for music, appeared peculiarly objectionable-not only exorbitant in amount, but unrighteous in principle. What injustice, I could not avoid exclaiming, to compel Roman Catholics to pay for the sacramental elements, and for the mere luxuries of public worship.

My thoughts were now carried to the collection of this fund, taken for the most part from the poorest of the people, to build and decorate temples for the wealthy minority. Next, in the train of my meditations appeared the unprincipled tithe-proctor, robbing, by an unjust valuation, the poor dupes who had treated and bribed him in vain. I saw him rising from servile indigence to insolent affluence-the iron-hearted instrument of oppression, and yet the favoured representative of the church, by law established, and the accredited agent and confidential adviser of the minister of peace-the ambassador of Christ ! Thus was the Protestant religion so firmly linked in my mind with oppression, extortion, proctors, bailiffs, auctioneers, and petty-sessions, that a current of indignation set in, and nearly overwhelmed all my previous convictions.

You see then that the very things which Roman Catholics suppose. to operate as inducements to conformity, present the greatest obsta

POLITICAL PREJUDICES.

cles which the convert has to encounter.

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Were

the Church of England not the Church of the State, her converts would be vastly more numerous than they are.

A friend, who was aware of my state of mind, and who feared I was about to go over to the enemy, deepened still more these unfavourable impressions, by strongly contrasting the wealth, and pride, and pageantry of the established clergy, with the poverty, humility, and simplicity of the primitive pastors of the church, and even of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Ireland.

"Mark," said he," the hauteur, the blustering importance of those lordly shepherds. Can that be the true religion, which not only wears the livery, but breathes the very spirit of the world? Does it exert any influence but what is secular ? Does it wield any weapons but what are carnal ? Can a Roman Catholic be sincere in embracing that religion? How can he prove the purity of his motives? How can he, or why should he escape that infamy which is justly the portion of the renegade? It is in vain that he professes sincerity. Were he to exhaust the vocabulary of the hypocrite, in protestations of innocence, still appearances and facts are all against him. He has chosen the faith which self-interest or ambition would select; a faith which wars

neither with the world nor the flesh-whose hand-maids are power and pleasure, and which deals out preferments to its friends, and penal laws to its foes."

There was nothing new in these arguments. I had heard them a thousand times, with many more of the same kind. I had discarded them from my mind, convinced that the truth of any religion rested not on the character of men, but the testimony of Scripture. I remembered that the Church of Rome had always been, when she could, an Established Church—that her ministers were ever the most lordly and pompous of human beings that their oppressions and persecutions were unparalleled in the history of the world, and that they cried out for toleration and liberty of conscience only when they themselves were coerced. You know, my dear friend, that an establishment is a mere accident of religion, which, however it may incidentally interfere with the efficiency of its ministrations, or the extent and purity of its influence, does not affect the nature of its doctrines, or the evidence on which they rest. The disagreeable accompaniments, more or less involved in a State-connexion, you may modify or totally remove, and yet leave the religion with all its doctrines, sacraments, and ceremonies essentially the same. In what does

THEIR CAUSES REMOVED.

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Catholicism in Ireland differ from Catholicism in those countries where the host is borne in public procession, and where even Protestant soldiers are compelled to do homage to it by firing a salute? Why, in the one the priesthood are rioting in the power and luxury of an establishment; in the other, they live more modestly on voluntary contributions, and are, therefore, compelled to pay more attention to public opinion.

Besides, it is delightful to know that churchcess no longer exists in Ireland; and that the proctor system, with all its injustice and corruption, is also at an end. And it is hoped that the tithe laws will soon be so modified as to remove the burden from the occupying tenant, and thus dry up that fruitful source of most unhappy contention between the Protestant clergy and the Roman Catholic people.

However, the remarks of my friend on the occasion alluded to, produced a considerable effect on my mind, and threw me back into a state of very painful suspense. I shall never forget that night, when retiring alone to my room, my heart was torn with the most violent conflicting feelings.

"Would to God," I cried, "that the Protestants were poor and persecuted! Then I

could avow my principles without dishonour-I But now,

could put my sincerity to the test. though I expect no earthly advantage, and must encounter certain misery by my change of creed, yet my friends, the companions of my youth, the partners of my joys and sorrows, whose suspicion or contempt would be agony to my soul—they will ascribe to my conduct the basest of motives! But it shall not be. (And here I cast myself on my knees in a state of almost phrensied excitement.)-It shall not be so! I solemnly vow that I never will stain my character by apostacy! No-rather let me continue in communion with a fallen church, and worship, my Creator in secret."

Pride having thus abruptly and sternly silenced the remonstrances of conscience, I endeavoured to dismiss the distressing subject from my mind.

Now, I know well that many intelligent members of the Church of Rome come to this point, and are stopped there by the considerations to which I have adverted, settling down into a state of lifeless indifference on religious subjects, from which a few, like myself, are happily delivered by sovereign and omnipotent grace. The rest are held back by a sense of honour from joining an ascendant establishment, because they would thus seem to wear, for selfish purposes, the