them in said opinions. And lastly, That they hold it lawful to depose and murder heretic Sovereigns.

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heretics, or other p them in religious transaction, either of vate nature?" To which sities answered unanimous there is no principle in the tenets the Catholic faith by which Catholics are justified in not keeping faith with heretics, or other persons differing from them in religious opinions, in any transaction, either of a public or a private nature." Indeed some of these universities expressed perfect wonder that such a question should be proposed by a nation that glories in her learning and discernment. After this explanation, sir, I hope you will display "the full extent of that charity which is the essence of Christianity," if you shall resume your pen on this subject.

1st, You maintain that there will be danger in admitting Roman Catholics to a participation of the power of the state, because it is " the genius of the Roman Catholic religion," and the acknowledged maxim of that church, to keep no faith with heretics." Now, though I could at once silence you by putting a single question, viz. where you found this maxim acknowledged by the Catholic church? yet as I am desirous of giving you every satisfac tion on a subject of which you are apparently ignorant, I must inform you that the Catholic Church never maintained any principle of the horrid nature you impute to her. When I come to speak of the affair of Huss, I shall shew you how this calumny originated, by reference to a Protestant author. Meantime it may be proper to observe, that the doctrine is disclaimed by Catholics in their oaths to government, as impious and unchristian ;" and surely their oaths are entitled to some weight, when it is considered that they have been petitioning Parliament, after a lapse of 200 years, for a repeal of the disabling and penal statutes, in consequence of their refusal to take certain oaths, the taking of which would at once have delivered them from these pains and disabilities. This question is, however, set at rest by the answer of the foreign universities to the question proposed by Mr Pitt, of which I am convinced you were not aware when you made the charge in question. When the Committee of the British Catholics waited on Mr Pitt, in the year 1788, respecting their application for a repeal of the penal laws, he requested to be furnished with authentic evidence of the opinions of the Roman Catholic clergy and the Roman Catholic Universities abroad," on the existence and extent of the Pope's dispensing power." Three questions were accordingly framed, and submitted to his approbation; and Mr Pitt's approbation being obtained, they were sent to the universities of Paris, Louvain, Alcala, Douay, Salamanca, and Valladolid, for their opinions. The third question, which is the one applicable to the present charge, was this, there any principle in the tenets of the Catholic faith by which Catholics are justified in not keeping faith with

"Is

But, in proof of your charge, you adduce the cases of two crowned heads, James the Second and Mary of England. Granting, however, that these sovereigns violated their engagements to their Protestant subjects, (which, in the case of the first, I do by no means admit, and the latter has been greatly exaggerated,) what is that to the purpose? Is the Catholic Church to be charged with the crimes of her children, any more than the Church of England, or the Church of Scotland, or any other religious sect? Are James and Mary the only sovereigns who have violated their engagements? Or is it because you expect a greater exemption from the frailties of our common nature in the persons of Catholics, than in those of Protestants, that you support your charge by such a mode of reasoning?. With regard to the instance of King James," He began his reign," says a celebrated writer," with solemn declarations, both in Council and in Parliament, that he was de termined to preserve the government, both in church and state, as he found it established; and that the law was sufficient to make him as great a king as he wished to be. Towards the close of his life, when, with every thing else, he had lost his hopes also, and could have no interest in deceiving, he assured his confidential friends that it ever had been his intention to govern according to law. What gives a plausibility to this declaration, was the care which he took în causing the most obnoxious branch of his prerogative, the dispensing power, to be

was in meditation in aftertimes, and there appeared a necessity of raising in the breasts of men an incurable mistrust of the Church of Rome, that this scandal (of the alleged breach of faith in the Council) appeared useful and was propagated. It was laid also hold of by the Calvinist ministers, for the very same purpose. You can now judge whether the Emperor did or did not violate the public faith, by the execution of Huss, when you consider the purport of the safe-conduct, and that Huss, before his surrender, knew the laws of the empire, in case he should be guilty of heresy. I believe it appears very clearly, from what I have said, notwithstanding of the disingenuous clamour of the Calvinists, that the authority exercised by the Council is conformable to the doc trine and practice of most Protestant churches; for it must be remembered, that the execution of John Huss was an act of the civil and not of the ecclesiastical power, and that the Couneil of Constance did not, by any act of theirs, violate the safe-conduct given to Huss, unless you judge his imprisonment before his trial to be a viola tion of it, which is very immaterial, otherwise than as it prevented him from absenting himself and evading an open discussion and trial, when he found it probable he should be condemned."

