Magazine for last month), the fol: lowing uncandid insinuation: "Missionary Language.-I know not whether it is the Missionary Society, or their eulogist, that has made the discovery, that nearly 100 millions of immortal beings are found under the dominion of the small kingdom of Great Britain and İreland.' But Missionaries and Bible Society-men, and the supreme sovereign of the earth,' the Emperor of China, have, like the gods in Homer, a language of their own, and are not content to speak in the common dialect of mortal men." If the writer of this paragraph, should see your work, and will take the trouble to add together the population of Great Britain, with her colonies and dependencies, and es pecially her widely extended oriental possessions, and will expli citly state how far the amount is short of the "missionary language," which he reprehends, he will confer a service on the cause of truth and good manners. Till then, he must allow his friends to adhere to their Homerico-Chinese dialect. STATISTICUS, To the Editor of the Christian Observer. AMONG the causes of the distresses of the poor in large towns, there is one which has not met with the notice which I think is due to its importance-I mean the facility of procuring loans on pledges. It is very generally allowed that the wide extent of the bank discounts, by enabling persons to raise temporary supplies of money, greatly assisted, and even prompted, that improvident system of speculation in the mercantile world, which has been attended with so many disasters. A similar effect has followed in the case of the country banks and farmers; though, as in the former instance, much partial and temporary convenience has doubt less been mixed with the evil. It appears to me that the case of the manufacturing classes, and the pledge-broker is nearly analogous. The poor man, when partially embarrassed, instead of learning to reduce each day's expense to the corresponding portion of his weekly wages, is tempted to exceed the proportion in the former half of the week, knowing that he can raise money for the latter half, by pledging some article of property, to be redeemed when his next week's wages are received. This facility of raising money naturally invites to improvidence. It may, indeed, on many occasions, be a great convenience; especially in the case of an honest family, thrown out of employment, for a short season, and wishing to anticipate their future resources, rather than seek parochial assistance. But, in general, even in this case, the same object would be secured in a more eligible mode, by going in debt for a short time to the neighbouring shopkeepers; and this temporary credit is seldom denied, where the character of the applicant is known to be fair, and his probability of procuring employment reasonable. Even incurring a debt, bad as it is, is usually a less evil than raising money on pledges, particularly when we consider the expense of interest and the liability to forfeit ure. But even the facility of obtaining credit, however occasionally convenient, is in the long run an evil to the poor; as indeed every thing must be that enables them to forestal to day the fruits of to-morrow's labour. A family obliged to pay daily, or at most weekly, for their daily or weekly expenses, without any resource (except in extraordinary cases, which must be allowed for), either from the parish, the pawnbroker, or the accommodating tradesman, must necessarily learn to economize. Were it not for pawn-broking, and the facility of obtaining credit, Monday would not so often be a lost day among artizans and the labouring classes. It is a truly wise petition, which our Saviour puts into our lips, "Give us this day (or day by day) our daily bread." The poor especially (I wish I could exempt all the rich from the remark) are too improvident, generally speaking, to be trusted, with safety, with the power and temptation of injuring their future prospects. If even persons of rank and education are often too puerile to check the capricious desires of the moment, though they know that they must inevitably entail debts, and perhaps ruin on their future prospects, we cannot wonder if the temptation of a pawnbroker's shop should induce the poor to imitate their conduct, and to purchase with their anticipated earnings, some gratification which their average income will not allow them to command, but which they have not resolution to forego. Few persons feel, in respect of the evils of futurity, as they will -feel when they actually arrive; and therefore, almost every man is too much inclined to prefer the gratification of the current hour, to the more solid expectations of a future day. This propensity is not only excused, but even adopted by the unthinking as a regular axiom of life, under the authority of some such equivocal aphorism, as that "one bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." In making the charge in question, I am only accusing the poor of too often doing, to a certain extent in their temporal concerns, what unhappily too many of us all, both poor and rich, too often do in our spiritual ones. The conduct of Esau, in selling his birthright for a momentary and trifling gratification, is but too accurate a delineation of human conduct in higher, as well as in similar, concerns. In making the preceding remarks, I would not be understood to speak of the evils of pawnbroking, as the only or chief cause of the frequent distresses of our poor, especially in large towns; but I think it a concurrent one of considerable importance, and deserving great attention, Nor am I charging the receivers of pledges with unfairness in their transactions. But I conceive, and I am not alone in my opinion, that the faci lities for raising money, created by the multiplication of pawnbrokers' shops, is an evil of considerable magnitude. The money so raised is, I fear, much oftener expended in purchasing