"Your Holiness will take measures to enable the Members "of this Establishment, at once, to fulfil their conscientious "obligations, and continue their meritorious services to"wards the education of Catholic youth in this kingdom."

It is to be presumed, that "the obstacles" noticed in this Address, are chiefly those which constitute the subject of the preceding Letter of the 18th of April, 1818, addressed to the Cardinal Litta, then Prefect of the Congregation of Propaganda Fide. Those obstacles-so far as they are opposed to the claim of clerical ordination of the Students educated at Stonyhurst, under a title, " titulo paupertatis,” which recognises them at once, as substantive Members of an organised society of Jesuits-have originated with the venerable ecclesiastic of the episcopal order, within whose vicarial district the college of Stonyhurst is situated. "That "the Rulers and Members of Stonyhurst are secured and "protected by the letter of the standing law," is the construction before adverted to, in the preceding Letter to Cardinal Litta, [page 8,] who, at the same time, was informed, "that,-in 1791,-the British Parliament passed an "Act, declaring that it was expedient that such persons who "should take the oaths therein prescribed, should be released "from some of the penalties and disabilities imposed by the "former Acts, and, that in the enumeration of those Acts, "such in which the Jesuits were collectively named with "Seminary Priests, are nominally included. But, it was "scarcely necessary to remind His Eminence, that, at that

period, the Society of Jesuits actually stood abolished, as an "Order, by the Pontifical Brief" Dominus ac Redemptor," "and, it was not, at that period, in the contemplation of the "British Parliament to provide against the consequence of "its possible restoration." Such is the commentary then made upon the Act of 1791-the letter of which Act is now relied upon as giving, in effect, vitality and protection to

the Society of Jesuits, as an organised Order of regular Clergy within the British Realm.

It appears, that, since the date of the Pontifical Bull of 1814, which revives the Order of Jesuits, the Members of the Society, in this kingdom, are determined to claim the recognition of their Institute, in extenso, under the letter of this Act, and the recent proceedings, at Rome and in England, combined with the mandatory letter of Monsignor Pedecini, Secretary of Propaganda, clothed with the authority of that Congregation, and the Rescript, procured, by the intervention of the Cardinal Severoli, when Nuncio at Vienna, supply abundant evidence of this persevering spirit. We are not to be surprised that the pledge thus solemnly given, of "the actual dispositions of His Ma “ jesty's Ministers" according with the sentiments expressed in the Address itself-should have elicited the declaration of a corresponding feeling in some of the Members of the Congregation of Propaganda Fide; and that another official letter, to that effect, should have been procured, in the name of that Congregation, (though in the absence, as it is understood, of the new Cardinal Prefect*) notwithstanding the efforts of the Society at Stonyhurst to obtain ordination for the Members of their Body, "titulo paupertatis," had been so recently checked by the immediate Order of the Sovereign Pontiff. This apparent versatility is easily reconcileable; it has been before mentioned, that a letter from the same congregation had been addressed, in the name of His Holiness, to Sir J. H. in the year 1800, expressing, in the strongest terms, the approval of a State Provision for the Roman Catholic Prelates and Clergy ;-but, when a representation was soon after made to Rome, that the British government were actuated only by a sinister policy in affording such a

* Cardinal Fontana.

provision, the sentiments of the Congregation were consequently communicated to the Prelates and Clergy, in terms suitable to the representation that had been conveyed to them, though wholly opposed to the letter and spirit of the former official communication.

It is not the object of these pages directly to controvert the assertion, unforeseen as it is, that "the actual disposi"tions of His Majesty's Ministers" are now precisely such as have been pledged by the Address; but, with a retrospect to the circumstances which originally produced both the preceding "Statement to the Sovereign Pontiff," and the "Letter of the Cardinal Litta," when Prefect of Propaganda, it is not consistent to leave such an assertion wholly unnoticed.

