PRICES OF CANAL SHARES, DOCK STOCKS, &c.

At the Office of R. W. Moore, 5, Bank Chambers, Lothbury.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

THE Editor is afraid that some literary notices, advertisements, and the like, may have missed insertion, owing to their being addressed, and consequently forwarded, to him. If, from some unimaginable caprice, and in defiance of the standing notice on the title-page of every number of the Magazine, gentlemen will do this, they cannot complain. He fears also, that, from being directed otherwise than to "the Editor," some letters intended for the Magazine still remain unopened.

Letters from "Mr. Mendham," " J. R. H.," and "E. S.," should have been inserted this month had it been possible. The Editor has likewise to acknowledge communications from "N. O," "Laicus," "A Sworn Subject of the Church," "Catechist," "A Protestant,' "Y.," for most of which he hopes soon to find

room.

The Editor begs to assure the Count Krasinski, that he has not received the work to which his note refers.

Before the Editor reprints the address which has been so long printed, he would be glad if his correspondent would inform him whether it was only circulated in the way which he mentions, or whether it had any more public circulation, and to what

extent.

To the Correspondent who offers Strictures on a Review which lately appeared in this Magazine, the Editor begs to say, that he believes the reviewer's statement to be too true, though it is one which cannot be proved, except by a very invidious reference to particular cases, and a controversy which would be worse than useless. He may rest assured that no personal reference was intended to himself; and, so far as the Editor knows, the gentleman who wrote the review was ignorant of the fact on which the possibility of any such allusion could be grounded. If, on the other hand, he meant anything personal in his conjecture as to the circumstances which might render the reviewer an incompetent judge, he has completely failed. The reviewer is not "one whose acquaintance with parochial duties is the result of reading rather than practice," but the active and useful rector of a parish containing, the Editor believes, at least ten times as many souls as that in which the gentleman who censures him is practising parochial duties.

The Editor has just seen a pamphlet, published by the Rev. C. S. Bird, entitled, "The Oxford Tract System Considered," wherein it is stated, that the writers of those tracts have the British Magazine "under their control," (p. 5;) and he feels it his duty to say, in as strong and plain terms as are consistent with courtesy, that the statement is altogether untrue. The Magazine is not under the control, or subject to the slightest interference, of any person who is, or ever was, a member of the University of Oxford. If it does, in any case, or any degree, support any doctrine maintained in any of the Oxford Tracts, it is (whatever may be the value of its testimony) an independent witness, and its evidence is not to be got rid of by anything like the expedient sometimes used by lawyers of a certain class, who contrive to stop the mouths of persons who might be obnoxious witnesses, by including them, with the principals, in one sweeping indictment for a conspiracy. The Editor after this thought he might take advantage of the somewhat unsavoury illustration on the same page, and not trouble himself to read through the pamphlet; but one's own name is apt to catch the eye or the ear, and, in turning over the leaves, he saw the following statement at p. 36 :— :-"What was formerly the Restoration of Charles the Second, in like manner is to be styled the Blessed Reformation,'-see a late number of the British Magazine." This may be quite correct, for the Editor cannot pretend to say that his having no recollection of any such proposed alteration of style is a proof that it may not have been suggested in the Magazine, though he thinks that he must have remembered it, and would not have been likely to insert it unless there be some such explanation as that the restoration of monarchy was a "blessed reformation' of the government, which is a thing that no man who is not a republican would think of denying But seeing that Mr. Bird's other information about the Magazine is so far from correct, the Editor makes no apology for asking him for some more specific reference.

The Editor thanks the friend who wrote to him respecting some newspapers, but the papers themselves he has not seen.

THE

BRITISH MAGAZINE.

FEB. 1, 1839.

ORIGINAL PAPERS.

THE PRESENT STATE OF THE POPISH CONTROVERSY IN

IRELAND.

