In another part of his Tract, our author says, that he' per⚫sonally attests, that the recovery of Miss O'Connor immediately succeeded the instructions of Prince Hohenlohe. ' He adds, that he leaves the explanation to the religious principles of those who interest themselves in it. With his permission, there is a little to be done before we come to explanations; and that is, to settle the state of the fact somewhat more clearly. What will the reader think of this gentleman's caution and accuracy, when he finds that his personal attestation' means his report of what he heard in the Convent, he having been himself absent from the 2d to the 11th of May, (p. 19), and the facts in question having happened on or immediately after the 3d! The whole matter in dispute depends upon the time at which the cure took place; and supposing the Doctor's observation to have been correct on the 2d (which we can have little confidence in, after so strange a sample of his loose manner of reasoning), there is no ground for ascribing the cure to the prayers, except the coincidence in point of time of the two events;-and that coincidence rests on hearsay, and the hearsay of a nunnery! The amendment may have been begun before the 2d, and made great progress during the week that followed; or it may have been begun as late as the 5th or 6th, and gone on rapidly till the 11th. The fact of the cure immediately succeeding' the Prince Impostor's prescription, does not rest therefore on the Doctor's personal attestation,' but on the gossip of the convent parlour.

If Dr Badelly's facts are of most suspicious accuracy, his reasonings are somewhat more confused and unsatisfactory still. At one time he ascribes the cure, which he never once thinks of doubting, to the influence of the mind over the body, and therewithal sets down some half dozen instances to illustrate this trite position; as, of gout being removed from a naval officer,

by

the pleasing agitation of a French frigate approaching;' and a lady, pining away, and dying from grief, for the absence of her husband. Is it, then, to the nun's imagination that she owed the cure of her right arm, afflicted for eighteen months with extreme swelling and inflammation! No such thing. On the contrary, she imagined at first that she was not to be cured; and the miracle was wrought, it appears, rather to shame her unbelief than to reward her undoubting faith. Dr B., indeed, can see no difference between the prayers used by Prince Hohenlohe and those which all Christians put up, except that the cures prayed for by him are more immediate; those prayed for by others more gradual. It must ever remain a secret, known only to the Supreme Being, whether he grants a recovery to the prayer specifically, without intermediate

means, or whether he effects it by the mind actuating the vis • medicatrix naturæ through faith and confidence.' pp. 21, 22, He therefore clearly ascribes the efficacy of the Prince's operations, in part at least, to a miracle; though he will not decide whether Providence works the miracle at once and directly, or by second causes. The following passage is a singular specimen: of this good Doctor's reasoning powers; and we trust his suit: to the clergy will not be thrown away. It is at least disinterested; it is asking them to make the medical profession a sinecure. • From the numerous cases that are published in France and Germany, we have no right to doubt that the prayers of the Prince have been more successful than the prayers of others; probably owing to the greater faith and confidence which their celebrity had 'occasioned. This success and celebrity will, doubtless, continue reciprocally to increase each other; because, united, they will dou⚫ble the confidence and faith that will be placed in them. The prayers of our clergy would, no doubt, be attended with equal success in restoring health, and prolonging life, if the minds of the sick were ⚫ impressed with the same degree of firm belief, that the prayers then offering would effect their recovery; but our clergy confine their visits to the paramount duty of preparing them for their departure from this to a better world. pp. 22, 23.

Only mark the mistake under which the clergy in all countries have laboured! They ought to have bestirred themselves to keep their flocks safe and sound in this world, instead of preparing them for another. But it seems, the prayers of the church are not the only specific for bodily ailments, nor are Prince Bishops the only substitutes for Doctors of Physic. So inveterate is our author's antipathy to his own cloth, that he sets up a worthy landscape-painter, the late Mr Loutherbourg, as a worker of cures or miracles, and without even the trouble of an incantation; for he seems to have done the thing by a look and a word. Accordingly, he inserts a narrative from a very respectable clergyman,' who had a tenant afflicted grievously with pains and swellings in the loins, so that he could not walk across the room. He took him in a coach to Mr Loutherbourg's at Hammersmith, who entered the room, and, without any kind of preliminary explanation, without even asking a question, looked stedfastly' at the former, and said, I know your complaint, Sir;-look at me.' The man did so. After staring at each other for some minutes, Mr. L. asked if he did not feel some warmth about his loins; and, on being answered in the affirmative, added, You will feel, in a few minutes, much greater warmth about your loins.' This, too, happened; and the artist, continuing his intense look, demanded how his subject came there? In a coach, Sir'-was the artless reply. Then go and discharge your coach, and walk

back to Tenterden Street with Mr R.' The coach was discharged' (says the reverend historian, and, we presume, the reckoning also, though this is not mentioned), and back to Tenterden Street we walked, a distance of not less than four miles.' The narrator declines to allow Dr Badelly the use of his name; but far be it from us to insinuate, that he is running the base humour on him. He is probably a grave personage; for there are no bounds to human credulity; and, if a long chapter is easily made of cases where the imagina tion affects patients, how many long volumes might be compiled of instances, where the imagination bewilders witnesses!

