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pecting them. Their present number of pupils is supposed to be from two to three hundred, which is thought to be not more than the average for the last five and twenty years.

"Within a quarter of a mile of the college, is a seminary for boarding and educating boys, preparatory to their entering the establishment at Stonyhurst. This initiatory institution is appropriated exclusively to those who are destined for the superior college, and our author very justly remarks, that the almost entire seclusion of these youths from all intercourse with mankind, which takes place during their probationary studies, is not calculated to remove the distrust and apprehension which are naturally excited by the mystery which attaches more or less to Jesuitism in general.

"There is every reason to suppose the Stonyhurst Society to be possessed of considerable wealth, arising from the profits accruing from their pupils and their estate, with perhaps some other sources, such as the voluntary donations of their partisans and admirers. Their influence is greatly strengthened by their being the accredited heads of the neighbourhood, especially in their own manor, and the surrounding district, so that they feel no necessity for being either timid or private in their unceasing efforts to make proselytes. By their exertions, Popery has alarmingly increased in the duchy. It is certain, that whereas before their arrival there was not, perhaps, half a score of Papists about Stonyhurst, the greater part of the population in that vicinity, to the amount of some thousands, are now become such; and the principal Jesuit priest at Preston is said to have made a boast, that when he came to the place, a little more than twenty years ago, a small room would have

accommodated his whole congregation, whereas now, two large chapels, which have been since erected, and are each capable of containing two thousand, are not sufficient for their converts.

"It is not an unimportant, or an unalarming circumstance, to those who know the real character of this Order, that the Roman Catholic chapels in that part of England, which are nearly as numerous as the Protestant Churches, are filled not with ordinary priests, but with priests of the Society of Jesuits. Several Jesuit ministers are stationed at the neighbouring town of Preston, who frequently make excursions to Ireland, and who, since the peace, have maintained considerable intercourse with France, and other parts of the continent."

"The Jesuits, in conjunction with the Papists in general, lately created a large school upon the new system, for the education of children of both sexes, to the number of about a thousand, to which the members of Parliament for Preston, as well as CERTAIN CLERGYMEN, and other avowed Protestants, are stated to have largely contributed.”

"To those who have well considered the general history and character of the Jesuits, the subtlety and ingenuity with which they thus insinuate themselves into the confidence of respectable and opulent Protestant families, and the dexterity with which they mould them to their latent purposes, will not appear at all surprising. It is a fact, that these men have regularly and systematically preached for years past in the populous town of Preston, against the English Church and faith; while it is said that even the booksellers of the town are afraid publicly to expose for sale any books against Popery, though there is a bookseller in the town, whose windows and shop are covered

with Anti-protestant publications. The Jesuits literally exert an ascendancy over a considerable number of the clergy and magistracy in the neighbourhood, and boast among their patrons and allies names of considerable influence and respectability."

*

"The danger with which such an establishment is pregnant, both to the Protestant faith and even the Protestant government of these realms is too obvious to need much comment; especially when we consider that the intrigue is conducted in a part of the country most favourably circumstanced to promote its success. The dense population of Lancashire, and the disaffection of a large class of its manufacturing inhabitants, render a Jesuit college in the neighbourhood doubly ominous and alarming. If one institution of the kind be thus allowed, there can be no reason, if it so please his Holiness the Pope, whose sworn servants the Jesuits are, why a similar system should not be introduced into every other county and neighbourhood in England. It cannot be said in extenuation, that although the college has been thirty years in existence, it has done no injury, and therefore ought not to be suppressed; for the undeniable fact is, that in a religious point of view, it has done incredible harm; and the probability is, that in a very few years, if the system be suffered to go on with its present accelerated progress, but a small number of Protestants will be found in the county of Lancaster, or within a considerable distance of its influence. Even nearer home, the number of

* We would, however in candour add, that at a late meeting of the magistrates in Lancashire, these fathers have thought proper to send in a very loyal and proper address on the occasion."

Roman Catholics is sensibly on the increase; so much so, that it has been calculated that in England alone, there are not at present much fewer than one thousand public chapels in the connexion, besides the private chapels of Catholic families, of which far the greater part have been erected within the last five and twenty years. Considering these things, we are not much surprised to find it announced, that in the summer of 1813, there were confirmed by a Catholic bishop in the towns of Manchester, Liverpool, and Preston alone, no less than three thousand children. We are, however, surprised that any conscientious and intelligent Protestant can survey an institution, such as has been described, without inquiring for what ultimate purpose this vast machinery has been constructed, and without auguring dangers of considerable magnitude both to our church and state, from the tacit encouragement of such a system. We have, however, like good honest unsuspecting Englishmen, submitted to the introduction of Romish priests, bishops, and vicars apostolic; we have seen nunneries and other Popish institutions founded, without any emotion; even the Jesuits in Enggland could not disturb our slumbers; to complete therefore the design, we are now gravely threatened with a resident cardinal; though to speak the truth, we do not imagine that any thing short of a visit from the Pope himself will have the effect of putting us fully on our guard against the machinations of a hierarchy, whose first maxim has ever been to reduce mankind in all ages, and in all nations, to the utter subjection of mind and will to the spiritual usurpation of a despotic church.”*

* Review of a History of the Jesuits in the British Review for 1817, pp. 431-435.

In such a state of things as is. depicted in the foregoing quotations, and with the obvious fact before our eyes, that latitudinarian principles with respect to the differences which separate the churches of the Reformation from the communion of Rome, are daily growing among professing Protestants, encouraged by the spirit of an infidel philosophy, and by a liberality falsely so called, it cannot be superfluous to recall the attention of Protestants to some of those passages wherein the Holy Spirit was pleased by the mouths of his servants the prophets and apostles, to warn the church of the future abominations of Papal Rome.

A work of this kind is necessarily controversial. It has, however, been the constant endeavour of the author to speak of things rather than of persons, remembering that to judge persons belongs to God alone. He rejoices in believing that there have in all ages been truly spiritual Christians, who have lived and died in the communion of the Church of Rome; who, like the seven thousand names in Israel, (1 Kings xix. 18,) have not bowed the knee to Baal, though they have, by the invincible prejudices of education, been prevented from discerning the true character of that church.

Indeed, in these pages the reader will find the testimonies of some honest Roman Catholics against the errors and usurpations of the Popes, who thereby have proved, that though they were included in the external communion of Rome, they did not believe the lie of the Man of Sin and Son of Perdition. (2 Thess. ii 9, 10.)

The author is here, however, compelled to add, that he cannot extend the principle of charity to Roman Catholics quite so far as is enjoined in the following observations by an able writer of the

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