the Catholic should regret. Few men better deserve the reverence of mankind than the Gregories and the Innocents; and the rapid progress of despotism throughout Europe, in proportion as the authority of the Holy See has been weakened, affords matter of serious meditation to all the lovers of liberty and liberal institutions.

For ourselves, we do not regard with the same feelings as do some, even of our Catholic brethren, the charges brought by Protestants against the Popes. And we are very far from wishing, in order to escape those charges, to restrict the Papal power as much as possible. We have, of course, no reference in this remark to the right reverend author of the work hefore us. But we fancy we witness among some of our Catholic brethren a disposition to concede far more to Protestant prejudice and cant than is necessary. The violence with which the Papacy is assailed is a proof of its utility, as well as of its divine institution, and should make it as dear to the statesman as to the Catholic. This inveterate hostility, which for so many ages has been manifested against it, proves that it stands in the way of tyrants and of lawless passion; that it is, in fact, a shield interposed between the many and the ambitious few, between the masses and their oppressors. This we saw, and this we stated in our publications and lectures, long before we became a Catholic, and when hardly less prejudiced against the Church than are the majority of our countrymen. We confess that the clamor of our countrymen against the Pope," "the authority of the Pope," allegiance to the Pope," and "the intention of the Pope to possess himself of this country," does not move us. The Church is of God, and the Papacy is essential to the constitution and existence of the Church. This is our answer to all clamors.

99 66

"But would you have this country come under the authority of the Pope?" Why not? "But the Pope would take away our free institutions!" Nonsense. But how do you know that? From what do you infer it? After all, do you not commit a slight blunder? Are your free institutions infallible? Are they founded on divine right? This you deny. Is not the proper question for you to discuss, then, not, whether the Papacy be or be not compatible with republican government, but, whether it be or be not founded in divine right? If the Papacy be founded in divine right, it is supreme over whatever is founded only in human right, and then your institutions should be made to harmonize with it, not it with your institutions. And this would be cause of no apprehension for liberty, for liberty consists in the supremacy of the divine over the human; and we know that no evil can come from the divine supremacy. The real question, then, is, not the compatibility or incompatibility of the Catholic Church with democratic institutions, but, Is the Catholic Church the Church of God? Settle

this question first. But, in point of fact, democracy is a mischiev ous dream, wherever the Catholic Church does not predominate, to inspire the people with reverence, and to teach and accustom them to obedience to authority. The first lesson for all to learn, the last that should be forgotten, is, TO OBEY. You can have no government, where there is no obedience; and obedience to law, as it is called, will not long be enforced, where the fallibility of law is clearly seen and freely admitted, and especially where the law changes with every year, or is every year in need of amendment. Reverence for law is in our country already down to the freezing-point, and threatens to fall to zero, and lower. Very few of our countrymen look upon obedience to law as a moral duty. While such is our moral state, it is idle to talk of civil freedom. We have already the germs of anarchy, which events may not be slow to develope and mature. If we love freedom (since freedom is impossible without a well ordered government, without the supremacy of law), we cannot but seek the predominance of the Catholic Church, for no other can teach and produce due reverence and obedience. Under the supremacy of the Catholic Church, through its moral and spiritual influences, liberty may be a reality, and democracy not a delusive dream.

But "It is the intention of the Pope to possess this country." Undoubtedly. "In this intention he is aided by the Jesuits, and all the Catholic prelates and priests." Undoubtedly, if they are faithful to their religion. "If the Catholic Church becomes predominant here, Protestants will all be exterminated." We hope so, if exterminated as Protestants by being converted to the Catholic faith; not otherwise. We would exterminate error everywhere, by converting its subjects to the truth, by moral, not by physical force. This kind of extermination our Protestant brethren are to dread, but no other. The Church never uses physical force; her weapons are spiritual, not carnal. Yet Protestantism will find them none the less powerful on that account. Before the state, so far as the action of civil government is concerned, the Church permits all men, whatever the form of their faith or worship, to have equal rights; but before herself, before the spiritual tribunal, she knows and can know no toleration of She therefore does, and must, labor incessantly - and the Pope, as head of the Church to root out all error, and to bring all to the belief and profession of the true faith. That to do this, by all spiritual and moral means, is the settled policy of the Church, is unquestionably true. That this policy is dreaded and opposed, and must be dreaded and opposed, by all Protestants, infidels, demagogues, tyrants, and oppressors, is also unquestionably Save, then, in the discharge of our civil duties, and in the ordinary business of life, there is, and can be, no harmony between Catholics and Protestants. The two parties stand opposed,

error.

separated, not by a mere paper wall, as some of the sects are, but by a great gulf. In civil and domestic peace, Catholics and Protestants may dwell together; in other respects, there is, and can be, no union among them. The people of Christ are a peculiar people; they stand out from the world, distinct, separate, and must, if they will be the people of Christ. They can have no fellowship with Belial, nor live in peace and harmony with his children. They must be meek, gentle, forbearing, returning always good for evil, blessing for cursing; but they are to stand on true Catholic ground, and never yield even one hair's breadth.

