not be sufficient to rouse a people | tions of this treaty, the Scots agreed who had basely submitted to the de- to furnish the English parliament spotic exactions of Elizabeth, and with an army of men ready equipped, that a fervour for religion, however which was to be paid by England, erroneous, could alone effect their out of the estates and revenues of the purpose. This made the traitor papists, prelates, malignants, and Hampden, in answer to a friend who their adherents, or otherwise.-By asked him," Why they pretended this covenant, the two kingdoms religion, when liberty, property, and were bound to extirpate popery in emporal matters were the chief end," | Ireland and bring the Irish to an unireply, "Should we not use the pre-formity in religion with them; and tence of religion, the people would they were further sworn to preserve not be persuaded to assist us." the liberties of parliament, and the Hence they confounded the ceremo- just power and greatness of the sovenies of the church of England,and the reign. But of what force are oaths habits of her ministers with the sup- with men who have no conscience to posed abominations of popery,in order bind them. The document was no to subvert the power of the bishops and sooner signed and sworn to, but was` clergy, which they at last achieved, immediately violated in the person and subscribed to the solemn league of the king and the constitution of and covenant of their Scottish bre- parliament. The privileges of the their on the 28th of August, 1643.- spiritual and temporal peers were anThis covenant was readily taken by nihilated, both clergy and laity were the people of England, according to persecuted and the sovereign himRapin, although the king issued a self but six years afterwards, having proclamation to the contrary.-In endured the most inhuman and deScotland, we are informed by the grading indignities, expiated his ersame historian, the committee of es- rors and ended his life on the scaffold. tates ordained it to be sworn and sub- Yet these men," whom laws would scribed by all the subjects, under not restrain, nor oaths," to use the pain of having their goods and rents words of Pym in calumniating the confiscated. The duke of Hamilton papists, are held up as the paragons and some others refusing to sign it, of patriotism, and the honest strugthe said committee, by another act, glers for civil and religious liberty, ordered all their lands to be seized, by those who still stupidly accuse the and their persons to be apprehended, catholics of not keeping faith with with permission to KILL such as re. heretics!!!- -The reader has now sisted. Thus it was no crime to before him a summary of the boasted murder those who demurred to the system of toleration maintained by Covenant, although the punishment the forefathers of our swaggering of a seditious heretic in the reign of patriots, in their "noble struggles," Mary by the ancient laws of the as Mr. Cobbett calls them, in the land, was looked upon as a heinous cause of religious liberty, during the and deep offence in the eyes of these reign of Charles the first in England merciful respecters of the liberty of and Scotland.-As the mild beconscience. An union of sentiment nevolence of these pious saints instihaving taken place between the pu- gated the Irish catholics to arm in deritan rebels of the two kingdoms, a fence of their lives as well as their solemn treaty was entered into by religion, which our base writers have which the contracting parties bound falsely represented to be a traiterous themselves to a fulfilment of the arti- rebellion against the king's person, cles of the covenant. By the stipula- | and a cruel massacre of protestants; I shall in my next enter into a palli-lation by declaring to the duchess ation of that transaction, and, from D'Aiguillon that it was the noblest authentic documents, expose the con- present God could have made to man.' duct of those vile traitors, who, in their unbounded zeal for the liberty of the subject, and the right of mankind to worship God according to the dictates of conscience, basely conspired to rob the Irish of both. WM. EUSEBIUS ANDREWS. Somers' Town, March 21, 1817. INTERESTING ANECDOTES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. Maupertius, another illustrious character, who for some time graced the ranks of infidelity, for many years before his death gave the most edifying proofs of his conversion and return to the path of duty. His courage and constancy were often put to the severest trials; but he shewed himself superior to the railleries and insulting attacks of the enemies of religion. He published the motives which occasioned his conversion, and among them advances the following maxim: "That alone can be the true religion which conducts man to the greatest good by the best possible means; now the religion of Jesus Christ alone possesses this double advantage, consequently his religion is the only true one. THE celebrated Montesquieu, whose writings will immortalize his name, seemed at one period of his life to prostitute his talents to promote the cause of infidelity. Many passages in his works show a want of submission to faith. Yet he himself assures us, that he was always a christian in his heart, and always One of the most outrageous of the entertained a sincere respect for re-infidel writers was Boulanger, who ligion. He candidly confesses, that a seemed in his writings to have confondness for novelty, a love of sin-ceived a determined resolution of gularity, a desire to pass for a ge- rooting out christianity But see nius superior to the common maxims him on his death bed. "eing seized and prejudices of mankind, an am- with sickness, notwithstanding his bition of gaining the admiration of apparent hatred of religion, and futhose men who arrogated to them-rious attacks which he had made upselves the right of distributing the meeds of literary fame, induced him to adopt