The Press. — London, England, 1856-08-30 00:00:00

AUGUST 30, 1856. It is wonderful that he recognises the ex— istence of a Conservative party at all ; still . more wonderful that he should be aware that it has organs, and that he should have some dim kind of comprehension of what those organs contain. But, to be just, Mr. Lofty, when he does condescend to subjects beneath him, does so in a style of hazy dignity befitting his 'grandeur. He is aware of a slight hubbub somewhere in his vicinity. Ho looks round him with his double glass to his eyes. and .then, without condescending to inform himself of any of the particulars, or deigning to address himself to the parties concerned, be forthwith harangues at them, as being quite unworthy of more than a second-hand sort of notice at his hands. Mr. Lofty resembles the boarding-house dictator who figures in a late number of Household Words. He is so vastly superior to all the rest of the world, as to be entirely above controversy. A stare, and an insolently-indirect allusion, is the utmost notice any contemporary can expect from Mr. Lofty. unless a little flattery is adroitly administered, when Mr. Lofty becomes aware of the existence of s class of beings known as toadies, and honours the insignificant creatures with a pat on the head, or a contemptuous smile. Mr. Lofty, from the heighth of his stilts, looks down on political contests with supreme indifference. He alone is patriotic; he has no private ends to serve ; he can afford to attend to the public interests unmixed with baser matter. Parties are nothing to him ; he has no connection with them. The country must receive what app ears __ in his columns as purely disinterested. Who will dare to suspect the integrity of Mr. Lofty? . His assumption would be merely amusing, if it were founded in truth; but is it so? Let us speak on this subject more seriously. Mr. Lofty will stare, or, like the footman in the School for Scandal, he will opine that he thought he heard a—a— a something. But . our hint is intended, not for Mr. Lofty in propriii persona, but for the acute writers who, in turn, don Mr. Lofty's airs and mount his stilts. The great credit Mr. Lofty has obtained with the public is owing to a belief that his newspaper is really independent; and it is far from our wish to disparage the value of any expression of independent opinion: There are certain journals which are known to represent certain parties, opinions, and principles. They are read with this under standing. There is no mistaking , the flag under which they serve. Such journals, what, ever may be said of their merits or demerits, are at least honest. They deceive no one, for they show their real character without dis guise. The newspaper of Mr. Lofty, on the Contrary: pretending to be free from all favour, be guilty of great deceit, and would • palm a huge imposture on the public, if behind- his curtain he allowed the interests and prejudices of partisanship to prevail. If it were under stood that Mr. Lofty was quite willing to re sign his pen to a certain member of the Go vernment, that the views of the Government on particular questions might be expressed, that its animosities might be circulated, and that the public might be bamboozled. no great harm would be done. The patriotic profes sions of Mr. Lofty would then be rated at their just worth, and no more. People would laugh at them as a good joke, and they would regard all his tirades against the Opposition and the Opposition leaders as written to order. Instead of being supposed to be the reflex of public opinion, the newspaper of Mr. Lofty would be known to be, on all political questions, the reflex of one or two individuals, whose political fortunes were bound up with the existence of the Ministry which had re tained their services. But so long as Mr. Lofty professes that he is far above all such sinister influences, and so long as credit is given to his professions, he would surely com mit a species of fraud on the, public, if he placed his journal at the mercy of members of one party or the other. • Now, it is very generally reported . in. quar • tors likely to be well-informed on such matters, •T:H E • PR ESS. that Mr. Lofty's columns are freely open to at least one member of the Government, and that all the measures of this Minister are eulogised, and all his opponents decried, by his own pen. We could point to particular articles of which be is confidently stated to .be the author, wherein Mr. Lofty's journal is not only committed to certain opinions, but in which the journal is made the vehicle of dis seminating purely personal antipathies. If this be so, at what worth shall we rate Mr. Lofty's pretended superiority to the contests of parties ? The parish pump would be the shrine at which Mr. Lofty worships, and the vestry squabble the most important debate he 'ever listened to. We cease. The awful glass of Mr. Lofty is upon us, and he will probably throw some light upon the subject—lucus a non lucendo— by copious laudation a few days hence, of the immaculate purity and independence of the organ which has the privilege of being favoured with his effusions. THE MAYNOOTH CONTROVERSY. WE have not the least desire to shrink from the controversy on the propriety of assailing Maynooth. On the contrary, we are convinced that discussion will only establish the reason able character of the views promulgated in our columns. It is the nature of all moral and political truths that they can be demon strated in a variety of ways ; and we shall to day adduce fresh arguments in proof of our opinions. Let us discuss the Maynooth question as one of principle, and one of prac tical politics. 