same spot an abbey of Cistercian monks, in consequence of a vow which he had made to God during a storm at sea, that if he escaped with life, he would build a monastery, to the honour of God and our Lady of Grace: the yearly revenues of this house were valued by king Henry's commissioners at 5467. Os. 10d. it was known by the appellation of East Minster, or the Abbey of our Lady of Grace. Sir Ralph Darcy afterwards caused it to be taken down, and a victualling office for the supply of the royal navy was erected upon part of the same site. Turning towards our right into the Minories, the convent of Claresses, or Minoresses, situated where now are the little Minories, would be presented to our view. This house had a frontage of ninety feet, and owed its foundation in 1793 to Blanch, queen of Navarre, and her husband, Edward, earl of Lancaster, &c. son of, king Henry the third, and brother of Edward the first: 'they dedicated it to the honour of God, and to the memory of saint Mary and of saint Francis. During succeeding ages, it had many benefactors, and among these, Simon Fitz-mary, sheriff of London, was perhaps the most munificent. A plague, or pestilence, which happened in 1515, carried off twenty-seven nuns of this community. Dame Elizabeth Savage, the last abbess, made a forced surrender of the monastery to the rapacious Henry, in the thirtieth year of his reign. And that building, dedicated for ages to the worship of the Almighty, where the pious inmates daily fed the needy poor, where with more than maternal solicitude they relieved the wants of the suffering, and of the sick, and where they poured the balm of religious consolation into the wounded minds of the dejected, and of the afflicted, became a storehouse for arms and ammunition; engines of havoc and destruction! Let us now retrace our steps and again return to Poplar : here within the last few years, a Catholic chapel has been erected, and a burial ground for Catholics has been opened; here also is a school for boys, supported by voluntary contributions and subscriptions, and in this parish the Society of Charitable Sisters educates and clothes twenty-five poor Catholic female children. On Mile-end-green, Dudley, earl of Leicester, hanselled, to use the words of Stow, by the execution of the reverend William Dean, one of the twelve new gallow ses, erected by his order for the extirpation of Catholics: this gentleman suffered on the 28th of August, 1588, merely for his priestly character; with him also was put to death Henry Webley, a layman; the only crime laid to his charge was, that he had afforded assistance to the said priest. But within the short space of the following week, Dudley himself had paid the debt of nature; and the work of desolation had been left to the guidance of his fair mistress, the virgin Elizabeth. "He was," says doctor Heylin, the protestant historian, in his History of the Reformation, p. 339-340, "a man so unappeaseable in his malice, and unsatiable in his lusts; so sacrilegious in his rapines, so false in his promises, and treacherous in point of trust; and, finally, so destructive of the rights and properties of particular persons, that his little finger lay far heavier on the subjects, than the loins of all the favourites of the two last kings.” Although dead, his spirit lived in the relentless queen, and on the 5th day of October, in the same year, she wreaked her vengeance on the reverend John Weldon, whom she caused to be executed upon the same gallows, and against whom no charge was brought, except that he was a Catholic priest. Let us now turn to a more pleasing subject; the schools in Red Lion-street, Wapping, may fairly claim a portion of our atten tion: from a very humble commencement, their means have, through the beneficence of charitable individuals, gradually in creased, and at present nearly four hundred Catholic children, are educated in these establishments, and sixty boys with forty girls are annually clothed. Some of the most illustrious names now grace the list of subscribers to these schools, and, among others, that of the first lord of the treasury is seen with peculiar satisfaction. And here let us not forget the pious and unassuming Peter Lyons, a smith of Tooley-street, who, at the time the boy's school was originally formed, left one thousand pounds three per cent. stock towards its support. When the persecution existed in full force, when the severest punishments were inflicted upon those Catholics who were convicted of worshipping their God according to the dictates of conscience, the Catholics of the neighbourhood were accustomed to assemble on Sundays and hol days, at a house in Branch-place, Cable-street; and obtained admittance by producing tickets, which were occasionally changed to prevent the intrusion of spies. Here the divine mysteries were offered up, and in this house the holy sacraments were administered to the faithful. A public house, the Windmill, in Rosemary-lane, was also converted into a house of prayer, and here Catholics met and assisted at the holy sacrifice of the mass, unsuspected by the pursuivant or by the informer. We now come to the Catholic chapel in Virginia-street. Strange as it may appear, this chapel owes its origin in a great measure to the project of a Portuguese Jew, named Emanuel; this man represented himself to doctor Challoner, and to the embassador from the court of Portugal, as a Catholic priest, and by means of papers which he had surreptitiously obtained, passed for a considerable time unsuspected; through his exertions the chapel was erected and placed under the protection of the king of Portugal, whose arms were fixed over the principal