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Protestant place of worship, can they be the friends of that constitution which establishes the freedom of the press, and religious liberty? When the Catholics pronounce the Protestant religion to be a false oneclaim the whole of the possessions of our church as a right and demand a portion of them immediately can they be the friends of that constitution which makes the Protestant religion the religion of the state, and which gives to this religion the whole of the ecclesiastical wealth and dignities of the nation? If they had power to do it, will any man say that they would not destroy the liberty of the press, and religious freedom, and appropriate to themselves the whole that our church possesses? The man who would say this, would likewise say that, because he hated beef, he loved oxen. A man must be the enemy of the constitution, who is the enemy of what it has established, and of what it produces. The demand of the Catholics for a portion of the possessions of the church, is as direct an attack upon the constitution, as the demand of the radicals for universal suffrage and annual Parliaments. They, may, no doubt, act conscientiously, but nevertheless their conduct and ob'jects lead to political revolution.

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Our Protestant sects are influenced by no foreign head, and they can change their creed at their own pleasure; but the Catholics have a foreign leader, to whose principles they must conform. Catholicism must of necessity be always in sentiment, as far as practicable, the same in England and Ireland as on the continent. It is idle to say, that the Pope has no other than spiritual authority in these realms. He who is the religious Head of a large portion of the people, must always possess prodigious political influence in the nation, particularly if his followers have an equality of political power. Does the King derive no political power from his being the Head of the Church? Do the regular clergy draw no political Lpower from their office? Do not the heads of the Methodists, the Calvinists, etc. possess what is tantamount to great political power? The Government at this moment seeks to put the Bible into the hands of

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the Irish Catholics; the Pope forbids it; and which will the Catholics obey? The Government permits them to read what they please, and to enter any place of worship whatever; the Pope prohibits it, under heavy penalties. The Government is endeavouring to establish in Ireland a system of general education, and the Catholics are in consequence tra- · velling to Rome for instructions. If the Pope cannot sue in our civil courts, he can yet inflict, at his pleasure, tremendous punishments. One part of his late letter was fiercely levelled against our constitution, and some of our best possessions. If this do not vitally affect our political interests, nothing whatever can affect them. A Catholic may declare, that the Pope shall not influence him in politics—a zealous churchman may declare, that his clergy shall not influence his political opinions-a Methodist may declare, that he will not be guided in political matters by his preachers and who will believe any of them? Let the minister say, that the political matter is likewise a religious one, and then whom will his flock follow in politics? Party feelings and party interests will always be sufficient to carry the Catholics, as they would any other body, after their head, without compulsion. The Pope has most admirable means for taking our Catholics along with him in political matters. The heads of their clergy are in a great degree his creatures; the inferior clergy can be deprived of bread at pleasure by, and therefore they are in a great degree the creatures of, these heads; and the laity, as every one knows, are little better than the slaves of the general clergy.

If the continental Governments should use the Pope and the Catholic clergy generally, as their chief instruments in accomplishing any political projects, would our Catholics be inaccessible to their influence?

Blackwood's Magazine.

In the composition of this extract, there is a good deal of energy and ease, which the reader must not pass unnoticed : for the pauses should bear a certain proportion to the energy.

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WHEN We had got within half a league of Moulines, at a little opening in the road leading to a thicket, I discovered poor Maria sitting under a poplar-she was sitting with her elbow in her lap, and her head leaning on one side within her hand -a small brook ran at the foot of the tree.

I bade the postillion go on with the chaise to Moulines and La Fleur to bespeak my supper-and that I would walk after him.

She was dressed in white, and much as my friend described her, except that her hair hung loose, which before was twisted within a silk net. She had superadded likewise to her jacket, a pale green riband, which fell across her shoulder to the waist; at the end of which hung her pipe. Her goat had been as faithless as her lover; and she had got a little dog in lieu of him, which she kept tied by a string to her girdle. As I looked at her dog, she drew him towards her with the string-" Thou shalt not leave me, Sylvio," said she. I looked in Maria's eyes, and saw she was thinking more of her father than of her lover or her little goat; for, as she uttered the words, the tears trickled down her cheeks.