In the present state of ecclesiastical affairs, the mode in which the controversy between papists and protestants is carried on in Ireland is obviously a matter of great interest and importance; and some circumstances which have lately occurred throw great light upon it. Perhaps the most concise and simple way of stating them may be to give them in the order of their occurrence, or, more properly speaking, in the order in which they happen to have come under the notice of the writer. The Constitution, or Cork Advertiser, for the 24th Nov., contained the following paragraph, which it professed to copy from the "Limerick Chronicle:"

"A most extraordinary discourse was delivered at Trinity College chapel, on Sunday last. Several thought that Father Tom Maguire was the preacher; but it appears it was one of the junior fellows who has commenced a series of sermons on the Prophecies."

This, if not very original, was pleasant and good-humoured, and at the same time business-like, for it had a natural tendency to excite curiosity, which one may reasonably suppose that the vigilant “Limerick Chronicle" had even then secretly resolved to gratify. Whether there is any personal resemblance which might countenance the delusion under which some of the audience are said to have laboured, the writer does not know; but it is more probable that the facetious person who does the religion for that newspaper only meant to say that some of the hearers thought the preacher was a papist, and so he expressed this by naming the popish controversialist of whom he knew most. The curiosity thus excited must have been speedily gratified, for the "Warder" of Dec. 1 contains the following article:

"TODDISM!

"The Limerick Chronicle has published the following curious summary of a sermon, said to have been preached by the Rev. Mr. TODD, in the College Chapel, on the 18th ult:

'The Rev. James Todd, F.T.C.D., preached a sermon in the College Chapel, on

VOL. XV.-Feb. 1839.

S

Sunday, the 18th instant, which produced a considerable sensation among the Fellows and Students. The text was from 1 Tim. iv. 1, 2, and 3 verses. It was the last of his Donnelan lectures. This portion of Scripture has been very generally applied by all Protestant theologians on the authority of the learned J. P. Mede [sic] and Bartholomew Newton, [sic] to the departure from the faith made by the Church of Rome. The Preacher undertook to shew that this was not the true interpretation of the text, because it could not be said that the Church of Rome apostatized from the faith once delivered to the Saints, for she held all the essential doctrines of Christianity, enumerated in the preceding verse-the incarnation of the Son-his death-his resurrection and ascension, the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit -the epiphany, and his final coming to judgment. A church that makes these doctrines the basis of her creed, as the Church of Rome doth, in the judgment of the Preacher, would not be an apostate church. 'Tis true that she has mingled with them many errors, and canonized the grossest idolatry, but still she kept the faith. He then enlarged on the marks of the apostasy, as laid down by the inspired writer, "giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils," not meaning subjectively, a mode of teaching about demons, or the spirits of dead men, as Mr. Mede would interpret the words, but objectively, the doctrines that were taught out of devils, the meaning which the word generally has in the New Testament:-"Forbidding to marry, and to abstain from meats, which God had created to be received with thanksgiving of them, which believe and know the truth." He contended that the forbidding to marry (here mentioned) could not be set down as a characteristic of a church that exalted matrimony into the rank of a sacrament, and placed it on an equality with the Lord's supper. It shewed a deeper corruption than the practice which obtained in the Church of Rome. The words of the Apostle might more properly be applied to the law of Scotland, and the recent Marriage Act in England, which legalizes the solemn union without calling on the Church to witness the contract, than to the vow of celibacy which the Roman-catholic Church imposes on its priesthood-it shews something more corrupt even than this abandonment of the principles of religion--" The abstaining from meats," the other marks of the apostasy, he maintained, is quite different from the fasting recommended by the church of Rome. It means that the heretical sect would teach that there was something unfit in meats themselves that rendered them improper to be eaten, such as the Jews taught respecting certain kinds of food-Both the celibacy of the Church of Rome, and the abstinence occasionally from meat, were generally practised in the Eastern Church at a very early period, far before the apostasy of the Roman Church was established, even according to Bishop Newton's authority, they prevailed there in the 3rd and 4th centuries. This admission the learned Preacher contended, upset the bishop's entire theory in the interpretation of this remarkable prophecy. This was the substance of Mr. Todd's learned discourse. It is the view which has been taken up by Maitland and some more of that party who are called Paleyites in England. He hoped on a future occasion to pursue the subject, and to shew that the prophecies in the Apocalypse are not applicable to the Romish Church, in no more than this part of the Apostolic writings."

