shelter to the altar of his ancestors, and seeks consolation in the life to come, for the persecutions and dishonour he is doomed to bear at this side of the grave. When will the human mind think for itself? When it comes up to the summit level of the most favoured denomination, when it can stand, upon the highest elevation of the constitution, and, take in its wide and liberal embrace all human institutions! But, humiliate and degrade, dishononr and exclude, you destroy half the powers of the human intellect, anl leave it nothing to rest upon but the desperation of its vengeance. This is the reason why Ireland will not be considered by the philosopher as qualified to form a sound or impartial opinion on such a subject as that which we are now discussing. But still it will convince the liberal and enlightened statesman of the folly of that policy which carries in its destructive consequences that most calamitous of all results-the great and unspeakable difficulty of coming to a manly and independent determination on questions the most material that can engage the human mind."

DR. SHERIDAN'S LETTER ON THE CURE OF MRS. STUART.

THE sensation excited by the wonderful cure of Mrs. Stuart induced a Rev. Mr. Daly to address a letter to Dr. Cheyne, one of the physicians in attendance on that lady, who answer ed that he did not consider the cure to be miraculous, and that he could account for it on natural principles. He further stated that he had waited upon Dr. Mills, and surgeon M'Namara, and that both these gentlemen left Dr. Cheyne to the exercise of his own discretion, at the same time declining to join him in any publication on the subject. Dr. Cheyne did exercise his discretion by publishing the above assertions, without entering into any professional or philosophical argument in defence of them. These asssertions of the doctor were taken by the bigotted and besotted press as conclusive against a plain matterof-fact of public notoriety, and every kind of abuse was heap

ed upon those who have the common sense to prefer facts to assertions. As Dr. Cheyne, however, did not think proper to account for this great cure on natural principles, Dr. Sheridan, a Catholic physician of strong and vigorous intellect, published the subjoined challenge to his learned and incredulous brotherprofessor in the art of healing: it is hardly necessary for us to remark, that Dr. Cheyne has not yet deigned to take up the gauntlet.

"To the Editor of the Dublin Weekly Register.

"SIR,-In this distracted and impoverished country, where opinions are as various as the features of man, some wish for uniformity, others for toleration, and not a few would suppress enunciation of any opinions, which might possibly disturb that settled calm of society, which they prize above all other things. I fear, Mr. Editor, that none of those different classes of society are likely to obtain their aim, while men are constituted as they are in this country. The public opinion, if well directed on some points, would materially benefit the people of Ire land; and this object would be attainable, if the art of reasoning were better understood among us. Since the revival of literature in Europe, none of the sciences have been studied with more attention than logic, or the art of reasoning. Yet how has it happened in this country-is it for want of education, that the public press has been so disfigured by false reasoning, as to leave a doubt in the minds of many, whether it be not a greater curse than blessing to the people of Ireland?

"I was led, Mr. Editor, into this train of reflection, by the consequences of an extraordinary event, which lately took place in the vicinity of this metropolis, at the convent of Renelagh. One of the religieuse of that nunnery, labouring for years under a most cruel distemper, and reduced to the last extremity, was suddenly restored to health by the intercession of prince Hohenlohe, in Germany, a man of extraordinary sanctity, and already famous for such extraordinary deeds, at the very time at which the holy man intended it should take place. This event, as might be expected, caused a great sensation: the pious archbishop, most rev. Dr. Murray, found

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himself in duty bound to take cognizance of the affair: he hastened to the spot, and with that prudence and reserve, which so peculiarly characterize him, investigated the matter to the bottom. With the clearest evidence before him, he pronounced the recovery of Mrs. Mary Stuart, a religieuse of the convent of St. Joseph, at Ranelagh, to be miraculous, and published a pastoral address on the occasion. This gave great offence to the domineering faction, as if it was criminal in Dr. Murray to do his duty; or to hurt their delicate feelings with such antiquated trash. Some of them (proh deum atque hominum fidem ! !) declared it to be a fabrication, intended for rebellious purposes! In short, they gave full scope to their reformed logic. They put down effects for causes, and causes for effects. They would not, according to the old mode of reasoning, lay down facts as the proper foundation for opinions, but they would, according to the new light, have facts give way to preconceived opinions, and they thus aimed at misleading the public mind. But the light of reason is not so easily extinguished among men, and facts are stubborn things; and many of the reflecting part of the community of every denomination of people, found their minds seriously arrested by the late event at Ranelagh. It appeared, then, that something more than scorn, and ridicule, and contemptuous reviling, and sorry gibes, was necessary in order to discredit a miracle, which had been just wrought in the midst of us, and was attended with every thing requisite to prove it authentic. Accordingly, Dr. Cheyne, a respectable physician of this city, and one of those physicians who had visited Mrs. Stuart before and since her recovery, was applied to by the Rev. Robert Daly, and requested to say, whether he thought there was any thing miraculous in the change which took place in Mrs. Stuart's health. And whether he thought her case could be accounted for on natural principles? Dr. Cheyne answers without hesitation, and says, that, in his opinion, there was nothing miraculous in the change which took place in Mrs. Stuart's health, and that her case can, to his entire satisfaction, be accounted for on natural principles.

