friends in the land of my birth had lived in Rome, and spent several years in that city; I met them when I arrived there, and their testimony corresponds with my impressions. With these remarks I shall leave your readers to decide for themselves.

I shall now inform you of the manner in which the greater number of our travellers acquire their notions of Roman clergy, of cardinals, of Roman laws and Roman customs. I shall give you my own history as the best mode of leading you into "the secret."

On my way to Rome I wore what is called the secular dress, that is, not the peculiar garb of a clergyman. I was easily known to be a foreigner, and generally from my imperfect knowledge of the language, and a variety of little tokens which an Italian will easily detect, I was considered to be English, which is a generic term for all whose vernacular tongue is that language, be they English, Scotch, Irish, or American. I conversed with some of the guides, with travellers, and with others, and most universally, I was told extraordinary histories of the clergy; their pride, their misconduct, their avarice; their tyranny. The cardinals came in for no small share of the imputations. I went into Rome fully impressed with the notion there must be a considerable share of truth in the statements; for that it was impossible that all I heard could be fiction. I began soon to ask some of those friends whom I met in the city concerning the truth of what I had heard, and really began to suspect that they were, through a pious lenity, endeavouring to palliate or deny what I believed to be

true.

They told me that one of the most amusing occupations the cicerones had, was to recount to each other the manner in which they imposed upon English credulity, by the most extravagant tales. They always were anxious to give as much of the most grateful food as he could take, to a good gull, from whom they expected ample employment, and "John Bull," as they called him, was always quite disposed to feast upon the scandals of the clergy, and the tyranny of the government: wherefore, as such foul offal seemed to be the most agreeable to his palate, an abundant supply was always provided. This did not satisfy me. My friends then told me that my own observation would be sufficient; and that they would leave me to that and to time. I have been, indeed, effectually disabused, not only by my acquaintance with the body that was calumniated, but by other means.

In Rome this disposition to gratify a bad

taste is not confined to the mere cicerone; there are men who desire to be on good terms with the English, and to supply them with antiquities, whether ancient or modern is of little moment; there are the connoisseurs in the fine arts, who can procure for them a painting worth twenty crowns if it was clean, for two or three hundred because it is dirty; there are brokers: there are liberaux, and several others; there are men who are too polite, and men who are too politic to contradict you in a favourite theory. And this is the society into which most of our travellers are thrown. And thus they receive their "first impressions of Europe." So that, in fact, all the falsehoods which they produce are not fictions of their own imaginations.

I could relate several instances where some of the worthy cicerones contradicted their own statement to myself, and apologized for their first assertions, when, after having been better able to detect them, I occasionally laid aside my ecclesiastical costume, and in an ordinary secular dress, made an excursion in which it was necessary to employ one of those veracious declaimers. I enjoyed an opportunity of which the critic of our cardinals could not partake. I saw and examined both sides; he could not.

I shall now give a brief sketch of the constitution of the college of cardinals, and of their occupation. There exists, I believe, a very general mistake in this country regarding the employment of a dignitary of the Catholic Church. The ordinary routine of clerical duties is supposed to be the only occupation in which he is, or ought to be, engaged. Preaching a sermon, performing the service of the church, and the administration of the sacraments, visiting the sick, and burying the dead. Now, though this outline comprises much of the duty of a parochial clergyman and his assistants, yet these are not the occupations of a dignitary of the church, much less of a cardinal. They are the most important, and the most honourable, and the most useful occupations; but there are others which are also necessary, and which are the peculiar duty of that body of the clergy that the writer of the "first impressions" principally assails.

Where men are associated for any purpose, organization is necessary; and some sort of government is absolutely required for preserving this government so organized. The administration of this society is the special duties of the dignitaries of the Roman Catholic Church; they are of various grades, and the distribution of power is made ac

cording to their several stations. Frequently the person who appears least in public, is he upon whom the most important duty devolves, and who has the most laborious occupation. Again, let it be observed, that in every organized body in which strict discipline is to be preserved, the common sense of mankind has discovered, and the experience of ages upholds the observation, that a certain etiquette is essential for preserving the due respect to office. Hence the forms of our courts of justice, of our legislative assemblies; the distinction in the uniforms and attendants of our officers in the army and navy. Destroy this formality and you create such confusion as will perpetually thwart all their operations, and ultimately render the officer powerless, thereby putting an end to the government itself.

The Roman Catholic church numbers in its bosom upwards of one hundred and fifty millions, perhaps I would not far exceed the fact if I wrote two hundred millions, of human beings, spread through all the nations of the earth. This vast body is under a single ecclesiastical government. Rome is its capital; the Pope is its president; he holds the primacy of honour and of jurisdiction over this immense body, by the institution of Jesus Christ himself. From every nation under heaven, every day in the year, questions and cases relating to the discipline, or doctrine, or exigencies of that body, are to be examined and decided in this capital. These questions and cases are distributed to various tribunals, composed of dignitaries of that church; their reports are made to the holy father, who has also as his councillors the body of the cardinals. One or more of these eminent men are to be found presiding over each of the courts or tribunals in which the ecclesiastical concerns of Christendom are reviewed or determined, and on great emergencies, or cases of difficulty, or important questions, or new cases, the whole body is assembled in consistory to advise before a determination is

taken.

according to his rank, and the proper respect paid, not only by each to the other, but also by minor officers, the attendants, the servants, and the guards.