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I sat down close by her; and Maria let me wipe them away as they fell, with my handkerchief. then steeped it in my own-and then in her's-and then in mine-and then I wiped her's again-and as I did it, I felt such undescribable emotions within me, as I am sure could not be accounted for from any combinations of matter and motion.

I am positive I have a soul; nor can all the books with which materialists have pestered the world ever convince me of the contrary.

When Maria had come a little to herself, I asked her if she remembered a pale thin person of a man, who had sat down betwixt her and her goat about two years before? She said, she was unsettled much at that time, but remembered it upon two accounts

that ill as she was, she saw the person pitied her; and next, that her goat had stolen his handkerchief, and she had beaten him for the theft-she had washed it, she said, in the brook, and kept it ever since in her pocket, to restore it to him in case she should ever see him again, which, she added, he had half promised her. As she told me this, she took the handkerchief out of her pocket to let me see it: she had folded it up neatly in a couple of vine leaves, tied round with a tendril. On opening it, I saw an S marked in one of the corners.

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She had since that, she told me, strayed as far as Rome, and walked round St. Peter's once--and returned back-that she found her way alone across the Appennines-had travelled over all Lombardy without money-and through the flinty roads of Savoy without shoes. How she had borne it, and how she had got supported, she could not tell-but God tempers the wind, said Maria, to the shorn lamb.

Shorn indeed! and to the quick, said I; and wert thou in my own land, where I have a cottage, I would take thee to it and shelter thee; thou shouldst eat of my own bread, and drink of my own cup-I would be kind to thy Sylvio-in all thy weaknesses and wanderings I would seek after thee and bring thee back-when the sun went down I would say my prayers, and when I had done, thou shouldst play the evening song upon thy pipe; nor would the incense of my sacrifice be worse accepted for entering Heaven along with that of a broken heart.

Nature melted within me, as I uttered this; and Maria observing, as I took out my handkerchief, that it was steeped too much already to be of use, would needs go wash it in the stream-And where will you dry it, Maria? said I-I will dry it in my bosom, said she-it will do me good.

And is your heart still so warm, Maria? said I.

I touched upon the string on which hung all her sorrows she looked with wistful disorder for some time in my face; and then, without saying any thing, took her pipe, and played her service to the Virgin.

-The string I had touched ceased to vibrate-in a moment or two Maria returned to herself-let her pipe fall-and rose up.

And where are you going, Maria? said I.-She said to Moulines-Let us go, said I, together. Maria put her arm within mine, and lengthening the string to let the dog follow-in that order we entered Moulines.

Though I hate salutations and greetings in the market-place, yet when we got into the middle of this, I stopped to take my last look and last farewell of Maria.

Maria, though not tall, was nevertheless of the first order of fine forms-affliction had touched her looks with something that was scarce earthly-still she was feminine :-and so much was there about her of all that the heart wishes, or the eyes look for in woman, that could the traces be ever worn out of her brain, and those of Eliza's out of mine, she should not only eat of my bread, and drink of my own cup, but Maria should lie in my bosom, and be unto me as a daughter.

Adieu, poor luckless maiden !-imbibe the oil and wine which the compassion of a stranger, as he journeyeth on his way, now pours into thy wounds-the Being who has twice bruised thee can only bind them up for ever.

Sterne.

Differences in Mental Manifestations.

IN mental manifestations the distinction between power and activity is equally palpable. On the stage, Mrs Siddons senior, and Mr. John Kemble, were remarkable for the solemn deliberation of their manner, both in declamation and action, and yet they were splendidly gifted in power. They carried captive at once the sympathies and understanding of the audience, and made every man feel his faculties expanding, and his whole mind becoming

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