The next statute, enacted in 1710, adopts a singular rule of evidence, not very conformable to the dictates of ordinary justice. It directs, that "Upon every prosecution of a Popish priest for

rality, confirming the good, re- between any two persons, knowing claiming the sinful, soothing the that they are, or either of them sorrowful, earnestly diffusing all is, of the Protestant religion, he the blessings of fervent charity, shall suffer the punishment of a and enforcing all the precepts of Popish regular; (that is, to be social affection. Their labours transported, and to remain in gaol are incessant, and their very exis. until transported, and punished tence is a state of continual self as if for high treason, if he returns denial. No sentiment but that of to Ireland. 9 Will, 3. c. 1.) religion, no support but the in. ward impulse of divine love, could sustain their marvellous and almost super-human exertions in fulfiling their sacred duties. Gene. rous, bold and indefatigable, not to be deterred by distance, inclemen- the above-mentioned offence, it cy of weather, unseasonable hours, shall be presumed, allowed and dread of contagion, or any other concluded, to all intents and purtemporal obstacle, the Catholic poses, that the priest, so accused, priest flies to the bed of sickness at did celebrate such marriage, knowa moment's call, imparts the balm ing that one or both of the parties of hope to the dying penitent, al. was or were of the Protestant releviates bis anguish with the sweet- ligion. est and most benevolent assiduity, and piously assists in the precious office of rendering his last moments acceptable in the eyes of his Cre

ator.

"Unless he shall produce a certificate under the hand and seal of the minister of the parish where the parties resided, certifying that such person was not a Protestant at the time of the mar. riage."

These are amongst the many services of the Catholic clergy, and their claims upon the respect The third statute, enacted in of their flocks. 1750, renders this offence punishable as a felony without benefit of clergy; and, consequently, the Catholic priest, upon conviction, is to suffer death.

Yet such are the men against whom the jealousy of the legislature is in full vigour, and who are only noticed by the laws, for the purposes of reprehension and of penalty.

I. "If a Catholic clergyman happens, though inadvertently, to celebrate marriage between two Protestants, or between a Protes tant and a Catholic (unless already married by a Protestant minister) he is liable by law to suffer death." The first statute upon this sub. ject was enacted in the year 1708. It directs, that "If any Popish priest shall celebrate matrimony

And this too, although such marriages had been already pro nounced to be null and void, by a statute enacted in 1746.

Such is the punishment, and such the facility of convicting a Catholic priest in Ireland, at this day, for an offence which the most cautious may commit (if an of fence) through inadvertency or misinformation.

To expect that the Protestant minister, perhaps a non-resident,

shall certify that a party is not a confession. If a Catholic priest Protestant, or any such negative declines to yield such evidence, fact, seems absurd enough. Be- when required, he is treated as sides, no obligation is imposed up contumacious, and as if actuated on him, by penalty, for refusal or by no other motive than a contempt otherwise, to grant any certificate of the judicial authorities; whilst, whatsoever. in reality, he is governed by a vir tuous principle--that of preserving a sacred trust, and guarding in violate the secrecy of a confession, made to him upon the very faith of that secresy.

But this Anti-Catholic code presents a tissue of absurdities. For instance, suppose a Protestant dissenter and a Catholic about to be married, the ceremony must be performed by three clergymen, as matters now stand.

1. The Dissenting minister. 2. The Protestant minister of the parish (without whose previous celebration the Catholic priest is forbidden to officiate.)

3. The Catholic priest. The statute enacted in 1792, which permitted intermarriages between Protestants and Catholics, has continued the previous interdiction of Catholic priests celebrating such marriages.

And, in the statute enacted in 1793, professing to grant extensive relief to the Catholics, this subject forms one of the numerous exceptions which have been reenacted, and thus frustrated the public expectation,

The late Lord Kilwarden, chief justice, committed to gaol a Catholic priest, the Rev. Mr. Gahan, for a contumacy of this nature. This occurred at the summer assizes of 1801, for the county of Meath, held at Trim, in the case of Mrs. O'Brien v. the Trustees of Maynooth College.

