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EPITOME OF INTELLIGENCE.

THE following extract is taken from an anonymous letter, in serted in The Dublin Chronicle of the 18th of June instant:

proves, beyond the possibility of doubt, that the proceedings now instituted against Mr. Hayes, did not originate in Rome or with its government; but in some place and with some government remote from the Roman capital, but holding an influence of authority over that court, which must extinguish every pretence to independence on the part of the sovereign pontiff, and which furnishes another proof, if, indeed any were wanting, of the necessity which the present dependent state of his holiness imposes on the catholics of Ireland to look to themselves for the maintenance of their religion. I understand it is further stated, in the letter lately received from Rome, to which I have referred, that ca dinal Gonsalvi, that ready instrument of despotism, and hired agent of the enemies of the catholics of Ire'and, laboured most zealously for the enforcement of this anathema against the representative of the Irish catholics; that after much solicitations, and more misrepresentations, he succeeded in obtaining from his holiness, who has too long been the dupe of his artful delusions, a consent that the rev. Mr. Hayes should be cited before the governor of Rome, a second Pilate, and receive his sentence of exile, without being suffered to enter upon any defence. This is stated to have actually occurred, but the final results are not mentioned; and, therefore, it is not known whether Mr. Hayes has submitted, without remonstrance, to this despotic sentence."

"A letter has been received in this city from an ancient ecclesiastic, and the principal of one of the colleges in Rome, dated at that city in the latter end of last month, from which it would appear that the violation of personal freedom by the ministers of the holy alliance was not confined to Lucien Bonaparte as its single object. It is positively stated by the writer, that the British government, acting through its representatives at Paris, succeeded in obtaining from the ministers of the other great powers a joint remonstrance or rather instruction to the court of Rome, directing that court to remove the representative of the Roman catholics of Ireland, the rev. Mr. Hayes, not only from the city, but from the ecclesiastical states. It is added, that the reasons alleged by those powers for demanding the banishment of that rev. gentleman, was his having written a letter to a Roman catholic barrister in the city of Dublin, complaining of the intrigues and other bad practices resorted to by persons in connection with the British government, for the purpose of counteracting that important mission to which he was deputed by the voice of this country. It is now four months since that letter was published in this city, and more than three months since it appeared in print at Rome; for no time was lost in forwarding it to that city, with a view to the injury of the alleged writer. It appears, therefore, that this letter, which is now considered to be so offening issued by the civil magistrate sive as to justify the harsh measures resorted to against the supposed writer, was allowed to obtain very extensive circulation in Rome for more than two months, without exciting the Roman government to acts of host lity. It was read by the ministers of that court,

and its contents communicated to his holiness in March, and was allowed to rest without complaint until the last week of May, a circumstance which

ORTHOD. JOUR. Vol. V.

The same Journal of the 20th, under the head "Further particulars," states, that on the order be

for Mr. Hayes's departure from the Roman territory, he refused to comply, and took refuge in his convent. At the time the last accounts came away, he was safe in his cell, and the convent was surrounded by sentinels, who dare not enter, but would arrest the reverend gentleman, should he appear beyond the walls.

On the accuracy of these state

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ments we are unable to form any opinion; indeed we have heard as much as if the whole was a hoax, invented by the crafty and deceitful agent of the British board, and forwarded to Dublin immediately on its arrival here. However let the story be true or false, let it be the act of the Paris committee, or the contrivance of a Scotch clergyman, it is of serious import to the catho lics of this empire, inasmuch as it proves that the purity of their religion is in much greater danger from British influence at Rome, than the stability of the protestant constitu tion is from the influence of the pope in this country. It is therefore much to be wished, that some means were tried to obtain the banishment of the corrupt and wily minister alluded to, from the capital of the christian world, whose general conduct is as much opposed to the precepts of the catholic church as it is to common honesty and integrity, and cannot fail to involve his employers in the infamy attached to it, notwithstanding the high rank and dignity they hold in society.

in support of the right reverend Dr. Poynter, in his present dispute with the Propaganda regarding Mr. Gandolphy.

THE PROTESTANT ASCENDENCY. The following are copies of letters which passed between Mr. Canning and the committee for conducting the last dinner in celebration of Mr. Pitt's birth-day.

