5. Resolved, that we neither seek nor desire any other earthly consideration for our Spiritual Ministry to our respective flocks, save what they may, from a sense of religion and duty, voluntarily afford us.

6. Resolved, that an Address, explanatory of these our sentiments, be prepared and directed to the Roman Catholic Clergy and Laity of Ireland, and conveying such further instruction, as existing circumstances may seem to require.

To the Most Eminent and Reverend Lords, the Bishop, Priest, and Deacon Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church;

To the Most Illustrious and Reverend Patriarchs, Archbishops, Bishops, and Apostolical Vicars throughout the World,

The Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland send greeting:

That in a new and unexpected calamity we should devise new precautions, and that, in adopting these, we should call for your religious zeal and assistance, the cruel circumstances of the times, or at least, the motive of christian charity, by which we are actuated, will, doubtless, justify us in your opinion. For now is the time, that judgment should begin from the House of God, 1 Pet, iv. 17. Let us therefore listen to the voice of our Lord and our God, speaking of the latter times of his people: When you shall see the abomination of desolation standing in the Holy Place, then let those, who are in Judea flee to the mountains. But pray, that your flight may not be in the winter, or on the Sabbath day. If therefore they shall say to you: Behold, he is in the desart; go ye not out: Behold, he is in the closets; believe it not, Mát. xxiv. 15, 16, 20, 25, 26. In these words, Christ intimates to his disciples, that they are to withdraw for a time (not indeed from their faith, nor from their hope of everlasting salvation), but from the earthly habitation of the true believers, and from the Holy Temple itself, till the judgements of God are fulfilled; that we are to pray lest the laws or religion of different countries should throw obstacles in the way of this flight; and lest, our good master and pastor being withdrawn from our sight, we should take occasion to usurp his authority, surrounded as we are on every side with fallacious deceptions and impious artifices. This admonition of our divine

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teacher extends to these our times; for we have still a temple, which the impious cannot violate, into which our High Priest, JESUS, the author of our Priesthood, has entered ouce for all in his own blood of the everlasting Covenant; and we have had earthly abodes resembling and allied with those of the blessed; we have yet holy Laws extending to the whole kingdom of Christ, of which this is the most comprehensive and the most excellent: that we should all be ONE in Faith, in the Sacraments, and in Charity. "To "manifest this UNITY," says the holy Martyr, St. Cyprian, in his book on the Unity of the Church, "Christ has, by his divine authority, established one chair, and appointed one source of unity, in such manner, that he, "who withdraws himself from the chair of Peter, upon "which the Church is founded, is no longer within the "Church; and that he, who does not hold to the unity of "the church, has no faith." This UNITY, for the preservation of which, our blessed Lord, before he ascended to his Heavenly Father, besought him with the piety of a Son, -and with the Majesty of the Only-begotten Son, is not to be broken asunder by the impiety of men, or the violence of war, or the mandates of Sovereigns; since the Son of God himself has assured us, that it shall not be subject to >the vicissitudes of this world, where he says to us: My peace I leave you; my peace I give you. Not such as the world gives, do I give to you, John xiv. 27. Hence those men, who are bent upon oppressing this main source of our unity in Christ, so as to prevent its appearance at all, or its appearance without bearing, at the same time, the foul marks of fraud and deception, are not so much bent upon the abolition of a human law, as upon the destruction of the main 'work of JESUS CHRIST himself here upon earth, and of the principal hope of Christians in his divine

promises.

That this has been attempted of late, it is impossible, venerable Brethren, that you should be ignorant. You have seen the upright, innocent, and holy Pontiff, Pius VII. disgracefully and cruelly seized upon, dragged from his territories, and buried in a dungeon. Hence arises the necessity either of our submitting to a ferocious and insolent military power for the most necessary and sacred intercourse of our holy Religion, or of our resisting this force in the best manner we can. Could such behaviour be excused in

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any Christian, as to turn a venerable old man out of his habitation, and drive him from his country, to oppress an unoffending Bishop of God's Church, to strip the MotherChurch of Christianity of the whole of her patrimony, to overwhelm a most virtuous personage with detestable calumnies, (crimes which we cannot think of without horror) then some sort of excuse might also be admitted for the impious perjury committed in the seizure of our Saviour Christ, for the indignity of spitting upon him in his captivity, and for the injustice of robbing him of his clothes when he was crucified. These injuries, however, do not affect the holy Pontiff alone: they affect us all; whilst an unauthorized individual arrogates to himself that power, which Christ-left for the general benefit of his whole Church and of all mankind, and requires us either to seem to abandon Catholic unity, or to yield obedience to the enemies of the British Empire, whom, nevertheless, we are bound by the command of Christ, by the sanctity of our Oath of Allegiance, ›and by a natural love of our country to oppose, not only by our counsels and exhortations, but also with our persons, even to the shedding of our blood, and the loss of our lives, should this be requisite; which primary duties of Christian citizens we call upon you we call upon God himself to -witness we will most religiously perform.