spirituous liquors, or other vicious indulgences, than for the absolute necessaries of life; so that in every way the poor are injured, without any thing like an equal benefit being conferred in return.I hope, in tendering these remarks for insertion, I shall not be considered as justly forfeiting the title of AN HONEST FRIEND REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. Reflections, &e. By SAMUEL WIX, Strictures, &c. By the Rev. H. A Letter to the Bishop of St. David's, &c. By SAMUEL WIX. (Continued from p. 58.) THE hopes indulged by Mr. Wix, of a favourable result from the proposed general council, appear to be founded, in a considerable degree, upon the alleged "general disposition prevailing among the Roman Catholics to a reformation." We have seen as yet no satisfactory evidence of the general prevalence of such a disposition. But if it existed to the extent of Mr. Wix's statement--if, in any country, the eyes of men were opening generally to the evils of Popery-we should still question whether this was the mode of proceeding best adapted to the case. We are aware that in some parts of the continent, the downfal of papal authority is very confidently predicted. "Most of the Catholic princes of Germany, we are told, feel an ardent desire to free themselves and their people from the shackles of hierarchical usurpation......The fate of Rome, as an ecclesiastical power, is perhaps at this moment determined!" Al though the anticipations of this writer are probably far too sanguine, yet we have no doubt that the sensation produced in that country, partly by the circulation of the holy Scriptures, and partly by the tyranny of the papal see, has been considerable; and that the most strenuous efforts will be required to perpetuate the reign of darkness. And is it under these circumstances, that we are to lend an aid to the Court of Rome? If Protestantism be the true religion, why should we appear to give any countenance to those who wish to fix upon the necks of the Germans a yoke which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear? Why should we not rather assist and exhort them to cast away those cords of spiritual bondage, and to emerge into that liberty, with which God has so wonderfully made us free? Even if the movements which are reported in the German States had only for their object some partial amend Translation of a German pamphlet, on the subject, of Baron Von Wessenberg, &c. cited in Wix's Reflections, P. 104. ments in the system of Popery, yet in the course of events they may lead now, as formerly, to an effectual reformation, by opening a free course to the truths of the Gospel. It might be very politic in the pope and his adherents to cry out, in such a case, to the Church of England, "Pray let us have a council; let us accommodate matters by mutual concession: we are in danger of being expelled out of Germany, and, perhaps, with your assistance, we may prop up our tottering cause." But the reply of Protestants would surely be, "We are glad to hear your confessions, but we will lend you no countenance: it is high time that idolatry aud antichrist should be cast down. We are deeply indebted to the Germans for our own reformation, and we will not repay them by withholding the benefits, which they were so willing to extend to us." In a question, however, of this kind, we are more intimately concerned with the state of the Roman Catholic religion in the British dominions. Does then this " general disposition to a reformation" manifest itself in this country? We are not aware of any evidence in proof of the fact; and we fear that there is evidence against it. What, for instance, shall we say to "the short Litany of the blessed Virgin?" a prayer suited to the darkest ages of Popery, and which exists in books of devotion used in England at this very day! What shall we say to "The Life and Miracles of St. Winifred, &c. printed in 1817?"+ Our inference is, that no such prayer could be in use, and that no Papist would venture to publish such ridiculous and mischievous stories, if the disposition of which Mr. Wix speaks were generally prevalent. But he refers more particularly to the sister island. * See" The Protestant," No. XL. "From the best information, the author is induced to believe, that in Ireland, as in other countries, while attachment to the authority of the Church, and to the essential articles of the Catholic faith, remains unshaken among the Roman Catholics-and long may it remain unshaken!-they are yet very generally actuated by a desire to abandon error." Ref. p. 106. To this best information, we op pose the following statements:A pilgrimage is annually made, in the north of Ireland, to Lough Dergh; and a little tract is now be fore us, pointing out "the institution and nature of the stations of that holy place." It tells of the spiritual benefits of this pilgrimage, of the entrance into the holy island bare-headed and bare-footed, of the instruction to be derived from passing into this island by water, of kneeling before the altar, and kissing the stones of it that we may be cleansed from our sins; of obtaining grace and remission of sins by the blessed Virgin, of going round the altar seven times, of repeating seven decads, of the seven penitential beads dedicated to seven saints, of the entrance into the penal bed that we may be thoroughly purged from our sins, of the descent to the water by a craggy and uneven path, of fasting nine days, because we are to be assumed to the nine orders of angels, of remaining twenty-four hours in the vault, of plunging into the water, and leaving Pharaoh and his army-namely, sin and its inclinations-drowned in the red Lough, or St. Patrick's Purgatory, &c. &c. concluding with this address," And Jesus being your Captain, by Jordan, or good life, you will enter the land of promise, which is eternal life (though highly walled with lofty virtues), which God grant me