they can fix their eyes with pleasure; that there is nothing to allay their fears, nothing to raise their expectations. And how long can things continue on in this state? For many years? I fear not. We cannot, indeed, enter into the designs of God. The book of futurity is sealed up: it is imperceivable to human eye. But arguments, doubtful I allow, may be drawn from appearances, from probabilities: and it will not be too much to say, that almost every man of discernment is looking forward to something that is to happen. Yes: every thing forebodes some terrible catastrophe; and every one seems to expect it. the prospect before them, on which | beholds his wife, and daughters, in the hands of a lawless soldiery! What will be the agonizing pangs of a wife and mother, when she sees her hus band, and her sons dragged away, or perhaps slaughtered before her eyes! What will be the agonizing pangs of parents, when they see the little pro vision, they had made for their children by the sweat of their brow, swept away by the exactions, and extortions, and plunderings of an infuriated and insatiable mob, or of an unrestrained army; and they and their tender offspring doomed for ever to the extremity of poverty and want!-If, instead of internal commotion, pestilence, or famine, was the scourge intended to be inflicted, what would be the agonizing pangs that you would feel, were you to see one child swept away after another, one friend after another, húsband perhaps, or wife, father or mother, causing universal desolation, and universal mourning. What would be your feelings, were you to see the hand of God visible upon you, and to behold an angel standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn sword in his hand, as recorded in 1 Chron. c. 21, and mowing down your countrymen by thousands! Oh what would be your feelings!!-Other nations have been doomed to feel evils as great as these, and, as I have said before, there is little reason to hope, that we shall be more favoured than they have been. There are, therefore, more than sufficient reasons to believe that the Scourge is only delayed. It may, perhaps, at this moment, be hanging over our heads, and how soon it will fall God alone can tell. It may burst upon us with all its fury in a short time; and were this to be the case, how many of us, who are here present, would be swept away by the relentless torrent! I, your pastor, may probably be one of the first victims. But supposing that many, or even the greater number of us were to escape death, who amongst us would escape evils, to which perhaps even death itself, would be preferable? Men, and women, I address myself equally to all. There are evils to which women would be most particularly exposed, (in case that the scourge was decreed to be internal commotion,) and which would not be inferior to any which the men may have to undergo. There are evils of innumerable kinds, to all of which we should be exposed; and for how tong a time God alone can tell. Ah! we have felt severely the slight troubles and afflictions, that we have hitherto endured: but when we come to endure evils, of which these have been only the beginnings, or, as it were, the shadow, what will be our feelings!! Oh! what will be the agonizing feel ings of a husband and father, when he To endeavour to console yourselves with hopes of better times, after 'the tempest is burst, will, I fear, be in vain. The tempest will be an overwhelming deluge, and where, or when it will end, or who will survive it, is an impenetrable secret. Oh! let us look for hopes in another quarter. Let us apply elsewhere. Let us redeem the time that we have mispent, by doing penance for our past offences, and by a more constant adherence to the principles of the gospel. Let us redeem the time, by entering seriously into ourselves, and fulfilling faithfully the duties of a christian life. Let us walk circumspectly, not as unwise, different specimens I have laid before your readers of their total want of every thing honourable, or candid, in their proceedings, they will not be surprised at the further accounts, which, before I conclude, I shall have to lay before them.-A short time since, a meeting of the Juvenile Soci. ety, in aid of the Hibernian associa tion, was held, when the youthful as but as wise, for the days are evil. Let us no longer indulge in rioting and drunkenness, in chamberings and impurities, in defamations and scandals, in envying and covetousness; but let us put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and crucify the flesh with its vices, and concupiscences. Then, although, perhaps, we should not be able to avert, or escape the storm, we should be able to meet it with pious fortitude, and re-sembly had for its president an ancient signation. We should be enabled to Briton forsooth! or, to use common enter into the designs of a just and language, a reverend Welshman, who, merciful providence; and in the midst in the course of a long oration, in of impending evils, we should possess which it would be a difficult point to our souls in peace, knowing that the determine whether folly or hypocrisy Scourge was for the punishment of the was most predominant, told his won wicked, and for the purifying of the dering auditors, that "Ireland was in good. Then we should be ready to "total darkness, and quite unacquaintsubmit to poverty, humiliations, suf- "ed with the means of grace." As ferings, torture, and even to death it- the meeting was held in the evening, self, looking up to that blessed hope, and night was approaching, a Mr. Day which is within us, and knowing that favoured the meeting with a speech, in the sufferings we should have to un- which he told them that he had visited dergo, would be succeeded by an eter- the Irish nation, and found "whole nal weight of glory.