BX 2600 S282s SCALLY SUREST ROAD TO IRELAND'S PROSPERITY THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES THE SUREST ROAD IRELAND'S PROSPERITY- DEDICATED TO THE MINISTRY OF ENGLAND, THE LANDLORDS OF IRELAND. THE CATHOLICS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. THE REV. M. SCALLY, O. C. C. -" Whatsoe'er may Of excellence in creature, pity mild, IMfiitiug mercy, large munificence, Are all combin'd in her." DANTE. LONDON: PUBLISHED BY 0. DOLMAN, 61, NEW BOND STREET, AND SOLD BY T. JONES, 03, 1'ATKKNOSTER ROW; i:iciIAi:i)S()\ AND SON, 17J. FLEET STREET ! 9, ( AIT.L STKi DUJU.N. & DKUUV; AN-U THOMAS SHKAKMAN, KH.KKN 1849. I1ENHT LUCAS, 1 lil.NTEK, 3, lil'RI.EKill STKEET, STRAND. DEDICATION. TO THE MINISTRY OF ENGLAND, THE LANDLORDS OF IRELAND, AND THE CATHOLICS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN, Without your permission I take the liberty of dedicating the following little work to you. The class of men whose cause it feebly advocates, requires not length of time to come into active existence ; nor do such men require capital from Government to effect the bright realities of speedy prosperity and true happiness to their country in their right arms are the means of realizing the former, and in the spirit that animates them they possess the latter. Let me, therefore, entreat your serious consideration of the facts laid down ; and per- mit me to assure you of my profound respect. I have the honour to be, My Lords and Gentlemen, Your very obedient Servant, MATTHEW SCALLY, O.C.C. Carmelite Convent, Knocktopher, 26th February,' 1849. 1907f*:I THE SUREST ROAD IRELAND'S PROSPERITY. IRELAND has been, since the period of her reception of the Christian Faith, the fond patron of the RELIGIOUS ORDERS of the Catholic Church. In the days of her ancient glory it was her proudest work to bedeck her emerald planes with the monastic cloister and the abbey church. From the earliest day of her adoption of the Catholic religion, the sons and daughters of Erin were the sincere lovers of that profound piety peculiar to the religious state. Hence we find so many records of early foundations of monasteries and nunneries; and hence so many laudatory effusions in favour of those monks and nuns whose sacred ashes rest beneath the soil of Ireland. There is a something in the Irish heart that cannot be eradicated, and that is its love for the faith of Rome. Destruction of right and title to property, expatriation to foreign lands, capital punishment in every shape and form, proscription of priests and bishops, levelling of churches and altars with the dust these have been all tried and retried during three long centuries, and yet could not succeed in rooting out Catholicity from the heart of Ireland. Schools have been established, colleges have been founded, honours have been offered to those who would renounce Catholicity, gold has been lavishly squandered through the country, and yet aye yet, the Catholic Faith is, at the present day, as fastly attached to the Irish heart, as it was in the palmy days of Old Ireland, when her valleys and her mountains re- echoed the continuous peal of the hymn of praise to the God of Patrick, of Bridget, of Coluinbkill, and of their multitudinous disciples. Of late days, what an astounding feature has not Ireland presented to the whole world ? From comparative happiness and partial prosperity the people of this country have been hurled into misery almost unequalled in the annals of time. That noble race of men, whose physical strength has been considered the greatest of that of the human race, has been so prostrated, as to exhibit to the world, in innumerable instances, the most piteous abjection, and, at the same time, the most indomitable fortitude. The pressure of famine compelled the once athletic man, who had had in his strong arm the wealth of his country, to go to the door of the proselyte-maker to ask an alms. On his obtaining of this, or his not obtaining it, depended a terrible issue, LIFE or DEATH. If he gave up his faith, the alms would have been given to him his own life, and that of hisVife and his beloved children, would have been preserved ; but he preferred to witness slow death taking from him all that was dear to him in this world, and hurling himself into an untimely grave, in preference to a renunciation of that faith which he received from his forefathers. What a lesson this ought to be to those who still hope to protestantize Ireland. And what a lesson, too, to the man who would govern Ireland in peace and security. Give the Irish Catholic his loved faith, unchained and unfettered, and you may never fear for preservation of peace, good order, and honest industry. It is high time now, at last, to give up persecuting the Catholics of Ireland by penal laws, proselytizing schools, &c. &c. The recent reception of the Bill in Parliament, for the removal from the Statute Book of England the yet disgraceful blot of slow persecution of the Religious Orders, has given very general dissatisfaction to the lovers of civil and religious liberty ; and much blame is attached to the majority of Irish members who were absent on that occasion. Amongst others, we find an English Catholic nobleman recommending the intro- ducer of the Bill to keep it out of question this session. How generous of Lord Arundel ! The Bill for the removal of penal statutes against the Catholics of these kingdoms is put out for this session. However, before next session of Parliament, it may not be amiss to place before the public a condensed vindication of the claim of Ireland to a restoration of the monastic order by legal permission. I shall commence this vindication by an enumeration of the abbeys and priories in Ireland antecedent to the Reformation. There were, then, but, lo ! I am at once prevented in my intended labour. Volumes have been already compiled to chronicle the abbeys of Ireland in former days, and, yet, they contain but a cypher of the number, and a most feeble picture of the splendour of those once glorious foundations. Before the hand of destruction fell upon the land, scarcely a parish in Ireland was without its monastery. In some cases two or three existed at the same time within the same parish : and then it was that men appreciated the true value and utility of the monastic iii>titute; for they beheld their children educated in all the learning of the day, and in the science of the saints ; they saw the face of their country covered over with an enlightened and industrious people ; and they rejoiced at seeing the children of foreign lands flying to their shores, in order to participate in the rich fruits of Irish literature and sanctity. " And what they saw was equal ecstasy ; One universal smile it seem'd of all things ; Imperishable life of peace and love, Exhaustless riches and uumeasur'd bliss." So inconsiderate are the monastic establishments now in Ireland, one exccpted, Mount Melleray, that to any, save those who