two or three years, and the Episcopalian gentry and clergy openly proclaimed their triumph. The Catholic Bishop, swayed by the reasons which had influenced his brother Prelates, recommended his Clergy not to notice. the defiances daily issued to them. But the circumstances of the locality were peculiar, and considerations all-pow erful elsewhere, were thought by many to be but secondary in Derry. Four generations had passed away since Catholic and Protestant had combatted on that ground. The material victory had been with the Protestant, and his descendants gloried in the inheritance of their conquest. The descendants of the vanquished had multiplied and regained a part of their old inheritance; social ambition began to stir in their breasts, and it was no longer quite safe to treat them with indignity. There was need of a triumph for them; there was need of a lesson to the Ascendancy. The Bishop's Pastoral threw a gloom upon their path, and murmurs, not loud but

"The Protestant ministers took occasion, from a slight incident at Maghera, between Rev. J. McKenna and Rev. Spencer Knox, to challenge the Priests of this diocese to a public discussion, which challenge Dr. McLaughlin prevented the Priests from accepting. The sensation produced in the minds of Catholics and Protestants by this prohibition, was such as I would not wish ever to witness again, and rendered it imperative on every Priest who could open his mouth to come out in defence of the faith. This was an occasion such as Dr. Maginn loved, and the young preacher appeared in his glory."*

*Letter of Rev. Mr. Flanagan, of Coleraine.

deep, were heard in every chapel-yard. A Priest of the diocese, writing of that time, remarks:

The particular events which brought up this discussion are related in the Preface to the Authenticated Report, published by Coyne (Catholic) and Curry, (Protestant) booksellers of Dublin, soon after its conclusion. This introduction, so characteristic of the self-restraint imposed by the parties on themselves, deserves to be given unabridged. It reads thus:

"The causes which have given rise to any publication, may in geueral be supposed to claim an interest in the public attention, commensurate, at least, to that which the work itself is calculated to produce. But in a more especial manner, those circumstances will surely not be thought unworthy of record, which have suddenly drawn forth, from the quiet walk of professional duty, so many Ministers of the long severed churches of Rome and of Ireland, which have led persons, hitherto of retired habits, to stand forward in the public eye and ear, to contend on those great elements of faith and hope, on which they differ. In addition, however, to the desire ot gratifying a natural curiosity respecting the origin of the following discussion, the publishers are anxious to give some statement on the subject, because the incidents connected with its commencement have impressed it with a character, and marked the conduct of it with peculiarities which, without this previous knowledge, it were difficult to account for. The suddenness and unpreparedness with which the parties were drawn into this collision, have evidently deprived the discussion of that order, symmetry and proportion in the disposition of the subjects, which a !ittle pre-arrangement could so easily have given to it. At the same time, this very defect of previous order and limitation of subjects may have been the means of presenting a more varied and interesting field of inquiry, and thus compensating the want of regularity by unfolding a more free and excursive view of the whole controversy.

"The circumstances in which the discussion originated were simply these. A public meeting having been called in the city of London

derry, by the Reformation Society, on Tuesday, the 11th of March, 1828, to consider the propriety of establishing a branch of the Society in that place, Captains Gordon and Vernon attended as a deputation at the court-house on the day named, for the purpose of carrying this object into effect. A very large number of persons assembled on the occasion, and among others, some of the clergy of the Established Church, favorable to the institution, and some of the Roman Catholic clergy of the city and neighborhood determined to oppose the formation of the Society, from a persuasion that the effect of its establishment would be evil. The consequence of all this was a very tumultuous assembly, insomuch that it was deemed advisable to adjourn the meeting until the next day, and then to limit the numbers admitted by issuing tickets, and charging a small sum on each. On the next day the high Sheriff, T. Kennedy, Esq., was called to the chair, in which, for several days, he continued most courteously, and to the satisfaction of all, to preside. Notwithstanding all the precautions, however, adopted on this day, a still greater crowd of persons seemed to have collected within the great hall of the court-house, in which a platform had been erected for the accommodation of the deputation and their friends, and as the same opposition was still given to the formation of the Society, and on the same grounds, a similar scene of tumult to that on the preceding day was the consequence

