The efforts which had been recently made, by certain Jesuits, to regain the government of the English College at Rome, were perfectly in character with those which had been successfully practised, with regard to the National Institutions, not many years after their original establishment. The three National Colleges, in that Capital, were founded and endowed for the education of Secular Priests-and a Secular Priest was placed as Rector, or Superior, over each of them. The proceedings, and "intrigues" as they were then termed, of the Jesuits to obtain the government of those National Institutions-are detailed in many ancient publications-particularly in the History of the English College of Douay-printed by Lintott, in 1713.-Nor has less zeal and vigour of action been lately manifested by the reintegrated Society at Rome, directed to the same end-and, especially, by a foreign Jesuit, who, though, certainly, not deficient in talent, or literary acquirements, nevertheless, with reference to the influence which he has sought to obtain, in deciding the fate of the English Seminary at Rome, is open to many strong objections of local and personal disqualification :—those efforts, however, have been frustrated by the Pope's appointment of an English Secular Priest, on the recommendation of the National Prelates, to preside over their National Institution*.

*If the expectations of those at Rome, who have been so active in their efforts to procure a very different appropriation of the Rectory of the English College, have thus been frustrated,-not less disappointment perhaps, may have been manifested, by their correspondents at home, on the discovery that Sir J. H. is returned, unseard by the Holy Office. An Ecclesiastic, whose doctrinal works were, some time since, the subject of much controversy, has been extremely diffuse in his assertions-"that "there was a question of putting Sir J. H. into the Holy Office "(in fact, the Inquisition) for his Parliamentary Report-and "that his friends had reason to be uneasy, for he is sure to be " condemned if he gets into it."-In this opinion the reverend gentleman appears to be not less mistaken, than in his persuasion that his own doctrinal works, though declared "worthy of being

с

Of the Scotch National Seminary, it may not be unopportune here to state a few facts, which occasioned a recent, but unsuccessful application to the Court of Naples. The Society of Jesuits had, early, contrived to obtain the Presidency of the Scotch and Irish, as well as the English College, though expressly founded for the education of the Secular Priesthood. On the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Kingdom of the two Sicilies, in 1766-the Government took possession of two abbeys, situate within that Kingdom, which had been attached to the College— the Cardinal Dean Albani, then Cardinal-Protector of the Scotch Roman Catholic Clergy, together with the Apostolic Vicars of Scotland, remonstrated against this assumption-contending, that though the Jesuits had, in the person of a Rector of that Society, obtained the administration of the revenues; yet the property was exclusively belonging to the Secular Clergy of Scotland. The Marchese Tanucci, at that time the chief Minister at Naples, offered to restore the abbeys to the College, provided it was withdrawn from the management of the Jesuits, but the Pope, Clement XIII. was prevailed upon by the Society, rather to abandon half of the certain income of the College, than to withdraw it from their usurped domination. After the abolition of the Society, by the Bull of P. Clement XIV. and the restoration of the Secular Priests to the government of the National Institutions-efforts were renewed, but unsuccessfully, to obtain the restitution of the property in Naples. On the partial re-establishment of the Jesuits in Sicily, in 1804,-at the instance of Cardinal Erskine, who had been appointed Protector of the Scotch Roman Catholic Clergy-an application was made to Father Angelini-Provincial of the Sicilian Jesuits, and whose influence

"inclosed in cedar and gold," had actually received the approbation of the See of Rome. The movers of the remonstrance of the General Board of Irish Catholics of the 19th of July, 1817— will, probably, participate with this reverend gentleman in lamenting the fallacy of their anticipations :-the candour and moderation of the Sovereign Pontiff seem to be little appreciated by either.

was considerable at the Court of Naples, to interest himself in procuring the restitution of the two abbeys, no answer was returned by the Provincial to the application made to him, who, probably, thought that he had acted in the spirit, though not in the letter of the application, by obtaining the assignment of these abbeys to the immediate purposes of his own Order—which, indeed, was the fact. The invasion of the French, however, soon divested the Sicilian Jesuits of the property thus tortuously acquired. At present a Neapolitan Secular Priest has been appointed by the King, to hold both the abbeys. During Sir J. H.'s recent residence in Rome, another application was made, in the month of April last, to the Neapolitan Government, by the Rector of the Scotch College, who laid before the Minister the copy of a Memorial, which had been drawn up by Sir J. H. (with the concurrence of His Majesty's Government, in the year 1800,) and, then, transmitted to Sir Arthur Paget, His Majesty's Envoy, &c. to the Court of the two Sicilies-urging the restoration of the property confiscated during the revolution, generally, to the several National Colleges to whom it had originally been attached.-Many difficulties were opposed to this new application, and the Rector did not succeed in obviating them. As the former application was made with the concurrence of the British Government, in 1800, there is little doubt but if the same countenance was given to a renewal, at the present moment, the Court of the two Sicilies would not be indisposed to restore the property in question; and His Majesty's Government might entertain a well-grounded confidence in the present government of that Seminary, and in the system, which is now unequivocally established, and confirmed by the Pontifical Government-in the appointment of National Superiors to the National Colleges-which reform, even in a State view, must be considered as advantageous to the interests of the public.

