and Osnaburg, which owe their foundation to Charles the Great, and are now within the kingdom of Hanover.

These churches are to consist, for the future, of a bishop, a dean, six canons, and four vicars or prebendaries.

The bishop is to enjoy a revenue of four thousand dollars, with a suitable revenue, and to have an allowance for his table.

The dean has 1500 dollars,* two senior canons 1400 dollars each, the next two canons 1000 dollars each, the two junior canons 800 dollars each, the prebendaries 400 dollars each.

The dean, the canons, and two senior prebendaries, are all provided with houses.

A seminary, endowed by government, is to be attached to each bishoprick.

The election of a new Bishop is regulated as follows:

The chapter sends in to the ministry, within a month after the vacancy takes place, a list of candidates, who may be selected from the whole body of the clergy, so long as they shall have attained the age of thirty-be well born, distinguished for their knowledge of theology and canon law have exercised the cure of souls, or filled a professor's chair with credit-excelled in the administration of ecclesiastical affairs-enjoy the best reputation, and be without reproach

* An Hanoverian dollar is rather less than 3s. 6d.

K

either as to learning or morals—and if any of the candidates are less acceptable to government, ministers are at liberty to strike out the names, so long as there remain the means of coming to an election. The chapter then proceed to elect according to the forms of canon law, and the Pope confirms the election.

The bishop and chapter, in turns, elect the other dignitaries of the church, s ending in a list in the same manner to the ministry, and effacing the names of persons either disapproved or suspected.

The bull then describes the limits of each diocese, and concludes with the same condemnation of all who presume to arraign its decrees.

The ecclesiastical affairs are conducted by a minister resident at Rome, and a mixed consistory court at Hanover.

No convents are allowed.

The negociation between the King of the Netherlands and the See of Rome was only concluded in the autumn of 1827. The subject had been much and long discussed, and great discontent prevailed amongst the Catholics of the Netherlands, till the agreement was brought to a conclusion.

The bull requires that there should be eight Catholic bishopricks for a population of nearly

four millions of Catholics.

The Sees are those

of Mechlin, Liege, Namur, Tournay, Ghent, Bruges, Bois le Duc, and Amsterdam.

The mode of election is the same as in Hanover.

The bishops, and the rest of the Catholic clergy, are to be provided for by the state; the amount of the salaries is left to the King. The new bishop takes the following oath of allegiance

"I swear and promise, before God and the holy gospels, obedience and fidelity to his majesty the King of the Netherlands, my lawful sovereign. I promise, also, to hold no correspondence, to assist at no consultation, to enter into no league, whether without or within the kingdom, which may be against the public peace—and if I learn that, either in my diocese or any where else, any machinations are taking place against the good of the state, I will make it known to the King."

The youth destined for the Catholic Church are to be educated at Catholic seminaries, but are to be instructed in the liberal sciences as well as in theology. The seminaries are to be paid by the state.

The bull annuls all former bulls, and concludes with the same anathema.

All offices and employments, civil and military, are alike open to Catholics and Protestants in Belgium.

Catholics sit in both houses of parliament, and Catholic bishops are admissible to the upper house, by permission of the king, without having a right to sit there except by royal appointment.

The publication of the bull had the immediate effect of quieting the discontents.

These are the models which England would do well to copy; here is a path chalked out which we might at any moment pursue. We have not to vex our thoughts, and tax our patience, to discover the remedy for an acknowledged evil;-all is prepared to our hands all is plain, straight-forward, and easy.

In comparing the different agreements, it will be observed that Prussia possesses absolute control over the nomination of bishops-but the provisions conceded to Hanover and Belgium, make it next to impossible that an objectionable person should be forced on the King; and, in fact, such a dilemma neither has occurred, or is apprehended.

The spirit, as well as the letter, of the agreements is calculated to inspire confidence, and it is apparent that, in all ecclesiastical arrangements, except those of primary importance, the Pope takes little concern, and leaves them, as

secular affairs, to the disposition of govern

ment.

The treaties are of so recent a date, that we may be told it cannot be predicted how they will operate; but the existence of the treaties affords the proof that all the Protestant kingdoms of the continent have found it best to negociate; and, let it be remembered that, if the treaties be recent, still the principles of Catholic emancipation have long been established, and show their results. The state that postponed the reconciliation the longest, had the greatest difficulties to encounter.

Should England at last resolve to adopt this mode of proceeding, it will be necessary, as a preliminary measure, to begin by repealing so much of the statute of premunire as renders it penal to hold any intercourse with Rome.

This statute is very ancient. It was passed in the reign of Richard II., and is a proof of itself that Catholics are sufficiently jealous of all undue interference of the Pope; for Eng land was, at that time, Catholic-and the object of this statute was, to put a stop to the direct introduction of papal bulls, at a time that the pretensions of Rome were exorbitant. The purport of the statute goes to warn all his majesty's subjects not to divide with Rome that obedience which they constitutionally owe to