than I believe Mr. White to possess, though determined to do their utmost to keep the Catholics in their state of degradation. II rate his low enough. The two first titles give them very little credit, however, for their bungling mode of keeping their own secret. Mr. White's object, then, very clearly was, to write as forcibly as he could, to prove that Roman Catholics ought not to be admitted to an equality of civil and political rights with their Protestant fellow-subjects. Can this be the object of Bishop Kemp of Baltimore, and the twenty pastors of the Protestant Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Methodist Churches of the District of Columbia and its vicinity, in procuring a re-print of this book in America? They deserve the approbation of their fellow-citizens for their zeal in promoting Christian charity. They deserve the lasting gratitude of their Roman Catholic neighbors for their exertions on their behalf. I have now to take Mr. White's account of himself. He is a Priest in the English Protestant Church, who was formerly of the Roman Catholic, and who received his orders in that Church, in Spain, of which he is a native. He is now, I understand, a minister in some Church, in or near London; he was a graduate of Seville, and took out his theological certificate of qualification at Osuna. He held a prebend's stall in the Royal Chapel at Seville, and was a member of the collegiate Churches of that city, a synodal examiner in the diocess of Cadiz, and a member of some literary society: the whole of which is appended to his name in the title page of his book, together with a statement that he is the author of Doblado's Letters from Spain. Of course the object is to shew how great a man and therefore how good a witness is Mr. White. Upon all this, I shall merely remark, that it is with titles sometimes as with coats of arms in heraldry, the plain field which is without any emblazonment is evidence of the most remote and illustrious antiquity, and a single emblem of that which is next in dignity. The undecorated name of the individual, when good, is the best recommendation: hence GEORGE WASHINGTON Sounds better than if six kings at arms lost their breath in the successive enumeration of orders and decorations: and the plain title of virtuous man or "good priest" would have raised Mr. White more in our estimation, than if the whole title page were filled with the offices which he had held, and the stations which he had deserted. To us, the enumeration of those places conveys no idea of any superior acquirements in the individual, for with the exception of one, they are all within the reach of any young man of very moderate capacity, much less merely shew that he went through his usual collegiate examinations, the third shews that he had license to preach and had an appointment; if the College of St. Mary a Jesu in Seville is, as many such are, a mere sinecure benefice, or as several others in Spain are, one next to a sinecure, the qualifications for its rectorship are merely nominal; the place of a synodal examiner in the Diocess of Cadiz would indeed be some evidence of his good standing in the Church, if he lived in that Diocess and discharged its duties; but with him, living in Seville, it was a mere honorary appointment, and no evidence whatever of theological standing. Indeed, the gentleman gives us, himself, very clearly the value of his titles, when he informs us, p. 17, of the manner in which he obtained his degree in Osuna. "He was not of sufficient standing" to obtain it at Seville, it was necessary to have a diploma to take the place in the College of St. Mary, at Seville, he therefore took it at Osuna which was not strict. The value of a degree at Osuna is known in Spain, but it sounds very well in England and America. In p. 18, Mr. W. writes: "I owed my preferment to a public display of theological knowledge." To understand this, it is necessary to know what is required by the canons of the Roman Catholic Church, on such occasions. When a benefice is vacant, public notice is given, the candidates for the place are to produce their documents of qualification to discharge its duties, and they who are admitted to be sufficiently qualified enter into contest before a board of sworn examiners, who are generally appointed, by alternate nomination, by the Bishop and by the Chapter: the clergymen who form this board of examiners make a written return of the names of the candidates, arranged according to their respective merits. If the benefice is in the gift of a patron or of electors, the selection is then made from the three highest names upon the list; the patron has the right of presenting the selected individual to the Bishop, who if he approves of him inducts him, or if he disapproves of the person presented requires another name, which must be furnished within a given time, or the patron loses his right for that time, and the Bishop fills the vacancy. This examination takes place in public. The principle was wisely laid down by the