poured in upon Ireland; her subsequent annals are written in charac ters of blood, and are but the records of division and persecution. Were any Irish Catholics put to death for their religion during her reign? (Elizabeth's.)

Yes, multitudes; but the names and history of only two hundred are upon record. The common stretching rack was frequently employed against the Catholic prisoners, and it was not unusual to tear the nails from their fingers, or to batter the shaven crowns of the clergy until their brains appeared.

Did James restore the Catholics to their birth-rights by a change of the act of settlement, commonly called the Black Act?

No; as this act had the sanction and experience of twenty years, he dreaded the inconvenience and disorder likely to result from such a general transfer of property.

Had not Ireland much heavier causes of complaint than the revolted colonies?

Infinitely greater. America had been founded and cherished by England; Ireland, on the contrary, by a long and various warfare, as well as by a perfidious policy, was subjugated, depressed, degraded, restricted in manufactures and commerce, exhausted by taxes, and drained by enormous remittances to England. The people could not but feel that they were ruled with an iron rod, not for their improvement or advantage, but for their impoverishment and oppression.

Did Mr. Pitt lend the arm of the executive to all the purposes of intolerance, to which his Irish undertakers thought fit to apply it?

He did most largely. The weakening of Ireland by internal dissensions, was the private order given to the chief agents, while the public instructions to the ostensible and responsible ministers of the crown, concealed the destructive principle in the back ground.

What do you mean by the Protestant ascendancy?

An oligarchy who claimed exclusive possession of loyalty, and who, for the purpose of securing to themselves the places which they held and the patronage which they enjoyed, continually charged with disaffection to the government all persons who were desirous of conciliating the people, by extending to Ireland that portion of civil and religious liberty which is the best gift of the British constitution.

What were the principles of the Orangemen ?

They affected to unite in support of the constitution as established by King William at the revolution of 1688, and their original object and obligation are stated to have been the extermination of the Catho lics of Ireland, as far as in them lay. This oath of extermination they afterwards changed into that of supporting the king, as long as he should support the Protestant ascendancy.

Did the United Irishmen take any improper steps in 1797?

Yes; they renewed their league with the French directory, and laid plans for the rebellion of 1798.

Did any occurrences tend to goad them on to this treasonable act? Yes; the violent and unconstitutional outrages of the Orangemen, the unwarrantable and illegal excesses of a portion of the magistracy, and the half-hanging, tortures, floggings, and burnings, which, under the pretext of excessive loyalty, were permitted by the minister, and inflicted by his sycophants.

What was the result of the rebellion?

It deprived his majesty of seventy thousand most useful subjects, whom wiser councils would have preserved to fight the battles of the British empire against its most potent enemy, and it laid the foundation for the legislative union.

Was any particular class of the Catholics especially deceived by the ministry on this occasion?

Yes; the ecclesiastical trustees of Maynooth college; ten unsuspecting prelates were cajoled by the ministry, particularly by Lord Castlereagh, with the expectation that emancipation would be granted, and their religion protected.

Did not these prelates consent to have the power of a veto upon appointment of bishops vested in the crown?

the

No; they indeed resolved that some degree of interference on the part of his majesty may be allowed, for the purpose of assuring him of the loyalty of the persons nominated to the vacant sees; but they did so without reflection or authority, and under the most deceitful circumstances, which rendered the resolution less censurable than it otherwise would have been: but even their fellow-prelates were ignorant of this fact for nearly nine years after.

What was the grand active principle upon which Lord Hardwick accepted the government of Ireland in 1802?

A principle he dared not openly avow,-viz. to resist her emancipation, and to perpetuate the old system of division and exclusion, under the delusive semblance of a new system of conciliation and mildness.

Did the Catholics receive any concessions from government, during the administration of Mr. Addington, now Lord Sidmouth?

No; this minister pledged himself to march in the steps of his predecessor; consequently, he deprecated the very thought of Catholic emancipation.

Did not many unequivocal proofs bespeak the determination of the Richmond administration to rivet Catholic Ireland in degradation and despondency?

Yes, a fostering countenance was particularly given to the Orangemen, that tended rather to foment and encourage, than to put down or punish, their atrocities.

