nderful judgment, synchronized Cucullin, onal Cearnach, Morni, his son Gall, his grandfather Cumhal, and his father Fion, th the Danes; though the two first were temporaries with Cæsar; though Morni ured in the first century; and that Cumail fall by the sword of Goll, in the next ! Though Fion and himself lived in the Hurd century, and that the Danes were not eard of until the ninth! But what of all s the author, endued with second sight, ould easily pry into futurity. He was a thagorean, and of course could tell what wdies the souls of ancient heroes would reComate, and probably what prodigies of var they would perform! Mac Pherson has clared this a genuine poem; and my lord Kansas zealously contends for its authencity as Blair, or any other of the coalition. fnever he repeatedly attributes its preservarito nothing less than a miracle! a mirae then let it be. But instead of flying to dinavia, as the poem was confessedly ten in Irish; that Ireland was the scene action; and that by Caledonian accounts Irish were descended from them, had Kaims consulted Irish history, to illusate this poem, as he certainly ought, he ald perhaps be better enabled to form his gment; for all the above heroes were the sons of Ireland; and their ancestry, exLots, and the different periods in which they arished, are as well known at this day, as myfacts in ancient history. Even in the elfth century, Cambrensis remarks how the common people were here of their lous stories of Fion Mac Cumhal, or Fin, of Oissin, and Oscar, &c." The only use which can be made of is uncritical sort of history is to supy the poet with plots of plays and faes of epopaas. Like the Lear and the Cymbeline of the British fablers, his Dearmod and his Guare may stalk on he stage, or declaim in duans; but hey rather belong to the phantasmagoia of invention, than to the real ghosts historic necromancy. It is however a stride in culture to substitute the fables of the antiquary for those of the priest, and to attach the multitude rather to romances than to legends. The criticism of common sense incurs less intolelerance, the scepticism of inquiry less persecution, when nothing of impiety, but only of impatriotism, is associated with the examination. A ridiculous is better than a dangerous credulity. There is much curious matter concerning early Irish antiquities in Mr. Pinkerton's fourth part of his Inquiry into the History of Scotland: and we entirely coincide with his concluding reflection-" On the continent an antiquary is a man who examines ancient matters upon ancient authorities, and solid reasoning. ficial dreams to the public, upon no anquary is a visionary, who details supercient authority at all, and upon the most silly and irrational ratiocination. Hence what no foreign antiquary, what no man of sound learning would even imagine, has been seriously advanced among us lately; to wit, that the Phoenicians settled colonies in Ireland. That traces of the Phoenician language may be found in that of the Wild Irish! Seriously this is too bad: it is pushing learned folly to an extreme degree! Do reflect, sweet gentlemen dabblers, that the Phonicians were a people equal to the Greeks and Romans, in every art and refinement. That the traces of their colonies in Africa, in Spain are fixt and decisive, and throw light all around them. And that if they had held the smallest settlement in Ireland, so striking a circumstance, so distinguished a mark of their extended power and navigation, could never have escaped all the ancient authorities." In Britain an anti AT. XLVII. The History of the Gunpowder Plot, with several Historical Circumstances prior to that Event, connecting the Plots of the Roman Catholics, to re-establish Popery this Kingdom; digested and arranged from authentic Materials. By JAMES CAUL FIELD. 