THE DINGLE COLONY. REFUGE FOR CONVERTS FROM POPERY. If proof were needed to demonstrate the fact of the persecuting principle being an inherent part and portion of the religion of the Church of Rome, in this little colony we might have it in abundance. Situated in a remote part of Ireland, in the northwest of Kerry, the Colony of Dingle, city of refuge for those who, having escaped from the errors and pollutions of Popery, are in consequence hunted like wild beasts from the habitations of their friends and relations, as heretics, unworthy to live. It may be necessary to inform our readers that in many parts of Ireland, if an individual who has been a member of the Romish Church, sees the errors of that community, and renounces them, the most dreadful maledictions of the Church are pronounced upon him; his nearest and dearest relations and friends are forbidden to have any communication with him, not even to give him a cup of cold water to drink or a potatoe to eat, if he were found perishing by the road-side; and if any one were to venture to show to such an individual the slightest kindness, he or she would instantly be placed under the severest penance, and perhaps in the dying hour refused priestly absolution: a threat beyond everything else dreaded by the poor ignorant people. In many instances converts from Romanism have been barbarously treated while living, and when dead their bodies have been lifted from the grave, and the corpse thrown on the road-side. In consequence of these results many poor Romanists have been deterred from avowing their sentiments; and in order to obviate the difficulty, and to prevent such a stumblingblock lying in the way of individuals convinced of the errors of the Church of Rome, two or three small colonies have been formed in various districts. The colony of Dingle is one of them; and here a number of families are located, who were once Romanists but who profess the Protestant faith. They are not, however, maintained in idleness, each family gets a small house or cottage at a certain rent, and those who are able to work get employment on the farm connected with the colony. Gratuitous relief is not afforded to any but the widows and orphans, and those who by sickness are presented from working. The last Report of this colony is really an interesting one. In writing to Miss Mahon, the honorary secretary, whose heart and soul appears engaged in the work, the Rev. Mr. Gayer, under whose superin tendence, along with Lieutenant Clifford, the colony has been placed, observes— "I regret to say that this remote district has felt the agitation about the Repeal of the Union, which has been injurious to the progress of the reformation; a much more bitter spirit has been excited against the converts, and they have been plainly told that as soon as the repeal is obtained they will be the first to suffer. Of this there can be little doubt, for they are obnoxious for two reasons: 1st, as being Protestants, and 2ndly, for being apostates from the Church of Rome. I am thankful to say that as yet none of these things seem to move them, for there has not been any instance of apostacy during the past year, but on the contrary, some have had the courage to come out of Babylon, and cast in their lot with us." * "The trial that a convert has to undergo to test his sincerity. in the eyes of some who, from their own profession, ought to uphold him, is a fiery ordeal. And it is similar to the * ancient custom of trying a person suspected of being a witch, which was, to tie her hands and feet, and throw her into a pond; if she did not sink, she was at once looked upon as guilty and was put to death, but if she did, she was acquitted of the charge; but in either case the poor creature was the sufferer. And so it is with the convert if through fear of starvation he is induced again to return to his former ways, he is unhesitatingly denounced as a hypocrite; but if he prefer to sit down with his family beside a ditch and perish, sooner than forsake the truth, he is then indeed considered to be sincere; but in either case he must be the sufferer, whether in his good name, or his life." * * "On their leaving the Church of Rome they are instantly deprived of all their former means of support, and are consequently thrown upon the conductors of the mission for employment; and unless we can enable them to earn a livelihood by their own labour, they have no alternative but to starve, leave the country, or apostatize. Some few, before the colony was established, were forced to choose the latter, as it was too much for human nature to see their children starving about them." * * * "It is quite impossible that the converts could exist at all without ground to cultivate potatoes, as their enemies would gladly starve them out of the country. This was the system resorted to when it was found that curses and excommunications were disregarded.' "In the present state of the country, the lives of the converts especially are in jeopardy. We know not if we ourselves shall be spared to make another appeal to the friends of the colony; if our enemies are permitted to have their will, this is the last we shall make to their liberality. I trust, however, that I can say, in the name of all who are engaged in the work here, that we count not our lives dear unto ourselves, so that we may finish our course with joy, and the ministry we have received of the Lord Jesus. We have cast in our lot with the poor converts, and we shall stand or fall together." Such is the language of the excellent man who is devoting his time and his income to the support of the converts in