he attributed that resistance to tithes, which other persons in Ireland attributed to himself, he must have been rather surprised to find that on inquiry before the committee every one of these cases was proved to be a palpable falsehood, and that his own statement and references, in the opinion of a competent judge, produced, in a similar point of view, scarcely less admiration. Evidence, in fact, is not to be procured. Englishmen must remain blindfold, unless they will be content with something short of demonstration, and will act in the case of Ireland as they would in any case of common prudence. It is a case where those who accuse must stand on their own character for truth. Those who are best capable of witnessing dare not come forward, and those who are accused are indulged by their religion with the use of the figure amphibologia,* or the employment of words in one sense which are received by the hearers in another; and in a view of the obligation of oaths, which makes the observance of any oath contrary to the interests of the church, a grave perjury. And now may we be allowed to trace out, at present, some outlines which one branch, and one branch only, of the inquiry to be demanded, might be supposed to take?

It must commence with this fact as the foundation of it, that Rome has always looked to Ireland as the great stronghold of her dominions. The Mother Church of Rome falls, when in Ireland the Catholic faith is overcome,' is the old prophecy.† No people were ever more formed than the Irish for religion, for obedience, for respect to the ministers of God, for belief in mysteries; and therefore none more fit to be duped and ruled over by Popery. It would be desirable to know what communications are now kept up between Ireland, Rome, Palermo, St. Acheul, and other important stations of Popery, and especially of Jesuitism; what visits are paid to Rome by the Irish bishops, and members of Jesuit establishments; what sums of money transmitted either backwards or forwards. We see a move now made for the establishment of an exclusive Roman Catholic Bank, for the avowed purpose of facilitating these transactions. It is certain that some sums enter into Ireland from abroad; and there is also a remarkable mystery attending the disappearance of

* See Dr. Dens on Mendicium and Amphibologia.
Ware's Life of Archbishop Browne.

We were assured the other day, by an authority which we could not doubt, that a Romanist chapel, on a large scale, is now building even at Boulogne with money drawn from Ireland. When astonishment was expressed, it was answered that the sums sent over to Ireland by the Jesuits were no longer wholly required, in consequence of the supplies drawn thence from the people, and that part of the surplus had been sent to Boulogne. Can this throw any light on the origin of the Popish chapels now building in England?

money

money in the hands of the priests. Some few have been known to hoard; but latterly hardly any discoveries have been made of this kind, or of property left to their families. When the large amount of their incomes is ascertained, the immense revenues raised by the Temperance and other similar movements, and the economical mode in which they live as single men, it will, we think, be a matter of no little wonder where their accumulations disappear. We should also beg leave to ask, what changes have recently taken place in the Romish priesthood in the coloniesNewfoundland for instance-Australia, Van Dieman's Land, the Cape of Good Hope, Demerara, the West Indies-and especially India? Will the Directors of the East India Company take the trouble to inquire whether recently a colony of priests from Maynooth has been transplanted thither-what steps are now pending in certain law-courts in consequence of their proceedings-how many priests in Ireland are repealers of the union with heretical England-whether the destruction of the English Empire is not a fundamental axiom, the 'Delenda est Carthago' of Maynooth-and whether a repeal agitation in India, fomented by Jesuits, would be an agreeable announcement? Is Ireland the centre from which Rome supplies her colonies? Is 'Maynooth beginning to be felt' even in America?* Are Irish priests of weight even in the election of a President, and by the same engines of illegal votes, perjuries, and intimidation, which may be found perhaps in Ireland? Is there, in fact, a closer sympathy between Ireland and America than mere political opinions; and sympathy which may not be without its results in the case of a war? Is some secret hand now working over North America precisely the same change as it has already worked in Ireland, by substituting a class of busy vulgar demagogues for a quiet body of clergy? Were they French priests who knew something about the rebellion in Canada,' or priests from a quarter nearer home? Was Dr. Hussey, one of the earliest Irish episcopal agitators, brought from America and made first president of Maynooth for his quiet and loyal principles? And who is Dr. England, who has lately been transmitted to America in return? And what did he carry with him? We do assure the Colonial Secretary that these questions well deserve his attention.

It will be necessary also to understand the polity of the Romish Church in Ireland, and the wonderful organisation of its forces. These are divided into two bodies; one for keeping the ground and preventing desertion; the other aggressive, for making conquests. It is the possession of both these that gives to Popery such superior power over the modern forms of Protestantism, and

* See Times Newspaper, November 30, 1840.

even over the Anglican Church. The former body are the bishops and parochial clergy; the latter, the missionary institutions, which usually take the form of establishments for education under the Jesuits; and it is to the latter that our attention should be first directed.

