the history of Christendom, during the three last centuries, demonstrates the falsehood of this charge, and shews that it may be retorted on those who bring it. Let one example suffice: when Edward VI. died, was there a single reformer of any eminence who was not engaged in Lady Jane's rebellion? When Mary died, was there a single Catholic, and the nation was then almost all Catholic, to oppose the succession of Elizabeth?

!

But, whilst I exhort you to be faithful to your sovereign, let me not forget to admonish you of the fidelity you owe to your God. You will gather from what I have already said, that I consider your approaching emancipation as an event which is likely to be trying to your religious constancy and piety. To speak the truth, I think I see that the very prospect of this change makes a few individuals affect an air of latitudinarianism totally inconsistent with the tenets of catholicity, and disposes them, in particular, to barter away the inalienable spiritual rights of the Church for their own temporal advantage.. This system of indemnification, at the expense of the Church, has been acted upon to a great extent of late upon the continent of Europe. But then they were only temporal possessions which were thus disposed of: whereas, in the instance to which I allude, the vital interests of Christ's spiritual kingdom have been held up to sale by those who never had or can have a right to dispose of them. Nevertheless, whatever may

be the dispositions and conduct of a few individuals, I trust, in the divine protection, that the great majority of the Irish Catholics under all circumstances, whether prosperous or adverse, will, in conformity with their conduct, during the fourteen past centuries, continue faithful in the belief and practice of every tittle of their unchangeable religion till the very end of time : or rather, until that day previous to it, when, if the prayer of Patrick, upon monnt Chruachaneli was heard, the vast Atlantic will cause Ireland to disappear from the face of the globe, in order to spare his beloved children the experience of those horrors which Christ tells us, will cause men to wither away for fear, and cry out to the mountains, fall upon us, and to the hills cover us * !

Having just now been upon deck, I find we are off the light-house of the Small Islands, as they are called. This light-house has much the appearance of an Irish Round Tower, though, instead of standing in an open country, it is placed on the pinnacle of a small insulated rock which just appears above the bosom of the deep, at the distance of twenty miles from the Welsh coast. In this narrow and dreary cell, seeing nothing but the "wild and wasteful ocean," "hearing nothing but the perpetual

* Luke xxi. 26. xxiii. 30

lashing of its surges, mingled with the howling of contending winds, and the shrill screaming of cormorants, three poor human beings live immured from one three months to another, when they receive a fresh supply of oil for their lamps, and of provisions for themselves. Their only pleasure, in the mean time, is to drink whiskey, and their only prospect is to have it in their power to drink it as long as they live. On the other hand, if there are charms in heavenly contemplation and devotion beyond all other pleasures which can be tasted here upon earth; and, unless the inspired penmen deceive us in assuring us that there are such, we may well believe the ancient inhabitants of the round towers, the anchorets, enjoyed these, and thus received an ample indemnification for the austerities they endured, even that hundred fold reward which Christ has promised here upon earth to those who

In deciding, as I unequivocally do, that the round towers of Ireland were the cells of certain anchorets in the early ages of its Christianity (though not of all anchorets or Inclusi; for doubtless many lived in cells upon the ground), I enter my protest against the idea of penitentiary houses, in which the hermit is supposed to remove from one floor to another, according to the terms of his pe nance, or in which a number of 'penitents were shut up in the dif ferent floors of the building. To form a right judgment in matters of this nature the antiquary ought to be acquainted with the general discipline of the Catholic Church, and the particular manners and opinions of the monks and hermits during the early and middle ages.

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abandon satisfactions in this world for his sake*. -But I must here conclude with assuring you that

WITHIN two hours from the concluding of my letter to you of yesterday, I found myself at the entrance of the celebrated haven of this place. I was surprised and delighted with the capaciousness of this bold inlet, capable, as it is, of containing all the ships of war in the world, with its numerous and diversified bays, and with the smooth and tranquil state of its waters, compared with the boisterous waves of the Irish Sea which I had just quitted. This circumstance is owing to the haven's being so completely landlocked.

Matt. xix. 29.

I have walked from the hotel this morning to enjoy the different views of this charming place, which rises in the form of an amphitheatre above the majestic bason of the haven, and commands every part of it, with the numerous vessels in different directions upon it. The town is rapidly increasing in size and importance: but were it within a hundred miles of London, it would increase at a much quicker rate; and, I make no doubt, would soon become the largest place within an equal distance of it. Still the haven cannot vie, either with the bay of Dublin or the harbour of Cork in grandeur or beauty.

After the sea prospects, the object which pleased me most in my rambles, was a small, plain, newbuilt church, upon an eminence, near the entrance of the town, which from the hasty view I had of its outside, appeared to me as faultless a specimen of pointed architecture as I had almost ever met with from modern skill. I was told that the architect is a French emigrant, by trade a ship-builder, who resides near Milford; and I make no doubt that his success in the present work is owing to his having closely copied some ancient church in the neighbourhood. The mention of this unexpected sight, brings me to the subject which ought to have formed the matter of my last letter to you, that of ecclesiastical architecture, or rather the branch of it which regards the building of Catholic Chapels. I must premise, however, that I am not myself an architect, in the lowest sense of the term all that I can pretend to in this line is,