1. As to the question of principle, we have no desire to flinch from the closest argument with our adversaries. They contend that for a Protestant empire to give thirty thousand pounds per annum for educating Roman Ca tholic priests is a flagrant setting up of " Popery." They say that by such an act we affirm the "principle ' of the Romish Church; and that pro tanto this empire is de•Protest antised. They treat the question as one of religious duty, and they iterate their adherence to " Protestant principles" as if they alone held a monopoly of the Reformed Religion. We join issue with them at once, and, in stead of demurring to their proposed test, wo adopt it, and say, " Let Maynooth• be tried as " a question of Protestant principle." Let us look to the reality and not to the sound of the proposed rule. " A principle," said Doctor JOHNSON, "is worth nothing if it cannot be put "in practice, and carried out " Suppose that the grant to Maynooth should be revoked, let us see whether we should then have estab lished what they could call in their own test " a Protestant empire." Having abolished " May nooth," the controversy, if our adversaries were consistent, should be shifted to Ca nada! Canada is the greatest colony possessed by the Queen. Its society is polite and prosper ous. It has a Governor, representative as semblies, a Court, a provincial aristocracy, and, in short, it presents all the features of English civilisation. But there is one most remarkable distinction between Canada and England. In Canada the Roman Catholic Church is endowed, and its priests receive— tithes ! Well, if for the sake of " principle " Maynooth must be abolished, it is clear that if the Roman Catholics be left in possession of . the tithes in Canada the empire must also be de•Protestantised, by the countenance given to " Popery " in the colonies. Our op ponents have made this question one of principle ;"- and if the Protestantism of the empire be tainted by " Maynooth," it must a fortiori be • seriously corrupted by the mother country endowing the Church of Rome in the • New World. Nor is it any answer to tell - . us that we won Canada from the French. guch 'a • reply would place our opponents in fresh - difficulties, as it would ex hibit them more ready, to make concessions to hostile colonists t ;itan to their own fellow subjects nearer homy Locality cannot affect political morality. • 819 . " Oh! There were peculiar circumstances " about Canada," it may be said. " Its antece " dents were not similar to those of England." Precisely. And were there no "peculiar cir cumstances " about Ireland? Were the " an tecedents " of our sister island not sufficiently distinctive? An absentee aristocracy, a pea santry tilling the. lands of.; proprietors of another form of faith, a weak executive, and other hereditary evils, presented remarkable " antecedents." Furthermore, are we to dis regard the manner. in which the Union was carried, and the support given by the Roman Catholics to Mr. Pirr ? And. is the sixty years continuance of the grant to Maynooth to pass for nothing? It is plain that " May flood'," like " Canada," has " antecedents ' which it is vain . for the sturdiest lovers of "principle " to disregard. 2. But politics are eminently practical, and in a country where business is popular the minds of men are more 'vigorously influenced by considerations of fact, within the imme• diate perception of all, than by abstract and ethical arguments. Let us take a practical view of this question of May nooth. The whole subject practically turns on the inquiry as to .whether the Church of Rome in this realm has become more formidable since the augmented grant to Maynooth in 1845. When the grant was increased, the Roman Catholics were powerful in Ireland. Since then the famine and the exodus have reduced their numbers by at least two millions. It is not only in numbers, but in prestige that they have lost seriously. The fact is admitted by themselves, and it was an English Dissenter (Mr. Mum.), not a Roman Catholic, who lately asked Parliament to interfere with the tempo ralities of the Irish branch of the Estab lishment. Nor is that all. Ten years ago there was in many English circles a strong desire to assail. the Irish Church. , That feeling has greatly subsided; and if Protestants will stand by their PROTESTANT INSTITUTIONS there can be no doubt about the Establishment being se cured from spoliators. The social power of the Roman Catholics has diminished. With the exception of Lord E. HOWARD. the repre sentation of England (apart from Ireland) is exclusively Protestant. In point of fact, there fore, it may be positively, affirmed that the Church of Rome in this realm is weaker now than it was ten years since. There is no prac tical ground for interference, or for meddling with the laws already established. Let us now take another view of the case, contemplating it still in the practical point of view. Let us suppose that there was ground for serious alarm about " Popery," the ques tion would remain, whether " Maynooth " should be the point of attack. It seems to be conceded by the noisy adversaries of " May nooth," that the Conservative party cannot propose to repeal the Act of 1829, known as the Relief Bill. That is a great admission on their part; yet, by that bill, much more poli tical power is " practically" given to the Roman Catholic interest, than by the grant to " May nooth." Before the Roman Catholics were emancipated, " Maynooth " existed as a charge in the estimates. When the Relief Bill passed, it was felt that it would be ridiculous to strain at a gnat after having swallowed the camel. Could a cry of " The Church in danger " be raised about a grant for educating the Romish clergy of Ireland, when the Imperial Legislature had been opened to the ambition of the Roman Catho lics? Surely it must be obvious, if a movement should be got up against the Roman Catholics, that some more vulnerable point than " Maynooth" should be selected. - Driven into a corner, our adversaries thus seem• bewildered, as they are hemmed in at all sides by arguments which show that their assumed " principles' are untenable in logic, and impracticable in policy. As a last resource they then talk of " Maynooth" being " an un " just preference." In using those words they are (unconsciously) employing the same sort of language as English Dissenters, Radicals, and Latitudinarians apply to the Irish branch of our Err eblishment. Nor do they take any notice of the Begun* Dooms, nor of the fact 1