the fire quencheth not.' The next speaker made one of those happy speeches which fools will sometimes utter that is, a speech made up of contradictions; for, if the first part is correct, (and I believe it is,) I wonder how any man could utter the nonsense and blasphemy which concludes it. The Rev. Mr. Steadman, after reminding the meeting not to forget the needful (alias money), proceeded to say that Catholicism was rapidly increasing: At Preston, in Lancashire, out of a population of thirty thousand, ten thousand were Roman Catholics; and that a very favourable impression of the Catholic doctrine had gone abroad. All this,' he continued, 'looks very frightful; and it ought to make true Protestants search the more diligently for the nerves and sinews of the Popish faith, so that it might be eternally destroyed. They knew that the downfall of Popery (query, who told them?) was predicted; and, therefore, all they had to do was to go on steadily and perseveringly in doing what they could to promote the cause which, in fact, was the cause of God.' We have all lately heard a great deal about Pastorini; but what is he to the Rev. Mr. Steadman, a self-deputed minister of the Gospel? Not satisfied with proclaiming the prophetic extinction of Popery, he calls upon true Protestants to do what? why, nothing less than to assist the Almighty, by feeling for the sinews (what an anatomist!) of the Popish faith. God, in his opinion, has announced a certain event; but, instead of waiting for his good time, the Rev. Mr. Steadman wants to hurry the King of kings, (what blasphemy!) by calling in his silly auditors to assist in the extirpation of Catholicity. A few thousand fanatics, in a diminutive island, eternally destroy the religious five-sixths of Europe!!! This needs no com. ment, and came with an ill grace from one of those who, a few mʊ ments before, had listened to a chief object is to give them scriptural instruction. They are required not only to read the scriptures in the schools, but to commit considerable parts of them to meBut let us turn from such in- mory; for which purpose it beconsistencies to facts-to common comes necessary that they should sense, and see whether this so- take the book to their respective ciety, and all other societies like homes. Scripture-reading by the it, have effected, in Ireland, the children of all ages is the predoconversion, or rather perversion, minant and almost the sole object of a single Roman Catholic. Every of instruction; and it is the avowyear you are told of the great gooded wish of the directors, that the done by your last year's contribu- children should thus obtain for tion, and your agents detail the themselves an acquaintance with contempt they have succeeded in the doctrines of Christianity, with. exciting against the priests-the out reference to any particular number of souls they have saved form of creed or worship. from damnation-and the numbers The opinion which is formed who have, in consequence of your by the Roman Catholics of the interference, abandoned the damn- character and intentions of the able errors of Popery. Now, I London Hibernian and Baptist Soam very glad to tell you, that dur-cieties must naturally be the result ing the last nineteen years you of a consideration of the whole, have been listening to nothing but and not of a part of their proceed. FALSEHOODS; and I tell you so ings; and in this view it is impornot on my own authority, (though tant to observe, with respect to that, God knows, would be suffi the London Hibernian Society, cient,) not on the authority of Ca- that the circulation of the holy tholic priests and bishops, but on scriptures generally in Ireland is the authority of five commis- one of the declared objects of the sioners, four of whom are Pro- society; and that it also emtestants, who have, at his Ma- ploys a class of readers, who are jesty's command, laid their Re- constantly engaged in travelling port before Parliament. As this through those parts of the country is a document which few have an which are inhabited by Roman opportunity of referring to, I shall Catholics, and in reading and exquote the passage: pounding to them the scriptures. So, likewise, with respect to the Baptist Society; its declared object is not only to establish schools but "to promote the Gospel in Ireland," by the employment of iti. nerant preachers, and by the distribution of Bibles and tracts, either gratuitously or at reduced prices. "It forms no part of our duty,' say the commissioners, to notice any of these societies, but such as are connected with the establishment of schools; and of that class we found that the London Hibernian and Baptist Societies were so conducted as to excite a greater degree of distrust, on the part of the Roman Catholic clergy, than any of the others. 'It is true, indeed, that general directions are given by these societies, that no attempt shall be made in their schools to instil Protestant doctrines into the minds of the Roman Catholic children. The The anxiety and apprehension which we found to prevail amongst the Roman Catholic clergy, with respect to prosely tism, induced us carefully to inquire whether many children had, in fact, been converted from the Roman Catholic faith through the immediate instrumentality either of the schools of the Kildare Place Society, or of the other societies with which it is connected; and we have no reason whatever to believe that the conversion of any children has taken place in any case in which they cannot be sufficiently accounted for by the religion of one or other of the parents.' Thus you see no conversions have taken place from Catholicity, while it is admitted, even by Dr. Magee, the Protestant archbishop of Dublin,* that numbers of poorer Protestants have gone over to the church of Rome. Your labours hitherto have, therefore, been fruitless; and fortunately they have been so, for