The Press.
London, England, 1858-10-02 00:00:00

948

toleration of the Roman Catholic religion does
not require us to permit the establishment of a
territorial hierarchy by the Pope, much less the
presence of a Cardinal, whose distinctive cha-
racter is not that of a minister of religion, but
that of a political agent. He is a Privy Coun-
cillor of the Pope, and his Resident Minister
Plenipotentiary sent hither to represent and per-
sonify, in the teeth of the lawful Sovereign of
these realms, the alleged supremacy of the pre-
tended successor of St. Prriat and " Vicar of
CIIHIST " over all the kingdoms and nations of
the earth. It is all very well to jeer at his dis-
play of his scarlet hat and hose. But under these
pranks there lurks a deep and treacherous
design. Whether that design be likely to result
in actual danger, is not the question. Irrespec-
tively of all consequences, it is inconsistent with
the dignity of the British Crown, no less than
with every principle of international law, that a
foreign potentate should set up a representative
of his authority within the dominions, and ad-
vance claims to supremacy and jurisdiction over
the subjects, of our lawful Sovereign. It is on
this point—a point, we cannot help thinking,
insufficiently considered hitherto—that we take
our stand, objecting, not only to the audacious
" progress," but, since he has so forcibly re-
minded us of it, to the intruded presence alto-
gether, of " His Eminence the Cardinal Arch-
bishop of Westminster."

RESULT OF MISSIONS TO THE ROMAN
CATHOLICS IN IRELAND.
IF a traveller who had been intimately acquainted
with Ireland fourteen or fifteen years ago, and
who had seen and heard nothing of its condition
in the intervening time, were to revisit that
island in the year 1858, he would be amazed at
the change which has taken place; and he would
find that the general appearance of the country
was altered, that industry and comfort had in
great measure superseded the beggary and desti-
tution which seemed inseparable from the soil.
Ile would find that the peasantry, naturally intel-
ligent and intellectually awake, were no longer
content to submit without a murmur to the
thraldom of the priesthood, but that their quick,
keen intellects had been stirred up by a pressure
from without, and that their warm Irish hearts
had been touched by the good news to which
they had dared to listen, and which they were
ready to examine and receive. And he would
find that the superstitions of the people,
some of them native to the soil, and others im-
ported from Rome, had lost a great portion of
their charm ; that fairy lore, so beautiful as a
myth, seldom now-a-days exerted any baneful
influence ; and that holy water, holy oil, holy
scapulars, holy wells, holy shirts, holy coats, and
the whole paraphernalia requisite for the histrionic
display of Romanism, had lost, in large measure,
the magic of their former power. But a more
wonderful change, perhaps, than any other
which our traveller would observe in the Irish
people, or, at any rate, one more obvious and
striking, is the quasi-Protestant spirit which has
been infused into the minds even of the Roman
Catholics themselves. By which me mean a
spirit of independent inquiry—a wish to ex-
amine, to test the tenets of their Church.
To speak of an inquiring and independent
Roman Catholic seems very much like a contra-
diction in terms; but it is a contradiction which
Romish priests have been compelled to acknow-
ledge, and against which Romish bishops have
hurled their most vehement invectives. The
face of Ireland has changed, and is rapidly
changing every day, not only as regards the
physical condition of its people, but also as regards
their moral status and their spiritual enlighten-
ment. This change is palpable and cannot be
gainsayed, though various opinions are held as to
many of the causes which have combined to pro-
duce it. We cannot pretend to afford firm stepping-
stones over that Slough of Despond into which
every one has fallen who has endeavoured to dis-
cover a full solution of the Irish difficulty. But
instead of this we wish to call attention to one of
the agencies by means of which the well-being
of Ireland has been materially enhanced and
many of those barriers removed which stood in
the way of her moral and spiritual advancement.
The agency to which we allude is the Society for
Irish Church Missions to the Roman Catholics.
The machinery which this Society has organized
and set in action appears exceedingly well adapted
for the purpose. Public meetings are held