The facts already stated are brought to our recollection, with additional interest, by a view of the proceedings of the Sovereign Council of Friburg, on the 15th of September last (1818),together with the intelligence communicated by the Paris

Journals, of the 18th of the following month-viz. "that the "discontent at Friburg, is so great, in consequence of the reso"lution of the Great Council for restoring the order of Jesuits, "that several of the inhabitants are preparing to emigrate.” In other cantons of Switzerland great discontent, proceeding from the same cause, has manifested itself, and not less in the cantons of the Roman communion, than in those of the Helvetic confession.

But it is not to the Swiss cantons that these apprehensions are confined. The revival of the order of Jesuits, and its possible results have recently, and very seriously engaged the attention of the confederated Protestant States of Germany, in the Ecclesiastical Council which had been originally convened by those States for the purpose of framing a municipal code of regulation respecting the appointments, and exterior regulation of the Episcopal order, of the Roman communion, within their respective jurisdictions. The members composing this Council are, in many instances, the same delegates who are likewise accredited, as Plenipotentiaries to the general Germanic Diet, now sitting at Francfort. In the greater part, if not in all these governments, no distinction obtains respecting the eligibility of Catholics and Protestants to civil and military offices,-nevertheless it has not been held as a measure of superabundant caution to assert the indefeasible alarms of the secular Sovereign in providing against the possibility of encroachment from any foreign jurisdictionwhether proceeding from the Roman curia itself—or from the pretensions of alien Prelates of the Episcopal order, or Superiors of monastic Institutions domiciliated in alien States*. And in

claims.

* Of this description, as it has been observed in another place, are the claims of the Archbishops of Paris, Goa, &c. who actually exercise spiritual jurisdiction within the British colonies. So, as respecting the Generals of various religious orders-the greater part of whom are resident at Rome.-The General of the Dominican, resided, heretofore, in Spain-and the General of the Jesuits, in Russia. The English Benedictines, by the constitu

deed it is well known that the greater part of the Sovereigns of the continent of Europe-of every religious communion-Roman -Greek-Lutheran-and Calvinistic-have, recently been, or still are, in actual negotiation with the See of Rome, with a view to an amicable adjustment of all questions of this description. In the spirit of these regulations, which are considered as opposing a practical barrier against such possible encroachments, the "Jurisdictional Memoir" of the government of Tuscany was

tion of their order, admit of no foreign Superior. The effect of foreign influence was very pointedly exemplified in the instance of the late Dr. Hussey-some time R. C. Bishop of Waterford. In the year 1780, Dr. Hussey was sent, with Mr. Cumberland, by Lord North's government, to Madrid, to endeavour to detach that Court from the Court of Versailles ;-but, on the intelligence being received of the riots in London, occasioned by the proceedings of Lord George Gordon, the conduct of Dr. Hussey appeared to be adversely influenced by the Spanish ministers, and the negotiation, which, before, had a favourable aspect, proved abortive.-The details of this negotiation (which are very interesting) are given by Mr. Cumberland, in the second Volume of his Memoirs. In the year 1791-Dr. Hussey was commissioned, by a very respectable Committee of English Catholics, to proceed to Rome, in order to confer with the Pope, on the subject of the oath in the Relief Bill, then about to be brought into Parliament-but Dr. Hussey being, at that time, Chaplain of the Spanish Embassy, received an interdict from that quarter, and did not proceed on his mission.-At the period when the Concordat between the French Government and the See of Rome was in agitation-Dr. Hussey, being then Bishop of Waterford, received instructions (as it was understood, from the Court of Spain) to assist in that negotiation-and for that purpose proceeded to Paris-flagrante bello.-Other instances could be cited-but from these facts it may be inferred that regulations to guard against the exercise of a foreign influence, whether civil or ecclesiastical, are not to be considered as measures of " super" abundant caution."