What the Limerick theologian means by Paleyites it is hard to say. Perhaps it is a mistake or a misprint for Puseyites, and means that the doctrine is held by the "cloistered knaves" at Oxford; though even then it is not very intelligible, unless it be meant that everything which Dr. Pusey believes, up to the simple proposition that two and two make four, is Puseyism; and even then, how far Dr. Pusey may hold all or any of the opinions here stated, the writer of these lines does not know. But it were unfair to criticise newspaper theology. As it regards this particular matter, it was obviously much more the business of the public journals to get up a fight than to explain the matter in difference. In such a case, whoever beats, they (like the publicans at a contested election) are sure to win. The first thing, therefore, was to invite Mr. Todd to take a part in the fray; then to suggest that the fellows should bring him before the board of the university; and then, adds the " Warder," (for there could be no

harm in hinting it) "his Grace the PRIMATE is one of the visitors; will the most reverend prelate pass the affair by without notice? We cannot bring ourselves to think so." No; what a loss it would be for the newspapers, if he should; and no parliament sitting, either.

But the writer has no wish to say an offensive word, or even to offer any lengthened comment, on the statements of those papers which notice the matter only in the way of their vocation, as an article of news. Nor does he wish to enter into any argument, or concern himself or his readers, about the proceedings of merely political protestants. The important thing is to see how the matter is taken up by the professedly religious part of society, and how it is treated by them and their organs. The writer believes that the Dublin Record, or, as it is now called, the Statesman and Dublin Christian Record, has long held much the same place in Ireland that the "Record" does in England. In its number for Dec. 3rd it has the following leading article:

"THE REV. DR. TODD'S SERMON IN DEFENCE OF POPERY.

"Two priests were lately in one of the Popish Bookshops, not far from Essex Bridge, and entered into conversation (not sub silentio) on the news of the day. Dr. TODD's defence of Popery was not, of course, forgotten, and the subject evidently afforded them no small gratification. One of them elated beyond measure, expressed his joy and gratitude in strong terms, that the Rev. Doctor was doing their work admirably well within the walls of our Protestant university. This is no fable. The occurrence took place totidem verbis. Will Dr. TODD consider this burst of approbation as a compliment to his honesty or his orthodoxy? A heavy responsibility lies on him, and we beg to assure him that he will have something more weighty and powerful to encounter, even in this world, than a newspaper paragraph. The divinity students of Trinity College are, as a body, of a very superior order, and their anxiety to know and to uphold the truth will not permit them to exhibit a Popish passiveness, under the instruction of a man who borrows his weapons of divinity from the Vatican. Dr. TODD is well aware that they are no longer school boys, and that having put away childish things, they will argue and reason like men. They will they have, as we understand, pronounced an opinion already on the learned gentleman's new-light divinity;-and they cannot arrive at the conclusion that he preaches the Protestantism of the Bible. Let him beware how he follows up the blow against pure faith and sound doctrine.

A moral resistance must and will be made, and the farce of elevating the crucifix while affecting to preach the cross, must have an end. The University cannot, will not, permit such a desecration of her pulpit; and were the Board even disposed either to wink at, or pass by in silence, the Doctor's heterodox Gospel, public opinion would force an inquiry and soon settle the question. His Grace the LORD PRIMATE, who is one of the Visitors, is imperatively called on to act in obedience to the trust committed to him. His Grace is now in Dublin, and can have no difficulty in deciding this matter. We shall say no more, but leave the "Donellan Lecturer" for the present in the hands of the Minister of Swift's Alley Free Church. The relation in which he stands to Mr. Tonn's opinions, makes it peculiarly fitting that he should come forward to demonstrate their unsoundness.

On yesterday, Archdeacon MAGEE preached in Christ's Church, and we understand paid his respects to the Todd heresy' in very intelligent and intelligible language."

From this article we may gather something respecting the feelings of the religious part of the Irish community, and the mode in which they would have the controversy carried on.

In the first place, whether because it is what appeared to the writer of the newspaper the most important, or because he thought it would most impress his readers-is the fact, solemnly vouched for, that two priests had been known to chuckle? What will Mr. Todd