receive them. There they have remained to this day; and the power which wields them, has, ever since, been enabled to re-act, upon the higher classes of their communion, upon Ireland, and upon the empire.

APPENDIX.

NOTE A., page 59.

THESE feelings are well expressed in a clever pamphlet of the year 1804, entitled 'A Vindication of Dr. Troy.' In reply to some slighting expression which had been used towards that prelate, the anonymous author, who is supposed to have been Dr. Troy himself, writes thus: He is a bishop, sir, and as such is acknowledged by eighty-seven millions of men in Europe: he has colleagues apostles, and colleagues princes; and kings, and the successor of Charlemagne, would incline to his blessing, and style him Most Reverend, to whom you refuse the protection of an alien, in his native land.'-This spirited sentence contains ample proof of a Roman Catholic bishop's title to respect from all men: it contains also, in the same words, the grounds of that jealousy with which, at least, under a Protestant government, his order should be regarded. He who thus claims the homage of foreign kings, and is sustained by that conscious dignity which belongs to a leader of eightyseven millions, to a colleague of princes, to a colleague of apostles such as they are now, seated perhaps on thrones of judgment,-cannot be contemplated without uneasiness, by a sovereign, who protests against these high pretensions, and declines the stately benediction. There are three points in this high-toned vindication, which require particular notice; the majesty of the office, its antiquity, and the extent of that mighty confederacy in which it occupies so conspicuous a station.

A papal bishop is a colleague of princes. The church of Rome is a state, a spiritual monarchy; and the sovereign pontiff, the vicar of Christ on earth, is entitled, in this lower world, to the same place and station, which the glorified Messiah holds in heaven. There, the various orders of intelligences are formed into one church, or one kingdom; and the rulers of these orders, thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers,' bow down before one supreme head. Here, in like manner, the representative of Christ is supreme over the typical church; and all other potentates are rightfully subject to his authority. And, as, in this probationary state, the complex nature of men requires two kinds of government, the one, to provide for his temporal interests, the other, for his eternal; there is a corresponding diversity, in the nature of the powers which emanate from the sovereign. He is the fountain both of kingly and of priestly honour: bishops and princes are colleagues under him, deriving from him their consecration and office, and exercising jurisdictions, which, in respect of each other, are co-ordinate and independent.

A papal bishop is a colleague of the apostles. The papacy supports the doctrine of apostolic succession, not only as conservative of church unity and ministerial power, but as inspiring lofty human feelings. By the ceremony of consecration, a bishop is, as it were, adopted into a family of more than earthly nobility; and is taught to discern, in spirit, the venerable forms of his fathers, ascending, in long procession, from this probationary scene, until, with the apostles, they encircle the mystical throne of the Messiah. He mingles with men, who gave laws to the fiercest tribes, and who lowered the sword of the conqueror, and the sceptre of the monarch, in homage to the milder glory of the mitre: he is their descendant, the remoter his descent, the more exalted is his honour; and, when he looks for the obeisance of an earthly potentate, he expects no more, than what the tradition of his house pronounces to be a hereditary right.

A papal bishop is a peer of that stupendous empire, which extends over the globe, and which comprises a majority of the Christian world. As such, he is naturally a politician: he has a certain theory, peculiar to his order and its retainers, of civil rights and duties, of liberty, of sovereignty, and jurisprudence. No public event can occur, which may not affect the temporal fortune of the church: a spirit of action and intrigue is, therefore, infused into all the members of the hierarchy; and every bishop has a sort of official interest in the affairs and relations of the most distant countries. Bound to the papacy, by an oath without a parallel in the annals of despotism, and by the more attractive obligation of a common interest, he mingles in all transactions, and takes a part in all revolutions and intrigues, with a view to the extension and consolidation of its power. Like the envoy or minister of any foreign government, he observes the laws of the state in which his master may have placed him, and respects, for the time, the authority of the local magistrate: but his order is his country, the pontiff is his natural sovereign; and their welfare and their honour are the appropriate objects of his public cares.

So far, then, as the prelates of the Roman church in Ireland can be justly styled aliens in their native land,' their estrangement arises from the spirit of the order; both as it cherishes claims inconsistent with the laws, and as it merges the charities of patriotism in a diffusive policy, which embraces so many millions of strangers, perhaps of enemies. But as proofs are not so striking as illustrations, it may be useful to annex an example of its evil influence in each of these respects.

Had Dr. Troy been writing his name and title in the Irish language, he would have styled himself Successor of Laurence OToole *; and in the same manner, his brother

The Irish word is Comorban, pronounced Corban: — its exact meaning, which gave Archbishop Ussher a great deal of trouble, is rendered in Latin by Vicarius cum jure successionis. I have seen the arms of

prelates would denominate themselves after the founders or most eminent bishops of their respective sees. These titles, if they do not inspire feelings of elevated piety, are calculated, at least, to suggest lofty aspirations after secular honours, and to prolong the contest for power. Combined with the form of an established church, which is punctiliously maintained, they keep the thoughts fixed on the apostasy, and breach of faith, of the English government; and on the splendour, the political importance, and the projects, of the early bishops: thus, animosity is perpetuated, dignity given to intrigue, and ambition invested with somewhat of the sacredness of duty. Sequi finemque tueri, was the armorial legend of the exiled house of Stuart; a motto admirably expressive of pretensions which were to terminate only with the race: the Stuart church is equally tenacious of its claims, and not so perishable as the family.

The potentate distinguished from ordinary kings by the sounding title of successor of Charlemagne,' was no other than Buonaparte. He was crowned the same year in which the pamphlet was written; and, as the coronation did not take place until the second of December, Dr. Troy, or his vindicator, must have been among the first to recognize the new emperor. For several years before, the known infidelity of the French had been the great sedative of popish insurrection in Ireland; and the ingenuity of the rebel leaders appears to have been much exercised, in endeavours to counteract its lethargic influence. Dr. M' Nevin declared, in the confession which procured his pardon, that, in the year 1797, information had been transmitted to the French directory, that the priests had ceased to be alarmed,

Dr. Carpenter, Dr. Troy's predecessor, with an Irish scroll underneath, in which that prelate is styled Comorban of Lorcan O'Tuathal.' The arms were precisely the same, as those of the Protestant archbishop. Dr. Troy surmounted his with a cardinal's hat, in the place of a mitre. *The reader must never forget the distinction between popish and Roman Catholic.