6

scriptions and countries may be conjecturally estimated at 30 millions. The tremendous aggregate will amount to 550 millions of heathen, who, being without God' in the world, are without hope.' The Mohammedans, Magians, and Jews, according to a mean estimate, number about 120 millions, and the various denominations of Christendom to about 260 millions; the total population of the globe being supposed to be about 950 millions."

With rsepect to Church government, and other points connected with our own Church, we differ from Mr. Conder. Nevertheless, we gladly bear testimony to the value of his work, to the indefatigable perseverance and very extended research which he has employed in its composition; and have no hesitation to aver, that it will become, as it deserves to become, a standard book in our literature.

ART. VII.-A Disclosure of the Principles, Designs, and Machinations of the Popish Revolutionary Faction of Ireland, By JOHN RYAN, Esq., M.R.S.L. London: Edwards. 1888.

NO questions have agitated the public mind more than those relating to Ireland, and not any have received more fearful results. Indeed, as Parliament proceeded to legislate, the misfortunes of Ireland increased. All attempts to conciliate have been frustrated —all efforts to tranquillize have failed. And why? Palpably because every grant that has been made, under the false and insinuating plea of justice to Ireland, has tended to advance the machinations of Popery. A conciliatory adjustment has always been desired, but, in endeavouring to effect it, the stability of the Protestant Establishment has been weakened. Many of those who advocated the Roman Catholic claims feared the event of their proceedings, but they preferred to hazard the result to the momentary evil. They expected that one step would lead to another, but they imagined that the power of the Roman Catholic would never be so great but that they could crush it. In this they were mistaken. Popery in Ireland at this moment is rampant; it has thrown the whole State into anarchy and bloodshed-it has entered the British Parliament, and now enacts laws for Protestant England! Every institution, hallowed by the blessing of heaven, trembles at its menace. Human enactments are substituted for divine laws, and ancient discipline, based on the sacred Records of Heaven, is weakened by the insidious working of Popery. In short, Britain at this moment is under the sway of a tyrannical power, which has been raised by the efforts of indefatigable and determined Jesuits. Yet Popery is in its infancy. It has not yet gathered its full strength. The seed has not yet grown into the perfect tree, it has only risen above the ground, indicative of its vitality, but the virus has inoculated Protestantism, or rather branches are shooting forth from the old

root, which are overshadowing and poisoning the institutions of the empire!

These are startling facts, which a rapid survey of the political aspect of Popery will substantiate. In the reign of William III. the faction was powerless; that monarch subdued, in a measure, the workings of Popery; his three successors maintained the same restraints over the Romanists, and offences and outrages were small and comparatively few in number. But loyalty was to be noticed. The concession, in 1778, of permission to hold landed property at a lengthened tenure, was the reward-this opened the gates of dissatisfaction, and evil and discomforture, as a consequence, entered. This was followed, in 1793, by a grant of the elective franchise, which tended, in an enormous extent, to increase the evils. The establishment of the Roman Catholic College at Maynooth at once sealed the destiny of Ireland. The seeds of Popery were nourished, and the tree, as it grew up, was fostered by a deeply-rooted education, hostile to the tenets of Christianity and the Government of England. In the year 1798, a barbarous massacre of Protestants was the first flow of gratitude for England's concession—the Battle of the Diamond developed the innate spirit of the faction, and the insurrection of 1798 exposed the treachery of the Papists and threatened the existence of the Protestant Government. The Legislative Union followed, upon an assurance that the Church of England should be regarded and supported as the National Establishment. Attempts to throw off the Union, backed by public manifestos, have incessantly been made by Mr. O'Connell, the great Agitator of Ireland. After repeated efforts to establish Popery, this gentleman has preferred agitating to brutal violence and insurrection. In Ireland the priests rushed to the battle; in England the low Radical and the dissatisfied Dissenter joined in the ruthless throng, each determined to overthrow the National Establishment. The resolves of George III. for a time, defeated the purpose; that noble monarch declared, that " he was ready to retire to a cottage, or place his head on a block, but that he never would break his Coronation Oath by a grant of the political power then required." Thus were the altars of Protestantism preserved inviolate. It pleased Providence, however, to carry this rightly-minded King to the tomb of his ancestors, and his son, when he came to the throne, consented to make full concession to the Romanist, and hus, doubtless unconsciously, endangered the strongholds of Christianity, which his ancestors had so industriously and magnanimously maintained. The fatal measure of 1829 admitted the Roman Catholics into the English Parliament, and thus our altars, our homes, our laws, yea, our monarchy, began to totter to their fall. Dangers of the most threatening cast impended over our institutions, and the very men who had openly renounced, before God and man, any intention to subvert the Church Establishment, and solemnly swore

open

that they would never exercise any privilege to disturb or weaken the Protestant Religion or Protestant Government, now gave it as their decided belief that no hope of peace or tranquillity could be expected for Ireland until a decree was issued for the FISCAL ANNIHILATION of the Protestant Church in that country! The priests were not idle: animated by hopes, and encouraged by a reckless power that daily appeared to be rising triumphant, they declared, that the tottering fabrics of the heretics were falling about their ears, while the Roman Catholic religion was rising in glory. "Ireland," said one of the most infatuated, “ was once (Roman) Catholic Ireland, it will and it shall be (Roman) Catholic Ireland again."

