England, quite independent; a proof, amongst many, of his lordship's incaution and want of knowledge. In every county of England there are Catholic chapels and congregations. Altogether there are about 900 chapels, mostly erected within the last twenty-five years; and generally clean, commodious, and well built. Lancashire alone counts upwards of one hundred Catholic chapels. Moreover, most of the Catholic country gentlemen of fortune maintain chapels in their houses. Service is performed daily in the private chapel, and the traveller is freely admitted to assist at the office. In the summer 1813, Dr. Smith, (the vicar-assistant to the venerable Dr. Gibson,) in the northern district, confirmed the following numbers of Catholic children, in three towns alone: In Manchester 800 1000 1200 Hence some estimate may be formed of the Catholic population of England. II. PEERS.-The Catholic peers are seven in number, namely: Earl of Shrewsbury, premier and Earl of Waterford Viscount Fauconberg Baron Stourton Baron Petre Created. 1442 1643 1448 1603 1605 1615 1672 Baron Arundel Baron Dormer Baron Clifford The presumptive heir to the dukedom of Norfolk is also a Catholic. In Scotland there are two Catholic earls-Traquair and Newburgh. The Catholic baronets of England are seventeen in number, namely: The principal names which have dropped off lately, either by deaths or conformity, have been those of Howard, Duke of Norfolk; Browne, Lord Montague; Roper, Lord Teynham; Favasour, Curzon, Acton, Mannock, Gascoigne, Fleetwood, Swinburne all peers or baronets. * The present duke. Amongst the English Catholics are many ancient families, of name and renown in English history. Their present heads are mostly country gentlemen, retired, reserved: of sedentary, and nearly secluded habits of life. Such are the names of Constable, Clifford, Weld, Howard, Plowden, Townley, Jones, Stapleton, Carey, Stonor, Eyre, Heneage, Stanley, Turberville, Selby, Browne, Tunstall, Eyston, Errington, Chichester, Chomley, Giffard, Tasborough, Biddulph, Eccleston, Huddleston, Berrington, Charlton, Dalton, Sheldon, Perrers, Canning, Berkely, Manby, Riddall, Darell, Fermor, Trafford, Weston, &c. &c. &c. There are about five hundred of these Catholic families, not inferior to many in the British peerage in ancient, pure, and noble lineage— some, who can boast the legitimate Plantagenet blood-several who enjoy landed estates, lineally transmitted since the Norman days, and even the Saxon era. These, though not now titled, may be classed by the herald amongst nobility. The heads of these families mostly live retired upon patrimonial incomes, varying in annual value from 1500l. to 25,000. It may appear curious to those who know the name of Giffard in Ireland only, that the parent stock in England is wholly Catholic. The Giffards of Chillington, in Staffordshire, possess landed estates of 80001. a year, and upwards; and of this family is Sir John Throckmorton's lady, the elegant and accomplished correspondent of the pathetic poet, Cowper. III. COMMONERS.-We have spoken of the clergy, nobility, and higher classes of the English Catholic body. The inferior orders are little distinguishable from the corresponding classes of their Protestant neighbours, (or churchmen, as they are termed.) Here the broad features of distinction almost disappear-Industry, association, necessity, obliterate the characteristic traits. Generally speaking, they are little farmers, shopkeepers, artists, and labourers decent, humble, timid, shy, and careful. It is supposed that they are rather more moral, regular, submissive, and inoffensive, than their neighbours; and also of a more sedate and stationary habit of life. Emigrations from their parishes, pauperism, and crimes, are said to be rare amongst them. There may be some foundation for this eulogium; but, whether it is due to the control of vigilant censors, to a guarded purity of deportment, to a more moral system of education, to the virtuous precepts of their religion, or to accident, we do not venture to determine. Wales affords but few Catholics-a singular fact of a race, in lesser points, obstinately wedded to ancient usage. Wales, separated from England only by hedges and streams, remains profoundly ignorant of the English language, and clings to her own, with all the jealousy of national pride. Yet, Wales ceded her ancient religion (without scruple or hesitation) to a people, whose language she still disdains to understand. She drinks, with delicious rapture, of every stream that flows from English eccentricity; and neither the mummery of the Jumpers, nor the frenzy of the Ezekielites, renders the spiritual potion too muddy for the ardent and enthusiastic Welchman. The author of the above statement considers it "a singular fact," that "Wales affords but few Catholics," while the Welch are said to be a race in lesser points, obstinately wedded to ancient usage." Now, perhaps, this is the very circumstance that accounts for