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liberal, would suggest such a proceeding; even though the indecent calumnies of their enemies had not rendered it indispensible. A work, called The British Critic, had, no doubt, been read by some gentlemen who heard him. The circulation of the last number has been very extensive, and exceeded, almost beyond calculation, the circulation of any former number, in consequence of an article which appeared in it on the late edition of the Rheimish Testament. He (Mr. O'Connell) said he read that article; it is extremely unfair and uncandid; it gives, with audacious falsehood, passages, as if from the notes to the Rheimish Testament, which cannot be found in that work; and, with mean cunning, it seeks to avoid detection, by quoting, without giving either text or page. Throughout, it is written in the true spirit of the Inquisition, -it is violent, vindictive, and uncharitable. He was sorry to understand that it was written by Ministers of the Established Church; but he trusted, that when the charge of intemperance should be again brought forward against the Catholics, their accusers would cast their eyes on this coarse and illiberal attack-here they may find a specimen of real intemperance. But the very acceptable work of imputing principles to the Irish people which they never held, and which they abhor, was not confined to The British Critic. The Courier, a newspaper whose circulation is immense, lent its hand, and the provincial newspapers throughout England-those papers which are for ever silent when any thing might be said favourable to Ireland, but are ever active to disseminate whatever may tend to her disgrace or dishonour. They have not hesitated to impute to the Catholics of this country the doctrines contained in those offensive notes-and it was their duty to disclaim them. Nothing was more remote from the true sentiments of the Irish people. These notes were of English growth: they were written in agitated times, when the title of Elizabeth was questioned, on the grounds of legitimacy. Party spirit was then extremely violent ;politics mixed with religion, and, of course, disgraced it. Queen Mary, of Scotland, had active partisans, who thought it would forward their purposes to translate the Bible, and add to it those obnoxious notes. But very shortly after the establishment of the College at Douay, this Rheimish edition was condemned by all the Doctors of that Institution, who, at the same time, called for and received the aid of the Scotch and Irish Colleges. The book was thus suppressed, and an edition of the Bible, with notes, was published at Douay, which has ever been since adopted by the Catholic Church; so that they not only condemned and suppressed the Rheimish edition, but they published an edition, with notes, to which no objection has, or could be, urged. From that period there have been but two editions of the Rheimish Testament; the first had very little circulation; the late one was published by a very ignorant printer in Cork, a man of the name of M'Namara, a person who was not capable of distinguishing between the Rheimish and any other edition of the Bible. He took up the matter merely as a speculation in trade. He meant to publish a Catholic Bible, and having put his hand upon the Rheimish edition, he commenced to print it in numbers. He subsequently became bankrupt, and his property in this

transaction vested in Mr. Cumming, a respectable bookseller in this city, who is either a Protestant or Presbyterian; but he carried on the work, like M'Namara, merely to make money of it, as a mercantile speculation;-and yet, said Mr. O'Connell, our enemies have taken it up with avidity; they have asserted that the sentiments of those notes are cherished by the Catholics in this country. He would not be surprised to read of speeches in the next Parliament on the subject, It was a hundred to one but that some of our briefless barristers have already commenced composing their dull calumnies, and that we shall have specches from them, for the edification of the Legislature, and the protection of the Church. There was not a moment to be lost-the Catholics should, with one voice, disclaim those very odious doctrines. He was sure there was not a single Catholic in Ireland that did not feel as he did, abhorrence at the principles these notes contain. Illiberality has been attributed to the Irish people, but they are grossly wronged. He had often addressed the Catholic people of Ireland. He always found them applaud every sentiment of liberality, and the doctrine of perfect freedom of conscience; the right of every human being to have his religious creed, whatever that creed might be, unpolluted by the impious interference of bigotted or oppressive laws. Those sacred rights, and that generous sentiment, were never uttered at a Catholic aggregate meeting, without receiving at the instant the loud and the unanimous applause of the assembly.

