really taken place, and which he calculated would not happen till about a hundred years after his own time, but also declared his anticipation of a counter-revolution, of a re-action both in the political and religious world, by a revival of the two powers which were to be shaken towards the year 1794. He moreover threw out a premonition both of the cause and effect. "Atheism, Deism, Socinianism, profaneness, irreligion, scepticism, formality, hatred of Godliness, and a persecuting spirit," he said should contribute towards a restoration of influence which should be fatal for awhile to the professors of the reformed faith. The House of Bourbon* is reseated upon the throne from which they were hurled; it remains now to be seen, whether Popery will also resume any part of that fearful domination which it once held. The signs of the times are, it must be confessed, strongly in favour of Mr. Fleming's conjecture, that it will: we heartily pray that his apprehensions may not be realized; as were those of Archbishop Usher, who, forty years before any of the things came to pass, announced the divisions in England, the confusions in Ireland, and the persecutions of the Protestant churches which took place during the seventeenth century. Should it, however, be determined in the counsels of infinite wisdom, that such perilous times, as have before visited this land again come upon us, as a thief in the night," and should the Protestant church be even humbled in the dust, still may we say with the pious, patient Melancthon:" In tantis imperiorum ruinis, ipsa periculorum moles ostendit, humanis consiliis aut præsidiis Ecclesiam Dei non servari, sed petendam et expectandam esse a Deo æterno defensionem, qui quidem pollicetur, se etiam senescentem Ecclesiam servaturum esse.. His divinis promissionibus confirmati, non abjiciamus studia literarum Ecclesiæ necessaria; sed speremus et mansuram esse Ecclesiam, et non defutura ei in aliquibus politiis hospitia, et labores nostros posteritati profuturoś. Quod faciat Filius Dei, Servator et Custos. Ecclesiæ suæ." We are strongly tempted to add the following extract from the singular work before us. "It is true the King of France seems now to have got more glory than ever by the accession of his Grandson to the Spanish Monarchy. And who knows but this advancement may lay the foundation of the ruin and decay of the French power, by exhausting that kingdom both as to men and money in defence of a weak monarchy ?" !!! DEBATES IN PARLIAMENT RELATIVE TO THE CHURCH. In the Session of 1824 there were fewer proceedings calculated to excite a general and intense interest in the public mind than have been recorded for many years. Foreign affairs scarcely furnished materials for half a dozen animated debates, and the peaceful aspect of our relations abroad left ample time for Parliament to take under its notice the internal regulations of the kingdom. In both Houses there were frequent motions upon subjects connected with the support of our ecclesiastical establishments, and the result of these has been such, for the most part, as will be gratifying for us to communicate, and for our readers to peruse. Two of the clauses in the King's Speech, delivered at the opening of the Session, in his Majesty's name, by the Lord Chancellor, intimated that Parliament might expect to find that their enquiries, as to the religious and moral condition of the people, would be met by information of the most satisfactory kind. "At no former period has there prevailed, throughout all classes of the community in this island, a more cheerful spirit of order, or a more just sense of the advantages, which, under the blessing of Providence, they enjoy." "In Ireland, which has for some time past been the subject of his Majesty's particular solicitude, there are many indications of amendment, and his Majesty relies upon your combined endeavours to secure the welfare and happiness of that part of the united kingdom." Two other clauses in the Speech announced that measures for the improvement and happiness of the King's subjects in the distant colonies, and for the extension of our Church establishment, and propagation of Christianity in foreign parts, would also form an important feature in the parliamentary transactions of the year. "His Majesty has commanded us to acquaint you, that he has not been inattentive to the desire expressed by the House of Commons in the last Sessions of Parliament, that means should be devised for ameliorating the condition of the Negro slaves in the West Indies." "His Majesty is confident that you will afford your best attention and assistance to any proposition that may be submitted to you for promoting the moral improvement of the Negroes by an extended plan of religious instruction, and by such other measures as may gradually conduce to the same end." HOUSE OF COMMONS. Feb. 16, 1824. IRISH CLERGY RESIDENCE BILL. Mr. Goulburn rose to move for leave to bring in a Bill to compel, as far as was possible, the residence of the Clergy of Ireland upon their benefices. The right hon. Secretary said, he did not mean to detain the House long by explaining the particulars of the measure which he was to propose, but could not help pressing upon their attention the importance of the residence of the Clergy in a country where they had not only their own religious duties to perform, but were required also to minister to other wants, which the absence of the gentry occasioned. The form of the Bill would be in most respects similar to the existing law on the same subject in England; it would considerably confine the grounds upon which pleas of exemption would be allowed, and provide that the stipends of the Curates should be proportioned to the value of the benefices, and to the extent of the population under their care. He then concluded by moving for leave to bring in & Bill" to amend the laws for enforcing the residence of spiritual persons on their banefices." Sir J. Newport