knoweth, I have nothing left unto me for to provide any better, but as my brother of his own purse layeth out for me to his great hindrance. Wherefore good master secretary eftsoons I beseech you to have some pity upon me, and let me have such things as are necessary for me in mine age, and especially for my health," (MS. Cotton.)

We will pass by father Reynolds of Sion, and the three monks of the Charter-house, with the many, who were immured and suffered death under the merciless Henry, merely because they could not admit of his supremacy in spiritual matters; and repressing our feelings, let us view the tortured martyrs of the mild the compassionate Elizabeth; let us examine the disjointed bodies of a Campion, a Sherwood, a Sherwin, a Johnson, a Cottam, and many more who were repeatedly racked; of a Kirby whose dislocated frame was thrust into a circle of iron, and his hands, feet, and head bound fast together; of a Briant, who had needles thrust under his nails; of the many others who here expired under various tortures and privations; and the punishments of the inquisition must appear mild, when compared with what was here practised. Did that tribunal ever adopt an instrument of torture more excruciating than the scavenger's daughter of the tower? In fact, did not a greater number of individuals suffer torture and death for the cause of religion alone, under Britain's favourite queen, than have suffered under the decrees of the inquisition all over the world, from the time of its first establishment unto the present day? To the shame of protestantism, the answer must I conceive be YES! That the rack and tortures were frequently resorted to in cases of suspected treason, during this boasted era of English history, the execution of justice in England by Cecil, sufficiently demonstrates, and for a description of the sufferings endured by Catholics, the reader may consult doctor Bridgewater's Concertatio, or The Sincere and Modest Defence of the suffering Catholics, by cardinal Allen, both cotemporary writers: but enough of this disgusting subject; let us quit a spot where the groans of the tortured were once heard, and which was once wet with the blood of our Catholic ancestors. We will now continue our route into the city in a court in Fenchurch-street, near a century since, mass was celebrated in a private house, at which se

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veral citizens were accustomed to assist, and escaped the notice of the informer; turning to our left we will stop an instant at Bakers' hall in Harp-lane, just to notice the picture of St. Clement, patron of the company, and it is worthy of remark that the city companies retain more vestiges of their Catholic origin, than are to be met with in any other public institutions, not excepting the very churches. The Fishmongers retain in their hall a statue of saint Peter, whom they have adopted as their patron, and in Vintners'-hall, on one side of the screen, is a good bust of St. Martin, the tutelary saint of the company, and on the other the beggar. A fine old painting of St. Martin and the beggar brought from Italy is likewise in the hall; in the court room is also another good painting representing the same subject. Here is also preserved a most curious piece of old tapestry in two compartments, in the one is represented St. Martin dividing his cloak with the beggar, and in the other the same saint is officiating at the high altar, as bishop of Tours. The date of this piece is 1466. We will from thence visit the hill

"Where London's column pointing to the skies,
"Like a tall bully lifts its head and lies.”

The monument at once the glory and the disgrace of the city, glorious as a chef-d'ouvre of architecture, and disgraceful as recording a known and acknowledged falsehood, tending to perpetuate old prejudices, and to continue a spirit of irritation too easily created, but difficult to allay. In Garlick-hill, our Protestant brethren seem to have forgotten their outcry against graven images for upon the dial of the church they have placed a statue of St. James. Near this, in Great St. Thomas the apostle, is the Catholic chapel for Germans-formerly a dissenting meeting house and at one time favoured with the patronage and frequent presence of the eccentric lord George Gordon of rioting notoriety; but being in 1809 unoccupied, the lease was purchased, and it became the temple of the living God. From this chapel the foreigner in distress, and in sickness, can now receive that spiritual aid and consolation which from a want of knowledge of his language, he could not always heretofore obtain; this fact is daily attested in our hospitals, and not unfre quently in our prisons. Here we arrive at the conclusion of

this day's route, we shall therefore take our leave of you for the present, and in our next, commence an examination of the ancient cathedral church of St. Paul. Yours, &c.

