the Pope to interfere in the temporal concerns of any country. The
answer cannot possibly leave the shadow of a doubt, even in the mind
of Baron Maseres; and Dr. Rennel would be compelled to admit it, if
three Bishops lay dead at the very moment the question were put to
him. To this answer might be added also the solemn declaration and
signature of all the Catholics in Great Britain.

I should perfectly agree with you, if the Catholics admitted such a
dangerous dispensing power in the hands of the Pope; but they all
deny it, and laugh at it, and are ready to abjure it in the most
decided manner you can devise. They obey the Pope as the spiritual
head of their Church; but are you really so foolish as to be imposed
upon by mere names? What matters it the seven-thousandth part of a
farthing who is the spiritual head of any Church? Is not Mr.
Wilberforce at the head of the Church of Clapham? Is not Dr. Letsom
at the head of the Quaker Church? Is not the General Assembly at
the head of the Church of Scotland? How is the government disturbed
by these many-headed Churches? or in what way is the power of the
Crown augmented by this almost nominal dignity?

The King appoints a fast-day once a year, and he makes the bishops:
and if the government would take half the pains to keep the
Catholics out of the arms of France that it does to widen Temple
Bar, or improve Snow Hill, the King would get into his hands the
appointments of the titular Bishops of Ireland. Both Mr. C-'s
sisters enjoy pensions more than sufficient to place the two
greatest dignitaries of the Irish Catholic Church entirely at the
disposal of the Crown.

Everybody who knows Ireland knows perfectly well, that nothing would