Papists, the advancement of infidelity, which, where Popery prevails, universally gains ground.

The latest and newest, and what to all appearance is the most decisive as it is certainly the most cruel method of attack devised-is that which has been the cause of our coming together on the present occasion; the attempt, as it has been well described, to starve the Church out of Ireland, by withholding from the Clergy all their rights and dues; an attempt which I trust the zeal and benevolence of England will frustrate and defy '.

1 This endeavour to starve Protestantism out of Ireland has not the charm of novelty, as the following passage from Leland, vol. iii. p. 542, will show : "We were at a loss," saith Archbishop King, "what the meaning of taking away corn from the Protestant farmers, house-keepers, and bakers should be, when there was no scarcity in the kingdom. But Sir Robert Parker and some others blabbed it out in the coffee-house, that they designed to starve one half of the Protestants, and hang the other; and that it would never be well till this were done. We were sensible that they were in earnest by the event,-for no Protestant could get a bit of bread, and hardly a drop of drink, in the whole city of Dublin. Twenty or thirty soldiers stood constantly about every bakehouse, and would not suffer a Protestant to come near them. Such representations," continues the historian, 66 are sometimes derided as the fictions of an inflamed party. But, however improbable these instances of senseless tyranny may appear, they are confirmed by the undoubted traditions received from sufferers, and transmitted with every circumstance of credibility." These things took place in

But it is not only of the attacks and manoeuvres of her avowed enemies, that the Church of Ireland

the reign of James the Second. Perhaps I may be pardoned for making another quotation from the same Author. "The Protestant Clergy were, by this time, deprived for the most part of their subsistence. They could recover no dues from nonconformists-for these were, by the late Act for Liberty of Conscience, exempted from the jurisdiction of the Ecclesiastical Courts. They could demand no tythes from the numerous body of Roman Catholics-while Popish Incumbents, who every day multiplied by death, cession, or absence of Protestants, exacted them from all parties. Yet, in the day of persecution, both Clergy and Laity felt an unusual fervour of devotion, and crowded to their places of worship. The Popish Government was offended, and probably alarmed, at these meetings. A proclamation was issued, confining Protestants to their respective parishes, which, in effect, excluded great numbers from public worship, as, in several parts of Ireland, two parishes or more had but one Church." Leland, vol. iii. p. 544. However absurd it may be to suppose, as those orators will persuade us, who attend rather to the pomp of words than to the truth of things, that it would be possible for the Papists to repeat in these days the atrocities practised in the reign of Queen Mary, yet it is by no means absurd to dread the repetition of such miseries as those described above; so far otherwise, the passages quoted from Leland might with very little alteration be received as descriptive of passing events-save that the Papists were then encouraged by the mistaken piety, and now by the sinful indifference, of our civil governors. However much their mode of application may vary, the principles of Popery remain the same, and those principles are, as the learned and candid Franciscan Father Walsh admits, as follows:-"That the advancement of Christ's kingdom, i. e. of the Papal Church,

has to complain. She suffers not less from the indifference, the carelessness, the lukewarmness

:

being the great consummation of the Divine will, and the end of human existence, all particular laws of God, of nature, or of civil society must be regulated by it; that, therefore, actions otherwise criminal-such as perjury, treason, or murder, may, by a new relation to this supreme law, change their moral character that heresy, being directly subversive of Christ's kingdom, is an infamous crime, which annihilates all rights, and is sufficient to exclude men from all civilized communion: that the Pope is the supreme authority, both in spiritual and temporal things, having the power of both swords, particularly in countries where the civil authority has lapsed by heresy that the Clergy, being the immediate servants of the Pope, are exempt, both in person and property, from the jurisdiction of secular tribunals."-Phelan, ii. 330. That we should regard with more than ordinary suspicion a sect in which such tenets are avowed, is certainly not surprising. Nor is the expression of our fears to be silenced by any reference to the tolerant conduct of Papists in foreign parts. The lion may be gentle as the lamb, when, not tempted by hunger, he is unprovoked and unopposed. And so, where Popery is dominant, and Protestantism lukewarm, Popery may assume an aspect of meekness and benevolence, not because its principles are changed, but because it has no occasion to act upon them. It is when Popery is aggressive, when it is contending for the mastery-as is now the case in Ireland—when its policy is to put down Protestantism, that we dread the consequence of principles which, though not always acted on, have never yet been renounced. We may

admit, that the Romish Church may be as the American savage, a tender parent,-what we complain of is, that, as an enemy, she has recourse to wicked, and unlawful, and cruel modes of warfare.

to use no stronger terms-of those who profess to be her political friends. And as, perhaps, less of sympathy is felt for the Irish Clergy, and certainly more allowance made for the excesses of the Roman Priesthood in that country, from an ignorance of the relative position of the two parties, to this subject I proceed to request your attention.

Judging from the colloquial language of the day, it would seem to be the prevailing opinion, that at the time of the Reformation, an old Church was turned out, and a new Church brought in ;that of the old Church, the Papists are the representatives, as the Protestants are the descendants of the intruders. Now this is just what the Papists desire you to concede; for they know full well that there is always some allowance made for those who, in contending, are contending only for what was once their own. And this concession is always virtually made--so great is the force of words-whenever we give or permit them to assume the almost sacred title of Catholics. The property of the Church of Ireland, they argue, once belonged to the Catholics; we are Catholics, and, therefore, if all men had their rights, that property would be ours. And how is this argument to be met-especially by those who deny the right of the State to seize the property which, by various private bequests, has

1

been given to the Church? how-but by positively denying the justice of their claim to be called the Catholics of Ireland, and by proving, as we can prove, and as, by God's blessing, I now intend to prove, that in appropriating that title, they are guilty of taking what does not belong to them? To prove this, we must have recourse again to history.

Of the first introduction of Christianity into Ireland, we have no authentic records, nor is it necessary to search for them—since, of the present Church, the founder, under God, was St. Patrick. From him it is that the Protestant Clergy can-and only they-trace their succession, and through him, from the Apostles themselves. That, by a regular series of consecrations and ordinations, the succession from Patrick and Palladius, and the first Irish Missionaries, was kept up until the reign of Elizabeth, our enemies will, themselves, allow'. The question therefore is, whether that succession was at that time lost. And this we defy our adversaries to prove. It is a well-known fact, that, of all the countries of Europe, there was not one in which the process of the Reformation was carried on so regularly, so canonically, so quietly, as it was

'The "History of the Irish Bishops," from the time of St. Patrick, is written by Sir James Ware.