Church, for those places in which there exists a right of patronage, to prevent the introduction of improper persons; but frequently the practice is very different from what was contemplated by he theory. By the contrivance of the patrons, dre Le Bossu, Batteux, Rollin, La Harpe, and many others of less note. The habit of analyzing language and ideas, which I acquired in the perusal of such works, soon led me to the French metaphysicians, especially Condillac." The young gentleman is very angry with the ignorant theologians who would decry the metaphysics of materialism, or attempt to insinuate that man is a being composed of a spiritual soul and material body. it frequently has happened that a person who would be a candidate was taught that contention would be madness, because that the patron had already fixed upon the person who was to fill the place, and that any other even successful opponent would not be presented; but would earn the patron's ill-will, and that of the friends of the designated candidate. Thus frequently the examination was but a form. Again, in all the contests between young men for lesser offices, such as Mr. White's, the examination was far from severe, and contest was not difficult. From the gentleman's own shewing in p. 17, "the high rank which the author sustained as a minister of the Roman Catholic Church," is not in point of fact equal to the rank of any That Bishop Kemp and his venerable aspastor of that Church in the city of Balti-sociates may know the full extent of this more; yet the Right Rev. Dr. Kemp and his gentleman's high rank as a divine, I shall exclergy put it forward as a very strong fea-hibit the completion of his theological studies ture to recommend the work. in his own words, in the Letters of Doblado. "RECOMMENDATION.-The Letters of the Rev. Blanco White contain a temperate and able exposition of the errors of Popery. The high rank which the author sustained as a minister of the Roman Catholic Church, eminently qualified him for the task which he has undertaken and so well fulfilled; and his familiar acquaintance with all the secret springs and movements of that wonderful system, has enabled him to diversify his discussion with many highly interesting and important incidents. We therefore cheerfully recommend the work as highly deserving of public attention. Rt. Rev. Jas. Kemp, D.D. Rev. J. N. Campbell, Basil Keith, S. H. Tyng, W. Hawley, E. Allen, J. P. K. Henshaw, J. R. Keech, C. B. Tippet, H. N. Gray, C. Harrison, S. B. Balch, D. D. W. Nevins, P. 289. "To acknowledge, on the authority of revelation, that mankind will rise from their graves, is not sufficient to protect the unfortu nate metaphysician who should deny that man is a compound of two substances, one of which is naturally immortal." Pp. 298 and 299. "This first taste of mental liberty was more delicious than any feeling I ever experienced; but was succeeded by a burning thirst for every thing, that by destroying my old mental habits could strengthen it and confirm my unbelief. I gave an exorbitant price for any French irreligious books, which the love of gain induced some Spanish booksellers to import at their peril. The intuitive knowledge of one another, which persecuted principles impart to such as cherish them in common, made me soon acquainted with several members of my own profession, deeply versed in the Philosophical school of France. They possessed and made no difficulty to lend me all the anti-Christian works of the French press." "Pretending studious retirement, I have fitted up a small room, to which none but my confidential friends find admittance. Here lie my prohibited books, in perfect concealment, in a well contrived nook under a stair case. The Breviary alone, in its black binding, clasps, and gilt leaves, is kept upon the table, to check the doubts of any chance intruder." I could give other extracts, but these will suffice to shew what learning and especially what extensive theological knowledge the writer possessed. How then, it will be asked, did he rise to such an eminent place? My answer is, the place was not eminent: and that he got it in the manner which I have suggested he gives good reason to believe, for, in p. 287 of his Spanish letters, he states that those fellowships as he called them were obtained by partiality, and in p. 288 he shews how they who had not interest to secure a strong party amongst the electors, could not offer themselves "as champions at those literary jousts." The standing of the author as to grade, in the Roman Catholic Church, was therefore far from high. But of that I shall make no H point; I shall treat him as if he was the most learned Pope that ever existed. There is another criterion besides knowledge and talent required in a witness: this writer coming forward to testify, must submit to the ordeal of examination upon the score of character. I know nothing more of him than is furnished by his own book; and upon his own statements I shall form my judgment. He is the grandson of an Irish emigrant who was obliged