treasure the history of Ireland three hundred years ago, the idea of a perfect re- ligious establishment is not present. As this treatise may, perchance, fall into the hands of many who are ignorant of what a monastery is, and also of those who are ignorantly opposed to such an establishment, it is necessary that it should contain a clear and full description of the Monastic Institute. In the first place, then, a monastery is a house in which a congre- gation of men or women, who have willingly, and of their own accord, left the world and its fond pleasures and pastimes and amusements, dwell together. Now, a monk, or a nun, (for brevity's sake we will consider but the first, as the life of each is similar,) is a person who lives in a monastery, and who in that place has made solemn vows by which he abdicated all right and title to his own will to his own property to his actions nay, to his very thoughts. lie is bound, by his three vows, to perpetual poverty, to perpetual obedience, and to perpetual chastity. Each of these vows he makes with the most perfect liberty; and the reason he makes them is, to comply more strictly with the evangelical counsels. Once he has uttered these sacred and solemn promises to Almighty God, in the presence of the church, he is no longer his own master, be he subject or superior. Once a monk has made his solemn profession, he has no more to do with parents, relatives, friends, or acquaintances. He is, then, bound to labour to the end of his days for these, and these alone the honour of God, the salvation of his soul, the edification of his neighbour, and the relief of the poor. For the more clearly understanding of the monastic life, the details of the life pursued by a certain monastery is requisite ; and, as we have one perfect in Ireland, I need not travel either back to earlier ages, or journey over seas to foreign lands in search of a model. Without fear of contradiction, I can assert, that there never yet existed a more perfect 8 picture of the angelic life of a monastery than that presented by the abbey of Mount Melleray, County Waterford. Let that establishment then suffice for my readers. It is now about twenty years since the first stone of this far-famed establishment was laid. The venerable founder and his companions were originally members of the abbey of La Trappe in France. In the days of the Revolution of that nation, A.D. 1830, these excellent men were compelled, by the wicked mandate of the then ruler, to return to their native country, and seek an asylum in which they might pursue their sanctified vocation. Extensive as Ireland is in arable land, these excellent monks were satisfied to commence their new monastery upon the summit of a lofty and almost barren range of mountains in the County Waterford. They received a grant of a tract of this wild mountain region on these terms, five hundred acres of heath-covered surface free of rent for twenty-one years, and, from the end of that term, to pay two shillings and sixpence per acre in future. Beginning this great work of founding the present magnificent abbey, the wonder and admiration of all who visit its sacred portals, the Right Rev. Doctor Ryan, now no more, Avhose memory lives in benediction, and his holy companions had not a shilling. But, they had God, and when he is with us what need we fear ? They appealed to the faithful Catholics of Ireland for the means to build an abbey. Every one, both rich and poor, and even many Pro- testants, contributed to this grand work. In the course of a very few years, the summit of the cloud-capped mountain, o'er whose heathy sur- face neither man nor beast before thought of dwelling, was beautified by the Cistercian abbey and its splendid church. Even yet does my heart exult in the recollection of that unexpected splendour, presented to my view, as I emerged from one of those denies of the wild mountains that overhang Cappoquin. When will Ireland again see with rapturous de- light in her every county, nay, in her almost every barony, as before, those houses of prayer in which the soul of man is lost to this world in the sweet contemplation of Him who is the centre and the author of all happiness ? When will those splendid relics of Ireland's former glory, that we now see scattered over the face of our country, testifying in their ruins the invincibility of that faith so often preached within their sacred sanctuaries, in which, now, alas ! the preacher is the night owl or the bat, and the hearers the tombstones of some inheritors of the ancient religion when will these cease to call upon Irish Catholics to rebuild the abbeys in which their ever faithful countrymen may devote their lives to the honour of God, to the glory of religion, and to the service of the poor ? Let us now return to a description of the life pursued by the monks of Mount Melleray. The present community consists of one hundred and more monks. Of these some are priests, others are choir brothers, and others are lay brothers. All take their part in the duty of manual labour : but the respective duties of each must be told. The whole community rises at two o'clock after midnight throughout the year, and do not retire to rest again till seven o'clock the following evening. On rising, they all proceed without delay to the church, where they com- mence the sublime prayer the Divine Office. Here, on this cold, dreary, foggy mountain's top, when nearly all Ireland, man and beast, bird and fish, are asleep, are the sanctified monks, every morning in the year, singing the praises of the Most High God, calling down mercy on the sinner, and peace and goodwill to all mankind. What a crime this must be against the public welfare ! The poor monks continue in the church until six o'clock, alternately singing the Psalms of David, reading holy books of meditation, contemplating the beauties of that heaven to which they aspire, and praying that all their fellow -creatures may be their companions in the kingdom of God. At six o'clock the lay brothers pro- ceed to manual labour, and the priests and choir brothers remain in the church; the former, who have not at an earlier hour celebrated mass, performing that sacred duty, and the latter serving at it. At seven o'clock, all, except the priest who is to sing the daily high mass, proceed to the refectory, to take a collation of the most insignificant quality and quantity of food. After the collation, which occupies but a very short time, all are engaged at various duties till the solemn tones of the splendid abbey bell announce the hour of high mass. The priests and choir brothers, and any old and infirm lay brothers that may be, are the assistants at this grand ceremony. Being a conventual high mass, but one priest is in sacred vestments. I have often assisted at high masses in cathedral churches and in others ; I have admired the splendour of the ceremonies, the richness of the sacred vestments, and the beauty of the music ; I have