The Press. — London, England, 1856-11-01 00:00:00

THE PRESS. 1034 tical side. The sentiments of the Quarterly deserve special consideration. In the first place, we are happy to find, as far as those views of " the attitude " of the Romanist Church at concerned, that the Quarterly expresses its opinions in a most decided manner. The reviewer, casting his eyes into the vista of the future, sees that " the present policy of the Church of " Rome must eventually raise the question, " which should be reserved for the last ex " tremity, of the competency of the Catholics " for the discharge of political rights." He dwells upon " the monstrous and unheard-1f " extravagances to which Rome has recently " pushed her theology," and he comments with justifiable severity on her political transactions in various parts of Europe. _ _ On the internal conduct of the Roman Catholic Church the reviewer is equally de cided. He alludes to " the quiet and delete " rious change which has passed in the mind " of her who says that. she never changes." On this point we must of ourselves remark that by far the most extraordinary thing in the present policy of Rome is that she has entered on a course of provocation. Her own prece dents in favour of compromise she audaciously tramples under foot. Not forty years have passed away since the Court of Rome was perfectly willing to concede to the English Crown the power of a veto on the nomination of the Romanist Bishops in Ireland. It was ready to make that concession even without any Concordat. In those days the Court of Rome was perfectly ready to adopt conditional emancipation, though its extravagant followers in Ireland, excited by anti-British politicians, refused to accept such a measure as Lord Livnnvoor.'s Cabinet might have given. But now the Papacy has changed entirely. The " attitude" is aggressive, atical, and propagaud. It has entered upon an entirely novel course of action, and seems to think that it can never he called to account by the rest of Christendom. But in thinking so, it entirely miscalculates. We are not asleep in England, and we have no idea of allowing our national institutions to fall. Yet in defending them we must take care not to play our adversary's game. and we re joice therefore to see that the Quarterly Re view holds the same opinions about Maynooth which we have placed before our readers. It sees that the progress of events has " a ten " dency to give a certain amount of force and " success to Mr. SPOONER and his friends," but it contemplates that " success " (which we must say is more apparent than positive) with "serious misgivings for the permanence of " the present ecclesiastical establishment in " Ireland." Calling the attention of our readers to this coincidence of opinion between the Quarterly and ourselves, we shall now pass on to another part of the article. The reviewer refers to the new course of " direction " introduced by the Church of Rome, which he asserts to be "alive and "active in England at this moment ;" and he speculates on the momentous changes which must ensue in England "if (to use his own words) the domestic relations, if the conjugal " and paternal affections of the educated, or if " any of the high-born subjects of her Ma " jesty " be rendered subservient, by this new " direction " introduced by those whom the Quarterly designates as " the myrmidons" of the Papacy. On so highly delicate and so extremely a serious subject it is to be regretted that the Quarterly has been so brief. It is compara tively easy for the journalist and the prac• tical politician to deal with external acts, and with recognised policy, but it is difficult, though not impossible, to decide upon how far one can grapple with the internal rela- tions of any community of religionists. This new system of " direction " is, indeed, most formidable. It is no secret that the " paternal affections " of the late brilliant editor of the Quarterly were cruelly outraged by ministers of the Church of Rome; and the pain which that eminent person felt in his late hours at seeing a beloved child taken from her father's home, ani kept in the custody of strangers, was stamped upon his countenance in " the "hieroglyphics of an eternal sorrow." Nor Call WO forget that the Quarterly has abundant grounds for its allusions to " the high-born " subjects of her Majesty," in relation to the " direction " introduced by the Papacy. Upon this peculiar topic we are aware that there appeared sotne precipitate, though well. meatt,remarke in some of our contemporaries. There is one point on which we must supply an omission of the Quarter/y. Reasoning on the supposition that the Church of Rome will not recede from its present " attitude," the Quarterly concludes its article with these re uua•kable words : In that unhappy case we venture to predict that one amongst the main conditions exacted by the British people from their rulers, of whatever political complexion, will be this, that they shall take care that the privileges of sharing in the administration of a free government will be ex• tended only to the free, and that the Homan Pontiff, though he might have co religionists, shall not have serfs or slaves in the great council of Queen Victoria and of the British empire. We are justified in calling these words remarkable as an emphatic statement of the Quarterly in relation to the insidious hp proaches of the Church of Rome. Yet, strong as arc those words, the Quarterly holds with our selves that to give battle to the Papacy on Maynooth would be a bad policy for the pre sent time. What course, therefore, should be followed ? That is a question which shall in au early number be considered in our columns, as we have not space to enter upon it to-day. In the meanwhile we must observe that when the Quarterly, in the last extract, talks of rulers of " whatever political complexion," it omits to state what we now supply, that the Liberal " rulers " have already failed egregiously in dealing with the Papacy. Mr. MACAULAY, in his last volume, admits that the Whigs were mistaken about Catholic Emancipation, and Lord