invalidate the acts of the British Legislature?-what power but that of Popery? And will you now make her a partner in the Government?

Be assured, my Lord, that if you do, you will find a tyrant where you seek a slave; and this Church and country, if assenting to your policy, will have deep cause to regret the adoption of a measure brought in with subtlety, urged on with rash expedition, and passed-if it shall passagainst experience, against the testimony of history,-against the evidence of facts, and the voice-the warning voice, of Scripture, cautioning against a national union with the Romish apostasy, that has so fearfully caricatured Christianity, and erected herself in antichristian opposition to our Divine Redeemer.

Theologically, your Lordship opposes Popery; politically, you lend it power and influence. You educate the people in a religion which teaches them to regard their sovereign, their rulers, and their fellow-subjects, as heretics; and then, having engendered feelings of hatred, mistrust, and want of confidence, having taught them to obey the Pope,-you wonder awhile at their devotedness to him, and at length see it expedient to call in the Pope to assist in ruling them. Having voted from the national funds to educate a large portion of the population of Ireland in Romish principles, and the duty of giving their entire spiritual allegiance to the Pope, you have produced a state of feeling in that country, on the part of the Romish laity, priesthood, and hierarchy, over which you find you have comparatively little control; and having thus been at the expense of paying from the state revenues, a body of men so to direct the opinion of large masses of the people, you now proceed to call in the power of the Roman Pontiff to act upon that opinion you have so created in his favour!

The present measure will extend, not cure, the evil; and I would indulge the hope that there is time yet for your Lordship to withdraw, or for others to defeat, that Bill. Thus may we escape the imminent danger in which we are placed, and, instead of measures, the tendency of which will

be to concentrate the energies of Popery in a more direct effort against this country, we shall resolve to prevent the extension to England of those evils which Popery has inflicted upon Ireland, and to abate the influence of that anti-national system, which seems to have wielded successive Administrations almost at its will, and to have attained a higher position than is consistent with the peace of the Church, the safety of the State, the independence of the empire, and the happiness of the people.

That the people have been much misled upon this subject that they but little know how deadly a blow your Lordship's measure will inflict on them, is no matter of surprise.

Efforts have been made from the moment the Bill was brought in to this time, to make it appear that we are to have nothing to do with the Pope as Pope, but merely with the monarch of one of the Italian States.

It were a new thing, my Lord, that the greatest empire in the world

should re-model its constitution in a most fundamental point for the sake of entering into an alliance with almost one of the smallest.

Such is not the case. It is not with the Pope as a temporal power, but the Pope as a spiritual power, we are to make the alliance. It is not professed to be for his good, but for our good. It is that he, as presiding genius, may control the storm which you have created, but is now beyond your power to govern. You quail before the spirit you have raised, and invoke a mightier one to your aid; but in vain. She has risen by your assistance; pass this measure, and she can do without you. Expect no gratitude from Rome. To humiliate, if not destroy, this country, which has so long, by its moral and religious principle, kept Rome from tyrannizing in spiritual and temporal matters over the whole world, will be her first grand object.

But it may be said, you wish to have the Pope our friend. Supposing that the Pope reciprocated this feeling, still he may not at all times be master of his own actions. He may again be, as before he has been, a prisoner in the hands of another power-one not

friendly to Great Britain or British interests. He may be compelled to surrender at discretion to some foreign military potentate. Terms may then be dictated to him; and, should the price of his liberty, his life, the good of his states, or the advance of the cause of the Romish Church, be that he issue some bull, decree, or manifesto, hostile to the good of our country, we might perceive the error of having conceded power to him, and regret in vain sorrow, when it would be too late to apply either an antidote or a remedy.

I repeat, my Lord, that the safety and independence of the empire require us to be free from foreign intervention. This would be true at all times; never more so than at the pre

sent moment.

You perceive the state of feeling in the Romish parts of Ireland. You hear the murmurs of discontent amongst various parts of the community in England and Scotland; nor can you forget the dissatisfaction which has from time to time been exhibited in various portions of our vast colonial empire.

