sums assigned as an indemnity are discharged. She retains permanently no increase of territory, but the recognition of Greece, as an independent State, is said to form part of the treaty, though nothing certain on that subject seems to be known. It is thought that all the country to the South of a line joining Vola and Arta is to be set free, including thus Boetia, (Phocis, Loerio, and Attica, besides the Morea; but this, as well as the form of government that is intended to be assigned, is but conjecture. We rejoice most sincerely at the termination of hostilities. War with the Ottomans is war in its worst shape, and always is accompanied by acts of violence against the Christian subjects of the Porte that aggravate its horrors peculiarly. The Sultan himself who has been forced to yield to circumstances, stands but an indifferent chance of being fairly estimated. His judgment in venturing on reform to such an extent, at such a moment may, perhaps, be questioned; but that a reform was essential, if his power were to be preserved, is obvious, and had time been allowed for the new discipline to be perfected, it is possible the Russians might not have forced conquest so easy. In the result of the war we may rejoice as it must facilitate European communication, as it delivers Greece, the country of early and of interesting association, from the grasp of Asiatic despotism; and as it affords additional opening to the preaching of the Gospel, and the circulation of the Scriptures in Mahomedan countries. It is said that our government has taken umbrage at some part of the treaty. Our state at home continues to be one of outrage and violence, of faction and party, without object or prize; and no very active measures seem to be taken by government to repress or punish. A want of firmness and consistency seems to be the besetting sin of Irish administration, and assuredly the present is not a time when such is permissible or was to be expected. The most interesting circumstance that has recently occurred, is a meeting in Cork, presided over by Lord Mountcashel, for the purpose of petitioning Parliament, with respect to the alleged abuses existing in the Established Church. This meeting induced the Bishop of Ferns to address a letter to his Lordship which provoked a reply, where the correspondence rests. To the meeting itself we have several objections; it seems to have been uncalled for, as it is generally believed that government has determined to form a com mission for the very purpose of examining the Established Church; it was ill-timed, when faction and party were by every artifice endeavouring to hunt down the Church; it was distinguished for the violent and exaggerated statements of the noble chairman and others, on a subject on which exaggeration is particularly dangerous; and as the chairman, and some of the principal promoters of the meeting have co-operated with the religious Societies in Ireland, there will not be wanting many to identify the friends of Evangelical religion with hostility to the church. We completely acquit the promoters of the meeting of such views; but we think, if they had taken time to examine a little into facts, they would have found their labour unnecessary and uncalled for, and therefore pernicious; they would have found that the very subjects on which they descanted, had been brought before the very persons most competent to examine, and soberly to reform them; and that the exertions of the Primate and Bishops of the Church of Ireland are gradually, and therefore safely producing the very effects the meeting aimed at; but which, if accelerated from without, might lead not to reform but revolution; they would bave found, that some of the measures complained of, are essential to the very nature of an establishment, and form part of the price we pay for it, and that others have yielded, or are yielding to the influence of public opinion and Christian feeling. To say that there are abuses in the Established Church, is to say that it is administered by men, and claims no infallibility; but he must have closed his eyes to facts familiar to the world, or be very ambitious of platform fame, who will deny the increasing purity of the Church, and zeal of its ministers, or will accuse such a body for the alleged offences of a few of its members. We offer no opinion on the prudence of the Bishop's letter to Lord M. or on his defence of the Church. We have, for our own parts, no fear of a repetition of the scenes of the reign of the unfortunate Charles, since civil and religious liberty constitute the very atmosphere we breathe; and we trust that the strong symptoms that prevail of public surveillance as to the affairs of the Church, will produce a corresponding anxiety on the part of those who are its ministers, to acquit themselves, not as men-pleasers, but as servants of the living God. Address to the Temperate, &c. The Amulet-The Iris. Jubilee Address of the Bishops. Extracts from the Roman Breviary. DOMESTIC RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE HURST, CHANCE, AND CO. LONDON. SOLD ALSO BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. Printed by P. D. Hardy (late Bentham and Hardy). NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. Our friend from Sligo in our next. We have received the communications of "W. E.;" and he shall hear from us. "Senex" and the "Day at Clonmacnois," in our next. We had intended inserting "J. D. S." in the present number, but by accident it was mislaid, nor did we recover it until too late for insertion. We have received "Y, N."