express most loudly their fears for its actual safety, it is to me a matter of deep joy that the very course which justice calls on us to follow, should be also that which is most likely to ensure the safety of the Protestant Church, and to extend the influence of its doctrines: and that the very act which does justice to Ireland, holds out also the fairest promise of her moral and spiritual improvement. So universally true is our Lord's declaration, that if we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all other things shall be added unto us; if we do our duty without fear of the consequences, we shall most surely gain those advantages which, had they tempted us to flinch from our duty, we should for ever have forfeited.

Now at the commencement of this argument I am willing to take the picture of Ireland and the Irish Catholics from those who think most unfavourably of them. I am willing to suppose that the Irish race are deeply tainted with barbarism; that they know little of obedience to law; that they are the slaves of passion and feeling, and by consequence deficient in the highest qualification of human nature, self-denying virtue, founded upon a high-principled sense of duty to God and man. I would allow, also, that in no part of Europe does the Roman Catholic religion exist in a more aggravated form; nowhere are its superstitions more gross, or its bigotry more ferocious; nowhere is it a more fearful corruption of Christ's Gospel. But with this unpromising race and with this dreadful religion we have chosen to connect ourselves; and we have thus deprived ourselves of the right to regard them with mere disgust and abhorrence; we must endeavour to better them, and the more so as the virulence of the evil is in a great degree to be attributed to our own neglect or absolute ill treatment. Now how are they to be bettered, or' can they not be bettered at all? They can be bettered, for the Roman Catholic religion wears so different an aspect in different countries, that it may evidently be influenced by external causes: and they who believe in the

D

common origin of all mankind, must conclude that all important moral differences, between one race and another, may be gradually removed as they have been created; and that, as unfavourable circumstances made them differ, so a happier system and better institutions may in time restore their original equality. Now a religion may be externally influenced either by forcible or by gentle measures; by persecution, or by persuasion and example. I will not insult any of my readers by enlarging on the utter wickedness of the first of these means; but will at once proceed to consider those others which we may and ought to use. If we wish to influence any one by our arguments or by our practice, should we be most likely to succeed if previously he regarded us with suspicion and ill-will, or if he were living on friendly terms with us? The question may seem too simple to be seriously asked; and yet there are some who believe that Protestantism is less likely to win its way among the Irish Catholics, when being treated justly and kindly, they will regard its professors as countrymen and friends, than it is at this moment, when it is looked upon as the badge of an enemy, and when its name is indissolubly associated with hostility and oppression. But let us see what I mean by saying that Protestantism will win its way in Ireland if the claims of the Catholics are granted. There will not be many direct conversions; not many who will say in so many words that they abjure the errors of popery, and go over to the Protestant Church; there will be very little of this on either side, for there are stronger feelings in men's minds opposed to a professed change of religion than any that can be brought in favour of it. The nominal conversion of the heathen world to Christianity is a misleading example: for heathenism was not a matter of conscience with most of its votaries, and wanted many of the strongest links by which all forms of Christianity, and even Mohammedanism itself, are bound to the hearts and minds of their respective professors. Thus in modern Europe, wherever

Catholics and Protestants have been mixed largely together, as in Germany, France, and Switzerland, neither religion has nominally gained much over the other; and in those cantons of Switzerland in particular which are divided between Catholics and Protestants, the Catholic parishes have in general continued to be Catholic, and the Protestant to be Protestant, without the limits of either faith having been enlarged by proselytism. In fact, if men of different religions are to live together in peace, they must abstain from a direct interference with each other's tenets; just as in marriages between two persons of different persuasions, an arrangement is commonly made which limits the influence of either parent over their common children, and determines that some shall be brought up in the opinions of their father, and others in those of their mother. But although direct renunciations of the Roman Catholic tenets are likely to be few, yet the general approximation of those tenets to the faith of Protestants is likely to be very considerable. For this experience is our warrant; inasmuch as the Roman Catholic religion exists in its most corrupted form in those countries where there are either no Protestants, as in Spain, Portugal, and Italy, or where, from political animosities, Protestants are regarded with suspicion and abhorrence, as in Ireland. On the contrary, where Protestants are numerous, and are living on friendly terms with Catholics, there the Catholic religion exists in a very improved state, and its worst abuses are practically done away with. I have now before me two Catechisms: the one a Spanish one, printed at Valladolid, apparently during the war with Napoleon, but the date of the year is not given; the other printed at Rheims in 1822, and circulated by the orders of the Archbishop of Rheins, for the use of his diocese. Much certainly that is offensive to a Protestant ear may be found even in the latter; yet the difference in tone between it and the Spanish Catechism is very remarkable; and sufficiently shews that the Roman Catholic religion is

