the choice of others, is very great. It is a con- | dence. The late resident writes well; but is siderable wretchedness that men and women miserably fanatical towards the conclusion should be shut up in religious houses; but it is Mr. Cunningham has been diligent in looking only an object of legislative interference, when into books upon the subject: and though an such incarceration is compulsory. Monasteries evangelical gentleman, is not uncharitable to and nunneries with us would be harmless in- those who differ from him in opinion. There stitutions; because the moment a devotee found is a passage in the publication of his reverend he had acted like a fool, he might avail himself brother, Mr. Owen, which, had we been less of the discovery and run away; and so may an accustomed than we have been of late to this Hindoo, if he repents of his resolution of run- kind of writing, would appear to be quite inning hooks into his flesh. credible.

The duties of conversion appear to be of less importance, when it is impossible to procure difference, upon Mr. Twining's principles, beI have not pointed out the comparative inproper persons to undertake them, and when tween one religion and another, to the welfare such religious embassies, in consequence, devolve upon the lowest of the people. Who of a people; nor the impossibility, on those wishes to see scrofula and atheism cured by a human means, so long as it shall remain under principles, of India being Christianized by any single sermon in Bengal? who wishes to see the religious hoy riding at anchor in the Hoogly tive to which Providence the dominion of the Company; nor the alternariver? or shoals of jumpers exhibiting their by consequence reduced, nimble piety before the learned Brahmins of of either giving up that country to everlasting su Benares? This madness is disgusting and perstition, or of working some miracle in order to dangerous enough at home:-Why are we to accomplish its conversion."—Owen's Address, p. 28. send out little detachments of maniacs to spread This is really beyond any thing we ever reover the fine regions of the world the most un-member to have read. The hoy, the cock-fight, just and contemptible opinion of the gospel? and the religious newspaper, are pure reason The wise and rational part of the Christian when compared to it. The idea of reducing ministry find they have enough to do at home Providence to an alternative!! and, by a motion to combat with passions unfavourable to human at the India House, carried by ballot! We happiness, and to make men act up to their would not insinuate, in the most distant manprofessions. But if a tinker is a devout man, ner, that Mr. Owen is not a gentleman of the ne infallibly sets off for the East. Let any most sincere piety; but the misfortune is, all man read the Anabaptist missions :-can he 'do extra superfine persons accustom themselves to so without deeming such men pernicious and a familiar phraseology upon the most sacred extravagant in their own country,-and with- subjects, which is quite shocking to the com. out feeling that they are benefiting us much mon and inferior orders of Christians. Provimore by their absence, than the Hindoos by dence reduced to an alternative!!!!! Let it be their advice? remembered, this phrase comes from a member It is somewhat strange, in a duty which is of a religious party, who are loud in their comstated by one party to be so clear and so indis-plaints of being confounded with enthusiasts pensable, that no man of moderation and good and fanatics. sense can be found to perform it. And if no other instruments remain but visionary enthusiasts, some doubt may be honestly raised whether it is not better to drop the scheme entirely.

We cannot conclude without the most pointed reprobation of the low mischief of the Christian Observer; a publication which appears to have no other method of discussing a question fairly open to discussion, than that of accusing their antagonists of infidelity. No art can be more

Shortly stated, then, our argument is this:We see not the slightest prospect of success;-unmanly, or, if its consequences are foreseen, we see much danger in making the attempt; more wicked. If this publication had been the and we doubt if the conversion of the Hindoos work of a single individual, we might have would ever be more than nominal. If it is passed it over in silent disgust; but as it is a duty of general benevolence to convert the looked upon as the organ of a great political Heathen, it is less a duty to convert the Hin-religious party in this country, we think it right doos than any other people, because they are to notice the very unworthy manner in which already highly civilized, and because you must they are attempting to extend their influence. infallibly subject them to infamy and present For ourselves, if there were a fair prospect of degradation. The instruments employed for carrying the gospel into regions where it was these purposes are calculated to bring ridicule before unknown,-if such a project did not and disgrace upon the gospel; and in the dis-expose the best possessions of the country eretion of those at home, whom we consider as to extreme danger, and if it was in the hands of their patrons, we have not the smallest reli- men who were discreet, as well as devout, we ance; but, on the contrary, we are convinced should consider it to be a scheme of true piety, they would behold the loss of our Indian em- benevolence, and wisdom: but the baseness and pire, not with the humility of men convinced of malignity of fanaticism shall never prevent us erroneous views and projects, but with the from attacking its arrogance, its ignorance, and pride, the exultation, and the alacrity of martyrs. its activity. For what vice can be more tre Of the books which have handled this sub-mendous than that which, while it wears the ject on either side, we have little to say. Ma- outward appearance of religion, destroys the jor Scott Waring's book is the best against the happiness of man, and dishonours the name of Missions; but he wants arrangement and pru- | God?