Is it wise, my Lord, to give into the hands of a foreign and unfriendly potentate the power and opportunity of uniting with any of these portions of the community for the overthrow of our institutions, or for the dismemberment of the empire? Is it judicious to do so? Is it safe?

Should a wise Government teach a people to despise Government, and institutions deemed essential to the public welfare?

Should it give the disaffected cause to plead its own proceedings in excuse for overturning the constitution?

Should it lead them to ask how far a Government have a greater moral right to take advantage of official power to set aside or undermine the constitution-than the people have to take advantage of physical force for the accomplishment of the same object?

Your axe, my Lord, strikes deeper than you intended; suspend the next blow, or it may be fatal.

But it is said, we are to set Rome the example, that she may be liberal. We have done that already; but it has met with no response of liberality on

the part of Rome. The experiment hitherto has proved a miserable failure.

The people of England, already suffering from experiments rashly made, view with just feelings of alarm, these so suddenly threatened innovations,-innovations made on behalf of the worst and most implacable foe of the Protestant faith of this country.

Your Lordship was an advocate for free trade. I pass no opinion here on the policy or impolicy of that measure; but I venture to ask you now, has it answered?

England was to set the example. She has done so. Other nations were to act on a principle of reciprocity. They have not done so. What is the consequence? The result to England has been the downfall of princely mercantile establishments, the ruin of private individuals, embarrassments in trade, defalcation in the national

revenue.

My Lord, these observations are suggestive of others. They are not made in a spirit of bitter recrimination as to the past, but by way of warning as to the future. Without gaining wisdom from the past, you and your colleagues call upon us to repeat the blunder in a more dangerous form,— to take another leap, shall I say, in the dark? No! But, with our eyes open, to rush upon ruin, and adopt a measure the results of which will be to dash us upon the rocks, and to make shipwreck of our national and religious independence. Surely, before any such great and fundamental change is made in the policy and constitution of this country, some notice should be given. Common decency, in point of form, should be observed, and a Committee of the House appointed to receive and report upon evidence collected from history, from the practice of other nations, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, in ancient and in modern times, and from the testimony and opinions of men of practical knowledge and information in the present day.

What if the further consideration of the Bill be postponed to next session? What great harm? Can any harm arise from doing so? Are we already so in the trammels of Popery that we must be urged on, nolens volens, by the torrent of concession to a power

which receives every concession, but makes none?

I have the honour to remain, my Lord, your Lordship's very obedient, humble servant, JAMES LORD. 3, Elm Court, Temple, March 10, 1848.

CONVERSATION

BETWEEN A FRENCH AND ENGLISH LADY ON A CONVENT LIFE.

(From a Correspondent.)

A FRIEND of mine who had the conversation with poor Marie here mentioned, wishes it published in the Magazine, if you think it worthy of that valuable publication; it is subject to any alterations you think proper, but, as it is a real and not an imaginary circumstance, I think it may be useful.

The following conversation really occurred in Normandy, between a French and English lady, the relative of the former having obtained from her a promise that she would retire to a convent. The names only are altered, as the parties are still living:

"Do, my dear Marie, put away that book, and let us take a stroll to that sweet wood on my favourite hill; the faint breeze that has sprung up after so sultry a day will refresh you, for indeed you look weary, and have lost the bloom of health from your face. So lovely an evening with a cloudless sky, and the setting sun gilding all around, must surely be inviting to you. Do not hesitate, let us go before it gets too late."

Marie. Be assured that I do not undervalue my friend's kindness and solicitude, nor am I insensible to the beauties of nature; nay, it is but too dear to me, and my heart clings too closely to scenes like these; one more month, and I must bid adieu to this external world that is so interwoven with memory's loved charın. Oh, did you know the struggle that was passing in my breast, you would not wonder that I should seek in books of holy devotion the only balm that can palliate so severe a penance-but it is right, and strength will be given me ; my dear grandmamma sees the temptations that surround a young person

