with the freshness of novelty. It is the special mission of the established clergy by word and writing to guard against this tendency of the public mind. In this mainly consists its teaching; I repeat, not in the shreds of Catholic doctrine which it professes, not in proofs of the divinity of any creed whatever, not in separating opinion from faith, not in instructing in the details of morals, but mainly in furbishing up the old-fashioned weapons of centuries back; in cataloguing and classing the texts which are to batter us, and the objections which are to explode among us, and the insinuations and the slanders which are to mow us down. The Establishment is the keeper in ordinary of those national types and blocks, from which Popery is ever to be printed off,-of the traditional view of every Catholic doctrine, the traditional account of every ecclesiastical event, the traditional lives of Popes and Bishops, abbots and monks, saints and confessors, the traditional fictions, sophisms, calumnies, mockeries, sarcasms, and invectives with which Catholics are to be assailed.

This, I say, is the special charge laid upon the Establishment. Unitarians, Sabellians, Utilitarians, Methodists, Calvinists, Swedenborgians, Irvingites, Freethinkers, all these it can tolerate in its very bosom; no form of opinion comes amiss; but Rome it cannot abide. It agrees to differ with its children on a thousand points, one is sacred-that her Majesty the Queen is "the Mother and Mistress of all churches;" on one dogma it may rest without any mistake, that "the Bishop of Rome hath no jurisdiction in this realm." Here is sunshine amid the darkness, sense amid confusion, an intelligible strain amid a Babel of sounds; whatever befalls, here is sure footing; it is "No peace with Rome," "Down with

the Pope," and "The Church in danger." Never has the Establishment failed in the use of these important and effective watchwords; many are its shortcomings, but it is without reproach in the execution of its charge. Heresy, and scepticism, and infidelity, and fanaticism may challenge it in vain; but fling upon the gale the faintest whisper of Catholicism, and it recognizes by instinct the presence of its connatural foe. Forthwith, as during the last year, the atmosphere is tremulous with agitation, and discharges its vibrations far and wide. A movement is in birth, which has no natural crisis or resolution. Spontaneously the bells of the steeples begin to sound. Not by an act of volition, but by a sort of mechanical impulse, bishop and dean, archdeacon and canon, rector and curate, one after another, each on his high tower, off they set, swinging and booming, tolling and chiming, with nervous intenseness, and thickening emotion, and deepening volume, the old dingdong which has scared town and country this weary time; tolling and chiming away, jingling and clamouring, and ringing the changes on their poor half-dozen notes, all about "the Popish aggression "," "insolent and insidious," "insidious and insolent," "insolent and atrocious," "atrocious and insolent," "atrocious, insolent, and ungrateful," "ungrateful, insolent, and atrocious," "foul and offensive,” pestilent and horrid," "subtle and unholy," "audacious and revolting," "contemptible and shameless,” "malignant," "frightful," "mad," meretricious," bobs, (I think the ringers call them,) bobs, and bobs royal, and triple-bob-majors and grandsires,-to the extent of

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1 Vide an amusing and cogent argument, entitled "The Anglican Bishops versus the Catholic Hierarchy." Toovey, 1851.

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their compass and the full ring of their metal, in honour of Queen Bess, and to the confusion of the Pope and the princes of the Church.

So it is now, so it was twenty years ago, nay, so it has been in all years as they came, even the least controversial. If there was no call for a contest, at least there was the opportunity of a triumph. Who could want matter for a sermon, when his thoughts would not flow, for convenient digression, or effective peroration? Did a preacher wish for an illustration of heathen superstition or Jewish bigotry, or an instance of hypocrisy, ignorance, or spiritual pride? the Catholics were at hand. The deliverance from Egypt, the golden calf, the fall of Dagon, the sin of Solomon, the cruelties of Jezebel, the worship of Baal, the destruction of the brazen serpent, the finding of the law, the captivity in Babylon, Nebuchodonosor's image, Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, and Zealots, mint, anise, and cummin, brazen pots and vessels, all in their respective places and ways, would give opportunity to a few grave words of allusion to the 66 monstrous errors or the "childish absurdities" of the "Romish faith." Does any one wish an example of pride? there stands Wolsey; of barbarity? there is the Duke of Alva; of rebellion? there is Becket; of ambition? there is Hildebrand; of profligacy? there is Cæsar Borgia; of superstition? there is Louis the Eleventh; of fanaticism? there are the Crusaders. Saints and sinners, monks and laymen, the devout and the worldly, provided they be but Catholics, are heaped together in one indiscriminate mass, to be drawn forth for exposure according to the need.

The consequence is natural;-tell a person of ordinary intelligence, Churchman or Dissenter, that the vulgar.

allegations against us are but slanders, simple lies, or exaggerations, or misrepresentations; or, as far as they are true, admitting of defence or justification, and not to the point; and he will laugh in your face at your simplicity, or lift up hands and eyes at your unparalleled effrontery. The utmost concession he will make is to allow the possibility of incidental and immaterial error in the accusations which are brought against us; but the substance of the traditional view he believes, as firmly as he does the Gospel, and, if you refuse to admit it, he will say it is just what is to be expected of a Catholic, to lie and deceive. To tell him at his time of life, that Catholics do not rate sin at a fixed price, that they may not get absolution for a sin in prospect, that priests can live in purity, that nuns do not murder each other, that the laity do not make images their God, that Catholics would not burn Protestants if they could! Why, all this is as perfectly clear to him, as the sun at noonday; he is ready to leave the matter to the first person he happens to meet; every one will tell us just the same; only let us try; he never knew there was any doubt at all about it: he is surprised, he thought we granted it. When he was young, he has heard it said again and again; to his certain knowledge it has uniformly been said the last forty, fifty, sixty years, and no one ever denied it; it is so in all the books he ever looked into; what is the world coming to? What is true, if this is not? so Catholics are to be whitewashed; what next?

And so he proceeds in detail;-the Papists not worship the Virgin Mary! why they call her "Deipara," which means "equal to God.”

The Pope not the man of sin! Why, it is a fact, that

the Romanists distinctly maintain that "the Pope is God, and God is the Pope."

The Pope's teaching not a doctrine of devils! Here is a plain proof of it; Cardinal Bellarmine expressly "maintains that, if the Pope commanded us to practise vice or shun virtue, we are obliged to do so, under pain of eternal damnation."

Not a Pope Joan! why, she was "John the Eighth, her real name was Gilberta, she took the name of John English, delivered public lectures at Rome, and was at length unanimously elected Pope."

What! Councils infallible! Open your eyes, my brother, and judge for yourself; "fifteen hundred public women followed the train of the Fathers of Constance."

Jesuits here are at least twenty thousand in England; and, horrible to say, a number of them in each of the Protestant Universities; and doubtless a great many at Oscott.

Beauty and sanctity of the Popish festivals! do you not know that the Purification "is the very feast that was celebrated by the ancient Pagan Romans in honour of the goddess Proserpina?"

The Papists not corrupters of the Scriptures! look into their Bibles, and you will find they read the prophecy in Genesis," She shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel."

Popery preach Christ! no; "Popery," as has been well said, “is the religion of priestcraft; from the beginning to the end it is nothing but priest, priest, priest ?.”

2 Vid. Stephen's Spirit of the Church of Rome; Edgar's Variations; Cramp's Text-Book of Popery, &c.; the books I happen to have at hand.