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has boldly denied the divinity of tithes, and has brought to bear a most provoking array of learning and logic upon their Noli-me-targere pretentions. A deadly controversy has ensued and still rages. J. K. L. the signature which Dr. Doyle has adopted, has been answered and denounced by sundry beneficed and alphabetical characters, and tithe-loving anagrams, for these champions of the church seem reluctant to commit their names, and deep and wide spreading is the interest with which the combat is observed. Upon the merits of the questions so entirely beside my pursuits I cannot venture to pronounce ; but as far as mere exhibition of wit and knowledge, and controversial skill is concerned it seems to me that J. K. L. has hitherto continued master of the field. "You are a Jacobin and a Catholic!" cries the Rev. F. W.-"You are too fond of gold and silver," retorts J. K. L.-" Would you plunder the established Church of its vested comforts, you papist!" exclaims T. Y. X.-" Would you drive a coach and six along the narrow path that leads to heaven!" rejoins the pertinacious J. K. L.—“ Where are your athorities for your monstrous positions!" demands a third adversary muffled up in an aboriginal Irish name turned inside out." I refer you, (replies J. K. L. here evidently quite at home) to the Fathers, whom you clearly have never read, and in particular to St. Augustine, who wrote the book De Doctrina Christiana, which you have blunderingly attributed to Pope Gelasuis, and which book contains no such passage, being in another book, to wit, that against the Entychian Heresy, which in the opinion of Baronius and M. Cano, was never written by Pope Gelasuis and for further illustrations of my views, vide passim, Erric, Prosper, D' Marea, Cardinal Lupus, Cervantes and Fijo, if you know any thing of Spanish; Illirius, Vincent of Lerins, Pallivicini, Vigilantius, Ocolampadius, and the Fudge family." Here is a six month's - course of reading for J. K. L's. biliteral and triliteral opponents: and the happy results will, no doubt, be communicated in due season to the public.

The profusion of erudition and contempt with which Dr. Doyle plies his adversaries, led me to imagine before I saw him that he must be a man of a pompous and somewhat overbearing carriage, but his appearance and his manners (which I am

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told are courteous and playful) have quite a different character. He is not more I understand than forty years of age, and does not seem so much. He is indeed the most juvenile looking prelate I ever saw. His smooth round face and ruddy complexion, and his slender and pliant form, seem to belong rather to a young recruit of the church than to one of its established dignitaries. His face has a very peculiar expression—intelligence throughout, strength and an honest scorn about the mouth and lips, and in the eyes a mingled character of caution and slyness, produced by their downcast look and the overhanging of thick and shady lashes, as if he made it a point of prudence to screen from hostile observation the light and indignation, and perhaps now and then the triumph that glow within. The remark may be fanciful; but it struck me that I could discover in his controlled and measured gait, the same secret consciousness of strength, and the same reluctance to display it. Perhaps I might extend the observation to the entire of the Catholic hierarchy. How different their air and movements from those of corresponding rank in the more favoured sect! See in the streets a prelatical example of ascendancy, and with what a buoyant and lordly swing, like a vessel laden with worldly wealth and wafted before a prosperous trade wind, he rolls along! With what pride and energy, and deep seated reliance upon the eternity of tithes, he thrusts out one holy and pampered leg before the other! He tramples upon Irish ground with the familiar superiority of one who feels that an ample portion of its fertile soil is irrevocably destined by divine conveyance, collaterally secured by common and statute law, to the uses of his sacred corporation. But the Bishop of the people-how dissimilar his attitude and gesture! He picks his cautious steps as if the way were lined with penal traps ; and checks the natural impulse of humanity to appear abroad with the firm air and carriage of a man, lest a passing alderman, or tutored parrot from an orange window, should salute his ears with some vituperative cant against his politics and creed. I would suggest, however, to Dr. Doyle that he need not fear to throw out his limbs as he has done his mind. The enemies of his country have already tendered him the homage of their hatred; that of their fear and respect will inevitably follow."

Poetry.

SIR-I present you the following lines, should you consider them worth inserting in your Catholic Miscellany. The ideas arose while viewing the buryiug ground alluded to in the vicinity of the French metropolis. The shrubs and blooming flowers beautifully interspersed among the scattered tombs, small elegant marble pillars, and inscribed crosses near the graves, give it a singularly interesting appearance; though at first methought these pleasing images did steal too much from the solemn gloom and majesty of death, yet they fail not to charm when considered as the varied marks of the affectionate regard of surviving friends and relations who delight in thus honouring the mortal remains of their kindred dead. The Catholic stranger might indeed, like me, experience a higher gratification in witnessing that the Catholic christian's solicitude and regard was not confined to these simple testimonies, for walking on, I beheld an aged pious widow kneeling before the cross at her husband's grave, weeping bitterly; when the heartswelling throbs of affection had a little subsided, I drew nearer, wishing, if pos sible to alleviate her distress; she looked up at me, only exclaiming "Pray for him! pray for him!" I instantly knelt down, and joined her in a de profundis for his soul-it calmed her grief, and afforded her consolation. On my return, she again requested me to remember him in my prayers; adding how many years they had lived together in perfect harmony and happiness; and that now praying for him was her only consolation- ' It is,' said I, ' a consolation which even unites the living and the dead---by prayer, we carry our affection beyond the grave; religion enjoins it as a duty, sacred and highly pleasing to heaven; and the devout heart sympathises, approves and obeys.'

