world with Popery, had Divine Providence permitted them to go on. Their plan was an universal hierarchy, with the Pope as the titular ruler, and their order, with the Pope at its head, as the true and active manager of the whole. Their riches were immense. They, indeed, possessed no more than twenty four houses, in which the so called Professi, or Jesuits of the first order, lived; and which according to their constitutions, could own no property, and depended on charity; but they owned besides these, 612 colleges for their scholars, or candidates, and 399 are called residences or houses of probation for their coadjutors or Jesuits of the second order, all of whom could possess property to any amount, and many of them equaled in splendor and income, the palaces and houses of the kings and princes of France. They possessed numerous abbeys-were the confessors of kings and queens, princes and ministers. They pretended to say for their benefactors 70,000 masses and 100,000 rosaries annually-no small inducement for superstitious people to give. Says one of them, "For the, founder of a college or house, we say during his life-time 30,000 masses and 20,000 rosaries, and as many after his death. So that if an individual founds two colleges or houses, he enjoys the benefit of 120,000 masses, and 80,000 rosaries." They carried on a trade in India and China more extensive than the English or the Danes, and in some places to the exclusion of all others. With drugs they traded in Lyons and Paris, and in spite of a direct prohibition from the Pope, with bread, spices and wine in Rome. According to the testimony of Cardinal Tournon, they lent money on usury, taking 25-27 per cent interest, and in some places they demanded 100 per cent. The charities bestowed upon them were immense. There was a time when they amounted in the city of Rome alone, to 40,000 dollars annually, and once within a short space of time, three families bequeathed to them above 130,000 dollars. At the abolition of the order, their property, when confiscated, was found to exceed ten times the Papal treasury at its most flourishing and affluent period, and yet money was scarcely found in their establishments, owing, no doubt, to their precaution to secrete it for future purposes. All their immense wealth and power, was to be used for the execution of their plans, which were most intimately connected with the extension of Popery. Their whole order, which contained many able members, was by constitution and oath, subjected to the arbitrary. direction of the general of the order, bound to promote its interests by every possible means, and by every sacrifice which might be required-life not excepted, which, indeed, they did lay down in many instances. What, but the hand of the Almighty, conld redeem the world from such a terrible enemy as this! The order was revived by Pius VII. in 1814. Power was again granted to them to apply themselves to the education of youth; to direct colleges and seminaries, &c. They were placed by the bull, in the same condition of privileges and power, which they formerly enjoyed. The publication of the bull was followed by an act, ordaining a restitution of the funds, which were the patrimony of the Jesuits, and making compensation for their confiscated property; and the bull was never to be submitted to the judgment or revision of any judge, with whatever power he might be clothed. The bull of Clement XIV., which abolished the order, was abrogated; (an infallible decree abrogated by another infallible decree,) and it is lastly stated in the bull, that if any one shall attempt by an audacious temerity to infringe or oppose any part of this ordinance, he will thereby incur the indignation of Almighty God, and his holy apostles !!! What that order will yet do, and what contests the church will yet have to sustain against them, time must teach. From four pamphlets, which have been sent from Paris to a gentleman in Boston, it appears probable that a new Propaganda has recently been established in France. The pamphlets are printed in Paris, and, entitled "Annals of the propagation of the faith." They are the numbers 15 -18, reaching to the close of 1829. Three numbers are issued every year. Hence it appears that this Foreign Mission publication began in 1824. The writer of the article, "The Papal church in the United States," inserted in the Journal of the American Education Society, says, "at what period this Association was formed, or what station it holds in the Roman church; whether it has succeeded the college de Prop. fide, or is a new body altogether, we are not informed." But for anything which appears from these pamphlets, it must be a new Associa tion. Its seat is in France, but the Propaganda has never been removed from Rome. Its funds are raised in France alone. Its missionaries proceed from France, receive their support from thence, and send their reports thither. It has. a superior council in France, and a particular council at Marseilles. It consists of two divisions, each having its own central council. That of the northern division, is seated at Paris, that of the southern at Lyons. A specimen of the income and expenditures of this new Propaganda, will not, perhaps, be unwelcome to this society. In their report for 1829, they say, the suns collected by the Association during the year 1828, are more considerable than those of the year preceding. This increase is the more agreeable and surprising, since under the present doubtful circumstances, rather a diminution of our receipts was to be expected. The superior council had reserved in the treasury $2,365. The central council of the north, seated at Paris, has forwarded to the treasury of the superior council, $111,499. The central committee of the south, seated at Lyons, has forwarded $ 155,769; making a total of $ 269,633. Here they ingenuously add, 66 we have often called the attention of our associates, to the article of our constitution which recommends the celebration of the festival of St. Xavier, and of the invention of the Holy Cross. It is in the Dioceses where these festivals are celebrated with the greatest pomp, that the Association has had the best success." In giving an account of their expenditures, they say; "The receipts of the Association, including what was reserved from past years, amount during the year 1828, to the sum of $271,999," which is somewhat more than the receipts just mentioned, probably owing to particular circumstances not mentioned by them. "Expenses occasioned by printing, Leaving the sum of $17,060 $254,939 The Superior Council decided upon the following distribution of this sum among the different missions. I. For the Mission in Asia and the Levant, $125,000 viz. For Mr. Fenwick, Bishop of Cincinnati, 20,000 7,500 20,000 For Mr. Rosati, Bishop of St. Louis, 30,000 15,000 more, 5,000 For Mr. Dubois, Bishop of New York, Sandwich Islands, Making a total of III. The Superior Council reserved in the treas ury 7,500 5,000 10,000 $120,000 $9,939." The remainder of the preceding dissertation, containing an abstract of Catholic missionary operations in Asia and Africa, is necessarily omitted; and as a substitute for it, we insert the following view of Catholicism in the United States, extracted from the Report of the Committee on Domestic Missions, read before the Society, August 21, 1832. The writer of the Report was personally acquainted with most of the facts, or derived them from Catholic authorities: CATHOLICISM IN THE UNITED STATES. The Roman Catholic population of the United States is estimated at 800,000; and the number of churches or congregations, at 784. These are included in ten dioceses; viz. those of Baltimore, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Charleston, Mobile, New Orleans, Bardstown, Cincinnati and St. Louis. An Arch-bishop resides at Baltimore, and over each diocese presides a Bishop. Those of Philadelphia and Bardstown have, also, each a |