when it is fairly set and fairly weighed against its certain mischievous and ruinous consequences,― THIS ONE kicks the beam.

V. It also affords some comfort to the catholics, to observe that, though the majority in the house of lords against the bill is appalling, it is much less than has appeared on several former divisions.

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VI. Finally, this majority, though numerically great, may be reduced to the expression of unity, here the prospect begins to clear.

Bringing down the presumptive heir of the crown to oppose their petitions, wounded the feelings of the catholics they are willing to believe that if it had been known how much it distressed them, it would not have been advised.

But, however afflicted,-they are not dismayed; they conceive, that the resort of their adversaries to such an extraordinary measure, proves that they found themselves in a circumstance of extraordinary difficulty: the Eos ao μnxarns, the preternatural machinery, is never introduced-except in cases beyond human power, and never twice in the same drama.

Besides, they never forget that, in January 1792, Mr.. O'Hara tendered a catholic petition to the Irish house of commons ;-that one person only,-Mr. Denis Brown,-the very gentleman who seconded Mr. Plunkett's motion, voted for its reception :-that, on the 11th day of the following February, the petition was presented and rejected with marked indignity, by a majority of 208 votes to 23-that, on the 10th of the following January, the lord lieutenant in the speech, by which he opened the sessions of parliament, recommended the consideration of the catholic question to both houses of parliament; that, in the

following February, Mr. Secretary Hobart himself brought in their petition ;-that it was respectfully received and discussed;-and that a few weeks afterwards, that is,-within one year after the contemptuous rejection of Mr. O'Hara's motion,the memorable bill for the relief of the Irish catholics, with scarcely a dissenting voice, in either house, was passed by the legislature.

Surely then, there is no rational ground for despair: "O socii comitesque !

"Cras ingens iterabimus æquor."—Hor.

CHAP. XCVII.

THE PRELACY OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLIC CHURCH;

-ITS CLERGY--AND ITS CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, SINCE THE REFORMATION.

IN the foregoing pages, the writer has endeavoured to present his reader, with a succinct account of some of the principal events in the history of the English catholics, from the Reformation to the present time:In this chapter he will endeavour to lay before him, I. A succinct view of the state of their hierarchy :II. Their clergy :-III. And their charitable institutions...

XCVII. 1.

The English Catholic Prelacy.

WE have noticed the decease of Dr. Richard Smith in 1658: "On that event, the chapter," says Mr. Berington*, "gave an account to his holiness, ." of the bishop's decease, and requested to know his

pleasure concerning the future government of the "church of England. He replied, I will not dis

approve of your chapter; but, will let you alone "with your government.'-In the same year, the chapter dispatched Mr. Plantin, a new agent, to "Rome, to supplicate for a successor to bishop Smith. "His holiness, in compliance with their requisition,

promised they should have a bishop within seven "months. And how,' observed the agent, shall "our church be governed in the interim?'' Have you not a dean and a chapter?' replied the pope."

Still, during the thirty years which followed the decease of Dr. Smith, no successor to him was appointed. In the short reign of James the second, Dr. Leyburn was appointed bishop of Adrumetum, with ordinary jurisdiction over all England; but two years after his appointment, bishop Giffard, under the title of bishop of Madaura, was added to the hierarchy, and the episcopal jurisdiction of England was divided between the two prelates. By a subsequent arrangement in the reign of the same monarch, England was divided into four districts; and a prelate,-appointed to some Asiatic see,-was nominated to preside over each, with an annual salary of one thousand pounds, payable out of the Exchequer. At the Revolution, the salaries ceased: but the distribution of the districts has continued to the present time. The northern district comprises eight counties; Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland, Durham, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Lancashire, and the Isle of Man :-The midland, fifteen; Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Huntingdonshire, Isle of Ely, Norfolk, Suffolk, Northamptonshire, Rutlandshire, Notinghamshire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Warwick

shire, Shropshire, Worcestershire and Oxfordshire: -The western, seven English counties,-Somersetshire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Monmouthshire, Wiltshire, Devonshire, Cornwall, and the whole of North and South Wales :-The ten remaining counties, Kent, Middlesex, Essex, Hertfordshire, Sussex, Surrey, Berks, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hampshire, with the Isle of Wight, Jersey, English America, and the West Indies, were assigned to the London district.

The appointment of vicars-apostolic was not, in the first instance, acceptable to the general body of the secular clergy. They presented to James the second a memorial against the appointment of Dr. Leyburn. Having been desired by his majesty to specify the difference between a bishop in ordinary, and a vicar-apostolic, they stated, in a memorial, that, "by a bishop, who is an ordinary, is meant. "one, who hath power of his own, or in himself, to

govern the flock, over which he is set; and, while "he acts accordingly, he is not responsible to any, " or revocable at pleasure.

"On the contrary, a vicar is one, who hath no power of his own, or in himself; but only the use "or exercise of the person, who substitutes him; so "that, what he does, he doth not by his own power; but, by the power of the person, whom he represents; to whom, therefore, he is, at all times, it accountable, as using purely his power,—by whom "that power and himself too, are revocable at plea

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sure. Whence it follows, that a vicar need not be a bishop at all, but in certain cases; and, although "he be consecrated, and is to have the title and "character of a bishop, yet, acting only in and by

"the power of another, according to the order and "instruction given by him, he is not properly a bishop " of the flock, to which he is sent, but officer or dele"gate of the person who sends him."

Such were the sentiments of the secular clergy. But, after the appointment of vicars-apostolic was made, they acquiesced in it. The English catholic church has since been governed by them: the prelates exercising their power with moderation; the flock yielding to them an edifying obedience; the chapter considering their own jurisdiction suspended, while there is a vicar-apostolic in office.

This economy is confirmed by a decree of the sacred congregation De Propaganda Fide, dated 6th October 1694; and confirmed by an apostolic sanction of Innocent the twelfth, dated October 1696. It declared, that, "by the deputation of vicars-aposto"lic into England, all jurisdiction whatsoever, of "the chapters, as well secular as regular, of all the "churches of that kingdom did cease; but yet only, "while their deputation, or that of others so deputed, "at any time, by the apostolic see, should last, and "not otherwise."

It is observable, that a few ancient nuns, now residing in Somers Town, are the only remains, by unbroken succession, of the ancient monastic institutions of England. These are the spiritual daughters of the convent of Bridgetines, established, at the time of the Reformation, at Sion, near Brentford. At the dissolution of monasteries, they removed to Lisbon on the invasion of that city by the French, they were admitted to the general hospitality, shown by this country, to the ecclesiastical emigrants.

As, under the arrangement, which has been men