pamphlet, as a special mark of his regard. Dr. Crotty, however, does not think he was bound to inquire into this transaction, which he allows to be a violation of the statutes, because he had no legal proof that the letters were the production of Dr. M'Hale. He appears totally to forget that the printer could easily have supplied the deficient link in the evidence. To us it is a novel doctrine, that the president of a college ought not to commence an investigation when he knows that an important statute has been broken, but is to wait till the offence is voluntarily confessed. Is it uncharitable to believe that Dr. Crotty chose to overlook this act, most unjustifiable as regards itself, and most injurious as regards example to the students, because he entered into Dr. M'Hale's views, and approved of the sentiments contained in his pamphlets? Dr. M'Hale, by some strange argument, which we do not profess to understand, tries to prove that by affixing to them a fictitious name he avoided coming within the statute. The law, forsooth, applied only to the Reverend Dr. M'Hale-not at all to Hierophilos! We do not like to charge this Reverend Doctor with perjury, lest it should be considered libellous; but we know not how to use milder terms than to say that he was guilty of a wilful and deliberate violation of his oath, he having distinctly sworn carefully and faithfully to preserve all and every one of the statutes and regulations of this college.'* There are but two lines which he can follow in his defence either that he took this oath with a mental reservation; or, that imagining his keeping this oath might be disadvantageous to the church, he thought fit to grant himself a dispensation' per tertiam et septimam causas excusantes.' We must also remark, as most curious coincidences, that the first of these letters was published the very year this Doctor was elected professor of dogmatic theology—the lectureship most connected with the points he discusses in his pamphlet; and that as soon as it was universally known that he was the author of these publications, the Irish Catholic clergy renewed their postulation to Rome to have him appointed to the rank which he at present holds-that of coadjutor-bishop of Killala, cum jure necessionis.

We have neither space nor patience to discuss at length the sentiments contained in these letters. In Dr. M'Hale's evidence he admits and justifies every word and every expression. The substance would seem briefly this: he considers crime to increase in proportion to the circulation of the scriptures by Bible Societies. Many, if not most, Protestants are attached to their religion solely from interested motives. All clergymen of that persuasion he

Of these the following is one :-'Si quis omnium libros scriptave evulgaverit, edentibusve conscius fuerit, Præside et inscio et improbante, exigitor,'

would

pre

would fain reckon as laymen; he gives no titles to our prelates, and styles them officers removable at pleasure.' The Protestant establishment he thinks most mischievous; their right to tithes is very questionable, to say the least of it, in England, much more so in Ireland; and the confiscation of their property would be an act most beneficial to the country. He says, that if the legislature were to adopt such a course as the abolition of the Protestant establishment, he and other Catholics would consider it very wise, from the respect they bear to the legislature. He subjoins an inquiry, what Protestants would have done had they been in the sent situation of the Irish Catholics?-why rise in arms, he answers, to defend their rights; and he sums up the whole with a strong insinuation of 'Go thou, and do likewise.' He is asked whether these Letters contain the full extent of his opinions on the rights and stability of the Established church.' With some difficulty the commissioners drag from him this reluctant reply: Such a question regards interior sentiments-human tribunals only judge of external actions and opinions.' On this answer we need make no remark; it speaks for itself: nor need we ask what effects the eleven years' lectures of a man of considerable talents, actuated by such interior sentiments, must have been calculated to produce? It may be said such are the sentiments only of a single prelate, not of the Catholic clergy in Ireland; but when we find others, and especially Dr. Doyle, their ablest leader, uttering similar opinions; and when we find disapprobation of the conduct of the Doyles and the M'Hales expressed by none, collectively or individually, we must attribute to the Irish Roman Catholic bishops as a body full and entire concurrence with Hierophilos and J.K.L. Of their prudence, their justice, and their loyalty, the British nation may judge. What language some Catholics hold, what sentiments they avow, is now known. By many that conduct is justified, by all openly or tacitly commended.

The last topic we shall notice, is the Sodality of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, established a few years ago by Dr. Murray. In itself it seems to be merely one of those fanatical and mystical societies so common in Italy, by means of which gross superstition is encouraged under the pretence of abstracted piety. This society is, however, remarkable for having been supported by the ex-Jesuits when their order was abolished, as a means of perpetuating their influence, and of paving the way for their reestablishment. The system of devotion practised in it is replete with absurdity, and the whole history of its origin only equalled by the rhapsodies of the Sour Nativité. In Tuscany, Scipion de Ricci, Bishop of Pistoia, a distinguished prelate, warmly opposed it, for which he was severely condemned by Pius VI.

He

He persevered, however, in asserting that it was connected with the Jesuits, and was most pernicious in its effects on the minds of its members. In fact, in proportion as that order has regained power, so has the Sodality increased; and this much is known even to Lady Morgan; for in a strange farrago of ignorance, licentiousness, and jacobinism, lately published by her, called "The O'Briens and the O'Flahertys,' in some of the very few intelligible sentences we could discover in the whole four volumes, she alludes to this fact as one which cannot be disputed. It must, therefore, be a matter of great suspicion, when we find this society suddenly introduced at Maynooth, soon after Mr. Kenny, an avowed Jesuit, had been elected vice-president, and immediately after Dr. Murray had visited Rome, where the general of that order resides. The connexion is strenuously denied by our witnesses; yet, strangely enough, they allow that several of the superiors,* and two hundred students, are members of the Sodality. Nor is it less singular, that Dr. Crotty, and the other witnesses, betray a remarkable unwillingness to allow that they knew that Mr. Kenny was a Jesuit. He did not know whether he doubted it or not-he had never asked him-he had it only from public fame,' says Dr. Crotty; and Dr. Anglade 'was not sure that there were any Jesuits in the country, because he had no legal proof of the fact.' Yet both doctors were at last forced to admit, that they were perfectly well aware that Mr. Kenny and his ten brother professors at Clongowes, a seminary only a few miles distant from Maynooth, all belonged to the order of Loyola.

