A WOMAN TIED IN A SACK, AND FOUR MEN HUNG. 199

On these respective accusations they were all found guilty, and immediately received sentence of death-the four men for eating the goose, to be hanged; James Ravelson to be burnt; and the the woman, with her sucking infant, to be put into a sack, and drowned.

The four men, with the woman and child, suffered at the same time; but James Ravelson was not executed till some days after. On the day appointed for the execution of the former, they were all conducted, under a proper guard, to the place where they were to suffer, and were attended by a prodigious number of spec

tators.

As soon as they arrived at the place of execution, they all prayed fervently for some time; after which Robert Lamb addressed himself to the spectators, exhorting them to fear God, and to quit the practice of papistical abominations.

The four men were all hanged on the same gibbet; and the woman and her sucking child were conducted to a river adjoining, when, being fastened in a large sack, they were thrown into it, and drowned.

They all suffered their fate with becoming fortitude and resignation, committing their departing spirits to that Redeemer who was to be their final judge, and who, they had reason to hope, would usher them into the realms of everlasting bliss.

When we reflect on the sufferings of these persons, we are naturally induced, both as men and Christians, to lament their fate, and to express our feelings by dropping the tear of commiseration. The murdering four men, for little other reason than that of satisfying nature with an article sent by Providence for that very purpose (merely because it was on a day prohibited by ridiculous bigotry and superstition), is shocking indeed; but the fate of the innocent woman, and her still more harmless infant, makes human nature shake, and almost tremble, to think there is such a being

as man.

O horrid bigotry! to what lengths wilt thou not go! What sacrifice wilt thou not make, to gratify the basest and most inhuman passions!

THE religion of the papists is superstitious and idolatrous, and their church apostatical.-Archbishop Usher.

200

POPERY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

POPERY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

To those who believe that popery is entirely changed from wha it was, that its spirit of intolerance no longer exists, and that Rome is keeping pace with the refinement of the age, we present the following facts of recent occurrence :—

A convert to protestantism, travelling along the road leading to Scariff, Ireland, in the county of Clare, was accosted by some laborers in the field. After threatening him several times, they at length suffered him to pass, saying, "If you dare to come this way again, you bloody Sassenah rascal, we'll blow your brains out.”. Limerick Standard.

A savage-looking ruffian violently attacked the Rev. Mr. Marks, a protestant clergyman, late of the Molyneux Asylum, in the public streets of Dublin, and without provocation knocked the reverend gentleman down. What next?-Warder.

On the evening of Wednesday last, 13th inst., as John Honner, a respectable protestant, was returning home from the Macroon Sessions, he was savagely assaulted midway between Castletown and Enniskeane by some persons at present unknown; no less than sixteen wounds having been inflicted on his head and face, besides several others on his body and limbs; his scull was severely fractured.-Cork Standard.

The names of nearly one hundred persecuted protestant clergymen are given in the Tipperary Constitution. The manner in which they were treated is thus marked: stoned to death; murdered; stoned; fired at; dangerously assaulted; assaulted; abused and persecuted; plundered; interrupted and assaulted in the performance of duty; house attacked, demolished, or burned down; driven from his home, or his country.

Papal

Who was it a few years since that drove six hundred families from the Austrian empire into the Prussian territory because they would not renounce the reformed religion? It was popish priests. Who was it that drove the Rev. Mr. Rule from Cadiz? authorities, directed to do so by the archbishop of the see. Who flogged a man nearly to death for renouncing popery in the state of Pennsylvania? It was a popish priest. In the neighborhood of Doylestown, a German catholic attended a funeral ser

POPERY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

201

mon of a protestant minister, after which a priest called and asked him if he had become a protestant. "If you have," said he, "you have committed a mortal sin; confess your sin to me.". "I have confessed my sin to Christ," said the sick man, "and obtained absolution." The priest urged him with increasing warmth to confess he declined. The priest then seized a chair, jumped on the bed, and pounded him with it till he broke it in pieces: he then took from his pocket a raw-hide, and began to scourge him, to compel him to confess. A stranger passing by hearing the noise, entered the house, and finding the priest in the act of scourging the sick man, he seized him by the collar, and dragged him down stairs. Soon after the man died. The priest was arrested and tried in Doylestown courthouse, and fined fifty dollars and costs, and left the country.

Who was it that threatened the city of Boston? It was the lady superior of the consumed convent, who said, "The bishop has more than 20,000 Irishmen at his command, who will tear your houses over your heads, and you may read your riot acts till your throats are sore."

Who was it a short time since that said, "The first chance I have of seeing your face, if powder and ball will do it, you will drop?" It was an agent of the pope who signed himself "A Friend to Truth." The person to whom the threat was addressed was the Rev. Mr. S.

A few years ago a protestant minister in the west, after preaching to his own congregation, on the subject of popery, was met by the priest of the town at the church door, and told by him that "were it not for the laws of the country, he would cut his throat.” -"Yes," said the minister, "I know that already."

The Rev. Mr. Nast of Cincinnati, who has been instrumental in the conversion of many German papists, by preaching, lecturing, and publishing a German paper, received a letter a few months since, stating that "If he did not stop his efforts, they would do with their fists what their priests can not do with their pens-knock your eyes out."

An episcopal clergyman in the west, stated that a member of his church married a Roman catholic lady, who by his influence was converted to the protestant faith. The father of the young lady called to inquire if it was so. "Yes," said the daughter, "it is."