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REVIEW S.

A Review of the Moral and Religious Condition of the Irish People, from the Conquest under Henry II. until the Present Times. By RICHARD FITZRALPH. Dublin: S. B. Oldham. London: Seeleys, 12mo., pp. viii., 59.

RICHARD FITZRALPH is a name assumed for the occasion by a gentleman whose opportunities for observation and right-heartedness render his testimony valuable, but whose position in society makes it inconvenient to avow himself as the author. He is neither an adherent of the church of Rome nor of the Protestant establishment; he is neither a minister of religion nor an agent of any of the societies which are aiming at the improvement of the Irish people; but he is an upright, devout, and conscientious observer of the religious condition of his countrymen, and a student of Irish history. He is just such a man, therefore, as impartial inquirers would wish to hear as a witness; and it is as the voluntary deposition of a respectable witness that we bring his work before the reader's attention. Abstaining pretty much from the expression of our own opinions, we shall simply adduce some of his.

immorality, and to promote the growth of virtue and of the Christian religion." For some centuries Ireland had been celebrated for learning and piety, and at this time the customs of its churches were more in accordance with those of the east than with those of Rome. "They still retained something of the primitive order of pure Christianity in their ecclesiastical polity; though there is too much ground to believe that they retained but little, if any thing more, of the purity of the first Irish churches. But even at this degenerate period of their church history, it would appear that they had not altogether adopted the titles and gradations of Rometitles which are more characteristic of, and congenial with, feudal times and dignities, than with the scriptural model of the churches of the first Christians. They did not as yet avowedly admit the supremacy of the pope; Ireland was the last country in Europe to do so; but the ready and facile subjection of the Irish at this time to the see of Rome gives painful indications of their decay in piety and in the pure faith of the gospel of Jesus."

The princes of Ireland submitted themselves to Henry, and the clergy It is well known that in the year acknowledged the supremacy of the 1156, Pope Adrian, being ex officio pro- Pope; but the people, whose condition prietor of the whole earth, granted was bad enough before under their naIreland to Henry II. of England, by a tive petty sovereigns, gained nothing Bull in which he said, "You promise to but disadvantage from the change. pay us out of every house a yearly "Mutual conveniences are, as jurists acknowledgment of one penny, and to say, the foundation of all contracts and maintain the rights of the church with- bargains; so it was with Henry and out the least infringement or diminu- Adrian; they had each his own wishes tion. Upon these conditions we consent and objects with respect to Ireland, but and allow that you make a descent upon miserable was the result to the poor that island, to enlarge the bounds of inhabitants. They, though the persons the church, to check the progress of most interested, were the least con

sulted in the transaction-their green fields, their toil and labour, their minds and their bodies, were parcelled out for merchandize between Henry and Adrian, and between their respective followers and votaries, as if they were the subjects of legitimate traffic, just as if the bargain had been about cows and horses, or other articles of barter, and not their fellow men, having heads and hearts, souls and bodies, like themselves. These poor people were henceforth doomed for centuries to be hewers of wood and drawers of water in the bondage and servitude of lords temporal and lords spiritual."

At the time of the Reformation the condition of the Irish people was truly deplorable. "They were counted as aliens and enemies by the English; it was often adjudged to be no felony or murder to kill a 'mere Irishman;' even in times of peace it was a good plea to an action, and was often so decided, that the plaintiff in the suit was an 'Hibernicus' or Irishman, or what was equivalent, that the complainant was not one of the 'Quinque Sanguinibus,' that is, one of the five septs or clans that were made denizens, or enfranchised by special grace. The English were forbidden by divers heavy penal laws to marry, to foster, or to make gossipred with the Irish, or to have any trade or commerce in fairs or markets with the Irish. So late as the 28th Henry VIII., the English were forbidden to marry a person of Irish blood, though the person had gotten a charter of denization, unless he had done homage to the king in chancery, and given sureties by recognizance for his loyalty. Sir John Davis says that for three hundred and fifty years after the conquest, the laws of England were forbidden to the Irish." p. 22.