With regard to the conclusion to be drawn from this mass of evidence, we shall say nothing. If the result of this system is thought likely to be beneficial; if experience has shown us that the effect is good-so be it, FLOREAT MAYNOOTH! Let the system under which one thousand two hundred, as we believe, of the Roman Catholic priests now officiating in Ireleand have been trained for their functions, be fostered and maintained.†

Dr. Crotty owned only to eighty students, and no superiors. The reverse was proved by the dean who kept the register. Why this uniform reluctance to speak the truth?

+We think it right to say, that the above article was printed before we had an opportunity of perusing Dr. Philpotts Letter to an English Layman, on the Coronation Oath,' &c. In that work-a work worthy of the better days of the church and the language the reader will find the affair of Hierophilos treated with the fulness which its heinousness merits.

ART:

ART, VIII.A Letter to the Right Honourable the Earl of Aberdeen, K. T., President of the Society of Antiquaries, on the Expediency of attaching a Museum of Antiquities to that Institution. By James Heywood Markland, Esq., Director of the Society of Antiquaries, &c. London. 1828.

MR.

R. MARKLAND, in this very able and well-written address, fully proves, that, according to the original scheme of the Antiquarian Society, it was intended to establish a museum, where the monuments of ancient days might be placed under the care of the learned body instituted for the purpose of expounding their meaning and elucidating their history.

'I deem it,' he then continues,' an idle task to dwell at length upon the benefits that would result from such a repository. "Officers of State,' the class of persons first enumerated by Wanley, might not, as he supposed, derive much benefit from it, as we have abundant proof that the ministers of Queen Anne had more leisure than those of the present day: but to how many other classes of persons might it not prove a most useful and interesting place of resort? Not only would it afford information and assistance to the professed antiquary, but to all who are attached to historical researches, or to whom the progress of art, and the habits and customs of past ages, are subjects of attention, England has displayed a becoming zeal in accumulating the treasures of her early literature; and the natural productions of her own and of other climates have been classified and arranged with all the skill that science could render to so laudable an undertaking. The foundation has also been recently laid for a national gallery of paintings. Why, then, should not some effort be made to collect in one spot specimens of the antiquities of this kingdom, than which no collection could, with greater propriety, be styled a national one; as, by its means, the habits, arts, customs, and manners, of our forefathers would be at once correctly and vividly illustrated? In certain classes of antiquities, individual exertions have done much extensive and valuable collections of coins have been formed by noblemen and private gentlemen. The late Mr. Barrè Charles Roberts, aided by his father's liberality, acquired the principal part of his collection, at the cost of more than four thousand guineas, before he had attained the age of sixteen; and the splendid armoury formed by Dr. Meyrick is no less creditable to the liberality and perseverance, than to the discrimination of our learned associate. Where so much has been done by one, what might not be expected from the exertions of many congenial minds, each devoting itself to the promotion of one and the same object?

It may perhaps be said, that studies of a very opposite character to those of the antiquary, now occupy public attention; and that, amidst the more important inquiries of the present age, a museum of antiquities would not become an object of general interest, as not contributing to the advancement of those scientific pursuits which are

fostered

fostered with such unprecedented zeal and liberality. But, on the other hand, it may be urged, that the true philosopher will hesitate in undervaluing any researches which are calculated to elicit truth, and which, when wisely pursued, cannot fail, like those of the antiquary, powerfully to interest our nature. The obligations that learning in general owes to them cannot be disputed, nor how much of value a refined period has borrowed from the productions of darker ages; nor, again, can we pretend to determine what further important results may yet be derived from diligent and well-conducted inquiries. But, if antiquarian studies and antiquarian objects are henceforward to be slighted by the public; if nothing is to be judged of value, or worthy of serious pursuit, that is not attended with evident and palpable profit, -then it is, in a more especial manner, incumbent upon the society to step forward, and rescue whatever is intrinsically valuable and curious from perishing by violence and neglect. It will thus signally fulfil the objects for which it was founded; and, by thus acting, it will confer a lasting obligation upon posterity.'-p. 8-10.

In considering such a proposal, the first point of inquiry ought perhaps to be what Lord Coke terms the exclusion of a conclusion; viz. the class of antiquities which ought to be rejected; and if, as we hope, we shall see Mr. Markland's plan effectually realized by his zeal and activity, we submit that it will be a sacred duty on the part of the Curators of the museum, to refuse any statue or specimen, detached or removed from any structure sufficiently stable to ensure the reasonable protection of its contents. There are few spectacles more rueful than the historical relic torn from the time-honoured walls to which it belongs, and turned into a show: the pendants and pinnacles of the Gothic hall ornamenting a Chinese dairy,'*-the brass torn from the gravestone, and standing bolt upright between a Waterloo cuirass, and a spear from Otaheite;-the shattered panes of the storied window suspended from the sash-frame,—all bespeaking, not a rational affection for antiquity, but the destructive eagerness of the child. The extent of the mischief which can be committed by a diligent collector of this class is incalculable. The receiver is as bad as the thief. The museum, therefore, must not participate in such felonies; and the Directors must prove to the world that their collections are to lead to rational investigation, and not to satisfy idle curiosity......

6

6

What, then, may the Museum possess by lawful title? Inscribed monuments, whether Roman, British, or Runic, constitute a class of antiquities of great importance; and which, for the want of a proper repository, are constantly devoted to destruction. With respect to Roman monuments, we have heard it observed, that, in

The ornaments of the splendid council-chamber, adjoining Crosby Hall, have been so applied within the last few years, and the room itself turned into a workshop. general,