what state of society would that be, where the son went to a Methodist chapel and the father to mass? Religious rancour would succeed to Christian har to Protestantism gives up so much Having now shown you that you it; and it was approved of and confirmed by a bull of Pope Pius Seventh, dated 5th of September, 1820. The object of the establishment is the instruction of poor boys. The brothers take a vow of poverty (not to possess any thing of their own as an individual property) of chastity, and of obedi. ence to the superior; and, fourthly, they vow to teach children gra tuitously during their lives, and are not at liberty to retire from any part of this engagement unless by dispensation from the pope, or from their bishop. The funds of this institute are supplied partly from the children and partly from subscriptions. There are at present about forty brothers, under whose superintendence there are three schools in Dublin; one in Waterford, containing about seven the people averse to it; but what hundred children; one in Cork, must be your surprise to hear, that containing about one thousand; such is the high opinion entertained one in Limerick, containing five by Catholics for education, that hundred; one at Carrick-on-Suir; individuals have entered into reli. one at Thurles, containing two gious societies established for the hundred; one at Dungarvan, coneducation of the poor, making taining two hundred and fifty ; one heroic vows, which even you must at Ennistymon, containing about approve of, though their zeal and five hundred; and one at Cappocharity put to flight all your pre- quin. We have visited one of the tensions to liberality and benevo- Dublin schools, situated in Hanolence? Lest you might consider ver Street East, and those at Wamy descriptions too highly co-terford, Cork, Limerick, and loured, I shall make a few extracts Thurles, and are informed that from the Report of the Commis- the same system is adopted in all missioners of the Irish Education the others. Inquiry.' mony, and all be confusion, heart-priests inimical to education, and A man who is converted,' said Dr. Johnson, from Protestantism to Popery, may be sincere. He parts with nothing; he is only superadding to what he already But to convert from Popery * I have a rod in pickle for his Grace. Rock. had. 'Amongst the several voluntary associations,' say they, established for the purposes of education in Ireland, there is one which deserves peculiar notice, this is an institute called "The Brothers of the Christian Schools in Ireland." It is composed entirely of Roman Catholics, and forms what at first view might be mistaken for a monastic order, but which is stated to be only a congregation. Mr. Edmund Rice, of Waterford, is the superior of this institute. The plan of it was submitted by him, in 1802, to Pope Pius Sixth, who encouraged him to proceed with They are all day schools, and those which we saw were com. pletely filled with pupils. The school in Hanover Street East was opened in 1814; it contains, in four apartments, between four and five hundred children. 'The school opens at ten in the morning; and the children, during the time of attendance in this, as well as in the other schools of the confraternity we have visited, are kept in good order, and the masters seldom have recourse to corporal punishment. Mr. Dunphy states, that although the first object of the congregationis the education of poor children, and instruction in the Roman Catholic religion, they are not prohibited from giving literary instruction to Protestants; and that they have, in fact, had some few Protestant scholars in the schools; and that they endeavour to implant in the children principles of loyalty and fidelity to their severeign, not only from duty, but in gratitude, and that they teach charity and good will to mankind, without distinction of religion. There are also schools for boys established in different parts of Ireland by lay brethren of different religious orders. The system of instruction is of course exclusively Roman Catholic, and is similar to that in use with the Brothers of the Christian Doctrine: such of their schools as we have visited appeared well conducted. Besides the male schools just referred to, there are several for females only, under the care and management of the different nunneries established throughout the country. The nuns of the Order of the Presentation are instituted for the express purpose of giving instruction, and they have about twenty schools under their immediate direction; and there are about ten others superintended by nuns of other orders. In all these schools, except four, the children are instructed free. There are in the whole upwards of six thousand children attending these schools, of whom about twenty are Protestants. 'We have visited many of these schools, and have found them conducted with great order and regularity, and the children are in general well supplied with books and every school requisite. The nuns are the teachers, and devote themselves to the duty of instruction with the most unwearied assiduity and attention. We were much impressed with the appearance of affection and respect on the part of the pupils towards their teachers, which characterizes these institutions in a remarkable de gree. A few of these convent establishments have also boarding schools annexed to them, but in general they are day schools. . "It will appear, from the inspection of the list, that no class of schools, generally speaking, is more numerously attended. 