his child, and desires him to make out his faith from them,—“Here, (he says), my sweet little divine, is the Book of Life-do not attend to what the priests and cardinals tell you, but study the Trinity by your. self; investigate the mystery of the Incarnation, and solve the prophetical problems of the Apocalypse-and, my dear boy, if ever you are in want of amusement, read the pleasant story of David and Bathsheba, and the other instructive anecdotes which you will find interspersed in this holy book-God will preserve your imagination from taint, and fill with his divine grace every little theologian of thirteen. And now good bye, and go and play with the Gospel at hide and go seek."" So much for divinity in its teens. But seriously speaking, if the boy be not infallible, why give the Bible to the boy? It comes to this I am for corporate, and Mr. M'Clintock for individual infallibility. I prefer the decrees of councils-he prefers the rhapsodies of conventicles. I like the religion of Pascal, and Fenelon, and Bossuet, and Arnad, while Mr. M'Clintock and the ladies of Dublin have a predilection for the new apostle of the Gentiles-Baron Munchausen Katerfelto Ferdinand Mendez Pinto Wolff, formerly of Monmouth-street, London, lately of the Propaganda in Rome, and now Chief Propagator to the Ladies Auxiliary Bible Society, Dublin. Kirwan used to say, that the teachers of new religions were like the soldiers who tore the seamless garment of our Saviour to pieces. This converted Hebrew, after selling old clothes through Germany, comes hawking some shreds of new-fashioned christianity in Dublin. The fellow's name and aspect reminds me of Dryden's description of the fanatics— More haughty than the rest, the Wolffish race- I commend Mr. M'Clintock to this worthy missionary from Syria, of whose infallibility and fidelity in the commemoration of his own wonders, I presume he makes no question, and gives him a decided preference to Prince Hohenloe. Good heaven! to what a pitch fanaticism has arrived! An ignorant Israelite arrives in Dublin, defies all the doctors of the Church of Rome, in the world, to meet him in intellectual combat, directs that answers should be inclosed from all the universe to Mr. Hogan, of York-street, and is forthwith encompassed with all the rank and beauty of Dublin. Warren, with his blacking, is nothing to this; and Ingleby, “the emperor of conjurors," who defied every other juggler, sinks into miserable diminution before this master of celestial legerdemain. But, sir, enough of these topies, which are very foreign from those on which I had intended to address you. Mr. M'Clintock has broken in upon the ordinary course of our discussions, and has, perhaps, enlivened this meeting with some diversity of matter. I hope we shall often see him amongst us, and that some of his associates of the Bible Society will do us the favour to accompany him; for, although we are greatly surpassed by them in the riches of diction, extent of acquirement, grace of elocution, and power of reasoning, yet the truth upon our side almost renders us their match. Having spoken thus much, I shall not enter into any of the subjects suggested by your resolutions, but shall content myself with simply stating, that for the vote of thanks you have given me for my professional exertions at the election, to the success of which you are pleased to say that I contricuted, I am deeply grateful. MEATH CATHOLIC MEETING. SPEECH AT THE MEATH CATHOLIC MEETING, HELD ON THE BANKS OF THE BOYNE, ON THE 28TH AUGUST, 1825. This meeting was attended by the Earl of Darnley, and several other noblemen and gentlemen of high rank. 66 UPON the first day of July, in the year 1690, the waters of the river, on whose banks you are assembled, ran red with blood. Upon the banks of that river James and William met. The combat was long and doubtful. There was a moment when the Irish forces were upon the point of triumph. Spare my English subjects!" exclaimed the wretched Prince, to whom the Irish language has attached his most appropriate designation; and well might his followers cry out, "Change kings and we'll fight the battle over again!" The Irish were defeated, but not overthrown. The bloody day of Aughrim succeeded. The ball that pierced St. Ruth was lodged in the breast of Ireland. Notwithstanding these disasters the Irish power was not annihilated, and the walls of Limerick still afforded the means of a permanent defence. A large body of French and Irish troops were assembled within its gates; and William, who had been formerly driven from its walls, foresaw that, if the expected succours should arrive from France, the civil war would, at all events, be protracted, and that eventually its fortune might be reversed. Under these circumstances he instructed his officers to conclude a peace with as much speed as possible. Leland, who affects to discredit the Secret Proclamation," (as it was called) by which the Lords Justices tendered much more favourable terms than were subsequently granted, admits that William had directed Ginkle to terminate the war upon any conditions. It appears by a letter, written by the nephew of Lord Tyrconnell, that at one period William was willing to secure to the Catholies one-half of the churches, one-half of the offices civil and military, and compensation for the forfeited estates. It