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*cient time to be cicurated and mellowed by the sap or vital 'juice which circulates from the stock through the new in'serted branches. You may judge of their inventions by 'those of some of your own. Has my diocese ever exhi'bited such a spectacle as was seen in the parish of Clonakilty last Sunday? Protestants going to a Popish congregation to swear the people to Captain Right's regulations! 'Was it to become Catholics? No, neither do these people ⚫ intend to become Protestants: religious distinctions are of 'ten lost in the idea of common oppression-I acknowledge 'it. And would to God they were for ever lost! The vices ' and virtues of all men flow in the same channels. Their 'hearts are the same though their opinions be different; and 'for those opinions to God alone they are accountable. I ' like to see all the subjects of every description in my diocese well united. Such an union is the strength of the state, and should be the glory of a Prelate. But I foresee that ' those mutual visits will consolidate a confederacy which the sword of the laws will cut asunder, to the indiscriminate ' ruin of the associations. For the edge of that sword has ' no eyes in it, and justice that handles it, is painted blind. You all complain of proctors, canters, and tithes. I shall do what lies in my power to remove every complaint you may have against the two first-no more can be expected. but as to tithes, they are established by law: the legislature alone can modify them, or substitute an equivalent in their · room. Wait with patience for its decision; and guard against proceedings which must hurt your temporal interest, ' and injure your consciences. Or, if any of you are already engaged in the confederacy of disorder, break the engage'ment of iniquity, whose ties cannot bind the conscience. The peace of God be with you all.'

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A discourse from a person of Doctor Woodward's credit and authority, would have been of finite consequence in the beginning. Or a pastoral letter, with an open discountenance of the interchange of religious visits would have been productive of the most salutary effects. Principis obsta sero medicina paratur, hold good in politics as well as in physic.

One pastoral letter or sermon in eighty-five, would have been worth a thousand pamphlets in eighty-seven, and few

persons are so well qualified for such a part of the pastoral charge as the Lord Bishop of Cloyne, had he been as intent upon the discharge of that office which Saint Paul enjoins on pastors, preach the word, be instant in season; as his Lordship was intent on writing a pamphlet out of season.

I should never blame Doctor Woodward for writing a pamphlet in favour of tithes, which (if I am well informed,) bring him an income of eight or nine hundred a year. But he could have written his pamphlet without reviving old controversies, and bringing the Catholics and Dissenters on the stage. Much less should he have made a personal attack on Mr. O'Leary, whom he might have left unnoticed. But leaving the Bishop in full possession of his tithes, which to me are matters of no concern, I must proceed in my defence.

Convinced that the Protestant gentlemen who were acquainted with the uprightness of my intentions, were willing to co-operate with my endeavours, which had no object but the preservation of public tranquility, when divine service was over, we conferred together; and presuming, with reason, that their resemblance of religious conformity, was but a mask which covered features, which when exposed to view would not exhibit an inviting aspect, we agreed to tear it off, and expose the wearers to their neighbours and themselves, I exhorted them to my utmost, in the most persuasive manner, adapted to the circumstances. The magistrates explained the laws with proper comments. The people recovered from their delusion, returned to their duty, fully determined to desist from those dangers and romantic enterprises, which have proved equally destructive to themselves and to the peace of the community, had not the law of God, which Mr. O'Leary explained, and the law of the land explained by the civil magistrate, checked the progress of their pernicious

career.

Thus, with the concurrence of the Protestant gentlemen and magistrates, have I begun my mission in the diocese of Cloyne.-Sedition, with which mad malevolence has upbraided me, fled as a routed enemy before me; whilst peace, like the inseparable companion of a man framed by nature, and disciplined by habit to cast its shadow on every side, trod in my steps and humoured my motions. It embraced me so close

that the meridian sun could not discover us asunder. I challenge Doctor Woodward, or that infamous libeller, Theophilus, to disprove this assertion.

In the interim the Catholic prelates met in Cork, and framed those regulations so worthy of Apostles, who despise the grandeurs of this fleeting world, and of whom the world is unworthy.-The words of Saint Paul.

Their arrival dispensed me with any further trouble; and after bringing on my narrative so far, will dispense me in future with speaking so much of myself.-A personal attack required a personal defence; and as my conduct has been minutely censured, I have been under the necessity of entering into a minute detail. My enemies, or rather the friends of tithes, to which I have no call, have attempted to brand me with the stigma of sedition. Whoever reads my plain, unadorned narrative, without prejudice or partiality, will wipe away the mark of infamy.