JOHN RUSSELL chalked up " No Popery," and then ran away. Besides, the Parliamentary organisation of the Liberals is unfitted for dealing with the Catholic question revived. The Roman Catholic Irish have helped the Whigs to office ; the commercial Radicals do nut care about religious policy; and the Dissenting interest is too often exaggerated, and is sometimes factious in its course. We are convinced that the Conservative party can alone supply " the rulers," and can sustain them in power, when once England has determined on taking increased precautions against the Papacy, which entered on a term of unrestrained power in 1829 because Emancipation (contrary to •OP advice of HENRY GRATTAN) was con ceded without any securities at all. ANOTHER QUESTION OF IRISH FINANCE. WE have of late thought it somewhat remark able that even those who seem to wish to make Irish ecclesiastical finance the great question of the time, persistently overlook one of the most important portions of that subject—the small grant made annually to the ministers of the General Assembly, and other Presbyterian bodies in Ireland, known in the estimates as the Regium Donum. While the endowment of the College of Maynooth was placed by Sir ROBERT PEEL on a footing of permanency, avowedly to avoid an annual contest, the pittance allowed to the Presbyterian ministers of Ireland forms the yearly means for Mr. EDWARD MIALL and similar gentlemen to advocate that very compulsory plan called " the voluntary system." In the very last session an acrimonious debate on the subject of the Iteyium Donum ended by the item being allowed only by a majority of two or three, and a similar scene may be expected in April. Now this is indecent, unfair, and utterly impolitic. Can any rea son be conceived (even putting the mat ter on the lowest ground) why the Irish Presbyterian population should be placed by Government on a worse footing than the Roman Catholics? The claims of the Presby terians differ toto ado from any that have ever been devised on behalf of the persons who adhere to the Church of Rome in Ireland. In SATURDAY, the great " Plantation of Ulster," described by Lord BACON as "of all works the most royal " and honourable," the great body of the planters were of the Reformed Church of Scotland: The provisions of that plantation contemplated the Presbyterians as recipients along with the Established Chinch of the allowances for schools and churches. The plantation (with the exception of a few of ELIZABETH'S officers who had followed BLOUNT and CAREW) was a Scottish and Presbyterian plantation, and that form of Pretstantisin pre• veiled chiefly in the province of Ulster. With these Presbyterians came the minis ters of their religion, who obtained great hold on the minds of the people—a task riot per haps difficult at a time when State papers prove that the non-resident rectors of the Established Church had fur their curates Romish friars. Twenty-five years after this plantation came the troublous times of CHARLES 1., when the Irish Presbyterians, like those of the same faith in England, op posed the final acts of Caomwimis usurpation in such a mode as to provoke MILTON'S attack on the " proud Presbyters of Belfast," who hind dared to "resolve " that the death of CHARLES was a " murder so foul and horrible that the " records of no Christian nation loath the " like." During the Irish wars of the Com monwealth, and especially after the expedition of LESLEY, Earl of Leven, the Presbyterians became very generally the incumbents of the parishes of Ulster. This arrangement was over thrown at the Restoration. But the house of Stuart was doomed, and amongst the first to re sist " Popery and arbitrary power" were the Presbyterians of Ulster. The defence of Lon donderry (which has recently been related with a power and eloquence that it is unfortunate were not founded on better information) was so great a service to the Commonwealth that its first acknowledgment was the grant of the first &giant Donuni by WiLtuot 111. from his camp at Hillsborough. Since that period tardy and even niggardly additions have been made to this grant as the numbers of the Presbyterians increased. The Irish and the Imperial Parliament have both acknowledged the right and its meritorious origin, and ho who compares Ulster with Connaught, or even Belfast with Dublin, will not say that this very small gift is bestowed on an unworthy race of men. The Presbyterians accept it, because it is given without any stipulation that in ecclesiastical matters they are to be subject to the State. The Dublin Court of Queen's Bench cannot command any Presby tery or Synod to do any ecclesiastical act, and the Irish Presbyterians acknowledge the Privy Council in their capacity of citizens alone. With the arguments of Mr 1M lALL, as to the propriety of the Regium Dolma, we have nothing to do. He says the Irish Presbyterians are a body rich enough to support their own ministers ; and that is so, as well it need to be, for the Irish Presbyterians, after a voluMary contribu tion to their own clergy, pay cheerfully the tithes of the Established Church. But this Regium DOllll7ll is claimed as an an cient right. It is held by the Presbyterians, and admitted by the Parliament, to be the discharge of a bounden duty by the State ; and so long as that is the fact, it ought, in common fairness to the Presbyterians of Ire land, to be made a permanent charge on the Imperial revenue. IbilllMMlliimme STATE OF AMERICA. THERE is no great public question at the pre sent day which can at all compete with the approaching American election in the prospec tive importance of its results. On the policy and capacity of the new President will pro bably depend the maintenance of a great un divided republic on the other side of the Atlantic; and on the maintenance or dissolu tion of this it will depend whether the in fluence of America upon Eastern politics shall be increased indefinitely or dwindle away to nothing. From two Americas Europe would have nothing to fear. The nature of the agitation now existing in the United States can hardly, we think, admit