heard the rich tones of the organ, accompanied by the melodious and well-trained voices of the choristers ; but, the simple, the sublime, the enchanting beauty of Mount Melleray church, during a conventual high mass, surpasses all. Just immediately before the mass, an hour of the divine office is recited. During this, you see, at the Epistle side of the altar, a venerable monk all in white ; his cowl is pulled over his head ; he has a book in his hand ; he rises to sing the capitulum and oration : then listen to his voice mortification has softened it and piety fills it up. Oh ! what sweet notes ! He goes to the foot of the 10 altar and again sings other prayers in the same sweet seraphic voice ; then he retires with solemn step to the sacristy, and, having assumed the sacred vestments, he comes out to the altar again, attended by a choir brother : the mass is commenced. Now look back to the choir. There is the abbot with his crozier, the sign of paternal authority over that holy community ; below him, in their several stalls, are the priests and choir monks ; all are singing their portion of the mass see, they are all dressed in white ; how appropriate ! The high mass is celebrated, and, oh ! who can leave that church without this conviction, that this is the house of God and the gate of heaven ? The poor lay brothers, in their various occupations, have, during the mass, assisted in spirit at the different portions of it. The grand bell told each part of the ceremony as it occurred ; and so will it announce during the day the various parts of the divine office as they are sung by the choir ; and so will these sanctified labourers and tradesmen unite in spirit with their brethren, whose duty it is to appear in the church, immediately before the presence of Jesus Christ in the ineffable mystery of the Eucharist. Thrice happy labourers ! you work in God, for God, and for His poor. . Throughout the day and night a profound silence is strictly observed by all the monks, except at prayer, and when serving the poor. You may walk through the whole abbey, and, though all are busy at their various employments, not a word will you hear in the whole establish- ment. By making signs the monks express their wants to each other ; and, what is singularly indicative of their constant attention to their spiritual duties, no matter what employment they are at, soon as the bell announces any act of devotion to be performed, in union with that going on in the church, all fall prostrate on the ground. Let the smith be shoeing a horse, or the carpenter on the house top, or the painter at his own work, unity of action in prayer overrules all work. Thus it is that the spirit of these happy men is kept alive ; for they give the devil no time to tempt them. The choir brothers, with the priests, are obliged to be in choir at different times during the day performing their office ; but, at two o'clock, all again go to the refectory to partake of some food. We may form some estimate of the corporal indulgence of these holy men by looking at their dietary. The monks of Mount Melleray never make use of flesh, fish, eggs, or butter. Wine, or any sort of spirituous liquor is not permitted to any in the abbey. Coarse bread and vegetables are the principal food of these holy men. 11 \\ hat a very mockery it is upon legislation to proclaim such men as unworthy to breathe the air that blows over the British Isles ! What a degree of folly to fear danger to the existing laws and the constitution from such a body of men as the monks of Mount Melleray ! From dinner till seven o'clock in the evening, the same routine of duty proceeds. After Complin, which is the last sacred duty of the whole community in the church, all proceed to their humble cells. The bed for each is a simple pallet of hard packed straw, and a bolster of the same material. The habit worn by the monk forms his night covering as well as his day dress. Reader, let me ask you, are not these men working for heaven ? Besides all their other good works, the monks of Melleray have built an excellent school-house, in which all the children of the neigh- bouring districts are educated free of expense. And to the general building is added a large and commodious house of reception for all such visitors as may wish to spend a few days in spiritual retreat. This last appendage to the abbey is one of its most invaluable acquisitions. Who is the man, either clerical or lay, who does not require to retire from the bustle and confusion of the world now and then, in order to recall his wandering faculties to a contemplation of that grand end for which he has been created ; and in order to brush off that spiritual rust which must of necessity adhere to his soul, in his multitudinous cares and anxieties, pleasures and pains in the world ? Let any man enter this sacred retreat, and even though all is silence about him, save when the hymn of praise and the holy psalm are sung, yet the very appearance of the holy inhabitants, and their mortified life, make such an impression upon the mind as is not quickly obliterated. And why this ? The man of the world sees there before him, in habit and cowl, the once youthful aspirant to worldly honours and temporal prosperity ; but what is that youth now ? In the strength of his manhood, and when he might have given his youthful heart to the world's fond delights, he has sold his all, given the price to the poor, and placed himself under the guidance of the abbot, in order that he may find rest to his soul. In the person of another humble monk, the visitor beholds the once dignified ecclesiastic, whose name flourished in the metropolis of England, but who, preferring safety by flight from the dangers of the world, retired into this sanctified home to prepare his soul for the eternal tabernacles of the blessed. Thus contemplating the humble monk, the thought at once occurs to the mind, " what shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul ; or what will a man receive in exchange for his soul ? " 12 Visitors to this holy retreat are frequent throughout the year; and each, on quitting for the world again, exclaims, in the words of St. Peter to Christ, " Lord, it is good for us to be here." With all its dreariness, and its mountain cold and fog, Mount Melleray Abbey is looked upon truly as the gate of heaven. Rigid and mortified as is the life of these monks, their abbot is obliged to refuse almost daily applications for admission to its practice by the youthful Irishmen. Well and truly did the illustrious Doctor Doyle say, that " the very climate of Ireland is congenial to Catholicity." No man knew better than he did the invaluable service rendered to religion and to morality by the Religious Orders in their perfection ; nor did any of his day more bitterly deplore the anomalous condition of them in Ireland. Now, since the great and paramount objection made against the re- establishment, in these kingdoms, of the