just entering, as I am, upon life's busy scene, with those that are not good guides to steer my course, and sets before me so strongly the duty of fleeing from this world's vain career, and seeking under the wing of our holy Church a refuge in the convent of St. Clair; she tells me that among the sisters I shall love a life of devotion, and ever feel that it is well-pleasing to God to make so great an act of selfmortification, if such I think it, to part from present snares. Would that I could feel it otherwise; my heart rends when the promise I have made recurs to me, but I do pray night and morning, and many times in the day, and that earnestly, "Oh, blessed Mother, pardon thine unhappy child, and subdue by prayer and penance her unruly wills." Day after to-morrow I must confess, how shall I meet Father D'Ormant? The anxious solicitude that he has always shown to lead me in a right course, makes me feel the greatest repugnance to pain him with the recital that the trivial pleasures of this life have a firmer hold on my heart than all the joys that religion can hold out in so devoted a life as that of a "sister." But am I never again to taste the sweets of friendship? I am sometimes wicked enough almost to wish that I belonged to the "religion of heretics," that no gloomy convent should arise before my bewildered eyes. But if I do accede to your proposal, it must be your task to soothe down your agitated friend. We will go.

Louisa. I feel deeply interested in your welfare, and can well imagine the excited state of your feelings, under what is before you. I would, indeed, desire that you should belong to the "religion of the heretics," as you call it. A higher motive should influence you. "God's constraining grace," certainly no gloomy convent, might stand before you; for we pray not that God would take us out of this world, but that he would keep us from the evils that are in it, and that among the sundry and manifold changes of it, our hearts may surely there be fixed, where true joys are to be found. The religion of the heretics is founded on, and taken from, "God's own word," and they that

worship God "must worship him in spirit and in truth.” We look not to Mary as an "intercessor," but to the Great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens-Jesus, the Son of God, amidst the glory to which the Mediator is exalted, because of his obedience unto death; he ever liveth to make intercession for us. Most fatal, then, is the error of looking to other than the Saviour, who himself hath declared, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." Think not, my dear Mary, that I judge too harshly of your Church, though imposing on its votaries the worshipping of a creature, and the offering to it vain repetitions daily, nay, hourly (does not the Rosary even give ten Ave Marias to one Paternoster? Ah! it is an idolatry that must be displeasing in the sight of God, who is the "giver of every good gift, and every perfect gift." He often hears the heart without the voice, but he never hears the voice without the heart). Although our most fervent petitions can have no merit, as the acceptance of prayer depends on the intercession of Christ, yet in every act of worship, whether public or private, there is only so much of prayer as the mind and soul concur in ; when those have no share, there may be an effort of the memory or reason, but the desires and affections are wholly unconcerned. "As out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh,' so when it is not responded to by the heart, it brings an increase of guilt, instead of an acceptable sacrifice. I was struck with a few lines on prayer: "What is true prayer?

The offering of the heart, when strong desires

:

Find utterance, or words entirely fail, Presented in the name, and for the sake, Of Christ, our great High Priest." Many were the supplications that my dear mother offered in behalf of her children and I believe that they have been answered; and as I value salvation as set forth in the Holy Scriptures, and by our dear Protestant and apostolic Church, in such beautiful simplicity, not like the "complex work of man,' so would I endeavour to draw all within its pale. But you must, to-morrow morning, meet our good friend and pastor, Mr. Eastgood; he will

show you how true religion, implanted in the heart, would be a better guard against the temptations of the world, than a "convent's walls."

Marie. What would my dear grandmamma say to my having listened to this conversation, which tends rather to shake than strengthen my resolution? Say no more—let us turn homeward.

Louisa. I would not urge disobedience to any earthly parent; but a point of such moment as "the right path of reaching heaven," demands the utmost consideration and prayer; let us separate for to-night, each asking that you might be divinely guided, but come to-morrow morning and breakfast with us.