It should be considered, that the attempt to enforce this obedience would, if successful, defeat its object; because the secrets, sought to be extracted, will never be entrusted to the priest, if there ceases to be a moral certainty that they will be religiously preserved. The public confidence in the secresy of private confessions being once extinguished, there will be an end of unreserved disclosures to the priest, and no information can be had from him who will have none to give. Thus, in fact, this rigo. rous proceeding is utterly una. vailing to any public purpose and unprofitable to the general admiIn cases of trials in courts of nistration of justice. It merely justice, no distinction is permitted involves the Bench in an ungrabetween the examinations of Ca- cious and ineffectual struggle, in tholic priests and those of other which the public voice will ever persons. The same extent of tes- sustain the priest suffering in the timony is exacted from them, cause of duty, honour and truth, without any exception in favour and condemn the ill-timed and of such evidence as may have indiscreet exercise of summary come to their knowledge solely jurisdiction. through the medium of private

H." Catholic priests are liable to imprisonment for refusing, upon being interrogated in courts of jus tice, to divulge the secrets of private confession, confided to them by their penitents."

Certainly, it may be affirmed

In fact, the hardship thus ine flicted upon the Catholic clergy

with perfect confidence, that no Catholic priest in Ireland will be found to yield obedience in this might easily be alleviated, withrespect, by betraying the sacred out offering any violence to estatrust reposed in him. His con- blished principles. The law has scientious belief is, that the sacra- already provided for other cases, ment of penance is of divine insti- perfectly analogous to the present. tution; that CONFESSION is one For Quakers (who, from conscienof its essential parts; that an in. tious scruples, refuse to take any violable secresy attaches to the sa- oaths) are permitted, in all civil cramental confession; that the cases, to make simple affirmation confessor is bound to suffer death, only; and such affirmation is renrather than reveal (by word or dered, by express statutes, of equal sign, directly or indirectly) any credit with the oath of another. sin or crime, or any circumstance Thus we see the rigid rule of evi. attending them mentioned by the dence dispensed with, in order to penitent in confession: yea, that accommodate persons who are go the whole confession is to be buried verned by inviolable principles of in eternal oblivion, and that, ac. a sacred nature. cording to the laws of the Catho Again, barristers and attornies lic church, he would expose him. may refuse, when examined in self to degradation for life, as a courts of justice, to answer any punishment for the crime of vio questions tending to a disclosure lating such a trust, and forfeit of any confidence reposed in them eternal salvation hereafter. He by their clients; nay, they are not would be immediately deposed permitted to answer such ques from all his priestly functions, tions: this is the privilege of the and consigned to universal abhor. clients, not theirs. hence.

Here we feel pleasure in adverting to the sentiments of the late Lord Kenyon, chief justice of England, upon a case nearly similar to the present. A case having been cited before him, (the King v. Sparkes) where the prisoner, being a Catholic, had made a confession before a Protestant clergy. man of the crime for which he was afterwards indicted, and that confession having been permitted to be given in evidence upon the trial, he was convicted and exe. cuted, Lord Kenyon instantly de. clared, with a generous disappro. bation of such a proceeding, "That he would have paused be. fore he admitted such evidence as had been there admitted."

Surely, then, a similar protec tion is due to the Catholic clergy and people. Equal respect and tenderness ought, in justice and in courtesy, to be shewn towards their just scruples of conscience, so necessary to be entertained, so ancient and long established, and so obligatory upon every feeling of morality, honour, and religion.

III. "The Catholic clergy are liable to be punished, by civil action, for excommunicating unworthy members of their own communion.”

The power of excommunica tion forms a subject, upon which very great pains have been taken of late years but fruitlessly, to excite odium against the Catholic clergy of Ireland. Lord

"Utile, lex, humile, res ignorata,

necesse."

These five heads of exception to the temporal consequences of excommunication are so comprehen. sive as to embrace every supposa. ble temporal case: they are con strued with great indulgence, and accepted with every latitude. The

Redesdale, who had no inter- sake, in the following line:. course with any Irish Catholics, or any means of obtaining correct information, confidently declared, in a great public assembly, that "Excommunication from the Ca. tholic church is, in Ireland, not simply a separation from the body of the faithful, but, to all intents and purposes, an interdiction, ab aqua et igni that no Catholic excommunicated person retains dares to administer a cup of cold water, or a crust of dry bread, or any other necessary sustenance to an excommunicated person and that the offence which draws down this heavy sentence, is any friendly intercourse which a Catholic may be found to hold with Protestants."