'In addition to the Sunday schools, which are under the peculiar superintendence of the members of these societies, we have to observe, that there are, we believe, but few chapels in Ireland in which religious instruction is not imparted on Sundays to the Roman Catholic children of the parish. The several Roman Catholic schoolmasters are frequently employed for this purpose, under the direction of the Roman Catholic clergymen. The instruction is exclusively catechetical. The attendance is usually extremely numerous; in fact, consisting of the Roman Catholic children who are in a course of instruction at the several day schools within reach of the chapel. In the city of Limerick it occurred to one of the commissioners to witness on one Sunday upwards of four thousand children collected in four chapels for this purpose, and in several parishes similar instruction is given on Saturdays as well as on Sundays. 'There are also day schools attached to many Roman Catholic chapels, some for males and some for females. The attendance on these schools is in general extremely numerous. The instruction administered is usually on the Lancasterian system; reading, writing, and the sedulous teaching of the various Roman Catholic catechisms, form the general course of education.' Beside these meritorious seminaries of education, pay schools are numerous. 'We had,' say the same commissioners, 'in the course of our inspection been much struck with the state of many schools, in The Sodality of the Christian Doctrine. which the pupils paid for the instruction they received, and in which there appeared to be perfect harmony amongst children of all persuasions. These schools were carried on as objects of private speculation, and not supported either by public funds or by the aid of societies. Each child was taught the religion which its parents wished it to learn; and the master, who depended for his livelihood on giving satisfaction to his employers, was content to impart as he could the instruction neces sary for each. In this manner we frequently found the same master teaching the catechism of the church of England to one child, the Roman Catholic to another, and the Presbyterian to a third, according to a mode which is well described to us by Mr. Cooke, the moderator of the Presbyterian synod of Ulster. Although we do not mean to approve of the same master teaching different and conflicting religious doctrines, the state of these schools led us to the conclusion, that it was at least possible that both religious and general instruction might be communicated in establishments in which children of all persuasions should be taught together.' It now remains for you to reflect upon these facts, and say whether you are determined to continue the dupes of designing knaves, who laugh at your credulity. Rock. TALES OF THE CRUSADERS. (Continued from my last.) The burning sun of Syria had not yet attained its highest point in the horizon, when a knight of the Red-cross, who had left his distant northern home, and joined the host of the crusaders in Palestine, was pacing slowly along the sandy deserts which lie in the vicinity of the Dead Sea, or, as it is called, the Lake Asphaltites, where the waves of the Jordan pour them selves into an inland sea, from which there is no discharge of waters. The warlike pilgrim had toiled among cliffs and precipices during the early part of the morning; more lately, issuing from those rocky and dangerous defiles, he had entered upon that great plain, where the accursed cities provoked, in ancient days, the direct and dreadful vengeance of the Omnipo tent. The toil, the thirst, the dangers of the way, were forgotten, as the traveller recalled the fearful catastrophe, which had converted into an arid and dismal wilderness the fair and fertile valley of Siddim, once well watered, even as the Garden of the Lord, now a parched and blighted waste, condemned to eternal sterility. 6 and sullen waves, supplied those rolling clouds with new vapours, and seemed to give awful testimony to the truth of the Mosaic history. Upon this scene of desolation the sun shone with almost intolerable splendour, and all living nature appeared to have hidden itself from the rays, excepting the solitary figure which moved through the flitting sand at a foot's pace, and appeared the sole breathing thing on the wide surface of the plain. The dress of the rider, and the accoutrements of his horse, seemed chosen on purpose, as most peculiarly unfit for the traveller in such a country. A coat of linked mail, with long sleeves, plated gauntlets, and a steel breastplate, gauntlets, and a steel breastplate, had not been esteemed a sufficient weight of armour; there was also 'Crossing himself, as he viewed his triangular shield suspended the dark mass of rolling waters, in round his neck, and his barred colour as in quality unlike those of helmet of steel, over which flowed every other lake, the traveller a hood and collar of mail, which shuddered as he remembered, that was drawn around the warrior's beneath these sluggish waves lay shoulders and throat, and filled up the once proud cities of the plain, the vacancy between the hauberk whose grave was dug by the thun- and the head-piece. His lower der of the heavens, or the eruption limbs were sheathed, like his body, of subterraneous fire, and whose in flexible mail, securing the legs remains were hid, even by that sea and thighs, while the feet rested in which holds no living fish in its bo-plated shoes, which corresponded som, bears not skiff on its surface, and, as if its own dreadful bed were the only fit receptacle for its sullen waters, sends not, like other lakes, a tribute to the ocean. The whole land around, as in the days of Moses, was "brimstone and salt; it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth thereon;" the land as well as the lake might be termed dead, as producing nothing having resemblance to vegetation, and even the very air was entirely devoid of its ordinary winged inhabitants, deterred probably by the odour of bitumen and sulphur which the burning sun exhaled from the waters of the lake, in steaming clouds, frequently assuming the appearance of water-spouts. Masses of the slimy and sulphurous substance called