8vo. pp. 94. WE have no doubt that this book is wn up from trust-worthy testimony; at the portraits are appropriated by ter evidence than vague tradition; that the manuscripts quoted, exist, dare deposited somewhere: yet we k that Mr. Caulfield ought to have particularized the sources of his intelli gence, and to have defined the place in which the documents appealed to, may be found and verified. They respect not merely the popish plot, so celebrated by the name of the gunpowder-treason, but the previous protestant persecutions which provoked it. The church of England was founded by Henry VIII. and History of Man, vol ii. § 7. has occasionally exhibited the intolerant spirit of its founder. A document truly disgraceful to the hierarchy is the long list here given of catholic priests, executed during the reign of Elizabeth, for attempting to inculcate their religion. We shall detach it. "Elizabeth having been strictly educated in the protestant faith, no sooner ascended the throne, than she publicly declared her religious opinions, and promoted Matthew Parker to the see of Canterbury, who, as metropolitan of England, displaced catholic preachers, and substituted those of the reformed religion in their places; then it was the papal fury broke into a flame; and pope dominion; Pius the Fifth issued a bull, excommuni cating the queen, and all that adhered to her, which bull was meant to inflame the minds of the people against her, and encou rage the re-establishment of popery in he English catholics were assembled at Dou for which purpose a number of to take holy orders as priests, and from thence to return to their native places, and dissem nate their dangerous principles. The cr the minds of the people in their religion and cumstance of these missionaries poisoning allegiance, caused an act to be passed, com stituting it death for any seminary priest us be found in this kingdom. The followin persons were taken, and, being convicted suffered death accordingly* : 1570, John Felton, August 8, in Paules Church yard, 1571, John Story, June 1, at Tyburne. 1578, Thomas Woodhouse, June 19, at Tyburne. 1577, Cuthbert Mayne, Nouem. 29, at Launston. John Nelson, Feb. 3, at Tyburne. 1578, Thomas Sherwood, Feb. 7. 1579, 1580. Anno 1577, in the moneth of January, was published a proclamation aga Seminary Priests and Iesuits, and for calling home the Queenes subjects from forrig Seminaries, where they remained vnder colour of studies. 1581, Euerard Hanse, July 31, at Tyburne. Edmund Campion, Alexander Bryant, Ralphie Sherwyn, Decem. 1, at Tyburne. 1582, Iohn Paine, April 2. Thomas Ford, John Shert, Robert Iohnson, May 28, at Tyburne. Thomas Cottam, William Filby, Luke Kirby, and Lawrence Johnson, May 33 at Tyburne. William Lacy, and Richard Kirkman, August 22, at Yorke. James Tompson, in Nouem. at Yorke. 1583, Richard Thirkhill, May 29, at Yorke. John Slade, Octob. 30, at Winchester. William Hart, at Yorkc. James Labourne, at Lancaster. William Carter, Jan. 11, at Tyburne. George Haddocke, lo. Mundine, Iames Fen, Thomas Emerford, and Iohn Nutte $584, James Bele, and Iohn Finch, Aprill 20, at Lancaster. Richard White, Octo. 18, at Wrixam. This yeare also were twenty-one lesuits and Seminary Priests banished Realine, Ian. 21. 1585, Thomas Aufield, and Thomas Webley, July 6, at Tyburne. Hugh Taylor, and Marmaduke Bowes, at Yorke. Margaret Clitherow, in March, at Yorke. N. Hamelton, and Rob. Bicardine, at Yorke. Edward Transam, and Nich. Woodfine, Janu. 21, at Tyburne. This yeare also were thirty-two Priests and Iesuits banished the Realme, Sep. 19. 1586, Richard Sergeant, and William Tompson, Aprill 20, at Tyburne. John Adams, Iohn Low, and Rob. Debdale, Octo. 8, at Tyburne, Rob. Anderton, and William Marsden, at Tyburne. Francis Ingleby, at Yorke. Stephen Rowsam, and Iohn Finglow, at Gloucester. 1587, Thomas Pilchard, in March, at Dorcester. Iohu Sands, in March, at Gloucester. John Hamly, in March, at Chard. Alexander Crowe, in March, at Yorke. Robert Sutton, in March, at Stafford. Edmund Sykes, Gabriell Thimbleby, and George Dowglas, in March, at Staffpr 1588, William Deane, and Henry Webley, August 28, at Myle-end-green. William Gunter, eodem die. at the Theat. Robert Morton, and Hugh More, eodem die. at Lincolns-Inne Fields. The Catalogue of Popish priests is taken from an old sheet without date. 1588, Richard Clarkson, and Thomas Felton, eodem die. at Hownslow. Rich. Leigh, Edward Shelly, Hugh Morgan, Rich. Flower, Robert Martyn, John Rocke, and Margaret Wade, Aug. 30, at Tyburne. Edward James, and Ralph Crochet, Octob. 