It is a fingular circumftance in the ecclefiaftical hiftory of this country, that in proportion as a man lofes all fenfe of religion and becomes immoral, he fees before him a better prospect of enjoying all the privileges of the established church.' How far prejudice may have dictated the following remark, we pretend not to determine: I never (fays this Writer) knew an inftance in which a conviction of the errors of Popery has made one profelyte. They become Proteftants as foon as they ceafe almost to be Chriftians. It must furely be a bad arrangement, which thus expofes to oppreffion the fincere and the virtuous, and which opens to the vicious and diffipated man the road of eafe, of honour, and of preferment!' Under the article of Priefts, the Author informs us, that by an arrangement which took place in the reign of James II. England was divided into 4 districts, and a bishop was appointed to prefide over each. They had then 1000l. per annum fettled on each of them out of the exchequer; but this only continued till the Revo lution, when they were reduced to the neceffity of fupporting themfelves by the best means in their power. Since that time the fame regulation with regard to numbers has continued; and as they have no particular place of refidence allotted, each bishop generally chufes to live in the moft centrical and convenient fituation. Their office is to attend the small concerns of their respective districts; to administer the facrament of confirmation, to provide the different congregations with priests, and to take care that these perform their duties, and behave in a manner becoming the character of churchmen-One hundred pounds per ann. is more than equal to the revenue of their epifcopal fee! As far as I can rely on my information, which I think is accurate, the number of priests now employed is about 360. Their dif tribution is as follows: In the northern diftrift, which takes in the counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, Weftmoreland, Durham, York, Lancaster, and Chester, there are about 167. Of thefe, 48 are Ex- Jefuits. Three places are now vacant. This diftria contains the greatest number of priests, and alfo the greatest number of Catholics; but not in proportion to the number of clergy, many being private chaplains to gentlemen, where there are no congregations. Since their diffolution, nine places have been given up by the Ex-Jefuits, two of which are not likely ever to be revived. In the mid-land districts are about 90 priefts; 28 of which are Ex-Jefuits. There are now 14 places vacant. This district declines very faft, as appears from the great number of congregations now without priets. Most of them have been vacant for fome time; and no clergymen unengaged have hitherto been found to fupply them. It may be noticed, that this diftrict, though compofed of the greatest number of counties, and thofe moftly large, to the amount of 16, contains only 8,460 Catholics, which is computed to be about two thirds of what there were about 30 or 40 years ago. The western diftrict contains about 44 parishes; 23 are ExJefuits. There is one place vacant, and has been fo for fome time. This district is the thinnest of Catholics of any in England, though its extent is great, It contains eight English counties, and the whole of N. and S. Wales. • The London diftrict, comprising nine counties, has 58 priefts; 11 are Ex-Jefuits. There are five places vacant. This district hath alfo diminished, and is declining very faft. • These priests, whofe number and distribution I have given, either live as chaplains in the families of Gentlemen, and have the care of the little congregations around them; or elfe, they refide in towns, or in fome country-places, where funds have been fettled for their fupport. The chapels are in their own houfes.Twenty pounds per ann. is thought a very handfome falary for a Gentleman's chaplain; and if the rural curate hath twenty more to keep himself, his horse, and his fervant, it will be faid that he is very well provided. Some may have fmall annuities from their own families; but this is not common. Our priests in their general character are upright and fincere: but narrowed by a bad education, they contract early prejudices, which they very feldom afterward depofite. The theological lumber of the fchools fupplies, in their minds, the place of more ufeful furniture.' With respect to the Popish Schools in England, the Author avers, that it is a real fact, that the Catholics have not opened one new fchool, fince the year 1778. The whole number of those which we have, are I think but three; at least those of any note. There is one in Hertfordshire, one near Birmingham, and a third near Wolverhampton in Staffordshire. In London are fome day-fchools; and in other parts may be perhaps fome little eftablishments where an old woman gives lectures on the Horn-book, and the art of fpelling. At the first mentioned schools, are generally about twenty or thirty boys, who have them about the age of twelve or fourteen, That in Staf fordshire is far the most numerous; its defign is to give some education to children of a