King, or of the Privy Council?" The answer of the right reverend witness was worthy to be held in remembrance. "To the first part," he replied:

"Of what is stated, so far from having any objection to it, we should be glad that such a demand were made of him. As to the second part, it is a matter about which we should not, properly speaking, form any opinion. Whether the King were to have such a right or not, is a matter about which, I think, we need not, in any way, be consulted; it would rest between his Majesty and the Court of Rome; and we would, as I conceive, have nothing to do with it. But as to the requiring a pledge, by oath or otherwise, from the nuncio who might be placed in this country, that he would not in anywise interfere with the temporal or civil concerns either of his Majesty, or of his Majesty's subjects, so far from having an objection to that, we should rejoice at it, because we would not wish that he should so interfere in any way."-Com. Com. 2nd Report, p. 174.

The question respecting the expediency of demanding a guarrantee from the papal legate was, probably, suggested by a knowledge of the practice of foreign countries. Even where the Roman Catholic is the prevailing religion, there are jealous precautions taken that the rights of Sovereign or people be not infringed by the agents of the Pope.

Very valuable and abundant information on this most important subject will be found in a report from a select committee appointed to inquire "into the laws and ordinances existing in foreign states, respecting the regulation of their foreign subjects in ecclesiastical matters, and their intercourse with the See of Rome, &c., &c., ordered to be printed by the House of Commons, 25th June, 1816"-a report which makes manifest the truth, that in proportion to the knowledge which such governments have had of the character of the Church of Rome, has been the jealous care with which they have endeavoured to guard against its encroachments. This report may probably not be easily accessible to many of our readers, but they can avail themselves of an admirable substitute for it. In the eighth chapter of his "Laws

of the Papacy," the Rev. Robert J. M'Ghee has given an elaborate epitome and digest of the report, elucidating, with his accustomed clearness and accuracy, the intelligence it conveys; and accompanying it with comments and citations of evidence which show plainly its application to the circumstances of this country. We refer our readers to this very able work, and add, as pertinent to our present purpose, a single extract from a different work-Du Pin's "Manuel de Droit," &c.

XI.

OF LEGATES A LATERE, AND OF THEIR
POWERS IN FRANCE.

"The Pope does not send legates à latere into France, with faculty to reform, judge, confer, dispense, and such other powers as are usually specified in the Bulls, unless at the demand of the very Christian King, or with his consent; and the legate does not make use of his powers till he has promised the King, by writing under his seal, and has sworn by his holy orders, to use the said powers in the kingdoms, countries, lands, and lordships subject to his authority, only so far and so long as it shall please the King; and that, as soon as the said legate shall be warned of his desire to the contrary, he will desist and cease; also that he will only use the said powers with respect to those for whom he shall have the King's consent; and conformably to this, without attempting or doing anything prejudicial to the holy decrees, general councils, franchises, liberties, and privileges of the Gallican Church, and of the universities and public studies of this kingdom. And to this end the powers of such legates are submitted to the court of parliament, where they are seen, examined, verified, published, and registered with such modifications as the Court sees fit to make for the good of the kingdom, according to which modifications, all the processes and disputes which shall ensue, shall be judged, and not otherwise.

("Suivant les quelles modifications se jugent tous les procés et differends qui surviennent pour raison de ce et non autreinent.”)— Libertés de L'Eglise Gallicane rediges, par P. Pithon, D. P. Manuel, p. 13.

The subject of education, especially exempted from the interference of the Pope's commissioner, or legate, by such laws as the above, is the especial subject on which his mission is to be ex

ercised here in Ireland, exercised not merely without the sanction of the State, but in direct opposition to a scheme for the success of which the Government and legislation of the country appear to have been, and to be, more than ordinarily solicitous.

We have not entered into any details of the florid and melo-dramatic displays of state and splendour with which the multitude were gratified in the proceedings of the Synod. The appearance of the masses who came to witness these displays, it is rather boastfully announced, called up the remembrance of Mr. O'Connell's monster-meetings; and we may in all sobriety affirm, that if the intellectual food supplied to them during the session of the Synod, can be judged of by the tempered eloquence of the Synodical Address, the state of excitement in which they were likely to be kept by the assembled fathers was little less unwholesome than that boiling heat to which the repeal harangues are said to have raised them. It seems the desire of the Synod, that the Roman Catholic Bishops should have authority over the various charitable establishments," as well as over those for the education of their people; and the Address gives proof, that, however they may have conducted themselves with regard to the wants of the poor, moral or physical, they are not backward in applying stimuli to their malignant passions. We would not