Religious Orders, is, that they are injurious to the State, let us take a view of this abbey, we have been contemplating, in reference to the State. Any man, or body of men, who give their best exertions to the ame- lioration of the condition of their fellow-creatures, must be of the great- est service to that state in which they live. The members of the reli- gious establishment at Mount Melleray do this. Therefore, the manner of life pursued by these men is such as to inspire the greatest sluggard with a disgust for his slothful habits, and to excite him to acts of virtue and industry. For, here he sees upon the top of a lofty moun- tain, the very approach to which, before the monks settled upon it, de- terred any man, who thought of such, from spending his capital or his labour in cultivating its surface, a body of men who are contented with the most inferior diet, with the most simple clothing, and with the most unhomely resting-place for the night ; and, yet, from long before the morning sun has given notice of his approach, are, with spade and shovel, with pick-axe and crow-bar, cultivating the almost naked rock, and superinducing a surface that it never before wore since creation. And for what purpose do these men thus labour so industriously ? They are bound by their rule to a life of self-mortification ; and they bestow the temporal superabundant fruits of that same upon the sup- port of the poor orphan, widow, and broken-down labourer. At their door the answer is never heard, whilst there is a morsel of food in the abbey, " Go away, poor people ; we have nothing for you." Besides feeding the poor and instructing the ignorant, these good men have ever amongst them a body of learned and zealous ecclesiastics who devote 13 their attention to the spiritual wants of the people amongst whom they live. These frequently preach, and hear confessions daily ; and who would not be edified and helped to morality by the teachings of such masters ? In fine, we need but go to the once wild and heath-covered mountains around Mount Melleray, and there we may behold the palpable fruits of the teaching of the monks. There we may behold the comfortable and well-arranged farm-house the well-fenced and well-cultivated fields, notable traces of industry and all this where, till twenty years ago, no child of Adam ever thought of making his home. If such bodies of men, as these we are admiring, were established throughout Ireland, and England, and Scotland, as they were in time long past, think you, gentle reader, should we be compelled to witness the terrible scenes of the pre- sent day ? For, what do we look upon every day in Ireland ? The most luxuriant tracts of land half cultivated, the most athletic race of men under the sun perishing on the high-roads, and rotting in the filthy cabins ; a poor-law and numerous poor-houses extorting the very vitals out of the farming class of our people ; and a whole generation of land- lords fast falling into beggary ! Even here, it is not out of order to inquire the great cause of this awful misery in a land so naturally fertile as Ireland. Many false and unfounded reasons have been alleged for Ireland's present misery. Not stopping to rebut those assertions, I will state a simple fact as the cause. The want of encouragement by example was the great root of our present misery. Time has caused that root to produce a stem whose far extended branches have overspread the land. In days gone by, the landed pro- prietors of Ireland, instead of giving to their tenantry the good example of industrious habits and pursuits, taught them to be " unmindful of to- morrow.'' 1 When the bright beam of prosperity shone upon Ireland, her landlords revelled in luxury, and spent in debauchery what they ought to have laid by for a future day or spent upon the improvement of their lands. When their expenditure had wasted their capital and sunk their properties in debt, then, instead of making a generous and noble effort at a safety from final destruction, off they went to foreign countries to live upon cheap diet, cheap wines, cheap theatres, cheap balls, and in cheap lodgings. Incomparable wisdom! But, to supply the monies for all these cheap comforts, they left behind them a body of men called agents, whose duty and will it was to fleece the poor and already broken-down tenants for the last penny of exorbitant rents. And these worthy gentle- men were most faithful in their office. The population of Ireland was all this time increasing, and so was her poverty. According as each 14 family of the farming class began to diverge into different new families, a high premium was given for a bit of land; and, instead of encouraging a provident emigration, the landlords and agents both encouraged the competition for land at home. Thus came the horrid scenes so frequently enacted during the last twenty years in the agricultural districts. Men fought for land, as if every perch of it were covered with gold. But, yet, on went the absenteeism on the landlord's part, and persecution on that of the agent. Then, to make lodging-houses for the exterminated paupers of the land, a Poor-Law was given to Ireland. This Poor-Law is now finishing the law that so long existed between landlord and tenant. In a short time both the one and the other will be tenants of the poor- house. This, gentle reader, is] the true picture of the real cause of Ireland's present misery. " Think well on it." English capital may now flow into Ireland and purchase up estates ; but, till a living and permanent system of instruction by example is established, away with the thought of making Ireland prosperous ! See what wisdom was exhibited by your forefathers, O Englishmen ! When they invaded Ireland, six hundred years ago, their earliest attention was given to the foundation of abbeys throughout the land. Nor was it the bleak and unfertile mountain's top they gave to the monks. Ah ! no, they had more sense. Their object, as we have just reason to believe, in founding such establishments was, to encourage their dependents in ha- bits of industry, frugality, and strict morality. Hence they gave the choicest spots upon the map of Ireland to the monks of their day. Look but to the county of Kilkenny alone, and take in your hand the history of the abbeys founded by your forefathers as they progressed in their seizure of estates. You will see, on the fair and beautiful banks of the river Barrow, an abbey founded at Graignaniana, in the year 1204, for Cistercian Monks. Come on, then, to Jerpoint, and you find another whose splendid ruins, even to-day, announce its once important state *. In Knocktopher you find another for Carmelites, to which King Edward the Third granted most important favours. Then proceed to Kells, and you there find the extensive relics of a once magnificent abbey for * The abbey of Jerpoint was originally founded by Donald, Prince of Ossory, but in subsequent times was considerably augmented and endowed by the English settlers : and so jealous were the latter of Jerpoint's greatness, that, in 1380, they passed a law in parliament pro- hibiting the profession of any mere Irish within its sacred sanctuary. A similar enactment was made for most of the English foundations in Ireland. 