the motive and subject of Sir J. H.'s audience Even his present visit to the Continent had already been gravely represented in an aggregate assembly, or "General Board of the Catholics of Ireland," as directed to heap injuries upon the cause of the Catholic Petitioners to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and a formal resolution, to that effect, had been voted, in order to be transmitted to the See of Rome*.

In reply to such assertions and insinuations, Sir J. H. must request permission to advert to a few

[This Resolution was, in a subsequent meeting, followed by an Address, of which the following is an Extract :Extract from "The humble Address and Remonstrance of the "General Board of the Roman Catholics of Ireland," to H. H. P. Pius VII.-dated-" Board Room, Dublin, July 19, 1817." Signed-" By order,

"Edw. Hay, Secretary of the Catholics of Ireland." "We cannot avoid declaring to Your Holiness, that our "apprehension of undue and temporal interference are much

increased, by learning that Your Holiness is soon to be "addressed in person, by one of the most active opponents to "the independence and purity of the Irish Catholic Church, "Sir John Cox Hippisley. We earnestly conjure Your Holiness "to give no credit to his representations of any portion of the "Irish people. He has exhausted all the resources of his "ingenuity to find precedents of degradation and despotism in "ecclesiastical matters, in order to apply them to the prejudice, "of the Catholic Claims in Ireland."]

The Notes which are inserted between [ ] were not annexed to the original Statement.

observations made in Parliament, when the subject of Catholic institutions was therein last debated, especially as the report of that debate appears in a journal, edited by a Catholic, who has rarely been sparing of his animadversions upon Sir J. H.'s parliamentary conduct.

The report of this editor (in The Orthodox Journal substantially of July last) is nearly correct, and in the following words*:-" Sir J. Hippisley adverted also to this "Prelate's (Bishop Milner's) vacillations-at one "moment, the strenuous advocate for the Veto-at

66

the next, as strenuous an impugner of it. This "Prelate has been pleased also to represent Sir J. H. "to be a candidate for office, on one occasion for an Embassy to Rome,-op another, for the appointment of Ministre de Culte. It was possible "(Sir J. H. observed) that he might early revisit "that region to which this Prelate alludes-unques

66

66

66

66

66

tionably, however, unaccredited and unpaid. He "should, nevertheless, not be withheld from endeavouring to render such services to his country, as, at a former period, he had not unsuccessfully attempted, and to represent the real state of this important question to those, whom it imports so "much to be apprised of it, might, at such a crisis, "be not unreasonably considered as an act of some public benefit. He should, at least, not be deterred

66

60

* [Vide also Hansard's Parliamentary Debates.]

"by such commentators. His walk over this thorny "path had been undeviating, nor should he now "diverge from the course, which, in his own humble opinion, was traced on the soundest constitutional ground of justice and expediency."

66

66

In the spirit of this declaration Sir J. H. requested an audience of His Holiness; and in conformity to it, and, at the reiterated instance of His Holiness himself, he will now endeavour to redeem the pledge he has made to Parliament and his country.

It is not within the limits of the British empire, that the mischievous effects of the associations, already averted to, have been confined. His Holiness himself, in his Pontifical chair, has been assailed by one of their emissaries, and the disgrace and deportation of this daring zealot, has been rubricated in their journals, as sufferings little short of martyrdom in the cause of religion and civil liberty.

While the Friar Hayes*, thus accredited, was inflaming the subject against the ministers of his government-and the Catholic, against the supreme head of his religion,—a detailed Statement of these proceedings was given to the public, under the name of Dr. Dromgoole, whom the Friar Hayes had strenuously proposed to be united with him, as a joint

[A Friar of the Franciscan Order.]

delegate in his mission.-This Statement of Dr. Dromgoole is dated from Rome, 27th May, 1817,-it is conceived in the full spirit of the representations of his prototype-the Friar Hayes, it is equally abusive of the British and Roman governments, and equally calculated to agitate and mislead the great mass of the Catholic population of his native country*.

* [If Rome could be persuaded that this writer has manifested, by his conduct, or counsel, any sincere devotion to her true interests very little can be affirmed of the loyalty of a subject of the British crown, when stating his conference with the Cardinal Litta, Prefect of Propaganda Fide, in a letter printed and circulated in Ireland, and dated Rome, 6th March, 1816, he thus expresses himself:-" To shew that Rome would act against her own particular interests, were she to consent to "the demands of the British ministers, I endeavoured to expose "the political views by which the English nation has been governed, ever since the Reformation, and in which she still "appears to persevere-her present great power and influence "on the Continent-the great increase of strength which she "has lately given to the Protestant interest, as it is called, "whilst Catholic Europe, weakened and held in jealous counter"poise, can offer no effective opposition to designs, in the "accomplishment of which, Rome has, perhaps, more to apprehend than any other state. I then shewed that the "Catholics of Ireland, from their numbers, and concentrated "as they are in the heart of Europe, form, in fact, the only "obstacle that lies in her way."

In the promulgation of these sentiments Dr. Dromgoole has the gratification of being powerfully supported by the author of the History of the Penal Laws,-which the author of " Faction “unmasked,” (another Irish publication,) represents to be "clever-exaggerated and mischievous ;-anti-English and anti"Protestant.”—" We have every thing,"-(says the author of the History, speaking of Ireland,)" the mountains-the plains

In this respect, indeed, the public journals speak of it with justice" as having created, as might be

"-the strong passes-the numbers-the population :—we are more convenient, and better suited for France, than for "England."-Such are the writings which are produced and eulogized in the aggregate meetings and assemblies of Catholics in Ireland.

It may be recollected that Dr. Dromgoole, at the Catholic Board in Dublin, on the 8th of Nov. 1813, in a Speech, printed by his authority, speaking of the Established Church, exclaims -"In vain shall statesmen put their heads together-in vain "shall Parliaments, in mockery of omnipotence, declare that it "is permanent and inviolate—in vain shall the lazy churchiman

-

cry from the sanctuary, that danger is at hand;'--It "shall fall, and nothing but the mischiefs it had created shall "survive.-Already are the marks of approaching ruin upon it "it has had its time on the earth-a date nearly as long as

any other novelty, and when the time arrives, shall Catholics "be called, by the sacred bond of an oath, to uphold a system " which they believe will one day be rejected by the whole “earth? — Can they be induced to swear that they could

oppose, even the present Protestants of England, if, ceasing "to be truants, they thought fit to return to their ancient wor"ship, and have a Catholic King and a Catholic Parliament ?” Again" the columns of Catholicity are collecting, "who challenge the possession of the ark, and unfurling the « ORIFLAM,—display its glorious motto,-Ev Tourw Nixa.”

In the Dublin Journal, in which the Letter of Dr. Dromgoole is given to the public-" the Catholics of Ireland are congratulated that they had upon the spot, a man-who has a head "to plan a heart to conceive-and perseverance to execute his "purpose; a man whom difficulties stimulate, and whom "distance binds still more fondly to his country." - Dr. Dromgoole was at that time in Rome, and the Friar Hayes seems to have well appreciated the value of his coadjutorship.]