SS^

IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

^ .'^.

^.<^

1.0

1.1

itt m 122

Ml ■

1211

1^ 12.0

LA. 11.6

Ftiotogmphic

Sciences

CarparatJon

:i>'

23 WBT MAIN STREiT

WIBSTIR,N.Y. 14aiM

(716) 173 4303

CIHM/ICMH

Microfiche

Series.

CIHIVI/ICIVIH
Collection de
microfiches.

Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian da microraproductions historiquas

T«chnioa( and MbNograpMe NotM/NotM tachniquM M bibliographiqiNM

Th« Inatitut* haa attamptad to obtain tlia baat
original copy availabia for filming. Faaturaa of thia
copy which may bo bibliographioally uniciuo.
which may altar any of tho imagaa In tho
raproduction. or wMch may dgnifieantly changa
tho uaual method of fUmlng. ara chackad balow.

□ Coloured covora/
Couvorturo do coulour

r~n Covora damaged/

Couvorturo andommag4o

Covora raatorad and/or laminated/
Couvorturo reetaurAe et/ou pollicuMo

r~| Cover title miaaing/

La titre do couvorturo manque

□ Coloured mapa/
Cartea gtegraphiquea an coulour

Coloured inic (i.e. other than blue or biaclt)/
Encre do coulour (i.e. autre qua Meue ou noire)

□ Coloured platee and/or illuatrationa/
Planehea et/ou illuatrationa en coulour

□ Bound with other material/
Rali* avac d'cutrea doeumenta

GZl

Tight binding may cauae ahadowa or diatortlon
along interior margin/

Laroliure sorrAe pout cauaar da I'ombre ou do la
dialoiaion lo lono do la marge inlArloure

Blanic leavea added during reatoration may
appeer within the text. Wlwnever poaaibla. theae
have been omitted from filming/
II ae peut quo cortainea pagea bianchea ajoutAoa
lora d'une reetauration apparai a aam dana la texto,
maia, ioraquo cola 4tait poaaiblft. cea pagea n'ont
paa 4t* film^ea.

Additional commenta:/ Various pmingi.

Commentairea aupplAmantairaa:

L'lnatHut a microfilm* le meilleur exemplaire
qu'il lui a At* poaaibla da ae procurer. Lea dAtaila
da cat exemplaire qui aont peut**tre uniquea du
point do vue bibliogrephique. qui pouvent modifier
urto image reproduite. ou qui pouvent exiger une
modification dana la mithode normale do f iimage
aont Indiqu4a d-daaaoua.

Th
to

D
D
D

D
D
D
D

Coloured pagea/
Pagee do coulour

Pagea damaged/
Pagea andommagAea

Pagea raatorad and/or laminated/
Pagea reataurAea *t/ou poliiculAea

Pagea diacoloured. stained or foxed/
Pagea dAcoiories. tachatiea ou piquAas

Pagea detached/
Pagea ditachies

Showthrough/
Tranaparence

Quality of print variea/
Qualiti inAgaia da i'imprasaion

Includes aupplementary material/
Comprand du matAriai supplAmentairc

Only edition available/
Soulo Mition diaponible

Pagea wholly or partially obacurad by errata
slips, tissues, etc.. heve been ref limed to
ensure the best possible imege/
Lee pages totalement ou partialiament
obscureies par un feuillet d'errata. una polure.
etc.. ont 4t* fiimAoa i nouveau da facon S
obtenir la meilleure image poasibia.

Th
po
of
fill

bo
th<
ale
oti
fin
aic
or

Th
ah
TH
wl

Ml
dil

enl
be
rig

Thia item is filmed at the reduction ratio checlced below/

Co document est film* au taux da reduction indiquA ci«dassous.

10X

14X

itx

22X

26X

aox

12X

itx

aox

a«x

2IX

32X

Th* eopy fUmcd bun hm bMn raprodHoad thanks
to tha ganaroalty of:

Douglas Library
Quaan's Univarsity

L'axamplaira fllm4 ffut raproduit griaa i la
8«n«roait« da:

Douglas Library
Quaan's Univarsity

Tha Imagaa appaaring hara ara tha bast quality
posslbia conaidaring tha condition and laglbillty
off tha original copy and in Icaaping with tha
filming contract spadffieations.

Original copies in printed papar covers ara fllmad
beginning with tha ffront cover and ending on
the laat page with a printed or liluatrated impree-
aion. or the back cover when appropriate. All
other origlnei copiee ere ffilmed beginning on the
fflrst pege with e printed or illustrated Impree-
elon, end ending on tha ieat pege with a printed
or illustreted impresston.

Ths lost recorded fframe on each microfiche
shsil contein the symbol ^^- (meening "CON-
TINUED"), or the symbol ▼ (meening "END"),
whichever appllae.

Lee imegea suivantae ont 4ti raproduitea avec le
plus grsnd soln, compte tenu do Is condition et
do la nattetA da I'exempkiire ffllm4. et en
conformity evec lee condltiona du contrat da
filmage.

Lea exempieires originoux dont ie couverture en
pepler est imprim4e sent filmte en commenpent
per le premier plot et en terminent soit per le
demlAre pege qui comporte une empreinte
d'Impreeslon ou dlllustrstion, soit per le second
plot, selon le ces. Tous Iss eutres sxemplaires
originoux sent filmte en commen^ent par la
pramMre pege qui comporte une empreinte
d'impreaaion ou d'iliustrstion et en terminent par
la dernlAre pege qui comporte une telle
empreinte.

Un dee symboies suhrents epperattra sur la
darnlAre imege do cheque microfiche, selon le
cos: la symbols -^> signifie "A SUIVRE", le
symbols ▼ signifie "FIN".

Meps, plates, cherts, etc., msy be filmed m*.
different reduction rstios. Those too lerge to be
entirely included in one exposure ere filmed
beginning in tlie upper left hend comer, left to
right end top to bottom, es meny fframea as
required. The following diegrems lilustrete the
method:

Les certes, plenehes, tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre
filmte A das teux do rMuction diffirents.
Lorsque le document est trop grend pour Atre
reprodult en un soul ciichA, II est film* i partir
da I'angle supArleur geuche. do gsuche A droite,
et do heut en bes, en prenant la nombre
d'imeges nAcesseire. Las diegrammes sulvants
iiiustrant la mAthoda.

1 2 3

A LIFE

RT. REV. EDWARD MAGINN,

COADJUTOR BISUOF OF DBRRT,

wim

0tltctiott0 from 4^0 (Eotve»ponbeme.

THOMAS D'AECY M'GEE,

AVTHOB OF

**A IU0TOET or THE ATTEMrTt TO ESTABLISH THE BErOBMATIOIf tif IBELAHO;"
DISC0UBSE8 Olf "THE CATHOLIC HISTOBT OF IfOBTH AMEKICA;"
"the IBISH SETTLBBS Uf AMEBICA," ETC., ETC.

** It Ib the duty of a Bisbon to jadne, to interpret, to eonseerste, to ordain, to
offer, to twptlie, and to eonflrm.^— Form of CtnieenUim tf a BUkaf ooeorin^ to
i«sJLal«n£Jet.

XM,

P . ' S H E A ,

799 BROADWAY AND 30 BEKRMAN
1867.

>r«

(V ■

B^4?ori^Km^ '<^/

Entered aoeording to Aet of Coagreaa, in the year 18B7, lij

P. 0*SHBA,

In the GIerk*e Office of the District Conrt of the Untied States
for the Soathom District of New York.

■i^'
V

^-^

'^.

■•^^ . >«''

*•

HIS SUfiTIYINO BEUTIYSS AND PBIENOSk

'AT nom'* jtjm abboas.

3 3Stf spttifttlls JBtbUsic iH» intmo t \

THE LATE RIGHT REVEREND DR. MAGINN,

BlSnOP or DBBBT

s/7^9rh

■'■"^ ■<>w»>-.Mi '— ^» I* ■M>n<.»— ■>■ •« 'W' -^Mk «T«. .

•-'-«;:

^i/J***^'"

•

CONTENTS,

PrefiMe.

CHAPTER I.

Birth and Fftmily of Dr. Maginn— His first TeMheiw-Stndies «t the
Irish College, Paris — Ordained in Ireland — Appointed Curate of Mo*
ville— Brief account of Innishowen— The Derry Discussion — Catho-
lic Emancipation — Mr. Maginn appointed Parish Priest 1—39

CHAPTER II.

The Mission of the new Parish Priest — State of the Church in General
— Local Exertions of Dr. Maginn — ^He suppresses Secret Socielies—
Fonnds Seven National Schools — ^His Controversy with the National
Board of Education — ^His Increasing In.laence — ^His Preaching as
described by a Cot«mporary . 40—63

CHAPTER III.

O'Conneirs last Efforts for Repeal— Mr. Maginn*s leal in that Agita^
tion — His Correspondence with the Marquis of Normanby — ^His
confidenee in O'Connell's Triumph— His Elevation to the Episco-
pacy — Congratulations thereupon — National Politics — ^His Opinion of
the TouDg Ireland Party— His Success as an Administrator. .64—86

CHAPTER rV.

Dr. Magiiin*s Evidence before Lord Devon's ** Commission on the Oc-
cupation of Land in Ireland" — Frequent Maladministration of tha
Poor Law — The Famine and the Officials— His Indignation at th«
Destruction of Human Life — His incessant Efforts to relieve the
Poor — Strongly opposes the proposed wholesale Emigration to Can-
ada—Society for the Conservation of the Faith , . 87—103

(

OOMTBRTS.

■J

'Ml'

CHAPTER V.

Dr. M«ginn*s Vicwi of Cbureh Polity in IreUnd— Th« ChariUbl« B«-
qnest* AeU-Th« Queen'a CoUegei— Differenees of Opinion among
the Hierarchy on the Colleges Act, as amended— Accession of ^e
Whigs to Power— The New Pope— Episcopal Meetings in 1846—
The Appeal to Rome — Other Episcopal Movements— Proposed Na-
tional Address to Pope Pius IX 104—120

CHAPTER VI,

Pontificate of Pins IX.— English Intrigues in Italy— Lord Minto*s
Mission — ^Lord Shrewsbury's Visit to Rome— Lord Clarendon's Pro-
position to Archbishop Murray — The Irish Bishops, opposed to the
Ooyemment scheme of Academical Education, send two of their
nnmber to Rome— The Agents and Influences employed against
them — Success of the Mission of Drs. MaoHale and 0*Higgins— Dr.
Maginn's part in it— Insurrection in Rome— The Pope in Exile— El-
oquent Pastoral of Dr. Maginn on that event— Its reception at Rome,
and by the Holy Father 121—134

CHAPTER VII.

Influence of tLe Famine on Public Spirit — Dr. Maginn's Letters on
** Tenant-Right" — His Letters to Lord Stanley — His Popularity —
Effiect of the French Revolution on Ireland— Patriotic attempts to
re-unite the National Parties — ^The Protestant Repealers and Mr.
Sharman Crawford, M. P.— Extraordinary Circular of the Earl of

^ Shrewsbury — The Young Ireland Catastrophe — Dr. Maginn's Cor-
respondence with the Castie in relation thereto— His sympathy with
the Defeated Party and the State Prisoners 13fr— 170

CHAPTER Vin.

Dr. Maginn's Final Visitation of his Diocese— The proposed Provin-
cial Synod and CathoQc University- Dr. Maginn's last Illness and
Death — Oenen^ Sorrow expressed by the Catholic Body — ^His Fu-
neral — His Character and Genius— Tributes to his Memory at Homo
and Abroad 171—193

oovniiTC. vii I

The Divon CoMMitiioN— The IUt. Edward Mac^nn ■worn and exam-

iued 106—811

The Coai TairAirr Leaqub— Letter to W. H- Trenwitb, Esq. 81S— 318
Letter to Dr. MoKnight, of Derry 810— S20

POLITICAL CORRESPONDENCE.

John 0*Connell to Biahop Maginn 887

O. Poalett Sorope to •• .^387—834

BiNETOLENOB Or THE BeITISH PxOPLB OURINO THE IbISH

Famine. — ^Bishop Maginn to Meisrt. Hawkins, Jones and

Gilmore 835—888 \

Lord William Fitzgerald to Bishop Maginn 888 1

Lord Normanby to " <» 880— 841 I

Rt. Rev. Dr. Briggs to «« <* 841—345 |

Thomas Steele, Esq., to " •* 845—851

ROMAN CORRESPONDENCE.

Archbishop CuUen to Bishop Maginn 851—861

Rev Dr. O'Higgins to •• 861-365

Archbishop Cullen to " 865—868

Rev Dr. O'Higgins to " 860—371

Archbishop Cnllen to «• 871-378

Amended Statutes of the Queen's Colleges in Ireland, relat-
ing to Religion 870—384

Bishop Maginn's Pastoral on the Pope's Exile 885—306

mm^

J^-

PREFACE.

Thi reatorfttion of her anoi«nt Charoh, And th« nwintcnMoe of ito
liberties against all the intrignes of the Imperial power, ii the ohicf
glory of Ireland in the XlXth century. It is qnite glorj enough ; it
is a triumph without parallel in the ceolesiastieal history of our times.
That national churches (if the phrase can be correctly used by a Ca-
tholic) may be extinguished in blood or destroyed by. schism, the ec-
clesiasUeal history of Western Asia, of Northern Africa, of some of
the German States, of England, of SoandinaTia, all instruct us. That
the total extinction of the Irish Church was the darling design cher^
ished by generation after generation of the greatest ministers of a great
Empire, British history exists to prove. The heroic constancy of the
Irish Catholics is tue very epic of chivalrous resistance to arbitrary
power, and one of the freshest episodes in that epic, is the life of the
late able and apostolic Bishop of Dorry, which I have undertaken, at
the request of his nearest surviving relations, to write.

The part taken by that courageous churchman is much enhanced in
importance by recollecting the Province in which it was played. Old
Ulster had resisted " tlie Reformation" with iron fortitude, and had
paid the penalty : its six fair counties were confiscated by one stroke
of the first James* pen ; its nine venerable cathedrals were given over
to the new sectaries ; its once famous schools of Armagh and Bangor
were overthrown and obliterated. Presbyterian communities were
chartered and privileged, to hold the passes and ports of the Province ;
the Kirk, struggling for its existence in Scotland against kingly theo-
ries of conformity, was a recognized and favored step-child of the
State from its first plantation in Ulster. Its rigid discipline and econ-
omical ministry were not ill suited to a half mercantile, half martial

PREFACE.

population, so fond of thrift and of its profits, that they would almost
begrudge to Ood the decorations of His temple. Its minipt^rs, how-
ever, sprung from the ranks of their own hearers, and bound to them
by the double ties of authority and dependence, have always shown
themselves in the day of danger in the front of the popular battle.
Against King James II. they fought as in Cromwell's time, marshaled
the multitude, and gallantly partook of all their dangers. It was a
stirring and affecting sight, however we may view it — those two small
towns standing out against a people in arms. They held out long
enough to give King William an immense material and moral advan^
tage, to demonstrate the military incapacity of King James, and to
enroll their obscure names among tlte most famous localities of Irish
or of Imperial story.*

The silence of death succeeded the din of that dreadful struggle.
The remnant of the natives who could not emigrate deserted the open
country, and. courted the safer obscurity of the remotest woods and
glens. The only sound which breaks the fearful stillness is the din of
an infitnt Trade within the walls of the victorious towns, the monoto-
nous chants of the Kirk, or the imperative accents of the garrisons.
From monklcBS Mellifont to dismantled Donegal, there is neither native
church nor native chief. The Erne and the Banu flow on through
peaceful valleys — ^peaceful as death. In the halls of Dungannon, upon
the towers of Shane's Castle, there is neither warder nor servitor, nei-
ther hospitable nor martial fire, neither sound of harp nor clang of
trumpet. Nothing remains for the protection of the hapless remnant
of the Gael, outlawed on their own soil, but the fame of their strug-
gle, or the wild vengeance of the maddened Raparee, pouncing by
night on his long-watched Presbyterian prey. Neither Scot nor Saxon
fully believes his own boast that the spirit of the old race is broken.
The cautious drysalters and oordwainArs of Derry, making their way
in cavalcade from town to town, put up at every turn in the road the
timorous petition, " From wolves and woodkerne, good Lord deliver
us!"

This fearful and chilling peace gradually gives way to one more
stirring and lifelike. Both parties multiply and grow stronger — the

* One of the preltminary measnres of the Defenders of Derry in 1689 was to tnrs
the few Catholics oat of the town, together with a Oonvent of Dominicans, lately
tolerated within the walls.— Da. E. 0AHx'B*JA0OBm Ann WiLUAinrB Wabs, Past I.

PREFACE.

natives most qtiickly. As the Protestant population inereases in nnm>
ber and wealth, so does its power and pretensions. The Parliament
fosters its linen trade with bounties ; the State Choroh eonniyes at its
non-eonformity ; the Sovereign enlarges its eharters. Plain old Derry
becomes Londonderry, a royal regiment is named after Enniskillen.
and the ''Apprentice Boys" annually flatter themselves that they, and
not the British Whigs, made the Revolution. Jaundiced egotism be-
comes Orangeism, for in worshipping the deliverer they glorify them-
selves — a ceremonial they cultivate to their hearts' content. From
every northern steeple, on the 1st and 12th of July, the yellow flag is
spread and the church bells ring out; from every loyal terrace, loud
guns proclaim the invidious triumph of the favored few over the land-
less many^ On those days the enthusiasm of the pulpit in the morn-
ing prepares men's minds for the enthusiasm of the tavern at night
Panegyrics on bloody deeds delivered in the name of religion, stimu-
late to those deeds of blood, without which the night seldom passes
away. Some poor stray Papist or obnoxious neighbor is often the se-
.ected aim for an undischarged musket and a drunken bigotry. Still
tie descendants of the victors of 1689 have not had everything their
o\(n way in Ulster these many years back. The older population
multiplied in virtuous poverty, and learning economy in adversity,
spread gradually back into the fields of their fathers and the towns of
their enemies. They toiled, they bore, they suffered much. The value
of labor rose in the Province with the increase of its staple trade ; that
trade expanded into a commerce, that commerce gradually liberalized
those engaged in it. The borderers of the two races partially inter-
mixing, or at least reciprocally influencing each other, produced that
powerful compound character known in the United States as " Scotch
Irish," which asserted itd individuality not less conspicuously at Phil-
adelphia in '76 than at Dungannon in '82. But the majority of each
kept apart, and till this day continue apart, separated by a hostile his-
torical inheritance, by deep-seated social disparities and irreconcileable
religious differences.

The policy of the chief governors of Ireland at last yielded a par-
tial toleration to the Catholics. Thatched chapels succeeded to dri[»-
ping caves, and the precarious pilgrimage of tbe poor scholar gave
place to the more regular and respectable education at Maynooth.
From the political fountain of the capital, the new and juster spirit

PBBFAOE.

•pread slowly over the provinees. The landed proprietors of the see*
end and third generations, having the fear of the grim Sir Phelim no
longer before their eyes, began to riral in prodigality the old ohiefk
they had displaeed, and whose praises were still snng aronnd them.
The tunefnl Jacobite, Thnrlogh O'Carolan, was a guest as weleome at
Moneyglass and Castle Archdale as at Alderford or Castle Eelley.
The new lords of Cavan and Fermanagh were proof to his politics but
not to his melody ; they might dislike him as a Catholic, bnt they
were proud of him as a countryman. The fairest hands in their halls
brought the matchless harp and filled the consoling cup for the Bard,
whose errant ways and blinded eyes aptly illustrated the mental con-
dition of a country where the old ciTi}ization had been extinguished
before the new one was bom, whose altars were down, whose tradi-
tions were lost, whose ancient paths were obliterated, and for which
there seemed no escape, no deliverance out of the vicious circle of
clear-headed injustice and incapacity entailed. Socially, the new gen-
try had grown more tolerant and tolerable, but po!itic ally, as the
last years of the Irish Parliament proved, they hated the religion
of the vast majority of their fellow countrymen as intensely as ever
did the Walkers and the Wolseys during the wai of King Wiliam and
King James.

In this Province, in this state and period of society, about the com-
mencement of the Catholic Restoration, the late Dr. Maginn's lot was
cast. He was bom of an orthodox stock ; he grew up among a gal-
lant and pious, but rash and much-abused peasantry; he retired
from amongst them for a time, to reappear again with the highest au-
thority upon their altars. We will see him planning and laboring in
lakebound Innishowen, and within the walls of " the maiden city," as
Priest and Leader, for a quarter of a century. All who have patience
to peruse —

**The short and simple snnals of the poor,"

will witness how traly he approved himself the father of his flock.
His public spirit, his moral courage, his thorough identity with the
country, his fervid eloquence, his unwearied industry, his application
to details, made him, in some sort, the judge and legislator of his
people. His external influence was limited by bis enjoyment of the
episcopal dignity to three short years. Tet in these three years he
undoubtedly did arduous and honorable things, never sparing mind

FBEFACE.

Xlll

or body, purM or penon, where duty called or conseienee pointed. In
the prime and height of his life, he sank suddenly into the grare, la-
mented by his own nation, and regretted by all those throaghoot
Christendom who take any interest in the Catholic aflhira of Great
Britain and Ireland.

Of the works and days of this excellent person, I hare told in the
following pages all I could glean, from the yery interesting papers
committed to me for that purpose, by the surviving members of his
family.

Niw YoRff, St. B<idobt*s DAr,*1857.

.i^

LIFE OF RT. REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

■♦*•-

CHAPTER I.

BIRTH AND FAMILY OF DR. MAGINN — HIS FIRST TEACHER— STUDIES
AT THE IRISH COLLEGE, FARIS— ORDAINED IN IRELAND — ^AFFOINTBD
CURATE OF MOVILLE — BRIEF ACCOUNT OF INISHOWEN — ** THB
DERRT discussion"— CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION — MR. MAGINN AP-
POINTED PARISH PRIEST. ■

At the beginning of the present century there lived
in the parish of Fintona, county Tyrone, Ireland, a Ca-
tholic farmer named Patrick Maginn. He married in
eariy life Mary Slevin, by whom he had already seven
children, when, on the 16th day of December, 1802, an

eighth was bom to them. To this child they gave in bap-
tism the name of Edward.

The Maginns and Slevins were commonly ^oken of,
in that country, as " levitical families." For many gene-

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

rations each had given Priests to the altar, and teachers
to the collegiate chair. When the dense clouds of the
penal days rested on Ulster, the youths of those houses,
unterrified by the cheerless prospect of such a life, trav-
eled to the continent to store their minds with divine
knowledge, and to fit themselves for Holy Orders. Our
subject's granduncle, Eev. Patrick Maginn, was for fifty-
three years Parish Priest of Monaghan ; his uncle, Eev.
John Maginn, was Parish Priest of Fahan and Deserte-
gny for forty years, and in his latter days Archdeacon of
Deny ; another uncle of Maginn's died a Priest in France,
having obtained the degree of Doctor of Sorbonne at a
very early age. Among his maternal relatives, vocations
were equally common. It is sufficient to mention Eev.
Patrick Slevin, Pastor of the ancient Dromore, and Dr.
Nicholas Slevin, one of the first and most eminent Pro-
fessors of Maynooth College.* The blood of these two
fevored famihes, rich in holiness, was destined to meet
and mingle in the capacious heart and brain of the future
Bishop of Derry. That the name he bore and the tradi-
tions which made it so dear, exercised a powerful influ-
«ice on the whole career of Edward Maginn, we may
infer fix)m the glowing words of the letter to Lord Stan-

* A third uncle Slevtn, after finishing his ecclesiastical studies in the
Irish College at Rome, fled from the city on the seizure of Pope Pius
YI. by the French. He subsequently became a Medical Doctor, an 1
" was considered one of the most universal scholars of his iaj.^-— -Let-
ter of the Rev. P. Devlin, of Buncrana.

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAQINN.

ley in vindication of the Confessional, which he wrote in
the second last year of his life. Speaking of the loyalty
of "confessing Catholics" to the Stuarts generally, and
to Charles II. in particular, he demands: — "Who, my
lord, was among the first to welcome the royal refugee to
the shores of France? — an Irish friar, my own name-
sake, afterwards chaplain to the queen-mother, Henrietta.
The hard earnings of a long life, which he kept by him
for the pious purpose of educating for the holy ministry
his proscribed race at home, on bended knees, with the
generous devotion of an Irish heart, he poured into the lap
of poor exiled royalty. So much, my lord, for an Irish,
denouncing, confessing, secret-keeping Christian friar. The
same was afterwards the founder of the Irish College of
the Lombards, which supplied Ireland for centuries with
priests and martyrs, who kept the faith, and mark you,
my lord, loyalty alive, in spite of the united efforts of
the powers of darkness and of your non-confessing Chris-
tians to extinguish both." This generous " Irish friar"
is further stated to have been " one of his own family,"*
and we will by-and-bye see the author of this tribute to
his virtues, enjoying the fruits of that far-seeing charity
which provided, in the evil days, a school for the educa-
tion of outlawed Irish students in the capital of France.
While yet a child of four years old, the parents of
Edward Maginn removed from Fintona to Buncrana, on

* Letter of Rev. John McLaughlin, of Derry.

i .

LIFB OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGIKN.

the romantic shore of Lough Swilly, and at the same
time he became domesticated with his granduncle, the
aged Pastor of Monnghan. At the knee of that venera-
ble teacher, spoken of as '' one of the most accomplished
scholars and gentlemen of hi.i time,"* he learned his first
lessons. He had for a fellv)w-pupil, and retained as a
life-long friend, Dr. McNally, the present Bishop of Clo-
gher. It is hardly necessary to remind the Irish reader
that in these comparatively recent days the houses of
Priests and Bishops were the only Diocesan seminaries,
their masters the only teachers of postulants for the
Priesthood, and the well- worn school-books which had, a
century earlier, served the purposes of one generation,
survived to supply the wants of a second and a third.

The young Maginn, after seven or eight years with his
Monaghan uncle, rejoined his parents in Innishowen,
and pursued his studies until his sixteenth year with a
Mr. Thomas McColgan of Clonmany, near Buncrana, a
graduate of the University of Paris. Fortunate, but not
singular in that singular land, was his lot in meeting
with such a teacher I In that stormy region where the
song-bird gives place the greater part of the year to the
sea-bird, and the deep boom of the minute-gun is a fre-
quent sound by night, who would have looked under
the thatch of an Innishowen cabin, for a graduate of Pa-
ris ? Yet so it was. The honored " master" who taught

Letter of Rev. Philip Devlin, of Bnnorana;

LIFE OF BIGHT BEY. EDWABD ICAOINN.

in that sea-side hut had won many a prize in the halls
or the most famous University of Europe. He had la-
in the mine of the ancients and in the depths of
science for ten long years, until his eye grew
and his memory clouded and confused. Subject to
occasional fits of insanity, he could not, of course, be
admitted to Holy Orders, and as the most suitable second
choice, he chose the part of a classical teacher in his na*
tive regions, where the reverence of the poor was his
best protection. In his enthusiasm for learning, which
survived every shock and battle of the brain, he might,
without much extravagance, have fancied himself ano-
ther Fintan of Moville, from whom the new Saint Co-
lumba, in the person of the docile, eager, spotless youth
of Fintona, was to imbibe all human and divine learning.*
At the age of sixteen, our subject left Ireland for Pa-
ris, and entered the Irish College, on the maintenance
known in that institution as " the Maginn bourse." The
College was then presided over by the Eev. Dr. Eyan,
who styles himself " Administrator of Irish ecclesiastical
establishments in France." Of its faculty were the Abbe
Kearney, who, with the better known Abbe Edgeworth,
had escorted the unfortunate Louis XVI. to the scaffold,
and whose reminiscences of the first revolution, when he

* Mr. MoColgan " could reckon among his students almost all the
distinguished clergy of Derry and the neighboring dioceses ; among
bhem the late Dr. Montague, President of Maynooth College. — Letter
jf Rev. P. Devlin, before quoted.

LIFE OF RIGHT BEY. EDWARD MAGINN.

chose to indulge in them, are pronounced by a recent
writer to have been most ample and interesting.*

The Irish College at Paris possesses many claimt ti^
the affectionate remembrance and respect of all Iriamieii.
Originallj founded with the sanction of the exiled Stuarts,
under the auspices of the Bourbons, it was necessarily a
very loyal and legitimist institution. It possessed, from
the accident of its location, a patriotic as well as a royal-
ist influence. Every Irish soldier in the service of France
some time or other came to see its inmates ; every Irish
tourist, especially if a Catholic and a patriot, was desirous
to be introduced to its faculty. In its library were de-
posited some valuable relics of our Celtic literature, car-
ried abroad in the Jacobite exodus, and destined to be
resorted to, after many days, by such zealous students as
the Abbe McGeoghegan and the Chevalier O'Gorman.
In 1792 it shared the fate of all the ecclesiastical institu-
tions of France — ^was confiscated and closed; with the
consent of the Consuls it was reopened as a secular acad-
emy, having the Abbe McDermott for principal, and Eu-
gene Beauhamais and Jerome Buonaparte among its
scholars. The studies were wholly unlike those designed
for its inmates by the original founders. The practice
of religion had not yet " been tolerated." Voltaire and
Rouseau were more read than sacred history. On the

* " Reminiscenoes of an Emigrant Milesian," (Nev York, Appleton
& Co., 1855,) p. 247.

LIFB OF RIGHT REY. EDWARD HAQINN. 7

restoration of the Bourbons this school wafi fully restored,
and has ever since remained sacred to theological studies.
Its importance in that respect, to the insulated church it
recruited and sustained in the worst of times, can hardly
be exaggerated.

In this College the young Maginn spent seven labori-
ous years. Of the faculty at that time very little is
known, except that they were frequently changed. The
first class of students was small, but several of them
were afterwards distinguished. Dr. O'Higgins, subse-
quently Bishop of Ardagh, was among the Professors;
Archdeacon Hamilton of Dublin, Dean Gaflfney of May-
nooth, Dr. Kirby, and Dr. Maginn were students. As a
scholar. Dr. Maginn was remarkable for ardor and appli-
cation, frequently sitting up all night to conquer a diffi-
culty.* The usual theological treatises he mastered
easily, but his curiosity would seem to have led him both
in classics and history far beyond the prescribed range
of acquirement. In the years 1823, '24 and '25, he re-
ceived successively from the hands of Monseigneur Louis
Hyacinth de Quelen, Archbishop of Paris, tonsure and
minor orders ; but his health failed him in the last named
year, and he was not immediately ordained Priest. From
the same cause he declined the earnest invitation of the
Bishop of Meaux, to accept a benefice in his diooescf

* Letter of the Rev. J. McDevitt, of Caldaff.
t Letter of the Rev. J. MoLangblin, of Derry.

LIFE or RIGHT BEY. EDWARD MAOINN.

: i:

His ill health continuing, he left Paris, in June, 1825, for
his native country, bringing with him a highly honorable
testimonial, addressed to tlie Rt. Rev. Peter McLaughlin,
of Deny. " His coniluct," wrote Dr. Ryan, " has been
most exemplary, and his talents conspicuous."

On visiting his uncle. Professor Slevin, at Maynooth,
the latter strongly recommended his return to Paris, to
contest a chair in his Alma Mater; but the Bishop whose
subject he was, took a different view of his duties — raised
him to the Priesthood the same year (1825) and appointed
him to the curacy of Moville, on the Lough Foyle side
of Innishowen.

The barony of Innishowen covers that remarkable
peninsula of the north of Ireland, flanked by Lough
Swilly and Lough Foyle, and terminating in the lofty
double landmark of Bunaff and Malin Head. K Ulstei
may well be called the most persecuted Province of Ire-
land, Innishowen may contend for the honor of being
the most persecuted portion of Ulster. A natural mili»
tary base, easily occupied and supplied from the sea, it
plays an important part throughout all the religious wars
of Ireland. Culmore, on the opposite entrance to the
Foyle, Deny, at the head of the harbor, and the several
strong castles of Innishowen, were vital points of attack
and defence for twenty years of Elizabeth's reign. Its
hardy population adhered, through that unequal contest,
to the gallant Earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell, the joint

LIFE OF KIOUT REV. XDWARD MAOINN.

leaders of the Cutliolic forces. The minute-guns of the
storm-tost Annudu echoed among their rocks and caves,
and when, at last, nothing was left the veteran Tyrone
but ignoble submission or sudden flight, it was from
Lough Swilly ho sailed away in search of aid from allies
whose policy he had served, but who refused, in turn, to
subserve his. In this same rocky angle of the north, in
the reign of King James I., the youthftil Sir Cahir O'Do-
herty rose, at the head of his clansmen and kinsmen, in
1608, to resist the wholesale confiscation of the Province.
For five months he was completely successful, driving
Sir George Paulet from Derry, and seizing Culmore ; but
in an unguarded hour, the bullet of a Scottish settler
struck him down, and his disheartened followers dispersed
to seek such safety as their fastnesses afforded them.
This earlier Emmett left a memory not less dear among
his native hills and glens. Deserted by his yoimg Nor-
man wife in the hour of his adversity, a victim to the as-
sassin's aim at three and twenty, his story was complete
in all those romantic details which attract the fancy and
take hold upon the hearts of a simple and intrepid peo-
ple. Though their firesides, on long winter nights, had
many another tale of Orange and Cromwellian conflict,
the favorite topic, even still, is the death of Sir Cahir.

The only other story of the scene which approached it
in fearfulness of interest, was Ihe martyrdom of a former

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

Maginn relate in his own language. Addressing himself
to Lord Stanley, in defence of the character of his peo-
ple: — "I write to you," (he says,) from a diocese in
which, although there be in it 230,000 Catholic souls —
more than twice as many as of any other creed — and also
100 Priests instructing this number, there has never been
hitherto, to my knowledge, a single murder of any pro-
prietor. I write to yoii also from a parish where the
Catholics are twelve to one, and where there has been
much suffering among a Catholic population of 10,000
spread over an area of* 60,000 acres — all of course savage
Irish, or vermin, if you please ; and yet there has not
been among them, in the memory of man, a single mur-
der. The only one that tradition hands down to us is
the murder of a parish Priest of this union, and Dean of
the diocese of Derry, Dr. O'Hegarty. He was dragged
from a mountain cavern — ^his hiding-place by day (by
night only could he appear in those times, commune with
his flock, instruct the living, console the dying, and bury
the dead), and was butchered on a rock on the banks of
the Swilly, which shall ever be memorable from this
bloody tragedy. The perpetrator of this murder was a
Captain Vaughan, the son of an English colonel who
served in the army of Oliver Cromwell (as Carlyle would
say) of blessed memory. The good Captain believed he
was doing the work of God, when imbruing his hands in

D MAGINN.

LIFE OF BIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

the blood of Popish Priests, as many now believe they
are doing the same holy work in calumniating them."

For such a people the young Missionary Priest was
well qualified by nature and education. Enthusiastic by
temperament, fearless in danger, no respecter of persons,
official or officious, an impassioned patriot, an ardent
lover of the faithful peasantry, fond of oral controversy,
of simple and accessible habits, well versed in the tradi-
tions of the soil, partial to the ballads and the innocent
amusements of his flock, he soon became the darling of
the romantic old Barony. All his cotemporaries speak
of his personal intercourse and his priestly labors, from
the very beginning, with thorough admiration. " A se-
ries of controversial sermons," writes one of these vene-
rable men, "preached in the chapels of Moville, where
he had been recently appointed curate, first brought him
before the public. There it was I first saw him, and saw
with admiration the boldness and self-reliance manifested
even in the placards published to call the people together.
I never heard any of those sermons, but fi*om all I have
heard from others they were probably his very best ef-
forts."* "Here he continued," writes another, "until
the year 1829. His labors, his zeal, his sermons during
this interval were very great."f In the same strain

* Letter of the Rev. C. Flanagan, of Coleraine.
t Letter of the Rev. J. McLaughlin, of Derry.

LIFE OF RIGHT BEV. EDWARD MAGINN.

speak all who knew and heard him in those days, while
his scholastic armor was yet bright from the forge, and
his maiden sword turned aside from no encounter, what-
ever the odds arrayed against him.

Between the years 1824 and '28, Ireland was visited
by one of those angry squalls of controversy which
spring up so suddenly in the troubled recesses of the
Protestant conscience, and rage for a season with such ir-
rational violence. A formidable attempt was made — ^for
the hundredth time at least — ^to o^ erthrow the Church
of Saint Patrick, and to establish the Church of England
in its stead. The mistaken benevolence of English sec-
tarians and the blinded zeal of the Irish landlords
combined to supply the funds, and Exeter Hall furnished
or equipped the missionaries. The principal of these
were Captain Gordon, a descendant of the lordly rioter
of 1780, the Eev. Messrs. Irving, Baptist Noel, McNeile,
Stowell and Wolff— all English ; the Hon. and Eev. Sir
Harcourt Lees, Eev. Mr. Pope, and Eev. Messrs. O'Sulli-
van and O'Phelan, Irish. Among the Irish landlords,
Lords Eoden, Lorton, and Famham were their most
active patrons. In the cities, the Corporators being ex-
clusively Protestant, extended to them every indulgence
and protection. To sustain the crusade with funds and
tracts, "Bible Societies" and "Eeformation Societies"
were established in the principal cities of both kingdoms ;
periodical returns were made and given to the public,

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

Les

with many confident assurances of the speedy conversion
of Ireland.

The Irish Prelates on whose dioceses these vaunting
Propagandists first entered, forbade Iheir clergy to meet
them in public discussion. They reminded them that
the doctrines of the Church were not, for Catholics, fit
subjects of debate ; they cited the dictum of Saint Au-
gustine to the Pelagians — Causa finita est; they showed
there was no earthly tribunal to decide in such contro-
versies, except that which the impugners at the outset
ignored ; they therefore recommended that no notice be
taken of the ostentatious challengers who paraded the
country. This was the course recommended by the
Archbishop of Armagh, by the Rt. Rev. Dr. Doyle, the
Rt. Rev. Dr. Murphy, Bishop of Cork, and other Prelates.
At Cork, the missionaries were encountered, not by the
Clergy, but by O'Connell and Shiel, then in the heyday
of their popularity and reputation. At Carlow, the Rev.
Messrs. McSweeney, Maher and others, felt justified in
openly confronting them ; at Monaghan a few uneducated
laymen — ^taken from the humblest of the peasantry —
maintained the discussion, with amazing natural ability,
for several days, and were finally awarded the "«dctory
by a bench of Protestant judges. In Cavan the mission-
aries boasted of their highest success, while in Ulster,
generally, they looked for " a walk-over."

The rage for proselytism had continued in Derry for

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINX.

two or three years, and the Episcopalian gentry and
clergy openly proclaimed their triumph. The Cathoho
Bishop, swayed by the reasons which had influenced his
brother Prelates, recommended his Clergy not to notice
the defiances daily issued to them. But the circumstances
of the locality were peculiar, and considerations all-pow-
erful elsewhere, were thought by many to be but second-
ary in Derry. Four generations had passed away since
CathoUc and Protestant had combatted on that ground.
The material victory had been with the Protestant, and
his descendants gloried in the inl eritance of their con-
quest. The descendants of the vanquished had multi-
plied and regained a par u of their old inheritance ; social
ambition began to stir in their breasts, and it was no
longer quite safe to treat them with indignity. There
was need of a triumph for them ; there was need of a
lesson to the Ascendancy. The Bishop's Pastoral threw
a gloom upon their path, and murmurs, not loud but

" The Protestant ministers took occasion, from a slight incident at
Maghera, between Rev. J. McKenna and Rev. Spencer Enox, to chal-
lenge the Priests of this diocese to a public discussion, which chal-
lenge Dr. McLaughlin prevented the Priests from accepting. The
sensation produced in the minds of Catholics and Protestants by Ihis
prohibition, was such as I would not wish ever to witness again, and
rendered it imperative on every Priest who could open his mouth tc
come out in defence of the faith. This was an occasion such as Dr.
Maginn loved, and the young preacher appeared in his glory."*

* Letter of Bev. Mr. Flanagan, of Coloralno.

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

deep, were heard in every chapel-yard. A Priest of the
diocese, writing of that time, remarks : —

The particular events which brought up this discussion
are related in the Preface to the Authenticated Eeport,
published by Coyne (Catholic) and Curry, (Protestant)
booksellers of Dublin, soon after its conclusion. This
introduction, so characteristic of the self-restraint imposed
by the parties on themselves, deserves to be given una-
bridged. It reads thus :

" The causes •which have giveu rise to any publication, may in general
be supposed to claim an interest in the public attention, commensu-
rate, at least, to that which the work itself is calculated to produce.
But in a more especial manner, those circumstances will surely not be
thought unworthy of record, which have suddenly drawn forth, from
the quiet walk of professional duty, so many Ministers of the long
severed churches )f Rome and of Ireland, which have led persons,
hitherto of retired habits, to stand forward in the public eye and ear,
to contend on those great elements of faith and hope, on which they
differ. In addition, however, to the desire ot gratifying a natural
curiosity respecting the origin of the following discussion, the pub-
lishers are anxious to give some statement on the subject, because the
incidents connected with its commencement have impressed it with a
character, and marked the conduct of it with peculiarities which, with-
out this previous knowledge, it were difficult to account for. The sud-
denness and unpreparedness with which the parties were drawn into
this collision, have evidently deprived the discussion of that order,
symmetry and proportion in the disposition of the subjects, which a
little pre-arrangement could so easily have given to it. At the same
time, this very defect of previous order and limitation of subjecto may
have been the means of presenting a more varied and interesting field
of inquiry, and thus compensating the want of regularity by unfold-
ing a more free and excursive view of the whole controversy.

'' The circumstances in which the discussion originated were simply
these. A public meeting having been called in the city of London-

? ^

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

derry, by the Reformation Society, on Tuesday, the 11th of March, 1828,
to consider the propriety of establishing a branch of the Society in that
place, Captains Gordon and Vernon attended as a deputation at the
court-house on the day named, for the purpose of carrying this object
into effect. A very large number of persons assembled on the occa-
sion, and among others, some of the clergy of the Established Church,
favorable to the institution, and some of the Roman Catholic clergy of
the city and neighborhood determined to oppose the formation of the
Society, from a persuasion that the effect of its establishment would
be evil. The consequence of all this was a very tumultuous assem-
bly, insomuch that it was deemed advisable to adjourn the meeting
until the next dt.^ , ""nd then to limit the numbers admitted by issuing
tickets, and charging a small sum on each. On the next day the high
Sheriff, T. Kennedy, Esq., was called to the chair, in which, for sev-
eral days, he continued most courteously, and to the satisfaction of
all, to preside. Notwithstanding all the precautions, however, adopted
on this day, a still greater crowd of persons seemed to have collected
within the great hall of the court-house, in which a platform had b?cn
erected for the accommodation of the deputation and their friends,
and as the same opposition was still given to the formation of the So-
ciety, and on the same grounds, a similar scene of tumult to that on
the preceding day was the consequence

It was in the course of this very unpleasant conflict of opinion, that
a charge having been thrown out by one of the deputation, and re-
peated by one of the Protestant clergy present, as that the Roman
Catholic clergy, in their opposition to the Society only wished to
avoid discussion, a distinct declaration was made on their part, that
their objection was to the formation of such Societies as that contem-
plated ; but that if the question of the establishment of the Society
were once disposed of, and the Protestant clergy wei'e still anxious for
discussion, the Roman Catholic clergy were ready to enter on it imme-
diately. This was met on the part of the Protestant clerpv by a frank
and ready avowal that, as their only interest in the Sor lety arose from
the hope it offered of promoting such a discussion, they would wil-
lingly accede to any arrangement of the kind, A motion to the above
effect having been made by Dean Blakely, and put by the Chairman
to the meeting, and the general feeling seeming to be in favor of the
proposal, it was finally arranged that the meeting of the Reformation

LIFB OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

Society be now adjourned tint die, and that a discussion on the re-
spectivo merits of the two Churches should immediately commence
between six of the clergy of the Church of Rome, and six of the
clergy of the Established Church of Ireland.

Proiettanta. — Rev. Messrs. Alexander Ross, William Smyly, Robert
Collis, Mark Bloxhnm, Archibald Boyd, Robert Henderson,

Catholict. — Rev. Messrs. Patrick O'Loughlin, Francis Quin, Alex-
ander J. MoCarron, Edward Maginn, Neal 0*Kane, Simon McLeer.

For the sake of order, it was agreed that each speaker
should be limited to three quarters of an hour, and that
Protestant and Catholic should be heard alternately.
Accordingly Mr. Collis opened the discussion and Mr.
O'Loughlin closed it. From the Court House it was ad-
journed to the old Cathedral, which continued crowded
for twelve successive days by men of all creeds, listening
to arguments joro and con., on the Keal Presence, on pri-
vate judgment, on the canon of Scripture, on Purgatory
and the marks of the true Church. Mr. Maginn spoke
nine times during the twelve days, and on every branch
of the subject. The spirit of the debate may be judged
by a passage from the third day's discussion, in which
Mr. Maginn, in replying to the Eev. Mr. Smyly's argu-
ment of the day previous, said :

' ' What sayeth Christ 1 If he heareth not the Church, let him be unto
thee as a heathen and a publican.

" What sayeth Mr. Smyly and his law Church 1 Whtosoever heoreth
the Church is even worse than those who are sitting in the darkness
and in the shadows of death.

" What sayeth Christ 1 Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, and
lo, I am with you all days, to the consummation of the world.

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

"What sayeth Mr. Smyly and his law Church? Every man ihall
teaoh himself, and for fifteen hundred years and more, Christ has aban-
doned his Church to the most superstitious practices and to the most
damnable idolatry.

" What sayeth Christ 1 On this rock I will build my Church, and tlie
gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

"What sayeth the Rev. Mr. Smyly and his law Church 1 The
Church founded on a rock has yielded to the mouldering hand of time,
and the powers of darkness have razed its very foundation.

" What sayeth Christ 1 I shall send you another Paraclete, the
Spirit of Truth, who shall teach you all truth, and remain with yon
forever.

" What sayeth Mr. Smyly ond his law Church ? The Spirit of Truth
has long since abandoned the Church's teaching to the spirit of lies and
of error, and Satan, and not the Holy Ghost, even now sits at the helm
of the religious bark, and guides it in the storm.

'•What sayeth Christ 1 Receive ye the Holy Ghost; whatsoever
sins ye forgive they are forgiven them, and whatsoever sins ye retain
they are retained to them.

"What sayeth Mr. Smyly and his law Church 1 It is rank blas-
phemy to assert that any man has received, or could receive, the power
of forgiving or of retaining sin.

" What sayeth Christ with respect to the Holy Eucharist 1 This is
my Body, which is delivered for you, and this is my blood which is
shed for you.

" What sayeth Mr. Smyly and his law Church 1 No, it is not your
body, but the figure of your body ; it is not your blood, but the figure
of your blood.

" What sayeth Christ again 1 While the bridegroom is with them
they should not mourn. But the day shall come when the bridegroom
will be taken away from them, and then they shall fast.

•* What sayeth Mr. Smyly and his law Church 1 Fasting is a dead
work, opposed to the all-sufficient merits of Christ, a Popish practice ;
in a word, unworthy of the true believer.

'• What sayeth Christ by the mouth of his beloved Apostles 1 It
seemeth good to us and to the Holy Ghost not to impose on you any
other burthen than these necessary things, that you abstain from for-
nication, and from things suffocated, and from blood.

LIFE OF KIQHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

** What sa^^eth my friend Mr. Smyly and his law Churoli ! Absti
nenoc from meats is the doctrine of devils and the suggestion of the
spirit of lies. ^

'' What snyeth Christ by the lips of the Apostle of nations ? He
that marrieth doeth well, but he that marrieth not dueth better. She
wUp is married mindeth the things how »he may please her husband ;
she who leads a single life careth for those things how she may please
her God and save her own soul, and she is net divided.

•♦ Wliat soyeth the Rev. Mr. Smyly and his law Church 1 Whosoever
marrieth not doeth evil ; a vow of celibacy solemnly made before God
and before man is not worthy of notice ; he that breaks it performs a
meritorious act, while he who keeps it sinneth.

*' What sayeth Christ I If you wish to enter into life, keep the com-
mandments ; faith without charity availeth nothing ; love the lord
thy God with thy whole heart, and thy neighbor as thyself; do this
and thou shalt live.

••What sayeth the Rev. Mr. Smyly and his law Chuich'? Believe
and you shall be saved, for by faith alone you are justified."

On both sides the most obsequious courtesy, backed-
with the most decided self-reliance, or reliance on the
cause espoused, was exhibited. As evidence, we may-
give Mr. CoUis's closing remarks on the third day of the
discussion.

•• My Roman Catholic friends, if we could onlj% by the Spirit of God,
put this truth into your hearts ; if we could get you to leon on Jesus
Christ, ond him alone, for salvation ; if we could get you to confide
solely in that blood which cleanseth from all sin, then would your
fondly invented, expiating purgatory go to the wind, and we should
hear no more of the sacrifice of the mass, indulgences, extreme unc-
tion, prayers for the dead, and those other fond things unchristinnly
introduced, and which have no foundation or warranty in the Word
of God ; then would there be an end of these and such like discussions
among you forever. The doctrine of justification by faith alone, in
the atoning righteousness of right, I now then propose, as the great
feature and bulwark of Protestantism, in contradistinction to the doc-

LIFK OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD HAOINN.

trine of human merit, worki cf anprrerogation, fto., aa taught by the
Church of Uorae. I any that we Protestants put no trust in good
works, as tending to justify the sinner, or to assist the atoning right-
eousness of the Saviour ; why. sir, should we endeavor to light up the
poar farthing taper of human merit, where wo have the Suo of Right*
eotisnesB shining in meridian brightness in the Gospel.

" The golden beams of the great luminary of nature are now shin-
ing resplendent upon us, could we think of assisting the illumination,
by putting a lighted taper on our table here 1 would any of us think
of holding up a candle to the sun ? But it may be said that by such
statement of this doctrine, do we not open the door to licentiousness
and immorality'! — I deny that we do ; for the Protettant doctrine is,
that the Spirit that gives faith also sanctifies ; justiiiituti >n and sanoti-
fication go hand in hand in the Protestant system. Protestants do not
look upon any as possessing the faith thot justifies, unless this faith
produces holiness. Such, then, are some of th« leading and character-
istic doctrines of Protestantism ; such are the striking features and dif-
ferences of the two churches ; and I now appeal to you as thinking,
rational, wise men, which of thcra should be considered as the true
■ Church of Christ, and which, as that wh'c-^ is schisniatieal and heret-
ical, and which has departed from the faith once delivered to the
saints. I would now narrow the whole question within this one point :
The Apostle Paul wrote an Epistle to the Romans. There was, my
friends, a Church of Rome in Paul's day ; not, indeed, the Church of
Rome as she exists and is constituted now — for, alas ! " how has the
gold become dim, how is the much fine gold changed V The Church
of Rome now-a-days existing has departed, we Protestants strenuously
maintain, from the faith as preached to the Church of Rome by Paul
in his day. We Protestants will be satisfied to build our whole doc-
trine on the Epistle of Paul to the Romans in his day ; and we declare
that if we had only this one Epistle, we could derive therefrom whot
would refute Popery, and give the saving knowledge of the truth, as
it is in Christ Jesus, to the soul.

" If Popery stand the test of this Epibtle, and if Protestantism doth
not stand it, we shall give up the question.

" To confirm and establish my positions here. I shall now beg leave
to gi«e a rapid otitline of this Epistle, leaving it to your judgment, ns
scripturally enlightened, to determine whether my view of the Epistle
be correct or not.

r^ritf-

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

" The great design of the Apostle in the Epistle to the Romans, is to
show the nt^ed all mankind had of a righteousness to justify, the na-
ture of that righteousness which justifies a sinner, and the oonsequenoei
and results of embracing aud laying hold of such justifying righteous
ness ; accordingly, in the first chapter the Apostle is principally occu-
pied in showing that the Gentile world, by reason of their horrid
wickedness and total moral apostacy, had need of this righteousness.
In the second chapter and the opening part of the third chapter, he
shows that the Jews, though possessed of greater external privileges,
were just in as bad a way as to the attainment of an3'thing like a per-
sonal justifying righteousness before God. In the latter part of the
third chapter, he explains at large what that righteousness is which
justifies the sinner ; even the righteoueness of Jesus Christ — his per-
fect obedience unto death, as God manifest in the flesh, and which,
being embraced by faith by the sinner, becomes his -by imputation.
In the fourth chapter Paul proves or evidences his doctrine by the
case of Abraham as the father of the faithful, or the justified. ' In the
fifth chapter he shows the consequence of embraoing this doctrine, as
relates to inward Christian experience, or the communication of peace,
and joy, and hope to the believer. In the sixth chapter Paul shows
that this blessed doctrine does not tend to licentiousness, as might at first
sight appear, and as its enemies have ofttimes represented, but one di<
rectly and necessarily tending unto holiness of life. In the seventh
chapter he shows that the justified are renewed in the right spirit of
their minds, yet are they, at best, but renewed in part ; that in the
most regenerate there is, through life, a perpetual conflict kept up
between the flesh and spirit. But though sin thus harrasses and op-
presses them, yet doth it not condemn them, for they obtain the vic-
tory over the body of this death through Jesus Christ ; so that, as is
said in the opening part of the eighth chapter, there is now no con-
demnation, and therefore no Purgatory, &o., for them that are in Jesus
Christ, and who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. (Rom.
viii. I, Ac.)"

Strictly speaking, we have only to do with Mr. Ma-
ginn, and to his part of the controversy we shall confine
our extracts.

On the fourth day Mr. Maginn, "lest his reverend

>•

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAOINN.

friends should want employment during the remainder
of the day," proposed to them the following list of ob-
jeetions :

"QuKRiKB. — First : llow can tho receiving of the tcntha of Uie poor
man's labor, be reconciled with that principle which ia considered
M fundamental in the Church of England, viz. :— That every man is
capable of judging, and should judge for himself, on all occasions in
religious matters ?

•• Secondly : If the Bible, interpreted by individual reason, be your
sole rule of faith, why saddle us with the galling burthen of pampered
and avaricious preachers an*l ministcis 1

" Thirdly : If Protestants of all denominations be one, as Mr. Smyly
has stated, why brand with the name of schismatic, the Dissenter true
to his principles 1

" Fourthly : If Protestants of all denominations be one in faith, in
hope, and charity, why set up conventicles apart 1 Why do they wor
ship in different temples 1

' Fifthly : In the name of common sense, how can you assert that
any mon differing from you in opinion, is wrong — you, who admit
that every man is right in judging for himself in matters of faith 1

'• Sixtlily : On what principle would you refute an Arian or Socinian,
who taking private judgment and Scripture for hia sole guide, would
interpret the following texts : — ' There is one Mediator, the man Christ
Jesus,' or ' my Father is greater than I ;' of the non-consubstantiality
or inferiority of the Son 1

" Seventhly : How can you reconcile the universal apostacy of
Christendom, as it is asserted in your Book of Homilies, with this per-
petual truth — the unohanageable object in the symbol of a Christian's
faith, viz. : ' I believe in the Holy Catholic Church ;' or, as it is in the
Nicene Creed, ' I believe in one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church V

Eightly : The articles which separate you from your Presbyterian
brethren, and from the Dissenters of all denominations — they are either
essentials or non-essentials. If essentials, why hove you the absurdity
to state that you are one with them 1 If non-essentials, why, therefore,
*n the name of heaven, divide the peaceable inhabitants of the City of
Sion 1— Why tear the seamless garment of Christ asunder, by causing
hem for a non-adhesion to indifferent and nugatory articles, to retire

LIFK OF UIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGIN'X.

brandccl with the name of exennimunioated from yont Inw Church !■—
' Wh<>^ot.'vcr shall ■epiirAte thcniselvet from tito comnintiioti of the
Saitita, at it is approved by the Apostles' rules in the Church «>f Kiig-
Jand, and combine thomsolvos in n neui brotlierhood, acouunting the
Christians who nre oonformuble to the doctrines, government, rites, niid
•cremonies in the Church of England, to be profane and unmeet for
them to join with in Christian profession, let them be exoomniuni*
oatcd, &c.'— (Canon 0th.)

" Tenthly : Why do you admit a supreme head in spirituals, whose su-
premacy is not sanctioned by any warrant in the written Christian
dispensation !

" Eleventhly : Why do you say, as you have said, that Soripltivo
bears testimony to itself, when its author, Christ Jesus, soys, that even
his own living and established testimoi.v of himself would be fruitless
and vain. • If I bear witness of myseh, my witness is not true — you
sent to John, and he gave testimony of the truth V — (St. John, chap. 5,
ver. 31 and 33.)

"How do you prove to this mixed assembly, that you are not guilty
of the sin of Schism — a sin which the Apostle of nations testifies, ex-
cludes from the kingdom of heaven— equally guilty, I repeat it, with
the Arians, the Nestorians, the Euticheans. They also called themselves
Reformers of the Church of Christ. They also separated themselves
from the See of Rome. What they have done, you have done in like
manner? — So much for the Queries."

On these queries the subsequent discussion mainly
turned. On the fifth day, Mr. Maginn gave utterance to
the following noble words, in reply to the pseudo-pro-
phecy that the Church would shortly perish :

'•My friend Mr. Smyly has told 'is that the Catholic Church, viz ,
the whore of Babylon, will shortly perish. In this prophetic cry of
his, I recognize the language of the seers of past ages : ' The Catholic
Church, says a Simon Magus, shall shortly perish, for she denies that
the Holy Ghost can be purchased for money. The Catholic Church
shall shortly perish,' says a Menander, ' for she is so absurd as to teach
that I am not the light for the revelations of nations, nor the glory of

LIFE OF BIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

; >»'■'

the people of iBrael.' The Catholic Church shall shortly perish, says
an Ebion and a Marcion, for she defends the blasphemous error of
Christ being God, -whereas he is no more than a mere man. The Ca-
tholic Church shall shortly perish, says a Montanus and a Novatius,
for she dares to assert that the pastors of the spouse of Christ have
the power of forgiving all sins, even the sin of apostacy. That idola-
trous Church shall perish, says an Arius, which makes the creature a
creator, and has the boldness to assert that Word is eternal and con-
substantial to the Father. The Catholic Church shall perish, says a
Pelagius, for she admits that original sin is communicated to us, and
that the faculties of man are weakened by inherited corruption — that
of liimself, without grace, he is incapable of observing the law of
God. The Catholic Church shall perish, says Nestorius, for she ad-
mits only one person in Christ, and reveres the Virgin Mary as the
mother of the living God. The Catholic Church, viz., the where of
Babylon, shall shortly perish, says au Eutyches, for she believes in
the blasphemous doctrine of two natures in Christ, whereas there is
only one, the human nature being absorbed in the divine nature, as
the dewdrop disappears in the ocean. The Catholic Church shall
shortly perish, says' a Donatus, for she professes to believe that the
children of heretics are not to be re-baptized, and that pastors in the
state of sin can validly administer the sacraments. The Catholic
Church shall shortly perish, says a Lucidus, for she rejects the neces-
sary influence of grace. The Catholic Church shall shortly perish,
say the Monatholites, for she admits two wills instead of one in the
Redeemer. The Catholic Church, in fine, shall shortly perish, says a
Gotescalus, fur she admits predestination to good and not to evil ; she
is so nonsensical as to deny that the will of man is like to a saddle-
horse, doing evil necessarily if the devil be the rider, doing good ne-
cessarily if God be seated on it. The Church shall perish, has been
the language of every innovator from the days of Christ until the pre-
sent day ; time, however, has proved them, and shall prove my rev-
erend friend Mr. Smyly to be links in that chain of false seers to whom
an angry God hatli said, ' I have not sent you, yet you ran ; I have
not spoken to you, yet you prophecied.' The Church has survived
their fanciful predictions, and shall survive them until the end of time.
The very nothingness of these near-sighted prophets has borne and
shall bear testimony to her duration and stability ; yea, even the he-

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

reticftl cry, she shall shortly perish ! has only served and will serve to
convince the world, by calling its attention to the miraculous preserva-
tion of the Church ; that it is an edifice which God hath built up, and
which no man can throw down, against which the winds and waves
may beat in vain, around which, uninjured, the elements may crash,
the heavens change as a garment, and all created nature tottering on
its foundation, dwindle into its original nothingness ; God in the midst
of her, she shall not be moved."

On the sixth day, one of the Protestant disputants in-
troduced, in evidence of the corruption of the Church, a
well known spurious work, called the Taxoe CanceUarice^
in relation to which, on opening the seventh day's pro-
ceedings, Mr. Maginn said :

" Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, when an agreement had been entered
into to discuss the respective merits of the Churches of England and
of Rome, I flattered myself that wo would proceed calmly and di >-
passionately to the investigation of truth ; I find, however, to my sor-
row, that I have vainly indulged this hope, for the lowest scurrility and
misrepresentation have taken the place of reason and of common sense ;
forgeries and calumnies have been substituted for revelation, and Re-
ligion's sacred name, with every kind of religious veneration, has been
turned into a farce — has become a subject for mimickry and for mirth.

" Ou seeing yesterday 's exhibition, methought myself at one time in a
Drury Lane or in a Covent Garden, witnessing the performance of
Sheridan's School for Scandal ; at another time, I imagined myself in
the Theatre Francaise, an amused spectator of a Talma in the Tartuflfe.

" It was not, however, in all its Fcenes a comedy, it partook rather of '
the nature of a melo-drama. The audience, I am sure, was forced to
smile and to weep : to pmile at the folly which it displayed, while the
tears of sorrow, yea, and of indignation too, were shed over the low
designing malice — over the wily subterfuges of the hero of the piece,
to support a bad and a tottering cause.

" The impression, I am convinced, which the introduction of the Taxse
Cancellarise, that pretended Romish production, must have made on
your minds, is to deep to be easily effaced. Long shall you remember
1*

LIFE OF KIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

how lenient Popes were in the days of old towards parricides, how
tevere they have been towards priest strikers.

" So gross an imposition as this book is, were it not for the advantage
of my Protestant friends, I would not even deign to notice. The abom-
inable doctrines it contains, the abuses it appears to sanction, are too
well known to Catholics not to constitute any article of their religious
symbol, nor ever to have received the sanction of the Catholic Church,
that they need no information on this head. For the instruction, there-
fore, of my dissenting friends, and for theirs only, I shall first give you
a few extracts from the celebrated Doctor Lingard, bearing on this
subject, and invalidating its authenticity. I shall then give you my
own reasons for considering it one of the vilest fabrications ever in-
vented by interested, designing, and faithless men."

After quoting Lingard, and exposing the forgery of
tliis book from internal evidence, Mr. Maginn proceeded
to defend the doctrine of purgatory as taught by the
Church, and expressly laid d^wn in the Old and New
Testaments. On the eighth day Mr. Henderson attempted
an answer to that argument, but certainly failed to shake
it in the least. He was followed by Mr. Maginn, the
first part of whose addrjss was devoted to an expla-
nation of Luther's conduct, in permitting pr^lygamy to
Philip of Hesse, and the conclusion of which was a re-
joinder to the attempted answer of the opponents of the
doctrine of purgatory. On this day he excited a good
deal of merriment, by referring the Rev. Mr. Smyly to
his Rev. Bro. Henderson for " the self-evident distinction
which exists between miracles and mysteries." On the
ninth day he continued the same subject — purgatory and
prayers for the dead.

LIFE OF EIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

On the eleventh day Mr. Maginn, with his accustomed
readiness and humor, detected an argument on the wall
of the old Cathedral in which the discussion was had.
The authentic report thus relates the scene :

"Agaia; I gladly congratulate my reverend opponents on their
adopted image wor.-hip. [Here the Rev. Mr. Maginn espying behind
the coramuoloa table, a Gloria having a small cross in the centre, with
an inscription I, H. S., pointed to it.] There, Gentletnen, is an ' Idol
which you have raided in the house of the living God,' with an in-
scription on it too in an unknown tongue. You also have violated the
second commandment; you have made to yourselves the figures of
thinga which are in the heavens above and in the earth below. You
are accustomed in like manner to bow down before them. The idol, it
is true, before which you worship, is void of proportion and coloring.
Were you to adopt the motto, 'fas est ab hoste doccri.' I would feel
happy to recommend one to you, which, while it would evince your
good taste, would tend at the same time to ornament your Church and
to instruct your people. I would then advise you to place above your
communion table, a picture representing a Jesus crucified, with the
forefinger of his right hand pointing towards the Church depicted in
the back ground, with this appropriate inscription. ' this is my be-
loved spouse, the Church, for whose sake I bleed, that I may render
her without spot or wrinkle ; lo, I am with her all days, even to the
consummation of the world.' In his left hand you may place, if you
please, the keys of the kingdom of heaven ; hard-by, St. Peter kneel-
ing on his right knee and receiving them from him, while the Saviour
will seemingly address him, as he has done really, in these words :
* Thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build ray Church, and the gates
of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give to thee the keys of the
kingdom of heaven ; whatsoever thou wilt bind in earth will be bound
in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed in
heaven.' In the same tablet, by enlarging it somewhat, you may have
the Virgin Mary and the twelve Apostles, with appropriate inscrip-
tions. Opposite the blessed Virgin, ' Behold your mother ;' opposite
the Apostles, ' Behold your children.' Should the remaining parts of
this Chapel of Ease require further useful ornament, I would recom-

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

mend to you to borrow a few saints from us, and have these side wall
embellished by their representations. The amiable St. Francis of Sales,
the zealous and apostolic Xavier, and the charitable St. Vincent of
Paul, would be mighty lessons of practical virtue for the Sunday-sainted
visitors of this house of prayer. They would remind them, that not
only a Man-God, but weak mortals, like to themselves, scaled the rugged
heights of a Calvary, drank of the bitter chalice deeply, yet patiently,
made their works shine before men, were, in fine, the true disciples of
the Just One, by < taking up their cross and following him.'

