gratify their own devotion under regulations, which at a competent age they have twelve months probation either to adopt or reject.

They avow no subjection to a foreign power; and I call upon the Lord Bishop of Cloyne to prove his assertion. They are subjects of the state, swear allegiance to their Prince, and are as faithful as any other subjects. Trapolo, a regular, defended the privileges of his country, against Pope Paul the Fifth, and immortalized his name, Ximenes, a regular, raised the power of the Spanish monarchy, and paved the way for the splendid conquests of Charles the Fifth. Father Joseph de la Tremblay, after quitting the bar, and becoming a regular, was forced from his cloister to direct the councils of Lewis XIII. He planned those measures in the execution of which Richlieu appeared as the ostensible agent, and which by humbling the House of Austria, and lopping off the heavy branches which made the tree of the French monarchy bend too much, gave it that erect posture and firmness, which ever since have been proof against so many storms. In Ireland, during the unhappy commotions which distracted this kingdom in the reign of Charles the First, who could have exerted himself with more constancy than Father Peter Walsh, mentioned with honour in the continuation of Sir James Ware? Did not he oppose Rimuccini, the Pope's Legate, who afterwards excommunicated him at Brussels? Under his excommunication he remained unshaken in his loyalty. Or what is there in a regular clergyman's frame so hostile to his country, as to induce the Lord Bishop of Cloyne to hold him forth as avowing a subjection to a foreign power? Is not a man's oath to be believed? And when the regular clergy swear allegiance to their King, is not their oath to be relied on? But the Lord Bishop of Cloyne has favoured us with a very nice distinction. He acknowledges that in the ordinary transactions of life between man and man, the oath of a Catholic may be relied on; but when his church is in danger, then he may slacken the reins and bear down the wounds of sincerity.

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Where has the Lord Bishop of Cloyne discovered this distinction? Where have the Catholics taught that the

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work of Heaven is to be promoted by the agency of Hell? Is the Christian religion to be promoted by fraud, profanation, and perjury? Does he really believe that the Catholics are ignorant of that maxim of Saint Paul, evil is not to be done that good may arise from it? Non sunt facienda mala uteveniant bona. Or does he forget that the scandalous distinction between the oath of a Catholic, in the ordinary transactions of life, and the oath in which his religion is concerned, has been condemned by the Catholic Church, ages before it could be foreseen that a Bishop or any other mortal would charge her with such a doctrine? This very distinction was the doctrine of Priscillian, who taught his disciples that perjury on the score of religion was lawful: he was condemned by the council of Toledo, and burnt alive. Speaking of the Catholics he says, that men are better than their tenets. It may be so: in Sparta it was a tenet that every deformed child should be exposed and abandoned to his fates. Parental affection in some might have eluded such a rigorous law, and thus proved that they were better than their tenets. It was a tenet amongst the inhabitants, of the Isle of Cyprus, that married women should prostitute themselves once a year in the Temple of Venus. I doubt not but conjugal affection and female modesty, operated with some to such a degree as to induce them to detest the tenet; but I do not believe that there is this day on earth, any sect of Christians half so good as their tenets. They may differ in speculative points, but the principles of mo. rality are the same. However, the Lord Bishop of Cloyne is best acquainted with his own tenets, and if they be as charitable as himself, his neighbours should entertain a good opinion of his rule of faith. However, if the horrors of violation of faith with heretics, &c. be articles of or, thodoxy, certainly not only some Catholics, but all Catho lics, are better than their tenets; and without any dispa, ragement to his rank or dignity, he will find thousands amongst them as honest, upright, and honourable as himself, not only from innate principles, but from the very tenor of their creed.

He alarms the Dissenters with the apprehensions, that if they do not assist him in keeping the tithes, the Catholic