the colony. He has at present with him the Rev. Mr. Brasbie, lately a Roman Catholic priest, but who being convinced of the errors of the Romish Church has embraced the Protestant faith, and whose recent conversion has caused many in the Church of Rome to question their safety. In a recent letter Miss Mahon says, "would that my English friends had witnessed what I did on the day of his reading his recantation -would that they had heard the hideous yells and shouting that accompanied us as we walked home with him, and which I am persuaded would not have ended there, had it not been that an armed force of nearly two hundred men had been provided by the magistrates to prevent violence on the occasion. Popery, is Popery still-it hates the light: may the Lord in his great mercy deliver poor unhappy Ireland from its power." The most tempting offers have been made to him to induce him to return, but he has firmly withstood them. The same lady, in the published report observes, in reference to the visit to the colony, "I saw much to gratify me during my visit there in August last; much to bless the Lord for. Well do I remember what my feelings were as I looked round the crowded school-room on the Sabbath morning, and saw the aged and the young, reading the Word of salvation. Many whose hoary locks proclaimed that their pilgrimage was nearly ended, and who, but for that book, would have died trusting in lying vanities, without hope, and without God. And there, too, was a noble band of children being trained up to fight the Lord's battles, and taught to wield the sword of the Spirit, against the world, the flesh, and the devil. O, my friends, could you have witnessed this scene, and felt as I did then, you would require but little persuasion to induce you to give freely to the support of an Institution which is the means of preserving this little flock from the hands of their enemies, and of enabling them in quietude to seek and serve the Lord. I visited twenty-nine families of converts the last day of my sojourn in Dingle, and was much interested and gratified; there are 160 children now at the Dingle School, and a good attendance at Keelmelchedar and Dunerlin. "We support, unaided by any other society, schools and Scripture Readers for the districts of Dingle, Dunerlin, and Keelmelchedar. hitherto. "And now, in closing our report for 1843, we would praise Him who has helped us We would renew our request, that our praying friends would bear us, and our work, on their hearts before the Lord; we know, what He blesses, is blest indeed. We would reiterate our thanks to the kind friends who have so generously co-operated with us, and we would beseech them to continue to aid this work of mercy. May they rejoice in the consciousness that they have made the widow's heart to sing for joy,' and that they have been instrumental in saving those who were ready to perish." Above all, we would remind them that soon our opportunities of thus glorifying our blessed Redeemer, and of thus manifesting our grateful love to Him who loved us unto death, shall cease for ever; perhaps ere another year closes, she who writes, and they who read this, may like those we now miss, have passed into eternity. Let us then, dear friends, live like those who are waiting for their Lord, doing his work and will, ready for his call, or his coming. Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord when He cometh shall find so doing.'' It may be necessary to state that the work is carried on by Christian friends in connexion with the Church of Ireland; but shall we think less of it on that account? shall we not rather rejoice to see Christian friends of other denominations engaging thus heartily in such works of faith and labours of love, endeavouring to gather the stray sheep into Christ's fold, and training up so many young immortals for his service. We know the parties engaged in the work, and can vouch for the way in which any moneys intrusted to their care will be expended. În the entire Gospel field we know not of more indefatigable labourers than the kind lady who acts as honorary secretary, and the excellent men who gratuitously manage the affairs of the colony. Letters on the subject may be addressed to Miss Mahon, care of Charles Lambert, Esq. General Post Office, Dublin. The claims of the colony are most pressing at the present moment. P. S. I shall, (D. v.), in my next, give you some account of "Lough Dergh." INCREASE OF POPERY. In 1792 there were only 30 Papist chapels in Great Britain; but there are now FIVE HUNDRED AND NINETY-ONE Chapels-NINE Colleges-TWENTY Monastic Institutions-FIFTEEN Popish Bishops, and SEVEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY-THREE Priests! Poetry. DEVOTION OF THE BLIND GIRL AT THE HOLY WELL. LINES ON CONTEMPLATING THE BLIND GIRL Ah! who can behold without painful emotion Which dark superstition still weaves in its spell. The water is sprinkled, the prayers all repeatedThe patron Saint's aid is invoked o'er and o'er; The beads are all told-now she feels her soul cheated, By long cherished hopes, she can cherish no more. Oh, could we but view her as homeward returning, In sorrow and sadness she follows her guide; Every friendly attempt to console her, now spurning, Giving way to the feelings despair has supplied. VOL. I. MESSIAH'S REIGN.* BY THE REV. W B. COLLYER, D.D., L.L.D., F.A.S., ETC. WHEN Jesus o'er his prostrate foes Ascended to his native seat, And answering choirs the strain repeat: When welling from the fountain-head, While now with still increasing power, When heaven and earth shall pass away, ON THE BURIAL OF "GRACE DARLING." Not a sword was drawn, nor the murd❜rous gun Had blighted the foe with its thunder; Not a wreath at the price of blood she won, Nor a tie had she torn asunder. 