that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.-John xii. 48.

COPY OF THE LETTER SENT TO THE PRIEST.

Referred to in "Irishmen's Rights."

REVEREND SIR,-You are respectfully requested to give serious consideration to the following argument, concerning which your practical opinion may shortly be called for.

You are no doubt aware, that it is by a mistake that the Protestants assert, that the reading of the Bible is absolutely prohibited by the Roman Catholic doctrines.

You are also aware, that the true state of the case is, that the laity are forbidden to read any version of the Holy Scriptures, without ecclesiastical authority first had and obtained in the form of a written permission from the priest.

The priest is thus constituted the judge of the propriety of granting such permission in each particular case, and of conceding to any individual of his flock such license to read the Holy Scriptures in whole or in part, as to him may seem right. While, therefore, the reading of the Scriptures by the laity is restrained and limited, not only is no restraint or limit imposed upon the priest, as regards his own reading of the Bible, but it is distinctly required of each priest that he should make himself acquainted with the Holy Scriptures, in order to be able to form a judgment, whether they may be safely read, in whole or in part, by any individual of his flock who may apply to him for such a permission as he is authorized to grant.

It being thus plainly the duty of every priest of the Roman Catholic Church to read the Holy Scriptures himself, you are respectfully asked-Have you read the Holy Scriptures?

If not the whole, have you at least read the New Testament? Have you read it in the original Greek? or, should this be difficult to you, have you read the Latin vulgate ?

Have you made yourself acquainted with the versions in

English and in Irish, which are those likely to be found in the hands of your flock?

If this should not be the case, it is respectfully suggested to you, that you should apply yourself to such reading at once; or how could you be capable of forming a judgment, in case any of your flock should exercise this undoubted right of asking your permission to read the Scriptures, upon such reasonable grounds as no honest man ought to refuse to consider?

Suppose a dozen or twenty respectable Roman Catholics, such as farmers, or tradesmen, or gentlemen, living in your parish, were to ask such a permission from you, what reason could you give for refusing, if you had never read the Scriptures yourself? It is by no means unlikely that such an application may be made to you by even a greater number than a dozen or twenty.

In case you have any difficulty in getting a copy of the Scriptures to begin at once, the following short extracts are taken from the Douay New Testament.

EXTRACTS.

O foolish, and slow of heart to believe in all things which the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures, the things that were concerning Him.—Luke xxiv. 25-27.

Search the Scriptures, for you think in them to have life everlasting; and the same are they that give testimony of Me. -John v. 39.

He that despiseth Me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him; the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.—John xii. 48.

Now this is eternal life: That they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.-John xvii. 3.

Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, who

received the Word with all eagerness, daily searching the Scriptures, whether these things were so.-Acts xvii. 11.

For what things soever were written, were written for our learning: that through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, we might have hope.-Rom. xv. 4.

A faithful saying: if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. It behoveth therefore a bishop to be blameless, the husband of one wife, sober, prudent, of good behaviour, chaste, given to hospitality, a teacher, not given to wine, no striker, but modest, not quarrelsome, not covetous, but one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all chastity. But if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God.1 Tim. iii. 1-5.

Now the Spirit manifestly saith, that in the last times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to spirits of error, and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, and having their conscience seared, forbidding to marry, to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving by the faithful, and by them that have known the truth.-1 Tim. iv. 1-3.

For the Word of God is living and effectual, and more piercing than any two-edged sword; and reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.-Heb. iv. 12.

The following is the tract referred to in Chapter VIII. :

IV.

THE FOOD OF MAN.

"WHAT sort of food have you got in Ireland? and how much of it ?"

"Sure the food of man has failed altogether-there is not a

potatoe of the right sort to be found from Athlone to the sea; -and what will we do it's Him that's wiser than the wisest among us that must tell. You may dig a whole ridge, and not get a pot-full, and when the mother has cut out a few bits from some things that are ashamed to call themselves potatoes, and has left more outsides than in-it's the pig herself that takes to being genteel, that would not taste them at all-let alone the little family. Over the starving to death, there'll be no paying the rent that's due this year, nor any other dues; unless the dues of them that know how to squeeze the marrow out of a dry bone."

"Who do you mean by that ?"

"Is it your honour that asks, with a tongue that won't let your teeth forget that they grew in Connaught? Haven't you found out that the Priests feed, let who will famish ?"

"But how is it that the food of man is blighted entirely? What has been the cause ?"

"It's the truth that your honour speaks there-it is the food of man that's blighted, and none other-the weakest weed by the side of the black stalk of the potatoe blossoms as elegant as if it was laughing at the boys that get nothing but weeds for their labour. The blessing of St Patrick has clean gone out of the land-the Almighty has sent us a judgment—the blessed mother of God has not had Hail Maries enough ;—yet if they all handled their beads like that creature of mine, sure the Holy Virgin should not be in want of Hail Maries. There is a curse on the food of man."

"Of man, my friend! what do you mean by that? what is

man ?"

"I don't receive your honour's meaning."

"Do you know what a man is? what you are ?"

"I'm an Irishman, please your honour."

"Put out your hand-is that you? or your foot ?"

"Tom O'Creagh got his arm smashed under a waggon, and drives his car with a stump!-and Dan Flaherty has got a wooden leg."

Then neither the hand nor the foot can be the man-nor

the tongue, nor any other part of the body. Were you at the funeral of Michael O'Sullivan last week ?"

“It was myself kenned the loudest cry at the wake.”

"And where was Michael all the while? he wasn't in the coffin, for that was only the corpse-where was the man Michael ?"

"By father Meghan's story to the widow, Mick was in Purgatory: for when she had sold his clothes and the spade, she had to borrow five shillings to make up the money for father Meghan to say Masses to help him a bit."

"Wherever he was or is now, you see, my friend, that his body was not himself. It's himself that's gone out of the body, and the body is crumbling to dust. It's yourself that's in your body-that makes your body alive. You and your body are two different things;-and it's the man that makes the body of any importance-the body wants food because the man is in it —and the man must live when he leaves the body—wherever he goes to, he is alive. Now the man within the body--that is, the precious soul-has to be fed; the body craves food only because there is a man's soul in it, which wants its proper food, that it may live in the presence of God for ever and ever."

"And can your honour tell us what's the food that is proper for that?"

"God Himself has told us. He says in his blessed book

"Agus do fregair Jósa é, ag rád Atá sgriobża, Naċ lé harán a ṁáin ṁqfios an dyne, aċd lé gaċ île bréi¿ir Dé.'

This is in the tongue of our dear land;—the Douay version, as acknowledged by the Roman Catholic bishops, puts this English on it:—

'And Jesus answered him, It is written that man liveth not by bread alone, but by every word of God.'-St. Luke, chap. iv., verse 4.

"So you see, my friend, that it is a clear and certain truth, acknowledged by all, that while the body is kept alive by bread and the fruits of the earth, the soul (which is the only thing