1825.) 
pigeon-pie was an intellectual digest of 
Christian morality, so long as they dis- 
charged, nevertheless, their moral and 
political duties, we would no more 
abridge them of their moral and politi- 
cal franchises, for the mystical nonsense 
of their creed, than if they had the 
plain matter-of-fact understanding to 
perceive that the dainty they were feed- 
ing on was a mere concoction of animal 
substance and savoury sedsonings, under 
a crust of flour and butter. The author, 
indeed, talks of “ compulsion to believe 
on the authority of the church,” &c.; 
and, if it were now at-issue, whether a 
Catholic Inquisition, with the aid of the 
civil and military arm, should again be 
made the established religion,-the com- 
pulsory clause would be, indeed, the very 
jut of the argument: for to compel any 
body of people, or any individual to be- 
lieve, or to profess and swear that he 
believes, any dogma, whether it be that 
bread and wine are flesh and blood, or 
that three zs one, or one are three, or 
even that two and two make four,* 
would be, indeed, a tyranny that ought 
to be-regarded as beyond human suffer- 
ance. But who, in the present instance, 
is to compel this belief? In Rome, per- 
haps, the Pope; for he wields the 
bayonet as well as the crozier, and. is 
the Lord of Faith, because he _ is. 
Lord of the Gibbet :—but, who in Ire- 
land shall compel any individual to be- 
lieve in transubtantiation, or any other 
papal dogma, “while he is ignorant of 
sufficient evidence of their truth?” Is 
it the influence of the priest that is to 
constitutethe compulsion?—Pshaw ! the 
influence of the priest, except his.priest- 
craft be made. the religion of the state, 
with bayonets, jailors and executioners 
* We put the case purposely in the full 
strength of hyperbolical absurdity: for sup- 
pose the calculating faculties of any indivi- 
dual even so obtuse as not to perceive or 
comprehend the simplest facts of enumera- 
tion and addition, yet, so long as practically 
he continued to pay the balances of his 
accounts according to the received arithme- 
tic, by whose rules his neighbours dealt 
with him, we maintain, that it were nothing 
legs than tyranny to coerce, proscribe, or 
persecute him for the heresy of his opinion; 
nay, although he should actually publish a 
book to. prove that 3 and 3 made 2; and, 
that if you deduct 7 from 4 there will re- 
main Ij, the right of society goes no 
further than either to answer, or to laugh at 
his. ents, at discretion ; and law and 
coercive . authority baye nothing to do 
_ with it. 
Topics of the Month:—The Catholic Question. 
43} 
to back it, is only over those who already 
believe. Fraud, therefore, it may be, or 
juggling, or delusion; but is no tyranny. 
And as for influence—over such as be- 
lieve in them, priests of all persuasions 
have an influence; and, it would be 
well both for the political and moral 
welfare of mankind, if it were never ex- 
erted for worse purposes than persuading 
silly devotees that a crust of bread is a 
shoulder of mutton. Does any body 
believe that the Catholic priests would 
have had any more of the tyrannic or 
compulsory power of influence, over 
the population of Ireland, if the eman- 
cipation had been carried, than they had 
before ? or than they will have now? 
We answer with full conviction, that 
they. would have had less—especially if 
the concomitant measure of pensioning 
their priests had been carried with it. 
One bond of sympathy. and attachment 
(the link ofreciprocal dependence)would. 
have been thereby broken; and volun- 
tary confidence diminished in propor- 
tion with the necessity of voluntary 
contribution. We will not disguise, 
that one of the considerations which 
reconciled us to this part of the project 
especially, was the conviction, that 
it would be a mean of checking the 
growth, and diminishing the influence of 
popery ; and, that Roman Catholicism; 
(in essence at least) would eventually 
be undermined in Ireland, by the ac- 
knowledgment of a hireling priesthood ;_ 
as genuine Christianity was extinguished 
in Rome itself, by the pretended con- 
version of Constantine, and the con- 
sequent establishment of a_hireling 
priesthood.” 
But enough of this. It is time to 
shift the scene, and among the topies of. 
the month the Fine Arts, must. not be: 
forgotten. 
ROYAL ACADEMY. § 
Tue Exhibition of this year is, un- 
questionably, the best’ we ever temem- 
ber to have seen. It evinces great im- 
provement in almost every department 
of the arts. Even in Sculpture—to which 
we have hitherto made so little pretension 
beyond the egotistical bust—though per- 
haps we have accomplished more than our’ 
more pretending neighbours !—even in 
Seulpture, the present array is compara- 
tively rich. ~We have not, indeed, ary 
group that can vie with Rossi’s Celedon 
and Amelia, exhibited some few years ago ; 
and we cannot compliment Mr. Westma- 
cott 
