The Press. — London, England, 1857-09-12 00:00:00

-- authoritative, approval, and passages in it seem to show that it was meant for more than a polite and flattering notice. " I need not " say that, by this work, you have nailed your " colours to the mast, and become the Pope's " champion in the House and out of it, and " that you will not allow him to be vilified by " any one, however lofty." Such a sentence as that is not without much significance. Select ing the " Pope's champion," not from the English Catholic nobil►ty, but from the Irish popular interest, and choosing, also, an Honour able Member who has for many years been most consistently opposed to the jobbing Whig clique at Dublin Castle, and whom the Duke of NEWCASTLE'S friends, the Sadleirs, sought to crush, are points of much importance. A thorough social identification and increased cordiality between the Roman Catholics of England and Ireland—the increased and more adroit use of Irish Parliamentary in• fluences—the remodelling of the discipline of the ecclesiastical order in Ireland—and a new system of raising the clerical status of the Irish priests—suoh are the main features of the policy which tne Court of Rome wishes to inaugurate. Upon the contemplated changes in the internal management of the Irish Roman Catholic Church we shall speak on another day. The subject is of great importance to the Protes tants of England, and is indirectly, if not pri marily, connected with the political interests of the Conservative party at large. scholar." That term has now lost much of its significance, and in consequence much of its distinction. It no longer means the man ahead of his fellows upon those subjects in which all thinking men are interested, and ho is no longer, therefore, feted by Courts and worshipped by crowds of pupils. Art and science contributing to either luxury or com fort have elbowed pure literature out of her former place of honour. This is the great fact which underlies all university questions, and which must ever greatly impede all efforts at restoring them to their former eminence. If this be the case we need not beat about the bush to discover reasons why men able to climb the mountain of fame should cease to reside at Universities. The mountain has been removed. You might abolish celibacy, throw open foundationS, divide revenues, create new professorships, introduce what reforms you please, but nothing will now pre vent the metropolis from becoming the head ' quarters of all aspirants to fame or fortune. Why then interfere with the undoubted ad vantages conferred by the system of celibacy to remedy one grievance which does not exist, and another which cannot be remedied? The truth, we believe, is that the dislike to this system is founded merely on the schoolboy sentiment of disliking anything, however otherwise agreeable, that we are compelled to do. Celibacy is called compulsory at Cam bridge, and it is not called so in London. But it exists there to exactly the same extent, and ever must in populous cities in a high state of artificial civilisation. In fact, when we say the word " compulsory" is not used in this case we aro mistaken. The shocking evils which result from the " compulsory " celibacy of young men who have to rise in the world is a frequent theme with social philosophers and reformers. Evils of another sort which result from it have been touched by satirists like Mr. THACKEHAY ; and, in fact, into whatever male company of a certain age a man may go he is pretty sure to hear the same topic—the inability to marry—arise in the course of the evening as a subject either for jest or serious discussion. The abolishers of college celibacy have no case at all ; and we fervently hope that the utility of our college establishments, and the common sense of the whole commu nity, will never be sacrificed to gratify the prejudice or the passions of a few restless in dividuals. COLLEGE CELIBACY. THIS is ono of thoso topics which recur periodically, and to which the pertinacity of a few men lends an importance it would not otherwise possess. All reason and all expe- rience seem in favour of continuing the present system, and we should scarcely think it in danger did we not know the success which a few grievancemongers are too frequently en abled to obtain from the sheer force of impor tunity and perseverance. Let us first examine whether there be any real grievance at all. A young man is elected to a fellowship usually between the ages of twenty-three and twenty-six. He is not a man of private fortune, and has his own way to make in the world. Were he not a fellow he must therefore be working hard in one of the professions or in business. Now, what is the age at which such a man has usually by his own exertions amassed the minimum fortune that would entitle him to marry ? If we fix the average at thirty-five we are erring, if any thing, on the side of youth. Now, what is the case with the college fellow ? The chances are that any man who waits steadily at college will have a living fall to his acceptance within ten or twelve years. And how much more pleasantly has that intervening time been spent than in a curacy at Spitalfields, or pleader's chambers at the Temple. These latter possess charms of their own for a certain order of minds, but such are not those who are given to complain of fate. It is the very wantonness of querulousness in a college fellow to complain of restrictions he has so much to make endurable, while they are in reality just as binding on the rest of the community, who are totally witliout such re sources. " Oh," but it is said, " the grievance must be " a real one, for look at its results; it drives all " the best men away from the University." Now this objection bas to a great extent been answered already. Even genius rarely brings a man to independence before the age we have specified. But the real reason which seduces the best men from Oxford or Cambridge is something quite distinct from either money or marriage. It is not the pangs of protracted passion or the cravings of incipient avarice which brings the leading men of their year from Magdalen Gardens and Christ Church Walks, from their noble city and their beauti ful river, to the fogs of Fleet-street, the odours of the Thames, and the tender