At the close of his remarks, he related the following
anecdote :

" A French general waa induced through curiosity to come to the
metropolis of Great Britain ; being invited by a certain nobleman of
his acquaintance to visit St. Paul's Cathedral, as he was admiring the
various perfections of that noble and majestic edifice, he was asked by
his companion what he thought of it, and if he considered it superior
to Notre Dame, at Paris. He answered that the shell of the building
did honor to its projectors, that it wn'^ in many respects superior to
Notre Dame, but that the religious embelliahroents of the kttcr much
surpassed those of the fcrraer. When yon enter, said he, into Notre
Dame, at every step almost a crucified Saviour or his disciples meet
your eye : here, said he, I see nothing but the vestiges of those devas-
tators of the human race. Here indeed, said he, I see everything em-
blematic of the god of war ; there nothing is to be seen but the tro-
phy of the God of virtue. Here I see the statues of those who con-
quered by the effusion of the blood of their brethren ; there is to be
seen the representations of those who triumphed through the blood
of the Lamb, and died the victims of their benevolence. Here, said
he, I see those worldlings who prevailed by terror, by cunning, yea,
perhaps by treachery too, and the violation of the sacred principles
of faith, honor and justice over their less designing, more upright, and
more virtuous neighbors. There you may see those saints who only
vied in doing good ; who gained a victory, it is true, but it was witli
the sword of patience, with the helmet of salvation, and with the all-
protecting shield of fraternal charity."

On the twelfth and last day, he made his ninth argu-

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

em-
tro-

con-
be

)lood
said

lyea,

pples

and

)nly

riUi

all-

SU-

ment. In opening for the Catholics, he thus replied to
the expressions of good will with which Mr. Boyd had
opened on the other side. He said :

^^ Mr. Chairman: — My reverend Mend, Mr. Boyd, opened this day's
proceedings by stating that he h.-d nought but good will towards
Christians of every denomination ; I heartily concur with him in this
charitable sentiment to which he has given utterance, and am glad to
f.nd that, though we widely differ in many other respects, our opin-
ions on this head do perfectly harmonize. As far as I am concerned,
I confidently assert that I would be a traitor to those principles whose
truth I advocate, were I to bear any feelings of personal hatred to-
wards any of my dissenting brethren. Compelled by circumstances
to come forward and to defend, and give reason for that faith which is
in me, I brought no animosity with me to this discussion, and I trust
in my God that I shall bring none away with me from it. Weak as
my understanding may be, I have sufficient discernment between the
man and his errors — sufficient acquaintance with the doctrines of my
own Church to perceive that while, as a minister of the God of truth,
I am called on to impugn falsehood, I am in duty bound to revere, re-
spect and love the victims of delusion. In the Protestant communioa
I recognize many of my warmest friends ; the oppositit of our re-
spective tenets has not hitherto, nor shall it, I hope, in future, tend to
sever the ties of mutual benevolence and love."

After a few summary remarks, he then returned to the
queries he had advanced on the second day, and the re-
plies they had elicited :

" The queries which I proposed at the commencement of this discus-
sion, if I except a few to which Mr. Henderson has endeavored to re-
ply, remain unanswered. I shall, therefore, propose them again, and
having glanced at the evasive answers given to ten of the difficulties
proposed, I shall leave them before the public.

" Quer. First : Was it a figure of Christ's body which was delivered
for us? Was it a figure of Christ's blood which was shed for us ? Mr.
Henderson'answers and says, that it was a figure of Christ's body that

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

was given to us in the Sacrament ; but he denies that it was the figure
of Christ's body that was delivered for m. In this, his reply, he ap-
pears to me to contradict the express saying of the Redeemer, who in-
forms us that that body which was given for us, was given to us.

" Quer. Second : How, on Protestant principles, can this clear text,
'this is my bodij^^ announced by Christ in peculiar circumstances,
written in different Gospels, at different periods, and in the same words,
by three Evangelists, and by the apostle of nations, how, I say, can its
literal meaning be invalidated, except by a clearer text, bearing nn
the same subject, viz. by such a one as the following : — ' This, which I
give unto you, is by po means my body ;' and where in sacred writ do
we find this more clear and explicit text 7 My reverend friend, Mr.
Hendercion, replies that that more clear and explicit text is to be found
in Matt. 16 chap. 29 v., where it is called after the consecration, the
fruit of the vine ; and by St. Paul to the Corinthians, chap. 11, 26 v.,
where the Sacrament is also called bread after the Benediction. His
answer, however, does not appear to me sufficient, for first, according
to St. Luke, 22 chap. 18 v., the fruit of the vine there spoken of, was
the wine drank with the paschal lamb. Moreover, even were I to ad-
mit that Christ Jesus called it the fruit of the vine and bread, after
consecration, it would by no means make against the Catholic doctrine,
nor serve my reverend friend ; for in many passages of sacred writ do
we find the thing transubstantiated, called after the name of the thing
from which it had been transubstantiated ; as for example, in the 2
chap, of Genesis, 23 v.. Eve is called Adam's bone, because she was
formed out of his bone. Again, chap. 3, v. 19, where Adam is called
dust, because he was taken out of dust ; ' for dust thou art, and unto
dust thou wilt return.' Again, in the Book of Exodus, 7 chap. 12 v.,
where Aaron's rod is called a rod even after it became a serpent ; ' for
they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents ; but
Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods;' finally, we find in the Gospel of
St. John, 2 chap. 9 v., that the water, after it was changed into wine,
is called, by the Evangelist, water ; ' when the ruler of the feast had
tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was ;
but the servants which drew the water knew, the governor of the feast
called the bridegroom.'

" Thirdly : Why did not St. Paul, when writing to the Corinthians
in Greek, and that too, fur their immediate instruction, aware, as he
must have been, that there were many words in that language to ez-

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

press the tign, why did he use the same language as our Saviour did,
who, as my reverend oppououts assert, had no word in the Hebrew to
express the sign, and say Tovxo at;/uaiv£t /uov to output, and not as he
expressed it, Tovto eoxi ftov ro ootfta, this siytiijies my body, and not
this is my body. My friend, Mr. Henderson, replied to this query, after
the Irish way, by proposing a question ; why, said he, in the 25th
verse of the same chapter did he not use the word signiftf when speak-
ing of the cup, instead of is, to this Irish answer I reply, that the Apos-
tle was not so ridicuously absurd as to say, that the cup signified, or
was the sign of his blood. The evident meaning of St. Paul's words is,
* In this cup is my blood of the New Testament,' &c.

" Fourthly : Has Christ adilferent body from that which was born of
the Virgin Mary ? if not, how reconcile these words of the Book of
Common Prayer, * The body and blood of Christ is verily and indeed
taken and received by the faithful in the Sacrament,' with the absence
of a corporeal presence ? My friend, Mr. Henderson, to reconcile this
irreconcilable difficulty, has introduced Cranmer and many others of
the same tribe ; but I am sure that all his efibrts have proved unsuc-
cessful, for there are none here of so acute an understanding as to bo
able to perceive how one and the same individual can receive the body
and blood of Christ, verihf and indeed, and not receive it at the same time.

" Fifthly : How can a man be said to be guilty of Christ's body and
blood, who by no means receives his body and blood ? Mr. Henderson
says, that we become guilty of Christ's body and blood, though we by
no means receive either the one or the other, in the same manner as
the sinner crucifies Christ in his flesh ; now, as my reverend friend ad-
mits all sins to be equal, it would evidently follow from his e<)lution,
and the difficulty proposed by me that the unworthy receiver of the
holy Eucharist, is no more guilty of Christ's body and blood, than he
who takes a pin from his neighbor.

" Sixthly : Will a man be damned for not discerning Christ's Body,
if the Lord's Body be not beneath the sacramental veils ? My friend
answers, yes, if he does not discern it with the eye of faith. I would
here ask my reverend opponent, should not faith have a real, and not
a chimerical object? Does it follow, because I believe God is here
present, that he is thereby absent ; that he is not in heaven, because I
believe him to be in it ?

" Seventhly : On the night of the institution of the blessed Sacrament,
the Jewish rite was abolished. On this night, it is not reasonable to

UKK OV KUniT UKV. KDWAUD MAOINN.

ooiiotiHio lltiil tlto Hulmtiu\o(« HUi^oooilotl (<) ilio Hhntlow, nnd iiiironNonnliln
to »si«ort (hut u inoiv Mgiiro ituoooo<l«M| lo u llp^iin*, My rovcrotul IVIoiut
HtutON iht«l (h«' |tiim<hul liiiiUi wun w ll)j[ni'o not ol th«« KiioliiirUt, ImiI oi*
riirUt JontiM lihu!*oir, whit >vi«n tiiiiiioliilod on Moiiiil ( 'ulvury. («riuii-
iug lIuU (ho |)iiMohul hnith h\\\\\\, wum (ho (Igiiro of OhilHl >V(i//)/ Hhilti on
/.ount i'ltlvttry, 1 woohl nsk Mr. IIoiiiIoi'noii, why nhouhl not (ho |iuh<
phnl h\iuh ntton, ho tho ((kui'o o(' Chrint ir^ifli/ vnton in tho Sucniiuonl?
" K!);h(hly : l>i«l (Mulht, who \v\\ ouptlvlly on|ttivo, glvo roul or Im-
n,illiuu\v giltM (o nion? My A'lomI nnsworM ho friivo roii) Kil'tK. If hu
huM <h>no !<o, tho Kiiohiu'iH(, hoin^ \\\» hint kICi or logitcy. niuKl ovon hi
Mr. Uonih>r.<«iMi'H prinoiph^M, coutidn notnothhi^ moro than tlio inoro

*• NhUhly : In what oonslstx tho nn|»orl«>rl(y or (ho MnohnriNtio hrond
In tho now h»w, ovor (ho Miuuiu in tlu» ohi, (which nnpt^rlorlty (^lirlnt
P|»oot(itHl in tlu» (Jtli olu»|>lo»* of kSl. .lohn) If tlio Suortunont Iw Imroly
llj^nrrttivo? Mr. Ilomloi'son in hi.s nn»wor to \\\\h us(»or(H. thut thoro In
no oontpiirison nuulo in ()u> (Ul) olutp. of St. Jolin, hotwotMt tho Miuum
nn<t tho Knohi\rlK(io hroiui. Tltis roply 1 olnitl pltioo in jnxtitpoHition
with^ho worvis of (ruih itsolf. rtml iortvo it to tho pnbllo to dotorniino.
• Onr futhors «H»I out luannn in tho Uo.-^ort ; i\a it is wrltton ho gftvo
thotn hri'rtil Atun Innuon to ont.' Agtiin, • yonr fathor-s illd oat Miuu\a
in tho w ihlorno!<8, «\n«l nro «lonti ; this is tho hrond which conu<tli down
Ahmu hoAYon. tltnt n nmn mny out thereof nnd not dio. And tlio broad
that I will ,<;mv is >ny (U\sh. which I will glvo for tho llfo of tho world.'
St. John, chap. vi.. 'M, (S. -tH. M), nnd M versos.

•• Tonthly : t^hrist cauio to fnllll. and not to inako void tho law ; to
perfect that which was wrltton. Wlioro In (his hypoihesis d«) wo llnd
tho accomplishment of tho vnrions and bloody o(l'erin}»s made under tho
ratrlarchal nnd Mosaic dispensations, if tho Eucharist bo merely taken
in romembranco "f My IViend, Mr. Henderson, replies, that there was no
puch thinjr a* unbhxMly sacriftco befv>ro tho comin;; of Christ : my friend
I am sure forgi^t tho fVuit of tho earth oirored by Cain — tho bread and
wino by Melchisadech — the wino, oil and flour, tho inconse, tho scape-
goat. Ac. mentioned in the book of Leveticus. Aa to tho eleventh
query which I proposed, it apynwrs to have awed my reverend oppo-
nents into a kind of solemn silence ; they did not oven deign to notice
it, though tho twolflh day of the discussion has now almost elapsed. I
sliall now again propose it, and beg the attention of the most respecta-
ble assembly to its purport.

•• Eleventh : Should not the learned and pious, who lived during the

LIKK OK IlKJirr UICV. KDWAIli) MAOtNX.

»(ovcn R(*itliii'l(<N Kiilm<<(|U(*iit in ilin rRdomption, »'ltf)iil(l Uicy not know
tiiti innntiliiK ol' tlio ApoHlolio wordN, < TIiIn In iny lioily/ iriiicli htlUir
lliKii wo (»r llio prrHriit «lny ? If coiiitridn mmMo avow it, I ohullcngo tlio
rovoronil Koiillomi'ti lioro promiiiltodulorrnliiollioiiiionllotiofa n!iil,Mit>*
Miniiiint proMoiiuo, liy plnulng in jiixtupoHilion tlin qiiotnlitrnMor tho il(»ly
FiiIIkth of till) wivon llrHt ccntiirloM of thu (JIuirch of ('lirUt, and by
permitting tlirin to go, tincominontcd, lioforo tlin pnblio. Ah I montioncd
aliovo, tin; rovcron<l gcntlomon on tho otiior nido did not dulK'i to no*
tiuo UiIh oliullongo, and why ? hooauNn thoy wcro fully pcrNuoilfid that
tho voico of unli(|uity would bo rained uguinnt thorn— that tho AuHtitiN
and Iho Cyriln, tho ChryHOHtomH and tho AinbroHOH, with trumpet tonguo,
would cry out iiKiiinKt thuir InnovatiouH, and upbraid them with having
mado void tho covonant of tho liord, and having changed tho iiubMtaii-
tial giflH of tho Uoduomor into nutro beggarly rlemcntHl

" I2tl . How cull tho fundamental principle of l'rot(!HtanliHm - namely,
that every man Ih capable of Judging, and nhould judge for himHolf, bo
reconciled with tho exaction of tho tenths of tho poor man'tf labor, hy
teacherH, preachers, and minlHtorH 7

" i:Uh. If rroiestantH of all denomlnatlonH bo one, an my friends
conlldently Htato they are, why brand with tho name of echlHraatic tho
dlHHcnter true to hiH principloH?

" Hlh. If I'loloHtanta of all denomlnatlonH bo one. In faith, in hopo,
and in charity, wliy Hct up ouaventiclcs apart ; why worHhip in dif*
forent temples?

" 15th. How, in tho name of common houho, can my reverend oppo-
ncutu unbluHhingly stato, that any man diil'erlng from them in opinion
is wrong — they who adroit that every man Bhould judye for himself
and that in judging for himself he is ru/ht ?

" IGth. On what principle, I hero ask my reverend fVIcnds, would
they refute tho Arian, who, taking private judgment and Scripture for
his sole guide, would Interpret tho following text of sacred writ : — * My
Father is greater than I ;' and again, ' there is one mediator, the man
Christ Jesus,' of the nonconsubstantiality or inferiority of. the Son?

" 17th. How can tho universal apostacy of Christendom, mentioned in
tho book of Homilies, be reconciled with this truth, the perpetual object
of a Christian's faith, ' I believe in the holy Catholic Church ?' or, as it
is in the Nicene Creed, * I believe in the One, Holy, Catholic, and
Apostolic Church?' A Church always holy, is at all times void of
Idolatry, and of doctrines perniciously erroneous.

•* 18th. The articles which separate ray reverend opponents from

LIFE OF IIIGUT REV. EDWAliD MAGIXN.

their Presbyterian brethren, and from dissenters of every denomination,
are either essentials or non-essentials — if essentials, why say that they
are one with them — if non-essentials, why, in the name of heaven, tear
the seamless garment of Christ asunder? — why divide the fold of Christ,
and disturb the peaceful mansion of the City of Sion, by prescribing
non-essential articles as conditions of communion, and by forcing the
non-conformists to retire, excommunicated fcom their law Church ?

19tli. Wliy do my reverend friends admit a lay supreme head in
spiritual and eccleBiastioal matters, whose supremacy is not sanctioned
by any warrant in the written Christian dispensation?

" 20th. Why assert that Scripture bears testimony to itself, when
its author, Christ Jesus, says, that even his own living and estab-
lislied testimony of himself would be fruitless and vain. ' If I bear
witness of myself, my witness is not true ;' again, 'You sent to John,
and he gave testimony of truth.' (St. John, 6 c. 31-33 v.)

*'2l8t. How will my reverend opponents of the Church of Eng-
land prove to this learned assembly tliat they are not guilty of the siu
of schism — a sin which, as the Apostle of Nations attests, excludes
from the kingdom of heaven — equally guilty, I repeat it, with the
Arians, the Nestorians, the Eutechians ; they also called the Church
of Christ corrupted — they also gloried in the name of Reformers ?

22. According to the law of the land, which is supposed to speak
the sense of the nation, it is declared that no man is capable of man-
aging his temporal concerns, before he has attained the twenty-first
year of his age. Common sense should then move us to believe that
no man is capable of judging for himself in religious matters, or of
selecting his own symbol, before he has reached that period of his
life. I hero, then, ask my reverend friends, can that religion be the
religion of Christ, which supposes that a man must have attained his
twenty-first year before he can give his reasonable ossent to the doc-
trines which it inculcates, or, in other words, make an act of faith in
its divine revelation'?

" 23d. Can a Protestant of the Established Church reasonably be-
lieve any tenet peculiar to his creed, when he is quite aware that the
Eastern and Western Churches are opposed to this doctrine 1

*'24th. Christ Jesus established his Church on and by the word

preached, and not written. ' Preach the Gospel to every creature.

Go, teach all nations,' &o. I will require a clear text of Scripture,

bearing on this subject, which will go expressly to invalidate the nn-

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

written first rule of faith, And make known to us the exaot period of
its suspension."

His closing remaiics on this day are necessary to com-
plete the relation :

•• I might here repeat many other queries, to which my reverend
friends, though frequently culled on, have not condescended to give
answers, and for this reason, because they were convinced that in their
principles tley were unanswerable. They asted, in this respect, a
])rudcnt part ; for knowing as they must, the weakness of the system
which they advocate, they chose rather to fly before the difficulties
proposed, than by a fruitless struggle in attempting to uphold it, fur-
ther expose before the eyes of the world, its consumptive and totter-
ing condition. I am sorry to perceive here that my time is almost ex-
pired, as I came armed with substantial documents, which would
prove to the satisfaction of this assembly that Protestantism, as it is
now professed by the Church of England, is nothing more than a
patclicd coat, made up of the different heresies of the daj's that are
gone by ; my sorrow, however, is somewhat alleviated by the convic-
tion I feel, that enough has been done to point out to my Protestant
friends the way that leads to life — to show them that they are sheep
of another fold — that, to enjoy that holy and religious peace of soul,
which transcends all human understanding, they must r<'turn to the
bosom of that Church from which their forefathers, in an evil hour,
separating themselveji, took refuge in the Babel of Schism.

"As this is the last time I will here have an opportunity of address-
ing those who differ from me in opinion, I beg leave, before sitting
down, to crave their indulgence, if throughout the discussion, where,
unfortunately, retaliation too often became necessary, I should, in their
ej'es, have permitted my zeal for the house of the Lord to burn rather
intensely, and to say that the kind attention with which they have
heard me, and the liberality evinced in general by all denominations
of Christians throughout this city, have made an impression on my
mind which no time can efface."

Eev. Messrs. Bloxham, Ross and Smyly spoke in the
closing debate, as did Rev. Messrs. Quin and O'Kane;

LIFE OF lUGIlT JIEV. EDWAKl) MAGINN.

the whole was wound up by Mr. O'Louglilin in a rapid

pynoptical review of all that had been said on either side.

His peroration could hardly help touching both parties

among the auditors :

" I wish to direct a few words to my Protestant brotliren, as it is
probably the last opportunity I may have of addressing them They
have had, during this discussion, an opportunity of knowing what
they did not heietoforc know, the doctrines of the Catholic Church.
You must now perceive that she is not that erroneous, superstitious,
idolatrous Church which you were led to believe she was, but tliat
One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church with which Christ will re-
main to the end of days. If there be among you one from whose
mind divine grace has removed the veil in which it has been enveloped
by prejudice, harden not your hearts against the divine influence, but
humbly exclaim. Lord, what wilt thou have me to do, and follow the
directions of the holy admonition. To you, also, my Catholic breth-
ren, I address myself; you must be filled with consolation and holy
joy on hearing a reason for the faith that is in you. You have hoard
how groundless are the misrepresentations so unsparingly used against
our holy Church, of superstition, error an*' idolatry ; on the contrary,
that she is pure, holy, Catholic and Apostolic j ihat she is directed by
her divine founder, Jesus Christ, who speaks to you by the voice of
her postors — never deviate from her decisions ; they are the decisions
of the Holy Ghost, who preserves her doctrine pure and undefiled.
She is always armed against every error, and oil the powers of earth
and hell will not prevail against her. Be therefore firm and constant
in the faith ; be strengthened by the divine aid against all impostors
and the ungodly ; in the words of St Paul, ' Watch, stand in the
faith, act manfully ond be comforted.' (Cor. 16 : 32.)"

Never was text of Holy "Writ more applicable to a
people, than that sentence of St. Paul to the Catholics of
the North of Ireland, — " AYatch, stand in the faith, act
manfully, and be comforted," was not cited to them
in vain. They had borne for a hundred and forty years

LIFK OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAQINN.

with every civil and social deprivation, but at last their
" emancipation" was at hand. They were lifting up their
hearts to God, and their heads among their fellow-men.
It is no exaggeration to say that the resolute stand made
by their six consecrated champions at Derry, increased
their confidence in themselves, in their clergy, and in the
faith of tlieir fathers. The temper, the scholarship, tho
firmness of Fathers O'Loughlin and O'Kane, McCarron,
Mc'Leer, Maginn and Quinn, filled them with courage to
act manfully. It is evident from the challenge that it
was not only a religions controversy, but an exhibition
of tho reasoning powers and native gifts of the old race
against the new. The Rosses, Bloxhams, Boyds and
Hendersons were not deficient in talent or acquirement ;
some, or all of them were graduates of Trinity College,
one of the best endowed Universities in Europe. Their
opponents were mainly the young alumni of Maynooth,
then struggling into celebrity. But neither their College
nor the Irish Church had any need to be ashamed of
their champions in the famous Discussion at Derry.*

Cotemporaneously with these oral discussions, the Ca-
tholic Association continued its political agitation for the
abolition of the remnant of the Penal Code. Under the

' As stated above (in the text), the authenticuted Report of the Dis-
cussion was published in J828, simultaneously by Curry, of Dublin,
and by Coyne of the same city. It forms a thick volume of over 500
pages, but each day'B debate is numbered separately

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

wise guidance of O'Connell and his brilliant colleagues,
his voluntary society had almost grown into the import-
ance of a Provisional Government. It comprised a fair
representation of the old nobility and gentry, all the
Catholic clergy, and almost all the laity. It had its for-
eign allies in France, Bavaria, Eome, the United States,
Brazil and India. At home its proclamations were more
effectual than the Viceroy's; abroad, its debates were
read with as much interest as those of the Imperial Par-
liament. For five years that unparalleled and menacing
spectacle overawed the empire, striking fear even into
the lion heart of Arthur, Duke of Wellington. At last,
in April, 1829, the British government capitulated to
the Irish Association, and the second " Catholic Relief
Bill" became the law, not only for Ireland, but for one-
fifth of the human race. During the last years of the
contest, O'Connell had no more zealous agent in the
northern province than the popular young curate of Mo-
ville. The name of Inishowen had not even then lost
all its terrors for Dublin Castle, and he kept it continually
in Urrorem over the parties in power. His speeches at
the Baronial meetings previous to " Emancipation" (as
the act of '29 is popularly called), are said to have been
like his early sermons, full of pith and power. LTnluckily
they have shared the same fate, and we must, therefore,
accept their merits upon heresay. What is more to our
purpose is, that Mr. Maginn, amidst all these exciting

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

scenes, political and polemical, had so thoroughly retained
the confidence of his Bishop, that on the death of his
uncle, in the memorable year of Emancipation, he was
appointed to succeed him in the united parishes of Fa-
han and Deysertegny.

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

CHAPTER II.

THE Mission OF THE NEW PARISH PRIEST — STATE OF THE CHURCH
IN GENERAL — LOCAL EXERTIONS OF DR. MAGINN — HB SUPPRESSES
SECRET SOCIETIES— FOUNDS SEVEN NATIONAL SCHOOLS— HIS CON-
TROVERSY WITH THE NATIONAL BOARD OF EDUCATION — HIS IN-
CREASING INFLUENCE — HIS PREACHING AS DESCRIBED BY A CO-
TEMPORARY.

At the comparatively early age of twenty-seven Mr.
Maginn was thus placed as Pastor over a community of
ten thousand souls. He took up his residence at Bun-
crana, a little watering-place of about a thousand inhab-
itants. His mission extended over a country which as
early as the seventh century had been covered with cells
and schools. In the annals of Ulster, mention is fre-
quently made of Fahan-Mura and the miracles of its
patron. The noble house of O'Neil invoked him as their
special intercessor ; on his Gospel some of the most sol-
emn treaties of the northern tribes were ratified, and his
crozier (for he was a Bishop or Abbot) was preserved
with awe and veneration down to the destructive era of
" the -Reformation." From that dismal date no diocese
suffered more severely than Derry. Successive Bishops
and Abbots were put to death as fast as discovered ;
others fled into exile and there died ; the Prior of Cole-

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

raine, in Croriiwell's time, was flung into the Bann and
stoned to death by the Puritan soldiery ; a Bishop who
returned, at the peril of his life in the reign of Queen
Anne, hired as a common shepherd on the uplands of
Magilligan, renewing in his own person the experience of
Saint Patrick, who, from having been an enslaved shep-
herd of sheep, became a spiritual shepherd of souls.

The year in which Mr. Maginn became a Parish Priest
of his diocese, was, as we said, the same in which " the
Emancipation Act" became the law of the land. A new
policy towards Catholics was thus initiated by the State ;
and new relations must needs be established between the
Church and State. With Catholic peers and commoners
in Parliament, Catholic judges on circuit, and Catholic
magistrates in every neighborhood, the necessity for a
a wider range of observation, a higher tone, and an en-
larged legislation, naturally devolved upon the Hierarchy.

The Irish Church did not want for learned and pru-
dent prelates in that emergency. Dr. Doyle, Dr. Mur-
ray, and Dr. McHale, were by acquirements and position
the most influential of their order. Each had borne a
patriotic part in the contest just closed, each sincerely
desired the good of the church and the country, but each
differed widely from the other, as to the best means of
promoting their common objects. It would seem that
Dr. Doyle placed his chief hope in the education of the
people, Dr. Murray in conciliating the government, and

LIFE OF BIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

Dr. McHale in prolonged agitation. In a very few years
the gifted " J. K. L." was removed from the scene ; while
many new measures were proposed, and many new dan-
gers began to menace the lately emancipated Church.
Between 1830 and '40 the Tithe question was compro-
mised ; the corporations were thrown open to Catholics ;
the national school system was introduced; the new
Poor law went into operation ; official intercourse with
Rome, and a state provision for the clergy, were discussed
and dropped, resumed and postponed. The Hierarchy
though not recognized by their titles were treated very
ceremoniously ; the least advance on the part of any
of them, was graciously received ; drafts of " government
measures" were more than once submitted to their judg-
ment ; and a constant anxiety was shown to attach them
to the interest of Imperial parties. Three or four of the
Bishops were supposed to be so propitiated by these at-
tentions, as to overlook the continued, disregard of popu-
lar demands by successive ministries and Parliaments.
The National School system was found on trial to be
very defective, and by some, absolutely mischievous ;
the Poor law had many cruel drawbacks in the eyes of
a proverbially charitable people ; the Irish representation
was shamefully disproportionate to that of the Empire at
large ; and the power of the landlord class remained as
absolute over the tenantry, as before. The great body
of the Bishops continued on these grounds to mingle in

LIFE OF RIGHT KEV. EDWARD MAGINN.

public affairs, following with unabated zeal the lead of
Mr. O'Connell, who in turn, was equally willing to be
advised and led by them. The second order of the clergy
were almost to a man of the same party ; and none of
their body more entirely so, than the new Parish Priest
of Fahan and Desertegney.

The peculiarities of his position, not less than his ardent
temperament, brought the Eev. Mr. Maginn frequently
before the public. The Catholics of the peninsula were
" twelve to one" against all other denominations. They
were still distinguishable into clans, and still spoke Gaelic.
Their market and court-town was Derry, the Urhs In-
tacta of a hostile race and creed. The proscriptive Pro-
testantism of the maiden city had withstood the gentle
influence of Dean Berkley, the zealous liberalism of its
famous Bishop-Earl, and the fraternal spirit of the volun-
teers and United Irishmen. Proud of its notoriety as
the city which repulsed King James, it looked down
with scorn not unmingled with apprehension on the gi-
gantic Innishowen men who came to mingle in its mar-
kets, and sometimes to settle within its walls. On the
northern bank of the Foyle, an Irish town had arisen,
such as grew up without the walled Norman boroughs
of the Leinster pale ; in its midst the hated cross was
lifted on high, Catholic rites were constantly celebrated,
the Bishop took up his permanent residence, and thus
the citadel of religion, like another Santa Fe, con-

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

fronted its powerful rival, entrenched and " established"
on the opposite hill side. It was not without grief and
indignation that the citizens and apprentices of Derry
beheld these alarming encroachments of the Papal power,
and many a bitter local controversy marked the progress
of the revolution. To the Catholics in those contests a
ready pensman and a prudent chief were necessary, and
these Providence supplied them in the person of our sub-
ject. Mr. Maginn's first organ of communication with
the public was the Derry Chronicle^ edited by Sheehan, a
native of Celbridge, County Kildare, afterwards better
known as editor of the Comet, a satirical and national
Dublin newspaper. After the Chronic's decease the
Journal was always open to him, as was subsequently,
when he became more influential, all the local press. In
these papers he appeared anonymously under a great
variety of titles, and when the matter was too personal or
too tempting for satire, a friendly local printer was always
ready to issue his pasquinades in broadsheet form.* The
multitude of local questions on which he wrote either
to the press or officials it would be impossible to enu-
merate ; the principals were against the appointment of
an exclusively Protestant magistracy in Innishowen ; in
favor of calling to the bench the Doherty's of Glen, and
others of the old Catholic families ; against the violence

* Some of those, such as »* The Troubles of the Kirk" arc in verse,
but they would not add to the reputation of Dr. Maginn's abilities.

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

exhibited in '33 and '34 in the collection of Tithes;
against the removal of an impartial stipendiary magis-
trate in 1837 ; and against the removal of a lieutenant
of po]' <■ ^ had won the c- iinience of the people;
against frequeiiL proceedings of the magistrates at quarter
sessions, which he represented to the Lord Lieutenant as
likely to bring the administration of justice into contempt.
In all these communications, whether to the press or the
castle, he takes without apology the tone and position of
a protector of his poor people — a character which ad-
mirably harmonizes with that of a Priest, in such a state
of society as then existed in the North of Ireland.

To root out and totally destroy secret agrarian socie-
ties, was a favorite task of the Pastor of Fahan. In his
neighborhood it was one of no ordinary difficulty, be-
cause there such societies were bound up with an exten-
sive popular interest — illicit distillation and smuggling.
" Innishowen," as every one knows, is the name ^ar ex-
cellance for genuine whiskey. In the wild recesses of the
peninsula, where the goats alone could find their way,
the daring defier of London law guarded his busy worm
and his well-stocked crypt. A special " revenue" police,
trained to all sorts of wiles and adventures, was at length
established to hunt down the stilk ; but some intrepid
followers of the forbidden calling, if fame may be be-
lieved, still hold out in their fastnesses, despite all the
forces and all the ingenuity of her Majesty's excise.

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

Against all oath-bound associations, Mr. Maginn, whether
in the palpit or on his visits to the homes of the people,
waged incessant war. One of his controversies relating
to this subject accidently became public. In '37, O'Don-
nel, an approver or crown witness, residing at Buncrana,
deposed that Mr. Maginn's servant named James Doherty,
had asked him if he would take ten pounds to shoot a
landlord who had ejected his (Doherty's) mother from her
holding. After lodging this information the approver
sent word to the accused to quit the country, " for he had
done his job," an advice which the latter, having slim
faith in landlord justice, forthwith did. The local ene-
mies of Mr. Maginn, that Orange magistracy which he
had never spared, did not hesitate to hint in conversa-
tion, that he had been a harborer of ribbon -men, and
privy to the escape of his servant These allusions being
given to the public in 1840, by a Mr. McClintock Spence,
occasioned an animated correspondence in the Derry
Journal^ of two years' duration. In his letters, Mr. Ma-
ginn proved that he had been the most effective enemy
of all illegal associations in his barony ; that he had
handed over to the police in his own chapel-yard, one
"Walch, a suspected agent of such societies ; that there
was not then in his entire mission a single Catholic en-
gaged in any way in such lawless combinations. He
challenged the most rigid inquiry into this latter state-
ment, a challenge which was not accepted by the other

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

side. He does not directly deny being privy to the es-
cape of his servant Doherty, though he does wholly dis-
claim all knowledge of his complicity with the ribbon-
men, if he were really guilty. As a curious illustration
of the "administration of justice" in Ireland, we have
given below, his summary statement of the provocations
systematically offered to the Innishowen-men, with which
the Spence correspondence opened.

BcNCBANA, April 7, 1840.

To the Editor of the Londonderry Journal :

Sir, — On Satardaj, the 5th Inst., an article appeared 'n the Sentinel,
headed " Incendiarism," which more or less affects the character of
this neighborhood. It will not, I would fain hope, be considered ob-
trusive in me to set the public right on this subject of the Sentinel s
communication. Newspapers, like individuals, are subject to be mis-
led ; and never did any correspondent impose further on any paper or
any person, than the Sentinel's correspondent did on that occasion.

" On tue night of Friday, the 27th ult. (states the Sentinel) about the
hour of 11 o'clock, an attempt was made to burn the house of a man
named O'Donnell, who lives in the Pound-lane, Buncrana, by setting
the thatch in the rear of it on fire. O'Donnell was in bed, but fortu-
nately made the discovery in time to preserve his dwelling, and has-
tened, almost in a state of nudity, to apprise the police."

That an attempt was made to set O'Donnell's house on fire we cheer-
fully admit ; but the question is yet undecided by whom the coal was
put into O'Donnell's house. The general impression is, and was at the
time, that the coal was put into it by O'Donnell himself. The strong-
est circumstantial evidence is at present in the hands of Capt. Roberts
against O'Donnell. It was sworn by an aged and respectable woman,
his door neighbor, that she saw him cross the wall from the rear of his
house not ten minutes before he called on the police ; secondly, that
when she saw him cross the wall, he had his clothes on, and that, a few
minutes afterwards, she saw him return with the police in a state of
nudity. She furthermore declared on oath, that from the time she

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAOINN.

Baw him coming from the rear of his house, it appeared to her almost
impossible for him to have had sufflcient time to toko off his clothes.
Bradley the whitesmith, in the Found-lane, O'Donnell's intimate friend,
when questioned on oath with respect to the circumstances, corrobo-
rated her testimony.

When the police arrived, there was scarcely a handftil of the thatch
burned. Connecting, sir. the ciroamstanecs of this case of O'Donnell's
burning with the circumstances of another equally infamous case, I am
induced to believe that those paid informers of the government are
setting every engine which human ingenuity or the malice of hell can
invent, to enhance their own value by disturbing the peace of the
country, and blackening the character of the peasantry of these par-
ishes.

Five or six threatening notices were, as these gentlemen approvers
say, served on them ; these notices were handed to the police, sent for-
ward to head-quarters ; the county represented in a state of rebellion ;
strange magistrates brought to adjudicate on the rebels of this dis-
trict ; the constabulary privileged, without reading the riot act or
anything else, to beat the ^<easantry on their way home ; and lately,
when a foolish boy threw a stone, who had been maltreated, orders
were given by a subaltern to charge and fire on the people. Many of
the peasantry were severely injured, and one of them was stabbed and
left weltering in his blood. When summonses were issued for the ag-
grieved by the aggressors, it comes out, after Ibeir trial and acquittal,
that these threatening notices were fabricated by their paid approvers
->-those very persons privileged to insult and annoy the people — the
patronized of the police and the government. * *

It is worth pausing to consider how such an inevitable
opposition between a popular clergy and an unpopular
aristocracy, must have affected all Irish ideas of subor-
dination, of duty, and of justice. In a society where the
privileged claso are worthy of their rank, the clergy
would naturally be their associates and allies ; the peo-
ple would as naturally yield them a willing and reveren-
tial obedience. In Ireland — in Ulster more especially —

LITE OF RiaHT REV. EDWARD MAQINN.

this happy harmony of interests and influences was totally
impossible. It was almost invariably the duty of the
Pastor of souls to set himself against the .lord of the
soil, of the teacher of obedience to become a leader in
resistance, of the preacher of peace, to take a tone of op-
position, even of menace. Thus society went wrangling
on ; the clergy denouncing the vengeance of heaven on
the more obdurate gentry ; the vindictive among the
gentry inflicting all the local annoyances they could in-
vent upon the heads of the clergy. In this conflict of
interests and positions the uninformed rural mind was
shocked and confused, and but for the stay and prop of
religion might easily have fallen into the last stage of
anti-social savagery. Mr. Maginn's letters after his ap-
pointment as Parish Priest, are largely made up of ap-
peals to the Castle against the abuse of power by the
neighboring magistrates, and other controversies with
them and their class. His vigilance and fearlessness
are conspicuous in every instance, but the details of
these local affairs could hardly interest the general reader.
A more congenial object of his activity was the foun-
dation of new Schools. He felt instinctively from his
love of the country that she was passing out of one cycle
of existence into another. He discerned on the face of
the land those patches of pitchy darkness, which the
statist depicts on the map of comparative education.

He thoroughly adopted the maxim of Dr. Doyle, that
3

LIFIC OF RIOUT KEY. EDWAKD MAOINN.

" next to the blessing of redemption, and the graces con*
sequent upon it, there is no gift bestowed by God, equal
in value to a good education." Before the National
Schools were introduced, he had visited many parts of
England and Ireland, soliciting the aid of the charitable
and benevolent, to enable him to erect a school-house
and chapel for the accommodation of four hundred and
ten families, hitherto destitute of the means of instruc-
tion."* The introduction of the new school system in
1834, presented him with unexpected facilities for fol-
lowing up his favorite project. The theory of this sys-
tem was very far indeed from perfection, and its mixed
Board of Commissioners looked more like a compromise
of essential truths, than a natural or desirable co-opera-
tion. Yet whatever the shortcomings of the system, its
administrators gave practical safeguards to parents and
pastors, which in Mr. Maginn's eyes compensated for its
defects. The Board appointed by government could
alone decide what was to be taught during school -hours ;
the Board could refuse its quota to the teacher and prac-
tically close the school ; but then the resident heads of
families were to be joint founders of the school and pay-
masters of the teacher, with the Board ; the local clergy-
man could become the patron of the school, could visit
it and supervise every detail of its management. As the
system could not succeed without the sanction of the

* Extract from Mr. Maginn's Circular, dated March, 1833

LIFE OF RIGHT RKV. EDWARD MAOINN.

Catholic clergy, the Pastor of Fahan was looked upon
hy the Board as a valuable ally. In the course he took
ho had with him the majority, not all, of the members of
his order. The distinguished Archbishop of Tuam and
a powerful mijiority continued for years, and a few of
their, survivors still continue, hostile to the whole system.
It cannot be denied that special facts — ^such as the
introduction of Dr. Whately's Arian lessoas into the
schools — went far to justify their hostility. C''> the
other hand, the experience of twenty years has d islpated
the worst apprehensions of the first opjo^jnts of the
schools, since it is well-known that the young men and
maidens educated on their forms have come out into the
world not less Catholic or less Irish than the generality
of preceding generations. It was natural that the pa-
triots of '84 should fear the gift of the Greeks, especially
when presented by the hands of a Stanley ; but it was
no small evidence of statearaanship to foresee at that
time how the gift might be us***! for the common good,
agreeably to the highest requirements of religious duty.
Previous to 1840, we find the money orders of the
Commissioners of Education made payable to Mr. Ma-
ginn as Patron of the National Schools (male and fe-
male), situated at Dumfries and Cristagh, also of the
schools of Meenagh, and upper and lower lilies. To-
wards the first-named schools the Commissioners con-
tributed eighteen pounds per year, to the second sixteen

LIFE OF BIGHT BEY. BDWABD MAGINN.

pounds, to the third ten, and the last eight pounds.
They granted in each case to start the school a gratu-
itous stock of books, and engaged to supply their stand-
ard works afterwards, on the patrons' and teachers' joint
order, at half price. In return, they stipulated that the
schools should be open to the inspectors appointed by
the National Board, should teach according to their
system, and should put up their title on the outside of
each school-house. This necessity of the Board work-
ing through the local pastor, placed Mr. Maginn in the
enviable position of the educator of Innishowen. With
his accustomed energy, he discharged the onerous duties
of his self-imposed office. His success, and the sacrifices
he made to compass it, naturally gave him a strong
claim on the Board, and a right to take the high tone
which we find him assuming in . the controversy which
arose in 1840. In that year the Synod of Ulster, which
had previously opposed the national system, agreed by
a majority to co-operate in its dissemination. As a con-
sequence, the Moderator (Dr. Henry, we believe) was
added to the Board, which at once entered into a corre-
spondence with all the friendly Presbyterian ministers.
The same year a circular of the Commissioners, com-
plaining that the school-houses were suffered to fall out
of repair, and inviting the local trustees to transfer the
deeds by which they were held from the local patrons

to the Board, excited in Mr. Maginn serious aporehen-
9

LIFE OF BIGHT BEY. EDWABD MAGINN.

sions. Having occasion to address their secretaries on
a local matter, he wrote the following decided letter
in relation to these innovations.

BEV. MR. MAGINN TO THE SECRETARIES OF THE NATIONAL BOARD

OF EDUCATION.

BuNCRANA, Jviy 22, 1840.

Dear Sirs,— I have written twice to your office within the last eight
weeks, relative to the aid we require from the Commissioners to erect
a national schoolhouse at Ballymacany, in the County of Donegal.
In your letter dated the first October, 1839, you promised that when-
ever your funds should be replenished by the government grant, our
application on said subject would be taken into consideration. I beg
leave to refer you to your letter to me of said date of the first Octo-
ber. It is rather strange, and I must say, unaccountable, that you did
not think proper to reply to my two last letters, the more pressing, as
the season for building is far advanced, and this is the only time in
which the peasantry of the country can co-operate with us without loss
or inconvenience to themselves. I am convinced that a rumor that is
here in circulation cannot be founded in fact, viz., that a Catholic cler-
gyman is not, for the future, to expect any attention, even the ordinary
courtesies of life, from you, since your establishment has become the
betrothed of the Synod of Ulster. I would say at least, no matter
how you may feel, that it would be rather imprudent tb throw off at
once your old friends, who made many sacrifices for your sake, to press
to your bosoms your new adherents, even before the echo of their sweet
voices, styling you " infidel," " impious," " mutilators of the Word of
God," &c., had died in the distance. Bather strange things have oc-
curred in this neighborhood and that of Derry ; National Schools and
opposition National Schools— schools founded on the broad principles .
on which you set out, and never, in a single iota, deviating from the
same, neither honor, honesty or truth violated in their management,
and schools founded on exclusive principles, in every respect sectarian
and bigoted — schools established for no other purpose but to dissociate
the members of the same community, because it would not suit their
bigoted and persecuting spirit, or their views of Orthodoxy to have
us, the unclean thing, reading, writing, &c., in the same apartment
with the predestinated, now all under the same, your patronage. I

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAQINN.

I I

have manj more things to saj on that subject which I will reserve for
another time, when, perhaps, it may be necessary for me to lay the
iome before the Commissioners or the public. You would oblige me
Dy at once informing me how far we can rely on you for aid towards
the erection of the Ballymacarry schoolhoose. I have neither time
nor leisure to be constantly writing on that subject. I am anxious, it
is true, to have the poor people educated, but it shall not be at the
sacrifice of any principle. No man^now-a-days need flatter himself
that the Catholic people or clergy can be made, as heretofore, the dupes
or slaves of any sect or party. We are anxious to live at peace with
all men ; to carry out your system upon fair grounds ; to bring the
children up together in amity, and thereby promote the future pros-
perity and happiness of our common country ; but believe me, Sirs,
they are far deceived who think that we are so degraded in spirit as
to submit to have the rights of the great body of the people filched
away by the most grasping, griping and intolerant religionists that
ever cursed any nation. The new aspect which the workings of your
system in this diocese present has made deep impressions on the warm-
est advocates of the Board in this quarter, and I am much afraid that
ere long, patriotism, and principle and truth will compel them, how-
ever reluctantly, to join Connaught in its protest against a system
which raised their hopes, only to end in the most bitter disappointment.
I regret that I have had occasion to write this much. I consider, how-
ever, honesty and candor the best and safest policy. Anxiously await-
ing your reply, I have the honor to be.

Your obedient servant,

Edward Maoinn, P. P. of Fahan, &c.

Messrs. Cross and Dowdall, Joint Secretaries of the National Board
OfBce of Euacation, Marlborough Street, Dublin.

P. S. In your letter of the 1st October, you stated that the applica-
tions of the years '37 and '8 should be first disposed of, before any
new ones could be entertained. In last report of Commissioners, it is
stated that the applications of said years were disposed of, so that ours
being made in the year '39 should now come under the Board's consid-
eration. The aid already afforded in this quarter was, I admit, consid-
erable, but you are not to forget that in said aid three extensive par-
ishes were contemplated, and taking into account extra parochial
places over which we have the spiritual superintendence, including in
all over twelve thousand of a poor population. E. M.

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

And fearing that his private remonstrances, however
emphatic, might fail to arrest the dangers which he fore-
saw, he addressed to the press many urgent argu-
ments against the transfer of the trusts from the local
guardians to official hands. When, in addition to these
changes, the Board proposed to erect a certain number
of model schools in the chief cities, Mr. Maginn drew
up a series of resolutions for a meeting of the supporters
of the schools founded by him, more fully expressive
of his opposition. As stating the whole question at
issue, we give the resolutions from his manuscript.

RESOLUTION CONCERNING THE NATIONAL SYSTEM OF EDUCATION III

IRELAND.

Resolved, Firstly, That as one of the reasons assigned by His late
Holiness, Gregory XVI., for a toleration of the National System of Ed-
ueation, was the supposition that especial care would be taken to have
the trust of the National School-houses exclvMvely vested in the Catho-
lic bishops and clergy, we cannot view without alarm the pretensions
lately put forward by the Commissioners of said National Education,
to have the trusts, already vested in the Catholic bishops, clergy, or
Catholic people, transferred from them to the Commissioners, and the
determination of said Commissioners not to allow any grant to be
made to any school-house to be erected, unless the premises be hence-
forth vested in themselves, we look upon as pregnant with danger to
the best innterests of reigion, as it must have been thereby intended,
to remove altogether the direction and control of the education of the
Catholic people from the hands of the Catholic clergy and laity, to
their inspectors or ofScers, irresponsible to Catholic ecclesiastical su-
pervision, and for that reason unworthy of Catholic confidence.

Secondly. That it is a duty incumbent on the Catholic prelacy of
Ireland to prevent, by all justifiable means, the trusts vested in them,
their clergy or people, from being transferred to the Commissioners ;
and to discountenance any National School so transferred, and to

LIFE OF RIGHT BEY. EDWARD MAGINN.

'
i

withhold their approbation from any school-hoase or school henceforth
to be erected or established, subject to these new and insidious regula-
tions of the National Board.

Thirdly. That we view as traitors to the trust reposed in them the
Catholic Trustees of National Schools, who have allowed or will allow
the trust to pass from their hands, and thereby sacrifloe to their own
eaae the interests of the Catholic community, of which they have been
constituted the guardians.

Fourthly. That the plea put forward by the CommissionerB for the
withdrawal of the trust-deeds from the local Trustees of the National
Schools, viz., " that the school-houses were not kept in sufScient repair,
and that, by the new arrangement, they would be repaired at the ex-
pense of the Board,'' we believe to be a crafty device to induce the
Catholic public to acquiesce, without opposition, in the transfer of
their trusts, patronage and management of the National Schools ;
since the Commissioners could as well have repaired the school-houses
at the public expense under the former arrangement, as under their
new regulations.

Fifthly. That the Model Schools about to be erected in the principal
towns of Ireland, being altogether conceived on the same plan, are
made subject to the same regulations as the Infidel Colleges, and appar
rently projected for the same sinister purposes, ecclesiastical supervis-
ion being wholly excluded from them, we hereby enter our solemn pro-
test against them, and pledge ourselves to discountenance them, unless
the principle of proper ecclesiastical control be recognized in their
management, which we cannot renounce without relinquishing our
duties.

With this controversy — in which he was so far suc-
cessful as to arrest the alienation of school titles in his
own and the adjoining diocese — we naturally connect
his course upon the government system of academic
education, introduced by Sir Eobert Peel in 1843.* Of

* In 1847, when the Catholics of Derry, having met in their school
house to present Dr. Maginn ^ith a carriage, as a token of their re-
gard, the Commissioners threatened to withdraw their grant (£15 per
year) from the school. This led to another unpleasant correspondence

LIFE OP BIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

tliis, however, the better place to speak will be under
the head of " relations and correspondence with Eome,"
farther on in the narrative.

These various displays of his ever-ready resources
naturally drew towards him the confidence of the people
and the deference of his own order ; and his manners
captivated all whom his fame attracted. During the

between the Board and the Bishop, from which we give an extract on
his part:

" If I be not misled by the information I have received, there has
been no transfer made of this room to the National Board. A salaried
teacher under the National Board has been permitted to teach in it by
the Catholic people, whose property it is, and I beg to inform the Com-
missioners, on the part of the Catholic people of Derry, that they re-
cognize no title to this school-room to be in any way vested in the
Commissioners.'' • • •

" I wonld most respectflilly suggest to the Commisidoners to inquire
of their superintendents in Derry and Coleraine, how many Bible
meetings, prayer meetings, and sectarian meetings of every cameleon
hue, and even worse meetings than these here specified, are being held
weekly and monthly in this and the neighboring counties, even in
tehoola built hy the National Board. It may be that such meetings in
these National Schools are in harmony with the feelings of the Com-
missioners, and not prohibited by their rules ; but that it is only in
such schools as have been built by the Catholic people and tfnder Ca-
tholic patronage and management, that the Commissioners' rules pro-
hibit meetings of the Catholic clergy and their people for the most
inoffensive and non-sectaiian purposes. • * «

" I have had much to do with the National System and the Commia-
missioners for many years back. I can safely say, without fear of con-
tradiction, that I did more to give that, system a fair trial and a re-
spectable footing at great personal expense and inconvenience, than
any other individual in the province. To have the Catholic inhabit-
ants of Derry thus insulted in my person is anything but the gratitude
I expected at the hands of the Commissioners or theif underlings."

■\i

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

■ i

summer season, his cottage at Buncrana was the home
of the clergy who resorted to that watering-place. His
hospitality to his brethren was only inferior to his char-
ity to the poor. His genial disposition, his conversa-
tion ranging through a wide field of acquirement, or
fraught with poetic fire, or bursting into brilliatft sallies
of wit and humor, gave a charm to his entertainments
which mere tasteless wealth never can command to its
dull festivals. "Amid the wild mountain scenery of
Innishowen," says one of the journalists who poured out
his tribute of sorrow at his grave, " his heart was wont
to expand with hopes and aspirations of future happi-
ness and glory for Ireland. Here it was delightful to
listen to him, in the language and spirit of Ossian, pour
forth his soul in alternate accents of tenderness and in-
dignation, describing the unhappy condition of his na-
tive land; and many, very many, whose privilege it
was to enjoy his hospitality, as they read these lines,
will remember the truly happy hours they spent at that
saintly and hospitable retreat." " His pre-eminent qual-
ity," says a Derry editor, " at least in the minds of those
who did not participate in his religious or political opin-
ions, was an extreme sensibility, an almost womanish
tenderness of heart, which was not sterile, as it is with
some, but was manifested, not ostentatiously, in corre-
sponding acts. His charity, and also his hospitality,
whether as parish priest or coadjutor bishop, had no

LIPS OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

limits but in his means ; and we believe that of tne Pro-
testants who had the honor of his acquaintance, there
is not one, however much opposed to his views, who ia
not prepared to acknowledge that in the exercise of those
virtues he recognized no distinction of creeds. He felt
ardently on all subjects. As is usual, however, with
persons of that temperament, he was remarkably placa-
ble after having taken offence ; and it has been observed
to us by one who knew him well, that he was apt to re-
store friendship which had been withdrawn, with more
warmth than it had been at first bestowed. In all the
moral relations of life he was as blameless as a human
being could well be ; and if he had personal enemies,
which is very questionable, no man could have had
fewer."

With such personal gifts, superadded to a reputation
almost national, it is not difficult to imagine the influ-
ence he exercised throughout Donegal and Derry. He
was consulted on all difficult cases by his diocesans, and
even by those from a distance. He was the leading
spirit at the Conference, and on the public platform.
The gentry feared and courted him according to their
consciousness of his determination of character and their
own deserts. The poor brought their grievances to him,
and he was seldom without needy clients and cases of
oppression at his gate. All he had he gave ; what he
wanted for the poor he asked fearlessly of the rich, and

LIFE OF BIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN,

he was seldom refused. For himself, he took no heed
of to-morrow, remembering always the parable of the
lilies of the field, and who He was who uttered it.
Though no man was bolder in God's cause, none was
ever more modest in his own.

His brother priests manifested their regard and admi-
ration for him on all public occasions. Invitations to
preaeh abroad on great festivals poured in upon him.
He rarely accepted these beyond the limit of his own
diocese, but within it he felt every parochial necessity
almost as keenly as his own. One who heard him in
the prime of life, and who exhibits respectable talents
in the portrait he then drew of him, has thus described his
style and effect as a preacher :*

" The last time I heard him was on the 27th of November, 1831,
when he preached a charity sermon in aid of the Amds for erecting a
chapel, in a district where snch an erection was grievotxsly required.
The celebrity which he has obtained as a preacher, the circumstances
under which he was abont to speak, and the subject which he had
chosen, all conspired to give extraordinary interest to this discourse.
My own expectations were sanguine, and yet they were more than real-
ized. There is something irresistibly prepossessing in the first appear^
anoe of this man, whish secures your attention even before he has said
anything fine. The senses are the avenues to the heart ; and his strik-

* This sketch was written by Mr. Peter McLaughlin, a diyinitiy
student, who was obliged by sickness to quit College, and died young.
He was a near relation of the Bishop of Derry of the same name,
and during his wanderings through his native province in search of
what he did not find— better health — wrote sketches of several noted
clergymen for the Belfast Vindicator. This of Dr. Maginn is headed
" Pulpit Sketches, No. VII.," but I am not aware that it was published.

LIFE OF BIGHT BEY. EDWABD MAOINN.

log meln, graoeAil maaner and mellowey tones inaenaibly oaptivate
two of them, by the time he has rounded his first period. The contour
of the countenance is Byronio, without any of the harsher lineaments
with which we sometimes see Byron portrayed. The first feature that
takes your attention is the lofty, intellectual forehead, thrown in rich
relief by a profusion of sable locks, short, thick, crisp and curling ;
then the eye, well set, lucid and mind-lit ; while the nose, of a middle
order between Grecian and aquiline, gives a statuesque correctness to
the profile ; and there is an air of winning amenity in the smile of Ma>
glnn, which plays around his mouth, and of which no change of coun-
tenance can altogether diyest it The outline belongs to a high order,
the features are strongly marked and regular ; yet when unexeited,
expressing more placidity than ardor, they are pensive, pale and pas-
sionless, but when he addresses himself to speak, they brighten at once
into animation and intelligence, and when thoroughly excited, passion
corrugates his brow, and burns upon his cheek, and flashes from his
eye, but still the lower features, indicative only of the milder feelings,
seem unwilling to be stem, and contribute nothing to a frown. His
discourse on this occasion was masterly and emphatic ; and with all
the embellishments of high finish and elaborate preparation, it pos-
sessed the singular advantage, so essential to a sermon, of being so
exactly adapted to the understanding of all his audience, that all
seemed perfectly to understand him ; and while it astonished by its
eloquence and the brilliancy of its illustrations, it instructed by the
profundity of its research and the perspicuity of its details, it warmed
and edified the heart by its piety, while it captivated the attention by
the terseness and originality of its diction, and all the varied graces
of pure, natural, glowing eloquence. He seems to know that his busi-
ness as a clergyman is to persuade rather than to convince, and ac-
cordingly he does not make a useless expenditure of his powers, in
proving what requires no proof, namely, that charity, virtue, reli^^on
and truth are good things, or that impiety, irreligion and infidelity are
detestable in their nature and ruinous in their consequences ; but he
labors to make others feel these solemn truths with the same ardor
and intensity as himself; in short, to add feeling to conviction, and
action to feeling. His msmner is so earnest and impressive, or he pos-
sesses the ' magna ara eelare artem* in such a degree, that his most
elaborate periods seem but the spontaneous effusions of the moment —
the warm overflowings of the heart -rather than the matured and de-

LIF£ OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAOINN.

liberate produotloni of the head, and yoa oannot aoouae that of ' gmtll'
ing of the lamp' which eeems to come free, and flresh-flowing and nn-
porohased as the fragrance of the morning. His views are clear and
Tlyid, and he has a full, distinct and absolute possession of his suljeot ;
a warm heart and a cool head give him the very rare combination of
cool, strong, practical common sense, superadded to a brilliant and
ejccursive imagination, and, if I mistake not, a vigorous poetic fancy,
combining thus « with the flash of the gem its solidity too ;" having
read much and reflected more, he ranges authors in flies and classifies
them, and quotes them not individually, but in groups, and seems as
conversant with tho Jeromes and the Augustins, the Bossuets and the
Bonaventures of bygone times, as with the more modern lucubrations
of contemporary genius. He has thus stored his mind with an im-
mense accumulation of general and diffusive knowledge, from whence
he draws at pleasure an imagery bold, various and peculiar, generally
brilliant, always correct, sometimes striking, never inappropriate, he
is not the man to pause upon a poBsibillty, to dissect a doubt, or calcu-
late a contingence ; he does not willingly descend to the trifling mi-
nutiffi of frivolous detail, and to this contempt of trifles, more than to
his foreign education, may be traced some peculiarities of pronuncia-
tion which seem to have escaped correction through their imputed in-
slgniflcaQce. He delights in splendid generalities ; and armed with
thene he dashes through a sophism, or marks a sentiment, or delineates
a character, or transfuses a passion by one masterly, inimitable stroke.
" Words that breathe and thoughts that burn" are not the ornaments,
but the staple material of his oratory, and he is not felicitous or im-
pressive only In pu^i>lcular passages ; but, through the whole arrange-
ment and tissue of his composition, he never loads his strong concep-
tions and magnificent imaginings, with any useless verbosity. Manly,
terse and nervous, there is no ostentatious amplification of common
sentiments, no prolixity, no redundance ; everything is plain, concise,
condensed. His periods are as solid, as complete in themselves, and
as nicely fitted to each other as the columns at the Giant's Causeway,
and like them, too, they.form one majestic whole, of which yon can
hardly say whether art or nature has done most in the formation.

" There is an eternal spring of fresh-blown images, that seem warmed
into existence by the very glow of his emotions ; the loftiest tones ot
his voice are the best modulated and most heart-thrilling ; his most
vehement gesticulation is by far the most graceful and commanding.

LIF£ OF RIOHTL REV. EDWARD MAOINN.

Aided by all these natural and aoqalred adrantagei, he maaagea the
loftiest aod etrongest paeiioni of oar nature*, and wields, with a gi-
ant's arm, tho pride and the fears, the raptures and the agonies of our
nature, the very air and fire of our human element ; in short, if that
be the finest composition which oonta<"8 the greatest number of the
choicest beauties ; if that be the noblest oratory which leaves the
deepest and most indelible impreasion ; if its efSaota on the heart be
the test of its«zoel)ence, Rev. Edward Maginn may fairly be allowed
to rank superior to many, and inferior to none, of his most distin-
guished contemporaries.'^

CHAPTER III.

0*C0inilLI.*8 LAST ETFORT FOR REPEAL — MR. MA0IlfN*8 f BAL III TBAT
AOITATIOIf^HIS CORRESFOMDENOB WITH THE MARQUIS OF KORMANBT
—HIS CONFIDENCE IN 0*00?TNELL's TRIUMPH— HIS ELEVATION TO THB
EPncOPACT— CONORATULATIONS THEREUPON — NATIONAL POLITICS—
HIS OPINION OF THE TOUNO IRELAND PABTT — HU SUCCESS AS AN
ADMINISTRATOR.

The great domestio qaestion in Irish politics, f^om
1840 till 1848, was the repeal of the Act of Union.
In '84 this question had been raised in the country and
in Parliament by Mr. O'Connell, who was sustained in
his motion by forty -five members of the House of Com-
mons.* In the following session " The Liberator," as
the Catholics fondly and justly called him, abandoned
the question for an experiment of "justice to Ireland,"
which he hoped to obtain from the new reform adminis-
tration of the Empire. This "justice" he sought for in
a series of measures which would raise Ireland in reli-
gious freedom, in representation, in commerce and in
patronage, to an equality with the imperial island. Dis-
covering, after five years support of the British whigs,
that the prospect of such equality was annually grow-

* Forty-four Irish and one English memher (Sir Joehtia Walmsley)
voted for the Repeal of the Union in '34.

LIFE OF KIOUT HEV. EDWARD MAOINN.

ing less, Mr. O'Connell in 1840 sot on foot the " Loyal
National liopoal Association," and invited all good Irish
men to follow him.

In the Catholic provinces, this invitation was re
sponded to with considerable unanimity. It had been
the natural result of former agitations to bring out a local
leader in every town and barony, each a small O'Connell
in his sphere, and these magnates naturally took the
lead in the new combination. In Ulster, however, it
was different. Except the Belfast Vindtcatar^ Repeal had
no organ north of Newry. The Primate, Dr. CroUy,
consecrated in 1834, cordially fell in with the Arch-
bishop of Dublin's policy of conciliation, and his nega-
tive influence had its effect.

In January, 1841, Mr. O'Connell, to test the north,
made his somewhat celebrated visit to Belfast, where a
Presbyterian mob was excited to interrupt and assault
him by the Rev. Dr. Cooke, the principal spokesman of
that sect. On this occasion, he was met at Belfast by
the Bishop of Derry and several of his clergy, including
the Rev. Mr. Maginn, whose national enthusiasm was
always on the alert. They were witnesses to a scene of
popular commotion far ftom honorable to the Unionists
and Orangemen, but which unquestionably proclaimed
that the worshippers in the Kirk were opposed to the re-
storation of the Irish Parliament. They could see in it
only an attempt at Catholic ascendancy; and having

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

H
f

. ll

long known what it was to exercise exclusive aut> - ^,
they could not imagine that Catholics in powei «vould
not retaliate. In the scale of the Empire they were se-
cure though insignificant; and as they had not yet
learned to trust those who so recently escaped their per-
secutions, they resolved to lend their influence to per-
petuate the provincialism by which both classes were
bowed down.

In 1843 and '44, the repeal agitation was at the full.
"Monster meetings" of half a million, three-fourths,
and even a million men, obeyed the beck of O'Corinell.
He gathered them on the historic hills at Lismore, at
Mallow, at MuUaghmast, at Tara — to show the world
that Ireland, after forty years of the Union, declared it
null and void. He spoke mainly words of peace, though
a muttered menace sometimes broke the tenor of his
speech. It was a singular spectacle ; and looking back,
at this distance, on the multitude, the man, and the cause,
not without its glory. Where O'Connell could not pos-
sibly attend in person, it was th jught necessary to com-
plete the demonstration of the national will by drawing
out the whole able-bodied population, and in their name
and presence, denouncing the iniquitous Union. Such
a gathering was held in Innishowen, on Mondav. the 7th
day of August, 1843. Mr. Maginn was the leading
spirit throughout the proceedings ; the resolutions evi-

LIFE OP RIGHT TREV. EDWARD MAGINN.

dently ere his; the cast of parts his; he moved the
chairman ; his was the speech of the day ; he presided
at the concomitant banquet in the evening. Thirty oth^
priests were present; from 50,000 to 100,000 men formed
the auditory. As illustrative of the spirit of the times
and the people, we quote from the account of a local
paper, not committed to the national cause: — "This
meeting," says the Berry Journal^ " which took place
yesterday in the central town of Innishowen, nineteen
miles from Londonderry, was preceded on Sunday by
the arrival here of an immense number of Eepealers
from near and remote parts of the counties Derry, Ty-
rone and Donegal, some of them from the latter county
having came from the remote barony of Boylagh. The
temperance musical band of Letterkenny were among
the arrivals, but we presume that the other Eepealers of
that town, or most of them, found their way to the place
of meeting by the ferry at EathmuUan, by which ferry,
we understand, very large numbers were brought across
Lough Swilly to Eunner-raw Point, within a few miles
of Buncrana, on the same Sunday. The parties who
arrived at Derry remained in Bishop-street, outside the
walls, during the day, and a pledge was given to the
Mayor that there should be no music, which was duly
observed. To quiet all alarm, the constabulary were in
readiness ; but there was not the slightest occasion for

LIFE OF BIGHT BEV. EDWABD MAamN.

their services, the peace having been undisturbed
throughout the whole day."*

At this meeting, a petition to tne sovereign, drafted by
Mr. Maginn, was adopted, and ordered to be transmitted
to the Marquis of Normanby, for presentation. The
prayer of the petition was that " her Majesty might
deign to exercise her royal prerogative " by calling to-
gether the Irish Parliament. Mr. Maginn, who had, half
a dozen years before, presented an address of congratu-
lation jfrom the inhabitants of Innishowen to the Marquis,
(then Lord Lieutenant), conveyed to him t!ie request of
the Carndonagh monster meeting that he should present
their prayer to the Queen. The Marquis, in rather a

* Mr. Maginn's speech on this occasion is not otherwise remark'.ble
than for betraying the nsnal retrospective habit of his mind. In one
place, speaking of the loyalty of Catholics, he said : " Abroad, at
home, in every country and clime, Irish Catholics stand conspicuous
for loyal and enthusiastic attachment to their kings and princes. It
was an Iri^ Catholic priest who accompanied the unfortunate Louis to
the scaffold, and who, whilst death was flinging its shadows around
him, and the guillotine in action before his face, had the boldness to
cry out, in the hearing of the Jacobinical butchers, to the illustrious
victim, " Fils de est Louis montea au del ;" and a namesake of my own
corri'sd the consolations of our holy religion to the unhappy Marie An-
toinette, in spite of the bloodthirstiness of the guards and the vigilance
of her JMlers. At home wo lost our all except our holy faith, by our
loyal adhesion to the unfortunate and ungrateful Stuarts. It is a fact
Sir, that cannot be controverted, that the good Ever McMahon, Bishop
of Clogher, was fighting to the death for a Charles I., at the head of
the Ulster Catholics, near Ennisldllen, at the very time that the same
Charles was signing the Scotch covenant to exterminate the Catholic
name 1 Shall we, then. Sir, who have been faithful to our royal ene-
ndes, prove faithless to a royal friend ?" &c., &o.

ir^

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

lengthy reply for an official letter-writer, acknowledged
the receipt of the petition, but explained his unwilling-
ness to present it, on the ground that it contained advice
" which no minister, even if favorable to the repeal of
the Union, could give a constitutional sovereign." In
explanation, Mr. Maginn assured his lordship thuc the
petitioners, in using that special form of words, strictly
meant " to pray her Majesty to have the Union repealed
in that way only, which the laws and constitution sanc-
tioned." He then proposed, on behalf of the Commit-
tee, to modify the address so as clearly to express that
intention. Thus modified, we believe, it was finally pre-
sented by the Marquis of Normanby. This theory of
the royal prerogative, it may be necessary to add, seems
to have been seriously held by O'Oonnell and other Irish
patriots ; but it was never, so far as the present writer
knows, elaborated with sufiioient reseaich to attract the
attention of constitutional writeri?.*

Mr. Maginn's reliance in C'Oonnell's wisdom, disinter-
estedness, and resources, was implicit and complete. His
admiration for that illustrious man inspires his most pri-
vate correspondence. He was none of those insincere
adherents — too commonly found in the train of great
men — who criticise and condemn in private, what pub-
licly they applaud and eulogize. In 1844, writing to a

* The letter of the Marquis, as a document of those times, is given
in the Appendix from his autograph.

