ther relief bill of similar tendency to which comforts you in the hour that which was rejected in 1813.- adversity, and consoles yon on the The committee state in the report, bed of sickness, corrupted and dethat their attention have been chiefly stroyed by treachery and bibery, directed to two objects-" First, The after having withstood, pure and unappointment or election of the ro- polluted, three centuries of persecuman catholic clergy, and, princi- tion? No, I feel convinced, that pally, those of the episcopal order. should necessity call on you to declare -And, secondly, The restraints im- your abhorrence of the practices of posed upon the intromission of pa- those dangerous individuals of our pal rescripts, by submitting them to body, by whose machinations princithe inspection of the civil govern- pally our holy faith is placed in its ment previous to their publication;- present truly alarming situation, you a right exercised in various coun- will come forward and denounce their tries, under the name of Regium unhallowed practices to the legislaExequatur,' the 'Placitum Regium,' ture, as detogatory and ruinous to the or some similar appellation. With catholic name, and opposed to your this they have joined the apellate ju- honest and confirmed sentiments. risdiction, or Recursus ad Princi That you must hold yourselves in pem,' exercised by the supreme secu- readiness for a sumultaneous exlar magistrate, in cases where the ec- pression of your detestation of clesiastical judges have exceeded the any measures which may be inproper limits of their authority.". tended to wrest the free exercise of To enter into a regular detail of this the spiritual functions from your sareport would be impossible in so con- cred pastors is certain, unless indeed fined a work as this, I have theremore urgent matters, from the ргеfore given the substance of it, as sent unsettled state of the country, published in The Morning Post, in should occupy the attention of parthe epitome of this number, and shall liament in the ensuing session, and from time to time lay before my rea- prevent the immediate approach of ders the most iuteresting particulars the evil day. To prepare your minds to be found in this ponderous collec- therefore for a legal contest with tion of official and unofficial papers. your enemies, I shall proceed to offer But I should, however, ill discharges a few remarks on the labours of this my duty, were I not to put my fellow protestant committee for catholic afcatholics upon their guard, against fairs.-It is certainly not a little cuthe insidious designs of those men rious that the modern legislators of by whose influence this report was this once proud and independent uaframed from the tenour of which tion should seek for precedents athere cannot exist a doubt of its mong foreign nations, on which to being the intention of our emanci- ground a system of regulation of pators to subdue every vestige of the conscience for a large portion of the the spiritual independence of the ca- inhabitants of the kingdom, at a time tholic church in these realms, and too, when our popular leaders are render its ministers the servile slaves condemning and censuring the geneof an anti-catholic government.-But, ral proceedings of those very states my fellow citizens, are you willing to from whence the precedents are obsubmit to these degrading and des- tained. But why seek for examples tructive plans, without a constitu- in foreign countries, and not refer to tional struggle to oppose them? Are the conduct of our own ancestors? you willing to see that religion which I mean our catholic forefathers. is your boast and glory to profess, of. Are the mandates or maxims of

foreign despots and autocrats to form conclusions:

That the emperor

a basis for the government of a peo-presided in the ecclesiastical councils of his empire: that there are no traces of any distinction then existing between the supreme head of the church and the supreme head of the

city of guardian of the peace of the church, convened the general councils: that from the decisions of those assemblies, he received and heard appeals, in causes ecclesiastical, at least, as they respected matters of external discipline; and that the bishop of Rome then possessed no authority over his fellow-bishops, except that which might arise from the patriarchial dignity, or from the voluntary respect which was paid to him, as presiding over one of the largest and oldest dioceses, generally believed to be founded by St. Pe-. ter." Ah, reader! here we discover the grand, the prime aim of those po

ple who claim to be free? Is Dot this absurdity in the extréme? And yet this appears to be the sole end of the labours of the committee, or I should rather say of Sir John Hip-state; that the emperor, in his capapisley, who, I have no doubt, is the author of the report, as he is admitted to be the grand collector of the various documents. From these papers, the hon. baronet imagines he has established his favourite position, that no emancipation should be granted to the catholics of this united kingdom, unless the crown be invested with the nomination of their prelates, the same as is exercised by the states on the continent; and further, that the correspondence between these prelates and the head of their church should be subjected to the inspection of the state, previous to their being published. How far Sir John has succeeded, let rea-liticians, to whom the representason determine.The papers laid before the committee do not reach beyond the period of the reformation, so called, and consequently do not embrace that space of time when the whole of christendom acknowledged the pope as the supreme pastor of the faithful, and the temporal sovereigns were not distracted with the religious feuds of their subjects, or alarmed at the horns of a papal bull.

tives of our ancient and once nobleminded families have been paying. court, and servilely craving their infiuence to re-instate them in the possession of those rights which their uncorrupted progenitors were unjustly deprived by the iniquity of past times. For two centuries and a

half, our ancestors and ourselves have been subjected to a system of persecution unparalleled in christian history, because they refused and we decline to disown the supremacy of the pope in matters purely spiritual. For this refusal, a lord chancellor surrendered his head to the block; but now, a barrister, endued with more than ordinary powers of percep-. tion, has discovered that the acute Sir Thomas More, and all of us, have

