years old, else, I doubt not, it would be publicly and unanimously disavowed by all Papists, and every document produced to prove it would be pronounced a forgery. The people in Glasgow are not prepared to refuse the evidence of their own senses, at least with regard to money matters. Even the Papists in Glasgow are not insensible of the evidence of their own empty stomachs, and the clamours of their hungry children, when they were obliged to give weekly so many of their hard-earned pence for the building of the chapel; and, if the facts were denied, hundreds of witnesses would rise up among themselves to confirm them.

The chapel must have cost as much money as would have built three comfortable houses sufficiently large. It is well known that the bulk of the adherents of the Romish church here are poor labouring people; and it is not denied that the necessary funds, with the exception of a small sum from some very liberal Protestants, were raised among the people themselves. There was a sort of poll-tax imposed upon the members, according to their real or supposed circumstances. This tax was levied with no small rigour: and, during a period of great commercial distress, it must undoubtedly have pressed heavily upon many poor persons, who were not left the choice of giving or not giving, but who were taught that nothing less than the salvation of their souls depended upon their paying the tax. Some who were actually exempted from the king's cottage tax, on account of their extreme poverty, were paying four times as much for building the chapel. I do not know what our great men in London would think of this, if they knew it; for, though some of them are sufficiently favourable to what are called the Catholic claims, I am not sure that they would admit their claim to levy the king's taxes, and apply them to their own use. The ghostly fathers of the Romish church have much greater power over the people who submit to be governed by them, than the king of Great Britain has over his subjects. It is not in the power of the king to levy one shilling of contribution from the people, without their own consent, or, which is virtually the same, the consent of their representatives in parliament assembled. This fundamental principle of the British constitution gives to the people, in this free country, a dignity and importance above those of many other states, and has doubtless contributed not a little to the prosperity of the kingdom. But the principles of popery are those of slavery and arbitrary power. Papists submit to be taxed by their priests: at the pleasure of the latter, contributions are levied upon the people, without the consent of themselves or their representatives; and, if the principle be admitted, that the priests can do this, it will be found wherever popery is generally professed, that the king can do the same. The priests will support, among the people, the king's title to raise money by whatever means may be agreeable to himself; and, in short, to do whatever he pleases. If ever popery shall be again prevalent in this country, (and it is the object of our Papists to make it so,) all our boasted liberties are gone, and the prosperity of the kingdom is gone with them. Then the servants of the crown may say to the people, as the popish minister of Henry the eighth said to the citizens of London, when he wanted money from them: 66 It were better that some of you should lose your heads, than that the king should lack."

In my last number, I promised to give some examples to confirm what I wrote, about money being extorted from poor persons, for the purpose of building the popish chapel. I find no fault with the Romish sect for building a place of worship for themselves. They have legally as good a right to do so as any other sect that is not established by law. Had they, of their own accord, agreed to erect a comfortable and commodious building; and had they contributed voluntarily, according to their ability, for the purpose, no reasonable man would have found fault, however much he might pity those who were so blinded by superstition, as to give their money for the support of a system which is inimical to their own happiness. Still, however, had it been a voluntary thing, they would have been acting like freeborn British subjects; and had they been content with a building merely comfortable and commodious, they would have shown themselves possessed of some measure of common sense. But, as I shall show presently, there was a heavy tax imposed upon the people without their consent; and all who submitted to this became, in fact, the vassals or slaves of their tax masters. They stood no longer on the high and independent ground which every British subject is entitled to occupy: their property, the hard-earned fruit of their labour, was at the arbitrary disposal of persons over whom they had no control, and who would not deign to consult them with regard to its application.

Besides, nothing less, it seems, would suffice to gratify the vanity of him, or them, who had the charge of the money so extorted from the people, than a splendid edifice, equal at least to some ancient cathedral; or, to use the words of AMICUS VERITATIS, a house resembling, "as much as possible, the majesty of that God to whose service it was to be dedicated." I need not stop at present to show that this could not be a place intended for Christian worship; for it must be only an idol that can find a likeness or resemblance in wood and stone, carved according to the art of the craftsmen. My present business is with the enormous expense of this building; and I do not hesitate to repeat as an assertion, what I formerly put as a question, Whether it was not built, in a great measure, at the expense of a poor, and, in some instances, of a starving people? I go upon the supposition, that what was levied under the pretext of building the chapel, was actually applied to that object; for that is what many of the contributors themselves must take for granted; and, so far as I know, no doubts exist with regard to the faithfulness of the application.