to leave Ireland and to take refuge in Spain, because of that code, whose principles the grandson of this refugee has returned from Spain to advocate. (p. 15.) The author's father was sent to Ireland in his childhood for a time, that he might not lose the attachment to the land of his progenitors; and the son of that father returns to England to exhort the oppressors of his father's land to continue their oppression: to call upon the British Parliament in the name of the God of charity and justice to continue the fetters of political and civil persecution on the score of religion, upon the children of calumniated martyrs!!! His mother was a Spanish lady, whom he describes as decorated with every virtue; of his parents he says, "It is enough to say that such were the purity, the benevolence, and the angelic piety of my father's life, that at his death, multitudes of people thronged the house to indulge a last view of the dead body, Nor was the wife of his bosom at all behind him either in fulness of faith or sanctity of manners." Yet they were rigid Roman Catholies! He informs us that his education was well attended to. "At the age of fourteen, all the seeds of devotion which had been sown in my heart sprung up spontaneously. The pious practices which had been hitherto a task, were now the effect of my own choice. I became a constant attendant at the congregation of the Oratory, where pious young men, intended for the Church, generally had their spiritual directors. Dividing my time between study and devotion, I went through a course of philosophy and divinity at the University of Seville: at the end of which I received the Roman Catholic order of subdeacon." From the above extract, p. 16, one would imagine that a more immaculate and holy young gentleman had never taken orders. If this testimony be worth any thing, it will prove, that the education of a child of virtuous parents in the Roman Catholic Church, has not any taint by which virtue is contaminated by bad doctrine; it will prove that the education of candidates for holy orders in the Catholic Church is one which cultivates and developes the germs which the seeds of virtue shoots forth; our witness in his last letters has not made any charge of a neglect of cultivating learning or Christian virtue upon the Roman Catholics, who have charge of educating youth. He gives a farther testimony on this subject in p. 140, [where] he writes "A more blameless, ingenuous, religious set of youths than that in the enjoyment of whose friendship I passed the best years of my life, the world cannot boast of. Eight of us, all nearly of the same age, lived in the closest bond of affection, from sixteen till one and twenty; and four at least, continued in the same intimacy till that of thirty-five. Of this knot of friends not one was tainted by the breath of gross vice, till the Church had doomed them to of their hearts into crime." a life of celibacy, and turned the best affections Upon this, all I shall remark is, that it supports the testimony before given that in the education, in the religious instruction, there was nothing but the highest purity and most perfect virtue; whether his crimes and those of his companions were caused by the obligation of celibacy is a different question. In p. 143 he writes "I have seen the most promising men of my University obtain country vicarages, with characters unimpeached, and hearts overflowing with hopes of usefulness." We have now from the Rev. gentleman full testimony that the education was excellent and the demeanor virtuous and the disposition good, at the time of ordination. We have also his statement regarding himself, that from fourteen to twenty-five he was most virtuous. P. 18, he says his religious doubts began, but still he was pious, and prayed, and was devout, and they were dispelled. But to prove that unbelief does not always arise from immorality and levity, he assures us that his conscience did not then reproach him with any open breach of duty but those committed several years before. He does not vouchsafe to say how many years, but the gentleman was now in his twentysixth year, and he has informed us that in his childhood "no waywardness of disposition appeared in him to defeat or obstruct the labors of his parents to educate him in virtue," and that afterwards, to wit, from fourteen to this period, he and his companions were the most blameless and religious youths in the world. Still he had committed open breaches of duty several years before. Whichever side of this contradiction is true, matters very little; the conclusion is inevitable; the truth of both sides being irreconcileable, one of them must be false; and our witness has consequently under his own hand stated that which he must have known to be untrue. I shall not dwell longer on exhibiting the wit ness's self-contradiction, for of that abundance shall be furnished. I am now only examining his credibility as a moral man, and from his own disclosures. He exhibits himself as an impostor who would persuade the