gious rights of a Protestant Church and Kingdom, has not so far possessed my People, as to make them ripe for such a fatal change."

SIR,

LETTER XXVI.

IN the last session of the former Parliament, Mr. LESLIE FOSTER observed, "There is one circumstance more than any other which had induced him to give to the Roman Catholic religion credit for increased moderation, and that was its late-born toleration for the diffusion of the Sacred Scriptures. He thanked it, if not for its co-operation, at least for its endurance of the efforts of that noble Association; which," said he, " amidst all the glories of our country, will shine forth, I am convinced, to after-ages the brightest ornament of our times-I mean the Bible Society of Britain, whose mighty spirit, like the angel described in the Apocalypse, is now 'flying through the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach to every kindred and nation, and tongue and people. Alas, Sir, I gave to that religion a credit which it has not deserved. That candour and moderation which had succeeded in disarming even Portuguese and Sicilian superstition, has served but to sharpen the keen hostility of Rome." The striking difference between that religious freedom which is given by Protestants to Papists, compared with what we should receive from them, is exemplified in England, at the precise moment when the latter are crying out against our "cruel persecutions." For, Roman Catholics of this country, even in their late Petitions to Parliament, admit that they are now fully enjoying religious toleration. The words of their former Petition,

as copied into the Orthodox Journal published by Mr. W. E. Andrews, are as follow:-"YOUR PETITIONERS HAVE THE HAPPINESS OF LIVING IN A FREE COUNTRY, AND UNDER A WISE AND LIBERAL LEGISLATURE, WHICH AFFORDS RELIGIOUS TOLERATION TO ALL ITS SUBJECTS, LEAVING THEM TO FOLLOW THEIR OWN RITES AND DISCIPLINE, NO LESS THAN THEIR BELIEF." (Petition from the Midland District.) I am also sure that Bible Institutions, connected with the original one in London, have often printed versions from the Vulgate, for the use of Roman Catholics abroad; and that the great object is, to circulate such translations as will be acceptable to readers in general, wherever any are already in common use. The liberal and highly charitable conduct of the University of Oxford, in this respect, when the exiled Priests of France took refuge here, is particularly deserving of imitation; and it has been acknowledged by Roman Catholics themselves, that we acted toward them as became Christian Brethren. Mr. CHARLES BUTLER has done justice to Protestants by the account which, in his Hora Biblicæ, he gives of that transaction:

"To give the text," he says, " in its utmost purity, has been the object of the editions and publications we have mentioned, and of many others. An Englishman must view with pleasure the useful and magnificent exertions of his countrymen in this respect: Bishop Walton's Polyglot § ranks first in that noble and costly class of publications. Foreign countries can show nothing equal to Dr. Kennicott's edition of the Bible, or similar either to Dr. Woide's edition of the Codex Alexandrinus, or Dr. Kipling's edition of the Codex Beza: and, in the whole republic of letters, nothing is now so impatiently expected, as the completion of Dr. Holmes's edition of the Septuagint.

§ Walton's Polyglot stands among the condemned books of the Index of Rome! Popes and Cardinals, therefore, by virtue of their Spiritual Power, have committed that "magnificent" work to the flames !