"Gloucester Lodge, May 11. "SIR-I have to acknowledge the honour of your letter of the 6th instant, (which reached me only yesterday) requesting my company to dinner at Merchants Taylors' Hall, on the triennial celebration of Mr. Pitt's birth-day.

"It is some years since I attended at a similar celebration. I have heard that since that period there has been introduced among the standing toasts' of the club, the Irish orange toast of "Protestant Ascendency."

"The coupling this toast with the name of Mr. Pitt would appear to imply what (according to the best of my knowledge) I believe not to be true; it in any case assumes to express the opinion of the club upon a question of great political importance, on which Mr. Pitt's friends are divided.

"My acceptance therefore of the inThe following article is copi-vitation with which you have been desired to honour me, must depend upon ed from a Dublin weekly paper of the answer which you may be good the 8th instant, called The Sunday enough to give to the question, whether Freeman's Journal:I have been rightly informed with respect to this toast?

"At a recent meeting of the English catholic board, the duke of Norfolk in the chair, a vote of thanks and confidence was passed to Dr. Poynter, having reference to his controversy with this misguided writer. (Mr. Gandolphy) It is quite beyond question, that the steps taken at Rome were all the effect of management and misrepresentation. Yet rhapsodies, proceeding from such a source, and forced into notice by such means, are quoted against the catholics-quoted in parliament and quoted with success."

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It is also reported, that some of the same gentlemen have addressed a strong remonstrance to the pope,

"I have the honour to be, &c.^ GEO. CANNING. (Signed) "John Gifford, Esq."

This letter produced another from Mr. Gifford, with the subjoined re

solutions inclosed:

"THE PITT CLUB.

"At a general meeting of the committee held at the city of London tavern, May 21, 1817,

"OLIVER HATCH, esq. in the chair, "RESOLVED That this committee cannot withhold their expressions of surprise and regret at the sentiments contained in Mr. Canning's answer to the honorary secretary's letter of invitation.

"That with respect to the toast to which Mr. Canning appears to entertain

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se strong an objection, it has certainly been for some years past one of the standing toasts of the club; but that from that gentleman alone have they learned, that it is the Irish orange toast;" they not only not having adopted it from any other club, but being perfectly ignorant of the fact that it formed one of the toasts of the orange societies in Ireland.

"That the sentiment, or rather the principle, involved in that, toast, must stand or fall by its own merits, and not by its use or abuse by any body of men whatever.

"That according to their conception of the British constitution, the protes tant ascendency' is essential to its very existence; that they consider it not only as a question of great political importance, but as a question of vital importance to the established religion of the country, which is so interwoven, as it were, with its government, that the destruction of the one must produce the destruction of the other; a conse, quence which, in their apprehension, has long ceased to be a subject for speculation, by becoming a matter of historical fact.

"That on this point, they assuredly do entertain a must decided opinion; and they feel that they have a right to express that opinion, either by their toasts, or by any other channel of communication which to them may appear most expedient or proper.

been led to form from all the information which they have been able to collect, as well from the public declarations of Mr. Pitt himself, as from the comnunications of his personal friends.

"That it is not, therefore, without extreme concern that they have for the first time been induced to believe, and that upon the authority of a gentleman of such extensive knowledge and abili ties, whose talents they admire, and whose character they respect, that the friends of catholic emancipation are enemies to protestant ascendency; whereas, they had always understood, that those friends of Mr. Pitt who voted for the claims of the catholics had dis avowed all intention of interfering with the ascendency of the protestants; and it is far beyond their power to reconcile the preservation of the protestant esta. blishment with the destruction of the protestant ascendency,

"That in communicating their sen timents to Mr. Canning on this subject, they are very far from wishing to question, much less to controvert any opi nion which that gentleman may be pleased to entertain, having no other object in view than to rescue their own opinions, and their own conduct, from misconception or misrepresentation; that there are so many points of constitutional importance on which their opinions are strictly congenial with his own, and they are such firm friends to the administration of which Mr. Can

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"That they admit, and deeply laning forms so distinguished a part, that ment, the fact, that a difference of opinion on this great question prevails among the friends of Mr. Pitt; that while they assume to themselves no right to censure those who view it in a different light from that in which they have been accustomed to regard it, while to such they willingly allow the utmost credit for purity of intention and for consistency of conduct, they claim for themselves the same justice, in asserting and vindicating their own opinions with freedom and with firm

ness.

