POSTSCRIPT.

Subsequently to printing the foregoing preface, some important meetings have been held at Exeter Hall, in the Strand, res-. pecting the tenets of the church of Rome, as taught by the Irish Bishops and clergy of that Church; and the danger threatened to the protestant establishment; at which several very able speeches were made by different clergymen of the churches of England, Ireland, and Scotland. Among the speakers on those occasions, was the Reverend Mortimer O'Sullivan, an Irish divine; and the following are extracts from a most eloquent address delivered by him at the meeting on the 20th day of June, 1835, which unfortunately confirm and add weight to some of the observations contained in the foregoing preface.

"This is not merely a question, even as it regards the church in Ireland. That church has furnished the occasion on which certain principles of perfidy have been manifested, but it is to the operation of those principles here, to which the attention. should be directed. We have strong grounds for complaint. When the constitution was opened, with all its privileges, to the enemies of the church, they purchased an entrance into its strong positions, by renouncing and abjuring any design of active hostility. They offered an oath as an ample security, as imposing an obligation, from which they could not be released. They have shewn that the obligation could not bind them. It would seem that their determination to root out the Protestant church was strengthened by their pledge to spare it; until (all power of equivocation ceasing) they boldly and openly attempt to overthrow what thay have sworn not to molest, and what, in consequence of that solemn engagement, they have obtained (among other privileges) the ability to injure. But a mightier

mischief is in process than even the overthrow of a venerable christian establishment. The debasement of morals here, among the people of England! The same efforts that are directed to destroy the Irish church, are waged against the steadfastness of British principle. They would, with one fatal success, silence the gospel, and here put out that sacred light of honour by which it is the boast of England she has ever been directed. How has England's faithfulness been sustained? not, in every instance, by the sole power of the christian religion. It cannot be expected that all hearts shall be moved only by impulses of true religion. Men are influenced by mixed motives; all do not feel the power of religion; but all nations, where true religion is honoured, where a holy worship, a reasonable service, assemble many faithful servants of God, will experience good from their prayers and piety. Influences will pass from religion, which will pervade the elements of public opinion; virtue will go out from faith and prayer, by which the atmosphere of national feeling will be purified and kept wholesome. Thus through the influence of religion, extended beyond the limits within which time worshippers are found, a secondary religion is imparted to the national feeling. Honour, honesty, the habit of truth, become invested with power. Idols have been cast down, in order that they might be deprived of all reverence. England has her social household religion, and it is a fearful experiment for her people to witness insults offered to national faith and honour. It is with nations as with individuals; we must become familiar with vice before its hatefulness ceases to be repulsive-Who will say there is not already some of that indifference as to the violation of truth, of which the result must be fatal? Who does not remember when to fix upon an English gentleman the suspicion of an untruth, was to visit him with the plague; when so long as he remained uncleansed of that suspicion, it seemed as if the influence of an evil eye, or the prohibition of leprosy were upon him? Who would say that the curse would be on him now? Is it not a humiliating truth, that the stigma which was once ineffaceable dishonour,

now inflicts no dishonour; and that it can be borne and looked upon without disgust, in assemblies once accounted the most select and noble in the civilised world; and where now the epithet of special dishonour, and the crime that calls forth its application, cause as little loathing as the Goitre in nations where it prevails? Can respect for truth, or reprobation of falsehood, long exist under such flagrant and repeated violations? Can it be good for the people of England to behold the assembly of its representatives engaged in shameful contentions, and made the theatre of experiments upon credulity, by which heretofore, the humblest meeting of artizans would have held itself disgraced?* Can it be good for them to see that religion has lost its power to give sanctity to an oath? May not the contemplation of such opprobrious altercations, of such contemptuous epithets, as the hazardous assertions of gentlemen, honourable by curtesy, have fastened to their names, weaken a love for truth? And when a lying spirit is abroad, will they not lose that respect for constituted authority, and that reverence for veracity which upheld the reign of justice in the realm of England? England abased in morals, will be reduced in the scale of nations; and the vengeance of popery upon the people, who have, with mightiest energy, shaken her power, will be the first to strip her reputation of its comeliness; and when her children have become as conspicuous for disregarding solemn obligations, as they had been honoured for observing them; when confidence has been destroyed; when honour has failed; when equivocation in the witness box, perjury in the jury room, and partiality on the bench, have ceased to make men wonder; then the dark genius of the confessional may be invoked, for sustaining authority in a land, from which the light of truth has been excluded.†

* If the newspapers may be believed, the indecent conduct of some persons in a certain assembly, cannot be so fully described by any single word in our language as that of blackguardism. It is said, that those only, who witnessed the O. P. (old price) rows at Covent Garden playhouse, can have an adequate idea of the new senatorial scene-Editor. † According to the learned Wollaston, truth is the great criterion of virtuous and moral actions.-Editor.

"I have always made a distinction between the church of Rome in England, and the church of Rome in Ireland. In England an attachment to country can resist the overbearing influence of the Romish church. The sense of freedom which an Englishman feels, the consciousness that he is connected with the glories of this glorious land, will make the Roman Catholic in England, now as in the olden times, withstand, to some effect, the encroachment of papal domination; and what he might yield as a member of his church, he will resist as a citizen of his country, the noblest in the world. But in Ireland, national prejudices and religious antipathy combine against this country, though I could prove, were it necessary, that Ireland has always suffered more from the weakness than from the strength of England."

What is mentioned above, merits the most serious attention. If the country be destined to have a parliament similar to that with which the nation was afflicted in the middle of the seventeeth century, numbers will wish for another Cromwell, or a Bonaparte, to remove the nuisance. But let us hope and pray for better things and better times.

It is lamentable, it is melancholy to think that the happiness of this great nation, which has attained such surpassing eminence, should be put in jeopardy by fanciful theories and untried experiments, or by the premeditated designs of ambitious, conceited and wicked men, with a view to power and domination, spoliation and plunder. But Heaven grant that whatever mischief shall ensue, may be confined to its authors.

It was not until the meeting at the Freemasons' Hall, on the 3rd of December, 1835, that the public had a correct idea of the sufferings and privations of the Irish Protestant Clergy and their families. Those who can contemplate the situation of these venerable and estimable men without agonizing sympathy, must have hearts of granite. Surely every right minded individual will loathe and execrate those who, under pretence

of reform, and in violation of humanity, justice, law, and the compact of the union, have caused these cruel calamities. Will not the vengeance of Heaven strike the authors of them, if their own consciences are callous? Verily, they well deserve the epithets lately applied to them, by some of their present supporters and flatterers, of base, brutal and bloody-minded.

Although there are beings, called men, in this country, as well as in Ireland, who delight in the misery of these persecuted people, it cannot be supposed, that this great nation which so liberally relieved the expatriated Catholic Clergy of France above forty-years ago, when thousands of them fled to England, will suffer their own exemplary Protestant brethren to perish for want.

The Editor fears he has overlooked many errors in this multifarious compilation.* His sight, which till within about nine months ago was excellent, has of late rapidly failed; and glasses do not supply the defect. This symptom of decay is to be expected, in one who has seen more than seventy-eight years, during the last nine of which, he has been suffering severe bodily affliction. However, if he shall be permitted to live long enough to hear of the downfall of the enemies of our religion and our civil constitution, the most despicable, unprincipled and incompetent faction that has cursed this country since the days of the rump or tail parliament, which was expelled by Cromwell, the Writer will find no small consolation for the loss of vision.

* See list of Errata at the end.