lower class: they learn their religion, and fuch other things as may qualify them for trade, and the ufual business of life. When it can be avoided, they never admit Protestants, from an apprehenfion that it might give offence; as alfo from a well-grounded fufpicion, that it would lead gradually to weaken the religious prinçiples of the Catholic boys.' On the fubject of the foreign schools for English Catholics, the Author remarks that in the year 1568, Dr. Allan, afterwards Cardinal, founded a college for the English at Doway, a town in Flanders, then fubject to the Spanish King; and in procefs of time, other colleges and places of education were established in France, Spain, and Portugal.....1 he college of Doway is moft confiderable, and is governed by a Prefident, and other fuperiors, all of the English nation. It belongs to the fecular clergy; and the number of ftudents is generally above 100. The revenue of this college is very moderate, and the penfion which provides every thing is but 201. per annum. The clergy have alfo other feminaries of inferior diftin&tion at Paris, at Valadolid, in old Caftile, at Rome, and at Lisbon. The number of ftudents at thefe places is confiderable..... While the jefuits food, St. Omer was their great fchool for claffical improvements, and they fupplied England with many able and active churchmen. At the expulfion of that body from France, their college was given to pd 4 the the Clergy at Doway, in whofe hands it now is, but it anfwers little purpose. The Jefuits themselves first retired to Bruges, in the Auftrian Netherlands, where they opened another college; but at their total fuppreffion a few years after, that houfe was diffolved, together with every other foundation they poffeffed. They then erected an academy at Liege (for their fpirit of enterprize was not to be broken) under the protection of the Bishop, and Prince of that place. They are now no longer Jefuits; but their academy is in great effimation, and the children of our Catholic gentry principally refort thither for education. However as their object is not to form churchmen (for they think the Church has ufed them ill) but to inftruct youth in the fashionable arts of polifhed life, the order of Aaron will receive little affistance from their labours." · The Monks of the order of St. Benedict have alfo houses abroad, and their priests come to England. The Friars of St. Francis's order have likewife a college at Doway, which fupplies fome priests. Within thefe few years they have greatly decreased, owing to the wife regulations Fiance has adopted, for the reduction of religious orders; as alfo because the true fpirit of Friarifm is much abated.... There is alfo a third order which now begins rather to encreafe. The Dominicans fince the fuppreffion of the Jefuits have grown into more vifible form: they have a fchool near Bruffels, and a small convent at Lorrain, in the Austrian territories. Some priefs of this order are likewife in England. At this day the English Nunneries abroad are no less than twentyone. France and the Low Countries have almost the whole number. It is incredible how they have here been able to fupport themselves; for though in many houfes their numbers are very thin, yet they go' on braving all the ftorms of adverfe fortune!" On this fubject the Author, in a ftrain partaking of ferious reafoning, and lively raillery, obferves, that though he is fenfible that no mode of education can be lefs adapted to improve the mind, and to infil fuch principles as may form it to the bufinefs of life, yet fo it happens, that few ladies have higher pretenfions to the palm of female perfection than have many of the Catholic perfuafion. The Public knows the truth of this obfervation. A difplay of their characters would I fear offend their modefty, otherwife I would fay as wives, as mothers, as citizens, and as Chriftians, they fand unrivalled. One is fometimes tempted to fufpect, that in moulding the foft texture of their minds, nature, too kindly partial, threw in fome elements, which otherwife might have fallen to the fhare of their bufbands.' On the whole we have received much information, and much entertainment from the perufal of this work. As it was the Author's principal defign to convince the Publie that neither the church nor the ftate have any thing to fear from the English Catholics, he hath brought forward every fpecies of materials which his fources of information could fupply. I have defcribed (fays he) the Catholics as they really are, and from this defcription, if it be not evident to the weakest fight, that all is fecure, there must be a timidity in Englishmen, that will thudder at the moft feeble fuggeftions of fancy.' B....k. ART. ART. II. Letters to a Philofophical Unleliever. Part I. Containing THE HESE Letters are, or may be fuppofed to be, addreffed Jee Vol. to a traveller of an ingenuous. difpofition; who has had 78,383. his mind unhinged, with refpect to the first principles of natural as well as revealed religion, in confequence of the books he has igned lately read, and the company he has been obliged to keep. The E Author therefore