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indulgences caused them to revolt, and the German Princes would no longer bear sway. The English acted wisely in renouncing you. The Popes, by their hierarchy, set Europe in flames. Perhaps it is your wish to re-establish scaffolds and racks, but it shall be my care that you do not succeed.

Are you of the religion of Gregory VII, Boniface VIII, Benedict XIV, Clement XII? I am not, I am of the religion of Jesus Christ, who said, Give unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's; and agreeably to the same gospel, I give unto God that which belongs to God. I bear a temporal sword, and I know how to guide it. God placed me on the throne, and you reptiles of the earth dare oppose me. I owe no account of my administration to the Pope; only to God and Jesus Christ. You perhaps think me created out of the Pope's slipper. If it only depended on you, you would cut off my hair, put on me a cowl, or would, like Lewis the Pious, place me in a convent, or banish me to Africa. What ignorant idiots you are! Prove me out of the gospel that Jesus Christ has appointed the Pope his substitute, or successor of St. Peter, and that he has the right to excommunicate a sovereign." (From these repeated expressions, one might almost suppose the Pope had actually excommunicated the Emperor.) “If you care about my protection, then preach the gospel as the apostles did-I will protect you if you are good citizens; if not, I will banish you from my empire, and will disperse you over the world like Jews.

You belong to the bishopric of Moulines: appear before your bishop; make your confessions to him, and sign the concordat. The bishop will inform you of my will. I will appoint another bishop of Harzegenbuch. Is there a seminary at Breda ?”—An affirmative was given." Well, Mr. Prefect, you will make the necessary preparations that these people may swear to the concordat. Attend at the seminary, and be it your care that the orthodox gospel be preached there, in order that more enlightened men should come forth than those idiots, who preach a strange kind of doctrine."

Waterford, August 21, 1811.

In our last we announced the arrival in this city of ten of the priests who had recently landed at Dartmouth, from France. They had resided a year in Paris, and they left that city because they wished to escape from the tyranny of Bonaparte.

The largest church in Paris generally presents no greater congregation on Sundays or Holydays, than from 20 to 30 females. In Rome, before the order (as we may call it) for the dispersion of the clergy, there were 5850 priests. When the ecclesiastics of that city were called upon to take the oath of fealty to the Emperor, as King of Italy, only one was found who would do so. The second person who was required to swear, refused. He was immediately embraced by all his brethren, who, una voce, declared they could acknowledge no other sovereign of the patrimony of St. Peter, but the Pope; the consequence of which was, the arrest of multitudes, and shortly after, only FOUR priests were to be found in the whole city. The priests were transported to different fortresses-600 of them were immured in the dungeons of Alexandria, in Piedmont. The fact of the excommunication of Bonaparte, is placed beyond all question, by the arrival of these gentlemen.

Before these priests left Paris, the ecclesiastical council, recently assembled in that city by Bonaparte, had been broken up, for not being sufficiently subservient to his will. It appears, that some of the measures recommended to the council for their adoption, had in view the investiture of Bonaparte with powers inconsistent with the usages, and subversive of the unity of the Roman Catholic church; for this grand point 106 members of the council voted against the measure, and only 15 for it. It will surprise our readers to learn that the celebrated Cardinal Maury, the once exiled and zealous advocate of the Bourbons and of the church, was at the head of this trifling minority. The minority of the couneil, with their vacillating leader, form a secret committee,

and were deliberating on the means necessary to carry Bonaparte's measures into effect. It is understood, that when the decrees of the pliant committee shall be promulgated, they will be accompanied by an oath, which every priest will be required to take, acknowledging the validity of the measures, and professing implicit obedience to the decrees of the committee. The appointment of bishops to the vacant sees by Bonaparte, without the approbation of the Holy Father, is already resisted by the clergy. The archbishoprick of Paris is vacant, to which it is thought that Bonaparte will appoint the supple Maury; in which case the clergy of that diocese are nearly unanimous in their determination to refuse obedience to him, as their spiritual superior.

