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too warm for me to repeat. It also met the decided approbation of the Vicar.

"My only objection," said he, "is that it is too good to come from you; you will hardly get credit for such a production."

This was rather an equivocal compliment, you will say, but it turned out to be the fact. This juvenile performance, the first-fruits of my studies in the Romish controversy, was attributed by many to one of the clergy, the respected Curate of G- who read the MS. as it was written, but had nothing whatever to do with the composition or the arguments.

The truth is, dear Friend, the Protestants are very slow to give Roman Catholics credit for those habits of study, and that unquenchable love of knowledge, which many of them possess in a very eminent degree. Oh, how my heart grieves for the multitudes of young men of genius in Ireland, whose fine powers are wasted -lost in obscurity for want of the means of developement!

"Full many a gem of purest ray serene,

The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear;
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air."

Never was this beautiful stanza, hacknied though it be, more truly applied than when quoted to

PROTESTANT BISHOP.

153

illustrate the fate of talent among the Roman Catholics of Ireland. Scotland, with two millions of people, has four Universities in which the poorest young man of talent may obtain his degree. But Ireland, with its eight millions of inhabitants, has but one; and that is practically closed to all but the gentry.

The moralists and the politicians that censure the people of Ireland for their want of social order and their immorality, are hard masters, Sir; they would reap where they have scattered no seed.

The Vicar of B- gave me an introduction to the Bishop. When I called at the palace, he received me kindly, and was pleased to read my MS. and approve of it. I was astonished at the extent of his library, of which he made a good use; for he was a man of immense learning, and great logical acumen. Though he rose from the lower walks of life to this eminent station, he seemed to me, so far as I could then judge, "to bear his honours meekly." Indeed, he evinced towards me a degree of condescension and affability, which I have never seen surpassed by any gentleman whatever.

On new-year's day, 18, I read my recantation in G― church. This public renunciation of the errors of the Church of Rome was then

the order of the day. But I am now convinced that it was a bad plan, and contributed to defeat the end proposed to be accomplished by its ad vocates. Still, it was not such a horrible pros ceeding as Roman Catholics imagine. They think it consists of abuse of the Virgin Mary, and various other matters of a blasphemous nature. But this is a great mistake. The convert simply expresses his disbelief of the leading peculiarities of the Roman system, according to the words of a printed form, which the minister reads before him, after which the Lord's Supper is administered. Great interest was excited by this service. But it cost me a good deal to go through it. One of my nearest relatives accused me of being actuated by sinister motives, and selling my soul for filthy lucre. Another dear female friend, whom I highly esteemed for her amiable qualities and her unfeigned piety, told me plainly that I resembled Judas, who dipped his hand in the dish with his Divine Master, and then basely betrayed him. Another lifted up her hands, and prayed, as I advanced to the church, that God might strike me dead, before such a deed of impiety was consummated!

You know, my dear Sir, that I have very little of the Stoic in my nature; these circumstances must, therefore, have been painfully felt.

THE CONVERT'S REASONS.

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But though my views of the Gospel were still indistinct, my spirit was supported by the consciousness that I was doing my duty; and it also consoled me to remember that the Son of God himself was pursued with maledictions to the cross.

Having thus publicly enrolled myself as a member of a Protestant Church, you may rea→ sonably ask me by what process of argument I was led to prefer a reformed creed to that of the Church of Rome. I have thought it better not to interrupt the narrative up to the present time by any formal discussion of the Romish tenets. But before I proceed to the subsequent stages of my experience, I will pause to throw together some of the reasons that induced me to leave the Church of Rome; and I shall endeavour to study perspicuity and brevity as far as possible, while, in my next letter, I bring before you the subject of the Mass.

LETTER IX.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

THE Creed of Pope Pius IV., which is received by your church as an infallibly correct summary of the faith, thus speaks of the Mass :

"I profess, likewise, that in the Mass there is offered to God a proper and propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead. And that, in the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist, there are truly, really and substantially, the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ: and that there is made a conversion of the whole substance of the bread into the body, and of the whole substance of the wine into the blood: which conversion the Catholic Church calls transubstantiation. I also confess that under either kind alone, Christ is received whole and entire, and a true sacrament."

This is in exact accordance with the decrees of the Council of Trent, and is now the universally received doctrine of the Church of Rome. Deferring the question of transubstantiation for examination in a subsequent letter, I shall now apply myself to what is termed the sacrifice of the Mass.

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