"The Virgin Mary having been elevated to the dignity of Mother of the King of Kings, the Holy Catholic Church gives her the title of Queen, and wishes that all her children should salute her in that quality. If the Son be the King,' says St. Athanasius, why should not the Mother be Queen?' "From the moment that Mary consented to become the Mother of God,' says St. Bernardine, of Sienna, 'she merited to receive sovereignty over all creatures.' 'Mary and Jesus having but one and the same flesh,' says St. Arnaud, Abbot, why should not the Mother enjoy, conjointly with the Son, the honours of royalty?' Mary is then Queen of the universe, since Jesus is its King: thus,' as St. Bernardine again observes, 6 as many creatures as obey God, so many obey the glorious Virgin. Everything in heaven and on earth, which is subject to God, is also under the empire of His most holy Mother.' 'Reign, O Mary,' says the Abbot of Guerick, 'dispose at pleasure of the goods of your Son; power and dominion belong to the Mother and Spouse of the King of kings.'"

Again, p. 144: "Mary is called the gate of heaven, because no one enters this blessed abode without first passing through her." "As Chris

tians are the mystical body of the man Jesus Christ, all the graces of the spiritual life which flow from the head, are transmitted by Mary."

Mariolatry is that form of false worship which is most frequently and awfully to be met with in this country: the above are specimens. Others may be taken from another manual of Romish devotions, printed likewise in Dublin, in the year 1845. It is entitled, "The Way of Salvation," and consists of meditations for every day in the year. It is also a translation from the Italian of St. Liguori, by the Rev. James Jones. The following brief extracts from this volume may suffice :

"O most holy Mary, since you dispense so many favours to those who ask for them, I beseech you to impart to me your profound humility. You esteem yourself as nothing before God; but I am worse than nothing, for I am nothing and a sinner. You can make me humble. Make me such by your holy intercession, for the love of that God who made you His Mother.

"Never, O most blessed Lady, be unmindful of me, your poor servant, who loves you, and relies so much upon you. Your prayers are all heard by Almighty God, who loves you so much. Holy

Mary, pray to Him for me, and make me holy." (P. 344.)

Again: "While Mary is appointed Queen of the universe, she is also appointed our advocate." (P. 346.)

To multiply quotations such as these were as revolting to spiritual feeling as it were needless. To bring before English readers extracts from Irish "Manuals " and "Paths to Paradise," and such like, is a task from which the writer feels himself prohibited by the limits of such a paper as the present, and he is thankful for it. If the above specimens, taken nearly at random from treatises which are considered as the very gems of Irish Catholic popular theology, be not pronounced and felt to be idolatrous, even to blasphemy, further samples of the same school would hardly avail in proof of the position here made.

Of all the acknowledged evils which afflict this unhappy country, one is perhaps paramount; and that is the utter insecurity of life. Ireland is, at this moment, suffering most severely from the judgment of God: two of his sore judgments are being poured out on her,famine and pestilence. God alone knows when or where they may be stayed. It were presumptuous to utter absolute declarations as to the moving cause of these tokens of divine displeasure; but it is equally rebellious and presumptuous to refuse to "hear the rod, and Him who hath sent it," when causes of his righteous indignation, even on a national scale of magnitude, are manifest. Is it not then notorious, that the annals of Ireland, now for several years, especially in her southern, midland, and western counties, have been written in blood? Ministers of the Gospel have dyed the soil with their blood. The

The

writer of these lines can recollect the shudder of feeling which passed over him, when the spot was pointed to him where the devoted Christian Minister, Mr. Whitty, was stoned to death, whose only crime was preaching and living Christ, on his return from an errand of mercy to a dying parishioner. blood of Ireland's nobility dyes her sod; her Magistrates have been murdered in open day. Unlike, perhaps, any region on earth, the murderer boldly advances amid day-light, and surrounded by a gazing population, to execute his deed of blood he steadies his hand, in taking the murderous aim, on the wall of the farm-yard, and walks off, unmolested by the spectators of his foul deed. But a few months ago there was a large attendance of the gentry and peasantry in one

of our county court-houses, to devise means for providing against approaching famine. Various causes for the calamity were assigned, when suddenly a voice was heard from the extremity of the building. It came from a frieze-coated peasant; and with deep emotion he proclaimed, that blood, unatoned blood, was the cause of the plague. Yeoman and noble grew pale and remained silent, Romish Priest and resident landlord alike were dumb, doubtless from varying emotions; but the silence of all proclaimed, more audibly than words could do, that the man spoke the truth.