I must however except an extract from a work entitled an "Historical Inquiry into the ancient Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of the Crown, by James Baldwin Brown, Esq. of the Inner Temple, barrister at law." This work the committee state was sometime since transmitted to the office of the secretary of state for the home-department, and recently pub-been in the wrong, and that those lished, which traces back the exercise of ecclesiastical jurisdiction by temporal sovereigns, to the period of Constantine the great. From the evidence adduced by the author, he arrives (say the committee) at these

heroic martyrs, who have sacrificed their lives rather than acknowledge the spiritual supremacy of the head of the state, were a parcel of stupid papists, enveloped in the clouds of priestcraft and ignorance, which still

operate on our dull faculties, and | This is a discovery which should make some people blush with shame, if they have any shame in them.They have also found that in those states where the will of the sovereign is absolute, he exercises a self-constituted right of nominating or appointing to vacant dioceses; but in those states which are somewhat free, and have a representative form of goment, such as Switzerland, the bishops are generally chosen by election, or appointed by the pope.Thus, the bishop of Chur, or Coire, is appointed either directly by the pope, or else the chapter presents the bishop elect to him for his confirmation; he appoints to the bishopric of Lausanne in default of the chapter of the cathedral; "in the course of the last year, (says the report) the canton of Fribourg renounced the right of presentation, remitting to the pope the nomination to the vacant see ;" and in the Valais, the bishops are appointed by the members of the diet, by an absolute plurality of votes, upon a quadruple presentation by the chapter or body of capitulate canʊns. The elected bishop is always confirmed by the pope, and is a deputy to the diet with four votes. But the information from the canton of Schweitz, transmitted by Mr. Stratford Canning, our envoy extraordinary to the Swiss government, to Lord Castlereagh, under date the 15th of April last, is too remarkable to be passed over, especially as Mr. Canning states, that Schweitz may be considered as the chief of the small democratic cantons.- The governments of the Swiss cantons," says the informant of Mr. C. "which, up to 1815, formed a part of the diocese of Constance, never had the smallest influence in the election of their bishop, as his nomination belonged to the chapter of Constance, and his confirmation rested with the holy see. There are, however, instances,

therefore it is necessary to resort to a new legislative provision, in order to restore us to our senses, as well as to our privileges. Well, this is a matter of the highest consolation to the self-named board, and as the honourable members most honourably voted the expulsion of the incorruptible representative of the church from their society, because he wished to preserve to them the glorious name of catholic, we may conclude, that, at their next meeting, they will ho. nourably vote a piece of plate to the new theological barrister, as a mark of their testimony, for the easy method he has pointed out to them how they may attain their honourable ends. Enough, however, has been divulged by this extract to put every sincere catholic on his guard, and to convince him that it is not so much the wish to emancipate, as it is to protestantize, us, that prompts our pretended friends to take us under their kind protection. But let us reject their proffered assistance, unless they will agree to serve us on fair and equitable terms. Why, instead of searching the records of the despotic and arbitrary governments of the continent; why, instead of having recourse to modern documents, to the laws and regulations decreed by the emperor Joseph, by Leopold, and toose monarchs, whether catholic or protestant, who are known to have been as great persecutors of the church as any that have preceded them; why did not our legislators refer to the proceedings of our own catholic sovereigns for precedents or examples respecting the points in dispute? And what is the sum and substance of the enquiry made? The committee have found, that in those states, which have been represented by bigotted protestants as the most devoted to the catholic religion, the power of the pope is more restricted than in others.

ORTHOD. JOUR. VOL. V,

when the election of the said chapter | her existence. The barons had wit

had been irregular, or had not taken place within the prescribed time, of the pope having directly appointed the bishop. The chapters of immediate monasteries or abbeys, such as St. Gall, Einsidlen, and Mury, elected likewise their prelates, without the least influence on the part of government. The confirmation of these prelates rested with the see of Rome, that of the immediate monasteries with the bishop. As the catholic Swiss acknowledges the supremacy of the pope as head of the roman catholic church, the catholic part of Switzerland never had occasion to oppose the publication of the pope's bulls; and it is on this account that there never has been any contest about jurisdiction between the holy see and the respective governments of the catholic Swiss cantons." It has been allowed by most travellers, that civil liberty was enjoyed by the people to a greater extent in the Catholic cantous of the Helvetic confederacy than in those of the protestant communion; yet we here find it stated, that in the canton possessing the greatest degree of popular rights, the government never had the least influence in the appointment to episcopal offices, and in consequence a dispute or contest with the pope never took place. What is this but a clear proof that most of the disputes which have arisen between the despotic temporal sovereigns and the see of Rome, have been occasioned by attempts of the former to encroach on the spiritual rights of the church of Christ, and not from endeavours of the holy see to usurp the royalties of the respective kingdoms which admitted, its spiritual supremacy. Of this our ancestors were perfectly convinced, or they would never have stipulated in the first article of Magna Charta, that the church of England should be free, and that the freedom of election for bishops was most necessary for

