THESE are very interesting volumes; the production of a man of whom we have reason to feel proud. It was during the former viceroyalty of the Marquis Wellesley that he first appeared as a polemical writer. Whatever Dr. Phillpots was in the sister country, during the agitation of the Catholic question, he was in his ownand, had he lived in better times, it would not have been altogether in vain that the sophistry and misrepresentation of the most plausible and audacious of all the stirrers up of sedition in this unhappy land, received from his pen the keenest rebuke and the completest exposure. He now appears in another character-that of a church of England divine; and we rejoice that his most judicious and benevolent editor has, without altogether omitting what may be considered specimens of his controversial powers, thought it right to hold him forth as one whose highest faculties were always, even during those seasons when he was most engaged as a polemic, intently employed in confirming, by a new and a beautiful species of reasoning, the truth of some of the most mysterious doctrines of holy writ, and extending the limits of moral philosophy.

The Remains' are accompanied by 'a Memoir,' which is equally remarkable for clearness, for judgment, and for feeling. Indeed, independently of its

biographical excellence, we were gratified by it as a proof that the severe calamity which has deprived the Church of Ireland of the active services of the Bishop of Limerick has had no effect in impairing his intellect or damping his affections; and that the same lofty moral vein which distinguishes his 'Discourses,' and the same refined and philosophic critical acumen, which shines forth in his Sacred Literature,' appears, whenever the subject requires it, in this memoir of his friend, who, if he had reason to be mortified by the neglect which he experienced during his life, would have been more than consoled for it, could he have anticipated the ample justice which awaited his memory. We will, therefore, as the best mode of putting our readers in possession of the substance of the work before us, follow the course which the good Bishop has pursued, and largely avail ourselves of the task which he has executed with so much discriminative tact, and with such a fond and a pious fidelity.

Dr. Phelan was a native of the south of Ireland. He was born in the year 1789, in the town of Clonmel," of parents," to use the language of Bishop Jebb, "in narrow circumstances, and of humble station; but with feelings and habits such as, in England, are rarely to be met with in the less fortunate portion of society." It is, unhappily, matter of history, that, down

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exact and discriminative judgment; his various and profound learning ;...... These were scarcely adverted to by his friends, amidst the love and veneration which were inspired by the richer treasures of his moral nature; by his generous detestation of oppression; by his noble scorn of every thing mean and base; by his fervent piety, his stedfast friendship, his rare disinterestedness, and his deep humility; by the charity which prompted him to be liberal, often beyond his means; and by the singleness of nature, which almost unconsciously realised the gospel rule, not letting the left hand know what the right hand did.'"

Under such an instructor, it may well be imagined, the powers of mind did not languish. Whatever was deficient in his previous course of education, was abundantly supplied; and not only that, but an impression was made upon his heart, by the virtues of his revered preceptor, which was productive of more advantage than the highest merely mental attainments. He had been brought up in the religion of the Church of Rome; and it had been amongst the earliest wishes of his parents to see him numbered amongst the Roman Catholic ministry. That such might have been his lot is not improbable, had he not, at this critical season of his life, been brought under the superintendance of Mr. Carey. That good man took the liveliest interest in his welfare, almost from the very hour when he first examined him, and became acquainted with his extraordinary powers; but it does not appear that he applied himself with any direct or peculiar assiduity, to what would be called his conversion from the errors

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of popery." Probably Mr. Carey felt a reasonable degree of assurance, that the workings of his own mind would, gradually, lead him from darkness to light; and such, undoubtedly, would have been the case, even had he not been warmed into a love of gospel excellence, by which a more mature conviction was in some measure anticipated, from the habitual contemplation of the model of meek and purified Christianity which was constantly before him. His own account of the incident which first led him to reflect

seriously upon this important subject is far too interesting to be omitted. He thus related it to an early friend :*"I was walking home with (a member of a lay fraternity of Roman Catholics,) to translate for him some portion of the breviary, when Mr. Carey rode by on his mule, at his usual quiet pace. What a pity,' said 'that that good man cannot be saved.' I started: the doctrine of exclusive salvation never appeared so prodigious; and I warmly denied its truth and authority. was stubborn in its defence, and we each cited testimonies in behalf of our respective opinions. I withdrew to bed; occupied by thoughts which this incident awakened; went over again all the arguments which my memory could supply; weighed all the evidence, which, in my judgment, might throw light on the subject; questioned whether any evidence could induce me to acquiesce in a dogma so revolting; and fell asleep in no good disposition to the creed which could pronounce Mr. Carey's reprobation. In the morning when I awoke, it appeared that I had insensibly reasoned myself into the belief of the right of private judgment, and thus I virtually reasoned myself out of the Church of Rome."

