agreed with them, laboured to secure the advocacy of Mr. Plunkett, Mr. O'Connel! and his supporters worked against the Veto. The objects of hoth parties, said the meeting by its decision, shall be at even greater than those possessed by Mr. We shall unite the resolutions which are proposed, and have at once Plunkett and no Veto-but this was not done without a division, or by any more decisive majority than 6, the numbers on the side of Mr. O'Connell being 89, and on that of Messrs. Shiel and Woulfe, 83. It is not hence to be inferred; however, that there is any great difference of opinion in the catholic body concerning the Veto. Nine tenths at least of the minority are not Vetoists-and their opposition to Mr. O'Connell's resolutions arose merely from an impression that they were uncalled for and unnecessary. The resolutions and pe tition were sent yesterday to Mr. Plunkett. He has not yet, we understand, returned any answer. Among other resolutions passed at the before-mentioned aggregate meeting, were the following: That the political conduct of the catho lics of Ireland has been uniformly loyal and peaceable, and has repeatedly obtained the approving testimony of the three estates of parliament. [We presume it is meant of the realm.] The result of this business is thus given by The Dublin Weekly Register of the 24th instant:-"The question relative to Mr. Plunkett has been settled in a way which we deem satisfactory. The petition has been voted to him, and there has been a declaration against the Veto. This is as much as we required. We said that to the Veto we entertain our ancient repugnance, a repugnance which never for a moment slumbered since we entered public life, and which shall remain vigorous and active in our breasts until the end of our career. We, however, contended, that withholding the petition from Mr. Plunkett could do no good, and may produce great mischief that as a measure declaratory or indicative That it is the undoubted right, as it is the of catholic hostility to the Veto it was unfirst duty, of man to worship God accordnecessary, in as much as the sentiments of the catholics on that subject were alreadying to the dictates of his conscience. notorious to parliament and the empirethat it could produce no beneficial result in the way of preventing Mr. Plunkett from committing the catholic body, because his determination was to state in the most emphatic manner to parliament, that he had no authority from the catholics to say any thing relative to the Veto, and pretended only to speak his own opinions on the subject, and, in fine, that the meditated proceeding could at best do nothing more than communicate to parliament a fact which it was competent to the Board, if they did not consider it already sufficiently known, or if they thought Mr. Plunkett's statement of it would not be sufficiently solemn to put forward in the foreground of the petition in the most vivid colours which the abundant resources of Mr. O'Connell himself can supply. The decision of the Board bas been in accordance with these senti-rendered to the state are known and ac ments. Whatever scruples or apprehen- knowledged. The great body of our prosions some gentlemen entertained respect- testant fellow-subjects (to whom we owe ing Mr. Plunkett, it has been agreed to give and offer our most devoted gratitude) are him the petition-and as to the Veto, it has favourable to our just claims, and the hos been protested against, not in a clause in-tility that is opposed to us rests upon the troduced into the petition, but in resolutions which are equally efficacious, and which are to be handed to Mr. Plunkett with the petition. This is a middle course-and a middle course in all cases like the present, is, probably, the safest and wisest. Messrs. Shiel, Woulfe, and those gentlemen who That the catholics of Ireland contribute their full proportion to the support of the realm, and in return for such services are well entitled to claim equal rights with others of his majesty's subjects. That there does not now exist any pre tence to justify, or even to palliate the continuance of that penal code which excludes us on account of our religion from the parThe false ticipation of the constitution. and malignant imputatious which interested bigotry excited against us are exposed and discredited, The services we have unsocial intolerance of that unmitigated influence which was generated and is still fos tered by the penal code. Printed by W. E. Andrews, 8, Drake CONDUCT OF THE English Jansen- ordered to be printed in 1816, cannot DOM. A fail to be alarmed at the strides which jansenism and infidelity have been making to infringe on the divine rights of the church of God. The laws and ordinances therein cited, S there is not a probability that whether regarding catholic or prothe humble prayer of the peti-testant states, all tend to invade the tions lately agreed to by the catho-civil as well as the religious rights lics of Ireland, and by the knot of of the people, and some of them are Jansenists who meet at Stone-build-obviously of such a nature as no or ings, Chancery-lane, London, pre-thodox catholic can conscientiously sented to his majesty, but not yet give his assent to. They are not the presented to the two houses of par- ancient regulations that were enterliament, will meet with attention ed into by the two powers for the this session, I cannot employ my pen sake of preserving harmony between better than in taking a review of the each, but modern innovations of the measures which have been sanction-last hundred years, the pretended reed by the party who are opposed to forms of infidel ministers, sanctioned the great body of the catholics of by jansenist and heterodox sovethis kingdom, and in pointing out