the guilt, therefore, is upon their heads; and the infamy is upon that Church, that Roman Catholic Church whose principles made persecution a duty; ... that Roman Catholic Church which, till this hour, has neither retracted the principle, nor expressed its contrition for the practice.

You have adjured me "as a Christian and a gentleman,* to say on which side the balance of religious persecution lies... the (Roman) Catholic or the Protestant?" There is an Irish act against making comparisons, which you cannot but be acquainted with, were it only for its name's-sake, for it is called the Butler-aboo Statute. You should have remembered it, Sir, on this occasion, and enforced it against yourself... On which side does the balance of persecution lie!! Put the Inquisition in the scale, Sir, and nothing can be found to counterpoise it, unless Hell be plucked up by the roots!

SLAVERY. THE SLAVE TRADE.

CONCERNING slavery, Sir, you have claimed for the Popes a merit which belongs to the Christian religion.. "Great exertions," you say," were made by them for the redemption Page 97.

* Page 260.

of captives and the melioration of the condition of the slaves: in 1167 Pope Alexander III. solemnly declared in council, that all Christians ought to be exempt from slavery." That declaration certainly was not followed by any systematic measures for effecting the object which it had in view. But the gradual abolition of slavery in European Christendom is one of those benefits for which we are indebted mainly to Christianity; it is one of those things whereby, as I had stated, "the Clergy advanced the best interests of this country even during the darkest ages of Papal domination."

Here, Sir, let me introduce a remark relating to the present times,..intreating you to lay aside for the moment all controversial feelings, and receive it in the spirit in which it is offered. Nearly twenty years have elapsed since the British Government endeavoured to put an end, so far as its authority extended, to one of the greatest evils that afflict and disgrace humanity. You will at once perceive that it is the slave trade of which I speak. In this good work all the Protestant powers, who were any ways concerned in that trade, have cordially co-operated, certain new States in America alone excepted, who have shown themselves strong enough in

this instance to prevail against the more enlightened and more virtuous part of the Union. But how have the Roman Catholic powers acted? So far from co-operating with us for so humane an object, Spain and Portugal and Brazil and France have persisted in carrying on the trade, France especially to the utmost of its power, and with circumstances of additional barbarity. This, Sir, is a point on which I believe there can be no discrepance between your wishes and mine. Is it honourable to your Church that such a difference should exist between the Protestant and the Romish powers? Is it consistent with that part of its conduct in former ages for which you have claimed our grateful acknowledgement? Could the restored Jesuits employ their influence in France more worthily than by following the example of their predecessors in opposing this nefarious traffic? Could the Government of France give better proof of its piety than by abolishing it? Could the Pope, as the Head of your Church, consult its reputation, and fulfil his own duty more effectually than by condemning it? I pray you, Sir, receive this as it is meant, and be assured that you could not rejoice more in seeing such a reproach removed from the Roman Catholic Church, than I should do.

LETTER X.

VIEW OF THE PAPAL SYSTEM.

I COME now, Sir, to the Letter in which you bring into the field the Achilles of your argument. But it is an Achilles which, instead of having been dipt in Styx, is vulnerable all over! Before I take from the quiver those arrows

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which are sharp, and shall not miss," let me ask leave to correct an error in my introductory pages. The mistake, indeed, is of little moment; were it of greater, it should be as frankly and readily acknowledged; though you have accused me of wilfully retaining a misstatement after its falsehood had been pointed out, which accusation, when it comes to be examined, will prove "the little reliance that can be placed "...not on me, Sir, but on the accuracy of your own assertions. The error now to be corrected, relates to prunello. I supposed the commodity to have been obsolete, whereas

* Page 211.

I am given to understand that it is still in use, and may be heard of at the shoemaker's, if not at the mercer's; for one of my own family informs me that she sometimes wears prunello shoes. I am reminded of making this acknowledgement here because there will be occasion in the present letter to bring forward some of those tough facts and indigestible deductions which you have arranged under that odd appellation, coupled indeed with another which is not so inappropriate.

In my former work, when the narrative had been brought down to those ages in which the corruptions doctrinal and practical of the Romish Church were at their height, a view of the Papal System was introduced. You have protested against the very appellation as " particularly offensive ;" and yet, Sir, you cannot but know that whatever you may be pleased to call your own semi-reformed and Cis-marine as well as Cis-montane system, papal is in strictest propriety the designation which belongs to the Romish Church, in those ages when the papal power was at the full. I said that those corruptions are studiously kept out of view by the writers who still maintain the infallibility of that Church:

* Page 99.