a grant to assist them in educating the children of the church in its own principles. To every application there has been but one answer: -No regard whatever can be paid to your religious scruples. You shall have no assistance from parliament, unless you will receive it on terms which you say are irreconcilable with the dictates of your conscience, your sense of duty, and your vows and obligations as ministers. This is substantially, and in effect, the answer which the prelates of the church in Ireland have received to all their applications and remonstrances. Now, it is quite impossible such a state of things can go on much longer. If there be common sense and common justice in England, (and there is abundance of both,) the gross injustice and partiality of this procedure will force itself on the public mind. Here is Maynooth-a place which has, for nearly half a century, been raising up a body of men who really act as if they felt it their chief duty to disturb the public peace, to propagate sedition, and rend asunder the ties which unite the two countries. Obviously, Maynooth might be abolished as a nuisance, and exhibitions and endowments might be created by parliament, which would enable the Roman catholics to educate their priests in the university of Dublin. What more natural proposition to emanate from the advocates of a mixed and (so called) united education? Mr. Lewis, who is certainly not unfriendly to the claims of the Roman catholics, has urged the adoption of such an arrangement, as the best for the priests themselves. "The most desirable course with respect to the higher education of Ireland, probably would be to open Trinity College* to all persuasions, and to organize it on the footing of a German and Scottish university in which case the rising generation of both persuasions might be educated together, and the candidates for orders in the Roman-catholic church would be saved from the narrowing influence which is produced on the mind by an exclusively ecclesiastical education."+ But the Roman-catholic prelates have scruples against allowing their clergy to be educated along with other young men; and their scruples are respected. And so Maynooth must be permanently reendowed, even against the wishes of the great majority of the people of England. Now, it is not of their scruples being respected, one would complain. But if their consciences are to be treated with a tenderness so considerate, why are the consciences of the prelates and clergy of the church to be treated with contempt? Why are they the only persons in the community to whose religious scruples the governmen pay no attention? This state of things cannot last. Deference to the Romish clergy, and disrespect to the prelates of the church, form a combination to which the good feeling of England cannot long sanction. But when one reflects that the great mass of the population of Ireland are Roman Catholics, is there not another question which presses on the mind? A great deal of ignorance prevails in this country as * Mr. Lewis can only refer to its fellowships and scholarships. For any one, even a Jew, may be educated there, and take any degree except one in divinity. Lewis on Local Disturbances in Ireland, p. 431. to the present state of the church in Ireland. Great pains have been taken to mislead the public mind on this point; and clever shallow writers are continually retailing the misrepresentation, until everybody seems to take it as an admitted fact, that the Roman-catholic church is continually gaining on the established church in Ireland, and the church as continually dwindling away. Any one who is acquainted with Ireland, knows that these representations are contrary to fact The church in Ireland is continually receiving an accession of converts, quietly and without noise passing over from the sects with which it is surrounded, and uniting themselves to its communion. But still, whatever should become of the church, whether it should continue to increase as it has done, or whether it should dwindle away and ultimately disappear, the great fact remains, that the church of Rome in Ireland numbers millions in its communion. Is that church ever to reform itself? Is it ever to renounce its errors and corruptions of faith and worship? And if it should, is it to reform itself wisely, prudently, and on the model of antiquity? or is it to start off into some wild and mischievous extravagance, and the last state be worse than the first? If the church of Rome is to renounce its present errors, what reason is there to suppose that it will not exchange them for more pernicious ones? In its present debased and secularized condition, the only probable change which could be expected, in a church where the clergy almost to a man are political demagogues, must be in the direction of infidelity. Will any one ask himself, What does he suppose would have been the case, if the clergy of the sixteenth century had been as ignorant and uncivilized as the priests who pass through Maynooth? Would the Reformation (humanly speaking) ever have taken place at all? If it had to confine oneself to this country-would it have been such an one as the English reformers effected? Men of learning