Perhaps this man was one of the many Irish peasants who have been guilty of the sin (as Rome and her emissaries account it) of reading the word of God. Yes, let it be told and heard by Englishmen, that to open the page of God's blessed book, to read, to possess it, is all but certain death in many parts of Ireland. Among her many martyrs in late years, none have been called to testify to the death more frequently than those who rejoiced to do so for possessing and reading the Holy Scriptures of truth.

Some may ask, What has this to do with Romanism in Ireland? Much, it may be answered; and the reply will be believed by those who have prayerfully compared that system with the prophetic description of it, given by the Apostle, who has symbolized Rome in these words, Rev. xvii. 5, 6: "Upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots, and abominations of the earth. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus."

The writer had a personal opportunity, not long ago, of witnessing some of the doings and sayings of Popery in Ireland under a rather new aspect. It was in the spring Assizes of 1845, in the county town of Kerry, Tralee, whither he had been summoned as a witness on a very important trial. On that occasion a devoted Minister of the Gospel (the Rev. Charles Gayer) was obliged to defend his character, and, indeed, in a sense, his life, by an action against a Romish newspaper editor, for a most grievously libellous attack, or, rather, series of attacks. Justice in this case prevailed, and that under certainly trying circumstances. Witness after witness was produced in the hope of blackening the Minister's character. The perjury of these men was so appalling that both Judge and jury, as well as the eye and ear witnesses of the trial, who crowded the court, shrank and quailed

with horror. The false swearing was so reckless, that it fell to the ground selfdefeated: the jury unanimously declared for the Protestant Minister, although one half of them, with the foreman, were Roman Catholics. May he who now writes, never, in the providential ordering of God, be called upon to witness again such a scene of darkness! But what gave the darkest hue to the transaction remains yet to be told. The court-house was thronged with Romish Priests they looked on and listened, many of them with earnest delight, until the grossness of the perjury drove most of their wretched agents off the witnesstable; for their tools they were. It came out in evidence that these professed Ministers of the Gospel had been, many of them, in communication with these wretched men; that some of them had undergone a sort of rehearsal of their perjured testimony before these their teachers; that they had been searched for through the country, and brought to the place of trial by them. Such is Romanism in Ireland. Is it then to be wondered at, that her soil reeks with unavenged blood? Is it, can it be, matter of surprise, that the arm of the law is paralyzed in its efforts to reach the perpetrators of these murders?

The painful task of the writer is now nearly done: the Searcher of hearts alone knows with what feelings his hand writes down these facts concerning the country of his birth and dearest affections. that it might yet please Him, whose sun shines so bounteously and impartially on the natural world, to give command that the Sun of Righteousness might arise in His glorious strength, to shine gladly and freely on the hills and plains of Ireland! But if this ever be the case, and if second causes be looked at as worthy of any calculation, England, still free and Protestant England, must cast the ægis of her protection over the trampleddown inquirers after the truth in that land, now overlaid by the spiritual oppression of the apostasy.

But are such statements, it may be asked, akin to the purpose, and in keeping with the pages, of Evangelical Christendom? Yes, in every way. This is

what Ireland mainly wants. Let her benighted Romanist population see with their eyes, as well as hear with their ears, the glorious, the imperishable fact of the Reformation-day, that Protestantism, like the truth, its parent, is one. Let the Alliance experiment be but fairly tried in Ireland, and with the same blessing vouchsafed, which has hitherto attended

its tentative efforts for the manifested love of the brethren, and the result will be a blessing for her hitherto spiritually blasted and blighted wastes.

One parting word to British Christians. The time is short! Ireland's darkest day of temporal calamity may be, nay, we fear it is, very near. The cry of hunger is in her streets; the skeletons of the famine-stricken are already beginning to be heaped together in our remote hamlets. Death is on the wing, and darkness covers the land; but, blessed be He who can bring light out of darkness, a door of hope is already opening from

the valley of Achor, a gleam of Gospelday is even now illuming the darkened spiritual horizon. This judgment-stricken people discover symptoms of turning to the Lord. Arouse you, servants of God in England! strengthen the hands and hearts of the witnesses for the truth in our land; lift up your hands for us to the mercy-seat; and, while even humanity bleeds at the prospect of coming Irish desolation, let your Christianity send us not only the bread that perisheth, but the bread of life, the glorious Gospel of the great God our Saviour, Jesus Christ.-Evangelical Christendom.