"That if they rightly understand Mr. Canning, Mr, Pitt was not, in his belief, a friend to the protestant ascendency: on which point they can only express their own decided conviction, that the protestant ascendency never had a firmer friend than that illustrious statesman; a conclusion which they have

they lament more than they can express, that he should have made a sacrifice of their opinion on this one subject (which in them would amount to a dereliction of principle) the condition of his acceptance of their invitation; a determination on his part at which they are the more surprised as another distinguished member ofthe cabinet,who has spoken and voted on the same side of the question of catholic emancipation as Mr. Canning, has, without the smallest objection or hesitation, accepted a similar invitation.

"OLIVER HATCH, Chairman.”

To these resolutions Mr. Canning returned the following answer:

Gloucester Lodge, May 25, 1817. Mr. Canning has the honour to acknowledge the receipt of Mr. Gifford's letter of the 23d (in reply to Mr. Can

ning's of the 11th instant) and of the paper which accompanied it, containing the copy of certain resolutions signed by Mr. Oliver Hatch.

the 11th-that those of Mr. Pitt's

tent with that entire attachment to the constitution in church and state, which M. Cannung firmly believes to be com. mon to all M Pit's frends, as well as to the bulk of the nation.

Upon the general matter of these re solutions, Mr. Canning has neither the pretension nor the desire to offer any The Morning Herald of the 28th observation; but he feels himself called instant contains the annexed article: upon to notice, for the purpose of re- "We have already announced the pelling an inference most unaccounta-arrival of the princess of Wales at bly drawn from Mr. Canning's letter of Rome on the 2d instant Hér royal of distinction who assisted at the highness was amongst the personages procession of the Holy acrament, which took place on the 3d, in that city. (We suppose the editor meant the 5th, being Corpus Christi) The other personages were, king Charles IV. and the queen his consort; the queen of Etruria (Maria Louisa); and the prince of axe Gotha.

friends who, in concurrence (as they believe) with Mr. Pitt's opinion, give a qualified support to the question, improperly termed catholic emancipita. tion, are, by Mr. Canning's admission, enemies to the protestant ascendency.

Nothing in Mr. Canning's letter to Mr. Gifford nothing that he ever wrote or uttered in his life-affords the shadow of a foundation for such an in ference. His objection to being present at a meeting in honour of Mr. Pitt, at which the toast of "Protestant Ascendency" is to make part of the ceremonial, rests on grounds perfectly consis

Mr. Neil Douglas, the travelling preacher, has been acquitted of the seditious charges laid against him, as stated in our last.

PARLIAMENTARY REPORT.

HOUSE of LORDS, May 16.

CATHOLIC CLAIMS. The duke of GLOUCESTER presented a petition from the university of Cambridge against the catholic claims. His royal highness stated, that though his name, in consequence of the high office which he held in that university, appeared at the head of the petition, yet he by no means concurred in the prayer of it

HOUSE OF COMMONS. TRANSUBSTANTIATION. --On the 25th instant, according to the reports in the daily papers, general THORNTON, after quoting from bishop Burnet an account of the popish plots in the latter end of the reign of Charles II, and of the appre hensions entertained at that period by the nation for their religion, in consequence of the religious opinions of the duke of York, and observing that the declarations against transubstantiation, &c. which were then enacted were rendered unnecessary by the oaths of supremacy, allegiance, and abjuration, (with which it was not his intention at all to interfere) moved that the propriety of repealing such parts of the 25th and 3 th of Charles II. as required in certain cases, a declaration against the belief of transubstantiation, and asserting that the worship of the church of Rome was idolatrous, should be referred to the consideration of a committee of the wholerately, and the other from the Irish cathobouse.

LORD CASTLEREAGH thought that at least it would be expedient to postpone the consideration of this subject until another session, and therefore moved the previous question, which was agreed to without a division.

