works, either absolute or comparative. Are those who cherish selfrighteous views in heart, true Protestants? Or can we reckon upon their inflexible adherence to a system, which is grounded essentially apon principles which they hate and disclaim?

STATIONS FOR AURICULAR CONFESSION.

The ensuing narrative, extracted from the Glasgow Protestant, furnishes a genuine portraiture of Popery in its Irish modernized most amiable features.

Living some years ago in a small town in the south of Ireland, and being intimately acquainted with the parish priest, and with others, both priests and laity, of the Papist communion, I could not be unacquainted with many of their practices, and their system of worship. As some of your readers are not acquainted with many circumstances relative to the system of Popery in Ireland, I shall give you some account of those things they call Stations for Confessing.

It was formerly the custom, at whatever house these stations were held, to require that a dinner be provided for the priest: and as the host would not set the priest down by himself, it was always the practice to invite fifteen or twenty of the neighbouring farmers, and their wives, who were expected to attend at confession, and who would ask them in return. I have frequently seen purchased for these occasions, meat, several gallons of whiskey, &c., and always a bottle of wine for the priest's own drinking. This, you will say, was paying pretty well for the honour of his company: but this was not all; there was a tax of five shillings on the landlord for saying the mass, who was made to believe that a temporal and spiritual blessing would follow. Besides this, it was expected that each confessed person would pay something for absolution. For causes best known to themselves, these dinner parties were, of late years, changed for breakfasts; which were more convenient for the priests, as he had to return home, when these stations were held in the country, perhaps some miles, and he might not so clearly see his way. Some simple people have said, that they were changed to do away those drunken revels which always followed these dinners; but this was not the case, as the following facts will show. I lived opposite to an industrious couple of the Romish religion, the man a cooper by trade, and his was one of those houses set down in the priest's book for a station, for the priests like to follow industry, hoping to partake more largely of those temporal blessings which may rationally be expected from it: I had, therefore, frequent opportunities of observing the effects of station confessions at this man's house. I have seen some of the company invited come out quite intoxicated; and on asking how they could get so beastly drunk, they stammered out that they were only

at a station.

As the priest is seldom ready before twelve o'clock, these breakfasts usually commence about that time. The bill of fare is as fol

lows: tea, a hot griddle cake, butter, eggs, &c. &c., with decanters of whiskey, placed on the breakfast-table: and as the Irish have a great affection for the native, as they call whiskey, these decanters are frequently replenished, and the feast prolonged for the remainder of the day. It may be said that this is an unfair construction put upon the society of fifteen or twenty persons, invited to meet the priest at a station breakfast; that although some may outstep the limits of sobriety, the rest should not be charged with it: that these poor souls, for aught I knew, were, after pardon received from the priest, making pious resolutions of future amendment-laying down plans for moralizing their relatives and acquaintances or devising how they may promote the moral and religious education of the rising generation, by the introduction of the Bible into schools, as the great and only fountain of divine revelation to man; showing him his lost estate both by nature and practice, and the necessity of coming to God for real pardon, peace, and holiness; and that at all events, surely their drinking bouts could not be fairly charged upon the priest. Whoever argues thus, does not know what Popery is. How sure its doctrines lead to licentiouness; how cruel and intolerant are its principles; and how much opposed to every effort to promote the moral and religious education of the poor children in its communion, I shall hereafter show. Indeed, with them the proverb, that "Ignorance is the mother of devotion," is held as true, and more current, than any of the Proverbs of Solomon.

The writer was present at the settlement of an account with the spirit-dealer for the whisky drank at but one breakfast station for confession, at his opposite neighbour's house, where the whole company, men, women and children, could not have exceeded twenty-four persons; when the bill, admitted to be correct and paid for, was seven half gallons of whiskey, at sixteen shillings per gallon ; a liquor considerably stronger than either brandy or rum. It may be objected, that this was too particular a case to be taken for a general rule; and that the master of the house might be a very dissipated character himself, and have been too pressing with his guests. With regard to this man's general character, he passed among his neighbors for an industrious sober man, in general: and as to his character with the priest, I assure you that both he and his wife were in several holy orders, as they are called in Ireland. So that taking this man's character, I am convinced that I take a standard much too high as an example of the good effects following confession stations; for were I to select those stations which are held at publicans' houses, it would far exceed what I have detailed.

