the lower orders of the Irish, we ought to congratulate ourselves that any influence can effect or control them. Is the tiger less formidable in the forest than when he has been caught and taught to obey a voice, and tremble at a hand? But we over-rate the power of the priest, if we suppose that the upper orders are to encounter all the dangers of treason and rebellion, to confer the revenues of the Protestant Church upon their Catholic clergy. If the influence of the Catholic clergy upon men of rank and education is so unbounded, why cannot the French and Italian clergy recover their possessions, or acquire an equivalent for them? They are starving in the full enjoyment of an influence which places (as we think) all the wealth and power of the country at their feet an influence which, in our opinion, overpowers avarice, fear, ambition, and is the master of every passion which brings on change and movement in the Protestant world. We conclude with a few words of advice to the different opponents of the Catholic question. To the No-Popery Fool. You are made use of by men who laugh at you, and despise you for your folly and ignorance; and who, the moment it suits their purpose, will consent to emancipation of the Catholics, and leave you to roar and bellow No Popery! to Vacancy and the Moon. To the No-Popery Rogue. A shameful and scandalous game, to sport with the serious interests of the country, in order to gain some increase of public power! To the Honest No-Popery People. We respect you very sincerely-but are astonished at your existence. To the Base. Sweet children of turpitude, beware! the old antipopery people are fast perishing away. Take heed that you are not surprised by an emancipating king, or an emancipating administration. Leave a locus pœnitentiæ ! -prepare a place for retreat-get ready your equivocations and denials. The dreadful day may yet come, when liberality may lead to place and power. We understand these matters here. It is safest to be moderately base to be flexible in shame, and to be always ready for what is generous, good, and just, when any thing is to be gained by virtue. To the Catholics. Wait. Do not add to your miseries by a mad and desperate rebellion. Persevere in civil exertions, and concede all you can concede. All great alterations in human affairs are produced by compromise. NOTE. MR. SYDNEY SMITH selected from the Edinburgh Review those articles he had written, -with the exception of twelve. These were probably omitted, because their subjects are already treated of in the extracted Articles, or, because they applied only to the period in which they were written. As Mr. Sydney Smith made the selection, it is therefore respected and continued; but lest any intention of disowning these omissions should be inferred, their numbers are subjoined.* After the year 1827, the Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst, disregarding political differences between himself and his friend, presented Mr. Sydney Smith to the Canonry of Bristol Cathedral. As a Dignitary of the Church he then ceased to write anonymously. * Vol. i. No. 3.; Vol. ii. No. 4.; Vol. iii. Nos. 12 and 7.; Vol. xii. No. 5.; Vol. xvi. No. 7.; Vol. xvii. No. 4. ; Vol. xxxii. No. 6.; Vol. xxxiv. Nos. 5. and 8.; Vol. xxxvii. No. 2.; and Vol. xl. No. 2. |