Star.
London, England, 1831-04-05 00:00:00

In this most interesting of all churches, a number of places are pointed
out, and held as peculiarly sacred, In each of which certain ceremonies
are performed in reference to the sufferings of the lignitzress of our
world, such as the place where he was derided by the multitude, his
gapnents were divided, his body anointed, and where the angels ap-
peared to the women after his resurrection. At Lent, the monks are
subjected in a sum of 75 parse, each time they enter this Temple. An
intimation is hung up, declaring it to be death for any Hebrew to ap-
pear within its sacred walls.
Over the tomb of CHRIST, which is in diabetic:a of the church, is an
oblong 1 rounded at the corners, which looks to the east, and is
7IS broad. • with marble, and richly

should shine by outward profession, but the vessels of the heart be fur.
Walled with the graces of the HOLY Srlux, as a prevailing and
abiding principle.
This place is divided into two apartments, each of them, probably,
about six feet in height and from seven to eight in breadth ; the first is
a kind of ante-chapel, and in the second, which must be considered as
the sanctum souctorues, under an altar is said to be " the place where
the Lord lay," —so that his " Sepulchre is with us at this day."
On entering the church, the first object which attracts notice, being
within a few feet of the door, is a slab of beattliful white marble in the
pavement, surrounded by a balustrade, marking the spot where Joseph
of Atimathea anointed the body of our Lord, preparatory to its being
deposited in the Sepulchre. There is still shown a atone, represented
as that which was rolled to the door of the Sepulchre. The sarcopha.
gus, which is of white marble, is six feet in length and four in breadth;
and here

Mine eye bath seen that sad sepulchral rock
That was the casket of Heaven's richest store.
Over this is a large painting, representing Christ bursting the bonds of
the tomb, and his triumphant ascension for our justification on that
auspicious morn. The doors leading to these chambers being very low,
obliged me to stoop. The outer steps are most devoutly saluted by the
pilgrims, who kneel and offer up adoration. with extended arms,
throwing off their shoes previous to entering the place.
During Easter a variety of religious ceremonies are observed,
marked with extraordinary devotional fervour, with reference to the
last sufferings, and mho subsequent events in our Lord's history. On
the evening of Good Friday, or Holy Week, according to its ancient and
mare general appellation, a day which commemorates the sufferings of
Christ, on the cross, and which is called Dark Night by the monks,
they assemble its a body, when a sermon is delivered, during which
the lights arc extinguished, in order to produce a deeper Impression on
the mind, and also designed to represent that supernatural darkness
which overspread the earth at our Saviour's death. A procession af-
terwards commences, when each person carries in his band a lighted
taper, a crucifix is borne before them, with an hasp of the Saviour,
as large as life, hanging upon It, with nails in the hands, a crown of
thorns on his head, and the body streaked with blood, After proceeding
to those parts of the chinch which have been consecrated to some
particular acts performed in them relative to the great sufferings,
death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and adorned with ornaments,
the procession arrives at Mount Calvary, which is ascended by the friars
without their shoes. The cross is there erected, a sermon delivered on
the crucifixion, which is followed by the singing of a hymn. After
this two persons representing Joseph of Arirnathea and Nicodemus, ap-
proach the place with great solemnity, draw the nails, and take down
the effigy, which is so contrived, that the limbs are flexible, as if it was a
real body. It is then laid in a sheet, and taken to the spot where
it is anointed with spices, after which another hymn is chaunted, and
a formal discourse again delivered ; when the ceremony terminates by
deposi:ing the body in the Sepulchre.
Another festival celebrated is, the " Invention of the Cross" and
commemorative of the finding of a wooden cross by Helena, mother of
Constantine, and which has been supposed to be the true one. The
spot is pointed out when it was discovered, which is under ground,
over which a chapel is built, the roof and sides of which are formed of
an enormous rock. The Greek and Latin Christians honour also the
memory of the penitent thief, also the " Exaltation of the Cross," the
Adoration of the Cross," and various other circumstances attending
the crucifixion.

From Travels in the Press, by William Rae Wilson, R4q. through
Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, dre.

