of our co-religionists and clergy, in their wild and fatal endeavours to acquire power.

The convents, which form the larger portion of religious houses, are those that provide mental instruction to the daughters of the Catholic gentry. In the capacity of ordinary schools, intended for the tuition of the youth of a certain sect, they neither deserve censure nor commendation; their means of imparting knowledge are on a level with the conventional boarding-schools, and afford their pupils the same amount of accomplishments, not in any degree a more substantial or useful education, either religious or social; but their influences constitute a very prominent feature of that system, which, as we have already shown, tends to the advancement of a certain object, the beneficial effects of which may well be called in question. Most unquestionably the influences impressed upon the mind in youth, bear fruit in the maturer years, in exact accordance with the character of their impressions; and it is universally known to all who make general education a study, that the Catholics are pre-eminent in their means of implanting in the minds of their pupils an early devotion to their creed. In this we have no fault to find, but we cannot go the length which the system implies, of making that creed the all-engrossing object of education, to sow the seeds of religious intolerance, and to create a blind devotion to the ministers of a religion who are as much liable to error as those diametrically opposed to them. Now this is a leading feature in the schools kept by convents, and it is not confined to this alone. Leaving the subject of abstract education as one with which our topic has no immediate concern, we will explain in what respect the association of youth and conventual instruction is decidedly objectionable, while it affords scope for the avarice which over-religious zeal is certain to generate, and by which the future happiness of the pupil becomes jeopardized.

It is allowed among Catholics to be the chief excellence of convents, that they ingrain thorough religious principles in the hearts of their pupils, and that they are immediately under the eye of a clergyman and superior, whose alienation from the world is a certain safeguard against contamination from the follies and vanities, supposed to be inseparable from ordinary public schools. Be it so. But if this is correct, the pupil is exposed to an influence more prejudicial to her future happiness, than any bad effects to be acquired in a secular institution, by incapacitating her from a proper degree of appreciation of the state of life to which she is born. Vanities and errors may be sown like tares with the wheat of education in boarding-schools, or private instruction, but they are easily eradicated by knowledge of the world; whereas, religious prejudices and a systematic distaste for the world instilled in childhood, are rarely, if ever dispelled in after years. Bigotry is, of all other evils, the most easily confirmed in the human mind.

The principle adopted in convents, where the Catholic religion is practised in its most sombre and intolerant form, is to impress the mind of the youth intrusted to their charge with a horror of heresy or contravention to the supremacy of the clergy. Indeed the priests are held up as men impervious to all human frailty, as men instructed with the divine ordinances and powers of the Church, and consequently incapable of obliquity, or entertaining purposes foreign to the sanctity that envelopes their profession. Implicit reliance in the infallible goodness of any denomination of mortals must be highly erroneous, and contain within its sphere

the seeds of a power which no man is authorised to exercise over his fellow-creatures. The ascendancy of the Catholic clergy over Catholic ladies is without a parallel in the present age-if we except that of the Italian populace and this is to be ascribed to the first instruction behind the sanctuary of a convent wall. It is useless for the Catholics to declare that they are uncontrolled by the priests, they are almost universally influenced by them, not only in the dictation of religious matters, but in the direction and confidences of private life. And it must be so; for a veneration for the clergy is imbibed with their mother's milk, and is strengthened by their precepts and example in childhood, till in manhood it becomes a rooted prejudice. We appeal to any member of the Church of Rome, or those who are intimate with such, for a confirmation of this fact, for after some years' insight into the different phases of Catholic society, we never met an instance where a mother, educated in a convent, did not make it her duty constantly to impress upon her children the sanctity and beatification of the priesthood. We can remember when a child, and so doubtless can many others, that nothing ever incurred severer punishment than a disrespectful word breathed against a priest. This is one of the great evils of the convent schools, and which so long as the superiors reign supreme, and the priests hold the confessional, must ever exist.

Another equally detrimenal inculcation which is invariably adopted at the convents, is that of placing the world before the inexperienced eyes of the pupils (or pensioners) in its worst possible form, depicting it as a modern Tartarus, in which nothing but vice and vanity, immorality, temptations, and heresy are rife, and whose very virtues are but decoys for the unwary, or cloaks to cover greater guilt. It may certainly be very delectable to those who have surfeited upon such fare, and have cautiously withdrawn, or to those whose ignorance has been played upon in order to render them patient of durance vile, thus to distort the world and worldlings; but it is little short of wanton deception to create a prejudice in the minds of those who will one day have to become one of this crowd of infidelity, and will be expected to act their part as benevolent and charitable Christians!