was obviously a matter of great importance to that sagacious Prince, to put an end to intestine divisions, at a time when England was engaged in Continental warfare. As long as Limerick held out it was in the power of France to create an alarming diversion. Terms were proposed to the Irish garrison. After some negociation, in which Sir Theobald Butler, who had been Attorney-General to James the Second, took a leading part, it was stipulated, that the Irish Catholics should be secured in the undisturbed possession of their property, in the exercise of thei religion, and in the rights and privileges which they had enjoyed in the reign of Charles II. In the reign of that monarch Catholics sat in Parliament, and that right was reserved as fully and effectually as if it had been distinctly specified in the contract. On the 3rd of October, in the year 1691, the Articles of Capitulation were signed. Immediately after, and before the gates had been thrown open, intelligence arrived that the sails of a foreign fleet were seen off the coast. It may readily be conjectured with what an intense emotion the news was received. Offer to yourselves an image of the scene which the city must have presented. An amnesty is proclaimed; a few days are allowed to the Irish who preferred exile to ignominy, to embark for France. They continue during that interval in possession of the fortress, whose bastions remained unbattered. The green flag, with the harp woven in gold, yet floated from the citadel. The Irish soldiers stood upon the battlements, and looked, for the last time, upon the fields of their country, upon which so many of their sons, and of their brothers, were lying dead. In the midst of that melancholy scene, in the heavy damp that hung upon their hearts, a rumour is suddenly .eard, that a French fleet has been seen off the coast; a courier arrives-the flag of France has been discerned. Another messenger appears, and proclaims the arrival of twenty ships of war, under the cominand of Chateau-Renault, laden with ammunition, and with arms and men. It would require some portion of the powers of the eminent person who has been lately among us, and whose genius has found such admirable materials in the civil wars of his own country, to describe the effects which that intelligence must have produced among those who had but the day before set their hands to the articles of capitulation. Would he not make us thrill in the delineation of such a scene? Would he not make our hearts leap within us in painting the effects of this great but unavailing event, upon the chivalrous and gallant men who had not abandoned their Sovereign when he had deserted himself. With what a pathetic vividness would he paint the simultaneous impulse with which the weapon that hung loosely to the ground flew into the soldier's hand, as the drum beat along the ramparts, and sent forth its martial and spirit stirring call. How would he paint the rushing of men together-the earnest interrogation, the rapid utterance, the precipitous movement, the trembling and anxious lip, and vivid and flashing eye. Should we not behold the brave, the noble, the devoted, the self-immolating Sarsfield kindle with the intelligence, and starting into the warrior's attitude again. He did. The generous and gallant Sarsfield sprung up from the earth, on which he had thrown himself with despair, when the sound of France and of succour reached his ears. Every generous instiner of his nature must have been roused within him-his soul must have been at once in arms- his face must have been kindled with revenge and glory-every nerve must have been braced-every sinew must have been strung-his hand must have been placed upon that sword which had unplumed so many a helm. But it was glued to the scabbard. He could but grasp its hilt. The recollection of the treaty must have come upon him, and striking that brow which was furrowed with the casane. he must have exclaimed-" France, thou art come too late, and Ireland is lost for ever."-You must not chide me, my lord, for presenting this picture-in these strong, and there are some who, perhaps, will deem them excessive colours. It is a theme to which it is impossi ble for any Catholic to revert without emotion, and I confess, for my own part, that I cannot contemplate the event to which I have referred without sympathising in the feelings of the men who were placed in a juncture so exciting, and who had still power to resist the temptation which the event I have attempted to describe must have held out to their hearts. They did resist it. In despite of the allurement which the landing of a great force had presented, the Irish Catholics, with arms in their hands, with a strong city in their possession, and while William was engaged in a foreign war, replete with embarrassment and peril, remained faithful to their compact, and, trusting to a false and perjured enemy, threw the gates open and surrendered. What part did the conquerors act? There is not in the records of mankind an example of more foul and abominable perfidy than the almost instantaneous violation of the Charter, to which justice and honour had set their seals. Where was the first announcement of the detestable purpose made? Before the altar of Almighty God! Dopping, the Bishop of Meath (he ought to have been Archbishop of Dublin) preaching