may be the advocates of error. They may even be sincere in their advocacy. There are prejudices and difficulties not easily overcome. Nor is it every man, whatever may be his learning, who has moral courage to pursue an inquiry which, if it should end in a certain way, will involve important practical consequences, and the necessity of taking what the purest and most disinterested mind must regard as the most serious step a man can take in this world. But, make the clergy of the Roman-catholic church learned, and reformers will arise among them; and the better you educate them, the greater reason is there to hope that they will eventually reform themselves by the rule of the Holy Scripture, and that, wisely, dispassionately, and with a sound and cautious discretion, returning to that primitive antiquity which in an evil hour they abandoned. Believing, then, that the state is bound by its own voluntary act to give the Roman-catholic clergy such an education as will render them, in point of literature and manners, fit to be the instructors of the laity of their own communion; and believing, further, that by educating them properly, real benefits will be conferred on the church in Ireland, and the cause of truth itself be furthered, the chief difficulty that presents itself to the writer is this, that he cannot see what security there is that Maynooth will be improved by the changes proposed, or that the money granted for the augmentation and endowment of stipends and exhibitions will be spent in the manner intended by the legislature. With regard to the latter of these points, it is certain that former grants have not always been appropriated as the legislature had intended or understood. The debates in Parliament have made the public pretty familiar with the name of the Dunboyne establishment. In the year 1813, on an application from the trustees, an addition of £700 a year was made to the usual grant, for the purpose of enabling the Dunboyne fund to support twenty students, who were to remain three years in the college beyond the usual time; and yet, although this was the express condition on which the grant was made, and the estimate was annually sent in to government, praying for a grant to enable the trustees to support twenty students, yet, after a lapse of thirteen years, when the commissioners inquired into the state of the establishment, they found that there were but eleven students supported on this foundation, and the balance of the annual grant had been habitually expended on another purpose. It may seem very invidious to talk of securities, but really, if parliament grants large sums of money on the condition of their being devoted to particular and specific purposes, it does seem desirable that the country should have some satisfactory proofs that the money is not diverted into other channels, and the education in Maynooth left in as inefficient and disreputable a state as formerly. But there are other particulars in which Maynooth requires improvement. At present the students are not suffered to study except in common, in a sort of school-room. This is believed, in great measure, to arise from that suspicion and distrust which shows itself in so many ways in the regulations of the whole establishment, and in the constant system of espionage to which the students are subjected; but such a system as this will never produce gentlemen. The students should have each a sitting-room as well as a bedchamber. The whole of the text-books used in the college require likewise to be revised. It is a Roman-catholic college, and therefore it is of course the theology of Rome which is to be taught there; but there seems nothing unreasonable in parliament refusing to allow those who are to be educated at the public expense, to be imbued with principles and maxims injurious to morality, destructive to society, and dangerous to the safety of the State. There can be little doubt that for many years the political and religious principles inculcated in Maynooth have been those of ultramontane Jesuits. The doctrines-that ecclesiastical superiors have the power of dispensing with oaths-that heretics may be put to death-that Protestants and other schismatics are subject to the church, and may be punished as deserters whenever the church can exercise its power-that theft may be committed without losing the favour of God or at all risking the salvation of the soul, provided it be regulated according to a certain scale, graduated to the rank and circumstances of the party robbed,-these doctrines, and others with which these pages must not be defiled, are taught in the plainest terms in the text books used at Maynooth; and certainly it seems but a poor compliment to the morality of the Roman-catholic prelates to suppose that they would refuse, at the request of government, to adopt some more Christian-like system of ethics in the education of their clergy. But, whether they are disposed to do so or not, it is surely rather unreasonable to expect a Christian country to submit contentedly to be taxed for the propagation of such demoralizing doctrines. ECCLESIASTICAL INTELLIGENCE. ORDINATIONS APPOINTED. Bishop of London, Sunday, May 18, at London. Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, Sunday, May 18, at London. Bishop of Salisbury, Sunday, May 18, at Wells. Bishop of Hereford, Sunday, May 18, at Westminster. Bishop of Worcester, Sunday, May 18, at Worcester. Bishop of Exeter, Sunday, May 18, at Exeter. Bishop of Lichfield, Sunday, May 18, at Eccleshall. Bishop of Lincoln, Sunday, May 18, at Lincoln. Bishop of Chichester, Sunday, May 18, at Chichester. Bishop of Kilmore, Sunday, May 18, at Cavan. The Lord Bishop of Hereford intends to hold confirmations throughout his diocese, immediately after his ordination on Trinity Sunday. The triennial visitation will also be held at the usual places. DIOCESE OF LLANDAFF.-The Venerable Thomas Williams, M.A., Archdeacon of Llandaff, has appointed his vernal visitation to take place at Cowbridge, on Tuesday, April 22, and at Llandaff, on Thursday, April 24. The Lord Bishop of Salisbury will hold his Triennial Visitation for the Dorsetshire division of his diocese, at the usual places, in the early part of the month of May next. The new church at Dorchester will be consecrated by the Right Rev. Prelate, on the 7th of that month. The Lord Bishop of Winchester will hold confirmations in the county of Bishop of Winchester, Sunday, July Surrey throughout the months of May 13, at Winchester. Bishop of Norwich, Sunday, Aug. 24, at Norwich. CONFIRMATIONS AND VISITA- The Archbishop of Canterbury purposes holding_confirmations throughout his diocese in June next. The Lord Bishop of Exeter has fixed to commence his visitation at Exeter, on Monday,' the 2nd of June. To visit at Honiton, Tuesday, June 3; at Tiverton, Wednesday, June 4; at Southmolton, Thursday, June 5; and at Barnstaple, Friday, June 6. His lordship proceeds thence to visit at Torrington and Okehampton, and to visit and confirm throughout the archdeaconry of Cornwall, concluding with the visitations at Plymouth and Totnes, the latter end of July. and June. PREFERMENTS & CLERICAL The Very Rev. Thomas Turton, D.D., Airy, Rev. Wm., of Trin. Coll. Camb., Ansley, Rev. John Geo., to the C. of Ashley, Rev. G. P., to the P. C. of Holme, Burton-in-Kendal, Westmorland. Austin, Rev. Wiltshire Stanton, to the R. of Aber-Edwy Llanvarith, Radnorshire. Aylward, Rev. Augustus Anthony, to the P. C. of Trinity Church, Hinckley, Leicestershire, vacant by the cession of Rev. W. St. George Sargent. Baker, Rev. Thos. Feilding, to the R. of Little Cressingham, Norfolk. Baker, Rev. Geo. Augustus, to the Curacy of Ibstone, Oxfordshire. Barton, Rev. Thos., to the R. of Sutton Bonnington, St. Ann's, Notts; pat., the Lord Chancellor; also to the P. C. of Kingston-upon-Soar; pat., Edw. Strutt, Esq., M.P. Bateson, Rev. John, late C. of the Parish Blackall, Rev. H., of Ch. Ch., Oxford, to the P. C.'s of North and South Littleton, Worcestershire. Bond, Rev. Richard, to the C. of Pul ham St. Mary the Virgin with St. Mary Magdalene annexed, Norfolk. Boucher, Rev. J., C. of Lesbury, to the P. C. of Horton, nr. Blythe, Northumberland. Bowyer, Rev. Jas., late Missionary of the Bryan, Rev. Guy, B.A. of St. Peter's Coll., Camb., to be Chaplain to H.M.S. "Melampus." Buckham, Rev. John, to the C. of Melchbourne, Bedfordshire. Bull, Rev. Alfred Nicholas, to the Chaplainship of the Infant Orphan Asylum at Wanstead. Bull, Rev. Thos., to the P. C. of Gt. Butson, Rev. Chr. G. H., to the V. of Campbell, Rev. Colin, C. of Gainsbo rough, to the Incumbency of St. Thomas's Church, Lancaster, vacant by the resign. of the Rev. J. N. G. Armytage. Carlisle, Rev. F., formerly Student in St. Bees' Divinity Coll., to the P. C. of Wray, in the parish of Malling, Cheshire. Carroll, Rev. C. R., to the C. of Folke stone. Chave, Rev. Edward W. T., formerly of Worc. Coll., Oxfd., to the R. of St. Pancras, Exeter; pats., Dean and Chapter. Colenso, Rev. John Wm., of St. John's Coll., Camb., to be Junior Dean, in the room of the Rev. John H. Howlett, B. D., resigned. Cooper, Rev. Joseph, formerly of Queen's Coll., Oxford, to the Chaplaincy of H.M. ship "Rodney." Cope, Rev. R., to the C. of St. Thomas, Birmingham. Cox, Rev. Wm. Lamb, of Magdalen Hall, to the District Church of Quarry Bank, in Kingswinford, Staffordshire. Crosthwaite, Rev. B., to the Incumbency of the new church of St. Andrew, Leeds. Davey, Rev. Chas. Raikes, of Balliol Coll., Oxf., to the P. C. of Burcombe, Wilts. De Moleyns, Rev. William B., C. of Trowbridge, Wilts, to be Domestic Chaplain to the Right Hon. Lord Ventry. Dealtry, Rev. W., D.D., Chancellor of the Diocese, Canon of the Cathedral Church of Winchester, Prebendary of Southwell, and Rector of the parish of Clapham, Surrey, has been appointed by the Lord Bishop of Winchester to the Archdeaconry of Surrey, void by the elevation of the Venerable Samuel Wilberforce to the Deanery of West minster. Dowding, Rev. Wm., of Merton Coll., Oxford, to the C. of Westbury, Wiltshire. Easther, Rev. Chas., to be Head Master of the Grammar School, Beverley, Yorkshire. Edwards, Rev. Rich., formerly of St. Peter's Coll., to the Curacy of Slaidburn, Yorkshire. Edwards, Rev. Edward, of Corpus Christi Coll., Camb., to an Honorary Canonry in the Cathedral Church of Norwich. Evans, Rev. John Bowen, to the V. of St. Evans, Rev. Thos., to the C. of Llangold- |