CATHOLICS.*

[EDINBURGH REVIEW, 1808.]

THE various publications which have issued from the press in favour of religious liberty, have now nearly silenced the arguments of their opponents; and, teaching sense to some, and inspiring others with shame, have left those only on the field who can neither learn nor blush.

But, though the argument is given up, and the justice of the Catholic cause admitted, it seems to be generally conceived, that their case, at present, is utterly hopeless; and that, to advocate it any longer, will only irritate the oppressed, without producing any change of opinion in those by whose influence and authority that oppression is continued. To this opinion, unfortunately too prevalent, we have many reasons for not subscribing.

the grand juries in Ireland to petition against further concessions; and, in six months afterwards, government were compelled to intro duce, themselves, those further relaxations of the penal code, of which they had just before assured the Catholics they must abandon all hope. Such is the absurdity of supposing that a few interested and ignorant individuals can postpone, at their pleasure and caprice, the happiness of millions.

As to the feeling of irritation with which such continued discussion may inspire the Irish Catholics, we are convinced that no opi nion could be so prejudicial to the cordial union which we hope may always subsist between the two countries, as that all the efforts of the Irish were unavailing,-that argument was hopeless,-that their case was prejudged with a sullen inflexibility which circumstances could not influence, pity soften, or reason subdue.

We do not understand what is meant in this country by the notion, that a measure, of consummate wisdom and imperious necessity, is to be deferred for any time, or to depend upon any contingency. Whenever it can be made We are by no means convinced, that the clear to the understanding of the great mass decorous silence recommended upon the Caof enlightened people, that any system of poli- tholic question would be rewarded by those tical conduct is necessary to the public welfare, future concessions, of which many persons every obstacle (as it ought) will be swept away appear to be so certain. We have a strange before it; and as we conceive it to be by no incredulity where persecution is to be abomeans improbable, that the country may, ere lished, and any class of men restored to their long, be placed in a situation where its safety indisputable rights. When we see it done, we or ruin will depend upon its conduct towards will believe it. Till it is done, we shall always the Catholics, we sincerely believe we are consider it to be highly improbable-much too doing our duty in throwing every possible light improbable-to justify the smallest relaxation on this momentous question. Neither do we in the Catholics themselves, or in those who understand where this passive submission to are well-wishers to their cause. When the ignorance and error is to end. Is it confined fanciful period at present assigned for the to religion? or does it extend to war and peace, emancipation arrives, new scruples may arise as well as religion? Would it be tolerated, if-fresh forbearance be called for-and the ope any man were to say, "Abstain from all arguments in favour of peace; the court have resolved upon eternal war; and, as you cannot have peace, to what purpose urge the necessity of it?" We answer,-that courts must be presumed to be open to the influence of reason; or, if they were not, to the influence of prudence and discretion, when they perceive the public opinion to be loudly and clearly against them. To lie by in timid and indolent silence, -to suppose an inflexibility, in which no court ever could, under pressing circumstances, persevere-and to neglect a regular and vigorous appeal to public opinion, is to give up all chance of doing good, and to abandon the only instrument by which the few are ever prevented from ruining the many.

It is folly to talk of any other ultimatum in government than perfect justice to the fair claims of the subject. The concessions to the Irish Catholics in 1792 were to be the ne plus ultra. Every engine was set on foot to induce

* History of the Penal Laws against the Irish Catholics, from the Treaty of Limerick to the Union. By Henry Parnell Esq. M.P.

rations of common sense be deferred for another generation. Toleration never had a present tense, nor taxation a future one. The answer which Paul received from Felix, he owed to the subject on which he spoke. When justice and righteousness were his theme, Felix told him to go away, and he would hear him some other time. All men who have spoken to courts upon such disagreeable topics, have received the same answer. Felix, how. ever, trembled when he gave it; but his fear was ill-directed. He trembled at the subject-he ought to have trembled at the delay.

Little or nothing is to be expected from the shame of deferring what it is so wicked and per. ilous to defer. Profligacy in taking office is so extreme, that we have no doubt public men may be found, who, for half a century, would postpone all remedies for a pestilence, if the preservation of their places depended upon the propagation of the virus. To us, such kind of conduct conveys no other action than that of sordid avaricious impudence :-it puts to sale the best interests of the country for some improvement in the wines and meats and carriages which a

man uses, and encourages a new political | Then all the Catholics were disarmed,—and morality which may always postpone any other then all the priests banished. After this (proba great measure-and every other great measure bly by way of joke), an act was passed to conas well as the emancipation of the Catholics. firm the treaty of Limerick,-the great and We terminate this apologetical preamble glorious King William totally forgetting the with expressing the most earnest hope that the contract he had entered into of recommending Catholics will not, from any notion that their the religious liberties of the Catholics to the cause is effectually carried, relax in any one attention of Parliament. constitutional effort necessary to their purpose. Their cause is the cause of common sense and justice; the safety of England and of the world may depend upon it. It rests upon the soundest principles; leads to the most important consequences; and therefore cannot be too frequently brought before the notice of the public.