Young ladies, recently imported from our convents, are, of all the divine fair, the least captivating, and apparently the least likely to make pleasing partners to man, who, through the anxious cares of business, looks to his wife for steady support and happiness, and the comforts of domestic joys, of which both priests and convents are most supremely ignorant. Parents are surprised and annoyed at the unnatural reluctance their daughters evince for innocent society-the fanatic admiration for priests, the gloomy hankering for the associations of the convent, and the supplications that they may become nuns! These arise solely from the prejudice the girl has imbibed against the world, by the misrepresentations of the convent. This does not occur in solitary instances, but is universally the case; and if there be any reader who doubts the truth of the assertion, let him call upon a married Catholic friend, and request to see the last daughter he has received back from education at the convent.

The reader has been shown in a great measure the means which a convent affords of disposing in the hands of its superior unlimited control over the minds and will of the inmates. Be it borne in mind her power is absolute, despotic and beyond any appeal which can avail. The pre

sence of a confessor is customary in every convent, who, though he may be, and, for aught we know to the contrary, is a very good man, yet he cannot avoid compliance to the wishes of the superior, or his presence there would be dispensed with. The bishop of the diocese makes what is termed an annual inspection; that is to say, he calls one fine morning at the convent, walks through the enclosure, bows to the community, pats the scholars on the head, and dines with the lady abbess. This is all that is seen of the power beyond the superior from one twelvemonth to another, so that, as my lady wills, so do all obey- -no quibble or remonstrance. With this control over the will of her nuns and young charges, it may be easy for a superior to bring the powers at her command to bear upon any point more desirable than another; that is to say, she may have singled out among her students one whose wealth and position would be a great gain to her convent and the Church; her attention is then directed to win the girl's affections, and every indulgence and kindness is shown her, and her vanity flattered by a marked partiality both from herself and those nuns under whom the girl is being educated. A deep-rooted attachment springs up as a natural consequence, and a desire to embrace the conventual life is awakened' and carefully cherished by those whose interest it is to maintain it; but nothing is hinted at; and if the child give expression to her inclinations, they are discouraged, apparently, but in reality only damped that the flame may not burn itself out by its own ardour, too rapidly to be available.

The girl bids adieu to the scene of her childhood, and enters the world as a young lady, but she is not lost sight of, nor the danger of the temptations society might open up, unprepared for. The state of society in the world has been impressed upon her mind as everything bad and vicious; she has been cautioned against it, and is sceptical of everything she meets; she dares not trust her own eyes and ears, so profound is her belief in the nun's assurances, that it is all a cheat; she is awkward and bewildered, and feels estranged and devoid of sympathy with the scenes around her, and writes to her dear friends at the convent, and opens her heart to them. They write in reply much godly comfort, and enclose a note of introduction to some priest in the metropolis, who mixes much in good society, and is a very dear friend of all the nuns at the convent. To him she repairs, and enjoys the greatest happiness in talking of the scene of her childhood, and the characters to whom she is attached. The priest, astute, crafty, and possessed of a thorough knowledge of the human heart, and the nature of women, becomes her steady friendarranges matters with her relatives, and she returns to the convent as a postulant, and declares she has seen the world and its pleasures could never afford attraction to her. When once a postulant, farewell liberty. The game is then fairly in the hands of the superior, the quarry speedily grasped, and the fortune won for the Church. Sometimes a convent, when a young lady is discovered of good talent, and well accomplished, yet destitute of a fortune, whose acquirements in the capacity of teacher would benefit the community, will gratuitously take her, and, according to the estimated value of the individual, will they employ means to attain her. We are acquainted at the present moment with an instance, where much undue influence is being employed, in order to overcome the scruples of an accomplished young lady, in breaking off a long-standing engagement with a gentleman of known worth, in order that she may become a nun. Communications with him have been cut off, and her

friends denied admittance. We hope the late exposé will act as a caution to them, otherwise they may rely upon publicity being given to the whole affair.

Our space will not admit us entering into further particulars relating to the system so prevalent among English convents, and the unwarrantable liberties which are taken with the free will of those consigned to the care of a lady superior, but what has been explained will, we think, sufficiently elucidate the case of Miss Talbot. Dr. Hendren is a man with whom we are personally acquainted, and know full well he was perfectly au fait with everything relating to and concerning the property of Miss Talbot, and likewise with her half-developed intention of taking the veil.

