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religion was the main-spring of European politics; the mutual relations of the Protestant and Catholic powers forming the basis on which all treaties and alliances were adjusted. Since that time, religion has gradually given place to questions relating to succession, boundaries, commerce, colonies, and finance. Hence the Catholic controversy has gradually ceased to fill its old place in our plans of education. English statesmen are no longer trained, in this respect, after the school of our Cecils, Walsinghams, and Winwoods; and our English divines have as little resemblance, in this particular, to the contemporaries of Ames and Owen, of Usher and Stillingfleet.

It must not be supposed, however, that the horror of Popery at once subsided after the treaty of Westphalia. On the contrary, it was not until the 'popish plot' panic, toward the end of the reign of Charles II., that the act was passed which excluded the Catholic from all place in the British legislature. The commercial spirit of Europe, as it became more and more prevalent, did much to soften the spirit of intolerance; but in England, the dread of Popery was a strong and growing passion during the whole interval from the Restoration to the Revolution. The Duke of York, heir presumptive to the throne, was known to be a Catholic; the religious preferences of the king were regarded as of the same complexion; and both obtained the reputation, and not without deserving it, of being parties to a series of conspiracies with foreign powers for the purpose of overthrowing the Protestant religion, and the liberties of Englishmen. With the accession of William and Mary these fears were somewhat diminished; but the restlessness of James, and afterwards of the Pretender aud the partizans of his family, still served to keep the old apprehension in some measure alive, until the public feeling became absorbed in the stirring events of the Revolutions in America and France. Since that time some attention has been called to this subject by the debates on the Catholic Relief Bill. But the discussions elicited by the Catholic question did not refer to Popery as a system and a whole, so much as to certain points of it, alleged to be incompatible with civil allegiance. Hence, since the days of Usher and Stillingfleet, though the hatred of Popery has continued strong with the great body of the English people, there has been no such display of its power as to dispose men to read much on the subject; and the class of minds which in other circumstances might have been directed toward the Catholic controversy with much effect, have been directed to other topics, on which there has been a greater prospect of securing attention. The absence of an encouragement to print on this subject, has been followed by the absence of a disposition to make it the object of attention in any form, very few of our divines having any adequate idea of the nature of the controversy, and fewer still

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being prepared to take it up with advantage against a skilful antagonist.

But of late many circumstances have concurred to recal attention to this subject. Toward the close of the sixteenth century the court of Rome was obliged to look on great part of Europe as lost to its spiritual sway beyond the hope of recovery. It then determined to seek new conquests in foreign parts, particularly in South America and the East; and from the decease of Elizabeth to the commencement of the French Revolution, the resources and energy of the church of Rome were directed mainly to such labours. The infidel convulsion in France shook the Papacy to its foundation; during the last twenty years it has been gradually recovering the footing it had in Europe before that time; and now it is beginning to renew its missionary enterprises, and it is probable that there is not a Protestant missionary station in the world which will not be ere long disturbed by emissaries from that quarter. In the mean while, among ourselves, the Catholic interest is displaying an organization, a power, and a boldness, greatly exceeding any thing of the kind in its history for many generations past. We share but little in the fears of the Protestant Association on this subject, and should be sorry to be held responsible for the statements of the reverend orators who so often figure in that connexion, whether as relating to errors really chargeable on the Romish communion, or to its alleged increase in this country. But that there is an increase of Catholics in England, and an increase upon a scale calling imperatively for some counteracting effort, may be safely believed. Much the larger portion of this increase is made up, no doubt, of Irish emigrants; and parallel with it there has been an increase, still more conspicuous, of sincere and enlightened piety among Protestants, both within the pale of the endowed Church, and among the different bodies of Protestant Dissenters. But if the tone now pervading the periodical publications of the Catholics may be taken as a fair indication of their general feeling, it is certain that they see as much in their altered position to warrant hope, as their enemies discover in it to justify fear. Probably both parties will prove to be a little mistaken, and to be verging in consequence toward the extravagant; but in the meanwhile it should be remembered, that there is a confidence of success which often does much to prepare the way towards it, and that it is possible to give a feeble adversary a fatal advantage by underrating his power. If our civil constitution has really nothing to fear from this cause, is the honour of God, are the souls of men equally secure? Looking to Europe generally, Catholicism is seen to be the ally, or, more properly, the parent, of ignorance, indolence, poverty, and wretchedness, and opposed,

