1814.] Remarks on Catholic Emancipation. But where is the Catholic who would now hesitate to express his detestation of this nefarious deed, which was pro hably viewed at the time by a great majority of mankind with secret horror? It is related, that when the martyr Huss was delivered into the hands of the council, he fixed his eyes steadily upon the Emperor; who, conscious of the infamy he was about to incur, was observed to blush. A century after this, his successor in the empire Charles V. being importuned by Eccius and other savage bigots to violate the safe-conduct granted by him to Luther, to attend the diet at Worms, nobly replied, "I will not blush with my predecessor Sigismond." In opposition to the calumnies of ma lice and ignorance, it is gratifying to collect some of the testimonies in favour of the Catholics, offered by persons eminent for their talents and virtues in the protestant communion. At an early period of the last century, Archbishop Wake hesitated not, in his correspondence with M. Dupin, to express his esteem for Christians of the Catholic communion in very cordial terms; acknowledging that, in the doctrine of the church of Rome, as explained by M. Dupin, who was not indeed considered as in all points perfectly orthodox, there was no essential difference of opinion between them. To use the learned prelate's own words, "In dogmatibus prout à te candidè proponuntur, non admodum dissentimus: in regimine ecclesiastica minus; in fundamenta libus seu doctrinam, seu disciplinam spectes, vix omnino." It has indeed been fre quently and justly observed, that all denominations of Christians agree in matters of infinitely more consequence than those in which they differ; and none of those differences assuredly are so great as to be incompatible with that genuine unity of Christians, which, as an illus trious ornament of the Anglican church, Dr. Clarke, has remarked, "does not consist in the unity of faith in the bond of ignorance, or in the unity of profession in the bond of persecution, but in the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace." 307 tish government respecting the Catholics of Ireland, saying, it was the most detestable mode of persecution." "Without justice to the Catholics," says the late Bishop Law, "there can be no security for the Protestant establishment." "Our Constitution," says Mr. Burke, in a passage directly referring to the case of the Catholics, and for its excellence often quoted, "is not made for great, general, and proscriptive exclusions: sooner or later it will, and must destroy them, or they will destroy the Constitution." The present Bishop of Landaff, in a visitatorial charge, has expressed, in energetic language, his approbation of the great measure of Catholic emanci pation. "A measure calculated," says that venerable prelate, "above all others, to support the independence of the country, to secure the stability of the throne, to promote peace among fellow subjects, and charity among fellow Christians." Dr. Bathurst, bishop of Norwich, in reply to the grateful and pathe tic address of the Catholics, presented to him in Dublin, thus eloquently avows his sentiments: "I consider your cause as the cause of civil and religious liberty, neither of which can be said to exist in perfection in any country where thousands of individuals are excluded, on account of their religion, from those offices of honour or emolument, an equal eligibility to which I have been always taught to consider, and shall never cease to consider, as ranking among the common rights of loyal and dutiful subjects, under whatever denomination of Christians they may come, provided they give to the ci vil government under which they live an adequate security for their conduct as civil subjects. And who, gentlemen, will presume to say that you have not done this, who has read the declaration made by so many honest men, and the oath taken by so many conscientious Christians ? His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex, in his speech on the Catholic question, April 1812, observed, "that the state had no right to exercise its authority over the private opinions of indivi"I think," says the celebrated Dr. S. duals, but merely to notice those acts Johnson, "all Christians, whether Pa- which may endanger and disturb the repists or Protestants, agree in the essen- gularity and good order of the commutial articles." And again, "all deno- nity. We have always the means of minations of Christians have really little creating preventive laws, but legisla difference in point of doctrine, though tors had better direct their tests against they may differ widely in their external the political principles which they wish forms." He severely reprobated "the to exclude, than to encounter them barbarous debilitating policy of the Bri- through the medium of religious tenets. Political Political disabilities, founded on a difference of opinion in matters of religious belief, are ready instruments in the hands of the factious and disaffected. And such invidious and unjust distinctions must ever, more or less, keep up animosities destructive of social happiness and social peace. It is therefore just, expedient, and necessary, to remove them." Such sentiments as these add dignity to the highest rank, and equally adorn the prince and the patriot. If then the religion of the Catholics is no bar to their loyalty, with what