1 Ml::!

LIFE OF BIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

near relative in Kew York, he thus expounds O'Con-
nell's policy, at home, towards England, and the United
States:

"You will of course expect that I would say something on the po-
litical aspect of our country. Our prospects are much better than
they have been. The agitation for Repeal has forced the Minister into
measures of conciliation. The policy of England is not now to coerce
by brute force, but to endeavor to seduce us from the love of indepen-
dence by smiles and favors. You have heard of the Maynooth grant,
and of the excellent manner in which it was made. The manner was
as important as the matter. It was gracious and conciliatory. The
Bequest Bill and the New Academies Act have been proflFered as
boons. In both there is much good, and perhaps as much evil. The
country, and especially our hierarchy, are unfortunately divided on
these subjects. The great majority of the people and clergy are
against them, a few for them, but not of 'hat clas^ in whom the patri-
otic portion of the people have confidence, "j iie general belief is that
they were intended, notwithstanding their plausibility, as apples of
discord, to divide the strength, and waste by battles the energies of
the great Irish party. My own opinion on this subject is, in 'unison
with Mr. O'Connells, that they are ' dead sea fruits, to tempt the eye
and turn to ashes on the lips.' At any rate, England and England's
Minister, thanks to Repeal Agitation, are no longer tho rattlesnalces
of old, carrying with them, in their noisy and deadly track, lenor and
dismay. They may be, however, not less dangerous in their pretended
friendship than in their open and outrageous hostility. The venom
of the asp is not less subtle or deadly, though its approach be noise-
less and its sting be wreathed in flowers. It was quite natural for you
to feel hurt, as an American citizen, at the repeated attacks of Mr.
O'Connell on your adopted country. His language, I am convinced,
must have been prejudicial to the Irish exiles, and capable of strongly
exciting the native American population against them. Many in Ire-
land blamed him much, and considerer* his language rash, wanton and
ill-timed. I am sure no American citizen could have felt morp strongly
on that subiect than numbers of the Irish people The Young Ireland
Party did not hesitate to express their dissatinfaction in language
warm and vigorous. My own opinion is, that there yvm very little hu-

^m.:

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

man policy in Mr. O'Connell's intermeddling wiih a queetion so com-
plicated as tlie slave question must be, in consequence of its long con-
tinuance in many of the states of the Union. There may be, however,
a plea of justification put forward for Mr. O'Conaell, which, to the re-
flecting Christian mind, would be deemed satisf;^ctory. I don't think
that Mr. O'Connell, at his time of life, is much influenced by what we
would call worldly wisdom. His views may be, and I think are, of a
more sublimated nature — more Christian, and more in accordance with
his supposed mission. He considers himself the chosen apostle of lib-
erty, and that he would be deviating from his high and holy vocation
were he to sanction, by word or deed, slavery in any shape or in any
country. He considers the condition of the negro a disgrace to your
Republic ; and being solicitous that the great experiment which man it
making in the way of self-government in the new world, should not suffer
in the eyes of the despots of the old world by that foul, dark spot on
its otherwise glorious escutcheon, he should like to see, as we would
all like to see, the proud American eagle — the noblest bird of the
feathered tribes-pursuing its exalted, onward course on its full-spread
pinions, with steady gaze on the brilliant sun of its destiny, without
being obliged to droop its wing in shame, or with downcast look to
meaner earth, show that it still retained something in common with
the grosser birds — the harpy brood — ^whose lusts are fleshy, who prey
on filth, and riot in the ruin of their making. Hers should be the
duty to teach the young eaglets of the earth, as they burst the shell
of their thraldom, to fly upwards and onwards, and preserve their
steady, undeviating course towards the orb of freedom, and not to in-
duce them, by bad example, to shrink back again to the shells from
which they had been invited by the proud daring of Franklin's bird of
freedom. She should not forget the sublime maxim of her illustrious
parent, " De ccelo eripuit fuhnen, septrumque ti/rannis.^^ Mr. O'Con-
nell, being anxious that the ends of Providence should be thus fully
and fairly carried out ; that the new world which God provided for
man as a refuge from the bondage of the old — as a land of promise
where freedom's ark would securely and forever rest — should not pre-
sent to the eye of ihe European despot God's free and rational crea-
tures, even there in a state of bondage — the free republican, the refugee
from slavery, turned the oppressor and taskmaster of his fellow-crea-
tures in that chartered soil of liberty. To achieve the objects which
Mr. O'Connell has in view, his reliance is on God, and only on man

^i i

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. BDWARD MAGINN.

irhen his c(H)peration is In accordance with God's ordinances. He be-
lieyes that he has a mission from the Divinity to redeem bds country,
and that he will be sucoessftil, eyen if the world were against him.
The slightest deviation from the path of Christian rectitude would, he
believes, compromise his ndssion and make it abortive. He therefore
denounces slavery wherever he Icnows it to exist, and unsparingly
lashes the tyrant wherever he finds him, maldng no distinction between
the crovmed Bear of Russia and the crovmlest Bear of Kentucky, My
own opinion is, that the Czar of Russia, whom he hates with a perfect
hatred, is still less odious in his eyes than the American slaveholder,
as the one acts from principle, and the other against it— the one being
a despot among tyrants and slaves, by birth, breeding and custom, the
other a slaver from avarice among professed freemen, where every sn.>
rounding institution proclaims liberty as the natural and inalienable
birthright of every child of Adam. Not to raise his voice, then,
agidnst such a prostitution of the name of freedom, would be deemed
by Mr. O'Connell a betrayal of liis trust, and sufScient to provoke the
vengeance of heaven against the sacred cause of his country. More-
over, Mr. O'Connell knows from experience that Ireland hitherto relied
too much on foreign aid. He knows that nations are seljishy and seldom
proffer the hand of friendship mthout a selfish motive. France and
Spain were relied on by Ireland, when Ireland should have relied on her-
self. She failed with the selfish, dmhtful and hesitating aid they af-
forded her. Mr. O'Connell firmly hopes that with Irish hearts, Irish
exertions, and Providence as his protector and guide, he shall actdeve,
by purely Christian means, Ireland's independence, and he, for this rea-
son, declines or does not seek any assistance not proceeding from the /lon-
est, the upright, "ni the virtuous, who love freedom for its own sake,
and sympathise with Ireland because her cause is just. The Repeal
movement is gc n* on calmly and triumphantly. There are new and
important access) ons to it every f'ry. There is less noise and more
dignity. The p rople are as resolved as ever, but not impatient. They
bide their time and God's leisure, assured that Ireland's day of pros-
perity must come in England's hour of adversity, and what John Bull
now holds with a iiger^s tenacity, he shall then yield' with the meekness
of a lamb. .Ss Christians bound by the tie of allegiance to the Crown,
Mr, O^Connell and the Catholic clergy could not conscientiously seek a
separation from it. Beyond a domestic and independent legislature they
could not go. This is another reason why Mr. O'Connell is so regai'd-

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

less of the sympathies of other nations, who would not hesitate to urg«
the over-ardent and the less scrupulous beyond tlie path of duty.

The same year, during O'Connell'a imprisonment, he
wrote to his sister, a resident of Montreal :

" I have said so much of your friends, that I have scarcely left my-
self space in order to say a word about poor Ireland, and Ireland's
immortal Liberator, Daniel O'Connell. Ho is now, as you already
know, immured in a prison for his patriotism, while his indignant coun-
trymen are forced to look on, as if they were apathetic or indifferent
to his fate. They have now, thank God, much prudence and political
wisdom ; they will not risk Ireland's future freedom, happiness and
prosperity by any rash or fruitless struggle for the present. They bide
their time, leave vengeance to the God of justice, and calmly yet con-
fidently await the day when He, in his goodness, will enable them
safely and securely to claim their rights, or, if you please, assert them.
Mr. O'Oonnell is the apostle of peaceful regeneration ; he is anxious
to set an example to the nations of the earth that war is no longer ne-
cessary to achieve the liberties of mankind. He has been hitherto
successful, and will yet, we fondly and firmly hope, live to see this par
triotic and Christian problem solved, in the perfect redemption and
regeneration of his native country. He is now, to be sure, in prison,
suffering in the cause for which others bled he is not, however, the
less powerftil by being in chains. Dan in the lion's den or fiery fur-
nace is still more terrible to Ireland's enemies, than he has been on the
heights of Tara-hill or Mullaghmast. The rent goes on accumulating
since his imprisonment, until it has reached last week £3,400. The
ministry that imprisoned him is tottering to its fall. All the political
parties appear to be in confusion. The Lord appears to have con-
founded them and reduced them to a chaos, before he makes the light
of freedom break upon our country. They seem to be blinded and
running headlong to their ruin, like the tyrants of Egypt before the
deliverance of the Isrti jlites from their bondage. Never were the Irish
people in better hones, nor more dismay among their political op-
posers."

In 1845, the parish clergy of Derry, according to a
time-honored and ennobling custom in the Irish Church,

LITE OF RIGHT RKV. EDWARD MAGINN.

had presented three names to Borne as candidates for
Coadjutor Bishop of the Diocese. The incumbent, Dr.
McLoughlin, being afflicted with a serious mental ail-
ment, the whole administration would naturally fall into
the hands of the Coadjutor. For this great trust, Mr.
Maginn was almost unanimously named Dignissimus.
Writing to an old friend and schoolfellow, in August of
that year, he deprecates (and who can doubt with what
sincerity ?) this new dignity :

" I hare hitherto passed over your verj kind congratalations, bear-
ing on a recent nomination. The reason is, I did not consider that I
had any occasion to congratulate myself on that event. It came upon
me by surprise, and completely unnerved me. I would have much
preferred to remain with my good, kind flock, to any dignity which
the Church could offer, and it would have served me better to have
taken down a pair of long beads, which have been enjoying, through
the bustle and aunoyance of a laborious mission, their otium cum dig-
niiate for the last twenty years, and to have busied myself with them
for the time to come, thaa to grasp with an enfeebled hand a crozier,
or to have my already too much belabored brains encumbered with
that uneasy kind of head-dr(>':ei, called a sxltre. Whatever view, how-
ever, Providence may have with respect to us, it is our duty to sub-
mit, and under all circumstances to do our best ; no more will be ex-
pected from us than that little."

Towards the close of the year, the Bulls arrived for
his consecration as Bishop of Orthosia * and Adminis-
trator of Derry ; and the ceremony was fixed to take
place early in January. Congratulations poured in upon

* Orthosia, a seaport of Syria, thirty miles north of Tripoli, was a
famous Christian fortress in the Middle Ages. It is supposed to be
identical with the modern Tortosa.

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

the Bishop-elect from every part of the kingdom. Br.
Caiitwell, Bishop of the royal Diocese of Meath,- ad-
dressing him from Dublin, on the 15th of Dccer^ber,
wrote : " Now that the Bulls for your consecration have
arrived, permit me to congratulate not yourself, but the
Diocese of Derry and the Irish Church, on your eleva-
tion to the Episcopal dignity. A mitre seldom adds to
earthly comfort or happiness. Its thorns will, I hope,
become gems in your eternal crown."

The Primate, Most Kev. Dr. Crolly, though not so
thoroughly national as Dr. Maginn, cheerfully consented
to assist at his consecration, while Dr. MacHale, Arch-
bishop of Tuam, the most constant patriot among the
Prelacy, added his congratulations at the first opportu-
nity. Dr. O'Higgins, Bishop of Ardagh, his old Profes-
sor in the Irish College at Paris, was not in the country
at the time the ceremony took place, but in April fol-
lowing, on his return home, he addressed him a very
hearty letter, explaining the cause of his absence from
the consecration :

"Owing to my absence from this diocese for a considerable time,"
he wrote, " it is only now that your lordship's esteemed letter of the
2d January reaches me. Be plea^^ed to accept my warmest thanks for
the valued invitation which that letter conveys, and believe me, there
is no Irishman in or out of the Episcopacy who rejoices more than I
do at your lordship's elevation.

" I am far from congratulating yourself on your appointment, for
your cares will be augmented and your worldly happiness diminished,
but I do sincerely congratulate the body to which you now belong, on
receiving, in these trying times, so valuable an accession."

!<*fifiie>i«|!',''

'W^

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAQINN.

The consecration took place on tho 1 Sth of January,
1846, in the cathedral, at Waterside. The Most Rev.
Dr. Crolly, the Primate, officiated, assisted by the Bish-
ops of Meath and Clogher. The Bishop of Down and
Connor, Dr. Denvir, was also present. Rev. Philip
Devlin read the BuP- ; the Rev. Dr. Murray, the very
distinguished Professor of Maynooth, preached on the
occasion, from Matthew xvi. In the evening, according
to hospitable custom, the new Bishop entertained the
Prelates and clergy at dinner, when the honors of the
table were rendered by host and guests to " His Holi-
ness the Pope," "the Queen," "Daniel O'Connell,"
" His Grace the Primate," and the Rev. Preacher. The
Primate proposed " the new Bishop," and then the or-
dinary sentiments on sujh occasions were offered and
honored. *

To the people of his native province, and the faithful
of the diocese, this event gave the greatest satisfaction.
The inhabitarts of Derry, the Waterside, Moville, Fa-
han, Buncrana, Maghera, Cloughcorr, Carndonagh,
Malin, Clonmany, Coleraine, Faughanvalle, Omagh,
Strabane and Cappagh, contributed a purse of £200, to
present him with a testimonial of their regard and grat-
ification. Among the contributors were the best and
most patriotic of Innishowen, as well as the principal
Catholic traders of the towns. But what must have
* Batteroby'g Catholic Directory, for 1847

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

gratified the new Bishop more than all the rest, was the
cordial co-operation in this testimonial of the Rev.
erend Messrs. McLecr, McCarron, Quinn, O'Kane and
O'Loughlin, his associates in " the Derry Discussion " of
1828. The presents — a cari'^_,_ and jaunting car —
were presented in the school n ^ f* St. Columba's, on
the Friday following the con^i u Wm. McLough-

lin, M. D., the Secretary, in the presentation address,
referred, in these terms, to the personal merits of the
distinguished recipient. lie said :

" The united parishes ha is about to leave — and I may add the dio-
cese at large — can bear ample and houortible tcbtimony to his enthu-
siastic and persevering exertions in diffusing among his people the
advantages of a good and moral education, He has succeeded in
erecting in his own parish, at great inconvenience, anxiety of mind,
and considerable personal expense, fourteen of the largest and most
splendid schools to be seen in any district in Ireland, the average daily
attendance at which is between sixteen and eighteen hundred children.
The answering and general proficiency of these children in all the or-
dinary branches of education, and even in some of the most abstruse
sciences, has been the subject of admiration as well as delight to every
one who has had the felicity of witnessing their public examinations.
In addition to this, he has built a magnificent chapel .n Fahan, and
begged throughout the three kingdoms to realize the means by which
he accomplished that noble and praiseworthy undertaking. He had
also purchased ground in the neighborhood of Buncrana, and was
about to proceed with the erection of a second house of worship
(which is now rapidly progressing) at the time he was elected by his
brother clergymen to fill the important and responsible office of bishop
of this diocese — and elected, too, with a unanimity, I believe, quite
unprecedented in the history of episcopal elections — conduct that was
creditable alike to the judgment and discrimination of the independent
clergy of the diocese, as it must have been highly gratifying to the
feelings of the distinguished individual himself whom they so cordially

•rM

^^"f^.

IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

1.0

1.1

itt lib& 12.2
•S lio 12.0

11.25

Photographic

Sdencjes

Corporation

23 WIST MAIN STRUT

WIBSTiR,N.Y. MSM

(716) •73-4303

LIFE OF RIGHT BEY. EDWARD MAGINN.

and unanimonsly supported. These are only a few among the many
services he has rendered religion and edacation in his own immediate
locality ; hut when we come to view his character as a public man,
what do we find 1 "Vie have seen him, in every instance, identifying
himself with the people in all their struggles for civil and religious
liberty — invariably standing by the side of the oppressed against the
oppressor, and using his gigantic exertions to elevate the moral char*
acter, and ameliorate tlie wretched and impoverished condition of his
fellow-countrymen. Although he never acted the part of the syco-
phant, nor courted the smiles of the magnates of the land, but, on the
contrary, asserted his principles fearlessly and without compromise ;
still, I have no hesitation in saying that there never was a man more
universally esteemed by his dissenting brethren in his own neighbor-
hood. They have always lived together on the most friendly and inti-
mate terms ; and, although differing widely from him, and no 4oubt
sincerely and conscientiously, at the same time they admire, and give
him credit for his candor and independence. The majority of you,
gentlemen, remember well the celebrated discussion that was held in
this city in the year '28. Ton know the origin of that discussion —
you are well aware that the country, at that time, was overrun with
persons deputed to revile, blacken and calumniate your country and
religion, and that a deputation had actually arrived here with the view
of establishing a branch of their society. Who, I ask you, was among
the foremost on that occasion, to come forward and oppose these itin-
erant fomenters of sectarian animosity 1 It was no other than the
man whom yoa have met to honor this day ; and, when provoked
into that discussion, he took hie stand manfully (with the rest of his
brother clergymen), and never will the people of Derry forget the
learning, the research, the tact, the talent, the powerful and matchless
eloquence he displayed in that memorable debate. He did not rest
satisfied, either, with the celebrity and popularity he so justly earned
on that occasion, and retire from the world to enjoy the otium cum dig-
nitate ; no, Sir, onward was still his motto. No student has ever read
with greater enthusiasm and assiduity than he has done since that pe-
riod. You will be always sure to find him, several hours each day,
occupied in that mngniffioent library bequeathed to him by his uncle,
the lamented and illustrious Doctor Slevin, formerly professor in the
college of Maynooth, and the result, gentlemen, is as it should be —
learning and virtue and piety have received their reward ; and vou

LIFE OF RIGHT BEY. EDWARD HAGINN.

have nov placed over you one of the most enlightened and exemplary
men in the Oatholic Church, an honor to your diocese and an orna*
ment to the hierarchy of Ireland."

In his reply, the patriot Bishop spoke, among other
things, these :

" I barely did my duty. He could not claim the character of the
minister of Christ, who did not preach charity to all made in the image
of God the Father, and redeemed by the blood of his Son, Christ. He
would not be the minister of him who was given as a ' light for the rey-
elation of the Gentiles' and the * glory of the people of Israel,' who
would not have recourse to all the means in his power to endeavor to
enlighten the youth entrusted to his spiritual care. Ireland was de*
prived of knowledge that she might be made a slave. Instruction
was made penal, that her faith might be filched from her in her igno-
rance. The duty of the Catholic priesthood, who can approve only
of moral means to redeem their country, is to make her free by know-
ledge, and encircle her ancient faith with those lights without which
half its beauties become invisible. The groundwork, I fondly hope,
has been laid not only in the narrow sphere of my weak action, but
elsewhere throughout the length and breadth of Ireland, for a new
people who will know their rights, and as men and Christians enforce
them — ^know their social duties and practice them ; who will know
their religion, and be able, with reason's arms, to defend it I Mill al-
ways consider it a sacred duty to co-operate everywhere in the ad-
vancement of knowledge, but of knowledge under the guidance of re-
ligion, which shall tend not only to enlighten the mind, but to form
the heart to virtue. To my humble advocacy oi' the perfection of tem-
perance, it would be uncandid in me not to say that I look back with
some pleasure, as I had an opportunity of witnessing the good results
to society, as well as to individuals ; and, to the credit of oar people
be it spoken, that of the many thoasands who, in my presence, pledged
their faith to total abstinence, I have not known more than six or
eight, at most, who proved faithless to their engagements. The same
holy and sacred principle which made their fathers renounce titles,
dignities, honors, wealth, their estates, liberties, and even life itself,
sooner than take an oath which conscience did not approve, makes, in
apiie of inveterate habits, and that weakness and ficklensss for which

■'m

LIFE OF BIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINK.

mankind are so remarkable, their simple word of promise inviolable.
For snoh a people God has surely in store a glorioas destiny ! You
were kind enough to say that I was only stern when defending the
poor against oppression. Believing the poor to be the ' treasures of
God's Church,' I must have proved false to my vocation, had I stood
on the side of the •powerful against the weak, or of the oppressor
against the oppressed. The rica seldom want advocates — the poor of-
ten. My sympathies, I own, have been always with the poor and
lowly. In this I have had a bright example in His eonduct, who re-
fused to go to the mlei's daughter, and went with all alacrity to the cen-
turion's servant. I am Inppy to be able to record that my defence of
the supposed rights of the poor has not hitherto lost me a friend, or
made me a single enemy ; even those to whom, for the poor's sake, I
was in a few instances opposed, on a proper understanding of my mo-
tives, are now amongst my warmest friends. You complimented me
on my patriotism If it be a virtue, I confess I felt and feel its influ-
ence. If it be a crime to prefer Ireland, her honor and happiness, to
that of any other country on earth, I plead guilty to that soft im-
peachment. I in all sincerity pity the Irishman, bred and bom in
Ireland, who could love with equal fervor any other land on earth.
Ireland is our second mother ; her soil is sacred for us ; her honor,
her glory, her independence should, after God and his holy faith, en-
list all our sympathies, excite our warmest affections, and, to promote
them, concentrate all our CDergies. Difference in religious belief should
not make us forget the duty of loving our common country, which
not to love would be as unnatural as it would be monstrously singular.

" If I forget thee, Jemsalem, let my right haiid be forgotten.
Let my tougae cleave to my Jaws if I do not remember thee ;
If I make not Jemsalem the beginnlnr ' J07.
Bemember, Lord, the children of Eda* ( 3 day of Jenualom.

Who say, raze it, raze it, even to the foonoittion thereot
Oh I daughter of Babylon miserable; blessed shall he be
Who shall repay thee the payments which thou hast paid ns.'*

Such was the song attuned to a sacred lyre by the man after God's
own heart. If such holy and deep devotion to country pervaded the
breasts of all Irishmen, Ireland's tale of misery would only appear on
the page of history, and her career of national independence and hap-
piness would date from that blissful hour. The nature of your invalua-
ble presents, coupled with your too flattering and complimentary ad-

LIFE OF BIGHT BEY. EDWARD HAOINN.

dreas, shall, I trust, plead my apology for this lengthened and tedious
expression of my feelings regarding both. Muoh as I esteem your gift*
and good opinion of me, I esteem your prayers to the throne of meroy
for me more. I cherish the hope that you, on your part, will be un-
ceasing in your orisons to the Gi-rcr of all good gifts, that I may know
and efficiently discharge all the duties I owe to a clergy so r ious, and
a people so generous and devoted. It wUl be my highf-.^t ambition
and not less my duty, aided, as I trust in God'a goodness to be by his
grace, to devote myself and all my energies to your service and that
of our holy religion, making up by single-mindedness and untiring
seal what I want in ability. My earnest and constant prayers will be
to God, that he may, from the treasures of his mercy, recompense
your pious liberality ; and as you have neared for me the distances and
made my labors lightsome, that he may near to you his meroy, and
' enrich you in all utterance and in all knowledge, as the testimony of
Christ is confirmed in you, so that nothing be wanting to you in any
grace, waiting for the manifestation of our Lord Jeeus Christ,' (St.
Paul to Cor., 1st chap.), so that we may all one day come to embrace
each other in holy charity in heaven, and recognize each other as the
lovers of the same amiable Lord, met there to be inseparable compan-
ions in the love o^ our Saviour Jesus, face to face, for ever and ever.
Amen.

Sucli were the sentiments with which, in one of the
darkest and most melancholy days of Ireland's fortune,
the new Bishop of Derry assumed his high duties ; and
such were the feelings with which his neighbors, his sub-
jects, his countrymen, and his brethren of the Hierarchy
beheld his well-deserved elevation.

As the views of Dr. Maginn in relation to the unfor-
tunate division of the Irish national party, in 1846, have
been often mistaken and sometimes misrepresented, it is
our duty to give those views here, in his own emphatic
language. In December, 1846, writing to the Most

•LIFE OF BIOHT BEY. EDWARD MAOINN.

*Eev. Dr. toghes,'of New- York, he expresses* himself in

these-t6yms of the. Young Ireland party: .

- " We have now a Young and an Old Ireland ; Yonng Ireland half
orasy, stratting with not less pompons folly than disthigiUBbed Smol-
let's Sir Lanncelot Greaves, armed capapie with a msty sword and
gun, harnessed with steel and bristling with ftiry ; talking of war and
revolutions, of deposing leaders, and taking the whole management of
our concerns into their prudent, steady hands. Old Ireland sticks, of
course, to its old experienced leader, Mr. O'Gonnell, and is stupid
enough to imagine that he alone is capable of steering the vessel
through the stormy sea and against the adverse winds with which now,
more than ever, she has to contend. Mr. O'Gonnell is too piotu, too
Catholic and too cauti<n*9 for the young blood of Dublin. Religion
mast be divorced from Irish politics, and heaven's blessing disre-
garded, or there is no hope for Ireland."

To a near relative in the same city, he wrote, under

the same date :

" The curse of Division is still on Ireland's children. Some of our
yonng men, forgetting the savionr of their country and blaspheming
the hands that struck the fetters from their own limbs and those of
their parents, would wish to be leaders, whilst they should still be, as
every man of sense avows, in their mammas' leading-strings. I was
sorry to find from your letter to me, that you feel with them and for
them. Your distance from us prevents you from seeing matters as
they really are. The ashes and smoke which the Young Irelander in
his friry occasions are seen in America, whereas the impure elements
from which they have been emitted are concealed from your view.
Pride, petulance, reckless ambition and the intoxication of a little
learning, the fruitful parent of impiety and irrelig^on, mixed up with a
little enthusiasm and a large ingredient of treachery for filthy lucre's
sake, are the component parts, the friel of this new rabid and fiery op-
position. Mr. O'Gonnell, as you may perceive, has lately put thein
wholly in the wicng, and put you, I fondly hope, right on the subject"

At the beginning of the year 1847, in forwarding the
annual subscriptions of himself and several of his clergy.

LIFE OF BIGHT BEY. EDWABD MAOINN.

to the Bepeal Association, he wrote a letter to Mr. John
O'Connell, of which the following is the principal
passage:

'' It la a pity, in this year of Ireland's misery, when we dioald alto-
gether hold np the shield of hope to the city of Hai, when the whole
people of Ireland should hare only one heart and one sonl, pressing
forward in serried ranks to their country's rescue, to find some of the
young blood of Ireland desecrating those talents with which Ood in-
vested them for the benefit of their race, to the unhallowed cause of
dissension, thereby wealcening the national strength, and affording a
triumph to her enemies, by exhibiting to them what has always been
Ireland's ruin — a divided people.

"We cherished the hope that the sincere and earnest among them
would have listened to your Father's counsels, and once more ranged
themselves with him under his peaceful national banner. The hope, it
seems, was vain ; they have denounced conciliation, preferring the
fond idolatry of their youthful visions to their country's good. Among
the seceders, I believe there are many more deluded than deluding,
the dupes of crafty and designing men, who have practiced on their
generous natures, and made them subserve their own treacherous or
ambitious purposes. They should know well that their present course
may produce much evil, but cannot eventuate in any good. If they
conceived that they could substitute, in the liffeotions of Irishmen, an-
other leader, or encircle that leader with the confidence of the Irish
people, they grossly deceived themselves. They will find themselves,
after having fully made the experiment, in the situation of other sepa-
ratists, who warred with another Liberator in almost parallel circum-
stances—for between the ancient and modem liberators and the peo-
ple liberated, there are striking features of resemblance — all alone hi
their glory, their rods without bud or blossom, and scathed by the
burning anathemas of an iqjured nation. I would. Sir, hate my race,
and curse it with more bitterness than a David did an Edom, could I
think it capable of such base ingratitude as to desert your venerable
father in his now onward course to his crowning triumph, victorious,
as he has been in a thousand fights, after having strangled the serpent
of bigotry with a Titan's strength, and forced haughty England to un-
bar her Senate to the hated Catholic Celt— made the slave the lords of
our cities or the colleges, ermined judges on our bench, and what we

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAOINN.

prized abOTe all, as for them we saffered all, made our altart free.
When In Dublin lately, I saw him for the first tim^' ; I touched that
hand which tore to pieces the penal code ; I hung on that rolce which
so oft thrilled the soul of Ireland, sweeter, softer than the tones of a
lute, and drank with avidity the words dropping from his lips, gently
as the flakes of descending snow, and more refreshing than the dews
of a summer's night. I goeed in raptures upon that countenance mel-
lowed with age and religion ; I thought of that big heart which only
beats for his country's good, and looked on the whole man as if, as
•uch, formed by God to be the dux popttli, as the mountain was created
t^ Him to break the rain-cloud, and convey its refreshing waters to
the valleys ; and I shuddered at what I knew to be a sad reality, that
his fair fame, whiter, purer than the ermine's fur, was attempted to be
sullied by the foul aspersions of even those whom he pressed to his
bosom, taught at the school of his wisdom, and held up to the' honor
of his country with a more than parental solicitude. Of my own im-
pressions delicacy prevents me from saying more, as I am writing to
the son of this venerable father ; but this I would advise, if there be
any Irishman wickedly forgetful of the deep debt of gratitude he owes
him, let him go and spend a few moments in his company, and if he be
not cured of his infidelity after having looked upon that venerable
oak which bore the brunt of the warring elements for nearly half a
century tor his sake, with all his well-earned honors upon him, I wou7d
say that he is incurable, and unworthy to be associated with suoh a
benefactor. For the Young Irelander, with all the enthusiasm of youth
about him ; impatient of the wrongs which his country sufilers, with
feverish dreams of glory to be won for fatherland, anxious for one
bold stroke that would forever prostrate the Saxon, and disenthral his
race ; for him to forget his parent's order, and in his fiery zeal, like a
yonng Manlins, rush from the ranks of his prudent, experienced leader,
because he moved with over-cautious step towards the same goal ; an
excuse, if such there be for any, might be found for him in his way-
ward course. But what excuse can be found for the ungratefril Levltes
for turning away from this modern Moses, by whose indomitable energy
the fetters were struck from his limbs, his creed, temple and order
emancipated from a thraldom worse than that of Pharaoh, and going
over to the house of some Michas, to serve him and his silver god, and
with the venom of asps on their lips, and their throat a gaping sepul-
chre, to immolate, at this new idol's shrine, the character of his liber*

LIFS OF BIGHT BEY. EDWARD MAQINN.

aior. Were I mire that snoh were aoeovnUble beings, with the ordi-
nary feelingi of men, having the power, aa they liare the will, to
wound, I would say to them, in sober earnestness, no matter at whom
yon aim yonr battle-ax,

*0h t woodmtn ip«r« that tt—,
Toaeh not • single bough ;
In yoatb it Btaeltored the*,
Thou ■hooldst protect It now.
That old fkmiUsr tree,
Whoee glory end renews
Are Ikmed o*er land and sea-
Say wouldat thou hack it down?'

" The JasUce of yonr fltther would not be, as it is, Platonio, if it had
not such trials to encounter, and did not meet with ingratitude erea
at the hands it most befriended. But, as hitherto, every tongue that
speaks against him shall not -protfet. He has with him the common
sense of Ireland. Belij^on covers him with her sacred mantle, and
those who love that daughter of heaven more dearly than life, will
never permit the image of O'Connell to be severed from hers in the
sanctuary of their hearts.''

It is apparent from his letters in 1848, that the Bishop
had greatly modified his views of the personal character
and qualities of the principal Young Irelanders. This
also, in justice to his memory, we shall have to show from
under his own hand. But it ought to b& jinown, and
will now be put beyond dispute, that that member of the
Irish Hierarchy, supposed to be constitutionally of most
martial character, wholly disapproved from the outset,
and until the end of his life continued to disapprove, the
deplorable " secession" of 1846. For the seceedera per-
sonally, we will bye and bye find him expressing a high
personal regard, and something nearly akin to admira-
tion. As for their principles, their policy, their political
system, none of the documents he has lefb expresses any

LIFE OF BIGHT REV. EDWABD MAOINN.

other sentiment than regret, or pity, or condemnation.
— A few words in this place on the energy of Dr. Maginn's
administration of Derry. For six years previously the
diocese might be said, in consequence of Dr. McLaughlin's
affliction, to be without a Bishop. But now Mr. Maginn
was no sooner appointed than new life was poured into
every Catholic enterprise. Six new churches were de-
dicated, and about eleven thousand children and adults
confirmed, in the first year after his consecration. So-
cieties of the Living Rosary, Sunday-schools, and paro-
chial circulating libraries, were established in almost
every parish. The diocesan collection for the " Society
for the Propagation of the Faith" was considerably aug-
mented. Simultaneously, the Sisters of Charity and the
Christian Brothers were introduced, and a spacious build-
ing known as " the County House," adjoining the Pro-
testant (confiscated) Cathedral^ was purchased for a Sem-
inary, and dedicated to that holy object, under the title
of St. Columba. Here, when in the city, the Bishop re-
sided, often encouraging and niingling with the students,
who were destined to be the future pastors of the churches
committed to his care. With these as with his clergy
" he was more like an elder brother than a Bishop," set-
ting to all the brightest example of vigilance, piety, la-
bor, and disinterestedness. In his attention to national
afiairs he never lost sight of the paramount claims of his
own diocese, to his daily care and hourly exertions.

CHAPTER IV.

DR. MAOnrys EVIDE5CK BEFORE LORD DEVOURS "COMMISSION Off THV
OCCUPATIOff OF LAND Iff IRELAffD**—- FREQUEffT MALADMIfflSTRA-
TIOM OF THE POOR LAW — THE FAMINE AND THE OFFICIALS— HIS
INDIOffATIOff AT THE DESTRUCTIOff OF HUMAff LIFE— HIS IKCES<
8ANT EFFORTS TO RELIEVE THE FOOR — STRONGLY OPPOSES THE
PROPOSED WHOLESALE EMIGRATION TO CANADA— " SOCIETY FOR
THE CONSERVATION OF THE FAITH."

The Latin rite for the consecration of a Bishop pre
scribes an examination of the postulant, in which among
other questions, it is demanded of him, " "Wilt thou bo
affable and merciful to the poor, to strangers, and to all
indigent persons on account of he name of the Lord ?"
And the Elect answers, " I will." Perhaps no Bishop
of modern times ever made that solemn affirmative more
ardently than Dr. Maginn. All his life long he had been
affable and merciful to the poor, their advocate, adviser,
protector, friend, in all their afflictions and privations.
We have purposedly omitted in the previous chapters
some of the evidences of his loving and watchful care of
the poor, which were before us, and to which we now

\--.i

LIFE OF RIOHT BEV. EDWARD MAOINN.

beg the reader who is resolved fully to understand this
noble character, to lend his patient consideration.

Of Dr. Maginn's attention to social questions, we have
already spoken. Among these by far the most impor-
tant in Ireland, is that which involves the tenure of land.
The question itself is old as " the Reformation," and quite
OS deplorable. It was the fruitful source of wars, confis-
cation, legislation, and agitation for three centuries. Dr.
French and Dr. Swift had plied their pens upon it ; a
Bacon, a Strafford, an Ormond, a Chesterfield, a Bedford,
had acknowledged its paramount importance. When,
therefore, in 1844, the Imperial Parliament for the first
time since the lost confiscation under William III., or-
dered an Imperial commission to inquire into the " Occu-
pation of Land in Ireland," every reformer saw reason to
expect some prospective good. The Province of Ulster,
OS the home of the usage or custom called " Tenant-right"
was likely to occupy a great deal of attention, and there
Mr. Maginn, among many others, prepared himself to be
examined before the commission. He issued a circular
to his brother clergymen, and to others throughout the
diocese, asking for answers to a long series of practical
questions, and the information thus obtained he carefully
digested for public effect. His examination occupied
more time than that of any other witness in his county,
with a single exception, and for its intrinsic interest, as

LIFB OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAOINN.

well as being his, deserves to be given entire — as it is, at
the end of this volume.*

Another subject which never left his mind, was the
administration of the new Poor Law. The operations of
this law, unheard of in Ireland, introduced new relations
and a new machinery into its social life : the relations
of the rate-payers to the poor, of *' the paupers" (an abom-
inable term I) to their guardians, of the guardians to the
clergy of the people, of the government to the clergy and
the guardians, were all to be established and regulated
by experience rather than by statute. The patriot Pas-
tor and Bishop could well remember the time ere Irish
mendicancy had expanded to imperial proportions ; when
the honest beggar was welcome to every kitchen corner
and every peasant's table ; when destitution, though never
accounted a crime, was never confessed until the last re-
sources of long, patient penury had failed ; when, if an
honest man was driven to beg, he crept out in the
grey of evening, and stood, with averted face, in the
shadow of some house or street comer, silently pleading
for the morsel of food he could no longer earn. As a
man of heart and of head, the new provisions for the
poor, established by law, continually occupied Mr. Ma-
ginn's attention. In 1847, when the failure of the
potato crop flung one-third of the peasantry into the
gulf of abject pauperism, the new Bishop had ample

* See Appendix.

LIFE OP BIGHT BKV. BDWABD MAGINN.

opportunities for the exercise of all his energies in their

behalf. Some transactions of this year, connected witu

the administration of the Poor Law at Newtownliman-

ady, at Omagh, at Waterside, and at Cardonagh, were

brought by him to the knowledge of the Lord Lieute-
nant and the public. The following remonstrance we

give, as a specimen of" his energetic correspondence with

Dublin Castle, at that period :

LoNDONDBBRY, Jan. 22, 1847.
May it please ycntr Excellency :

In consequence of a report having been made to me of great num-
bers of the poor dying off daily in the Omagh workhouse, I consid-
ered it my duty, as said work-house is within the precincts of this dio-
cese, to have the strictest inquiry made by one of my clergymen into
the facts of the case as submitted to me. I regret to have to state to
your Excellency that the result of this inquiry more than confirmed
the appalling communications I had from that quarter. During the
month of last December, one hundred individuals fell victims, in this
work-house, to dysentery and scarletina. From the first of this month
till the 17th, more died of the same diseases. I have not been made
aware that any special means were resorted to to stay this mortality.
I am, on the contrary, led to believe that the perishing multitudes
scarcely excited any particular notice from the guardians. May it
please your Excellency, there is no civilized country in the world
where such an appalling event would not at once be brought under
the notice of the proper authorities, and receive from them immediate
attention. Believing in your Excellency's humanity, I leave this, case
in your hands, with all confidence that you will not allow Her Majes-
ty's subjects to die off in hundreds in an establishment benevolently
designed for the preservation of their lives, without having an investi-
gation ordered into the causes which may have caused this mortality.
I have the honor to be, with most profound esteem,

Your Excellency's most obedient servant,

•Jn Eo. Maginn.

I beg most respectfully to submit that it would be in accordance
with the wishes of some of the most respectable and humane in that

^:^-lL.J ]LM-3

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

neighborhood, were some eminent and trustworthy physician in your
Exoellenoy's confidence to be sent down with powers to examine info
the aforesaid deaths, and the kind of treatment they receive during
their illness.

Unfortunately, the extraordinary machinery erected
by the Irish government in that year, to meet the urgen-
cies of the case, was placed, for the most part, in utterly
incompetent hands. Sir John Burgoyne, Sir Harry
Jones, Sir Eandolph Routh, and other imbecile officials,
many of whom have since betrayed their gross incom-
petency on the more conspicuous, but not more fatal
fields of the Crimea, were placed at the head of the
system. Their local appointments were made, for the
mos;- part, from partisan or sectarian partialities. In
Innisnowen this was notably the case, as we find Bishop
Maginix writing to the new Lord Lieutenant, in the
month of March. We give this letter :

BuNCRANA, March 21, 1847.
To Hit Excellency the Earl of Beshoroitgh :

My Lord, — As this is the first intrusion on your Excellency's pre-
cious time which I have made, it will, I fondly hope, be looked on with
special indulgence. I should not even have made this trespass, were I
not urged to it by a deep sense of the duty which the position I hold,
relatively to the suffering poor of this barony, has imposed upon me.
I might, my lord, add to this my anxiety that your Excellency's ad-
ministration should escape the odium which must be attached by the
Catholic public to certain acts said to be done under your high name and
sanction. I therefore respectfully solicit your Excellency's attention
to statements made to us by J. C. Deane, Esq., inspecting oflflcer un-
der the Relief Commission for the Innishowen Union. The first that
your Excellency had appointed, George Young, Esq., Culdaff, John
Harvey, Esq., Malin Hall, Mr. Corbitt, ex-inspector of the butter-mar-

LIFE OF BIGHT REV. EDWARD MAOINN.

i''i

is'

ket, Derry, and Mr. Moore, doer for Mr. Attorney Rankin, with a few
acres of land in the neighborhood of Garndonagh, whose son has been
lately elevated to the clerkship of the work-house, at a salary of £30
per annum, to act as finance committee under the 10 Victoria C 7, and
superintend the distribution of the relief intended by that benevolent
enactment to be imparted to the starving thousands in this barony. I
assure your Excellency that I could scarcely believe my senses on lis-
tening to this statement made by Mr. Deane, and I am sure there is
not a Catholic in this barony who will not feel amazed on being made
aware of the constitution of the finance committee. I consider it a
duty to inform your Excellency that the aforesaid gentlemen have
not, nor should they have the confidence of the Catholic community —
the nine-tenths of the inhabitants of Innishowen. They are by no
means such individuals as we could, with any feeling for our poor, re-
commend or confide in under the appalling circumstances of these
timea. I do not take any exception to their religion, Presbyterian and
Protestant, as a man's religion in such cases should not be questioned.
Our want of confidence in them is based on altogether different grounds.
They have ever been politically opposed to the great majority of the
people. Some of them were conspicuously intolerant in religious
matters, and in some instances disregarding the rights of conscience,
and anything but respectful to the creed of their neighbors. Some of
them made more Catholic exiles from the homesteads of their fathers
than any in this county, and substituted in their stead persons not
less offensive or bigoted than themselves. Your Excellency will per-
ceive that it. is not wonderful such appointments could not be justly
expected to meet with favor in our eyes. What appears to us passing
strange is how, in a barony where the Catholics are as ten to one,
many of them large proprietors, with moie real wealth and more un-
encumbered property than any others of any sect in the barony pos-
sess, the afore-mentioned gentlemen could be selected, and Catholics
vastly their superiors in mental culture and intellect, as well as opu-
lence—who at all times abetted Whig principles, gave their votes to
Whig candidates in the county, met and presided at large baronial
meetings to keep in Whig ministries, whilst the members of our finance
committee were arranged on the opposite side, only remarkable for
their virulence and unmeasured hostility to Whigery, and everything
bearing the character of liberality — have been passed over \mnoticed
when such a committee of surpassing trust and awful responsibility

LIFE OF RIGHT BEY. EDWARD HAGINN.

was oonBtituted. I say it, my lord, with all deference, would it have
been too much for the Catholics of lunishowen to expect fiom your
Excellency the appointment of some one or two of their body on that
finance committee, in whom they could have faith as taking an inters
est in the prese'A>yation of the lives of our poor people 1 There was
in Mr. Moore's neighborhood a young man, heir to a considerable
property — John Doherty, Esq., of Garndonagh — whose dying uncle
contributed more this year to the relief of the poor of this barony,
than the entire proprietors, perhaps, of the whole County Donegal,
and who, during his life-time, gave more in charity to the poor than
the half of the Tories in the county — a young gentleman of intellect
and mental adornments vastly superior to any of the squirearchy in
this union. Was it seemly to have passed him over, and to have ap-
pointed such a man as Mr. Moore, with no mental culture and with
only a ten or twenty-acre farm of land. Believe me, my lord, no
other reason will be assigned for it, but that one happened to be a
Presbyterian and the other a Catholic. If this be the way of estab-
lishing religious equality, and inspiring us Catholics with confidence
in the equity of British rule, I fear much that it will not have * *
* * * a most solemn duty — a duty I owed your Excellency, my-
self and the Catholic community.

I have the honor to remain, my lord,

Tour Excellency's obedient servant,

•{« E. Maginn.

In April, an aged woman, named Elizabeth Byrne,
having died of destitution near Buncrana, from being
refused the usual out-of-door relief, (nine pence per
week) the coroner's jury returned an inquest accord-
ingly, and Bishop Maginn made their verdict the text
of an animated correspondence with the Poor Law
Commissioners. Sometimes, as in this case, the local
officials succeeded in defeating the ends of justice ; but
more frequently, as in the cases at Kewtownlimavady,
Omagh and Waterside, inquiry being granted, the

t .4

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

:■■■'

Bishop and the chaplains were gratified at finding unfit
employees dismissed or better regulations made, in con-
sequence of their remonstrances.

The sufferings of the Irish poor, in that terrible year,
drew from the most distant nations spontaneous offer-
ings of pecuniary assistance. The United States de-
serve the first place among the benefactors of that
nation. France, Italy and Germany were not insensible
to her cries. Mr. Maginn was usually made the agent
of this benevolence for his part of the island ; and per-
haps we cannot do better than give here his eloquent
acknowledgment of donations from the Paris Com-
Liittee. The following letter on this subject is without
date, but was evidently written in the summer of 1847 :

Dear Sir : — I may, I presume, address these friendly, familiar terms,
after the kind acquaintance that I have formed with you by your ex-
treme attention to us in the hour of our need. I beg to acknowledge
two golden favors from you, the one conveying £160 sterling, the
other — the last I had from you — £200 sterling.

To you and the charitable contributors who made you the channel
of these remittances, I beg to express the assurance of our undying
gratitude, and the unceasing prayers and benedictions of our numerous
poor relieved by them. Out of the evils that have befallen our coun-
try, God is working this good. He is exhibiting to those that are
without, the loveliness and beauty of Catholic communion, with all its
endearing practical sympathies. The remotest members of the mystie
body, BO interested in the common weal, well-being, feeling for and
communicating to the wants of their distant brethren, and illustrating
by these sweet manifestations of soul of charity that pervades each
and all the beneficent sentiments of the Gieat Apostle of Ifations,
"who is on fire with whom I do not burn; who is snfifering with
whom I do not sufifer."

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

France, as beeame her, being the heart of Catholic Christianity
through her magnanimous prelates, the ornaments of the Church of
God, not less by their learning than by their charity, has been pre-
eminent in this work of beneficence. In olden timed she was the
refuge of our exiles for conscience' sake, now she is the benefactress of
our starving poor— still the same France to Ireland that she was in
the days of the illustrious Vincent de Paul. She then shared with
them the bread that was necessary for her own starving poor; she,
during the present year, came again to the rescue of our famishing
people, even when her own children were suffering from the severest
visitations. If ever, in the councils of God, it be decreed for our coun-
try to become an independent, prosperous nation, may she forget her
right hand's cunning if she forgets her Catholic-Irish France. It is
with much pain, dear sir, that I have to inform you that our miseries
do not seem to have passed away with the last year's awful catas-
trophe. No. The present forebodes to us even a more direful story.
Last year we had many resources, at home and abroad ; this year they
are all, I may say, exhausted. The little means the poor people had
by them were last year expended to preserve life. They were enabled
to seed their grounds and feed themselves. Their crop, therefore,
their only hope of subsistence, falls far short of the usual produce.

The landlord, whose rapacity was stayed, stunned as he was by the
sudden calamity that befel us, and trembling for the results, the moni-
tor conscience upbraiding him that he was the principal cause of the
misery of the Irish peasant, suspende'd for a season his exactions.
Having had, however, time to take breath, and being encouraged by a
promise of support from our kind government, to enable him with
safety to extort the last morsel of bread from his famishing tenant, he has
not awaited even the gathering in of the harvest to force his rents, but,
like a hungry tiger, pounces on his victims while collecting the fruits
of the earth that God sent them to feed upon for another year, and un-
relentingly carries away the small produce of their toil and labor,
leaving themselves and their naked, shivering, starving families, in the
comfortless cabins to die ; or if they cannot find a Bu£9ciency to pay
their back rents, regardless of the bitter blast of the coming winter or
of the sufferings of the ejected poor forced to wander, without home
or shelter, over the land of their fathers, they leveled to the earth their
cottages and turned to eheep-walks or pasture-grounds for fiheir oxen,
the sacred spots in which beings made to the image of God dwelt, they

LIFE OF BIOHT BEY. EDWABD MAGINN.

and their fathers, oenturiee before theae alien monsters came to fktten
on the spoils of Ireland.

To give you some idea of the extent of the misery that is nearing to
us with the dark clouds of winter, I beg to submit one or two facts :
In the diooose of Derry we have a Catholic population of 230,000
souls ; of these, at the present time, there are at least 50,000 in actual
starvation. Before the first of March, in consequence of the landlords
having forced their tenantry to pay at least, each and all, a year's rent
out of the crop of the season, 100,000 more will be in the same desti-
tute condition.

We have, it is true, a poor law. Its principle is excellent. I say it
in justice to the Whigs ; the excellency of this principle is theirs. Tho
Tories, however, took such care to clog the principle with so many in-
geniously devised obstructions, that the law has become inoperative
and nearly useless as a mode of relief They took care to have the
victims of oppression handed over to the keeping of their oppressors,
making the very persbns the guardians of the poor who made them
poor. The shorn lamb is being entrusted to the wolf's protection ;
the helpless dove is being remitted to the falcon and the vulture for
the grain of corn that must keep it from starving. This, Sir, is British
legislation for Ireland. We are now about to have a coercion bill from
them. We cry for bread, and the aid they give us is in thumbscrews,
racks and tortures. We call upon them as responsible for the lives
of the people they govern, to come at once and feed our famishing
poor, and they answer our petitions with a No, as Britain has ever
done, and an intelligible hint that they have in readiness for us, instead
of provisions, bayonets and musket-balls. They seek their justification
for this treatment in a few murders that have taken place in the south
—murders which as Christians we deplore, and as Irishmen deeply
regret ; but that all Ireland should be calumniated, her poor neglected
and allowed to die of starvation, because a few in one or two counties,
driven to despair by oppression and want, in seeing their wives re-
duced with hunger to hideous skeletons, and their children dying for
want of food in the arms of their famished mothers, their cottages in
ruins and themselves deemed an encumbrance on the land of their
birth, in their reckless despair, looking on earth and heaven as their
enemy, they forget the command, *' Thou shalt not kill" — a command-
ment they see disregarded by those who should most feel its obligation
and set to them the example of forbearance— cast themselves upon

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

those whom they believe to be the oaiue of their misery, hurling them
before them iuto their graves, which they saw had been dug and pre-
pared for themselves. Wiiy not trace these murders to their proper
causes, and supply the only remedy for the redress of wrongs that
have become unbearable 1 They cry out, " O these Irish murderers !"
If they had any other nation under heaven but Catholic Ireland to
deal with, schooled by its clergy into patience which has no example
in the history of the world, not even among the Christians in the eata-
combs — for the rule of Nero or Dioclesian was nothing to the rule of
Ireland — they would have long since experienced that there was a point
beyond which humanity does not endure, and the tyrants would have
been taught a lesson which would have appalled the earth, making
the strong without mercy tremble in the high places. Yirginius
killed his own daughter sooner than allow her to live a blasted flower
of disgrace and misery, and with the bloody dagger at hand, appealed
to Rome for his justification. Any other nation but Ireland, ever fall
as she has been, of faith and of hope, big with immortality, the recom-
pense of patient endurance, would have arisen like one man, and felling
with their chains and fetters their oppressors, or perishing in the at-
tempt, would have exclaimed with the ancient Roman, "A day, an hour
of liberty, is worth an eternity of bondage !"

Anxious to oppress the people, or allow them to perish through des-
titution, they wish to silence their clergy by the vilest vituperation
against their character. To get at the sheep with Impunity, they wish
to muzzle the shepherd, knowing well that they will not suffer the
oppression of those who are so dear to them without reclamation,
without an appeal to the sympathies of the world. By their atrocious
imputations they expect to blacken them before men, so that their
cries to humanity in behalf of their flocks might pass unheeded and
unattended to. They would blacken the whole Irish race, that th({r
might be victimized without commiseration, seeking the justificatioa
. of their inhumanity or barbarity in the depravity of the race they im-
molated. Like the alconda of Ceylon, which is wont to lick over with
its forked tongue, and cover with its poisonous slabber the prey it in-
tends to devour, our enemies besmear us with their foul-mouthed slan-
ders, that they may the more easily swallow us down.

When I reflect on the unhappy state of our country ; on the wrongs
she endured for ages in every locality ; on the utter helplessness of our
poor, and when I consider that man's rule and not God's was the cause

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN

of this ruin, I have been oft almost forced to forget the character bo>
oomiog a Christian bishop, and yielding to the feelings of outraged
humanity, to cry out to the God of justice, " How long, Lord, how
long ?" or to say with the royal prophet, contemplating in the distance
of time, something similar to our condition, Babylon's sway in his own
beautiful Palestine, the temple raised by his own son a hideous ruin,
his own Jerusalem plundered and racked by the heathen invader, the
sons and daughters of his people bending down beneath the weight of
their slavery, and in their sorrow hang their harps on the banks of the
Euphrates, far, far away from the hills of their fathers, and from their
own placid, beautiful Jordan, whose banks had so often echoed with
their songs of joy, " Beatttt qui alidet parvieulos etyrum in petram." The
religion of mercy and forgiveness, however, forbids the aspiration and
invites us to bow our head in resignation to the will of that God who
is patient, because he is eternal, aud who has reserved a day for all
things, when the just and the wicked shall be judged. You will, I am
sure, sir, find an apology for the length of this letter in the feelings
that gave occasion to it. It is the outpouring of a heart deeply sympa-
thizing with its suffering country, and naturally resenting the wrongs it
endures and has endured for centuries. After God, there is no conso-
'lation so sweet to the wounded spirit as to have friends into whose bo-
soms we can confidently pour the secrets of our grief— friends who feel
with us and for us, and whom we know to be ready to wipe the tear
from sorrow's cheek, and pluck, as far as in them lies, the sword of
tribulation from the heart.

Permit me. Sir, again, in the name of the destitute of the diocese
of Derry, and in my own name, to express to you, in the most deepfelt
and warmest emotion of Irish hearts, our thankfulness to you, all the
members of the Irish Relief Committee at Paris, and to all the chari-
table throughout France, who in any way contributed to the relief of
our poor. May the God who is charity repay them one hundred fold
for their beneficence to us — make them happy on earth, and the co-
heirs of his own Divine Son in that kingdom, the sure inheritance of
all who scatter and give to the poor, who are merciful, compassionate
and just, is the fervent, heartfelt prayer of your most faithful, obliged
and devoted servant, ►X'l E. Maginn.

From Boston, New York, and Montreal he also re-
ceived and acknowledged, with his usual eloquence,

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

handsome donations for the use of the poor. From his
correspondence at that period, wo shall give here one
other letter, referring the reader to the Appendix for
further correspondence relating to the Famine. It is
from Dr. Cullen, then President of the Irish College at
Eome.

IitiSH CoLLKOE, March 16, 1847.

My Lord,— I beg to forward to joar lordRbip a bill for £20, to be
applied by waj of charity to the relief of the poor. The person who
contributed this sum — ^the Rt. Rev. Dr. Murphy, Bishop of Hyderabud
— expressed a wish that it should be sent to your diocese.

The accounts we receive here of the state of poor Ireland are most
heart-rending. Our good, holy Father the Pope feels most intensely
for the afflictions of his long-tried and faithful children. He inquires
about them every day. All the good Romans enter fHiUy into the feel-
ings of the Pope. Their sympathy is great for Ireland, and they are
sending most fervent prayers to the Most High to beg of him to spare
our country, and to avert the calamity which is weighing so heavily
on it. Your lordship has heard before now that His Holiness contrib-
uted, last January, the munificent sum of one thousand dollars, to be
applied to.the relief of the poor Irish. Ere yesterday he told me that
he would give as much more in a few days, out of his own slender
means, and that he hod also determined in the same way to supply two
or three thousand dollars, which some pious ladies had collected, to be
devoted to charitable purposes, and which they put at the Pope'<' dis-
posal. This fact will speak volumes for the Pope's charity, and his
attaohment >to our poor people. What a blessing of Providence to
have sueh a man in the chair of Peter, in these times of misery and
calamity 1 I hope that the Catholics in every part of the world will
become more and more attached to their chief pastor, that they will
glory laliaving-so much virtue in so exalted a situation, and that all
will vie in imitating the example of charity which has been given by
the centre of unity. May we not also hope that those who shooic off the
paternal authority of Rome, and wandered away into the path of error,
will at length open their eyes to their misery and spiritual destitution,
and return to the house, and acknowledge the authority of so good a

100

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAOINN.

father? They ought to know that where true charity resides, there
also true ftiith is to be found. With what facility would not distress
be relieved, if all Christians were united in professing the same faith,
and if all were obedient to the voice of the holy successor of St. Peter
—if there wore but one sheepfold and one pastor ?

I am sorry to inform your lordship that there is great want In Italy
this year. Here in Rome provisions are scarce and dear, but the char-
ity of the rich Is so great that there is no destitution and no starva-
tion. The nobles hero treat the poor with the utmost kindness ; they
do not think it beneath their dignity to distribute alms with their own
hands, to visit the abodes of the poor, and to find out and console
those who are really in need. You would be surprised to see how
comfortably the very poorest people here are clad, though clothing
cost at least twice as much as In Ireland. The spirit that prevails here
in regard to poverty, is quite different from that which is dictated by
the cold lessons of political economy. In the public establishments here
for the poor, the boj s and girls are draped in a most respectable man-
ner, and their diet is very nearly the same as that which is given in
colleges. They are treated as members of Jesus Christ, not as slaves
or as a burden to the earth. The Pope has visited all the public e»>
tabllshments in Rome, and his kindness and affability to the lowest of
the poor have added greatly to the affection which all ch\sscs entertain
for him. I hope the poor in Ireland will unite their prayers with t4iose
of the good Romans, to obtain from God, for so good a Pontiff, a long
and happy reign.

I forgot to mention that we had public prayers in Rome for Ireland.
These few days back we have had a novena in the church of St.
Agatha in honor of St. Patrick, to beg of him to intercede for fbe
country which was the theatre of his labors, and where he gained that
crown of glory which distinguishes him. We had the rosary each eve-
ning, an English sermon, the litanies of the saints, the prayers pre-
scribed by the ritual in time of famine, and in the end Benediction wi(h
the Blessed Sacrament. I hope they have had public prayers in every
part of Ireland, and that they will persevere in them. The calamity
is so great that it is to God alone we should look for relief. I trust
that his mercy will be moved by the powerful intercession of the help
of Christians and the consoler of the afflicted — ^the most holy Virgin —
to whom our poor were always devotedly attached. If she do not ob-
tain temporal relief, she will certainly secure for the poor that which

:mm

^'■I.TS^'"

LIFE OF RIGHT RKV. EDWARD MAGINN.

101

is inflnltoly moro important, the grace of dying a happy death. How
many of them will puss from the miseries of this vale of tears to eter-
nal happiness, if they put themselves under her protection 1

I have the honor to remain,

Your lordship's humble servant,

Paul Oollen.

The continued negligence of subordinates, indifference
of superiors, and insensibility of the government to tho
wholesale destruction of Irish life, at last inspired Dr.
Jkfaginn with that deep-seated abhorrence of English
misrule, which he carried with him to the grave. In a
lettar of this year to Mr. Poulett Scrope, M. P., he
franldy proclaims his indignation against the govern-
ment. " For myself," he says, " as a Christian Bishop,
living aa I am, amidst scenes that must rend the heart
of any having the least feeling of humanity, though
attaclied to our Queen as much from affection as from
the duty of allegiance, I don't hesitate to say to you
that there is no means under heaven that I would not
cheerfully resort to to redeem my people from their
present misery ; and sooner than allow it to continue,
like the Archbishop of Milan, I would grasp the cross
and the green flag of Ireland and rescue my country, or
perish with its people."

His noble anger was no less aroused against the
cruel, prodigal aristocracy of confiscation. Some of
their number having addressed him a circular letter,
asking his co-operation in a system of wholesr

"^^fOPOLls COtj
""BSnwy, own

102

LIFE or RIGHT RKV. EDWARD MAOINN.

tion to British North America, ho thus passionately
replied to them :

" Employ tho Iriflh Oathollo peasant anywbore, tay you, bat not in
Ireland. Join us in removing tlie oarrion people flrom before our eyes
beyond tbe seas, or anywhere, that we may forget the misery we ore-
ated, and banish the appprehensiou of rotrlbntlye justice which God
always reserres for the tyrants and oppressors of the people, through
the instrumentality of tho oppressed. Tbe murderers would wish to
hide their victims, lent their mangled fVamcs should rise in Judgment
against them. It will not, however, gentlemen, do. The bulk of the
Irish Catholic people will stick to their native soil, were it for nothing
else but to haunt you in your dreams of pleasure. Since you would
not let the peasants live as Christians, you will be forced to look on
their spectres — they will stick to you like the ' man of the sea on Sin-
bod's back ;' and since you would not raise them up, they will harve
tiie gratification of bringing you down to their own level. You may
ehnddor at the thought of being brought into association with the filth
and rags of these skeletons of your own making, as Satan shrunk back
when he saw the hideous forms of Sin and Death which he himself had
created."

In that miserable time, not only the bodies but the
Bouls of the people, were in imminent danger. The
Pharisees, "who compass sea and land to make one
proselyte," could not resist the opportunity of tempting
the famished poor to swap their immortal souls for sec-
tarian soup. In Derry as in Dingle, in Innishowen as
in Achill, the Apostle of Famine was abroad, present-
ing his bread and butter done up in Bible leaves ; offer-
ing, with the same hand, potatoes and publications.
How much printed piety went with a peck of potatoes, to
what extenta stone of Indian meal ought to be leavened
with godly exhortation, these apostles were thoroughly

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAOINN.

103

instructed. Thoj earned with them a theological tariff,
a sectarian sliding ;.cale, by which their charities (for-
give the profanation I) wore measured out and regulated.
Against such wolves in sheep's clothing, Dr. Maginn
was constantly on the alert. In the Poor Houses, in
the famished districts, in the back lanes of towns, he
set watchers and traps for them. Finally, he founded
throughout his Diocese " The Society for the Con-
servation OF the Faith," in humble imitation of the
illustrious and encyclical " Association for the Propaga-
tion of the Faith." This Society, composed of cate-
chists, visitors, and subscribers, exercised a moat salu-
tary influence in those seasons of fearful temptation, and
continued to flourish during the life-time of its founder.
Whether it still exists, we are not informed.

CHAPTEE Y.

DK. MAGII»N*S VIEWS OF OHWROH POLITY IN IRELAND— THE CHARI-
TABLE BEQUESTS ACT — THE QUEEN's COLLEGES — DIFFERENCES OF
OPINION AMONG THE HIHRARCHY ON THE COLLEGES ACT AS
AMENDED — ACCESSION OF THE WHIGS TO POWER — THE NEW
POPE — EPISCOPAL MEETINGS IN 1846 — THE APPEAL TO ROME —
OTHER EPISCOPAL MOVEMENTS — PROPOSED NATIONAL ADDRESS TO
POPE PIUS IX.

Dr. Magixn's system of church polity was, in some
of its combinations, wholly his own. With Dr. Crolly
and Dr. Murray, he favored and fostered the national
schools ; but he separated from them on the Charitable
Bequests Act, and the subsequent scheme of academic
education. A Derry editor, writing after his death, has
said : " It has been to us an enigma that he who so
largely patronized national schools within his parish
and elsewhere, should have joined in the opposition to
the Queen's Colleges, which are founded on precisely
the same principles as those schools. If there be differ-
ences, in point of principle, between the two sets of in-
stitutions, by which the interests of particular creeds
are to be effected, we confess that we cannot discover
them."

The essential difference between the two institutions —

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

105

a primary parochial school and a college controlled by
the State — seems to us clear enough. In the former, ru-
dimental knowledge only was taught ; in the latter,
history, philosophy, geology, all studies which include
views or questions of revelation, were to form the
course. In the schools, the pastor was entitled to be a
visitor, and if he chose, a patron ; while the colleges
were to be governed exclusively by their own superiors,
appointed directly by the Crown, and subject only to
the visitations of a royal commission. The Derry jour-
nalist continues his criticism in these words :

" We have sat down, not to compose an indiscriminate eulogy upon
an eminent individual, but to express our candid sentiments with re-
gard to him, as the most fitting tribute due to his worth. We would
say, then, that it has occurred to us that, of late years, the scenes ol
misery which he had to witness, operating on his extreme sensibility,
united to an erroneous view of the ability of government to relieve
the whole wants of a famishing land, rendered him morbidly suspicious
of government and its acts, and disposed him to concur with Dr.
MacHale in his general views of ecclesiastical polity. One prominent
trait in the Right Rev. Dr.'S; character was a most intense feeling of
nationality — a feeling which is the basis of patriotism, one of not the
least bright and useful of human virtues ; but it has been remarked by
several persons, besides ourselves, that his nationality, associating it-
self too constantly with ancient griefs, inclined him to be harsh, at
times, in judging whatever was English, and we can imagine that it
veiled from his mind's eye what appears to us the undesirableness and
the impracticability of a certain popular measure. There was no wit-
ness examined here by the Devon Commission, whose evidence gave
more satisfaction than Dr. Maginn's ; and we have reason to think
that his belief then was that by imperial legislation the country might
be brought to a satisfactory condition. Unfortunately, there is a tar-
diness in that legislation which does not suit Celtic impatience. By
some of his friends it was lamented that, in politics, he assumed the
6*

106

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

attitude which latterly he did, but we presume that it had the appro-
bation of many more. No one, however, could suspect the perfect sin-
cerity and disinterestedness of the course which he took. It is the
privilege of every man to impugn the soundness of opinions from
which he dissents ; but no man of a well-ordered mind would deny
honor to another on account of the depth and strength of his convic-
tions."

