1825. ] 
this? and do we not know, that, under 
certain circumstances, the consciousness 
of an attachment to certain opinions and 
parties, whether in politics or religion, 
&c.,- but of which it is not quite con- 
venient to be suspected, frequently oc- 
casions the learned and sagacious, in 
particular, to be most loud and vehe- 
ment, with the mouth against the very 
cause which is nearest to the heart. 
Addison, in his Cato, with great pro- 
priety and knowledge of human nature, 
makes the conspirator Sempronius, at 
the very time that he is negociating to 
betray Cato and his little senate (the 
last remains of Roman liberty) into the 
hands of Czsar, the most loud and 
vehement of all the assembly in patriotic 
declamation, and professions of despe- 
rate perseverance. 
—“‘ Let us rise at once, gird on our swords, 
_ And at the head of out remaining troops 
Attack the foe, break thro’ the thick array 
Of his throng’d legions, and charge home upon him: 
Perhaps some arm, more lucky than the rest, 
May reach his heart, and free the world from bondage.” 
Now, Sir, it is well known that cor- 
porations (learned corporations especi- 
ally) are not less sagaciously politic 
than individuals : nor less prone to 
profess one thing, in order to accom- 
plish or conceal.another. At any rate, 
I will venture to suggest, that, from a 
document before me, it is actually.im- 
possible that the University of Oxford 
can have any real aversion from Popery, 
“ By their fruits,” saith the most sacred 
of all authorities, “ ye shall know them.” 
It. would, perhaps, be illiberal to 
allude to individual instances,—such as 
Mr, Gibbon’s having become so reso- 
lutely converted to popery during his 
studies there, that, even when with- 
drawn thence, by the anxiety of a Protes- 
tant father, nothing could disentangle 
Catholicism and Christianity again, in 
his mind; and, to get rid of the former,he 
was obliged to throw off the latter also. 
Nor will I insist very particularly upon 
the example of that great dark-light of 
Oxford orthodoxy, Dr. Johnson, who 
carried to such extreme the Popish idea 
of praying for the souls of the departed 
Ge. praying them out of purgatory), 
that he used to pray that Charles I. may 
not have been damned. 
. It is to the authentic acts of the Uni- 
versity itself that I shall appeal—to 
their own annual records—to shew that. 
masses for the souls of the dead, and 
periodical atonements to the church 
for crimes even of blood, are still a part 
of genuine Popery to which they cling 
Montuty Macazine, No, 410. 
Oxford Orthodoxy.— Weights and Measures. 
425 
with persevering attachment ; and that, 
consequently, it is utterly impossible 
that they can have that horror of Po- 
pery which is so generally ascribed to 
them. 
Yes, Sir, I have the annual testimony 
of the University itself, that Masses for 
the Dead, and atonenent-money for 
blood, are still among the number of its 
religious ceremonies and immunities ; 
and, in proof thereof, I send you the 
following extract from its own authentic 
Calendar—after the perusal of which, let 
any of your readers believe, if they can, 
that the dignitaries and conclave of Ox- 
ford have any conscientious objections 
tothe cause of Popery. See, under the 
head — = 
“ University Ceremonies and Remarkable 
Days at Oxford :— 
“* Feb. 10.—Scholastica.—Litany read at 
the altar of St. Mary’s Church; after which, 
the Mayor, the two bailiffs, and sixty of 
the burghers of the City of Oxford, make 
an offering of a silver penny each, as an 
atonement for the murder of some scholars, 
which tock place in an affray in the year 
1353, 27 Edward III.”—From the Oxford 
University Calendar for 1824. 
This holy ceremony was, I under- 
stand, heretofore performed with more 
devout solemnity than at present; and 
more edifying humiliation to the official 
descendants or representatives: in the 
hundredth generation, of the original 
sacrilegious sinners: the mayor, bailiffs, 
and burghers, formerly, for many years, 
performing the official : penance with 
ropes about their necks. This part of 
the atonement, it is true, is now dis- 
pensed with; and the worshipful cor- 
poration of Snobs, in all probability, 
find nothing very intolerable in hearing 
the mass, and paying the silver pennies ; 
but still the kind leaning of the learned 
body, and their fond clinging to the 
doctrines, ceremonials and profits of 
their fellow monks, their Christian bre- 
thren of the Popish communion, is evi- 
dently not removed: at least in the 
apprehension of your’s, &c. 
Drrecror. 
a , 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
Sir: 
OBSERVE in a late number, that 
you have a paragraph, stating, that 
the act for regulating the weights and 
measures was to have come into opera- 
tion on the Ist of May (see p. 275); 
but the time is deferred to the Ist of 
January 1826, by a bill which lately 
received the royal assent. Abed lp 
31 To 