expressed his readiness to concur in any measures which should be calculated to carry the object of the right hon. gentleman into effect, but thought the best means of doing so would be by preventing the beneficed Clergy from holding pluralities. He then went on to state, that there were several instances in which Clergymen, already holding five, six, and even ten livings, had obtained faculties, by which they were permitted to unite to those benefices three or four more parishes, and attempted to confirm his statement by adducing names and cases. The right hon. Bart. did not however succeed in establishing his position on the very broad basis which he had marked out, and was not fortunate enough to make it clear to the House that any Clergyman in Ireland was holding even half the number of livings of which he spoke. Mr. Hume said, he hoped that care would be taken to insert a clause depriving the Bishops of the power of granting facul ties, but felt satisfied that nothing effectual would be done till the whole Church system in Ireland should be remodelled, and the Church revenue reduced to onefourth at the least. Mr. Dawson declared that he objected to any interference with Church property in Ireland, and entered into a spirited defence of the Irish Clergy, whom he represented as performing their duty in a most exemplary manner, as zealous ministers of the Gospel, upright magistrates, and moral and valuable citizens. Colonel Trench allowed that there might be some abuses in the system, which required amendment, but this could only be done gradually, and by the use of the utmost circumspection and delicacy. Mr. Butterworth expressed an opinion, that many persons frequented Roman Catholic chapels, and ultimately became Roman Catholics, because they had no Protestant Churches to go to, inasmuch as many Churches had been suffered to go to ruin in consequence of the union of parishes. Mr. Goulburn replied by shewing, that the right feeling and activity of the Irish Prelates had materially contributed to the improvement of the Irish Church of late years, and that they had succeeded in dissolving many unions, but it could not be expected that such a state of things as was desired, should be brought about at once, and by a single Act of Parliament. Leave was given to bring in the Bill. HOUSE OF COMMONS. EDUCATION OF ROMAN CATHOLIC POOR IN Mr. Grattan rose to present a Petition from the Roman Catholic Bishops and Clergy of Ireland, which alledged that the funds appropriated by Parliament to the Education of the Poor in Ireland amounted to a very large sum, but were distributed in a manner so totally at variance with the principles of the Roman Catholic religion, that the Roman Catholics could derive no benefit from them. The indiscriminate use of the Bible in the schools supported by these funds, was one of the principal complaints of the Petition. The hon. gentleman stated to the House, that an additional grant would be asked for this year, and inveighed against the insufficiency of a system, upon which nearly half a mil lion had been expended in the course of seventeen years, without educating more than 2000 individuals. From his own knowledge he could speak of the gross mismanagement of the Kildare-street Association, whose funds were increased from 4000l. a year to 70001. a year, and upon a future occasion, he would move for a Committee, to take into consideration the distribution of money destined for the education of the poor. Mr. Goulburn said, he should be prepared, as soon as any motion upon the subject was brought forward, to defend the system complained of. In the mean time he should broadly deny that there had been any mismanagement in the funds allowed for education, and should express his entire dissent from the principle laid down by the Petitioners, that an appropriate fund should be set aside for the education of the Irish Roman Catholic Poor. A Protestant Government had a right to impose so moderate a restraint, as the only one which had been enforced, in the application of the funds now under discussion, namely, that the Scriptures, without note or comment, should be read in such schools as were to benefit by a grant. Sir J. Newport lamented that this Petition had been presented before the whole subject had been investigated before a Committee, and deprecated any discussion until an enquiry could be made. Mr. Dawson objected to the form of the Petition, and to the Roman Catholic Bishops considering themselves a corporation. He defended the Kildare-street Society, and shewed the advantages resulting from its operations, by stating that whereas in 1773 there were but eight schools in the west and south-west of Ireland, there were now 1122. Mr. Plunket maintained that his hon. friend was mistaken on the subject of form, and insisted that the Roman Catholic Bishops of Ireland were as much Bishops as the Protestant Bishops, and that if they were to conform to the Protestant faith they would be Bishops of the Protestant Established Church, without any further consecration. Mr. Abercromby observed that great good had been effected in Ireland, where the practice of reading the Bible in schools, without note or comment, had prevailed, and regretted that the subject should become a matter of public discussion. Mr. V. Fitzgerald thought his hon. friend (Mr. Grattan) was in error when he stated that the good effects resulting from the grant had not been conformable to the expectations of Parliament. In two coun ties of Ireland, almost exclusively Roman Catholic, Limerick and Cork, the schools had increased progressively since 1817 from 3 to 108, and the Reports of the Commissioners of Education proved what benefits had resulted to Ireland from the Kildare-street Association. It appeared from these reports, that by printing and circulating cheap works of a moral and religious tendency, to the amount of 784,000, it had "completely beaten out of market" publications of the vilest