No matter what taunts may be uttered, what falsehoods propagated, about foreign allegiance, and all that. Let these falsehoods go; they are not worth contradicting. Above all, in their eagerness to contradict them, Catholics must not suffer themselves to be betrayed into statements which would restrict the ecclesiastical authority nay, the Papal authority- further than the Divine constitution of the Church, and its free, unimpeded action will admit. The Papal authority, all know, does not extend to civil matters, save by ordinance and consent of civil governments themselves; but all matters are so mixed up in this life, and all here is so subordinated to the great ends of our existence hereafter, that it is not in all cases easy to draw the line, nor prudent to be over-particular in saying where the spiritual authority begins or ends. Submission in doubtful cases is better than resistance, and individuals in their haste are full as likely to encroach on authority, as the Pope is to encroach on liberty. The calamities which have afflicted the Church have all come from the effort to destroy its independence, to curtail its rightful authority, and to subject it to the civil power. The complete independence of the spiritual authority, its perfect freedom from all dependence on the civil authority, is the motto of every enlightened friend of religion and of religious liberty.

But we are exceeding our limits, and straying from the work before us. They who wish to see the Primacy of the Apostolic See ably and triumphantly vindicated, and the action of the Papal authority over modern civilization clearly set forth and dispassionately considered, will find this volume the very one they need. We commend it to the serious study of our Protestant brethren. Its study may teach them some things they are slow to learn, still slower to believe.

2.

Historical Sketch of O'Connell and his Friends, with a Glance at the Future Destiny of Ireland. By THOMAS D. MCGEE. Boston: Donahue & Rohan. 12mo. pp. 208.

1845.

THIS is an interesting and eloquently written work, by the talented editor of the Boston Pilot, and dedicated especially to the citizens of this country who are of Irish descent. It evinces more than ordinary literary ability on the part of its author, as well as a heart tenderly alive to the political interests of Ireland. We might take some exceptions to the work, were we disposed to be very critical. The praise bestowed is laid on rather too thick to suit our taste, and the censures upon those the author does not chance to like are quite too bitter. When the author shall have lived some years longer, he will learn that no man is so good as he is represented to be, and no man so bad. His praise of O'Connell is unbounded, and yet, we are obliged to confess, his work has not tended to exalt O'Connell in our estimation. If an enemy had told us that Daniel O'Connell could ever have so far compromised his principles, as, for any purpose whatever, to have drunk "The pious and immortal memory of William of Orange," we should have pronounced it a slander. Mr. McGee must allow us also to say, that, considering he is a resident, if not a citizen, of this country, as this is his home, and the sphere of his labors, the whole tone and sentiment of his work are too foreign, especially as intended for American citizens. We find no fault with him for his devotion to Ireland. Nay, we honor him for this devotion. We ask not that our Irish fellow-citizens should forget their fatherland; we are willing, nay, we wish that they should retain for it the warmest affections of the heart; but we do ask them to remember that they have not brought Ireland with them to the land of their adoption. In these times, when so violent hostility is excited against foreigners, and against Catholic Irishmen in particular, those who write books or conduct newspapers should be careful not to write or say aught gratuitously that may tend to increase this hostility. No small portion of this hostility itself is produced by the forgetfulness of those who conduct the Irish press in this country, that native Americans have sensibilities as well as Irishmen. We speak plainly, but not unkindly. Attached to Ireland by our religion, by our own Irish blood, and by our sympathy with her wrongs and sufferings, which have been so great that we have never been able to read the full history of them, we are not afraid of being misconstrued, or of giving the tenderest Irish sensibility the least offence. Irishmen in this country have a double duty, — a duty to the country they have left, and a duty to the country they have adopted. We say not that they are wanting in their duty to the country of their adoption; but we do say, some of their

writers

and we cannot except our young friend, the author of the work before us, conducting one of the leading Irish journals in this country - manifest an unnecessary forgetfulness of the fact that they are writing for American citizens, and show occasionally an offensive want of respect for American feelings. The Irish Americans constitute a large and an important portion of our population. We welcome them, and we wish them to find here a home, a home which they may enjoy in peace and quietness. We wish no distinction to be made between the native-born and the foreign-born, between the descendants of Irish parents and the descendants of English, Scotch, French, or German parents; and we are confident no distinction would be made, if our Irish fellow-citizens did not themselves make it. But enough of this.

In the effort of O'Connell and his friends to emancipate Ireland, we need not say we take the deepest interest. Ireland has suffered more than any other people. The history of her wrongs is the blackest chapter in the history of the human race, and terrible vengeance will one day be wreaked on England and England's Church; for there is a God in heaven, who will avenge the wronged. So far as the work before us shall tend to excite sympathy with the great movement at the head of which stands Daniel O'Connell, and which owes not less to the Catholic bishops and clergy of Ireland than to him, and so far as it shall tend to enlist the exertions of all the friends of suffering humanity everywhere, we hail it with pleasure, and cordially thank the author for his labors, and the present he has made us and the public. We ardently desire to see Ireland's wrongs redressed, and Ireland a free, independent, and prosperous nation; and, if we do not shout Repeal" as loudly as some of our friends, it is because we have done taking any very active part in political movements, whether at home or abroad. To us, the emancipation of the soul is a greater object than the emancipation of the state; and to secure the blessings of the world to come is much more important than merely to secure the blessings of political and social liberty here. We honor the Irish for their spirited efforts to regain their national existence and rank; we honor them still more for having for these three hundred years suffered every indignity, privation, and distress, rather than abandon the faith transmitted to them from their fathers. We sympathize with all who struggle to secure to the people their rights; we wish them success; but the remainder of our life must be spent in the effort to promote the welfare of the people by doing what we can to recall them to the true Catholic faith, and to persuade them to seek first the kingdom of God and his justice. The author of the book under consideration claims to be a Catholic. He must pardon us for saying that we have detected in his book several trains of thought and expressions, which we were familiar with before we became a Catholic, but which we