—we cannot venture to promise what he requests, but if circumstances allow, he shall hear from us. His second article shall be inserted. We have for some time avoided presenting our readers with any observations on the state of religion in Ireland, because we were desirous of ascertaining, if possible, the probable effects of the late important political movement, on those subjects in which, we confess, our feelings are engaged. We do not say that the prospect afforded is distinct, or that the political and moral atmosphere permits an extensive vision; but we have, at least, obtained a resting place whence we may cast our glances backwards, may see how much has been gained during the progress of the year, and may send out our thoughts and wishes to the time when strife and dissension shall be no more, when in the extension of the Gospel and its blessings, that peace shall be enjoyed, which is the foretaste, the antepast of the Lord's "rest." We know and feel the gloom that surrounds equally our speculations and our labours; we can scarcely point out a single portion of the year that is elapsing, on which the eye of the Christian and the Philanthropist may rest with pleasure; we trace but the old and aggravated tale of Ireland's miseries through the year, from the faction that accelerated the late important legislative interference, to the atrocious system of selfish violence which has counteracted its promised utilities, and involved its progress in blood and horror. We know, too, the evil spirits that are at work amidst the disordered elements, from whose turbid agitation they receive all the importance and vivacity of which they are capable; nor can we wonder that they, whose prosperity and elevation are connected with the perpetuating of discord, should seek to impede that union of feeling and exertion, from which alone the true prosperity of Ireland can be derived. It was not, indeed, to be expected, that centuries of misrule and discord should pass away without leaving some traces, or that the foul spirits who have been permitted so long to disturb our soil, would surrender their dominion without a strug VOL. IX. 3 F gle whether the important measures that received the sanction of the Legislature, have a tendency to good or to evil, it is not our province to say; but in the present violent state of the country, we trace only the operation of the causes, that have long disturbed the peace of Ireland; the hatred, because the fear of Protestantism and information, that actuates the priest and the demagogue, and the result of those principles that have been held up to the disordered imagination of the people by their leaders, who have dared to devise the evil which personal apprehension has prevented them from reducing to practice. The natural indignation of one party, and the senseless exultation of another, must have been expected to agitate the country for some time, and to produce the usual effects that strong passions generate in their operation on undisciplined minds. How these bave affected the social comfort of the country, it is unnecessary to say: from the feelings which in the early part of the year marshalled the population each against his fellow in fearful array, to the late atrocious discoveries which exemplify by the unerring tests of conspiracy and blood, the degraded moral state of the lower orders of our country. None who are interested in Irish politics, but have observed the awful progress of events; and none possessed of common sense or common feeling, but have lamented the want of a more firm and restraining government; but have wondered at the infatuation that would seek to govern Tipperary as Gloucestershire is governed. Censure, however, or speculation on those points, is not our province; we leave them to those who have examined the bearings of the question, and would direct our attention singly to the progress of religion in Ireland, and to the effects on education which have been produced by the temper equally of Protestants and Romanists. We have never yielded to the feelings that have influenced many of our friends, feelings of despondency and gloom, and we confess for our own part, that we fancy we can trace even in the distress and discord that surround us, much that is consolatory; that we can perceive the elements of a new creation in the very chaos that is now tossed in wild and agitated confusion, and can believe that though behind us and around us are desolation and waste, before us is "the garden of the Lord." In the course of this article we shall point out some of the reasons on which we ground our opinions, and would now take a brief view of what is the present aspect of the religious exertions in Ireland. Our first observation is one of censure and regret ;- -we have fre quently bore testimony to the importance of the Roman Catholic controversy; we have, ourselves, sustained no inconsiderable share in the discussion, and have rejoiced for years to witness the strong and energetic manner in which the Protestants of Ireland came forward to testify to the truth. We know the utility of carrying on this controversy in a feeling of love and charity, without compromise and without asperity, and we believe that to the discussion meetings and the inquiries consequent upon them, the spirit that has been excited in Ireland is mainly to be traced. With these considerations on our |