thing done, when there is question of marrying a couple, is to make a bargain about the marriage money. This sometimes causes a considerable delay. The remuneration or stipend prescribed by the diocesan statutes is never thought of for a moment. Indeed all statutes respecting money matters are a mere dead letter. The priest drives as hard a bargain as he can, and strives to make the most of the occasion. Marriages are sometimes broken off in consequence of the supposed exorbitance of the demands. All this is in opposition to the intention of the church and the spirit of religion. It is simony to all intents and purposes that is, selling a sacrament or spiritual thing for money; and putting on it a worldly value according to the dictates of avarice and caprice, without any reference to fixed rules or regulations. But this is only a preliminary proceeding. Demands of money are made upon such as are present at the marriage—at least upon the male portion of the assembly. This gives rise not unfrequently to a new and unhallowed scene. The transaction may, by chance, pass off quietly; that is, when every one contributes according to the wishes and expectations of the clergyman. But this does not always happen. In general the demands are considered unreasonable, and the priest is disappointed in his expectations. Some endeavour to evade the payment of any contribution; others give but little, and the few that please the priest are mere exceptions to the general rule. What is the consequence? The clergyman, after begging and entreating for some time to little purpose, gets at length into a rage, utters the most bitter invectives against individuals-abuses, perhaps, the whole company, and is abused himself in turn, until at length the whole house becomes one frightful scene of confusion and uproar; and all this takes place at the administration of one of the sacraments of the Catholic church."*

We ourselves recollect an anecdote told us by a Tipperary magistrate, illustrative of the above. One morning immediately preceding Lent, our justice was accosted in his official apartment by a neighbouring farmer of some substance and respectability, who, having his head bound up, bore every appearance of being engaged in some bloody affray.

"What's the matter, Paddy?" says the magistrate. "I suppose you have been engaged in a row at the fair of and it's little I pity you, or any

one like you, who meddles in such disgraceful riots."

"No, in troth, that's not the truth of it, Master Tom; but the smash my poor head is in all comes from the heavy whip of Father Philip, our priest. Glory be to God, I never saw his like when in a rale passion."

"And what did you do, Paddy, that brought on you such punishment ?" "Och, then, nothing at all at all but this, plase your honour at the wedding of Jim Ryan with Judy Coffy, I went, as needs must, to the marriage, and when the plate went round, our Father Phil. took a new and cute way enough to see what all of us laid down; for, instead of one, he tuck two plates, and as fast as each neighbour put down his share, why he passed it over to the plate in his left hand; so by this manes he knew at a turn of his eye what every one put down. And so, when it came to my turn, I dropt on the plate all I was master of at the time, a two-and-sixpenny; at the sight of which, his reverence grew white as milk with rage-run to where behind the door his big heavy horsewhip was a hanging, and up he comes to me, and sputters out, You mane, dirty, scullogue of a negur, I'll

Mr. Croly exposes the cupidity and exactions of the Romish clergy in their administrations of baptism and extreme unction; and thus he speaks of masses:

"Masses, too, are priced like other rites of religion. A person is said to get a mass, or to have a mass said for him, when special mention is made of him by the celebrating priest, or when he is especially recommended to the Almighty at a particular part of the canon of the mass assigned for recommendations of the kind. This is supposed to produce great spiritual, and perhaps temporal benefit to the person so recommended. This recommendation is also supposed to benefit departed souls—that is—such as are detained in the prison of purgatory; and this is the reason why it is said that the mass is offered for the living and the dead. The efficacy of masses in this respect is one of the most obscure points in scholastic theology, and requires the utmost exertion of ingenuity to be put in a tangible shape. The general notion is, that masses are beneficial in some way-no one being able to define exactly in what this benefit consists. But the general idea of their efficacy in the visible and invisible world augments considerably the revenue of the church. This matter is particularly insisted on at a particular season of the year-the commemoration of All-souls-the second of November. Every effort is then made to interest the faithful in behalf of the souls in purgatory, in order to increase the customary contributions for mortuary masses. Doctrines are frequently advanced on those occasions prompted by cupidity-not very consonant to reason or the Scriptures; and the congregation is led into error in order to replenish the coffers of the priest. The love of filthy lucre has done much mischief of this kind in the church. Is not the present dependent state of the priesthood in question, a stimulus to these extravagancies and abuses? Would an independent, high-minded priesthood descend to such sacrilegious artifices to extract money from the pockets of the ignorant?"

tache you how again you'll put off your clergy with such a trifle;' and with that he hot me such a clink in the temple, that I fell like a cock, and the blood spouted out, and there I lay, and all the neighbours thought I was kilt and dead all out."