Therefore, having consulted together on these several matters in this our General Assembly, held in the City of Dublin, we have entered into such Resolutions as will manifest our inviolable attachment to the unity of the Church, and our veneration for the dignity of our Pontiff, Pius VII, and at the same time will prove a preventative against the above mentioned apprehended evils. The following, then, are the points, which we have discussed, decided, and resolved upon for a perpetual remembrance:

"Whereas the Most Holy and Glorious Pope, Pius VII. has, by a despotic mandate and a military force, without any fault on his part, been dragged away from his subjects, and confined in a foreign prison; and whereas there may be danger of his sinking under the horror and sufferings of his situation, and being forced to abdicate his high office in the Church, and to sign some instrument, purporting, that he has made such abdication freely and by his own choice: "Therefore we, the said Archbishops and Bishops, having a thorough knowledge of the case in question, do, wüth

an unanimous consent, reject, abjure, detest, annul and make void, as to every effect of the Canon Law, all Bulls, whether true or false, Rescripts of every kind, Letters, in the form of Briefs, even those, which may profess to be witten by the free choice and with the certain knowledge of the writer, which shall' or may signify the concession, resignation, or abdication of the Popedom on the part of PIUS VII. untill he, the said Pope, shall be delivered from the captivity, which he now endures, and restored to the free possession of his office and jurisdiction, and until this his freedom shall be made evident to us by unquestionable proofs, and not by mere acts, purporting to be acts of abdication, nor by any approbations or confirmations whatever, which may be annexed to the same.

"And should his said Holiness, Pope Pius VII. being yet a prisoner, though under much less restraint than he is under at present, resign, or appear to have resigned, his high office, we declare such resignation, past, present, or to come, absolutely null, and we will continue to date the years of his Pontificate alone, without taking notice of any such pretended abdication.

"But if the said Pontiff, Pius VII. should depart this life during his present captivity, we consider the Holy Apostolical See as been vacant, till it shall be fully and canonically notified to the Churches of Ireland that a successor to him has been lawfully, holily, and freely chosen. Such are our decisious and declarations, in the name of our Lord JESUS CHRIST, and in the unity of his spirit, and in the faith of the Catholic Church."

You clearly see, that these our Resolutions are by no means intended to subvert the highest dignity in the Church, namely, the perogative of the Holy See; but that, on the contrary, they are calculated to defend its never-failing authority from violence and indignity, and to prevent that bond of unity, which Christ has left in his Church from being abused by a fraudulent tyranny for the destruction of cur faith, and of the public peace, to the great dishonour of the Apostolical See. We therefore commend this our decision to your fraternal charity, and we beseech you, for the love of Christ, and of his body (the Church) that if, for prudential reasons, you should not imitate our example, you will, at least, assist us with your prayers.-Fare ye well in the Lord, most eminent Lords and Venerable Brethren.

Resolved in the General Assembly of the Bishops of Ireland, held in Dublin, February 26, 1810, in the tenth year of the Pontificate of our Holy Father, Pope Pius VII.

No. V.

Assuming the necessity and consequent intention of making some legislative regulation as to tithes in Ireland, the following considerations are submitted to the govern ment and clergy of the United Kingdom.

That by the 5th article of the union, it is enacted, that the churches of England and Ireland, as now by law established, be united into one protestant episcopal church, to be called the United Church of England and Ireland, and that the doctrine worship discipline and Government of the said United Church shall be and remain in full force for ever, as the same are now by law established for the church of England.

That the safety and preservation of the united establishment mainly depend upon the identity of principle usage and practice.

That no legislative regulation adapted to local exigencies should be made or continued, which breaks in upon the principles of the establishment.

That the people should never experience, that the system of tithing is oppressive or vexatious to the poor.

That the practice and theory of tithing be not at variance. That the law of the land is the foundation of the clergy's claim to maintenance from tithes.

That all property is the creature and under the controul of the supreme civil power.

That it is a constitutional axiom recognized and confirmed by magna charta, quod ecclesia anglicana libera, sit & habeat omnia jura integra & libertates suas illæsas.

That the clergy in their corporate capacity are intitled by reason paramount to individuals, to the benefit of the same fundamental statute, which provides, that no freeman be disseised of his freehold, or liberties, or free customs, but by lawful judgement of his Peers, or by the law of the land.

That the fundamental common law rights and liberties of the church of Ireland were before the legislative union, and must essentially since that event, be one and the same.