have wondered had there been a distinct reference to the true causes of calamities by which the people have been afflicted, but we cannot disguise from ourselves the wickedness of directing the vindictive feelings of men inaddened by sufferings, not to the laws, which, in most cases, produced such sufferings, but to a class of men upon whom the weight of these oppressive laws fell with a most calamitous effect, and who were no more than the enforced instruments of visiting upon their poorer brethren some portion of their own distresses. But upon topics like these we feel it is not within our present province to dilate. They are among the ordinary incidents of all such assemblies as the Synod of Thurles. It was certain of the peculiarities of that ecclesiastical meeting that we have felt ourselves bound to

animadvert upon. What can we learn from them?

"It is a most remarkable fact," observes Professor Ranke, "and one which affords an insight into the general course of human affairs, that, at the moment when its schemes for the reestablishment of an universal supremacy fell to the ground, the papacy began also to decay at the core." Has the Papal court learned the moral of this brief history, and is she again aspiring to that ascendancy in which, or in the effort to attain it, is the secret of her existence. There can be no doubt that a new energy seems developed in the materiel of her establishment, and light begins to dawn on the perseverance and the artifice by which, for some time past, she has been promoting her cause. To understand the machinations of Romanism, the history of the world must be learned, and if there be apparent anomalies or irregularities in her administration of affairsif she tolerate in France what she prohibits in Ireland-if she concede in Russia and coerce in Piedmont—if she promise in one year what she prohibits in another-a just appreciation of the circumstances by which she is influ enced will make it clear that her policy is simple, that she aims at retaining or acquiring power, and that, however oblique or tortuous her way may be, she usually makes choice of that which leads with most directness, or throught least peril, to the object of her ambition.

Is the Synod of Thurles to be regarded as among the processes by which her great end, aggrandisement, is to be achieved? It is difficult to answer. Even conjectures would be rash. Unless we knew whether that Synod has had secret countenance from parties by whom the legislature or Government can be controlled, we would feel reluctant to express an opinion on its consequences. If the Assembly has been held, as many a meeting of the Catholic Association was held, by direction of, or in collusion with, powerful parties who turned seditious language to their own account, and professed to find in it ground of alarm or reason for concession, it may furnish pretext for measures very perilous to the best interests of the country. Again, if the assembled fathers had a clear and a

correct idea of the extent to which they can profit by the enlarged extension of the Irish franchise, they may become patrons and protectors of a ministry, and may enjoin upon the servants they keep in place such labours as it shall please their ambition to assign them. Here, it is manifest, we are too much in the dark to pronounce on the future they may be agents to shape out for the country and the empire. But it would appear to us, that, whatever doubt there may be as to the issues of the synodal experiment, it has disclosed two great characteristics of Romanism, upon which it becomes wise men to meditate and statesmen to act.

The first of these is, its intense and absorbing passion for power-its earnestness of purpose to subject to its influence and authority the understanding, imagination, and conscience; the whole world of man, his thoughts, acts, and feelings. The second is, that in its submission to civil laws, where they are not coincident with its own, it is governed by purely prudential considerations-conscience has no concern in its obedience. Absolute Russia, revolutionary France, Protestant England, in their several degrees, could insure outward respect to laws which it was known would be enforced; but let there be a prospect that resistance to such laws may be successful, and no "compunctious visiting of nature" will discourage the resistance by setting forth the mass of misery and crime that may be attendant on the struggle. What waters of strife may be let loose by the Synod of Thurles, history will have to tell the encouragement it has afforded to disaffection, we have had laid upon us the responsibility to witness. We have seen the emissary of a foreign potentate exercising almost a sovereign authority in our land; inhibiting masses of people upon whom our constitution bestows the privileges of British subjects, from accepting the instruction which the State regards as a guarantee for the honest and safe exercise of these high privileges; prohibiting this educational system, not because he proves it to be evil, but because the Papal See condemns it. We have seen persons under this authority defy the State, by a daring assumption of titles (in correspondence with Government officials, and in pastoral addresses), which the laws of the country pronounce a crime.

Such things will be judged of as indications of purpose by the peoplethey should serve as admonitory lessons to the State. The careless wayfarer who is stung or bitten to death, after having heard the notice of danger which provident nature compels the venomous beast to afford, has but himself to blame for the destruction which has come, not unawares, upon him.

