quired by law, are fully indemnified and freed from all penalties and difabilities, unless final judgment fhall have been obtained against them. It is provided, indeed, that they must duly quali fy before the 25th of December 1806. But as the act has been, for a length of time, annually renewed, it is morally certain, that any man neglecting to comply with this provifion, will be relieved by another act, either before the time fhall elapfe, or at least before final judgment can be obtained against him. Accordingly, fcarce any perfon, we believe, in civil or military truft, whatever his religious opinions may be, takes the trouble of obferving the regulations of the teft act. This annual indemnity, as Sir J. Throckmorton very truly obferves, is equivalent to its complete annulment. The origin of this fyftem of difpenfation he fuppofes to have been a difpofition to favour the Scotch, whofe rigid prefbyterianifm, we admit, has not been found altogether to exclude them from very comfortable pofts in South Britain. Why, it may be afked,' he proceeds, do not Catholics avail themselves of this act of indemnity? In certain cafes they do; but they apprehend that, to fome minds, it might have the appearance of occafional conformity; and therefore they rather fubmit to the regular operation of the ftatute.' We believe that the cafe is rather, that few opportunities have been given to them of craving the aid of thefe indemnity acts, except in military commiflions, which have for fome years been filled in numberless inftances with a total difregard of this notable barrier of the establishment, from the brave and ancient gentry of the Catholic perfuafion in Ireland. ་ But if these conceffions are made, it is natural to inquire, will the Catholics be fatisfied? Will not fuccefs lead to further encroachments; and the miftrefs of their wifhes, fo fondly named emancipation, be fcorned after enjoyment? Have they not, for thirty years, been gaining ground, at each step profeffing to terminate their defires, and ftill repining for more? To this it might be fufficient to answer, that, when we have done full juftice, neither our right nor our power to refift exorbitant claims will be impaired. But why is it fo certain that we fhall have fuch claims to refift? Intemperate and ambitious men there will be in all mixed bodies, and, we fear, the Irish Catholics are not without their fhare of them; but, after all that has been faid of popular blindness and fury, there is a wonderful difference between the effect of real and imaginary grievances. Fair and honest policy in government is, as it were, the flail of faction: the light and foolish, the violent and defigning, are feparated by it from fenfible and well-meaning men, who mix reluctantly in public difputes, and quit them when their object is attained. In the earliest ge July of the Roman republic, the patrician families alone were admitted to stations of honour and national truft. The struggles of the people against this exclufion were, for a long time, though never fanguinary, violent and unremitting; the conceffion of lower privileges led only to the demand of higher; till every distinction was abrogated, which flood in the way of afpiring merit. From the time that the confulate and priesthood were opened to the plebeians, early in the fifth century of Rome, her difcuffions ceafed; the vibrating balance of the conftitution found its poife; and, during a period of two centuries, fcarce any domeftic factions retarded or embittered the conqueft of the world. But it would be going much too far to affert, that, by acceding to the prayer of the Catholic petition, we fhould apply a radical cure to that unhappy difaffection, which has prevailed among the peafantry of Ireland. Nor do we think, that no measures of conciliation, or, if the word please better, conceffion, should be taken, beyond those which we have been immediately confidering. We have never feen any project for the commutation of tithes in England, which feemed likely to preferve, in the long-run, the rights of the clergy unimpaired. But we appeal to any candid man, who has looked at the statement given above, refpecting the church of Ireland, whether the interefts of an establishment, fo notoriously incompetent, from external circumftances, to its duties, ought to be regarded with extreme favour. Lands, too, are more generally held in Ireland upon freehold leafes, than in England, which throws the burden of tithes more upon the tenant; and their collection is, we believe, more frequently in kind, and, of confequence, more odious than in the latter country. The maintenance of the Catholic priests by Government has often been fuggefted. It is no flight evil, however, for a country finking under the weight of taxes, to fupport a double hierarchy; and fome fhare of the expence might, perhaps, without injuftice, be defrayed from the revenues of the prefent establishment, in parishes where almost every inhabitant is a Catholic. The author has sketched a plan for the removal of jealoufies between the two fects, which is worthy of notice. But, we fear, that he fpeaks his own fentiments rather than thofe of his caft; and promifes more, in the liberal turn of his mind, for the Romish pricfts of Ireland, than, unless they are much belied, they will readily undertake. 