which have been brought to the proof. There is not one which will not be scattered like chaff when the flail is laid on. I intended to have gone through the whole in this volume, but the steed of the pen, having, as the Persians say, got loose upon the plain of prolixity, has outrun my intention. Let me here recapitulate what has been done. I have shown that the Creed of Pope Pius IV. whereby, according to your own statement, the Romanists of this and every other country are bound, comprehends an assent to all those intolerable principles which the Papal Church has proclaimed, whenever it had no motive for concealing them, and has acted upon wherever it had the power. I have given an account of the Venerable Bede, the want of which in the Book of the Church you represented as a want of candour, though it would have been inconsistent with the design and proportions of that work to have introduced it there; his testimony concerning the miracles of his age has been placed in a new point of view, and his memory completely cleared from the only stain which could have sullied it. I have examined into the miracles which he has recorded, and explained how credulity prepared the way for craft; and how craft practised upon credulity. I have introduced also a specimen of Irish hagiography in the life of St. Fursey, perhaps the most modest that could have been selected; it may be compared with that of Mr. Alban Butler's composition, and it throws some light upon a subject to be pursued hereafter,...the system of Saint Errantry. I have shown in what the papal laws concerning prohibited† degrees began, and in what they ended;..that while religion and morals were the pretext, the real object was first to obtain power for the Papal Church, and afterwards money. It was then my task to vindicate the view which all Protestant historians have taken of Dunstan's life and character; and in so doing I have shown by what subterfuges and perversions of history the English Romanists seek to slur over the pretended miracles which he performed, and the detestable transactions in which he was engaged. In treating upon the celibacy of the * It would be curious to compare it with the Historia y Vida del admirable y extatico San Furseo, Principe Heredero de Irlanda, by a certain Davila, who has expanded the legend into a volume, which I have never seen. + Since that part of the volume was written, I have found that Pope Nicholas I. endeavoured to carry the prohibition as far as any consanguinity could be traced!.." hoc statuimus, ut nulli liceat Christiano de propria consanguinitate sive cognatione uxorem accipere usque dum generatio recordatur, cognoscitur, aut memoriá "etinetur."-Martene et Durand. Coll. Ampl. t. i. 150. Clergy, I inquired into the causes which led to the introduction of that injurious system, and the political motives for which it was enforced, and I have given examples of the state of feeling and of morals which it produces. We came then to the case of Becket, where I have proved that he stood forth in defence not of old rights, but of recent usurpations,..a " law-resisting custom" which was not " full-aged;" ...and that the principles for which he fell a victim, and is therefore at this day venerated with special honour by the British Roman Catholics as patron of the English Roman Catholic Clergy, are at variance with the fundamental principles of the British constitution...I have put down the bootless boast of your speech-makers that England is indebted to the Romish religion for Magna Charta; and shown how that Charter was pronounced null and void by the Pope, and maintained in spite of him. I have glanced at the history of the Popes, in reference to the pretensions advanced by and for them; and as you had claimed our approbation for them on the score of their conduct toward *In the Laity's Directory, which is the Almanack of the English Romanists, Becket's day is marked thus: "St. Thomas of Canterbury, B. Mart. doub. of first class, with an Octave, as Patron of the English Clergy; red. Feast of devotion." the Jews, I have given a faithful summary of that conduct. Lastly, I have compared your statement of the Romish devotion to the Virgin, with what is taught in your books of popular instruction, and with the practice of your people: I have entered upon the history and mystery of the Rosary, touched upon the rise and progress of the Hyperdulia, and in so doing have produced proofs of idolatry, superstition and imposture against the Papal Church. Bear in mind, Sir, that you called for such proofs; and that I am not the appellant in this controversy! I had let pass your Historical Memoirs, with all their offences on their head, when it lay in the course of my pursuits to have taken critical cognizance of them. As much from disposition as from principle, I dislike that sort of criticism which tends either to wound the feelings of an author, or to depreciate him in the opinion of the public: severity of this kind ought, in my judgement, never to be exercised, unless some public interest is concerned. Those Memoirs, Sir, were in that predicament. They bore upon a political question, which I believe to be the most insidious, the most mischievous, the most perilous, that has ever been brought forward since the Long Par liament; and if I had followed you through all your statements, for the purpose of showing what you had suppressed, and in how fallacious a light the facts were every where exhibited, I might in no small degree have counteracted the impression which those volumes were intended to produce. But that I was upon terms of courtesy and good-will with the author, was cause sufficient for withholding me. I have always admired that passage in the Iliad where Diomede and Glaucus meet in battle, and turn aside by mutual consent: Πολλοὶ μὲν γαρ ἐμοὶ Τρῶες, κλειτοί τ ̓ ἐπίκεροι I could wish that there had been a similar feeling on your part; and that the thanks of your Association had been voted as an undivided honour to Dr. Milner; in that case, bark as he might, I should not have stooped for a stone to fling at him. "Hostes habeo plures quam vellem, fateor; sed contra non paucos habeo amicos, dignitate, authoritate, doctrinâ, morum integritate, præcellentes. Nec hactenus mihi quisquam exhibuit negotium, nisi aut cerebrosus, aut invidus, aut arroganter indoctus, aut ex calumnia venans gloriam." Even your personal call, Sir, would |