before the Justices in Christ Church, the Sunday after they had returned from the camp, insisted that faith ought not to be kept with Papists. He proclaimed treachery and sacrilege as a part of his sacredotal ethics, and Parliament soon cried "Amen!" Before their purpose was carried into execution a little mockery was deemed expedient, and a medal was struck, to use Harris's expression, "to eternize the mercy of the Sovereign!" The Queen was represented with an olive branch in her hand, as the symbol of peace—a harp was inscribed upon the reverse, with a motto which intimated a cessation of discord, in the words "I am placidum reditura melos," and it was further specified, that in the year 1691, "Ireland was received to mercy." A few weeks after some Catholics were deprived of their estates, and outrages were committed upon their homes and persons. These were the preliminaries to an act of more formal oppression, and in 1703 it was deemed expedient to regalize atrocity, and to incorporate villany with the law. An Act of Parliament was introduced, by which the very order of nature was inverted, and parricide was made a precept in the decalogue of the law. The atrocities of the first penal law (for the monster was mature at its birth) are described by Sir Theobald Butler with the eloquence of a man whose soul was wrung within him, and who drew his feelings not from the sources of artificial emotion, but from the deep and troubled buntains of the heart. After having conjured the House of Commons in the name of every la v, human and divine, not to infringe a treaty which had been rendered sacred by the most solemn obligations by which nan can be bound on earth, or should he be in awe of heaven-he that was not only the advocate of a whole people but his own, and was te be himself the victim of this parricidal law, proceeds to describe the onsequences of allowing the Protestant son to tear his property from his Catholic father. And do you not. my lord, think his face must 6 Dave been suffused with tears of anguish, when he said, "is not this against the laws of God and man; against the rule of reason and justice, by which all men ought to be governed? Is not this the surest way in the world to make children become undutiful, and to bring the gray head of the father to the grave with grief and tears? It would be hard from any man-but from a son, a child," (his face must have been covered with tears as he spoke )-"the fruit of my body, whom I have nursed in my bosom, and tendered more dearly than my own life, to become my plunderer, to rob me of my estate, and to take away my bread, is much more grievous than from any other, and enough to make the most flinty of hearts to bleed to think on it;"(alas, he was speaking to the Scots and the Jenkinsons of the day.) "For God's sake, will you consider, whether this is according to the golden rule, to do as you should be done unto,' and if not, you will not, nay, surely you cannot, without the most manifest injustice, take from us out birth-rights, and invest them in others before our faces." In such language did Sir Theobald Butler, who was a Catholic lawyer of the first eminence, and who had himself been a party to the treaty of Limerick, implore the Irish House of Commons to respect the law of man and of God! But it was in vain. The bill passed, and was succeeded by other enactments of the same character. Nothing was omitted that could be devised by the satanic genius of penal legislation, for the oppres sion and degradation of the people. Session after session new chains were forged until there was not a link left to which a fetter could be attached, and the very power of oppression had been exhausted by its accumulation. It were vain to attempt to describe the measureless villany of that system. This execrable assemblage of atrocity, in which every crime appeared to have been gathered, baffled the genius of Edmund Burke, and defied his power of expression. Its necessary results upon the national character were speedily, produced. The action of servitude is reciprocal. The population was divided into thousands of tyrants and millions of slaves. The judges of the land declared that a Papist could not breathe without the connivance of the government. The common air was made a matter of indulgence. It was not until the year 1759, that the first gleam of hope began to dawn on the Roman Catholics of Ireland, and that the government first manifested some attention to the condition of the people. That first faint dawn of hope rose out of the public danger. The Duke of Bedford (the then Lord Lieutenant) stated in the House of Commons, that Mr. Secretary Pitt had apprised him, that France speculated upon the discontent of the people of Ireland. The Catholic merchants, (for like another proscribed people, the Jews, the Catholics had directed their views and their energies to commerce,) took advantage of the intimation. They proposed to address the Lord Lieutenant. The nobility and gentry, who had acquired habits of timidity, opposed it. The more democratic party prevailed. The French fleet was on the coast, and a gracious answer was returned. Mr. Mason's motion for allowing Catholics to lend money on mortgages, was lost by a majority of 188 to 151. This was the first motion in our favour. In 1772, by a great stretch of mercy, Catholics |