wherever its will is sufficiently ascendent, to every form of civil and religious liberty; while intelligence, industry, wealth, and freedom-all things constituting the proper health and manhood of the world, have gone over to the side of Protestantism :-and is it nothing, that, with such facts before us, we see this religious and social pestilence stealing its way along through all the veins of the body politic, and threatening to inflict upon it the full force of its evil? We think we see enough in the temper of our own hierarchy to account for the servile politics of its priesthood, and of the majority adhering to it; but we should not seem to forget that there is at least one hierarchy beside which is still more adapted to mould the heart of man both to the servitude and to the exercise of tyranny. Be sure of it, the system best adapted to make tyrants, would make them after the most finished model, if placed at full liberty to adorn itself with the good works of its own choosing.

Dissenters have been so much and so justly disgusted by the hypocrisy which they know to be connected with the no Popery' cry in many quarters, that we suspect they are, for the most part, little aware of the extent to which Romanism has revived among us, or of the hold it retains, and is daily extending, over great part of Europe, and in almost every country where European enterprise has made it possible for its adherents to obtain a footing. We all know that in Ireland the Roman Catholic population amounts to nearly seven millions. Over these millions there are four archbishops, twenty-three bishops, and nearly two thousand five hundred priests. They have seven colleges, besides that of Maynooth, and a number of monasteries and nunneries. In Scotland they have made visible and rapid progress. In Glasgow alone they number 30,000. In 1792, there were not, in the whole of Great Britain, thirty Roman Catholic chapels; there are now five hundred and thirteen, of which four hundred and forty are in England, six in Wales, and sixty-seven in Scotland; and there are six hundred and ten priests, of whom five hundred and thirty-one are in England, five in Wales, and seventy-four in Scotland. They are governed by seventeen vicars apostolic, nine of whom are bishops. In the year above mentioned, there was not one Roman Catholic college; there are now ten, besides seventeen convents, sixty seminaries for education, and many chapel schools. The Roman Catholic population of Great Britain is now very little short of two millions.

The following account of Catholicism in Europe, and in the other quarters of the globe, is taken from an article in Blackwood's Magazine, a suspicious source we admit. Its general accuracy, however, has been attested by the conductors of the

Catholic Magazine; and, subject to a little alteration, Mr. Cramp has deemed it worthy of a place in his Appendix. Of its substantial truth there is not the least room to doubt.

In the colonies, the Roman Catholics have, under various names, (as for instance, the Bishop of Trinidad is called Bishop of Olympus,) bishops at the following places; Quebec, (with a coadjutor,) Montreal, (with a coadjutor,) Hudson's Bay, Kingston, Upper Canada, (with a coadjutor,) Newfoundland, St. John's, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Trinidad, Ceylon, Jamaica, Mauritius, Madras, Calcutta, Australasia, Cape of Good Hope. In all these places they have extensive establishments. In Ceylon, they boast of having 100,000 persons attached to their church. In India, they pretend to 600,000, and though that number is questionable, still it is not denied that their converts constitute no inconsiderable portion of the southern population. In Trinidad, nearly the whole people are Roman Catholics, and sixteen new missionaries have lately sailed to complete the Popish victory. From New South Wales, Bishop Broughton wrote to the Christian Knowledge Society in January, 1836, to the following effect: Protestantism is much endangered in this colony; the efforts of Rome in this country are almost incredible. It is traversed by the agents of Rome. I earnestly desire means of counteracting their machinations.' Canada, Popery is the established religion of one province, and is liberally assisted in the other. In Cape of Good Hope much has already been done in Graham's Town, and elsewhere; particularly in the new parts of the colony. In Newfoundland, the Roman Catholics form a majority of the House of Assembly, and have gained otherwise a complete ascendancy.