here attempts to give him all the fatisfaction he is able, towards the folution of the difficulties that have been. propofed to him on these subjects; confining himself however, folely to the arguments which prove the being, and the moral, attributes, of a Deity. In the first letter, the Author treats of the nature of evidence in general; and, in the fecond, of the direct evidence for the belief of a God; which is founded on a conclufion, the juftice of which must be acknowledged by every reafoning Being; viz. that all effects have their adequate caufes, or nothing begins to exift without a caufe. And as a table or chair, for instance, must not only have had a cause, but likewife a defigning caufe, capable of comprehending their nature and ufes; fo the man that conftructed them muft likewife have had a defigning caufe, and a caufe, or author, capable of comprehending all his powers and properties, of which he himself has only a partial incomplete, knowledge, acquired by experience and ftudy. Should it even be allowed, fays the Author, that the human fpecies had no beginning, it would not follow that it could be the cause of itself, or that it had no caufe; for the idea of a cause of any thing implies not only fomething prior to itself, or at least cotemporary with itself, but fomething capable at least of comprehending what it produces; and our going back ever so far in the generations of men or animals, brings us no nearer to the leaft degree of fatisfaction on the fubject. After thinking in this train ever fo long, we find we might juft as well fuppofe that any individual man now living was the first, and without caufe, as either any of his anceftors, or the fpecies itself. The Author next proceeds to the confideration of the principal difficulties that have been ftarted on this fubject; and fatisfactorily refutes the objections that have been urged against the belief of a Deity. On this head he obferves, that it is of no avail to say that we cannot conceive the original exiftence of such a being as the Deity; for our having no idea at all of a thing does not imply an impoffibility or contradiction; but arifes merely from the limited nature of our faculties. This is mere ignorance, and an ignorance which we can never overcome. In this cafe, there there is only a difficulty of conceiving, but nothing contrary to our experience; which relates only to finite fubftances, that require a cause. We may be dazzled and astonished at the idea of an uncaufed being, but at the fame time we are compelled to believe in the existence of an original cause of all things; as an hypothefis abfolutely neceffary to be affumed, in order to account for evident falis. The Author next demonstrates the neceffary attributes of the Supreme Being, particularly his omniprefence; as neceffarily following from his neceffary exiftence. While we admit that no power can act but where it is, it follows that God must be prefent to all his works, and exift even through the boundless extent of infinite space: an idea juft as incomprehenfible as his neceffary existence, but not more fo.'-After this, adds the Author, the probability will be, that his works, as well as himself, occupy the whole extent of space, infinite as it muft neceffarily be; and that as he could have had no beginning, fo neither had his works." In fupport of this laft opinion, the Author obferves that we cannot poffibly reconcile ourselves to the idea that a being, infinitely intelligent and powerful, fhould remain inactive a whole eternity; which must have been the cafe, if the creation had any beginning at all. An eternal creation, being the act of an eternal Being, is not at all more incomprehenfible than the eternal existence of that Being himself. Both are incompre henfible; but the one is the most natural confequence of the other. In fact, there is no greater objection to the fuppofition of the creation having been eternal, than to duration itself having been eternal; for there cannot be any affignable or imaginable period in duration, in which the creation might not have taken place. This opinion, however, the Author offers only as the moft probable; and does not conceive it as being by any means a neceffary part of the fyftem of natural religion. He proceeds to demonftrate, in the fame manner, the omniscience, omnipo tence, unchangeableness, and unity, of the Supreme Being. It would lead us too far, were we to attempt to analyse the Author's arguments, and appofite illuftrations, produced to prove the general, and probably infinite, benevolence of the Deity; the great, and nearly infinite, preponderance of good, notwithstanding the neceflary exiftence of evil; the moral government of the world; and the evidence for a future ftate. We shall confine our felves to the giving an extract from his eighth letter, respecting the laft of thefe fubjects; and in which he -endeavours to convince even the Atheift, that, upon his own bypothefis, that there is no God, there yet may be a future state. I think it of fome importance to observe, that the degree of moral government under which we are (the conftitution of nas ture |