To his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant. "May it please your Excellency-The Memorial of the undersigned inhabitants of the parishes of Dingle, Kildrum, Ventry, Donquin, Dunurlin, and Kilmacheader, on behalf of themselves and their families: "Humbly Sheweth-That Memorialists, with their families, were formerly in the communion of the Roman Catholic Church That Memorialists, from what they believe and profess to be conscientious motives, have withdrawn from the communion of the Roman Catholic Church, and joined that of the Protestant Established Church: That Memorialists have suffered reproach and persecution, more or less, from time to time; but that for the last four months, particularly, Memorialists have been, and are still suffering grievous persecution and loss, as converts from the Church of Rome: That when Memorialists pass through the town of Dingle, and the surrounding district, they are insulted and provoked to a breach of the peace, by many persons shouting at them, using opprobrious and threatening language, and throwing stones: That Memorialists have often had convictions before the magistrates, and assistant barrister, against persons for way-laying, assaulting, and threatening, in cases where they knew or could discover the parties so offending: That Memorialists themselves have not been charged with any such crime before the magistrates or assistant barrister: That Memorialists cannot purchase the necessaries of life in the markets and shops, the people refusing to sell to them, or have any dealings with them, as converts from the Roman Catholic Church: That Memorialists have reason to know and believe, that this state of things is entirely owing to the preaching of the priests of the Roman Catholic Church, from their altars: That Memorialists are constantly exhorted by their respective ministers, in public and private, to peace and good will towards all men, even their persecutors and slanderers: That memorialists desire to testify, that their Roman Catholic neighbours are well disposed towards them, and that they are in peace and good will with each other, when Roman Catholic priests do not excite them against Memorialists: That Memorialists do not feel themselves and their families in the enjoyment of that safety and liberty which is the right of every subject of Her Gracious Majesty: That sad consequences are apprehended, if such a state of things be allowed to continue: That Memorialists are prepared to prove these statements, by their own and other most respectable testimony: That Me. morialists, under these circumstances, appeal to a humane Government, in behalf of themselves and their families, who altogether amount to over 800 souls. And Memorialists will ever pray." As in the case of the Achill mission, it is here also quite apparent that the agents of popery have derived great advantage in their warfare with a Gospel ministry from the national system of education. The Rev. Charles Gayer brought an action for libel against the proprie tor of the Kerry Examiner, for having grossly maligned and calumniated him as a hypocrite and an impostor, because of the representation which that reverend gentleman made of the conversions which took place within the sphere of his ministry in the district of Dingle. In order to discredit the efforts of the missionaries, an individual was produced who swore that temporal inducements were held out to him to become a convert. He described himself as practising a series of systematic delusions upon various benevolent persons, whom from time to time he contrived to interest in his spiritual welfare, until there was no species of fraud or hypocrisy to which, upon his own showing, he had not recourse; and then he became a national school master! But we would not be doing justice to this precious specimen of the instructors of the people under the National Board, if we did not exhibit a portion of his evidence to our readers. "Timothy Lynch sworn and examined by Mr. Gallwey-I live in Dingle; I am a teacher of the National School since the 17th of last April; I was a teacher of a National School at Ballyferriter in the year 1838: I went to Liverpool in 1841 and 1 remained there about three months; I came back to Dublin in 1842; I met Mr. Matthew Moriarity in Dublin; he is brother to the Rev. Mr. Moriarty; I had a conversation with him in Dublin. "Mr. Keller objected, and the judge decided against the question being put. "Examination resumed-In conse quence of the conversation which I had with Mr. Matthew Moriarty I went to church in Dublin; I came to Dingle, some time after, and went to Mr. Gayer and asked him for money; he said he would not give me any unless I went to church, and that if I went to church I would be provided for, and would get a settled salary of £12 a year; he gave me two half-crowns on that day; I did go the church, and I got the salary he said he would give me; I had nothing to do for it