for girls. So deservedly popular are they, that the Protestant English are in the habit of sending their daughters to those institutions for elementary education, and, as the Quebec Mercury very properly observes, when these daughters in their turn become mothers, it is seldom that they do not evince their confidence in the purity of the lives and conduct of the members of these establishments, by committing their own daughters to their

care.

It really ought to excite astonishment that any persons should be found so destitute of moral feeling, as to renew in England the publication of a work which had exposed its authors in America to so disgraceful a celebrity. That the Standard, edited as it is by some of the most reckless of the calumniators of the religion of the people of Ireland, or that the Times should make use of any calumny, which could escape contradiction and exposure even for a few weeks, is easily accounted for by the habitual depravity of the editors of those papers. But that any persons of a different station in life should be found so destitute of all sense of religion, as to republish known calumny-calumny, the falsehood of which was demonstrated, might indeed create the extreme of surprise, if anti-Catholic bigotry had not furnished multitudinous instances of the total abandonment of all shameof such an utter disregard of veracity, that Charles James Fox's expression, of "a good Protestant lie," is not so familiar as to suppress every angry emotion, and to cause a smile of contempt to take the place of a more legitimate resentment.

We cannot but appeal to all that exists of good sense and good feeling, against the continuance of this system of unprovoked and unjustifiable slander. Surely falsehood, calumny-for we must use the only appropriate word—is not the proper weapon of religious controversy. It cannot possibly make any converts to Protestantism. On the contrary, it irritates and disgusts the Catho-" lics, and tends to convince them that the cause must necessarily be a bad one, which sanctions and requires such vile instruments. It is true that they may deter Protestants from giving that patient and candid attention to the merits of the controversy between them and the Catholics, which so important, so truly awful a subject demands. But this protection to Protestantism, which arises from the dark mist created by calumnious imputations, is one which no sincere Christian can hesitate to condemn: and there is also a 'reaction in the system itself. Protestants of just minds and right feelings, when they discover how totally false, are the assertions of the advocates of their religion, are thereby rendered more attentive to the arguments of the Catholics-more disposed to look upon

Catholicity with a favourable eye, as not affording any grounds for true accusations, when calumnies are used to supply their place; and thus, what was intended to prevent conversion, is often and often the cause of a great increase to the ranks of our religion.

It is with these consolatory reflections, that we look upon the hostile efforts of the Quarterly Review, and of other High Church publications. Indeed, some of the labours of these worthies are exceedingly amusing, from the grotesque extent of their faculty of falsehood. Let us, for example, take up the Quarterly. Review, published in last month, April 1836. Look at page 266; where you will find the astounding assertion, "that divinity is taught at Maynooth from Dens's Theology." Why, this beats O'Sullivan and M'Ghee, the Hoytes and Brewsters of Ireland, all to nothing. Then the crafty Reviewer, as if conscious of his own falsehood, quotes the 8th Report of the Commissioners of Irish Education, as though it proved the allegation respecting Dens's Theology, thus leaving himself a loop-hole to slip out of the direct charge of wilful untruth.

Again, read this passage from page 268 of the same Review. Speaking of persons whom the writer styles isolated Protestants,

he says,

"Their cattle are houghed, maimed, and poisoned; and they themselves are hooted, pelted, beaten, waylaid, shot at, and murdered. It appears to us to be as completely proved as ever was a charge in a court of justice, that these unchristian proceedings are deliberately and systematically encouraged by the priests.'

Well-we take time for breath-and is it possible that the writer of this passage of all this complicated falsehood-can call himself a Christian,-that he can read the sacred command of God, which anathematises the false witness,-and yet venture to cluster, in one paragraph, so many proofs of his utter disregard of the respect of men, and of the commands of God?

Be it so. Let this be the Conservative Protestantism of the day. Let the most outrageous violations of truth distinguish the leading publications of that party. It all tends to good,-to expose the futile weakness of the cause, which acknowledges thus trumpet-tongued the necessity of deriving support from disgusting misrepresentation, we use a soft word. The "nopopery" prejudice of England, is the last resort of the sanguinary and peculating Toryism-heretofore called Orangeismof Ireland. It is for this reason that party, and its organs, continue to calumniate;-to distort truth;-to invent falsehood. The Standard unblushingly fibs in the evening; the Times

loudly lies in the morning; the Quarterly Review more ponderously deploys its inventions once in three months," or oftener if need be," whilst from the Penny Magazine of the Society of Useful Knowledge!!! the insinuation of all that is foolishly malignant against Catholicity, issues weekly as part of the Society's stock in trade. Although this constant repetition of slander soon ceases to excite the irritation of the Catholic, or the attention of the general reader, 'nevertheless it operates upon the angry passions of men who are prone to religious strife, and embitters that contention respecting truth and religion, which should be conducted with good temper, in order to allow the disputants to weigh their mutual arguments; and should, above all, be presided over by the spirit of benevolence and charity, if we would convert the minds of erring men to the love of their Divine Redeemer.