POSITION OF TFIR RUSSIAN ARMY IN POLAND.
A correct idea is not generally entertained of the situation of this
army. The plan of the Russian Commander has signally failed. He
had reckoned on the continuance of the ice during the months of Feb.
and March, and thought, therefore, that he could easily transport his
army and its immense materiel over the Vistula and Bug, and traverse
the marshes with the same facility. The sudden thaw has destroyed
these expectations ; and the determined resistance of a handful of brave
men has placed the Russian army, surrounded as it is by swamps and
marshes, in the most difficult situation imaginable. After the brilliant
actions in the end of February, the Polish army passed the Vistula,
whilst the enemy was unable to offer any interruption to this move.
ment, notwithstanding the immense numerical superiority of the Rus-
sians. lo fact, General Diebitsch was unable to manceuvre In such
marshy ground, broken up by the melting of the snow, the columns of
an army harassed by fatigue, the men, and particularly the hones, of
which were without sufficient food for some days. It Is now admitted
on all hands, that the Russians are suffering from the scarcity of pro-
vision. If the theatre of the war were Bavaria, Wurtemberg, or
Saxony, which are fertile countries, intersected by good roads, where
communication might be kept up, the belligerents might effect their
movements, sure of being followed by their convoys, and to End, in
other respects, from the resources of the country itself, subsistence for
their men and horses. It is quite different, however, in Poland, and
particulatly on the right bank of the Vistula, where here are immense
marshes and lakes.

The Palatinate of Augustow, by which theßussian army entered Po-
land, contains 28,530 acres of lakes, and 71,340 of marshes. The Pa.
latinate of Plock, in which the army is now manoeuvring, has 1,680 acres
of lakes, and 20,550 of marshes. The Palatinate of %arsaw, in which
the battles of February' were fought, contains 2.280 acres of lakes, and
8,550 of marshes, the Palatinates of Augustow, Plock, and Pod.
lacltia, occupied by the Russian army, are thus the least fertile and
most thinly inhabited, owing certainly to the marshy and watery na.
tore of the soil. The same remark applies to the small portion of the
Palatinate of Warsaw, which is situate on the right bank of the Vis-
tula, and which extends to the Bug. The Russian army has, it would
appear from this, taken up its position at a distance of 200 miles in
advance of Binlystock and Grodno, in which its principal magazines are,
and in the country where you may travel ten or fifteen miles without
meeting even a miserable village without passable roads
surrounded by marshes, ard in the midst of a hostile population. Sup.
posing that it had formed intermediate depots of provisions and forage,
stationed at only five days' jcumey from the army, let us calculate the
enormous materiel necessary for bringing the daily subsistence to the
troops. The total force consists, It is said, of 200,000 men, including
over 20,000 cavalry. The consumption of each man being estimated
at two pounds weight daily, in corn or other substances, and a half-
pound being allowed for the quarter of a pint of spirits, without which
the Russian soldier cannot fight, it follows that the total weight of
provisions for one day, for 200 thousand men, would require 1.250
waggons or carriages, drawn by four horses each. The same
number of carriages must regularly return empty, so that in fact,
2.500 carriages and 10,000 horses would be necessary for the conveyance
of the supplies. The procuring of forage for the horses is still more

embarrassing. Independently of the 20,000 cavalry borsee and the
waggon horse'', there are at least 5,000 artillery horses for a park of
409 guns and 400 carriages, and above 5,000 horses for the staff officers
of the regiments. Fifteen thousand horses are necessary for drawing
from four to live thousand carriages, containing the daily forage,
mating a total of 60,000 horses. Lath horse consumes at least eighteen
pounds weight daily in hay and oats; hence it would require 2.250
carriages to bring that weight of forage from the nearest depot, whilst
the same number of carriages would be on their way back empty,
making altogether four thousand five hundred carriages necessary for
this second service. U may well be conceived what confusion would
have been occasioned, even during the frost, by the constant passage
of seven thousand carriages through the bad roads, on the right bank of
the Vistula, to secure from day to day the very existence of the army,
which was represented as so formidable It but since the thaw these road.
actually impassable, and the Russians must be reduced to
present position, therefore, is not tenable ; and any
will only increase their distress. Shoeld Dewed
_. _ .

