were nailed to their chairs. The women, now-a-days, take great liberties; we must do something to prevent them.' The company then began to talk upon two subjects, when the presence of the ladies might have been useful to them-they were gallantry and fashions; and, on both these, it is well known that the fair sex usually talk much better than

men.

Asrasrafel becomes very tired of England, when his secretary comes to bring him news that a subject of contention has arisen, which has thrown the whole country into confusion. This is no other than the question of Catholic emancipation, which is treated by the satirist with great impartiality, and both sides blamed, as both sides deserve to be blamed. It will be seen that it was written before the recent decision had put a temporary suspension to the hopes which had been entertained that this question would be set at rest for ever. Still the views which are taken of the subject are correct in the main; and it may, perhaps, not be unprofitable to us to learn the opinions of a by-stander on a question which we are too near, and too much interested in, to see all the bearings of. Asrasrafel thinks that the intelligence of his secretary is too good to be true.

bellion to blind the government, and to urge it to sanguinary measures. Their adversaries unite, they display their forces, and they have at their head some persons to whom moderation is a part so new, that they play it rather badly. The crowd follows them blindly, as crowds always do. Justice is, however, on their side, and they claim only what they are fully entitled to; they are right, and that is reason enough why we should oppose them. Listen to me, my friend: since we are by ourselves, I will point out to you the course which a wise and good government would pursue under such circumstances; it will serve as a contrast to that which will really be taken; and so much the better for us. Without permitting itself to be influenced by the one or by the other, it ought to respect both; this conduct is obvious, but it is difficult to follow. To do justice to a sect composed of a great part of the force of the state is not less politic than it is just and necessary. It is not surprising that men who are oppressed will unite, to shield themselves from that oppression. But it is not the government that oppresses them-it is not against the government that they have to defend themselves-but against that infamous sect of political pedlars who embroil and disturb every state for their own mercenary ends, and who have long been our only support in this fine country. Let the government weigh well this important truth. The wise and rational members of both sects are convinced of it. Let the adverse party be neutralized, but by gentle means; let them be induced to break up their confederacy; but, at the same time, let the insolence of the other party be checked. This concession obtained, let the odious yoke

'It is impossible,' he says, that, in a country so free and civilized as this of the Centaurs, there should exist factions so dreadful and so ferocious. Besides, does the government not see that the prosperity of this country is looked at with a jealous eye by all others? that they will hasten, by all the means in their .power, its dissensions and its ruin? and this they can do without disbursing a sous.' He had been meditating for some time when Dur-aux-be removed from their necks; let the Hommes returned. Well!' he said, rubbing his claws together with glee, it is as I told you, and even worse. We have nothing to do but begin. The most violent faction insults the most numerous one, and is willing to push things to the greatest extremities, that they may share the spoils. I never in my life met with more zealous friends; they are absolutely our own. They raise the cry of reVOL. I.-No. 5,

political pedlars, who are the origin of all the evils, and who are always hunting out blood and misery, be driven from the country. The people will then enjoy, in peace, all the blessings of, a just and enlightened government.'

And is it you whom I hear talking thus?' cried the ambassador.

Yes, it is I,' replied the other devil: but I speak ironically; men

2 F

THE CHURCH OF IRELAND.

of a measure neither openly nor fearlessly pursued.

It would appear as if the Catholic leaders of the period I allude to were guided by a kind of left-handed poficy, by which they hoped to smuggle themselves, as it were, into their birthrights, without a detection of their real principles, and hoodwink their opponents by an appearance of concession they did not intend to make. It was impossible they could have been sincere, unless we suppose them blind to the immediate interests of their country; for emancipation it self would be only useful as a means of procuring the people justice, and a relief from local and national institutions, whose existence are incompatible with the happiness and welfare of Ireland. In seeking emancipation, however, before they had exposed the nature of church monopoly, lay their great error, for nothing but extreme inexperience, and a total absence of reflection, could have induced them to believe that their claims would be granted while it was in the power of those who lived by tithes to withhold them. The Church, like the sensitive leaf, feels at every point the first contact of assailants, however gently they approach her and, while she stands the strong hold of intolerance, she has abroad her thousand bigoted conductors, who wait, in sable solemnity, to quench every flash of liberality that may chance to irradiate the

darkness that surrounds her. Her influence extends to every corner of the British empire, and while she has power she will exert it to perpetuate exclusion. Viewed apart from temporalities, I don't mean to assert that she is malum in se. God forbid! But while her ministers are supported, as they are at present, by laws which unjustly tax the Catholics, it is not in the nature of things that she could be otherwise than intolerant and persecuting; for men always feel least for those they have oppressed. Emancipation is therefore an useless pursuit until the Church is modified in a manner that will completely leave her without an apprehension in case of Catholic freedom, and which ap

prehension she never can be freed from while an iota of her income is derived from the Irish farmer.