But you say, sir, that Huss was burned by desire of the Council. This I positively deny, and I prove my assertion by referring to the Acts of the Council." It having been manifestly proved," says the decree," that John Huss did publicly preach and teach many scandalous, seditious, and dan gerous heresies," and "as it is apparent, from all that the Council has seen, heard, and known, that John Huss is stubborn and incorrigible, and that he will not return into the pale of the Holy Mother the Church, by abjuring the errors and heresies which he had publicly maintained and preach ed, this sacred Council of Constance declares and decrees, that the said John Huss ought to be deposed and degraded from the order of priesthood,' &c. The deposition and degradation having accordingly taken place, the Council afterwards declared, That John Huss ought to be delivered over

L'Enfant, 1. 3.

to the secular arm, and does actually deliver him over to it, considering that the Church of God has nothing more to do with him." Now, sir, can any thing be more plain than this, that the Council passed no sentence of death upon Huss, and that there was no ec clesiastical law inflicting such punishment, when it is admitted by the decree itself, that the church could do nothing further than by deposing and degrading him?" Hæc sancta synodus Constantiensis, Joannem Huss, attento quod Ecclesia Dei non habet ultra quid gerere valeat, judicio seculari relinquere, et ipsum curia seculari relinquendum fore decernit." +

2d, You charge Catholics with hold→ ing it as a principle to persecute every person differing from them in religi ous opinions. This is "the unkindest cut of all;" for of all the charges made by you against the Catholic Church, the present is one which, for the ho nour of Protestants, should have never been even hinted at. Was it not in consequence of the most cruel and intolerable persecutions against the fol lowers of the old religion, that Protestantism first obtained a footing? You indeed admit that the axe and the faggot have been employed in the cause of religion, "even by Protestants." What consideration, sir, could then have induced you to bring for ward a charge which can be recriminated against the cause you espouse in a tenfold degree? But if your prudence in doing this be so questionable, what opinion can be formed of your defence of the first apostles of the re formation for these persecutions by imputing them to their " savage tem per," and that it could not be expected but that they would "act like savages!"

In your zeal to lay every sort of crime at the door of the Catholic Church, even when committed by Protestants, you excuse the barbarities of the reformers, " of those fiery natures which were incapable of being softened by the pure and mild spirit of Chris tianity," by a very singular and original sort of argument-that they were bred up in the principles of the Roman Catholic Church. But how does it happen that "the pure flame" kindled by them should not have refined their

and "fiery natures TH however, is, that the first reform never had seen any meanemployed by the Catholic Church for extirpating error, for no innovation in doctrine had been attempted for a whole century before the era of the reformation.

Not having read Lord Nugent's letter, I cannot judge whether his Lordship"appears inclined to affix the stigma of persecution upon the Protestants more strongly than the matter of fact will authorise." The only instance singled out by you is, that of the massacre of Glencoe, which, for the sake of " the glorious memory," I shall leave you the full enjoyment of; and I shall therefore proceed to point out a few incontestable instances of persecutions by Protestants against Catholics; but remember, sir, as I have told you in the outset, I do not impute them to the religion of Protestants, as you do in the case of the Catholics. At the same time, by pleading recrimination, I by no means wish it to be understood that I approve of persecutions by Catholics, (for I abhor persecution of every kind, by whom soever practised, and under whatever pretence,) but I merely wish to exhibit the per contra side of the account, to give you an opportunity of shewing, "that charity which is the essence of Christianity," by withdrawing your charge against Catholics, of being persecutors from principle. Even a creditor must cancel his claim when he finds that his debtor has a demand against him to an equal amount.

There is a natural propensity in man to propagate his opinions; and in proportion as he is sincere, his zeal is increased. Different persons will doubtless pursue different plans, according to the peculiar constructions and dispositions of their minds, to accomplish their ends; some by persuasion, others by force; but the methods employed do not flow from any immediate principle in the opinions themselves, but from the particular temper of mind of their professors. This holds in religion as well as in politics, but with this difference as to the former, that however ardent a man may be to gain proselytes, the mild and persuasive doctrines of Chris

tianity will operate strongly as checks against abuse, if he be actuated by the pure spirit of the gospel.

