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1839.] manner of holy Mother Church, in order to expose her ceremonies to shame."

As the ambition of the ministers of superstition is every where the same, it has naturally happened that systems of superstition have borrowed ceremonials from each other. European monks have often reached China; and no doubt taught to their fellow priests the emblems of Western superstition. The inference is, that the Romish religion is truly a system of Pagan superstition, which has disguised itself under Christian names.

4. The Popish fraternity pretend that the Eternal God has at all times inspired them, or their chief the Pope, with a perfect knowledge of all religious truth. Not to believe what they announce, is styled heresy. It is an act of rebellion against the association; and, in proportion to their powers, is without mercy to be hunted down by persecution, assassination, confiscation, tortures, and death. It is, when persisted in, equivalent to a sin against the Holy Ghost, speaking through his Holiness the Pope and his fraternity. It is therefore a sin, and the only sin for which the priest can grant no absolution. A man may buy absolution for the crime of murdering his wife, or poisoning his father, but not for refusing to believe what his priest requires him to believe.

5. The greatest danger the fraternity ever encountered, arose from the invention of the art of printing; and they did at first receive from it a rude shock. A sagacious old priest said—"If we do not destroy printing, printing will destroy us." Printing did not destroy them; and it was in baffling the efforts of this formidable adversary, that the system of Popery has most eminently displayed its resources. All was at stake. It was obvious, that if the Bible should be freely perused by multitudes in their own language, and intelligence acquired by the free perusal of books of all sorts, the idolatry fostered by the priests their infallibility—their wafer-god—their pretended miracles—their power over the world to come—their vestments, processions, holy water, holy bells, holy bones, and all their other mummery, would be swept away. The arch enemy Printing, was encountered thus:—

The fraternity pretended to entertain a great favour for it. The danger was, that the people would employ teachers, whereby to enable themselves and their children to read the cheap books now produced. The priests stood eagerly forward, and offered to become teachers; and then they so managed matters as that nobody should learn. They taught the children to venerate the priests; to make endless repetitions of questions, creeds, and Latin prayers; and contrived so to disgust them with literature, that they carried little or none of it from the school. Thus, there remained little danger that they would read prohibited heretical books. On this subject, I cannot do better than quote the able and valuable letters of Mr Colquhoun of Killermont, M.P., to the Rev. James Carlisle, Commissioner of the Board of National Education, Dublin. In letter 8th, Mr Colquhoun says:—

"On this point, as on many others, we mistake the policy of the Roman Catholic Church. We think it shallow—in fact it is profound; but our view of it is superficial. Two very distinguished priests, Wiseman and Dean Macnamara, were examined by the Committee (of the House of Commons) of 1835-6 on Education. To those who have not watched the policy of the priesthood, that evidence will appear embarrassing; to those who are acquainted with it, consistent and clear. Dr Wiseman informs the Committee that his Church pays the utmost attention to popular education. He says, 'that in Italy the education of the poor is specially attended to: that in every commune in the Roman States there is a free school; in every quarter of Rome there is the same. It will delight you to learn, that in Rome there is a board of national education. There are, besides, religious orders, who devote themselves to the instruction of the poor; and there are colleges and seminaries, generally gratuitous and largely endowed, for the instruction of the young, from the earliest period to the most advanced. For females there are schools of industry, and schools of general instruction.' In fact, according to Dr Wiseman, there never was a country so favoured as the Papal States—so drilled through and through with popular education. Nor is it confined to these States.—'Popular education,' he tells us, 'equally prevails in Tuscany.' He might have added it is to be found in Naples, in Spain, and in France. In France, the Freres Ignorantins devote themselves to the work of educating the people, and upwards of 50,000