15 Augustinians. From Kells go as far as Callan, and there were two very important houses established for Augustinians also. All these places are nearly in sight of each other ; and the lands about each amply prove the worldly wisdom of the founders. Quitting the county Kilkenny, in which were many other religious establishments founded by Englishmen, go through the length and breadth of Ireland, and you find similar proofs of English forethought in building such houses as monasteries, and in encouraging such people as monks. From the very dawn of Christianity upon Ireland, she was the land of abbeys for monks and nuns ; since the day of their destruction, she has never prospered as she might ; and, until the abbeys, and the monks, and the nuns are again restored, never will she be of much benefit to England. I will now take another view of the subject, and with it conclude this little treatise. The spirit of Ireland is essentially, unalterably Catholic. The experience of fourteen hundred years proves that in the strongest light. To continue thwarting that spirit, is but to continue Ireland's inutility to England. To foster Catholicity in Ireland ought to be the stateman's best policy. I may, with all justice, here advert to the long continued practice of every nation, England included, of sending out Catholic Missioners to newly established colonies. Looking over that inestimable work, " Battersby's Catholic Directory for the whole World," I find Catholic bishops and priests in every colony over which the Bri- tish flag waves its shadow ; and these are not only tolerated, but are paid for cultivating civilization amongst the inhabitants. Surely not for spreading Romanism. And some of these very same bishops and priests were, and are, of that class of Irish ecclesiastics who, by the Emancipa- tion Act of 1829, were made felons in their native country. Strange anomaly ! A man may be a friar, bishop, or priest in any one of Eng- land's foreign colonies ; but, as soon as he sets his foot upon British soil, he is liable to transportation for life to a convict island! England ! that gives a home and an asylum to every expatriated king, prince, or mal- content of other nations ; England ! that has swept away the foul traffick in slavery from all her foreign dependencies ; England ! that purifies the high seas from the odour of slave-ships conveying one portion of the hu- man race from their homes and their families to be sold in civilized na- tions ; could any rational man believe that so mighty and so benevolent a power would, even yet, keep clanking about the necks of a portion of her own children the chain of slavery? and that because, and only because, they desire to live in retirement from the world, and by the 16 highest acts of virtue serve their fellow -man and sanctify their immortal souls ? But to return to my proposition. The spirit of Ireland is essentially and unalterably Catholic. Such being the case, what could more tend to the making men good subjects than to encourage them to follow, in strict morality, the dictates of that religion which they believe to be the best? And what is more common in Ireland than to find the rigid Protestant gentleman compel his Catholic servants to attend punctually to their Easter and Christmas confessions ? well knowing that there is to be met a barrier against the progress of all species of vice and dis- honesty. There is no man more loyal to his King or Queen, no man more faithful to his domestic duties, nor is there any man more just in the discharge of social duties than the practical Catholic. On the other hand, there is no man more unfaithful to all these obligations than the irreligious man and merely nominal Catholic. It is such as the latter that bring disgrace and odium upon the creed they profess. To make Catholic Ireland, therefore, what she once was and what she ever ought to be, the " Island of Saints," it is necessary that HER faith be supplied with ministers sufficient to propound its sacred maxims of morality. At the present day, and during many years past, it is too evident that Ireland's paucity of priests has been the cause of the immorality that does prevail and has prevailed. When Ireland was styled the " Island of Saints," her every parish, almost, had its monastery and its nunnery ; and hence her far-famed sanctity and her world- wide fame for learning. Again I must refer my reader to " Battersby's Directory " for the present year. Look to the number of priests upon the Irish mission, and, having com- pared that with the yet vast population, say, is it possible that the Catholics of Ireland can be sufficiently instructed in their religious prin- ciples ? The thing is impossible. The Catholic religion requires that her children be, from their earliest dawn of reason, trained up in the strict observance of all her precepts. She demands of all a frequent reception of her sacraments, and a frequent hearing of the Word of God. Looking, then, at the number of priests at present in Ireland, and reflecting upon the labour required to give the Word of God and the Sacraments to the people, in such a manner, and as often as is necessary to make them virtuous and good members of society, to the most simple understanding it must be evident that a terrible defect lies here. Well, then, will a Government pension to the clergy supply the defect ? Assuredly, no. Ko Government could afford to pension a siifficient number of instructors 17 for Catholic Ireland. What Ireland wants is a restoration of her old and time-honoured system. She wants the monks and nuns as of old. She wants her Church to be unchained from bondage. What is the present condition of the Religious Orders in Ireland ? Most piteous. Of the Order of Friars there is but one house that can be strictly called the Abbey of Mount Melleray. Of nunneries we have in the cities and in some of the principal towns a few. The condition of the Irish friars is as follows : The monks of Melleray are at present in deep distress after all their wonderful works ; and this in consequence of their immense alms to the poor. During a recent visit there, I was daily astonished to behold the crowds of poor people these holy men fed upon the best oatmeal stirabout and milk, whilst themselves were living upon the poorest possible species of diet ; indeed I know many paupers who would fly the poor-house where such food would be offered them. To meet the demands of the famishing poor, the abbot of Mount Melleray, the Right Rev. Doctor Fitzpatrick, has lately sold the splendid organ of his church, which was a gift of one of his community before entering the abbey, and which cost the sum of six