colour of reason can it be made the pretext for divesting them of the rights which appertain to faithful subjects? Are the disabilities to which they are liable heavy and oppressive? Then is the government which imposes them chargeable with flagrant injustice. Are those disabilities, on the other hand, as some affect to style them, slight and trivial? It is plain that in proportion to the decrease of the injustice is the increase of the folly. On each side of the dilemma the policy is deplorable, and the mischief incalculable. These positions appear so evident, that, uninstructed by experience, it might well be imagined they could meet with no opposition. But alas! the plainest truths most need to be enforced; and so weak is the impression usually made by the strongest arguments, that one is tempted to say with Montesquieu, "Lorsqu'il s'agit de prouver des choses claires, on est sur de ne pas convaincre !" Prejudice is in league with prejudice, and the resources of error are inexhaustible. "Shall we rashly remove all restraints," it is said, "from the professors of a religion of uncharitableness, which consigns all who are out of the pale of the Catholic church to everlasting misery-of a religion of persecution, which still mourns over its extinguished fires and broken wheel? To tolerate popery, as we are solemnly warned, is to tolerate intolerance." But may not the Catholics retort the accusation? Do we not in one of our national creeds, publicly and frequently rehearsed, exclude from salvation all who dare to deviate from its scholastic and incomprehensible dogmas? But the enlightened in both communions well know with what latitude such denunciations ought to be understood. In a tract recently circulated under the sanction of the Irish Catholic prelacy, entitled, "Charity and Truth," it is taught, and the writer cites the first authorities in confirmation of his doctrine, "that it is the perversely wilful opposer of the faith, as received by the Roman Catholic church, who in the judgment of that church is guilty of heresy. If the convic tion of the mind sincerely resists the exposition of the principles of Roman communion after a candid search for truth, where that resistance is involuntary, no well-informed Catholic will pronounce against him the formidable sentence of eternal exclusion from salvation. Involuntary error is not exclusive, and the church has its concealed children in the sects separate from its unity." This truly Christian principle he happily corrobo rates by the following passage from the great St. Augustine: If they who hold an opinion in itself false and perverse, maintain it with no pertinacious obstinacy; if they have not been misled by their own presumptuous audacity, bus have received their error from seduced or lapsed parents; If they be serious and diligent enquirers after truth, and manifest a disposition to yield to it when found by them, such persons are on no accouns to be set down as heretics." As to the latter part of the charge, is intolerance the characteristic of the Catholic religion only? Where is the protestant church free from the stain of this guilt? But intolerance was the vice not of the Catholic or protestant religion as such, but of the dark and direful ages that are past. Were not Luther, Cranmer, and Calvin, persecutors as well as Gardiner and Bonner? Erasmus was perhaps the only man of those times exempt from the taint of intolerance. The doctrine of universal toleration is the just boast of modern sagacity, and the Catholics have as much right to glory in their Sarpis, their Fenelons, and Courayers, as the protestants in their Lockes, their Hoadleys, and their Jortins. Undoubtedly this great and noble principle has of late years made a rapid and accelerated progress. Many have been the friends gained to the Catholic cause, and not one of them perhaps has been again lost. In one possible case only can any diminution of the number be apprehended. Should the Catholics, from the irritation of temporary disappointment, fail in that profound respect with which the legislature ought to be approached, and especially on a question of such magnitude as the present;-or, to put the case still more strongly and inprobably, should they assume in their future deportment the most distant semblance of a menacing aspect, few indeed there are among their protestant adve cates 1814.] Worm-eaten Cloths.-Tour round North Wales. bates who would not recognize the propriety of suspending all consideration of the subject. Certainly the Catholics could afford no deeper cause of chagrin to their best friends, and no higher gratification to their worst enemies, than such indiscretion would afford. It is for them to hold the undeviating and unruffled tenor of their way, in the cheering prospect of ultimate success. In relation to this subject, over the minds of many estimable persons hangs a cloud obscuring the divine radiance of truth. But the mist is dispersing, and "the morning steals upon the night, melting the dark Nor on a subject of such paramount importance can the legislative sanction be expected, or ought it to be desired, without a careful, and even it may be said a jealous previous investigation, and every revival of the discussion must be more or less beneficial to the cause. ness. " SIR, THE HE injury and loss occasioned to woollen cloths by worms and caterpillars has long excited attention. There are the caterpillars of six or seven small night-moths, which not only devour the skins of animals, but also make in them small pipes or holes, serving equally as a dwelling and as clothing to the worm. Many chymical agents might be employed against these animals; but the remedy, without great care, might change the cloth, and so prove worse than the evil to be corrected. Recourse may how ever be at all times had to heat, which is destructive to the caterpillars; and no pains should be omitted to prevent their getting into the warehouses." N. W. Blandford, March 1, 1814. For the Monthly Magazine. SKETCH of a TOUR round NORTH WALES, AUGUST 1813. 