"It might be said that those meetings were composed of mere rabble. Well-be it so. For one he should concede that, for the sake of argument. But what followed? Why just this:—that the Catholic rabble, without the advantages of education, or of the influence of polished society, were so well acquainted with the genuine principles of Christian charity, that they, the rabble, adopted and applauded sentiments of liberality, and of religious freedom, which, unfortunately, met but little encouragement from the polished and educated of other sects."

(Then follows the passage which we have quoted in the preceding article.)

"Mr. O'CONNELL'S motion was put and carried, the words being 'amended thus:

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That a Committee be appointed to draw up an address on the occasion of the late publication of the Rheimish Testament, with a view to have the same submitted to an aggregate meeting'

CONVERSION OF THE REV. PIERCE CONNELLY, A.M.

Mr. Connelly, who has been lately received into the Catholic Church at Rome, is a native of Philadelphia. His father was an elder in one of the Presbyterian churches in that city, but he was himself bred an Episcopalian. Having taken orders, he was, after repeated evidences of unyielding virtue and superior talent, appointed to the rectorship of the Protestant Episcopalian congregation at Natchez, in the State of Mississippi. Of his conduct in that station, Dr. Otey, Protestant Bishop of Tennessee, after visiting the diocese of Mississippi, made a report in the following terms:-" I take great pleasure here in bearing testimony to the faithful labours of the rector of this parish. With real satisfaction I listened to the pious instruction, the affectionate expostulations, the impressive warnings, which marked the character of his addresses to his people. Great is their responsibility, and awful the reckoning which awaits the neglect or misimprovement of their distinguished privileges." In a letter dated Natchez, 20th August, 1835, addressed to his friend Mr. J. N. N., a copy of which now lies before us in manuscript, Mr. Connelly states that he had been for some time engaged in severe study, the result of which he describes in these terms:"My faith in Protestantism is so shaken, that I am compelled in conscience to lay aside for the present my functions; I begin to think the necessary tendency of Protestantism is revolutionary, immoral, and irreligious; that its success has been accidental, and that it has in itself no principle of duration." "My present design is," he adds, "to place myself within reach of full information on the Roman Catholic side. If my doubts are confirmed, I shall not hesitate to seek to be reconciled to the Church of Rome, and place myself under the discipline and at the disposal of their ecclesiastical authority. If I find difficulties in that Church equal to those of the Protestant, I confess I shall think that there is left for me but a choice of evils. Irresistible proofs and undeniable principles, however, seem to lead to a more certain result; and I trust I am ready, whenever the angel of duty calls me, 'circumdare mihi vestimentum meum et sequi illum.' But I owe it to truth and to myself, that no precipitancy should lessen the weight of so important a step. It is indeed to me, personally, immensely important in every point of view. You must have been a Protestant, an American or an English Protestant, to be able to estimate the consequences. It is not only giving up the honours and emoluments of my profession and my standing, but it is to be attended with the rage and malignity, the abuse and the calumny, of the pious public, and the alienation of kindred and friends, which to a great extent are sure to follow, in the north at least. My first object, of course, is to inform myself fully of the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the Roman Catholic Church as established by received general councils; my next to compare its moral influence with that of the so called Reformed Faith."

On the 26th of the same month, Mr. Connelly communicated his

VOL. I.-NO. II.

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thoughts and feelings upon this subject to Dr. Otey, whom he addresses in the most affectionate and respectful manner, as his "Dear Bishop," his "truly honoured and Right Reverend Father,":

"I know the grief that what I am going to tell you will create; but I know, too, you will respect the integrity and the frankness of the course which I adopt. The attacks from every quarter upon the Roman Catholic Church, have forced me into a laborious study of the controversy, and I confess my faith is shaken in the Protestant religion. I have resigned my parish, my kind, my generous parish, and have laid aside the active functions of my profession, to weigh deliberately and devoutly my future duty. I know how great a sacrifice I make, of feeling as well as interest. I know how much greater a one I may still have to make, and indeed all to which I may expose myself. I pretend not to say where the truth will lead me; I only am persuaded of my present duty, and am determined, by the help of God, to follow it. The intention of my vows I have no doubt about; it is only, of where I ought to pay them, that I am uncertain. My allegiance as an ecclesiastic, I now fear may perhaps have been mistaken. I will always shew it was at least sincere.