It is C(}rtain, from his correspondence, that he had
decided against the Bequests Act and the new colleges, as
he did in most other matters of conduct, on independent
grounds. It nowhere appears that he had any personal
intercourse with the Archbishop of T':am before his
consecration; the opposite, indeed, seems implied in his
letters of that time. With the Bishop of Meath, Dr.
Cantwell, one of the best and wisest of his high order;
he was in frequent communication, from the time he
was nominated for the administratorship. Through him,
and through his old Monaghan classmate. Dr. McNally of
Clogher, he was kept informed of the views of the Pre-
lates who acted with Dr. McHale, but he did not catch
up his opinions from his correspondents. While hum-
ble as a monk and open to advice as any child, the
fruitfulness and vigor of his own mind, naturally led
him to take decided steps in advance, even of his intimate
associates. We shall see additional evidences of this
before we close the narrative.

In opposition to " the Bequests Act" of 1844, we find
in Dr. Maginn's handwriting the resolutions adopted by
the Bishop and Clergy of Derry.

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

107

CHARITABLE BEQUESTS ACT.

At a meeting of the Catholic Bishop and Clergy of the diocese of
Derry, held in St. Cohiinb*s ou Wednesday, January 22, 1845, to take
into consideration the Charitable Bequests Ace and the Concordat, said
to be ia contemplation between the courts of Rome and England, the
following resolutions were unanimously adopted :

1. Rebolved, That at this eventful crisis, when the civil and religious
liberties of the Irish Roman Catholics are being attacked by all the
craft and cunning of British diplomacy, it is imperative on all, clergy
and people, to express their decided hostility to such baneful and in-
sidious policy, and publicly avow their determination to resist, by
every legal and constitutional means, any attempt made or to be made,
no matter from what quarter it proceeds, to invade their ecclesiastical
immunities or curtail those natural rights which they }ustly deem im-
prtscriptible and inalienable.

2. Resolved, That having duly considered the Charitable Bequests
Act in all its bearings, in the benefits it pretends to confer and the
evils it purposes to inflict, and maturely and impartially weighed the
arguments put forth for and against that measure by its ablest defend-
ers and opponents, we have at length come to the concluoion, that it
does not contain a single clause conferring an unmixed good, whilst it
clearly purports to inflict distinct and positive evils. Its benefits are
delusive^ — its disadvantages real. The commission, from the manner of
its appointment, cannot be trustworthy, depending for its constitution
on the honesty of the minister of the da}' ; its most conspicuous element
is the old leaven of ascendancy ; the majority, even at the present
moment, includes the ill-omened names of the sworn libellers of our
faith and most inveterate enemies of our freedom. Under such a tu-
telage, where the least even of our civil liberties would be insecure,
Catholic charities could not be safe. The very nature of its duties
supposes a violation of Episcopal rights. The most revered and sanc-
tified of Catholic institutions are directly attacked by this Act, and
their extinction insured. Justice and charity, So necessary to the dying
penitent, it arrests and binds in its legal fetters. It insults and calum-
niates the Irish priesthood, even in the awful ministration of their
holy rites at the bedside of the expiring Christian. This Act, in a
word, we denounce as an old penal law, dressed up in a new garb— a
rusty weapon drawn from the timeworu armory of the Star Chamber,
polished, edged and fashioned anew, in the ministerial smithy, to suit

108

LIFE OF EIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

tlie taste and temper of the enlightened times we live in, and to insidi*
ously stab religion in its most vital parts — its cliurities.

3. Resolved, That the petition now read — a petition for the repeal
of said iniquitous Act — be forthwith signed by the Catholic Bishop
ond clergy of the diocese of Derry, and forwarded to Daniel O'Connell,
Esq., M. P., for presentation in the House of Commons, and to Lord
Camoys for presentation in the House of Lords.

4. Resolved, That we recognize with feelings of heartfelt gratitude,
the finger of God, in the preservation of the life of Daniel O'Connell,
to detect and expose the mischievous schemes of the enemies of our
country and creed ; and that we hereby pledge ourselves, in the tem-
ple and before the altar of our Redeemer, to stand by him, through
good report and evil report, in the face of foreign and domestic foes,
and to assist him with all the zeal, temper and Spirit "which the Gospel
inspires in the cause of suffering humanity, in every legal and consti-
tutional effort he may make to secure our holy religion against the
"wiles of its enemies, or to restore the rights and redress the wrongs
of the ever faithful but deeply injured people of Ireland.

5. Resolved, That we have heard v 'th alarm that a concordat be-
tween the courts of Rome and England was in contemplation. Con-
vinced of the evil consequences which resulted from similar negocia-
tions to the liberties of the Catholic church in other countries, we can-
not view, without strong feelings of apprehension, auy proceeding
having a tendency to affect our ecclesiastical liberties, and that -we
hereby enter our solemn protest against any concordat, unless it be
solely for commercial or international purposes, which may directly
or indirectly infringe on the usages, customs or immunities of the
Catholic Church in Irt^land, and in the face of heaven declare, that we
will consider it a conscientious duty to resist, by all justifiable means,
any such aggressions on our holy religion.

6. Resolved, That however uncongenial it may be to our feelings sis
His ministers, who said, "My kingdom is not of this world," to be in
any manner mixed up in matters purely temporal, such is the anom-
alous condition of Ireland, with nearly tliree millions of her people the
victims of a misrule — conceived in bigotry and still fostered by the
most bitter sectarian prejudices, in a state of utter destitution and mis-
ery shocking to humanity, t.od making the lot of the negro slave envi-
able — it would be inconsistent with our duties, bound as we are to
them by every tie, divine and human, not to use those weapons which

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

109

charity ordains and religion approves to ameliorate their condition
and carry out the views of God towards them, in making them free and
happy in the land he gave them. With these convictions, disposed to
faithfully discharge the threefold duty imposed on us, we will, as sub-
jects, bear strict allegiance to our gracious sovereign in civil matters ;
as Catholic Christians, uudeviating attachment and submission in faith
and morals to the center of Catholic unity — His Holiness the Pope ;
as Irishmen, undying devotion to the rights and interests of the Irish
people, who never changed their faith from their God or from their
priesthood ; in the words of an immortal Irish prelate, *' Like the Le«
vites of old after returning from their long captivity, we will employ
one hand to defend them against the aggressions of their implacable
enemies, and with the other we will cleanse our holy places, rebuild
our sanctuaries, make new vessels for the sacrifice, and worship with
them at our half-raised altars," ready to retire altogether within the
chancel and the sanctuary, when o'ir country is a nation and our coun-
trymen prosperous and free. If condemned for our patriotism we will
console ourselves with the reflection that we contend in the same
ranks with the amiable Las Casas and the immortal Lankton, ond that
He was not insensible to this feeling, who said, *' Muerior supertur
bum," and who did not refuse a tear to His beloved Jerusalem, when
he saw in the distance her Sion in ruins, hunger howling within her
walls, her children a prey to the Gentile, her liberties extinct and her
ancient glories departed.

That measure was, however, become the law of the
land, and until this day such it remains. One or two
remarkable cases have been decided under its provisions ;
that no more have been litigated is the most convincing
proof that the clergy of Ireland have not generally en-
couraged death-bed bequests. To deny by statute to
the dying Christian such a consoling privilege — to sub-
ject religious bequests of any kind to the administration
of a crown commission seems cruel, unchristian and des-
potic. The opposition of the Irish Church and people

110

LIFE OF BIGHT REV. EDWARD MAQINN.

was to the principle of the measure ; that it has not been
found in operation as oppressive as its capacity of inter-
pretation would permit, is no merit in its authors.

The contest with government on the Queen's Colleges
was more protracted and eventful. The establishment
of such colleges at Cork, at Galway, and at Belfast — to
possess collectively the dignity and privileges of a Uni-
versity, was a favorite project of Sir Eobert Peel's last
administration. T^^*> proposition was moved eariy in
1 845, and received the sanction of Pariiament, with what
were called Sir James Graham's amendments, the same
session.

The history of this measure and the opposition to it is
highly instructive. On its first appearance the Primate
summoned a special meeting of the Irish Bishops, at a
week's notice, in Dublin. It was there unanimously
condemned in the language of the Primate's circular " as
dangerous to faith and morals," and a memorial to the
Lord Lieutenant (Heytesbury), containing their objec-
tions and demands agreed upon. As showing the spirit
and resolution of the Bishops, this document is worth
preserving.

THE MEMORIAL OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOPS AND BISHOPS

OF IRELAND.

" HvMBLT SHOWETH— That Memorialists are disposed to co :>perate
on fair and reasonable terms with Her Majesty's Government and the
Legislature, in establishing 9- system for the further extension of Acar
demical education in Ireland.

" That the circumstances of the present population of Ireland afford

^7' V-

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

Ill

plain evidence ths^. a large majority of the etadents belonging to the
middle classes will be Roman Catholics, and memorialists, as their
spiritual pastors, consider it their indispensable dutj to secure to the
utmost of their power, the most effectual means of protecting the
faith and morals of the students in the new colleges, which are to be
erected for their better education.

" That a fair proportion of the professors, and other oflSce-bearers in
the new colleges, should be members of the Roman Catholic Church,
whose moral conduct shall have been properlj certified by testimonials
of character, signed by their respective prelates. And that all the
office-bearers in those colleges should be appointed by a board of trus-
tees, of which the Roman Catholic prelates of the province in which
any of those colleges shall be erected, shall be members.

" That the Roman Catholic pupils could not attend the lectures on
history, logic, metaphysics, moral philosophy, geology or anatomy,
without exposing their faith or morals to imminent danger, unless a
Roman Catholic professor will be appointed for each of those chairs.

" That if any president, vice-president, professor or office-bearer in
any of the new colleges shall be convicted, before the Board of Trus-
tees, of attempting to undermine the faith, or injure the morals of any
student in those institutions, he shall be immediately removed from his
office by the same board.

" That as it is not contemplated that the students shall be provided
with lodging in the new colleges, there shall be a Roman Catholic
chaplain to superintend the moral and religious instruction of the Ro-
man Catholic students belonging to each of those colleges ; that the
appointment of each chaplain, with a suitable salary, shall be made
on the recommendation of the Roman Catholic bishop of the diocese
in whtch the college is situate, and that the same prelate shall have
full power and authority to remove such Roman Catholic chaplain
from his situation. " Signed on behalf of the meeting,

" t ^' MoBBAT, Chairman.

« Ddblik, May 23, 1845."

At the regular meeting of the Bishops in June, at
Maynooth, they reiterated their determined opposition,
and again in September, the Board of Bishops, Trustees
of the College, repeated it a third time, " lest our be-

112

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAOINN.

loved flocks should be apprehensive of any change being

wrought in our minds." Such a change was reported to

have been wrought in the mind of Dr. Crolly and those

who usually coincided in his judgment. In August, at

a popular meeting in Armagh to secure the Provincial

College for that neighborhood, he was publicly reported

to have declared the amended act to be unobjectionable

to Catholics. This drew out an emphatic statement to
the contrary effect from the zealous Bishop of Meath,

addressed to Mr. O'Connell. At the annual November
meeting of the Bishops, the literal recondemnation be-
came a test question between two sections of that illus-
trious body ; the Archbishops of Tuam and Cashel, with
eighteen Bishops, voting for the old exact terms,
" dangerous to faith and morals," and the Archbishops
of Armagh and Dublin, with Drs. Eyan, McGettigan,
Browne (of Kilmore,) and Denvir, voting simply that
" the Bill in its amended form be submitted to the Holy
See for its consideration and decision." The prelates
who were in the majority also resolved " to lay before
the Holy Father our former resolutions, and their appli-
cation to the act in its present form, together with the
grounds on which those resolutions were founded, in
order that we may all receive the decision of his Holiness,
and recognize the voice of Peter in the person of his
successor." To this resolution, and that taken at May-
nooth two months before, Dr. Maginn, then only Bishop*

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAOINN.

118

elect, gave in his formal adhesion as soon as conse-
crated.

The laity were not more unanimous at first than the
Bishops. By its advocates it was represented to be the
complement of the National School system. Assuming
the bane of the soil to be sectarianism, they proposed as
a remedy " mixed education." They pointed out, justly
enough, the inadequacy of Trinity College, to supply
the wants of the middle and professsonal classes. They
painted in the glowing colors of Irish fancy the healing,
strengthening and ennobling effects of such institutions
on the provincial mind. They treated with impatience
or incredulity the refined reasoning of the opposition,
whose motives as usual were exposed to the unfairest
interpretations of the less scrupulous among the advo-
cates. It was a strange combination of views and in-
terests — ^Dr. Murray and the party of conciliation, with
Mr. Davis and the party of revolution, the Catholic aris-
tocracy of the Blake and Bellew order, with the Unita-
rian rationalists of the Eemonstrant Synod. Against
these unusual allies, O'Conneli and his friends maintain-
ed that the higher education could not safdly be divorced
ftom religion ; that the Catholics of Ireland could never
consent to send their sons to "godless colleges;" that
to put "all religions" on an equality, as the phrase
went, was to do infinite injustice to the one true faith,
and to offer a premium, not on liberality but on laxity.

114

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

to secure a growth not of good will and brotherly love
among different denominations, but of chilling skeptical
indifference to all religion. They pointed to the fruits
of a similar system in Germany, and in France at that
moment under Louis Phillippe ; in the literature of ma-
terialism and infidelity which had covered France, Swit-
zerland and Prussia, with seeds of lawlessness and un-
belief; which spoke by the mouths of Michelet, of Eugene
Sue, of Louis Blanc, and of Strauss, uttering the wildest
chimeras, the most poisonous sophistries, and the most
horrid blasphemies. They declared the old "hedge
schools," with all their shortcomings, to be infinitely pre-
ferable to the introduction of so dangerous a system,
however modified it might be, in detaik , Of this mind
was Dr. Maginn, and we have evidence enough to claim
for him the honor of being one of the most effective op-
ponents of the new academical system.

A draft of the Maynooth declaration had been sent to
each Bishop by its immediate authors, with the exception
of the old Bishop of Derry, who was laboring under
mental affliction. In a letter to the Eev. Dr. Maginn,
dated September 22, the Bishop of Meath explains that
in this the promoters were influenced by a feeling of
delicacy, arising from the painful and peculiar circum-
stances of Derry ; adding immediately the expression of
their thorough conviction, " That the Irish Church will
be sustained in the present eventful crisis by the active

LIFE OP BIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

115

^ love
jptical
fruits
X that
)f ma-
, Swit-
ad un-
Cugene
ivildest
e most
' hedge
jly pre-
system,
s mind
claim
ive op-
sent to
jeption
under
Laginn,
LS that
ling of
jircum-
don of
5h will
active

co-operation of a clergy, who have been always prominent
in defending her rights and promoting her interests."
The clergy of the Diocese of Derry accordingly met to
express their "entire and cordial concurrence in the
decision and declaration of the synod, held in Dublin on
the 18th of last November."

Their noble pronunciamento of this year, suggested
probably by this letter, is Dr. Maginn's composition, with
the exception of the paragraph sixthly^ which was insert-
ed by Archdeacon McCarron. As agreed on it runs thus :

" "We object to the proposed system :

" Firstly. Because it affords no suflQcient guarantee against the cor-
ruption of faith and morals, nor any adequate warrant for their invio-
lability.

" Secondly. We object to it, because it makes no suitable provision
for religious instruction, inasmuch as any national system of education
for Ireland, to be perfect, should not only not interfere with the reli-
gious opinions of any, but should secure the religious instruction
of all.

" Thirdly. We object to it because it violates the canons of the Ca-
tholic Church, taking the entire control over the education of the
Catholic youth from their divinely-appointed guardians and instruc-
tors — the Catholic prelates — and transferring it to purely secular and
ministerial ofBcials.

"Fourthly. We object to it because it violates the law of nature,
by giving to the president of each of these academies the legal privi-
lege of allocating the students where he pleases, against the natural
and inalienable rights of their parents, whose duty it is to provide
them with proper lodgings, and place. them under the vigilant super-
intendence of persons identified with them in religious feeling and
principle.

" Fifthly. We object to it, because whilst Trinity College, enriched
by the foul spoliation of our plundered abbeys and Catholic fore&v-
thers, is to remain under the sole superintendence of the Protestant

I'Ati

116

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAOINN.

EpiaoopallaQ Church ia Ireland, and whilst tho UUter College Is to be
connected with the Belfast Academical Institution, over which Prcsby^
terlan synods have the preponderating, if not exclusive control, tho
Parliament of England injures and insults the Catholic Ix'uy, com-
prising the overwhelming mi\jority of the Irish nation, by refusing to
place the colleges to be erected for the use of tho Catholic community
under the protection of the Catholic hierarchy, in utter disregard of
the almost unanimously expressed feelings and wishes of the Catholic
clergy and Catholic people of Ireland.

" Lastly. We ol^ect to it, because experience has taught us that the
continental models on which it was designed and formed are the nur-
series of infidelity, in which religion is a by-word, Christianity an ab-
surdity, the science of the material preferred to the science of the
spiritual world, and the flickerings of a demented reason to tho re-
vealed knowledge of God and his divine dispensation.

"A good educational system we would hail as the greatest boon from
Heaven to our country — such a system as would afford secular know-
ledge its full development, combined with sound instruction In religious
principles — a system that would form the Christian and tho scholar,
but a system still that would give the knowledge of God and man the
first place, and to purely human sciences that subordinate station
which even the very pagans, guided by the light of reason, justly as-
signed to Ihcm.

" Believing that a simple protest against the contemplated system
of academic Instruction would be as foolish as It would be unprofitable,
if the Catholic clergy and people rested there, and did not evince their
readiness to provide for the Catholic youth such a system as conscience
sanctions and the times require, we, the Catholic clergy of the diocese
of Derry, pledge ourselves to co-operate with the Irish priesthood and
people, to the utmost limit of our humble means, towards the estab-
lishment of provincial academies, where the faith and morals of the
rising generation shall be secured against the inroads of infidelity,
where religious instruction shall be zealously and ei&clently promoted,
and human knowledge be afforded its widest range ; where the name
of Ireland shall receive all due respect and honor ; where, in a word,
the records of her ancient fame, her wrongs, her trials, her persecu-
tions and patience, shall be fearlessly evolved, read and taugut ; and
where, next to the love of God and his revealed truth, the love of
country shall be deeply and indelibly engraven on the heart and mind

f I

1 'fm ^' lyy^wnfTi

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD HAOIKN.

117

of the Irlflh itndent. [Here follow the slgnatnrei of tweDty-nlne Irish
priests a&u forty-nine oarate»— the whole olergy of the diocese except
eight.]

The ministry of Lord John Russell which succeeded

Sir Robert Peel'i in June, 1846, adopted with zeal and

clung with tenacity to his Academical scheme. The
same month an event of the utmost importance to the

Catholic world — the death of a Pope — took place. Greg-
ory XVI., raised to the Pontificate in February, 1831,
was in his 66th year, and had nearly completed the 16th
year of his reign. During his time, the Church of Ire-
land had risen from civil subjection to the Protestant
state, to possess power in the empire, and reputation
throughout Europe. He was familiar with its long
struggles to reach that position, without sacrifice of prin-
ciples, and he cherished an affection for the Island of
Saints, enlightened and increased by the remembrance of
what he had heard and known during his cardinalate.
Pope Gregory expired on the 1st of June, and Cardinal
Mastai-Feretti was elected his successor on the 16th, and
enthroned on the 21st. On that day began a Pontificate
which will be memorable throughout all climes and
times, not only for great events, but for the greatest of
modern events the definition of the dogma of the Im-
maculate Conception. At its outset the world feigned to
lie down and lick the feet of the Pontiff, but all the while
it was busy conspiring to undermine his throne and to

118

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN".

overturn his authority. Hollow professions of attach-
ment were poured forth by worldlings and progression-
ists, mistaking the zeal of a new and vigorous ruler for
an homage paid to their theories. But soon came a
change ; a storm sprung up darkening the fair face of
Italy, and saddening all hearts throughout Christendom J
a storm in which Ireland saw her hereditary oppressor
playing Prospero's part, not concealing his design of en-
gulphing in the general wreck, the liberties and tho
prospects of the Irish Church.

The first Episcopal Synod, held in Ireland under the
pontificate of Pious IX., and the first in which Dr. Ma-
ginn sat, assembled in the Presbytery, Marlborough -street,
Dublin, on the 10th of November, '46, and adjourned on
the 14th. It was the most important meeting in the
variety and importance of the business transacted, which
had been held for many years. All the Bishops were
present but two. The decision of the Holy See on the
Queen's Colleges had not then been received, so that no
new step was taken in that matter. A petition to Par-
liament was unanimously agreed to, " for such changes in
the Bequests Act as would render that statute — ^now so
obnoxious — acceptable to the Prelates, Clergy and People
of Ireland ;" the repeal of the Mortmain clause was es-
pecially asked for. Such alterations in the Marriage
Act of 1844, as would relieve the Catholic Clergy from
penalties incurred by marrying a Protestant and Catho-

LITE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

119

from
Catho-

lic, were the subject of another petition. A third was
on behalf of the children of Catholic soldiers, and the
soldiers themselves, asking that they might not be com-
pelled, under the army orders of 1844, to attend Protest-
ant schools or Protestant worship, or read the Protestant
version of the Scriptures ; that the Douay Bible should be
given them instead, and liberty to attend at the Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass, on Sundays and holidays of obliga-
tion. The Vicars Apostolic ofEngland and Scotland sub-
sequently signed this memorial, but though its prayer has
since been frequently renewed, it has not yet been granted.
An address to Pius IX., to be signed by all the clergy
of Ireland, was also ordered, and committed to the hands
of a committee in Dublin, but we find Dr. Maginn com-
plaining in a letter to Dr. MacHale, the following Sep-
tember, that these parties had " altogether neglected" it,
thereby causing the proposers, " to cut but a poor figure
at Eome." He was naturally impatient at this dis-
heartening delay.

•'It would have been mnch better had your Grace, who could have
done these matters so well, not allowed a task of such high moment to
pass into other hands, either incapable or unwilling to act, when your
own ever ready resources could be largely drawn upon to meet this or
any other emergency. I have had letters lately from Rome, stating
that there is much surprise theie at our silence, or rather at the silence
of the Irish nation, including both clergy and people. The general
expression of our gratitude for favors received at His Holiness' hands,
the strong attestation of our sympathy in his present sufferings, the
testimony of our marked indignation against the sacrilegious aggressors
of his rights, are the very least gifts we could offer him, beset as he is

120

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

;;j-V

by enemies, foreign and domestic. It would be well (I say it with all
due deference) were your grace, without further waiting for the Dublin
concoction, to come out with a form of address for Catholic Ireland,
breathing your wonted fire and eloquence — with your very soul in
every word, to be subscribed to by us all and sent off in all haste, to
console him in his difficulties and to encourage him to present a bold
front to the encroachments of the Austrian infidel. I think you may
offer him, in the names of the Irish Catholic clergy and people, their
hearts, their hands, their all. If to die for our country be a beautiful
duty, it cannot be less delightful, were it necessary, to risk life and all
to preserve the chair of Peter intact, and Rome, endeared to us by a
thousand recollections, the anchorage of Christian hope, the sacred
centre of Christian unity — inviolate. Whatever is to be done should be
done speedily, and by none other will it be done if your grace omit to
do it. We live in truly awful times, and charity must indeed be cold
upon the earth when Catholic Christendom can stand with folded arms
and look on tamely and unresistingly whilst the Redeemer of the world
is outraged in the person of his Vicar, and attempts are being made by
a hoary diplomatic Judas to strip the chair of the fisherman, of rights
hallowed by centuries and consecrated by the dearest interests of piety
and religion. The day was when a St. Bernard or a Peter the Hermit
would, with words of fire, have convulsed Europe and gathered around
the guilty heads of the ruthless invaders the accumulated vengeance
of every follower of the cross, from the Danube to the Shannon."

We shall see in the next chapter, how thorough he
felt that veneration and love for Eome, which he thus
endeavored to demonstrate on a national scale, and which
he did so much during his short episcopate, to feed and
foster in the hearts of his people.

CHAPTER VI

th he
thus
rhich

Id and

PONTIFICATE OF PIUS IX. — ENGLISH INTRIGUES IW ITALY — LORD
MINTO'S MISSION — LORD SHREWSBURY'S VISIT TO ROME — LORD
clarendon's PROPOSITION TO ARCHBISHOP MURRAY— THE IRISH
BISHOPS OPPOSED TO TOE GOVERNMENT SCHEME OF ACADEMICAL
EDUCATION, SEND TWO OF THEIR NUMBER TO ROME — THE AGENTS
AND INFLUENCES EMPLOYED AGAINST THEM— SUCCESS OF THE
' MISSION OF DRS. MACHALB AND o'hIGGINS — DR. MAGINN's PART Of
IT— INSURRECTION IN ROME — THE POPE IN EXILE— ELOQUENT PAS-
TORAL OF DR. MAGINN ON THAT EVENT — ITS RECEPTION AT ROME,
AND BY THE HOLY FATHER.

"We have now to take a glance at the diplomacy of
the Irish Church, as opposed to the Protestant state, and
the part our suV)ject was called upon to bear in it.

The accession of Pius IX. to the Pontificate and the
first political acts of his reign were received with loud
acclamations by the British press and people. One of
his first acts was an amnesty to political offenders, grant-
ed on the sole condition that they should not " abuse
this act of sovereign clemency" by undertaking there-
after anything against the State. This amnesty seems
to have been accepted by the majority if not all of those

122

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

■who availed themselves of it in anything but good faith.
They made their very professions of attachment to the
Holy Father occasions for marshalling and drilling their
demagogic forces. They began by mingling cries of
reform with their "vivas," and proceeded to threaten
the ministers, the cardinals, and especially the Jesuits.
Secret societies, those nurseries of every anti-social vice,
undermined the Eternal City, and had their spies and
tools about the very person of the Pontiff. Brunetti,
Sterbini, and other chiefs of these sons of darkness, were
the real rulers of Rome, and merely tolerated Pius IX.,
until their conspiracy was complete. The rising of Sicily
against Neapolitan oppression, the insurrections of the
Lombard cities against their Austrian garrisons, the pro-
pagandism of Gioberti and Mazzini — causes good, bad,
and diabolical — were all at work to throw the peninsula
into ferment and confusion.

This state of affairs presented to Lord John Russell
and Lord Palmerston too tempting a field for intrigue
to be left unoccupied. The panegyrics of their press and
their parliamentary orators on the Pope as a reformer,
were preliminary to their experiments on the Pope as Head
of the Church. The embassy at Florence was the cover
^ for the first approaches, and as the dangers of the Papal
government began to excite the hopes and fears of friends
and enemies. Lord Minto, father-in-law to the British
Prime Minister, was sent on a special secret mission,

LIFE OF RIGHT BEV. EDWARD MAGINN.

123

nominally to all the Italian States, but principally to
Eome. The alarm as to this mission was communicated
to the Irish Hierarchy by an English Prelate — Dr.
Briggs, the venerable Bishop of Beverly. Of all the
hierarchy of the imperial inland, he was the most con-
stant in his friendship for tne sister nation. Towards
the close of the year '47, the visits of Lord Minto to
Rome became known, and on the 16th of December,
Lord Lansdowne, in reply to a question in *;he House
of Lords, indicated very significantly the objects of that
mission. " My Lords," he said, " I believe there is no
court in Europe in which it would be more useful for
the British Government to explain the nature of our
transactions, or to induce that court to use its peculiar
sources of influence in certain parts of Her Majesty's domi-
nions.^^ Immediately on the appearsmce of this declara-
tion, Dr. Briggs addressed a circular letter to l\ Bishops
of Ireland, proposing that they should join the Prelates
of England and Scotland in a memorial to His Holiness,
setting forth the true relations and intentions of the civil
government to the Church, and preventing false impres-
sions from being produced or ex parte suggestions adopted
at Rome. At the same time the English Bishops appoint-
ed the Rev. Dr. Grant (since Bishop of Southwark) their
agent at Rome, while the Rev. Dr. CuUen, the present
Archbishop of Dublin, discharged similar duties for the
Irish Hierarchy. The joint memorial proposed by Dr.

124

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

Briggs, was duly signed and sent, and forwarded to the
Pope by Dr. Grant, " through the proper ecclesiastical
channel."

The Academical Education Act, as at first proposed,
had been condemned at Eome in 1847, and the Hierarchy
recommended to undertake, in imitation of Belgium, a
Catholic university. The Prelates who opposed it through-
out, rested content with their victory, many sinking into
apathy towards all public affairs. The fearful famine of
that year occupied almost exclusively the attention of
the Episcopal Synod, which assembled in October. The
Irish government, at the head of which was now placed
the astute Lord Clarendon, seemed to suffer the public
discussion to drop, but the college buildings at Belfast, at
Cork and at Galway, gradually went up. It was appa-
rent that, though baffled, the ministers did not consider
themselves beaten, and looked forward to a renewal of
their struggle with the Bishops. Lord Minto's mission
naturally awakened anew the anxieties of the latter, es-
pecially when it was found that Lord Shrewsbury, a
supposed favorer of the college scheme, and a person of
the greatest influence at Rome, appeared simultaneously
in the Eternal City. This conjunction of influences pro-
duced one effect ; a letter from Cardinal Fransoni to the
Irish Bishops recommending moderation and unity — ^thus
apparently censuring their previous line of conduct. Dr.
Crolly, Dr. Murray, and their friends chose to interpret

LIFE OP BIGHT BEV. EDWABD MAGINN".

125

this " admonitory document" into an approbation of
their views, and their interpretation was ostentatiously
paraded in the government organs, the World and Even'
ing Post.

A new combination of hopes and influences was now
suddenly brought about by the French revolution of
February, 1848. The sudden inflation of Young Ireland,
and the threatening aspect of English and foreign affairs,
obliged the viceregal administration to make fresh con-
cessions and advances to the Hierarchy. On the 19th of
March, 1848, Lord Clarendon addressed to the Arch-
bishop of Dublin the following extraordinary letter, a
copy of which found its way into the press, and created
the liveliest sensation throughout the kingdom.

COFr OF THE LETTER OF LORD CLARENDON.

(Private.)

Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin :

My dear Lord, — ^Your Grace hud the goodness to promise me thai
you would convey to Rome, for the consideration of the Pope, (he
Amended Statutes of the Queen's Colleges in Ireland, as the British
Government has no ofBcial organ of communication with the Holy
See'.

I was happy of having the opportunity to consult your Grace before
any alteration was made, because, as a Catholic Prelate, you well
knew what guarantees and provisions were requisite for ensuring re-
ligious instruction to the Catholic youths who might frequeit those
colleges, and I was anxious that such securities should be given with
the most entire good faith, and in a manner perfectly satisfactory to
the Irish Prelates, who, like yourself desired to sec the true interests
of morality and the Catholic religion promoted by these new Institu-
tioiis.

I regret very much the delay that has taken place in the revision

-"-^''-WZuSSl

126

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAOINN.

of the statutes ; but I need hardly tell you that the attention of the
Government was last year wholly devoted to alleviating the calamity
with which it was the will of Providence that this country should be
visited ; moreover, this delay was of no importance, as the colleges
will not be ready for occupation before the end of the year 1849.

The whole of the statutes are at your disposal now or at any future
period, that your Grace or any other Bishop may wish to see them ;
but as they are very voluminous, and relate entirely to the course of
instruction and the duties of the different ofiBcera of the colleges, I
propose at present only to trouble you with the religious portion of
them.

Accordingly I herewith send all that part of the statutes which
affect, as to religious points, both professors and students, as well as
an extract from the Report of the Board with reference to religious
instruction.

The list of visitors is not yet settled, but I can have no hesitation in
saying that it will include the Catholic Archbishop of the province,
and Bishop of the diocese in which the college is situated, and that,
moreover, in the council, professorships and other posts of each col-
lege, the Catholic religion will always be fully and appropriately rep-
resented ; for these colleges are instituted for the education of the
middle classes, and the government would fail in its object of training
np the youth ot Ireland to be good men and loyal subjects, if their re-
ligious instruction and moral conduct were not duly provided for and
guarded by every precaution that the most anxious solicitude can de-
vise.

As I entertain a profound veneration for the character of the Pope,
and implicitly rely upon his upright judgment, it is with pleasure that
I now ask your Grace to submit these statutes to the consideration^of
his Holiness, believing, as I do, that they may be advantageously com-
pared with those of any other similar institution in Europe, and that
by exhibiting the cnre and the good faith with which they have been
framed, they will furnish a simple but conclusive answer to those mis-
representations which have been so industriously circulated, and which,
if they had been founded in truth, would have justly excited the alarm
and called forth the reprobation of His Holiness.

I have the honor to be, with great esteem, my dear lord.
Your Grace's very faithful servant,

Clarendon.
To His Grace Archbishop Murray, of Dublin.

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAOINX.

127

Several weeks before the appearance of this letter of
Lord Clarendon's, and perhaps as an improvement on
Dr. Briggs' proposal, Dr. Maginn had circulated among
his correspondents the suggestion of a deputation to
Borne, and at a meeting of some of the Bishops and
Clergy in Dublin, early in February, Dr. O'Higgins had
been persuaded to act as one of the deputation. At that
time Dr. MacHale positively declined, but after the ap-
pearance of Lord Clarendon's letter he consented. Both
were anxious to have Dr. Maginn's company, but the
poverty of his diocese, and the pressure of its long ac-
cumulating cares prevented his acceptance. The two
patriot Bishops started after Easter, and on the 12th of
April Dr. O'Higgins writes in high spirits, from Mar-
seilles, that they had arrived safely the previous night,
were to leave next day for Civita Vecchia, and hoped to
be in Rome by the following Sunday afternoon. He
pays a high compliment to Mr. Lucas of the Tablet, with
whom they had dined in London, on the way, and who
is pronounced by Dr. O'Higgins to be " real gold." The
abettors of the government among the English and Irish
clergy — and truth compels us to confess it — were not less
energetic. Among them at that time, one reads with
deep regret the illustrious name of "Wiseman, whose
personal treatment at their hands, a few years later, was
but a new illustration of the old maxim, " put not your
trust in princes." Acting with Dr. Wiseman, and ap-

128

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAOINN.

i f :■

parentlj under him was Dr. Nicholson, Archbishop of
Corfu, the British capital of the Ionian Islands, whose
annual income was derived from the British treasury
The Irish Hierarchy beheld with special indignation tho
intermeddling of this foreign dignitary in their domestic
al&irSi and loudly complained of his officiousness to the
Soman authorities. The Bev. Dr. Ennis, a highly re-
spectable Parish Priest of the diocese of Dublin, reached
Rome early in May, to represent the views and wishes
of Dr. Murray and the minority of the Bishops. Thus there
were present, knocking at the gates of the Propaganda,
representatives of all classes of British and Irish Catho-
lics, as well as of the civil government of the empire,
each hanging with breathless suspense on the lips of the
Sovereign Pontiff. The college question was the one then
uppermost, but it was plainly one of a series; had the civil
power succeeded in that, farther encroachments on the
independence of the Church would have inevitably fol-
lowed ; hence, the wisdom of those who defended so des-
perately that first fortress on the line of attack. It is an
inspiriting and a glorious sight to see the Irish Bishops
checkmate and defeat at Rome, to the edification of all
Christendom, the wiliest plans of British diplomacy. In
the natural order they were the sons of peasants ; with-
out any other wealth than the free-will offerings of their
flocks ; theologically educated indeed, but all untrained
in those courtly arts by which even the good cause is

LIFE OF BIGHT REV. EDWARD MAOINN.

129

often best served ; against them were the Russells, the
Temples, the Elliotts, men in whose houses the lessons
of diplomacy were taught from earliest youth ; men who
could speak with all the authority of the greatest modern
empire ; men who had grown grey and historical in the
management of public affairs. And the Judges of this
appeal were worthy to decide any cause. The new Pope,
the very impersonation of benignity, charity and justice ;
the profound Lambruschini, the beneficent Gizzi, tho
venerable Fransoni, the sagacious Antonelli, were among
his High Officers of State. Before these illustrious men
and their colleagues, the case of the Irish Church against
the British Government, of freedom of education against
the intellectual despotism of state control, came in a form
of appeal demanding decision, in the troubled and mo«
mentous year of 1848.

Rome is proverbially slow. The Church, says De Mais-
tre somewhere, being for all time, is never in a hurry—
or some such expression. The various parties to the
appeal were detained in Rome, or came and went, from
April till October. In this interval Dr. Maginn, Dr.
McNally and Dr. Cantwell, seem to have had the man-
agement of " the home department" of the opposition.
Dr. Maginn especially was the " chief secretary" through-
out this business. In the spring and early summer, while
engaged in a visitation of his diocese, during which he

confirmed about 6,000 souls, he found time for letter after
6*

180

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

letter, to the authorities and the Irish agents at Rome.
In one of his Latin letters to Cardinal Fransoni, he gave
with his usual energy, a character of Dr. Nicholson, which
was supposed to have some effect in procuring the order
for that dignitary to withdraw from Rome to his own
diocese. Writing in May, to the Bishop of Clogher, Dr.
Maginn expresses great pleasure at the result of that
skirmish. " I gave the Cardinal in my last letter," he
says, " an account of that gentleman, which may have
done some service in the way of having him ordered
home to mind his own business." The contest proceeded
during six months with various fortunes. A pamphlet
printed in the Eternal City, containing some extracts
from extreme speeches or writings of the Patriot Bish-
ops — especially the two who were in Rome — was indus-
triously circulated. A sharp correspondence between
Dr. MacHale and Lord Shrewsbui / nnd a formal com-
plaint of Mr. J. R. Corballis, of the Bequests and Educa-
tion Boards, were also presented to the prejudice of
their cause. Against these Dr. Brigg's address and Dr.
Maginn's powerful letters, were chiefly relied on. In
May, Dr. O'Higgins wrote in sanguine spirits to the
Bishop of Clogher ; in June the prospect was thought
to be gloomy ; finally. Dr. O'Higgins wrote on the 14th
of September to Dr. Maginn : " we have at length left
our final expose in print, with the Pope and the Cardinals.
The case will be discussed on the 25th of this month, in

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. KDWAUD MAOINN.

131

Dr.

the
ight

a full congregation, and the opinions of their eminences
will bo laid before the Pope on the following Sunday."*
Accordingly, on the expected day, the Pope issued his re-
scrij^t to the Irish Prelates, renewing the condemnation
of the Queen's colleges, exhorting them to erect a Catholic
university, as the Belgians had done at Louvaine, directing
that the meetings of the Prelates should be held in due
synodical form, and requiring accurate reports of the
state of each diocese. On the 10th of November, the
Primate communicated the substance of these documents
to Bishop Maginn, who seized on the occasion with his
usual quickness of perception.

" I wrote him," he reports to Dr. MoNiilly, •* in reply to hia favor, %
rather ingenious letter, in which I oongratulated*hini and the body on
the prospect of perfect union of mind and purpose among us for the
future. I insinuated the powerful effect it would produce upon the
sectaries ; the beneficial influence it would have upon religion and
country, were his Grace to give his public approval of the decision of
the Holy S' by his laying in person amid the assembled prelacy and
people the foundation stone of our new university. You will, I am
Bur., be surprised to hear — agreeably surprised to hear — that his Grace
has consented, as soon as we can have the plans of our new university
arranged, not only to assist at laying but to lay, in propria persona et
propriit manibua, its foundation stone."

" This," he adds, " I think is a victory enhancing the triumph at
Rome, and which will be the occasion of spreading consternation among
our enemies."

Although Dr. Maginn did not live to see the actual
commencement of that great work of which he had been

♦ For this and Dr. Maginn's other Roman correspondence, see Ap-
pendix.

182

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

SO early and so judicious an advocate, it is due to his
memory to give this extract — though evidently thrown
off in a moment of private confidence — as entitling him
to be reckoned among the founders of the Catholio
University of Ireland.

"While these affairs were occupying all minds in Ire-
land, the position of the Holy Father, who had thus
rescued the cause of Catholio education from imminent
danger, was becoming daily more intolerable at Home.
During the very days when the Irish Church was exulting
over its great deliverance, the august Pontiff had to be-
hold the assassination of Count Rossi, his minister, and
of Monseigneur Palma, one of his secretaries. He himself
remained a prisoner in the hands of the radical faction,
from the 15th of Navember. His faithful Swiss were
dismissed, and the Civic Guard, the creatures of'the dem-
agogue Sterbini, became his jailors. On the evening of
the 24th, assisted by the Duke d'Harcourt, ambassador
of France, and the Count Spaur, ambassador of Bavaria,
he escaped from the Quirinal, in the disguise of an at-
tache of the Bavarian embassy, under the title of " doc-
tor," and in a few hours was safely lodged in Gaeta. On
the 16tli of July following, his authority was restored in
Rome by the French, under General Oudinot. His exile,
therefore, may be said to have lasted precisely eight
months.*

* For some interesting details of these events, consult Dr. Callen'
letter in the Appendix.

LIFfi OF BIGHT REV. EDWARD MAOINN.

183

The Bishop of Deny, duly informed of all that took
place at Borne, rose from a sick bed on the intelligence
of the Pope's flight reaching Ireland, to prepare that
pastoral letter, which of itself would embalm his memory
in the undying charity of all Catholic hearts. Hitherto
he had addressed Bome on the wrongs of Ireland — now he
was to address Ireland on the wrongs of Bome. And
not only Ireland ; for, since the admission of the Catho-
lics to civil rights in the British empire, it is the privilege
of the Irish Church to make her notes of challenge or
of warning heard throughout the earth. There is, per-
haps, no division of the Church militant whose word goes
so far or strikes so deep. Her great living writers know
this well ; her Doyles and her Maginns also proved it in
their day. We have seen in Boman newspapers long
extracts from the letters to Lord Stanley ; the Paris,
Belgian, American and Catholic journals spread the
sentiments conceived in the quiet cottage at Buncrana
over two continents. In his Pastoral on the Pope's exile.
Dr. Maginn felt the height of his position, and his voice
went forth with immense effect. His English is more
smooth and compact than usual ; his high heroic spirit
soars above the orhis in urhis, like its own eagle, with an
eye that penetrates to the east and the west, to the
dawn and the sunset, through ancient days and modern
events.*

See Appiendix for this EpUtle entire

134

LIFE OF RIGHT RKV. EDWARD MAGINN

This pastoral conveyed and read to the Holy Father
at Gaeta drew forth his warmest approbation. A pre-
vious letter of the Bishop's received before His Holiness*
flight, had the honor of a direct acknowledgment from
the illustrious obj ect of it.* It is hardly too much to
say that in those eventful days no Irish Prelate stood
higher at Kome than Dr. Maginn, and that the personal
influence thus honorably obtained promised the best re-
sults for the future relations of the Irish Church with
the Holy See, •

* See Dr. Cullen's letter of September 6, 1848. Appendix.

CHAPTEE YII.

IKFLUEKCi OF THE FAMINE ON PUBLIC SPIRIT — DR. MAGINN's LETTERS
ON " tenant-right" — HIS LETTERS TO LORD STANLEY — HIS POPD
LARITY — EFFECT OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION ON IRELAND— PA-
TRIOTIC ATTEMPTS TO RE UNITE THE NATIONAL PARTIES— THE
PROTESTANT REPEALERS AND MR. SHARMAN CRAWFORD, M. P. — EX
TRAORDINARY CIRCULAR OF THE EARL OF SHREWSBURY — THI
YOUNG IRELAND CATASTROPHE — DR. MAGINN's CORRESPONDENCE
WITH THE CASTLE IN RELATION THERETO — HIS SYMPATHY WITH
THE DEFEATED PARTY AND THE STATE PRISONERS.

Nor was Dr. Maginn's attention wholly or even prin-
cipally directed to Koman affairs and English intrigues,

in those eventful years '47 and '48. The condition of
the poor, the distribution of the charities of many coun-
tries, the niggardliness and maladministration of the gov-
ernment grants, the stealthy ravages of proselytism fol-
lowing famine like its shadow — all claimed his attention.
It was in this year, the second of his episcopacy, that by
a succession of public services to the country and religion,
hk talents became familiarly known and widely influen-
tial. Of these we shall speak in the order of time.
After O'Connell's death, and the second general failure

186

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

of the potato harvest, social questions were forced upon
the Irish mind with an emphasis, which in less calamitous
times, would have been quite thrown away on that im-
aginative and immaterialist nation. The question of the
land, superceded "repeal" in the hearts of most men not
wholly broken down by the pressure of the times and
taxes. An ''Irish Council" to promote reproductive
employment on the soil, taking the government loan as
the capital and improved modes of cultivation as the
method, sat regularly in Dublin. It contained many
patriotic men ; Lord Cloncurry, Sir Colman O'Loghlen,
Mr. Butt, Mr. Duffy, Mr. O'Brien, Mr. Chetwode, Mr.
Monsell, the poet Ferguson, and many more. Its first
meeting had been attended by O'Connell, who soon after
made a last mournful plea for the poor in Parliament, and
went abroad to die. The Young Ireland party endeavored
to become practical, and began to study in statistics and
political economy. The decaying association contributed
its slower impulse to the general current of men's minds.
Tenant-right meetings were held in Ulster ; throughout
the North generally, a fierce agitation sprung up in op-
position to the imposition of an average poor-rate all
over the island. Sir Kobert Peel's dictum that "the
property of Ireland should be made to support the pov-
erty of Ireland," was looked upon by the industrious
tenant of the North with as much dislike as by the mort-
gage-ridden squire of the South. They both held that

LITE OP RIGHT RKV. EDWARD MAOINN.

187

the calamity being imperial, the relief ought to be im-
perial ; that the taxation of each union should be rated
according to its internal condition ; that employment for
labor, and legal security for improvements on land, was
what the country wanted, not alms and an army of fresh
officials. These discussions certainly turned the Irish
mind into new channels, and although there was a digres-
sion to revolutionary experiments in '48, that mind has
ever since, it seems to me, kept the direction the famine
gave it.

Dr. Maginn, gifted with the intuitive eye of a wise
patriot, was one of the first in the new field of discus-
sion. His letters to the Cork Tenant league, to Dr.
McKnight of Derry, and to James Caufield, Esq., were
among the earliest and the best writings on the land
question. Taken in connection with his evidence before
the Devon Commission, they form a monument of in-
formation and observation on the social state of Ireland.*

At the close of '47, Dr. Maginn considered himself
called upon to rebut and refute in a series of letters to
Lord Stanley, an intolerable statement made by that
nobleman in his place in Parliament against the priest-
hood of Ireland. The words spoken on the 23rd of No-
vember, in the House of Lords, were these :

"In the main," said Lord Stanley, "I think the Roman Catholio
priesthood to be untiring in the discharge of their religious duties, de-

.1:

* See Appendix.

188

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

voting themselveB to their faith, and sparing neither pains nor time in
the due performance of the functions of their holy office. But J must
not conceal the fact, that the Roman Catholic priesthood of Ireland do
not lend themselves to the support of the law. There is a fatal breach
between the Roman Catholic clergy and the law ; the confessional is
conducted with a degree of secretness, and carried to an extent dan-
gerous alike to the civil government and the peace of the country. The
priest conceals the secrets of the guilty penitent, and is ever ready to
denounce the informer. Among recent instances there are many start-
ling proofs of the knowledge or connivance of the priesthood in the
sanguinary crimes of the peasantry .**

On this text, Dr. Magiun wrote those three right,
manly, and eloquent letters, which will be found in our
Appendix, under the title " Letters to Lord Stanley."*
Coming out immediately after his brilliant letters on
Tenant-right, they crowned his reputation with a religious
triumph, and made him almost immediately, after Dr.
MacHale, the most popular Bishop in the Kingdom. The
name of Derry became familiar where it had long sound-
ed strange ; it was gratefully recognized as one of the
popular strongholds of the Tenants' cause; everything
that bore its date was carefully read and pondered, and
men blessed God that he had raised up in those dark,
perplexing days, its gifted and courageous Bishop.

Among the new correspondents attracted to him by
the letters to Lord Stanley, was the faithful and eccen-
tric Tom Steele, " O'Connell's Head Pacificator of Ire-
land," as he proudly styled himself. A couple of very
curious and characteristic letters of poor Steele's, will be

* Appendix.

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

189

found among the documents in this volume.* Other
and more important correspondents he also gained about
the same time, but we doubt if any accession to his list
could hav* frrr * d him more thar ♦^^t of O'Connell's
most faithful adho.ont. His own attachment to the de-
ceased leader had been almost as enthusiastic as Steele's.
He was one of his sincerest followers living, and one of
the most deeply affected of all the immense multitude
who followed him to his honored rest, in Glasnevin
cemetery.

It had been one of O'Connell's most cherished objects
to transfer the party he had formed — if two-thirds of a
nation may justly be designated a party — to the leader-
ship of his favorite son, John. Those who were nearest
the capital of the agitation early saw that Mr. John O'Con-
nell had neither the gifts of mind, body or temper, neces-
sary to supply his father's place. To throw on him the
whole blame of "the secession" of 1846, would be un-
fair and untrue ; there was on the the other side some
precipitancy, much self-opinion, and great recklessness
of consequences. Had, however, the new candidate for
chieftainship possessed the ordinary qualities by which
power once created is conserved, there is little doubt
that the majority of the present generation would have
faithfully followed him. We write with the impartiality

• See Appendix.

Sjiri-

140

LIFE OF BIGHT REV. EDWARD MAOINN.

of many added years of experience, when we avow our
firm conviction that he was wholly deficient in the
amenity, generosity, vigor and justice so necessary in
the successor to a popular sovereignty. The patriotic
prelates who had most heartily entered into the fond
father^s views, began one by one to make this discovery,
as time, wore on. In June, '48, we find the Bishop of
Clogher, one of the most' devoted friends of O'Connell,
writing to Dr. Maginn : " Mr. J. O'Connell is pursuing
a course which will strengthen his opponents and leave
him powerless. I made an effort last week to communi-
cate briefly to him my poor opinion, but my letter,
though not marked as such, he has, I suppose, looked
upon as 'private,' likewise Dr. Blake's — " the aged
Bishop of Dromore. It is plain, from the letters of seve-
ral Bishops which wo have seen, that, though no one
could be more obsequiously humble while they were co-
operating with him, he could also be petulantly self-
willed when they became his catechists or counsellors.
Like most small minds he seems to have mistaken obsti-
nacy for firmness, and to have clung the more despe-
rately to his few driftless ideas, as adviser after adviser
parted his company. It is impossible to account for his
conduct in the first half of '48, on the hypothesis of hia
political honesty, without admitting the aggravating ill
effects of his most unfortunate temper.

The political torpor of 1847 was thoroughly dispelled

* 1 ilfclMtl r II II

LIFK OF RIGHT BEY. EDWARD M AOINK.

141

by the French Revolution of February, *48, and the stir-
ring events that followed it. Every lover of the country
was stirred by the glorious opportunity presented. Tho
high-spirited old peers, Lord Cloncurry and Lord
French, who remembered Ireland before the Unioi*,
declared emphatically for its " repeal ;" Lord Wallscourt,
a Connaught proprietor, half French socialist, half feudal
chief, joined the Young Ireland party; Lord Miltown
returned to the old one. Many patriotic Priests began
to agitate the union of both sections, and the co-operation
of the Bishop of Derry was earnestly solicited.

Dr. Maginn's relations at that time to each section,
may best be stated in tho language of his own letters.
In '47 he had given in his adhesion to Mr. John O'Con-
nell, in a public letter characterized by all his usual fer-
vor and energy. In acknowledgment of this adhesion,
he received the following reply from Mr. John O'Con-
nell:

Dalkey, (Gowran Hill,) Dublin, May, 8, 1847.

Right Rev. my Very Dear Lord:

I am in receipt of the great and kind favor of your lordship's con<
descending letter enclosing ten pounds, (half note,) your own muni-
ficent donation and that of your respected clergy to the Repeal Rent.
I say munificent, for its actual magnitude is enhanced by the circum-
stances of the teriible distress and terrible burthens upon you, which
the calamity of the country has caused.

I shall of course observe your lordship's injunction as to not giving
the names to the papers. How is it possible I can thank you for your
generous, your affectionate kindness to my dear, dear fatb.er ! Alas, he
is in a very low state. The hope is yet left to us, in addition to our

142

LIFE OP RIOHT REV. EDWARD MAQINN.

humble truat that Providence raised liim up for a speoial purpose, ond
will support him to its accomplishment.

If I want words to thank you for him, how can I possibly hope to
express my feelings at the surpassing kindness and generous encou-
ragement of your too — I must say kab too high opinion of myself.
Would to God I in any way merited it ! Then J might be of use to
poor Ireland ; whereas now I can do little more than give her my

eart's best wishes, and if need were, its blood,

The attempted conference between " Youno" and " Old" Ireland has
failed of good results, and the " Nation" fiercely attacks me upon the
xmtrue — most utterly untrue — assertion that I contemplated alliance and
place-seeking with and from the government In the " Nation" itself
they have been obliged to give my correction of this gross mis-state-
ment, although they so furiously attack me. They also attack me be-
cause I refused to consent — at least without my father's assent duly
had, to the dissolution of the Association, to spare the Young Irclanders
the ••mortification," as they alleged, of re-joining the body. They
want to establish a new body, made up of the old, and of their own
confederation ; but object to the spirit, as well as the sense of the peace
resolutions, (see •' Nation," leading artiele this day,) although the}' talk
of taking counsel's opinion on the rules of the new bod}', whatever
kind of thing it should turn out to be. They are very indignant at my
not at once consenting to give up the association that weathered the storm
of the state-prosecutions, &c., &c.

Coupling this with the exceedingly violent speeches made on recent
occasions by Meagher, O'Oorman, Mitchel an'^ Doheny, I do not in-
deed, my dear lord, see how it is possible, ac least at present, to neake
another advance towards these gentlemen. Their language is getting
every day more and more inflammatory, and there is an attempt at
fraternizatiou with the fag-end of the implacable Orange party, who
delude them with some fair words, and who really want to gather aid
against what they call •' priestly encroachments."

We have no immediate letter about my dear father, at least that I
have as yet seen — (2 P.M. ) but by the newspapers we learn he has
been again able to move a liitle way on —slowly. I fear he cannot pos-
sibly go farther than the South of France this summer. Believe me.
reverend my dear lord, most respectfully and most heartily your much
obliged and very faithful, John O'Connell.

LIFS OF RIGHT RUV. EDWARD MAOINN.

143

At the end of the previous year, just at the time " the
Irish Confederation" was founded, and Six months after
the secession, he had the following correspondence with
Mr. Duffy, Editor of the Nation:

DR. MAG INN TO MR. DUFFY.

Dear Sir — I herewith send you a post-office order, amount, £1 68.*
doe, or coming due, for ti.e Natioti newspaper. You will have the
goodness to desist, for the present, sending it to me, lest my continuing
a subscriber should be interpreted an approval of a schism inauspi-
ciously begun and mischievously persevered in. Having had the
pleasure of an early acquaintance with your respectable family, I do
candidly say that I took an interest in ever3-thing that appertained to
you, and was proud, as a Northman, of the exceedingly able paper
which you edited. Since, however, it has become an instrument of
dissension, advocating the eternal separation of those whom a common
aim and object should unite in the strong sentiments of brotherhood,
and apoersing the sacred character of one so justly dear, even had he a
thousand faults, to every genuine Irishman, to retain it longer must
seem a dereliction of duty. If you were to take the advice of one who
wishes you well, I would in all earnestness recommend, for the good
of your country, a sacrifice of your own cherished opinions — a forget-
fulness and a forgiveness of whatever wrongs you may think you have
endured, and a speedy reconciliation with '* the Liberator." If nothing
else could induce you to take this advice, the fact of your paper be-
coming the pet of the unblushing haters of your country, should make
you perceive that your present course is not a proper one. Believe
me, since Mr. OConnell's proposed reconciliation, public opinion is
fast ebbing from you, and the abettors of your party are here merely
a few among the dregs of society, whose support of any caase must
prove its ruin. To speak thus to you gives me exceeding pain, and
were I not your friend I would have been more brief and less candid.
I am, dear Sir, yours truly, >{« Edward Maoinn.

MR. DUFFY TO DR. MAGINlf.

January 6, 1847.
Ml/ Dear Lord — I am sincerely obliged by your kind letter and by
the motives that suggested it ; and I am not the less grateful to your

144

LIFK OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAOINN.

lordship for your personal kindnesi b«oaai« yon deem it right to dis-
oontinue the Nation on the grounds stated. But in my own justifica-
tion I must remind your lordship, that it was not I nor my friends who
oommenced the quarrel, nor is it our fault that it continues. We would
willingly have gone back to the Association, if Mr. O'Connell had con-
sented to a fair audit of the accounts for the future — they hare been
un/airlj/ audited and disbursed hitherto— and to a real, bonajlde, honest
agitation fur Uepeal. Uis refusal of those concessions left us no option
but to join what appears to us, who hnvo seen the working of the sys-
tem for years, the mere pretence of a Repeal Agitation, conducted with
personal objects alone, or to take the course we have taken.

I am sorry to learn from your lordship that our supporters in Derry
are of such a character ; but we did not choose these men, and do not
oommunicate with them ; while on the other hand, we know that the
men of best character and ability, prominent in the agitation, have
openly sympathized with us. But in either case, the opinions, not
the men, are the questions of importance.

I trust, and indeed feel convinced, that time will convince your lord-
ship that the Seceders had, and have, no other object than the honest
service of their country.

Believe me, my dear lord, very faithfully yours,

C. G. DUFFV.

The Right Rev. Dr. Maginn, Bishop of,Derry.

Subsequently, wo will find the hope expressed in Mr.
Duffy's letter fulfilled by the change wrought in Dr. Ma-
ginn's mind. It was not, however, a change of principle,
but a modification in his estimate of persons, brought
about by a closer and more lengthened observation of
the principlas in " the secession."

Immediately after the French Revolution, the Rev.
Dr. Miley, of Dublin, who had accompanied O'Connell
in his last journey and closed his eyes in death, believing
the time to be propitious, resolved to renew the attempts
of the preceding year for a " Union of all Repealers."

LIFK OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAOINN.

145

la conveying to the Bishop n printed proposition of Dr,
Gcntili'H, that all Ireland should bo placed under the
special patronage of the Blessed Virgin under the title
of the Immaculate Conception, Dr. Miluy writes, in
March :

While I waa absent from liome— in Engb d — I saw vrith reviving
lio])c for our down-trodden Ireland, sonio Blutcinent to Mi j effect that
your lordsliip was oooupied on some plan for setting ua \v motion on
tiic uphill, but still sacred, entcr))rize of battliuf^ by toncue and pe** for
the rigiits, and against the wrongs, of our country. I beg most ear -estly
to otfer myself as a conscript in this crusade under the gonfalo viilch
I trust ere lung your lordship will unfold to the longing cyos of as
many amongst us as have not as yet acquiesced in i uwcry, or been
guilty of despairing of a cause which Christianity com'.ncci*UB must be
in the highest favor with the Almighty.

Never were the minds of the empire so intently turned on this coun-
try as now. Never, I believe, did there exist such a disposition to be
enlightened as to the mi/tteri/ of its misfortunes. Now, my Lord, if
some fifteen or twenty good men and true of the clerg3% if possible,
with your lordship and a few more of our prelates (should that be
deemed expedient), were to assemble quietly hero in Dubhn, and hav*
ing well digested the case of Ireland in their conference together, and
apportioned the subjects to oorae together with certain lay gentlemen,
(if it should be doomed advisable), and b" speeches well prepared and
full of facta, and by reports to break out <t:',Jenly amidst this silence
of expectation, with such an impeachment of the misrule and the
grievances to which our misery is to be traced as no one could deny
or refute — don't you think, my Lord, ihat the best results might fol-
low, jespeciolly were we to take judicious and effectual measures, by a
standing committee, occasional meetings, reports, and deputations to
England, &c., &c., to follow np the blow with continuous and persever-
ing exertion 1 This would rid us of all by-gones, whether leagues or
associations, and of all old factious responsibilities ; it would lift up
hope in the people ; it would keep the clergy in their position, that is,
at the helm. If your lordship would not, or could not, be presents—
which Heaven forbid ! — would you not oommiBsion some one or two

146

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

li
1 1

of your clergy to take part in such meeting I It is ar other opportunity
which, if not seized, we shall be sure to see when there is no remedy.
Of course, to arouse the world to a sense of the despotism, making
haste to come in the now, alas ! familiar form of famine, and to force
the rulers cither to do their duty or be disgraced, should form a main
object of that meeting. I know your lordship will generously and
readily excuse the liberty with which I have written, and believe me to
be your lordship's ever faithfully and most respectfully, J. Milsy.

Dr. Maginn received this proposition with all the
heartiness of his nature, and out of the correspondence
sprung those conferences between Young and Old Ireland
which, in the month of June following, led to the disso-
lution of both "the Association" and "the Confedera-
tion," and the formation from both of "the Irish
League." The share of Dr. Maginn in this coalition,
then so promising, was active and influential from the
first. A mob in Limerick having been excited to break
up a Young Ireland meeting, and offer personal violence
to Mr. Smith O'Brien, in April, Dr. Maginn took advan-
tage of the occasion to offer Mr. O'Brien, by letter, the
assurance of his personal sympathy and regard. This
letter we have not found among his papers, but Mr.
O'Brien's reply indicates its cordial character :

MR. o'bRIEN to dr. MAGINN.

Druid Lodge, Kilkenny, May 5, 1848.
My Bear Lord:

Yc r very kind letter, prompted by the most generous emotions,
has been productive of the sentiments which you desired, in writing it,
to inspire. I need not assure your Lordship that the bodily injury
which I have sustained in consequence of the affair at Limerick, has
not been deemed by me worthy of consideration, but I confess that my

I : i

LIFE or RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

147

my spirit is deeply wonnded by this occurrence, and that my hopes for
Irtlaiid's freedom have been greatly discouriiged by it.

The assurances which I receive from every quarter, that the ])erver-
eity which gave occasion to this proceeding finds no support or
approval amongst any portion of the Repealers of Ireland, tend,
indeed, to connternct its consequences, both as regards myself and the
Cause ; and you will believe me when I say that such a manifestation
of feeling could emanate from few i)cr8on8 with more soothing effect,
than from your Lordship. Accept, therefore, my very sincere thanks
for your very gratifying letter.

A circumstance has occurred with regard to your Lordship's letter,
which, I trust, will not cause you as much anxiety as it has occasioned
to me. I received it to-day when in Dublin, engaged with several
visitors, read it hastily, and not perceiving that you were desirous that
it should be regarded as a confidential communication, intimated its
contents to those present. Upon re-perusing it carefull}', when I
returned home, I found that you are desirous that your name should
not be mentioned in connection with your subscription to the Defence
Fund. I instantly dispatched a messenger to the OfTice of the Nation
to stop the publication of your name, and trust that I have thus atoned
for the inadvertence of which I had been guilty.

Believe me, my dear Lord, your very obliged friend,

W. S. OBhiEN.

Simultaneously with his entering into communication
with Mr. O'Brien, the Bishop had urged the necessity
of a re-union on Mr. John O'Connell, Mr. Dufify, and
other gentlemen. Their replies will show the spirit in
which they received these paternal advices :

MR. JOHN o'cONNELL TO DR. MAGINN.

[Private ] May 31, 1848

My Revered Good Lord :

Duty and respectful attention make me anxious to submit to you the
result, so far as yet obtained, of our " conferences'' with the Con-
federates.

After our next meeting, Friday, I expect we sliall meet no more ; but
shall each be calling on the country to discountenance the other.

148

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

! i.

I send a similar document to Dr. Cantwell ; and I am, my revered
Lord, most deeply, respectfully, and faithfully, yours ever,

John O'Connell.

MR. JOHN 0*CONNELL TO DR. MAGINN.

Dublin, June 7, 1848.
Mif Dear and much respected Lord:

I am truly happy that your Lordship approves of what has as yet
been done.

You may depend on my doing my best to forward the re-union of
Repealers so much desired.

J shall do so heartily and in earnest, while in my own mind, doubt-
ing much the decision the country has made ; and fearing the results, I
am, my dear Lord, with deep respect, esteem, and affection,

Yours most faithfully,

John O'Connell.

Morton Ranelaoh, June 22, 1848.

My Dear Lord, — I am exceedingly sorry that I have been deceived
into using your Lordship's name in connexion with the Derry meeting.
The Confederation were certainly under the deluded impression that
the movement was one countenanced by you, and since it is not, I am
tolerably sure they will not take part in it.

There is no longer any impediment to the Irish League but mero
personal hesitation on the part of Mr. John O'Connell. At a meeting
of the "Conference last night, he proposed to retire from politics
for some time, to give the League a fair trial ; but as it was appre-
hended that his retirement would deter some of the clergy from going,
he was strongly urged not to do so. It is not yet certain how he will
act. Believe me, my dear lord, very truly yours,

C. G. DCFFT.

The Right Rev. Dr. Maginn.

P. S. I too think Mr. Kenyon's letter most indiscrest and injurious ;
but we must not allow the escapades of individuals, on either side, to
separate the Irish people any longer.

The protraction of these meetings was most perilous
and impolitic at such a season of excitement, and truth
compels us to declare that the delay was mainly, if not

LIFE OP RIGHT BEV. EDWARD MAGINN.

