general machinery of Popery. Perhaps in this place the following fact may not be without its weight.

It is well known to those who are acquainted with the history of Jesuitism, that, among other means of working on the mind and rousing it to the necessary pitch of fanaticism, the Jesuits lay much stress on the practice (invented by themselves) of retreats. These retreats take place annually. They continue for eight or ten days, during which the devotee is placed under a system of discipline, comprising meditation, self-examination, retirement from the world, profound silence, repeated devotional exercises : and the mind is heated and excited till it becomes a plastic and willing tool in the hands of its spiritual directors. These retreats, to which the Jesuits attach a value inferior only to the gospel,' used to be confined to monks, friars, and a few of the most enthusiastic of the laity. But within the last few years they have, we understand, been extended to the parochial priests, and the management of them has been especially committed by several of the Romish bishops to the Jesuits. Not two years ago, in one of the principal monasteries in Ireland, were the whole body of priests in two dioceses received for one week, and their coadjutors for the next-and did Dr. Kenny, the head of the Jesuits, the same who has been so often alluded to before, come down for the express purpose of superintending their spiritual exercises? When it is understood that these include not only direct instruction from the superintendents, but a confession on the 5th day, extending to the whole life from the earliest infancy, and at the close a communication to the confessor of the resolutions formed during the retreat; that the books used are written by Jesuits; that the confessors are either Jesuits themselves, or persons appointed at their suggestion; and that there are reasons for supposing it possible that the confidential secrecy of the confessional is not held binding upon priests in their conferences on church matters; it will not be thought strange that the influence exercised by the Jesuits upon the pupils at Maynooth should extend over them when located in parishes; and that, even with the enormous power possessed by these parish priests, they should still feel another influence above them, checking and overruling their movements.

And now it might be asked, what kind of parochial clergy would be required for the service of the Romish Church in Ireland, under its present circumstances? Let us pause a moment here.

That Church is now, as it always has been since the invasion of Henry II., struggling to obtain an entire dominion over Ireland. It cannot abandon this claim without forfeiting the charter of its existence. It never has abandoned it: it never will. It was the

hierocracy

hierocracy of Popery in Ireland-we thank Dr. Phelan for the term-which brought over Henry to support its own usurpations;-which, instead of assisting the crown in civilising the country, impeded all its plans, rather than strengthen the government ;*-which made the accumulation of enormous revenues the price of treason to its country, and wasted them, not as ecclesiastics, but as the worst species of temporal barons.† From jealousy against the old Irish Church, it refused to co-operate with Edward I. in admitting the Irish within the pale to the benefit of English laws, even when most humbly petitioned for. Though the spiritual peers in parliament outnumbered all the temporal peers, and constituted, in fact, the chief power in the realm, they did nothing for its good. To shake off the yoke of England, they rebelled for Bruce, and were only checked by the influence of the English, who occupied the archiepiscopal sees. They 'crossed and bearded Edward III.' They sanctioned, by their votes and anathemas, the notorious statute of Kilkenny, in which the very dress, name, language, poetry, even animals, belonging to a race deeply religious, and attached to their ancestors and their country, were denounced as objects of abhorrence both to God and man; and, again, their motive was jealousy against the ancient Irish Church, which refused to recognise the supremacy of Rome. They refused taxes, indulged in outrages, till, in a general privilege of pardon, granted to the Earl of Ormond, 1376, we find them excluded from it. In Henry V.'s reign they are named as 'rebels.*** In Edward IV.'s reign more symptoms are found of their disobedience, and at the same time of their habits of ruling-as they now rule-the unhappy people, by their curse.†† Against Henry VII. they openly rebelled, to place Simnel on the throne. During all this time we are told by their own writers that the Irish had been living in the most loyal submissiveness to their Church (it is their constant boast); and, as the same writers, among them Dr. Doyle, confess, they had beneath this rule become ferocious, cowardly, cunning, astute, cruel, strangers to honesty and truth.'

That it was not so much the religious spirit of the laity—a false assumption common to all periods of Irish history-but the ambition of the hierocracy, which roused Ireland so often to rebellion, is proved by the readiness with which the Irish chieftains took the oath of supremacy to Henry VIII., and promised to annihilate the usurped primacy and authority of the bishop of Rome,' in

*Leland, vol. ii. p. 56. + Phelan's Policy of the Church of Rome, p. 72. Phelan, p. 84. § Spenser, State of Ireland. | Cox, p. 210. Ib. p. 132. All archbishops, bishops, abbots, and priors of the Irish nation, rebels to the tt Leland, vol. ii. p. 56.

King.'-Cox, p. 151.