but to read the Bible; I got a pair of shoes from Mr. Gayer; I got 10s. from Mrs. Gayer on the day that I was going to Mr. Norman, of Abbeyfeale; Mr. Norman is a protestant elergyman; he was then curate of Brosna; I am now a Roman Catholic, and I was appointed teacher of the National School by the Rev. Mr. Devine, the Roman Catholic Priest of Dingle." "You say you went to church in Dublin? I do, sir. "Now, what was the name of one of the churches? I don't recollect, sir; I think it was a church in Gardiner-street. "Who preached there? I think it was Mr. Fleury, sir. "What other preacher did you hear during your stay in Dublin? I think I heard Mr. Gregg, sir; I think it was he that preached in Gardiner-street? "And tell me now, who took you to hear those preachers? Mrs. Peebles and Miss Bellingham took me to another church, but I don't know the name of it. "Who were Mrs. Peebles and Miss Bellingham? They were two ladies that Mr. Matthew Moriarty introduced me to. "I see, and you told Mrs. Peebles that you were an excellent Protestant? 'Twas necessity compelled me to do it (laughter). Mr. Moriarty introduced you to Mrs. Peebles, and Mrs. Peebles told you to go to church? Yes, sir. "Come, now, upon your oath didn't you humbug the lady (laughter)? Many besides me humbug them (renewed laughter). "On your oath, didn't they think you a great Protestant? Sure I went to church (laughter). "Come, now, didn't Mrs. Peebles and Mrs. Bellingham think you were a great Protestant? "Withess-(pausing and holding down his head)-They did certainly (loud laughter). Now, on your oath, how long did you continue humbugging the poor ladies (laughter). "Witness-(pausing and confused) -I suppose it was humbugging 'em (great laughter). But how long did you continue humbugging them? I was with them from the time I arrived in Dublin till the 16th of March. "How much money did you get from them? I can' tell. "Was it so much that you can't tell (laughter)? 'Twas not so much as that. I was employed by them teaching Irish, and I was obliged to attend Mr. Matthew Moriarty every day at his rooms in college, to receive instructions. By the virtue of your oath, didn't you humbug Mr. Moriarty too? I suppose I did (laughter). "When you left Dublin you went to Dingle, to Mr. Gayer? I did, sir. 66 Now, sir, on your oath, didn't you humbug Mr. Gayer too? Indeed I did; I said I was a convert? "On your oath, didn't you humbug Mr. Gayer well? I suppose when I had no notion of stopping with them 'twas nothing but a humbug (great laughter). "Now didn't Mr. Norman think you were a convert also? He did. "Didn't you make him think you were a very good Protestant? I must own I did. "And were you not a Protestant? I suppose I was when I was going to church (laughter). "So you first humbugged the poor ladies in Dublin, then Mr. Matthew Moriarty, then Mr. Gayer, and lastly Mr. Norman-wasn't that it? (The witness gave no answer, but remained confused and puzzled, amid great laughter.) "Examination resumed-Were you employed by Mr. Norman? I was employed as his clerk and schoolmaster. "What salary had you? I had £20 a-year first, and £25 a-year afterwards. "And during the whole time you were no Protestant, but were humbugging Mr. Norman-weren't you a pretty hypocrite of a clerk ?-(loud laughter, caused by the dumb-foundered manner of the witness)." Will any one who reads, still less any one who has heard the evidence of this wretched man, deem the indignant comment of counsel upon it too severe, when he said : Lynch goes to Liverpool, he comes back to Dublin, and cannot tell you the names of the churches to which he went. You have heard from his own lips the story of his infamous career. He comes down to the west, and represents himself as an honest man, and, at the same time that he was covered with disgrace and degradation, he said that his religion was unchanged -in other words he denied that very God on whose word his oath was taken. He is now connected with the National School. That being, whose words excited unmingled, withering disgust in the minds of every one who heard him -he is now the instrument of the education of children-of the instruction of the rising generation! He is now a national schoolmaster, appointed by a reverend gentleman, who has taken an active part in this defence, and Gracious Heavens! will he venture to keep him, poisoned as is every communication which comes from such a source? Can that man administer instruction to the poor, steeped as he is in the moral filth of infamy and crime? And yet this is the man who is ushered in and put forward as one of their best witnesses-a double-souled apostate, a foul liar to his God, and an abominable perjurer." But we must conclude. It is now, we think, clearly established, that a strong disposition exists in various parts of this country, amongst the Roman Catholic population, to leave the Church of Rome. Upon this subject, two views present themselves. Either the