To commence, then, have the Jesuits in Ireland been registered as the emancipation bill prescribed? What is the number of their houses, of their schools, and their pupils, both in Ireland and England? Has any remarkable change taken place in the feelings of Roman Catholic youth educated by them?* What secret or open advances are they making? What communications are kept up by them with Rome and other foreign countries? Are the democratical movements which have occurred in France and England traceable to any deeper moving power now than mere popular frenzy, as they have been traced in former times? Symptoms, we suspect, were found among the Chartists of an influence not wholly domestic. What was it? Have the Jesuits effected a lodgment into Europe, and especially in Ireland, under the name of Christian Brothers, the Sodalities of the Heart, Brethren of the Faith or Doctrine? Are these spreading rapidly under the encouragement of the regular clergy, and other persons connected with the Jesuits? Are children in national schools initiated in these sodalities? Are the young ladies in the boardingschools attached to convents brought up under the badges of Jesuitism? How are these seminaries increasing? Whence do they derive their funds? What kind of books are read in them? Will there be generally such difficulty in obtaining plain answers to simple questions, on this head, as was exhibited by one of the Christian Brothers in his examination before the Committee of Education? Are any persons, either avowedly or secretly Jesuits, intrusted with high offices in the Irish government? The same questions should extend to the Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites, and other bodies of the kind; to the growth and operations of which the framers of the Relief Bill seemed very properly alive; but to which the English people at present seem singularly insensible. Do they know what these bodies are? We think these are questions of interest; and if some friendly hand would place before the public a short, easy history of Jesuitism, its principles, morals, practices, and the reason why Europe at large, without consideration of Popery, was compelled to put it down, the English nation would feel very much disposed to require that answers should be given; and we think we might pledge ourselves to them, even to those the most intrenched in conscious security, that the answers will prove rather alarming.

*See Digest, vol. i., p. 246.

Digest of Evidence, vol. i., p. 254.
But

But this is not all. Those who know the least of the state of Ireland are aware that it abounds with secret associations and conspiracies,-Whiteboys, Whitefeet, Peep-of-day-Boys, Defenders, with a multitude of others, down to the newest form of Ribbonism. The fashionable name for these conspiracies, which are partly directed to steal arms, partly to beat and murder on some pretence or another, is agrarian outrages. We are quite willing to give them this title, in other words, to consider them, in one view, as conspiracies against the rights of landlords. This system of terrorism has, in fact, so established itself in Ireland, that although rents as yet continue to be paid, the tenant and not the landlord is virtually the possessor of the soil.

The landlord dare not eject. Let us not be supposed (for we are aware how every word will be exposed to cavil) to recommend ejectments, or to feel anything but horror and indignation at the notion of remedying the evil of a surplus population accumulated on estates through the negligence of landlords, by turning the miserable paupers into the roads and ditches. Over-population is a great evil; but if such steps should be taken to cure it, Ireland can expect nothing but a more awful curse and a heavier vengeance. That they are taken is often asserted. How far the assertion is true the inquirer will best judge by examining the instances adduced-Lord Lorton's, for example, who, for clearing his estate of a village of Irish Thuggists, who had murdered man after man of his people, was denounced as a hard-hearted monster. Colonel Bruen is another case. The inquirer should also ask what circumstances accompany the ejectment, when it becomes necessary. Are the people incorrigible? Are they provided with other abodes, with pecuniary assistance, or means of emigration? Is this a remarkable branch of those Irish delusions, which some secret power is endeavouring to fasten on the English people, that their sympathies and energies may not be awakened towards the Protestants of Ireland until it is too late? But we must proceed.

That, among a people proverbially attached to their superiors, submissive even to servility, patient under famine, and scarcely attempting to raise themselves above the condition of paupers, there should exist an organised system of intimidation, carried on against their landlords, is remarkable. We should wish to know the date when these agrarian outrages commenced. Are they coincident with any movement of Friars or Jesuits; or with any political changes? Of their secret history something may be gathered from the late disclosures respecting Ribbonism, the existence of which so many so long disputed, but which, at last, in England, we have discovered to be a fact. That in the nature

and

and situation of the Irish peasants, in their poverty, their habits of revenge, their gregarious spirit, the hatred which has been inspired into them against England, the old cherished traditions respecting confiscated property, their indifference to bloodshed, their willingness to follow any bold leader, and to enter into any secret combination, perhaps also in still-existing vestiges of the old Brehon laws,-that in all these there are ample materials for working a system of agrarian outrages there cannot be a doubt. But the moving head seems still wanting. Nothing is so combustible as gunpowder: but gunpowder without a spark will not explode.

Now in Ribbonism this secret conspiracy takes avowedly a very singular form. It is confined to Papists; it includes among its avowed objects the extirpation of heretics. Its oath very solemnly calls on the Virgin Mary and a number of saints. The members are bound to attend mass once a year; and its whole spirit is deeply imbued with a wild and sanguinary, but religious fanaticism. Moreover it extends into the heart of England. It permeates our manufacturing districts. It is con

nected with movements in Canada. It sends arms, even cannon, over from Liverpool to Ireland. The Irish labourers who come over to the harvest carry back concealed arms. And its passwords are a protection through the whole of Ireland. All this has been proved by the late trials, and before the Lords' Committee. But there is another remarkable feature in it. When the ramifications of this extensive system are traced up to its source, they always terminate in some insignificant leaders, men of neither intellect nor rank, and wholly incapable of organising such a system or carrying it on. Like a river, they suddenly disappear in the sand. Undoubtedly, in 1798, the heads of the rebellion did contrive to keep themselves for a time concealed, and to move their members through similar worthless instruments. But still there was a head beyond, and that head full of intelligence and energy; and without such a head it is not very easy to imagine how any such system as Ribbonism can be carried on. When information is to be conveyed through the country, one man tells it to three others, each of those three to three more, and thus it is telegraphed to the furthest point with astonishing rapidity. Murders are known before they are perpetrated. They are committed in the face of day, before the eyes of the people; and the people know their duty' too well to give information. When a man is to be beaten or assassinated, or a tithe disturbance to be raised, strangers appear on the spot,t the people look on * See the Report of the Committee on the state of crime.

† See Report on Tithes.