Not so the Quarterly writer-he dreams only of tythes and church rates, and writs of rebellion, and police slaughter, and military massacre.-Why, knows he not that the law of Ireland abundantly provides for the reparation of any injury done to the property of any Protestant, whether isolated or otherwise? The grand juries, constituted always of a great majority of Protestants, are enabled and indeed positively enjoined by law, to make full and adequate compensation to any person whose "cattle or horses" may be maliciously maimed, houghed, or poisoned. An isolated Protestant could not carry his "cattle or horses" to so good a market, as the grand jury. He would laugh in his sleeve at the blundering malice which destroyed, or wilfully injured, his property; and this is so well known in Ireland, that, not only Protestants, but Catholics also, have been frequently more than suspected of having contrived so lucrative an injury to their own "cattle and horses."

But the spirit which dictated to the Quarterly Reviewer this calumny, is not the less reprehensible for being altogether absurd. It is in vain that the historian from his closet-and living statesmen in both Houses of Parliament, have declared that the Protestants of Ireland have, often inflicted but never suffered persecution. It is in vain that committees of the House of Lords as well as of the Commons, have, after the examination of many witnesses, reported to parliament that the agrarian disturbances in Ireland, have nothing of a sectarian character in them—that religious differences have no connection with the land war; the whiteboyism; the whitefootism; the Rockitism and all the other criminal isms which afflict and degrade the Irish peasantry. All this, and as much more, is vain. It only proves

that the assertion of the Quarterly Reviewer is untrue. What of that!--The party which it represents have hardened their palates to all but the most pungent fare, and their food would want zest, were not a relish of Irish horror given to their repast.

But it is time that this species of warfare should terminate. We trust and believe that the literary profligates of England will be soon as much despised as the personal profligate of America. The occupation of the Maria Monks of the Quarterly Review will shortly be gone-and then, but not till then, will the Protestantism of these countries get rid of the stain with which it is tarnished by the frenzy of its political partizans, and the unmitigated falsehoods of its literary champions.

It is, indeed, time that a new era should commence in polemics. The differences in religious belief are proper and most important subjects for discussion; but then they should be discussed with mildness with benevolence-with charity. Above all, the spirit of the most perfect candour, and of the most complete sincerity, should pervade the whole investigation. Nor is it sufficient to be candid and sincere; we should be also most cautious. Our caution should be, if that were possible, equivalent to the importance of the subject-divine faith,-a subject so important as to involve an eternity of happiness or of misery. Let, then, every angry and bad passion be removed far-very far from the "amicable controversy" which should alone be known amongst Christians. Let every one of us approach that controversy with humbleness of heart and submission to divine revelation, seeking from the charity of God, and in benevolence towards our neighbour, our surest hope of attaining saving truth, and avoiding destructive error.

ART. VIII.-Outlines of a Journey through Arabia Petræa, to Mount Sinai and the Excavated City of Petra-the Edom of the Prophecies. By M. Leon de Laborde. 8vo. With seventy plates and maps. London, 1836.

WHILE every progressive step we take in the cultivation of

the sciences, seems to lead us nearer and nearer to that region of light in which the Deity stands unveiled, it is a remarkable fact that almost every traveller who visits those parts of the East, expressly mentioned or alluded to in the Scriptures, returns with fresh evidence of the wonderful accuracy by which those sa

cred records are characterized, even in matters of subordinate consideration. Whether we refer to the customs and manners of the people who inhabited those regions during the period comprised in the two Testaments; to the peculiarities of their climate; the cities, mountains, rivers, or even the very springs that quench the thirst of the traveller; to the turn of thought, the form of expression, the proverbial maxims which we meet with in the Holy Writings,-on every point we find either identity with those which now exist, or an accordance with them as perfect as the lapse of ages could fairly be expected to permit.

Thus, for example, in the book of Job, the most ancient portion of the Bible, we have the passage: "Why is light given to him that is in misery, and life to them that are in bitterness of soul? That look for death, and it cometh not, as they that dig for treasure."* To this hour the greatest obstacle which the traveller has to encounter in prosecuting his investigations in the east, arises from an obstinate belief on the part of the natives, that a stranger can be actuated by no motive for visiting their country, which does not spring from the desire of finding and taking away with him the treasures said to be hidden in their fields, and beneath the ruins of their towns. When Burckhardt succeeded in penetrating as far as Petra, and, was actually within sight of some of its most interesting remains, his Arab guide, probably observing the emotion with which the traveller contemplated the great object of which he had been so long in search, immediately exclaimed:-"I see now, clearly, that you are an infidel, who have particular business amongst the ruins of the city of your forefathers; but depend upon it that we shall not suffer you to take out a single para (a small oriental coin) of all the treasures hidden therein, for they are in our territory, and belong to us." Burckhardt, notwithstanding all his arts of persuasion, was immediately obliged to give up all further research, and to quit the valley.

Again, it is said in the 44th Psalm, "Myrrh and stacte and cassia perfume thy garments."t "The people of the east," says Mr. Roberts," are extremely fond of perfumes, and they are so easily obtained, either from animals, gums or vegetables, that all enjoy them; for festive occasions their garments have an extra dash, and so powerful is the scent from a numerous assemblage that an Englishman can scarcely bear it." So also in the 76th Psalm it is written, "In the day of my trouble I sought God, with

iii. 20, 21. Douay edition.

Oriental Illustrations, p. 332,

9. Douay edition.