hundred pounds. As to the other religious houses of Ireland, they are merely keeping alive the staff of the old establishment and the germ of future greatness. They have, by persevering zeal and untiring labour, erected in many of the cities and towns of Ireland some splendid chapels. They devote themselves to the constant duties of the altar, the pulpit, and the confessional. In cities, such as Dublin, Cork, and Limerick, the mode of obtaining support is, by making collections on Sundays at the chapel doors ; and to pay their chapel rent they are obliged to go from door to door periodically to seek the alms of the people at large. How much better their time might be employed ! The poor country friars have their own share of suffering. After giving their time and attention throughout the year to all classes, but, in particular, to the poorer, they are obliged to leave their poor con- vents in the most inclement season of the year, and travel through wet and cold, through frost and snow, from door to door asking a trifle of corn from those who can afford to give it. Oftentimes does the country friar journey thirty miles in the day in this disagreeable work, and seek lodging at night far, far from his loved little home. And how do the poor nuns, those angels of the Catholic community, pass their lives ? Pent up, in many instances, in the back streets of our cities, in houses too small, and with little plots of ground for recreation. But go into their chapels and their school-rooms for the poor children, to whose edu- cation they devote their lives, and there you will be astonished at the 18 beauty and richness of the former, and the neatness and cleanliness of the latter. To the observer of these it would seem as if wealth and every abundance consequent lived in the nunnery. But in reality poverty finds a home inside the nunnery walls. This is the system of the nuns of Ireland of the present day. Each young lady, on making her profes- sion as a nun, is obliged to hand into the common fund of the establish- ment she joins the sum of five hundred pounds. In some cases, where a lady happens to have a larger sum at her command, and gives it into the same treasury, if it be sufficient by its interest to support another nun or more, a poorer postulant, or postulants as the case may be, is re- ceived to the habit of the order. Thus charity and self-sacrifice go hand- in-hand. The expenditure upon the clothing and support of each nun is sixteen pounds per year ! Oh ! astounding influence of Catholic faith ! Here are, pent up in a gloomy little house, a community of Irish nuns. And what brought them thus together ? They are the daughters of the wealthier classes ; they have been, from their birth-day to that on which they entered a convent, brought up in the comforts and in the luxuries of life ; they have been educated for a high sphere in society ; the loving eyes of affectionate parents and brothers and relatives have watched opportunities of tending respect to their every fancy ; the ever-changing fashions of the day have been made subservient to their taste ; the thea- tres have been open to their visit ; the ball-room to their step ; the world, in fine, in their circles, has been their servant ; and, yet, there they are of their own free will, in poverty, in humility, and in charity, devoting their warm youth and frigid old age to the service of God, and to the future as well as present happiness of mankind. How happy must be the death-bed of the nun, who, in her passage from this life, can look back to the many souls she has trained up in the road to that heaven to which she now hastens ; and how happy must be that of the Sister of Charity, who has so often smoothed the pillow for suffering humanity brought comfort both spiritual and corporeal to the fcetid cellar or ruinous garret, and made death's pang easy to the poor by her words of balmy comfort. But, yet, many say, " After all we don't see what great cause the Eeligious Orders in Ireland have for complaint. Though they are proscribed by the law of the land, and though their members are liable to transportation, and though their properties are liable to confiscation, yet, we have not seen any friar or nun transported. Nay, we see them living under the eyes of the Law and the Government, and we see them with their churches and their convents, and we daily read accounts of 19 new members uniting with them after all," say these good people, " the case of the friars and nuns is not so very bad." True, perfectly true. But it is not the question of the sufferings and proscription of the Ke- ligious Orders for their chosen portion in this world is suffering; and though they were proscribed ten thousand times, yet will they live in the heai-t of Ireland so much as the great, the paramount question of the loss sustained by Ireland in not having the Monastic Institute in its original grandeur. Notwithstanding the great faith, and piety, and charity that is daily manifested by the majority of Irish Catholics, what man with a spark of charity, religion, or humanity, can look with indifference upon the present condition of Ireland? After all the labours of the present priesthood and monks and nuns, see what an immense defect there is, of necessity, in the religious and moral training of the people. What is it fdls the highways and byeways of our cities, our towns, and our villages with so much ignorance, and consequently so much crime ? What is it fills our prisons with offenders against the laws of God and man our courts of justice with accusers, and the convict-hulk with so many con- victed culprits ? What is it sends so many of our people, both young and old, to the mighty regions of America, to serve there as " hewers of wood and drawers of water?" Is it not the want of a full and perfect system of religious and moral education? Shame upon those Irish members of Parliament, and English Catholic members also, who, when- ever the Bill has been introduced for the removal of penal statute*) against the yet proscribed Catholic clergy, monks and nuns, were either absent from their places, or, if present, contented to give a simple "aye," and so allow this all-important question to be turned out of the House of Commons. Statesmen of England ! you to whose care are entrusted the destinies of the British empire, look to this important question. Your far-famed historian, Cobbet, has most graphically portrayed the terrible conse- quences of the demolition of the Monastic Institute to England. Whilst that lived in its fulness of glory, no poor-house blotted the fair surface of England, Ireland, or Scotland. No: whilst that lived in its plenitude of utility to the community, the councils of the nation were not distracted by the eternal poverty of the people, nor was the Exchequer left empty by struggling to preserve from death's grasp millions of subjects to the British crown. Complete then the grand work of eternal oblivion to those