clergy will have them with the assistance of a foreign power. Mr. Barber ingeniously answers, that it is equal to him who has the tithes, whether it be Peter, Martin, or John, when they are of no benefit to him either with regard to soul or body. If his Lordship be afraid that the Catholic clergy will deprive him of all the tithes, with the assistance of a foreign power: I can assure him that he has nothing to apprehend: not from foreign powers, who will never invade Ireland in order to procure the tithes for the Catholic clergy: this indeed, would be a war of proctors and tithe-canters. Further, I can assure his Lordship, that foreign powers are more inclined to reduce the revenues of their own national clergy, than to make war for the Catholic clergy of Ireland. But do not the Catholic clergy believe that tithes are jure divino? By no means: whoever reads Father Paul, and Father Simon, upon benefices, will soon discover that tithes are not due to the Christian priesthood by Gospel law. These two were Catholic authors. Bishop Barlow and Selden, amongst the Protestants proved the same. I would not mention a wortl about them, had I not been forced into the field with the Bishop's foreign powers, and Theophilus's jure divino; and shall say of them but very little they were not known in the western church, until about the seventh or eighth century. The clergy had influence at that time to prevail on the French kings to give a sanction to the sixth commandment of the church; Thou shalt pay tithes to the clergy: this was a law of discipline, liable to change with the times, and of no force but from the sanction of the secular power, for a moral and natural right founded on the words, the labourer is worthy of his hire; is all that a clergyman can plead. In the Greek church tithes are not known to this very day, and in the African church, Saint Augustine would not permit his own church to be endowed, foreseeing the bad effects of the riches of the clergy. However, in the west, the pious laity, with the sanction of the power of the state, endowed each church under the strict obligations that three dividends should be made; one for the support of the clergyman; the second, for the reparation of the church; and the third, for the relief of the poor. Such was the original institution; some alterations must have been

since made in the manner of carrying into execution the founder's intentions; for the part that was originally destined for the relief of the poor, now goes to the proctor. And as to reparation of churches, had the Whiteboys burnt the new church, if the old church had not been left to them for a chapel, or hath both churches fallen to the ground, I am humbly of opinion that his Lordship of Cloyne would sooner apply for a parliamentary grant, than be at the expense of contributing the third part of his tithes towards the repair of the fabric. Many and refined have been the improvements on this simple institution of ecclesiastical revenues.

One would be disposed to believe that there was a certain magic in the number ten. The tenth lamb, the tenth pig, the tenth chicken, the tenth sheaf, every thing was decimated: every tenth animal that did not grow to the size of a calf, was consecrated to the clergy, except the tenth orphan. Peas, beans, all kinds of garden stuff, were surveyed in the name of God and the Church; and the clergy were com pared to the locusts of the revelations, devouring all kinds of herbs that came in their way, except such as were noxious, As theological disputes divided them in the interim, their divisions divided unluckily the flocks, and what was more, divided the affections of the people- Under various changes of creeds, the lucrative system remained unaltered. Pope Alexander the Third was the first who issued excommunications for the recovery of tithes, and decreed that the labours of the industrious bee should contribute to the support of the Lord's anointed. He ordained that every tenth bee-hive should be sequestered for the use of the church. The clergy of the established religion in England and Ireland, who borrowed their pomp, their splendour and hierarchy from the church of Rome, declared from their pulpits, that the Pope was Antichrist. Yet in reforming the religion of Rome, they improved upon Pope Alexander's system, by insisting upon the tithes of agistment; and thus raised the claim from a bee to a bullock. If Pope Alexander thundered out his excommunications on the score of tithes, they fired

*This barbarous word, so familiar to our Irish Canonists, is derived from an old French word, signifying to drive a beast into a field.

blunderbusses in defence of those remnants of Popery; and dead bodies were seen laid prostrate in fields, in consequence of contests for consecrated goods, which in former ages the pious laity had destined for the support of the living. Whatever the clergy possess by law, is certainly their right, and should be secured to them; but when people argue, they should be careful not to advance paradoxes; and that the right to tithes is anterior to the title of any layman to his land, is a paradox indeed. The land was inhabited by the, laity before St. Patrick preached the Gospel. What he and his successors got was a free gift of the donors; and no man in his senses will deny that the supreme powers of the state have a right to alter any system, for the peace and good of the community: I shall discuss no further the subject of tithes, as it has been already and will be hereafter discussed by abler pens: ifI summed up in a few lines their rise and progress, it is to shew the futility of the charge that the Catholic elergy are intent upon recovering the tithes of this kingdom, with the assistance of foreign powers, as if they were due jure divino. Could such an idle thought occur to any man who did not intend to sport with common sense? Will any man of sense believe that the formidable forces of France and Spain would be poured, at vast expenses, into this kingdom, in order to reinstate a few Catholic clergymen in the tithes of potatos, oats, hay, &c. I am ashamed to make further comments. The Catholic clergy resuming tithes with the assistance of foreign powers! Lay-improprietors threatened with the loss of the abbeylands which would revert to the regular clergy! When the Reformation was but in its infancy, and no religion in England at the time, but veered at the breath of each succeeding Monarch, what became of the abbey-lands? In the short space that intervened between the dissolution of abbeys and the reign of Queen Mary, there was not sufficient time to found the title of prescription, which by the civil law requires a space of thirty years for immovables. When that Queen ascended the throne several of the abbots and priors whose monasteries had been dissolved were living. Were not all the abbey-lands confirmed to the lay-possessors by Cardinal Pole, with full authority from the Pope. And