was specially instituted, but the intercourse between the Courts of London and Rome still continued in the same state of constructive prohibition. In the appointments of bishops in the conquered Catholic colonies,' Government felt the embarrassment, and obliquely endeavoured to obviate it.

Other Protestant States have acted upon a more enlarged and consistent policy with respect to Rome. Russia, Prussia, Sweden, &c., had each their resident or Consuls General, both for the convenience of their Catholic subjects, and the general interests of their respective States. Great Britain cannot be said to possess less than five millions of Catholic subjects, including the colonies; and, in a commercial view also, the Ecclesiastical States are not less deserving the attention of our Government.

This Summary will present a view of this important question in many respects different from what has ever yet been exposed to the attention of Government or of the Legislature. The errors of writers on the subject of Rome are as multiplied as their pages; and, while coarsely inveighing against Rome for tenets and practices long since abandoned and disavowed, none appear to be aware of the vulnerable parts where the peace and security of the State can ever be exposed to injury. The gross misrepresentations of a Dr. Duigenan and a Dr. Sturges are calculated only to excite discontent and animosity, and the Speakers in both Parliaments, who have turned their attention most to this subject, have never yet touched upon the points of distinction in which the true policy of the question seems concentrated. Nothing is advanced in this Summary or in the correspondence with the noble Lords [Hobart and Castlereagh,] but what is the result of much reflection and many years' experience under great local advantages. Many circumstances of great delicacy and importance, and which are necessary to be adverted to when this subject is acted upon, are at present suppressed, but will be submitted to his Majesty's ministers at St. Domingo.

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their command. The errors, inconsistencies, and serious State embarrassments which have resulted from the want of adequate and unprejudiced information, and from the very partial consideration this important question has hitherto received, are too obvious to be further insisted on.

The late Mr. Burke, who is well known to have devoted much attention to this subject, in a letter addressed to Sir J. Hippisley at Rome, in October, 1793, thus expresses himself: "I confess I would, if the matter rested with me, enter into much more distinct and avowed political connexions with the Court of Rome than hitherto we have held. If we decline them, the bigotry will be on our part, and not on that of his Holiness. Some mischief has happened; and much good has, I am convinced, been prevented by our unnatural alienation. If the present state of the world has not taught us better things, our error is very much our fault.

"This good correspondence could not begin more auspiciously than in the person of the present Sovereign Pontiff [Pius VI., 1793], who unites the royal and sacerdotal character with advantage and lustre to both. He is indeed a prelate whose dignity as a Prince takes nothing from his humility as a Priest, and whose mild condescension as a Christian Bishop, far from impairing, in him exalts the awful and imposing authority of the secular Sovereign."

Impressed with the same conviction, an elevated Prelate, [Bishop of Winton] whose noble family has been distinguished for their attachment to the Established Church, communicated his sentiments also to Sir J. Hippisley, nearly at the same period, in the following words: "I have perused the papers you communicated through Sir W. Hamilton. As to open communication between Great Britain and the Pope, it is much to be wished, and never more so than at present, when the piety, humanity, and liberality of Pius VI. present him to us as a Prince whose friendship is an honour, and whose communication, political or private, carries everything with it

that is virtuous, sincere, and good: such a communication is in character for both countries, and especially for Princes, respectively the heads of their several religious establishments. As to the laws to which you allude, I believe there is but one opinion respecting the illiberal spirit of them, and the wisdom of relaxing in their enforcement. The occasion of them is removed, and, without the occasion, it is difficult to justify them."

Lord Minto, on the eve of the settlement of Corsica, in the year 1794, declares his opinion to Sir J. Hippisley as follows: "I feel also that the daily intercourse with the Roman State must soon be found irreconcilable with the nominal and formal estrangement between the two Courts, which is enjoined by the subsisting laws. The accomplishment of our Corsican views may therefore furnish a natural opportunity, since it will afford a real and rational ground, amounting, indeed, to something like a necessity, for liberating ourselves thus much further, for polishing off this remaining barbarism, and, since the spirit of the statute has been dead long ago, for killing the letter, too. We have sent for the regiment of Dragoons from Civita Vecchia, but we remain not the less indebted to the friendly and seasonable hospitality by which Pius VI. stands distinguished in Italy, both for the steady and faithful attachment to England, and for manliness with regard to the common enemy."