Had the Bishop of Cloyne been as active in enforcing peace and subordination as I have done, the fire which kindled in his diocese, would not in all appearance have extended the conflagration.-Nor is his Lordship to take any offence at my freedom for making this remark. I only remind him of the obligations enjoined on him at his consecration, when he answered the following interrogatory. • Will you maintain and set forward, as much as shall lie in you, quietness, love and peace among all men; and such as be unquiet, disobedient, and criminous, within your diocese, correct and punish? Answer. I will do so by the help of God.'*

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God and his own conscience can inform him how far his silence and inactivity have contributed to punish and correct the unquiet, disobedient, and criminous within his diocese, in a manner conformable to his pastoral charge, and to that gospel whose author preached nothing but glory to God, and peace to men of good will on earth. And the public are now the most competent to judge, how far his pamphlet has contributed to maintain and set forward quietness, love and peace among all men.

The Consecration of Bishops in the English Liturgy.

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Had he as a Pastor gone forth among his flock, or as the Historian done justice to all parties, he would have discovered several of his own sheep amongst the speckled flock of insurgents, and not confine them solely to a Popish mob. Were not they Protestants who proposed the oaths in the congregation at Clonakilty? Were not they Protestants who overrun the parishes of Affydown, Skibbereen, &c.? Were not they Protestants who headed a party of four hundred White-boys near Butterant? The most respectable criminals (if a criminal can be respectable) who was arraigned before the Judges on the Munster circuit, were Protestants. If from the county of Cork his Lordship had taken an excursion to the county of Kerry, he would find the truth of the assertion made by a gentleman who is both a clergyman and a magistrate, and who bears the happy character of uniting the qualities of the three orders in his person, the liberality of the gentleman, the charity of the clergyman, and the justice and uprightness of the magistrate. Many Protestants, (though I thank my God, mostly of the lower order,) says that gentleman, were engaged in tendering oaths, in procession by day, and in outrages by night, as any other description of men whatsoever. Nay, ❝ some of them were captains of these lawless corps, and have been obliged to fly from the prosecution that awaited • them."*

Who could have been more active in suppressing those tumults than my Lord Kenmare, a Roman Catholic nobleman, the tender father of the honest and industrious tenant, and the just avenger of the injured, without any partial regard to religious distinctions? Could the public expect a more honourable testimony of his conduct? or can there be a greater proof of the contempt in which the liberal-minded of all persuasions hold feuds and discontents on the score of religious creeds, than the following address of thanks voted to him by the clergy of the established religion?

* Short and Civil Answer to a Pamphlet, intitled, " An Address to the Nobility and "Gentry of Ireland."

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TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD VISCOUNT KENMARE, &c.

The Address of the Clergy of the Established Church, assembled at Tralee.

MY LORD,

"WE have seen with indignation the progress of a delu'sion, which affected in its object to controul the laws of the 'realm. From the spreading contagion, every good citizen felt an encreasing alarm; and the tranquility of the country 'was suspended in the fever of the times.-You, my Lord, came forward in the crisis. You led the way in zeal and in vigilance; and borrowing less from the station you possess, than from the esteem you deserve, you interposed; an example which had a title to success; by such an exertion, and by the native energy of violated justice, we trust that 'the growing mischief has been effectually repelled. We owe you our acknowledgments, and in the hour of subsid'ing tumult, we thank you for the prospect of repose. To 'some minds there is a conscious satisfaction, which exceed 'every other measure of reward; yet, my Lord, to the testi'mony of your own feelings, you will not refuse to join the tribute of general applause.'

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Tralee, Oct. 4, 1786.

MAURICE CROSBIE,

'Dean of Limerick, and Rector of Castle-Island, &c,'

Can then any man in honour to conscience say with the unconscientious Theophilus, that the insurgents are all Papists? Or is it not a falsehood bordering upon blasphemy,* for that slanderer to say, 'that the parish Priests are in a 'confederacy with their flocks, in order to plunder the Pro'testant clergy of their tithes, and to appropriate to them'selves a compensation for absolution? These Pastors have suffered more than any in the shipwreck.-Was not a Father

Those words are not contradicted by the Bishop.

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