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in direct opposition to the views of your establishment. I have but one word more to add, and I have done. You must remember, madam, that since the foundation of St. Cyr by yourself, the eyes of every convent are fixed upon it, and what is there practised, may serve as example to others. Tired with the monotony of performing a few sacred pieces again and again repeated, other subjects will at length be introduced; the laity will be indiscriminately invited, and the consequence will be, that every where convents will be nurseries, not for religion, but the theatre; will educate and rear, not novices, but actresses, All this (said Mad. de Maintenon) I perfectly well understand; but allow me,

sir, to make one single remark before we conclude, which is, that St. Francis de Sales is not so rigorous as you are, since he allows his spiritual daughters to perform devotional pieces.' True, (replied Mons. de Hebert) this great and virtuous prelate does allow, as you say, the performance of devout subjects; but, observe, madam, he allows it wholly and solely among themselves; rarely too, and in the most secret recesses of the monastery. So that the difference is extremely great; for at the Visitation, it is a private recreation; at St. Cyr it is made a public theatrical exhibition."" I am, &c. T. T. T.

Oct. 24, 1817.

POETRY.

THOUGHTS ON BENEDICTION.

COME, Heavenly Spirit, soft inspire
The music of some angel's lyre,

And let its voice resound;
Come, gently breathe a livening ray,
Chase this mysterious gloom away,
And deal thy light around.

Hark! thro' the tubes the swelling strain
Shakes like the distant roaring main,

And rocks the sacred walls; The sound that springs from tongues on fire, Breathing from youder tuneful choir, Upon the victim calls.

'Twas where, inveil'd in humble state, Alone, within his murky seat,

The world's Redeemer reign'd; O'ershadow'd by the sacred tree, Where death, in awful majesty,

The pledge of life regain'd.

Aud now aloft thro' radiant beams,*
Crown'd with the golden sun-like gleams,
And clad in white array,-
He shines; as if the meek-eyed moon
Sat on the sun's emblazon'd throne,
And reign'd amid the day.

* The remonstrance.

ORTHOD. JOUR. Vol. V、

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Thick clouds of fragrant fumes ascend,
Around their od'rous sweets they send,
And soar on wings of air:
Amid the mist, the taper's light
Faint twinkles to th' astonish'd sight,
And deals a ruddy glare,

Not cinctur'd in the purple vest, Nor in Peruvian honours drest,

Nor India's sparkling stone, He comes; no canopy of gold, Or sceptre of the finest mould,

Has he, or ebon throne.

The heart with soft effusion flows; Love, like the summer morning's rose, Unfolding to the day,

Ope's with fresh ardour to her spouse, Her bosom panting with its vows, And breathing out its lay.

Bow down your heads, ye princes, bow; Lay the imperial sceptre low,

Then raise your wond'ring eyes :
See him majestically move,

To melt your icy hearts with love,
A living sacrifice.

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A ray of hope illumes my breast.Thou bid'st me in thy mercy trust; For Mary's sin thou paid the price, Welcom'd the thief to Paradise.

I own my prayer unworthy Thee,
I own my insufficiency :

O gracious God! my soul deliver
From endless pain-from burning ever.

Amongst thy sheep, O let me stand
Secure, O God, on thy right hand;
Nor herd me with th' accursed crew,
O call me with thy chosen few.

When all shall hear that sentence, “Go,
"Ye cursed, to eternal woe!"
Then call me with thy blest above,
To thrones of light-to realms of love.
Contrite I bow before thy face,
O grant me thy supporting grace;
That in what hour my life shall cease,
My trembling soul may rest in peace.

For terrible will that day be,
The dawn of immortality;
When man shall meet th' avenging rod,
Or dy with rapture to his God.

HYMNUS.

Amen.

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No mean concerns of earth your minds em-
ploy,

No sublunary fears your peace destroy;
Above all human cares your spirits rise,
Join the blest choirs above, and revel in
the skies.

Father of All! to Thee our voice we raise;
Eternal Son! to Thee be equal praise;
And to the Holy Ghost, thro' earth and
heav'n,

As equal praise is due, be equal glory
giv❜n.
Oct. 10, 1817.

CANICULA.