149

solely, the work of Mr. John O'Connell. At an early
sitting he asked a fortnight's delay, which was granted ;
at the next he asked a second fortnight, which was again
granted. In that eventful month the impetuous Mitchel.
was arrested, the suspension of the habeas corpus was
determined on, whole counties were proclaimed under
martial law, the Club system expanded with dangerous
suddenness, and the country, long accustomed to asso-
ciated control, was abandoned to the frenzy of the hour.
A month's time wasted in indecision, under the circum-
stances, wad a national calamity of the most serious
kind, and this calamity the unworthy son of O'Connell
brought assuredly upon his country.

While this willful waste of time was made at Dublin,
gleams of hope arose and shone for Ireland in most un-
expected quarters. A society called "The Protestant
Eepeal Association" had been improvised in the capital,
out of the more advanced members of " the Irish Coun-
cil." Mr. Vance, Mr. Ferguson, Mr. Ireland — all able
and honorable men — were its founders. Greater names
were whispered as to come. Mr. Sharman Crawford,
the Nestor of Ulster liberalism, was certainly well dis-
posed towards this movement, as the following letter
will show :

MR. SHARMAN CRAWFORD TO DR. MAGINX.

LONDOV, May 9, 1848.
My Dear Lord, — I did not till yesterday receive your kind letter of
the 3d inst., it having arrived at my residence after my departure for

!
I

150

LIFE OF RIGHT RKV. EDWARD MAGINN.

London, it was forwarded after me to this place, and this was the cause
of delay in my receiving it.

I am truly thankful for the expressions of confidence which it con-
tains. I can assure you I should feel it the proudest day of my liife,
if I could lead on the Protestant population of Ulster in an eft'ort for
the restoration of a domestic Parliament.

I have always felt that no good could arise from the Repeal of the
Union, if carried in hostility to Protestant feeling. If, however, tlie
Protestant interest can be brought to bear upon it favorably, I conceive
it to be the only chance of salvation for Ireland. I expect that in a
few days you will see my sentiments more fully developed on this
point. I was requested to attend a meeting of the Dublin Protestant
Repeal Association. It was not in my power to do so. I, however,
wrote a letter in terms which, I trust, you will consider calculated to
foster the Protestant movement. It will probably be published in the
report of the meeting which was appointed to take place this day. I
agree wUh you that an amalgamation of Protestant support with that
of your denomination, in this great, and, I think, just cause, is the only
escape which we can look forward to from continued and increasing
agitation, discord and confusion, and perhaps in the end to that great-
est of all evils, civil war. You may depend on my using every effort
in my power to give effect to Protestant opinion on this question, if a
sufficient body of my brethren come forward to indicate it.
Yours, my dear lord, faithfully,

W. Sharman Crawford.
Right Rev. Dr. Maginn, &c., &c., &c.

About this time the following extraordinary propo-
sition was sent in circular form from the Earl of Shrews-
bury's friend, the Eev. Dr. Winter, to all the Irish
Bishops :
LORD Shrewsbury's circular, recommending a new repeal

AGITATION.

[Copy.] Alton Towers, April 6, 1848.

Dear Lr. Winter:

Each day the condition of Ireland seems to me more and more
alarming. Hitherto I have ever been an enemy to Repeal, because I con-
ceived repeal to be Republicanism, and republicanism to be Communisir.

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

151

besides which I always hoped for justice to Ireland by some less dan»
gerous process, ami was also satisfied that tlie power of England was
capable of maintaining order and subordination in Ireland till that
happy day shcnild arrive. But the French Revolution has changed all
things, and put at nought all our calculations Now I begin to feel
even Repeal might be a blessing — it might save Ireland from Rebellion
and England from Chartism. If all would become Repealers ; if the
whorle Hierarchy of Ireland would embrace Repeal as the last hope of
averting the dreadful alternative of civil war — and tha certain con-
sequence of civil war, if it were successful, Communism — then, indeed,
we might expect to see a less deplorable result. If the whole Clergy
of IreJiiiid were united in the cry for Repeal, it would also unite with
them a large body of the middle chasses, and even a very numerous
landed proprietary. In this case they would be able, it is to be hoped,
to guide the destinies of the people into a more moderate course, and
retain them under the influence of religion. Whereas, if Repeal were
the consequence of rebellion, the government of the rabble would be
the result, and Ireland would be France on a small scale at the very
best.

The present administration is infatuated, and I feel confident that we
have no hope from them. Their intentions are equally good, but they
have not the energy to carry them out, and give for a reason that the
prejudices of Scotland and England are too great to be surmounted by
anything less than bloodshed and confusion, both here and in Ireland.

If, then, a sufficiently formidable display of Repealers could be
organized, I think the Government would resign their power to Sir
Robert Peel, to whom everj' one looks forward as the probable Saviour
of his country. This would be another hope ; for, perhaps, PeeVs
justice, and the settlement of the Church question, might even avert
Repeal itself ; if not, he would be far more likely to make the necessary
sacrifice to escape that most awful of all calamities. Civil War. In
fine, things cannot go on as they are, and any expcdtent is worth the
trial for the safety of the Empire. Ireland, alas ! is not like Sicily,
but is full of antagonistic races and antagonistic principles ; so that
unless the whole power of the Catholic clergy were brought to bear
upon the conduct of the legislature in case of Repeal, we should soon
be involved in a worse predicament than that from which Ireland is
now seeking to escape. All, then, will depend upon the assertion
of sound principles by the clergy ; if they fall into Republicanism,

152

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

and Republicanism ia to lead to Communism and Infidelity, we had far
better fight it out, and leave the issue to God.

I have written to my good friend, Dr. Ennis, much in the same
strain. I wish you would see him, and give me your united opinion on
the matter.

Believe me, dear Dr. Winter, most truly and faithfully yours,

Shrewsbury.

P.S. — I think, also, that the presenfmoment' presents a more favor-
able opportunity for Repeal, than any other, because our own dif-
ficulties, both internal and external, will prevent us acting the bully.
We should be willing to adjust matters upon amicable terms, and put
up with inconveniences which, under other circumstances, would
cause a collision.

A small but respectable section of the Irish gentry,
who did not go quite so far as repeal, began to meet at
the eminent Surgeon Carmichael's, and subsequently at
the Eotunda, to advocate alternate sittings of Parliament
in Dublin, Edinburgh and London. Colonel Eobinson,
Dr. Grattan, Mr. Chetwode, Dr. Graves, Dr. Carmichael,
and Lord Cloncurry were engaged in this advocacy,
when the Young Ireland explosion frightened them into
retirement.

The knowledge that such elements of strength were,
or could be, gathered, made men like Dr. Maginn fever-
ishly anxious for the successful termination of the
" Conferences." We shall let Dr. Miley relate the vari-
ous fortunes of the negotiation :

DR. MILET TO DR. MAGINN.

Metropolitan Church, Dublin, May 3, 1858.
My Dear Lord,—Yoxa Lordship's letter of the 29th ult. appeared to
me so highly calculated to cheer and confirm the Hon. member for
Limerick, in that much of his course which challenges confidence and

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAQINN.

158

approval, and to set him right as to that portion of it in which he may
have goue wrong, that I did not hesitate to give it him to read just
after I had received it on Monday last. No one can bo better disposed
than he is, more entirely devoted to the cause, or happier at receiving
suggestions and advice, especially from the bishops and clergy. I
know that he feels profoundly grateful for your Lordship's sympathy
and exertions in his behalf, and I trust that his career henceforward
will be such as more than ever to merit this favor.

Although that affair in Limerick is in some respects a very unfortu-
nate one, it is still an unequivocal proof of the constancy of the peo-
ple, and that no man can induce them to trample on gratitude, even
in the enthusiasm of their pursuit after liberty. There is also reason
to hope that it may be made the means of bringing about a more satis-
factory understanding between the two sections than has as yet been
effected. Some overtures have been made to me by leading confeder-
ates this forenoon to that effect ; and I hope of the Repeal Committee,
to which I am just now about to go, that something may be devised to
bring about an arrangement by which the recurrence of such collisions
may be prevented, and the two bodies brought to some extent into
harmony. Without this, success or safety can hardly be hoped for.

Your Lordship will be happy to learn that I have succeeded, quite
contrary to the anticipations of my friends, in obtaining permission
from His Grace, Dr. Murray, to have the anniversary oflSce for the Lib-
erator in our church here on the 16th of this month. Nothing shall be
left undone to make the solemnity everything that it ought to be ;
perhaps, too, the assembling of the prelates and clergy which may be
expected to take place from all parts of the country, would afford a
favorable opportunity for putting forth some joint expression of opin-
ion and feeling as to the calamitous condition to which English misrule
has brought ourselves and our people. Rev. Mr. Maher, of Carlow,
has been induced to devote himself to the preparation of a detailed
statement of the horrors of the last two years. Would your Lordship
consider the matter regarding which I have already written to Dr.
Cantwell, and intend to write to some of the other prelates and clergy
What makes the opportunity particularly valuable in my mind is this
that the prelates and clergy who will assemble are likely to be all, or
nearly all, of the right sort, and therefore that the danger of any split
or misunderstanding, in any meeting it may be deemed proper to hold,
would be got rid of ; and, again, that the occasion of our coming tor
gether would be such as to prevent others from taking alarm and at

5j^:5*ai"-^fr

Tv^mss^iSSS

154

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

tempting any counter movement. Aa to your Lordship's presence, I
most earnestly and respectfully entreat it, as also a word of advice as
to liow the opportunity should be turned to the best account.

The enclosed most extraordinary document will speak for itself. It
was to it I alluded in Conciliation Hall on Monday fortnight ; and what
gives importance to the views and statements in it is, that it was writ-
ten after the noble Earl hod had a long conference with Falmerston,
Russell, Lord Lanedowno and Sir George Gray on the expediency of at
once conceding the Repeal of the Union.

Believe me to be, my dear Lord,

Most devotedly yours,

J. MiLET.

Right Rev. Dr. Maginn, &c., &c., &c.

DUBUX, May 13, 1848
* * * Wo had a meeting last night of the leaders of the three
associations, Conciliation Hall, Confederation, and the Protestant Re*
peal Association. In some respects I have not been cheered by the
result. I fear the men will not work earnestly and heartily together.
The O'Connells are for loitering, and parry new attempts too much ;
the Confederates tend to the opposite extreme ; and the Protestants,
keen, well-intrenched and full of intelligence, seem disposed to take
up a position of observation. We had, however, some material expla-
nations, which iray be useful. Mr. Ferguson having stated, as did Mr.
Ireland also, that the Protestants were mainly withheld by the dread
that the Irish Parliament would be inundated by representatives from
the Catholic clergy, I ventured to assert that such an ipprehensioa
was groundless ; that the Catholic clergy were anxious only for the
independence and prosperity of their country, and not for parliament-
ary honors. Messrs. S. O'Brien and the O'Connells said they thought
the examples of Belgium and France should not be lost sight of. I
differed with them ; and pointing out the obvious difference in the
casQ of Ireland, asserted that in my mind to get rid of opposition
to the Repeal Association, and to secure its success, there was no ex-
pectancy or hope of that sort which the clergy of Ireland would not
be found most willing to abjure. I added, that we should ever prefer
the voluntary principle for our own support, but that in 4oIng so we
should insist on all other denominations of clergy being reduced
to the same level, guarantees being given for the life interest of the
present incumbents. Maurice 0*C. said he was ready to guarantee

' :

LIFE OF RIGHT BEY. EDWARD MAOINN.

155

support to the Proteatant clergy. I differed with him, as did most of
tho others. Mr. Ferguson seemed quite delighted with the explana-
tion, and assured mo he anticipated, from the communication of what
I had stated to his party, the most favorable results. He gave me hia
hand with great warmth, and in reply to my suggestion, that a? Cath-
olic priests and bishops were not to sit in Ireland's Parliament, neither
should the Protestant prelates, he said, with emphasis, *' There was no
fear of that." We arc to have another meeting next Wednesday evening.
I should nice to know from your Lordship if you think I went too far t
In extreme haste, I have the honor to remain,

Your Lordship's, very devotedly,

J. MiLGT.

The Right Rev. Dr. Maginn, Sec., &g.

Ddbux, June 9, 1848.

Ml/ Dear Lord,—l seize on the first moment to announce that at
length, as if by miracle, the " Union" of Repealers would seem to be
secured. Last night it was reported to the Conference that both the
committee of Conciliation Hall and the council oF'the Confederates
had agreed to the new basis and fundamental rules by unanimous vote.
Of the amount of difQculties which stood in the way of this consum-
mation, your Lordship can barely form an adequate notion ; and the
best of it is, that not only is the Union agreed to by all parties, but
they enter into it with the most cordial good will, and resolve to leave
nothing undone to effect it, in all honor, and good faith and zeal toge-
ther.

The basis and rules were drawn up by Sir Colman O'Loughlin and
your humble servant. -' They are to this effect : The object of the new
body shaU be to seek the legislative independence of Ireland by the
" union of all sections of> Irishmen, and by the concentration of public
opinion." Not a word about " physical force." It is a icritten under-
standing regularly registered, that nothing seditious shall be spoken
in the Association, and that no one is there to call on the people even
to arm, though to do so is not exactly illegal. Thus there is no com-
promise of principle — nothing illegal involved in the Union. As an
additional guarantee, it is a fundamental rule that no measure is to be
proposed in the Association until it p'aall first have passed the commit-
tee. In short, the new is just as constitutional and legal as the old
form ] the only difference is, that we abstained from urging those points
upon which we knew unanimity could never be had, and by not aim-
ing at a too exact and captious code of restrictions. Safety and the

156

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

working power, we thought, were what we should look to. It is agreed
on all hands that this Is attained.

One hitch is still in the way. The secretary of the now body must
be Mr. Ray. It is the wish of the Confederates to give him a colleague
with equal powers ; this Mr. Ray refuses. No doubt ho is right, and I
do not detpair that a proposal to have an aaaistant secretary ftrom the
Confederation was by this evening agreed to. Though apparently a
trifle, it is a most critical matter, this. Pray Heaven it do not upset
qb! They talk of calling the new thing the "Irish League" — ^what
would your Lordship call it ? That name is not very signiQcaut. If all
be settled this evening, the adjournments are to take place on Monday
or Tuesday next, and the first meeting of the League is to be an-
nonuced probably for Wednesday week, to be held if possible in the
Rotunda, in any case on neutral ground. The after, meetings to be in
Conciliation Hall, and as usual, on Monday, and in the day-time. A
new name and new decorations were given to the Hall. To this first
meeting the chief Repealers are to be invited ftom all parts. Would
it be possible for your Lordship to come and give your blessing to, and
set your seal upon, this union, out of which, with God's blessing, shall
spring the liberty and prosperity of our country ? I believe that with-
out this union the repeal would not be hoped for, and that a terrible
conflict at no distant day must have happened. But to win for it its
fall effect, it would seem indispensable that the^ prelates and clergy
should, by a general action and systematic movement, exert themselves
to secure a controlling power in it, by giving to John O'Connell such
pledges and testimonies of their confidence and support, that through
him as their organ or representative, they may hold the entire body
within the bounds of religion and order. No one can so effectually
aid in this as your ^ ordship. Your word will be a law. Of course, the
thing requires caution. The feuds which we are trying to bury must
not be evoked again ; the concord so essential to success must not be
risked ; but your Lordship, while avoiding all appearance of partizan-
ifalp, will know how to secure for John O'Connell that importance in
the new body which will win for the Catholic interest that weight and
respect which it deserves. Your Lordship knows as well * • * •
the motives by which I am actuated in writing thus, as I have been
throughout the entire progress of this most critical and troublesome
transaction, that I am sure of being pardoned any seeming of obtru
siveness which it may bear.

A line from your lordship regarding this entire affair will be grate-

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

157

taWy prized, and used as a guide by your lordebip's very faithful ser-
vant, J. MlLKT.

Accordingly, on the 12th of July, the first meeting of
"the Irish League" was held, amid great enthusiasm.
After two years of separation nnd bitter warfare, the
divided repealers met again on the same platform.
There was a great and sincere display of good feeling
on both sides. Messrs. Stritch, Leyne and Dunne spoke
for the old Hall ; Messrs. O'Mallcy, (Rev.) O'Gorman and
McGee for the Confederation. Both had been dissolved
to melt into one, not, however, without dropping some
incongruous particles on both sides. Mr. John O'Con-
nell held aloof, in high dudgeon, and Mr. Mitchel's sect
were equally hostile. Too fast for the one, we were too
slow for the other. A compromise — a middle course —
was equally objectionable to both extremes. It was
found very soon that the new legal condenser was too
fragile for the steam got up by the Clubs, or rather, that
it was tried too late I The staff of Old Ireland persisted
in its retirement, while the vanguard of Young Ireland
paused a moment, applauded the sentiment of unity,
and then went on its way, reckless as ever. The Free-
man got cold, the Nation got hot, the moderates gradu-
ated into the disgusted, and the fate of the kingdom was
left between the Castle and the Clubs. Writing after
the Young Ireland catastrophe, to Under-Secretary Red-
ington. Bishop Maginn thus deplores the failure of " the

■« .^. ' -. ■:-7V'i^:^.mm!rT--'^-'.>^-^y-^:^-:m

158

LIFK OF RIGHT KKV. KDWAKI) MAQlNlN.

Irish Lcnguo": "Dr. Maginn and clergy," ho says, "did
not join thu League; but they would have joined it, on
the express condition of their own resolutions (that Ire-
land's regeneration should be worked out by means
peaceful, legitimate and Christian), had the League con-
tinued to exist. Their only regret now is, that they did
not join it at an earlier date, as their example might
have been followed by others; and by the re-union of
Young and Old, and the. concentration of public opinion
in it, the enthusiasm of the rash but devoted patriots
of the country would be constrained and directed into
proper channels, and made conducive to the object all
had in view — the restoration of our Irish Parliament."

The catastrophe of Young Ireland took place in the
first days of August. On the fifth of that month Mr.
O'Brien walked into Thurles, apparently desperate of
consequences, and was arrested. Meagher, McManus,
and others were taken during the week. The rest
escaped to the Continent or to America, by one strata-
gem or another. Those taken were tried at Clonmel, in
October, and sentenced to death — a sentence afterwards
commuted to transportation for life. Lord Clarendon
had a triumph, and the national cause was deserted.
The howl of savage triumph was raised by the London
press, and broad hints, followed by direct statements,
appeared, that the letters found in Mr. O'Brien's port-
manteau, inculpated, among others, the Bishop of Derry.

LIFJC Of RIGUT RKV. KDWAUI) MAGINX.

159

These reports at length led to the following correspon-
dence :

)erry.

DK. MA(;iNN TO UNDEU SKCRETART REDINOTON.

Sir — It bas been very wlnely Huid that tbcro Ih a time for speaking
out and a time for observing Hilcnce. Tbo difllculty, however, ban ever
been in af>ccrtnin!ng tbu proper tiineH and eouaouii for doing citber or
both. I candidly admit, Sir, that for the la^t two months I baited
more than ouco in malting my Beiection. A certain party, assuredly
not tbo most trutbrul or nmiublc in fhis country, have been malting
thcrasclveH and the public familiar with my humble name, by embalm-
ing it with epithets which, like everything coming from them, are
neither liweet-smelllng nor ogrccable. I and clergy have been pub-
licly branded by it aH traitors, rebels, preachers of sedition, disallec-
tion and dislovalty ; yea, by eorae of this vile party wo have been
styled communists and murderers, in intent, of all the honest, virtuous
and loyal in tBo land, 4tc. Having well understood, from th; hictory
of that infamous faction, that their trade was calumny ; that the venom
of asps was ever on their lips, and their throats gaping sepulchres ;
that slander was their daily bread, and that the only means left them
to sustain the Pclion on OsFa of iniquity, with which they have ever
borne down and oppressed this unhappy island, were the accumulation
of falsehoods and deceptions as buttresses against this syi-tcm ; the
common sense of mankind they shocked, and the justice they trampled
upon. I would have patiently borne with this, Sir, and more than this,
and submitted to all In silence, finding their apology in the force of
habit, did not the same party attempt to make others on my account
—others for whom I have a sincere esteem — large sharers in the favor
they were bestowing upon me. I believe, Sir, in these circumstances,
that silence would be no longer a duty.

Passing over this abuse, permit me. Sir, to proceed at once to what
they have assigned as its causes. First, Dr. Maginn and his clergy
joined the League ; secondly, letters fiom Dr. Maginn to Smith
O'Brien, of treasonable import, were found in that gentleman's port-
folio. The first is a palpable falsehood, the second is not less false ;
aad what is worse, the faction knew it to be so, when they proclaimed
to the world the calumny. Dr. Maginn and 'clergy did not join the
League, but they would have joined it on the express conditions of
their own resolutions that Ireland's regeneration should be worked out

'^iijKSii*

160

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

by means peaceful, purely legitimate and Christian, had the league
coutiuucd to exist. Their only regret now is that they did not V'
at an earlier date, as tbeir example might have been foUo' uj
others, and by the re-union of old and young, and the concentration
of public opinion in it ; the enthusiasm of the rash but devoted pa-
triots of the country would have been constrained and directed into
proper channels, and made conducive to the object all have in view —
the restoration of our Irish Parliament. The future historian of our
country, if he be not of the class of the Lelands or the lying Humes,
will denounce our tardiness and by no means excuse others whose po-
sition in Ireland made it a duty for them to take the lead. It would
have been, I acknowledge, a misfortune for this vile faction, had we
left aside our wicked dissensions, and thus peacefully leagued together ;
for their hopes of plunder and ascendency would be thereby frustrated,
rebellion would have been at a discount, and the feast of blood which
they hungered and thirsted after, they could not even enjoy in imagina-
tion.

Secondly. It is equally as untrue that any letters of mine, abetting
treason, could be found in Mr. O'Brien's portfolio, for I wrote nooe
such. With that devoted Irishman I had very little correspondence,
and I am sure he must say none of a treasonable nature. Indeed,
whatever correspondence I had with him I still feel honortd by it, and
the one letter I had from him I will keep by me as a sacred treasure
for from its every line is reflected honor, high-mindedness, sincerity
and patriotism ; and if I could form an opinion from my brief ac-
quaintance of him, he was the perfect counterpart of the Chevalier
Bayard, sans pcur, sans reproche. Posterity will do him justice, and
reverse the judgment pronounced upon him. It will pronounce him
not disloyal to his Queen, but devoted to his country, and that his un-
happy position was one of necessity, and not of choice. But to return
to the portfolio : If there have been in it such letters as they describe,
why, I say, are they not produced? They blame the Earl of Clarendon
for not producing them, while they are quite conscious that he could
not produce them. They call on the good Earl to prosecute the trai-
tors. Are not they, forsooth, loyal subjects I They have the name of
the Queen, Church and Constitution constantly on their lips, but where
is their courage in the good cause 'r Is it not the duty of every loyal
subject io seize on the t^ aitors, and bring them to conviction ? They
accuse me of treason. What have they been doing for the last two

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

161

le league
ot ^o'-

eviration
i^oted pa-
cted iuto
in view —
m of our
I Humes,
vhoee pe-
lt would
I, had we
together ;
'ustrated,
lod which
imagiua-

abettiQg
ote none
)0Ddence,

Indeed,

>y it, and

treasure

sincerity

rief ao-
hevalier
|ticc, and
nee him

his un-
return

escribe,
larendou

e could

he trai-
ame of

t where

y loyal

They

st two

months? They could have found me any time since at my residence.
They had not far to go for me. Believe me, I would have offered them
no resistance. Without even the suspension of the habeas corpus, they
might have had my body. Was it their good wishes for a Popish
Bishop that restrained them ? Was it their forbearance ? Such, in this
important case, would be surely criminal. What, then, was it. Sir ?
Their loyalty in this instu::ce was at least at fault. Oh I but they
waited for the good Earl of Clarendon to seize on the traitors, and
bring them to conviction. . Bat what if the Earl, no matter how dis-
posed, could not safely do it 7 No matter ; still he should have done
It. To victimize a Popish priest or bishop was not surely a business
of ?^ch moment as to need an instant's consideration. But if the Earl
had no grounds? No matter ; still the Earl should have gratified them
by seizing on the Bishop. Exceedingly bad treatment this, on the part
of the Earl of Clarendon, of 'a faction who so kindly proflfered, not to
fight the battles of the Queen — ^for they have been found seldom or
never on the side of their legitimate sovereigns — no ; but after he
had won the battle, to be in for the stripping of the dead, the hacking
of the wounded and dying, and, like dogs and vultures, to prey on the
bodies or lap the blood ot the slain. What an ungrateful executive we
have, since they have been disappointed of the carrion to have refused
them a- live bishop or two, and half-a-dozen of priests ! tempora I O
mores i The time was when they could have had a thousand for the
asking ; but now'this Clarendon whom they have been addressing and
covering with the slaver of their adulation, whom they have been hail-
ing throughout the length and breadth of the land as the very paragon
of viceroys, will not indulge this ogre, notwithstanding its ravenous
bowlings, with even a Popish curate to feed upon. But, Sir, to be se-
rious, it is passing strange that neither time nor circumstances can
change the nature of this ferocious faction. Qualis ah inccepto servatur
adimum. It was born amidst treason, cradled in rebellion, and fed
from its infancy upon blood and plunder ; and now, after three hun-
dred years of indulgence in rapacity, spoliation and massacre, its appe-
tite is as ravenous as ever. The reptile of the East, when he has swal-
lowed his victims, stretches himself on the earth, and satiated, sinks
into repose ; but nothing. Sir, can satiate our monster — it never re-
poses. The more you give it the more you whet lits appetite. Earth
or Heaven have scarcely witnessed its count«^rpart. The Mamelukes
of Egypt, the Turkish Janizaries, can be only likened to it by a faint

■ m ■ I

162

LIFE OF BIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

resemblance. \Vlien compared with it, a little prey and plunder satis-
fled them ; but our monster — although favored with the tenth of the
produce and the three-fourths of the land of the kingdom of which the
lawful possessors were robbed ; although they have almost every lucra-
tive situation in the country ; although insurrection after insurrection
was provoked by them or got for their profit ; although day after day
its rich patron and neighbor was flinging its gold into its throat ; al-
though, to make victims for it, hell itself devised its penal codes, its
racks, its halters, its scavengers daughters' courts of justice, whei*e
there was no justice — packed juries and perjured judges — although for
it was devised a landlord code like that of Draco, steeped in tears and
written in characters of blood ; although mercy and equity were ex-
iled from the land, that the monster through it might career with
impunity and devour the natives like a morsel of bread ; although reli-
gion's sacred name was abused for them, and whatever was holy in it
desecrated to their service ; although, in flne, they were allowed to turn
even the very God of Heaven to their profit, and to nake even the
Holy One to hallow and stamp with his sanction their iniquitous spoli-
ations and robberies — they are still dissatisfied. They still cry out for
more victims, more spoliations, more rebellions, more massacres, and
as the most savory morsel of all, a Popish pontiff and a few of the
Levites. An old poet will finish the portrait for me, and if it be uot
f-ppropriate, you. Sir, who know this bane of our country, will be the
judge. [The quotation is not given in the MS.]

So armed, so equipped, and so fortified with everything that should
make it secure and terrible, yet this monster is ever in a fearful trepi-
dation. Even the noiseless zephyr on the shadow of the spider's thread
in the sunbeam, makes it shudder. It lustily cries out to its parent
and the nurse that tended it, to precipitate themselves, with the whole
armory of despotism, upon its beggared and half-famished enemies.
It growls and it bellows, should even a crumb of justice be extended to
them. Extend the franchise ever so little, and the monster cries, " I'm
in danger !" Let an attempt be made to add the least to the privileges
of any town or city in the land, and the monster's cry is, " I'm exceed-
ingly in danger !" The smallest share of equity to the miserable serf
or cottier, woe-stricken the monster cries, " I'm awfully in danger !"
Let but some humane and benevolent person propose a decent provi-
sion for the skeleton poor, and the monster cries, " I'll die with hun-
ger !" The bare thought of placing the outcast and the homeless wan-

.:^~^i'^'-''.

LIFfi OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGIXN.

163

should

il trepi-

tLread

pareat

le whole

kemies.

ided to

Is, " I'm

tvileges

jxceed-

)le serf

[nger !"

provi-

th hun-

Bs wan-

derer on the wide wastes of the kingdom, whereby they could support
themselves and others, fills the monster with dismay ; and justice to
Ireland, charity to the poor and the needy, love of man to man, peace
and concord and harmony — the bare contemplation of such things in
the prospective, makes it furious. Its thousand tongues are set to roar ;
it lashes with its tail, tears the very earth that fed it with its teeth ;
and as to the poor wights who fertilized that earth with the sweat of
"their brows, and gave to the monster, in the way of rents and tithes,
nearly its whole produce, they are repaid for their pains with the foul-
est vituperations — are styled savages, vermin, rebels, &c., &c. i find
the unhappy ruler who could even think of doing justice, and would
dare to express his thoughts on that subject, must be prepared to be
associated with Belial against God — of hell against heaven. Indeed,
at once he ceases to deserve the name of Christian, and if the monster
is to be believed, to become nothing less than an infldel, an atheist, a
pantheist — without a heart to feel or a soul to be saved.

But the strangest thing of all is, this monster is constantly imputing
to others disaffection, treason, rebellion— the same that was a traitor
from the beginning, that was born of it, tended by it, and hitherto
sustained by its treasonable robberies — the same that now makes a
martyr of the Charles it beheaded, prayed with the same breath for a
James and a William, balancing iia loyalty on the chances of war ;
now, " God bless King James !" and then, as fortune veered, " God defend
King William !" Preserve us, heaven, from sik ii loyalty as theirs ! The
lip service of hypocrisy to the king, iho hear; telt homage ever paid to
its own interest, a traitor to its country, a realtor to i's king — influ-
enced by no principle of love, honor, allegiance or doty — ever turning
around the personal pronoun I, and nof '^'en admitting a relative. Its
motto, " Yours is mine, but never mine is yours." No devotion to the
best of sovereigns, except so far as they feel inclined to sacrifice their
duty to its interests, by giving up the glorious appellation of being the
fathers of the nation, for the doubtful one of patron and abettor of a
faction.

This, Sir, is no calumny. It is written as clearly as if with a pencil
of light in the annals of this unhappy country. James I. promises to
do something for his Irish subjects-— witness Usher's reclamation. A
Charles would be just to them — they tlveaten and deseri him. A
William would stand by his treaties — it growls, intimidates, and di.ves
him into their violation. A George IV. is advised to emancipate — the
monster exclaims. You will thereby forfeit your crown — foi/eit our al-

164

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

: II

1 1 i I

iii

legiance to it, as it will infringe on your coronation oath. A William
IV. would grant a Reform Bill — the monster becomes furious — no
allegiance of even a single rotten borough goes ; and when reform was
conceded, the monster seeks revenge on the ministry that abetted it ;
it gathers up its joints to a hill in Down, and lustily howls its treason,
that Melbourne must go out or it will fight the battle of the Boyne
over again.

What short memories, or, at least, indulgent memories, it supposes
the people of this country to have, when it could imagine that a veil
of 'Oblivion was forever drawn over these criminalities. But, Sir, what
is worse still, its treasonable propensities can not be excused by the
passion of bygone days | its recent concocted treason against the bo-
loved sovereign of these realms, while yet, I may say, a child, has all
the freshness of youth about it. And 0, Sir, it was a foul treason ! — a
treason against a supposed helpless orphan, and this orphan a female ;
and what made the crime still more heinous, they conspired to enthrone
infamy in the place of innocence — a hideous caricature of befouled,
shattered humanity, instead of the young, lovely, virtuous being, whose
right was even hallowed by her weak, unprotected condition, and made
sacred by the duty of the*Christian as well as of the subject. We re-
member well, Sir. we could not forget the pretext of the monster
for its vile iniquity ! viz., the interests of society, forsooth ! A disgrace
it was, to be sure, that a woman should reign over this great empire.
Come, Sir, let those who would brand us as traitors produce Fairman'g
portfolio, their correspondence with the military in Canada ; let them
reveal the secrete of their "lodges," of their committees, of their grand
masters, their petty masters, its chaplains, its treasurers, I am much
afraid, if they did, thai Mr. Smith O'Brien's portfolio would cut but a
poor figure, in the way of treason, beside Fairman's bag, and that the
felonious secrets of the Confederation for the Restoration of an Irish
Parliament would be scarcely a faint image of the giant felony they
concocted. Whenever treason is mentioned, the monster should retire
to his den and cover itself with the veil of its shame and confusion, if
indeed the monster can have any such thing as shame and confusion ;
and at the souud of any reproach upon the name of the Queen, they
should recollect and tremble, as memory rushed upon it, with the foul
epithet they affixed to a fame as white as the ermiaie, and as bright in
its lustre as thj unsullied crystal — the epithet of tae wicked Jezabel.
The heart still recoils even at the contemplation of the i/arefacod trea-
sons of the monster, and is shocked at the impudence with which it

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

165

raises its serpentine crest, and witli a hiss, spits i^s own foul guilt upon
others, who would have died to preserve the rights c^ the sovereign it
would betray. I sincerely regret. Sir, the trespass I have so far made
on your patience and that of the public. You will find its apology in
the circumstances giving occasion to it. I have proved the monster a
traitor, indeed when it had the least confidence of success. I have
proved it to have ever been a traitor in will, and only shrinking from
treason ^hen treason became dangerous to its interests. I have proved
it to have never had any other God but self, any other king but mam-
mon, any other allegiance to any one thing but to privileged rapacity.
I now fliug defiance at the monster, and dare it lo prove any word or
deed of mine adverse to the lawful sovereign of this realm, or to pro-
duce from Smith O'Brien's portfolio, or any other, any letter of mine
exciting to treason or rebellion. But this it will not dare to do — not
for want of will, for I know it has the will for anything, no matter how
atrocious — but for want of means to accomplish its bloodthirsty wishes.
I have, Sir, no hesitation in saying, that had it the mesms within its
reach of carrying out its guilty purposes, it would level our churches
to the ground, massacre our priests and people, make a solitude for its
own gratification and call it peace ; for it is the indoles of such mon-
sters to delight in deserts and to roam in wastes. And with respect to
treason and rebellion, I have less hesitation again in asserting, fur I
know it to be the whole truth and nothing but the truth, that such
things would have been ever unheard-of in this country, were it not for
the atrocities of this monster. The English people are daily being
made tlie monster's dupes. The rulers of this land scarcely appear
on its surface when it envelopes them in its coils and inveigles them in
ite snares, and fascinates them by its deceitful blandishments. Ireland
it defames — the Irish people it calumniateE^ and misrepresents. No
matter how well-disposed, the ruler, in a short time, sees everything
through the monster's spectacles ; and the fairest land under heaven,
and the most virtuous people, if fairly dealt with, put on the hideous
shape and form, assume the jaundice complexion which this foul me-
dium of vision exhibits. The present viceroy was the finest boy alive
while he busied hiuMelf for it, in cramming the kingdom with sabres
and cannon, with spies and detectives, in suspending the habeas corpus
and the liberty of person and of speech, and held out to them the pros-
pect of immediate carnage : but the instant he showed signs of return-
ing reason, and began to feel that his character would be forever dam-
aged by consorting with such a reptile, and that he could not gratify

,*»•

1 ;
+

It .♦

;iil!

166

LIFE OF RIGHT PEV. EDWARD MAGINN.

it with anything less than wholesale devastation and torrents of blood ;
the instant it perceived that it could not do with impunity as it waa
^ont — that it would not be allowed to have its martial law to confound
the innocent with the guilty and expedite the wished-for destruction
of the Irish priest and peasant at its discretion, as this would not do
for England's prosperity or for Ireland's peace — that it could not burn
down at its good pleasure the poor man's cabin or conQscate the rich
man's property — that the Earl would not join it in shooting, for its
amusement, the people — the instant his better nature seemed to revolt
at the thought of iiflfordiEg the monster the fiendish indulgence it cal-
culated upon, instead of the best, he becomes one of the worst viceroys
we ever had — altogether too good a boy for it, incapable of conceiving.
much less doing, the infamous work it had traced out for hltn. Hence
it is, that him whom they crowned with flowers, they would i;ow send
to the gallies, and whom they raised upon a pyramid of fulsome adu-
lations, they would condemn to the gibbet with an Ilictor aligu ad
palum. Yes, my Lord Clarendon, you and party were too good for it ;
the measure of your perverseness fell short of their iniquitous bushel.
You had too much wisdom or too much of the milk of human nature
for it; therefore it is that they now say, " Away with himl" — away
with you. The fact of its hatred of you is beginning to make others
who love their country more than themselves, think the more of you,
and have better confidence in you, as they know that there must be
something noble and generous about you — some relic of the Divine
image within you — some kind disposition towards our country and its
people, when you could thus have earned for yourself this monster's
detestation. I say this not as the Earl's flatterer ; I would hate my-
self were I capable of being his or any other man's adulator. No. I
say it because this monster never loved anything but what was base
and truculent and barbarous, and never y^t hated anything that had
not some traits of goof'.'oss, ir; partiality and benignity about it.

I should not, Sir, noiwithstanding the length that this letter has
grown upon me, take iny leave of you wiihont affording the reptile I
have been describing e, -.m still some further excuse for its calumnies ;
for I delight to have such beings ray calumniators. Permit me, then,
Sir, to broadly state, in the teeth of the monster, that I am by no
means satisfied with things as tliey are ; that I am disaffected and oHs-
satisfied with almost everything I see around me, but the piety and
the patience of my poor people ; that I abominate the relation in

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

167

Iter has
?ptile I
Imnies ;
i, then,
by no
Ind oHs-
ky and
pion In

which the tenant serf is made to stand to his taskmaster ; that I detest
the manner in which the hiws are generally administered in this coun-
try, in favor of a party against the nation ; that I reprobate, with all
the powers of my soul, the exclusion of the Irish Catholic from the
jury-box — a practice but too common for centuries, in the East, the
West, the North and South, and for which the present Attorney-Gen-
eral does not want a precedent, as he can find it in almost every court
in the kingdom. I am wholly dissatisfied with an alien church estab-
lishment, the upas tree that has poisoned every fountain stream of
social life and bliss throughout the country — a fatal, hideous prodigy,
that has no equal in monstrosity. I am, sir, heartily dissatisfied with
that misrule which has made our beautiful island a lazar-house, and
filled our graveyards to bursting with the bodies of our famished
people. I am by no means satisfied with the vile abuse poured out in
torrents every day upon my long suffering country and countr^'mcn 5
and short of an insurrection against the Queen — for this, in principle,
I could not as a Christian approve of, nor as a lover of my country
recommend — I would use any and every means that heaven could
sanction, to remove these nuisances and pull down the colossal iniqui-
ties that cumber the land. Should there be any person in Ireland sat-
isfied with things as they are, be he priest or layman, or bishop 01
ruler, he is an infidel in his heart who does not believe in the existence
of a just God, a traitor to the land he lives in, and effectually a traitor to
Queen Victoria, who should be revered as the best of England's sov-
ereigns since the Reformation ; and to supply a still further reason for
the monstrous hatred and vituperation. 1 tell it to his face * • * [p'our
pages are missing in the MS. It concludes :] — that in despite of it,
no matter how it may twist and turn, growl and bellow and bark,
some Hercules will shortly be found to cleanse the Augean stable, and
remove the aforesaid nuisances, and that the time will very soon arrive
when the monster's own fangs will be extracted, its teeth pulled, ita
nails pared, and shorn of its strength, and allowed to die off amidst
the plaudits of a redeemed nation, cast as a loathsome thing upon the
earth it cursed, be strangled bj' the very parent that produced it, and
the nurse that tended it. But yet a little while, and that God who
gave our people centuries of adversity, tried them and found tliem
faithful, will also give theni their trial of prosperity. In the interim,
let them hope on ; for God is just, though patient, and long-enduring
because he is eternal. Our strength, however, like that of the primi-

! il

168

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

five Christians as described by TertuIIian, is on our knees, and our
trust in the equity of heaven, always sure, no matter how long de-
layed. Hi in eurribua, et hi in equia ; noa autem in nor/iine Dotnini Dei
noatri invocabimua. Psalms, xix. : 8.

I remain, Sir, your faithful servant,

>{« Edward Maoinn.
DoBLiN Oastub, October 3, 1848.

My Lord, — I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordship's
letter of the 26th ultimo, and which, being marked " private," I pro-
Bume it was not your intention should be treated by me as an official
document.

I must in the first instance assure your Lordship that you do me but
justice in believing " that I should feel deeply pained at anything
tending to reflect on the character of a minister of the religion which
I profess — a minister especially of the station of your Lordship in the
Church. I feel how much the interests of the Catholic body in Ire-
land depend upon the clergy of our religion preserving the character
which belongs to ministers of the Gospel of Peace, and that anything
indicating a different course of conduct on their part could not but be
viewed by me, and I believe every sincere Catholic, with the deepest
regret. In reference, however, lo the immediate cause of your Lord-
ship's addressing me, I must at once state that, having no knowledge,
and not believing that " any letter or letters bearing your signature
and inciting Mr. O'Brien and others to rebel against her Majesty,
were found in the portfolio of that gentleman," I cannot but come to
the conclusion, that your correspondent has been misinformed in
stating that " some person high in authority ia the Castle " had made
a communication that such was the fact. This I think entirely dis-
poses of the matter, as far as the letter of your correspondent has
induced your Lordship, not unnaturally, to make vindication c. your
character from charges of so serious and grave a nature, and which
to an innocent mind must have been deeply galling. I dismiss,
equally with your Lordship, all consideration of what may have been
stated in the public prints, as I have at all times considered that those
who are conscious of the rectitude of their own conduct can well
afford to disregard the attacks of such concealed adversaries.

Having stated thus much, your Lordship will see that it is unneces-
aary for ma to refer to the details with which you have favored me, of
your intercourse with Mr. Smith O'Brien since your first acquaintance
with him ; and if I decline to make any observations upon the more

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAOINN.

169

general question referred to in your letter, namely, the position of
Ireland as a portion of the United Kingdom, I trust that you will not
a.'tribute it to any want of respect for your Lordship, but because I
do noi feel that any good would result from my doing so.

I cannot, however, conclude, without offering a remark upon the
Postscript to your Lordship's letter, and for which that communication
itself had not indeed prepared me.

The course which }'ou may feel it due to your character to take in
reference to the " Derry Sentinel," is quite a matter for your Lord-
ship's consideration ; but the challenge which you appear to give to
the Lord Lieutenant to accept the occasion for making your Lordship
" a victim — ns expiation to the wounded feelings of imperial misrule"
— is, you must allow me to say, in my opinion, uncalled for. I can
confidently assure your Lordsliip that it is no more the desire than it
is in the power of the distinguished nobleman entrusted with tlie
Government of this country, to make any person victim* to aught save
the consequences which the laws entail upon their crimes ; and, while
on the one hand it cannot but be painful to all to see those expose them-
selves to the severe penalties of the law, whose position should have
led them rather to maintain than de troy the allegiance due to their
sovereign, yet your Lordship will, I am sure, admit that the equal
justice which should be meted out to all will require that where the
guilt is known to exist, the position of the individual, however exalted,
should not screen him from merited punishment. Such a course you
will not, I am satisfied, consider as one deserving of reproach, or
which it would be discreditable that history should record of any
administi'ation ; and under the assurance that the conduct of the
Government will be guided by such feelings, your Lordship will
readily perceive that none but those who have participated in the
crime need fear its punishment.

As regards the events which have occurred, I can only assure your
Lordship that I have felt much gratified at the loyal resistance which
was offered by the Catholic clergy, both at Ballingarry and Mullina-
hone, to the rebellious movements which have recently taken place in
that part of the country, and that when the opportunity was thus
offered, the clergy of our Church have shown their determination to
support the cause of order and of peace.

Begging your Lordship will excuse the length of this reply,

I have the honor to be, my lord, your faithful servant,
Right Rev, Dr. Maginn, &c., &c , &c. T. N. Redinoton

170

LIFE OP RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINK.

The high spirit exhibited in this correspondence at a
period of universal panic and despondency, ;3 one of
the most admirable traits in the character of our subject.
His deep and undisguised sympathy with the unfortu-
nate victims of rash counsels, is equally to his honor.
Among his letters are congratulations to Mr. Dillon, of
Balagliadeerin, on the escnpe of his brother, Mr. John
B. Dillon, to America, and fervent thanks from Arch-
deacon McCarron for the kind interest he had taken in
the case of Dr. Wm. McCarron, for some time a prisoner
in Newgate for the same cause. The present writer,
who sailed from Derry on the 1st of September of that
year, has especial reason to remember Dr. Maginn's
friendliness ; for, although personally he did not appear,
as he should not, in any of the arrangements for that
escape, some of his kind ai i courageous clergy were
the chief promoters of it. Forever cold must be the
heart that dictates these lines, before it ceases to beat in
grateful response to the names of Derry and Maginn I

CO at a
one of
subject,
anfortu-
I honor.
iUon, of
[r. John
n Arch-
taken in
prisoner
, writer,
r of that
!^aginn'a
; appear,
for that
were
be the
beat in
Iginn I

CHATT' VIII.

T)R. MAOINN's FIXAL VISITATION OF HIS DIOCESE — THE PROPOSED
PROVINCIAL SYNODS AND CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY — DR. MAGINN's
LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH — GENERAL SORROW EXPRESSED BY
THE CATHOLIC BODY— HIS FUNERAL — HIS CHARACTER AND GENIUS
— TRIBUTES TO HIS MEMORY AT HOME AND ABROAD.

The good news from Rome, in October, '48, of the
renewed condemnation of the Queen's Colleges, com-
pensated the patriot Prelates, to some extent, for the
dismal social prospects of the country. On the 10th of
October, the annual meeting of the Bishops was held at
Dublin, but nothing of importance, beyond the reception
of the Rescripts, and a resolution implicitly to obey
them, transpired. Drs. MacHale and O'Higgins had not
yet arrived home, and Dr. Maginn was engaged in the
annual visitation of his diocese. The party (if we may
be pardoned the term) who had defeated the govern-
ment, and secured for their course the cordial approba-
tion of Rome, were represented by Drs. Cantwell and
McNally. It appeared that the favorers of the govern-
ment plan comprised two Archbishops and seven Bish-

IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

^ ^^

4rA

1.0

1.1

1.25

111

w
u
lit

Kt
■a

I JO

|2g
2.0

U il.6

Photographic

Sciences
Corporalion

23 WIST MAIN STREET

WEBSTER, N.Y. MSSO

(716)t72-4S03

172

LIFE OF BIGHT BEY. EDWABD MAOINN.

ops — one-third of the Hierarchy, One or two of the
names created great astonishment among the oppug-
nants, as they had reason to believe that they were
strongly on their, and against the other side.

The satisfaction of the successful appellants to Borne,
may be imagined. , They had countermined, for the
time, at least, the approaches of •British intrigue to the
Vatican ; they- had overcome, and then incorporated, a
formidable defection in their own Order ; they had de-
feated an empire ; they had rescued a nation. ^ Dr. Ma-
ginn, on the 9th of November, writes to Dr. McNally :

" I had not a word from you dace the great yictory gained over the
enemies of our faith. I expected to have had a line of congratulation
from you on the subject. Tou had, of course, a letter from the good
Bishop of Ardagh, ^ving a detailed account of the episcopal corres-
pondence."

Dr. Cantwell writes to Dr.,Maginn, a few days later:

" Never had Prelates a greater triumph or more powerful motives for
congratulation, than have been afforded to us by the late Rescript.
The immortal Pius IX. has, in its comprehensiveness and firmness of
tone, surpassed even himself. It goes farther than we could have at
all anticipated. It annihilates the power of England ever agiun to
enslave our Church, and silences forever the treacherous whisperings
of any feeble or false member of our body with the enemies of our
faith and the murderers of our people. The best mode of marking our
gratitude for this noble act of heroism is, as your Lordship says in your
favor of the 19th, to carry into effect, without delay, the recommenda-
tions of His Holiness.''

To carry into effect the recommendations of the Pon-
tiff, it was decided to hold Erovincial Synods of th§ four

LIFE or RIGHT TIKV. EDWARD MAGINN.

173

of the

oppug-

jy were

) Borne,
for the
i to the
>rated, a
had de-
Dr. Ma-
Nally :.

A oyer the
pratalation
1 the good
k)al correB>

later :

)tive8 for

Rescript,
rmness of
have at

again to
[hiBperings
lies of our

rking our
lys in your
lommenda-

uie Pon-
th§ four

Provinces, to which was subsequently added the idpa
of the National Synod, afterwards held at Thurles.
The Archbishop of Cashel proposed, in a circular letter,
that each Bishop should appoint one Priest, to meet as
a Committee, collect information, and report on the de-
tails of the ceremonial to be observed and the business
to be done. To this Dr. McNally, among others, ob-
jected its novelty and irregularity; but Dr. Maginn,
Dr. Cantwell, and the majority of their friends, gave
their sanction. Out of the proposed National Synod
was to spring a more uniform discipline — a more solemn
observance of canonical regulations, and the great prac-
tical demonstration of Ireland's unshaken Orthodoxy —
the Catholic University.

In the preliminaries of all these grand and beneficent
designs. Dr. Maginn took the liveliest interest, although
laboring under the illness of which he soon afterwards
died. "We first hear of this in his letter last quoted,
(November 9,) :

" I am just after returning," he writes, ** from the visitation, some-
-what fatigued ; yet notwithstanding much exertion, very little the
worse for it. I was very unwell at starting, but daily improved as I
weni along. I confirmed upwards of six thousand children. This, at
any rate, is a satisfaction, even should this winter close their or our
earthly career V

These strangely prophetic words strike one with awe,
when we remember, that within two months of their
date, while the winter still raged along the wild northern

174

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGIKN.

coast, the writer lay on his bed of death. On the 28th
of November he writes from Buncrana, that he has been
worse, and was unable to go to Derry " to lay the foun-
dation stone of our new school- house." On the 13th of
January, four days before his decease, he wrote to his'
old schoolfellow and life-long friend, the Bishop of
Clogher, the following cheerful and affectionate letter —
the last, we believe, he ever penned :

DR. MAGINN TO DR. m'nALLT.

Buncrana, January 13, 1849.

My Dear Good Lord, — ^I have just time to drop you a line before
starting for Derry. I am happy to have to inform you that I am
much better, and ready for a new campaign. I prepared about ten
days ago to start for Clogher, to have the pleasure of seeing for a
night and conversing vrith your Lordship, but vraa prevented from
going from an attack of influenza, \inder which I may say I have
since labored up till yesterday. I had a letter from Dr. Cantwell last
night He is most anxious about a Provinci<)l Synod, but considers it
better to put it off until after the arrival of Dr. Higgins. The Gov-
ernment are in advance of us, and considering our means, it will take
us to move very rapidly, and at the same time very cautiously, to
overtake them.

Dr. Cantwell requested me to sound the Primate on th ^-'^ject of
an immediate meeting, to put the intrusion on the necessi ', 'laving
a uniform discipline during the approaching Lent, &e... &c.

I would much sooner that your Lordship could be induced to cor-
respond with his Grace on the subject, as it would come better from
you in every respect. The week after next, I will, if possible, be up
to see you, and spend a couple of nights. I fondly hope that your
health is good, and that your extraordinary labors throughout the
summer have left it unimpaired.

I had, about ten days ago, a couple of letters from Rome. There
was nothing important in them. Dr. CuUen was much afraid of
the assassins, which shows the condition of the Eternal City, when
even such innocence as Dr. Cullen's could not be safe from the Asas-

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAOINN.

175

tin's knife. I send, with my most respectful compliments, a parse to

Miss MoNa^Iy. i

Wishing your Lordship many happy returns of this holy season,

nd every blessing, I remain, my dear Lord, ever,

Faithfully and most affectionately yours,

^Edward Maoinn
The Most Rev. Dr. McNally.

The handwriting employed is that of his curate, Rev.
Mr. Devlin, who was his most frequent amanuensis in
his latter d§ys. The language, of course, is all his own.
The day or the day after this letter was written, he camo
into Derry, and finding liimself worse, he took to his
bed, in St. Columb's College. On Wednesday, the 17th,
the physicians in attendance gave up all hope of his
recovery, and at half-past two o'clock on that day, his
soul departed to the judgment-seat of God.

The intelligence of this most unexpected termination
of a bright career, struck with profound sadness every
lover of Ireland and every faithful son of the Church
gihr^ghout all the English-speaking regions of the earth.*
The sorrow was deepest at its source — ^in his own dio-
cese- and province; but it was national, and, in a sense,
universal as the Church itself. His sudden celebrity,
the black background of Calvinism against which his
northern light had shone, the generosity of his nature,
apparent in all his public as well as private acts, had
made him an object of love as well as of hope and ex-
pectation. His still young age — only 53 : his country

,..„..,;. A:ift:'.^!

176

LIFE OF BIGHT KEY. EDWARD ICAGINN.

had just lost by death, disgust or banishment, the first

generation of public men which this century ha(f yielded,

and a great many of the second. She was low — very

low ; she lay in the dust and refused to be lifted up,

when he appeared —

'- WhoBe thrilling tramp oould wake the land
When fraud or danger were at hand t"

No wonder Ireland mourned for him with the un-
measured grief of a mothej made desolate. In Dublin
his loss was not less truly deplored than in Derry ; in
Cork as eloquently as in either. It was a national grief
which overswept all provincial and diocesan bounda-
ries. In England and in America also, he had many
mourners. One of the first of those to condole with his
bosom friend, Dr. McNally, was the venerable Bishop
of Beverley, whose letter we here give :

York, Jan. 21, 1849.
My dear Lord — What most sad and most deplorable intelligenQ|^a^||^
reached me to-day, in the irreparable loss of the* truly illustrious Dr.
Maginn ! I cannot tell you what a thunderbolt it was to me, and what
a deep pang it inflicted on my heatt. I loved him dearly. I loved
him for his witrm patriotism, and for his bold advocacy of the inde-
pendence of the Church. Ireland has lost a host in poor Dr Maginn.
** Doleo tuper te,f rater mi t Qwmodo oeeidit robitstta et pfrierunt arm a
belliea.** Truly may we say the champion of religion has fallen ; his
shield is thrown away, and the Irish people, in the time of greatest
need, are suddenly stripped of his most powerful protection. Truly
may poor Ireland say, " Sieut mater unicum amatjilium nimn^ ita ego
te diligeham" and to Ireland's people would I say, " Plangent eum
plandu, quasi tuper umgenitum.*^ And this they will do. Pray do

LIFE OF RIOnT BEY. EDWARD MAOINN

177

le first
ielded,
—very
3d up,

be un-
Dublin
ry; in
1 grief
ounda-
many
ith his
bishop

1849.

OQS Dr.

id what

I loved

le inde*

kfaginn.

ntarma

en ; his

H'eatest

Truly

ita ego

nt cum

ray do

give in« some partioulars of this most lamentable event. My feelings

will not allo^ me to say more. My dear Lord, ' '

Truly and afieotionately yours,

t^ion^ Briogs.
Most Rev. Dr. MoNally.

The funeral ceremonial was solemn as the Churcli
requires, and popular as the people's hearts could wish.
During Thursday and Friday, the citizens of Derry and
strangers were allowed to see the body as it lay in epis-
copal state, at the College. On Monday morning it was
removed to the Cathedral, where the solemn services for
the dead were performed. For these last melancholy
details of our story, we must borrow the language of
the Derry and Dublin newspapers. The Londonderry
Journal^ in announcing the death, says :

" A melancholy sensation was produced in this city on Wednesday
last, by the very unexpected announcement that the Right Rev. Dr.
Maginn, Roman Catholic Coadjutor of Derry, had expired at 2 o'clock
in the afternoon of that day, in St. Columb*s College here, in which
he bad his town residence, and c which he was patron and founder.
From what we have learned, he felt- himself to be in what he consid-
ered good health on the previous Saturday, on which day he had ar-
rived from his usual residence at Buncrana. On the following day he
was seized with typhus, on which mortification supervened, and which
terminated fatally. A fortnight or so previously, he had suffered from
a cold caught in the performance of his duties, and it may be that that
cold was at the foundation of the disease of which he died."

The special reporter of the Dublin FreemarCs Journal^
describes the Kequiem Mass and its concomitants very
minutely. We follow his account :

THE INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH.

At an early hour this morning, the coffin containing the body was

178

LJFE OF KIOHT REV. EDWARD MAOINK.

removed from his lordship's late residence in St. Columb's College,
founded by himself, where his pure spirit had put on immortality, to
the Catholic Cathedral.

This was done in compliance with the wishes of the people. From
the first moment of his death, crowds had continued to seek admission,
to look once more upon that countenance, whose beaming— a mixture
in life of earth's innocence and Heaven's hope — can never be forgot-
ten by any one who ever beheld it. To make room for others, each
party in its turn was compelled to take a hurried farewell. The wish
to see even his coffin once again became, from this hasty separation,
•o universal, that it could not be refused. The Cathedral was hung in
mourning. A sable veil covered the fronts of the galleries, from the
wall at the right of the altar to the wall at the left. The pulpit, the
altar and the tabernacle were all similarly clothed in weeds of woe.

THE COFFIN.

The coffin was three-fold ; the interior, which covered the remains
of the lamented Bishop, was encased in a massive one of lead, and
that was covered with a beautiful outer-coffin of the purest mahogany,
in its natural color, with heavy mountings of solid brass. It rested
on a plain catafalque placed in the choir in front of the high altar.
From each corner rose a white plume, with one additional at the head
«f the coffin. On the catafalque, to the left of the coffin, was placed
the crozier, at the head the mitre, and upon it was lying the pectoral
episcopal cross of massive and solid gold. There were three lighted
tapers on each side. The inscription was peculiarly simple. Cut on
a plate of thick brass were merely the name, the place for which he
was bishop, Orthosia ; the place for which he was apostolic adrainis-
tj<ator, Derry ; the day on which he died, the 17th January, 1849 j
the number of years he was a bishop, three ; and his age, 53 years.

THE OFFICE AND HIGH MASS.

Shortly after eleven o'clock the obsequies commenced. Besides a
very crowded attendance of the laity, I noticed present op the solemn
and impressive occasion, the most Rev. Dr. McNally, bishop of Clo-
gher ; his lordship's chaplain, Rv<)v. James McDonnell, C.C. Clogher ;
Rev. Charles Boyle, P.P., Skerries, diocese of Dublin ; Rev. Edward
McBride, C.C, Derry ; Rev. Hugh Nugent, administrator, D^erry ;
Rev. Francis Kelly, 'P.P., Fahan ; Rev, John Dougherty .^P.P., Bana-
gher ; Rev. William McLaughlin, P.P., lakahane ; Rev. M. O'Eane, P.P.,

LIFE OF RIOHT BEY. EDWARD HAGINN.

179

1849;

Omagh'; Rev. James M'Aleer, P.P.^ Burt ; Rev. Wm. Browne, P.P.,
Strabane ; Rev. James McDonagh, P. P., Comber ; Rev. Charles Flan-
agan, P.P., Coleraine ; Rev. F. McHagh, P.P., Draipquin } Rev. Geo.
O'Doogherty, P.P., Moville ; Rev. John MoLoughlin, C.C., Derry ;
Rev. Edward O'Dongherty, PP., Magilligan, Rev. John McCulIagh
P.P., Terminamongan ; Rev. M. MoGlinohy, P.P., Urney ; Rev. Mr.
McNulty, Rev. W. Connolly, C.C, Urney ; Rev. Charles MoCrossan,
O.C. Strabane ; Rev. Wm. Begarty, C.C, Buncrana ; Rev. James
O'Dougherty, P.P., Errigle ; Rev. Michael Rogers, C.C, Waterside ;
Rev. Mr. Campbell, President of St. Columb's College ; Very Rev.
ArchdAacon McCarron, Rev. James Stephens. P.P., All Saints, diocese
of Raphoe ; the Very Rev. Mr. McCafferty, P.P., Carndonagh, and
Dean of tbe diocese ; Rev. P. McFeeley, P.P , Dungiven ; Rev. Ber-
nard Magill, C.C, Carndonagh; and the Rev. Wm. O'Donnell, C.C,
Clonmany.

The solemn, beantiful and affecung ceremonies of the office and
High Mass for the dead have been so frequently described in the Free-
matCe Journal, that I do not consider it necessary to repeat here that
description.

Those who took part in the High Mass were the Most Rev. Dr.
McNally, as ponti/ez aaaiatetu, the Rev. John McLaughlin as High^
Priest, the Rev. James Stephens as deacon, the Rev. John McCullagh
as sub-dtacon, and the Rev. Mr Campbell as master of ceremonies.

Never did I witness the celebration of the beautiful ceremonies of
the Catholic Church on any occasion when there was more of U^i^t
soul of deep feeling which should always give life to the outwa:<ii
forms.

THE SERMON.

At the close of the Mass a sermon of great power, both in the elo-
queuce of its thought and the eloquence of its language, was preached
by the Very Rev. Archdeacon McCarron. I will not attempt any out-
line of it, as I hope soon to have a corrected copy of it for publication
in the Freeman. It produced an extraordinary sensation on the pre-
disposed multitude he addressed. On the preacher turning round to
the coffin, and bidding farewell to the remains of their cherished
Bishop in terms of intense devotion and poignant sorrow, he was ,
joined by the congregation in a cry of heart-rending anguish, such as
I had never till then heard. There was not, I believe, in that crowded

180

LIFE OF RIGHT REV. EDWARD MAOINN

Mfenbly of the laity and olergy, a single heart nnmoved — a aingla
eye without tears.

LAST RIGHT IN DERRT.

This is the last night the remains of him vrhom the people had
fondly hoped to possess as their pride, their honor and their protec*
tion for many a year, are to be in Derry. To-morrow his bereared
flock must give up even that ; they feel this. All this evening, and
even now at a late hour in the night, they are passing in orowds to
and from the Cathedral.

Q)he account of the procession to Innishowen, we take
from the Londonderry «7bwrna?;

THE FUNERAL.

Early on yesterday morning people began to repair to the chapel,
from which, it had been arranged, the funeral procession was to set
out about eight o'clock. The assemblage, not only there, but in the
adjoining streets, through which the procession had to pass, especially
Bishop-street, both outside and inside the gate, was immense ; and we
think we may safely say that never before was there beheld in Derry
a procession so very vast, so respectable, and in which persons of all
creeds were so thoroughly blended, as the one which was formed to
express esteem for the virtues of Dr. Maginn, and do reverence to his
memory. Preceding the hearse, which was drawn by four horses in
sable trappings, came the clergy of the diocese ; and it was followed
by two closed curriages, in one of which were the venerable mother
of the deceased and his much-respected sisters, Miss Maginn and Mrs.
Devlin, and in the other hu two nieces, daughters of Mrs. Devlin.
Next came on foot, and dressed in white robes, the Convent scholars ;
then the students of St CoIumVs College, and after them the members
of the Benevolent Society, of whom the late Bishop was a generous
patron. These bodies were followed by a number of carriages, among
which we recognized those of the Hon, and Right Rev. Dr. Ponsonby,
Bishop of Derry ; the Very Rev. Dean Gough, and Sir Robert A. Fer-
guson, Bart., M. P. There were at least one hundred and thirty vehi-
, cles, including open barouches, gigs and cars, in the line of the pro-
cession, which were followed by a considerable number of horsemen,
and the large mass of pedestrians brought up the rear. We are in-

LIFE OF BIQHT REV. SDWABD HAOINK.

181

dined to say that the Trhole of the EpiMopslUn and Preabyterian
miniatera of the oity were preaent ; alao the Re?. Mr. Dill, late of
Xnowhead, and among the medical gentlemen we obaerved Dr. Rogan,
Dr. Skipton, Dr. Morton, Dr. Hamilton, Dr. White, Dr. McLaughlin,
Dr. Hay, Dr. Roe, Dr. Uaira, Dr. Thomaon. Of gentlemen in oiBoet
connected with the city there were Hia Worahip the Mayor, Aldermen
Skipton, Bond, Baird, Leathem and Fuator ; Coaneillora John Allen,
Caaey, Leathem and Coppin ; Captain Ramaay, Oovemment Emigra-
tion Agent ; Colonel Longhead, American Conaal ; and among oUier
gentlemen whom we cannot particularize, there were John Dyaart,
Andrew A. Watt, William Moore, of Molennan, George Hay, Thomaa
Knox, B. McCorkell, J. K. MoClintock, Hampatead Hall; Samuel
Leathem, Burt ; Jamea Thompaon, D. Porter, Sumuel Crawford, Geo.
Franka, Jun. ; Jamea Glenn, Robert Foater, Jaraea Giftham, David
Hamilton, John Quinn, Jamea McClelland, Jamea Caraon, Benjamin
Greer, Eaqra., Ac., Ae.

The prooeasion moved down Bishup-atreet, through the Diamond,
down Butcher atreet, Magazine atreet, through Ship-quay gate, and on
to the Strand-road. Aa it went on ita way to Bnncrana, and after be-
ing about three milea from the city, it received a conatant auoceeaion
of reinforoementa, particularly of peraona on horaeback.

A great number of Inniahowen men, on horaeback, joined the pro-
ceaaion at Burnfoot, Fahan, and aeveral other pointa of junction along
the line. Great numbera of the poor were congregated in the main-
atreet of Bnncrana ; and, aa the hearae paaaed the road leading down
to the late Biahop'a residence, lamentations loud and deep were heard
from the multitude on all sides. On arriving at Cook-^uU chapel, the
corpse was removed into the center of the building, where the usual
office of the dead waa performed by the Right Rev. Dr. McNally,
Bishop of Clogher, and the numerous priests present. Dr. McNnlly
waa the intimate friend of the deceased Bishop, and hia unremitting
attention during the obsequiea, was the theme of general observation.
The offering on the oooaaion amounted, it is said, to upwards of £100,
and waa much larger than on any former occaaion. On approaching
Buncrana, the Coaat Guard hoiated the Union Jack of their atatioii
half mast high, in token of the esteem in which he had been held by
them. ^

The Dublin correspondent's account of the interment
is given in these words :

182

LIFE OF RIOHT REV. EDWARD MAOINN.

THE INTERMCNT.

Ai the prooMsion approached Bunoraoa, and the grateful people to
Trhom he ministered aa parieh j>rieit for upwards of twentj yean oame
forth — not to welcome him in the pride of their hearts, as they wert
wont to do— but in unutterable sorrow to receiye all that death had
left them of the great man who had made the name of their parish
known aa (kr as his own fame had spread, no words could describe their
Tislble emotion.