entrance, and it assumed the name of the Portuguese hospital. Emanuel was afterwards discovered to be an impostor, he was consequently driven from the chapel, and some years after died in the poorhouse of Whitechapel, in a state of wretchedness and abject poverty. Pain, the informer, indicted the reverend James Webb, for exercising priestly functions in this chapel. The trial came on in the court of King's Bench, Westminster, on the twenty-fifth day of June, 1762, before lord chief justice Mansfield, who, in his charge to the jury, after commenting upon the conduct of the informer, stated that the twelve judges had decided, that before a person could be convicted of having performed priestly functions, he must first be proved to be a priest. One of the defendant's counsel, counsellor Cox, to illustrate his argument upon this point, introduced the following anecdote. "In the reign of queen Elizabeth there was a noted lawyer whose name was Plowden; and being a Roman Catholic, he had many enemies in the country where he lived: and you must know there was a Payne amongst them. What did they do? they contrive to have a mass said, so that Mr. Plowden might be present. There was a priest, altar, vestments, candles and every thing necessary. Mr. Plowden very innocently went to hear mass; but it was scarce over, when he was arrested with a warrant for hearing mass; and was actu ally tried for it. The evidence appeared against him, and swore positively that they saw Mr. Plowden hear mass. At last the priest himself appeared against him, and swore that Mr. Plowden heard mass, for that he himself had said mass and saw Mr. Plowden there. Pray, says Mr. Plowden, let me ask you a question: are you a priest? No, replied the other. Oh! then, said Mr. Plowden, the case is altered; No Priest, No Mass." Mr. Webb was acquitted. One of the unwilling witnesses produced at this trial, was the door-keeper of the chapel, a tall formal figure; a man peculiarly neat and clean in his dress and person: his appearance attracted the notice of the learned judge, who enquired of him his name ; Tyte, my Lord, was the answer: An appropriate name, rejoined his Lordship, for a very tight man you are. This incident the old man related to me himself many years after, with a great deal of glee. Some of the circumstances connected with the destruction of the chapel by the mob in the year 1780, are worthy of notice. The officiating clergyman received a communication from the secretary of state's office, requesting them to use their influence in preventing the Irish, who inhabited the water side, from opposing the rioters, when they should attack the chapel : they also received frequent information of the progress of the riot, and notice, when it became necessary, that they should themselves attend to their own personal safety. They therefore visited the different public houses frequented by the Irish, and by their entreaties, prevailed upon every man to repair to his lodgings, and there remain until even the appearance of disturbance should no longer be seen in the neighbourhood. The reverend Michael Coen, in mentioning this circumstance, res lated, that had he judged proper, he could have assembled within the space of one half hour three thousand men, from among the ballast-getters, the coal-heavers, the lumpers, &c. &c. and by their assistance, have protected his chapel, but he thought it right rather to obey the wishes of government. One of the clergymen, who remained upon the spot until the last extremity, with difficulty escaped from the infuriated mob. Among these was an inhabitant of the neighbourhood, who frac tured a leg by the fall of a pillar, one of the supports of the gallery which he was attempting to demolish. This man, al 4 though well known, was not prosecuted, but became a cripple, and lived during many years an object of commiseration and of compassion to those very persons, whose destruction he had aimed at, who practising the divine precept, forgave their enemies, and returned good from evil. The chapel was afterwards rebuilt upon an enlarged scale, and some years since an organ was purchased, the gallery enlarged, and sundry improvements effected, through the pious beneficence of an individual who expended upwards of fifteen hundred pounds in this praiseworthy work. -I will now take my leave of you at the Minories, from whence we returned a short time since, and next month we will extend our walk to the cathedral church of St. Paul. Editor, your's, &c. I am, Mr. PROTESTANT MISSIONS AND MISSIONARY (Continued from p. 137.) LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 'This is the title which the Independants or Unitarians have given to their Missionary society. How a church of England man can fraternize with this institution without a total sacrifice of his principles, is to me quite incomprehensible. The funda mental principle of this society is, "not to send presbyterianism, independency, episcopacy, or any other form of church order or government...but the glorious gospel of the blessed God to the heathen." If by these words they mean, that they will give the heathens a copy of the bible, but be very cautious not to explain it to them, for fear they should have any fixed prin ciples, I can understand them—but in that case I am at a loss to know, of what use missionaries are, as the common carriers of goods and parcels would execute that office quite as well. If they mean to teach doctrines, and inculcate principles, and yet not teach episcopacy, presbyterianism, or any thing else, pray what can the doctrines be which they mean to teach? This is a mystery they do not condescend to explain, and which |