1, at Chichester. Robert Wilcockes, Edward Campion, Christo. Buxton, and Rob. Widmerpoole, eodem die. at Canterbury. William Wigges, eodem die. at Kingston. John Robinson, eodem die. at Ipswich. John Weldon, October 5, at Mile-end-greene William Hartley, and Rich. Williams, codem die. at Halliwell. Robert Sutton, William Spencer, Edward Burdon, and lohn Hewyt, eodem die, at Clarkenwell. Reb. Ludham, Richard Simpson, and Nicholas Garlicke, at Darby. William Lampley, at Gloucester. 1589, George Nichols, Rich. Yaxley, Tho. Belson, Hu. vp Richard, July 5, at Oxford. John Annas, and Robert Dalby. Christopher Bales, March 4, in Fleet-street. Alexander Blake, eodem die. in Gr. In. lane. Nicholas Horne, eodem die. in Smithfield. 1590, Myles Gerrard, and Francis Dickinson, Aprill 30, at Rochester, Anthony Myddleton, May 6, at Clarkenwell. Edward Iones, May 6, in Fleet-street. 1591, Edmund Gennings, and Swithin Welles, Decem. 10, in Grays Inn Fields. Eustach White, Pollydor Plasden, Bryon Lacy, Iohn Mason, and Sidney Hodgson, Decem. 10, at Tyburne. Momfort Scot, and George Bisley, July 2, in Fleet-street. William Dickenson, and Ralph Milner, July 7, at Winchester. Edmund Ducke, Rich. Holiday, Ioh. Hagge, Rich. Hill, at Durham. William Pykes, at Dorcester. William Pattison, Iann. 22, at Tyburne. Tho. Portmore, Feb, 21, in Paules Church yard. This yeare also, in the moneth of Octob. was published a Proclamation against Priests and Iesuits. 1592, Roger Ashton, June 23, at Tyburne. 1593, James Burden, March 35, at Winchester. Anthony Page, Aprill 30, at Yorke. Ioseph Lampton, Iune 23, at Newcastle. William Dauis, in Septem. at Beumaris. Edward Waterson, and William Harrington, Feb. 18, at Tyburne. 1594, John Cornelius Mohum, Tho. Bosgroue, Patricke Samon, Iohn Carey, and Iohn Ingram, July 4, at Dorcester. Thomas Boast, July 4, at Newcastle. James Oldbaston. Robert Southwell, March 3, at Tyburne. 1595, Henry Walpole Alexander Rawlins, April 17, at Yorke. George Errington, William Knight, William Gibson, and Henry Abbots, at Yorke. William Freeman. 1506, N. Auleby, and N. Thorpe. 1537, lohu Buckley, alias Iones, Iuly 12, at S. Th. Wa. 1398, Thomas Snow, Christoph. Robinson, Rich. Horner, N. Grimston, and N. Britton, at Yorke. 1500, Math. Hayes, at Yorke. 1600, Christopher Wharton, with a namelesse woman, May 18, at Yorke. John Rigby, July 21, at S. Th. Wa Robert Nutter, and Edward Thwinge, in June, at Lancaster. Thomas Sprot, and Thomas Hunt, in July, at Lincolne. Thomas Palaser, Iohn Norton, and N. Talbot, eodem mense. at Durham. John Pibush, Febr. 11, at Tyburne. Roger Filcocke, Marke Barkworth, and Anne Lyne, Feb. 27, at Tyburne. 1601, Robert Middleton, and Thurstan Hunt, at Lancaster. 1002, Francis Page, Thomas Tichborne, Robert Watkinson, and Iames Ducket, Aprill 29, at Tyburne. N. Harrison, and N. Bates, in Aprill, at Yorke. Anecdotes are given of as many per- tioned in other writings known to the author. These protestant persecutions have too long been concealed or overlooked, by the collusion of episcopalians, and presbyterians. When will an ecclesiastical historian arise, unprejudiced enough to record, with equal abhorrence, the crimes of every sect and every party; and to distribute, with even-handed justice, the rare praise of learning and humanity, wherever it has been deserved? The epithet of bloody Mary, so liberally bestowed on the catholic queen, might, without much iniquity, be retaliated or the protestant heroine. She knew how to govern indeed; but the highest triumph of intellect is, in difficult times, to govern with mildness. Princes should recollect the observation of Cicero to Cæsar: that they can receive nothing greater from fortune than the power, nothing better from nature than the will, to preserve life. ART. XLVIII. A Letter to the Earl of Wycombe from Mr. Miles, on the present State Svo. pp. 86. of Ireland. SWIFT boasted that the church of England would always be found to tolerate the subordinate and hostile sects; but expressed doubts whether, in case of a reversed ascendancy, they would tolerate her. How deplorably has the example of