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1826.]

Addressed to the British Roman Catholic Association.

over a deluded multitude, for the establishment of a despotism which threatens to involve our laws and liberties in one common ruin."

A letter from Dundale, dated July 5, which describes the chairing of Mr. Dawson, the friend of Popery and the nominee of the priests, offers these forcible remarks:

"The sight of the mob and procession was most tremendous. The priests accompanied it, and the most dreadful yells filled the air. Some of the most wealthy and distinguished Roman Catholic landed proprietors walked in this procession; they had innumerable banners, with the Harp divested of the Crown inscribed upon them, exactly similar to the Rebel banner in 1798; they were all decorated with green ribbons, the Rebel colour at the same period. The people of this kingdom, who are the dupes of the priests, seem ready for any thing the clergy may urge them to, and with this power, their object is the establishment of Popery in our land. I see nothing but a struggle for it at last, and I think before long you will see it. The priests ought to be given to understand, that their duties do not consist in political tyranny, breaking those ties and affections between landlord and tenant which have existed for years, holding out threats to them, as Mr. Foster says in his farewell address, of all the terrors of another world.""

Notwithstanding these outrageous proceedings, the Monthly Committee of the Catholic Association, which met on the 26th July, has the presumption to say, "In Ireland, the cause of humanity has been triumphant! and the hour is come when we are most imperatively called upon to exert ourselves, as one man, to accomplish our liberation. If we are true to ourselves at the present juncture, our success cannot be doubtful."-If their "liberation," as they term it, is to be obtained according to the modes just described, let the Protestants be true to themselves, and they have nothing to fear. The bludgeon and dagger of the assassinating Irish Papist will be feeble weapons against the cool bravery and superior intelligence of the English Protestant.

In your Address, Gentlemen, you ask, if we can "believe that you are joined in a perfidious league to deceive us." We cannot say, decidedly, that you misrepresent things with a perfidious intention; but this we most solemnly believe, that perfidy or hypocrisy somewhere exists; or statements,

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so completely falsified by the history of ancient and modern times, would never have been issued. We suspect that you are the mere tools-the obsequious creatures of your perfidious "Expounders." But do not deceive yourselves. The late occurrences have torn away the mask; you cannot disguise the spirit which Papal bigotry displays on every occasion. It proves itself to be the reverse of what your spiritual guides pretend. They declare that "they reject and detest that unchristian and impious principle, that faith is not to be kept with heretics;" that they "regard all the revenues and temporalties of the Church Establishment as the property of those on whom they are settled by the laws of the land;" that " no power in any Pope or Council, or in any individual or body of men, invested with authority in the Catholic Church, can dispense with any oath, by which a Catholic has confirmed his duty of allegiance to his Sovereign, or any obligation of duty or justice to a third per

son," &c. &c.

The Papistical doctrines against which you now protest, unfortunately for this "Declaration," are confirmed by every page of history, and by innumerable Bulls of the Romish Church. Not only have these diabolical tenets been maintained by Papists of the present and past ages, but frequently acted upon with relentless fury. Still you will perhaps attribute the horrible crimes of Popery to the "mistaken zeal of the professors of the Catholic faith in times long past," and "lament their errors;" thus renouncing the usual claims to infallibility. Be it so; let us then refer to modern times to prove the fallacy or perfidy of the above protestations. We will not advert to the black catalogue of crimes, of which the besotted Papists of Italy, Spain, Portugal, &c. have been guilty, but confine ourselves to our more immediate connexions-the good Catholics of Ireland and their domineering priesthood. We shall revert to the transactions of the Rebellion of 1798, of which the priests were the moving springs. Here we have proofs, from incontestible evidence, of the infamous tenets of Popery, which were then broached and actually enforced by its own priesthood. Then there was no qualifying the business; no hypocrisy; all was straight forward work,