Romish priests are to be encouraged and strengthened in resisting this tendency of their own people to break from the spiritual bondage in which they have been so long bound; or the missionaries are to be aided and protected in the work of conversion. The first is the view which would seem to be taken by Sir Robert Peel and the present ministers. They propose a large augmentation of the grants for extending and establishing the Romish superstition. They call upon Protestant England to furnish the funds by which a religion, pronounced by the legislature to be idolatrous, may be maintained and extended, at a time when, if left to its own resources, it must speedily vanish from the land. The second is the view taken by the religious community in general, and the Irish society in particular, by whose instrumentality so much good has been already effected, and who may be said to be the precursors of those moral and religious movements which are so cheering to the heart of the scriptural christian. Can the man who is really acquainted with the actual position of popery in this country, describe the Maynooth project of ministers as any thing better than an attempt to crutch up a tottering superstition against the causes which are operating its rapid decay, in order that the difficulties may be augmented which have been found so seriously to militate against the spiritual emancipation of the people? Ireland is ripe for conversion. This the Romish clergy well know. This is no age in which a mass performed in an unknown tongue can be regarded by any class of people as a reasonable service. The question, then, is, shall government lend its aid to an unscriptural priesthood, by largely endowing them at the public expense, at a time when a spirit of inquiry is pervading the masses over whom they preside, and dissipating the delusion upon which their authority is founded? Never, never was there a more unfounded hypothesis than that their domination is destined to endure. We cannot cast our eyes upon any part of the country, without seeing unequivocal symptoms that there are multitudes within the bosom of their church to whom their spiritual tyranny is distasteful; and it is against these multitudes their hands will be strengthened by any project, such as that of Sir Robert Peel, by which their temporal circumstances may be improved. And what do we require? Simply that government should stand perfectly neutral between the parties who are at present contending for and against the papal pretensions. Is this too much to be expected? Is it too much to expect that Romish priests should be confined, in their contests with a Protestant minister, to what are legitimate instruments of controversy, and not be permitted to wield those terrors by which physical violence is substituted for moral conviction? And is the demand utterly unreasonable on the part of the poor persecuted converts from popery, that they may be taken under the protection of the law? But, above all things, again and again, we implore the people of England to distinguish between popery as a sect, and popery as a party in Ireland; and to be well convinced, that the party never will be propitiated by any concession made to the sect, while the sect may be continued by concessions made to the party; and that the effect of the Maynooth endow. ment bill, and all other similar measures, by which a faction is sought to be conciliated at the expense of the Protestant interest in Ireland, will be to convert agitation from an annual into a perennial plant, and to make the system of discord, which at present depends upon the accidents of character and circumstances, as universal as nationality, and as permanent and unchangeable as social institutions. INDEX TO VOLUME XXV. Achilles Contemplating the Corpse of Artist, on the Inspiration of the, by Baptism, the, and the Bridal, by a Barrett, Elizabeth Barrett, Poems, re- Benjamin, Park, the Northern Lights, Bode's, Baron de, Travels in Luristan and Arabistan, reviewed; 265. Caldaro, a Pilgrimage to, 305. Claims, the, of Labour, an Essay on Compte, Discours sur l'Esprit Positif, Conversions, Protestant, in Ireland, 733. Dædalus and Icarus, Flight of, by Defenders, the, 242. Devil's Ladder, the, 658. Elphinstone, the Hon. Mountstuart, Fernow, Carl Ludwig, on the Inspira- Freiligrath, the White Lady, 97. Gaudy, F. F., Where's my Money? 181. Gilfillan, Robert, Stanzas addressed Goethe, Mahomet's Song, by John Gray, Mrs. James, Sketches from the Gray, Mrs. James, a Christmas Carol Remains of, No. I. 397; No. II. 547. Mares' Nests, 135; More Mares' Nests, 527. Mariner's Bride, the, 546. Mill, John Stuart, a System of Logic, 452. Nevilles, the, of Garretstown, Chap. 728. Nightmare, of the, 32. Niobe, by Mrs. James Gray, 58. O'Connor, Matthew, Military History Past and Present Policy of England to- Mosen, 101; A Saying of Neander, Pole's, Mr. Rowland, Valentines, 159. Protestant Conversions in Ireland, 733. |