Another was presented froin Oxford unv. The earl of DONOUGH MORE rose-It was his duty now to call their lordships' attention to the petitions from their catholic fellow-subjects which lay on their table. He had presented two petitions, one of which was from the general body of the Irish catholics, in the present session; and he had presented two other petitions last session, one from the nobility and others who had thought proper to petition sepa

lic prelates and clergy. It had been intimated to him by some of those who signed the former petition, fhat they were desirous to have it now brought under consi deration; and the prelates and clergy had sent over two most respectable individuals, selected from their body, to give every

information in their power to the members of the two houses of parliament, and lend all the aid which they could give to the furtherance of any measure of relief which parliament might think proper to entertain. It was clear, therefore, that the prelates and clergy were desirous that the subject of their petition should be considered. When their lordships had the whole body of the Irish catholics, ecclesiatical and lay, peer and peasant, all joining in one petition that their clains might be considered, and relief given from those disabilities to which they were subjected; he stood there the representative, though an inadequate one, of the whole body of his catholic countrymen, claiming on their behalf that they should at length be admitted to the freedom of the constitution,] and the rights and privileges of British subjects. In calling their attention to these petitions of no small part of the population of these kingdoms, it was his wish to abstain from all generality; and instead of resting their claims upon the triumphant ground of their merits, he would rather advocate their cause by refuting the calumnies with which they had been loaded. Never had the catholics been assailed with more violence and acrimony than at the present moment, as their lordships must be aware of, from what had passed in both houses of parliament, as well as from what had appeared in the public pressa press which was free, and he hoped still would continue free-the authentic recorder of the opinions and prin⚫ ciples of public men: notwithstanding the extraordinary crusade to which a noble secretary of state had exposed it, by subjecting it to the control of every magistrate and justice of the peace, in the manner stated in the circular letter, for every aentiment and opinion of which these magistrates might not approve; and thus con stituting himself, through the medium of the magistrates, a sort of licenser of the press on all subjects, religious and political. The question never came before them under greater irritation of the public mind than at this moment. The catholics had to complain, that they had been most grossly calumniated, and that, while their claims were refused, they themselves had been most cruelly maligued. He himself, and probably others of their lordships, had received tracts, written and published against the catholics, that might make the hair of any liberal man stand on end. One would think that the object was to raise the riots of 1780. The sufferings of protestant martyrs were represented in pictures, and the pope and priests expressing satisfaction at the tortures which these martyrs endured.-This was not a fair and candid manner of meeting the petitioners

Every engine had been set to work to prejudice the public mind against the unfortunate catholics, whose cause he advecated; and he was sorry to say that the means adopted to injure them with the public had not been without success. It was not merely of the exertion out of doors for that object, that he had to complain. With all due respect to the noble lord on the woolpack, he must say that be had contributed to this result. The noble lord had risen from the woolsack the other day, and with all the authority which belonged to his high situation and unblemished character, and with extraordinary warmth, called the attention of their lordships to this question, as one which concerned the very vitals of the constitution. The noble lord must have meant a great deal by that expression, for it was not his custom to speak without meaning, and his meaning must have been this-that all those who supported the catholic claims were advocates for measures which would subvert the constitution.

The LORD CHANCELLOR.-He rose to order. With the most sincere respect for the noble earl, he must remind him that he only stated an opinion which he had ever conscientiously held, and in which he was the more confirmed the more he considered the subject. That opinion he was bound to state and to support, but with a desire that the most liberal toleration should be given to all religious persuasions. If the noble earl thought that he meant to prejudice the debate of this night, be assured the noble earl that he meant ne such thing.

The earl of DONOUGH MORE.-He doubted whether he noble lord, who was the master of order in that honse, was not himself out of order. He did not think the noble lord entitled to interupt him when speaking, though the explanation would have been proper at another time. However, he was happy to find that the noble lord had endeavoured a little to soften what he had said on a former occasion; but he was sure the noble lord's situation in the cabinet was a most painful one. The noble lord could keep him at a distance; but it must be most painful to his feelings, which were so acute on this subject, to be daily sitting in the cabinet, and in the ha bit of advising the sovereign, along with persons who were aiming a blow at the vitals of the constitution; or whose priaciples he must be convinced would, if acted upon, give a deadly blow to the constitution. There were such men in the cabinet, and there could be no impropriety in men. tioning the circumstance, as they had openly declared their opinions to parliament. These strong expressions did certainly often put an extinguisher on a good cause, and

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