DISTRESS IN IRELAND.

TO THE RIGHT REV. Dl. DOYLE, CATHOLIC BISHOP OF KILDARE

AND LZIGHLIN!

London, Much 29, 1831.

My Lord—You have convinced me—your pamphlet on the necessity
of making a legal provision for the destitute Irish poor, has completely
convinced me. The candour and distinctness with which yon state the
arguments against that provision, and the dear and satisfactory manner
in which you have answered and refuted those arguments, have quite
overpowered my objections, and rendered me an unwilling, but not the
less sincere convert to your opinions. I candidly acknowledge that you
have done more ; you have alarmed me lest in the indulgence of my
own selfishness as a land-owner. I should continue to be the opponent of
him who feeds the hungry and enables the naked to clothe themselves.

My Lord, I am much pressed in point of time, but I feel it impera-
tive on me to announce this my conversion, with a view to endeavour to
render it useful. lam not an admirer of that species of conviction
which contents itself with mete mental gratification. You will not be
surprised that I do not estimate too highly the value of " faith without
works," and you will, therefore, be prepared to find me ready to en.
deavour to realize that which I believe to be salutary to the people—the
poor people of Ireland.
The scenes which you have actually witnessed, the misery which you
have actually beheld, the woe which you have actually wept over, the
famishing children, the starving parent, the perishing youth, the young
blood running cold, chilled by penury, the aged sinking into the grave
under the pressure of hunger,avai icious cruelty thinning the folds of their
population, and starvation filling the church-yards with emaciated vic-
tims. I cannot, my Lord, endure so look at the picture you have drawn
from the life, and strewed with real dead. 1 will nut bear it without at
lent a struggle, and now I offer myself, all that I have of energy and
perseverance, to the cause which you support and ornament, the cause
of the poor, the destitute, the famishing, the cause of the unjustly &filleted
man, the cause, am I at liberty to say it without profaneness, the cause
of GOD.

Let us see, my Lord, what is to be done. We must proceed cau-
tiously and deliberately, it is true— but we most proceed incessantly,
•igorously, perseveringly. There is no time to be lost. I was long of
opinion that the repeal of the union, giving as it would—and yet will
give—to Ireland the protection of a domestic legislature, and necessarily
resident proprietary, would supersede the necessity of any legal or own.
'Ovary provision &e the Irish poor. But the Irish aristocracy hem, in
such comparative numbers, arranged themselves round the stifling po.
Bey of Lord Anglesey's government, thisf.they necessarily retard that
which, ultimately, they cannot possibly prevent. In the mean time the
people are perishing ; want, woe, and corroding misery are daily extend-
ing. The cry for relief is urgent and incessant, and we cannot wait until
the heartless shall be put down by popular sentiment, and overcome by
the slow, although certain, march of constitutional exertion.
___

We must come forward at once. The people must be fed. The tithes
do certainly afford a great and natural resource, or rather a crown rent.
As a national commutation of tithes, less, much less, than the tenth of
the fair rent-roll will be abundantly sufficient ; in fact, the one half of
the actual weight of the tithes. Next, the estates of absentees should
bear a double proportion of this crown rent, or land tsx. Indeed a
treble proportion would be but strict justice. Let me be asked how
we could effectually raise this treble land tax on the estates of absen.
tees. I answer, by referring to the facility with which the double
land tax was rais, for more than a century, on the estates of English
Catholics.