Ireland falsified the vain vaunt of the dean: while among the presbyterians of Scotland, and among the independents of North America, the episcopalians are quietly suffered to ramify, and no mob collects to burn the houses of their ministers, no magistrate stoops to inflict a single civil disability. The fact is, that all the different sects of christianity have their several merits and excellencies, their several defects and inconveniences: but to suppose that there can be danger from any one of them to the order of society, and to the eventual happiness of mankind, is to blaspheme the founder of the religion. Spets arise by selecting peculiar passages of scripture for habitual attention: the emphatic texts of one society are insignificant phrases in another. Hence it naturally happens that some sects carry one virtue, others another, to the highest practicable eminence; and it is well that men should addict themselves to those sects, which enforce the line of conduct most adapted to their constitutional disposition. Let the man of fashion be a catholic. It is of the essence of fashion to fall in, it knows not why, with the splendid ceremonial in use among the exalted; and to place vital perfection in exterior compliance. The catholic is the form of christianity which has been found least unfavourable to the military spirit, and most indulgent to the gen teeler foibles; it patronize; the fisheries by its dietetic interference, and the fice arts, by its ostentatious delight in monuments of architecture, sculpture, and painting. But let ot the multitude be catholic. It is a religion which operates in the manner of military discipline; as to secure decency without reforming the inward man. Wherever the cath lic populace have broken loose, they have exceeded in a savage, cruel, and bloodthirsty spirit, the populace of every other sect; and they are every where more ignorant and more idle than their protestant neighbours. Calvinism, at least where it is a sect, and not, as in Scotland, an establish ment, seldom attracts the higher classes, or the very lowest class: as if some de gree of instruction and education were requisite to prepare the votary, as if a considerable degree of instruction and education unfitted him again for this form of belief. It is usually accompa nied with a punctilious easeless behavi our, the result probably of that recipro cal inspection and vigilant control devised for purposes of moral discipline, and incorporated with the constitution of their congregations. It is usually accompanied also with an apparent gloom of mind, the result perhaps of an excessive use among their teachers of terrific denunciations; but which, to a mere bystander, suggests the idea of secret remorse or worldly embarrast ment, and thus tends to affect the moral or pecuniary credit of these children of dejection. Such melancholics are apt to fly for relief to sottish..ess. The calvinists in general are seen to be indus trious, provident, continent, neat, hos pitable, but in other respects frugal, loth to military service, lovers of justice, of order, and of civil liberty. These are qualities, on the whole, desirable in the lower class of tradesmen; it seems far easier to increase their happiness than their utility. Other sects are not sufficiently numer. ous to be apprehended in the gross unitarianism is not yet vulgarized; one cannot guess whether the unitarians owe the qualities by which they are distin. guished, to their station in society, or to the operation of their favourite writers. The Italian and Polish unitarians appeared, while the sect was new, to aspire at blending the taste of the catholic with the principle of the calvinist; and at allying the splendid ritual of Rome with the simple creed of theism. But, notwithstanding the conventions of noblemen held at Vicenza and at Cracow, the unitarian party could no where attain the ascendancy, either in the dukedoms of Italy, or the republic of Poland. The educated and ambitious ranks gradually slid back through unbelief to conformity; and the multitude was classed with the fmatics of Munster, and squeezed between contempt and oppression into inactive