that he was authorised to intimate that Lord Trimbleston would have attended on the present occasion, if family concerns of a most pressing nature had not engrossed his whole time."

A good deal of discussion took place on the question whether a new petition should be prepared, and presented to parliament, or the former petition should be brought afresh under the notice of parliament; at last after a kind of complimentary deference was paid to Lord Fingall, as far as leaving the day for calling an aggregate meeting to the nomination of his lordship-which was done in a clumsy way, an adjournment took place to the 15th of December. After the adjournment was carried, and before the company of petitioners separated, Mr. Lube, as we have stated above, introduced Mr. Curran's letter to their notice. We hope they edified by what they heard; the letter having been read at their own request.

On Thursday, Dec. 15th, a meeting of the Roman Catholics took place, not at Mr. Fitzpatrick's, but at Lord Fingall's house, where, it should appear a previous one had assembled. The former meetings, in Capel Street, were numerously attended, at this only about twenty gentie men were present. Lord Fingall (we pity him!) was in the chair. We lay before our readers a short account of what passed. Notwithstanding the gallant declarations of some of the gentlemen, we have reason to believe that but a succinct account of what passed has been suffered to transpire.

"His Lordship opened the business of the meeting, by lamenting that any report of any part of their proceedings, except the resolutions, should go forth to the public. He conceived that their communication should be confidential-that it must be a great constraint on their conversations if they should be reported and misreported in the newspapers. Many things might be said in that room not fit to be reported to the public. [Very true!] He certainly had at the last meeting, disclaimed the intercourse with Mr. Peel, which had been inferred from the unfounded report that he had sent Mr. Peel the present of a haunch of venison. He could not have done so, for he had no park, [a non-sequitur] and he did candidly admit the degree of intercourse that did exist, confined as it was to his making interest with Mr. Peel, in favour of a horse-stealer, who, in his opinion, ought not to have been punished; [was he a Papist?] in this opinion, he stood not alone, but was supported by others of the magistracy. He certainly did enter into this explanation at the last meeting→ but though he wished to vindicate himself from the report that he was on terms of courtesy with Mr. Peel, surely it could not be his desire or intention that such a disclaimer should be posted on the market cross? The Catholic mind might have been disabused on the subject of this rumour,

by the quiet and confidential diffusion of the contradiction; but when the matter was blazoned in the newspapers, it was very unpleasant to him→ because it looked as if he considered it due to the station which he held to disclaim all civility towards Mr. Peel.-Although he thought it a proper subject of private disclaimer to the Catholics, surely it would not be entire ly proper to say so in the hearing of Mr. Peel; and therefore it was a subject highly unfit for general publication-because it brought it neces sarily to the ears of Mr. Peel. His lordship, therefore, thought that the publication of the proceedings of meetings like the present, were, in truth, highly improper-because facts might transpire, and expressions escape gentlemen, higbly unfit for publication.

"Many other gentlemen followed his lordship.-They strenuously contended that they should debate with closed doors-that it was not only unnecessary, but highly improper, to open communications between their debates and the public. They could not see what the public had to do with any part of their proceedings, except their resolutions; their debates were conversations-their conversations were confidential, and should not be communicated to the public, because they might be unfit for the pub. lic. [Here is prudence, which is a virtue.]

"Mr. Shiel and Mr. O'Gorman, on other and different grounds, argued against the publication of their proceedings, except the resolutions. :

"Mr. O'Connell and Mr. Ewd. Blake insisted that the public business should be done in a public way, and was not, in any case, any matter of secresy. Although the general part of the meeting seemed to be of opinion with his lordship, no, motion was made on the subject, and the business dropped, after recommendations that there ought to be an understanding among the gentlemen, that the business there was conducted under the seal of secresy.

"It was then suggested and approved of, that Mr. Sheil should be appointed to draw up the Catholic petition.

"Mr. Sheil accepted the nomination.

"Lord Fingall said, be hoped that it would not be considered as disrespectful to Mr. Sheil, if any, other gentleman tendered the draft of a petition.

7

"Mr. O'Gorman said, certainly it could not be so understood; he had every respect for Mr. Sheil, yet he intended to draw up a petition. It was understood that the noble chairman referred to a petition in preparation by Counsellor Bellew.

"It was then proposed and carried, that a requisition for an aggregate meeting be put forth and the meeting adjourned over until the 10th of January."

We subjoin the requisition signed by Lords Fingall and Netterville, and twenty-seven gentlemen :

"We, the undersigned, request a meeting of the Catholics of Ireland on Tuesday the 24th of January, 1815, at Dublin, to take into consideration the propriety of preparing and presenting Petitions to the Legislature for the Repeal of the Penal Laws in force against us.

Signed, &c."