penal statutes which yet blot the first in the world the British Statute Book. 20 Landlords of Ireland! look you to this question. Your noble terri- tories are at present fast walking to the hammer of the auctioneer. Your improvidence in better days has brought upon you the visiting hand of destruction. Ere long, your once splendid mansions the houses of unbounded and prodigal hospitality, and your luxuriant domains that so long teemed forth uncultivated fertility, will be in the hands of foreign capitalists, and both yourselves and your children asking places in the hideous poor-house ; but, no you have yet one resource. Give your aid in the restoration of that institute, that has made, in days gone by, the fertility of your lands, that has built up many of those venerable mansions in Avhich you were born. Ireland was poorer in means when monasteries were first built upon its surface, than she is to-day ; and her people of this day have the same spirit and the same love for the building up such as had their ancestors. Let not the pious youth of Ireland any more fly to the wilds of America to found the abbeys of the Catholic Church, and leave the fertile but deserted plains of Ireland a prey to foreign specu- lators, who will bring over their capital again to their own country a hundred-fold increased by its taking a turn in the rich soil of poor broken- hearted Ireland. Catholics of Ireland ! ye who so often boast of your indomitable faith and call yourselves the successors of the saints of old, why have you slept when called upon by your departed chieftain O'Connell ? In the day of his power, he called upon you to aid him, by your voices, to strike off the last chains of your bondaged Church. You heeded him not. On last year his son, the inheritor of his honesty, of his patriotism, and of his great mind, called upon you to aid in the same work. You heeded him not. It is not want of sympathy deafens your ears, but it is a want of thought. In the days of your sufferings as slaves, you laboured for emancipation ; you were made free. But, since the day of your emanci- pation, how many of your children have adopted the chains you threw away ? They have done this to continue the existence of that almost now ruined fabric, which had for its founder, in your country, the Apostle Patrick which was, in each succeeding century from his day till that of the Reformation, increased by the labours, the learning, and the sanctity of Irishmen. How often do you not admire in their ruins those once magnificent piles, the Abbeys of Ireland? When you con- template their vaulted roofs, do you not say ? There ascended the loud song of praise to the Most High, and, having been heard in heaven, re- echoed to the admiring throng of our sainted ancestors. Here, say you, was the place where stood the holy altar .surrounded by the abbot and 21 his holy brothers, offering sacrifice to Him who rules the heavens and the earth, and, yet, " delights to be among the children of men." There *tood the cloisters in which dwelt those sanctified men, whose holiness of life cast a halo over our country : and here was the door at which the poor and the stranger were received and comforted with food and lodging. Catholics of Ireland! shall we ever see those things again realised ? With you that in a great measure rests. AVithout asking it, you will not receive it; without seeking it, you will not find it; and without knocking at the door of the Imperial Parliament, you will not be admitted to a contemplation of those grand realities which have en- chanted historians, enraptured poets, and sanctified Ireland the Abbeys of Ireland in their noonday splendour. May I hope that the liberal press of England, Ireland, and Scotland, will favour this little work by their kind notice? APPENDIX, No. 1. THE following Petition, so worthy of the Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland, and so commendatory of the regular orders, cannot be too highly valued. AVould to heaven that their voice had been listened to and their request granted by the Imperial Parliament! But we must hope for these good things at a not far distant period. The following was pre- sented to Parliament last year. " The Petition of Catholic Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland, " Most respectfully sheweth That, while they feel it their duty to acknowledge with heartfelt gratitude the many important favours which have been conferred by the bounty of Parliament on the Catholic secular clergy and people of Ireland, they cannot but lament that the Catholic regular clergy of Ireland, whose perfect loyalty to the crown of Great Britain, unimpeachable virtues as a body, and eminent services in pro- moting sound morality, are not surpassed by any portion of Her Majesty's subjects, are, nevertheless, excluded from those rights and privileges which their fellow-subjects enjoy. " The Catholic Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland, therefore, most respectfully and earnestly entreat your honourable House to remove all those legal disabilities under which the Catholic regular orders in Ireland suffer, and to place them on a level with the other Catholic clergy of Ireland. " And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will pray, f& AV. CROLLY, D.D., &c. )J< D. Me KKAV, D.D., &c. )J< PATRICK M'GETTIGAN. D.D., &c. &C., &C., &C. 22 APPENDIX, No. 2. PENAL CLAUSES AGAINST THE REGULARS CONTAINED IN THE EMANCIPATION ACT OF 1829. For the suppression of Jesuits and other Religious Orders of the Church of Rome. XXVIII. And whereas Jesuits and members of other religious orders, communities, or societies of the Church of Rome, bound by monastic or religious vows, are resident within the United Kingdom ; and it is expedient to make provision for the gradual suppression and final prohibition of the same therein ; be it therefore enacted, That every Jesuit, and every member of any other religious order, community, or society of the Church of Rome, bound by monastic or religious vows, who at the time of the commencement of this Act shall be within the United Kingdom, shall, within six calendar months after the commence- ment of this Act, deliver to the Clerk of the Peace of the county or place where such person shall reside, or to his deputy, a notice or state- ment, in the form and containing the particulars required to be set forth in the schedule to this Act annexed ; which notice or statement such Clerk of the Peace, or his deputy, shall preserve and register amongst the Records of such county or place, without any fee, and shall forthwith transmit a copy of such notice or statement to the chief Secretary of the Lord-Lieutenant or other chief governor or governors of Ireland, if such person shall reside in Ireland, or if in Great Britain, to one of His Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State; and in case any person shall offend in the premises, he shall forfeit and pay to His Majesty, for every