"Yet useful and magnificent as these exertions have been, an edition of the New Testament has lately appeared in this country, which, in one point of view, eclipses them all. It has been our lot to be witnesses of the most tremendous revolution that Christian Europe has known: a new race of enemies to the Christian religion has arisen, and, from Rome to Hungary, has shaken every throne, and struck at every altar. One of their first enormities was, the murder of a large proportion of their Clergy, and the ba nishment of almost the whole of the remaining part. Some thousands of those respectable exiles found refuge in Eng land. A private subscription of 33,7751. 15s. 94d. was immediately made for them. When it was exhausted, a second was collected, under the auspices of His Majesty, and produced 41,3047. 12s. 6d. Nor is it too much to say, that the beneficence of individuals, whose charities on this occasion were known to God alone, raised for the suf ferers a sum much beyond the amount of the larger of the two subscriptions. When, at length, the wants of the sufferers exceeded the measure of private charity, Govern ment took them under its protection: and, though engaged in a war, exceeding all former wars in expense, appropriated with the approbation of the whole kingdom, a monthly al lowance of about 80007. for their support; an instance of splendid munificence and systematic liberality, of which the annals of the world do not furnish another example! The management of the contributions was intrusted to a committee, of whom Mr. Wilmot, then one of the members of Parliament for the city of Coventry, was president: on him the burden of the trust almost wholly fell, and his humanity, judgment, and perseverance in the discharge of it, did honour to himself and his country. It should be ob served, that the contributions we have mentioned are exclu sive of those which were granted for the relief of the LAY EMIGRANTS.

"So suddenly had the unhappy sufferers been driven from their country, that few had brought with them any of those books of religion or devotion, which their clerical character and habits of prayer had made the companions of their past life, and which were to become almost the chief comfort of their future years. To relieve them from this misfortune, the University of Oxford, at her sole expenso (A. D. 1796), printed for them, at the Clarendon Press, two thousand copies of the Latin Vulgate of the New Testament, from an edition of Barbou; but this number not being deemed sufficient to satisfy their demand, two thousand more copies were added, at the expense of the Marquis of Buckingham.

"Few will forget the piety, the blameless demeanour, the long patient suffering of these respectable men. Thrown on a sudden into a foreign country, differing from their's in religion, language, manners, and habits, the uniform tenour of their pious and unoffending lives procured them universal respect and good will. The country that received them has been favoured: in the midst of the public and private calamity, which almost every other nation has experienced, Providence has crowned her with glory and honour; peace has dwelt in her palaces, plenty within her walls; every climate has been tributary to her commerce, every sea has been witness of her victories."

But, I ask, would peace now dwell in her palaces and in her cottages, if Papal tolerance alone, and if Papal charity alone, prevailed here? The comparison needs not to be urged further.

Allow me, however, to submit to you the following excellent observations, which I transcribe from a letter addressed lately to Dr. Phillimore, in consequence of some opinions expressed by him when the last Petition of the British Catholic Board was presented to the House of Commons. See Morning Post, March 10, 1819,

"A large portion of the public seems to be perfectly unaware of the political evils of the Roman Catholic system, and its entire and radical hostility to some of the most valuable of our Protestant rights. The Church of Rome considers every Protestant Society as cut off by heresy from THE CHURCH (as they call, exclusively, the Church of Rome); and therefore they deny the validity of our whole ecclesiastical establishment. They assert that we have no Church, no Orders, no Ministry, no Sacraments; and, of course, that our marriages are null, and our children illegitimate. And why is this anathema pronounced against our Church ?— Because we have renounced the Pope's authority; because the King, and not the Pope, is the supreme head on earth of our Church. The King we hold to be the fountain of ecclesiastical as well as civil honour. We pay obedience to the King, as supreme' in all' matters temporal and spiritual. He nominates the Bishops of our Church, as our Saxon and Norman Kings did down to the twelfth century; as was done again after Edward III. But he interferes not with the ministry of the Church by which they are conse crated,

"The advocates of the Roman Catholics seem to have forgot the many Papal interdicts on our Church and Nation; and, perhaps, do not know, that by the Bull IN CENA DOMINI excommunication was annually pronounced against the Church of England. They forget, that POPE PIUS'S CREED is a perpetual Bull, of curse and excommunication, against every Protestant Church. The impotence of these bruta fulmina shows the inestimable value of our Protestant Constitution, but it does not show that the grounds of our protest and reformation are extinct; it does not, in the smallest degree, lessen the incompatibility of Popish principles with a Protestant Legislature. And yet you tell us, that the peculiar circumstances, on which the restrictions on the Roman Catholics were founded, no longer exist and therefore that it is now time to replace within