mercies of a laundress or landlady. First-rate men leave the University because the scholar's life is no longer a first-rate thing. In the days of ERAS mus and CASAUBON, or even of BENTLEY and LOCKE, it was something to be simply " a A NEW ASPECT OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. watch for material. Their vigilance and assi duity has been lately rewarded, and it is now, at Belfast, that Roman Catholicism is under- going martyrdom. Our readers have doubtless made themselves acquainted with the circumstances to which we refer. and we need not here recapitulate them. It will suffice to say that on Sunday last the Roman Catholics of Belfast formed themselves into a mob for the purpose of in sulting a Protestant Minister who was preach- ing, in the open air, to a Protestant congrega tion. A scene of tumult and confusion followed, the constabulary were called out, the rioters fired upon, and blood was plentifully shed. Several persons were seriously injured, among them the peaceful and unoffending, and the whole town thrown into a state of ferment and disorder which has not yet subsided. The "leading journal," with characteristic hatred of Irish Protestantism, has chosen to fasten the responsibility and blame of this disaster upon the clergymen who persisted, " with such obstinate bigotry," in preaching in the open air, after being warned of its danger. What are the facts of the case? Cer tain Protestant ministers in Belfast recently came to the conclusion that, as open-air preaching had been effective and useful in this country in imparting religious knowledge to a class of persons who do not frequent places of worship at all, it was their duty to try the experiment in that town. Controversial theology they did not intend to approach, and, we believe, they have scrupulously avoided it. The Times says that as their views were not the views of the majority, they were guilty of an insult to the dominant creed of the country The premises here are as false as the deduc tion. Belfast is emphatically the Protestant town of Ireland. It is not only the most flourishing and prosperous borough in the kingdom—the Liverpool of Ireland, as it has been termed—but it is the Protestant settle ment, as it were, and the proof of it is that no one but a Protestant has a chance of repre senting it in Parliament. What, then, was the grievance of the Roman Catholics? The sermon preached last Sunday in its streets is admitted to have been not only free from polemical topics, but to have been a simple, practical, and earnest exhortation to repent ance, such as no faithful minister should be ashamed to deliver. No Roman Catho lic was bound to be present, or to listen to one syllable that fell from such "apos tate " lips. A large crowd of Protestants did attend this service. They were listening with seemly attention and reverence to the words of the preacher; a rude and infuriated mob attacks them, breaks up the gathering, commits acts of brutal violence upon them, and then, forsooth, we are to be told that the Roman Catholics are denied " religious liberty," and that the demon of bigotry is trampling upon their sacred rights ! This, then, is the newly forged grievance of the Romish priesthood, that the Protestants of Belfast are allowed to receive religious in struetion from their religious teachers. It is, verily, a cruel hardship, and Lord CARLISLE, of course, will relieve them of the galling burden ! Here is another of the " last rags of intolerance," and we commend it to the reforming solicitude of the Legislature. IN these halcyon days of progress, of mental refinement, and moral sensibility, we are accustomed to hear a great deal of " Religious Liberty." There was never, perhaps, a more successful cry on hustings or platform. It is the creed of the nation, and if a man will not believe in it, he has become, what distrust of Lord PALMERSTON is, according to the must approved authorities, " un-English." This being so, it is curious to observe the bustling vitality of the dogma. Although its triumph has been continuous, though at its shrine has been sacrificed a hetacomb of oppressive laws and cruel disabilities, it exhibits no symptoms of repletion. Its voracity is so insatiable that if victims are not at hand, it makes them, combining thus its SIR W. CODRINOTON.—The following singular creative with its destructive faculty. With it extract from a letter, dated August 16, from Lieu. there is no end to the " remnants of persecu- tenant-General Sir W. Codrington to Major-General tion," and as for the " last rags "of a barbarous Sir Charles Yorke, K.C.8., Military Secretary, has bigotry, they are as numerous as Whig bishops been sent to the Times by Lieutenant-Colonel or Radical placehunters. Blase : But, of all the religious grievance-factories Before leaving England I am anxious that his Royal in the world, commend us to the Church of Highness the Commander in. Chief should be aware of my Rome in Ireland. The priests of that persua- perfect readiness to serve in India should unfavourable accounts eve co n e n t tt t n r , and that he thinks my services could be sion display a skill and an enterprise in the orarily. No one can feel more strongly p r oduction of this commodity, which would than myself the wish never to interfere with those who , be more amusing if it were less audacious. having had the brunt and hard work, ought to reap the No bloodhound ever hunted down his prey reward. But there might arise occasions in other places, more keenly than these gentlemen follow up a and I trust that his Royal Highness will not consider rank cause for discontent, if they can get on its o m e e f l o a rm in er a h n igh lo co w m e manidlito be tary abar,on w m i Lp r a o rt ai t m o e on m l tilo y o y; track, or, when they have good hold of it, can active servic y e is goi r ng m on. capacity aggravate and embitter it with such consum• We (the Times) trust it is no part of the galla nt mate adroitness. As we have said, if no ground general's duty in his new office to instruct his Royal of complaint exists, they create it, and they pupil the Prince of Wales in the correct use of the have their sentries posted in all directions to I English language. THE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 12, 1857.