*

Now it is a fact, that while the chapel was a-building, the people, while they yet met in their old place of worship, were assured by their ghostly father, that such of them as fell behind in their payments, should not enjoy church privileges. What was this but extorting money by the fear of future punishment? and, from the condition of many of those from whom it was so extorted, who can doubt that often they had scarcely food for their families, or clothes to cover them? Every one knows in what estimation Papists regard the privileges of their church. To be denied these, is the same as to be denied the salvation of their souls: the poor therefore were told, in language

*This phrase is not used as a term of reproach. Ghostly is the old English word for spiritual; and, according to the Douay Catechism, ghostly father is the title by which the clergy choose to be called.

sufficiently plain, that if the chapel tax was not punctually paid, they should suffer the pains of purgatory, or even hell itself.

That this tax was extorted, and not always paid voluntarily, even from the fear of purgatory, is evident from the following fact:-There were a number of Papists employed, while the chapel was a-building, in one of the public works in the suburbs. These, it seems, were very unwilling to pay the tax. Application was therefore made to the manager, that he would retain, in his own hands, a portion of their weekly earnings, to assist in building the chapel; for, as the applicant informed him, he could not trust the people themselves with the payment of their dues. The proprietors of the work, much to their honour, refused to comply with the request, rightly judging that the labourer was entitled to the whole reward of his labour, without any deduction whatever. This is but one instance of the kind; but it is enough to show the manner in which money was extorted, without the consent of the people themselves, when by any means the collectors for the chapel could lay their hands upon their property.

I shall proceed to give a few more facts on this subject. The reader may rely on their authenticity. I could, indeed, give the names of the parties concerned; but I do not choose to do so, unless I shall be judicially called upon. I have been informed that some of my Papist neighbours talk big about my having libelled them; they even speak of a legal prosecution against me, for what I have written on the subject of their extorting money from the poor; and they will compel me, they say, to answer Mr. Scorr's question, whether or not I referred to him as the person who did so? I have no doubt the Papists of the present day are very willing to employ the old popish argument of fines and imprisonments, and worse, if they could, against all whom they cannot otherwise confute; and if they had the inquisition at command, they would no doubt silence me. It seems there is no resource left them, but to appeal to some criminal tribunal: for they find that arguments and facts are all against them. It is my happiness, however, to live in a country in which there is no inquisition; and, therefore, I shall, without fear, produce my facts, as I have hitherto done my arguments, leaving the reader to judge how far my assertions are proved by them:

A man who now lives out of the city, was assessed in a certain weekly sum for building the chapel. During the dull trade, he fell back with regard to his payments. His family, however, continued to increase, and when he went to his ghostly father to get a child baptized, he was asked, How he stood with regard to his payments? He confessed, what he could not deny, that during the hard times he had fallen behind. He was ordered to go about his business; and told, that his child should not be baptized, till he had paid every farthing that was due. Before he was able to raise the necessary sum, the child died; and the father was left to suffer all the misery which such a circumstance would occasion to one who considered baptism necessary to the salvation of his child.

This is a very serious matter in the church of Rome. A child that dies unchristened must be lost. It is a generally received doctrine of that church, that baptism is necessary to salvation; and, in cases of extremity, where a new born infant was likely to die before a priest

could arrive, the midwife was authorized to baptize it. The sacrament of baptism is understood to regenerate the child, and to turn it from being a member of Satan into a child of God. A child that dies unbaptized can have no place in the kingdom of heaven, and cannot even have the privilege of Christian burial in consecrated ground. A medical friend has related to me the following fact, which occurred in his own practice, and which shows how acutely the feelings of even a mother are alive to this subject:-He had attended a poor woman who found herself dying while pretty far advanced in pregnancy. She exacted of him a promise that, after her death, he would open her body, and separate the body of her child. He performed his promise, without at first thinking that she had any particular meaning in exacting it; but learning that she had been a Papist, he inquired of her friends, who were in attendance, if there was understood to be any religious meaning in what he had done? They assured him that there was, and that the woman could not have died in peace, had she not been assured that her unchristened child should be separated from her; for, otherwise, she could not receive Christian burial, and she could not go to heaven, if the unchristened body of her child remained in her. The church of Rome cherishes such ideas of baptism, and of the absolute necessity of it, in order to the salvation of children; yet there was a priest in Glasgow, who would not baptize a child, because its father was a few shillings in arrears of an arbitrarily imposed tax. Upon his own principles, the priest was, for the sake of a few shillings, guilty of the everlasting perdition of that child. The soul of one child is more precious than a thousand worlds; but popery cares not how many thousand souls shall perish, if it can but gratify its own avarice and ambition.