-Let us duly pon-districts without a Bible," and that der upon these serious, and important Ireland was "the seat of the Beast; subjects. Let no time be lost. The" and iniquity abounded in it." A days are evil indeed. Let us seriously begin before the storm commences. It will be very difficult to make a beginning, after it has once commenced. Our thoughts will then be otherwise engaged: afflictions will crowd in upon us without number, and we shall be overwhelmed, and sink under the bur-" from generation to generation in ig den. No, let us not delay. We shall then enjoy the consolatious of heaven; and if we do not escape the evils of this life, we shall be preparing our selves for the joys of the next. ON THE HIBERNIAN SOCIETY, To the Editor of the Orthodox Journal. SIR,-When I commenced my strictures on the Hibernian Society and the Societies connected with it, I certainly did not conceive that their ignorance, duplicity, and vanity, would by any means extend so far as I have since found to be the case. After the well grown boy, in the speech set down for him, told the rest of the children present, that the natives of Ireland, instead of possessing hu manity and reason, were in igno. rance and darkness: they knew not "the true God, and were brought up 66 66 norance." Another Juvenile member said that Hibernia has groaned "under antichristian bondage, has "been the enemy to the arts, to civi "lization, and to commerce, and is "in a state of the most barbarous "heathenism." Another orator of the same description was taught to say in his oration, that in Ireland " as"sassination rears its head unrestrain. "ed; for in that country the priests "incite their votaries to deeds of "blood, if they think it will further "the cause of their religion." And the infantine speeches were concluded by a Blower of nonsensical calumny, who told the assembly, that he had heard once of an Irish servant girl, who said she would as soon shoot an enemy as a cat, when the gratification of her revenge was in question. Many of your readers, I have no doubt, will feel a disinclination to believe that such a collection of libellous trash as I have here related, was ever uttered in a place which is appropriated to the service of the God of Truth; but they may be assured that I have given the expressions precisely as delivered by the speakers. It would be too nauseating a task to follow such a disgusting farrago of wicked falsehoods separately, but as the Rev. President, in an exhortation delivered at the close of the meeting, recommended the speeches which had been made to the particular consideration of the meeting, I shall take the hint, and offer a few observations on what fell from himself and his protegees on the occasion. In the first place, I wish to ask Mr. W- if the superior mental condition of his own countrymen is such as to justify him in dealing out so liberally his calumny upon those of a neighbouring nation? Let him say whether the state of education in Wales is so very much superior to Ireland, that he should be justified in using towards the latter such language as the above? Let this sanctified libeller shew me, if he can, any district in Wales superior, or even equal, in point of education, to those parts of Ireland where the Roman Catholic religion predominates. If he will take the trouble to refer to Mr. Newenham's work on the state of Ireland, published between six and seven years ago, he will find that in the dioceses of Cloyne and Ross alone, there were no less than 316 Parochial Schools kept by Catholics, and attended during the summer by 21,892 children.— Let him shew me if he can the like in Wales. By the same publication he will likewise discover, that at that period ALL the Protestant schools in Ireland, with all the assistance they received from Government, had not so many scholars by 6,000 as were in the Catholic Schools in the said dioceses. But it seems that Ireland has groaned under antichristian bondage.-If by this assertion it is meant to imply, that the bondage in which the Irish nation has been held by her English rulers for so many centuries, is in opposition to the spirit of Christianity, I perfectly coincide in it; but if it is meant, as I suppose it was, to establish a charge upon the Catholic clergy for keeping their flocks in spiritual bondage, I must again repeat what I have said on so many former occasions, that it is a glaring and wilful falsehood, not perhaps on the part of the ignorant youth who made use of the expression, but on those who furnished him with his speech, and more particularly on the part of the reverend gentleman, who subsequently seemed at least to concur with the speaker, by the glowing manner in which his approbation was conveyed.-But, in addition to the other charges, Ireland it seems is the enemy to the arts, to civilization, and to commerce. Although it was not explicitly stated as such by the speaker, yet it was no doubt meant to be implied, that this triple enmity arose from the influence of the Catho lic religion. Previous to any obser vations on this absurd charge, I must again address the reverend chairman. I wish to ask this patron of the arts, this promoter of civilization, this en courager of commerce, whether it be comes him, of all persons, to come forward with such a charge as the present? Whether his own country has been so eminently prolific in these, or similar excellencies, as to justify him in sanctioning such a charge as the pre sent? And now for a few words on the charge itself. If it was merely meant that the arts had not prospered so much in Ireland as in England, I must acknowledge the fact; but it cer tainly is least of all owing to the Catholic religion. The cause of the depression of the arts in Ireland is to be found in the exercise of the same spirit which took so much pains to re, press every spark of that intellectual fire which has ever distinguished and adorned the natives of Ireland. Of of treacherous dissimulation and perfidious imposition, both upon the understandings and the pockets of their seduced and unthinking followers.To return, however, to the meeting in question. I call upon the reverend chairman, if he be not already ashamed of his proceedings, to substantiate or vindicate, if he can, the whole or any of the expressions I have quoted in the present letter; and if he fail in doing so, let him take to himself the contempt and indignation which must inevitably attend such conduct. In reflecting upon the wickedness and immorality of bringing up a set of children to such vile courses; making them instruments for the dissemination of expressions