"Speak, my child," added her mother.

'Well, then, I was thinking of our holy painter, Fra Angelico, of whom it is said that he worked, not for glory, but for God alone, and as his lovely frescoes grew under his inspired touch, he knelt, often with tears in his eyes, adoring the Divine mysteries he represented in his pictures. He truly worshipped God through art, and made the silent walls preach. Is he not an emblem of faith inspiring art, and of art in her turn calling men to religion?"

"That is a beautiful ideal, Signorina," said Manuello to whom her words seemed like a gentle reproach, "but to carry it out one needs to have a heaven-inspired soul like his, who was rightly surnamed the Angelic painter."

"Does not Heaven inspire all who heed the noble invitation?" she replied.

The student did not answer, and as some of the company proposed a stroll through the gardens, Chiara and her mother rose from their seats and strayed up and down the principal terrace, from whence the view was magnificent, and even more lovely when seen, as now, by the fitful light of the moon. Manuello walked beside the young girl, and when some friends joined them, he was still engaging her in conversation.

A young and innocent mind is soon inflamed with enthusiastic zeal when a hope offers itself of winning a noble soul to God. Chiara, carried away by this feeling and touched by many expressions which led her to think that the brilliant scholar yearned for something higher than the studies which had filled his intellect without satisfying his heart, spoke in tones of gentle, earnest persuasion. Ere they separated that evening hope had entered the heart of Manuello, and a soft feeling of pitying interest had been awakened in the breast of Chiara. The young man plucked a narcissus which grew near the path and offering it to her, said: "Remember me in your prayers!" A beautiful smile

answered him.

Chiara did not at once leave the garden, but after whispering a few words to her mother, she went with Filippo's

sister, who was some years older than herself, to a little oratory situated at the extremity of the pleasure-grounds. Manuello remained alone, leaning over the marble balustrade of the terrace. A few minutes later the young girl and her companion passed back again to rejoin her mother, who was conversing with the lady of the house.

There was a something more than usually heavenly in the expression of Chiara's face, at least so thought Manuello as he turned to gaze upon her; he fancied he could discern a gentle sadness in her look. He watched her until the receding figures had vanished among the orange groves. The voice of his uncle recalled him from his dreams:

"Trying to solve some difficult problem, eh?" he said cheerfully.

"Yes, uncle, the problem of life. I wish I could see my whole life lying stretched out like the valley before us,” he extended his hand as he spoke, as if to grasp the unknown future.

"The view, were it even possible, might not add to your happiness. But, Manuello, this is no hour to moralize, it is time to say, Good night!"

The young man turned his footsteps homeward, his mind filled with a thousand projects. Sweet hopes and a feeling of happiness predominated, but a vague dread would intrude inself, that after all his heart's desires might not be satisfied.

A MIXED MARRIAGE. WE stood up in the twilight thus, my love and I, My arms encircling her, and she Looking upward, with silent lips apart,

Every feature speaking volumesWordless volumes-that, defying denser medium, Speed like light through ambient air; And, like light to human vision, So this language pierced my heart. We stood up in the twilight thus, my love and I, And I asked her, with my proud heart throbbing As I gazed into her soul

"What can part us, love of mine?
What, or who, dare part us?"
We stood up in the twilight thus, my love and I,
Till the last streak of day had faded—
Still heart to heart-each hurrying pulse on mine,
And eye to eye.

But in the darkness !—in the darkness !-O God
We are parted-we are parted;
By the darkness, my love and I,
Nor one our route, nor one our goal!
Oh, the darkness! the dread, drear darkness
That severs soul from soul !

F. H. S.

No. 94.-VOL. VIII.]

JUBILEE OF EMANCIPATION.—

AT

VII.

