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tion of the congregation of secular priests of the Oratory, in the church of St. Mary, at Valicella de Urbe, or as it is commonly called of St. Philip of Neræa; he granted the said regulars the permission of passing into any other order, forbid the farther admission of novices; and the administration of the vows to the novices already received. And, lastly, he transferred to the ordinaries all the superiority and jurisdiction which had heretofore been vested in the minister general, the visitors, and superiors. And these dispositions had their full eflect for some years; till at last the Holy See, convinced of the utility of this institution, recalled it to its first form, re-ordained the ancient solemn vows, and reinstated it as a fixed regular order.

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By another Brief of the 29th of October 1650, this same Innocent X. totally suppressed the order of St. Basilicus of the Armenians; and that on the same account of dissentions and troubles arisen therein, he invested the Ordinaries with full power and authority over the members of the orders thus suppressed, commanding them to take the dress of the secular clergy, and assigning them annuities out of the revenues of the suppressed convents, granting withal the permission to enter into such other orders as they should see fit.

"The same Innocent X. having considered that no spi:itual advantages could be derived from the regular congregation of the Priests of the good Jesus, did, by another brief of the 22d of June 1651, abolish the same for ever. He submitted the said regulars to the jurisdiction of their Ordinary, assigned them a convenient portion of the revenues of the congregation, permitting them to enter into any other approved order, and reserving to himself the disposition of the goods of the said congregation, to be applied as he should see fit to works of piety.

"Lastly, Clement IX. our predecessor, of blessed memory, having considered that the three regular orders of the regular canons of Saint Gregory in Alga, of the Jeromites of Fiesole, and of the Jesuits instituted by St. Colombanus, were of no further use to the Christian world, and that no hopes remained of rendering them hereafter useful, resolved to abolish them, and did actually do so, by his Brief, bearing date the 6th of December, 1668. With regard to their goods and revenues, which were very considerable, at the request of the republic of Venice, he assigned them for the carrying on the war of Candia against the Turks.

"Our predecessors, in taking and executing these resolutious, have very wisely preferred this method to all others; they regarded it as the only one calculated to calm the agitation of men's minds, and to stifle the spirit of party and dissention. They, therefore, avoided the slow and

fallible method of proceeding in ordinary contestations before the courts of justice, contenting themselves to follow the laws of prudence, and relying wholly on that plenitude of power which they possessed in so eminent a degree as vicars of Christ upon earth, and as sovereign moderators of the Christian republic; they executed all these changes without giving the regular orders, which they proposed to suppress, the faculty of producing any arguments in their defence, or of clearing themselves from the heavy accusations brought against them, or of opposing the powerful motives by which the holy Pontiffs were induced to take such resolutions.

(To be continued.)

CANADIAN INSTRUCTIONS AND OTHER PAPERS MOVED FOR BY SIR JOHN COXE HIPPESLEY.

HAVING NOW obtained a copy of these papers as laid before the House of Commons, we recur to them with no small degree of satisfaction, as enabling us not only to give our readers more certain and ample informa tion, but also more distinctly as well as fully to expose the wilful (for it must have been most deliberately wilful) falsehood of the attacks made upon our government in respect of these instructions. We are thus also again called upon to press (what can never be too much pressed) upon our readers, the indispensable necessity of taking whatever comes from the pen of a Roman Catholic, when arguing in support of his religion, with the utmost caution; and to believe, or admit, nothing for which the clearest authority is not vouched.

We find indeed that what we stated as our belief, has turned out to be the exact truth, that these instructions are no other than such as have been sent to all our governors in succession, ever since Canada became a British province. We gave reasonable proof of this from the act of parliament of 1774, which (after reciting the act of Elizabeth respecting the supremacy of the crown) in granting to the Romish clergy their dues and rights with respect to their own people, recognized and reserved to his Majesty his right to make provision for a Protestant clergy. We added to this the act of 1791, referring and giving the force of a law to certain instructions issued to Sir Guy Carleton in 1775; which instructions being, as far as they were recited, the same as those issued to Sir George Prevost, we concluded that this was the case with the rest of them. Still it was possible that Mr. Eusebius Andrews might not have been aware of this: he might, purposely perhaps, have forborne to make such inquiries as

must have satisfied him; he might have wished rather to lay hold of what prima facie gave him a handle for railing. This would have been bad enough; because, where a man makes direct and positive assertions for the purpose of inculpating others, he is bound to take the due means of informing himself and as it was notorious that acts of parliament had passed regulating and modelling the province in question, it was obvious that these at least ought to be consulted. But how stands the case on the inspection of these very papers on which the accusation is grounded? Why, it is no longer a case of bare negligence however wilful, but of absolute and meditated falsehood: for immediately before these instructions to Sir George Prevost issued in 1811, stand the instructions [see below A. No. IV. p. 25 of the papers.] issued precisely in the same terms to General Carleton on the 3d of January 1775; that is, near forty years before. At the time therefore that this gentleman, whoever he may be, was imputing as a crime to our present government the sending out of arbitrary regulations to serve a particular purpose, he must have known that nothing of the kind could have been intended; that merely old forms had been followed; and the order of things continued which had been acquiesced in without a murmur for a much longer time than is sufficient to give a man a legal title to his estate. He was therefore, as we repeat, deliberately and knowingly misleading his readers.