naphtha, which floated idly on the sluggish with the gauntlets. A long, broad, be a couchant leopard, with the motto, "I sleep-wake me not." An outline of the same device might have been traced on his shield, though many a blow had almost effaced the painting. The flat top of his cumbrous cylindrical helmet was unadorned with any crest. In retaining their own unwieldy defensive armour, the northern crusaders seemed to set at de. fiance the nature of the climate and country in which they were come to war. "The accoutrements of the horse were scarcely less massive and unwieldy than those of the rider. The animal had a heavy saddle plated with steel, uniting in front with a species of breast-plate, and behind with defensive armour made to cover the loins. Then there was a steel axe, or hammer, called a mace-of-arms, and which hung to the saddle-bow; the reins were secured by chainwork, and the frontstall of the bridle was a steel plate, with apertures for the eyes and nostrils, having in the midst a short sharp pike, projecting from the forehead of the horse like the horn of the fabulous unicorn. But habit had made the endurauce of this load of panoply a second nature, both to the knight and his gallant charger. Numbers, indeed, of the western warriors who hurried to Palestine, died ere they became inured to the burning climate; but there were others to whom that climate became innocent and even friendly, and among this fortunate number was the solitary horseman who now traversed the border of the Dead Sea. (To be concluded in my next.) ROCK NOTICES. THE state of my columns this week must be my apology for the omission of some promised articles. This Gazette is now done up in partssix in each, price one shilling; and may be ordered through any bookseller or news. man. They are of course to be had of all my agents in Ireland and England. LONDON:-J. Robins and Co. Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row; J. Robins, jun. and Co. 38, Lower Ormond Quay, Dublin, and all Booksellers, &c. No. 21. Or, The Chieftain's Weekly Gazette. THE SAINTS. SATURDAY, JULY 23, 1825. In the two last numbers of this Gazette I endea. voured to infuse some common sense into the heads of those who imagine that there is no road to Heaven but that by which Bible readers and tractdistributors travel. A papist, of course, goes quite another way, but instead of pity or sorrow for his infatuation, the Evangelists-alias the Saints-are so inveterate, that they are ambitious to facilitate his journey; and if he don't take a hint, they give him a kick. Gentle souls! strike them on one ear, and they turn another; but let only a catholic arise to rebut their calumny, and the spirit of the puritans waxeth wrath; he must not be heard-that would be justice he must be silenced, and that is injustice. A few days since a Go-spell tract society held their meeting at the City of London Tavern. For several days previously the public were invited to attend, and, consequently, two catholic clergymen walked in; they had not been there long, however, when one of them, as in duty bound, arose to know if he could be heard in reply to some injurious imputations cast upon his religion. Upon his intimating to speak, the Saints took the alarm, and after a shower of ruffianly epithets, began to strike at him, and actually kicked and otherwise illtreated his reverend friend! This conduct needs no comment, and I am happy to say every Englishman I have since met joins in a general cry of shame upon them! These proceedings of the Saints will ultimately be productive of good; and in order to forward the progress of so desirable a work, I give insertion to the following Intercepted Letters' from some of the Holy ones. Rock. PRICE TWO PENCE. in his style. There seems, also, to be too frequent That makes all human actions evil; FROM THE HON. — TO THE REV. From this dark land, where never Gospel light Broke in on Superstition's lengthened night, Or only shot a faint and transient gleam, Showing the darkness it could not redeemFrom this dark land, where bigot priests conspire To quench each ray of intellectual fire, And shut the sacred book to mortals given, Their only guide and passport to that heaven, To gain them which, on Calvary's steep side, The Son of man, the Lamb, the Saviour, diedFrom this dark land, where, high upon the beast, The scarlet lady rears her harlot crest, Sitting on many waters, passing round The cup in which immortal souls are drowned; MY DEAR CAPTAIN-The following letter, which, The golden cup of deep abominations, together with some others, I shall, if you think pro- Brimming with filthiness and fornications;* per, have the pleasure of transmitting to you, was From this dark land, in sorrowing mood, I writepicked up near the letter-box of the Cork Post-This land of priestcraft, ignorance, and nightoffice. They seem to have fallen unperceived by To tell you how the Babylonish dame the person who took them to the office; and were Made battle with the saints, and overcame. picked up, opened, and read, by one whose curiosity Though Wisdom crieth loudly in the streets, was too strong for his honesty. They fell, no mat- And uttereth her voice to all she meets, ter by what accident, into my hands; and, as the She stretcheth forth her hand without regard; writers are public men, I will take the liberty of They hear her not-or only mock when heard: submitting them to the public. This letter seems to For they despise all knowledge, scorn the word, me to be a little deformed with too much mixed meta- And do not choose the terror of the Lord. + phor, a little of what the profane call cant, and a disagreeable tautology of such words as pure,' bright,' &c.; but, having heard the gentleman who is supposed to have written it, I must allow it is very much A few days since a meeting of the Board Revelations, chap. xvii. v. 3, 4. + Proverbs, chap. 1. v. 20, 24, 29. |