defiance

defiance of the utmost efforts made by the Roman pontiff to hold them in obedience. Under Elizabeth, at the very time when the great body of Roman Catholics was submitting willingly to the changes introduced; when multitudes of the priests and even the majority of the bishops exercised their functions according to the reformed ritual; at that very time the Queen was excommunicated, her life exposed to conspiracies, her kingdoms made over to Spain; every inflammatory engine applied to rouse Ireland to rebellion; and all the dismal and horrible effects' developed-to use the language of Cox-of that mission by which, as the greatest and worst of curses, Robert Wauchope, one of the three contemporary archbishops of Armagh, brought in the Jesuits. If the nobles joined in the rebellion, it was, says Sir John Carew,* not from religion:- Let no man be deceived, for ambition is the true and undoubted cause.' In James I.'s time there was the same rebellious spirit, though, under the tutoring of the Jesuits, it worked secretly, and made its way by taking advantage of the liberality of the crown, by establishing itself insensibly in the kingdom, and by parliamentary manoeuvres, supported by a Catholic association, and a Catholic rent.' Then came the Great Rebellion; the conduct of the priests under Rinuncini; the movement subsequently stirring whenever there were hopes of a foreign war, -the overtures to a connexion with America, and France,-in all, the separation from England, and the establishment of the supremacy of the Romish hierocracy, as independent masters of Ireland, being the real and only object: now suspended, according to the bull of Gregory XIII., 'till the public execution may be had or made;' now openly avowed; now prosecuted by violence; now by the stratagems of Jesuitism; now under the mask of liberality; now with barefaced persecution; now in connexion with turbulent nobles; now with Presbyterian demagogues; now with the Irish as their soldiers; now with foreign invaders; now through the perjuries of clients; now by the sword of an O'Neil ;-abandoned at once the moment law was enforced, and justice exerted against it; raised up with increased arrogance and clamour at every concession and indulgence. Such has been the uniform history, not of the Roman Catholics in Ireland--for we are not speaking of the laity-but of the leaders of the Popish priesthood in Ireland, when fitting opportunities occurred, especially since the management of the Jesuits began; and as, in all other periods, to gain one and the same end, they have adopted various means most fitting for their purpose, so they have now invented a most efficient instrument for the times out of a parochial clergy.

* Desiderata Curiosa Hiberniæ, vol. i. p. vi.

To

To understand this, let us consider the position which this papal hierocracy now occupies. It has, on the one side, a vast, untutored, impoverished, depressed population— inflammable, gregarious, easily following the religion of their lords; '* full of natural intelligence, inquisitive, deeply religious-imbued with good prejudices, easily led by kindness, and thirsting for education. On the other side is an active, zealous, pure, simple-minded Church, which, though persecuted, has not been weakened, and which is actively engaged in its duty-in doing what it was placed to do both by God and its country, and endeavouring to win over the nation to truth from what Englishmen will not venture to deny is a lamentable and fatal error. With this Church are now beginning to co-operate a considerable body of landlords-it may be slowly indeed and partially-it may be with their eyes just awakening to the folly of encouraging, as their fathers did, the growth of a hostile religion in order to swell their rents or their votes; but inspired with a spirit of loyalty and benevolence, and, we really believe, to no little extent with the piety which they witness in their clergy. Once let the landlords and the clergy combine, and if this be an enlightened age, and Popery is error, neither of which will be denied by the advocates of a liberal policy, Popery must fall-and Ireland be converted. Landlords therefore must be thwarted, and intimidated-and the Church, either by assassination, or terror, or starvation, or a legislative process, be crippled and silenced. But this is not all. Two other bodies are still standing almost neutral-but either of them, by joining the Church and the landlords, would effectually give them the victory. The government of the empire is one, and the public opinion of Protestants the other;-terrify or cajole the one, and blind the other-and the triumph of Popery will be comparatively easy.

Now every one of these purposes is to be attained by raising up a body of priests who will hold the population in their hands, to be swayed to and fro as a sort of political bludgeon, ready for outrage and murder at the will of that hidden power which is struggling to reconquer Ireland-who will goad the peasantry into hatred and fear against their landlords, the clergy, and the Sassenach-who will now parade them in vast tumultuous masses, or organised as in the Temperance' processions-now herd them under the horsewhip to the hustings and registration courts now marshal them in secret conspiracies-now keep them restless and excited by rumours of massacres, and rebellions, and the recovery of confiscated lands-and, lastly, let us remember,

* Strafford's Letter.

while one hand secretly organises and infuriates them to outrage, will with the other ostentatiously soothe and affect to restrain them; commanding them to evade, but forbidding them to violate the law; that the eyes of the Government may be blinded-and ends may be gained by threats which never could be gained by open force-or, if attempted by force, would hazard not only the lives of the people, to which demagogues seem wonderfully indifferent, but the lives of the demagogues, of which they are pre-eminently and most discreetly careful.

This is the use and object of the present race of Popish priests in Ireland. Terror-terror in every part-terror over the landlord, terror over the clergy, terror over the Government, terror over England, and terror over the Irish peasantry. It is the reign of terror in Ireland into which the English people are bound to inquire; and here commences the chief difficulty.

If Englishmen once understood the real nature of the influence by which the Popish priest of this day rules his flock, the rest would be easily seen. But those who best know the truth despair of bringing this home to the understanding and conviction of any who have not personally visited Ireland. That it is affection, veneration, moral influence, the sympathy of birth, personal kindness, constant association, is the prevailing opinion in England;and witnesses will not be believed who set these aside at once, and give a very different answer,-Fear. But witnesses who describe Ireland as it really exists must expect to meet with incredulity, and must patiently submit to it.

That the people are bound to their priests by some extraordinary fascination—no one denies. But let us consider for a moment. It cannot be an intellectual conviction of the doctrines of their religion, for that they are deeply in want of instruction is sufficiently attested by the avowed need of a national education. Neither is it the moral influence of character. Let impartial inquirers examine what is the character of the priests in general, and what the opinion entertained of them by the people.

For instance, have the people confidence in their honesty? When they send money from abroad, when they receive their pensions, when they appoint executors to their wills, when they deposit money in the care of others, when they wish to have matters settled by arbitration-Do they trust their priest? Do they not with wonderful unanimity distrust him? Do they not recur ordinarily, as a matter of course, to their Protestant clergyman and their Protestant landlord? —(we speak of the general feeling throughout Ireland)—and when asked why they do not have recourse to their priest-is it not the answer, that the priest would cheat them; or, more delicately, that they cannot trust him?

VOL. LXVII. NO. CXXXIV.

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