1, Without attempting the abfurd expedient of fuppreffing the hierarchy in an Epifcopal church, Government has only to fignify, that it is their with that the King, in future, fhall have the nomination of the Catholic bishops. This will be conceded. The mode of election or nomination has often varied; but it now generally is lodged in the 325 the hands of the Prince, who, in Catholic countries, as was fettled in the late French Concordat, after his nomination, allows the elected bishop to apply to the Roman fee for canonical confirmation or inflitution. And by this act, agreeably to what the late pontiff termed the new difcipline (ex nova difciplina), is understood to be maintained as well the union or communion, which fhould ever fubfift between the head and its members, as alfo that jurifdiction to be acknowledged, which Catholics believe effentially to belong to the primacy of the bishop of Rome. : In regard to the fealty or allegiance, which at his confecration, each bishop promises to him, if it mean any thing, it means too much if nothing, it is abfurd, and degrades a folemn ceremony. This Epifcopal oath, as it is called, found its way into the church in feudal times, when the Roman bishops, in imitation of other princes, viewed themfelves as fovereign lords, and all churchmen as their vaffals. The bishop, therefore, did homage in the hands of the confecrator, the fuppofed representative of his Holinefs. But as the days of feudal flavery have paffed away, why has not this oath paffed with them? Its language evidently denotes its feudal origin. The bishop promifes, "that he will from that hour forward be faithful and obedient to Saint Peter, and to the holy church of Rome, and to his lord the Pope, and his fucceffors, canonically entering: that the papacy of Rome, the rules of the holy fathers, and the regalities of Saint Peter, he will keep, maintain, and defend againft all men that the rights, privileges, and authorities of the Roman church, and of the Pope, and of his fucceffors, he will caufe to be conferved, defended, augmented, and promoted."-Let there be no more of this. One obnoxious clause, "that heretics, fchifmatics, and rebels to the holy father and his fucceffors, he will refift and to his power persecute, is now, I understand, omitted, by the exprefs permiffion of the Pope," it being his particular wish, fay the cardinals in their letter," to avoid whatever could give umbrage in Great Britain and Ireland. " The whole oath gives umbrage to every thinking man, and fhould therefore be expunged, yet the French bishops, I believe fince the Concordat, continue to take it. Napoleon knows how to value words; but words, as I obferved, void of meaning, difhonour the lips that utter them. It should not, however, be concealed, that the court of Rome views them in another light, and will furrender no more of this feudal oath, unless urged to it by the irresistible demand of Government. The expreffion of vaffalage, though no more than a found, is ever pleafing to the ear of power, and brings to remembrance the days of former greatnefs. 2dly, The parochial clergy, I understand, are now appointed by the diocefan; but if Government can be prevailed on to allow them moderate falaries, and fhall judge proper to regulate their appointments in any other form, I conceive it will meet with no difficulties. I was fhocked to hear a legal officer of the Crown lament, that a college had been founded for the education of Catholic clergy. The ignorance of the ART. VII. The Complete Works, in Philofophy, Politics, and Morals, of the late Dr Benjamin Franklin. Now first collected and arranged. With Memoirs of his Early Life, written by Himfelf. 3 vol. 8vo. pp. 1450. Johnfon, London. 1806. N OTHING, we think, can fhew more clearly, the fingular want of literary enterprize or activity, in the States of America, than that no one has yet been found in that flourishing republic, to collect and publish the works of their only philofopher. It is not even very creditable to the liberal curiofity of the English public, that there fhould have been no complete edition of the writings of Dr Franklin, till the year 1806: and we fhould have been altogether unable to account for the imperfect and unfatisfactory manner in which the task has now been performed, if it had not been for a statement in the prefatory advertisement, which removes all blame from the editor, to attach it to a higher quarter. It is there ftated, that recently after the death of the author, his grandson, to whom the whole of his papers had been bequeathed, made a voyage to London, for the purpofe of preparing and difpofing of a complete collection of all his published and unpublished writings, with memoirs of his life, brought down by himself to the year 1757, and continued to his death by his defcendant. It was fettled, that the work fhould be published in three quarto volumes, in England, Germany, and France; and a negotiation was commenced with the bookfellers, as to the terms of the purchase and publication. At this ftage of the bufinefs, however, the propofals were fuddenly withdrawn, and nothing more has been heard of the work in this its fair and natural market. "The proprietor, it feems, "had found a bidder of a different defcription, in fome emiffary of Government, whofe object was to withhold the manufcripts "from the world, not to benefit it by their publication; and "they thus either paffed into other hands, or the perfon to "whom they were bequeathed received a remuneration for fup"preffing them." If this statement be correct, we have no hesitation in saying, that no emiffary of Government was ever employed on a more miferable and unworthy fervice. It is ludicrous to talk of the danger of difclofing, in 1795, any fecrets of ftate, with regard to the war of American independence; and as to any anecdotes or obfervations that might give offence to individuals, we think it should always be remembered, that public functionaries are the property of the public, that their character belongs to history and to pofterity, and that it is equally abfurd and dif creditable |