T the same time that the Act for the Relief of English Catholics was passed in 1778, another Act was passed for the benefit of the Catholics in Ireland. The nature of the relief given by this latter Act may be stated in the words of Mr. Butler. It "enabled Roman Catholics who should take the oath of allegiance prescribed by the former Act, to hold leases for nine hundred and ninety-nine years, or determinable upon any lives, not exceeding five. The lands of Catholics were inade devisable and transferable, and Catholics were rendered capable of holding and enjoying those which might descend or be devised or transferred to them." *

It will be observed that this Act did not extend to Irish Catholics the same relief which was given to the clergy under the English Act. But this relief and more than this was given to the Irish by an Act passed in 1782, in which were contained provisions which discharged from all penalties, such ecclesiastics as should register their names and abodes in the manner it prescribed. Another Act of the same year allowed Catholics to teach schools.+ English Catholic priests and schoolmasters were not relieved from all penalties until the year 1791.

The Act of 1778 did not extend to Scotland; "and thereby hangs a tale.” It was proposed to extend the Bill to Scotland; the Presbyterians rose up against the very notion of relief to Papists; the press and the pulpit stormed against concession; the great

* "Historical Memoirs," vol. iii. p. 487.
+ Butler, ibid.

[PRICE 3d.

majority of the synods passed strong resolutions against the proposed measure; a solemn fast was proclaimed in Glasgow, and on the 18th of October, 1778, the Sunday following the fast, a mob attacked a small house where a few Catholics were assembled, and dispersed the worshippers by pelting them with mud and stones. The spirit of John Knox evoked by the modern Pharisees stalked the land. The fierce spirit of bigotry gained strength after the cowardly act of the 18th of October, and on the 9th of February, 1779, the fanatics plundered and burnt to the ground the house of a Mr. Bagnal, in which the Catholics had met occasionally for Mass, after their old place of refuge had been destroyed. At this point the magistrates interfered, and order was restored. The Annual Register for the year 1779 tells us that "the magistrates and principal inhabitants of Glasgow, being equally ashamed and concerned that the character and government of so extensively commercial a city, should suffer under the imputation and disgrace of such an act of outrage and persecution, seemed willing, so far as it could be done, to obliterate every trace of it from the memory. Bagnal was accordingly speedily acquainted that he should be reimbursed for every part of his losses to the uttermost farthing; and several of the principal inhabitants, including respectable names among the Protestant clergy, acquired no small honour by the attention and kindness which the wife and family of the sufferer experienced from them, during the immediate pressure of their terror and distress."*

* Mr. Bagnal had introduced from Staffordshire into Glasgow the manufacture of stone ware.

But it was not in Glasgow alone that the fanatics vented their rage against us on account of the proposed Relief Act. Edinburgh was also the scene of the most disgraceful proceedings. Bishop Hay had opened a chapel, which was merely a room in a house in Leith Wynd. The following circular was scattered about the city.

Men and brethren,-Whoever shall find this letter, will take it as a warning to meet at Leith Wynd, on Wednesday next, in the evening, to pull down that pillar of Popery lately erected there. A PROTESTANT. Edinburgh, January 29, 1779. P.S.-Please to read this carefully, keep it clean, and drop it somewhere else.*

The Protestants obeyed the summons, and in their eagerness for persecution anticipated the day and met on Tuesday evening. They attacked, plundered, and burned down the house. On the following day the mob broke into and plundered another house in Blackfriars' Wynd, where a priest rented and used a small room as a chapel. On the evening of the same day they were proceeding to execute their vengeance upon Dr. Robertson, the famous historian, who had supported the cause of the Catholics. But at this time the Duke of Buccleuch arrived at the head of the fencibles, who with the aid of some Dragoons prevented any further pillage and restored order in the city.

The flame which had been kindled in Scotland spread to England. "Then of a sudden," to use the words of Lord Stanhope, "like a meteor rising from the foulest marshes, appeared those fearful riots, to which the most rank intolerance gave origin, and Lord George Gordon a name. Then the midnight sky of London was reddened with incendiary fires, and her streets resounded to the cry of an infuriated mob; then our best and wisest statesmen had to tremble, not only for their lives, but for their hearths and homes; then for once in our annals the powers of government and order seemed to quail and succumb before the populace of the capital in arms."+

* Walsh's "History of the Catholic Church in Scotland," p. 522.

"History of England," A.D. 1780.