Did not Orange ferocity sensibly increase in the year 1809?

It did. The native leaders of the Orange societies rendered their systems at that period so additionally ferocious, that some of the less blood-thirsty withdrew their names, who nevertheless adhered to the general principles of their institution; that is, to a proscriptive and implacable hatred to Catholicity."

The above is a short specimen of the sort of reading which the Papists in Ireland have introduced into their schools, and which they make to supersede lessons from the holy scriptures, which are not so much to their taste, and with which they think the children cannot be so safely intrusted. It would be easy to show from authentic history, that the above statements are grossly false, or shamefully distorted representations. But supposing every one of them literally true, what good end could be served by pre-occupying the minds of all the children in Ireland with matters so hostile to their neighbours and fellow-subjects in England, especially against the government? I believe that no Vol. II.-82

other answer can be given, than that the Papists wish to cherish and propagate a spirit of hostility and rebellion in the country, in the hope of ultimately overturning the Protestant establishment, of getting their own church established on its ruins, and recovering not only the property of the church, but also all the lay property that has been forfeited in successive rebellions since the time of Queen Elizabeth.

Much has been said and written about the misgovernment of Ireland; and it is very common for persons who do not generally complain of public measures, to admit, that with regard to Ireland nothing has been rightly managed. But I defy the wisest man in the world to say how it is possible to govern a people circumstanced as the Irish are, and have been for many centuries. Before government can do any thing for a people, they must be taught to do something for themselves; or, at least, to submit to what government is willing to do for them. But the great body of the people in Ireland acknowledge an authority superior to that of the supreme government of the kingdom. This is the authority of their priests, to which they implicitly subject themselves both in body and soul. Government cannot possibly get at them, but through the medium of the priests; and it has always been the study of these priests to neutralize, and render abortive, every effort to enlighten the people, or to make their condition more comfortable, because this would tend to withdraw the people from under their ghostly authority.

People will not derive benefit from the very best endeavours of those whom they have been taught to hate. The Irish are taught from their infancy to regard with mortal hatred the people and the government of England, Formerly this hatred was instilled into their minds by oral tradition;-now it has become the subject of reading and instruction in their schools, as appears by the above extracts from their school book; and with astonishing impudence, they have applied, or are about to apply, to parliament, for a grant of money to enable them to carry on this instruction upon a more extensive scale! that is, to enable them more effectually to overturn the present establishment, which is the object which they are not ashamed to avow among themselves; for the truth of which I appeal to one of their own number, the Rev. Mr. Morrissy, whose words are given in an early part of this volume. See Chapters CLXXI. to CLXXIV. Though Solomon himself had the government of a people so perverted, enslaved, and besotted by ignorance and superstition, he would find it impossible to govern them either for their benefit, or to his own satisfaction.

That the people of England have no hostility towards those of Ireland, but rather regard them with a brotherly affection, is demonstrated by the efforts which they are making at this moment for the relief of the many thousands of them, almost all Papists, who are in a state of starvation, in the southern parts of that kingdom; and government has really done more for their subsistence than for that of any other part of the empire in the present age. The simple statement of this notorious fact ought to cover with shame the author and the distributers of that most seditious school catechism, which has occupied so much of the present number; but I fear the priests are not capable of shame or of any other right feeling; for if they were, such a book would never have been written or received among them.

CHAPTER CCVI.

ANTICHRIST A SUBJECT OF ANCIENT PROPHECY. ILLUSTRATION OF SEVERAL SCRIP TURES IN RELATION TO THIS SUBJECT.

SATURDAY, June 22d, 1822.

THE true religion has in all ages been opposed by error, idolatry, and superstition. The enmity of the seed of the serpent against the seed of the woman has not been suspended for a single day since the time of Cain and Abel; and he who was a liar from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, has never ceased to oppose the truth, or to pervert it, or to conceal it by substituting something in its place, or by any means to divert the minds of men from it, lest they should believe and be saved. This opposition to the truth has been carried on in various forms and under different names; but the general character of it has been substantially the same in all ages. It was reserved, however, for the last age of the world, or the New Testament dispensation, to exhibit it in a more systematic and organized form than it had been at any former period; and to effect its object more insidiously than before, by assuming the name of Christianity, and under that sacred name, to teach and practise all the idolatry and immorality of the ancient heathen.