It appears from history, that where ever the reformers of the 16th and 17th centuries became the triumphant party, not content with the free exercise of their own religion, they violently overturned that of their ancestors, and carried on the most severe and oppressive persecutions against those who continued to adhere to it. This was the case in England, Scotland, France, Ireland, Germany, the Low Countries, Sweden, Denmark, and Switzerland, though in different manners and with different degrees of violence. The reformation in Scotland was immediately succeeded by the assassination of Cardinal Beaton, the murderers being instigated, according to Fox, in his Acts and Monuments, "by the spirit of God," to the "godly deed," as Knox calls it, (if my memory be correct,) in his own edition of his History. And in 1560, the Parliament, in establishing Calvinism, decreed at sametime the punishment of death against the professors of the ancient religion. "With such indecent haste," says Robertson, "did the very persons who had just escaped ecclesiastical tyranny proceed to imitate the example." So intent were our Scotch reformers on extirpating the religion of their ancestors and its professors, that in 1596, in an answer to the King and Council concerning the Catholic Earls of Huntly, Errol, &c. they declared, that " as they had been guilty of idolatry, a crime deserving of death, the civil power could not spare them." Shew me, sir, if you can, in the annals of the Catholic world, any thing half so infamous as this! In France, the Huguenots prohibited the exercise of the Catholic religion wherever they carried their victorious arms against their sovereign, slaughtered the priests and religious, burnt the churches and convents, dug up the dead to make bullets of their leaden coffins.* N. Froumenteau, one of their own writers, confesses that, in the single province of Dauphiny, they killed 256 priests and 112 monks and friars. In these scenes the famous Baron D'Adrets signalized his barbarity, forcing his Catholic prisoners to

putes should be carried on in a manner different from all other subjects, without that charity which you justly characterise as the "essence of Christianity!" Philosophers and men of science, in combating the arguments of each other, never have recourse to misrepresentation, by inventing and imputing imaginary principles and axioms to their antagonists, and inferring conclusions. Yet this is precisely the case wherever the Catholic religion is in question. It is surely more consonant with reason, that Catholics should be better instructed in

On the following morning, after the usual ride round the course, we proceeded to a most substantial breakfast, consisting of ham, eggs, rice, fish, sweetmeats, and preserves, besides the other et ceteras which constitute that meal in England; and that discussed, I went to call on some gentlemen, with Mr Fanning as a cicerone, which procured me an introduction to a number of wealthy agents, and half a dozen invitations to dinner at different periods. It is to be hoped that the word agent will not suggest to your Edinburgh readers the idea of a prim, stiff man of law, seated in the penetralia of his dwelling, surrounded with_tables loaded with files of papers, and green boxes, ostentatiously labelled with the name of the unfortunate individual whose estate they contain; and which, I believe, o' my conscience, are exhibited on the same principle that induces sailors to nail up the tails of dolphins and other fish who have acted so like gudgeons as to let themselves be caught. Nor at the sound agency let them conceive an Edinburgh pawn-broker's shop, where are exposed for sale, flutes, books, seals, trinkets, and fowling-pieces-the ex-moveables of some unfortunate student of medicine, and placed there to give him the means of escaping the clutches of the tradesmen from whom he obtained them. A Calcutta agent, save that he has (in common with all mercantile men,) the keen eye to his own interest, so prominent in the one, and the close VOL. XI.

gripe in business transactions, proverbial to the other, resembles neither of these; he is the great mercantile leviathan of the east, combining in his own person the characters of banker, merchant, ship-owner, and underwriter; and holding the funds, is often the partner of the indigo planter and manufacturer. To all these he may be said, in some degree, to add the functions of shopkeeper; for though these gentlemen do not, like the select men of America, stand behind the counter of a store, (anglice, shop) yet goods are advertised by them in retail quantities,

their gentility occasionally being saved from compromise, by some one of their clerks, (whom they, in imita tion of the Yankees, style assistants,) signing the advertisement.

This body, though unconnected with the honourable Company, which, in that part of the world, like the king in this, is the source of all honour, is still held in high consideration in India. This high station they do not derive from any mental superiority; for though there are many among them, particularly those who have been educated for other professions, possessing intellect and information that would adorn any circle of society, yet the mass are not much above the scale of the pilots I have described, and certainly not upon a par with the generality of the skippers who sail their ships. But they possess one power, to which the civil servant, however unwillingly, must bow down; and that is, the command 4 B