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"Subordination I consider the first principle of all law; a thing as necessary in the church, and in every other society, as the soul is to the body; and obedience with me is not more a duty of my profession than it is a requisite of my nature, I have no faith in private inspiration, I have no faith in individual infallibility, or any absolute personal independence; as a church-man especially, I have no such presumptuous self-confidence; in the great congregation of Christ's flock I feel myself nothing. I must have some guide to lead me into truth, I must have some power to obey, and I cannot think my obedience what it ought to be, if it is not of the heart as well as of the lips, if it is not in the spirit as well as according to the letter.

"Do not suppose, dear Bishop, my present feelings are any momentary impulse; they are the result of anxious study, they have given me many sleepless nights and brought me low in health; and do not think I have been led to them by any novel or exterior influence; I have read not one of the recent publications for the Roman Catholics, and certainly nearly all against them; I have had no communication on the subject with any clergyman or layman of their church, nor have I consulted on the step I now take with any human being whatever. It is from a most ex parte Protestant examination of the subject, that I have come to the doubts and the conclusions which I now send you; the subject moreover forced upon me solely by our own church, and her vociferous terrors in England and at home.

"In England there was an apology in her connexion with the state, and I was willing to believe that it was only because the government trembled for itself that the cry was raised of danger to the church; but in this country the fears of our church are all her own, and they are really for herself: if these fears are reasonable they condemn our religion, if they are unreasonable they condemn ourselves."

Mr. Connelly then proceeds to observe, that so deep is his faith in

Christianity, that he is entirely willing to trust it to itself, and to the help of God. "Its condition is surely not worse now, than at its rise; let it then go on now, as it did at first begin; let it be contented to rely on the gradually developed force of its own truth, and the simple manifestation of the beauty of its holiness." "What, it seems to me, is really to be feared, is the delusion of Christians, not the ruin of the Church; the confounding of the interests of religion with the interests of something else connected with it, as government, or society, or the press. I hate the English phrase of national church, and national religion. I would no more have national, than individual interests mixed up with the interests of THE CHURCH. I would have all men fellow subjects in this one kingdom, brethren in this universal family. And just as truly do I hate the fanatic cry about religious societies and the religious press. The terms might pass as jargon; but they both spring from, and they both inculcate, a great ANTI-CHRISTIAN LIE. For such I believe it to be, that the church of Christ requires the aid of civil government, or of any secular societies. She can do without them all. They, it is, who have need of her; they, it is, who are desirous to make use of her. When states seek the aid of any religion, it is a confession that they require it: when they give their service and their support, it is because they hope to be repaid; and so too it is with the religious associations, and the stipendiary press. Let government break off its union with the church. Let the hireling writers and printers of religion withdraw their help, and Christianity will stand and grow in the midst of fanaticism and democracy, as stand and grow it did in the midst of idolatry and despotism."

Mr. Connelly continues:-" The Church establishment in Ireland is gone; with every advantage in the struggle, it has been put down. That its overthrow in England is at hand, I now, for the first time, cease to doubt. When the support of government is taken away, it will not be long before the Protestant Church stands in that country, as it does in this. How does it stand here? How will it stand there? Trusting in itself, and in the promise of the SON OF GOD? In nothing less. The great necessities of the clergy seem to have destroyed their faith. They have created an immense machinery, which they do not pretend to wield. They have made an ungodly covenant with printers and fanatics, by which the church has given itself up to a power, which it never can controul, and which, indeed, long since, has openly begun to govern."

After some further observations upon the state of religion in the United States, in which he shews that the church there is really governed by the mob; that " any majority of any committee has the authority of a council," Mr. Connelly points out the unhappy consequences of this state of things so far as true religion is concerned, and observes that it gave rise in his mind to the important question which he was then about to examine" the question of the nature and identity of the visible BODY OF CRRIST,* of the spiritual authority and moral influence of the Universal Church."

Eph. iv. 12.

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