If the government, and its leading organ in the Irish press, are moved by the same spirit, we must conjecture that the "rattle" has given warning in vain. The Dublin Evening Post, which proclaims that "the Synodical Address will be read with attention and respect," publishes a "Memorandum" fully entitled, we frankly admit, to the grave consideration claimed for it:

"THE SYNODICAL ADDRESS.

"The following most important memorandum, which may be considered an authoritative statement, is most worthy of all attention at the present moment:

"Memorandum.

"It is known that the acts of the late Synod can have no effect until they shall have obtained the sanction of the Holy See. On this account its decrees are kept secret, until the final decision of his Holiness regarding them shall have been declared. With respect, however, to the Synodical Address-which was to obtain immediate publicity without having been submitted to the Pope the same reserve is not required; and it is no longer a secret that it contains a passage of which many of the prelates have disapproved. A large number of that body (though not a majority) were adverse to any publication from the Synod regarding the Queen's Colleges, except the Rescripts themselves, until certain points not yet decided by the Holy See should have been submitted to the final judgment of his Holiness; and if, when the Address, which had been already voted by a majority, was read at the last sitting of the Synod, it was not deemed expedient to waste the small remaining time of the Synod in the renewal of what would be then a useless contest, it by no means follows that any one of those several prelates alluded to had changed his previously expressed opinion.

"It is even asserted, by persons who ought to know the fact, that on certain points not yet decided regarding the Colleges, the opinions of the bishops are so nearly balanced as to admit of a majority of one only. All will, however, submit to the final decision of the Holy See.

"The letter which refers to the deans of residence, &c., was not considered by all the prelates as an authoritative Papal document.'"-Evening Post, 17th Sept., 1850.

ercised here in Ireland, exercised not merely without the sanction of the State, but in direct opposition to a scheme for the success of which the Government and legislation of the country appear to have been, and to be, more than ordinarily solicitous.

We have not entered into any details of the florid and melo-dramatic displays of state and splendour with which the multitude were gratified in the proceedings of the Synod. The appearance of the masses who came to witness these displays, it is rather boastfully announced, called up the remembrance of Mr. O'Connell's mon-. ster-meetings; and we may in all sobriety affirm, that if the intellectual food supplied to them during the session of the Synod, can be judged of by the tempered eloquence of the Synodical Address, the state of excitement in which they were likely to be kept by the assembled fathers was little less unwholesome than that boiling heat to which the repeal harangues are said to have raised them. It seems the desire of the Synod, that the Roman Catholic Bishops should have authority over the "various charitable establishments," as well as over those for the education of their people; and the Address gives proof, that, however they may have conducted themselves with regard to the wants of the poor, moral or physical, they are not backward in applying stimuli to their malignant passions. We would not

have wondered had there been a distinct reference to the true causes of calamities by which the people have been afflicted, but we cannot disguise from ourselves the wickedness of directing the vindictive feelings of men inaddened by sufferings, not to the laws, which, in most cases, produced such sufferings, but to a class of men upon whom the weight of these oppressive laws fell with a most calamitous effect, and who were no more than the enforced instruments of visiting upon their poorer brethren some portion of their own distresses. But upon topics like these we feel it is not within our present province to dilate. They are among the ordinary incidents of all such assemblies as the Synod of Thurles. It was certain of the peculiarities of that ecclesiastical meeting that we have felt ourselves bound to

animadvert upon. What can we learn from them?

"It is a most remarkable fact," observes Professor Ranke,* "and one which affords an insight into the general course of human affairs, that, at the moment when its schemes for the reestablishment of an universal supremacy fell to the ground, the papacy began also to decay at the core." Has the Papal court learned the moral of this brief history, and is she again aspiring to that ascendancy in which, or in the effort to attain it, is the secret of her existence. There can be no doubt that a new energy seems developed in the materiel of her establishinent, and light begins to dawn on the perseverance and the artifice by which, for some time past, she has been promoting her cause. To understand the machinations of Romanism, the history of the world must be learned, and if there be apparent anomalies or irregu larities in her administration of affairsif she tolerate in France what she prohibits in Ireland-if she concede in Russia and coerce in Piedmont-if she promise in one year what she prohibits in another-a just appreciation of the circumstances by which she is influ enced will make it clear that her policy is simple, that she aims at retaining or acquiring power, and that, however oblique or tortuous her way may be, she usually makes choice of that which leads with most directness, or throught least peril, to the object of her ambition.