This incident is not only interesting, but instructive. We question whether, at this period of his life any direct attempt to reason him out of his belief would not have been attended with disadvantage. All his ingenuity would have been summoned to its aid. His pride also would have taken up arms in its favour, and the result might, unhappily, have been a resentful obstinacy of credulity, which no after persuasion could have easily counteracted. As it was, his heart was interested in the cause of goodness before his understanding was engaged in the investigation of truth, and thus the prejudices of his mind, which might have otherwise seriously obstructed, if not perverted, his judgment, were more than counteracted by the prepossession of the affectionate and the benevolent part of his nature. We do not remember to have met with a more beautiful instance of the efficacy of that mode of teaching which

the Scripture enjoins, according to which a good man "suffers his light to shine before men, that they may see his good works, and glorify their Father who is in heaven."

"The impression thus happily made," writes the Bishop, "was not suffered long to remain dormant or inactive. Even in his boyish days he had a most sagacious, penetrating mind. With him, religion was never a matter of compromise or convention. He regarded it as the main concern of his life, on which was suspended his everlasting happiness or misery. It became, therefore, the object of his very serious thought, and his anxious researches produced a thorough conviction that the Church of England is the soundest portion of the church of Christ. Accordingly, on entering college, he gave in his name as a Protestant-while any lingering doubts, (those fond misgivings of the finest and the firmest minds,) which might perhaps, at first, have obscured his intellectual vision, were entirely dissipated by a judicious course of reading, in which he was accompanied and assisted by his able and affectionate tutor, at that time preparing for holy orders. Nor should it be omitted, for, in him it was quite characteristic, that the clear convictions of his judgment were unaccompanied by the least acerbity of feeling. Indeed, he never ceased to bear the tenderest affection towards his Roman Catholic brethren; he continually and most earnestly looked to their spiritual improvement; and, a very short time before his death, he thus writes to a confidential friend; My heart yearns to go to the South; I would revive my Irish, and acquire enough of it for expounding the Irish Bible.'"

Previously to his entrance in the Dublin University, where he was admitted as a Sizar, in the June of 1806, an opportunity presented itself of entering the College of Maynooth, under circumstances peculiarly favourable. It had been his father's wish, as has been already intimated, that he should become a Roman Catholic priest; and, an examination having been held in Waterford, for one or

* Dr. Wall.

more vacancies in the seminary of Maynooth, he was induced to attend ; and, though much younger than the other candidates, his superiority was so evident, that a vacancy was immediately placed at his option. He, however, declined it. Whatever might have been his impressions at this early period, respecting the Church of England, he had lost his confidence in the Church of Rome.

In the University, Bishop Jebb describes his undergraduate course, as “an unbroken career of successful application." He obtained whatever honours could be conferred; and from competitors with whom it would have been honourable even to have contended. His compositions in English verse and Latin prose, for which he repeatedly obtained prizes, were very much admired.

"But," says his biographer, “such was his fastidiousness, or his modesty, that in no single instance did he keep a copy-not a line of those early productions has been found among his papers, and there is every likelihood they have altogether perished. But the recollection of them is still vivid amongst his contemporaries. And it is worthy of being recorded, that an Englishman, Dr. Hall,+ then Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, and afterwards, (for one short week!) Bishop of Dromore, one of the most accomplished scholars of his day, was often heard to express his admiration at the skill and the power evinced in the composition of Latin prose by this extraordinary young man. One essay, in particular, he used to say, was so purely classical, that whole pages might have been taken from it, and, without risk of detection, inserted in the works of Cicero. In English verse, too, his union of metaphysical and poetical expression was truly remarkable. And it has been observed, by one well acquainted with the early movements of his mind, that, if he had chosen to concentrate his powers in one great poem on mental philosophy, he would perhaps have been unrivalled in the art of clothing the abstractions of metaphysical science in language alike elegant, perspicuous, and familiar. Hap