The venerable Pontiff so justly entitled to these eulogies is no more but the character of his successor has a claim to our respect, and his sentiments in favour of the British nation may be collected from his own expressions in a letter to Sir J. Hippisley, written soon after his elevation to the Pontifical chair.

Extract of a Letter from his Holiness, Pius VII., to Sir J. Hippisley.

San Giorgio, Venice, May 10, 1800. And as the above-mentioned glorious Sovereign Pontiff (whose authority is of the greatest weight with us, his creature,1

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The present Pope was created a Cardinal by Pius VI.

and to whom we are bound by the strongest and sweetest ties of veneration, affection, and gratitude), has given so many and such manifest proofs of the high esteem he entertained for the generous English nation, and of its magnanimous and just Government, and was ever so solicitous to cultivate harmony and friendship, and also to demonstrate to that nation, on all occasions, his most lively attachment-we also, pursuing the same steps, will equally make it our study to preserve, with jealous care, the same reciprocal good intelligence and union and we will not suffer (as far as lies in our power) that England should find seated in the Pontifical chair of Rome another Pontiff differing from him who so invariably acknowledged the kindness and friendship that England entertained for him. With respect to yourself, we shall ever take pleasure in proving to you our invariable sentiments on all occasions that may present themselves; and we remain, with the most distinguished consideration, &c.,

PIUS P. P. VII.

It would have been strictly an act of justice to the late respected Sovereign Pontiff (whose partiality for the British nation was recorded a crime) to have stated more at large the benefits derived from the friendly intercourse with Rome, commencing with the year 1793. Those, with many other considerations of a political and commercial nature, will probably have place in a future continuation of these notes, especially as the sentiments of the two noble Lords [Hobart and Castlereagh] successively in the administration of the Government of Ireland, in favour of the communications from which they are principally drawn, offer the strongest encouragement to

extend them.

No attempt is herein made to enter into the question of a general extension of civil rights to the Catholics, under the presumed safeguard of the Union. The object is rather to advert to the disadvantages which Government must experience

while the exercise of the Roman Catholic religion in the British empire remains in its present state, as also the benefits of an avowed and the possible danger of a clandestine intercourse with Rome in a view strictly constitutional.

If the Act of the Union never had passed, and if the principles of Roman Catholics were really such as have been stated by their adversaries, it is contended that the regulations proposed in these pages, or something analogous to them, ought to be adopted in deference to the establishment in Church and State. It It may be considered as an allowable egotism upon this occasion to adduce a few of multiplied authorities in support of assertions which might otherwise be considered as presumptuously hazarding. The friendly habits long since established between the ministers of the Roman Government and Sir J. Hippisley, during repeated residences of many years at Rome, with the advantage of local family connection, are combinations strongly in favour of the correctness of his information, and insured an influence which may still further be usefully directed. With these authorities this Summary will be concluded.

No. 1.-Extract of a Letter from the Right Hon. Sir William Hamilton, K.B., his Majesty's Envoy, &c., at the Court of Naples to Sir J. Hippisley.

Naples, July 13, 1793.

What you did in taking upon you to negotiate with the Pope was certainly well judged. I should have been greatly distressed if Lord Hood's fleet had come here a month ago, for we had not a sufficiency of corn for ourselves, &c.

No. 2.-Extract of a Letter from the Right Hon. John Trevor, his Majesty's Envoy at Turin, to Sir J. Hippisley. Turin, July 27, 1793.

Your country, sir, cannot but be grateful for your exertions at Rome, and the firmness and dignity of the Pope's conduct must justly entitle him to our respect and protection.