the same language as they did. Yet how often in his writings does he prove the falsehood of that language by the candid confession which his heart so frequently obliges him to make in favour of religion. A letter, which came from the press under the name of the Abbé Routh, gives us the real sentiments of this great man; it presents him to us not only complying with the duties of religion on his death-bed, but as having on many occasions in his past life given proof of his faith, and thus confirming the truth and sincerity of that repentance and religious disposition which he manifested in his last moments. He bore testimony to reve on it, he permits his friends to bring and introduce into his chamber the curate of his parish, has several conferences on religion with the venerable ecclesiastic, receives instruction from him, and yields to the light of truth. He acknowledges that during his past life he had never gone further than to doubt of revelation, had never given it up entirely, and that the pompous eulogies, which had been passed upon his writings by the infidel societies had intoxicated his mind, and contributed more than any thing else to seduce him. After this acknowledgment he makes us confession with all the outward marks of the most lively and sincere re- ^ pentance; and on receiving the sacraments he offers a most public répara tion for the scandals he had given by his impiety, and in the most moving and eloquent manner expresses his compunction and declares that the only regret which he feels in dying, is his inability to repair all the evil which he had done. Similar to this is the example of La Metrie, a cynic philosopher, who in his last illness expressed the deepest regret for having given into the wild follies of materialism; of Count De Boulainvilliers, who expired in the arms of the Abbé de la Borde, with the mo lively sentiments of repent ance; and a De Maillet, who, on his death-bed, at Marseilles, abjured the impious system which he had at. tempted to establish. ner. But the most striking spectacle of of this nature, and one which present to us the most eloquent and impressive lesson, is the conversion of the infidel writer Toussaint, who died at Berlin in 1772. One of his fellow academicians gives an account of his last moments in the following man"On the eve of his decease, his son came by his order to request that myself and my wife would attend at his house on the following morning, at ten o'clock, for the purpose of assisting at a ceremony of religion to be performed at that hour. We accordingly went, and finding the catholic curate with him left them alone for some minutes. We then entered the room in company with his wife and children, we all knelt down, and the priest prepared to give him the holy communion. At that moment, Toussaint, raising himself in his bed so as to be nearly seated upright, begged the curate to wait a few minutes, called to him his son, and bade him stand directly before him. My child, (said he) hear with attention, and cherish in your memory the words which I now address to you. I am about to appear before God, to give an account to him of my whole life. I have grievously offended him, and stand much in need of his mercy. Is my repentance, joined to the confidence which I have in him, sufficient to secure this mercy? Yes, without doubt it would be sufficient, so infinite is the goodness of God, if I had nothing to reproach myself with but my own faults and failings. But I have given scandal to others, and injured the souls of others, must I not ask their forgiveness, and thus make them in some manner intercessors for me at the throne of mercy? Yes, indeed; I do trust that those whom I have tirus injured, will exercise this charity in my behalf I have behaved ill to your mother, but her piety, which I well know, makes me confident that she will give me the pardon which I ask of her. But I have been culpably negligent with regard to your sisters; and on this second point of my misconduct I should smuk into despair, if I did not consider that a: their age impressions are weak, and that your good mother has the will and the power to repair the evil, by the solid and virtuous education which she will give them. You alone then, my son, in these my last moments are a subject of dreadful uneasiness and alarm to my mind. I have been a cause of scandal to you by my irreligious life, and the wordly maxims of which I have given you an example. Will you pardon me? Will you do what lies in your power to obtain forgiveness from God for me? Will you voluntarily adopt principles for your conduct different from those which I have given you? Unfortunately you are now at an age at which the wisest and best lessons are but too often forgotten. May I hope that you will blot out from your mind those lessons which t now gives me so much pain to think that I instilled into you? Hear, my son, the truths which at this moment, thou late, I solemnly declare to you. I call to witness that God who I am going to receive, and before whom I am going to appear, that if in my actions, my words and my writings, I have appeared to be no christian, it was never from conviction, but from vanity, human respects, or to please certain persons. If then you have any confidence in your father, manifest it by the respect with which you receive this my last instruction. May you engrave deeply in your mind, and ever have in your remembrance this last scene of your father's existence. Kneel down, my son, and join your prayers with those of my friends here present, who are wit. nesses of this my admonition to you; promise God that you will profit by these my instructions, and conjure bim to pardon me.' "I was truly astonished (adds the relater) at this discourse, which I little expected to hear, and I was struck with admiration at the energy and presence of mind, with which this enfeebled and dying mortal delivered himself." We are requested to correct an error in the anecdotes inserted last month, page 66.