At every path leading to the public road, multitudes of men and
women, of the old and of the young, were assembled. All who were
able to walk, joined in the mournftil procession, and the old and infirm
struggled to get to some eminence to have one last look at that hearse
which was bearing his remains, and when it was disappearing from
their riew fearfiiliy wild and convulsive were their cries and their
heartrending last farewells ; but the great scene which unnerved every
one in the procession took place when the hearse reached the road leading
oJ to his lordship's late residence, and an immense multitude crowded
in view of his favorite cottage raised the aflfecting Irish eaonae, so well
calculated to express the wild excess of sorrow of which the Irish peo-
ple are capable. Ever and anon these wild strains, heard above the
atrong gale which was then blowing, fell in thrilling sadness on the
ears of those who were in the front of the procession. This melancholy
expression of heartrending sorrow i^as continued through the town
of Bunorana and on the graveyard.

The procession reached Cookhill chapel at a quarter past one o'clock,
P.M. The funeral obsequies were read by the Very Rev. P. O'Loghlin,
V.G., now vicar-capitular of the diocese, assisted by the Most Rev. Dr.
M'Nally.

No language can describe the voice of lamentation which arose flrom
the assembled thousands when the coffin was placed in the family vault.
The last resting-place of Dr. Maginn's remains is twelve feet long, and
eight feet broad, and six deep. The floor is beautifully flagged. The
tomb is well sheltered. Behind it are the lofty and romantic hills of
ianishowen ; before It are the beautiful 3willy and the setting sun.

The closing scene was most affecting. The venerable mother of the
bishop— pressed down with years, and now bending and tottering be-
neath the weight of unspeakable^orrow— entered the vault.to bid &re-
well to the remains of her honored son. The tears of such a parent
over such a son t •

LIFE OF RIOHT REV. EfllTARD MAOINN. 188

The venerable mourner here alluded to, was in her
ninety-second year. She did not long survive this last
crushing blow ; she sloops with her beloved son, in the
same family vault. His favorite sister, Bridget, the
companion of his last years, came to Canada to visit
another sister, Mrs. O'Meara, previously mentioned.
She died at Montreal, in the summer of 1856.
Other near connexions of the Bishop still live in the
United States and in Ireland. From Miss Maginn and
his other American connexions, as we said in the Intro-
duction, we received the authentic documents upon
which this memoir is founded.

A few words on the character and genius of Dr. Ma-
ginn, will not be thought superfluous from one thus
unexpectedly, but not unwillingly, made his Biographer.

We have endeavored to present him to the reader as
he appears to us — ft patriot, high-spirited, generous, en-
ergetic, indefatigable; a Priest and Bishop, vigilant,
hospitable, charitable, childlike in his intercourse, pious,
just, forgiving, a lover of the poor, an uncompromising
enemy of local oppression and lordly pride; as an au-
thor, we may more properly enlarge on the qualities by
which he was distinguished. His reputation in this
way, rests almost solely on the letters to be found in the
Appendix. They are evidently thrown off in consider-
able haste, though we have found one, and sometimes
two, drafts of his chief pieces among his papers. Both

184

LIFE OP RIGHT«!BEV. EDWABD MAGINN.

i I

the English and the Latin correspondence (the latter of
which it has not been thought best to translate) are
marked by great fallness of .thought and expression. It
is a mind overflowing — the genuine outpouring of a
deep and living stream. The writer shows his Celtic
characteristics throughout, whether addressing Cardinal
Fransoni or Lord Stanley, whether writing on a local
interest to a Poor Law Guardian, or arraigning a Lord
Lieutenant for national offences. He is always in earn-
est, always hearty, always straightforward ; he has the
faults, too, of his school and time in Ireland ; he is often
redundant, sometimes over-obsequious in his address to
persons in high places ; too impetuous, perhaps, in the
charge, and too informal in the proof. His earlier style
is often overrun with expletives ; but as he continued
to write, he became clearer and terser — more sinewy
and less flabby. The English speech is thought by
many to be too cold and guarded for the Irish mind,
but the careful readers of Burke'and Grattan will hardly
subscribe to that opinion. Certainly the language of
Shakspeare, Jeremy Taylor and Walter Scott, cannot
be thought defective in the resources of a picturesque
and imaginative diction. The genius of that language
has been little studied in Irish ecclesiastical seminaries,
and the result is seen in many of the late writers among
the Clergy. We see strength running riot, inspiration
degrading itself into vituperation, and the living sense

LIFE OF KIGHT REV. EDWARD HAOINN.

185

atter of

ate) are

ion. It

ig of a

3 Celtic

Dardinal

a local

a Lord

in earn-

bas the

is often

dress to

, in the

er style

ntinued

sinewy

ght by

mind,

hardly

age of

cannot

iresque

nguage

inanes

'»

among
>iration
sense

smothered under rank overgrowth of superfluous phrase-
ology. Dr. Maginn had almost wholly freed himself
from these yicrou^and enervating habits of expression
towards the end of his days ; and had he been spared
to complete the term allotted to us by the Psalmist, his
literary reputation would, we think, have rested on
wider and deeper foundations than we can now claim
for it.

The true great work of Dr. Maginn is, the Irish
Church. To that work he has contributed as largely as
any man of his time in the episcopacy. He upheld the
sinking spirit of the Isle in the darkest hour of her
modern misfortunes. He helped to defeat* her Imperial
oppressors in the day of their loudest exultation over
her; and the iulers against whom he and his friends
contended, we must remember, were men not easily
baulked nor easily beaten. Yet beaten on Irish ground
they have been, ever since the famine. The ruins they
left have risen up and taken shape, the grave has given
back its dead, the blasted tree has put forth fruit-bearing
branches which- cover the face of the land. As certainly
as England has conquered Ireland materially, Ireland
is conquering England religiously. Nor is that con-
quest limited to Ireland ; the garrisons of the faith con-
gregate wherever the British flag flies ; it has its Car-
dinal in Westminster, its Bishops in Scotland, in North
America, in Sidney, in Bombay, in Ceylon, in Corfu.

186

LIPK OP BIGHT BKV. BDWARD MAGINN.

'!'

The Irish Church has proved itself stronger than the

Imperial state in the domain of Couscience, and cold

ft #
must be that Christian's heart who can read without

tears of admiration the record of any portion of such a.

struggle.

It is in his connection with that heroic, world-wide

contest, we have most loved to contemplate the character

of our illustrious subject, and as one of its foremost

figures we now present him to the pious remembrance

of every reader of this little Book 1*

* It may be proper here to mention that in January, 1849, the fol-
lowing advertisSment appeared in the Dablin FreemarCa Journal, of
which Mr. MoDevitt was one of the Editors :

THE LATE DR MAGINN.

FREFARING FOR PUBLICATION, A MEMOIR OF THE LATE MOST REV. DR.
MAGINN, BY N. M'DfeVITT, ESQ.

The Memoir will comprise the views of this great Irishman and
gifted Bishop on the Literary, Social, Political and Religious Questions
of his time.

It will also contain his Lordship's Letters, published and unpub-
lished, and in short all the emanations of his great mind, which it is
now possible to collect.

His Correspondence with the Holy See on the important subjects
which agitated Catholic Ireland during his Episcopate, possesses great
strength.

The relatives of the illustrious Prelate have kindly placed all his pa-
pers at the disposal of the writer ; and hisTLordship's most intimate
friends — some of them the leading intellects of the day — have volun-
teered to supply most valuable facts, suggestions and anecdotes.

The work is undertaken with the view of making permanent in the
country the brilliant and guiding light of that splendid mind, over
whose premature departure the church and the country of the illus-

LIFE OP BIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

187

: BEV. DB.

A LAMENT FOR THE LATE RIGHT REV. DR. MAGINN. i ,

BY. W. KESEALT.

Weep, Erin, %veep — ^weep, from Malin to Cape Clear !

Come young, and old, and beautiful, come gather round the bier !

Weep, weep in depth of bitterness — not in a passing sigh-—

Weep earnestly and loudly for the spirit that's on High ! •

Weep, weep ye for your mightiest, your country's hope and pride,

Too good, too pure, too holy, in this dark world to bide ;

Rain, rain your tears like waves across the briny deep.

Our loved is dead ! our hope is gone ! — oh, weep, weep, weep I

II.

His glory is in Heaven high, he needs no praise on earth,

The angels and the seraphim are reveling in mirth —

Ah ! if they'd known the sorrow that attends us here below,

Tliey never would have stricken us with such a cruel blow.

In the cold, cold clay he'U'soon be wrapt, the purest of the pure, *

The Genius of a brilliant age ! and we left to endure —

Oh, God I though it should anger thee to bring him from that keep,

We would, but cannot do it — oh ! weep, weep, weep !

III.

His presence was as dear to us as sight unto the blind ! —

A brilliant and a holy light shone from his heaven-lit mind.

The brightness hath all ended in the dark and silent grave.

As sunbeam on the waters blue, lost in the distant wave —

The sanctitj' is left behind, a pure, celestial gem,

Whose sparkling light will guide us to a heavenly diadem !

Oh ! could we sow 'neath such a sun, what beauteous fruit we'd reap *,

He showed the way — he's dead to-day — oh ! weep, weep, weep !

trious deceased have mourned in such deep, universal and heartfelt
sorrow.

N. B. — All communications on the subject are to be addressed to 13,
Russell street, Dublin.

Mr. McDevitt unfortunately died before having put pen to paper,
towards the Memoir, so far as we can learn. The documents collected
for him, returned at his death, and brought by Miss Magiun to Mon-
treal, were those committed to us.

188 LIFE OF RIGHT REY. EDWARD MAOINN.

IT.

We thought he vtob not dying — we were hopeful to the last,
So calmly from its tenement his holy spirit passed —
We looked into his face again — we could not think the worst,
Ah ! false as fleeting shadows were the hopes we fondly nursed !
With bur^ng hearts we knelt around, but oh ! we could not pray,
For all our thoughts, and hopes and love, were fixed in that cold day,
Ah ! ruthless Death, why leave our star a pale, dull, funeral heap 1
Oh, God ! that it should come to this—oh, weep, weep, weep !.

r V.J

Alas ! to think those beauteous eyes have grown forever dim,
That at the poor's dark misery in briny tears would swim !—
To think those lips will never more a holy blessing speak.
Nor utter forth a sweet advice in accents mild and meek ! —
To see no more the smile that played like a sunbeam on a lake ;
Holy Virgin ! to think of all, ten thousand hearts would break !
We're left alone — we're left alone, to climb a rugged steep-
No star to guide our weary path^^h ! weep, weep, weep !

\l.

▼I.

His silken hair — his lustrous eye — 'tis hard to think they're clay-^

'Tis harder still to think with him this lone and dreary day !

Good Heaven ! sure he is not dead — no, no it cannot be.

The Saint^u whom our anxious eye hath always longed to see ! —

?'ll not believe — I'll not believe he'd leave us here alone.

Like wand'rers in a desert wild, with thorny shrubs o'ergrown f

Oh ! why is all around us dark 1 — why doth our heart's-blood creep !

Alas he's dead — too true — too true — oh ! weep, weep, weep !

VII.

There's dew upon the hearth-stone — deep sadness on the brow —
Each heart is -seared and cheerless as a lonely winter bough —
The eye hath lost its wonted fire— the children cease to play—
The raven locks, that glistened fair, one night hath turned thoui grey.
Oh I life is death to all who knew our glory and our pride,
The saddest thoughts will joyful be, down Time's unebbing tide !
The grave will be a welcome thing — no. dark and fearful leap.
For then we'll meet our loved again — oh ! weep, weep, weep !

LIFE OF RIGHT RBY. EDWARD MAOIN^. 189

vnx* I •

Hov vre loved him— how we loved him, 'tis in viun to tell ;
Heaven alone we prized above him — earth not half as well>-
There's deep, deep grief, in woman's wnil, when fitfal as the sea —
There's deeper grief in silent thought, on lowly bended knee ;
But what are all to manhood's tears, fast streaming from his eyes.
Like torrents from the mountains wild, when wrapt in low'ring skies,
And silent thought, and manhood's tears, and wailing wild and deep,
Have shown how we have loved him — still weep, weep, weep !

IX.

Weep ye, weep ye, for your patriot Saint— the pious and the brave,
His life-blood he'd have freely shed, his dear old land to save— «
The glorious green he would unfold — he had no childish fears,
A pleasant dream it was to him — a host of Irish spears ! —
He's low to-day — ^he's low to-day — ^his narrow home is made*
Where S willy's sullen waters roll, beneath the mountains' shade ! —
Our country's wrongs had rent his heart — ^he knew, and felt too deep,
Oh ! what is earth without him now !— oh ! weep, weep, weep !

All nature will be smiling on his drear and lonely tomb.

The brightest sunbeams there will fall, its verdure to illume !

The softest dews of heaven will descend upon his breast!

The waves will roll more peacefully, lest they should break his rest ;

Their gentle fall upon the strand will be the mourner's sigh.

The little stars, his watchers lone — ^his canopy the sky —

And sure the winds will gently blow — they dare not wildly sweep

Above the heart that's cold— oh ! weep, weep, weep !

XX.

The birds are warbling in the trees — the day is clear and calm —

The air is hushed in thoughtfulnass — ^the shrubs are breathing balm.

But what is nature's loveliness to light the soul's deep gloom.

Our loved is gone — forever gone — down to the silent tomb !

Good God ! the very thought is more than our bursting hearts can

bear—
Oh ! can our hearts be comforted ? — ^yes, in our long, long sleep,
But ever till that blessed time— oh ! weep, weep, weep !

190 fiPB OF BIGHT REV. EDWARD MAGINN.

Woep, weep him through the Island'a length, /.rom Malin to Oape

Clear,
From Ireland's Eye to dark Olen Sanl, rain, rain the bitter tear;
The Forest Oak is stricken down-— come, gather all around—
Oh ! softly tread— oh ! softly tread — ^yoa walk' on holy ground-
There, there he's wrapt in mourning deep, like sunbeam in a olondi
Then gather round in sorrow wild, and wail him long and loud ! .
One last fond look— one bursting shriek of anguish wild and deep~*
The eye is dim — all's dark, all's dark— oh ! weep, weep, weep !

■>^ >

TO THE MEMOKY OF THE LATE RT. REV. DR. MAGIKK.

BT HBB. H. ▲. SADLIBB.

** If it be sad to speak of treosnres gone,
Of sainted genius called too soon away ;
Of light fh>m this world taken, while it shone

Yet kindling onward to the perfect day ;
How shall oar griefr, if these things moarnftil be,

Flow forth, oh ! thou of many gifts, for thee."— JVIMt Ibmmu

A star hath vanished from our nether sphere,
A glory from our darksome earth is fled ;

Our grief is half astonishment— half awe,
And all tiie mourning soul is filled with dread.

strange it seems that such as he should die-
Die to that world whose darkness he illumined—

Die with his glorious genius /ia/j^ revealed.
Oh earth I— oh man ! — ^how darkly are ye doomed 1

Weep, "EaAa, weep. One other blow is struck ;

A link is added to thy chain of woe.
A wreath of gloomiest cypress swift entwine

For him, thy patriot-prelate, now Aid low.
For thee he stept from forth seclusica's shade,

And reared his towering mind in tny defence,

LIFB OF BIOHT BEY. EDWARD MAGIKN.

191

to Oape

loadi

leep—
I

GINU.

limana

Till even thy foul malignen bAok recoiled ; j

Weep for the tnuty cliamplon taken hence.

And thoa, onr hoUsak Mother, Chorch of God 1

Deplore the stately column rent away I
Honm genins, learning, piety and zealr—

Assemblage rare in " tenement of clay."
Thine was the charity that warmed his heart,

And thine the foith sublime which filled his soul.
Jfeet son of such Mother^— he his dead ;
, What now can thy maternal heart console !

What though thy circling arm him still enfold t

Where stands his radiant soul before the throne,
llid thy triumphant warriors, brightly crowned —

Yet moumest thou the light from this world gone.
Thou sorrowest for thy children thus bereaved —

The toight example from our view removed,
A radiance from this world of sin withdrawn —

So mourns thy mother— K)h I thou most beloved 1

For thee, my country ! raise thy sorrowing eyes

To those far regions, where he " lives and reigns,"
Believe that still he loves and serves thee there-^
Prays for thy weal — compassionates thy pains.
Though stript of this world's wealth, thou still art rich-
Rich in the saints thou daily givest to heaven-
Rich iiL.the heritage ot' t^^hine old &ith.
Purely divine, and free from early leaven I *

From forth thy hills and vales, how many a star

Hath shone upon the darkness of the eartlb—
Guiding the nations with the light of faith —

A blessing to the land that gave them birth I
Thou art not poor, loved island of our sires \

Rich in thy children we behold thee stand ;
Hadst thou but borne a Doyle and a Maginn,

The world would deem thee rich, mine honored land I

Montreal, Feb. lUh, 1849.

-■-*■' '■iiifctw#*-',^j^i>>.t*'i,_ ,^^

102

Un OF BIGHT RIV. BDWABD XAOINN.

**MIMBHTO NORL**

(From the New York Nation, Feb. 17, 1840.)

By the letter of » Deny oorreepondent, the IHenda of Ireluid in
America will be InfOTmed of the pertioiUan of the new national calam-
ity which has befiillen that iilaiAd, in the death of the Oatholio Bishop
of Derry— the Ri Rev. Br. Maginn.

At any time this woald have been a ead and heary lofli to a etrnggling
country, neoeaMoily nnfliyorable to the ripe derelopment of great char^
actere. If last year our politics had prospered, and, in the midst of
Jubilee, this news had re;;ched the Irish capital,

** How would the triumph of our ranka
Be dMliod with grief r

But, as it Is, when patriotism Is felony, and public ylrtne is olroum-
▼ented and spirited away by jealous and arbitrary power, Ireland could
fiur, far less afford this loss. Safe in the dignity of his office, Dr. Maginn
might liaye made the sanctuary in which he ministered the nursery of
a wiser and more/ortnnate struggle than that of '48. By the force of
his character, and that spell of sincerity which was the charm of his
style and the secret of his fSune, he might h^ye attracted and relnyigor-
ated the dnklng hearts of his people, and replenished their courage out
of the abundance of his own.

Then, also, if longer life had been allotted him, he might have added
a finished reputation to the few we have in our recent history. Our
monuments for many years are a moumltil multitude of broken columns
and unfinished cenotaplis. One more, alas, is added to the number,
and this shaft has been broken abruptly off at the very hour its support
was most needed in the world.

The public services of Dr. Maginn to his own country need scarcely
be repeated here. All who take an interest in Ireland remember them.
He was the earliest and moat ardent friend of the nodon of parties. He
was utterly opposed to the antiquated folly of petitioning England.
He was a believer In the right of nations to resort to arms for the de<
fence, or assertion of their just claims, and if banners had appeared last
year in the summer air over the fields of Ireland, his benediction would
have hailed them as they rose. The utter vanisliing of ail our brave
prospects, beyond a doubt, weighed on his enthusiastic spirit, and,
perhaps. Induced that fever of mind and body, wliich has ended in his
death.

LIFK OF RIOHT RKV. KDWARD MAOINN.

193

scarcely
it them,
es. Ho
ngland.
the de-
ed last
would
braye
, and,
in hU

Bora In Ulster, noned np in the natlre region of rellglooi contto
tion, the triaUi of his creed hardened, but never darkened, his intellect
He was equally tnh ttom bigotry and compromise. That he had in-
fluence enough last year to prevent the nsnal partisan tomfooleries of
both denominations in the city of Derry, is the best proof of his iii>
flnenoe, and the good uses he made of it. May his successors be ai
successftil in the same work

If we dared to mingle private sorrow with the grief of our race, we
would be bound, peculiarly, to regret his loss and reverence his memory.
In days of danger and calamity, we had reason to be grateftil to this
great man, for timely aid and warning. Before that time we had re>
spected and honored him ; since then, a not unnatural personal grati-
tude mingled with our estimate of his character. We had hoped some
day or other to render to the living the thanks that are now turoed
into a lament Fondly, we thought, we may go a pilgrimage over the
grey hills of lake-bound Innishowen, to repay the obligation we owe,
and to acquit the debt of gratitude. But In that wild peninsula, where
once before the last dreaded chief of a broken confederacy met a sudden
death, we will find hereafter, if not his home, his tomb, and no more
fervent prayer than ours, and no more reverend step, shall be about
his grave from this till then. May the soul of the good Bishop rest in
peace I

..,*Mi.

'U,„,„-^»-

APPENDIX.

THE DEVON COMMISSION

The Bev. Edvxtrd Maginn stoom and examined.
Where do you reside ? I am parish priest of Bun-
crana and the union of Fahans and Djsertigney, in the*
county of Donegal.

What is the extent of the district with which you* are
acquainted ? Including the three parishes, about 66,000
or 67,000 acres.

What is the general description of the district ; is it
tillage, or is a large portion of it mountain ? With re-
spect to the portion of mountain and tillage in Upper
Fahans and Dysertigney I cannot say with certainty.
With respect to Lower Fahans I can state pretty accu-
rately the quantity of improvable ground. . The parish,
including two extra parochial places, comprises about
26,000 acres. As far as I recollect, it is a long time
since I received these documents from one of the gov-
ernment surveyors ; at that time there were about 4,000
or 5,000 acres in a state of cultivation ; about 12,000
acres that could be improved ; and the remainder con-

.t.

196

APPENDIX

sisted of rocks and mountains of a certain elevation,
whiob rendered them unprofitable and unimprovable.

Have there been as many as twelve thousand acres
improved since you obtained that information ? No; I
stated there were about four thousand in a state of cul-
tivation. Since that time about one thousand or one
thousand five hundred acres may have been brought in
from pasture ground.

Is that district very populous ? Some portions of the
district are populous and densely inhabited, but a cer-
tain portion of the district is uninhabited.

Does the district afford, in your opinion, opportunities
for extensive and remunerative improvements? Yes;
I think most extensive and profitable improvements can
be made in the country.

Is the state of agriculture improving or otherwise,
and 'in what particulars? Yes, I do think that it is im-
proving. The nature of the times has forced the people
to extend their farms up the ascent of the mountain,
and to take in some of the land to meet the demabds
upon them ; they have done more in that way in the
last four or five years than in the ten years before.

What are the manures chiefly used? In localities
bordering upon the sea shore they use sand, and what
they call sea-weed or wrack. They also use animal
manure in the mountains, mixed with bog.

Are there any farming societies or agricultural schools
in the district, and what has been their effect? There
has been a branch farming society established in con-
nexion with the poor-law union, a short time ago ; as
7et it has not had any effect : we have got an agricuitu-

AFFSNDIX

197

con-
»; as
[cultu-

ral school in embryo, and I t^ink it can be tamed to
very good account in that neighborhood. On otrtoin
conditions Captain Kennedy has mode us a present of
three and a half acres of land, and I have got a teacher
there who gives lectures on agriculture.

Has it had much effect yet V No, they have scarcely
tried the effects, but it is training the youth and^ving
them knowledge of the different kinds of soil ; but the
teacher has not yet been trained in Dublin.

What is the more usual size of tillage farms, and the
mode of culture in that district ? It is impossible to an-
swer that question. The small villages stretch up along-
side the mountain, and there may be one thousand acres
not worth more than Sd. an acre. I would say on an
average about four acres, or from that to six acres ara-
ble, was the size. It would be more accurate for me to
state the rental, I should say from about six to ten
pounds.

Are there many farms held in rundale, or in common,
in the district? They ore getting out of the system at
present, but there are still a good many held in that
way ; there are some villages where it exists.

What is the general condition of the persons holding
in that state ? Are they better or worse off than their
neighbors? I think they are worse off; at least the
system of rundale causes a great deal of confusion in
the country.

In what manner is the rent fixed ; is it by private
contract, by proposal, or by valuation? I think I
should say that there is no such thing as a contract at
all. It is imposed ; it is a sum imposed by the landlord

198

APPENDIX.

llll

or agent ; it has not the nature of a contract by any
means. There may be exceptions, but this is the gen-
eral rule.

Are valuators usually employed? Yes, they employ
valuators. Formerly there were valuators employed
who were pe'^ons of knowledge, and understood the
countiy, such as Mr. Lythgowe and Mr. Dysart, who
were Armers themselves; latterly they have selected
individuals who know very little about the general na-
ture of the country, or sought persons who lived in
towns, who were surveyors and not valuators. I beg to
explain as to this answer, that this I know from the very
great injustice done to many individuals in the district
by those persons not understanding sufficiently how to
cut up the land. They cut up the land, and gave the
best of it to two or three individuals, and banished the
rest up to the mountain.

Was that while -dividing the farms ? Yes, while val-
uing and dividing the farms. I think frequently the
worst farm pays the highest rent.

What is the usual rent of average land of different
qualities ? It varies very much throughout the country.
The value of it depends very much on the season ; if
the season is good, they can calculate upon a tolerable
crop ; if the season is bad, the crop is exceedingly bad.
The land is wet, and there is a constant flow of water
from the hills upon the lands which lie on the sides of
the mountain, and if the season is a bad one, the crop
is generally a failure. I think the rent would be from
21. 10s. to 255. the Cunningham acre, for what is called
crofting ground. I beg to submit that this is the best
quality of land in that part of the country.

APPENDIX

by any
the gen-
employ
nployed
Dod the
irt, who
selected
eral na-
lived in
I beg to
the very
5 district
' how to
;ave the
ihed the

hile val-
tly the

ifferent
jountry.
son ; if
olerable
ly bad.
>f water
sides of
he crop
be from
called
he best

Are you aware what proportion this bears to the
poor-law valuation ? With respect to the poor-law val-
uatidn, I consider it no criterion ; the reason is that I
know the person very well, and I know from the way
in which he valued my own house and the property
throughout the country, that it is not to be depended
upon. He would merely stand upon a hill and look at
the lands of a village, and afterwards take the rental ;
it is generally the rental he adopted as the rule ; he
could in such a way have valued a whole parish in a
day, if he got to the top of a high mountain.

With respect to the government valuation, have you
ascertained the proportion the rent Dears to it? I beg
to remark that I had not the government valuation at
time ; it was afterwards I got it ; and we took an ac-
count of the rental of the towns, not as they are classi-
fied in the government valuation, but merely as they
are classified in my own parish book. The average in
Lower Fahan, I should say, is about forty per cent
higher than the government valuation, and in some
cases nearly one hundred per cent, higher, and even
more than that.

Are those particular cases, where there are any houses
or recent improvements to make that difference ? With
respect to recent improvements, in one case the people
went up to the side of the mountain in the townland of
Meenamallaghan, and cultivated the land; they took
that at 20Z. The landlord's son went up the hill and
looked down at the improvements they had made, and
raised them to 42Z., and served them with ejectments to
leave the places, or come up with him to the 42Z.

APPENDIX.

Was he a middleman or a proprietor in fee? A mid
dleman.

Have you any means of knowing what the gCTvern-
ment valuation of that townland was? 191. Qs. ; and as
I was informed it was offered for 9Z. before the people

went there.

Is it long since the people commenced those improve-
ments ? I think about thirty years ago.

Are you able to state how long they had had the be-
nefit of their improvements at the lower rent ? About
twenty to twenty-one years at that time.

How long is it since the rent was raised from *?0Z. to
42/. From seven to nine years ago ? I cannot say with
accuracy.

How soon after it becomes due is the rent usually
called for ? We have so many landlords, and the cus-
toms vary so much, it is hardly possible to say.

Is there any custom in the country in reference to the
receipt of rent ? A great deal depends upon the feeling
of the landlord. A great many demand it immediately
after it is due. I should say some demand the Novem-
ber rent on the 1st of February, and others sooner than
that ; some even get the rent before it is due, at least
they send for it on the very day, that is merely by way
of accommodation ; the principal proprietors in the place
do not call for the rent so soon. I think about the
month of April and about the month of October are the
usual times.

Is there any payment of rent by bill in the district
with which you are acquainted? Nothing of the kind
that I know of.

Does the tenant depend upon the loan fund or local

APPENDIX.

201

A mid

) gcTvern-
. ; and as
le people

improve-

id the be*
• About

n *>,0Z. to
i say with

t usually
1 the cus-

ice to the

le feeling

nediately

Novena-

ner than

at least

by way

he place

Dout the

r are the

district
the kind

or local

usurers for assistance in paying his rent? With respect
to the loan fund in Upper Fahan, I believe there is a
great deal doing in that way, though it is a great injury
to the country. The persons who become security for
those poor people are publicans or innkeepers, or keep
shebeen houses along the way, and they oblige the per-
sons, as I am informed, to drink so much, and if they
do not drink, they will not secure them again ; they lose
a great deal of time in going into the town, and they
are obliged to spend a great deal of money.

Are there any local Udurers in the district, and what
is their rate of interest ? We have mealmongers in the
country, who give out oats to assist them in seeding
their ground; the people are not able to seed their
ground from being so poor ; they call upon the meal-
monger and he gives out meal to them ; there is a kind
of contract ; they sell dear and buy cheap. I would say
that when meal can be purchased for lOs., they would sell,
it at the highest price, from 14s. to 165., or even higher
than that, and then the person gives his promissory note
to the party of whom he has purchased, to pay him a
certain sum ; the person after he has received this pro-
mise to pay, buys back the meal at 95., one shilling
under the market price, and besides that, they often
charge them two shillings over again for their trouble,
and with the money the poor people raise in that way,
they purchase their seed oats.

What is the usual mode of recovering rent from de-
faulting tenants ? At present it is changed somewhat ;
they impounded the cattle formerly, it is now done by
marked writs or civil bill process and decrees.
0*

202

APPENDIX.

Are arrears of long standing held over against the
tenants? I think not.

Are the receipts of rent usually on account, or up to
a particular da}' ? I know properties where a receipt is
given for a term for the November and May rent, speci-
fying it; there are other properties upon which it is
given on account, where the agent wishes either to de-
fraud the tenant er defraud the landlord.

Is the tenure immediately under the proprietors or
under middlemen, and what is the condition of those
holding under each class ? We have very few middle-
men.

What is the state of the tenants holding undor those
middlemen where you have them 't Some are in a de-
plorable state.

Do the tenants hold generally at will or by lease?
We have very few leases ; they hold generally at will.
I might almost say universally, except in the neighbour-
hood of Buncrana, upon one property.

What effect has this tenure upon the condition of the
tenantry ? The effect is that the rents are double, gene-
rally augmented by the caprice or avarice of the land-
lord.

Do you find that the increased value given to the
land by the labour of the occupier, has been charged
upon him afterwards in the shape of increased rent?
Yes, I think so, or they could by no means meet the de-
mand.

Have you had opportunities by your own knowledge,
of ascertaining that this is the case? I would be in-
clined to think that the experience I have throughout
the country would go to prove it.

APPENDIX.

208

inst the

or Tip to
eceipt is
t, speci-
ch it is
jr to de-
leters or
of those
• middle-

hr those
in a de-

y lease?

at will.

ighbour-

n of the
le, gene-
he land-

L to the
charged
id rent?
the de-

^wledge,
be in-

ghout

From what do you draw this conclusion ? From a
comparison of the rents now paid in the district, com-
pared to the rents which I have been informed they
paid forty years ago.

With respect to permanent improvements upon land,
are they effected by the landlord, or tenant, or jointly?
I would say that by both are those improvements
effected.

In what proportion, and how is that proportion se-
cured to either party? The landlord is secured with
respect to the improvement that is made ; he is sure of
getting the benefit, but the tenant is not; he has no
security, except the humanity of the landlord.

Do you think that what you have observed in the in-
crease of the rent, according to the improvement pro-
duced by the occupier, has had the effect of discouraging
the occupier from making improvements ? Yes ; I think
he makes no improvement except through sheer neces-
sity. I speak generally, there may be exceptions.

What do you mean by sheer necessity? The rent
and taxes press upon him so hard that the land culti-
vated hitherto will not meet the demand, and he is ob-
liged to extend his cultivation.

With a view to get an extended amount of produce ?
Yes.

He derives the benefit of it ? He is more or less able
to meet the demands ; it facilitates the payment of the
demands made upon him in the way of taxation and
rent ; but with regard to benefit, I would consider that
the tenant, with respect to clothing and the comforts of
life, derives very little.

204

APPENDIX.

Does not it give him a greater amount of return ?
Yes, a greater amount of return, and it makes him more
independent. I should speak more correctly if I said it
gave the landlord a greater amount of return.

Do I understand that the tenant in the first instance
brings more land into cultivation in order to meet the
demands upon him, but that his interest in it is dimin-
ished, as the landlord increases the rent ? I sav at the
present time the tenant has to pay lOZ. rent, and he dis-
poses of all the corn he grov " upon the land, arid that
does not meet the 10/. ; he is therefore obliged to bring
in pasture land out of the mountain to enable him to
pay the rent; it does not benefit him, it makes him
more independent of the landlord ; if he did not pay it
he would be turned out for non-payment of rent.

It enables him to pay his* rent ? Ye?.

Supposdng a tenant takes a farm, which in its unim-
proved state, gives a produce worth 301. a year, and he
lays out his labour' and money upon it, and he makes
it yield an amount of produce worth 50?. a year, and he
holds it at the same rent for twenty or thirty years, at
the end of which time the rent is increased, do you not
conceive during that twenty or thirty years he has had
a return, which in ordinary cases, would repay the out-
lay of his labour and capital ? I would say that he
might have a return, provided the land was fruitful and
productive during that time.

Is the tenant-right, or sale of good-will, prevalent in
the district, and to whom is the purchase-money paid ?
It has been prevalent ; but it has been much restricted
lately.

APPENDIX.

205

etum ?

n more

said it

n stance
eet the

dimin-
r at the

he dis-
hd that
o bring
him to
:es him
t pay it

s unira-
and he

makes
and he
ears, at
iTou not
las had

le out-
ihat he
ful and

Jent in
paid?
itricted

Is it equally allowed to tenants-at-will as to persons
having leases ? Yes ; I think it was more so in some
cases to tenants holding fftvm year to year, than to per-
sons having leases which have expired. I have some
cases which I can show illostrative of that.

Have you known cases of eviction of tenants at-will
without compensation for their tenant-right? Yes, I
have ; I have heard it, and believe it, having inquired
into the facts. Upon one townland twelve persons were
served with ejectment process, in order to compel them
to pay a sum of money to set up in business a son of
the proprietor, who had lately married ; the proprietor
was a middleman ; in one case this sum amounted to
41Z., and the person was absolutely turned out by eject-
ment, until he complied with the demand, and then he
was restored to his farm again, paying the same rent as
before. In another case, where a double rent was de-
manded at the expiration of the le'ase the goods were
seized, and no less than fourteen keepers, at 25. 6c?. a
day, were put on the house and farm, and upon the
.pound. Ahorse had been seized, which was cheap at
8Z. ; it was sold, but the poor man was only paid IZ., the
rest having gone in the costs of the distress.

In what year did this take place? This occurred
about 1831.

Has this system been continued? Yes, it has; and
fourteen families, consisting of seventy -six individuals,
have been ejected within the last fourteen years with-
out any compensation on one townland, and two of
them were obliged to pay the law expenses : that is
the statement I have received. Four of those cases

206

APPENDIX.

have occurred lately, and some of them had paid as
much as from 60/. to 100/. originally for the tenant-
right ; they were not alloweob to sell it ; they did not
get a penny of compensation, and the stones of one
person's dwelling when thrown down, were afterwards
sold to the contractor for four guineas.

Do you believe that many cases have occurred where
persons have been ejected because they would not pay
double rent in the way you have mentioned? I think
there are few cases in which they have been ejected
because they would not pay the double rent.

Have you heard any complaints of the manner in
which distresses are made in the district with which
you are connected? Yes, very many.

What has been the nature of them? The bailiff
going and seizing the cows and horses, and bringing
them to the pound, without having the permission of
the agent, in order* to raise money; on one property I
know very well, a young man, the son of the bailiff
who had been employed there, was in the habit of
doing business for the father, and he was in the habit of ,
going down to the townlands and stopping there during
the night, and seizing as many cattle as would raise as
much as 30s. or IZ., and come up to town and spend it
in drinking. •

Are these cases of improper distress frequent in that
country ? I think so.

Is that bailiff employed now ? No, neither of them is
employed as bailiff now. *

Is it a frequent practice in the country to serve no-
tices to quit upon the tenants, for the purpose of re-

paid OS
tenant-
did not
of one
jrwards

i where

not pay

I think

ejected

,nner in
b. which

e bailiff

bringing

ssion of

operty I

e bailiff

abit of

habit of .

during

raise as

spend it

It in that

them is

^rve no-
se of re-

APPKXDIX.

207

covering the rents? Yes, and for other purposes ; to
keep them in the state of serfs, in order that the tenants
may be altogether under their control. I think the
notices to quit are served upon them in order to make
them more dependent in spirit.

Are those notices to quit attended with costs to the
tenant? No, they are not.

Are the proceedings attendant upon the notice to
quit attended with costs? Yea. I would state the
general amount charged for an ejectment process; in
some cases it is 25^., and in others 1^. 6d.

Do you conceive that these cases are frequently brought
to raise a certain sum of money from the tenant in the
shape of law costs ? On my oath I believe there are
cases in which these ejectment processes are served for
that purpose. I have heard and believe, that a certain
agent was in the custom upon the Sabbath Day, to go
into a certain house, and having got leave to put an at-
torney's name upon the process, they were served, and by
that means put money into the party's pocket — that I
have heard from the clergyman ; there were seventy-five
processes served, and 25s. each charged upon them, in
the parish of Clonmany, in the last few years.

In reference to the payment of rent, is there a practice
existing of requiring a fine in case the rent is not regu-
larly paid ? I do not know of it being the case except
upon one property.

Is it still the case there ? Yes, as far as I understand.

Are you able to state to the commissioners what was
the amount of that fine ? It was 25. 6c?. if they did not
pay the rent upon the day ; there is a certain day ap-

208

APPENDIX.

pointed, and if they do not pay their rent that day they
are lined 2s. 6d., and after paying the lino, if they keep
it longer after the first week they are charged at the rate
of Is. in the pound ; that was the statement made to mo
by a very respectable person.

With regard to the tenant-right, do you know of your
knowledge that it is now the practice in the district with
which you are acquainted, to refuse to allow a person to
purchase the tenant-right, and thereby to become the
tenant, upon political or religious grounds? I have
heard of it occurring upon one property, but that is a few
years ago.

Does the system of binding the tenant to a particular
mill still continue in your district ? Yes, on one property
they are bound to the mill, though the mill does not
exist.

Is there any differences in the management of estates
of different classes ; for example, the estates of large or
small proprietors, or the estates of absentee and resident
proprietors ? I think there is very little difference.

Have you any suggestions to make as to any amend-
ment that might be made in the existing law that affects
landlords and tenants ? I wish to make some remarks
upon the subject of the answers to some queries which I
circulated among a great number of townlands. I have
received answers from thirty or forty townlands, in which
it is stated, that after paying rent, county cess, &c., there
remains but a few potatoes for the support of their fami-
lies ; that not above three or four, on the average, are
able to sow their land in seedtime without getting trust
meal, which they sell for ready money to buy seed;

AFPSNDIX*

209

Iny they
ey keep
the rate
le to mo

of your
riot with
erson to
ome the
I have
t is a few

larticular
property
does not

)f estates
large or
resident
ice.

amend-
it affects
remarks
which I
I have
I in which
tc, there
leir fami-
[rage, are
[ng trust
ly seed;

that there are not above four or five townlands in
the number in which there are feather beds at all.
Considering the rents wrhich the tenantry are obliged to
pay throughout the country, and comparing those rents
with the rate of the markets, and considering that a great
portion of the rents were imposed in war time, when the
produce was three times the value it is at present, I would,
in the first place, suggest that there should be a re-valua-
tion of the lands, and that there should be confidence
given to all parties. I would, with all deference, suggest
that there should be a valuator appointed by the landlord,
a valuator appointed by the people in vestry, and that
the government should appoint an arbiter with respect to
those two valuers, that in case the valuator on the part
of the landlord, and the valuator on the part of the ten-
ant, should not agree, the government arl:^iter should be
called upon to settle the difference.

Have you any other suggestion you wish to make ?
Secondly, I would submit that after this valuation, leases
should be given for a certain number of years to the ten-
ants, so as to secure to them the fruits of their industry.
I would specify the chief terms, in order to make myself
more distinct, twenty-one years, forty-one years, and
sixty-one years. A landlord giving a lease for twenty-
one years, I would suggest that a certain portion of the
improvements should go to the landlord, and that the
tenant, before he could be ejected from the property,
should be paid for a certain portion, as his term is shorter.
I should say that two- thirds of the value of the improve-
ments should go to the tenant, and one-third to the land
lord, to induce him to grant leases. In the case of a forty-

210

APPENDIX.

one years' lease, I should say that it should bo one half that
should be paid to the landlord ; and in the case of a
sixty-one years' lease, I should think the tenant recom-
pensed, and that the landlord then might have another
valuation. Upon what I would call immutable justice, I
think the tenant is entitled to his improvements in every
case ; but, as there must be a compromise, that is a sugges-
tion I would make. I would suggest again to the gentry
of the country, that the persons employed by the gentry of
the country as bailiffs, should be persons of good charac-
ter. There is nothing so destructive to the peace of the
community, and no one thing which has created so much
bad feeling, as the miscreants who have been appointed
by the gentry of the country to manage their property
for them ; I mean the under-bailiffs, they are generally
persons who have no respect for their word or their oaths,
and are capable of doing any one thing. In the neigh-
borhood in which I reside, there are two persons employ-
ed as bailiffs ; one of them was turned off by the barris-
ter, Henn, because he could not decide conscientiously
upon any case in which he was concerned, and that per-
son has the management of a very extensive property.
I consider that many of the acts done, which reflect dis-
grace upon the agent, are attributable to the misrepresen-
tations of this person. I would suggest the removal of
those persons, and the employment of persons of sober
habits and good character.

Have you any other suggestion you wish to offer to the
commissioners ? In case the tenants should get leases for
terms of years, I should suggest that a few acres of land
should be set apart for national schools, for the purpose of

APPENDIX.

lalf that
ISO of a
, recom-
another
usticc, I
n every
. sugges-
B gentry
entry of
L charac-
se of the
80 much
ppointed
property
generally
sir oaths,
e neigh-
employ-
|e barris-
mtiously
that per-
[roperty.
ect dis-
lepresen-
loval of
if sober

training the children in agricultural pursuits, which could
be done easily. In the mountain districts we are establish-
ing school, with the assistance of the gentry in the neigh •
borhood. There is one remark I would make as to the
decrease of the population. I think I can speak of the
inhabitants of all sects, and I do not think they have in-
creased in the last thirteen years. In Upper Fahan there
has been a reduction of 180 in the last thirteen years ;
this I attribute to the want of comfort on the part of the
people, and the harrassing system they are exposed to ;
they are obliged to work harder than they were formerly.
Ten or twenty years ago they were not obliged to work
half so much ; their comforts have diminished and their
labor has increased ; the population not keeping up with
the ratio of propagation, as the expression is, I would
say it is attributable to the great number of deaths we
have in tbe country, and the very few marriages.

er to the

bases for

of land

Irpose of

212

APPENDIX.

LETTER TO THE CORK TENANT LEAGUE.

BuNCRANA, May 4, 1847.
Sir — ^It is with extreme difficulty, on account of the awful
pressure of the times, that I can Bteal a moment &om the
duties they impose, to acknowledge the receipt of your
esteemed favor, and to convey to your committee the ex-
pression of my warmest gratitude for the too kind and hon-
orahle notice they have taken of me. I regret to have to
say that the rules, address, and pamphlet to which you
allude in your communication, have not as yet reached me.
The regret however is being alleviated by the lucid, forcible,
and truly eloquent exposition of your principles made in the
admirable letter I had from you. To these principles I can
have po hesitation in giving my adhesion — ^no reason to re-
fuse them my support or my approval. From the time I
was able to think, they were my own. They grew with my
growth, and strengthened with my strength. Every day's
bitter experience of the barbarous system of landlord rule,
fenced round by laws innumerable, to render it in mischief
effective, and secure it against the reaction natural to mis-
deeds, gave them in my mind, if possible, a still more
enduring fixity ; and if I longed for anything, it was for
such a reunion as yours — ^moral, peaceful, constitutional,
yet resolute, and determined to subvert that system, or
force its abettors to capitulate to what they never yet, as a
body, recognized — ^pity or equity, or both. The principles
of your league are the unmixed principles of commutative
justicd. TliB contracts hitherto between landlord and tenant
may have been legal ; they were not generally just. The
tenant, from the peculiar circumstances in which he was

APPKNDIX.

213

, 1847.
the awful
from the
of your
B the ex-
and hon-
;o have to
hich you
iched me.
, forcible,
ade in the
pies I can
son to re-
le time I
r with my
rery day's
[lord rule,
mischief
I to mis-
till more
was for
itutional,
stem, or
yet, as a
rinciples
mutative
id tenant
it. The
he was

placed, could not ascend to that level with the proprietor
which a contract, to be just or binding in conscience, essen-
tially requires. He was not a free agent. It was, with him,
" land or death !" The " equalitas rei ad rem^^ was placed
in abeyance, or forced to yield by the alternative of starva-
tion in the prospective, whilst the caprice or avarice of the
lord of the soil became the sole criterion of its value. A
landlord parliament of course sanctioned the injustice which
rapacity exacted, and inscribed in the head of the book of
their legislation, as an incontrovertible maxim, ^' that the
proprietors had a right to do what they pleased with their
own" — a dictum, if taken without limitation, destructive of
morals, religion, and society. This right, in their hands,
assumed a comprehensiveness, to which the modern and
ancient worlds were almost strangers — I said almost, for
Nero, as we read, burned Rome on a principle somewhat
similar. This right of the lords of the soil was being not
only extended to the fruit of the tenant's labor, to the ox,
the ass, the man-servant, and maid-servant of the husband-
man, but to his very soul and body ; for even with these to
do what they pleased, many of them claimed an unques-
tionable right. Nothing ever approached to this barathrum
marcelli principle of theirs, but the right given, permitted,
or assumed by Saul over a rebellious people — the just pen-
alty of revolt against the indulgent sovereignty of their
Lord : — " He will take your sons, and put them in his
chariots, and make them his horsemen and his footmen, and
he will appoint them to plough his fields and reap his corn.
Your daughters he will take to be his cooks and bakers.
He will take your fields and vineyards, and your best olive-
yards, and give them to his servants. Your servants also

214

APPENDIX.

and your handmaids and your good bred young men and
your asses he will take away, and put them to his own work.
\ our flocks also he will take, and you shall be his servants,"
etc — 1st Kings, chap. 8th. SauPs right they have ever
claimed as theirs, in Ireland ; SauPs rapacity they have
literally imitated ; SauPs destiny I do not, however, wish
them. Saul's right ended in a bloody rebellion in which he
lost his crown and life. Theirs, I fondly hope, will end
with the famine and pestilence it has created, or eventuate
in a fair and equitable adjustment of their and your rights.
They cannot lose by having this right abridged, or crushed
into proper dimensions. It only worked ruin to themselves
and the nation — its only produce.

Dead sea fhtits that tempt the eye
Bttt turn to ashes on the lip.

With us, I am happy to be be able to say, tenant right
is, at least, partially admitted, and many even practically
admit the other duties which property imposes : but they
are, alas! comparatively few — ^these just and good men,
like streaks of glory scattered here and there on our other-
wise dark and dismally clouded sky, such men as Sharman
Crawford, 'the Marquis of Londonderry, the Marquis of
Abercom, Earl Gosford, and some others of all creeds
whom it is needless to mention, prominently stand forth, as
beacon lights, not surpassed in beneficent splendour by the
proprietary of any other country. Verily they have their
reward in their happy tenantry who look up to them with
pride and affection, punctually pay their rents, and securely
repose in the shade of their own " vine and fig-tree." To-
gether with the tenant right, the principle of compensation
for improvements by €ome, is being admitted — they receive

APPENDIX.

215

I men,
other-

of course the full valuo of their lands without trouble and
are moreover repaid, by way of interest, with the bonodio-
tions of a peaceable, prosperous, and confemtcd people. It
is passing strange that principles working so much good —
so evidently just, so indisputable, could have any adver-
saries pretending to common sense, or to any clear notions
of equity, or even of their own interests.

The Cotton-grower of Lancaster, South Carolina, has as
much right to claim, without compensation, the calicoes of
Manchester, Glasgow, or Paisley, because he supplied to
the manufacturer the raw material, as the landlord has to
the tenant's improvements, because he let him the land.
To thrust men out on the world who reclaimed the bleak
and barren mountain side of deep morass, not value for 6d.
per acre, until, fertilized by the sweat of their brows, and
made valuable by their toil and capital, may have a sanc-
tion in law, but has none from justice — may be the act of
a professing Christian, but is not, surely, the doing of an
honest man. Again, to increase the rent as the tenant im-
proves, and tax his industry, is not only flagitiously unjust,
but, practically, a premium on indolence. Your scale for
adjusting or regulating the burthens to be respectively borne
by landlord and tenant, is so strictly impartial, that no
reasonable man could object to it ; no just man would. 1
am delighted to have to inform you, that the tenant class
in Ulster are becoming alive to the necessities of the times,
and the truly perilous position in which they are being
placed. Your principles — your fears — ^your hopes — are
theirs ; and, in the partial enjoyment of some favors you do
not possess, feeling them to be precarious, they seek like
you to establish them on an immutable basis. They have

216

APPENDIX.

able advocates in the northern press — the Belfast Vindica-
tor , the J^Torthren Whigy and in the Derry Journal, and
Standard, and they have zealous, vigorous supporters;
whilst their adversaries are only being sustained by the
merest drivellers that ever figured in a Dunciad. You have
with you the liberal press of Dublin, the feelings of the great
majority of the English people, who detest your oppressors —
the sympathies of the world ; and, what is better than all,
on your side is justice and Erin, on theirs is oppression and
guilt. If it be not your own fault, you must succeed, and
your success will lay the foundation of Ireland's prosperity ;
for even a Repeal of the Union, without the full recognition
of your rights, would be of small service to our country. I
see, moreover, in the constitution of your committee, the
successful issue of the glorious struggle to which you are
committed. It comprises men of every creed, united by
the strong ties of brotherhood, and viewing man as he is,
by the still stronger ties of mutual interest to work out a
common good. Religion, that should bring you together
for purposes of universal benevolence, can no longer be
made, by the crafty, designing, or wickedly interested, to
keep you asunder ; nor can you henceforth, by any insidious
legerdemain, be induced to see in the face of a fellow-coun-
tryman, because he differs from you in creed, that of an
finemy. Ireland, you feel, is sufficient for us all, intended
by a gracious Providence to make us all happy together.
A few rapacious men, by sowing discord in the name of God
and religion, made it the most miserable land on earth.
They stirred up Protestant and Catholic to hate, and fool-
ishly war with each other — like the mouse and the frog of
the fable, with this difference, that, instead of the straw, and
9*

APPENDIX.

217

Vindicd'
'not, and
^porters ;
1 by the
You have
the great
ressors —
than all,
ssion and
ceed, and
•osperity ;
^cognition
nntry. I
littee, the
1 you are
united by
as he is,
)rk out a
I together
longer be
ested, to
insidious
llow-coun-
Ihat of an
intended
together,
e of God
m earth,
and fool-
lO frog of
traw.and

the bulrush, they armed them with bayonet, and bludgeon,
and marshalled them on to murderous, reckless and ridicu-
lous conflict ; that, whilst engaged in this silly yet suicidal
strife, they might, vulture-like, pounce upon, seize, and
swallow up both as a morsel of bread. Ynu are happily, I
see, unlearning the lesson they taught you, and beginning,
to their great dismay, to enquire at length, with your old
fellow su£ferers of Mantua,

En, quo diecordla Gives
Perdaxlt miseroa I En quels consevimua agros.

He who is not " the God of dissension, but of Peace," will,
I cherish the hope, bless your united efforts ; and history
will have to record that the sweet Mononia, that gav6 us a
Boirhoime, a Cormac, a Curran, Fathers O'Leary and
Mathew, and an O'Connell, crushed the head of a serpent
more venomous than any banished by our great apostles
from our land — a greater " monster" than the Kraaken of
the northren ocean, or that which swallowed up Jonas alive ;
turned the dense mist of misery which shrouded our island
into sunbeams ; brought security, comfort, and gladness
around the peasant's hearth ; and made Ireland, what she
ought to be, with all bounteous gifts of Heaven to her, the
happiest kingdom on earth. Even the Patrician, whom
you shall have forced to descend from the giddy and un-
certain eyrie of domineering injustice to the smoother, safer
plane of equity, will thank you for the service rendered him
in giving him, at length, a resting-place, more noble and
more secure than any he ever occupied, in the hearts and
affections of a grateful tenantry. Posterity, of course, will
point to Cork, whence the tenant league, like another Cor-
nelia, sent forth its jewels, to redeem and rescue our com-

218

APPENDIX.

mon country from the most galling link in the whole cham
of her hondage. These hurried, scattered remarks on one
of the most important suhjeots that have arrested the at*
tention of Irislmien, elicited aa ihey have been by your elo>
quent letter, you will receive with that indulgence they
require. However faint and imperfect, they are still the
approving echo <^ your own admirable sentiments.

Believe me, with earnest hopeful aspirations for the suc-
cess of your committee, your most obliged and obedient
servant, •!• Edward Maginn.

W. H. Trenwith, Esq., Hon. Sec, &c. &c.

■'■,1

AFFXt^DIX.

219

TO DR. Mcknight, of derry. '

BuNCBANA, October 27, 1847.
Sib, — I have, in all sincerity, to express my deep
regret that, from indisposition, I cannot realize the
pleasing hope which — on my departure from Dublin,
and even up to this moment — I fondly entertained — of
jbeing able to assist at the dinner which the tenant farm-
ers of the North of Ireland, and the enlightened and
respectable mercantile classes of the city of Derry, pur-
pose giving this evening to that distinguished patriot —
the long-tried and genuine friend of the Irish agricultur-
ist — Sharman Crawford, Esq. But few — very few in
Ireland — have so well deserved such a compliment at
our hands. His views, the most matured — ^the practical
and benefioal example he sets on his own estates com-
mensurate with his views — his integrity so unbending —
his energy and perseverence so indomitable ; through
good report and evil report it was with him " still on-
ward," no matter how checked or contravened, to im-
prove the condition of the farming population depressed
by systematic misrule, and discouraged by the precarious
titles on which their right, yea, their very existence,
depended. He hoped against hope— unassisted, unbe-
friended; he battled still for justice, exhibiting in his
person the most beautiful object on which the eye of
heaven can rest — 'The just man struggling with advers-
ity.' To do such men honour is meet, is just, and to
omit this duty would be, on the part of those for whom"
he struggled, base ingratitude. Though absent in body,
I am present with you in heart and spirit to pay him

220

APPBlJblX.

every mark of respect. My humble but sincere concur-
rence you have in the cause in which you are embarked,
and as far as my influence can go, it shall be cordially
exerted to co-operate with you in bringing your praise-
worthy purpose to a successful issue.

I further, in all earnestness, respond to the beautiful
sentiment which your committee (composed as it is of the
most respectable Protestants and Presbyterians) with a
confidence I shall always highly value entrusted to my
keeping. It is a delightful sentiment — ever the fondest
desire of my heart. I longed — ^I sighed to see it real
ized — a sentiment not less patriotic than Christian,
which, if felt and understood, and brought into lively
universal action, would shortly raise our country from
the depths of unparalleled misery, in whioh she has been
plunged, to that station which God and nature intended
her to occupy among the nations of the earth. Union
among all classes and creeds in Ireland — a blissful senti-
ment, and the only panacea for all the evils our unhappy
country endures. And why, Sir, should we not be
united in all things conducive to the common weal?
By nature, we are all brethren ; in society, we are all
members of the same body. Eeligion, the loveliest
daughter of Heaven, whose name is union, and whose
mission is peace — religion given us by the God of lOve
to bind man to his fellow-man, and men to the Being
that made them, should not surely be made the occasion
of keeping us asunder — that religion which sees in the
face of an enemy that of a brother — which, not no mat-
ter under what dress or form she be presented to us,
must have charity as the very soul of her existence.

5oncur-
)arkecl,
•rdially
praise-

jautiful
s of the
with a
to my
fondest
it real
Lristian,
) lively
py from
as been .
i tended
Union
1 senti-
happy
Inot be
weal?
are all
iveliest
whose
f love
Being
3casion
in the
10 mat-
to us,
Istence.

APPENDIX.

221

Why should she be made a bone of dissension, oi^ an
apple of discord among us? Union, then, for every
good purpose ; but union especially among all creeds to
remove the monster injustice that afflicts our country :
union to adjust at once and for ever the rights of man,
and the rights of property — to establish, on the basis of
the strictest equity, the rights of landlord and tenant.
Union in such a cause is blissful, big with hope and hap-
piness for our country — for it is, undoubtedly, the cause
of God — of patriotism — of charity in its purest sense,
and of immutable justice ! It is the cause of God, who
never intended that creatureci made to His own immortal
image should be treated as the agriculturists of Ireland
have been hitherto " in their own, their native land ;" the
cause of our country made a ragged, forlorn, and discon-
solate beggar, by this system, at every gate in Christen-
dom. It is decidedly the cause of charity ; for if it be
charitable to assist for God's sake, an individual brother
man — ^to feed him when hungry — ^to clothe him when
naked, and to shelter him from the pitiless storm, when
a houseless outcast, etc., how much more so to raise a
nation of paupers — of miserable serfs — to a condition of
comfort, security, and independenc&r-to give thema hap-
py, home, and prevent them from being made homeless.
Your cause, and the cause of your league, is the cause
of immutable justice. Justice, if I understand it right,
considering it as a virtue, is that which constantly dis-
poseth us to give to every man his rights. And have
not the tenant class their rights as well as the landlord
class ? I fully admit the right of the proprietor of the
soil. I deny his having any right, now and for ever, to

222

APPENDIX.

either the prospective or retrospective improvements of
his 'tenants. Tho rav*'^ material is the landlord*s; the
manufacture is the tenant^s.

If I have made his land comparatively profitable from
being unprofitable, what right haa he to the profits aris-
ing purely fi^m ray labour ? Not more than the pro-
prietor of a marble quarry would have to the statue
when chiselled and shaped by the skilful hand of the
artist into forms the most beautiful — ^into things breath-
ing life. To the value of the rude block he could justly
claim a title— to exact beyond it, even under the form
of law, would be iniquitous. To extort it by force
would be to rob the statuary of the fruits of his skill and
labour. Again, men have an original natural right to
live on the Innds on which they were bred and born.
The earth and its fulness is the domain of each and all.
Their right is being based on the clearest expression of
the Divine will. '• You have made him little less than
the angels, and placed him over the works of thy hands."
Ps. The least infringement on this universal natural
right by the division of the earth, or the transfer of the
division of any portion of it to individuals, would be
only justifiable in the hypothesis of its having been
made for the general good of society. This natural right
has been, by law, in Ireland lost sight of, or placed in
utter abeyance for the supposed benefit of individuals —
themselves the makers of this law. It was not for the
public good, nor even for the good of the individuals in
whose favor it was made. Witness the results: The
farming classes have been beggared by it ; the landlord
class made bankrupt by it ; the mercantile classes, whose

APPENDIX.

228

ents of
tho

's;

lo from
its aria-
he pro-
statue
of the
breath-
i justly
le form
y force
kill and
•ight to
i born,
and all.
sion of
33 than
hands."
natural
> of the
(uld be
g been
il right
iced in
uals —
for the
uals in
The
mdlord
, whose

stay is the farmer's prosperity, have been made insolvent
by it ; the laboring population by it stalk and stagger
over the land, gaunt spectres of misery ; public credit,
and nearly all confidence, have, been destroyed by it
The ruin here occasioned by it is now, by the just retri-
bution of God, re-acting on a neighboring kingdom that
cradled the monster in its infancy, and nursed it into
vigor; and unhappy Ireland in the lowest depths of the
abyss, can only extend her arms to heaven for help. It
is an absurdity, I should say a blasphemy, to impute this
wreck of realms to the rot of the potato. Many causes, I
admit, led to it ; but, principally, the insecurity, or rather
almost utter rejection of the tenant's rights, and the grind-
ing exactions of the landlord class generally. All was
seized on by them, the potato excepted. God struck this
root — the pretext of extortion, and the unholy system in
its ultimate terrible effects became known to the worid.
The world knowing it, universally condemns it. "Were
it not for his divine interposition it would have continued
for ages, accumulating its iniquity, unnoticed and \mar
mended. The potato rotted in France, in Belgium, in
Germany, in England, and in Scotland, and the failure
of it was scarcely felt. It rots in Ireland, and the crash
of ruhi echoes to the extremities of the earth. Whence
this difference ? I say its cause is to be found especially
in the unhallowed treatment the occupiers of the soil in
Ireland received. Take, Sir, for example, the following
illustrations. I omit the names of the townlands and of
their la* Jlords, as it would be invidious to mention them.
Besides, they are not worse — ^nay, some of them are
better — ^than many of their class. I have before me the

224

APPENDIX.

Btatistica of twenty townlands, with the corresponding
progrtissive rise of rents in each, from 1800 to 1843, and
also the relative market prices of the productions of
agriculture during the same period :

No. 3
No. 3
No. 4
No. ft

No. 6
No. 7

No. 8

No. 9

Bent In 1808, £24 Irish.

« 1811, £53 Irish, now £61 British.
Rent In 1800, £8 4a. Irish, now £60 British.
Rent In 1804, £15 Irish, now £31 British,
Rent In 1802, £10 Irish, now £25 10s. British .
Rent in 1801, £40 Irish.

" 1811, raised to £80 Irish, now £26 British.

" 1812 and 1814 " " "

Rent in 1801, £53 Ss. 9d. Irish, now £98 British.
Rent in 1801, £35 Irish.

** 1811, TvAeefl to.£58 Irish, now £70 British.

" 1812 and 1814 " " "

Rent In 1801, £80 Irish.

« 181 1, raised to £150 Irish, now £162 British.

" 1812 and 1814 " " «

Rent In 1801, £1 Irish.

« 1811, raised to £117 Irish, now £134 British.

« 1812 and 1814 " « "

As you know the corresponding market prices of the
periods alluded to, I will not detain you with their de-
tails. From this illustration we could reasouubly con-
clude what the result of such a system would necessarily
be, even had we not the actual misery of our country be-
fore our eyes, produced by it. "With regard to the ex-
amples which 1 have given, one of two things must be
certain, viz., that the tenant classes on the aforesaid town-
lands, must have been either taxed for their industry, or
wantonly oppressed by the proprietors. As these are
not isolated cases, but merely parts selected from the
whole, for the purposes of undivided meditation or illus-
tration, I say it is the duty of all classes, and of all creeds,
to unite and put an end at once to such an iniquity Our
rulers have tried their hands to make land dear, and flesh

APFSNDIX.

225

and blood cheap. It is full time for them to retrace their
steps so ruinous to society, and secure as far as possible,
to the Irish farmer, his natural rights, by wise and vigor-
ous legislation. Let them, of course, hold the rights of
property sacred ; but, above all things, let them not for-
get the rights of man, which the law of God, " whose is
the earth and the fulness thereof," makes the rights of
man still more sacred. They foolishly lost sight of the
law of nature. By nearing themselves to it, and keep-
ing it full in view, all things may be put to right again.
"Whatever the duty of the government may be. Sir, the
• duty of all sects and creeds in Ireland is clear — ^yea, pal-
pable, to unite and say that this system must have an
end. Protestants, Presbyterians, and Catholics, all have
hero a neutral ground to stand and work upon — a com-
mon cause to work for — a common interest to promote —
a common enemy to oppose. From this duty there
should be no shrinking. The present is the moment to
forge the bolt, and st^'lco with unerring aim the monster
injustice. The leagues are the smithies in which the
thunders of public opinion must be forged. In this holy
work all must co-operate with earnestness, energy, single-
mindedness, and perseverance.

'' Brontesque. Steropesqne et nudas membra Pyraomon."

Let the Episcopalian bring to it his " three rays of

hailstorm" — the Presbyterian his "three of watery

clouds" — the Catholic his " three of sparkling flame"—

the Methodist his " winged south win^s," and the stern

sturdy Covenanter, his

" Falgores tenificos, sonitumqne, metumque,
Miscere operi et flammis Bequocibua iras."

226

APPENDIX.

It ig, however, the system, and not men, with which
we have to deal. They afq merely its creatures, born,
bred, and educated under it, and the best that ever lived,
nursed as they were, and petted, would not, without pe-
culiar graces, have escaped its poisonous infection.
Adam has bequeathed to us all the spirit of domination
and oppression, and if not checked by other causes, it
naturally and inevitably works its mischief. In all dis-
cussions on this subject, differences on religion and poli-
tics should be placed in abeyance. The league must
strongly bar their gates against their introduction. Let
the terms of our holy confederation be such that the
principles we conscientiously entertain, shall be of ne-
cessity held inviolate. On these terms alone we. Catho-
lics, join you. The only condition of our allegiance is
simply and beautifully expressed in the following lines :

" cum jam leges et foedera jungent,

Ne yetoB indigeaas nomen mutare Latinos,
Nee Troas fieri jabeaa Tencroeque vooari
Aut vocnm mutare viros aut yertere vester."

Wishing you, Sir, and all joined with you in a cause
which I believe to be that of truth, of justice, of patri-
otism, and of God, every blessing in your endeavors to
secure the prosperity of Ireland not less than your own
rights ; and again expressing my sincere regret for my
unavoidable absence from this evening's entertainment,
I remain your faithful and obedient servant,

^Edward Maginn.

James M'Kniglft, Esq., Secretary, &c.

DR. MAGINN'S POLITICAL COMESPONDENCE.

Dublin, December 26, 1847.

My Beloved Lord, — ^Pardon my intrusion, to which I
am forced by my anxiety to express my admiration of
your beautiful letters. Thank heaven, the Church and
the faithful Irish people have such a champion! You
have cheered our hearts at a time when all things else
tended heavily to depress.