reigns, whose sole object seems to to my readers the pitfalls which these have been the increasing their own' partisans of our enemies have been, power by usurping that of the church. and now are, digging to ingulf Thus the emperor Joseph formed themselves as well as the orthodox laws which regarded conscience, and and disinterested professors of the considered himself entitled to enforce catholic religion. Whoever has look- them by pains and penalties; but ed over the voluminous report from these encroachments on the spiritual the select committee of the house of authority of the bishops and the commons, appointed to examine "the consciences of his subjects occasionnature and substance of the laws and led a ferment in Austria, raised disordinances existing in foreign states, contents in Hungary, and caused the respecting the regulation of their Ro- Netherlands to revolt and attempt. man catholic subjects, in ecclesiasti- the establishment of their independ cal matters, and their intercourse ence. Here then we have another with the see of Rome, or any other instance of the truth of that position foreign ecclesiastical jurisdiction," which I have maintained, in opposi ORTHODOX Joun. Vol. VIII. 2 L tion to my correspondent RATIO, | try, by which the bishops and cler gy of the catholic church would that to the folly and despotism of rulers, and not to the impatience of the people under restraint, are we to impute the dreadful convulsions we have witnessed in the neighbouring states on the continent, and the discontents which reign in this country? The other catholic states, influenced by the same innovating spirit as Joseph, passed similar laws, which produced similar effects, and paved the way for the rapid spread of French philosophic principles, which disjointed the whole frame of the continent, and threw the people into a state of irreligion and anarchy. From this case of confusion a state of apparent repose has succeeded; yet such is the blind fatuity of moderu statesmen, that, notwithstand.jansenists, instead of denouncing ing the great and striking examples before them, the continental sovereigns have entered into a holy alliance, the purport of which is to make religion subservient to their views of government, as if the unerring principles of God's holy church were to be moulded according to the whim or caprice of the civil magistrate, instead of the civil magistrate making the maxims of the gospel a guide for his own conduct in office. As if, to use the words of the present venerable pontiff, in his Letter to the Cardinals, dated the 30th of August, 1808, "the ministers of the gospel are to be considered and treated as so many public functionaries, not less dependent on government than the civil and military functionaries; since the government places religion on a level with the other branches of political administration, thus making it a department of human institution, subject to the inspection of ministers of state, no less than the ministries of finance and of war!" According to these principles, we have seen a legislative measure introduced into the senate of this coun them as the Irish bishops have repeatedly done, as injurious to, and propably subversive of, the best interests of the catholic church in this kingdom. Instead of flying from the company of these men as they would from a pestilence, we have seen a jansenistical petition drawn up or altered to its present form by one of the prelates and signed by six others, the consequent purport of which is, to allow to the civil power a jurisdiction in ecclesiastical matters which is denied to the pope. What other inference can be drawn from words like these. "They (the petitioners) acknowledge in no foreign prince, prelate, state or poten tate, any power or authority to use the same (the civil sword) within the said realm (Great Britain and Ireland) in any matter or cause whatever, whether civil, spiritual or ecclesiastical." Now, with the report of the house of commons before them, wherein it is shewn that the civil sword has been exercised in foreign states in matters spiritual and ecclesiastical, by not denying in toto the use of the civil sword in spiritual and ecclesiastical matters,but limit ing their disavowal of the exercise weakness, or he never would have of this power to foreign authorities conceived so fatal an avowal of only, they clearly allow its existence" undivided allegiance." We say in the domestic authority, and thus from ignorance, because were the they actually consent to make the vicars apostolic acquainted with the king as much the head of the catho- situation of the catholics in the kinglic as he is of the established church dom of the Netherlands, who are in this kingdom. In a word, by this now suffering a persecution from the fatal document the jansenist party exercise of the civil sword in ecclehave declared, as far as words will siastical matters, we must presume convey, their readiness to realize they would not have put their sigone of the propositions stated by the natures to an instrument, which cerlate Mr. Ponsonby, in the house of tainly allows the exercise of the commons, on the 26th of May 1808, power by the sovereign of these namely, that "the catholic bishops realms, for the denial of which had no objection to make the king a Fisher and a Moore suffered marvirtually the head of their church." tyrdom, That this excuse may be A more dangerous declaration of removed before we are called upon "undivided allegiance" as it is call- to lay our case again before parliaed, could not have been made, and ment, I will detail a few of the I rejoice to find that so far as the grievances which our catholic bresenate is concerned, it will not come thren in Belgium have to bear, under immediately