The Catholic leaders have, from time to time, acted very absurdly in disclaiming all idea of hostility towards this church. For my part, I never thought them sincere in so doing, because I consider it impossible for the Irish Catholic to view the establishment otherwise than as a deadly blight upon the energies of his country-as a religious innovation-as a strange creed,-as a black pool, which sends forth periodical focusts to devour the tenth of his harvest. He regards it, and justly too, as the source of past evils, and present sufferings-as the harlot of the state, whom he is obliged to dress and support, notwithstanding his moral and religious antipathy. For her aggrandizement he sees that his own Church has been despoiled of her fair possessions, stripped of her honours, and pursued with hatred and contumely. He finds the legislature, for the last three hundred years, prodigal of its bounty to institutions established for the avowed purpose of kidnapping and proselyting his children to the faith of this church; whose abuses and exactions are defended by the government, and protected by the civil power.

'On either side, with ready hearts and hands,

Her chosen guard of bold believers stands, Young fire-eyed disputants, who deem their swords,

On points of faith, more eloquent than words.*

His feelings must be hostile, and the history of Ireland proves that they are so. But what gives them poignancy and force is a sense of oppression, too apparent to be doubted; and thus every thing that can act on the human mind impels him to hostility, which, if not always openly avowed, is continually evinced by discontent, complaint, or open conflict. On these occasions he frequently overlooks his own interest; and charges the Church with even more injustice than she is really guilty of.

I differ with nearly all those who *Lalla Rookh.

have given us their opinions on the income of the Irish Church; and consider it a proof of bad policy in the Catholics to make any complaint whatever respecting the affluence or non-residence of the Protestant clergy. Their misconduct could only increase the growing disrespect; and, the richer they are, the more certain they would be to prove inattentive; for where have a wealthy clergy been efficient ministers of religion?

The opponents of the tithe system have acted very inconsistently in supporting laws to compel the residence of beneficed clergy; and few measures of parliament, during the last twenty years, have proved more oppressive to the Irish peasantry.

Previous to the introduction of discussions on this subject by Sir John Newport, Mr. Hume, and others in the House of Commons, the existence of the Protestant religion was only known, in several parts of Ireland, by the demands of the tithe proctor; but within a comparatively short period a new and heavy tax has been levied. The building of churches, and erection of glebe houses, have been carried to an unnecessary extent; and though the

spires, in the estimation of the Bishop of Limerick, give the country a civi lized appearance,* in several parishes they produced any thing but civil treatment for those who collected the tax which was to pay for such rustic ornaments. Thousands and tens of thousands of pounds have been levied on the Catholic peasantry, for building churches where there was no congregation, and glebe houses where ministers had no occasion to reside, unless to give an additional proof of civilization by appearing in the proper season accoutred as sportsmen; for it must be admited that they are

• Oftener seen
With belted waist, and pointers at their
heels,

Than in the bounds of duty.'
And where is the use in telling them

that

❤ Some men have taken singular appearances as indications of civilization. I once read of a traveller, who, seeing a gallows in a desert, exclaimed,‘Thank God, I'm now in a civilized country!

↑ It would appear that Iconoclasts no longer exist in the church, for the Protestants are now as partial to ornaments as ever the Papists were, as the following extract from the evidence of the Rev. Mr. Collins, P. P. of Skibbereen, will show: The island of Innisherkin is a small island, forming part of the parish of Tullah, and being off the harbour of Baltimore. The island is not in my district, but the main part of the parish is; it is separated from the main land by a distance of about a mile. The inhabitants are about a thousand, having about 200 houses. They are very poor; so much so, that when the attempt was made by the priest residing there, not long since, to levy an assessment of threepence halfpenny per house for the repair of the old chapel, which was in utter ruin (it was a mere hovel, partly covered with ragged straw, and without door or window), he failed in raising that sum, from their inability to pay it; and shortly after the churchwarden, residing on the main land, came in with his assistants, to levy a tax of 4s. 6d. in the gneeve, imposed by the church vestry, for the repayment of a sum of money, advanced by the Board of First Fruits for the building of a church on the main land, to which they were liable. The common people thought it hard and unnatural, that whereas they could not contribute any thing to shelter themselves from the wind and rain in their chapel, they should be obliged to pay a heavy tax for a church not in the island, but far from them; and particularly when they recollected that that church was built more for ornament than for use; inasmuch as a good church had previously existed in another part of the parish, which might have been kept in good repair at a moderate expense. But it was deemed more ornamental and more picturesque to transfer the site of the church to a prominent point at the opening of the harbour, where it would have a pretty effect of landscape. The church was built there, and a tax has been these five years annually levied upon the small and poor population for the building of that church, unnecessary both in the minds of Catholics and Protestants.'