The three vows which every nun takes, before dying to the world, are voluntary Poverty, implicit Obedience, and perpetual Chastity. Now we may, Catholics as well as Protestants, ask how it is, if these Vows are religiously kept, that such convents as New Hall, York, and Taunton, are possessed of such enormous wealth, and are constantly aiding the Church by advancing large sums of money to the cardinal and his suffragans? And why it is, that the convents when admitting a novice do not allow her to dispose of it among the members of her own family, many of whom may often stand in need of it, when it can be of no material service to the convent? As we have elsewhere shown, the principle is of the deepest injury to religion itself, as it opens up the liability to avarice and its vicious attendants, and that, too, where poverty is the vow of the institution; but what all members of a free nation and possessed of an enlightened mind must highly deprecate, is the thraldom and abject slavery which the vow of implicit obedience exerts over the occupants of a convent. The superior, by this vow, is enabled to control with the most despotic power the minds of her community and her pupils, for her moral influences are boundless, and she is at all times subject to become the tool of the ambitious, be she good or bad. The whole system tends to the repression of free-will, and the inculcation of objects not always praiseworthy in their intentions. It has led to this, that the convents and clergy believe the means always justify the end, and that moral obligations, truth, honour, and candour, are subservient at all times to the purposes of religion, and the propagation and establishment of Catholicity in England.

The grand secret, the instigating motive which impels the entire scheme of conventual seclusion, rests upon this- the attainment of power, the re-establishment in political force of the Papacy. Cardinal Wiseman is at the head of a certain movement in the English Catholic Church, whose acknowledged object is, to place the religion as it was in the palmy medieval times; to connect it with the government, and draw the bands of union with the Holy See, till this country becomes once more a faithful flock round St. Peter's chair. As sincere Catholics, who desire the purity of our religion to be maintained intact, we protest against so mad a project. Catholicity, connected with political power, is the basest tyrant in history, and, as upright Christians and true Englishmen, we do not wish to see this country enslaved and degraded by the oppressive influence of Catholic ecclesiastics. Those who are anxious to maintain the holiness of their religion unimpaired, and retain moral and political freedom, had better hold aloof from the ultramontane movement now progressing to its catastrophe.

FREE TRADE.

THE course of debate in the Lower House on questions of Supply throughout the present session, is sufficient to show that we have arrived at a turning point in the fiscal annals of the country. Class is arrayed against class, and interest against interest, in the great question of the Corn-laws. Every one feels, individually, that the land to which we must all ultimately look for the expenses of housekeeping, has been most scurvily treated these last few years; and people are beginning to be almost intuitively convinced that the agricultural interests are as deserving of protection and consideration as the manufacturing. But a number of strange errors and misconceptions of the position of parties, whose interests are in reality identical, and whose welfare has only been placed in contrast by political blunderers, have crept in, and have been carefully fomented by the thick-and-thin advocates of the Factory cause. One of these errors is, that agriculture should not receive protection when the trades and factories prosper without; but the fact is, that by free trade in agricultural produce, you in reality protect the artisan at the expense of the agriculturist. In order to supply the industrious classes of many descriptions with cheap bread, you oblige the industrious class of one description to sell his produce at an unremunerative price. It is therefore evident, that by legislating so as to preserve certain classes from dearness of bread by sacrificing the interests of others, you are really protecting one or more classes at the expense of the other. Protection is, at the present moment, active for the artisan, passive for the agriculturist. But were the oft-abused term "protection" applied in a moderate fixed scale to the produce of the latter, the former classes would pay but a trifle more for their bread, and yet they would be protected from any sudden great rise in the price of corn that might ensue from war or dearth abroad, or any other unforeseen causes; and they would, at the same time, hold out the hand of fellowship to their struggling countrymen who use and consume their protected produce at the very time that the produce of their land and labour meets with no protection whatsoever. Another equally common error is, that the burdens on the land and high rents are the sole cause of our incapability of competing with the foreigner in low prices of corn. One moment's consideration of the area of cultivable land as compared with the population of the British islands and that of less populated and corn-producing lands, as America, Russia, Turkey, and other countries, would show the fallacy of such a supposition. We might just as well expect to have deal boards, because we grow pines, as cheap as from Canada or Norway; or flax and hemp, because we can grow either, as cheap as from France, Poland, and Russia; or butter, because we have good pasture lands, as cheap as from Holland and Belgium, as that we should have corn, circumstanced as we are, as cheap as we can get it from the United States or other little-populated corn-growing countries. errors, indeed, current upon the subject of protection are so numerous, that it would take pages to discuss even a portion of them. A pamphlet by Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart., called "Letters to John Bull, Esq., on Affairs connected with his Landed Property and the Persons who Live thereon," now before us, has induced us, however, at the pre

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