We shall endeavour to communicate to our readers, in a future num ber, the result of the meeting here called. The violence of the Romanists will. go near to defeat their purpose. They grossly abuse one another, and find cause for violent dissention even in trifles, such as, the question, whether there shall, be a new petition, or a renewed petition? The affair of petitioning seems to serve only as a pretence to vent their ill humour. They would be sorry if the Protestants were to form an opi nion of them by the terms which they use concerning each other. From the absence of many names which once occupied a very prominent place in their proceedings, we may safely conclude that there are several who disapprove of the requisition; and our readers may learn from the following article, printed verbatim from the Dublin Evening Post of Dec. 31st, the contemptuous and rude manner in which some of the most emiDent among them are treated :

"The Catholic Divan.

"The headless, heartless, and stationless aristocracy," have again re sumed their secret meetings. The vetoists are again preparing petitions for places. Mr. Bellew, the Castle Pensioner, has one upon the anvil; Mr. Sheil, who made a speech in opposition to Dr. Dromgole's famous resolution concerning securities: and counsellor,"-(a title by which vulgar men at the bar address each other)-" Counsellor" O'Gorman have one each!! We thought there was already one by Mr. Phillips. For our own part, we did not approve altogether of the style of that document-considered as a petition-but we know that it was highly, not to say profanely, applauded by aggregates, boards, bishops, committees of correspondence, &c. &c.; that it was applauded to the echo in all the County meetings, and that Dr. Troy himself condescended to revise it. What has become of this petition? Is it rejected on account of its style? Well, Mr. O'Gorman may amend that! Does it breathe too little of the vis vivida of a poet's mind? Our young tragedian will cure that fault. Or does it speak too emphatically against the Veto? Oh! Mr. Bellew will remove that error !

"How miserably low are the Catholics sunk by their natural leaders ! On this subject more in our next."

Our readers will probably conclude that here is quite enough.

The Roman Catholics of Cork have agreed upon a petition, not so flowery as the petition drawn by Mr. Phillips, (long since printed in the Protestant Advocate), but it sufficiently proves the intention of the Ro manists, in Ireland at least, to renew their application to parliament; Cork has done that on which Dublin as yet deliberates, if there can be any deliberation, properly so called, in violence.-We annex the Cork petition:

"Cork Catholics.

"A meeting of the gentlemen appointed to prepare and forward the petitions of the Roman Catholics of the county and city of Cork, was held this day, pursuant to public requisition, in the Crown Tavern. The following is addressed to the Commons-that to the Lords is the same, with the exception of a few words :

"To the Right Honourable and Honourable the Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled:

"The Humble Petition of the Roman Catholics of the County and City of Cork.

"Most humbly sheweth,-That your petitioners are excluded from the enjoyment of the free constitution of these realms, and that they are subjected to the endurance of such exclusion, not on account of any im. puted deficiency of disposition or of ability in the service of the crown or support of the state, but solely on account of their conscientious adherence to that religion, which was professed by those princes and patriots of Great Britain, who originated and matured her justly boasted constitution. [This was done at the era of the revolution.]

"That your petitioners again implore this honourable house to grant to them the redress of the oppressive grievance, of which they so justly complain, and to restore them to the full and unrestricted enjoyment of the rank of free subjects of the empire. And your petitioners will ever pray, &c."

Here, for the present, we must conclude our account of the proceedings adopted by the petitioners.

LIST OF PROTESTANT PUBLICATIONS, &c.

(See page 66.)

35. A Comparative View of the Churches of England and Rome. By Herbert Marsh, D. D. F. R. S. Margaret Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge. Rivingtons.

We have often expressed our surprise that the Papists should intermed dle in disputes which little concern them, or hazard remarks on authors and opinions on subjects, without considering the risks which they run, and the re-action which they excite. They exhibit the virulence of the serpent without any of its wisdom. That infallibility claimed by the church of Rome, most certainly is not found in its advocates and parti zans. Their characteristics are frivolity, fallacy, and folly. Seemingly forgetful of the mortifying defeats which Popery has repeatedly suffered, and in all its forms, ever since the era of the reformation, they appear to court fresh disaster and multiplied disgrace. Can they be actuated by a fanatical spirit? Do they attach merit to literary martyrdom? Does the Romish church canonize its dunces? Why, really, something like this seems to be the fact; as may appear if any one will consider how the double-named Dolman and others of that class, continue to be admired, talked of, and quoted by Popish scribblers, panting after "everlasting fame" of the same sort. The exploded doctrines which they once attempted to maintain are still spoken of as unshaken, though they have been "blown at the moon" long ago, with

and their authors and quondam assertors are only to be found in the Po pish elysium

"A limbo large and broad,

The Paradise of Fools."

Mr. Gandolphy and Mr. Andrews (whose cowl is capacious enough to conceal several faces under one hood) seem "" probationers" for admittance into this realm of fancied bliss; the former is in a fair way of arriving at it by a whirl from the vigorous arm of professor Marsh, and it shall go hard but (with the help of our friend Indagator) we shall send