POSTSCRIPT ON Mr. Curwen's Statements respecting the Irish Roman WE shall never hesitate to acknowledge, or, if necessary, publish any respectful and respectable letter, which either corrects mis-statements we may have inadvertently committed, or furnishes us with important intelligence in addition to our own stock, Of the latter kind is the following communication. The subject to which it relates is sufficiently interesting in itself to warrant our notice; and the language is so complimentary to our intentions and our principles, that our self-love no less than our judg ment is influenced to present it to our friendly readers. Much error, we are perfectly convinced, infects the ideas which are prevalent in this country on the subject of Ireland. We shall feel peculiarly happy to be enabled in any measure to remove it, by the occasional insertion of authenticated documents; and, on this account, we are grateful to our correspondent, the extent and accuracy of whose information, did they require any guarantee farther than the disclosure of his highly respectable character and connections, have been confirmed to us in a manner which would remove every scruple from our minds, had we entertained one. He will enhance our obligation by transmitting any other particulars relative to his native land, on which he may be of opinion that the public still need to be instructed or rectified. "TO THE EDITOR OF THE EDINBURGH MONTHLY REVIEW. "SIR, "I AM encouraged, by the well-known impartiality of your excellent Review, and by the generous interest it takes in any work tending to elucidate the real state of Ireland, to forward to you these remarks; requesting, should you conceive their execution equal to their intention, that you will honour them by insertion. "It appears like presumption to recur to a work which you have already ably and conscientiously reviewed, but I trust you will not consider it so in a resident of the country treated of in that work. "I can readily believe Mr. Curwen not to have been influenced by party feeling when he wrote his celebrated letters on Ireland; yet, from their celebrity, any unintentionally-erroneous remark in them, to the prejudice of the country or its communities, becomes of dangerous importance. In short, I trust my motives will plead my exSir, I have the honour to be your reader and admirer. cuse. " J. H." WHILST Ireland is obliged to subscribe to the existence of many evils so feelingly pointed out, and deeply deplored by that elegant writer Mr. Curwen, yet is she bound to reject charges not founded in fact, which have no other tendency than to asperse and degrade the character of her people. Mr. Curwen himself readily admits, that, in a work so extended and various in its views, a passing traveller must occasionally misrepresent; and it may well be conceived, that an Englishman of rank, passing hastily through Ireland, might sometimes be exposed to draw his information from a turbid source. Without questioning for a moment that gentleman's purity of intention, I shall proceed to notice the first inaccuracy of statement that attracted my attention. In enumerating the evils of intolerance towards Ireland, he observes: "Were the priests well educated themselves, and liberally compensated for instructing the people over whose minds they possess so much influence, most of the objections which at present apply to their religious ceremonials would cease to exist. "The miserable pittance of their pastors, mean as it is, depends on the abject thraldom in which these shepherds are enabled to keep their respective flocks; hence a desire on their part to enlighten those on whose ignorance they rely for their daily subsistence, would be expecting a degree of disinterestedness beyond what is usually met with in human nature." In order to vindicate the Catholic clergy from this severe aspersion, it becomes necessary to enter somewhat minutely into the detail of the several studies, classical, moral, theological, which are indispensable to form a character so respectable, so venerated as the Irish priest. spi From a period so remote as the reformation in England, the Catholic priesthood were marked out as the principal victims of persecution; and as the severity with which the penalties were inflicted on that body continued during a protracted series of years, the natural effect was, that this order of men became considerably diminished in number and in respectability. It was unfortunately an aggravation of their guilt, that the obstinacy with which the people of Ireland refused to acknowledge the ritual supremacy of the Sovereign, was attributed to their influence. Notwithstanding, however, the zeal and devotedness of those persons who so willingly exposed their lives rather than abandon that mode of worship which had been handed down from their fathers, and which they conceived to be the best, it seems more than probable, that the religion of the people would have been at length eradicated, had not several of the powers on the Continent interposed, by granting an asylum to the fugitives. Seminaries and colleges were founded, and richly endowed for the education of the Irish mission, throughout France, Spain, Germany, Italy, and Flanders, with a spirit of competition which would seem extraordinary to persons unacquainted with the religious fervour which prevailed throughout Europe in those days of enthusiasm. Hence it may with truth be asserted, that until that period of the French revolution, when an almost total abolition of the Christian religion took place, the education of the Irish priesthood being exactly the same as that of France, was as well conducted, and considered as respectable as that of any country in Christendom. Whether any deterioration of the system of education adopted by that body since their expulsion from the Continent has taken place, is a point easily ascertained. Their admission to the advantages of domestic education affords the strongest proof of the liberality and expanse of mind which characterize the present æra! The Irish priest is no longer humbled by being obliged to accept the eleemosinary gift of foreign ostentation. The Government of his own country has extended its patriotic hand, in erecting and founding the Royal College of Maynooth, where several hundred elevés are annually educated exclusively for the Catholic mission. To enter into the minutiae of this splendid establishment, as not materially connected with my present object, is not necessary. Suffice it to say, that it has not disappointed the expectations of the public. Of 3000, nearly the number of subjects on the mission, a considerable portion are prepared for ordination in the seminaries and colleges founded in the several dioceses of the kingdom. Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Kilkenny, Carlow, Cloyne, Kerry, and Mayo, are the principal; but the system is the same through out. The course of study is seldom completed in less than from seven to nine years, and frequently more for students of canon law. The first two years are dedicated to a systematic revision of the classics, or humanity; the third year is allotted to logic; the fourth to a curse of natural philosophy, compiled by the Abbé Daré of Maynooth; the three following years, which complete the system, are employed in the study of divinity. At the end of this period, if his conduct and principles have been irreproachable, and after his passing the necessary examinations, the candidate for holy orders is ordained priest by the bishop of the diocese to which he belongs. Thus much for education. No sooner is the young priest ordained, than he commences his laborious duties. His first appointment is that of coadjutor or curate to a parish priest, in whose house he becomes an inmate, with a salary moderate indeed, but competent to his modest and unassuming expectations. He is bound to obey the orders of his expe rienced superior with unremitting strictness,-humility and obedience being his first rule of life. Now initiated in the practical exercise of those several functions, which hitherto he had known only in theory, he visits the sick, consoles the afflicted, reconciles the litigious, reclaims the abandoned, restrains the seditious, and instructs the ignorant. I am not a controvertist, nor assume to judge of the truth or falsity of men's religious opinions; but I think it must be allowed, that even though these men may be held to be in error, they have every apparent claim to respect and commendation, for the apparent sincerity and conscientiousness with which they perform such important labours. The most severe trial of their patience and fortitude is evinced in their attendance on the sick. However wretched the roads, however severe the season, however great the distance, the priest must always administer the sacrament to his penitent; and should the patient die without sacraments, from any neglect of the minister, the community to which he is attached are scandalized, and he becomes liable to severe censure. Whatever may be the cause, whether credulity or ignorance, it is certain that the Irish peasantry are more devotedly attached to their priesthood, and place a more implicit confidence in the instructions given from the altar, than any other people on earth. ers. The extent, and even the mode of remuneration of these men, are decidedly voluntary on the part of their parishioners. So far from exacting the stipendiary offering by either menace or compromise, the priest never condescends to demand the usual tribute. It is customary, twice in the year, to hold a meeting, called a station, successively at the houses of the principal parishionThis ceremony consists in the celebration of mass, hearing of confessions, administering the sacraments, and other parochial arrangements. At the conclusion, the pastor is paid a certain sum, the amount of which rests on the option of the donor. It is commonly half-a-guinea among the middling farmers, and from one to five guineas amongst the most opulent and respectable. His other pecuniary resources consist of masses offered on behalf of departed souls, baptisms, funerals, and principally marriages, which last may deserve to be particularized, as they afford the pastor the means of meeting the current expenses of the year. On the day appointed for the celebration of the sacrament of matrimony, when the respective friends of the parties are assembled, the bride and bridegroom approach a table well stocked with bridecake, and deposit in its place from one guinea to five or ten guineas on the plate. All the friends and neighbours follow this example in proportion to their means. This custom, which is universal throughout the south, and, with some exceptions, in the other parts of the kingdom, is highly profitable to the pastor, who fre quently receives from fifty to two hundred pounds a year from marriages alone; so that the emolument of the poorest parish can scarce be estimated at less than L.200 per annum, and so on gradually, up to three, four, and even L. 500. From these facts, it is manifest that the words "miserable pittance" in the traveller's text are perfectly unwarrantable, as neither in England, Scotland, nor Wales, is the unbeneficed clergyman more properly and reasonably remunerated than in Ireland. To his comfortable though humble establishment, the celibacy to which he has devoted himself, together with the simplicity and retiredness of his habits, materially contribute. So much so indeed, that there is scarce any individual of society more happy, more independent, or more competent to the hospitality which becomes his public station, than the Irish parish priest. The religious ceremonials of the Irish, which form an essential part of their creed, are not to be removed by any influence, even that of their pastors. The liberal compensation proposed for the purpose of doing away that fearful influence, would not, I apprehend, be accepted by the priests, as the emolument would be thought a poor compensation for the loss of confidence, character, and affection which they now enjoy. They would infallibly be despised by their new salary friends, and they would be no less certainly execrated by the votaries of the old school. A compromise of this nature, would, I apprehend, interrupt that harmony which has so long subsisted between the parties, and subvert the confidence that is so highly necessary, in the present state of things, to the peace of the country, which, in my opinion, will be more effectually preserved by that very influence, disapproved of by Mr. Curwen, than by ten legions such as Cæsar was accustomed to command. The ceremonials of the Irish are the ceremonials of Catholic Europe. The experience of ages has proved the difficulty of eradicating them. If the character I have now endeavoured to sketch of the Irish priest and the Irish people be just, as I am confident it will be found, it can be no wonder that the mutual confidence and attachment should be great indeed, and that the influence of the former on their flocks should far exceed that of any other community of Christians, inasmuch as the Irish peasant can never regard his pastor in any other point of view than that of his friend and benefactor. In short, after having dispassionately considered Mr. Curwen's remarks, I must confess my unwillingness to concede with him, to the weakness of human nature, the victory over the strength of the human mind, or to believe that such exemplary conduct could be compatible with moral turpitude,— |