It would be unjust toward this wonder-working Prince, were we to omit all mention of the exploits which have succeeded that performed on the Chelmsford Nun. His fame having waxed great both on the Continent and among the zealous in these Islands, he appears to have been much importuned for the aid of his prayers. Accordingly, he complains, in a rescript to one of the faithful, that he had, on an average, fifty letters a day— a tax in postage equal, we should imagine, to the revenues of an ordinary German principality, unsupported by supernatural aids; and he adds, in answer to one application, that he had, in consequence, fallen on the ingenious device of working miracles in the gross, by whole districts, or, as he phrases it, adopting a system of offering his prayers for the relief of particular districts, on particular days.' In pursuance of this plan, his truly Serene Highness appointed the 1st of August, at seven o'clock a. m., for curing all the diseased in Ireland by word of mouth; and as he is pleased, somewhat superfluously we think, to ask the cooperation of the persons prayed for, he gave a general notice to all the religious communities of that Island of Saints, in order that, in each one, a mass might be performed at the same moment in which he was working for their relief at Bamberg; and he seems to have graciously given a second benefit to the same part of the Christian world, on the 1st of September, in order, as it were, to take in such as were left out on the former day, owing, doubtless to the crowd of cures. Since these great field-days, there have been repeated statements of the effects produced; but we can find no distinct accounts, except of three cases, and those all of females-Mrs Stuart and Miss Lala on the first occasion, and Miss Dowell on the last. Far be it from us to speak with unbecoming confidence on so nice a matter; there may have been other wonders wrought; but these three are all that have yet reached us in this sceptical and anti-catholic land.

That the priesthood should take up the subject, was a matter of course. They waited, however, a few weeks, and then entered

stoutly into a theme which appeared so promising. The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin led the way with a pastoral letter to the clergy and laity of his diocese, in which he informs his beloved brethren in Christ Jesus, that a 'delightful duty has devolved upon him;' and proceeds to relate the cure of Mrs Stuart, his heart being at once struck with awe, and inflamed with gratitude.' His Grace shall, however, tell his own story, or rather the story of the Convent of St Joseph, Ranelagh; for he is not himself the witness, but only the believer and propagator of the tale, after what he deemed a full investigation of its truth.

The account of this wonderful cure reached us officially on the 2d instant, in a letter from the Prioress. This communication stated, in substance, that one of the religious sisters of that community, by name Mary Stuart, had been afflicted with sickness for four years and seven months; that during that period she had frequent attacks of paralysis, each of which seemed to threaten her with immediate dissolution; that the most powerful remedies had been applied, without producing any other than partial and temporary relief; that for several months past she had been confined to her bed, wholly deprived of the power of assisting herself, or of moving out of the position in which she was laid; that when moved by her attendants, how gently soever, she not only suffered much pain, but was also liable to great danger, and to the temporary loss of speech, and that, for the last five weeks, she had lost the power of articulation; that up to the morning of the 1st instant, she continued in this deplorable state, without any symptom of amendment, and apparently beyond the reach of human aid; that on a certain hour that morning, as had been settled by previous arrangement, she united her devotion (as did also her numerous friends) with the holy sacrifice of the mass, which was to be offered by Alexander, Prince of Hohenlohe, in the hope of obtaining immediately from God that relief which no human means could afford; that with this view she received, though with much difficulty, the divine communion at the mass, which was celebrated at the same hour in her chamber, for her recovery; that mass being ended, and no cure as yet effected, she was in the act of resigning herself, with perfect submission, to the will of God, when instantly she felt a power of a movement and a capability of speech; that she exclaimed, with an animated voice-"Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts!"-raised herself, without assistance, to offer, on bended knees, the tribute of her gratitude to heaven-called for her attire-left that bed to which she had been for so many months, as it were, fastened-walked to the Convent chapel with a firm step -and there, in the presence of the community and congregation, joined her religious sisters in the solemn thanksgiving which was offered up to God for this wonderful interposition of his goodness.

'As soon as this statement reached us, we felt it a sacred duty to examine the grounds on which it was made. We hastened,

therefore, to the spot, to investigate the circumstances of this astonishing cure. We found the late invalid seated in the parlour, surrounded by her friends; she arose, she knelt, she resumed her seat, she detailed the history of her sufferings and her cure, as they have been just related. Her companions and attendants, who had assisted her in her infirmity, and watched so long over her bed of languishing, confirmed this account in all its details, which could not fail, even then, to produce on our mind the clearest conviction that the restoration of the said Mary Stuart to the state of health in which we saw her, was beyond the reach of human power.

Still, aware of the great responsibility which we should incur, by pledging ourselves to you, beloved brethren, and to the world, for the existence of a fact so truly wonderful, we paused before we should give public utterance to our private conviction on so important a subject. We returned to the Convent, after an interval of several days; we subjected all the circumstances of this extraordinary case to a new and rigid inquiry; we collected information on the spot, from every source within our reach; we weighed it in the presence of the God of Truth; we called into our aid the wisdom and intelligence of our reverend brethren, the Roman Catholic clergy of this city, and we have the consolation of knowing that our judgment is supported by their unanimous opinion, when we declare, as we do hereby declare, on what appears to us the most unquestionable evidence, that the cure which was effected in the person of the said Mary Stuart, on the 1st of August instant, is the effect of a supernatural agency-an effect which we cannot contemplate without feeling, in our inmost soul, an irresistible conviction that "this is the finger of God.

The cure of Miss Dowell may be added to this; it happened on the 1st of September, and, though not related by the Prelate, rests exactly on the same kind of evidence which made' him adopt the current story, namely, the reports of the family.

Miss Dowell, of Merrion-square, a lady of fortune, and whose con nexions are of the first respectability, had, during the last four years, suffered under a complication of infirmities; to alleviate which, the most eminent professional advice was resorted to in vain. A gradua! paralysis appears to have totally deprived her for the last twelve months of the power of motion. During this long period, she is stated to have been altogether confined to bed; and every attempt of her attendants to assist her was productive of internal spasms of the most excruciating nature, followed by a state of languor so closely resembling death, that on one occasion she was believed to have actually ceased to live. The distinguished members of the Faculty în attendance upon this lady, are understood to have for some time avowed to her parents, their despair of ultimate cure, and to have directed their exertions merely to the soothing of her sufferings. Under these circumstances, application was specially made, through a high quarter, to Prince Hohenlohe; and the lady was directed to