dren carefully tended and taught under the direction of their more affluent neighbours, receiving at their hands the reward of diligence and obedience, while the fruits of those habits, and of the higher principle instilled through God's holy word, shed a light and a comfort at home to which the miserable cabin had before been a stranger.

Neither was this a mere theory; the experiment had been on trial for some years, and the effects were beginning to manifest themselves in a way calculated to make the kingdom of darkness tremble for the foundations of its throne. Dear friend, my heart sickens over the sad reverse presented to my view. Many a delightful hour have I passed in schools conducted under the different plans that, however varying in detail, all met in one common centre-and that centre the Holy Bible. Now, if I see a Romish chapel, I look in its immediate vicinity-within the very precincts of its boundary-for some new, spruce building, bearing the inscription National School;' and what is the system of instruction adopted there? The Bible is excluded; a mutilated extract, unfaithful even in its mutilations, is substituted nominally; but even that is scarcely ever used; while all the debasing fables of monkish superstition, all the contaminating licentiousness of the

6

lowest class of immoral and indecent publications, are placed in the hands of the poor children; and in a multitude of instances the person appointed to the office of master, is a furious zealot in popery and sedition. These, you will say, are strong statements: challenge me to the proof; and proofs you shall have, too conclusive as to the fact."

Thus, by an act of infatuation for which the history even of Ireland affords no parallel, the only feasible plan for ameliorating the physical, and correcting the moral evils of this people, has been worse than abandoned; it has been adapted to the aggravation of both. Whatever tends to rivet the fetter of Papal domination on the necks of the Irish poor, builds a barrier against every species of improvement. No man in his senses can affect blindness to the fact that the Church of Rome is straining every nerve to recover her former footing in this country; that is, to reign as she did for some centuries previous to the Reformation, to enjoy unreservedly the ancient church-lands and revenues, and to replace the forfeited estates in the hands of her most devoted lay members. You may question this in England; but in Ireland you The thing stares you in the face through all gradations of proof; you see it in the ostentatious magnificence of the costly mass-house, far

cannot.

1 Vide Appendix A.

outvying the Protestant cathedrals, while the pompous insignia of men openly assuming the title of Bishops, glitters in the noon-day sun; in the lofty gait, the vaunting air, the spruce attire, and the side-long glance of contemptuous defiance, that prove the man who crosses your path to be a priest of Rome; and in its lowest demonstration, in the insolent stare, or slinking avoidance of the poor labourer who dares not touch the hat, or utter the respectful salutation that he would have formerly crossed the road to tender, with all the profuse courtesy of his race. That the priesthood of the Romish church, instructed by the hierarchy, are training the people to even more than their former subserviency is evident beyond contradiction: and unless the leopard has changed his spots, the past holds forth a dark augury for the future.

It was on the morning of Whitsunday, the 27th of May 1798, that the rebellion broke out here, in Wexford. Dangerous indications had been perceived, and the magistrates were on the alert, until suspicion was lulled by an address sent from the different parishes to Lord Mountnorris, remonstrating on the injustice of having their loyalty doubted, and demanding to be sworn, at their respective chapels, to their perfect freedom from all insurrectionary designs. Lord Mountnorris, accordingly, with several others, attended

at the altars of twenty-eight Romish chapels, where, in the presence of their priests, the congregations all took the oath-it is awful to contemplate that solemn declaration. It contains an engagement to be true to the king and his successors, to support the existing constitution; and to prevent or suppress all treason or conspiracy; it disclaims all present or future connexion with the united Irishmen; engages to give up all secreted arms, and to inform of such as may be known to be secreted—concluding in these words. All the above I do most solemnly swear, in the presence of the Almighty, and as I hope to be saved through the merits and mediation of my blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, without any equivocation or mental reservation whatsoever. help me God.'

So

These declarations, made some months before, were repeated on the very eve of the outbreak. More effectually to blind the magistrates, a good many of the people were brought to them by the priests to make a surrender of arms, which they confessed, with every appearance of penitence, having formerly concealed. A vast number of pike-heads were thus given up, with other weapons, mostly unserviceable, the owners craving forgiveness for their past illegal conduct, and requesting protections on this evidence of their good feeling,

D

which were granted, together with certificates of their loyalty and peaceableness, signed by Protestant magistrates, clergymen, churchwardens, and principal parishioners. By these devices, in which the priest always sanctioned them by his presence and acted as spokesman, they averted the proclamation of the different baronies, and the stationing of a military force among them. The yeomanry were considered sufficient for the maintenance of tranquillity; of these a large proportion were members of the Romish church; and they not only deserted, with horses, arms and accoutrements, to the rebels, but were eager to turn their weapons upon their former commanders, comrades, and the Protestant gentry whose houses they were appointed to guard.

One circumstance among many, brings the crime home to the priests with fearful aggravation. During the whole week preceding the massacre, a magistrate, Mr. Pounden, sat here, at Enniscorthy, receiving the oaths, and the surrendered arms of the people. Three priests, anxious to give the greatest apparent force to the obligation, suggested that they should be sworn on a Romish manual; this was done; protections were given; and were found in the pockets of those who were slain in their sanguinary attack on Enniscorthy the following Monday, to which the priests led them on.