public that up to his twenty-fifth year he was blameless, religious, and virtuous, though he knew that several years before he had committed open breaches of duty. We shall however now give the same Mr. White's testimony, upon the same subject, from another of his works. Speaking of his childhood, he writes in his Letters from Spain, in the Magazine, Vol. 2: P. 31. "The Church cannot be wrong, we know, but to say the honest truth, all her pious contrivances, have, by a sad fatality, produced in me just the reverse of what they aimed at. Though the clergyman who was to shrive this young sinner (himself at between seven and eight years of age) had mild, gentle and affectionate manners, there is something in auricular confession which has revolted my feelings from the first day I knelt before a priest, in childish simplicity, to the last time I have been forced to repeat that ceremony as a protection to my life and liberty, with scorn and contempt in my heart." In page 32, he informs us, that at making his first communion, he was guilty of making it with the imaginary guilt of sacrilege for having made a bad confession; at fourteen, he made a good confession. He was intended for the counting-house, to which he took a disgust at the age of ten, and desiring to be a learned man, resolved to become a clergyman. His mother was pleased at this, because amongst other reasons, he would have no wife who would steal his affections from his parent. He does not say that his mother used the expression; but he thinks she must have had this motive. In p. 161, he tells us that at the age of sixteen, father Vega, the superior of the Priests of the Oratory at Seville, discovered that one of the associates of Mr. White had prohibited books, and White being admonished to denounce this student of divinity; either his head or his heart, he knows not which, in spite of a frighted fancy, endued him with resolution to baffle the blind zeal of his confessor." - The development of his reason saved him from sinking into the dregs of Aristotelic Philosophy." "The categories of St. Thomas were unsavory food for his mind, and he never opened the dismal book." In p. 164, he finds in the 2d vol. of the Aristotelic Natural Philosophy of the Dominicans that the reason why water rises in a pump is the horror which nature has at being wounded and (This is a discovery which no other person has had the happiness of being able torn. to make during the last three hundred years.) He quarrels with his professor, leaves the college and goes to the university. In the former part of his letter, I have shewn his account of his mode of studying theology. He had been the associate of a number of concealed infidels, and had totally neglected his studies, and baffled the blind zeal of his religious directors; left the old father Vega, and picked up a confessor more to his taste, who was his literary and spiritual director. He now gives us an account in his Spanish letters of his disposition for subdeaconship. P. 293. "I will not describe the misery that embittered my youth and destroyed the peace of my maturer years. The struggles, perhaps the crimes, certainly the remorse, that were the consequence of the barbarous laws of my country." All this arose from Catholicism he assures us, because she did not bring love to her side, but forced him into an inseparable league with immorality. We shall see the force. No one could compel him to enter his country nor the Church compelled him. upon a clerical state; and certainly neither He had already been a criminal, why should he now enter upon a state for which he knew himself to be unfit? Read what he says "Often did I recoil at the approach of the mo ment when I was to bind myself forever to the clerical profession, and as often my heart failed me at the sight of a mother in tears. It was not worldly interests-it was the eternal welfare of my soul which she believed to depend upon my following the call of heaven, "that made the best of mothers a snare to her dearest child." To this he adds the persuasions of the bad man whom he had chosen as a guide: and therefore, the law is bad, because a man who knows he ought not to enter upon the state, takes the advice of a man who he knew was misleading him, and acted against his conscience after other crimes, because his mother cried. My friends; you will observe the innocent and studious young man going with fine dispositions to ordination: and the idle student who insults his teacher, neglects his regular studies, associates with infidels, is criminal in his conduct, insincere in his confession, selects the worst clergymen for his guides and binds himself to a state for which he has made himself unfit. Mr. Blanco White has given you the two pictures of himself, it is for you to choose. I have only sketched the outline: when I shall have laid on all my colors, I shall be happy to receive Bishop Kemp's remarks. B. C. Yours for the present, LETTER III. To the Roman Catholics of the United States of America. MY FRIENDS-I shall continue my