insignificance. As socinianism 1 peculiarly the reverse of a mystical sect, it must be favourable to the evolution of the reasoning faculty, and is therefore perhaps suicidal. It seems to have died out in Holland and elsewhere, less from refutation or persecution than from internal causes. Were all these sects equally favoured by the magistrate. they would severally be embraced by the adapted converts, and prevail every where in the desirable proportions. Moral competition and general instruction is increased by the variety of sects. To such inferences Mr. Miles inclines. Any farther discussion of this subject, my lord, would lead to investigations, that t not strictly within the scope and object of This letter, which is meant for the perusal, not of those who, mistaking the semblance for the reality of religion, consider it as a piece of state machinery, but to the soberminded few, who are equally removed from the atheism of this opinion and from the bitry of sects, who regard and respect its jure unadulterated sense; who attach less consequence to the forms than to the essence of religion, and who are firmly convinced that every deviation from rectitude is crimi nal. It has been said that the church of Rome deserves expulsion by her own maxy sometimes ims; but injustice, though it may be entitled to imitation, and especially by provoke retaliation, can in no case whatever governments, which are bound in all cases to give good example, for it is their best and only preservative. The fact is, my lord, that I am ill qualified to contend with fanatics of any description; and though I am decidedly hostile to the intolerant principles and sanguinary character of the church of Rome, yet the vices, or rather the abuses of that reevident truth, that every man, the natural ligion, cannot destroy the eternal and selfborn subject of a state, subscribing to its support, that is, to the maintenance of its civil, religious, and military establishments, is by right entitled to partake of all the advantages, and ought to be eligible to all the offices of trust and emolument, belonging to that state, unless indeed he is branded by crime or imbecility, which, as I have already thinking, I am of opinion, that a catholic or observed, can alone disqualify him. Thus a presbyterian may make as good a lord mayor as a protestant; and to make religion a pretext for the exclusion of either, is to pervert, not to sustain it. It is employing it to alienate man from man, to disunite what it professes to unite, to teach us to spurn and abhor those whom we are bound to embrace and cherish. The religion that would erget insurmountable barriers between men living in the same society, but differing in speculative opinions and modes of worship, can have no other tendency than to render them irreconcileable enemies to each other, and is contrary to that charity which christianity professes to bear towards all mankind, and which is one of the very best proofs that can be advanced of its divine origin. I profess inyself to be the decided friend of religion; it is man's best consolation in this world, and fairest hope in the next: bat it must be religion; it must news ther be the semblance, nor the inockery of itş it must not be state craft on one side, nor bigotry or fanaticism' on the other; but, as I have already said, the pure unadulterated belief in a first great cause of all, accompanied by a full persuasion, and that persuasion exemplified by a conduct strictly correct towards all mankind, that every deviation from integrity is criminal. This is what I call religion, in the true and genuine sense of the word." ART. XLIX. Reflections on the Policy and Justice of an immediate Emancipation of the Catholics of Great Britain and Ireland. By the late Lord PETRE. To which are added, some Strictures on the same Subject, by the Editor. 8vo. THE dying counsels of a man so de- the good, and the wise. But the auservedly venerated as the late lord Pe- thority of his advice, and the dignity of tre, cannot fail to make a deep and his character, have been ill consulted by kisting impression, both on the great, the form of publication here given to |