the fact. The "ancient usage," with regard to religious worship, in Wales, was certainly not popish worship, or any thing like popery. The religion of Rome was a mere novelty in that ancient principality. It could not have existed there many centuries before the reformation; and, therefore, when the reformation delivered the Welch from the thraldom of the ghostly intruders, in the form of Romish priests, they would gladly return to their more ancient usages. Britain, there is reason to think, was favoured with the light of Christianity as early as the first century. I do not state this as a matter of absolute certainty; but as one of great probability; and I have never seen any thing that renders it incredible. There is extant a writing ascribed to Clemens, the fellow-labourer of the apostle Paul, in which he says that Paul in preaching the gospel, went to the utmost bounds of the west. (To Teppa τns dvoεws, terminum, finem occidentis, the extremity of the west,) which may very properly apply to the British isles, which were the western extremity of the Roman empire. The expression does not necessarily mean the most western part in point of longitude; but the most remote part in a western direction. Eusebius, in the fourth century, says, that the gospel was preached in the British isles by some of the apostles. He, of course, could not speak from his own knowledge; but he must have had such evidence as satisfied him of the fact. Tertullian, in the second century, says, that before his time Christianity had extended itself to parts of Britain, inaccessible to the Roman arms. These must have been the mountainous parts of Wales and Scotland, into which the Romans were not able to penetrate. Gildas says, that the gospel was preached in Britain before the defeat of Boadicea, which took place in the year 61; and the British Triads state, that the knowledge of Christianity was brought to Britain by the father of Caractacus, who was liberated from his detention at Rome seven years after the defeat of Caractacus, that is, A. D. 58 or 59, the time in which (according to Eusebius, Jerome, Petavius, Scaliger, &c.) Paul was set at liberty from his first confinement at Rome. See the Bishop of St. David's Protestant Catechism, section viii. These things are not asserted as divine truths. They are not so certain, as that we can build an article of faith upon them, as the church of Rome builds her monstrous fabric upon the assertion that Peter was the first bishop of that city, of which there is much less evidence than that Paul preached the gospel in England. But though we cannot assert the above as matters of divine record, they are credible articles of history, and sufficiently authentic for my present purpose, which is to show that popery was not the religion of the ancient Britons from whom the Welch are descended. Assuming the above facts as matter of credible history, (and they have never been shown to be fabulous,) the learned prelate above mentioned, in a letter to Lord Kenyon, 1819, writes as follows:-" To the labours and preaching of the great apostle of the Gentiles, we are indebted for the first introduction of the gospel. Of its existence to the beginning of the fourth century, we have the testimony of Tertullian, Origen, and Gildas. Public councils and synods, and religious institutions, attest its continuance in the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries.-VOL. II.-5 The rejection of the pope's authority (by the church of England) in the seventh century, stamps the first feature of its Protestant character. Its observance of Easter, its aversion to image worship, and its vernacular version of the scriptures, show its independence on the church of Rome during the Saxon government, down to the Norman conquest." pp. 2, 3. Now, long before this period, the ancient British had been driven by their Saxon invaders, to take refuge among the mountains of Wales. They carried their language and their religion with them. Considering their many disadvantages, it is not to be supposed that they preserved, or professed Christianity, in every point, pure as it was received from the apostles; but it was long ere they submitted to Rome. Popery was a novelty to them; and though forced upon them for a time, they readily threw it off when they were favoured by the light of the reformation. This is what our popish eulogist calls ceding their ancient religion, without scruple or hesitation, to a people whose language they still disdain to understand. It was rather throwing their idols to the moles and to the bats, and returning to the religion of their re mote ancestors. If it shall be replied, that St. Wenefride is a Welch saint of great antiquity, and that she belonged to the church of Rome; I answer, we have no credible evidence of this. That which we have as her life, was written hundreds of years after the period in which she is said to have lived; and when nothing of her character or history could be known