It is the practice for the priest to publish from the altar, at certain periods of the year-I believe before Christmas, and before Lentthat he will hold stations for confession at certain houses, then and there named. These houses are selected without previous liberty ob. tained from the owners, perhaps lest they may make objections, which many of them would most certainly do, if not thus publickly given out from the altar. The individuals thus selected make the necessary preparations, and as it has been a prevailing opinion from the

time of the Jews, that the publicans were the greatest sinners, and consequently required most amending, I have observed that they are most frequently selected: nay, I have observed that those who have most business are particularly selected by the Priest; it being reasonable to suppose, that the chief amongst the publicans must be chief amongst the sinners. As the liquor on these occasions is drawn from the cock, it is not so easy to calculate the expenditure; but as they ask their best customers, it would be natural to believe that the landlord is not backward in recommending his liquor, nor his guests in trying its strength, not having the usual reckoning to pay, and having previously quit scores with the priest. As it may be alleged that the priest does not countenance these practices, I shall mention a fact. A female, invited to one of these confessional coteries, mentioned to some others how very polite the priest was at breakfast to the women, pressing the bashful ones to take whiskey in their tea. "Faith," says her husband, "it was very easy to prevail on them to take it, and for him to offer what was not out of his own pocket." The wife replied, "You dare not tell him so at your next confession." Thus you may see, Sir, how much the moral principle is degraded by such a system, and even by the priests; a system which holds out to its deluded followers a yearly, or half-yearly, acquittal for sin. Well may that truth, applied by our Saviour to the Scribes and Pharisees, be applied to them: "Ye encompass sea and land to gain one proselyte; and when ye have gained him, ye make him twofold more a child of the devil."-The Protestant of February 6.

THE CHARACTER OF THE LION VINDICATED.

As the Lion is mentioned so frequent in the Bible, a brief account of this noble animal may not be deemed inconsistent with the religious character of the Recorder, more particularly, as it may be interesting to many of its readers. Every one knows who has read the Bible, that Samson tore a lion to pieces with his hands, that David killed one; and Benaiah slew a lion in a pit. That a lion killed the man of God from Judah, who prophesied the ruin of the idolatrous altar at Bethel, and, contrary to nature, spared his ass. That Daniel was cast into a den of lions, but received no harm. The heathen persecutors often exposed the Christians to be torn by lions. The church is likened to a lion strengthened of God; she overcomes, and is terrible to all that oppose her. Her ministers, especially in the primitive ages, were like lions, bold, courageous, and active in their work, and conquered multitudes to Christ, and in numerous other instances is he mentioned. Passing on to a more modern account of him, he is said to be the terror of travellers in the regions where he abounds; able to bear off a buffalo on his back, and crush the skull of a horse by a single stroke of his paw. In physical strength he is indeed unequalled. He lives on animal food, and his organization fits him well for the destruction of animal life, regulated by a saga

city peculiar to his species. The fury of the elements appears to rouse hina from his ordinary stillness. During the nights of heavy rain, thunder and lightning, he is particularly active; advances upon his prey with less than usual caution, and is not at once driven off by the barking of dogs, and the sound of muskets. It is related by a traveller, that "the lion came steadily forward, and stood still to look at us." We felt our situation not free from danger, as the animal scemed preparing to spring upon us. We were standing on the bank at the distance of only a few yards from him, most of us being on foot and unarmed, without any visible possibility of escaping. I had given up my horse to the hunters, and was on foot myself, but there was no time for fear, and it was useless to attempt to avoid him. I stood well upon my guard, holding my pistols in my hands, with my finger on the trigger, and those who had muskets kept themselves prepared in the same manner. At this instant, the dogs boldly flew in between us and the lion, and surrounding him, kept him at bay by their violent and resolute looking. They advanced up to the side of the huge beast, and stood making the greatest clamour in his face, without the least appearance of fear. The lion, conscious of his strength, remained unmoved at their noisy attempts, and kept his head turned towards us. At one moment, the dogs seemed as if they would actually seize hold of him, and without discomposing the majestic attitude in which he stood fixed, he merely moved his paw, and at the next instant, two laid dead. We fired upon him; one of the balls went through his side between the short ribs, and the blood began to flow, but the animal still remained standing in the same position. Every gun was instantly re-loaded, and we had no doubt he would spring upon us; but we were not sorry to see him move quietly away."