examination of Mr. White's character, at some length; and that my object in so doing may be manifest, I shall inform you what it is; you will first bear with my stating to you what that object is not. I do not examine his character to vilify him, in exposing his faults, of which the best of us has enough, by way of retaliation for his deserting our Church, or for his having written a gross attack upon our tenets. I should despise myself were I capable of such misconduct however deficient this priest might have been in ecclesiastical knowledge, his ignorance could not make good any practice of our Church, which in its own nature would be bad; however bereft of faith he might be, his infidelity could not make a foolish or vicious human invention become a part of the revelation, or institution of God, and however corrupt or profligate his own conduct might have been, its criminality could not make the crimes of other profligates become virtues, nor could they be excused because of his wickedness. My object then, is not, by exhibiting the true character of Mr. White, to justify in our Church, practices which deserve condemnation; nor to excuse criminals of our communion, because he who denounces them has deserted our Church, and was himself a criminal; no, my object is to shew that the bare assertion of Mr. White is no evidence; and I believe that I shall effect this by proving that from his character as given by himself, he is totally unworthy of credit. This is my object in the very painful task which I am performing. I consider this to be very necessary, because the chief value attached to his publication arises from his being a credible witness of facts which he alleges to have been under his own observation. I believe I have fully shewn that neither from his rank, nor from his ecclesiastical information, does this priest deserve any of that extraordinary attention which Bishop Kemp and his Episcopalian, Presbyterian and Methodist associates so emphatically claim on his behalf. Mr. White's rank was that of a mere possessor of a benefice with out the care of souls, having indeed a rank which pre-supposed some attainment of knowledge, a certificate of which attainment he could not obtain in the university where he was educated; but to effect his purpose he attained it at one of those places which by virtue of an old charter can grant to any one, and does grant to the unworthy what was intended to be given only to the learned. We see that he scarcely studied his treatises whilst he was attending the dull lectures on divinity; but that he read light works of taste, and subsequently devoured the antichristian productions of the French school of infidelity. He in one book tells us of his innocence and his religion, whilst in another he avows his criminality; and even in this testimony of his innocence, the recollection of his misdeeds involuntarily escapes from him. He in one place appears to be filled with the spirit of virtue at the time of his ordination; and yet he testifies that it was against his will, and because his mother was bathed in tears, [that] he became an ecclesiastic. He bound himself to celibacy, because his mother cried; when he hated to bind himself, because if he did so he could not lawfully cherish love. Do not, my friends, do not turn away in disgust. It is unpleasant; but you must bear more if you will have correct information. I have as yet made no incision; I am only marking the surface. It is necessary for you to view the subject, and to observe the dissection. Mr. White having been ordained subdeacon, informs us, in his evidence against Catholicism, p. 17, that upon his receiving his benefice about a year after his ordination to the priesthood, he felt it to be his duty "to devote his whole leisure to the study of religion." He adds, p. 18, "I need not say that I was fully conversant with the system of Catholic divinity; for I owed my preferment to a public display of theological knowledge; yet I wished to become ac quainted with all kinds of works which might increase and perfect that knowledge." I have shewn you what his studies were. Now allow me to say that the writer of these letters has made theology his principal study during twenty years; that he has had patience to study for, and to attend to the dull lectures of divinity professors; that his love for that study so far from being diminished, grows stronger every day, and that he still feels his deficiency to be so great, that although he knows much; he could not presume to say that now he is fully conversant with the system of Catholic divinity. It may be weakness on his part; but he never can hear any young man, let his attention to study have been ever so great, make such an assertion as Mr. White has here made, without at once looking upon him to be very superficially instructed, and impertinently vain: but in this man's case, how could he have been fully conversant with a system which he never studied? which he despised? Let us now from his other letters (Doblado's) take his own ac |