[Five thousand, eight hundred and fifty priests, is a pretty handsome complement for one city. It required a Bonaparte to clean this. Augean stable. St. Peter's patrimony seems to be the bone of contention. This Peter must have been im

mensely rich, to have left a whole province to the spiritual head of the Catholic church. But where are the proofs that Peter had any legal claims to this property? And if he had, has his last will and testament ever been produced to shew to whom he demised it? Whatever may have been the character and conduct of the person called St. Peter, the religiou of Jesus Christ was far different from that which his pretended successors profess and practise. Riches, power and dominion, is, and ever has been, the order of the day with them. It is, however, a singular fact, that notwithstanding the Protestant clergy, ever since the reformation, have been praying the Almighty without ceasing, to destroy popish superstition, and to humble the chief pontiff, whom they represented as the beast spoken of in the Revelations, still when their prayers have, in a great measure, been accomplished, through the instrumentality of Bonaparte, few have been known to return thanks for the favour, whilst many have indecently reprobated this singular dispensation of Providence; thereby af fording a well grounded suspicion of their want of sincerity.

PORTUGAL.

A late writer has encouraged us to hope, that the change in Portugal will have something in the national character to support it, whatever may be the event of the present war, which distresses that country. When the inquisition, the triumph of the power of the church over state, and over all the hopes of man, attempted its influence in this once happy country, the resistance was firm, bold and absolute. And what could not be obtained by force, was gained at last by superstition and artifice. The fraud was discovered and punished, but the establishment was maintained. When Portugal recovered its sovereignty, it was hoped that this favorable opportunity would be embraced to free itself from this oppression. But, astonished at its own success, and unwilling to strengthen an enemy, from the worst prejudices, those of superstition, the nation indulged an establishment from which an oppressive court soon attempted to profit, and the court was content to be a slave, if only in higher condition it might with greater freedom exercise dominion over subject slaves; and might, at so high a price, at the will of a master, presume to call such slaves its own. The exaltation of the civil authority of states, promises to be a rich blessing to mankind. It is a pleasing recollection, that in Naples, with all its superstition, the inquisition never established its power. Such examples, in the darkest times, remain to convince us, that in no age can superstition or ignorance render all nations insensible to oppression, and that such establishments were superinduced upon the christian institutions, from the character of the governments which had obtained in Europe, and not from the disposition of the people. The following extract of a letter from an English officer,

dated Lisbon, Jan. 20, 1811, will shew the debased state of mind to which the common people of that country are reduced.

"The superstition of the Portuguese is often extremely embarrassing to our countrymen. On the day after last

Christmas, some officers who were freemasons, marched from the barracks with music, flags, and all the insignia of the fraternity, to a large room, which they had fitted up as a lodge. The vulgar here were extremely offended at this procession, and the common remark was, that " it was no wonder evil should befal their country, when men, who could at any time raise the Devil, were allowed to parade the streets, and openly perform their incantations." The officers who attended on this occasion, it is said, have been reprimanded; and some of them even put under an arrest."

REMONSTRANCE OF ALMASA,

Wife of Almas Ali Cawn, to General Warren Hastings. [It may, perhaps, be necessary to inform the reader, that Almas Ali Cawn, was an East-Indian prince, who governed a fertile and populous country, within, or bordering upon the footing which the English have gained in India, by injustice, rapine, and murder. Warren Hastings, when governor general of the English possessions in that quarter, eyed with desire the riches and territory of Almas Ali Cawn; but as the conduct of the prince was unimpeachable, he knew of no method which could even give a plausible sanction to the seizure of them. At length, however, he had him seized and committed to prison. on pretence that he was fomenting disturbances against the English. Almasa, the wife of Almas, though sensible of her husband's innocency, yet she was well acquainted with the hellish and bloodthirsty disposition of Hastings, and also knew the reason for which he committed her husband to prison, and that it was for the sake of obtaining his treasures. She therefore appeared before him with supplication, and on her knees begged him to spare the life of her husband, promising him all the treasures of his king

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