with certainty. I will not deny, that there may have lived a noble lady of that name, distinguished for piety and benevolence; and that her memory may have been held in veneration for ages. Some idle monk taking advantage of this, would collect all the stories that were current among the people; and, with the aid of a lively imagination, he could easily dress up such a legend as that which we have under the title of the Life and Miracles of St. Wenefride. Scott of Dunse, commonly called Duns Scotus, was, no doubt, a learned and great man in his day; but among the common people in the south of Scotland, he is known only as Michael Scott the warlock, (wizard,) and as such is the subject of many silly and absurd stories, which are as remote from real history, as the miracles of Wenefride, the saint. It may be true, that some extravagance is exhibited in the worship of certain sects in Wales, which every sober Protestant will lament and condemn but I venture to affirm, that the folly of the Jumpers and Ezekielites, be they who they may, is not greater than that of many in the church of Rome, who have been canonized, and who are at this day worshipped as saints. If we may judge of the morality of Papists, from that which comes under our own eye in this city and neighbourhood, we shall be very far indeed from supposing, like the writer of the foregoing statement, "that they are rather more moral, submissive, and inoffensive, than their neighbours; and also of a more sedate and stationary habit of life." In every point, the very reverse of this is the truth, except, perhaps, in the article of being submissive, in which so far as regards submission to their priests, we must yield to them the superiority. Candour, however, requires me to admit, that Glasgow does not afford a specimen, by which we can fairly judge of the morality of Papists in the southern part of the island, or even of the north. We have few, if any, of native growth. Where men are born, and grow up, and settle in life, there are certain ties of neighbourhood, and acquaintanceship, and friendship, which form a kind of check upon their conduct. No one can become notoriously wicked, without danger of being cast off by his more respectable neighbours, and of being obliged to leave the place. Perhaps not one in ten of our popish population have this advantage of old local acquaintanceship. The increase of our manufactures, and the demand for labour in building, during the rapid enlargement of our city, attracted thousands from the sister island. These were generally of the poorest class, without the knowledge of any thing, beyond a few articles of their wretched superstition; who had the fewest inducements to remain at home, and who have the fewest motives to distinguish themselves by superior good conduct. By the influx of such, our poor's rates have been grievously augmented; and the morality of the lower orders, the very reverse of being improved. CHAPTER CX. NUMBER OF PAPISTS IN GLASGOW. DISINGENUOUSNESS OF A WRITER ON THIS SUBJECT. REASONS WHY A PRIEST WILL NOT WRITE AGAINST A LAYMAN. TWO LETTERS TO THE PROTESTANT. It is SATURDAY, August 19th, 1820. REMARKING upon the statement in my last number, relating to "English Catholics," and the allegation, that they are, in respect of morals, superior to their neighbours, I observed it was otherwise in this part of the kingdom; but I admitted that it was not quite fair to judge of the English stock, by the Irish sample which is exhibited to our view in this city and its neighbourhood. Where families have been long settled, and where circumstances are more favourable, we reasonably expect to find a more respectable body: but even, where circumstances are most favourable for insuring good conduct, and where the adherents of Rome have the advantage of good education, and of intercourse with enlightened society, I will not admit that they are more moral than Christians of any denomination whatever. customary to call those who have no religion at all, of the established religion, whatever it may be. Thus a great proportion of our population are called Protestants who have no right to the appellation; it is not even thought worth while to deny it to the most sensual and profligate part of the community, though heathens would be a more appropriate term; for they are idolaters in the grossest sense of the word"whose god is their belly." It may be admitted, that the morality of Papists in England, like that of every other sect whose numbers are comparatively small, in the midst of an enlightened population, will be superior to that of persons whom no Christian sect would acknowledge. If we would make a fair estimate of the moral effects of the two systems, we must look at the mass of the people where each predominates; and, I am sure, Britain, with all its faults, will not shrink from a comparison with France or Italy, or any popish country in the world-not even with "Catholic Ireland," "the island of saints." |