and sentiments, which they would be ashamed or afraid to utter themselves, one is almost at a loss for suitable words to express the detestation which must be felt at such conduct, and alternately led to con demn the depravity, to pity the weakness, and laugh at the egregious folly I come now to the story told by a which can dictate such a line of beha larger lad than usual, the Blower of viour. But in order to convince your the meeting. Without any observa- readers that it is impossible to set any tions on the tale itself, I feel myself bounds to their extravagant folly, I bound to tell this gentleman, that poor, proceed to lay before them an extract ignorant, besotted, and superstitious of a letter which the Society professes as I am, I really blushed for his weak- to have received from one of its agents ness. I felt for degraded humanity, in Ireland, and who is termed a reto see a full grown person, apparently spectable correspondent. The letter in the possession of his senses, evince commences by mentioning that some such a childish want of common un- Catholics being in possession of a Tesderstanding. I will not charge the tament, "In reading it they were religion of any of my dissenting bre-" joined by some Protestants; and all, thren with inculcating the propriety of" in alluding to the treatment our Saits teachers imposing upon the rest of "viour endured, discovered that the their body by tales of such ridiculous priests were his enemies and oppc. nonsense, and the circulation of such sers, and that it was by the malice vile impositions as I have recapitulat-" and influence of the chief priests he ed; but I will maintain that what I was put to death. This gave rise to have adduced of their conduct, and a warm dispute between the Proexposed of their language, sufficiently "testants and the Catholics, to which justifies me in saying that I have never of their denominations the wicked yet had an opportunity of observing "priests pertained. However, the the proceedings of any body of persons" Catholics were silenced by this ar so totally undeserving even of the cre- gument from the Protestants, that dit of good intentions, as the Hiber-"the Protestant clergy were not nian Society.I can discern nothing" priests, but ministers, and that, as in their conduct but a base compound "No denomination had priests but the 66 ries, who are represented to be so ig-norant as not to know what they read!! What excellent principles govern the members of the Hibernian Society! What penetrating beings are English Protestants, to believe such trash! What a wonderful triumph for these enlightened gentlemen! But what is the plain inference to be drawn from the publication of this letter? Is it not, that Protestants, being left without any one to instruct them, are in reality as ignorant as the Catholics are described to be? Or, if we suppose them better informed, are they not guilty of wilfully wishing to impose a wicked falsehood upon their unsuspecting Catholic neighbours? Or, if we reject these suppositions, is not the whole story a fabrication, for which we are indebted to the zealous, the pious, and the amiable votaries of the Hibernian Society. That they are very capable of such proceedings is, I think, most evident from what I have laid before your readers respecting them: and, leaving them in possession of all the honours to which they are entitled, I for the present take my leave of them, subscribing myself your's, &c. J. C "Catholics, it must have been they "who perpetrated the deed. The Ca"tholics, sore under the charge, re(( proached their priest, on his next "visit, for this wicked deed of his or"der; which obliged the priest to "make a sermon on the occasion, to "convince them that it was the Jewish "and not the Catholic priests who "crucified the Redeemer." Your readers have here I think a tolerable specimen of the modest candour, the ingenuous liberality, of this respectable correspondent of the Society.(Indeed. I had much rather they should be judged at all times by their own language, than by my description of them.)-It appears by this extract, that it is a matter of satisfaction to them, that the Catholics should be charged with the guilt incurred by the Jews of old with regard to the death of our Saviour. But it seems that no denomination of Christians have priests but the Catholics. The Protestant clergy forsooth ARE NOT priests but MINISTERS! I really can hardly persuade myself in penning this sentence that I am not dreaming. But if I am really awake, and in the possession of my reasoning faculties, I have frequently heard them boast of having among them persons of all religious persuasions; and as I have heard one MR. EDITOR. The following ac of their speakers, and Secretary too, count of the suppression of the Semiboast of being a member of the esta-nary of Gand, consisting of 214 theoblished church, I should wish to ap-logians, which took place on the 25th peal to his correct knowledge, whether of July, 1813, will sufficiently shew the church of which he is a member how necessary it is that the Church has not, according to her doctrine, should be governed by Pastors endowboth priests and deacons. I should ed with disinterested fortitude and realso be glad to know what sort of a solution, in preference to those who Testament it was that these cunning submit to become the instruments of a fellows had; because the Rheims trans- despotic tyrant, or the tools of inlation says they were Jewish priests triguing men. The Penal Laws enwho committed the act? Yet the reacted under our own Elizabeth, like. spectable scribe makes it out that the those of the Roman Emperors, were Protestants were ignorant of this mat- aimed to destroy both the priest and ter as well as the Catholics, notwith- the altar, by open and undisguised standing their pretended superior persecution; but it was reserved for knowledge in matters of religion.our unhappy age, to see those who are What a cause to defend! -where the advocates of it have recourse to a direct LIE, to overcome their adversaORTHOD. JOUR. VOL. II. For the Orthodox Journal. appointed to support the sacred institutions of the Church, become themselves the agents of the unhallowed, 2 S |