Is the Synod of Thurles to be regarded as among the processes by which her great end, aggrandisement, is to be achieved? It is difficult to

answer.

Even conjectures would be rash. Unless we knew whether that Synod has had secret countenance from parties by whom the legislature or Government can be controlled, we would feel reluctant to express an opinion on its consequences. If the Assembly has been held, as many a meeting of the Catholic Association was held, by direction of, or in collusion with, powerful parties who turned seditious language to their own account, and professed to find in it ground of alarm or reason for concession, it may furnish pretext for measures very perilous to the best interests of the country. Again, if the assembled fathers had a clear and a

correct idea of the extent to which they can profit by the enlarged extension of the Irish franchise, they may become patrons and protectors of a ministry, and may enjoin upon the servants they keep in place such labours as it shall please their ambition to assign them. Here, it is manifest, we are too much in the dark to pronounce on the future they may be agents to shape out for the country and the empire. But it would appear to us, that, whatever doubt there may be as to the issues of the synodal experiment, it has disclosed two great characteristics of Romanism, upon which it becomes wise men to meditate and statesmen to act.

The first of these is, its intense and absorbing passion for power-its earnestness of purpose to subject to its influence and authority the understanding, imagination, and conscience; the whole world of man, his thoughts, acts, and feelings. The second is, that in its submission to civil laws, where they are not coincident with its own, it is governed by purely prudential considerations-conscience has no concern in its obedience. Absolute Russia, revolutionary France, Protestant England, in their several degrees, could insure outward respect to laws which it was known would be enforced; but let there be a prospect that resistance to such laws may be successful, and no "compunctious visiting of nature" will discourage the resistance by setting forth the mass of misery and crime that may be attendant on the struggle. What waters of strife may be let loose by the Synod of Thurles, history will have to tell the encouragement it has afforded to disaffection, we have had laid upon us the responsibility to witness. We have seen the emissary of a foreign potentate exercising almost a sovereign authority in our land; inhibiting masses of people upon whom our constitution bestows the privileges of British subjects, from accepting the instruction which the State regards as a guarantee for the honest and safe exercise of these high privileges; prohibiting this educational system, not because he proves it to be evil, but because the Papal See condemns it. We have seen persons under this authority defy the State, by a daring. assumption of titles (in correspondence with Government officials, and in pastoral addresses), which the laws of the country pronounce a crime.

Such things will be judged of as indications of purpose by the peoplethey should serve as admonitory lessons to the State. The careless wayfarer who is stung or bitten to death, after having heard the notice of danger which provident nature compels the venomous beast to afford, has but himself to blame for the destruction which has come, not unawares, upon him.

If the government, and its leading organ in the Irish press, are moved by the same spirit, we must conjecture that the "rattle" has given warning in vain. The Dublin Evening Post, which proclaims that "the Synodical Address will be read with attention and respect," publishes a "Memorandum" fully entitled, we frankly admit, to the grave consideration claimed for it:

66 THE SYNODICAL ADDRESS.

"The following most important memorandum, which may be considered an authoritative statement, is most worthy of all attention at the present moment:

"Memorandum.

"It is known that the acts of the late Synod can have no effect until they shall have obtained the sanction of the Holy See. On this account its decrees are kept secret, until the final decision of his Holiness regarding them shall have been declared. With respect, however, to the Synodical Address-which was to obtain immediate publicity without having been submitted to the Pope the same reserve is not required; and it is no longer a secret that it contains a passage of which many of the prelates have disapproved. A large number of that body (though not a majority) were adverse to any publication from the Synod regarding the Queen's Colleges, except the Rescripts themselves, until certain points not yet decided by the Holy See should have been submitted to the final judgment of his Holiness; and if, when the Address, which had been already voted by a majority, was read at the last sitting of the Synod, it was not deemed expedient to waste the small remaining time of the Synod in the renewal of what would be then a useless contest, it by no means follows that any one of those several prelates alluded to had changed his previously expressed opinion.

"It is even asserted, by persons who ought to know the fact, that on certain points not yet decided regarding the Colleges, the opinions of the bishops are so nearly balanced as to admit of a majority of one only. All will, however, submit to the final decision of the Holy See.

"The letter which refers to the deans of residence, &c., was not considered by all the prelates as an authoritative Papal document.'"-Evening Post, 17th Sept., 1850.