1029.3 Irish Pricils iii pariicular. 501 



The character of the Romish priesthood, collectively and individually, 

 has in all ages harmonized with this subtle scheme of aggrandizement 

 and deceit. In public, insolent, authoritative, and uncompromising, 

 the priest is in private insinuating, wily, and watchful. He has but one 

 interest to pursue, and as that is opposed to the interests of the public, 

 he must for ever stand in an invidious and mischievous relation that calls 

 into action the worst propensities of his nature, and the most evil prin- 

 ciples of his creed. But priests, like other men, differ materially, accord- 

 ing to the circumstances by which they are surrounded. 



The continental priests are generally low, sordid, and gratuitously 

 treacherous. They superadd to the dispositions engendered by their 

 religion the base qualities that cling to slaves and fanatics. The 

 majority catch the villainies of the community, and trade on them as the 

 Irish priests have traded for the last thirty years on the Catholic ques- 

 tion. It is essential to the maintenance of their pretensions, that they 

 should profit by all the opportunities which bad laws, weak govern- 

 ments, or vicious customs, throw in their Avay. They absorb the worldly 

 wealth of nations, and pay back the amount in spiritual instalments. 

 Tliey take cash in hand, and return salvation in promise ; a cheap and 

 most lucrative traffic, which can never fail for lack of merchandize, until 

 mankind has become illuminated by the increase of knowledge. I once 

 knew a Spanish monk who came to England on a mission to collect 

 charity for a poor brotherhood. His performance of this part was 

 scarcely excelled by Foote's imitation of drunkenness. He had all the 

 cant, the w'hine, the devoutness, and humility of one who travelled over 

 the earth to do good to his fellow creatures. There was something 

 imposing in his manner, and the object he professed to forward. With 

 a figure eminently calculated to win upon the Aveak, he possessed the art 

 of conversational eloquence in no ordinary degree. His voice was 

 sonorous ; his features were handsome, but subdued by an expression of 

 meekness and resignation ; and his demeanour, on the whole, placid and 

 submissive. He was a favourable specimen of his class, for he carried 

 all their arts into a vigorous perfection, softened away by superior 

 attainments and an acute sense of the usages of society. But England 

 was an ill-chosen scene for the exhibition of his dialectics. The 

 Catholics of this country, by intermixture with the enlightened members 

 of the Protestant religion, have amalgamated, as far as their tenets permit, 

 with the free institutions from which they derive security and protec- 

 tion : while they entertain very little confidence in the purity of the 

 Spaniards or Italians, whose reputation in all Protestant states is by no 

 means in the highest odour. Except by the influence of the ecclesiastical 

 character, the Spaniard could scarcely have penetrated into the retreats 

 of his scattered sect ; and when he did succeed, his progress was not so 

 satisfactory as his ardour anticipated. It was at this crisis I became 

 acquainted with him ; and I shall not easily forget with what force 

 he denounced that intercourse with heretics to which he attributed the 

 coldness of his reception. I reminded him, in vain, that in his land, as 

 well as in the provinces of Italy, religion is a sentiment, a poetical 

 fervour ; that tliere its ministers are crowned with the honoinvs of an 

 embodied inspiration, and rew'arded by the zeal of a mercurial race ; 

 that the very poverty of the people, which reduces the amount of 

 animal enjoyment, contributes to the nourlsliment of an imagination, 

 left free to indulge in the dreams of Catholic theology, and revel amongst 