Most sincerely do I wish that all Papists, and especially all fathers and mothers, would forsake their priests, and come to Christ, the friend of sinners, and the friend of children. If they believe in him, they shall receive all heavenly blessings for themselves; and as for their children, they shall find that he imposes no such conditions with regard to their salvation as the hard-hearted priests impose. Such priests care for neither parents nor children farther than as they can extort money from them. They will let them perish, if they cannot pay for their salvation: but Christ has a tender and compassionate heart. He has set open the door of mercy, that whosoever will may enter in and enjoy all the blessings of salvation without money and without price. He has not made baptism, nor any thing else that man can do, necessary to the salvation of children. His own righteousness is sufficient to present them, as well as their believing parents, without spot before the throne of God.

I can, if necessary, give the name of a poor man, who subsisted partly on charity, and partly by carrying coals, and whose very clothing, such as it was, was furnished by some benevolent individuals, from whom not less than six shillings was exacted, at one time, to assist in building the popish chapel. I can give the name of another, residing in Calton, who is in bad health, and who has sent several times for his ghostly father to visit him in his distress; but the said father will not go to him, because he has fallen behind in his payments. There is no comfort, it seems, for the poor. This individual may die

without confession, without absolution, and he may perish for ever; because he cannot pay a certain sum to defray the expense of the chapel.

There are two young men, apprentices, each of whose earnings did not exceed four shillings a week. Out of this miserable pittance, one was obliged to pay sixpence, the other ninepence, a fortnight. I believe, in the estimation of those who had lately the distribution of public bounty, in a time of great distress, four shillings a week was understood to be the lowest sum by which a grown person could support life; what then must have been the condition of two hard-working young men, who could earn no more, and who were obliged to give so large a portion of it to defray the expense of the ridiculous gewgaws of the chapel in Clyde street.

Popery is a system of terror, as well as of cruelty and oppression. Notwithstanding all the rigour with which the chapel tax it collected, there will be some individuals who cannot possibly make up the sum that is required of them. The cravings of hunger will sometimes prevail against the fear of the priest, and even the fear of purgatory: and who can blame a poor person, who has earned only a few pence in the course of a whole day, if he shall find that a loaf is of more importance to him and his family, than another ornament on the walls of the chapel can be to him or any body else? But, if he shall practically come to such a conclusion, if he shall presume to feed himself or his children instead of paying his tax, he dares not show himself within the consecrated walls, till he have paid every farthing that is exacted of him. I could give the instance of a poor woman, who, though she had paid as long as she was able, yet, falling behind, she durst not gratify herself with a sight of the new chapel after it was finished. She frankly told her neighbours that she did not dare to go till she was able to pay up what she was due. She was of course deprived of all the ordinances of the sanctuary, as it is called; she was left destitute of all the consolations of her religion; she was left to live without comfort, and to die without hope, because she could not pay the chapel tax!

The following case presents a ghostly father in a more favourable light, and exhibits one of that holy order not quite destitute of human feelings. Some time ago this father was called to visit one of his people who was dangerously ill. One of his first questions, as usual, was, How he stood with regard to his payments? He was answered, That owing to the state of his family he had fallen behind. The visitor seemed not a little surprised that the sick person should have the assurance to send for him, while his dues were not all paid up, and reproved him very warmly for it. He then asked, If there was any money in the house? and being informed that there was only one shilling, he demanded and got it. His attention was then turned a little to the case of the sick person; but he soon resumed the subject of money, and gave back the shilling, on condition that the whole that was due should be paid as soon as possible.

I believe the Protestants in Glasgow, without being aware of it, have contributed not a little indirectly for the building of this chapel; and, therefore, some deduction ought to be made from the "piety and public spirit of the Catholics." It was from the latter indeed that the