"Well, Paddy, I suppose you have come to me to take your examinations against Father Philip. County of Tipperary, to wit-Come, Paddy, kiss the book; are you ready to make true answer to what I shall ask you?"

"Och, then, Master Tom, sure you are not serious! Sure you don't think I'm come to swear against my clargy. Me swear so as to hurt a hair of his head! No; I'd sooner he'd cut out my heart, and tear up every vein in my body, than do the likes of that."

"What, then, brought you here to trouble me with your story?"

"Why, then, plase your worship, for no reason at all in life, but to show your worship all my hard case."

"Pat, good morning to you. Mind, when next you go to a wedding, pay your cash more freely, if you would save your bacon."

And the disunion, the jealousies, and the endeavours to overreach each other, which universally prevail :

"Other bad consequences regarding the clergy themselves arise out of the present system of church support. They are constantly endeavouring to overreach and undermine one another. Every man looks to his own private emolument, regardless of all covenants or agreements, expressed or implied. The curate does not make a fair return to the parish priest, nor the parish priest, perhaps, to the curate; nor the curates, where a number is associated, to one another. Every man gets in what he can; and seems to think that he would be justified in appropriating the entire to himself. But this he cannot do; for he must make some return of his receipts; and this he does--but an arbitrary return, maimed, docked, curtailed. There is no lack of refined casuistry in this matter. The curate says he labours more than the parish priest, and therefore that he is entitled to more than his allotted proportion of the dues. The parish priest, perhaps, will say that the curate is too well paid, and that he himself should have a larger dividend; and where there are several curates together, one will say that he is the senior, and that he should not be placed on a level with the others. Sometimes they assign a sweeping reason for this clandestine abstraction of the common revenue-namely, that the dues being in themselves indeterminate and a sort of arbitrary exaction, they are at liberty to make an arbitrary return. The consequence of all this is, that church revenue has become a mere scramble—every man striving to seize upon a larger share and deciding for himself in the appropriation. This is a bad state of things; it is a shameful state of clerical demoralization, Common honesty is out of the question; nothing but lies, schemes, duplicity, false returns; so that the simple and the honest become the prey of the cunning and the crafty. Does not this system of clerical dishonesty strike at the root of public morals? The morals of the pastor must have an influence on the morals of the flock. Will a priest who has no regard to the sacred rights of property be earnest in exhorting the people to the practice of justice and fair-dealing? Or will not the contagion of his example stimulate the evil propensities of human nature and spread infection among the whole flock? Away, then, with a system which leads to all these destructive consequences—a system which degrades religion, and tends directly to demoralize both the pastor and the congregation."

This, to be sure, is a dark portraiture; but is it true? Shall we believe such charges against a church, and against priests on the testimony of one? Yes, if that is corroborated by others. We have already adduced the deposition of Father Morrissy; we will now produce others. In the county of Cavan, in the year 1817, there was a meeting of the Roman Catholic laity held in the county town, to take into consideration the state of their clergy; and Doctor M'Donald, whom we personally have known as a most reputable and able physician, addressed the chairman as follows:

66

Mr. Chairman-The object of this meeting is very well known. I know it is with great reluctance the laity come forward on this occasion ;

and nothing but a superior and irresisistible sense of duty could have brought me to meddle at all in ecclesiastical concerns. It is a lamentable fact, that notorious and flagrant abuses have been growing up in this diocese for a considerable time: they are become the theme of universal conversation and animadversion with all ranks of people-clergy, and laity, Protestants and Catholics.

"It is time that the hollow murmuring of general discontent should vent through their proper channel-the public expression of our sentiments. It is not my intention to enumerate all the abuses, or mention the names of unfortunate men, whose scandalous lives render them unfit for the ministry of the gospel. Instead of keeping pace with the illumination of the age, and improving in morality and good sense, we have been progressive in a state of rapid and shameful deterioration.