We now give our readers these instructions at large, not merely for the purpose of establishing this fact; but as it is a clear instance of our sovereign's exercising that ecclesiastical supremacy which is vested in him by the laws of the realm; and exercising it without contradiction, or even protest, either on the part of the Canadians, or the King of France, or the Pope himself. But this is not all. Though we cannot shew that precisely the same regulations in terms had been established in Canada previously to 1775, and probably it was only then that the privy council had come to a precise determination on the subject; yet it appears from these papers that ever since the treaty of Paris, that is, from the year 1763, the supremacy of the king in ecclesiastical matters had been asserted and acted upon as substantially and in as high a tone as can be discovered in these famous instructions of 1775 and 1811.-Some of the documents which prove this we shall subjoin; and one of them (a letter of Lord Egrement to Governor Murray, dated 13th August, 1763,) [B. No. 1, 2, 3, 4, pp. 19, 20, of the papers,] will further supply us with a decisive contradiction to any insinuation which may be made (as some such has been made) of a secret article in the treaty of Paris, securing to the Canadians the free exercise of their religion, as fully as be fore they became British subjects. It appears from Lord Egremont's let

ter, that this was what the French ministers very much insisted upon; but could not obtain; the matter was put beyond all doubt; it was clearly understood,"-they were plainly told, that it could not be.

The first article [C. No. 1, 2, 3, 4, pp. 19, 20,] is remarkable as being the judgment of Roman Catholics themselves upon the point. In a memorial of the Dean and Chapter of Quebec; they state first, that the King of France had the nomination of the Bishop of Quebec; that from thenceforth there might be either a vicar-general to supply his place, or a bishop in partibus; [such as Dr. Milner and his colleagues here are]; but they observe that such a bishop, being subject to a foreign power, and dependent upon it for the exercise of his office, might become suspected, and occasion some uneasiness; and therefore they propose that the bishop should be elected by the chapter.

Neither of those proposals, however, as our readers know, was allowed; Mons. Olivier Bryant was nominated by his Majesty, after repeated testimonies of his good disposition: which however, such is the contaminating and poisonous nature of that absolute dominion which the Romish bishops affect, he did not long preserve. We have in the same letter, [D. No. 3, p. 20, see this under letter C.] which recommends him, a strong instance of bigotry and violence in a Mons. Montgolfier, vicargeneral of Montreal, who, we presume, was not suffered to return to the province.

In the correspondence between Lieut. Governor Cramahé and Lord Dartmouth [E. No. 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12, pp. 22, 23,] will be seen with what extreme jealousy our government has constantly watched the exercise of ecclesiastical functions, by the Romish clergy in that province; and upon what grounds the system of coadjutors was first introduced, and appears to be still continued there a measure, the policy of which appears to us now not to be so questionable as we once thought it.

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Throughout all this the reader will perceive the Canadians not only acquiescing in this exercise of the royal authority, but shewing themselves happy and contented under it. Indeed such is the nature of the Papal tyranny, and so hard does it press upon even its most willing votaries, that the people in every country and at all times, cannot but think themselves fortunate whenever they can have the arm of the state extended for their protection ;-whenever they can, they even solicit it. Of this wè shall be able to shew a remarkable instance in certain transactions at Bombay, likewise laid before parliament and printed by order of the House of Commons (13th July last). For the present we shall confine ourselves to the proofs afforded by those papers more immediately under our consideration; forming a body of evidence corroborating all that we have ad

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vanced respecting the legitimacy of that control which the king is intitled to exercise in all ecclesiastical matters, as far as the safety of the state may be affected by them. They shew also that both the people have expressly recognized this doctrine, and, as far as acquiescence (tacit indeed but complete acquiescence,) can go, the Pope himself has recognized it : and that Romish bishops and clergy have without a murmur conformed to it. And this will enable our readers to appreciate, what we trust every well disposed subject has long felt, the total want of foundation, nay, the monstrous hypocrisy of the clamour which has been raised by what was called the Catholic Board in Ireland, and by Dr.Milner and his few myrmidons in England, as if any interference by a Protestant sovereign in the nomination of their bishops, or the regulation of their ecclesiastical con cerns, were not hing less than impiety. We here see not only the King of Prussia exercising this authority in the most ample degree, limiting and directing the manner in which every officer in that church shall discharge his functions, nominating to bishoprics, and all the higher benefices; but we see it in the instance of our own sovereign as well in Canada, as in Malta: in the latter place, as in the former, not admitting any Papal Bull to have any effect, until expressly approved of by the British government at home: and even then disposing of the revenues of the Bishop in such manner as it deems most expedient. All this, again we repeat it, without any sort of opposition or even objection on the part of the Pope. We see this also take place in Bombay in a remarkable manner by our Court of Directors transferring the ecclesiastical jurisdiction from one of their bishops to another; and we shall show this to have taken place after due deliberation and an express application of the people themselves.

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We might have instanced further what takes place in Russia, where the late empress did not suffer the establishment of the archiepiscopal see of Mohilow, without providing in the most effectual manner for her retaining the complete control of all its proceedings.*

We say little, though we subjoin it, as to the letter of D. L. de Cunha to the Pope's Nuncio, dated Aug. 27th, 1770 (F. Papers, p. 4,]; or that of the King of Portugal to the Cardinal Patriarch, dated 23d of Aug. 1770; because some persons may fancy that there is much difference in the case of a king in communion with the Pope, and one that is not: but in truth it would be a mere distinction without a difference;

*This may be seen in the notes to the substance of Sir J. C. Hippesley's speech of April 24th, 1812; (p. 85 of the notes ;) ani we beg to refer to the excellent observa tions of CRITO in our last number.

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