treated just in the same manner-they were to be kept down, and the government of England secured by the ascendancy, not of Protestantism, but Protestants. A new policy was adopted, power was given by degrees to Roman Catholics, and the oppressions of the penal laws repealed-until, in the end, the desperate experiment has been ventured, of governing the country by the popish party, and trampling in their turn upon the Protestants--but through all the changes of her policy towards Ireland, we look in vain for a constant, and enlightened, and a persevering effort to benefit the great mass of the people, and spread among them the blessings of civilization, and Protestantism; at one time trampling them under foot as enemies and slaves, but making no honest effort to raise them from their degradation--at another time conferring on them privilege and power, without taking pains to make them fit for its enjoyment-and again, consigning to the hands of the Romish priests, the government of the country and discouraging every effort to emancipate the people from their power. We may hope, perhaps, that better times are coming, that England has reaped the bitter fruits of her criminal neglect, and that the day is not far distant when she will understand, and act on the principle, that her duty to the population entrusted to her'care is not fulfilled by the enactment of oppressive laws, nor yet by giving them the name of freedom, while she heeds not that they are the slaves of superstition nor yet by consigning the country to those, whose interest it is to keep them in darkness; but by an honest, Christian effort to elevate them in the social scale, by enforcing the blessings of order, and diffusing among them those of Protestantism. This is the policy which we are anxious to see adopted-it is one very different from scorn, or neglect, or oppression, of the Roman Catholic population--it is to recognise their importance--to care for their intereststo seek their welfare, and, therefore, to emancipate them in truth, by elevating them to the dignity of freemen. To those who would, with us, desire to see such a policy directing the treatment of Ireland, we know of no better work to recommend than the volume before us. Written by one who has sympathised with the feelings-who has shared in the exclusion of the Irish Roman Catholics; it reveals to us the dispositions among them with which we have to deal-it exposes both the agencies which resist amelioration, and the qualities which offer us facilities in the great work of national improvement. We may learn thus both how we may best conciliate, and what we ought sternly to suppress-how to win over the better feelings of our Roman Catholic fellow-subjects, and how to put down the machinations of those who perpetuate their slavery. This importance the volume derives from the peculiar and deeply interesting circumstances under which it is written. But when we add to this-that it is marked at once by ability and information, and what is far higher praise, that it is written in a tone of manly independence, which places truth above all considerations of what may be pleasing to any party-that it is impossible to read a single page of it without being struck by this high and honorable tone-we say, we are sure all that is necessary to recommend it to the best attention of Irish Protestants. We have been unavoidably compelled to postpone a review of another work, to which we feel most anxious to direct attention; we mean, "Thoughts on the Elements of Civil Government, by a British Jurist." It is long since a work has appeared in which so much deep political philosophy is brought to bear, in the shape of practical wisdom on the events and circumstances of the time. Next month we hope to bring this able and most seasonable publication fully before the attention of our readers. BY-WAYS OF IRISH HISTORY. CHAP. XII.-OUTLINES OF THE STATISTICS OF ROMANISM IN IRELAND. IT should be remembered always by one who would pronounce impartially on the character of the Roman Catholics of Ireland, that they are placed in very peculiar circumstances: the lights which serve to guide their consciences are not those by which their actions are directed. The former are borrowed from the doctrines of their church;-prudence, and the law of the land exert an influence over the latter. In ordinary cases, this would be a distinction without a difference-the principles of Romanism are too discrepant from those of the British constitution, to admit of its being accounted insignificant. It may be said that there are now recognised in Ireland (as there had been long in existence,) two distinct systems of government. The Roman Catholics are regarded as owing what is termed a spiritual obedience to the chief authorities in their church, and as professing temporal submission to the state. From the temporal superior they learn to understand that they must obey the law, or else incur a risk of suffering punishment. From the teaching of their church, they learn that "guilty and not guilty" do