-Helvetius was the author of the infamous book, L'Esprit, and not the marquis D'Argens, as there stated.-The marquis wrote the Lettres Juives, Lettres Cabalistiques, &c. STATE OF CATHOLICITY IN GERMANY, UNDER LUTHERAN DOMINION. to profess the ancient worship, only the ambassadors or ministers of catholic courts had the privilege of bringing with them priests of their own religion, for themselves and for the persons attached to thei embassy. It was through these chaplains that a spark of catholicism was preserved in Sweden in the seventeenth century. It was then dangerous for any other catholic priest to venture into that country; but towards the middle of the eighteenth, the Swedes grew more tolerant. The Swedish government sent to Germany, and other countries, for a number of intelligent workmen, mostly catholics, to work at the cloth and silk manufactures, and to these the free exer. cise of their religion was verbally promised. The catholic chapels at that time were the French, the Austrian, and the Spanish. There lived then a man whose memory always will be revered, Christopher Theodore d'Antivari, envoy of the emperor of Germany to the court of Sweden. He was the author of some useful establishments, by founding four beds in the royal infirmary for sick persons of the ro man catholic religion, and by giving funds for the maintenance of a priest. He died in 1763; but having left those funds to the administration of his successors, they were completely wasted by one of them The esta blishment of the infirmary still exists. The diet of 1778 was the first since the reformation, which authorised the profession of the catholic reli Note on the State of the Catholic Region, not with regard to native ligion in Sweden, by M. Gridens, Vicar Apostolic at Stockholm. The roman catholic religion, which was introduced in Sweden in the ninth century, was expelled from it in the sixteenth, to make room for Luther's reformation, the doctrine of which was declared the religion of the state. No person was allowed Swedes, but with regard to foreign ers. It was in consequence of this that king Gustavus III. issued, in 1781, the decree of toleration which fixes the privileges of the catholic religion in Sweden. This decree grants permission to the catholics to build churches, to have bells and church-yards, to bring their children up in the religion of the poor, of the infirm, and, above all, for the expences of a particular house devoted to the education of poor children. The catholics have no church of their own at Stockholm, because they have not funds sufficient to erect or purchase a convenient building. The divine service is performed in a large hall, which they hire of the city, and which has been properly fitted up at the expence of the propaganda. The apostolic vicar was at first assisted in his functions by another priest, and the court of Rome provided for their. maintenance. The number of catholics in the interior of Sweden is con their fathers, to practice openly the ceremonies of their worship within their churches, to procure clergymen who are authorized to solemnize their christenings, marriages, and funerals, and to deliver the proper certificates of these acts. It is in consequence of this decree that a catholic parish was established at Stockholm in 1784, with the consent of king Gustavus III. and with the concurrence of pope Pius VI. who had sent a priest to Stockholm with the title of apostolical vicar, in Sweden. The congregation of the propaganda at Rome undertook to provide alone for the expences of a wor ship of which they witnessed the re-siderable enough to require the prestoration in Sweden with particular pleasure. The new parish got firmly established. The catholics frequented with zeal a church which united them all under one and the same priest. Some years after, the French, Austrian, and Spanish chapels, were successively shut up. The catholic courts gave over sending any chaplains to Sweden, and maintaining them there. sence of a priest, and the establishment of a chapel in some large town, as Gottenburg, for instance, whither trade has at all times drawn foreigners of the roman catholic religion, some of whom fix themselves there, and others make occasional stays.Louis XVI. had destined some funds for such a religions establishment; but the circumstances which prevented the execution of his pious design are well known. The degree of toleration introduced into Sweden does not autho The catholics who reside at Stockholm, in the interior of Sweden, in the large towns of that country, amount to the number of one thou-rise catholics to be entrusted with sand, or thereabouts. The parish of Stockholm counts seven or eight hundred of them. They are Germans, and descendants of Germans, who went to Sweden to work in the cloth, silk, and glass manufactures; Frenchmen who went thither to exercise their respective arts, or who having been in the retinue of some ministers, or other great personages, continued in Sweden; Italians that repaired to Sweden for the purposes of trade; and individuals of almost every nation. This catholic parish of Stockholm is in general very poor. If there be among them some few individuals who have the power of giving alms, they are employed for the relief of any public civil functions, they are excluded from them. But posterior laws leave the road of military promotion open to them, especially whenever they possess distinguished talents. The Swedes, who are all Lutherans, are strictly forbid returning to the primitive religion of their fathers. The law, on the contrary, favours the passing from the catholic to the lutheran religion, The pope appoints the apostolical vicars in Sweden, and the king authorizes them by a kind of diploma to exercise their functions throughout the kingdom, by conforming themselves to the decree of toleration. There is at present but one priest |