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according to the canons of the infallible Church. It was not simply No faith with heretics," but " Extirpation to heretics." On referring to Musgrave's History of the Rebellion,' we find, from the affidavit of James Farrel, that the following persons were the chief movers in the Rebellion:-James Butler, titular Archbishop of Cashel; Pierce Creagh, tituJar Bishop of Waterford; Dr. Butler, titular Bishop of Cork; Dr. Fitzsimmons, titular Bishop of Dublin; Heley, Popish priest of Cork; Doyle, Popish priest of Ardfinnan, and several others of the Romish clergy. Many were driven to engage in the Rebellion by the threats and representations of their priests. Father Meara sworein vast numbers, and among them many of his own brotherhood. The following oath was administered to the Papists by their priests. Printed copies of it were found upon numbers of the rebels who were slain, particularly at the battles of New Ross and Ballycarew:- I, A. B. do solemnly swear, by our Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered for us on the cross, and by the blessed Virgin Mary, that I will burn, destroy, and murder all heretics, up to my knees in blood! So help me God." The Committee of Assassination had their priests, who regularly absolved them after the commission of fresh murders. Father Neil, a priest of confessup, Ballymacody, when taken ed that he had advised and approved the murder of a Protestant, of the name of Murphy, who had been most inhumanly butchered. He also gave absolution to the persons who perpetrated it. Fathers O'Brien and Meara, parish priests of Nenagh and Doone, were most active in inciting the peasantry of their respective neighbourhoods to murder and rebellion. They were both transported for life. Many of the Popish clergy were either killed in battle, or hanged, during the insur

rection.

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In the pocket of Father Michael Murphy, who was killed at the battle of Arklow, was found a journal, in which he exultingly acknowledges himself to have been a party to numerous murders; a very extraordinary, but perfectly characteristic, document was also discovered on the person of this "estimable legate of the Pope." It was entitled "Articles of the Roman Catholic Faith," and these articles were thirty-five in number. We quote

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the most forcible ones, as being the most catholic." Perhaps the Catholic Association can append them as a supplementary leaf to their next Address:

"Article 3d. We acknowledge the supremacy of the Holy Father, the Lord God the Pope, and that he is Peter's successor in the chair.

"5th. We are bound to believe there can be no salvation out of our holy Church.

"6th. We are bound to believe that the late holy massacre was lawful, and justly put into execution against Protestants, and that we should continue the same as long as we can do it with safety to ourselves!

"7th. We are bound to curse, ring the bells, and put out the candles four times in each year on heretics.

"8th. We are bound to believe that heretics can never be saved, unless they partake of that holy sacrament, extreme unction.

"9th. We are bound to believe that those

who elope from our holy religion are under the power of the Devil, whom heretics follow.

"10th. No faith is to be kept with heretics, though bound by the most sacred oaths; for, says our Holy Father, they have followed damnation, and Luther and Calvin! for their principles are damnation! We are

"11th. We are not to believe their oaths,

bound to drive heretics out of the land with

fire, sword, faggot, and confusion; as our Holy Father says, if their heresy prevails, we

are still to become their slaves. Oh! dear

father, keep us from that. (Here the holy water is shaken, and they say-Hail Mary, three times.)

"18th. We are bound to absolve, without any reward, all those who imbrue their hands in the blood of heretics!

"31st. We believe that heretics eat their kind of sacrament to their eternal damnation."

Now Father Murphy was an honest 66 Holy Mother and fearless son of Church." He scorned treachery and hypocrisy. He believed in the precepts and canons of that religion of which he was a professor. He relied on the infallibility of his Church. He understood her tenets, and knew that it was expected from every priest and good Catholic to enforce them on every opportunity, according to the infallible rule of "times long past." This reverend father in God would have viewed with utter contempt the hypocritical and uncatholic “Declaration" of the "Expounders" of the Roman Catholic Association, as a compromise unworthy of Catholicism.

(To be continued.)

ΠΑΝ.

1826.]

All Souls Church, Marylebone.

NEW CHURCHES.-No. VIII. ALL SOULS CHURCH, LANGHAM PLACE.

UPON

Architect, Nash.

PON this building so much has already been said in the way of criticism, that but little remains at this time beyond a mere description of the building, without reiterating strictures which would no longer possess the mark of originality.

As much censure perhaps as the architect has deserved has been poured upon him in prose and verse, in caricature and satire, in some instances as pointed as his steeple; in others severity of criticism has lost sight of candour and truth, and even the merits of the design have been overlooked. In the ensuing description, a regard to truth compels the writer to point out the faults, at the same time that he endeayours to set the merits of the building in their proper light.