not, necessarily, bear the same meaning as "sinful and innocent." They learn that it is the province of law to determine on facts, while to the church is reserved the power of pronouncing on the moral qualities of actions. In short, the law of the land addresses itself to the prudence of a Roman Catholic; the decisions of his church "alone" have power to direct his conscience. The law pronounces its commandments, sanctioning them by annexing penalties extending to person, property, life; and the church signifies her will, and demands obedience on pain of everlasting ruin. If these demands on the active obedience of men have opposite ends and objects, it is plain that the course of law must be seriously embarrassed and obstructed: as yet it would seem as if the state felt little moved or concerned to institute the inquiry which such a state of things appears to advise. But the church of Rome does not rely altogether on its purely spiritual terrors. The law of opinion strengthens it, and brings to its aid, not the ordinary sanctions of praise and blame, but solid advantages, also, which can be priced, and penalties against which neither consciousness of merit nor high philosophy can fortify the sufferer. Ireland, indeed, the law of opinion is of a peculiar character. It is not indefinite or uncertain. It is not changeable or capricious. Its enactments are definite and fixed as those of the civil law-its punishments severer and far more certain. It is in truth THE LAW by which the great majority of the people are governed, having aspects, one, turned out ward, towards the philosophers and politicans of England, and wearing the expression which, they call" popular opinion," the other, looking inwards, on the masses which feel its power, and exhibiting the stern features of a rude and merciless despotism. This is a force from which Romanism in Ireland derives powerful assistance; liberal statesmen call it "influence," and lend it their countenance and support: those who feel it to be a ruthless tyranny dare not venture to expose it. Romanism in Ireland, therefore, is aided not alone by its spiritual authority, by which it governs conscience, but also by a collateral support which gives it a mighty command over temporal influences also. Let us see to what purposes its advantages are made subservient, and what the machinery which it has set in operation. ROMANISM IN IRELAND, SECULAR ESTABLISHMENT. Of this department the following table will furnish, we believe, a correct representation. We have collected materials for it from statements in "The Catholic Almanack and Directory : Dioceses. Chapels. 677 389 566 821 27 1076 1983 971 1193 The sources of emolument from which the body of ecclesiastics, located as above, in number 2191, is maintained, are various. The 27 bishops have, each, the profits of one or more parishes; they receive also a payment on licences for marriage, and a contribution from the clergy of each parish respectively, on delivering to them the chrism, or oil to be used in extreme unction; the curates reside generally in the houses of the parish priests, and receive a proportion of their revenues; while the intercourse of the latter with their flocks is regulated by a spiritual tariffe which had been long concealed from the public view, but has recently been brought to light by the persevering and happily directed industry of the Rev. Robert M'Ghee.* We The circumstances under which Mr. M'Ghce was enabled to procure a copy of the Diocesan Statutes," are too well known to require or to justify, in this place, a history of his important discovery. The reader will find it in the "Reprint of the Diocesan Statutes," of which, if not already provided, he should procure a copy. may observe, however, that the carefulness of Dr. Murray to keep his book of laws a secret, was scarcely more conspicuous in the instance of the statutes, than the cautiousness with which, in other matters also, connected with his church, the Most Reverend Divine abstained from giving information. For example-he was examined before a Parliamentary Committee in 1825, on the subject of the revenues of bishops in his church; it is instructive to observe how he, an archbishop, answered. "From what sources are the emoluments of the Roman Catholic bishops derived ? -Generally, from the emoluments derivable from parishes, and contributions offered by the clergy at Easter. "Do you know, or have you any objection to state the emolument of the Roman Catholic bishops, as derived from these two sources?-I DO NOT KNOW WHAT IT IS.' Lords' Com. March 24, 1825. " The ignorance or indifference which rendered the Most Reverend Divine incapable of measuring the extent of his own income, was manifested also in his answers respecting the revenues of his clergy. MEANS OF KNOWING THAT. "Can you state what is the average income of priests in your parish ?