The attempts that were subsequently made to introduce the Reformation aggravated existing evils. "Its professed

friends were its worst enemies; they did not use moral means to produce moral results-they did not use the scriptures, the Irish language, prayer, faith, reason, and arguments, to enlighten and convert the Irish-these were not the means generally employed; had such been used there is every reason to believe that, under the divine blessing, there would have been abundant success. There were the same materials to work on in Ireland as in other countries. The people were not more attached to popery in Ireland than in other parts. The exactions, insolence, and profligacy of the Romish hierarchy were the subject of complaint in Ireland as in other places; the only difference was that their extortions in Ireland were but an item in the catalogue of many grievances, whilst in other countries they were the most prominent evils. The faith too which triumphed in other parts of Europe would have had equal success in Ireland, if the same means were adopted to propagate it; there was the same Lord, rich in his mercies and goodness to all, to bless his own truth to the poor Irish, as he did to the Germans, the Swiss, the English, and Scotch. These nations heard the word preached in their own language; they understood what was said to them; they felt its power; they were convinced, and many were converted, and lived and died rejoicing in the faith of Jesus. How different was the mode adopted in Ireland. Church promotions were only given to those who could perform the reformed service in the English tongue, and if the latter could not be had, then in Latin. These languages the people did not understand. Even in a great portion of the pale, the Irish was the only language then spoken. It might be well asked,

Were men ever converted by preaching addressed to them in an unknown tongue? Hath any nation changed its

gods or its old customs, at the bidding of strangers entirely ignorant of its language?' Yet these were the men and the means employed for converting the Irish from their idolatry and superstition. They never heard the mercies of redemption-a Saviour's love or his power to save preached in the endearing language of their country and affections. But this was not the only cause of its failure. The Reformation was presented to the Irish people not as a friend and a deliverer, but as an enemy and oppressor-not as the harbinger of love and mercy, but as the cause of new distinctions and divisions." pp. 39, 40.

Changes in the law, which have taken place in our own times, and in the policy pursued by the government, the author regards as beneficial in their operation. "All distinctions and restrictions are now removed; the Roman Catholics are no longer bound together as a disqualified and distrusted faction and party; their understandings are no longer closed by prejudices and disabilities against the appeals of reason, sense, and fact; their pursuits and business, now unfettered by penal enactments, lead them into more constant and repeated intercourse with persons of opposite creeds and opinions; they have thereby opportunities of hearing questions of religion, commerce, and science, discussed with freedom, and without fear or control. There is also the great influence and circulation of an unfettered press in which similar questions are discussed and examined with ability and without control. These combined agencies cannot fail to produce the most beneficial results on the minds of the Roman Catholic people. The late famine has been signally overruled for good in this respect- the people of England generously contributed out of their abundance, but the protestants of Ireland of every class,

with their respective clergy, though sufferers themselves, were actively engaged in relieving with money, food, and clothing, the painful wants, hunger, and nakedness of their Roman Catholic countrymen and neighbours. Past strife and differences were forgotten in a high and elevated Christian sympathy and benevolence. Protestants heroically,

and in a spirit of self-devotion, scaled the partition wall that hitherto divided them from their Roman Catholic countrymen, and shared in their sufferings and alleviated their wants. By these humane and self-denying efforts, thousands were saved who otherwise must have sunk under daily want and a lingering starvation. The writer has frequently, during the famine, heard Roman Catholics say, that only the protestants stood to them; they must have all perished-that they (the protestants) were their best friends, and the best sort of people-that the priests only cared for money, and that unless you had money to give them you might die like a dog.' There are grounds to hope that whilst their bodily wants were supplied, there are instances not few where their spiritual maladies were not overlooked or forgotten, and that some at least partook of that bread of which 'if a man eat he shall never die.' The roughest stones, when long rolled and jostled together, gradually lose their sharp edges and corners. So it is with the Roman Catholic and opposite sects; the genial influence of a free and unrestricted intercourse has softened down, and is still softening, the roughness and asperities of ignorance and bigotry. Roman Catholics now discover that these men whom their church and priesthood still brand as 'heretics,' are neither monsters in form nor demons in disposition; they see with their own eyes and know from their own actual observations, that these heretics have all the sympathies

reading the scriptures and announcing pardon through a Saviour's blood, are now, under the divine blessing, telling on the Irish-speaking population in these long neglected and benighted dis

and feel all the wants and desires of
other men--that like themselves they
must eat, drink, and sleep-that they
are like all the other children of Adam,
and are besides in many instances kind
fathers, husbands, and neighbours-tricts.
men of benevolence and virtue. These
salutary lessons, derived from real life
and actual observations, stand out in
prominent relief, in contradiction to
the teachings of their church and
priesthood, and must tend to weaken
their reliance on instructions so contra-
dictory to their personal knowledge and
experience.