With the exception of the steeple and portico, the exterior shows a plain stone building, lighted by two tier of windows, and finished with a ballustrated parapet. The former portions are, then, the only parts particularly to be described. The steeple consists of two portions, a circular tower and a cone; the first rests on a flight of steps, and is occupied to a considerable portion of its height by a peristyle of twelve Ionic columns, sustaining the entablature of the order. The capitals are highly enriched; from the volutes depend festoons of foliage, and between them, attached to the abacus, is a cherubim with expanded wings: the effect, however, is not pleasing, the exuberance of the ornament giving to the capital an appearance of clumsiness. Above the entablature of this peristyle the tower is continued plain to the remainder of its height, broken only by the dials. The base of the cone, which is situated within the circular tower, is surrounded with a peristyle of fourteen Corinthian columns sustaining an entablature and balustrades; the remainder of the cone is unbroken; the surface is fluted, and to render the point the more acute, it is finished with metal. It surely would have produced a better effect if the spire had terminated in the usual way with a cross: as it is, the whole structure has so novel an appearance, that to those GENT. MAG. July 1826.

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who have been accustomed to the old style of church-towers, the present suffers greatly by comparison; its novelty surprises, but does not produce delight. The pointed spire transplanted from the country village, and made a finish to a shewy street of modern houses, is so out of character, that whatever may be the merit of originality displayed by Mr. Nash, his design is less pleasing than if it had assimilated more closely to the older style of church-spires, of the school of Sir C. Wren and his followers. The approaches are by two doorways in the principal front, and by another beneath the lower peristyle, which leads into a circular vestibule, lighted by two windows. The interior is very pleasing; it is formed more closely on the model of the older Churches in the Italian style than the generality of the new ones are. The West, North, and South sides, and a portion of the East end, have galleries attached to them, resting on octagonal piers; the residue of the East end is Occupied by the altar. Above the fronts of the galleries rises a colonnade of Corinthian columns sustaining an architrave and cornice, on the latter of which rests the cieling of the Church. The South and North sides have each eight columns; two others are situated on the Eastern gallery, and two more to correspond on the Western. The cieling of the centre division of the Church is elliptical, flattened in the centre, the whole surface of the cove being enriched with octagonal sunk panels. The fronts of the galleries are panelled, and are broken at intervals by the plinths of the columns, on which are sculptured chaplets in relief.

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The altar is very handsomely ornamented. An extensive crimson curtain, tastefully arranged in festoons, is drawn up sufficiently to display Mr. Westall's painting of Christ crowned with Thorns," exhibited at Somerset House in 1822. Immediately beneath this is the altar-table, the whole composition being far superior to the general arrangement of the altar in Churches. The pulpit and desk are placed against the piers sustaining the extreme ends of the galleries at the East; the former is bracket-shaped, but is not remarkable for beauty or ornament. The font is situated, contrary to custom, near the altar-rails; it

consists of a circular basin of marble, sustained on a pillar of the same form and material. At the West end is a semicircular recess, which contains the organ and its gallery. The instrument is contained in a handsome case, the design of which consists of a pediment between two circular towers, finishing in cupolas; on the apex of the former a gilt cross. The ceiling of this portion is fluted and radiated. Whatever may be the faults resulting from the liberties which have been taken with the general style of ecclesiastical building on the exterior, they are fully atoned for by the light and elegant arrangement of the inside, and the church-like appearance which is given to it by the adherence to the old fashioned arrangement. The superior grandeur which results from the division of the interior by colonnades into nave and aisles is so apparent, that it is almost to be wished that such an arrangement was enforced in all the new Churches, by the same authority which in other respects has controlled the formation of them.

The estimated expense of the Church is 19,514l. 5s.*. It accommodates 1761 persons. The first stone was laid on the 18th Nov. 1822, and it was consecrated on the 25th Nov. 1824, an ecclesiastical district in the parish of St. Mary-le-bone having been assigned to it.

ST. PHILIP'S CHAPEL, REGENT ST.

Architect, Repton.

THE principal front of this structure, which is situated on the Western side of Regent-street, is all that can be seen of the exterior. It is taken from a design of Sir William Chambers; the order is the Roman Doric. The portico consists of four fluted columns of iron, sustaining an entablature and pediment. The metopes are charged with ox-sculls and paturæ, alternating with each other. The portico is flanked by two wings of brick stuccoed; in each are two windows, the lower covered with circular pediments; the cornice is continued from the pediment along each of the wings; and on the attic is an ox-scull between festoons of flowers hanging from the horns. Within the portico are three entrances

Vide 2d Report of the Commissioners for building additional Churches.

and two windows on the ground-floor, also covered with circular pediments, and three other windows above, of a square form: behind the pediment is a tower also constructed either wholly or in part of iron. This structure is a copy of the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, at Athens, better known as the Lantern of Demosthenes. The façade, as will be seen from this description, is liable to many objections. The Grecian tower placed above an Italian portico, reminds the spectator of the freaks of the modern Gothic school; it appears much out of place, and speaks too plainly that it is an addition to the original design; the most objectionable ornaments however for a Christian Church are the symbols of pagan sacrifice which accompany the architecture of this edifice. say the least, such decorations are unmeaning, and are on that account absurd. Was an ancient Roman to be set down in Regent-street, how would he be deceived, on entering the supposed temple, when he should learn, that the Deity to whom it was erected, had declared, that his sacrifice was not the blood of bulls, as the frieze of the portico had led him to expect.