In

In the South Seas, equal activity is displayed. Dr. Lang, the principal of the Church of Scotland College in New South Wales, writing home on the 6th of October, 1836, thus expresses himself:The moral influence of the Christian church of New South Wales will extend eventually to the neighbouring island of New Zealand, containing a native population of half a million of souls, and comprising an extent of territory almost equal to that of the British Islands; to the western islands of the Pacific, numberless, and teeming with inhabitants; to the Indian Archipelago, the great nursery of nations; to China itself. That the Romish propaganda has already directed his vulture eye to this vast field of moral influence, and strewn it, in imagination, with the carcases of the slain, is unquestionable. Spanish monks and friars have within the last few years been sent from the recently formed republics of the South American continent, to the eastern islands of the Pacific. Other groups, still more distant from the American continent, have recently been surveyed and taken possession of by Romish missionaries direct from France; and the Roman Catholic Bishop of New South Wales is already taking his measures for co-operating with the missionaries from the westward, by transforming the sons of Irish convicts in New South Wales and Van Dieman's Land, into missionary priests, and dispersing them over the length and breadth of the vast Pacific.

In the United States, although it is not forty years since the first Roman Catholic see was created, there is now a Catholic population of 600,000 souls, under the government of the Pope, an Archbishop of Baltimore, fourteen bishops, and four hundred and twenty-two priests. The number of churches or stations is five hundred and forty-seven ; colleges, fifteen; ecclesiastical seminaries, eleven; clerical students, one hundred and forty-eight; female religious institutions, twentyseven; female academies, thirty-eight; charitable institutions, thirtynine; and seven Catholic newspapers.

In the West Indies, unexampled efforts are now made among all classes, principally by the missionaries from Cuba, where Popery reigns in undisturbed supremacy and unrivalled splendour.

'In China, beyond the borders of which Protestants have failed to penetrate, the Jesuits have been working with marvellous courage, and with a success which may well justify their boasting. By the Catholic Directory of 1838, it appears that the Papists have actually two bishoprics in China.

There is no corner of the globe which their restless feet have not invaded; there is no danger they have not braved; there is no artifice they have scorned. The difficulties they encounter are not equal to those with which Protestants contend. It is not very difficult to make a Papist of a Pagan.'

-Text Book of Popery, Appendix, pp. 467, 468,

Then with regard to Europe

In the Rhenish provinces, the Roman Catholic population amounts to 1,678,745 souls. In the whole Prussian dominions, inclusive of those provinces, the number is not less than 6,000,000. In Nassau, they form nearly three-fifths of the population; and in both Baden and Bavaria, they are more than double the number of all the various Protestant sects. In Hanover, there are upwards of 20,000 Roman Catholics, and in Austria they constitute the mass of the community. Such also is the case in France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Poland, Sicily, Sardinia, South America, Madeira, parts of Greece, the Azores, the Cape de Verd Islands, the Philippine Islands, Lower Canada, Martinique, Isle of Franee, &c. In Tyrol, hundreds have been banished from their native land, and expelled even beyond the extreme borders of the Austrian empire, for daring to worship the God of their fathers as those champions of truth were wont to do in ancient times.'-Ibid. pp. 469.

No doubt it would be easy to oppose to all this a truly refreshing picture of the progress of a purer Christianity within the last half century. But still the fact would remain, that the nineteenth century, the age of so much boasted intelligence and improvement, is distinguished by the revival, and not by any thing looking like an approaching extinction, of the Papal system. It has become common for Catholics to present themselves at our

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