timidity; and excessive caution produce many of the baneful effects of indifference. We rejoice, then, to find Bishop Mant hold ing a firm and decided language upon this subject; pressing upon his Clergy the solemn obligation under which they

have passed, to be "ready, with all faithful diligence, to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines, contrary to God's word;" and calling upon them to discharge that obligation with meekness and gentleness as ministers of Christ; but with zeal also, and spirit, and perseverance, as those to whom the Gospel has been committed, and on whom a fearful woe has been pronounced if they preach it not. After stating, with considerable force, that "they were doctrines of the Church of Rome, against which, signally and especially, it was the intention of our reformed Church to direct, by this engagement, the watchful and persevering efforts of her ministers ;" and producing abundant evidence from her public formularies in support of his position; the Bishop thus introduces some general observations on the manner in which this delicate and difficult duty may be best performed. :

"The duty then of endeavouring to extend the knowledge of pure religion, and to contract the sphere of operation of that corrupt system of Christian faith, by which we in this Diocess are surrounded, may be considered as beyond a reasonable question. As to the manner of performing this duty, much" difference of opinion may probably prevail amongst men, equally persuaded of the obligation which lies upon them; equally impressed with a sense of its importance; and equally anxious to discharge it. Indeed, I know not a more delicate or arduous situation, generally speaking, in which a conscientious minister of the United Church of England and Ireland can be placed, than that of the Clergy of this portion of the empire: none, in which he has more urgent occasion for 'zeal according to knowledge,* for 'sobriety' united with vigilance,' for activity tempered by moderation: none in which he has more occasion to combine the wisdom of the serpent' with the 'harmlessness of the dove."+"

To accomplish this desirable end, the Bishop first recommends his Clergy to be frequent and zealous in the

Rom. x. 2. † 2 Pet. v. 8. Matt. x. 16.

use of those "private monitions and exhortations to the sick as well as to the whole, within their respective cures," which the Church enjoins them to employ "as need shall require, and occasion shall be given." Thus only indeed can they hope to influence the minds of their Roman Catholic parishioners; who certainly will not resort to them for instruction from the pulpit, and who are little likely to be conciliated by hearing from others, that their peculiarities of opinion are made the continual subject of public censure, for the edification of their Protestant neighbours. It is only by personal visitation, by kind offices, by gentle persuasion, by gradually inculcating the truth, and patiently unravelling the entanglements of error, in which these unhappy children of ignorance have been bound from infancy, that any good can be effected.

The next means of diffusing the genuine truths of the Gospel among the lower orders of the community, which Bishop Mant recommends to the particular attention of his Clergy, is that of making extensive provision for their education, in the true meaning of that much used but frequently misapplied term. He urges them to labour, that the children of the poor may be supplied, not merely with the means of acquiring knowledge, by teaching them to read and write; as if these faculties when acquired were the whole of education; but also with those sound principles of virtue and religion, which may, under the Divine Blessing, enable them to employ all their faculties, whether natural or acquired, to their own advantage as Christians, and for the common benefit of that society of which they are members. He considers the real object of education to be then only attained, when the child is "virtuously brought up to lead a godly and a Christian life?" and it is to making provision for this education, thus embracing with the inculcation of sound principles those subsidiary gifts, especially that of reading, which may open to their possessor the road to continual progress in Christian knowledge, that he wishes them to direct their zealous efforts.

VOL. V.

"The education of the poor then, ought, in my judgment, to be regarded by us as the instrument, not of politi cal, or civil, or merely moral, improvement, but of religious improvement: our great and ultimate object in the furtherance of their education should be to establish our poorer brethren in the knowledge, profession, and practice of the Christian religion pure and undefiled. The more steadily we proceed upon this principle, and the more successfully we labour for the attainment of this object, the greater will likewise be the other advantages which our efforts will comprise. Such advantages are either necessarily involved in this great and ultimate object, or may be easily rendered incidental to it. If we improve our scholars in a practical knowledge of genuine Christianity, we must inevitably make them better members of society and of the state, in all their various relations: at the same time that we so improve them, we may also initiate them in useful branches of human knowledge. But it does not appear to me, that to make · the poor decent, orderly, and correct in their civil and social relations, abstractedly considered; still less does it appear to me, that to make them good writers or good arithmeticians, is the proper rule and scope of our exertions in their education.

