ably asserted, maintained, and defended by the great Boussuet, in the seventh book of the history of the variations. His only object is to show the irregulaTity and nullity proceeding from the usurpation of the civil power over the jurisdiction of the Church. When he relates the cause of the apostacy of England, the Church of England, he says, glories and boasts more than all the protestant Churches, that she has been reformed according to rule and order, and by lawful assemblies.-Let us examine this great regularity, so much vaunted. The first step to be taken, was, that the Ecclesiastics should and ought to have had at least the first rank, especially in matters concerning religion; but another quite contrary order has been observed; and from the time of Henry VIII. they had no power to interfere without his order. All that they complained of was, that they were deprived of their privileges, as if to interfere in religious matters was only a privilege, and not the essence and the very soul of the Ecclesiastical Order. Nor have they been better treated under Edward, when he under took the reformation, according to Mr. Burnet, on a much more solid foundation; but we find the case quite the reverse; they were obliged to petition Parliament, in the most humiliating manner, that the affairs of religion should not be regulated without consulting them, and hearing their reasons. Oh Tempora! Oh More's! Obstupesvite exli. What misery! What calamity! What a state of wretchedness! to see them, to whom Jesus Christ has said, He, who hears you, hears me-he, who despises you, despises me; to see them compelled, forced and reduced to such a condition as to entreat, beg and petition to be heard! Even this, as our historjan renverks, has been denied them-Nothing more remains to be said, after suche normous excesses.→→→ You see, gentlemen, how the great effect

shows the downfall of the Church of England, and the oppression which Bishops must naturally suffer from a law, of which they alone are the competent judges. Bring to your minds the recollection of those deplorable trans actions, and of the mortal wounds you are about to inflict on the discipline of the Church, by dooming and decreeing," in spite of us, her utter ruin and destruction, under the specious pretext of giving a civil constitution to the clergy. Only compare, judge, and draw a line of parallel Avert your anger, Oh God! Heaven grant that the fatal issue of a system, that has extinguished the faith in England, be not an example and forerunner of the misfortunes and calamities with which religion is menaced in this kingdom.

If the civil power be authorised to pronounce so despotically and arbitra rily, without the consent of the Church," the suppression of parishes and Bishopricks, all those sacred magistrącies then become liable to be amoved. The Pastors are no longer united to their flocks by that holy alliance that attached them to each other, as a father to his children their titles are but commissions that may be recalled at will. I see nothing more in the order of Pastors, but so many Compolites, without a country, without a fixed habitation, without a spiritual family. And to you, people, I appeal, whether you ought to bless an innovation, that renders the legal existence of the ministers of your religion precarious and uncertain; by which you are deprived of the assistance, counsel, and example of a Pastor, who cannot devote himself to discharge the duties of his ministry, when his situation is uncertain.

It is then notorious and evident, that if you can abolish fiftythree Bishopricks, without any form of law, and by an absolute act of your all powerful will, you will also have the power of suppressing, in an arbitrary manner, and in an instant, all the titles

of

from yourselves alone, that you hold this pretended and extravagant mission. We declare, and protest solemnly, that we do not, nor ever will acknowledge this constituent authority in the re-union of the Deputies of the Bailiwicks, whom the King alone had convoked, without intending to abdicate his Crown, in order to receive it from your hands. Moreover, we tell you, again and again, that if you were really a constituent Body, you would have a right to define, divide, and delegate all powers; but that you could retain none, because the re-union of powers is the essence of despotism, and despotism could never be lawfully instituted. You will not be more dangerous, gentlemen, the day that you declare to the nation that this despotic power has devolved to you. An open, candid, free declaration of your principles, will suffice to establish invincibly the radical nullity of your decree. Gentlemen, you will excuse me, if my reason does not bend to the logic of murmurs. I don't understand the language you speak in a tumult, when you do not articulate a single word. A speaker may be thus silenced or stopped, but not confuted-if you be determined to answer me, here are the assertions that I defy and challenge you to refute. You are not a Constituent Body. If you pretend to be, you are no longer a constituted body; if you were, your mission would be limited to establish and decree a constitution, and not to authorise yourselves to exercise any, political power, under pain of being denounced to the nation, as an assembly of tyrants. And I tell you, that the natural consequence of your unbecoming and indecent clamours, is, that you are reduced to the necessity of interrupting me continually, because you know the impossibility of answering me.

Let us now see if you, as a legislative Body, have a right (to our prejudice,) to exempt yourselves from the legal

forms, which you cannot but acknow ledge in your pretended quality of a Constituent Body. Whatever protects the rights of citizens cannot be refused by the legislators.We cannot be, deprived, in the name of the law, of a prerogative that the law has granted us, to secure its own supreme dominion. Legal forms are the guarantees of our rights; you cannot contest the right of having recourse to them.You can establish and decree laws, but you cannot execute them; and much less you cannot withdraw yourselves from their honourable yoke, and teach us how to trample and tread them under foot with pride, insolence and contempt. Every man who knows how to calculate the consequences of political principles, should renounce a country where the legislators are magistrates, and where the same representatives of the people, who have settled and fixed. the legislation, pretend to administer Jústice.

