prompted me to inquire into all things, and to deliberate whether I should take my station amongst the infidels, or remain attached to Christianity. I recollect, and always with fear and trembling, the danger to which I rashly exposed the gifts of faith and Christian morality which I had received from a bounteous God; and since I became a man, and was enabled to think like a man, I have not ceased to give thanks to the Father of mercies, who did not deliver me over to the pride and presumption of my own heart. But even then, when all things which could have influence on a youthful mind combined to induce me to shake off the yoke of Christ, I was arrested by the ma

jesty of Religion; her innate dignity, her grandeur and solemnity, as well as her sweet influence upon the heart, filled me with awe and veneration. I found her presiding in every place, glorified by her votaries, and respected or feared by her enemies. I looked into antiquity, and I found her worshiped by Moses; and not only by Moses, but that Numa and Plato, though in darkness and error, were amongst the most ardent of her votaries. I read attentively the history of the

ancient philosophers as well as lawgivers, and discovered that all of them paid their homage to her as to the best and purest emanation of the one supreme, invisible, and omnipotent God. I concluded that religion sprung from the Author of our being, and that it conducted man to his last end. I examined the systems of religion prevailing in the East; I read the Koran with attention; I perused the Jewish History, and the History of Christ, of his Disciples, and of his Church, with an intense interest, and I did not hesitate to continue attached to the religion of our Redeemer, as alone worthy of God; and being a Christian, I could not fail to be a Catholic. Since then my habits of life and profession have rendered me familiar at least with the doctrines and ordinances of divine revelation, and I have often exclaimed with Augustine, "Oh, beauty, ever ancient and ever new, too late have I known thee, too late have I loved thee!" With these sentiments, thus acquired, I come to write to you on the state of religion in Ireland, and to give you my own thoughts on the ministers of her worship.

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The Irish are, morally speaking, not only religious, like other nations, but entirely devoted to religion. The geographical position of the country, its soil and climate, as well as the state of society, have a strong influence in forming the natural temperament of the people; they are more sanguine than the English, less mercurial than the French; they seem to be compounded of both these nations, and more suited than either to seek after and indulge in spiritual affections. When it pleased God to have an Island of Saints upon the earth, he prepared Ireland from afar for this high destiny. Her attachment to the faith once delivered to her was produced by many concurrent causes, as far as natural means are employed by Providence to produce effects of a higher kind. The difference of language, the pride of a nation, the injustice and crimes of those who would introduce amongst us a second creed, are assigned as the causes of our adhesion to that which we first received. These causes have had their influence, but there was another and a stronger power labouring in Ireland for the faith of the Gospel; there was the natural disposition

of the people suited to a religion which satisfied. the mind and gratified the affections, whilst it turned them away from one whose origin, as it appeared to us, was tainted, and which stripped worship of substance and solemnity. Hence, the aboriginal Irish are all Catholics, for the few of them who have departed from the faith of their fathers only appear "rari nantes in gurgite vasto." To these are joined, especially within the ancient pale, great numbers who have descended from the first settlers, and who in process of time have become more Irish than the Irish themselves; every year also adds considerably to their numbers, not only, as we suppose, through the influence of divine grace, but also by that attractive power which abides in the multitude; so that were it not for the emoluments and pride attached to Protestantism, and the artificial modes resorted to for recruiting its strength, there would not remain in three provinces of Ireland, amongst the middling and lower classes, more than a mere remnant of the modern faith. These Catholics have for nearly three centuries been passing through an ordeal of persecution more severe than any recorded in

history. I have read of the persecutions by Nero, Domitian, Genseric, and Attila, with all the barbarities of the sixteenth century; I have compared them with those inflicted on my own country, and I protest to God that the latter, in my opinion, have exceeded in duration, extent, and intensity, all that has ever been endured by mankind for justice sake. These Catholics are now emerging from this persecution, and founding their society anew. Like the Trojans who had escaped with their household gods to the shores of the Adriatic, or like the Jews after returning from the captivity, they are employed with one hand in defending themselves against the aggressions of their implacable enemies, and with the other cleansing the holy places, rebuilding the sanctuary, making new vessels for the sacrifice, and worshipping most devoutly at their half-raised altars. The recollec tion of their past sufferings are far from being effaced; the comparative freedom which they enjoy is a relaxation of pressure, rather than a rightful possession. As religionists, they are suffered to exist, and the law restrains the persecutor, but it persecutes them of itself. They are obliged to