In the 8th Article of the 4th Number of this Periodical we introduced "the professions of the Roman Catholics before the Emancipation Bill had passed," and "the acts of the Roman Catholics after the Emancipation Bill had passed." We placed them in juxta-position, as a documentary evidence of the intrigues and treachery of the Romanists. We can only now refer to our work, though it would much add to the weight of this article were we to introduce the part to which we have alluded. Let us at once come to the effects of this most unconstitutional and disgraceful measure. The supporters of the Emancipation Bill declared, upon conviction, that, upon the passing of that measure, religious discords would be no more-that the Protestant religion would become ascendant-and that the regeneration of Ireland would be complete. Yet, what are the facts? Religious discord is predominant-the Protestant Establishment is despoiled-crime and devastation are the order of the day. The Papists, maddened by success, are thirsting for Protestant blood, and the priests are active for the spoil. The whole empire is disorganized and overrun by the machinations of Popery. The hydra, once bound to the earth by more than links of iron, is now set free, and now grins savagely for revenge; and the great Agitator

"with a monarch's voice

Cries HAVOC! and lets slip the dogs of war."

But let us return to facts. The Tory Administration, shaken and debilitated to the very centre, retired from office the year after they had passed the fatal bill, and were succeeded by the Whigs, with Earl Grey as Premier. Fresh power was given to the Romanists, who were regardless of oaths and solemn professions, and with Mr. O'Connell at their head, backed by a slavish priesthood, the system of agitation commenced. The watchword was given, and never was word obeyed with greater determinedness than that dry and hollow sound which convulsed the empire, as though earthquakes were heaving her very foundations. The Church, established by law, which the Roman Catholics had sworn to defend, under the most solemn protestations, was now thrown open to the spoiler-the laws of the country were broken-and the all-binding commands of God

were heedlessly and unblushingly violated. In 1832, the agitation rose to its height, insomuch that Earl Grey found it necessary to take some decided steps to arrest the progress of revolution, that actually was threatening the nation. His Lordship, when he introduced the Coercion Bill, spoke to the following effect:

"No one (observed his Lordship) had been more sanguine than himself in hoping that emancipation would have produced tranquillity, and that Parliament would have been allowed to pursue its course of further ameliorations undisturbed by popular violence. But he had been disappointed. To allow such a pause did not suit the views of the promoters of agitation; the sweets of power had been tasted by the popular leaders; the slow work of redress did not answer their wishes or purposes; from that moment agitation was renewed, and the state of Ireland had become, and now was worse, perhaps, than at any former period. . . . . . The catalogue of Irish crime, during last year, contained 172 homicides, 465 robberies, 568 burglaries, 465 acts of houghing of cattle, 2,095 illegal notices, 425 illegal meetings, 796 malicious injuries to property, 753 attacks on houses, 3,156 assaults. There was a system of general demoralization, such as never before existed in a country calling itself civilized."

Here we have a development of the state of Ireland a short time after the passing of the Emancipation Act, and a confirmation of the evils attending that fatal error. In 1834, Lord Melbourne succeeded Lord Grey, who resigned the Premiership, on account, it is said, of the noble Earl having discovered that some secret correspondence had been carried on without his knowledge with the Irish agitators. The coercive enactments of the Whigs could not be forgotten by the Romanists-Mr. O'Connell denounced them in the boldest and the most unceremonious terms. "In plain truth," said the Agitator, "it is quite manifest that Lord Melbourne is utterly incompetent for the high office he holds. It is lamentable to think that the destinies of the Irish people should depend in any degree on so inefficient a person."

But the

Thus the Papists, as well as the Conservative party, were opposed to the existing administration, and the monarch eagerly seized the opportunity of dismissing men from power, whom he not only regarded with the eye of suspicion, but held in the most cordial hatred and distrust. Here began the Peel Administration. Papist, dissatisfied with the change, made a compact with the Radicals, and forbade its continuance. The alliance was base, the coalition was unnatural; the object however was gained. Mr. O'Connell agitated England to its very centre, and the unprincipled and renegade, buoyed up with the false pretensions of liberty, bowed to the yoke of the tyrant. The effect was instantaneous, but not less ruinous: the Whigs were restored to office in league with the Papists, and under their absolute and undeniable control. How then proceeds the march of Popery? Mr. Ryan, the title of whose work we have placed at the head of this article, has brought together a great mass of facts connected with the subject, and has extracted

from the Irish journals of the last six months the designs, the machinations, and atrocities of the Papists. We must refer our readers to the extracts containing reputed cases of the burnings, murders, robberies, and outrages, with which the annuals of that country abound under the government of the Lord-Lieutenant and his master, O'Connell. This work should be obtained by every Protestant. We must here introduce a few official returns relative to the state of crime in Ireland, a country, which, as Lord Melbourne says, is "comparatively tranquil." The following is a return of the number of persons committed for trial to the gaol of the county Tipperary for nine months, from the 1st of January to the 30th of September, 1837:-

But let us observe the progress of crime in Ireland, as quoted by

Mr. Ryan from The Standard:

An aggravation ten-fold of the rate of progress in the respective cycles. But the horrible rapidity of advance will be most clearly seen by com

paring the last two years:→→→

This increase of homicides, too, is all in the murder class-for the committals for murders in 1836 were stated at 340, and in 1837 they are, exclusive of Tipperary, 453, and in that county-the return from which artfully confounds homicides-there were ten murderers convicted, making certainly 463 committals for that crime. The following is the abstract of crime generally, and of homicides, which we have been able to make from the returns of 1837 :