I am glad to see that, at any rate, a portion of your
admirable letter to Lord Stanley has been permitted to
appear in the London press — ^the Morning Chronicle in-
serting portions of it yesterday. I was privately informed
in London, that sly and crotchety Sir Robert Ferguson
was the cause why the Government Landlord and Tenant
Bill was not introduced this last session. Lord Claren-
don asked his opinion, which, of course, was unfavorable.
Now what a pity that some "bird of the air" does not
carry this matter to the ears of the Northmen I

I am, my beloved Lord, with the deepest respect,
esteem and respectful affection,

Ever most devotedly yours,

John O'Connkll.

The Lord Bishop of Derry.

London (13 Belgrave Square), April 16, 1848.

My Lord, — I beg to thank you sincerely for the flat-'
tering manner in which you have noticed my weak ef-

228

APPENDIX.

forts to draw attention to the claims of tLa suffering poor
of Ireland, in your letter of the 5th, which I have had
the honor of receiving to-day. I need not say more
than express my deep regret that my power to demand
redress for their grievances does not enable me to make
my acts correspond with my wishes, or the strong and
earnest feelings I entertain, and have for years enter-
tained, on the subject. Depend on it, I will lose no op-
portunity of which I can avail myself, to press forward
the subject. Your letter will, I hope, arm me with some
authority in doing so, and I will anxiously watch the
chances of making a move in the matter.

I fear the measure for preventing or mitigating the
harshness of the clearances promised by Government, will
turn out of no value. We will do all we can to im-
prove it, and make it more effectual. If time is afforded
for pressing effectual measures on the Government and
Parliament — ^before matters come in Ireland to a crisis
in which even Parliament may be powerless — ^I do still
hope the session will not be fruitless of such good acts.
The measures I have earnestly, for three years past,
pressed on Government, are :

1. Protection and security to the tenant-farmer from
the caprice and rapacity of his landlord.

2. The removal of all restraints on the sale, leasing,
and free disposal of land, with a brief and cheap par-
liamentary title.

3. A large measure of public employment for the
able-bodied poor, chiefly in reclaiming waste lands, to
*be subsequently divided into moderate sized farms, and
sold or leased in perpetuity.

APPENDIX.

229

the
, to
, and

Measures such as these, vigorously carried out, misht,
I hope, prevent the convulsion with which Ireland seems
menaced, and save the lives of the thousands who in the
present state of the law, are now threatened with inter-
mination.

Since you mention the Poor Law as at present, worked
in such a manner as to fail even in prolonging the lives
of those whom it takes under its protection, allow me to
suggest that means should be taken by the friends of
the poor, (such as your Lordship, and the other mem-
bers of the Catholic hierarchy and clergy, who have so
devotedly fulfilled the duties of their high position, as
the pati? ftivisers, and protectors of the poor) to en-
force thoiL ]; provisions of that law which are framed for
their benefit. Having taken an active part in recom-
mending this law to Parliament and the government,
and when it was introduced, having striven (and with,
as I believed, considerable success) to obtain its passing
in such a shape as should secure a right to relief m destitu-
tion to all classes of poor, I am strongly persuaded that
the law, as it exists, contains enough vigour and power
to secure this great object, if duly and vigilantly watched
and enforced by the friends of the poor in each locality.

The local authorities are required and commanded by
the express terms of the act duly to relieve all classes of
the destitute ; and if they neglect to do so effectively,
they are open to the legal penalties of this demeanor^ for
np^glecting to perform a duty imposed on them hy law. If
through any si'ch neglect, death unhappily ensues, they
are moreover liable to indictment for manslaughter or cut-
pahle homicide, I believe. This is certainly the case in

2ftO

APPENDIX.

England ; and our law is not more literally imperative
in its injunctions on the authorities than yours. It has
also recently been decided by the courts in Scotland^
that a Poor Law Inspector, answering to your relieving
officer, is indiciahle for culpable homicide^ if he neglect
any poor person requiring relief after applicatioui and
death ensue as a consequence.

I wish some case of this kind were brought before the
courts in Ireland. I have asked the question publicly
of the Irish Secretary here, and it has not been denied
that such is the law. In the first case you relate to me^
for example, that of a poor woman of 70, recorded by
the verdict of an inquest as having died of starvation,
having received insufficient out-door relief (only ninepence
a week to find lodging &c., as well as food), the relieving
officer seems to me open to an indictment. If he acted
by the command of the Board of Guardians, then the
Chairman of the Board who gave the order would, I
should think, be the party liable. Even the Poor Law
Commissioners are subject to this legal responsibility, I
imagine — and the Government of which they are mem-
bers, to the highest amount of responsibility in Parlia-
ment, at least, if not in the courts. I should say, how-
ever, that this old woman's case might be considered a
doubtful one, from her age and perhaps other infirmi-
ties. I am told, at the present price of meal, one penny
a day will provide food only even for an able-bodied
man, so that, little enough as ninepence a week is for
the maintenance of any individual, it might be ques-
tioned whether it was not barely sufficient. I should
strongly recommend, however, that such cases should

APPJCNDIX.

281

be wntched, and that, when an^- clear case of neglect
or insufficient relief (when duly demanded) appear, a
prosecution should be instituted, and the question tried
in court. This would have the effect of stimulating all
officials under the law to activity in the discharge of
their duties.

I fear you will think me unimpressed by the threat-
ening circumstances of the moment, from my dwelling
on these minute matters. I fully sympathize with your
indigration at the terrible condition in which the law
still leaves your poorer countrymen. But the law passed
last year was some earnest of good intentions towards
them on the part of the united Legislature, and I hope
will be speedily followed by others more effectual, espe-
cially such as I pointed out in the beginning of this hur-
ried letter, for the deficiencies of which I have to ask
your pardon, and that you will, notwithstanding, believe
me ever, my Lord,

Yours, very respectfully and sincerely,

G. POULETT SCROPB.

House of Commons, April 17, 1848.
My Lord, — ^I am further obliged by your last letter.
With reference to the opinion you mention as given by
Mr. Henn, that the Board of Guardians are not compelled
by the injunctions of the Poor Law of last session to
afford the necessary relief to the out-door poor, I can-
not help thinking there must be some misunderstanding.
Mr. Henn, I am aware, was consulted as to the quarter-
acre clause, and his opinion was satisfactory on the point

232

APPENDIX.

that a legal evacuatiot iOf the holding was not necessary
to entitle a pauper to relief, so that he, bona fide, intended
to give it up. I have shown your statement to Sir "W.
Somerville, who will make inquiry as to the facts. But
this I feel quite certain of, that the act imperatively en-
joins on the guardians to relieve a?Z cases of real necessity,
whether infirm or able-bodied. If the work-house is
full, the responsibility of ordering the out-door relief of
the able-bodied, rests with the Commissioners, they being
informed of the want of room, &c., by the guardians or
some third party. When that order is issued, the guar-
dians, relieving officer, &o., are as much responsible for
the due relief of the able-bodied as of the infirm poor.
Of course they always must exercise a discretion in every
case, as to whether it is, or is not, one of real destitution.
But that discretion they exercise under the heavy respon-
sibility of the duty imposed on them to relieve all who
are really destitute, and the liability, as I stated in my
first letter to indictment for misdemeanor, should it be
clearly shown that in any case they neglected that duty
and refused relief to the really destitute.

I am no lawyer, but having taken part in the wording
of the clauses with the view to securing a full right to
every class of the destitute poor to relief, and having
been satisfied by every accessible authority at the time,
that this great object was effectually attained, I am very
unwilling to believe that there can be any doubt on the
matter ; especially as the wording of the act appears to
me fully as stringent and compulsory as those of our
English laws, under which overseers have been indicted
and punished as misdemeanants for neglecting to reliev<}

APPENDIX.

scesaary
atended
Sir W.
3. But
irely en-
lecessiiy^
louse is
elief of
y being
iians or

le guar-
dble for
n poor,
n every
bitution.
respon-
all who
in my
i it be
at duty

ording
ight to
having
e time,
n very
on the
ears to
of our
idicted
relievj

the poor, and also of the Scotch law recently enacted,
under which the courts have determined that an indict-
ment for culpable homicide will lie against a Poor-law
officer for refusing relief, and thereby giving occasion to
the death of the part^'

I can have no objection 1 your circulating luj letter
in print, if you think it worth while. But I fear it was
hastily and carelessly written, and must trust to your
correction any inaccuracies of expression. The pro-
posal to appropriate the waste lands of Ireland to the
productive employment of the able-bodied poor, was
made by me in June, 1846, in the shape of a bill which
I got leave to introduce. I had reason to hope that the
present government would take up the measure them-
selves ; but .their hearts failed them. Had it been at
that time adopted, I believe much money and lives would
have been saved last year, and many thousand happy
farmers might have been located on the reclaimed lands
already actively cultivating their own land. I believe
some 200,000 might have been thus provided for. I am
still pushing this measure on the government, but as yet
they hold back. Lord John Russell promised to under-
take it last year, but was induced to drop it by represen-
tations from the landlords, I believe, who do not like to
part with an acre. I will take the liberty of sending
you a couple of pamphlets, recently printed by me on
this subject.

I remain, my Lord, your very obedient servant,

G. POULETT SCROPE.

P. S. I cannot account for my first letter being
opened, but imagine it must have been accidental.
Yery Rev. Dr. Maginn, Lord Bishop of Derry, &o.

284

APPENDIX.

London, (13 Belgrave Square^) May 8, 1848.

My Lord, — I send you the correspondence .given to
me by Sir William Soraerville, who on hearing from me
the case of the poor woman in question, as related to me
by your Lordship, thought it right to institute an inquiry,
as I believe is uniformly done where a verdict of death
from want of nourishment, or something to that effect,
is recorded by a coroner's jury, and reported to the Board
of Commissioners, or P. L. Inspector. I think the state-
ment, on the whole, satisfactory, and leading to the con-
clusion, that if this is one of the worst cases that have oc-
curred in your Lordship's neighborhood, there is no
great reason to complain of the officials neglecting the
poor under their charge. The only awkward part of
the story to me, is the admission of the relieving officer
that 9d. per week was his usual pay to adults ; by which
I understand those really destitute, who had no power,
or friends capable of assisting them, nor even perhaps
house-room. Should this be the case, there must be
great suffering endured by them.

Pray believe that I shall feel honored by any commu-
nications on the subject of the state of the poor that
you make to me, and will do my best to turn them to
good account.

I beg to remain, my Lord,

Your very obedient servant,

G. POULETT SOROPE.

Eight Eeverned Dr. Maginn, Lord Bishop of Derry.

APPENDIX.

285

1848.
iven to
rom me
4 to me
inquiry,
)f death
t effect,
e Board
he statc-
the con-
have oc-
e is no
king the
part of
g officer
ly which
power,
perhaps
nust be

3ommu-
>or that
hem to

lOPE.

)erry.

I /
BENEYOLENOB OF THE BRITISH PEOPLE DURING THE

IBISU FAMINE.

BuNCRANA, June 19, 1848.
Gentlemen, — ^I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your
favor of the 13th inst, and to state for your satisfaction,
that the daty you would impose upon us we have an-
ticipated, and, I fondly hope, faithfully discharged. Six
months ago we and clergy, in conference assembled, con-
veyed by an anonymous resolution through the public
papers, the warmest expression of our gratitude to all
our benefactors, who practically sympathized with our
people in their unparalleled destitution. We did noi*
of course forget the benevolent, beneficent and humane
among the English people, though we had reason to
know that the greater part of their contributions was
unblushin^Iy misapplied to any and every purpose but
the alleviation of the misery of our suffering poor. To
the government we did not express our gratitude for
the vote of money which they had made out of the
common treasury towards our relief, and which was
principally squandered, in the way of patronage, on
heartless officials who had no sympathy for or with our
starving people. I do believe that many members of
the Whig government intended well, as I know there
are among them some excellent men, such as Lord Mor-
peth, and others whom I need not name. They, how-
ever, confided the carrying out of their good intentions
to faithless hands, who abused the trust reposed in them,
and did anything but save our people from destruction.
Our then skeleton peasantry were forced, in their rags,

286

APPENDIX

amidst the frosts and snows of winter, to work, and
starve, and die, not being able to earn more than 5d. per
day, while thousands of pounds were lavished upon en-
gineers, inspectors, check clerks, &c. The result of this
mode of proceeding in the cure from which I am writ-
ing to you was, that out of a population of ten thousand
Catholics, eighteen hundred at least perished through
cold and hunger, or pestilence, their natural conse*
quenoe. For this state of things I don't think we have
had any reason to thank the government, especially as
we ure impressed with the conviction that it wad their
duty to have taken good care, at every risk and every
■ expense to the commonwealth, to save the lives of Her
Majesty's subjects, at least such was the opinion of an
exceedingly wise man among the ancients — Aristotle.
He was a Pagan, and I am sorry to have to intro-
duce him as a teacher of humanity, and its duties to
Christian rulers. "Quam multsQ autem sint res sine
quibus, civitas, esse nequeat videndum est. Primum
igitur victus seu alimentum suppetere debet: deinde
artes; tertio loco arma; deinde aliqua pecuniae vis et
copia." — De Bepuhlica^ Lib, vii., Cap. 8. I have no hes-
itation ill admitting that the benevolence of many in
England had a most salutary effect, in obliterating from
the minds of our people the wrongs of centuries, and
making them forget and forgive the past ; but it would
be uncandid in me to conceal from you, that the conduct
of the organs of the British public, the odious calumnies
they heaped upon the people and their clergy, the want
of sympathy with our people generally during the pre-
sent year, in which their distress has been, in most places,

APPENDIX.

287

•k, and

5d. per

pon en-

of this

m writ-

lousand

hrough

conse-

^e have

dally as

ad their

I every

of Her

n of an

ristotle.

> intro-

\ities to

s sine

rimum

deinde

via et

no hes*

aany in

g from

es, and

would

onduct

umnies

e want

le pre-

places,

more keenly felt than daring the worst periods of '47^-
the practical sympathy manifested by other countries
with our people, even during this season, by Italy,
France and America, from which countries I myself re-
ceived large sums of money, with which I saved the
lives of thousands of the starving poor in this diocese,
while the Government and Englaad showed nothing but
cold indifference to our wants ; yea more, insulted and
mocked at our mifcry, giving full swing — I should say,
encouragement — to the ruthless exterminator to level the
cabins of our peasantry, and cast them out in thousands
to die in ditches ; all this, with many other things which
it is useless for me now to mention, have much tended
to remove the aforesaid good impressions, and spread
disaffection everywhere abroad among us. Let but the
people and government of England secure the rights of
possession and of industry to our farmers, employment
to our laboring classes ; let them remove from among
us these established anomalies which shock the common
sense of Christendom, these nurseries of interested big-
otry and consequent detestation of the masses of the
Irish people, and make Ireland what she should be,
prosperous and happy ; or rather, since they have failed
in producing by their legislation this state of things,
which it is the duty of all rulers to produce, though
they had tried their hands at it for the last forty-eight
years, and made things still worse, let them allow us to
legislate for ourselves, and become, as we should be, re-
sponsible for our own prosperity or misery, and Her
Majesty Queen Victoria will not iiave, under the wide
sway of her sceptre, more devoted subjects, nor the

" -'^'fc'^AMWI*^'''

288

APPKKDIX.

English people more faithful friends and allies than the
Irish people. I have the honor to be,

Your most faithful, humble servant,

*{« Edwabd Maoinn.

To James Hawkins, Theo. Jones, John Gilmore, Esqrs.

13 Windsor Tower, Kingstowi^ July 80, 1848.
My Lordy — I read, the other day, a letter or address
of yours in the Freeman^s Journal, in which you made
a most temperate statement, relative to the Established
Church of Ireland. This day I have read with surprise,
the speech of Mr. Anstey, the Roman Catholic member
for Youghell, on Mr. Sharman Crawford's motion the
other night, in which ho says, "He (Mr. Anstey) must
say, as a Roman Catholic, that the Roman Catholics of
Ireland did not consider the Established Church as the
chief grievance of that country, nor indeed any grievance
at all /" Now, my Lord, does not this put the liberal,
the sincere Protestants, who agree with you on this sub-
ject, in a very awkward position, to have this Roman
Catholic member's speech to be thrown in our faces and
quoted as the sentiments of the Roman Catholics of Ire-
land? I venture to call your attention to it, and hope
yoif will excuse my troubling you, and to subscribe
myself. Your faithful servant,

"William Fitzgerald.

P. S. — This is private, but I think ought to be looked
to. May I hope an answer ? If so, address Lord Wil-
liam Fitzgerald, as above.

APPENDIX.

289

tbe

INN.

Ssqrs.

.848.
address
1 made
iblislied
urprise,
[nember
ion the
y) must
olics of
h as the
grievance
liberal,
bis sub-
Koman
ices and
J of Ire-
id hope
ibscribe

lALD.

looked
Ird Wil-

MuLORAVU Castle, November 25, 1848.

Sir J — I have received your letter of the 20th instant,
with an accompanying address to the Queen from a
meeting of the barony of Innishowen, held on the 7th
of August, and which you state would have been sooner
transmitted to mo for presentation but for my absence
abroad. I receive this request, as you say.it was i: tended
as an additional proof of the continued confidence and
favorable recollection of the Irish People. For all which
I assure you I feel ever grateful.

The meeting appears to have been most numerously
attended, and solely by persons connected with that part
of the country. Believing many of the complaints, both
general and local, to be well-founded, and making con-
sequent allowance for, whilst regretting, some of the
expressions used, I should have forwarded the address
at once, through the constitutional channel, for presenta-
tion to Her Majesty, but for one difficulty connected, not
with the nature of the remedy proposed, but with the
Prayer itself, which seems to me to be, that the Queen,
by an exercise of the prerogative, should declare the
Union void. This is advice which I feel that d«-» u'inister,
even if favorable to the Eepeal of the Union, could give
to a constitutional sovereign.

This alone is the difficulty I feel in forwarding the
address, unless you could explain away this impression.
If the petitioners had only generously bespoken the sov-
ereign's favorable consideration to the question of Bepeal,
however widely I might differ from them in that wish, I
should not have hesitated to have been the medium of
conveying the grievances of the people to the foot of the
throne.

240

APPENDIX.

I should have contented myself with repeating what I
stated on an appropriate occasion during my government
of Ireland, that to a meeting as numerous as that lately
held at Buncrana, that " my decided opposition to a re-
peal of the Union was founded upon, and in exact pro-
portion to, my love for Ireland;" and I shall have been
as well assured now as I was then, that my sincerity
would not have been doubted by those who differ from
me, my conviction being that it would not realize any
of the results you propose. But I added, at the same
time, that " the only assurance of a true union, must be
perfect equahty on all subjects of legislation." These
opinions I still maintain, and to this latter state I am
sure we must come. "With this view, I hold it to be the
first duty of every Englishman who takes part in public
affairs, even from the private station I now occupy, to
lose no opportunity of pressing upon his countrymen the
removal of all invidious distinctions still existing, which
it is the height of injustice to refuse and would be no
sacrifice to concede, and that, by doing substantial and
speedy justice to Ireland, they r lone can maintain the
security of united institutions, and thereby preserve the
peace aijd prosperity of this great empire, happily com-
mitted to the charge of our present gracious sovereign.

Accept my best thanks for your personal expressions
towards myself. I am, Sir, your faithful servant,

NOBMANBY.

Eev. Edw. rd Maginn.

MuLGBAvE Castle, Decmtber 12.
Sir^ — ^I have this day received your letter of the 8th

APPENDIX.

241

» 'wbat I
ernment
at lately
L to a re-
xact pro-
ave been
sincerity
[ffer from
alize any
the same

must be
" These
ate I am
to be the
in public
)ccupy, to
ymen the

g, which

d be no
,ntial and
mtain the
:serve the
>pily com-

ereign.

ipressions
ant,
ANBY.

12.

If the 8th

containing a farther explanation of the Innishowen ad-
dress. I could not take upon myself to make any alter-
ation in an address sent to me for presentation ; but as
as you have, you say, the authority of the committee to
whom was intrusted the charge of drawing it up, if you
will make the substitution of the words you propose, as
more accurately conveying the legitimate meaning, and
freeing it from all appearance of the objection I had
stated, I will then, upon its return to me, forward it for
presentation, as (though I shall still depeqd from the
prayer,) I shall feel that it is one perfectly competent for
the petitioners to address to the throne.

Thanking you again for your kind expressions to-
wards myself, I am, sir.

Yours faithfully,

NORMANBY.

York, December 18, 1847.
My Dear Lord^ — At any time, and under ordinary cir-
cumstances, the Bishops of Ireland, England and Scot-
land, would have very good reason to look with serious
apprehension at a representative from the Protestant
Government of this country, being invited and going to
transact business with the Holy See. We are, however,
not in ordinary, but in very peculiar, extraordinary cir-
cumstances at this present time. We have, then, much
greater reason to be filled with apprehension and^ indeed,
with alarm, at this step being taken at the present trying
and critical conjuncture. Hence it has occurred to me,
that we, the Bishops of this kingdom, as faithful watch-
11

242

APPENDIX.

IS 11

men, ought not to delay to raise our warning voice, and,
by a general and most respectful memorial, put at once
His Holiness in possession both of the alarming fears that
fill our minds at present, and of some of the grounds of
our serious alarms.

Hence I have thought it well to send your Lordship
(soliciting your opinion thereon) the heads of our pro-
posed memorial to His Holiness, setting forth our fears,
and some of the grounds of those fears. And, of your
Lordship, as an Irish Bishop, may I be permitted, en
passantj to ask whether it be not morally certain that
Lord Minto will notify to His Holiness, the general, but
unjust cry of condemnation now daily echoed through
both Houses of Parliament, and throughout this kingdom,
against the Catholic priesthood of Ireland ? whether it
is not probable that His Holiness may be induced to give
some credit to these misrepresentations ; and also whether
it be not possible for His Holiness, thus deceived, to send
some document condemnatory of the conduct of the Irish
Priests, or act upon that false information in some other
way. Should His Holiness, thus deceived, be induced to
send to Ireland such a document, your Lordship well
knows how destructive it must be both to the Papal
authority in Ireland, and also destructive to the authority
of the Catholic Bishops and Priests in Ireland, and how
ruinous in Ireland to our Holy Keligion. 1 have the
honor, my dear Lord, to be with the most profound re-
spect, and the kindest regards, your Lordship's humble
and devoted servant, ^ John Briggs.

Most Rev. Dr. Maginn.

P. S. Please to give me your candid opinion by return

APPENDIX.

243

e, and,
it once
TS that
ndsof

>rclsliip
ir pro-
r fears,
)f your
ted, en
in that
ral, but
;hrough
ngdom,
3ther it
to give
/v^hether
to send
e Irish
:e other
uced to
ip well
Papal
.thority
d how
,ve the
and re-
umble

GGS.

return

of post as to the sending of this proposed memorial, (the
mere outline of which I have drawn), and also as to its
contents, freely retrenching or adding to them whatever
your Lordship may deem desirable. J. B.

TUE HEADS OF THE PROPOSED MEMORIAL TO HIS HOLINESS.

JFrom the Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland and from the
Bishops of England and Scotland :

After a very humble and an apologizing introduction,
we might say,

1. That Lord Minfco is now in Rome, sent by the
British Government to treat on ecclesiastical affairs with
the Holy See. Vide Lord Landsdowne's speech in the
House of Lords, 16th instant.

2. That the diplomacy of British ministers is well known
throughout the world, to be extremely cimning and subtle,
and by these means they have, almost everywhere, gained
their ends.

3. That British diplomacy has been everywhere in-
imical to our Holy Religion.

4. That the British government has been, by every
means, endeavoring for many years past to obtain a con-
cordat with the Holy See, which was happily averted
by Bishops, either of Ireland or England, being on the
alert, and pointing out to the Holy See the deceptions prac-
ticed, and the sad consequences that would result.

5. That as they are now at the same work again, we deem
it our duty most respectfully to state that we feel exceed-
ingly alarmed lest the Holy See be again deceived by our
civil government, the members of which government ob •

244

APPENDIX.

serve the most marked secrecy at home, as to what pro-
ceedings are going on at Rome relative to our ecclesiastical
affairs, though one of the leading ministers has just now
avowed that they have received from Home most useful
information.

6. That besides the marked secrecy just nientioned,
what fills us with alarm is to see the conflicting conduct
of Lord Minto at Rome, and the conduct in England of
his son-in-law, the present prime minister of England.
Lord Minto is doing all that his station and money can
effect, to obtain, not only the good will of His Holiness
and of those in authority in Rome, but even of the popu-
lace of Rome, a^id also to obtain great ascendency there.
Whilst at home Lord John Russell is not only publicly
declaring his hostility to the Catholic religion, ' as he
avowed the other day, in his public printed answers re-
specting the appointment of Dr. Hampden to a Protest-
ant Bishopric, but that he and his fellow ministers are
continuing to persecute the Regulars, Clergy and Laity,
both in Ireland and England, acting still up to what he
(Lord Russell) lately said in one of his works, that he
considered the Regulars no better than " sharpers."

Such also is the present conduct of the ministers acting
under Lord John 'Russell. "When we look at the conduct
of our civil government at home, totally opposed to the
conduct of its representative at Rome, have we not every
reason to be filled with the most serious suspicion and
alarm ?

7. Another cause of our serious alarm is the very long
continued hostile conduct of our Protestant government
towards the Catholic religion in this kingdom. When a
bloody persecution for nearly three hundred years could

APPENDIX.

245

lat pro-
dastical
ist now
; useful

ationed,
conduct
;land of
England.
)ney can
Holiness
be popu-
cy there,
publicly .
n,*as lie
iswers re-

Protest-
isters are
td Laity,

what he
L that he
Irs."

jrs acting
conduct
led to the

^lot every

icion and

rery long

rernment

When a

jars could

not extinguish our religion here, and the penal laws be-
gan to* be partially repealed ; from that period to the pre-
sent time, and at the present time it is perfectly notorious
to all in Britain, that the Britijh government does leave
nothing unattempted to undermine our holy Church.
We should feel happy to specify what these various at-
tempts to undermine our holy religion have been and
now are, should your Holiness call for this information
from us. At present we beg leave merely to point at the
outrageous calumny now vociferated by the present gov-
ernment, and the members of Parliament against the Irish
priests, falsqjy charging them with being the abettors of
the horrible crime of murder.

And further, my Lords, I believe that there is no court
in Europe in which it would be more useful for the British
government to explain the nature of our transactions ; or
to induce that court to use its peculiar sources of influence in
certain parts of Her Majesty's dominions. — London Morning
Post, Dec. 15, 1847. Vide Tablet, Dec. 18, 1847.

THOMAS STEELE, ESQ., TO DR. MAGINN.

Nenagh, County Tipperary^ December 24, 1.847.*
My Dear and Venerated Lord :

I have read your almost miraculous letter to Scorpion
Stanley, with admiration and with astonishment.

* Mr. Steele writes, as will be inferred in relation to Dr. Maginn's
" Letters to Lord Stanley," in justification of the Confessional, as an
institution preventive of agragrian crime among the peasantry of
Ireland. His style is his own ; his veracity as to matters of fact was
aever questioned.

246

APPENDIX.

That letter is *^ a voice as the voice of many waters, as
the voice of a multitude, as the voice of God !"

I most reverentially pray your Lordship's permission to
send you a late number of the Tipperary Vindicator y and
after you shall have read the passages I have marked,
I trust your Lordship will deem that I only perform a com-
mon-place social duty : that of not by uilfid silence bearing
false witness against my neighbor, when I can give testi-
mony, the result of actual knowledge, in his favor.

Although withdrawn from political agitation since the
death of my august and beloved friend and leader, I feel it
to be a duty privately to come forward to give^ your Lord-
shi'p what I believe to be evidence of a very original and
overwhelming character, as my position was unique in Ire-
land, with respect to the conduct of the Catholic Clergy; of
which I had an opportunity of being an intense observer.

I am, as your Lordship will condescend to recollect, a
Protestant, and a member of the Senate of an English Pro-
testant University; but as O'ConnelPs seconder, at the
Clare elections of 1828 and '29, and his Head-Pacificator
of Ireland since the autumn of the latter year, I have had
more expansive and confidential inter-communion with the
Catholic Clergy of Ireland, in Ulster, Leinster, Munster and
Connaught, and with the Catholic Peasantry, while in a state
of agrarian insubordination and outrage, than any Protest-
ant who ever lived.

Judge Burton while passing sentence of imprisonment
upon the august father of his country, volunteered the ad-
mission, that he firmly believed that " Mr. O'Connell was
anxious to keep the peace of the country, and that he did
keep it.^^

APPTSKDIX.

I have been at noontide and midnight among Terry ^Its,
Lady Clares, Whitefeet, and reviving Rockites ; and after
I left the Richmond . Prison among Molly Maguires and
Tipperary men — and I now proceed to prove how well-
grounded was the atrocious and revolting lie of Scorpion
Stanley, and therefore pray. with profound reverence per-
mission to give your Lordship the rationale of a Protestant
pacificator's mode of producing tranquillization, by the
analogy, of course I d6 not say identity, of his relation to
the Catholic Priest at the Confessional.

Instead of diffusing the subject over several cases, I select
one as an illustration, but that is a very remarkable one.

In the year 1831, during the time of the Terry Alt insur-
rection in Clare, Jones, Gleeson and Hogan, dressed in fe-
male attire, with painted faces, and bonnets on their heads,
shot an unfortunate herdsman near Cratloe Wood, and then
in open day, danced with their guns in their hands a reel
round the body of their slaughtered victim.

In some time after Jones gave me up his gun in Cratloe
Wood, about midnight, on an occasion when I was out in
the execution of my duty as O'Connell's Head Pacificator
of Ireland.

I was accompanied in my work of peace over the moun-
tain side, by my lamented friend, the late Rev. Dr. Fitz-
gerald of Cratloe, and by a young gentleman, then a divinity
student of Maynooth, and now a Catholic clergyman, the
Rev. Mr. Considine.

Well, i went to England after the pacification of Clare,
and returned in 1832 ; and in the spring of 1833 I was
sent by my bemoaned leader among the Kilkenny White-
feet.

248

APPKNlJlX.

After the repression of that outbreak I returned to Clare,
my native county.

In some time after I heard that Jones had committed an-
other savage murder, and I sent him word that I wished to
meet him.

We did meet him at midnight in Tradree ; I was ac-
companied by Mr. Considine, still a student.

I whistled, and Jones came out of a brake of bushes.

On his meeting me, I said, " Jones, do you remember the
night when you gave me up your gun in Cratloe Wood, and
the conversation I had with you when we were walking alone.
Father Fitzgerald and Mr. Considine being at some distance
before us, on the night when I got up so much arms on the
mountain ?"

He replied, " I do remember it very well, Sir."

I then said, " Well, as you do, you must recollect that you
asked me what agreement had been made by the Lord
Lieutenant when he was in Ennis 1"

I told you that ^' the arrangement made by his Lordship,
Dr. McMahon, with the Marquis of Anglesea, was this: —
that any of the Terry Alts and Lady Clares who committed
only the ordinary outrage of the country, and who, after
giving up their arms should return to courses of peace and
order, would not be disturbed ; — but for those who had com-
mitted murder^ or any crime of that kind, there could be no
hope of mercy."

I then said to him, '^ The fact is, Jones, I then knew who
you were as well as I do now ; though 1 did not seem to
know it, but my business was to get arms out of the Terries'
hands, and to save them if I could.

" I thought that after this solemn warning, you would try

APPENlilX.

249

rries'

to make your escape to America, or to some other couhtry^
where, by a life of penitence, you would try fco make atone-
ment for whatever you had done wrong at home — but now,
after two years, I find you witli the blood of another man
upon your soul !"

" Where is this to end, Jones ; are you to murder every
man that you take it into your head intends to give informa-
tion against you ?"

" From me you well know that you are as safe as from,
your own Priest at the Confessional ; for 1 told the Terry
Alts, and Lady Clares in this county, and the Whitefeet in
Kilkenny, that although lam a Protestant, they should he as
safe in talking with me, as in making a Confession in the
Chapel to their own Clergy.^'

This, my venerated Lord Bishop, is the moral analogy I
have alluded to ; — and let any one show me the living man,
or the man who ever lived in Ireland, who being in the
closest co-operation with the Catholic Clergy, and using
the magic name of O'Connell as his talismanic spell, did so
much as I did, to preserve, or to restore the peace of Ire-
land.

The Catholic Clergy are, as your Lordship well knows,
in every part of Ireland wonder-workers, by legitimate
means — without the violation of the sanctity of the Confes-
sional, in preventing murder and other crime.

When I was in this county in 1845, I was reviled as a
" Thug" by the Evening Packet, because I did not trans-
mute myself into an Informer !

There is very much more of deep interest interwoven
with the story of Jones — but I abstain from over-laying this
communication to your Lordship with more matters than are

250

APPENDIX.

#bBolutoIy necessary for the purpose of demonstrating not
merely by absolute facts, but by ethical analogy In the case
of a Protestant, the inestimable value of the sanctified
secresy of the Confessional, in preventing or repressing of
Irish crime ; — of crime in retribution for other ghastly crime,
committed by perpetrators who ought to possess moral illu-
mination superior to that of the Irish frize-coated peasant.

One incident I must not omit.

Before meeting Jones the second time, I went specially
to the Palace of my illustrious and ever-lamented friend,
that glorious Prelate, Doctor M*Mahon, the Catholic Lord
Bishop of Killaloe, and told him I was that night going to
meet Jones the murderer, to try, if I could, to divert him
from his course of crime.

His sanctified Lordship, not only condescended to express
his fervid approbation of my work of peace, and preventing
multiplied murder, but he gave me his benediction on my
retiring from his presence.

I may as well mention what Jones said to me that night,
when he declared that he did not intend to be a second time
a homicide :

** I did not intend to kill him, Mr. Steele ; I had reason
to think that he was preparing to give information against
me, and I wanted to frighten him by giving him a terrible
beating. If I wanted to kill him. Sir," continued he, taking
a brace of pistols from his breast pockets and displaying
them to Mr. Considine and me, ^^ I could have killed him
very easily."

I pray leave to conclude by stating that when I went on
my 'hree missions of peace into Ulster, it was solely to warn
the Catholics not to interfere with the intended marching

APPENDIX.

251

of the Orangemen, then recently legalized by the expira-
tion of the Processions Act.

Wishing your Lordship, from my heart, many and very
happy returns of Christmas and New Years, I have the
honor to remain, your Lordship's most sine ^e and faithful
servant and friend, Thomas Steele.

The Catholic Lord Bishop of Derry.

My Dear Sir, — ^I have read with much attention the
terms for a re-union of Repealers, and am happy to have
to say that they are such as to meet with my unqualified
approval. I fondly hope that no obstructions will be
thrown in the way of a cordial, perfect reconciliation
between all sections of Repealers. It is the one thing
r ecessary for us. Division has ever been the curse of
our country ; and what we are, the most miserable peo-
ple on earth, we would not have been, were it not for
our foolish, our wicked altercations. Fortunately for
us, we can now unite without any compromise of princi-
ple ; recent events have removed the ground of difference,
and have made the feelings and duties of all parties
identical. We have not now much left of our constitu-
tion to contend about. Indeed, for my own part, during
my mission in Ireland, I but seldom had the gratifica-
tion of seeing its beautiful theory practically and benefi-
cially illustrated. Three-fourths of our people were
placed beyond its pale, and depended for life and liberty
on the nod of some village lord, who was as much an
autocrat as the Emperor of Russia. There was neither

252

APPENDIX

law nor justice for them. The only liberty they en-
joyed was the liberty to pay rack-rent, to kiss the rod
that scourged them, to worship the taskmaster, and to
peacefully starve after, amidst the abundance produced
by their own labor. A beautiful constitution, indeed,
and proud we should be to have it, with our desolate
harbors, our millions of acres of waste lands, and our
millions unemployed ; our merchants bankrupt ; our
farmers, if left the name, beggars ; the best, the bravest
of our countrymen rotting in heaps on the shores of
the stranger; the remainder, for the most part, gaunt
spectres, flitting over the richest, the loveliest land on
earth ; the country covered with the ruins of levelled vil-
lages ; the ruthless exterminator, protected in his savage
onslaught by the " horse" and foot of tliia blessed con-
stitution in the enforcement of his rights against every-
thing which Christianity, if not a mockery, makes a duty ;
candor and truth made treason, love of country a felony ;
the seven-eighths of Irishmen deemed unworthy of cre-
dit on their oaths, and at every elbow a spy or in-
former, under the bland name of a detective — such char-
acters as Plautus, with a master-hand, delineates. The
seal of faith, under which friends correspond with
friends, and confidingly pour into each others' souls the
secrets of their hearts, is every day unblushingly broken,
and which to violate would make even the barbarian
shudder ; the whole country a garrison — tens of thou-
sands, horse, foot and artillery, ingloriously watching
the convulsions and writhiugs of the starving victims
of misrule, lest the slightest symptom of disaffection
should go unnoticed or unpunished ; millions, in a word,

APPENDIX.

258

of our children, kinsmen, neighbors, all our country-
men, consigned to their coffinless graves; mothers,
through rabid hunger, devouring their own children,
and children hanging from the breasts of their dead
mothers, and all the while my Lord Lansdowne boasts,
in the face of an astonished world, of the happiness of
the Irish people living under such a constitution, and
congratulates himself and his noble colleagues on the
more than celestial manner in which they had discharged
their duty to Ireland. Let us, Sir, leave this beautiful
constitution to those who enjoy it, and combine, as
Christians should ever combine, heart and soul, to save,
if possible, our country. There is no need for disputing
about what the maliCe of men has made for us, "a
mockery, a delusion and a snare." Let us' unite to make
the name a reality, to make fiction truth, and give a
substantial being to what has hitherto been to us the
poisonous, blighting shade of an upas-tree. It would be
a pity. Sir, to keep such men as Messrs. O'Connell and
O'Brien asunder. Their every sympathy is with their
native land — their hearts beat responsive. Why should
not their energies be linked together for the regeneration
of that country to which they both are so warmly and
so devotedly attached. Let the past be generously for-
gotten and forgiven, and let the future be a cordial,
united effort to lead the Irish people onward to a peace-
ful triumph. I here, Sir, merely echo the sentiments of
every man, lay and ecclesiastical, with whom I have
lately conversed on this subject. All declare for a re-
union of Eepealers, because disunion has made us the
pity of our friends and the scorn of our enemies ; be-

254

APPENDIX.

cans: every man who hates Ireland and writes against
it, dreads and protests against this union ; because dis-
united we exhibit to the world, and especially to the
Government, our weakness, and thereby tempt them to
use the favorite weapon of the tyrant — coercion ; be-
cause disunited we cannot aid them to carry out any
good intentions, if they have any, in favor of our coun-
try ; because Heaven, whose law is union,* order and
peace, never yet blessed disunion ; because, in a word,
they believe that union alone can save the country from
convulsion, from civil war, * * [MS. unfinished.]

— \

inst
dis-
the
11 to
be-
any
3un-
and
ord,
from

ROMAN CORRESPONDENCE.

Rome, January 1, 1848.
My Lord, — ^I received your Lordship's kind letter after
I had set out on my road to the Eternal City. This
was the reason that impeded me from answering you
ere now. I regretted very much not to have been able
to visit Derry. I am, however, extremely grateful to
your Lordship for your kind invitation, and I would, I
am sure, have been delighted with the North, had I had
time to enjoy your hospitality, but the winter was ad-
vancing so rapidly that I thought it necessary to get to
the South, lest at a later period I should be impeded
altogether from travelling. Here in Rome I find all
things quiet. The Pope is well, and going on calmly and
determinedly with his reforms. • The great bulk of the
people are with him ; but there are some who are greatly
adverse to any changes, and there is a small but violent
faction which would drive things to extremities. This
faction is very active; they have all the newspapers,
and they expressed the greatest delight at the destruc
tion of the Catholics of Switzerland. They are as bad
as the old French demagogues, or as our own Orange-
men. They will give the Pope a thousand times more
trouble than the Austrians ; however, I trust His Holi-
ness will be able to keep them in order. If they once
get the upper hand, we shall have sad work in Italy. I

256

APPENDIX.

dare say the English agents are encouraging this faction.
They are bad enough to do anything. Lord Minto is
still in Eome. There is do doubt but that his object in
remaining here is to open diplomatic relations with
Eome. How far he will succeed is as yet uncertain ;
but if Parliament revokes the old laws against commu-
nications with the Pope, I dare say an ambassador will
be sent immediately. The English here are most busy
in circulating the usual calumnies against the Irish
clergy ; they even carried their accusations to the Pope.
After my return from Ireland, His Holiness sent for me
and questioned me on the matter. I explained every-
thing to him, and he remained perfectly satisfied. lie
is warmly attached to poor Ireland. The object of the
English appears to be to destroy that sympathy which
the famine of last year excited everywhere in favor of
our country, and at the same time to poison the minds
of the authorities here in such a way as to dispose them
to hand over the Irish clergy to the tender mercies of
state management. I' think they will not succeed in
Eome ; but they Kave bribed all the newspapers of Eu-
rope to propagate their lies. Well, we must console,
ourselves with the promise of our Saviour, Beati estis
cum vos calumniari'

I believe Lord Minto attempted to speak to His Holi-
ness about the College question, but the Pope stopped
him, and said that that was a spiritual matter, which
was between himself and the Bishops. His Holiness
appears quite pleased with the decision he gave.

I believe I did not express myself sufficiently clearly
in my last regarding the pastoral ; what I meant was

APPENDIX.

267

that your Lordship should publish something in your
name to the people of Derry regarding the Pope, just as
the French Bishops have done in their respective dio-
ceses. If your Lordship would do something in that
way, it would have a good effect not only at home but
here in Italy. It is necessary to support the Pope, to
show that he should be kept independeht both of des-
potic powers and of popular parties, in order to govern
the Church as he ought.

I never undertook to write the address against prosly-
tism ;• the thing would have been useful, but the arrival
of the condemnation of the colleges made the Bishops
forget it. Rev. Mr. Dooley engaged to get some one to
write, but the matter was neglected.

Excuse, my Lord, the haste with which I have writ-
ten these lines. If you publish the letter to your peo-
ple on the Pope's authority and independence, be so
good as to send us a copy. I have tlie honor to be, with
profound respect,

Your devoted, obedient server t,

Paul Cul:>en.

P. S. An English gentleman tranwshted your letter
on tenant-right to show that you were violent. See
what mischief they are intent on.

sarly
was

April 8, 1848
My Lord, — ^I am sorry that I have only a moment to
write you a line. I gave the substancr of your Lord-
ship's letter to His Holiness. He said that you would
know his sentiments from the letter he had sent to tLe

258

APPENDIX.

If -ifi

Bishop. I hope that letter has not been lost; it was
posted on the 29th of February and entered, so if lost it
can be traced out.

Here things are quiet still, but there is great excite-
ment — all the Italians are in arms to drive out the Aus-
trians. The Pope's troops have entered Lombardy. God
grant things may end well. The Austrians deserve to be
chastised as they were great enemies of the liberty of the
Church. I hope Kussia too will be punished, and Eng-
land that she may be converted and live.

Lord Minto is expected in Eome to-day — ^he will not
be able to do much mischief. The Italians in general are
now against English influence. They have more reliance
on the French. I think Lord Minto's money was thrown
away in buying popularity. He will get no more ap-
plause from the people.

Excuse this hasty scroll. I will write more at length
by next post.

I have the honor to be with profoundest respect, your
devoted obedient servant, Paul Cullen.

Rome, May 8, 1848.
My Lord, — I write a line, and a hurried one, to your
Lordship, to inform you about the state of things here.
The two Bishops arrived here, and had a most satisfac-
tory interview with the Pope. He is a real friend to
Ireland, and I think he will actively aefend the cause
c^ our Church. The Rev. Dr. Ennis has just arrived.
His mission is to get the statutes of the colleges ap-
proved. No one as yet has seen them. I hope he will
not be able to make any impression.

APPENDIX.

259

ap-
wiU

The state of things in Kome is very sad. You are
aware of all the revolutionary movement? that have
taken place in Lombardy. The people of the Pope's
states sympathized very deeply with their bj-othren of
the North, and many volunteers set out to join them.
The Pope's troops, too, were so enthusiastic in the cause,
that their general could not impede them from crossing
the Po and entering the Austrian dominions. When
things were at this stage, the radical and violent party
here called on the Pope to declare war on Austria. The
Pope answered in a magnificent allocution of the 29th
April, declaring that it was not his intention to assail
any power, that he was the minister of the God of
peace, and that he could not desire war. However, he
did not say a word against the Italian movement, nor
against his own subjects for having entered Lombardy.
The radical party, which is the same that was encouraged
in Switzerland and elsewhere by England, became fu-
rious after the Pope's allocution, and we were on the
point of having a civil war in the city. Several cardi-
nals were arrested, and the Pope himself threatened by
the mob. Things remained in this way for one or two
days. The Popcacted most courageously ; he addressed
the people, and threatened to use his spiritual powers
against his assailant. The conduct and determination
of the Pope overawed the radicals, and things have re-
turned again to their usual tranquillity. It is hard to
know how long they will remain quiet. The clubs are
at work, and they can conjure up a storm any day they
wish. The great bulk of the people of Eome are for
the Pope, but they are passive and not organized ; the

260

APPENDIX.

radicals are connected with those of Switzerland, en-
couraged by foreign influence, and well organized,
though not numerous. I hope the people of Ireland
will pray for His Holiness, and speak out in his defence.
I wish your Lordship would write a good address to
them on the matter, and explain the necessity of keep-
ing the Holy Father independent. The public opinion
of ^ /; world does a great deal.

1 * ijjret very much you did not come. It is the wish
of Hi- Holiness that the Bishops should hold their next
i:!ief»ting in a synodical form. The majority will then be
abk > do something efficacious. It is the only way to
impede further aggressions.

I received your Lordship's letter, and then one from
the Cardinal. His Eminence will not think much of
Dr. Nicholson now.

The Jesuits were obliged to leave the Eonmn College
about a week ago. The Eadical faction here is making
active attempts to get possession of it, and to make it a
lay establishment, in order the more easily to propagate
their errors and revolutionary doctrines. The Pope has
resisted them very decidedly, and the college is given to
the secular clergy, if they will be able to keep in pos-
session. The war here is lie Stuiie now as in Ireland —
the bad faction wishes to get hold of ti .. public educa-
tion. Dr. McHale and Dr. Higgins beg to be remem-
bered to you. Dr. Kirby also desires his best respects.

I was very happy to hear that your convent was go-
It will be a blessing to Derry. The good nuns
more good than can be done by any other class of

mg on

APPENDIX.

261

people. Excuse haste, and believe me to be, with pro-
foundest respect and veneration,

Your devoted, obedient servant,

Paul Cullen.

Having written these lines at ditterent times, you will
find several repetitions. You must excuse them, as not
true to copy.

I am at present in the Propaganda College, but I ex-
pect to get back in a short time. The Jesuits had charge
of the Propaganda ; but having been obliged to yield
to the mob, the Cardinal Prefect requested me to take
the management of the place for a while. I could not
refuse.

If your Lordship will read the 243d letter of St. Ber-
nard — it is addressed to the Eomans — you will find an
accurate account of the present state of things. The
Popes have had their troubles in every century. Pius
VII. had his share ; Pius IX. cannot be expected to get
off without theln, but they always triumph. Tu es Pe-
trus.

P. S. I hope the clergy will be able to keep the peo-
ple quiet. England must yield something very soon,
but it would be deplorable to have a civil war. What
a loss O'Connell is now ! However, his principles ought
to be maintained. Civil war and revolutions destroy
religion.

Irish College, Rome, May 28, 1848.
My Dear Lord, — In my letter of the 23d of this month
I gave your Lordship a general idea of the contents of Dr.

262

APPENDIX.

Ennis' pamphlet regarding the " corrected statutes," for the
Infidel Colleges. He has labored to have these statutes
approved of by the Holy See, and the Pope's condemnation
of the Colleges revoked, entirely regardless of the opinions
of the great majority of the Irish Bishops ; but, thank God,
in this respect he has been signally defeated. A copy of
his pamphfet, of the corrected statutes, &c., will forthwith
be furnished by Rome to every Prelate in Ireland, asking
his opinion on the subject, and thus the dangerous intrigues
of a heretical viceroy and his ecclesiastical abettors will be
laid bare before Catholic Ireland. Let us hope that hence-
forth no man will attempt to treat with government on a
subject affecting our whole body, without first obtaining our
explicit consent. The Archbishop of Tuam and myself
intend to reply in our own names to Dr. Ennis* pamphlet,
unfolding its sophistry and reiterating our reprobation of
the Colleges. We have no doubt that when your Lordship
sees this pamphlet, you will, in the soundness of your judg.
ment and in your anxiety for the preservation of the faith,
repeat your condemnation of these insidious and most dan-
gerous institutions. In my anxiety that your Lordship
should, without delay, have a clear notion of the leading
features of the pamphlet, I beg leave to submit the follow-
ing observations :

1. Lord Clarendon in his letter to Dr. Murray affects to
look upon him as the organ of the Episcopacy, nor does it
appear that his Grace declines acting in that capacity.

2. He gives Dr. Murray the whole of the College sta-
tutes, and lends but a very few extracts to the Pope and
the Propaganda ! Both his Grace and Lord Clarendon ap-
pear familiar with pre-existing statutes of which the body of

APPENDIX.

268

sta-

and

|)n ap-

)dy of

the Prelates have no cognizance whatever. His Excellency
excuses himself for not having furnished Dr. Murray with
the corrected statutes at an earlier day, hy stating that the
whole attention of the government was absorbed in efficiently
relieving all the distress of the Irish poor !

8. The corrected statutes, as they are termed, change
nothing substantial in the Act — can themselves be changed
by any other viceroy, and though passed into law by Parlia-
liament, would not afford the least protection to Catholic
faith or morals, as they leave all the appointments of the
professors and other officers to the will and caprice of a
heretical monarch. Such are the flimsy and insulting safe-
guards which Dr. Ennis and his Grace of Dublin think
quite sufficient to protect our Catholic youth and our holy
religion in Ireland, against the power, the wealth, the
bigotry, the proverbial treachery of heretical England. Dr.
Ennis has presented his pamphlet to the Pope and the
Cardinal perfect. It ends with a commentary from himself,
recommendatory of the statutes and the colleges. Of this
commentary I may say, in general terms, that it is sophistical,
insulting, lying and calumnious, of the Irish Bishops, Priests
and people. It states that it is very proper and wise to
leave all the appointments in the hands of the crown, as the
Catholic Bishop^ might otherwise appoint their own political
favorites, or persons totally incapable of fulfilling their re-
spective duties !

4. That for the last thirty or forty years every Act of Par-
liament passed for Ireland had in view the protection and pro-
pagation of the Catholic religion in that country ; and that
it was necessary to leave the whole direction of the Colleges
with the crown, to guard against the unmeaning stubbornness

264

APPENDIX.

with which the Irish Bishops would oppose the plans
every possible government.

6. That the government will and ought to proceed with
the Colleges, despite of all epis jopal, priestly, or lay op-
position, in order to educate the Catholic youth of Ireland
in a manner worthy of the true principles of the Catholic
religion.

0. Thc^ all the lay Catholics of Ireland ere panting for
the completion of the Colleges — that they will rush to' them
in crowds, profoundly grateful to their generous founders.

7. That the government bountifully distributes £100,000
a year, chiefly between the Catholic Bishops, for the educa-
tion of their poor — ogives £26,000 annually to Maynooth —
that too much lay Catholic confidence in religious matters
should not be placed in such a government, is too puerile to
merit a reply.

8. The commGntai-y closes by statin that in no country
in the world is the Catholic religion so protected by govern-
ment as in Ireland — that we must not be squeamish in look-
ing for '' optimism" and insinuates in a menacing tone that
whatever the Pope, Cardinals, or Bishops may do, the gov-
ernment and the people of Ireland will successfully carry out
the glorious principl'^s of the Colleges ! What will the pure
faith and simple piety of Catholic Ireland say to this impious
and monstrous lie 1 Is there a parish in the kingdom whose
priests and people will not at once assemble, and in a series
of plain resolutions tell Rome and the world their real opin-
ions of the Colleges and their patrons 1 This is a duty so
obvious and so urgent that I shall not insult your Lordship
by recommending its performance. Dr. MacHale and I are
Ji opinion that when Ennis' pamphlet comes to hand, a joint

APPENDIX.

265

reply from tho orthodox Prelates of Ulster would prevent
any apparent discrepancy that might appear in individual
answers. This reply should be forwarded to Rome as soon as
possible. The Archbishop of Tuam concurs in every sen-
timent I here express, and I must tror - .e /our Lordship to
have accurate copies of this letter wrii ^nt md forwarded
without delay to every Prelate in Ul8t<- entertains our

opinion on the Colleges question. His uracu writes to tho
provinces of Munstor and Connaught on this subject, and
begs me to present his affectionate regards. Dr. Nicholson
is expected daily. He is tho bearer of some intriguing
documents, so that we are likely to be kept busy.

•I* W. O'HiGGINS.

[l opin-
luty so
^rdship
I are
joint

Irish College, Eome, June 18, 1848.

My Lord, — T write one line to say that Dr. Ennis has
presented to the Propaganda the corrections which have
been made in the system of the godless Colleges. The
Cardinal has determined to send to each bishop a copy
of this document, in order that each person may make
his remarks on the case. There appears to be no sort
of protection for the Catholic religion in the new regula-
tions. A few words in reply to them will be enough.
Dr. MacHale is anxious that an answer should be sent
as soon as possible. Write to the other Bishops, and
get them to reply without delay.

In Eome we are very quiet. The Pope declared, and
declares, that he will not have war with any one ; the
ministry that has usurped the power is carrying on war
most actively. The object of some of those who are

IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

1.0

1.1

1^121 |Z5

US ^ ■■■
jtt 122 12.2

Z tiS. 12.0

1^ UA

Hiotographic

Sciences

Corporation

23 WEST MAIN STREET

WBtSTBR,N.Y. 145M

(716) •72-4503

•l"

266

APPENDIX.

engaged in this business seems to be to destroy the pro-
perty of the Church. If they can keep on the war for
the present year, it will absorb all the Church property
of those States. The Pope now has little or no author-
ity ; the ministry is acting as it wishes. There are two
governments here — ^the Pope and his ministry. Things
will not remain much longer so. There will be a re-ac-
tion in favor of the Pope, and things will be right again.
The arms of the Italians have been very unsuccessful in
Lombardy.

Excuse the shortness of this scroll, which I send by
hand. I have the honor to be, with profoundest respect,
Your devoted, obedient servant,

Paul Cullkn.
Bight Bev. Dr. Maginn, &c.

Irish College, Bome, Septemher 5, 1848.
My Lord^ — I beg to inclose a few lines which His Ho-
liness wished to write in reply to the letter which you
inclosed to Dr. Kirby. I translated lor him a portion
of your letter to Dr. Kirby, in which you spoke of the
affairs of Bome. He was so much gratified with it, that
he ordered the Secretary to write you a line in return.
The extract of your letter was published in the Rmian
Journal of the 29th of August. I hope you will pub-
lish the pastoral address, of which Dr. Kirby wrote to
you. It will be gratifying to His Holiness to see distant
Bishops take an interest in his welfare, and to learn that
he has the support of the most distant churches. At
the same time such an address will rouse the spirit of
the Catholics, not only at home but abroad.

APPENDIX.

267

lub-
to

ant
lat
At
of

In Borne we have been rather quiet for the last few
weeks. The great mass of the people is for the Pope,
but the young Italians are bold and organized, and
though few in number, they can keep everything in
confusion. I dare say there are not more than fourteen
or fifteen hundred such gentlemen in Eome, and still
they have been able to keep everything in disorder, and
to put the Pope at defiance for the last six months. I
believe there is no great danger of a revolution. The
people might be roused to action, if anything violent
were attempted against the Pope. Several times mat-
ters appeared quite ripe for a change of government;
but after a few days' noise, things settled down again.
However, the Pope has not that freedom or indepen-
dence of action which would be necessary for him, in
order to manage the affairs of the universal Church.
This would be a thing to be insisted on in any address,
that the Pope must be kept independent not only of
sovereigns or foreign States, but also he must not be
swayed in his spiritual capacity by his own unruly sub-
jects.

Some of the young Italians are now endeavoring to
propagate Protestantism in Italy. They were displeas-
ed with the Pope for not declaring war on the Austrians.
They wish now to revenge themselves by promoting
heresy. The Pope mentioned this fact last Sunday in an
address, which he delivered at the church of S. Pantalio,
when publishing the decree for the beatification of the
Jesuit Father Claver. The young Italians, or Italian
liberals, are showing a very bad spirit. Their efforts to
promote Protestantism will have no effect.

i268

APPENDIX.

I wiU now mention a circumstance which is to be
entre nous. The Pope told a prelate the other day that
when Lord Minto was here, he spoke to His Holiness
about pensioning the Irish clergy, and begged of him to
interfere to induce the clergy to accept the favors of gov-
ernment. The Pope said he could not think of doing
so ; but if the matter be left to me, I will make a pro-
posal which ought to appear reasonable to Government,
and I will pledge myself to induce the Irish to accept it.
Minto said he would be very happy to hear the project.
The Pope replied that the Irish Catholic Church was
formerly very rich. Bestore half the property of which
they were stripped, the Catholics will absolve you from
the restitution of the remainder, and let things be thus
settled. Lord Minto said in return, that the Queen
would consent to lose the last jewel of her crown, rather
than entertain such a proposal. After this conversation
Lord Minto never spoke any more about pensioning the
clergy. If the project should be proposed by Govern-
ment, perhaps some similar proposal would have the
effect of turning the thoughts of our rulers to some other
matter, and make them forget so dangerous ; heme as
that of pensioning the clergy.

I fear you must be all in a sad way in Ireland. What
will the poor people do if the potatoes fail ? I hope
God and the Blessed Virgin will protect them. There
is some talk that His Holiness will define or declare the
doctrine of the Immaculate Conception on the 8th of
December next. A great number of Bishops from
every part of the world have petitioned him to do so.
I wish the Irish Bishops would join the petition. It

APPENDIX

269

le as

'hat
[hope
?here
[e tlie
Ih of

from
|o so.
It

might be the means of gaining protection for poor Ire-
land. We want a powerful intercessor.
• Drs. Machale and O'Higgins have written a long an-
swer to Dr. Ennis. They have crushed the poor man.
He will get little thanks for his mission. There is no
doubt but that the former decree of the Propaganda will
be confirmed. The Pope himself has a similar contest
here in his own states. The young Italians want to
shake off all independence from the clergy in matters
of education. The Pope has determined to support the
rights of the clergy. He must do the same in Ireland.
Dr. Kirby desires to be remembered to you. He is at
Tivoli, with the Irish. I am at the ancient Tusculum
with the students of the Propaganda. I expect to get
back to the Irish College very soon, as the affairs of
Bome will probably allow the Jesuits to return. At all
events, I could not remain in the Propaganda. I have
not strength enough for a very laborious ofiice.

I hope your nerves are getting on well. It is a glo-
rious thing to see religion triumphing in the strongholds
of heresy, notwithstanding all the difficulties of the
times. The nuns, when once properly established, will
be a great blessing to Derry. I beg you will have the
kindness to acknowledge the receipt of His Holiness'
letter. I have the honor to be, with profoundest re-
spect, your devoted, obedient servant^

Paul Cullen.

Irish College, Rome, September 14, 1848.
My Dear Lordy — ^Your Lordship's kind letter of the 26th

270

APPENDIX

of Angast reached me here in due time. I was delighted
in reading every portion of it, but more particularly that
which had reference to your communication to the Holy
Father. Such documents are calculated to do great service
to the cause of truth, and yours has given much satisfaction
to His Holiness. We have at length left our final eocpose
in print with the Pope and the Cardinals. The case will be
discussed on the 25th of this month in a full congregation,
and the opinion of their £n!iinences will be laid before the
Pope on the foUowmg Sunday. ^^Pendente lente,^'' it would
be rash to speak with absolute certainty ; still I venture to
say, the decision will be fully to our wishes. You can
scarcely conceive the unjustifiable means resorted to by our
blind and unprincipled opponents. Everything that sys-
tematic lying, or British intrigue, as well as the base con-
duct of false brethren could effect, was called unscrupulously
into requisition ; but the justice of the cause and the prayers
of the faithful, have, so far, baffled our enemies and left us
high in the ascendant. All will depend on the Pope's Placet
of the 25th. May it be inspired by the Holy Ghost !

Your next meeting will be of transcendent importance,
and I ardently hope that your Lordship and the other
vjwthy Prelates of the Province will be in Dublin several
days before the general assembling of the Prelates. This
will be absolutely necessary in order to make due prepara*
tions to meet the common enemy. Probably you will be
assailed by menaces, flattery, or delusive promises, and all
must be opposed with discernment, courage and perseverance.
It would be well, if not necessary, to express deep sym-
pathy with the calummated, persecuted and half-starved
Irish people, as aibo with His Holiness in his great difficul-

APPENDIX.

271

ties. As to the claims of the truth-telling, high-minded,
and paternal Whigs on the approval, direct or indirect, of
the Irish clergy, the extent of such claims will be found in
theur government of Ireland for the laslr three years. Bold
speaking should be the order of the day, and ** no sur-
render" our watchword. The more firmly you express
your opinions, the more will you be approved of here. In
every sentiment which I thus venture to express to your

Lordship, I am most cordially jomed by the Archbishop of
Tuam. Minto is hourly expected in Rome ! The Arch-
bishop sends his most sincere regards.

My dear Lord, ever faithfully and affectionately yours,

4« W. O'HiGGIMS.

Most Rev. Dr. Maginn.

Rome, Jfovernher 24, 1848.

My Lord, — ^I received your Lordship's letter some time
ago, and sent the letter for the Pope to him without delay.

I now write a few lines to let you know how things stand
here. On the 15th instant the Roman chamber of deputies
was to meet. Count Rossi, the Pope's principal minister,
went to assist at the meeting. He had scarcely left his car-
riage, when he was surrounded by a number of volunteers
who had returned from Lombardy, and an assassin gave
him a blow with a dagger in the neck and killed him on the
spot. Rossi's crime was, that during his ministry of two
months he had restored order in Rome and in the pro-
vinces, and was endeavoring to put government on a
firm footing. The death of Rossi was considered a
triumph by the radical faction. They went shouting like

272

APPENDIX.

demons through the streets, and exulting in the crime
they had committed. The next day the same party as-
sembled in great force, and went to the Pope's palace to
compel him to ap{)oint ministers of their choice, and
to require that he should declare war on Austria, and
invoke some sort of a diet of all Italy in Bome. The
Pope appointed a new ministry, but refused to accede to
the other conditions. His palace was then assailed by
the mob. Faggots were put against its doors to bum
them, and a cannon was planted opposite the entrance of
the palace to force a way into it. One of the Pope's
secretaries, Monsignor Palma, a most excellent and
learned man, unfortunately approached one of the win-
dows, and was shot through the heart. After some time
the guards of the palace, who were but a few in number,
had to yield, and the Pope is now in the hands of the
radical mob. This is the same faction which trampled
on the Catholics of Switzerland, and has been encouraged
by some of our good diplomatists. How matters will
now terminate, it is difficult to know. The Cardinals
here, with the exception of three or four, all left the city.
The Pope is alone, and in the hands of his enemies,
and the enemies of order and religion. I hope your
Lordship will write a few lines to excite public indigna-
tion against the conduct of those men. They are generally
these whose chains were struck off two years ago by the
Pope. It is a most deplorable thing that so good and
so holy a Pontiff should meet with so much ingratitude.
There is but a poor chance for the independence of Italy,
when its pretended defenders show such impiety and in-
famy.

APFSNDIX.

278

Drs. MacHale and Higgins had lefb before the tumults
here commenced. I hope their success gave general satis-
faction. The Pope and Cardinals, who displayed so much
courage, ought to be supported by the voice of all Chris-
tendom. Dr. Kirby desires to be remembered to you, I
have the honor to be, with profoundest respect,

Your devoted obedient servant, P. Cullsn.

Rt. Rev. Dr. Maginn.

P. S. — ^In writing anything do not refer to us, as there
is danger here of the daggers of the assassins.

Rome, January 4, 1849.
My Lordy — I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your
Lordship's letter of the 21st of December, and to return
my sincere thanks for your most beautiful pastoral letter.
It is all that could be desired. I am sure it will produce
a gi. fiat c^ect both at home and abroad. I expect it shall
be published very soon, even in Rome. I dare say the
Pope has not fared so badly in exile as I imagined. A^U
the Catholics of France and Spain have put their weaah
at his disposal. The King of Naples, too, and his subjects
have been most generous, and His Holiness is able to keep
up a becoming establishment. However it will be well
that Ireland in her poverty should do something also,
and that she should share in the merit of supporting and
restoring the vicar of Jesus Christ. Should you send
anything from Derry, I will be most happy to present
it ; a bill payable in London in my favor or in favor of
any one else, from the bank of Ireland or the bank of
England, is as good as cash here. There is no danger in
12»

274

APPENDIX.

sending bills, but it would be well to write immediately
afterwards, in order that payment might be stopped if the
bill went astray. I would be glad to have an opportunity
of going to Gaeta to see His Holiness ; so if I get any
commission I will start immediately. It is only a few
miles from Bome, not more than eighty-five.

Since the Pope left Rome everything has been quiet
His flight quite disconcerted his enemy. The greater
part of the State has declared against them, and even in
Rome they are quite fallen. If things be left to their
natural course, the very men who occasioned all the past
evils here will be obliged to fly, and to allow the Pope to
return before next Easter. The disaffected are only a
few thousand, but they are organized and stop at nothing.
The great mass of them are strangers. The Romans are
not accustomed to fighting or violence ; they do not know
how to resist ; they let themselves be trampled on by a
handful of ruffians. However, by degrees they are be-
ginning to show a little courage, and I trust they will
soon make strong demonstrations in favor of His Holi-
ness. I will write again in a few days, and enter more
into detals.

I was sorry to hear that your Lordship had suffered
so much from sickness. If you could come to Italy, for
a few months, the climate would restore you prefectly. I
hope after Easter things will be quiet. You could then
come, and I am sure Rome will please you very much,
though things are not as they ought to be. We were
never molested at the college, though we never concealed
our sentiments. I think strangers will not be molested
in the present movement. Of course, religious orders,

APPENDIX.