March 22, 1824.

LE CIMETIERE;

Or Garden of the dead, in the environs of PARIS, called PERE LA CHAISE.

Memento Mori.

I sat myself down on the* Bank o'er the dead,

To rest me and pause on the scene of mute sorrow;

While each marble monument silently said,

For them oh!-alas! there is no more-To morrow!

Behold where they dwell in life's early day,

Behold yon gay city-yon high tow'ring doom;
Then turn and behold a small bed of cold clay-
And no mansion-save this narrow tomb.

Still affection doth follow the peaceful retreat,

Bids the pure marble tell when each flow'r was cut down;

Bids it speak of the virtues-that ever were sweet

To the friend-who bestows the pale † Crown.

* A high bank in the ground, commanding a view of Paris.

† A small wreath or crown of everlasting flowers hung on the pillars

to read, will also learn to calculate their strength, and to devise and meditate on schemes of retaliation and revenge. They will not pacify the country, or induce the absentees to return, or the resident gentry to abide here in peace; by and bye there will be no link of connection between the Government and a zealous, if not a disaffected people. The Ministers of the establishment, as it exists at present, are and will be detested by those who differ from them in religion; and the more their residence is enforced, and their number multiplied, the mère odious they will become. This may seem a paradox in England, but whosoever is acquainted with the oppression arising from tithes and church rates, and with the excessive religious zeal which has always characterised the Irish, will freely assent to this truth, however strange it may appear; I doubt as little of it as of any other I have stated.

The Minister of England cannot look to the exertions of the Catholic Priesthood; they have been ill treated, and they may yield for a moment to the influence of nature, though it be opposed to grace. This clergy, with few exceptions, are from the ranks of the people, they inherit their feelings, they are not, as formerly, brought up under despotic governments, and they have imbibed the doctrines of Locke and Paley, more deeply than those of Bellarmin, or even of Bossuet on the divine right of Kings; they know much more of the principles of the Constitution than they do of passive obedience. If a rebellion were raging from Carricfergus to Cape Clear, no sentence of excommunication would ever be fulminated by a Catholic Prelate, or if fulminated, it would fall, as Grattan once said of British Supremacy, like a spent thunder-bolt, "some gazed at it, the people were fond to touch it."

The Catholics possessed of property in Ireland either cannot or will not render any efficient services to the Government, should eventful times arrive. The number of the ancient proprietors of land amongst the Catholics has of late years rather diminished than increased, and those who remain of them have at present less influence than at any former period of our history. The system of clanship is entirely dissolved in Ireland, the Catholic Aristocracy, as they are called, since the Penal Laws were relaxed, have gradually withdrawn themselves from

the people; they have shewn on some occasions an overweening anxiety for emancipation, at the expence of what the Priesthood and the other classes deemed the interests, if not the principles, of their religion; hence they are looked on with suspicion, and can no longer wield the public mind. The men who have purchased properties in land-who have lent their money, acquired by industry, on mortgages, those who are engaged in commerce, or in the liberal professions, are, with a few silly exceptions, on the side of the people. These are men of literature or of trade, and therefore if history and experience can be credited, they are bold, ambitious, fond of justice and of freedom-from such men the Government, should it persist in its present course, has only to expect defiance or open hostility.

Such is the view which this country must present to the eye of a British Statesman, and when he turns from it and says he knows not what to do, he professes his incompetency to guide the public Councils.

In such a state of things it behoves Parliament to apply to itself what the Roman Senate used to say to the Consul or Dictator in times of peril, Curit, ne quid respublica detrimenti patiatur, and I have little doubt, if your sentiments were adopted by it, but that Ireland could be tranquilized, the union of the countries cemented, peace and prosperity diffused, and the Empire rendered invulnerable.

These results cannot be attained by Catholic Emancipation alone, still less by those futile measures which are now in progress; if the mind of the nation be not well-directed, and the public will made to co-operate with the Legislature, the disease may be repressed or shifted, but no renovating principle of health will be infused into the frame of society.

Catholic emancipation will not remedy the evils of the tythe system, it will not allay the fervour of religious zeal-the perpetual clashing of two Churches, one elavated, the other fallen, both high-minded, perhaps intolerant; it will not check the rancorous animosities with which different sects assail each other; it will not remove all suspicion of partiality in the Government were Antoninus himself the Viceroy; it will not create that sympathy between the different orders in the state

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