ceedingly attached; and that any restraint laid upon them in regard to this, would only retard, instead of advancing a change of their ideas respecting religious matters. By degrees the old priests drop off, and a few years will furnish the province with a clergy entirely Canadian. This could not be effected without some person here exercising episcopal functions; and the allowance of a coadjutor will prevent the bishop being obliged to cross the seas for consecration, and holding personal communication with those who may not possess the most friendly dispositions for the British interests."

(12)-Extract of a Letter from Lord Dartmouth to Lieutenant Governor Cramahe; dated Whitehall, 1st December 1773.

"You may be assured that I will not fail in this consideration, to urge the justice and expediency of giving all possible satisfaction to the new subjects, on the head of religion; and to endeavour that the arrangements with regard to that important part of their interests — on such a foundation, that all foreign jurisdiction be excluded; and that those professing the religion of the church of Rome, may find within the colony a 'resource for every thing essential to the free exercise of it, in the true spirit of the treaty."

Translation of a Letter from Don Luis de Cunha to the Nuncio, dated 27th August 1770.

"His Majesty has been pleased to order, that the briefs which your Excellency transmitted to me, should pass through the usual examination and on their contents, he has commanded me to acquaint your Excellency, in his royal name, that, being perfectly aware it neither is, nor can be, the intention of his Holiness to alter and pervert the laws, laudable customs, and privileges of THESE KINGDOMS,* or that, from the

Here is a complete reservation of the constitutional rights and sovereign immunities of the kingdom of Portugal.-The Pope's Briefs are transmitted to the minister of state, who examines them; gives sundry cautions to the Nuncio; guards against abuses; and, after requiring a written answer from the Pope's minister, (expressing, doubtless, his recognition of the salvos and provisos here laid down) informs his Holiness's functionary that HE will deliver the Briefs, thus guardedly recognized,, to the person who shall be sent for them. What a clamour would conduct like this on the part of the government have excited in Ireland! What an impeachment of inroads on religious liberties, and the rights of the Catholic church, would this have excited! But after all, of what value are constitutional rights if they be not maintained? if foreign authorities be permitted to invade them, or subjects intrench upon them at the instance

powers granted to the apostolic nuncios, should arise any thing that might disturb the public tranquillity, or be detrimental to the interests and the welfare of his Majesty's subjects, and to the good administration of justice,

"His Majesty therefore desires, that your Excellency do not exceed these just limits of the powers with which you are invested; and also do abstain from any thing that may be contrary to the above-mentioned laws, laudable customs, and privileges, as well as from whatever abuses may have been introduced against them. Your Excellency will also keep în mind, that the judges of the crown will take cognizance of every thing which your Excellency may practise, or allow to be practised, contrary to the laws of his Majesty: and further, that in those cases in which appeals may be laid before his Majesty, the prosecution of the suits is to be suspended, and the original evidences transmitted to the said judges, that they may decide whether any violation or abuse has taken place in said suits, and also whether the laws, customs, and privileges of this kingdom have been faithfully observed.

"I am particularly desired to acquaint your Excellency, that you are not to visit the cathedrals, nor take cognizance of any thing appertaining thereunto in the first instance, nor allow the judges and officers of the legation to make any exorbitant charges, but merely those which are customary to be made in the courts of auditorship of this metropolis; nor ought the fees in verdicts respecting matters of justice and grace to be more than those which are legally established; thus avoiding all cause of complaint and scandal, which his Majesty is perfectly aware would be derogatory to your Excellency's character, and to the orders you have received.

"His Majesty further commands me to acquaint your Excellency, that you should appoint a person to fill the office of national promoter, as has always been the custom; his Majesty, also, cannot but praise the wise resolution he knows your Excellency has taken, of choosing for the lega tion men of talents, experience, and integrity; by which means the inferior prelates will not be hurt, or complain at their decisions being revoked, by men who do not possess these requisite qualifications. His Majesty also acquaints your Excellency (as one of those cases which most frequently happen) that the religious members are in the habit of appealing to the court of nunciature, in order to frustrate the correction of

of foreign authorities to which they have sworn, or conceive their duty to yield a pasLive obedience?-We beg to refer our readers to the letter of CHILLINGWORTH in our twenty-fifth number, and that of CRITO in our last.

their superiors, and withdraw themselves from that obedience which they owe to them, demanding, without any just cause, actions, exemptions, permissions, grants, licences, &c. from whence result (as long experience has dearly proved) the greatest disorders, relaxations of their regular institutes, disturbances in the communities, and scandal to the people abroad of all these circumstances his Majesty informs your Excellency, that it should come to your knowledge that it is his pleasure your Excellency do not decide or judge of any thing which may concern matters respecting the economical government of the regular communities of both sexes within their respective cloisters, nor admit any appeal from them in any degree whatever; and in conformity thereunto, his Majesty has already acquainted all the superior prelates, in order that they might know it and fulfil it, as also enjoin it to all under their jurisdiction.

"Not only the enlightened spirit with which his Holiness has edified the whole universe, by separating the most holy rights of apostolic supremacy from his supreme power, which God has made distinct, in order to establish thereupon the reciprocal union of the altar and the throne, and with it the perpetual peace of the church, and the public tranquillity of those kings and states, who are devout sons of so holy and revered a mother; but also the great confidence the King places in the well known talents and worthy intentions of your Excellency, make his Majesty hope your Excellency will always act in such a manner as to call forth his praise; and that your Excellency may experience the most repeated effects of the profound veneration and respect which his Majesty entertains for his Holiness and the apostolic faith, and of the great esteem in which he holds the person of your Excellency, not only for the dignity of your public character, but also for the distinguished qualities and commendable virtues that so highly adorn your Excellency.