nature, which had previously been disseminated. Mr. Dominick Brown allowed that the Kildare-street Association had certainly done a great deal of good, but thought it would have done a thousand times more, had it not insisted, as a sine qua non, on the Bible being read in every school, to which it afforded assistance. The hon. gentleman went on to declare his opinion, that all the difficulties and misfortunes of Ireland arose from the Established Church, and the disproportion of its revenues to the Protestant population of the country, and concluded by asserting that there would be no peace in Ireland till his Majesty should enter into a concordat with the Pope, and connect the State with the Roman Church. Mr. Peel said, that in the Education of the Poor of Ireland two rules should be observed, first, to unite as far as possible the children of Roman Catholics and Protes tants in one common system, and secondly, to discard all idea of proselytism, Mr. Grattan replied by acknowledging that the Kildare-street Society could not be charged with proselytism, and that it had shewn great liberality in permitting the reading of Scriptures in the Roman Catholic version. The Petition was then brought up and read. The first clause shewed that the Petitioners had ever laboured to promote the education of the poor, but with inadequate means of preparing or remunerating teach ers, or building schools. The second and third declared their con viction that an education combining religious instruction is the most efficient means of improving the population of Ireland. The fourth clause was literally as follows, "That the Roman Catholics have ever considered the reading of the sacred Scriptures by children, as an inadequate means of imparting to them religious instruction; as an usage whereby the word of God is made liable to irreverence, youth exposed to misunderstand its meaning, and thereby not unfrequently to receive in early life impres sions which may afterwards prove injurious to their best interests, as well as to those of the society which they are destined to form." The fifth and sixth set forth that the Parliamentary grant for the education of the poor in Ireland, had been subjected to such regulations as rendered it nearly useless to the Roman Catholic poor. The seventh complained that in all instances where aid is intended to be given by the Society for the education of the poor in Ireland, to schools under the immediate in fluence of Roman Catholics, the laws of the Society are evaded. The eighth suggested that any system of education incompatible with the discipline of the Roman Catholic church, cannot be acceptable to members of it. The ninth complained of the public funds, granted for the education of the poor, being entrusted exclusively to persons promoting a system of education opposed to the discipline of the Roman Catholic church. The tenth shewed that it would be consistent with the liberal policy of the House to promote education among the Roman Catholics consonant with their religious belief. The eleventh and last clause, prayed the House to take their petition into consideration. what they call the Biblical plague. One of the Irish Prelates, Dr. Doyle, who signed the above petition, shortly afterwards declared himself more openly, in his Letter to the Catholic Association. "Notwithstanding my abhorrence of the demoralizing and anti-christian principle, of committing the sacred Scriptures to the interpretation of every prating sophist, of every senseless child, of every silly old woman, I have tolerated their introduction into those few schools, where the reading of it was so guarded, that no abuse of it could be reasonably apprehended." HOUSE OF COMMONS. IRISH TITHES COMPOSITION BILL. Mr. Goulburn presented himself before the House to move for leave to bring in a Bill to amend the Tithes Composition Act of last Sessions. The line of argument pursued by the Right Hon. Gentleman was, that however necessary any measure might be, it could not be rendered so perfect at once, as to supersede any future amendment; that the principle of commutation of tithes, for a limited time, was essentially It is manifest from the tenor of this petition, and from the nature of several transactions in Ireland, when the circulation of the Scriptures has become a question, that the grand and cardinal principle just, and that it was likely to be hailed with of the Roman Catholic church to keep the Laity in ignorance of the holy text, and to prevent the Bible becoming a book of religious instruction, is still as active and uncompromising as ever. The Prelates of the Roman church avow their hostility to any plan of education wherein the knowledge of the word of God, as it is plainly set forth in the Old and New Testaments, is made a component part; and the Popish Bishops of Ireland feel themselves so strong, that they demand of a Protestant government nothing less than a separate fund to secure their communicants from the contagion of VOL. I. NO. I. satisfaction, as was evident from the progress which had already been made by the act, since the last Session. Up to the middle of last month more than a thousand applications had been received from different parishes for special vestries to carry into effect the proposed arrangements, 507 of which were from the Clergy, and 526, either from lay impropriators, or (with only 23 exceptions) from the landholders of the parish. The lower classes, in particular, had expressed themselves in favour of the Bill, and the rates, at which the composition had been effected in different parishes, shewed that the Clergy had not been grasping at large receipts. In the diocese of Cashel, where there was some of the richest and best cultivated land in Ireland, the average of composition had been 2s. 14d. per acre, and in that of Clonfert 11d. only. The Right Hon. Gentleman next went into a variety of details, which are incapable of abridgment, to shew how certain difficulties, S |