The book before us is written by Mr. Henry Parnell, the brother of Mr. William Parnell, author of the Historical Apology, reviewed in one of our late numbers; and it contains a very well written history of the penal laws enacted against the Irish Catholics, from the peace of Limerick, in the reign of King William, to the late Union. Of these we shall present a very short, and, we hope even to loungers, a readable abstract.

On the 4th of March, 1704, it was enacted, that any son of a Catholic who would turn Protestant, should succeed to the family estate, which from that moment could no longer be sold, or charged with debt and legacy. On the same day, Popish fathers were debarred, by a penalty of 500l., from being guardians to their own children. If the child, however young, declared himself a Protestant, he was to be delivered immediately to the custody of some Protestant relation. No Protestant to marry a Papist. No Papist to purchase land, or take a lease of land for more than thirty-one years. If the profits of the lands so leased by the Catholics amounted to above a certain rate settled by the act,-farm to belong to the first Protestant who made the discovery. No Papist te be in a line of entail; but the estate to pass on to the next Protestant heir, as if the Papist were dead. If a Papist dies intestate, and no Protestant heir can be found, property to be equally divided among all the sons; or, if he has none, among all the daughters. By the 16th clause of this bill, no Papist to hold any office civil or military. Not to dwell in Limerick or Galway, except on certain conditions. Not to vote at elections. Not to hold advowsons.

The war carried on in Ireland against King William cannot deserve the name of a rebellion: it was a struggle for their lawful Prince, whom they had sworn to maintain; and whose zeal for the Catholic religion, whatever effect it might have produced in England, could not by them be considered as a crime. This war was terminated by the surrender of Limerick, upon conditions by which the Catholics hoped, and very rationally hoped, to secure In 1709, Papists were prevented from hold to themselves the free enjoyment of their re-ing an annuity for life. If any son of a Papist ligion in future, and an exemption from all those civil penalties and incapacities which the reigning creed is so fond of heaping upon its subjugated rivals.

By the various articles of this treaty, they are to enjoy such privileges in the exercise of their religion, as they did enjoy in the time of Charles II. and the King promises upon the meeting of Parliament, "to endeavor to procure for them such further security in that particular, as may preserve them from any disturbance on account of their said religion." They are to be restored to their estates, privileges, and immunities, as they enjoyed them in the time of Charless II. The gentlemen are to be allowed to carry arms; and no other oath is to be tendered to the Catholics who submit to King William than the oath of allegiance. These and other articles, King William ratifies for himself, his heirs and successors, as far as in im lies; and confirms the same, and every other dlause and matter therein contained.

These articles were signed by the English general on the 3d of October, 1691; and diffused comfort, confidence, and tranquillity among the Catholics. On the 22d of October, he English Parliament excluded Catholics from the Irish Houses of Lords and Commons, ty compelling them to take the oaths of supremacy before admission.

In 1695, the Catholics were deprived of all means of educating their children, at home or abroad, and of the privilege of being guardians to their own or to other persons' children.

chose to turn Protestant, and enrol the certifi cate of his conversion in the Court of Chancery, that court is empowered to compel his father to state the value of his property upon oath, and to make out of that property a competent allowance to the son, at their own dis cretion, not only for his present maintenance, but for his future portion after the death of his father. An increase of jointure to be enjoyed by Papist wives upon their conversion. Papists keeping schools to be prosecuted as convicts. Popish priests who are converted, to receive 30l. per annum.

Rewards are given by the same act for the discovery of the Popish clergy;-501. for dis covering a Popish bishop; 207. for a common Popish clergyman; 101. for a Popish usher. Two justices of the peace can compel any Papist above eighteen years of age to disclose every particular which has come to his know ledge respecting Popish priests, celebration of mass, or Papist schools. Imprisonment for a year if he refuses to answer. Nobody can hold property in trust for a Catholic. Juries, in all trials growing_out of these statutes, to be Protestants. No Papist to take more than two apprentices, except in the linen trade. All the Catholic clergy to give in their names and places of abode at the quarter-sessions, and to keep no curates. Catholics not to serve on grand juries. In any trial upon statutes for strengthening the Protestant interest, a Papist juror may be peremptorily challenged.