W. Y.

BUT whatever may become of the question of its past influence on civil liberty, it is still urged as a plea against the concession of political privileges to the Catholics, that their religion is that of persecution and intolerance.—Barbarities which now, thank God, Christians of every denomination, whether Catholics or not, have abandoned, and which have been generally unheard of for more than two hundred years, are held out as if still threatening us, and depicted as if they had been peculiarly connected with the church of Rome. Now, my lords, history too faithfully assures us, on this point also, that except during the protectorate of Cromwell, and the short reign of James the second, the flames of religious persecution were kindled by Protestants, not only for Catholics, but for Anabaptists, for Independents, and even for Arians likewise, from the death of Mary down to the accession of the prince of Orange, with just as much apparent conviction of the lawfulness of such proceedings as had ever signalized the most bigotted of the religious murders of any former period. And this, let it be remembered, extends over a space of time comprising more than half the days that passed between the original enactment of the statute "de Hæretico comburendo," under Henry the fourth, till its repeal, at the close of the reign of Charles the second. When, therefore, the inhuman barbarities of Mary are urged against the Catholic, we cannot wonder at his retaliation of those exercised by her successor Elizabeth, or that he should be found upbraiding us with the fact of no less than two hundred and four persons doomed by her to suffer solely for the sake of conscience, fifteen for denying her supremacy, and one hundred and twenty-six for minis

tering in their priestly functions; and ninety more died in prison, and one hundred and five were sent into banishment for life. And in this list is included not one single individual put to death for any plot against the state, real, or imagined, except eleven for the pretended plot of Rheims, a forgery so daring that even Camden, the great eulogist to Elizabeth did not hesitate to admit them to have been political victims.

us

One of your lordships has, however, notwithstanding, told that " a great distinction may be drawn between cases of those who suffered for religion under these respective reigns." Nay he has even gone so far as to say "that they are quite dissimilar;" that "when Cranmer and Latimer and Hooker, with numerous other martyrs, were committed to the flames, their sole offence was a rejection of transubstantiation, and other doctrines peculiar to the church of Rome; but that the Papists who were executed in the reign of Elizabeth were not executed because they believed in those doctrines, but because their desire to restore the Romish religion led them to acts of rebellion against their sovereign."+ But, my lords, this statement must be admitted to be not less marked by a want of historical ac curacy than it is by the ingenious ambiguity of its language. The reformers under Mary are said to have been "committed to the flames," the Catholics under Elizabeth to have been " executed;" but no one is ignorant that the wretched victims under both were put to death by the very same process of fire and faggot, and the rack, in numerous instances, applied with equal severity of torture. The charge of treason and rebellion is one also, which in the hands of the learned prelate may give a colouring of distinction, but which does in fact entirely vanish when properly explained; for the plain truth is, that the statutes of Elizabeth, by making that treason which had not been so before, brought under the denomination of rebels and traitors those who under Mary, though guilty of similar offences, would not have been so considered. Mary's victims, it is quite correct to say, were burnt solely for opinions in religion, and by the then existing laws were guilty of no treason. The victims

* See Milner's Historp of Winchester.

+ Bishop of Peterborough's "Comparative View.'

of Elizabeth were likewise burnt solely for opinions in religion -but those very opinions, if acted on, rendered those who held them traitors. It was made treason to deny the queen's su premacy; it was made treason for a Catholic either not to quit, or having quitted, to return to England, and it was made treason to exercise any of the ministerial functions of the Catholic priesthood. Whether a Catholic, therefore, lived or died, he was by the very professions of his faith a traitor; and the learned prelate could not but be aware of the real ground of distincttion being as I have stated. When Elizabeth was applied to by the courts abroad, in favour of the exiled bishops, her answer was, that "to tolerate any religion but one in a state, was to give encouragement to faction;" and twelve years afterwards, when her persecutions had excited discontent and murmurs, she declared by her lord keeper, in the star chamber, that "she did not wish to pry into men's consciencesbut to neglect the worship of the established church, or to decline the use of the common prayer, were offences against the laws of the land which she could not suffer to be violated with impunity." In Scotland, either saying or hearing mass was punishable with death by the reformers; and in Ireland, even archbishop Usher and the Irish prelates, published a declaration, that to tolerate popery was a grievous sin.

But, my lords, all these arguments about persecution may be employed ad captandum; but they have really no more relevancy to the question of Catholic emancipation than so much declamation about sorcery and witchcraft, nor can they come with a good grace from those who are advocates for a severity of exclusion such as no Catholic country in Europe exercises against those who differ from the national creed. Nor, even granting the religion of Rome to be in its nature or discipline inclined to persecution, can the plea avail you, for the question is not about restoring Catholicism as the established religion of these realms; it is not even about giving any facility whatever to the means of its propagation. The powerful means of perpetuating any set of religious opinions, or giving stability to any body of persons that professes them, is to strengthen their bond of union by exclusions, on account of these opinions, from all society but their own; and to apply as much persecution as may