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.