Our business is,

not indeed to neglect these advantages, all of them more or less important, and some of which, as I have already said, must, and others may and probably will, follow; but our business mainly and above all other things is to make them good Christians. To this consideration every other, which can be named, is secondary and subordinate."

The remaining instrument which the reverend Prelate admonishes his Clergy to employ in their pious labours is the Bible, which he strongly recommends them diligently but judiciously to distribute; accompanied by the Book of Common Prayer, and such other smaller works, as are calculated to assist the unlearned reader in understanding the sacred volume, and in acquiring a comprehensive and correct view of the great truths of Christianity. Our prescribed limits will not permit

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us to follow the Bishop, in his statements of the argument for the necessity and propriety of thus bestowing the Bible in conjunction with the valuable commentary contained in our Liturgy, and those further aids towards the right understanding of the Scriptures, bestowed in the various excellent and long approved tracts, drawn up at different times by the soundest and ablest divines of the united Church, for the especial benefit of the poor and illiterate. We must content ourselves with extracting the following passage, which contains a very seasonable caution to those, who, in their zeal to bring over the Roman Catholic from the errors of that corrupt Church, may overlook the necessity of guarding their convert from the equally dangerous mistakes into which he may fall, if he too hastily and implicitly trust himself to the guidance of some Protestant teachers.

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"At the same time that we are endeavouring to deliver these our misguided brethren from their besetting delusions, let us steadily bear in mind, that this is not the whole of our engagement, and ought not to constitute our sole and exclusive object. It is notorious, that at the period of the Reformation many false doctrines were maintained, and many unchristian practices were instituted, by certain among those, who, taking, as they professed, the Holy Scriptures for their only guide, set themselves in the most decided opposition to the Church of Rome. It is, I think, equally notorious, that in the present day, there are not wanting persons, zealous in their appeal to the Scriptures and in their opposition to the Romish errors, who are no less zealous in the propagation of doctrines at variance with the Christian truth, and in the encourage ment of practices incompatible with Christian peace and unity. As the Church of England, whilst she condemned the Romish corruptions, saw good reason to guard, in several of her articles, against the more modern inventions of zealous but ignorant reformers; so it is our business, as ministers of the Church in the present day, to strive that we may maintain our holy faith in its integrity; and, whilst we take the

sacred volume for our ground in resisting the false doctrines of the Romanist, to give heed that the same precious deposit be not perverted to evil purposes, and made the occasion of disseminating any other 'false doctrine, heresy, or schism.' In order to this, our distribution of the Holy Scriptures should be accompanied by the exercise of our of fice in that department of it, which specially belongs to us as ministers of the Gospel; namely, the interpretation of the word of God. And as we should exercise it by our personal diligence, both in public and in private, so shall we often be enabled to exercise it most usefully and effectually by means of written expositions of the doctrines and duties of Christianity. All this, I trust, you will agree with me, my reverend brethren, is not to discourage an ample circulation of the Holy Bi ble; still less is it to depreciate that sacred volume, which we reverentially regard, and studiously allege, as the sole fountain and well-head of all religious knowledge. Although I would

not lavish it with indiscriminate and unprofitable profusion, I would most gladly distribute it, wherever there exists a reasonable hope of its being received with due estimation, and made the occasion of religious improvement. At the same time I would further testify my profound veneration for it, by endeavouring to protect it from those abuses, to which it has been unhappily exposed amongst the unlearned and unstable ;** and to render it, with the good blessing of its heavenly Author, as efficacious as possible, in converting men from darkness into the pure light of the Gospel, and in maintaining them in the true knowledge and service of Almighty God through Jesus Christ our Lord."

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We must here close our extracts from this useful Charge. It is, we hope, but the first of a series, which may be expected from the pen of this able and indefatigable Prelate, to whom we look with confidence for information of the most valuable kind respecting the real state of the Irish Church; and from whose zealous exertions in his high and

2 Peter iii. 16.

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