"It is admitted that this knowledge will not of itself make Romanists Christians or even professing protestants; but we believe that great social and moral advantages are gained thereby. These men of whom we write may nominally continue in communion with the church of Rome, but we believe that they are so far civilized, if not protestantized, in principle and habit, as to cease to be the blind votaries of the priesthood of Rome. No consideration or persuasion would, we conceive, induce these men to participate in the massacre of a St. Bartholomew; in atrocities like to those of the rebellions of 1641 or 1798, or to countenance the detestable tortures of the inquisition. But we rejoice to know that there are still greater and more pleasing indications of good than even these-that not only in this respect is there a breaking up of the fallow ground, and a gradual preparation, by the removal of prejudice and bigotry, for the reception of the truth, but that throughout the south and west of Ireland, persons are to be found anxious and earnest to read and examine the scriptures, in defiance of priestly authority and denunciations. The labours of these silent and noiseless messengers of mercy, who have for years past gone from house to house, and cabin to cabin,

These humble men, however, had to bear the toil and heat of the conflict, the railing and pelting of Romish mobs, and not unfrequently the cudgel and whip of the Romish priests; yet amidst all this outward opposition, the Lord has been blessing his word to the souls of sinners. They have had often to go forth in sorrow and discouragement, sowing the seed of the kingdom in faith and patience. But the Lord that seeth in secret has been with them, and is now rewarding them openly. Several religious societies have had agencies of this kind employed for several years past in the Roman Catholic districts of Ireland; we believe they all date the origin of their labours within the last forty years. We have been kindly furnished from accredited quarters with their respective Reports of recent date. Our limits forbid giving extracts from them as we had at first intended; but the perusal of the Reports of the Irish Society's Missions, of the Presbyterian Home Missions, of the Irish Evangelical Society, and the Irish Chronicle of the Baptist Irish Society, will be found highly interesting, as confirmatory of the facts now stated, and enabling the reader to judge for himself of the great and pleasing changes that are passing over the minds of the Roman Catholic people." pp. 53-55.

The author gives at some length his reasons for believing that the time for Ireland's improvement is fully come, and that the present state of the population affords more of hope and promise than any which has existed for many centuries. He concludes his pamphlet thus: "The Irish mind, so long sluggish, inert, and patient of impos

An

ture and deception, shows manifest readers, the Analytical Hebrew and signs of inquiry; the masses may be truly said to be heaving with great and important changes; the phases they exhibit are auspicious; they are not indicative of infidelity or scepticism; persons are constantly emerging from those masses who evince a practical independence of thought and action, and a self-sacrificing devotion to truth and conviction, in many instances decided conversions to piety and godliness; nor are these instances few or unfrequent, but numerous and real throughout the Roman Catholic districts of Ireland. The writer has not long since been favoured with a list of over two hundred converts from Romanism, twenty-nine of whom were formerly Roman Catholic priests, several of whom were known to him personally, and by name. Never before, we believe, was there so general an awakening, or so favourable an opportunity of sowing broadcast the principles of true religion in the minds of the Irish people; and never did it behove the friends of Christian benevolence and protestantism to make like corresponding efforts to meet the awakening and increasing desires for the bread of life eternal, and to send forth heralds of mercy to direct their fellow men to 'the way, the truth, and the life,' and to point them to Jesus, 'whose blood

cleanseth from all sin.' "

The Analytical Greek Lexicon: consisting of an Alphabetical Arrangement of every occurring Inflexion of every Word contained in the Greek New Testament Scriptures, with a Grammatical Analysis of each Word, and Lexicographical Illustration of the Meanings, a Complete Series of Paradigms, with Grammatical Remarks and Explanations. London: S. Bagster and Sons. 1852. Quarto, pp. xlii., 444. In July, 1848, we had the pleasure of introducing to the attention of our

Chaldee Lexicon, a work admirably adapted to remove the difficulties which impede solitary students of that language in which the Old Testament oracles were recorded. It is with much satisfaction that we now announce the publication of a work on the same plan, of the same size, prepared for the use of those who have but little knowledge of Greek, and who yet are intent on the perusal of the original writings of Christ's inspired messengers. The publication of these works has a direct tendency to promote religious knowledge of the most valuable kind, and to remove some of the evils under which dissenting churches have suffered. illiterate ministry is greatly to be deprecated; but it is by no means desirable that the supply of pastors should be derived exclusively from those who have passed through college training and college temptations. We rejoice to know that many acceptable preachers of the gospel who had but few literary advantages in their youth, have applied themselves with success to the study of the original languages of scripture, and that they are in fact far better scholars than they have credit for being. We hope that the time is not very distant when it will be a customary thing for young men who have had but a common education at school, as soon as they become partakers of genuine religious principle, to determine that they will not be dependent on any fallible men for their knowledge of the revelation which was given not merely to "bishops and deacons," but "to all the saints in Christ Jesus." What obstacles would this remove, which pastors who have been intent on teaching the true meaning of scripture and nothing else have had for some years to encounter! What facilities would this give for the diffusion of divine truth in our own country and in the colonies! Books which

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