and you pilgrims, by the intercession of the blessed Virgin Mary, all the saints, and especially of St. Patrick, our holy patron. Amen.” If it should be said, that these perhaps are ignorant pilgrims, and the writer of this work a person of no name or authority, we reply, How happens it that we have no disclaimer of such fooleries on the the Romish Church? On the conpart of the priests and bishops of trary, "The Life and Miracles of St. Winifred," to which we have referred, is the production of one of the most distinguished of its prelates the Right Reverend John Milner, D.D., Vicar Apostolical. So far, therefore, are the Romish bishops and priests from discountenancing these gross superstitions and childish observances, and the fatally delusive hopes connected with them, that even in this enlightened age, and in this enlightened country, we find the paramount influence of the hierarchy employed in giving credit and currency to these " lying wonders." Of the vast power of the priesthood, especially in Ireland, no question can be entertained. It extends to the imposition of heavy fines, the exaction of large contributions, the infliction of severe corporal punishment, and even to the pronouncing of that dreadful sentence of excommunication, which renders a man an outcast from society in the midst of his family and friends. This power, if it were beneficially exerted, might, without doubt, produce the happiest effects; and that on some occasions it has been so exerted, we have the highest authority for believing. The priests and prelates have done much at different times for the preservation of the public peace, and their fearless and self-denying efforts to alleviate the miseries produced by the late pestilential visitation in that country are beyond all praise. But certainly they have shewn no disposition to employ their almost unlimited influence in producing what even Mr. Wix would consider as "reformation." We might excuse their hostility to Protestant schools, and the vigilance they exercise to prevent the children of Roman Catholics from attending them, if they shewed themselves solicitous to provide, in some other way, adequate means of education for their flock. We ourselves, as Protestants, would feel extreme reluctance to placing our children in Roman Catholic schools. We must therefore allow that there is nothing peculiarly illiberal, or intolerant, in the repugnance which the priests have manifested in permitting Roman Catholic children to be instructed by Protestant teachers. But is there not strong reason to believe that they are actuated also by a real hostility to the wider diffusion of knowledge, which must follow the general extension of education? Else why do they not more generally institute schools for the instruction of the poor? The pope, it is true, in lately denouncing the heretical schools of Ireland, and prohibiting the attendance of Roman Catholics upon them, has enjoined the general institution of Catholic schools as the wisest and most effectual measure of prevention. We are glad that he felt himself driven to the adoption of this expedient: it is a strong indication of the growth of mind in that country, and of the impossibility, in the estimate of the pope himself, of keeping it in its former state of complete thraldom. But we wait to see what will be done, in consequence of this injunction; and whether the ready obedience, which we doubt not will be paid to the prohibitory part of the rescript, will be accompanied by an equally prompt compliance with the recommendation which it contains for supplying the Catholic population generally with the means of education. But, quitting this subject for the present, we would advert to another circumstance, which furnishes a strong presumption against the alleged tendency in the Catholic body to reformation ; we mean the institution, a few years since, in Dublin, of the Purgatorian Society*. * See, for an account of this Society, our Vol. for 1812, p. 28. The object of this Society is to relieve suffering souls in Purgatory, by the most easy means imaginable; that is, by the members paying a penny a week to procure masses. This institution was formed in the capital of Ireland, and we have not heard that it has been discountenanced by the Romish bishops. We shall merely cite, in addition to these facts, the plenary indulgence granted by the reigning Pope. "Pius VII. by Divine Providence, pope, grants unto each, and every one of the faithful of Christ, who after assisting, at least, eight times, at the holy exercise of the mission (in the new cathedral of Cork), shall confess his or her sins, with true contrition, and approach unto the holy communion; shall devoutly visit the said cathedral chapel, and there offer up to God, for some for the propagation of the holy Cathoof time, pious and fervent prayers lic faith, and to the intention of our holy father, a plenary indulgence applicable to the souls in purgatory, by way of suffrage, and this in form of a Jubilee." See Fletcher's Lectures on the Roman Catholic Religion, p. 390. space With these circumstances before us, we fear that there can be no very general wish in Ireland for such a change in the Romish system as deserves the name of reformation. We do not, however, mean to deny that many persons, even in Ireland, are beginning to awake to the evils of Popery, but it is by means of Protestant exertions; and why not then continue them? Mr. Wix is yet further of opinion, that a strong argument in favour of the projected council is the amicable and accommodating temper of the pope: he supposes that Pius VII. will not seriously object to, at least, a partial reform, and that these times are, therefore, peculiarly favourable to measures of reconciliation. We have little desire to detract from the respect which may be due to the character of the reigning pontiff. We are willing to admit that he is personally a very worthy |