66 Gangenelli, one of the greatest luminaries ever the church beheld," (the Protestant Pope, as your lordship knows he was called,) "advised the ministers of the gospel to guard against infidelity on the one side, and superstition on the other. Has that admonition been adhered to in this diocese? On the contrary, a superstition of the most monstrous and detestable description, that would have dishonoured and disgraced the most barbarous ages of the world, has taken firm root, and threatens to incorporate itself with true religion, so as to destroy its purity, respectability, and dignity.

"I have no doubt that miracles have been worked in the early ages of the church, even after the days of the Apostles; but then, they were only pretended to by men of the most sanctified lives, and whose moral character was above all suspicion. But at this enlightened period of the world, the thing is quite reversed. The exclusive right of working miracles is laid claim to by men of the most infamous and profligate characters, demoralized wretches, who are not only a dishonor to religion, but a disgrace to human nature. Some of them so far gone in folly as well as depravity, as to disdain the aid of hypocrisy, making religion pander to their avarice and profligacy.

"These are lamentable facts; but lamentable as they are, there are present here, at this moment, some of the most excellent of the clergy, ready to attest, if necessary, the truth of what I assert." *

"Many of the Roman Catholic clergy, at this time, had the good sense to see the necessity of a reformation, and the good feeling to join the laity in their endeavours to procure it. A few interested disclaimers of the resolutions of the 28th of October, had been got up, with several false signatures among the rest, one purporting to be from the parishes of Ballynamore, Drumreilly, Templeport, and Kilnowley. The following replications are from the spirited parish priest.-Dublin Evening Post, January, 13, 1818:

"To the Editor of the Dublin Evening Post.

"SIR-The advertisement which I read in your paper of the 1st instant, is false, inasmuch as it declares that the feelings and opinions of my pa

But this is not all; we have another witness-the Rev. Michael Reilly, parish priest of Kilmore, a man who bore, if Doctor M'Donald is to be believed, the very highest character. He publicly denounced the corruptions of his church; and at a meeting of Roman Catholic clergy, in the chapel of Cavan, 18th October, 1817, he protested against the election of one of the priests of the diocese as coadjutor bishop. For this bold act, he was, according to the received practice of his church, suspended, after, as he says, a mission of 32 years; and he subsequently made his appeal to the public. From it we extract the following:

"Postscript to Letter II. My lord, I am anxious and wishing that this meeting of the clergy should take place as soon as possible, as I presume the object of it shall be to establish a strict discipline, and purge the diocese of its licentiousness and immorality, which of late has taken deep root in this country. I hope there shall be allowed a free discussion; and that every clergyman will be allowed to speak his mind freely, without any dread of suspension; and that any priest convicted of the above crimes shall be duly punished. I know a good deal, and shall speak out.”*

rishioners are in contradiction to the resolutions of the general meeting of lay Catholics of the diocese of Kilmore, held at Cavan, the 28th of October last. "HUGH REILLY, P. P. of Drumreilly."

(Signed)

"To the Editor of the Dublin Evening Post.

"SIR-The advertisement which appeared in your print of the 1st instant, signed by a few individuals, and purporting to convey to the public the sentiments of the Roman Catholics of the parishes of Ballynamore, Drumreilly, Templeport, and Kinowley, is false, inasmuch as it relates to the Roman Catholics of Ballynamore. They lament with me, that divisions exist among the clergy and the laity. We hope that an amicable adjustment will shortly terminate these conflicts of opinion.

"The disclaimers were followed up by sundry counter-statements, and the public disavowals of several signatures that had been forged to them: amongst others, those of Mr. Donovan, Mr. Francis Kernan, Mathias Brady, M.D. &c.-Vide Evening Post, passim from January to March, 1808."

"I know a good deal, and shall speak out.'"

"The reverend writer offered the corroborating testimony of other Roman Catholic clergymen. I called on you,' says he to the bishop, for a meeting of the clergy; a general one, if you thought proper; but if a particular one, not to forget to summon Father Phil. Reilly, of Bailieborough, Father Phil. M'Gauran, of Swanlinbar, and Father Hugh Reilly of Bally. namore; and I came to learn since, that Mr. Blake of Moybulog, will give great assistance in throwing light on the investigation. By the united evidence of these gentlemen, you will be able to decide-I shall assist myself, and interrogate them.'-Series of Letters, &c. p. 14."