CHAIR OF ST. PETER.-Pass the high altar, and at the further extremity of the church is a magnificent throne of bronze and gilt, surmounted by a canopy, and supported by four colossal gilt figures of St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, St. Chrysostom, and St. Athanasius. Within it is a chair, which tradition tells us is the identical one in which St. Peter sat when he officiated as Bishop of Rome. Some twenty years ago, Lady Morgan gave to the world another story of this wonderful relic. She states that when the French held Rome, their sacrilegious curiosity induced them to break through the splendid casket for the purpose of seeing the sacred chair. Upon its mouldering and dusty surface were traced carvings which bore the appearance of letters. The chair was quickly brought into a better light, the dust and cobwebs removed, and the inscription faithfully copied. The writing is in Arabic characters, and is the wellknown confession of Mahometan faith:"There is but one God, and Mahomet is His Prophet." The story, she adds, has since been hushed up, the chair replaced, and none but the unhallowed remember the fact, and none but the audacious repeat it. Dr. Wiseman takes miladi to task with great severity, and asserts that it is an ancient curule chair, evidently of Roman workmanship, and may, therefore VOL. III.-FOURTH SERIES.

reasonably be supposed to have been used as an episcopal throne when St. Peter was received into the house of the Senator Pudens at Rome. The truth probably is, that it was brought from the East among the spoils of the Crusaders, presented to St. Peter's at a time when antiquarian research was not much in fashion, and now its origin has been forgotten.Christmas Holidays in Rome.

In the

THE SEASONS IN CANADA. summer, the excessive heat-the violent paroxysms of thunder-the parching drought the occasional deluges of rainthe sight of bright red, bright blue, and other gaudy plumaged birds of the brilliant humming-bird, and of innumerable fire-flies, that at night appear like the reflection upon earth of the stars shining above them in the heavens, would almost persuade the emigrant, that he was living within the tropics. As autumn approaches, the various trees of the forest assume hues of every shade of red, yellow, and brown, of the most vivid description. The air gradually becomes a healthy and delightful mixture of sunshine and frost, and the golden sunsets are so many glorious assemblages of clouds some like mountains of white wool, others of the darkest hues-and of broad rays of yellow, of crimson, and of golden light, which, without intermixing,

Y

radiate upwards to a great height, from the point of the horizon, at which the deep red luminary is about to disappear. As the winter approaches, the cold daily strengthens; and, before the branches of the trees and the surface of the country become white, every living being seems to be sensible of the temperature that is about to arrive. The gaudy birds, humming-birds, and fire-flies depart first; then follow the pigeons; the wild fowl take refuge in the lakes, until scarcely a bird remains to be seen in the forest. Several of the animals seek refuge in warmer regions; and even the shaggy bear, whose coat seems warm enough to resist any degree of cold, instinctively looks out, in time, for a hollow tree, into which he may leisurely climb, to hang in it, during the winter, as inanimate as a flitch of bacon from the ceiling of an English farm-house; and even many of the fishes make their deep-water arrangements for not coming to the surface of the rivers and harbours, during the period they are covered with ice.-The Emigrant, by Sir F. B. Head.

If I

PRETTY PREACHING.-I am tormented with the desire of preaching better than I can. But I have no wish to make fine, pretty sermons. Prettiness is well enough when prettiness is in its place. I like to see a pretty child, a pretty flower; but in a sermon prettiness is out of place. To my ear it would be anything but commendation, should it be said to me, "You have given us a pretty sermon." were upon trial for my life, and my advocate should amuse the jury with his tropes and figures, burying his argument beneath a profusion of the flowers of rhetoric, I would say to him, "Tut, man, you care more for your vanity than for my hanging. Put yourself in my placespeak in view of the gallows, and you will tell your story plainly and earnestly." I have no objection to a lady's winding a sword with ribands, and studding it with roses, when she presents it to her hero lover; but in the day of battle he will tear away the ornaments, and use a naked edge to the enemy.-Rev. Robert Hall.