"Your Excellency will be pleased to favour me with an answer in writing to what is herein contained; and on receipt of which I will deliver the Briefs now in my hands to the person whom your Excellency may send to receive them; in the meanwhile I make a tender of my services in the most ready and willing manner. May God take your Excellency in his holy keeping!

"Most illustrious and most reverend Sir,

"B. of maos, &c. &c.

"Court, 27 Aug. 1770."

"D. L. DE CUNHA."

MELANCTHON'S FIFTEENTH LETTER.

Considerations on Popery, with respect to the Test-Laws.

In the middle ages, a nation or sept of people, called Assassinians, or Assassins, inhabited a large tract of country contiguous to Tyre in Phanicia; and they always elected their king, or chieftain, who was called the Old Man of the Mountain. He used to extort large sums of money (by a system of terror), even from sovereign princes, who became tributary to him lest they should lose their lives, or, to use a term then first coined, but now become familiar, should be assassinated; for he procured such persons to be murdered as refused to comply with his demands, and Lewis of Bavaria fell a victim to his bloody decrees in the 13th century. For the accomplishment of his purposes, he kept in readiness a numerous body of young men, trained in the work of death, who were bound, and always ready, to execute his orders, how desperate soever. The reader will find a full account of this sept, and of their proceedings, in William of Tyre's History of the East, lib. 20; in Joinville's Memoirs, c. 56; in Sponde's History, A. D. 1231 and 1257; and in the life of Saint Lewis by the Abbé Choisi.

:

The bishops of Rome, after they had usurped a supremacy in the church, improved this system, for they could deprive of their thrones and their lives any sovereign princes who hesitated to embrace their opinions, or yield prompt obedience to their demands; by which dreadful means they made many states tributary to them and instead of being under the necessity of sending special messengers and ministers of desstruction to carry their designs into effect, like the Old Man of the Mountain, they had an army formed in the bosom of every state, through the instrumentality of the clergy, who were bound by an oath of unlimited fidelity to the Pope, and assumed a power of transferring to him the allegiance of all subjects from their respective sovereigns, against whom they could incite them to rebel, whenever they hesitated to obey his Holiness's commands—an act of disobedience which assuredly fastened on them the appellation of heretics. The sovereign Pontiff was not only empowered, but commanded to dethrone such princes, by absolving their subjects from their oaths of allegiance, and by commanding them to rise in arms against them, by virtue of sundry canons of their church, which are regarded as bearing the stamp of infallibility. In consequence of

A full account of the Papal supremacy usurped by Gregory VII. in the year 1073, is to be found in page 548 of Vol. II,

The reader will find this system described in Sir Richard Musgrave's account of the doctrines and hierarchy of the Romish church, from p. 40 to p. 45 of this volume.

such denunciations of the Popes, Henry III, king of France, was murdered by Clement, a friar, one of his own subjects, in the year 1588, and his successor, Henry IV. was assassinated in the year 1609.*

The states general of France, assembled in the year 1613, alarmed at the effects of such monstrous and nefarious powers of the Pope, which produced the murder of two successive monarchs, and lamenting the death of that amiable prince Henry IV. esteemed the father of his people, determined to condemn them for ever, and prevent them from ever troubling the realm in all time to come. The commons, therefore, resolved unanimously, that it should be proclaimed and established, as a fundamental law of the nation, that no person on earth, either spiritual or temporal, had a right to deprive the king of his crown, or to absolve his subjects from their oaths of allegiance, on any pretence whatsoever : that all Frenchmen should hold that law as sacred, founded in truth, and conformable to the word of God; and that, in future, an oath to observe it should be taken by the deputies of the States-general, by all persons holding any civil offices or ecclesiastical benefices under the state, and by ali preceptors, regents, doctors, and preachers; and it was resolved, also, that the contrary opinion should be declared false, impious, detestable, and contrary to the establishment of the French monarchy: that all books which taught that pernicious doctrine should be considered as seditious and damnable; and that all such of the king's subjects as should espouse it, of whatever rank or condition, should be punished as rebels or traitors. The very day after this wise law had passed the commons, the chamber of the clergy resounded with exclamations of "all is lost, some wicked heretics have obtained admission into the assembly, in order to overthrow our religion." The Cardinal de Saurdis and Rochefoucault were sent to the King and the Queen-mother, "to represent the danger to which the Catholic religion was exposed, by a powerful cabal formed against it, in the Tiers-Etat." In short, the clergy prevailed on the court and the assembly of the nobles to reject this salutary law; and their triumph was so great, and their rancour such, that they persuaded the court to imprison the person who printed it at the instance of the commons. The joy of Pope Paul V. was extravagant on the occasion, for he sent two Briefs to the nobility and clergy, in which he praised "their zeal, wisdom, and piety, for the warm interest which they had taken in the cause of religion and the holy see !" The reader will find all this detailed in the second volume of Le Vassor's History of Lewis XIII. Villiers, in

The reader will find a circumstantial relation of the assassination of these monarchs, and of the Papal Bulls by which it was effected, in p. 93.