With a good heart, a stout determination, and an unflinching perse-
verance, any thing, every thing that is useful and just can be done.
There la but one real enemy of this work of benevolence and Ch ' • n
charity ; it is the man that has the pusillanimity to despair, or the
inanity to content himself with barren wishes without exertion.
Before the week closes, I intend to be in Dublin, and immediately
to Commence operations to bring into practical effect your benevolent
views. Temporaty palliatives will be easily procured, when the per-
manent teller is in actual progress of attainment. Let us commence,
however, as speedily as possible.
It is quite true that we must proceed moat cautiously. We must
avoid the horrid evils which the English plan of poor laws has pro-
duced—the frightful demoralization—the heartless obduracy—the tuth.
less carelessness, engendered by the English system, must be all avoid.
ed. Prudence, caution, care, foresight, will all be wanting. But he
who makes the worldly wise perish in their own foolishness, and out of
the lips of babes and sucklings can produce wisdom, and right counsel,
may, perhaps, aid our efforts for the permanent good of a faithful,
though long suffering people.
I could expatiate on the necessity of a prompt exertion, but it is in-
deed obvious. I believe—l really believe, that Lord Anglesey means
well. I give him credit for good motives. I give him, unaffectedly, that
credit ; though great personal vanity, working in a mind of small power,
necessarily obscures his views; but conceding purity of motive, I am
bound to say, that my thorough and sincere conviction is, that since the
days of the ill-fated Stratford, there Dever existed a single governor of
Ireland, whose policy was so unequivocally calculated, without his know.
ing it, to effectuate permanent mischief to Ireland. It must be so al-
ways with those who refuse to allow the public sentiment a voice, and
universally imagine, that when they stifle the words of complaint, they
extinguish the causes of irritation and suffering, or diminish the anxiety
for redre-s.

The ill.starred Wentworth was a man of, I believe, pure intentions
—he was ruled by his English feelings of superiority over the Irish
people, and by his notions of the efficacy of power to control national
will. Even the degraded Polignac may have deluded himself Into a
notion that he was working for the real good of France.
Turning away from these delusions, let us contemplate the sad stateSof
Ireland. The fragments of the old party of intolerants,sose after the recent
victory gained over them by liberality and justice, are ready instruments
in the hands of even an unakillul governor. They have supplied mate-
rials to oppose a temporary, but delusive resistance to the national will.
During the continued struggle the people are scarcely heard crying for
bread, and there is none to break it to them. Let us, my Lord, attend
to their cry, and whilst we pursue, as reason and conviction may dic-
tate, our respective views of other measures for national relief, let us
combine, as well as we can, good men of every party, sect, and persua.
sion, to afford relief to the aged, the sick,the destitute and the famishing.
The Irish aristocracy, and a poor aristocracy they are, have opposed
the popular demand fur domestic legislation. They have opposed that
measure, which above all others would be most calculated to afford pro-
fitable employment to the poor. Let us see what we can substitute for
it. Let us i.ow press forward that substitute, backed as it will be by
the craving demands of famishing millions.
The British legislature is quite prepared to give us a poor law. I
do not know any one subject which would be half so popular in the'
British House of Commons, sea poor law for Ireland. We have only
to ask fur it, and we may be certain of obtaining it. But let us not ask
for it until we have so matured oar plan that we may not introduce evil
in the place of doing good—or aggravate any part of that misery which
it ought to be our sole object to relieve.
I am decidedly against investing our justices of the peace with addi.
Waal power. lam against any aristocratic combination of special res.
try laws. But I have run on longer than I intended. My leading ob-
jects were to thank you for that pamphlet, which has worked my com-
plete conversion ; and to offer you my active and persevering exertion
to carry into effect your plan of relief for the persons in the world who
require it most.
I have the honour to be, with lively gratitude and profound respect,
my Lord, your Lordship's most obedient, humble servant,
DANIEL O'CONNELL.

oblong building, rounded at the corners, which looks to the east, and is Witat—b;—act'aiy7n7" assable, and the Ruuixns must be ;;;b7,;(7
t;
within 45 feet long by 9 'goads paved with marble, and richly tens- starvation. Their present position, therefore, is not tenable , and any
mend with curtains of crimson interwoven with gold. There enr 12 releibrosesesst of troops will only increase their distress. Should Genera
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__ he wiartobriteS find on the left bank of then a sandy
Infartw 1561silif crthe• 111"16 eft v 4 r 7 • Ga 7 TePlarlY cosatryged a more fertile soil ; but the Polish army willerdoubtles-s
filled with "pure" olive oil—a custom to which our LORD has an take the advantage of it, and organise on that account a more formitia-
allusion, in his parable of the Virgins; thus shadowing the professors ble resistance, as the nature of the country will leave them ftee to make
. maneuvres, whilst the Russians cannot attempt the passage of
river except at evident disadvantage.