before it. Since I be- a constitution which professes to gan to write this article, the news- protect them in the exercise of their papers inform me, that lord Nugent civil and religious rights, previous has announced to the lower house, to pointing out the consequences of that it is not the intention of the the jansenistical practices which leaders to present the petition this have been carried on for the last few session, in consequence, he said, of years in this country. the public mind being engrossed with The reader is well acquainted a more important and interesting with the execrable restrictive clauses question; but I would fain hope of the bill of 1813, and the injustice that this postponement arises from as well as oppression which the caanother cause, and that the mana- tholic clergy would have been subgers perceiving the mischevious ten-jected to, had it passed into a law. dency of the petition and the disgust Besides the operation of the clauses, which it has occasioned in every or- there were two long oaths of a theo thodox mind, have availed them-logical nature, one to be taken geselves of the circumstance alluded to nerally, and the other exclusively by to cushion it, with the view of the clergy. Luckily for us the bill framing one less obnoxious for the was rejected; but though we catholics next session. How any man, profess- of the united kingdom escaped the ing to be orthodox, could ever draw snare prepared for us, our pretended up such a declaration as I have quot- friend Castlereagh and his colleagues ed from the petition lately present- were resolved that their skill in the ed to the king, and intended to be art of subverting the catholic faith, laid before parliament, is matter of under the guise of religious tolerasurprise to me. Its tenour is so tion, should have a trial somewhere, clearly jansenistical, or semi-calvi- and chance threw the unfortunate nistical, that the author of it must be Belgians in their way. The success tinctured with the poison of this of the confederate armies in 1814 subtile heresy, from ignorance or having overthrown the colossal pow of the evil as the latter, thanks to the bigotry of English statesmen. The catholics of Belgium accorded with their prelates, as well as the catholics of Ireland, and refused to take the oaths, by which determination they are shut out of all the principal civil offices, while their clergy are subjected to a persecution not unlike the situation of the Irish catholic clergy, previous to the partial repeal of the penal laws in 1793, with this difference, however, that the laws of this latter country were avowedly enacted to prevent the growth of popery, while the regulations adopted in the former are professedly for the protection of the catholic religion. According to these professions of care for the welfare of religious liberty, a decree was issued by the sovereign of the Netherlands, dated Sept. 10, 1815, by which a committee of the council of state, composed of three or four catholics, was appointed, to which every proposal relative to the affairs of catholic worship was to be refer er of Bonaparte, a congress of the sovereigns and their ministers assembled at Vienna, and decreed that the catholic provinces of Belgium with the calvinistic provinces of Holland should form one state, and that the ci-devant calvinistic stadtholder of the latter provinces should be the sovereign, under the title of king of the Netherlands. Accordingly, conditions were agreed upon in London, by the plenipotentiaries of the contracting powers, in the month of June of that year, and, in the year succeeding, a constitution was framed for the acceptance of the people of the said kingdom. In this system of regulations, articles were introduced of a conscientious nature, and they were of course opposed by the catholic bishops, who presented a remonstrance to the king on this subject, but without effect. The constitution was decreed; and all persons were called upon to swear fidelity to it. As there were matters regarding doctrine as well as discipline contrary to the principles of the catholic church in this new fun-ed, for the opinion of the members damental law, the bishops issued a doctrinal decision against certain articles, and declared that their flocks could not take the different oaths prescribed by it, in as much as they would "bind themselves by the said oaths to observe and maintain all the articles of the new constitution, and consequently those which were opposed to the spirit and maxims of the catholic religion, or which evidently tended to oppress and enslave the church of Jesus Christ." Thus we see this civil constitution for the catholics of the Netherlands partaking of the same theological nature as the bill of 1813, which might be considered the intended constitution for the catholics of England and Ireland. Both were condemned by the proper ecclesiastical authorities, but the former were not so fortunate in getting rid thereon, which opinions were to be reported to the sovereign. It was besides authorized to present and recommend to the king all the views which might appear to it to tend to the advantage of religion. It was also to be consulted by the director general for the affairs relating to the catholic worship, who was empowered to attend its meetings when he thought proper. And lastly it was to have the examination of all papers relating to ecclesiastical affairs from Rome, conjointly with the said director general, and they were enjoined in general to watch over the preservation of the ancient liberties of the Belgian church. The reader cannot fail being struck with the analogy of this decree to the bill of 1813, and the jansenistical spirit which dictated it. The affairs relating to catholic worship |