In a limited court, where every one is known, and where all speak the same language, little if any difficulty could arise from the omission of this formality; but it is quite otherwise where there are hundreds of dignitaries, many of them from distant nations, whose language is wholly unintelligible to the attendants; frequently their residence is but for a few months; their business, perhaps, only that of a day. But by this regulation of dress and equipage, their rank is instantly known, their places are immediately pointed out, their authority at once recognised, unnecessary delay and interminable confusion are altogether prevented.

The cardinals are not only the councillors of his holiness in ecclesiastical concerns, but they are also his advisers in the temporal government [of] his domains. In the vacancy of the pontifical throne, they are the sovereign body of the Roman government. They rank, therefore, in civil concerns, as princes of the blood do in European monarchies. If, then they appear abroad as princes, they have no discretion upon this head; the custom of the country, the will of the people, the law of the land, require it; that law prescribes what they must observe; the treasury furnishes the sum necessary for this purpose, to be expended in this way, they have no discretion: they cannot omit this mode in order to apply it to any other object.

The cardinals are men who have in general attained their eminence by long and laborious services. They are the representatives of the three orders of the hierarchysix cardinal-bishops, fifty cardinal-priests, and fourteen cardinal-deacons. The college is not always full. Whatever may be the merits or the talents of any other body of men in the universe, I could have no hesitation for an instant to place this assembly by its side; and whether upon the ground of capacity, of experience, of information, of industry, or of virtue, or of all united, to claim a favourable award from every impartial and capable judge.

formation, their prudence and integrity, they have risen from post to post. Many of them have presided in the civil departments of the state, and received their promotion as the reward of tried worth, and to secure the continuance of their services. A very

great number have been employed at the principal courts and capitals of the world as nuncios or legates of the Holy See; they have a thorough knowledge of the principal statesmen and high functionaries, of the most learned men and best prelates, from actual observation. Others are the prelates most distinguished in the other principal nations of Europe, for their erudition, their piety and high standing. Some, indeed, are members of noble families, possessing great wealth, counting up a long series of ancestors distinguished for their personal qualities, and whose names are identified with some of the most interesting facts of history. Yet not one of these men has been raised to the cardinalate merely because of his family greatness; he has uniformly decorated that at least by his virtues. In this body are found the protectors of science, the patrons of the arts, the promoters of piety, the founders of colleges, of hospitals, and of those other institutions which alleviate the distress and promote the happiness of man. The constitution of the body exhibits the sources from which are drawn the mass of excellence which it contains.

If there be something of aristocracy in its composition, it is perhaps that species of which even a republic might to some extent approve. No one is admitted by descent, by hereditary claim; if dignity is conferred, it is only upon the individual, and for his personal merits. It is open for the son of the peasant equally as for the son of the prince. If the Dorias, the Pamphilis, the Justinianis, the Matteis, the Albanis, and such like be found upon the list, the Micaras, the Salas, and others raised by their own merits from the humblest rank, are also high upon it. If the antiquarian, the painter, the poet, or the sculptor, are asked who are their best protectors, they will tell you Fesch, Galeffi, and Weld: the philosopher will claim Zurla. The memoirs of the venerable Pacca, the dean of the sacred college, will exhibit the tact of the statesman, the erudition of the scholar, the sufferings of the martyr. and the fidelity of patriotic heroism. Lambruschini and Spinola stand deservedly respected for their correct diplomacy. Bernetti is looked upon as worthy of the mantle of Consalvi, which has fallen upon his shoulders. Pedicini and Odescalchi are the enlightened patrons and patterns of elevated piety and the regularity of discipline. I find I am carried away, but I must stop, otherwise I should write every

name upon the list. The principle of their elevation, then, is that which the present emperor of Austria expressed, when some of his nobles insinuated their surprise that instead of recommending one of the members of his nobility, who are to be found in numbers, and many of them very exemplary, amongst the clergy of his dominions, to be raised to the archiepiscopal see of Vienna, he had the son of a bookbinder placed in that Cathedral, and created a Prince of the Empire. "I cannot raise a Prince to be an Apostle, but I can make an Apostle a Prince." If the splendour and richness of the cardinals' appearance in public be great, numbers of them have inherited the means by which that exhibition is sustained, and refuse to accept from the public purse the allowance which is appropriated for its support; others would, in any state of society, have by their merits obtained a similar rank: others in the midst of this external show follow in their private life, the poverty and mortification which they vowed as members of the strictest orders of religion; and if they ride in splendid carriages in Rome, for the purpose of conforming to the etiquette which is so essential, they have traversed Italy on foot with only their breviaries in their hands, making its churches resound with the eloquence which converted the sinner, and encouraged the saint. Their occupations to-day are even more laborious than they were then; they and their brethren are overwhelmed with the business which I have before described; their desks are covered with documents of importance in all the languages of the earth; in the examination of these they may be found before day breaks, and long after it has closed. And if they go out, in state, to their assemblies, or to the great ceremonial of the Church, it is but in obedience to laws which have for their object, not the gratification of vanity, but the despatch of business and the preservation of discipline.

