filled, were in those scanty circumstances, which make poor and uncomfortable sisters, and poor and uncomfortable aunts, and either prevent marriage or occasion poor and uncomfortable marriages, and thus fill the world with beings that are wretched in themselves, and a burthen to the state. ness. To ladies of this description, a convent was an invaluable retreat; and, from my own knowledge, I most confidently affirm, an abode of happiIn the next place, allow me to ask, whether it was not greatly to the advantage of the state, that it should possess such permanent institutions as convents of females, for the instruction of the female portion of the community of every rank and every condition? Can it be justly said, that such an employment was not active virtue of the most useful kind? Is it fairly described, by saying, that "the inmates learned the litanies of the Virgin, " and sung them in their way to the scaffold. " What confirmed habits of faith, of hope, of charity, must they have acquired in the convents, to have so died ? 3.-No person admired or felt more than I did, the reception of the French exiles in this country. An humble tribute of admiration which I paid to it, I transcribe in a note.* * " At the respectable and afflicting spectacle which so many sufferers for conscientious adherence to religious principle, presented, the English heart swelled with every ho"nourable feeling. A general appeal to the public was resolved upon. The late Mr. John Wilmot, then member of Parlia F You return to our Legends.--I have told you, and I tell you again, that they make no part of the 66 "ment for the city of Coventry, took the lead in the work of beneficence. The plan of it was concerted by him, Mr. Ed"mund Burke, and Sir Phillips Metcalfe. An address to the public was accordingly framed by Mr. Burke, and inserted " in all the newspapers. It produced a subscription of 66 £.33,775. 158.94d. This ample sum for a time supplied "the wants of the sufferers. At length, however, it was exhausted; and in the following year, another subscription was set on foot. The venerable name of King George the Third appeared first on this list. This subscription amounted to the sum of £.41,304.128.64d. But this too was exhausted. "The measure of private charity being thus exceeded, Par"liament interposed, and from December 1793, voted annually a sum for the relief of the ecclesiastics and lay emigrants. "'This appears by an account which the writer received from " Mr.Wilmot, to have reached on the 7th day of June 1806, "the sum of £. 1,864,825. 9s.8d. The management of these 66 sums was left to a committee, of which Mr. Wilmot was the president; and the committee confided the distribution of the succours of the clergy to the Bishop of St. Pol de Leon. A general scale for the distribution of the succours was fixed : "the bishops and the magistracy received an allowance some"what larger than others: but the largest allowance was 66 66 small, and none was made to those who had other means of "subsistence. The munificence of Parliament did not however, suspend the continuance of private charity. Individual " kindness and aid accompanied the emigrants to the last. " Here the writer begs leave to mention an instance of the 66 splendid munificence of the late Earl Rosslyn, then Chan"cellor of England. It was mentioned at his lordship's table, "that the Chancellor of France was distressed, by not being " able to procure the discount of a bill which he had brought "from France, 'The Chancellor of England,' said Lord 66 Rosslyn, ' is the only person to whom the Chancellor 1 Roman Catholic creed. I leave them wholly to their fate. Every person has my permission to " of France should apply to discount his bills.' The money was immediately sent, and while the seals remained in "his hands, he annually sent a sum of equal amount to the 66 Chancellor of France. At Winchester, at Guilford, and in "other places, public buildings were appropriated for the "accommodation of the clergy. In the hurry in which they " had been forced to fly, many of them had been obliged to " leave behind them their books of prayer. To supply in part "this want, the University of Oxford printed for them 2,000 66 copies of the Vulgate version of the New Testament from the " edition of Barbou; and the late Marquis of Buckingham printed an equal number of the same sacred work, at his own expence. Every rank and description of persons, exerted " itself for their relief. There is reason to suppose, that the 66 money contributed for this honourable purpose, by individuals "whose donations never came before the public eye, was equal " to the largest of the two subscriptions which have been men " tioned. To the very last, Mr. John Wilmot continued his " kind and minute attention to the noble work of humanity. "It adds incalculably to it's merit, that it was not a sudden " burst of beneficence: it was a cool, deliberate, and system"atic exertion, which charity dictated, organized and continued " for a long succession of years, and which in its last year, was as kind, as active, and as energetic, as in its first. Among the individuals who made themselves most useful, one unquestionabiy holds the first place. 