This in the language of prophecy is emphatically called The Antichrist; and the impure character of the system is exhibited under the figure of a great harlot, corrupting the earth with her fornications. How applicable to the church of Rome the description is, I hope will appear to the reader's satisfaction from the general tenor of my work, in which it has been my endeavour to exhibit the genuine character of popery, for the purpose of warning my countrymen against it, and if possible of gaining some from under its deadly influence.

This great apostacy was the subject of very ancient prophecy. The Holy Spirit thus gave warning of the evil that was coming upon the world, that the true worshippers of God might be on their watch, and that those who were seduced by it might be without excuse. As early as the time of Daniel the prophet, we have the character of the system described, and even mention made of the period of its continuance; and I am not sure but there are obscure and parabolic allusions to it at a much earlier period. With an attempt to illustrate some of these, I shall occupy the present number.

The God of Israel graciously condescended to speak of the union between him and his church under the figure of the marriage relation. Thus he says by one of the prophets :-"I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, and the love of thine espousals." Jer. ii. 2.; and by another:-" Thy Maker is thy husband; the Lord of hosts is his name.' Isa. liv. 5. The church maintained the fidelity of a chaste spouse while she practised the worship of the true God according to the purity of his institution; but idolatry is, in numerous passages of the Old Testament, called, "playing the harlot." Indeed, in hundreds of instances, the word adultery is used for idolatry; and when Israel showed the least leaning towards idol-worship, she was accused of forgetting the marriage relation. The church then assumed the charac

ter of a strange woman; and there is one described by Solomon as THE Strange Woman, which from the narrative, I think, cannot mean an individual, any more than THE sinful man, or “ Man of sin," can mean any one person. It is a power, or system, a mystery of iniquity, always at work; but so organized in the church of Rome as to be described under the character of one great meretricious personage, seducing and corrupting the world by her allurements.

no means disposed to speak peremptorily on such a subject; and I am aware that there is danger of straining the language of prophecy, so as to make it speak what the Holy Spirit never intended, against which every writer on religious subjects ought to be on his guard; but after not a little reflection, I am inclined to think that an apostate church, or the antichrist, is portrayed by Solomon, under the character of the "strange woman, even the stranger who flattereth with her words; who forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God; for her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead. None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the path of life." Prov. ii. 17-19. It is the boast of popery that none who go unto her return again; and indeed there are so few who have left the profession of true religion, and who have taken up with this harlot, that are recovered from her snare, as to justify the declaration in general terms, that there are none.

The same personage is described, and her wickedness exposed more particularly in the seventh chapter of the same book I believe many persons in reading this, think that Solomon is only relating an incident that took place under his own eye in the streets of Jerusalem; and warning men to beware of a common street walker. But I cannot help thinking that more is meant than this. That part of divine revelation is professedly a book of parables; and I think the inspired penman, in this passage, takes occasion from the known practices of wicked seducers, and the folly of those who are seduced by them, to warn the worshippers of the true God in all ages, to beware of idolatry, which was not only adultery in a spiritual sense, but was usually connected with lasciviousness; which was indeed one of the allurements by which persons were drawn to the idol temple.

The seventh, eighth, and ninth chapters, are evidently one discourse or parable, and in order to understanding their import they ought to be read together without a break. In doing so, we find there are two ways, two houses, and two conspicuous persons, to whom the houses respectively belong. The persons, the houses, and the ways, or paths, are all contrasted, and opposed to each other. Of the first mentioned person, that is, the strange woman, it is said, "Her house is the way to hell going down to the chambers of death;" and of the other, it is declared with equal explicitness;-"I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment, to cause those that love me to inherit substance, and I will fill their treasures;" and, "Blessed are they that keep my ways"-" for whoso findeth me findeth life." Here the way of death and the way of life are distinctly set before us; and they are respectively connected with the house of the strange woman on the one hand, and the house of Wisdom on the other.

I suppose there is little difference of opinion as to who is described under the name of WISDOM. He who says, "By me kings reign,