309 this magnificent country, including its mountains, cataracts, Cader Idris, Snow don, Carmarthen, Bangor, &c. may be seen without hurry or fatigue, and that the most extensive tour usually performed by travellers may be accomplished at no greater expence of time than eight days, counting from Ludlow or Shrewsbury, (the two points from which the traveller usually starts,) or ten days counting from London. The mail arrives at Ludlow from Lon L. to Bishop's Castle. 20 9 7 7 8 In all. 24 post miles. After leaving Can Office we soon enter a road at the bottom of a long winding vale, or street of hills, of which he whole 2 S of of North Wales may be (with small exeptions) said to consist. Two small Welsh churches midway up the hills, which rise on each side after the manner of an immense barrier-encountered an idiot on the road, a fine looking old man-Malwydd-breakfast-a bridge here about a quarter of a mile from the inn (where a comfortable refreshment may be had), over a most picturesque stream, which makes its way, not without much noise, amidst huge masses of rock, along a channel of the same kindmill just above, of singular beauty-both beautiful and irresisting subjects for the pencil. Enchanting ride to Dolgelly-at Dinasmouthy hills above began to look mountainous, (the transition from hill to mountain is indeed complete within 25 miles). It happens particularly during this ride that when you would expect, on arriving at the head of the valley in which you travel, an impassable limit to your progress, you turn round the corner into a new and quite unexpected street of hills like the former-and this perpetually-which adds much to the charm of this enchanting tour. Six miles before you reach Dolgelly, on reaching the head of such a street, and having attained a very considerable height over which the road is carried, Cader Idris bursts suddenly upon the view in all his grandeur, and is seen for the first time when only four miles distant, without the smallest intervention of hills to prevent embracing the whole of his magnificent dimensions; his awful perpendicular craggs; his double peak (pos), his face of entire stone, at the same moment you view for the first time a country totally surrounded in all directions with mountains of the same abrupt and awful character, not only divested of vegetation, but exhibiting a deeply fissured aspect, and grey with perpetual stone. Two miles before arriving there Dolgelly appears-its situation particularly fine: between this place and the circular barrier of mountains which bounds its horizon, there is interposed fine belt of gentle hills, covered with ver dure and woods, and diversified with several picturesque villas-the river. bridge-&c.-appearance of the town, on arriving there, totally different from any English town or village. The assizes. Start at half past one to ascend Cader Idris. Ascent begins two miles south from Dolgelly-day quite clearascent not particularly difficult, but long, requiring full eight hours on ponieswalk two miles after dismounting: the a views looking over the cliffs awful-our first view of Snowdon from Cader, from which it appears a cone of vast pre-emi nence-other points of the prospect are, the pool of Bala, many miles off the sea from the extreme point of Pembrokeshire to that of Carnarvon-Anglesea partially Ireland not at all-Brecon Hills-Sugar Loaf Plinlimmon-Barmouth Towynrivers, &c. Returned to Dolgelly about half past eight o'clock, having spent seven hours in this delightful excursion. Peak of Cader viewed from the inn door, right over the market house of Dolgelly-the ina moderately good. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. ; reign connections and foreign commerce -so long as the majority of them think there is something very imposing in wearing a red coat and using a sword, agriculture and the peaceful arts will be neglected and despised; and whatever miseries these notions may occasion, few will be found bold enough to explain the va rious causes to which they are referable nor indeed will their remarks, let them be ever so well intentioned, be well received by the generality of mankind, because that dazzle and parade which so much de lights this fighting age, tends materially to stifle all generous habits of pure and deep reflection, and to encourage indir vidual passion rather to the further indulgence of these unhappy propensities, than seeking to put an end to them by those kind considerations that have for their ultimate ends the comforts and happiness of nations. That war is the cause of immense waste in blood and treasure, is as certain as the sun giving light and heat; and that the waste is the cause of great fluctuation in the necessaries of life is what our pocket daily experiences; yet