The Press.
London, England, 1854-09-02 00:00:00

SEPTEMBER 2, 1854.

the growth and designs of his Church. Speak•
ing of what the Papists have done since the
Emancipation Act, he says :

At the same time, Catholics had begun to recover from
that first torpor which benumbs, for a time, the limbs just
freed from fetters. Signs of a more active circulation had
shown themselves; communities were sprinping up; schools
were beginning to be multiplied; new missions were
opened: churches upon a scale of size and embellishment
previously unknown were contemplated or begun; and the
people were evidently manifesting more interest in our re-
ligion, and a more fair disposition to hear and judge it
justly. It seemed the favourable moment to strike another
chord and stir up a spirit yet slumbering, but ready to
awake.

As one result of this resolve to " stir up a
"spirit yet slumbering, but ready to awake,"
the effort to maintain religious equality in the
Queen's Colleges of Ireland has beeen derided,
and a " Catholic University " has been erected
at Dublin, by means of contributions levied
from " the faithful " in all parts of the globe.
Hence, also, "another chord " has been struck,
a CULLEN has been sent from Rome to rule
over the Irish priesthood, and " heretics " like
the Archbishop of DUBLIN and Mr. BLACEBURNE
have been forced out of the National Board of
Education.

Let us further observe that Cardinal WISE-
MAN early saw what havoc amongst" Anglicans "
he could accomplish with the help of that
" wonderful movement " which led to so
many secessions from the Church of England,
although more moderate Romanists, including
the late Dr. LINGARD, did not share his expec
talon. Recording his triumphs in a jubilant
tone, in the preface to his second volume, he
proceeds :
And it is not known how friends remonstrated with the

bolder of hopeful views, how they treated him as en enthu-
siast, or rather a fanatic, who was digging a pit of bitter
disappointment for his own feet ; how even the most learned
of our historians wrote in friendly warning, to remind him
of the vain hopes raised and doomed to bitter disappoint-
ment at the times of Laud and of the Nonconformists, and
ask him what be saw in the present movement that gave
better grounds of reliance than experience had proved
to exist then. Even those so situated as tohave near them
the evidences which convinced him of hopeful advance
viewed them in a very different light, and thought their
importance, to say the least, much exaggerated.
Events have since demonstrated that the
Cardinal's hopes were not "much exaggerated."
With complacent exultation he records a cata-
logue of perverts, specially referring to NEW-
MAN, WILBERFORCE, NORTHCOTF., LEWIS, BE-
LANY, RENOUF, CAPES, and others. Twenty
years ago its powers of mischief were derided,
and yet, with such evidences exhibiting its
pernicious potency in corruption, there are
ambiguous statesmen and equivocatory poll
ticians who deride the dread of Popery as
childish. Minds poisoned by Papistieal logic
can undermine Protestantism, though they
cannot establish Popery Let no true reli-
gionists underestimate our danger.

THE EAST INDIA COMPANY'S
BANQUETS.

ON recently looking over the morning journals
we met with an announcement of a grand
dinner to be given by the East India Directors
at the London Tavern, covers to be laid for a
hundred guests. This dinner was not one to
celebrate the departure of some newly-
appointed governor, or on any other particular
occasion : it was simply a meeting for the dis-
posal of an unlimited quantity of turtle and
champagne by the Directors and their friends,
the bill being paid, not out of their own
pockets, but out of the public revenues of
India In this mode, the Directors dispose of
about three thousand pounds annually.
If those revenues were like the revenues of
some city guild, the appropriation of which
to feasting may be deemed in some sort legiti
mate, we should have nothing to say to this
proceeding of the Directors of the East India
Company. But the revenues of India are not
the property of the Directors, nor is the East
India Company, though dwelling in the City,
like any of the City comranies. The revenues
of India are the property of the Crown, the
East India Company collecting and• expending
those revenues as trustees for the Crown and
people of England. East India proprietors