ΑΝ ΕΡΙΤΑΡΗ.

STRANGER, here lies C. B. untimely dead,

The cause not told; but yet, 'tween me 'Tis laid by doctors, in the science read, and you, On undigested pamphlets buff and blue! Oct. 21. 1817.

*Catholic Board.

IN

EPITOME OF INTELLIGENCE.

N our last we noticed the circu- dice the minds of your holiness and the lation of an address or remoncardinal prefect of the sacred congrega strance to his holiness the pope by tion de Propaganda Fidei, against one of the self-appointed leaders of the En-William Poynter, bishop of Halia, and our venerable pastors, the right rev. Dr. glish catholic body, which had been vicar apostolic of the London district, handed about for private use," we beg leave to testify to your holiness, and which we intimated our inten- that from the time of his being appointtion of communicating the contents ed coadjutor to the late right rev. Dr. to our readers this month, not doubt- Douglas, of revered memory, till the ing but they would be as much as- present hour, the conduct of the right tonished at its substance as we were. rev. Dr. Poynter has been uniformly But in this we have been anticipated edifying and exemplary. by the self-assuming few, who, with that degree of consistency which has ever marked their conduct, after sending it round to their select friends as a choice secret, thought proper to give it as much publicity as they did the famous rescript of the deceived Mons. Quarantotti, and accordingly it has appeared in nearly all the daily papers of ́the metropolis, as well as some of those published in the sister isle. We therefore proceed to lay the same before our readers, and earnestly beg their serious perusal of it: ADDRESS.

MOST HOLY FATHER, We, whose names are undersigned, peers and commons, of Great Britain, professing the catholic religion, most humbly beg leave to represent to your holiness,

the lowest, serving all for God, his zeal Acceptable to the highest, benign to in the discharge of pastoral duty, and his assiduous exertions to promote the welfare of his flock, his learning and his piety are acknowledged by every one. In a situation necessarily of great difficulty and delicacy, the constant tenor of conduct, at once blameless and respectable, has gained him universal reverence.

The concern which we have men

tioned is greatly increased by hearing, (what we cannot bring ourselves to believe) that there have been, and still are, projects to induce your holiness to remove this excellent prelate from the district committed to his care.

Against any such attempt we most humbly and earnestly appeal to your holiness; and we beg leave to represent, that such a measure would be highly detrimental to religion, highly distressThat we have heard with the greatest ing to the members of the district concern that endeavours have been which he has so long and so worthily made, and are now making, to preju-governed, and highly displeasing to all

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who interest themselves in the cause of the catholics of this realm.

Confiding in your holiness's wisdom and discernment, and your known and proved solicitude for all the churches committed by Christ Jesus to the care of your holiness, his vicar on earth, we beg leave, most holy father, to submit to your paternal attention these our humble representations.

Assuring your holiness of our inviolable attachment to our holy faith, and

our obedience in Christ to the mother
and mistress see, we beseech your
apostolic benediction, and, with the
most profound respect and reverence,
are your holiness's most dutiful and
obedient servants in Christ,

NORFOLK, earl marshal of England.
SHREWSBURY, &c. &c. &c.
London, July 1, 1817.

Such a composition of consummate folly and impudence on the part of the compilers, and of glaring insult to the venerable personage whose character is thus introduced to general notice, we verily believe was never before submitted to the spiritual head of the church of Christ, or communicated to the British public. For our own part, feeling the greatest respect for the virtues of the amiable and pious prelate of this district, we cannot repress our indignation at this step which has been taken to lessen him in the opinion of his flock, by conveying an idea that his character at Rome was not sufficient to protect him against any insidious designs which his enemies might put in practice to injure it, without the recommendatory testimony and patronage of the remnant of protesting-catholic-dissenters. But who are the individuals who have been and now are endeavouring to prejudice the minds of his holiness and the cardinal prefect against Dr. Poynter? We have been assured the question has been personally put to those who were employed to obtain signatures to the document, but without obtaining a satisfactory answer.

We are, therefore, inclined

to doubt the existence of the fact, upon the same ground as the sapient addressers doubt the most material circumstance against which they

remonstrate.