—I HAVE NO I have never made a calculation." Lords'. Com, March 24, 1825. At the time when Dr. Murray underwent the examination in which he returned the above answers, the project of making the Roman Catholic priests stipendiary was seriously entertained, at least it was under consideration. One of the objects which it was hoped to effect by such an arrangement, was that of delivering the Roman Ca. tholic population from the burden of maintaining their clergy. It was, however, intimated by the bishops, that the relief was to be but partial, inasmuch as certain dues should still continue to be exacted. The payments from which the people were to be released will be understood from the following question and answer; Dr. Doyle and the other Roman Catholic bishops agreeing in opinion with Dr. Murray, the respondent. "As the income of the Roman Catholic priests is understood to depend partly upon annual payments in the nature of Easter offerings, and partly on payments made at marriages, christenings, and burials, from which of these different classes of payment do you think it would be most desirable to relieve their flocks?-The offerings at Easter and Christmas." Lords' Com. March 24, 1825. These were the offerings from which the State would be permitted to relieve the people. The terms on which the permission was to be accorded may be understood from the following question and answer : "Can you state what proportion of the income of the parish priests is derived from the annual contributions of their flocks, compared with that received on the performance of marriages, baptisms, and funerals?—I have endeavoured to form an opinion upon that, and I think that not more than one-fourth of their income at present is derived from the contribution at marriages, funerals, and baptisms; perhaps not so much: I think I might say with certainty, not so much as one-fourth.". Lords' Com. March 21, 1825. Right Rev. J. Doyle. Thus then, had the Government compounded for the dues of the people to the priests, the composition would have been fifteen shillings in the pound, the dues which the priests were still to continue receiving being computed at no more than the remaining five shillings. 66 Let us now consult "The Diocesan Statutes," for the purpose of ascertaining the payments which make up a quarta pars" of the priest's income. The twenty-fourth chapter supplies us with the desired information. The bishops who were formerly appointed, (as we have already stated,) at the recommendation of the Stuart family, owe their elevation, now, to the votes of the clergy and of the Roman Catholic metropolitan and suffragans of To the first and the fourth of these classes no rule is to be applied; the first are to be unrestricted-the latter unenforced. It is only recommended that the rich give according to their means, and that nothing be exacted compulsorily from paupers. The Tariffe applies to the intermediate classes, as thus: Marriage, License for do. Baptism, Mass for the dead (if sung), to parish priest, To every other priest present, who celebrates mass in the house of the deceased, To each priest present, not "celebrating," Mass, not sung, Dues at stations are not defined. A substitute for them is recommended; that of tuitous receipts made the subject of diocesan regulation; nor is the custom of begging oats, &c. "questing," as it used to be called. The clergy are merely directed to use moderation in all such matters. The payments here enumerated, and the anonymous gains indistinctly designed in the perspective, constitute only a fourth part of the income of the Roman Catholic clergy in Ireland. We have known fifty pounds contributed by the guests at a farmer's wedding in the south of Ireland; we have more than once heard of twenty pounds levied by the contribution, which from the competition of the parties has been termed "canting the corpse," at a farmer's funeral in the north. And the revenues, of which such gains as these are items, constitute but a fourth of the priest's income!! Births, marriages, deaths, of six millions of "subjects," paid for at such prices, and the income of the priests exceeding the receipts four-fold!!! It is true that moderation in the exaction of dues is recommended; but the injunctions addressed to the clergy do not appear to have been extended so as to include the people also, within the sphere of their admonitory influence. The "Catholic Directory and Almanack" for the year 1837 throws a light upon the voluntary offerings of the people, which might cause even the most inconsiderate of politicians to inquire what becomes of the wealth annually laid down at the feet of the Roman Catholic clergy. "We cannot better conclude," writes the compiler of the Almanack, "these few observations, than in the words of a learned and noble foreigner, Count Montalembert, taken from his Sketches of Ireland.'" From the passage thus adopted as a faithful description of the condition of the Roman Catholic clergy in this country, we extract the statement respecting the offerings made to them at the two great festivals." "Each brings, at Christmas and Easter, the small means which his economy has saved for the support of the priest and the temple of the Lord. All give, in