"Here, then, I come in close contact with, and stand in full opposition to, Dr. Cheyne. And, first of all, I must re

gret that, as Dr. Cheyne is so confident of being able to account, to his entire satisfaction, on natural principles, for the fact in question, he did not favour the public with his reasons: for those, I doubt not, would satisfy his friends; and they, who should not be convinced, would have an opportunity of being further enlightened; and the public at large would be saved a disagreeable state of doubt and uncertainty, for Dr. Cheyne's bare assertion cannot be supposed to carry conviction to any mind on a disputed point. But as Dr. Cheyne has not thought proper to give us his reasons, perhaps I may provoke him to it; for I will give mine, and am as confident, as he can be in his opinion, that the fact in question cannot be accounted for on natural principles.

"The documents relative to the long ailing state of Mrs. Mary Stuart are before the public, and cannot admit of a rational doubt. The symptoms of her disorder were of the nervous kind, and very anomalous. The nervous system is the least known part of the aninal economy; yet, notwithstanding its great extent and its great obscurity, there are in it certain land-marks, on which light appears and certainly rests. We know, for instance, that the nerves are the organs of sense and motion in the animal economy; we know that they may be effected either in a primary or secondary manner.

"As they are the organs of sense and motion, they are as it were the connecting medium between spirit and matter, between the moral and physical man. Hence strong affections of the mind often greatly agitate the nerves; and, when in disorders of the nerves, the nerves are often primarily affected, strong emotions of the mind have often suddenly and completely removed very afflicting and obstinate diseases. But, when the nervous disorder is of the secondary kind, for instance, when it is caused by the pressure of blood vessels on the nerves, no such effect can be expected, nor do I believe that any one of the kind can be pointed out in the whole extent of medical science. Now, that this was the nature of Mrs. Stuart's disorder, we have the most unexceptionable authority for asserting, not less than Dr. Cheyne himself. I have before me the certificates of the medical gentlemen who attended that lady. Dr. Cheyne, in his certificate, asserts, that she laboured under

determination of blood to the head; and that he was told, she had been very frequently relieved by large blood-lettings, blisterings, issues, &c. Dr. Mills, the attending physician, who had visited Mrs. Stuart for three years before her recovery, says, her complaint was generally of an apoplectic tendency. Surgeon M'Namara says, that the most distressing symptom of which Mrs. Stuart complained when he saw her, was a severe pain in the head, for the relief of which he was determined to put an issue on the scalp. Here, then, is the combined testimony of the medical gentlemen who attended Mrs. Stuart, setting forth in plain terms, that her disorder was of that nature, which, I say, never was, and never could be, removed by affections of the mind. But, I can go further, and say, that such affections of the mind, as are known to relieve certain nervous diseases, most certainly tend to aggravate the disease in question. It is said, that the religious enthusiasm of Mrs. Stuart accounts for the change which suddenly took place in her state of health. This enthusiasm consists in ardent hope and in strong desires, and these affections of the mind are certainly of the exciting kind, and would as certainly increase the determination of blood to the head, as strong doses of wine might be supposed to do. I am sure my good neighbour, Dr. Mills, would never have ventured to offer strong doses of wine to his patient, Mrs. Stuart, and will Dr. Cheyne venture to oppose the conclusions, which. I think, irresistibly follow from what I have said; and therefore the case of Mrs. Mary Stuart, of Ranelagh convent, cannot be accounted for on natural principles; therefore it is miraculous.

"Before I take my leave of Dr. Cheyne, I shall just advert to a conclusion, which, I think, he admits, and which I cannot believe to be strictly correct. It is that there can be nothing miraculous in any thing which can be accounted for on natural principles. If I mistake not, I could point out some miracles in holy writ, which could be accounted for on natural principles. Yet the sanctity of the performer; his confident appeal to Heaven; the command he assumes over nature; nature's prompt obedience to his call; and such like circumstances, were sufficient to convince human reason of the truth of the miracle, independent of the authority of holy writ. For this part of my