We know that the

leaders of the board strained every nerve, and exerted all the influence they could bring into action, to get the indefatigable vicar apostolic of the Midland district into disgrace with the holy father and the cardi nals ; and we have been assured, by high authority, that a Newcastle collier obtained a personal interview with the pope, at which he exercised all his great eloquence and persuasive powers to induce his holiness to remove this prelate from his vicariate, but to no purpose.— The cardinals, it is true, who were ignorant of the infamous machinations resorted to for the of purpose deceiving them, and who knew but little of the intrigues which have been going forward here for the last quarter of a century, expressed their astonishment that the Midland vicar should have so many enemies. But did Dr. Milner feel any uneasiness at this hostile conduct towards him? Or did his friends send up any address, by way of propping up his character, and dastardizing their spiritual chief in the exercise of his functions; he who had braved the dungeons of a tyrant, to preserve the independence of his sacred office? No; to all the observations of his friends at Rome, on the fury and numbers of his enemies, this unbought divine, with a truly great mind, and a heart conscious of its rectitude, contented himself with observing, that he knew he had many enemies; they were not, however, personal ones, but only the enemies of his religion. Nor did his friends feel more anxiety, being content to leave the subject, wholly of a spiritual nature, to the unembarrassed decision of the holy see. And such, we are confident, must have been the feelings of Dr.

Poynter, if similar endeavours were in process to traduce him in the opinion of Rome as those used towards

claims, the bible-mongers, and the orangemen, assault the Vatican on this occasion Really, the ridicu

us with the most indignant contempt at their conduct towards Dr.Poynter, and we most fervently and devoutly hope the amiable prelate will not lose one moment in announcing to the catholic public his entire dissent from the presumptuous and unlawful proceedings of the board leaders, which we have been compelled to witness of late years; but more especially in this instance, where they

Dr. M. Why then did the busy-lous absurdity of the addressers fills meddlers officiously arrogate to themselves the power of dictating to their spiritual head in the exercise of his holy functions, and this too through the influence of ministers of state? This is a circumstance which ought never to be forgotten by the catholic body. The address was transmitted to Consalvi, the pope's temporal servant, through the British foreign secretary, instead of the cardinal-prefect of propagan-have dragged his character into da, to whom only our missions are public notice, under no very enviasubject. Here then we have a de- ble circumstances,either in this kingmonstrative proof of the readiness dom or at Rome. Our enemies of our self-constituted leaders to may accuse us of inviting "to relisubmit their consciences and our gious insubordination and party dis own, if we permit them, to the fa- sention," but a candid retrospect of vourites of a court, rather than to their actions, compared with our the unbiassed decision of the con- past labours, will soon convince the stituted authorities of the church.- unprejudiced man, that the ofence But, we again ask, who were the imputed to us belongs entirely to individuals thus engaged to prepos- our accusers. As to "religious insubsess the Roman see against the ve- ordination," have we not seen them, nerable vicar apostolic of the Lon- in 1790, in the second blue book, don district? If the constant te- protest against the solemn and synour of his conduct has gained him nodical decisions of their superiors, universal reverence, and if his re- past, present, and to come, as arbimoval would be highly displeasing trary and unjust; and as encroachto all who interest themselves in ing on their natural, civil, and rethe cause of the catholics of this ligious rights. We have seen them realm; who could be so bold, who in 1811, agree to resolutions, exso mischievous, as to attempt to sully pressive of their willingness to enter his character, or desire his removal? into any arrangements that may be The thing is too preposterous to be required of them by protestants, for entertained for a moment by any altering the laws of the church, and reasonable being, and could only ex- this in the all-important article of ist in the imaginations of men, be- appointing her head pastors. We wildered with the baubles of this have seen them in 1813, applaud the life, and lost to every sense of pub-framers of a legislative bill, and aplic honour and consistency. Would the catholic desire to see so excellent a character removed from his high dignity, when it would be so detrimental to religion? Would he assist to accomplish so ruinous a measure? Most certainly not. By whom then were these endeavours made? Did the opposers of our

prove the bill itself, which 29 prelates of their church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, declared to be schismatical and utterly incompatible with the free exercise of their religion and the discipline of the catholic church. We have seen them in 1814, by deceit and treachery, in the absence of the sovereign

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