repel the imputation. Taking his Lordship at his word, and supposing the charge to be true as it is notorionsly false-in what condition does it place our Rulers? What becomes of the Penal Code? How stands the account between us, and a Government which made learning a crime-religion, treason-which demolished the Altar and proscribed the Priest which drove the disfranchised, the degraded, and shorn Catholic, to scan his primmer, and worship his God under the friendly thorn, whose seared and withering stem but too well harmonized with his own desolation. A Senator, who assists in framing laws for seven millions of people, should not be altogether ignorant of their religious principles. As far as results go, they may be just as much aggrieved by this ignorance, as by the most rancorous and determined malice propense. From this latter feeling, I am perfectly willing to acquit his Lordship, and shall merely observe, that his denunciation of Catholic superstition in the British Senate, and under the pillars of a Constitution, projected and reared by Catholic hands, may possibly appear to three-fourths of Europe at least, very splenetic, and very foolish, if not very intolerant. It is not wise in Lord Lorton to drive us to a contrast from which he can gain no possible advantage. He should rather throw a veil over the origin of his Bible progenitors, than evoke them, thus unseemly from their molten tomb. As he has dragged them, however, before the public, in a very unfortunately pugnacious mood, I shall give them the benefit of a second appearance, and in the course of these strictures exhibit them in the costume which their fame and their merits entitle them to wear. In the interim, as Lord Lorton has been pleased to tell the world what the Irish Catholics are not, I shall take an early opportunity of telling his Lordship what the Irish Catholics really are-the more willingly as such an exposition is perfectly revalent to my present undertaking. CLEROPHILOS. Dublin, June, 1824. BLASPHEMOUS DOCTRINE OF THE BIBLICALS. Respecting Supernatural Impulse and extraordinary SIR, Not satisfied with the external operations, the flame repulsive, sting vindictive, life extinguishing operations mentioned before, our friends of the Biblical school contrive now and again, to imprison the Deity in the flaccid thorax of some floating old tabby, and make him sigh and groan, and move through all the beautiful contortions of religious enthusiasm. Observe a moment the operations of the spirit in the languishing frame of Mrs. Roberts-"But all this time my soul was stayed upon God; my desires increased, and my mind was kept in a sweet praying frame, a-going out of myself as it were, and taking shelter in HIM. Every breath I drew ended in a prayer, I felt my self helpless as an infant, dependent upon God for all things. I was in a constant, daily expectation of receiving all I wanted; and on Friday, May 31st, under Mr. Rutherford's Sermon, though entirely independent of it, (for I could not give any account of what he had been preaching about;) I was given to feel that God was waiting to be very gracious to me; the spirit of prayer and supplication was given me, and such an assurance that I was accepted in the Beloved, as I cannot describe, but which I shall never forget."Meth. Mag. He (the Lord) is sometimes, it is true, permitted to follow a more sublime vocation, to take the minstrel's harp, glide o'er its chords, and waft to heaven on wings of melody.-— "When Sappho struck the trembling lyre, my throbbing heart began to beat; " but whither has truant imagination hurried me? Let us hear a little of this Biblical music, as played at the demise of Mrs. Elizabeth Price. A few nights before her death, while some neighbours and her husband were sitting up with her, a sudden joyful sound of music was heard by all present, although some of them were carnal people; at which time she thought she saw her crucified Saviour before her, speaking these words with power to her soul -Thy sins are forgiven thee, and I love thee freely.' After this she never doubted of her acceptance with God; and on Christmas day following, was taken to celebrate the Redeemer's birth, in the Paradise of God.Michael Cousin."-Meth. Mag. Verily these Biblicals are a sublimated race! Their system contains inexhaustible sources, combines in its texture more of the ingredients and properties that constitute what I understand by the word sublime, than all the phenomena of the physical world taken together! The earthquake that merges the pride and the hopes of man, the volcano that pours its fiery torrent on the yielding plain, the tempest that devastates, and the inundation that deforms the fair aspect of nature, are objects peculiarly and strikingly sublime but to the eye of the Christian, and the philosopher, they fade into insignificance, compared with the overwhelming sublimity of a Bible Association. The mind is lost in the reflection, is filled with amazement, and, to express my own sensations at the Rotunda meeting, with terror too, to think that a few obscure fanatics should have been able to enlist in their crusade against the reason, the peace, and the happi |