But, gentlenen, it is not to this monstrous confusion of powers alone that you are invited. You must, with the judiciary ministry, exercise all public powers-the ecclesiastical, the executive, and I would venture to say,, the judiciary power, if it was in the number of the political powers; but the essence of political powers is to be independent of each other, and the judiciary power essentially depends on the legislative, that directs its decisions, and, on the executive that sees them observed. Hence it results, that there is not a third political power, but an integral part of the executive. I, from this moment, denounce to the entire nation this scandalous coalition of all the powers that you pretend to exercise. Yes, I denounce it to yourselves, as the most manifest violation of your own decrees.--If it be true, that of your own accord you can suppress the parishes and Bishopricks of the kingdom, you act, at the same time,

as

as Legislators, Pontiffs, and Judges; this universal coalition requires nothing but proclamation. Ah! if it was said, five hundred leagues from Paris, that there existed in the world, a power, to which the functions of Pontiffs, Legislators, and Judges, have devolved, it would never be supposed that such a confused mass, such a medley model was to be found in this capital.-No, no, they would say it was to be found in the Divan of Constantinople or Ispahan. It is in those unfortunate Countries, that the iron rod of despotism holds reason, justice, and liberty in the most shameful bondage; where imbecile Sultans, Caliphs, and Cadi are vested with absolute authority, in all matters relating both to religion and policy; but it shall not be in a nation, that speaks of liberty, that the constituent principles of despotism will be opposed (and with success) against an entire class of citizens, who claim the protection of the law. Gentlemen, Gentlemen, permit us to partake of the ancient law of the kingdom, the prerogatives of this new constitution, that could not legitimate, authorise or make despotism lawful against us alone; the last of the citizens in his poor cottage is not to be turned out without a lawful judgment. Such is the sacred form of the law, that nothing can be substituted but facts. You take the rules of facts to discard and cast off them, who have not been as yet judged. If one Bishoprick alone be suppressed to-day, there will not be a prelate in the kingdom, who, by a new law, may be deposed to morrow. It is an incontestible principle, that a law can never be lawfully directed against an individual.

You, Monsieur Manou, this very moment pretend, as a Divine of our Military Committee, that by advancing those principles, of which, according to your avowal, you are totally ignorant, I am pleading the apology of the Ecclesiastical Committee, and that with. out intending, I serve the cause of the

public. Without intending! I know not whether your divinity has taught you better to guess my intentions, than your logic has taught you the art of refuting my reasoning. Well, I continue then to serve the cause of the public, as you will have it so.-I shall go with you to the article of the Ecclesiastical Committee, to which you have added new trophies of glory, by your indiscreet citation, which shall appear in this discussion.

[To be Continued.]

IMPORTANT EXTRACTS

FROM THE

NEWSPAPERS.

We are concerned to have it to announce, that the great Clontarf Silver Mine Company is dissolved. The Mines of Clontarf, under the ingenious and enterprising firm of Hill, Watson, and Company, promised to be a national benefit, and would be as productive as any in Peru. This is the character given to it by the cockle women of Baldoyle, who are conversant in extracting materials from the bosom of the earth. The company expended thirty-four pounds on the great pump, which was capable of raising two pounds and a half of pure silver each hour. Such a very flattering assurance of realising a fortune, was most wantonly destroyed by some malicious miscreant, who, by forcing an old bayonet into the cylinder of the pump, destroyed its powers, and thus ruined the establishment; as the iron interruption, by the calculation of an eminent engineer, cannot be extracted at a less expense than eight pounds four shillings, lawful

Mr. Maguire. Poor Conway, conscious of the danger he was in, lost all the swaggering character he assumes assumes iu news-papers; forgot the use of his Cunnemara pistols, his challenge to Dr. Brennan, his promised motion of breaking a lance with Walter; in short, the whole catalogue of paper character, was so absorbed in fear, when the Captain told him he should take a corner from his person, poor Con actually shook so severely, that all his honours fell from him, with the rolling sweat from his agued forehead. After apologizing in a manner very unbecoming one of the house of Killery and Company, Mr. Maguire bid the abject scribbler take better care of the game he selected.

The Patriot, a new paper, so called in publication of the last month, has given what its learned, but stupid editors, term a valuable article, from ano. ther wretched and contemptible publication, by a hired maniac, of the name of REDHEAD YORKE.

This dull genius, though we presume, from the Latin patch work that tesselates his paper, must be vastly learned, in his strictures on our indisposition to the Union, says, we have not given that measure a fair trial; that ten years are not sufficient in point of time; that some years of peace are the best critetion by which to form a judgment. We are sure, whether he means domestic or external peace, in either čase, it is not our fault that both or any of them are not practicable, because the Irish want peace, more than any other nation in the world'; and though it is our wish, we defy red-headed Yorke, or any headed Englishmen, fairly to shew that it is to our conduct the want of tranquility is to be attributed; en the contary, the domestic image of

A

war, frequently detailed by the newspa pers, can be accurately traced to its ancient authors, the servants and agents of Red-headed Yorke's countrymen. So far are our petty disturbances a mat ter of no uneasiness to them, they are decidedly a triumph, or they would not continue in power through Ireland the most 'atrocious of the monsters, who burnt, tortured, violated, and plundered the abject and disarmed peasantry; we say they are in power, and though not authorised to exercise the same plenitude of horror, they draw consequence, and even amusement, to themselves, by an organised system of dark and perfidious acts of irritation. Primate Boulter, of infamous memory, advises his masters in England, of the necessity of having Protestant mobs in Dublin, for the purpose of distracting and dividing the public opinion. Country gentlemen in Ireland have discovered that Popish mobs are as useful, and much cheaper; they can be starved, tithed, or rack rented into objects of horror; and in the names of Shanavests, Caravats, or any other whimsical distinction, may contribute to the security of the state, and to the honor and advantage of their sub-governors. The Farming Society are as reprehensible as any other body of men; they patronize hogs and build styes, while their tenants are left starving, and their hovels uncovered. While ever eating and sleeping are in fashion, such a preference given to beasts, will excite envy with their human adversaries. The gallows may do its duty, and it is not spared, as an instrument of instruction; its a posting bill, that announces to the unread Irish, every new statute, an hieroglyphical proclamation, that makes printing un