It was a more

given their confidence to any. difficult achievement, to counterplot the upper classes of their own communion; they attempted it, and have succeeded. In 1793, availing themselves of the blind strength of the Irish legislature, they crushed the rising spirit of their gentry, beneath a mass of nominally enfranchised paupers; on several occasions since, they have rebuked that over-weening anxiety for emancipation,' which would postpone the sacred claims of the hierarchy; and at some critical moments, when a schism appeared inevitable, have restored subordination in the seditious ranks, and soothed or terrified the ringleaders into obedience. Men who can do all this, should be respected as adversaries. Friends they never can be; they have a spirit which scoffs at conciliation; they have a separate interest, an interest in the disquiet and dishonour of England, which cannot be purchased up, by any consideration within the reach of a minister. Those who would oppose them, must never forget the maxim, which the most accomplished man of antiquity has not scrupled to dignify with the title of Divine Wisdom: HÆC etenim est præclara illa et divina sapientia, perspectas penitus et pertractatas res humanas habere, nil admirari cum evenerit; nil, antequam evenerit, evenire posse non arbitrari.'

It is true, indeed, that various causes conspire to prevent the repetition of those desolating scenes, which afflicted Ireland during the reign of Elizabeth. Among these, it is not our least assurance

of quiet, that a prospect seems to open to ecclesiastical ambition, of attaining its objects by the peaceful arts of negotiation. Time has changed the form of things, and the prelates of the present day have shaped their measures accordingly. No longer menaced by proclamations, or looking for protection to some malecontent lords, who insulted the men, while they used the instruments, Roman Catholic bishops are now recognized by the committees of both Houses, and take their right reverend station round the person of the sovereign. Forfeitures and the Reformation have cut down the ranks of their ancient rivals; and the few men of quality who remain in their communion, have just enough of consideration to give point to the sarcasm*, and brilliancy to the cavalcade, of the jubilant ecclesiastics. By the fall of the nobility, the bishops are now left without any competition; absolute masters of the ignorant, the fanatical, and the disaffected, they can afford to treat the timid restiveness of the more educated, with a contemptuous and taunting composure. † In the fullest sense

*

'The Catholic aristocracy, as they are called, since the penal laws were relaxed, have gradually withdrawn themselves from the people; they have shown on some occasions an overweening anxiety for emancipation, at the expense of what the priesthood and the other classes deemed the interests, if not the principles, of their religion; hence, they are looked upon with suspicion, and can no longer wield the public mind. Dr. Doyle to Mr. Robertson.'

+ Some time after the investigation of 1825, Mr. O'Connell was represented, by all the Dublin newspapers, as having declared, in a public speech, that he had been supported by

of the term, they are a HIEROCRACY; swaying a compact mass of five millions of people, with a plenitude of dominion which might be envied at Constantinople, and breaking down all distinctions among their vassals, into the same abject prostration before their insolent supremacy. This power

Dr. Doyle, in his celebrated project of the Wings. He was corrected by Dr. Doyle's secretary; and published an apology, in which he used these among other expressions:'I have at length felt with sensitiveness, all the bitterness of reproach, and in the spirit, perhaps, of humiliated pride, and mortified vanity, I sit down to reply.' If it be any pleasure to Mr. Kinsella to know, that he has grieved and humbled me, I give him the advantage of knowing the fact.' If an increase of political privileges would raise the Roman Catholic gentry above language such as this, or above the dependence in which it originates, the public would have a good argument. for such a measure. Unfortunately, the Protestant candidates for priestly favour, are no less submissive, no less in need of emancipation.

Dr. Doyle found another, and an able vindicator, on the occasion above mentioned. If Mr. O'Connell,' said Mr. Cobbett, 'had shown any respect for the feelings of any body, and in particular, if he had not made an attempt to blast the character of the Catholic bishops, and annihilate for ever the just hopes of the Catholics, this anecdote, and all the other facts that I have stated, might have remained for me in everlasting oblivion.-Catholics of Ireland, trust solely to your clergy, they will never deceive you. Again, I say, believe in the sincerity of no leaders, whose ambition can be gratified by the government. Obey the laws, whatever they may be, rely upon your clergy for obtaining you redress, as far as that depends upon man, and patiently wait for circumstances and events.' Quære, What were those just hopes which Mr. O'Connell attempted to annihilate? Surely not the hopes of political redress.

within their domestic sphere naturally gives them an influence beyond it; the opposite extremes, of despotism, and of a liberty almost anarchical, combine to swell their authority; and, while they rule at home with a rod of iron, they attack England with her own free institutions. They govern the strongest political interest in the empire: they manage, every where, the puppets of legislation, from the hovel of the resident freeholder, to the château of the absentee; and the local minister confesses, that the tranquillity of Ireland, and his own titular dignity, are suspended upon their irresponsible good pleasure. Industrious in occupying and securing those positions, which, from a thousand motives, are successively relinquished to them, they establish every day, a precedent for some new pretension. In the mean time, they make partial exhibitions of their spiritual strength: the artillery of popular excitation' is occasionally brought out, for sportive but imposing exercise; and the crozier of a skilful prelate, like the wand of Prospero, raises a whirlwind of contentious elements, roarers that care not for the name of king,' yet contribute, it seems, to the honour and security of royalty. Shepherds of people,' says Bacon, have need to know the calendars of tempests in the state; which are commonly greatest when things grow to equality, as natural tempests are greatest about the equinoxes.'

APPENDIX.

NOTE A. p. 250.

THAT the Roman Catholics generally, both in England and in Ireland, attended the reformed worship at this time, is attested by all our most dispassionate writers.

Thus Carte:

"In the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, the Roman Catholics universally throughout England observed the act of uniformity, and went to their parish churches, where the English liturgy was constantly used. They continued doing so for eleven years, till Pope Pius V. (who had before, in a letter to the queen, offered to allow this liturgy, as not contrary to truth,) issued out his famous bull, by which he excommunicated her, and absolved her subjects from their allegiance. Upon this extravagant act of the papal power, some few of the leading men withdrew from the public churches; but still the Roman Catholics in general continued to repair to them until after the twentieth year of the queen, when Campian and other Jesuits, being sent into England, laboured all they conld to engage them not to resort thither for worship. Pope Gregory XIII., following his predecessor's steps, renewed his bull, and excommunicated the queen again; and Father Parsons published