'Twas not to the deadly field she rush'd, Where fell-demons of war had defied her, Till hearts with their young affections crush'd, Should lie trampled 'neath horse and its rider. Not to drench the steel in some foeman's blood, For the hireling's wages she hurriedBut to save from the pitiless storm and flood, 'Neath whose billows so many lie buried. No trophies nor trappings of war were flung With sadness had mingled her story. This poem was composed to be sung to the melody of the national air," Rule Britannia." ED. Biography. During one of these visits (to London) in 1612, his first publication appeared, “De Ecclesiarum Christianarum Successione et Statu;" in which he endeavoured to show that there has always existed a visible church of true Christians, untainted with the errors and corruptions of the Romish church, and that these islands owe not their Christianity to Rome. On his return to Ireland in the same year, he married Phoebe, daughter of Dr. Luke Chaloner, who, in his last will recommended Usher to his daughter for a husband, if she was inclined to marry. A Parliament being held in Dublin in 1616, the convocation of the clergy assented to one hundred and four articles which were drawn up by Usher, asserting in the strongest terms the doctrine of predestination and reprobation. On this and other accounts, Dr. Heylin called the passing of these articles an absolute plot of the Sabbatarians and Calvinists in England, to make themselves so strong a party in Ireland, as to obtain what they pleased in this convocation. His enemies having attempted to injure him with the king, by representing his tenets as not sufficiently orthodox, he procured a letter from the lord deput, and council to the privy council of England, which he brought over to England in 1619, and satisfied his majesty so perfectly, that in the following year he promoted him to the bishopric of Meath; and several years after, to the archbishopric of Armagh. In the administration of this high office, Usher exerted himself in a most exemplary manner. Observing the increase of Arminianism in Ireland, which he considered as a very dangerous doctrine, he employed much time in searching into the origin of the predestinarian controversy; and meeting with a curious work on that subject, "Goteschalci et predestinarianæ controversiæ ab eo mota historia," he published it in 1631, in Dublin, in quarto, which is stated to have been the first Latin book ever printed in Ireland. In the succeeding year he also published "Veterum Epistolarum Hibernicarum Sylloge," a collection of letters to and from Irish bishops and monks, from 592 to 1180, concerning the affairs of the Irish church; which clearly demonstrate the high esteem, as well for learning as piety, in which the clergy of Ireland were held in Rome, France, and England. The correspondence which he maintained in almost every country in Europe, was of considerable importance to the advancement of learning, and procured him, in 1634, a very good copy of the Samaritan Pentateuch from the east, which was one of the first ever brought into Western Europe; together with a copy of the Old Testament, in Syriac, and several other valuable MSS. Usher collated the Samaritan with the Hebrew, marking the differences, after which he intended it for the library of Sir Robert Cotton; but having lent it to Dr. Walton, together with several other manuscripts, to use in his Polyglot Bible, they were not recovered till 1686, and are now in the Bodleian library. In 1639, he published "Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates;" a work which has been of considerable service to Dr. Lloyd and Bishop Stillingfleet, in their productions on the same subject. In the rebellion of 1641, Usher was plundered of all his property, with the exception of his library and some furniture in his house at Drogheda, whence the library was conveyed to England. On this misfortune, the king conferred on him the bishopric of Carlisle, in commendam; the revenues of which, however, were reduced almost to nothing by the Scotch and English armies quartering upon it; and when all the lands belonging to the English bishoprics were seized by the parliament, they voted him a pension of £400, which was only paid to him once or twice. It is said, that he refused at this time an invitation into France by Cardinal Richelieu, with a promise of the free exercise of his religion, and a considerable pension; and likewise by the States of Holland, who offered him the honorary professorship at Leyden. On the invitation of the Countess of Peterborough, he fixed his residence at her house, in London, in 1646; and in 1647, was chosen preacher of Lincoln's Inn; the Society providing him with handsome lodgings, and several rooms for his library, which was about this time brought up from Chester. Here he constantly preached in term-time for almost eight years; till at last, his eye-sight and teeth beginning to fail him, he could not be heard in so large a congregation, and was forced to quit this place about a year and a half before his death, to the great regret of the Society. On March 20, 1655-6, he was taken ill, and died on the following day, at the Countess of Peterborough's house, at Ryegate, in Surrey. Preparations were made for a private funeral; but Cromwell ordered him to be interred with great magnificence in Erasmus's chapel, in Westminster Abbey; the funeral service, which must be considered as a very particular indul |