Marie could not obtain permission to join the breakfast party, although she much wished to hear more on a subject that had so deeply interested her; but her dear grandmamma, with all the strictness that her Church enjoins of which she was so zealous a follower

แ

greatly feared collision with heretics, especially with a Protestant clergyman. After much consultation with her spiritual advisers, she deemed it better, under the excited state of her mind, not just then to press the subject of "taking the veil," but rather that she should return, en pension, for six months longer; and that during that period, every effort should be made to enforce the plan that she felt so essential in promoting the spiritual welfare of her beloved grand-daughter. While remaining at Le Creux, all intercourse or conversation on such topics was prohibited, and she was never allowed to visit alone. A short time after, and she was en route for St. Clair, to join her former associates, and be again surrounded with the pageantry of the Romish ritual. Whether the impression made on her mind was destined, like the seed that "fell among thorns,' to be choked with the gross errors and superstitions of Popery, and yield no fruit, or whether the God of love, in grace and mercy, caused the bright beams of his Gospel as it is in Jesus, to shine on her hitherto darkened soul,

before the period had elapsed for her return circumstances obliged the writer of this fact to quit France, and though many inquiries have been

made, no satisfactory intelligence has been received.

THE REV. DR. CANDLISH ON DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH ROME.

A CROWDED and enthusiastic Meeting has just been held in Edinburgh in opposition to Diplomatic Relations with Rome. We must extract one glowing passage from the address of Dr. Candlish, which we recommend to the consideration of all our fellow-Protestants:

"I do not maintain that in all circumstances it is unlawful to open diplomatic relations with a sovereign prince, because he may happen at the same time to hold an ecclesiastical character. But if his temporal sovereignty flows from his ecclesiastical character-if his temporal sovereignty is nothing, and his ecclesiastical character is everything-if his temporal sovereignty is over merely a few square miles of Italy, standing upon volcanic fire, while his spiritual sovereignty is over broad Christendom-if, I say, his temporal sovereignty is so insignificant that it cannot be worth a great nation's while to open negotiations with him in that character, while his spiritual sovereignty is so vast, so comprehensive, so subtle, so persevering, so undying from generation to generation, that it concerns all Christendom to stand against it-if that be the case, then, I say, that we are not forced to decide an abstract question, as it seems to me, of considerable difficulty; but we can take our plain position upon the broad fact, that here is an Act brought into the British Legislature, involving, to all practical intents and purposes, an alliance with Rome as a spiritual power, and with a view to the exercise of the influence of that spiritual power in the government of our own empire. How very degrading, how monstrously offensive, this is, I leave to others to

missions-far rather give me twenty years of Lord Clarendon-than the wretched expedient of handing over Ireland to the Pope-nay, much as I may be misapprehended, I cannot help saying, rather give me Cromwell's policy in Ireland than this. I defend not that policy in all its details-I defend not in its details his proceedings in Ireland; but it was honest, it was manly, it was Protestant, and I believe that, in the long run, it turned out to be merciful; and at all events, I would rather run the risk even of such a policy as his, than a policy which will tie this great empire to the heels of Antichrist-the Man of Sin. I, however, wholly deny that the alternative is as I have put it. I wholly deny that Ireland is beyond the reach of the wholesome administration of the laws. Let these laws be impartially administered-let them be administered to priests as well as to laymen-let the laws as they now stand be enforced without the benefit of clergy in the worst sense of the term, and I have no doubt of the speedy reduction of Ireland into peace, tranquillity, and order. Let us have an impartial administration, like that of Lord Clarendon, and an impartial commission, like that which was recently sitting; and, above all, let it be thoroughly acknowledged, that the priestly character does not shelter any man, by implication, aiding and abetting murder, and we would speedily see Ireland tranquil, if, at the same time, an open door be given for Protestant energy and Protestant missionaries to go forth circulating the pure and peaceful word of the living God, which alone can tranquillize the troubled waters of that land. But how wretched is the infatuation that would lead our statesmen, just when Ireland is groaning under the curse of Popish tyranny, ignorance, and darkness,-when the priesthood of Ireland are just the very obstacles in the way of Ireland's pacification, how wretched is the infatuation that would bring us into treaty with the high priest of the order. In the meantime, no doubt, he will still the tumult of the people, and whisper the word of peace. A scene has been finely got up. A correspondence passes between one of the bishops of