instead of these conclusions being generally allowed and acknowledged, the whole is attempted to be laid on the farmer, and that to their pride and selfishness are all the numerous evils of this description to be referred. It is vain for you to remind them of the numerous and pressing calls that are continually made on this respectable and valuable class, and over which they have no more controul than an oyster has over the tide of the ocean. There are no description of people whose property is so little protected as the farmer's, and whose comforts and happiness are so much much under the controul of the higher classes; therefore since leases have been discontinued, it is (as natural to be expect ed) rare to meet in this class of society men of enlarged minds, and who speak and feel as men enjoying the invigorating warmth of rational independence. The modern method of letting land, as a growing evil, ought to be continually exposed and condemned; for how is it possible that a person coming from a distant part (in general a London attorney), possessing no knowledge of the many local circumstances that affect the value of the estate, and which greatly retard its successful cultivation, can be a proper person to decide on the tenure of an honest and industrious man, who may have spent hundreds of pounds, and the best portion of his life, in improving and ameliorating its condition? Two large estates in this neighbourhood, Coombe and Stonely, Warwickshire, have been thus valued to a rack rent; all deduction, all allowances, of materials for repairs or improvements, strictly forbidden; how is it possible that agriculture can flourish, and those exertions be made that very properly tend to place us indepen dant of other nations and unfavourable seasons, while the cultivators labour under such discouraging effects ? The whole tribe of qualitiers, landagents, and stewards, are a pest to society; if the landlord and tenant cannot of themselves agree, why not, as is custo mary in other cases of dispute, appoint fair and impartial arbitrators? This appears to me to be the only method to prevent many mischiefs, to do justice to both parties, and, by giving confidence, give a generous stimulant to remedy those growing evils that afflict us from the want of leases. But this appears to be the age of quackery; every thing that is as plain and simple as the palm of your hand is to be enveloped in some confusion, otherwise designing and useless individuals could not find means of preying on this deluded nation; consequently these vapid, fine-tongued gentry have an admirable opportunity to do harm to every body but their employers and themselves; they having no common nor mutual interest betwixt landlord and tenant, those generous feelings that ought to press materially on their decisions are to tally disregarded; an increasing rent-roll, from which they receive a sinecure, stifles every manly sentiment. The change that has taken place in the habits and manners of landlords, such as 311 trifling away one part of the year at wa tering places; the other in fox-hunting and shooting, in which more store is certainly placed on a covey of birds than the comforts of an honest and industrious tenant and his family; is doing much mischief by estranging the one from the other, though it is their mutual interest to be joined; and in some instances where the women interfere, on account of the incapacity of their snivelling husbands, illustrating the language of the poet, there is misery enough. Sometimes through fear the sexes change their airs, The squire has vapours, and his lady swears; The one scarce crawls about with empty head, The other allows no peace till she's in bed; He on a Sunday bends his pious knees, Whilst she, through frost and snow, goes marking trees. The time that these people choose to begin their operations being in the spring of the year, which is sure to shew every thing to the best advantage, is exceedingly impolitic and unfair; and although the crops may look prolific and abundant, it is not by any means a just criterion of their ultimate produce. Nevertheless when they have thus given in the price, founded on this superficial decision, no abatement can possibly be made, right or wrong, because, as the minister observes in parliament, it is popular clamour-will make the rest discontented-and they are kind enough to give you for answer, "If you do not like it, leave it; Mr. Fingerdirt will find a tenant at the price." Whilst this system "has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished," it is rare for a farmer to think it prudent to quit; they anxiously hope that things may turn up for the better. Various are the ties that a wise Providence has established to bind human nature to the soil that gave him birth; and many must be the sleepless nights and unhappy days of him who has the endearing and additional ties of a lovely wife and numerous family, before he can submit to be driven from a home, to no employment. All authors, that I have read on agri culture, have described it as yet in its in fancy, whilst my own experience confirms their remark; and it is but lately that the enlightened aid of chemistry has been resorted to, to analyze soil, and to reduce the first principles of this important art to a science. Yet these modern landagents have the stupid effrontery to decide on the value of land, merely by 352 rubbing |