not always practically one and the same, although its members, if pressed on the point by Protestants, might think themselves bound to assert its unchangeableness. For example, in the Spanish Catechism, after the catechumen has expounded the several Articles of the Apostles' Creed, the catechist proceeds to ask, whether there are any other things which he believes? To which the answer is given", "Yes, father; everything contained in the holy Scriptures, and everything revealed by God to his Church." "And what things are these?" proceeds the catechist. "That," replies the catechumen, "you should not ask of me, who am ignorant. There are Doctors in our holy Mother Church, who will know how to answer it." "You say well," resumes the catechist, "that it becomes the Doctors of the Church, and not such as you, to give an account of the extent of all the points of faith. It is not enough for you to give an account of the Articles as contained in the Creed." And again, in another place, the catechumen, after enumerating the several means of grace, mentions, as the last and most powerful", "the making choice of a wise, virtuous, and prudent confessor, and obeying him in everything." "You say well," rejoins the catechist, "and remember to act accordingly; for such a confessor will be like an angel, who will guide

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Si, Padre, todo lo que está en la Sagrada Escutura, y quanto Dios tiene revelado á su Iglesia. P. Qué cosas son estas? R. Eso no me lo pregunteis á mi, que soy ignorante: Doctores tiene la santa Madre Iglesia, que lo sabrán responder. M. Bien decis, qué a los Doctores conviene, y no á vosotros, dar cuenta por extenso de las cosas de la Fé: á vosotros bástaos darla de los Articulos como se contienen en el Credo.

b Por decir uno que abraza muchos, el elegir un confesor sábio, virtuoso, y prudente, y sujetarse á el en todo. M. Bien decis. Hacedlo pues vosotros asi, pues este os será como un Angel, que os guiará, proponiendo-os estos y otros medios, &c.

I have inserted the original words of these passages, because, as my knowledge of Spanish is exceedingly slight, I may possibly have committed some mistakes in my translation of them; although I believe I have not mistaken the exact sense.

you by proposing to you these and other means of grace," &c. Now to the first of these extracts there is nothing at all similar in the French Catechism; and with regard to the confessor, all that is said is a practical rule at the end of the Article on Confession, recommending every one to choose a good confessor, who may question them, instruct them in their duties, and be a check on them; and advising them "to listen to his counsels, and follow them with docility." Again, in the French Catechism the nature of the honour paid to the Virgin Mary and the Saints is carefully defined; and it is expressly said that we may not worship either the Virgin, or the Saints and Angels, but God alone: nor may we pray to them to give us grace, but to pray for it to God in our behalf; and that the cross and the images of the Saints are not to be respected in themselves; for they have in them no divinity and no virtue; Catholics address to them no prayers, and put no trust in them; but they may be honoured for the sake of those whom they represent to us. But in the Spanish Catechism there are none of these explanations, and it is simply said that we should honour the images of the Virgin, and of the Saints, and pray to the Angels and. Saints, as to our mediators. Finally, in the French Catechism there is at the end of every Article a list of passages from the Scripture bearing on the subject of the Article, which can only be inserted in order to encourage the study of very large parts of the Scripture at least, if it does not imply the recommendation of the whole volume. There is not a word in the Spanish Catechism, on the other hand, which refers the reader to the Bible, or would lead him to consider the study of the Scriptures as useful to him. And this brings me to a difference in the Roman Catholic religion as it exists in France, Germany, and the Netherlands, on the one hand, and in Italy on the other, of which every one who has travelled through these countries may speak from his own knowledge. In the three former, crucifixes by the road side are sufficiently common; but images of