All those assertions, we must distinctly say, are directly contrary to the fact.

The truth is, that this punishment, so much misrepresented is actually limited to the "Separation of a Christian, leading a disorderly life, disgracing his profession, from the Christian congre. gation, and a banishment of such person from the church."

his claim to all the offices of charity, to relief in his necessities, to employment for his industry, to associate with others for all useful or necessary purposes, and to maintain the ordinary relations of society, as master, husband, father, soldier, trader, &c. &c.

As for excommunication of any person for associating with the expelled member, or even for encouraging and abetting him, we believe that no instance of the kind has occurred: at least, none with the sanction of any Catholic bishop in Ireland.

The Catholic clergy have been unjustly accused of pronouncing this sentence in light and frequent cases. Now, on the contrary, it It amounts to neither more nor is reserved as the punishment of less than the removal of a member crimes of gross enormity or turpi of any other religious society from tude. Only two instances of it that society, for disorderly and have occurred during the last 24 disgraceful conduct would amount to. There ensues no interdict against any other person commu. nicating with the expelled member in temporals, except so far as such communion may extend to a wanton and contumacious encourage. ment and approbation of the con- years only two other instances of duct so punished. On the con- the like nature occurred. Yet trary, the Catholic discipline ex. none of the persons, so excompressly declares several kinds of municated, appear to have suftemporal communion to be wholly fered any temporal injury from unaffected by excommunication. the sentence. They have contiThey are compressed, for brevity's nued in their respective trades and

years, in the populous arch.diocese of Dublin, wherein, from the vicious habits of a great capital, the most numerous instances of the exercise of this power may naturally be supposed to have existed. During the preceding 17

occupations, have not been in any manner molested: and they have met their Catholic neighbours, and been dealt with as before.

So discreetly, too, is the exercise of this power limited, and so jealously is it watched, by the Catholic hierarchy, that, according to the discipline of the Catholic church in Ireland, no clergyman of the second order can issue an excommunication, without previously laying the case before the bishop of the diocese, and obtaining his sanction, for proceeding to this last of spiritual punishments. IV. The Catholic clergy are denied the permission (and some times even in Ireland) to perform the rites of their religion, for the Catholic soldiers and sailors."

2. They receive no public re compence for their arduous and unremitting attention in the per. formance of the necessary religi ous duties in hospitals, asylums, gaols, workhouses, and similar public establishments.

As for the county gaols of Ire land, a certain limited compensa. tion, under special restrictions, has been recently, (by a statute, enacted in 1810,) provided for such Catholic clergymen as the respective grand juries may be pleased to nominate for the purpose of officiating as chaplaius. But here too, from the ignorance of the framers, their neglecting or disdaining to consult the Catholic. clergy, and the supercilious management of the entire transaction, V. "The Catholic clergy are this statute has fallen, far short of unprotected by any law, prohibit- its professed object.. In some ining the disturbance of divine ser. stances, it has proved even per vice, whilst celebrated by them." nicious, by exciting discord beVI. "The Catholic clergyman, tween the grand jury and the bound by his vows to a life of Catholic bishop of the district, celibacy, and generally in narrow These mischiefs might have been circumstances, feels the harshness avoided by timely caution and of being held liable to the payment ordinary prudence in preparing of a modern tax, called Bachelor's this law. Tax."

VII. "In various other instances, the Catholic clergy have reason to complain of the insult or injustice legally inflicted upon them.

1st. They are interdicted (as we shall see in the next article) from receiving any endowment or permanent provision, either for their own support, or for that of their houses of worship, &c.

3. Again, the Catholic priest is expected, in times of public disturbance, to perform the duties of the civil magistrate."

VIII. "The law forbids the permanent endowment of any Catholic clergyman, house of worship, school.house, or other pious or charitable foundation for Cath olics."

[To be continued.]