LORD HARDWICKE. So narrow were the means of the Yorke family, that young Philip, the future Chancellor, was articled to an Attorney in Brooke-street, Holborn, without a fee. His master's wife, it appears, took advantage of this circumstance to impose upon him extraprofessional services; from which he contrived to emancipate himself as follows:-"But his mistress, a notable wo

man, thinking she might take such liberties with a gratis clerk, used frequently to send him from his business on family errands, and to fetch in little necessaries from Covent Garden and other markets. This, when he became a favourite with his master, and intrusted with his business and cash, he thought an indignity, and got rid of it by a stratagem, which prevented complaints or expostulation. In his account with his master, there frequently occurred, 'coachhire for roots of celery and turnips from Covent Garden, and a barrel of oysters from the fishmonger's, &c.;' which Mr. Salkeld observing, and urging on his wife the impropriety and ill housewifery of such a practice, put an end to it."Lord Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors.

SHRIMPS. The office of shrimps, says a writer in the Penny Cyclopædia, seems to be analogous to that of some of the insects on land, whose task is to clear away the remains of dead animal matter after the beasts and birds of prey have been satiated. If a dead small bird or frog be placed where ants have access to it, those insects will speedily reduce the body to a closely-cleaned skeleton. The shrimp family, acting in hosts, as speedily remove all traces of fish or flesh from the bones of any dead animal exposed to their ravages. They are, in short, the principal scavengers of the ocean; and, notwithstanding their office, they are deservedly and highly prized as nutritious and delicious food.

A SABBATH IN NEW-ZEALAND.— A small bell was struck outside the building, and it was an interesting sight to watch the effect it had upon the dwellers of the pah: one by one, they came out of their houses, or crossed the little stiles dividing one court-yard from another, and, wrapping their mats and blankets around them, slowly and silently wended their way to the place of worship. On entering, each individual squatted upon the ground, which was strewn with reeds; and with their faces buried in their blankets, they appeared to be engaged in prayer: they then opened their Maori Testaments, and a Native Teacher commenced the sacred service. It would have been a lesson to some of our thoughtless and fashionable congregations to witness the devout and serious aspect and demeanour of these tattooed men, who, without the assistance of a European, were performing Christian worship with decorous simplicity and reverential feeling. Angas's Savage Life and Scenes.

OR, INTELLIGENCE

*

WE lay before our friends the official account of the legal proceedings and decision of the Court at Frêsnes, in the Caen Circuit, Normandy; by which the character of our Missionaries and people has been amply vindicated, and the efforts of the Protestant (!) enemies of religious liberty have received a signal check.

IMPORTANT PUBLIC DECISION IN NORMANDY, ON THE RELIGIOUS LIBERTY OF THE WESLEYAN METHODISTS.

THE Rev. Peter Lucas, stationed in the Caen Circuit, having been called to marry two couples, according to French usage, at our chapel at Frêsnes, a certain individual named P. M. was chosen by our enemies in that neighbourhood to interrupt the ceremony.

He used every

effort to accomplish his wicked design. He attacked our friends, like a furious beast, with his mouth, his fists, and his wooden shoes. They defended themselves as well as they could without striking him; but did not inflict a single blow. This assault placed us under the necessity of seeking legal protection: the law-suit lasted for three months, and required our appearance before different Tribunals. The 21st of November last was appointed for the final judgment, which was delivered by the Tribunal of Domfront, in the neighbourhood of Frêsnes. Mr. Lucas, on his arrival there, found that nearly all the Advocates in the place had been consulted, with a view to deprive us of our religious liberty. He deemed it necessary to request an interview with the President of the Tri

bunal, and the Procureur du Roi, which they granted. He explained to them the object of our operations in France, and their effects upon the Protestantism of this country; stating also our doctrines and discipline, with the number of our members and Ministers in all parts of the world. He referred, likewise, to our operations for the benefit of the French prisoners in England during the last war, for five years gratuitously affording to them the ministry of the Gospel, with schools for the young, and, frequently, clothing for the naked. This statement made a specially favourable impression.

Upon the trial, eleven of our people appeared as witnesses against the criminal. The Tribunal delivered judgment to the following effect :-First, that P. M. should be imprisoned for three months, pay a fine of three hundred francs, and bear the costs.

Second

ly, That the Evangelical Wesleyan-Methodist Church has the same right to exercise its worship, and all the ceremonies attached to it, as the Roman Catholic Priests, and the Pasteurs of the Reformed Church.

The Advocate for the defendant applied for a mitigation of the sentence; and the Judge, having been already informed by Mr. Lucas that we had no desire to make the poor man suffer, reduced the term of imprisonment to six days, and the fine to sixteen francs.

After the trial a conversation took place between the President of the Tribunal and Mr. Lucas, in which the former said, that he had been much pleased with the demeanour of his (Mr. Lucas's)