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The interior of the Chapel is of the Corinthian order, and displays some of the richer features of the italian school. The galleries, which are attached to the East, South, and North sides, rest on square plinths, and the fronts are panelled in oak; the same work is continued along the Western end, dividing the building into two stories. From the fronts of the North and South galleries rise four Corinthian columns of scagliola; the shafts in imitation of Sienna, the capitals and bases of statuary marble, sustaining a highly enriched entablature, continued round the whole of the interior. These elegant colonnades are flanked their ends, towards the East and West, by arches and piers; the latter ornamented with pilasters to correspond with the columns, and the key-stones formed into consoles. The architrave and frieze of the entablature are discontinued above each of these arches. above the aisles, and are fronted Additional galleries are constructed with ballustrades, forming a finish to the entablature. The ceiling of the area of the Chapel is in three portions; those above the arches just described, and which conse

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1896.]

St. Philip's Chapel.-On Extemporary Preaching.

quently form the extreme Eastern and Western divisions, are elliptically curved, and the coves filled with oblong panels. The remainder of the ceiling is entirely composed of a dome, supported by four elliptical arches rising from the internal piers of the arches; in the centre of the dome is a circular skylight. The cielings of the lower galleries are divided into large square panels, each containing an expanded flower. The West end, against which is placed the altar *, is the plainest portion of the building; it has a mean and unfinished appearance. The altar-screen is oak, and consists of four pilasters of the Doric order, with an entablature, the intervals filled with panelling; above is a large arched window, the head of which is divided from the other portion by the continued entablature; the jambs are flanked by pilasters, and the portion beneath the entablature is made into three divisions by two Corinthian columns, corresponding with those already described. The arched head of this window is filled with stained glass, representing a splended irradiation surrounding the Hebrew name of the Deity; the rest of the glazing is filled up with diapered glass. The remainder of the wall at this end of the building is plain, and contains four other windows, which add nothing to the grandeur or beauty of the design, and when contrasted with the other parts of the building, the meanness of this portion cannot fail to strike any ob

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in visiting the various new Churches, has been led into a comparison between those, in which the colonnades or arcades of our older Churches have been retained, and those in which the Meeting House of the Sectarian has been adopted as the model of the architects; the comparison has been favourable to the former; and, if his strictures in the pages of Mr. Urban should have any influence in supporting the purer taste, it will be a satisfaction to reflect, that he has not bestowed his labour in vain. E. I. C.

Mr. URBAN,

July 3. THE subject of Preaching is of performers and the hearers, to priest great importance both to the and people; for the event is alike interesting and of equal consequence to both. But in all important concerns of life, and particularly in those which may be so eventful as to affect our fuquence to fix upon a rule or standard, ture state, it is of the utmost consethe adherence to which, or aberration from it, may at once point out whether we are wrong or right.

Now, for our present subject we have blessed Lord's Sermon on the Mount. a rule that must be correct, viz. our Whoever will diligently peruse and analyze that discourse, will find its prominent features to be Purity of Doctrine-Simplicity of Speech, but yet of persons, and a zealous exhibition of an appropriate freedom without respect the true interests of the auditors.

But we

In whatever discourse we perceive an union of these particulars, we may pronounce such discourse to be good and to be correct, because it accords with the mode of preaching of Him, who could not err. How then is this best to be done, by a written or by an for the latter may perhaps plead our extemporal discourse? The advocates Saviour's example, whose discourses were certainly not written. must consider that our blessed Lord was God as well as man, and, though fered for us, leaving us an example we are taught that " Christ also sufthat we should follow his steps," our imitation must be with all humility. In some parts of his character we certainly cannot follow him. Destructive would be the temerity to attempt the walking upon the "waves of the sea," and blasphemous would be our injunc tion to those waves, peace, be still."

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