Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 2.djvu/364

 360 KIRWAN. tution, naturally delicate, and with a mind utterly irrecon cilable to the spectacles of oppression, which the state of the West Indian negro slaves then presented, he quitted St. Croix in disgust, returned to Europe, resumed his reli gious purpose, and entered as a student at the university of Louvain, where, in due time, he was ordained of the priesthood; and very shortly afterwards promoted, for his learning and talents, to the professor's chair, in natural and moral philosophy. In the year 1778, he accepted the appointment of chaplain to the Neapolitan embassy at the court of London; and during his continuance in that office, attained much celebrity as a preacher with the members of his congregation; but as the Catholic population of the British metropolis, with the exception of foreigners and Irish, was then, as now, not numerous, Mr. Kirwan, as a pulpit orator, had by no means reached that general celebrity in this country by which he was distinguished in his own, after his conformity to the established church. He is said to have published some sermons, which, for the same reasons that appear to have circumscribed his own celebrity at the time, have escaped the eye of literary criticism. At the time of his conformity to the established church, many conjectures were afloat as to the motives which induced him openly to renounce the faith in which he had been educated, and in which he was considered an accom plished ornament of his profession. The conversion of a mere layman, would have excited little notice beyond the ordinary jealousies of the religious community he deserted; but that of a clergyman, and so distinguished by collegiate honours in a Catholic university and a Catholic country, excited a very different feeling, as well amongst the members of that church which he had relinquished, as amongst the more distinguished classes of that to which he had revolted. But notwithstanding the eager expec tation of the higher orders of the established church in his native country, the scene of h i s conformity and theological fame, that h e would have taken some signal occasion t o