It seems to be a fact well established, that the lion prefers the flesh of a Hottentot to any other creature. Mr. Barrow tells us of the escape of a Hottentot from a lion, which pursued him from a pool of water where he was driving his cattle to drink, to an aloe tree, in which the man remained for twenty four hours, while the lion laid himself down at the foot. The perseverance of the beast was at length worn out by his desire to drink; and in his temporary absence to satisfy his thirst, the Hottentot fled to his home about a mile off. The lion, however, returned to the aloe tree, and tracked the man within three hundred paces of his house.

A relation of a lion hunt, in 1822, by Mr. Pringle, a settler on the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony. is peculiarly interesting.

"One night, a lion that had previously purloined a few sheep out of my kraal, came down and killed my riding horse, about a hundred yards from the door of my cabin. Knowing that the lion, when he does not carry off his prey, usually conceals himself in the vicinity, and is very apt to be dangerous by prowling about the place in search of more game, I resolved to have him destroyed or dislodged without delay. I therefore sent a messenger round the location, to invite all who were willing to assist in the enterprise, to repair to the place of rendezvous as speedily as possible. In an hour, every man of the

party, but two appeared ready mounted and armed, with about a dozen Bastard's or mulatto Hottentots. Commencing from the spot where the horse was killed, we tracked him into a large bosch, or straggling thicket of brushwood, about a mile distant. Finding that the few indifferent hounds we had, made little impression on the enemy, they divided themselves into two or three parties, and frode round the jungle, firing into the spot where the dogs were barking round him, but without effect. At length three of the men went to within fifteen or twenty paces of the spot where the animal lay concealed. He was couched among the roots of a large evergreen bush, with a small space of open ground on one side of it; they fired but missed the lion; he growled furiously, and bolted from the bush, and in a twinkling, dashed the nearest to the ground, and with his foot on his prostrate foe, looked round in conscious power and pride, upon the bands of his assailants, and with a port the most noble and imposing that can be conceived. We expected every instant to see one or more of them torn in pieces; and though the rest of the party were standing within fifty paces with their guns cocked and levelled, they durst not fire. One lying under the lion's paw, and the other two crawling towards us, but in a way to intercept our aim at him. Luckily, the lion after surveying us for a few seconds, seemed willing to depart, and with a fortunate forbearance, turned calmly away; and the man on whom he had placed his paw; had sustained no other injury than a slight scratch on the face, and a severe bruise on the ribs, from the force the animal had dashed him to the ground. It seems these relentless beings could not appreciate the forbearance of the magnanimous conduct of this noble animal. He bounded over the plain into a glen by the side of a river, under a mimosa tree, whither they followed him; the bastards went to the top of a precipice, overlooking the place where the creature stood, and the other people separating into two parties, the one to the one side, and the other to the other of the glen. He strongly evinced his pro Vocation at such ingratitude, but his merciless foes all fired at him; with their different positions, he was confounded; and battering at him simultaneously, he was at length overcome; he proved to be full grown of the yellow variety, five or six years of age, measuring twelve from the nose to the tip of the tail, with forelegs below the knee, eighteen inches thick. When skinned, his neck, breast, and limbs, were complete congeries of sinews."

The character of this "king of beasts" has been a good deal aspersed by some modern travellers; but as his name is so repeatedly connected with Holy Writ, in a way to show that in the former ages of the world, by people, whose location afforded them good opportunities of judging, he was selected as the emblem of strength, majasty, wisdom and courage, who did not perceive in him any trait like that of treachery; and to this day, no action of his is recorded, that will fairly bear that construction. I have deemed it proper to make a few remarks on the subject.

It is true, that since the period fire-arms were put into the hands of his hunters, he has acted with a greater degree of caution than