It was in the course of this very unpleasant conflict of opinion, that a charge having been thrown out by one of the deputation, and repeated by one of the Protestant clergy present, as that the Roman Catholic clergy, in their opposition to the Society only wished to avoid discussion, a distinct declaration was made on their part, that their objection was to the formation of such Societies as that contemplated; but that if the question of the establishment of the Society were once disposed of, and the Protestant clergy were still anxious for discussion, the Roman Catholic clergy were ready to enter on it immediately. This was met on the part of the Protestant clergy by a frank and ready avowal that, as their only interest in the Society arose from the hope it offered of promoting such a discussion, they would willingly accede to any arrangement of the kind. A motion to the above effect having been made by Dean Blakely, and put by the Chairman to the meeting, and the general feeling seeming to be in favor of the proposal, it was finally arranged that the meeting of the Reformation

Society be now adjourned sine die, and that a discussion on the respective merits of the two Churches should immediately commence between six of the clergy of the Church of Rome, and six of the clergy of the Established Church of Ireland.

Protestants. Rev. Messrs. Alexander Ross, William Smyly, Robert Collis, Mark Bloxham, Archibald Boyd, Robert Henderson,

Catholics. Rev. Messrs. Patrick O'Loughlin, Francis Quin, Alexander J. McCarron, Edward Maginn, Neal O'Kane, Simon McLeer.

For the sake of order, it was agreed that each speaker should be limited to three quarters of an hour, and that Protestant and Catholic should be heard alternately. Accordingly Mr. Collis opened the discussion and Mr. O'Loughlin closed it. From the Court House it was adjourned to the old Cathedral, which continued crowded for twelve successive days by men of all creeds, listening to arguments pro and con., on the Real Presence, on private judgment, on the canon of Scripture, on Purgatory and the marks of the true Church. Mr. Maginn spoke nine times during the twelve days, and on every branch of the subject. The spirit of the debate may be judged by a passage from the third day's discussion, in which Mr. Maginn, in replying to the Rev. Mr. Smyly's argument of the day previous, said:

"What sayeth Christ? If he heareth not the Church, let him be unto thee as a heathen and a publican.

"What sayeth Mr. Smyly and his law Church? Whosoever heareth the Church is even worse than those who are sitting in the darkness and in the shadows of death.

"What sayeth Christ? Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, and lo, I am with you all days, to the consummation of the world.

"What sayeth Mr. Smyly and his law Church? Every man shall teach himself, and for fifteen hundred years and more, Christ has abandoned his Church to the most superstitious practices and to the most damnable idolatry.

"What sayeth Christ? On this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

"What sayeth the Rev. Mr. Smyly and his law Church? The Church founded on a rock has yielded to the mouldering hand of time, and the powers of darkness have razed its very foundation.

"What sayeth Christ? I shall send you another Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth, who shall teach you all truth, and remain with yon forever.

"What sayeth Mr. Smyly and his law Church? The Spirit of Truth has long since abandoned the Church's teaching to the spirit of lies and of error, and Satan, and not the Holy Ghost, even now sits at the helm of the religious bark, and guides it in the storm. `

"What sayeth Christ? Receive ye the Holy Ghost; whatsoever sins ye forgive they are forgiven them, and whatsoever sins ye retain they are retained to them.

"What sayeth Mr. Smyly and his law Church? It is rank blasphemy to assert that any man has eceived, or could receive, the power of forgiving or of retaining sin.

"What sayeth Christ with respect to the Holy Eucharist? This is my Body, which is delivered for you, and this is my blood which is

shed for you.

"What sayeth Mr. Smyly and his law Church? No, it is not your body, but the figure of your body; it is not your blood, but the figure of your blood.

"What sayeth Christ again? While the bridegroom is with them they should not mourn. But the day shall come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they shall fast.

"What sayeth Mr. Smyly and his law Church? Fasting is a dead work, opposed to the all-sufficient merits of Christ, a Popish practice; in a word, unworthy of the true believer.

"What sayeth Christ by the mouth of his beloved Apostles? It seemeth good to us and to the Holy Ghost not to impose on you any other burthen than these necessary things, that you abstain from fornication, and from things suffocated, and from blood.