Lord George Gordon gave notice at a public meeting that on Friday the 2nd of June he would present a petition to the House of Commons against concession, and for a repeal of the Act of 1778. He invited the petitioners to meet him on that day in St. George's Fields, which they accordingly did to the number of over sixty thousand. They marched to Westminster, and maltreated on their way to the Houses every member who was not known to be opposed to the Catholics; and to such an extent did they carry their brutal conduct, that many of the peers appeared in the House of Lords with their clothes torn and covered with mud and filth. The authorities did not interfere. A certain madness seems to have seized upon the mob at the very commencement of the riots, giving to their conduct the appearance of diabolical possession; for they accused of being Catholics several Members of Parliament who were well known to be staunch Protestants. About nine o'clock in the evening the Foot Guards appeared upon the scene; but it was only to enable the House of Commons to divide. The Houses adjourned. The rioters rushed off to the two chapels of Warwick Street and Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, both of which they burned to the ground; some soldiers coming up too late to prevent the mischief. On Saturday evening there was a renewal of the rioting, but it did not lead to anything serious. But on Sunday evening, owing to the weak conduct of Kennet the Lord Mayor, the fanatics again assembled and pillaged Moorfields Chapel and the dwelling houses of several Catholics in the neighbourhood, making a bonfire in the street of all the church and domestic furniture they could lay their hands on. On Monday afternoon a Privy Council was held, but nothing further was done to stop the rioting than to offer a reward of £500, for information as to the men who had fired the chapels of the Ambassadors. In consequence of the little notice taken of the disturbances by the authorities, the mob determined to continue them. On Monday evening they destroyed the chapels in Wapping and East Smithfield, and pillaged the

house of Sir George Savile who had, as we saw in our August number, introduced and carried through, the Bill which resulted in the first Relief Act of 1778. At this period of the riots the life of Burke was threatened, and this great philosopher and orator, than whom, Mr. Butler says, the Catholics never had a more able or more sincere advocate, was obliged with his family to take refuge with his military friend, General Burgoyne.

On Tuesday the two Houses met under the protection of the Guards: but the riots were continued in various parts of the town. Lord North's house was attacked, and saved by a party of soldiers. Newgate Prison was attacked, taken, and burned to the ground, all the prisoners gaining their liberty.* Clerkenwell gaol was also attacked, broken into, and all its inmates released. The houses of three magistrates were attacked and gutted. At midnight a fierce gang broke into the house of Lord Mansfield, in Bloomsbury Square. The Lord Chief Justice was particularly obnoxious to the rioters, on account of his charge to the jury at the trial of Mr.Webb. The family had barely time to escape: pictures, furniture, the books of a valuable library, manuscripts, and everything else the house contained were thrown out of the windows, piled up in the square, and burned. Several other prisons were attacked and the prisoners released. The mob had found wine in Lord Mansfield's house; and they proceeded to attack a distillery belonging to Mr. Langdale, who was a Catholic. The horrors of drunkenness and its effects were now added to the

fury of fanaticism. "It might be said," observes Lord Stanhope, "with but slight exaggeration, that for two days the rabble held dominion in the town. It might be said, in the eloquent words of Gibbon, an eye-witness to these proceedings, that 'forty thousand Puritans, such as they might be in the time of Cromwell, have started out of their graves.' Thus things went on until Wednesday evening.

* Some of the rioters of Friday evening had been committed to Newgate; hence the fury of the mob against the prison.

One remarkable circumstance of these riots was the absence of all effectual means to suppress them. The means, indeed, were present, but they were not used. At the pillage of Moorfields' Chapel, the Lord Mayor and the military stood looking on; the latter, indeed, with loaded muskets, but joining in the cheers and huzzas of the mob. In the same way, at the pillage of Lord Mansfield's house, Lord Stanhope says: Strange as it may appear, all these outrages were committed in the hearing, and almost in the sight of a detachment of Foot Guards, which had arrived at nearly the commencement of the fray. But they had been restrained by the doubts which then prevailed, whether the troops had any legal right to fire upon the mob, unless a magistrate were present first, to read forth at full length all the provisions of the Riot Act. When a gentleman, a friend of Lord Mansfield, went to the officer in command, requiring him to enter the house and defend it, the officer replied that the justices of the peace had all run away, and that consequently he could or would do nothing. When at length a magistrate was caught and made to mumble through the clauses, the soldiers did advance and fire two volleys. It was then too late." In fact, the King, the Chief Magistrate, was deserted by his subordinates; his servants both civil and military refused to act. The members of the House of Brunswick are remarkable for their personal courage. George the Third was no exception in this respect, and he showed himself equal to the crisis. Rising from a council, at which Wedderborn alone supported him, the King exclaimed, "There shall be, at all events, one magistrate in the kingdom who will do his duty." His Majesty issued a proclamation, warning all peaceably disposed persons to keep within doors, and ordering the military to act without waiting for directions from the civil magistrates. The rioting was going on; but on that Wednesday night "two hundred persons were shot dead in the streets, and two hundred and fifty were lying wounded

