relieve them from the grievances to which this manly, straightforward, and honorable conduct has so long subjected them?

Will it not do your lordship, and all your most reverend and right reverend brethren, the greatest honor to stretch forth your arms to the struggling Catholics, and to lead them into that port which they have so long made unavailing efforts to reach, and to their reaching of which you have been their most appalling obstacle?

"Through your Catholic predecessors,"-(I would say to their graces and their lordships, if they would allow it,)" You have received the Scriptures; the greatest part by far of your religious creed; all your code of morals; and most of your liturgy. The Catholic religion twice rescued your country from paganism; she founded all your sees; she endowed them all; she raised your cathedrals; she built your palaces; she gave you seats in parliament; and, if the constant tradition among Catholics be true, when the Long Parliament sought to expel you from them, ALL (without exception) OF THE CATHOLIC PEERS, WHO THEN SAT AND VOTED IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS, EXERTED THEMSELVES TO RETAIN YOU IN THEM!!!

"From the Catholic church you have separated:-I grieve for it. But I most confidently call on you all to mention a single Christian community on the habitable globe, between whose church and yours there either existed at first, or exists at the present time, so much resemblance as exists, in numerous instances, between your church and the Roman Catholic? To whose hierarchy, devotional offices, or ceremonial, does your church make a nearer approach? “In moral, civil or political principle, there is no difference between us. You profess to worship God, to honor the king, to love your neighbors, and to revere the constitution;-So do we.And we fearlessly ask you, whether, if the altar, the throne, the rights of the subject, or the sacred fabric of the constitution should be attacked, you would rely on the fidelity and exertions of any portion of the community for their defence, more than you would rely on ours?

"Why then, with a very small exception, are all your hands,(designed, as they were, by the Author of Christianity, not to perpetuate irritation, but to diffuse peace-not to keep man in hostility to man, but to bind all to all in civil and social order and barmony,)-uniformly and unceasingly lifted up against us? Why does the whole empire agree in considering you as our most formidable and unrelenting adversaries? Does the gospel enjoin you to abridge our civil rights? to perpetuate our depression? Do you, by this conduct, recommend yourselves to God or to man?

"What a day of glory and happiness to every part of the empire

will it be, when the gates of the constitution shall be opened to the long-depressed, long-suffering, but loyal, but honorable Catholics! "History records, that, when Paulus Æmilius, the Roman proconsul, announced to the Greeks, convened at the public games, that they were free,'-the assembled multitude could not, at first, believe their happiness: but that, when the proconsul repeated his words, every heart throbbed with ecstacy, tears of delight fell from every eye, and a shout of exultation and gratitude rent the heaven. "Greater still will be the joy, louder still the shout, when the revered form of George IV. shall announce to his British and Irish Catholic subjects those tidings of liberation which he has already announced to his Catholic subjects in Hanover, when he shall pronounce the sacred words, soit fait comme il est desiré : ALL MY CATHOLIC SUBJECTS ARE EMANCIPATED! How will the seven millions then leap with gladness! How often will the glorious words be repeated! How often will the friends of our cause be remembered? How feelingly will the Catholic parent point out their names to the Catholic child? Surely you must wish that he should tell him,- THE BISHOPS TOO WERE THERE.' You cannot wish that history should say, The day of Catholic emancipation did at length arrive:-THE BENCH OF BISHOPS HAD PUT IT OFF AS LONG AS THEY COULD.""

My lord,

With the highest respect and consideration,

Lincoln's Inn,
6th April, 1825.

I have the honor to be,

Your lordship's most obedient servant,

CHARLES BUTLER.

POSTSCRIPT TO THE THIRD EDITION.

I HAVE read the Postscript to the Third Edition of your lordship's Letter, and I have read it with great concern, as it contains insinuations which I thought it impossible that a person of your learning and eminence could bring against the body to which I belong, or myself;-these, too, expressed in language which mine neither justified nor called for.

SUR L'ÉTAT ACTUEL

DES PRISONS

DANS LES DÉPARTEMENTS

DU CALVADOS, DE L'EURE, DE LA MANCHE, ET DE LA SEINE-INFÉRIEURE ;

RAPPORT,

&c. &c.

PRISONS.

MONSEIGNEUR,

Le succès a couronné votre importante entreprise. Rendu à nos vœux, vous vous dérobez à la gloire; mais vous ne renoncerez jamais au pouvoir et au bonheur de soulager les malheureux. Le pacificateur des royaumes est toujours le président de la Société fondée pour l'amélioration des Prisons.

Je rends compte à VOTRE ALTESSE ROYALE et à la Société Royale, de l'état des prisons des départements de l'ancienne Normandie, dont la surveillance m'a été attribuée.

J'ai revu quelques-uns des lieux que j'avais visités dans les années précédentes. Je me suis assuré de la situation actuelle des autres par des rapports détaillés, dont la sincérité m'est suffisamment garantie. Je les dépose dans les archives de la Société Royale.

Je puis rendre témoignage des améliorations importantes qui ont été faites dans la plupart des grandes prisons de quatre départements. Des repaires effrayants repoussaient jusqu'à la Charité qui voulait en approcher. Le crime y éprouvait un second châtiment que la justice n'avait pas commandé; et l'on a vu des coupables moins effrayés de l'échafaud que de la continuation des maux de la prison. Aujourd'hui, le condamné n'éprouve plus que les rigueurs commandées par la loi, et ces lieux n'en sont pas moins à redouter pour le crime.

Le prisonnier est mieux couché, mieux garanti du froid: il a tous les jours une soupe, et deux fois par semaine elle est préparée avec de la graisse et de la viande, Il n'est plus, à sa sortie, maigre, exténué, rhumatisant, et réduit pour toute sa vie à la débilité, quand, après une longue absence, il devrait, non pas accroître