The declaration of Mr. Canning, one of His Majesty's confidential Ministers, in the debate, on a motion of Sir J. Hippisley, in the year 1813, has been noticed in the preceding "Statement of Facts," [page 49] "-undoubtedly "that such a Society should be established in this country, "after having been abolished in every Catholic State of Europe, is a fact of a very alarming nature" - such are the precise words, as given in the report of the debate to Mr. Canning, with reference to the proceedings of the Jesuits. In the same collection of Parliamentary Debates, (Hansard's,) on the 17th of May 1814, Mr.Secretary Peel, (the Minister of Ireland,) states the substance of a conversation with Mr. Kenney, the President of the College at Castle Browne, in the county of Kildare, which was " sup"posed, (as Mr. Peel observes,) to have for its object the "renewal of the Order of the Jesuits, in Ireland. Mr. "Kenney stated, that the institution was carried on, by "him, on his own account. To a question respecting the "source from which he had derived his funds, that gentle

"man bad given no answer. He (Mr. Peel) then told him, "that he was not to infer, from the communication which "had passed, that the Irish Government acquiesced in the "existence of the institution, but that they should continue to "watch it with jealousy." In reply to some observations of Sir Henry Parnell in the same debate,—Mr. Secretary Peel states, "that he had informed Mr. Kenney, that the utmost "jealousy of the Society of the Jesuits had been manifested "by the British Government, so much so, that their property, "in Canada, had been formerly confiscated. He asked the question relative to the funds of the Establishment, and "made the observation he had done, lest it might be here"after inferred, that, because some communication had passed "with a Member of the Irish Government, that, that "Government had acquiesced in the propriety of the Esta "blishment in question. At the interview he had with "Mr. Kenney, he particularly told him, he must not be

surprised, if the same feeling, which had induced the "British Government to confiscate the property of the "Jesuits, in Canada, should induce them, at least, to watch, "with the utmost vigilance and suspicion, an Institution “established and superintended by one of his Order, sup(6 ported by Funds, the origin and nature of which were "totally unaccounted for." It had before been stated in Parliament, that £30,000 had been remitted, on account of the Jesuits, to Ireland, and that nearly £16,000 of that sum had been appropriated to the purchase of the estate of Castle Browne, now Clengowes Wood:-that statement remains uncontradicted*.

* After this Statement was made in Parliament, great industry was manifested, in various publications, to discredit the fact, respecting the remittance of the Money to Ireland, for the purposes of a Jesuit Institution :-and also to raise a Question whe

From these declarations it is difficult to conceive that"the actual dispositions of His Majesty's Ministers" should

ther Mr. Kenney was actually a Jesuit. It is understood that the Money was originally transmitted from Ireland to the Ex-Jesuits in England, and that some of the Ex-Jesuits were sent to Ireland to receive it: Mr. Dallas asserts, that, "it was not secured by "the Jesuits from the wreck of the Society, but that it was strictly the property of a free Briton." The Congregation of Propaganda Fide had intimated a desire that the Jesuit Funds might be appropriated to the general purposes of the Mission, but this intimation was not received with much complacency at Stonyhurst; on the contrary, an answer was returned, purporting that the British Government, if apprised of the fact, would resent such a requisition. On the revival of the Order, the Society of Stonyhurst thought it advisable to restore these funds to a state of activity, with a destination more consistent with their views, than the requisition of Propaganda Fide;-they were, consequently, remitted to Ireland, and appropriated, as has been stated.

When the President of the new College of Castle Brown, or Clengowes Wood, was apprised by Mr. Secretary Peel," that "Government would watch with the utmost vigilance and sus"picion, an Institution established and superintended by one of his "Order," Mr. Kenney does not disavow himself to be of the Order of Jesuits. "The College of Maynooth," he says, "though "exclusively Catholic, is recognised by Government." He might have added, and founded by an express Act of Parliament-" but, "that in his College he would willingly admit the Children of "Protestants." It is difficult to conceive this avowal to be calculated to diminish the " vigilance and suspicion" which had been intimated by the Chief Secretary of Ireland, as necessarily attendant upon the progress of an Institution, in the predicament stated by Mr. Kenney himself. It is generally understood, that Mr. Kenney was educated at Stonyhurst, and from thence sent, with others, to the Jesuit College in Sicily, there to receive Spiritual Ordination. It is understood also, that Mr. Kenney