I have had every opportunity of knowing them, and I can safely assert, that I have a thousand times found more arrogance and more pride under one demure face and plain coat, than under all the scarlet caps which afforded pretext for the unbecoming sarcasm of the writer of the "First Impressions." I am, sir, your ob't,

+JOHN, Bishop of Charleston. Baltimore, Nov. 4, 1833.

"Gospel Messenger." Will the copyist of the miserable article of which we complain refute its statements, or disprove its conclusions? This would be a more open, a more manly, and a more respectable course for them to pursue, than to fly to the sneers of their brethren in Europe, from what they can lay their hands upon and try their skill upon at home.

The writers for the "Quarterly Review," and they for the "Gospel Messenger," have undertaken to instruct others respecting that belief which the Catholic Church demands from all good members of her communion. They state, that "a good Catholic readily believes as his church demands, in the flight of the chapel of Loretto." If the good gentlemen really imagine either that such belief is essential to constitute a good Catholic, or that the church demands such belief, they are egregiously in error. The church requires no belief whatever, respecting the alleged occurrence- -neither can any Catholic make it an article of his faith, nor is he bound to form any opinion thereon.

The same is the case regarding the statues of saints and angels, which the writers state, "take a walk on particular occasions from one church to another;" of course, if "everybody knows that this happens frequently," it must be true. However, upon this we have less information than those writers seem to possess. And they not only appear to know what is, but also that which is not the faith. Now we presume that our humble selves and sundry other Catholics, to the amount of many thousands whom we know, will require to be included as a "part and parcel" in the composition of everybody, and yet strange to say!-they and we really are acquainted with very many statues of saints and angels, amongst which, neither of us could ever discover one that possessed this ambulatory disposition, neither are we assured that any such statue does or did exist, nor does the church demand of us, nor of any one of us, to believe that such is the fact. Now if these writers sincerely think, as they repeatedly publish, they are shamefully ignorant of the tenets of the Catholic Church; and on the other side, if they do know what our doctrines really are, they are more shamefully guilty.

As to the Hadj scene of miserable imposture and quackery to which twelve or thirteen hundred thousand of the POOR IGNORANT IRISH PEASANTRY, appear yearly addicted. We shall for a moment suppose it to be a fact that such a pilgrimage is performed. We ask, if such be the fact, who are accountable for the alleged superstitions

of St. Patrick's purgatory in Lough Dearg?Of course the Catholic Church, and the Catholic clergy, are accountable for the iniquities of this "Catholic Kaaba."

Let us examine upon what principle. We must acquit them, unless we find them guilty of establishing what they subvert, exhorting to what they condemn, and encouraging what they have used their best efforts to dissuade from, and to abolish.

We shall not advert to the uniform exertions of the Catholic prelacy of Ireland and of their clergy, within our own knowledge, to obliterate any traces of a superstition which once had a limited prevalence in respect to this place-neither shall we go to earlier documents than those which the editors of the "Gospel Messenger" themselves may read at the library of the seminary in this city. The librarian will there show them, if they please to examine, under the head Purgatorium, in the Dictionary of Ferrari, Vol. vii. p. 227, col. ii. not. marg. 24, several condemnations of the superstition by the authority of the Catholic Church, of which the following are specimens.-In Venice, in the year 1522, before the existence of an English Protestant, when all Ireland was Catholic, an edition of the Breviary was printed by Antonio de Giunta, in which legends commendatory of this pilgrimage were inserted; they were erased by the Pope's orders, and two years after, the same de Giunta published his edition revised without them; and an order was made at Rome, prohibiting any republication of the suppressed legendary. Nearly thirty years before, in the pontificate of Alexander VI., who died about fifteen years before Luther began to dogmatize, at a period when all English and Irish were Catholics-the Bollandists inform us that an order was issued at Rome by this Pope to have the cave to which these pilgrimages were made closed up, and to prevent its being resorted to; because of the fables related of the place, and superstitions practised there. Thus it is clear that Rome is not accountable for these superstitions if they still exist. Any person who is acquainted with the history of Ireland for some centuries previous to this period, will be at no loss to point out the causes of the decay of the ancient and holy discipline; and to trace the effects of British cruelty, rapine, and perfidy. They who know the subsequent history of the Irish Church will easily perceive how impossible it was for a hunted, persecuted, and almost exterminated hierarchy to enforce restrictive discipline upon a race who, for their attachment to the faith, endured worse than Egyptian bond