calendar month during which he shall remain in the United Kingdom without having delivered such notice or statement as is herein -before required, the sum of fifty pounds. Jesuits, Sfc., coming into the Realm, to be banished. XXIX. And be it further enacted, That if any Jesuit, or member of any such religious order, community, or society as aforesaid, shall, after the commencement of this Act, come into this Realm, he shall be deemed and taken to be guilty of a misdemeanor, and being thereof lawfully con- victed, shall be sentenced and ordered to be banished from the United Kingdom for the term of his natural life. Natural-born Subjects, being Jesuits, may return into the Kingdom and be registered. XXX. Provided always, and be it further enacted, That in case any natural-born subject of this Realm, being at the time of the commence- ment of this Act a Jesuit, or other member of any such religious order, community, or society as aforesaid, shall, at the time of the commence- ment of this Act, be out of the Realm, it shall be lawful for such person to return or to come into this Realm ; and upon such his return or coming into the Realm he is hereby required, within the space of six calendar months after his first returning or coming into the United Kingdom, to deliver such notice or statement to the Clerk of the Peace 23 of the county or place where he shall reside, or his deputy, for the pur- pose of being so registered and transmitted, as herein-before directed ; and in case any such person shall neglect or refuse so to do, he shall for such offence forfeit and pay to His Majesty, for every calendar month during which he shall remain in the United Kingdom without having delivered such notice or statement, the sum of fifty pounds. The Principal Secretaries of State may grant Licenses to Jesuits, Sfc., to come into the Kingdom ; and may revoke the same. XXXI. Provided also, and be it further enacted, That, notwith- standing any thing herein-before contained, it shall be lawful for any one of His Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, being a Protestant, by a License in writing, signed by him, to grant permission to any Jesuit, or member of any such religious order, community, or society as afore- said, to come into the United Kingdom, and to remain therein for such period as the said Secretary of State shall think proper, not exceeding in any case the space of six calendar months ; and it shall also be lawful for any of His Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State to revoke any License so granted before the expiration of the time mentioned therein, ff he shall so think fit ; and if any such person to whom such License shall have been granted shall not depart from the United Kingdom within twenty days after the expiration of the time mentioned in such License, or if such License shall have been revoked, then within twenty days after notice of such revocation shall have been given to him, every person so offending shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and being thereof lawfully convicted shall be sentenced and ordered to be banished from the United Kingdom for the term of his natural life. Admitting Persons as Members of such Religious Orders deemed a misde- meanor. XXXIII. And be it further enacted, That in case any Jesuit, or member of any such religious order, community, or society as aforesaid, shall, after the commencement of this Act, within any part of the United King- dom, admit any person to become a regular ecclesiastic, or brother or member of any such religious order, community, or society, or be aiding or consenting thereto, or shall administer or cause to be administered, or be aiding or assisting in the administering or taking, any oath, vow, or engagement purporting or intended to bind the person taking the same to the rules, ordinances, or ceremonies of such religious order, community, or society, every person offending in the premises in England or Ireland shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and in Scotland shall be punished by fine and imprisonment. Any Person so admitted a Member of a Religious Order to be banished. XXXIV. And be it further enacted, That in case any person shall, after the commencement of this Act, within any part of this United Kingdom, be admitted or become a Jesuit, or brother or member of any other such religious order, comnmnity, or society as aforesaid, such person shall be deemed and taken to be guilty of a misdemeanor, and being thereof lawfully convicted shall be sentenced and ordered to be banished from the United Kingdom for the term of his natural life. 24 The Party offending may be banished by His Majesty; and if at large, after three months, may be transported for life. XXXV. And be it further enacted, That in case any person sen- tenced and ordered to be banished under the provisions of this Act' shall not depart from the United Kingdom within thirty days after the pronouncing of such sentence and order, it shall be lawful for His Majesty to cause such person to be conveyed to such place out of the United Kingdom as His Majesty, by the advice of his Privy Council, shall direct. XXXVI. And be it further enacted, That if any offender, who shall be so sentenced and ordered to be banished in manner aforesaid, shall, after the end of three calendar months from the time such sentence and order hath been pronounced, be at large within any part of the United Kingdom, without some lawful cause, every such offender being so at large as aforesaid, on being thereof lawfully convicted, shall be trans- ported to such place as shall be appointed by His Majesty, for the term of his natural life. To any one reading the above extract from the Act of Parliament, it must be at once evident how severe is the treatment given to the friars of Ireland. It must also appear manifest, how great a blight this casts over the Regular Orders. It is not the Government that avails itself of these penal clauses against the religious bodies ; nor is it Protestants or members of any other religious profession ; but it is the bad Catholic, who prefers his own temporal gain to the welfare of his country and the hap- piness of his fellow-man. The records of the Courts of Judicature, in Ireland, furnish ample proof of this. Not long since, the relative of a Catholic, who at his death bequeathed to the monks of Mount Melleray a small annuity, entered a course of law proceedings against that body of men whom the world admires, in order to obtain, by virtue of the penal laws, the reversion of that sum to himself. There is, even at the present mo- ment, a case pending in the Dublin courts, in which the lay BROTHER of a friar seeks to disinherit him from his right in justice to his deceased father's gift by will. Some of the nuns of Ireland have also been brought before the courts of justice by their dear brothers (?) on the same wicked score. HENIIT trf'AS, I-KINTER, 3, BfKLKlGII STREET, STRAND.