for a station which would have exposed me to public view. I know that some of your prelates, deluded by false reports, or by too great friendship for me, have expressed from time to time some desire of seeing me fixed at home; but they forget that I am now forty-four years old, and that grown up trees are never transplanted into a foreign soil withot losing their leaves and withering away.

"I am therefore, you perceive, condemned by Providence to live and die in France, and what matter after all, provided I die well? It would, indeed, be a consolation to me here below, to have a personal acquaintance with you; but I trust in God's mercy, that we shall both meet one day in a happier land than this, where I shall no longer be your servant and your nephew, but your fellow-citizen, your brother, and your friend.

" HENRY EDGEWORTH."

To the Right Rev. Dr. Moylan, Cork,

Ireland.

"Paris, 18th Feb. 1790.

"My Lord, and dear friend,

"I have but a few moments to spend with you, as the packets are just going off; but knowing your tender concern for the once flourishing, though now desolate, church of France, I must lose no time in informing you of the decree that passed Saturday last, after a sitting of nine hours. The religious state was suppressed all over the kingdom; and it was declared to be an article of our new constitution, that no perpetual vows would, from henceforward, be admitted in France. All nuns and friars, who choose to leave their houses, are at liberty to go out, and retire where they please: they will receive pensions, but the sum is not yet fixed. Those who choose to remain, if friars, must repair to the houses that will be hereafter appointed for their reception; but, as to nuns, they

may all remain in their respective houses, there to live and die in peace.

"I need not make any reflections upon this decree; but many people fear it may bring on some regulation of the same kind concerning the vow by which priests are bound to celibacy; in which case, I leave you to judge, how many scandals we should see. However, I believe no attempt will be made to unbind those who are already engaged in holy orders: but I would not be astonished, if it was enacted, that no such obligation should be enjoined from henceforward upon those who receive subdeaconship.

"I shall do all my endeavours to purchase the articles you mention, when the sale of church-ornaments will begin, which cannot be so soon: but I would be glad to know, before all, whether you would have the candlesticks plated in gold or silver; the former, I think, make a much better appearance upon the altar.

"The young man I mentioned to you in my last, has received a small bill from his father, and I am of opinion he should go home, as there is no hopes of his father being able to maintain him here. I thank you in his name, as well as in my own, for your kind intentions: but, as he has wherewith to defray the expences of his journey, I do not think it necessary to accept the you have made. generous offer

"The post is going off, and I have scarcely time to subscribe myself, with every sentiment of respect and love,

My Lord, and dear friend,

"Your most humble and obedient Servant,

"H. EDGEWORTH."

From the same to the same.

66

Paris, 6th May, 1790.

"My Lord, and dear friend,

"I have put off from week to week answering your favour of the 14th March,

hoping our assembly would at last come to a resolution about church affairs; but it seems their policy is still what it has been from the beginning, to give but one blow at a time, lest the reasonable part of the nation should be revolted, was the entire system displayed at once. You have heard, undoubtedly, of the two decrees relating to the church lands. By the first, they are declared to be at the free disposal of the nation; and by the second, which passed a fortnight ago, the civil corporation now in vigour all over France are vested with the management thereof. The clergy is therefore completely stripped; and to take away more effectually the notion of ecclesiastical properties, it has been moreover enacted, that the salaries of the clergy (hereafter to be determined) will be paid to them, not by the corporations, now charged with the management of their hitherto lands, but from the national treasury, as all other public charges. It was