In the next reign, Popish horses were at

tached, and allowed to be seized for the militia. Heavy oppression is removed; light insults

METHODISM.*

[EDINBURGH REVIEW, 1809.]

there among them that would not glory to lie for the tabernacle? who that would not believe he was pleasing his Maker, by sacrificing truth, justice and common sense, to the inte rests of his own little chapel, and his own de. ranged instructor? Something more than contradiction or confutation, therefore, is necessary to discredit those charitable dogmatists, and to diminish their pernicious influence;-and the first accusation against us is, that we have endeavoured to add ridicule to reasoning.

Ix routing out a nest of consecrated cobblers, | or falsehood, what Methodist would think the and in bringing to light such a perilous heap worse of him for such an attack? Who is of trash as we were obliged to work through, in our articles upon the Methodists and Missionaries, we are generally conceived to have rendered an useful service to the cause of rational religion. Every one, however, at all acquainted with the true character of Methodism, must have known the extent of the abuse and misrepresentation to which we exposed ourselves in such a service. All this obloquy, however, we were very willing to encounter, from our conviction of the necessity of exposing and correcting the growing evil of fanati- We are a good deal amused, indeed, with the cism. In spite of all misrepresentation, we extreme disrelish which Mr. John Styles exhave ever been, and ever shall be, the sincere hibits to the humour and pleasantry with which friends of sober and rational Christianity. We he admits the Methodists to have been attacked; are quite ready, if any fair opportunity occur, but Mr. John Styles should remember, that it to defend it, to the best of our ability, from the is not the practice with destroyers of vermin tiger-spring of infidelity; and we are quite de- to allow the little victims a veto upon the weatermined, if we can prevent such an evil, that pons used against them. If this were otherit shall not be eaten up by the nasty and nu-wise, we should have one set of vermin banishmerous vermin of Methodism. For this purpose, we shall proceed to make a few short remarks upon the sacred and silly gentleman before us,-not, certainly, because we feel any sort of anxiety as to the effect of his strictures on our own credit or reputation, but because his direct and articulate defence of the principles and practices which we have condemned, affords us the fairest opportunity of exposing, still more clearly, both the extravagance and the danger of these popular sectaries.

ing small-tooth combs; another protesting against mouse-traps; a third prohibiting the finger and thumb; a fourth exclaiming agains! the intolerable infamy of using soap and water. It is impossible, however, to listen to such pleas. They must all be caught, killed and cracked, in the manner, and by the instruments which are found most efficacious to their de struction; and the more they cry out, the greater plainly is the skill used against them. We are convinced a little laughter will do These very impudent people have one ruling them more harm than all the arguments in the canon, which pervades every thing they say world. Such men as the author before us and do. Whoever is unfriendly to Methodism, is cannot understand when they are out-argued; an infidel and an atheist. This reasonable and but he has given us a specimen, from his irriamiable maxim, repeated, in every form of tability, that he fully comprehends when he dulness, and varied in every attitude of malig- has become the object of universal contempt nity, is the sum and substance of Mr. Styles's and derision. We agree with him, that ridipamphlet. Whoever wishes to rescue religion cule is not exactly the weapon to be used in from the hands of didactic artisans,-whoever matters of religion; but the use of it is exprefers a respectable clergyman for his teacher cusable, when there is no other which can to a delirious mechanic,-whoever wishes to make fools tremble. Besides, he should rekeep the intervals between churches and luna-member the particular sort of ridicule we have tic asylums as wide as possible,—all such men, in the estimation of Mr. Styles, are nothing better than open or concealed enemies of Christianity. His catechism is very simple. In what hoy do you navigate? By what shoemaker or carpenter are you instructed? What. miracles have you to relate? Do you think it sinful to reduce Providence to an alternative, &c. &c. &c. Now, if we were to content ourselves with using to Mr. Styles, while he is dealing about his imputations of infidelity, the uncourtly language which is sometimes applied to those who are little curious about truth

*Strictures on tico Critiques in the Edinburgh Review, on the Subject of Methodism and Missions; with Remarks n the Influence of Reviews, in general, on Morals and Happiness. By JOHY STYLES. 8vo. London, 1809.

used, which is nothing more than accurate quotation from the Methodists themselves. It is true, that this is the most severe and cutting ridicule to which we could have had recourse; but, whose fault is that?

Nothing can be more disingenuous than the attacks Mr. Styles has made upon us for our use of Scripture language. Light and grace are certainly terms of Scripture. It is not to the words themselves that any ridicule can ever attach. It is from the preposterous application of those words, in the mouths of the most arrogant and ignorant of human beings; -it is from their use in the most trivial, low and familiar scenes of life;-it is from the illiterate and ungrammatical prelacy of Mr. John Styles, that any tinge of ridicule ever is