'At the name,' says "the Abbé Barruel, ' of Mrs. Dorothy Silburn, every Frenchı "' priest raises his hands to heaven to implore its blessings on "'her.' The bishop of St. Pol took his abode in her house; 66 66 " and it soon became the central point, to which every French 66 man in distress found his way. It may easily be conceived, " that great as were the sums appropriated for the relief of the "French clergy, the number of those who partook of them were so large, as to make the allowance of each a scanty provision speak of them as he pleases. I only request, that, where he finds that any of these legends possess that 66 66 even for bare subsistence; so that all were obliged to submit to great privations, and, from one circumstance or other, some were occasionally in actual want. Here Mrs. Silburn "interfered. Where more food, more raiment, more medi"cine, than the succours afforded, was wanted, it was generally 66 procured by her or her exertions. Work and labour she "found for those who sought them. The soothing word, the "kind action, never failed her; all the unpleasantness which " distress unavoidably creates, she bore with patience. Her "incessant exertions she never abated. The scenes thus de"scribed by the writer he himself witnessed: and all who "beheld them, felt and remarked, that much of the success, " and the excellent management which attended the good 66 66 work, was owing to her. To use the expression of a French prelate, ' the glory of the nation, on this occasion, was in"'creased by the part which Mrs. Silburn acted in it.' On "the final closing of the account, his Majesty was graciously 66 pleased to show his sentiments of her conduct by granting to " her an annual pension of 100 l. for her life:-never was a pension better merited. "On the other hand, the conduct of the objects of this bounty was most edifying. Thrown, on a sudden, into a foreign country, differing from theirs in language, manners, " habits and religion, the uniform tenor of their decorous " and pious lives obtained for them universal regard. Their attachment to their religious creed, they neither concealed nor obtruded. It was evidently their first object to find opportunities of celebrating the sacred mysteries, and of 66 66 66 reciting the offices of their liturgy. Most happy was he, "who obtained the cure of a congregation, or who, like the "Abbé Caron, could establish some institution useful to his countrymen. Who does not respect feelings at once so res pectable and so religious? Hence flowed their cheerfulness and serenity of mind above suffering and want. 'I saw "them,' a gentlemen said to the writer of these pages, amount of historical fact, which, by the acknowledged rules of evidence, entitles them to credit, he should permit me to believe them:-that, as a gentleman can always tell a truth, however offensive, in gentlemanly language, he should speak of those he disbelieves, in terms that are not ungentlemanly,and that, while he laughs at the legend, he should admit the virtues, if they are well authenticated, of the saint whom the legend was sillily intended to ornament. These are such as Christians of every denomination must admire. Who is the canonized or beatified king,-that was not the father of his people: the canonized or beatified bishop,-that was not the incessant preacher of the word of God, and the father of the poor, denying himself all but necessaries, to supply their wants? Who, the canonized or beatified prebendary-whose regular and devout attendance, in every day of the year, at the seven canonical hours of the Roman Catholic church, was not a continual tribute of praise and adoration to the Deity, and an edifying excitement to devotion? Who, the canonized or beatified curate, that did not consume himself in the service of his parishioners? What canonized or beatified "'hurrying in the bitterest weather, over the ice of Holland, *"' when the French invaded that territory. They had scarcely "the means of subsistence; the wind blew, the snow fell, the “ ، army was fast approaching, and they knew not where to "' hide their heads, yet these men were cheerful.' They did " honour to religion; and the nation that so justly appreciated "their merit did honour to itself." |