nessed the contentions on the part of the primates Anselm and Thomas a Becket, with William Rufus and Henry II.; they saw the encroachments of the sovereigns tended to extend their power, and they felt the urgent necessity of an independent clergy to preserve their own privileges and immunities, as well as those of the people; and therefore the freedom of election was secured to the clergy, while the influence and patronage of the crown was lessened.This important spitulation of the great charter proved of the utmost advantage to the peace and happiness of the nation; the unhappy strifes between the sovereigns and the clergy, so frequent under the Norman kings, were put an end to, and for three hundred years the people preserved their rights and privileges, till the corruptions of the eighth Henry deprived them both of independent prelates and untainted senators. With these incontestible facts before our eyes; with the testimony of the last three centuries, that under the patronage of lay ministers, servility, not integrity, is the most likely faculty to obtain the episcopal chair; with the evidence of fourteen hundred years, during which Ireland has possessed, by free election, the most pure and unblemished hierarchy that ever adorned the catholic church; shall we so far forget ourselves as to consent to its members being nominated through the influence of those who publicly swear our religion to superstitious and idolatrous? No, God forbid. Never let us prove such traitors to our crucified Saviour, as to surrender without opposition bis mystical body into the hands of its sworn enemies. How shall we be able to appear before his face at the great accounting day, after being guilty of so heinous a dereliction of duty? Besides, what analogy, what similarity is there in the cases res

ported, and the situation in which | der a government so constructed
the catholics of these islands stand. as our own, though it might not be
In Austria, in Russia, in Prussia, in attended with such evil consequences
Spain, in Naples, &c. the sovereigns under an absolute monarchy. As to
are absolute, and their will is the the right claimed of inspecting papal
law; the prelacies also to which they rescripts, stated to be exercised by
claim the right of nomination have all catholic and other states, it is an
all some temporal immunities and usurpation which Cardinal Litta told
privileges attached to them. But Dr. Poynter, in the Genoa letter, the
here, the functions of the monarch are holy see, to prevent greater evils, is
regulated by a cabinet council, the forced to bear and tolerate, but can'
members of which are responsible for not by any means approve. That it
the acts done in his name, and no-
was an abuse, and not the exercise of
thing has the force of law until it legitimate power; and with regard
has been sanctioned by parliament. to us, could not even be made a sub-
The prelates, too, whose appoint-ject of negociation. "For," adds
ment this council is desirous of pos-
the cardinal, “ your lordship well
sessing, are, in the eye of the law, no knows, that as such a practice must
more than simple citizens, and the essentially affect the free exercise of
religion of which they are the guar- that supremacy of the church which
dians, is not legally recognized.-In has been given in trust by God, it
asking for a restitution of our un- would assuredly be criminal to per-
doubted rights, we seek not for place mit or transfer it to any lay power,
nor power; we simply request to be and indeed such a permission has ne-
placed upon an equal footing of eligi-ver any where been granted." This
bility to civil privileges with the rest is a very important declaration on
of our fellow-subjects; and the pre- the part of the holy see, and must
lates have solemnly and disinterested- put the vetoist party on their guard
ly declared, that they neither seek how far they commit themselves on
nor desire any other earthly conside- this subject. These gentlemen have
ration for their spiritual ministry save much to answer for, and would do
what their respective flocks, from a well to reflect upon their past con-
sense of religion and duty, may vo- duct before they proceed any fur-
luntarily afford them. The cases are ther. Certain it is, their pliability
thus widely distinct, and the govern- and readiness to pay homage to
ment can have no greater claim upon wealth and power, have encouraged
our body to surrender up its minis- our pretended friends to proceed in
ters to their tender care, than they their plans to subvert our religion,
have to claim the nomination of me- and I have no hesitation in giving it
thodist parsons or presbyterian elders. as my opinion, that they will not re-
It cannot be a love of our religion cede from their intentions, unless the
that makes them desirous of choos- most determined and active constitu-
ing its guardians; it can only be a de- tional resistance is immediately begun
sire to extend their own influence, and by the entire of our body in the two
corrupt the integrity of our pastors. islands; and even then our case will
We know very well that the nomina-be desperate, though not hopeless.
tion sought for might, under certain
modifications, be granted without
infringing the doctrines of our
church; but we also know that such
a concession would be fatally destruc-
tive to the purity of her morals, un-

If the government were hardy enough to pass the late corn bill in opposi tion to the general voice of the whole people, there is little doubt but Lord Castlereagh, and Mr. Canning, and Sir John Hippisley will endea

my