"A dispassionate Inquiry into the cause of the late riots in London" (p. 14, 15).

in the hospitals, of whom seventy or eighty within a short time expired."* The next morning, Thursday, the 8th of June, the Gordon riots were at an end.

Another circumstance well worthy of the remembrance of all, and especially interesting to Catholics, was the conduct of our clergy and laity during those six fearful days. This matter is so well and chivalrously expressed by Mr. Burke in the speech to the electors of Bristol, from which we have in the course of these articles so often quoted, that our readers will willingly pardon a somewhat long extract. Speaking of the riots, the orator said: "There was one circumstance (justice will not suffer me to pass it over) which, if anything could enforce the reasons I have given, would fully justify the Act of Relief, and render a repeal, or anything like a repeal, unnatural, impossible. It was the behaviour of the persecuted Roman Catholics under the acts of violence and brutal insolence which they suffered. I suppose there are not in London less than four or five thousand of that persuasion from my country, who do a great deal of the most laborious work in the Metropolis, and they chiefly inhabit those quarters which were the principal theatre of the fury of the bigotted multitude. They are known to be men of strong arms and quick feelings, and more remarkable for a determined resolution than clear ideas or much foresight. But though provoked by everything that can stir the blood of men, their houses and chapels in flames, and with the most atrocious profanations of everything they hold sacred before their eyes, not a hand was moved to retaliate, or even to defend. Had such a conflict once begun, the rage of their persecutors would have redoubled. Thus, fury increasing by the reverberation of outrages, house being fired for house, and church for chapel, I am convinced that no power under Heaven could have prevented a general conflagration; and at this day London would have been a tale. But I am well informed, and the thing speaks it, that their clergy exerted their whole * Lord Stanhope's "History of England."

:

influence to keep their people in such a state of forbearance and quiet, as, when I look back, fills me with astonishment ; but not with astonishment only. Their merits on that occasion ought not to be forgotten nor will they, when Englishmen come to recollect themselves. I am sure it were far more proper to have called them forth and given them the thanks of both Houses of Parliament, than to have suffered those worthy clergymen, and excellent citizens, to be hunted into holes and corners, whilst we are making low-minded inquisitions into the number of their people; as if a tolerating principle was never to prevail, unless we were very sure that only a few could possibly take advantage of it. But, indeed, we are not yet well recovered of our fright. Our reason, I trust, will return with our security; and this unfortunate temper will pass over like a cloud."

But the cloud did not completely pass

by. It became less dark and dense, and the lightnings which it discharged were not so destructive. Even to this day the atmosphere over our heads is not clear. The tolerating principle does not wholly prevail; our Protestant fellowcountrymen have not completely recovered from their fright. Our priests have never been called up to receive the thanks of both Houses of Parliament; but they have been frequently called up to hear the false witness which is still from time to time borne against them, that they are not loyal. During the last hundred years, Catholic priests have preached nothing but loyalty, when instructing their flocks in their duty to the State. the year 1848, the preaching of the Catholic priests was to some practical purpose, when it prevented a rebellion in Ireland which might have taken the whole power of England to quell. the teaching of the Catholic priests in the matter of loyalty of no use even at the present day? Would any Minister of State be answerable for peace in the British Isles, if he did not feel assured that Catholic priests are the trustiest guardians of the loyalty of the people and the truest supporters of the throne?

In

Is