276

churches and church property, must suffer, but there is
no great danger for strangers. A few months here would
take away every affection of the lungs.

I will apply for the facility you desire. I believe it
can be got without difficulty. The ecclesiastical authori-
ties here have means of corresponding continually with
His Holiness.

Dr. Kirby desires to present his best respects to your
Lordship. Excuse haste, and believe me to be with pro-
foundest respect and veneration.

Your devoted obedient servant, P. Cullen.

Bt. Rev. Dr. Maginn.

Home, January 14, 1849.
My Lordf — I write a few lines to keep you aufait of
what is going on here. The city is still quiet, though
every one is living in alarm, and afraid that something
serious is about to happen every day. No move as yet
to recall the Pope. Those in power are circulating all
sorts of attacks on him. They have not been able to
find any fault in him, most fortunately, except that he
was too kind-hearted. It is very difficult to conjecture
how things will end. It is even hard to explain how
things stand here. After the Pope left Bome, he ap-
pointed a commission to act for him during his ab-
sence. The Boman Parliament, or rather the mob, re-
fused to acknowledge that commission, and appointed a
Junta to govern in the Pope's name. The first act of
the Junta was to dismiss the Parliament ; the ministry,
then, which was formed by the Junta, dissolved the

276

APPENDIX.

Junto, And assumed the title of Provisional Govern*
ment They have convoked a constituent or national
assembly of the Pope's states for the 5th of February,
The members will be all named by a few Freemasons'
dubs, who sit in dififerent parts. The people take no
part in the proceedings. The radical faction is not nu-
merous, but it is active and violent The good people
are quite broken down, and appear to know not what to
do. His Holiness has excommunicated all those who
have taken part in convoking the national assembly.
The excommunication is already producing some effect.
A lawyer, bj name Bagnoli, who drew np the decree
for convoking the national assembly, the moment the
news of the excommunication arrived, got an apoplectic
fit, and died. An officer who was engaged in the same
business fell from his horse, and broke his skull. If no
one else will stir in defence of Pio IX., Go'd.will avenge
his cause. There never was a Pope more deserving of
the love of the faithful, and perhaps no Pope was ever
treated with more ingratitude by his subjects. Things,
however, must come round again. They cannot go on
very long as they are. If His Holiness do not be re-
called, Bome and the State will go to ruin. There is at
present some appearance of a reaction in favor of His
Holiness, but it will not produce any great effect for
some time. If any foreign force come, there will be no
opposition. Our heroes who were so brave against the
Pope, will fly like deer.

Your Lordship's Pastoral was greatly admired here by
every one that read it A great part of it is already in
Italian, and it will appear next week in the only good

AFPKNDIX.

277

paper here, the Oonstituzionale ; at least that paper will
give extracts. So noble a testimony to the authority of
the Holy See will produce a great effect throughout the
world, especially wherever the English language is
spoken.

I was sorry to hear that it is difficult to turn to any
account the victory that was gained in Borne in the Col-
lege question. A committee ought to be formed to at-
tempt the institution of a university. Some good lay-
men ought to be got to act. It is difficult to get the
clergy to attend to everything. I dare say it would be
useful to found a religious association in Ireland of lay-
men and clergymen, to attend to the defence of religion
and the Church, to promote Christian education, and to
protect the poor. It should be purely Catholic. The
Germans have formed one on a grand scale, called the
Association of Pius IX. Dr. Buss, a layman, who is
called the O'Connell of Germany, is at th(y head of it,
and it already counts millions of associates. A purely
Catholic association would soon found a university.
The experiment of uniting Protestants and Catholics
for religious purposes can never succeed. Even in pol-
itics they will never pull well together. O'Connell was
generally betrayed by every Protestant he put in a pro-
minent position, and last of all by Davis, Mitchell, and
Smith O'Brien. At all events, for religious matters, and
especially for the defence of the liberty of the Church
and the safety of education. Catholics ought to asso-
ciate. If an association were once well organized, it
would soon become very general. It would at least
give as good a revenue as the Association for the Propa-

278

APPENDIX.

gation of the Faith, and that would support a good
college.

Your Lordship will excuse me for writing in a great
hurry, and troubling you with those suggestions. Dr.
Kirby desires to be remembered most particularly to
your Lordship. I hope your nuns are getting on well.
They will be, when once well settled, a great protection
to religion and education in Derry. Believe me to be,
my dear Lord, with profoundest respect,

Your devoted, obedient servant,

Paul Cullen.

iat
)r.
to

ill.
on

36,

AMElfDED STATUTES OF THE QUEEN'S COLLEGES IN
IRELAND, RELATING TO RELIGION.

[The following are the amended statutes, accompany-
ing Lord Clarendon's letter of March 19th, 1848, to Most
Eev. Dr. Murray.]

CHAPTER VI.

OF THE FOWERS AND DUTIES OF FROFESSORS.

1. Every Professor shall attend all meetings of the
Faculty to which he belongs, and, when appointed Dean
of Faculty, he shall attend the meetings of the College
Council, and perform all other duties pertaining to that
office.

2. He shall act upon all committees to which he may
be appointed by the College Council, or by the Faculty
of which he is a member.

3. He shall examine Candidates for Entrance, Scholar-
ships and Prizes, and shall assist at all other Examina-
tions, according to the appointment of the College Council.

4. He shall lecture, teach and examine his Class, at
such hours and for such periods as may be appointed by
the College Council, and shall observe punctuality and
diligence in discharging those duties, and shall maintain
strict order and discipline in his class.

5. Any Professor shall be permitted, with the Sane-

280

APPENDIX.

tion of the President, to receive into his house as Board-
ers, a limited number of Pupils of the College.

6. If any Professor or assistant shall, in any lecture or
examination, or in the discharge of any other part of his
Collegiate duty, teach or advance any doctrine, or make
any statement derogatory to the truths of Eevealed Eeli-
gion, or injurious or disrespectful to the Keligions con-
victions of any portion of his class or audience, or shall
introduce or discuss political or polemical subjects tend-
ing to produce contention or excitement, such Professor
shall be summoned before the Council, and upon suf&cient
evidence of his having so transgressed, shall be formally
warned and reprimanded by the President ; and if any
such Professor be guilty of a repetition of said or similar
offence, the President shall forthwith suspend him from
his functions, and take steps officially to recommend to
the Crown his removal from office, as having transgressed
the statutes of the College, and violated his obligations to
its authorities.

7. Every Professor shall sign the following Declaration :
*' I., A. B., do hereby promise to the President and Council
of . . . . . that I will faithfully, and to the best of my

ability, discharge the duties of Professor of in

said College ; and I further promise and engage, that in
the lectures and examinations, and in the performance of
all other duties connected with my chair, I will carefully
abstain from teaching or advancing any doctrine, or
making any statement derogatory to the truths of Revealed
Religion, or injurious or disrespectful to the religious
convictions of any portion of my class or audience ; and I
moreover promise to the said President and Council of

APPENDIX.

281

that I will not introduce or discuss in my place

and capacity of any subject of politics or polemics

tending to produce contention or excitement, nor will I
engage in any avocation which the President and Coun-
cils shall judge inconsistent with the respectabOity of my
office ; but will, as far as in me lies, promote, on all occa-
sions, the interests of Education and the welfare of the
Colleges."

CHAPTER XVII.

OF PUNISHMENTS.

Sec. I. Any student guilty of any of the following
offences shall be liable to expulsion from the College ;
but it shall be competent to Council, should they
deem it more conducive to the discipline of the College
and the reformation of the offender, to impose some lighter
punishment for the same. 1. Habitual neglect of at-
tendance on Divine Worship, at such church or chapel,
as shall be approved by his parent or guardians. 2. Hab-
itual neglect of attendance on the Eeligious Instruc-
tion provided for students of his church or denomination,
in the licensed boarding-house in which he may reside.
3. Immoral or dishonest practices. 4. Treasonable or
seditious conduct. 5. Drunkenness. 6. Grievous offences
against College rules. 7. Wilful and serious injury to
the Property of the College.

Sec. II. For all offences and violations of the statutes,
rules and ordinances of the College of a less grievous
nature than the preceding, the Council shall have power
to inflict such fine or other punishment as shall appear to
them suitable to the same.

282

APPENDIX.

■ :<>

)

' '■■

Sec. III. Any student who has been expelled from any
of the Queen's Colleges in Ireland, shall not be allowed
afterwards to enter or pursue his studies in any other of
the said Colleges.

CHAPTER XVIII.

OF THE RESIDENCE 0? STUDENTS AND THE DEANS OF RESIDENCES.

Seo. I. Every matriculated student, being under the
age of twenty- one years, shall be required to reside during
the College terms, with his parent or guardian, or with
some relation or friend to whose care he shall have been
committed by his parent or guardian, or in a boarding-
house, licensed and arranged for the reception of students,
in the manner hereinafter described.

Sso. II. The relation or friend to whose care a student
shall have been committed, shall attend at the matricula-
tion of the student to certify the said student's place of
residence, and to accept the charge of his moral and reli-
gious conduct.

Sec. III. Every student intending to reside in a licensed
boarding-house, shall, at matriculation, produce a certifi-
cate from his parent or guardian, specifying the board-
ing-house in which it is proposed he shall reside.

Seo. IY. The President shall require every person ap-
plying for a license to keep a general boarding-house, to
produce a certificate of moral and religious character
from his clergyman or minister, and shall obtain satis-
factory evidence of the suitableness of the proposed Es-
tablishment, and of its means of providing for tliC health
and comfort of the students.

Sec. V. If the Bishop, Moderator, or constituted author-

APPENDIX.

283

ity of any church or religious denomination, shall notify to
the President his or their desire that there shall be board-
ing-houses specially licensed for the exclusive use of the
students of such church or denomination, and shall
specially recommend persons applying for license to es-
tablish the same, the President shall in every such case
grant such license, provided he shall obtain satisfactory
evidence of the suitableness of the proposed establishment,
and of its means of providing for the health and comfort
of the students.

Sec. VI. In the case of collegiate students residing in a
seminary or school which is under the special jurisdic-
tion of the Bishop, Moderator, or the constituted author-
ity of any church or religious denomination, the Presi-
dent shall, on receiving a notification from such authority,
consider residence in such a seminary or school to cor-
respond with residence in the house of a parent or
guardian, and shall exempt such seminary or school
from license or inspection, but shall require the same
attendance at matriculation as in the case of, a student
residing with his parent or guardian.

Sec. VII. For the better maintenance of moral and re-
ligious discipline in the licensed boarding-houses, Deans
of Eesidences, being clergymen or ministers, shall be
appointed by the Crown, to whom the moral care and
spiritual charge of the students of their respective creeds,
residing in the licensed boarding-houses, are hereby
entrusted.

Sec. VIII. No clergyman or minister shall be compe-
tent to assume, or continue to hold the oflEice of Dean of
Residences, unless approved by the Bishop, moderator, or

284

APPENDIX.

constituted authority of his church or religious denomina-
tion.

Sec. IX. The Deans of Kesidences shall have authority
to visit the licensed boarding-houses in which students
of their respective creeds reside, for the purpose of afford-
ing religious instruction to such students, and shall also
have power, with the concurrence of the Bishop, Modera-
tor or other ecclesiastical authority respectively, to make
regulations for the observance of the religious duties of
such students, and for securing their regular attendance
on divine worship — ^such regulations, before coming into
force, to be laid before the President, in order to satisfy
him that the same shall not interfere with the general dis-
cipline of the College.

Sec. X. The Eegistrar shall, at the commencement of
every collegiate session, furnish each Dean of Eesidences
with a list of the names and residences of the students,
of his religious persuasion, who may reside in the licensed
boarding-houses.

Sec. XI. Each Dean of Eesidences shall, at the termin-
ation of every collegiate session, report to the President
on the general conduct of the students under his moral
care and spiritual charge, in the licensed boarding-
houses, and on the manner in which discipline regarding
such students, has been observed in the several licensed
boarding-houses in which they may reside.

PASTORAL ON THE POPE'S EXILE.

EDWARD, BT THE DIVINE MEECT AND THE GRACE OF THE HOLY SEE,
BISHOP OF ORTHOSIA AMD APOSTOLIC ADMINISTRATOR OF THE DIO-
CESE OF DERRT.

To the Clergy and the Faithful of the Diocese of Berry —
Greeting and Benediction in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I should have wished, dearly beloved brethren, to
have communed with you at a somewhat earlier date,
on a subject which so justly engrosses the attention, and
enlists the sympathies of every sincere Catholic through-
out Christendom. A severe and tedious indisposition
alone prevented me from sooner discharging towards
you this, what I felt to be a pressing and an imperative
duty. Although the temporal condition of our own
unhappy country be admittedly painful to contemplate,
there is something still more painful in the afflicting
news that has reached us from that city, hitherto the
holy, the venerable, and the beloved, as the seat of reli-
gion's throne, the rock on which the bark of Peter was
moored — ^the centre of Catholic unity, hallowed by a
thousand glorious recollections — the sacred repository
of the mortal vestments of the Tentmaker and Fisher-
man ; yea, still further consecrated by the footprints of
millions of sainted Confessors, and by the precious relics

286

APPENDIX.

of tens of thousands of Christian martyrs. It was to
that Christian Jerusalem the eyes of our old and young
were wont to fondly turn, and their hearts to exult in
the beauty of its tabernacles. Thither the Catholic pil-
grim, from every land on earth, directed his anxious
steps, to renew and invigorate his youth at the very
source of the waters of life, or to seek for a wounded
soul at the feet of Christ's Vicar, the balm of peace and
the word of reconciliation — ^the Eternal City, God's be-
loved Sion, " the bolts of whose gates he strengthened,
and whose children he blessed within it — within whose
borders he placed peace, filling it with the fat of corn,
from whence he delivered his word to Jacob — his justices
and his judgments to Israel" — Psahn 147 ; that city
from which, in a word, faith was announced with truth-
ful authority, and missionaries were sent forth with the
sacred sign of redemption and the seal of a divine sanc-
tion to spread abroad, through every corner of the earth,
the glad tidings of salvation — ^to bid those sitting in the
darkness and in the shadow of death to raise their heads
in hope abo"v e this valley of tears, and look to heaven :
Oh I what a change, dearly -beloved brethren I that city
now become a nest of vipers, the prey of the godless
infidel, the seat of the bloody anarchist, sacred to assas-
sination, blasphemy and sacrilege — the palace of the
supreme Pontiff the object of a rabble's fury — ^his first
Minister, and his confidential secretary and friend, the
unpitied victims of their vengeance — the life of Peter's
successor perilled in it — the great, the good, the beloved
!Father of the Faithful forced from it into exile, to seek
elsewhere for himself a refuge, and for the Ark of God,

APPENDIX.

287

issas-
the
first
, the
eter's
oved
seek
God,

entrusted to his holy hands, a resting-place. " Oh, the
depth of the councils of Godl how unsearchable are
his ways, and how incomprehensible are his judgments 1"
how far that which seems good to men is removed from
the views of God's ever-wise and merciful Providence I

The fond aspiration of our hearts would be to see vir-
tues, such as distingvished our holy Pontiff, rewarded,
even here below, with peace, with honor, with glory,
with the heartfelt homage of children and of subjects,
obedient to the best of Fathers and Sovereigns.

Such, however, dearly-beloved brethren, is not gene-
rally the way in which God deals with his elect. The
just and the good, of course, he leads by the hand to
their glorious destination, but their pathway to it he
strews with thorns ; to reach the Thabor of his perma-
nent glory, they must carry their cross up the narrow,
rugged heights of Calvary ; and, even should they find
in their way, scattered here and there, a few flowers of
joy, they must gather them with a trembling hand from
amidst the many thorns that surround them. Theirs is
only a transient, momentary happiness, like the fleeting
vision of the transfiguration, or like

" The dewdrop that, glittering on the thorn,
Goes at the touch, and flies before the morn."

In the past brief triumphs and present humiliations of
our beloved and venerable Pontiff, we see, dearly-be-
loved brethren, the same finger of Providence that man-
ifested itself in the life of our Divine Redeemer, whose
Vicar he is. He also heard, on the commencement of
his mission, this cry of seemingly warm affection —

288

APPKNDIX.

" Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and blessed are
the breasts that suckled thee" — he saw the pressing anx-
iety of the multitude to crown him King of Juda and
of Israel — ^him who already seemed to reign in their
hearts. Babes and sucklings gave him praise — the gar>
ments of the people were spread before him to do him
honor — the palm, the emblem of victory, and the olive,
the symbol of abundance and peace, strewed his path-
way, and the air was rent with hosannas to the Son of
David, with blessings upon him that came in the name
of the Lord. But amidst this scene of tumultuous joy,
the Saviour was seen weeping, for well he knew the hol-
low fickleness of all human applause — that all human
triumphs were but day-dreams, that end in tears — that
they who spread their garments for him would shortly
strip him of his own — that of the palm branches they
were already forming a cross for him, and that, instead
of the olive of gladness and of peace, they would very
soon administer to him vinegar and gall, and that their
hosannas, in fine, to the Son of David, would be changed,
before a week had passed, into " Away with him, away
with him — crucify him, crucify him." Hence he wept,
letting us understand that the real triumph of justice is
in suffering, and its unfading crown only in a virtuous
death. How striking, dearly-beloved brethren, the par-
allel between our Divine Redeemer and his holy Pontiff.
His election to the Chair of Peter and the sovereignty
of Bome was unanimous. The citizens leaped with joy,
and hailed their new-made sovereign with vivas — they
spread their garments on the ground to honor him — they
wang their hosannahs to him — they blessed him as a Sa-

APPENDIX.

289

luman
—that
hortly
3 they
DStead
very
their
nged,
away
wept,
tice is
tuous
e par-
ontiff.
ignty

a joy.

-they
they
a Sa-

viour coming to them to redeem the captive, and to se^
the bondsman free — ^bouquets of flowers covered his
pathway, and there was no end to their rejoicings. Like
his Divine Master, he passed amidst them doing good,
heaping upon them benefactions — striking the chain
from the limb of the prisoner — ^restoring to disconsolate
parents their lost children — ^proclaiming a universal ju-
bilee of deliverance. None like the just and the good
Pio Nono — the womb was blessed tnat bore him, and
the breasts thrice blessed that suckled him — he alone
was fit to reign over the Boman people — the great apos-
tle of law revived, of order restored, and the great high
Priest of liberty — the resurrection, in fine, and the very
life of Bome. This, dearly-beloved brethren, was the
world's forced tribute of transcendent beneficence and
rectitude. Let us now see its inherent natural hatred of
both. Its testimony to virtue is ever constrained, hol-
low and fleeting ; its detestation of it real, spontaneous
and permanent ; for in it it sees its own condemnation.
It was this feeling in Cain that made him murder Abel,
because he was innocent — that in Cham mocked the
best of fathers — that made Lot hostile to Abraham, his
kinsman and benefactor — and made Esau's hatred of
Jacob almost immortal ; the same that induced Joseph's
brethren to coolly plan his murder, to cast him into a
pit, and afterwards sell him to the merchants of Idumea
— ^the same that made Egypt detest Israel, and enslave
it and pursue it to the death — the same that stirred up
the thirty and one kings against God's people in the
desert, and made Core and his followers conspire against
Aaron and Moses — the same that made Saul furious

290

APPENDIX*

against David, and Absolam a traitor to bis own father
^-that cast Daniel into the lions' den, and into the fiery
furnace — that made Haman abominate a Mordecai, and
sigh for his destruction, and that of his race — the same
that covered a Jezebel and an Athalia with the blood
of the Priests and Prophets of the true God, and made
them the rabid enemies of his saints and holy temple —
that made Elias a fugitive, Jeremias a martyr, and pre-
pared the pincers and heated the gridiron for the youthful
heroic Machabees and their devoted mother — the same
(latred of justice shed the blood of the Holy Innocents,
placed the Baptist's head in a dish, preferred a Barabbas
to a Jesus, and nailed essential justice to a gibbet. This
world-wide hatred of justice has filled our calendar with
Christian martyrs, persecuted everywhere the children
and the Church of God — made those whom God loved
and angels looked upon with admiration, objects of ig-
nominy and reproach — drugged their cup with gall and
wormwood — yea, gloried in their misery and utter de-
struction. This spirit of the world has been lately at
its wicked work in Eome, apotheosizing the assassination
of the innocent, desecrating whatever was there holy
and venerable, and making Pius IX. first its captive, and
then an exile I Oh beloved PoutiiJ"! your benignity,
your truthfulness, your piety, your justice, were your
only crimes. Because you were truthful, meek and
just, you are now an outcast; "because thou wert beau-
tiful in virtue beyond the sons of men — because grace
was poured abroad by God on thy lips, and God had
abundantly blessed thee — because the sceptre of thy
kingdom was truly a sceptre of uprightness — ^because, in

APPENDIX.

201

a word, thou hadst loved equity and hated iniquity,
therefore it is that " tliey that sat in the gate spoko
against thee, and they that drank wine made their song
of thee ;" therefore it is that " thou art become a stran-
ger to thy brethren, and an alien to the sons of thy
mother 1" Rome, such as it now is, venerable Pontiff,
was not worthy of thee, neither was the world. Exile,
however, as thou art, betrayed, deserted by those whom
you loved, whom you blessed, and loaded with benefac-
tions, thou wilt not be alone in thy exile. No; the
hearts and souls of hundreds of millions of thy faithful
children in the world, but not of it, shall cluster around
thee, and comfort thee with their prayers, their tears
and their sympathies. Thou art not a solitary exile,
illustrious Pontiff; the angels of God are around thee ;
God is with thee — " the ark of God and the people of
Israel." The true Catholics of the earth are emuMus to
give thee a reception worthy of thee. The Queen of
Catholicity — ^noble France — hailed thee afar, and sent
her enthusiastic hosts to defend thee against the infidel
faction that assailed thee. Spain pants for the honor of
having with her her Catholic Pontiff, Naples displays
the riches of her household to allure thee to her palaces ;
under the shadow of the wings of the American eagle,
a safe, a generous asylum would be afforded thee. And
oh I if thy faithful Catholic Ireland, wounded though
she be by misery, and bruised from the top of the head
to the sole of the foot by oppression, could promise her-
self the bliss which all so ardently ambition, how her
heart would bound within her at the bare thought of
such happiness, how, in one sight of thee, would she

292

APPENDIX.

forget the persecutions and tribulations of centuries,
with what rapturous joy would she exult in thy coming,
with what eagerness would not her children press around
thee, and bathe with the tears of sympathy and filial
affection, the fleet of the ever to them faithful Vicar of
Jesus I Venerable, beloved Pontiff 1 Catholic Ireland
owes thee much. In the hour of her distress the little
you had to spare was at her service. You appealed to
the Catholic world in behalf of her wrongs and her
sufferings ; you appealed not in vain ; she had its pity
and its aid. Oh, if she had thee here to manifest the
gratitude that fills her heart, and the deep devotion she
still bears to Peter's successor and Christ's representa-
tive on earth, perhaps in this " land of the West" she
would make thee forget, for a moment, in the vigor and
freshness of her faith and love, the ingratitude of thy
own base people.

Among us. Venerable Pontiff, there are still attractions
for you beyond those of the richest and the happiest
lands on earth ; hearts still purely Catholic — souls guile-
less in their Christian simplicity — a fidelity that has
weathered every storm, and remained immovably at-
tached to the Chair of Peter — hope full of immortality,
and the true spirit of the Communion of Saints, to make
thy wrongs, thy sufferings, thy tears, thy joys, its own.
But, should this happiness be denied us, wherever thou
art we shall Be with thee. Our souls, our hearts, our
sympathies, shall be with thee, and whatever the rapacity
of our oppressors has left us shall be generally shared
with thee — still dearer to us, in thy exile, than when
crowned with the Tiara in thy capital — more interesting

APPENDIX.

293

in thy humiliations than when triumphing amidst the
plaudits of thy fickle, faithless people ; and if thy cover-
ing, like the Ark of God, were the goat-skin, thou wouldst
still be to us an object of deeper love and sympathy, of
more sincere devotion in this humble dress of the pilgrim
Yicar than when shrouded with all the glory of the
Quirinal ; for the ignominy of a Calvary is ever dearer
to the Catholic Christian's memory than a Thabor's glory.
The one we passingly admire, the other, Jesus in agony,
Jesus crucified, we ever love to look upon, and their
sweet memorials we ever bind to our hearts and to our
memories.

We give glory to God for you, dearly beloved brethren,
that you stand not in need of any exhortation from us
to be, amidst these visitations, steadfast in your Faith —
you, the children of tribulation, who have drunk of the
darkest, muddiest, cup of human misery, even to the
dregs, without being moved from the broad platform of
belief in which God in his mercy has placed you. In
the world's worst evils, you see the finger of God who
permits them to afilict his children, to bring them to re-
pentance, or to try them by suffering, that they may
receive the promise of those who change not their love
from him. Everlasting praise and thanksgiving to the
God that has preserved to you this jewel with which you
prefer to be afflicted, with the people of God, rather than
have the pleasure of sin for a time — ^with which you
esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the
treasures of the Egyptians — with which you feared not
the fierceness of kings or rulers, but learned to endure
all things for the sake of that King who is invisible.

APPENDIX.

With this faith of yours (for it is a blessed inheritance)
your forefathers have conquered kingdoms, wrought
justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
quenched the violence of fire, blunted the edge of the
sword of the persecutor, recovered strength from weak-
ness, valor from the conflict, spread confusion among the
armies of foreigners, were racked, not accepting deliver-
ance, that they might find a better resurrection, had,
moreover, like you, yea more than you, their trials, of
mockeries and stripes, of bonds and prisons — ^were stoned,
were cut asunder, were tempted, were put to death by the
sword, by the gallows, by famine, by pestilence, and a thou-
sand wickedly and cunningly devised tortures — " wan-
dered about in sheepskins, in goatskins, in want, distress,
affliction — of whom the world was not worthy — wandered
in deserts, in mountains, and dens, and in the caves of
the earth, and still were approved in ail these things by
the testimony of this faith." To you, the children of
these saints and martyrs, doubt, hesitation and despond-
ency, are unfamiliar words. The more the world be-
comes a desert to you, the nearer the Land of Promise
appears. You know and feel that the more the child of
faith is abandoned by men, the more securely he leans
on the arm of God — " loeva ejus sub ca/pite meo ei dextera
ejus ampJexahitur Twe"— that the left hand of God sustains
your head, while with his right he embraces you. You
know that the Ark of the Most High is never half so
terrible, nor half so wonder-working, as when Philisthiim
would bind it in captive chains, or seem to triumph over
its destitution and loneliness.

For the person of His Holiness — a person so dear to

APPENDIX.

295

US all — ^we can justly entertaic our fears ; for the succes-
sion to the Chair of Peter, or for the Catholic Church,
we can have no terrors. These are secure in *he promises
of God. The Balaams and the Hananiases, may see their
visions and prophecy the downfall of both ; they may
run, though they be not sent, and predict, though never
spoken to. In their blindness or their malice they may
clap their hands with joy, and exult over the impending
ruin of Popery, foolishly believing its destruction to be
consequent on the exile of its Pontiff. How often have
not such prophets Tittered this self-same vain thing, and
made themselves wickedly ridiculous to the faithful ? A
prophet of' this sort was not wanting any year for the
last eighteen hundred. No doubt, in the very days of
the Apostles, while yet the Eedeemer's blood shed for
his spouse was warm on the earth. Hymeneus and
Alexander prophecied in this way, and that the echo of
their predictions was taken up and repeated by an Ebion,
a Marcion, and a Carpocrates. Novatian and Arius were,
of course, among the major prophets of this sort. Tlie
predictions thundered forth by Manes were taken up by
Vigilantius and ^rius, and chorused again by Peter De
Brus, by Yaldo, John Huss, Wickliffo, &c., &c,, &c.

But woe to them, if they spoke the truth ! The awful
day of their reckoning would have been at hand — the
sun and moon would have refused their light — earth and
Heaven would have passed away, and the Saviour of the
world, clothed in majesty, with that triumphant and im-
mortal which they would have extinct, had jndged them
on their temerity. No, dearly -beloved brethren, the
permanency of the Chair of Peter, or of the Church of

296

APPENDIX.

God, does not depend on the imprisonment, the exile, or
the death of any Pope ; for, if so, they had long since
perished. Peter was imprisoned, yet his chair did not
perish, nor the Church built upon him. Liberius, in
consequence of his faith in Christ's divinity, was made
both a prisoner and an exile ; Silverius was imprisoned
by a wicked Empress, and twice exiled — ^first, into Lycia,
secondly, into the Isle of Palmaria, where he expired of
hunger, A.D. 538,* and yet neither the Church nor the
Chair of Peter perished. Martin I. went through an
almost similar career of suffering — St. Gregory VII., the
glorious prototype of our present beloved Pontiff, died in
exile, with that immortal saying upon his lips — " I loved
justice, and hated iniquity; and therefore I die in a
strange land." Pius VI. died an exil j, and oh I what a
beautiful death, precious in the sight of God, and ever
precious in the eyes of the Church I It was he that left
us these sweet Christian sentiments, uttered in the day
of his agony — sentiments so becoming the Vicar of Christ*
and so glorious to our common faith — " The crown of
martyrdom (said he) is more brilliant than the tiara. My
afflictions encourage me to hope that I am not altogether
unworthy of being the successor of St. Peter, and Vicar
of Jesus Christ. The situation in which you behold me,
recalls to our mind the early ages of the Church, which
were the days of her triumphs. All in this world is
vanity ; let us raise our eyes to Heaven where thrones
are prepared for us, of which men cannot deprive us."
When, after receiving the Viaticum, he was asked did
he forgive his enemies — "Yes," said he, fixing his eyes

• Feller's Biography.

APPENDIX.

297

on the crucifix, " with all my heart."* He died in exile ;
but the chair and barque of Peter survived him, and
triumphed in this glorious exhibition of fortitude, resigna-
tion and charity. Pius VII. was also an exile, and the
prisoner of the man of a thousand thrones, who strewed
the earth with millions of dead. The eagle of his glory,
that hitherto had ever gazed on the oriflame of victory,
from that hour drooped its bloody wing, and ignominious-
ly decending to the earth, was trailed through the dust,
and as a vile thing trampled upon even by those who
were wont to tremble at the bare sight of its soaring.
Thirty PopeSj all down to Sylvester I., one excepted,
suffered martyrdom ; and Peter, the first of the Pontiffs,
was crucified with his head downwards, the choice of his
humility, setting this bright example, that he who under
Christ was first in honor and in jurisdiction, should be
first in fidelity and humiliations, instructing his successors,
even in death, that the cross of their Lord was their proper
inheritance, and their noblest triumphs in suffering for him.
The present storm, dearly beloved brethren, is merely
as the zephyr, when compared with the tempests let
loose at various times for the last eighteen hundred years
on the Church of God. During the pontificate of Felix
III., the Emperor Anastasius was a Eutychian heretic —
the kings of Italy, Spain and Africa, were Arians, blas-
phemously denying the consubstantiality of the Word,
and furiously persecuting all who believed in it. The
kings of the Franks, of the English, of the Germans, were
Pagans ; and yet the Church, though she had not a single
sceptre to defend her, nor a loyal arm to sustain and

• Pigot's Ecc. An.

298

APPKNDIX.

nnrse her, but all on every side hei enemies, did not
perish. In the sixteenth century, a thousand prophets,
with the tongues of Babel, predicted the Church's im-
mediate downfall, and used every weapon which malignity
could suggest, or rather fury supply, to realize their
own predictions. The battle was fierce and prolonged.
Hell resorted to its whole armoury to make its prophets
for once truthful. How far it succeeded, let our enemies
and their friends be the witnesses. " It was at the mo-
ment," says an eminent biv-^^^apher * "when Protestant-
ism sat in triumph on the ruins of the Catholic altars and
temples, subverted by it throughout the greater parts of
Europe, and when it flattered itself that it was assisting
at the funeral obsequies of the Eoman Catholic Church,
that that Church manifested a superabundance of life,
and displayed immense renovated energies. In Italy,
France and Spain, fifty-nine new orders sprang into ex-
istence, for purposes of education, instruction, and bene-
ficence, and applied to the service of the Church all their
available powers ; and thereby insensibly secured the
allegiance of future generations. What glorious form* I
see rising up before me : the Borromeos, the Ignatiuses
the Xaviers, the De Sales, the Paalos Giustiani, the
Gsetanos de Thiene, the Peter Caraffas, the Eomillons,
the Berulles, the Philips of Neri, the Hugo Menards, the
Johns of God, the Bellarmins, the Baroniuses, the Vin-
cents of Paul, &c. Further on, we see that magnificent
Catholic structure raised up in South America, where
conquest became a mission, and this mission Christian
civilization. We see at Goa, in 1665, three hundred

* Ranke's Papacy.

APPENDIX.

299

thousand Catholic converts, the first fruit of its conquest ;
at Japan, in 1579, three hundred thousand Christian
converts ; in 1606, three hundred churches, and thirty
Jesuitical institutions, founded by Father Valignagno,
and all this in the face of the most bloody persecutions.
From the year 1603 till 1622, two hundred and thirty-
nine thousand three hundred and thirty-nine additional
Japanese converted. The first Catholic Church conse-
crated at Nankin, in China, after the death of the cele-
brated Father Ricci, who always gave mathematical as a
preface to his religious instruction. In 1616, we see
Christian Churches everywhere raised throughout the
five provinces of the Celestial Empire, and attended by
millions of converts. We, moreover, see seventy Brah-
mins converted by Father Nobili ; three Princes of the
Imperial family of Akbar converted by Jerome Xavier,
at the Court of the Great Mogul ; the Nestorians restored
to unity ; in Abyssinia, Sela Christos, brother of the
Emperor, and then the Emperor Seltan Segueld.

"At the Roman Court, the men of that day, whether
politicians, poets, artists, &c., &c., had all the same char-
acter of religious austerity. The Church touched and
reanimated with its breath all the extinct and corrupted
faculties of life, and gave to the world quite a new com-
plexion. What immense activity I Rome, enfolding
the entire world, penetrating, at the same time, the Indies
and the Alps — sending forth its representatives and de-
fenders at the same to Thibet, and Scandinavia ; and,
through this boundless scene, everywhere youthful, ener-
getic, indefatigable, making the impelling active principle
of the centre to bear perhaps with more intensity and
effect on its agents in the most distant countries."

800

APPENDIX.

This is substantially the testimony of Protestant Banke.
But few signs of dissolution, beloved brethren, in those
eventful times. The Prophets were at fault here as else-
where. How the infidel conspiracy of more modern days
ended is known to all. France, that immolated her
thousands of Priests to the goddess of reason and turpi-
tude, and sent sixty-two thousand into exile, is now one
of the most brilliant and attached jewels in the Pope s
tiara. The recent conspiracy, also an infidel one, will,
we firmly trust in God, have a similar result. The storm
may carry away some of the withered branches and
shrivelled useless foliage, to leave the stem with its
original sap, and the remaining branches with additional
shoots still more healthful and luxuriant. The cry, " The
Church ^ in danger," never yet proceeded from sincere
Catholic 'lips. There can be no danger for the Church,
unless God and His promises be in danger. The heavens
and the earth shall pass away, and even after they shall
have passed, our Chu rch will not be even then in danger
but in her eternal home triumphant, divested of her pil-
grim's dress, and in the renovated beauty of glorious
life immortal, will stand at the right hand of her bride-
groom robed in gold, and decorated with every orna-
mental variety. In this position the Prophet saw her
when he exclaimed — " Astitit regina a dexteris €)tis cir-
cumdata vanetatey In every year and, day, until this
blissful consummation, individuals in the Church will,
of course, be in danger, and kingdoms and peoples, who
have received the gift of faith, will be in danger of losing,
through their own perverseness, that precious boon of
heaven. But, if they be cast by the wrath of God into
the sinks and sewers of the City of Sion, like all foul

APPENDIX.

801

and fetid things, to be carried out of it, it will be because hj
being allowed to remain within it they would have spread
abroad infection and corruption, and by their own turpi-
tude have themselves perished in it — " Non ex aim horn-
inihus fiunt hcBretici quam ex lis qui si in Ecclesia perman-
sissent propter vitce turpitudinem nihibminus ptriissenV^ —
Saint AugustiUy Liber 8, de Vera Beligione.

Of the Church, therefore, dearly -beloved brethren,
you rest assured that the God that launched her on the
sea of this world may allow her to be tempest-tossed,
but never to perish, for he himself has promised to be
her pilot, " Lo, I am with thee all days, even to the con-
summation of the world." In the midst of her he has
planted his own trophy — erected against death his own
triumphant standard of Eedemption. The prow of this
noble mechanism of God is the East, its stern the West,
its midships the South and North ; the ropes stretched
about it are the love of Christ, its cement the spirit of
unity, which holds fast and binds together its every tim-
ber ; the net which it carries is the laver of regenera-
tion ; the Holy Ghost is the wind that fills the sails, and
impels it onward ; its anchors are of iron, strong, endur-
ing, irresistible, the promises of Christ — its destination
the Ararat of God's glory. The sky may become dense
with clouds, and cast its pitchy darkness around it;
Christ Jesus is its light and its guide. Heaven's cata-
racts may break upon it, and the waters of the abyss
ascend to meet the floods of heaven — the deeper the tor-
rent the more elevated the ark of God ; over the whirl-
ing, foaming eddies she rides triumphant, "still onward
inscribed in letters of gold upon her prow — the fury of

..^

802

APPENDIX.

the elements making her triumph still more conspicuous
— her seeming solitude on the deep rendering her passage
still more secure, as it is then she can say with confi-
dence, " God is my protector." " The Church," says St.
Ambrose,* is buffeted, but is not overwhelmed by the
waves of worldly cares ; she is stricken, but is not weak-
ened, being easily able to subdue and calm down the
agitation of the waves, and the rebellion of the passions
of the body; she looks on, herself free and exempt
from danger, whilst others are shipwrecked, always pre-
pared to have Christ shine upon her, and to derive glad-
ness from his light." There is nothing," says St. Chry-
sostom,t " equal to the Church. Tell me not of walls
and arms, for walls grow old with time, but the Church
never grows old; walls barbarians destroy, h'Tt the
Church not even demons can overcome. And that my
words are not empty boasting, facts testify. How many
have waged war against the Church, and they that
warred against her have perished, but she has been
raised up above the heavens. Such is the mightiness of
the Church; warred against she conquers, devised
against, she overcomes ; assailed with insult, she is made
more resplendent ; she receives wounds, but sinks not
beneath the ulcer ; agitated by the waves, she is not sub-
merged ; tempest-tossed, but she suffers no shipwreck ;
wrestles, but is not overthrown ; she fights as the pu-
gilist, but is not beaten. Why, then, has God permitted
the contest ? That he may exhibit a more glorious tro-

* St. Ambrose, torn. I., de Abraham, s. 2, o. 3, no. 11, p. 318.
t St Chrysostom, torn. 3, de Capto Eutropio, no. 1, p. 461.

APPENDIX.

808

phy." Let others, therefore, dearly beloved brethren,
sit, if they please, exultingly, like Jonas in the shade of
their own ivy — the ivy of their own planting; let
others, like Elias, delight in the shadow of their juniper-
tree ; let others have their favorite oak, planted for them
by royal hands, and flourished by the base alloy of
royal passions; let others have whatever protecting
shade fancy may make desirable, ours shall ever be se-
cure repose beneath the shadow of the Chair of Peter,
and within the hold of that bark which God built ; for
" wherever Peter is, there the Church is ; where the
Church is, there death is not, but life eternal ; " the gates
of hell shall not prevail against it," vhi Petrus ibi EccU'
sia ; vhi Ecclesia ibi nulla more sed vita cetema ; portoi in-
feri non prceval^unt ei; caelum aperuit^ inferos clauset.

Wherefore, dearly beloved brethren, without further
notice of the vain effusions of our modern Prophets, let
us return to our illustrious Pontiff, whose situation
should now be the chief object of our solicitude. The
Church is suffering in its glorious head. Every member
of the mystic body must feel the obligations which
Christian duty, in such circumstances, imposes upon hira.
" "Who is sick," says St. Paul, " that I am not infirm —
who burns that I am not on fire?" The head, the heart
of the Church of God is sick, infirm in the fiery ordeal
of tribulation and sorrow. His pain must have passed
to us all ; for if the afflictions of the least of the little
ones of God should so deeply interest us, and claim our
warmest sympathies, how much more so the sorrows of
the father of the faithful, the successor of Saint Peter,
and the Vicar of Jesus Christ on earth ? In all such

ao4

APPENDIX.

calamities as the present, you know, dearly beloved
brethren, that prayer is the Christian's anchor of hope
— joint supplication to God his neyer*failing resource.
Our strength, as Tertullian says, in such visitations is in
our knees. Let us, therefore, dearly beloved brethren,
one and all, join our prayers and entreaties with those
of the Catholic world, and cry out together to the Lord
in our afEiction, that he may turn this present storm
into a calm, and bid the waves be still. Let us pray
him to give consolation to the wounded soul of our
chief pastor, and a troubled spirit and a contrite heart
to those among his own subjects who caused his suffer*
ings, '* for our Lord is the keeper of the great and the
little ones. He has humbled his holy servant, that he
may deliver and glorify him, turn his soul into rest, de-
liver his eyes from tears, and his feet from falling."
From his hand, his Vicar has submissively received this
chalice of tribulation. Let me, then, implore you, dear-
ly beloved, to redouble your prayers and ovations to the
all-provident God, that he may speedily restore his great
and good Pontiff, Pius IX., to a truly penitent people,
and to that city he loved with a father's heart, there to
sacrifice to him once more a sacrifice of praise, and call
down, as he was wont to do, blessings on the whole
earth, " in the courts of the Lord's own house — in the
midst of thee, Jerusalem I" To carry into effect,
dearly beloved brethren, this, our anxious wish, we
hereby appoint as follows :

Firstly. The faithful, during the exile of our Holy Fa-
ther, will say, at their morning and evening family pray-
ers, three Paters, three Aves and a Creed, that God may

APPENDIX

805

fay

comfort His servant Pius, and protect and deliver him
from his enemies.

Secondly. At all the station-houses, the faithful, after
having received Holy Communion, will be invited to join
in heartfelt prayer for the aforesaid pious purpose.

Thirdly. On Friday next, let Mass be celebrated in
each of the Parochial churches of the Diocese of Derry,
at which all the faithful are commanded to attend for
the same object.

Fourthly. Let* the Collect, Deus Omnium Fidelium^
for the Pope, be continued to be said on all daj^s, at all
Masses on which the Rubric does not interfere ; let, also,
the beautiful prayer which has been read in our churches
for the last three months, and said to be composed by
His Holiness himself, be continued to be read before the
celebration of the mysteries — ^before all masses private or
public.

Fifthly. From a letter I had lately from Rome, it
appears that His Holiness left his palace without any pe-
cuniary resources. Hitherto, we have not been called
upon to contribute anything towards the support of the
Father of the Faithful. In his present condition, both
duty and gratitude should oblige us to come forward to
his aid. Poor though we be, we will still find something
for such a holy purpose. He generously shared with us
in our distress — with him we will as cheerfully share.
Let, therefore, all the faithful of the Diocese of Deny be
afforded an opportunity on the last Sunday of Advent
of exhibiting their love of, and devotion to, the Head of the
Church, by adding their mite to that fund which the
Catholic world, no doubt, will feel it a Christian obliga-

306

APPENDIX.

tion to provide. The contributions of Catholic clergy
of this Diocese to the same holy purpose I will myself
thankfully receive.

Sixthly. This our Pastoral shall be publicly read iu
every church and chapel throughout the Diocese of Derry,
on the third Sunday of Advent.

May the grace of our Lord and the charity of God in
Christ Jesus be with you all. Amen.

»i< Edward Maginn.

Bishop of Orthosia and Apostolic Administrator of
Derry.

Given at Derry, this 8th day of December, the Feast of
the Conception of the B. V. Mary, in the year of our
Lord 1848.

[When we had proceeded so far with the Appendix,
it was found impracticable to give Dr. Maginn's Latin
letters, and some other documents of interest, without
swelling the volume to a size, and proportionately in-
creasing the price to a sum, at which it was feared it
would not be saleable in America. But should the suc-
cess of the present edition warrant it, the more important
of the Latin letters will be added, either in pamphlet
form or in continuation of the present Appendix.]

': \

THF

STAR OF BETHLEHEM:

A MANUAL OF PRAYER,

dPontf ileti {torn ^probtll ^ourtM.
BY THE REVEREND TITUS JOSLIN.

WITH THB ArPBOBATIOir OV

^fOST REVEREND JOHN HUGHES, D. D.,

ARCHBISHOP or IT K W YOEK.

" It fi mora ATHiliibla to pi«y • little and wall with atlaiitioB. thao to pmy
iniioh afterianolhar manner ; for God la not OTereomo with the innlt*i>Uelt]r of
nnr prayxrt, bat with the weight and ferror of them."— St. Baail, in OooatL
Monaat, C. <.

Netii»¥orft :
P . O ' S H E A ,

T89 BROADWAY AND 90 BEBKMAN 8TREKT.
186T.

THE STAR OF BETBLEBEM.

TEBMS.

Roan, plain binding, neat and atrong, 1 steel cngraTing, 7ft

Roan, gilt edges, 2 steel engravings, 1 35

Am. Mor., glh edges and sides, 4 steel engravings, 1 SO

Turkey Morocco extra, 8 steel engravings, 8 50

do. do. and clasps 3 00-

do. do. bev. edges and clasps, 3 00

do. do. clasps and ornaments, 4 50

Velvet firom 4 00 to 80 00

P. U'&HEA, 739 BROADWAY, N. Y.,

Haa the pleasure of announcing to his friends, and to the
Catholic Public, that he has just published the above new
and beautiful Prayer Book. In the beauty of its type, in
the excellence and variety of its illubtrations — engraved for
it expressly — and in the neatness and durability of its
various styles of binding, THE'&JTAR OF BETHLEHEM ia
unsurpaetted, by any prayer book in the English Language.
And whilst, as regards the value and appropriateness of its
matter, the name of the Rev. compiler is a sufficient recom-
mendation, still as it contains many prayers, and ftiany in-
structions not to be found in any other prayer book hither-
to compiled, the following remarks upon its arrange-
ment and contents are deemed adviHable. ■

It may here he remarkid that those litanies,, in our larger
Prayer Books ^ which have been condemned at Rome, have not
been admitted into the " Star of Bethlehnm."

The instructions on the sacraments prepared expressly
for this work are of the most solid and simple kind. —
Each of the seven sacraments is treated of in a separate sec-

THE 8TAK OF BBTHLBHBM.

tion, and the instruction upon the sacrament of Penance,
in particular, will be found to embrace instructions on
going to confession not to be found in other Prayer books.
The examination of conscience, which is not, as in other
books, a catalogue of questions, is full of useful instruc-
tions drawn from the moral of St. Alphonsus Liguori.

The treatises on prayer, on daily examination of con-
science, and on meditation have been written expressly
for the ♦'STAR OF BETHLEHEM."

The Devotion to the Sacred Heart op Jesus, occu-
pies an ample section, and la more complete than in any
other prayer book. This section embraces a history of the
devotion^ certain prayers of the Yen Marg. Mary Alocoque
and others which have never before appeared in English

The devotions to the Blessed Virgin are very choice, se-
lected from venerable Blosius and authors not hitherto so
much known to the faithful as they should be, and occu-
pying, together with the dilferent offices of our Lady, the
most valuable and vital section in the book.

The treatise on indulgences is unusually simple and
clear, and is succeeded by a list of choice inodloenced
PRAYERS AND EXERCISES from Bi>uvier*8 Celebrated treatise
on the same subject.

A section on the passion of Christ full of choice medi-
tations, a new article on the stations of the holy cross and
A section on devotion to St. Joseph, St. Teresa, tcc.^ will
be hailed with delight by all good Catholics.

The Ordinary of the Mass includes all the proper
prefaces in Latin and English.

Thb Vespers includes proper psalms, /of every feast in
the year, and each psalm isaocompanied by its appropriate

THB STAR or BBTHLBHBM.

^AR or MUSIC, placed ntttUly and canspicuoualy over the page,
tohich M a new and attractive feature in the history of Manu-
als of devotion.

The Vespers of the Blessed Virgin are presented una-
bridged, and these together with Maxims roR btery day
IN THE MONTH, £pi8TLB8 AND GosPELB for every Sun-
day and Holiday of obligation throughout the year, in-
structions for the sick and dying, a choice selection of
hymns in Latin and English, a section on devotion for
the souls in Purgatory, and reason for becoming a Catholic,
make this at once the most comprehensive and solid Catho-
lic prayer book that has yet appeared, whibt the excel-
lence of its mechanical execution renders it unrivaled in
elegance and beauty.

In conclusion, this work has not been got up in haste.
It has now been fully a year in passing through the press,
and has been revised and corrected with scrupulous care
and will, we have no doubt| be deemed worthy the title of
STAR OF BETHLEHEM.

The following index has been appended so that persons
may have a correct idea of what this prayer book con-
tains before purchasing it.

-i^:^^»fu>_.

ALPHABETICAL INDEX.

A. rAOB.
Abridgment of the Chris-
tian Doctrine xxviii

Act of Adoration 47

"contrition 48

"another. 58

" theloveofOod 16

" hope and confidence in

God 86

" resignation and love.. 68
Acts of Faith, Hope and

Charity 47

" shorter 49

Admonition to those who

attend the dying.... 379
AoNUs Dei— a Prayer to be
said daily by those who

carry an 478

Angelus Domini 37

AnimaChristi 103

Apostles' Creed 83

Association of the Holy
and Immaculate Heart

• of Mary 439

Ave iMaria, or Angelical
Salutation S3

BArrisM— -Sacrament of.... 163
Benediction of the Blessed

Sacrament 685

" prayer after 014

" of a woman after child-
birth 305

Blessed SACRAME.tT— rAOB

Benediction of 686

" cdaculatory prayers to

" ^aoulations in honour

of 887

" little office of 474

Blessed Virgin — Chaplet
of the seven dolours of 448
" Immaculate Concep-

tionof 481

" compendium of the

virtues of 030

" conceived without sin. 407

"litany of 69

" little chapter of. 604

" meditations on the Se-
ven Dolours of 430

" office of the 403

" prayer for the feast of

the espousals of 610

" visitation 619

"presentation 636

" of St. Aloysius to. . . . 433

" for a happy death 411

" entering your room

and going out 413

"for all virtues, espe-
cially purity 413

" in honor of'^the seven
founders of the order

of servants of ; 430

" for devotion to 436

" practices in honour of. 414

INDBX.

BLBMtn ViBOiir— RoMiy of 418

" MT«n doloun of 449

"Mrthlrjortof 440

••bMTcaljr " 449

"■orrowiof 43S

"TMperiof M6

"wkjr of aikiiif th«
blMiingof 44ft

Calendar, Romui xl

Canon of the MaM 113

Chaplet of the Imaaeuiate

Conception 481

Chaplet of the wTen do-

lounofD. V.M 448

"St.JoMph 498

Chriatian Doctrine, abridg-
ment of xxviii

Commendation of Bleiied

Sacrament 481

Compendium of vlrtuei of

the Bleued Virgin 6S0

CoMnuNioic— Prayers be-
fore 394

"after ... 338

" initructioni on IM

" thought! for Uion

who go often to 170

ConrKsiiorr— How to go to. 309

" preparation for 17ft

" prayers after 310

"thoughts on 31d

" some rules for those
who go every week or

fifteen days to 333

" examination of eon-
science to be used for

ageneral 179

CoNFiRMATioir— Saorameut

of 154

CcnJUtor Deo, or general

confession 34

Conscience, Examination

of 174

"aoother 303

" prayer after examina-
tion of 308

Coirramoif — A et of 48

Corporal Works of Mer-
er xxxi

Creed of Pope Pius IV 838

DailT examination of Con-
science 39

Days of Abstinence from

Flesh Meat xxtI

Dkaih- Mass^for the ftOl

Death— Preparation for the
last Friday in each

month 389

" devotions for a happy. 391

Dies Ins „.. a08

Devotion to the Blessed

Child Jesus 44

" for a happy death 391

" to the agoniiing heart

of Jesus 386

" to the Sacred Heart of

Jesus 861

" to the Sacred Heart of

Mary 441

Devout olfbring to the Sa*

cred Heart 404

DviNO— Prayers for the.... ft70

" short acts for the 378

" admonition to tlioie
who attend the 376

^aculations 64

Eight Beatitudes xxv

" in honor of the B. V.

Mary 887

E^jaculatory prayers to the

B. Sacrament 387'

Epistles and Gospels for
the Sundays and Holi-
days throughout the

year.i 633

Evangelical Counsels... xxxii

Evening Prayers fil

Examination of conscience 174

" another method 903

" on the Commandments 179

INDBX.

ClAMtVATlOW or CONMIINCB—

prmx«r after 306

EiTBEMH UifCTioi*— 8aon<

ment of 964

" pnyn whil* receiving 370

F.
Ftuvra and Faits— Table

of xxili-xzir

Fkstivam— Veapen on.... 671
Form of admiuion to the
oonfrstemitjr of the Sa-
cred Heart of Jeaui.... SM

Grace before meat 406

"a.^•r 406

HailMary 33

Hafpt Death- Devotiona

fora 301

H0I7 Eucharist IM

Holt Communion — Tho'ti
for those who go often

to 170

" prayers before 934

"after 336

How to hear Mass I(i6

" to go to Confession. . .. 300
" to prepare for the

Priest when siclc 375

Hymn for the Epiphany. . . 501

" of Assumption '.... 613

" for Christmas 5d0

" for Easter 596

••for Lent 604

" for Passion Tide 695

"for Pentecost 698

" of the Most Holy Name

of Jesus 694

"totheB. V. M 69

" in honor of St. Joseph. 610

" for a Confessor 609

" of St. Thomas Aquinas 606

Htmns— Xottn Tilla.

Adeste Fideles 600

lAdoroto DeTOte 606

Alma Redemptoris MaUr. A4S

Ave Maris Stella 666

Ave Regina Coslorum 660

At* Varum 688

DlMlrsB 608

Siamea Labia 461
aedieLstus 600

Iste Confessor Domini 600

Lauda, Sion, Salvatoram.. 603
Lucis Creator Optima ... 543

OFilUatFilia 606

O Salutarls Hostia 566

O Sanctissima 580

Pange, Lingua 603

Panis Angelicus 587

Suicumque Sanus Vivere. 610
egina Cvli Lsttare 661

SaTve, Area Fcaderis 466

Salve, Horologium 46»

Salve. Mundi Domina 463

Salve, Regina 36

Salve, Virgo Florens 461

Salve Virgo Pueniera 457

Salve, Virgo Sapiens 454

Sine Labe Concepta 603

Stabat Mater 480

Supplices Offirimus 463

Tantum Ergo Sacramen-

tum 686

Te Deum Laudamus 616

Te Lucis ante Terminum . 63

Veni Creator Spiritus 606

Veni Sancte Spiritus 600

HrMTfB—Engluh THtUt.
Bethlehem of noblest Ci«

ties 601

Bright Mother of our Ma>

ker 666

Come, my Lips, and wide

pioclaim 451

Come, O Creator 60S

Down In Adoration falling 686
Forth comes the Standard. 605
Hail, Ark of the Covenant 403

Hail, City of Refuge 458

Hail, Dial of Achaz 459

(

INDICX.

Iltil, FlouiUhmg Vlrxin.. 470
Hail, Lady of the Worl.l.. 464
Hail, Mary, Queen of Heii-

venly Hplierai AAO

llill, Mother moKt Pure.. 481
Hail, Motltoiand Viririii.. 4M
Hail, Queen of the lieu-

venM , . lA'J

Hail, Real Bwly of our

Lord A88

Hail, Solomon 'a Throne. . . 4<>6
Hail, Virgin most Pruiient 464
Hnil, Virgin moU Wise... 404
Hail, Virgin.il Motlicr.... 4d7
He on tlie final Supper

Night 476

Holy Spirit, Lord of Light 509
Hymn of the Immaculate

Conception, t/ Father

Faber 693

Jefiua, Redeemer of the

World 600

Jesu, the very Thought of

Thee 604

Marv, sweet Star 60

Mother of JeNus A48

OCome all ye Faitliful.... 690
O Great Creator of the

Light 643

OOodheadhll 606

O Holy Mother of our God 680

O purest of Creatures 603

O Queen of Heaven 6S1

O Saving Victim . . 686

On us bestowed, for us by

Birth 476

Sing, sing, ve Angel Bands 613
Sion, lift thy Voice and

ning 603

The Angelic Bread 478

Tlie Broad of Angels 687

The Confe'sor of Christ... 600

The Incarnate Word 477

This Day receives 600

Thoti Loving Maker 604

To Fnther and the Son 480

Tothl-i Great Sacrament.. 470
We Prake Thee, O God ..615

Ve that would Lire 619

Ve Sons and Daughters. . . 606

Immaculate ConoBmoR —

Chapletof 481

" hymn of, by Father Fa-
ber 603

" little otttca of 461

Imduuikncki— Instructloni

■on 338

Indulgence attached to a
prayer for the dead . . . 600
" for prayer before a pic-
ture of the Sue red

Heart 886

" resignation to the will

of God 331

" teaching Catechism .. 388

"the last 378

Instructions on Holy Mass 74
Invocations to the Sacred
Heart of Jesus 377

J.
Jbsus— Litany of the Holy

Name of 40

" Hymn of 'he Holy

Name of 604

" devotion to the Ch l.i . 4t
" Agonizing Heart jf. . . 'i%h
" The Sacred Heart of.. 381
" exercise during Mass

in union with 380

" practices in honor of. . 876

"invocations to 377

" Act of Consecration to 378
" act of love to, by Ven.

M. M. Alacoque 381

" prayer of St. Gertrude

to the Sacred Heart of 382
" Act of reparation to.. 383
" visit to the Sacred

Heart of 884

" form of admission to

the confraternity of. . . 38d
" indulgence for prayer

before a picture of. . .. 886

INDIX.

••» Titit to the Saorwd

Heart of 401

"another 4M

" » devout offeriDg to... 404

Lett Agony 384

Lait Indulgence 378

Litany of the Bleued Vir-

?;in Mary 69
onv of the Holy Name

of Jeiui 40

Litany of the Sainta 347

Little Chapter of the B.

VlfKin 884

Little Ofllce of the Blewed

Sacrament 474

Little Office of the Imma*

culato Conception 481

Lord'i Prayer 83

Magnificat, or Canticle of

the B. V . M. • . • • .... 848-886
Mabt— Aiioclatlon of the
Holy and Immaculate

Heartof. 48£

" ooncelTed without lin. 407
" devotiona to thp Sacred

Heartof... 441

" act of reparation to. . . 444
*' prayer or St. Oertrude
to '.ae Sacred Heart of 444
Mas*— Inatruotloni on.... 74

"canon of 113

"ordinary of 70

" another method of

hearing 138

"how to hear 168

"fortheDead 801

" of the Sacred Heart of

Jeiui 880

MATaiMoifT— The Sacra-
ment of 398

" ritual for the eelebra-

tion of 801

Maxima for every day In
the month 810

Maxima on prayer 14

Meditation — loatruotiona

on 17

Memorare 410

Morning Prayer 38

" ahorter form of 83

" for a little child SO

Movable Faaati xxiil

"FaaU xxlv

NovKNAa— 'nitructiona on. 404
Novena to St. Joseph 488

Offering of aleep and wak-
inflf* ••••••••••••t* •••• Oo

Office of the B. V. M 463

Oaoaaa— Sacrament of ... . 308

Paaalon of Chrlat 800

" the Scapular of the. . . 448
Pknanoe— The Saeiament

of 173

Practleea In honor of the

Sacred Heartof Jesua.. 378
Peat KR— Instructiona on . . 7
Prayer after Benediction. . 814

" Holy Communion 336

" before " 334

" for Chriatian courage

and fortitude 314

"the dead 66

"the dying 870

" holy Maaa in union

with the Sacred Heart

of Jeaua 889

" peace 06

" time of famine and pea-

tilence 68

" of peatilence 68

*' perseverance In good

neaa 618

" the aoula auffering in

purgatory 487

" maxima on 14

vin

INDEX.

" of St. Gertrude to the

Sacred Heart of JesuR. 383
" la honor of the seven
founders of the order
of Servants of the

Blessed Virgin 436

" of St. Gertrude to the

Sacred Heart of Mary. 444
" Aloynius to the Bless-
ed Virgin 423

"on a journey 64

"to St. Anna 488

"St. Joachim 488

"St. Joseph 485

" for devotion to the B.

V. M 486

"Teresa 484

Prayers, devout and profit-

ble for the dying 379

" after the Soul has de-
parted 384

" while receiving the sa-
crament of Extreme
UncUon 367

Pbaters or Feasts.

Prayer for the Feast of the
espousals of the B. V.

Mary fil6

" of St. Francis of Sales. 616

"St. Patrick 616

" Gabriel the Archangel 517

"St. Joseph 517

" St. Catherine of Sienna 617
" St. John Nepomucen .. 517
" Bemardine of Sienna. 518
"B.y.M. Help of Chris-
tians 618

" St. Philip Neri 518

■' Anthony of Padua. ... 519

^' St. Aloysius 619

" St. Peter and St. Paul.. 619
" VisitaUon of the B. V.

Mary 619

" B. V. M. of Mount Car-

mel 5")

" St. Vincent of Paul., . '

" St James the Apostle.. 630
" St. Anne (Mother of

the B.y.M.) 531

"St. Dominic 631

" St. Laurence 531

" St. Bartholomew 531

" St. Rose of Lima .... 633
" Stigmas of St. Francis 633
" The Holy Angel Guar-
dians 533

"St. Bridget 633

" St. Dionysius and Com-
panions, Martyrs 633

" St. Peter of Alcantara. . 633

"St. Raphael 633

"All Saints 634

"AU Souls 634

"St. Gertrude 634

" Presentation of the B.

y. M 636

"St. Cecelia 636

" St. Catherine 636

"St. Michael 527

Prayer of St. Philip Neri

to the B.y.M 411

" to the B. y. M. for a

happy death 411

" St. Bernard to the B. V.

Mary 418

" St. Aloysius " 433

" by the devout Blosius. 436

" on a journey 64

Feast of St. Francis Xavier 613

" Nicholas 618

" Holy House of Loretto 513

"the Nativity 614

" St. Stephen 614

" St. John, Apostle and

Evangelist 614

" of the Holy Innocents. 614
" Circumcision of our

Lord 616

" Ifipiphany 616

"St. Agnes 615

" St. Thomas of Canter-

Ibury 616
Preface 1

INOKX.

PFepitntion for death for
t'lfl laat Friday of each
month 389

P'AI MS IN Lmllf AND ErrOLISH.

OIX Dixit Uominus— The

Lord said 631-545

ex. Confiteor Tibi Domini

I will praiso Thee, O

Lord 633

OXI. Beatus Vir— Blessed

is the roan 634

OXII Laudato Pueri Domi-

num— Praise the Lord ye

children 53(i— 657

OXIII. In Exitu Israel—

When Israel went out of

Egypt 633

OXVI. Laudato Domlnum

— O Praise the Lord 542

OXXI. Laetatus Sum — I

wtts glad 559

CXXVI. Nisi Domiaus—

Tnlessthe Lord 601

OXLYII. Lauda Jerusalem

l^ominum — Praise the

Lord, O Jerusalem 563

CXV Credidi— I have be-

lievel 571

OXXV In Convertendo

Diiininus — When the

Lor<), &c 573

OXXXYIII. Domine, pro.

basti me— Lord, Thou

hast proved me 674

CXXXI Memento Domine

— O Lord, remember.... 678
CXXIX. Do Profundis cla-

mavi— Out of the depths

&c 339-593

OXXVII. fieati omnes—

Blessed are all 684

XLII. Judica me Deus—

Judeome, OOod 79

GIL Bless the Lord 315

LXXXIY. Lord, Thou hast

bleified Thy Land 317

XXVI. The Lord is my

Light 336

VI. O Lord rebuke me not 334
XXXI. Blessed are they.. 335
XXXVII. Rebuke me not,

^^O Lord 837

CIXLI. Hear, O Lord, my

Prayer 340

L. Have merny on me 343

CI. Hear, O Lord, my Pray*

er 345

LXIX. Deus in Adjuto«
rium— O Ood, come to

my aid 357

L. Miserere Mei Deus —
Have mercy on me, O
Ood 503

Reasons for becorainz a

Catholic 63S

Recordare 411

Rosary of the B. V. M 415

S.
Sacraments Instruction*

on the 150

"ofBaptism 153

"of Confirmation 154

" of Holy Eucharist ... 156

" of Penance 173

"of Extreme Unotion... 364

" of Holy Orders 395

"Matrimony 399

Salve Begina 36

Scapular of .«1ount Carmel 430
" Bull of Pope .<ohn

XXII., regarding. 431
" the Sacred Heart of
Jesus and Mary, and

of the Passion 445

Seven Deadly Sins and the
opposite Virtues. . . . xxxii
" Dolours of the Blessed

Virgin 436

" gifteof the Holy Ohost xxx

" Penitential Psalms 334

"Sacraments xxx

Short Prayers of St Orego-
ry on the Passion. ... .311

■'^,

INDKX.

SioKifcra— Initraetioiuon. 370
Sins against the Holjr

Ohost-o xzxii

" crying to Heaven for ,

vengeance xxxii

Six Precepts of the

Charch xxix

Sorrows of the B. V. M... . 433
Souls m Puroatokt —

Prayers for 4W

Spiritual and Corporal... xxxi

Stabat Mater 430

Stations of the Cross 339

Subjects for daily Medita*

tion xxxiii

TanturaErgo M6

" another translation. ... 446

Te Deum Landamus 615

Thoughts for those who
go often to Holy Commu-
Bion 170

Thoughts on Confession. 919

Three devout and profita-
ble Prayers 370

Three Theological Vir-
tues xxs

Three Eminent Good
Works.... xxxll

Twelve Fruits of the Holy
Ghost XXX

Vespers ft38

Vespers of the B. V. M. AM

"on Festivals ft71

" for Christmas Dav .... 683
Visit to the Sacred Heart

of Jesus 884

"another. 401

"another. 409

W.
Way of the Cross 83*

><^ •■■kytmutt- mrn

v-tT""™;"-:*^*' '<^.

■V