proportion to their means, and with a good will-the farmer Two rOUNDS OR MORE, the labourer one or two shillings, AND THE CONTEMPT OF THE FAITHFUL ASSUREDLY AWAITS THOSE WHO HAVE IT IN THEIR POWER AND WILL NOT GIVE. What a revenue is here! Twelve hundred thousand houses, paying each an annual tribute, varying, in the humbler ranks of life, from three or four shillings to four pounds sterling, while the wealthier classes offer contributions which are veiled in secrecy from profane enquirers, and can only be conjectured after comparing the condition of the labourer and the farmer with that of the aristocracy and gentry, and calling to remembrance the fact that "the contempt of the faithful," and probably worse than their contempt, will be visited on the man who is pronounced a niggard towards the clergy. We do not venture to imagine the purpose to which this enormous income is dedicated; nor do we take upon ourselves to estimate its vast and alarming amount:-we have thought it more within our province to furnish elements upon which a just computation may be formed, so far as they have been supplied us by Roman Catholic authoritythe Almanack and Directory for 1837, and the Diocesan Statutes of Dr. Murray, long most carefully concealed, and, at length, providentially discovered. The secrecy observed respecting the Diocesan Statutes to which we have alluded, the province in which a vacancy is to be filled up. The recommendation of the three who are most esteemed by the two orders of ecclesiastics is trans mitted to the "Congregation for the propagation of the faith at Rome," and usually the first on the list is nominated. The relations subsisting between the Church of Rome in Ireland and the "Capital of the Christian world," demand from us a brief notice of this celebrated congregation. The Congregation de Propaganda fide was instituted by Gregory XV. early in the seventeenth century, and was put in charge of a college instituted for the extension of the Roman Catholic Church, which had been recently founded. It is composed of eighteen cardinals, the secretary of state, a prothonotary apostolic, a referendary, an assessor, and the secretary of the holy office.+ "All these prelates and officers (writes Aimon, who had been domestic prelate to Innocent XI.) assemble on the first Monday of every month in the presence of the Pope, and many times every week, when business demands, at the college of the propagation of the faith, to examine every thing that may prove advantageous to the religion of Rome, to discover means proper for attracting to it persons of other communions, and to deliberate on all expedients which may be found out, or which are proposed by missionaries and others labouring under their direction and at their cost, in all parts of the world where they send out commissioners, &c. &c. when a favourable opportunity is presented of being able to establish the religion of the Pope." To this council the government of the Church of Rome in every missionary country (that is, every country in which there is not a settled Romish hierarchy) is entrusted. is limited, with, we believe, one excepTo such places its power tion, and that is furnished by the case of Ireland. Ours is not a missionary country, but, for the sake of advantages accruing from such a disposition, it is placed under the government of the Congregation de propaganda fide," and the individual who presides over the administration of its affairs is entitled "CARDINAL PROTECTOR OF IRELAND." 66 According to the engagements contracted by Roman Catholic bishops in this country, they are bound by oath to visit the city of Rome once in every ten years, "to give an account of their pastoral office, of the state of their churches, and the discipline of their clergy and people; and to receive humbly the apostolic commands," which, they promise they will "diligently exeIf detained by a lawful impediment, they promise "to perform all things aforesaid," by "a messenger specially empowered," of suitable character and dignity to represent them. Provision is thus made that the " Congregation of the Propaganda" shall receive, every year, reports as to the condition of Ireland, from at least two bishops, or their duly accredited agents.‡ Nor are cute." and of which the reader can find the evidences in Mr. M'Ghee's publication, was + Thus, Aymon in La Tableau de la Cour de Rome. The "Catholic Registry for 1856" reports "April 11-Most Rev. Dr. Murray proceeded on a visit to Rome." " But "October 4-Most Rev. Dr. Murray returned from Rome to Ireland.' "October 5-Most Rev. Dr. Murray wrote a pastoral letter to the clergy of his arch-diocese. "October 9-Right Rev. Dr. Higgins, bishop of Ardagh, and Right Rev. N. Browne, bishop of Kilmore, proceeded to Rome." Registry for 1837. "January 8-Right Rev. Dr. Fleming (of Newfoundland) left Dublin for London, previous to his departure for Rome." "April-Right Rev. Dr. Fleming arrived in Rome, and by command of his Holiness actively attended the ceremonies in the Sixtine Chapel during Holy Week. The Holy |