The Express.
London, England, 1848-02-11 00:00:00

THE EARL OF SHREWSBURY TO ARCH-
BISHOP WHALE.
My Lord Archbishop,—Had you received my letter ac
cording to the design with which it was written, you bad
gone. far to redeem the character of the Irish Church in the
°ptpies of the English pooOse ; but you have cheerio other-
wise, and have only made- bed worse. My first impression
on reading your grace's reply, was to leave it quietly to the
public, and to its own merits ; hut circansitances and reflec-
tion have altered my purpose.
I will not, however, my lord, reply to you in the spirit
in which you have replied to me. I will not substitute
invective for argument, nor reckless martian for proof ; but,
nevertheless, I will speak the truth, for you demand it
of me.
My lord, it is a stale, unworthy, end unprofitable trick,
for a disputant to endeavour to gain a momentary triumph
over his adversary by falsifying his " amertions, ' and then
exposing them either to ridicule, contempt, or hatred, in the
fictitious guise in which be himself has dressed them. My
I lord, " it is the wisdom only of this world (and it is an illus.
trious countryman of your's who says it), to put false
odours upon things, to call good evil, and evil good,
against the conviction of our own contcienees," for,
14t your grace read the letter on which you comment, and
which you condemn in such unmeasured terms, is proved by
the quotation which you pretend to give in the wry words,
while that quotation, in its turn, proves that you are acting
against the evidence of your senses, and—may I say it ?
against what ought to be the conviction of your conscience.
There seems to be no room for mistake here. I, • catholic
peer, deliberately asserted, indeed, of an entire national
church, that she is a conniver at injustice, an accessory to
crime, a pestilent sore in the commonwealth My. lord. for
shame ! Inc shame ! Had I done so, I should indeed be
worthy of the chastisement with which the Divine anger
visited Herod for his cruelty and his hypocrisy; and, my
lord, to this latter vice you are pleased most siguificently to
refer me. But here, my lord, lam haunted by the idea—
and if I give expression to it, it is not is anger, but in
sorrow—that we also might read a lemon from your illustra-
tion, not altogether inapplicable to the point; for, does it
not remind us not merely of the hypocrisy of Herod, but
also of the &simulation of Pilate, who that day made
friends together, that by false testimony t .ey might conspire
to the ruin of an innocent man?
My lord, if these are unpleasant words, they are at least
suggested by your own; and it I venture to utter them, we
must ever remember that as a Christian you are bound, like
ourselves, by the moral code of the Gospel, that whilst you
art Archbishop of Tuam, you are 'bothe most distinguished
member of • political confederacy, working incessantly
against the best interests of the whole empire.
My lord, if I rested here, I think it might be considered
that I had already made a pretty fait commentary in justifi-
cello's of my former letter • but since you invite me to con-
fession and repentance, and demand adequate reparation too
for a long list of very grievous sins—the sins of unauthorised
and presumptuous dictation, and of lay pretensionv; since
you assail me as • corrupt courtier-as a selfish and
assiduous suitor of ministerial favours—as hypocritical
and ungrateful—as • scandalous calumniator—as a Con-
spirer against the lives and liberties of the people—
am a public denouncer of the entire catholic church
in Ireland—as grieving and scandalising the whole Christian
world—as insulting the majesty of Rome, and as guilty of
such like offences, smaller or greater as they may be—l
must, my lord, before I answer to your summons, crave •
moment for the examination of my conscience ; for it is
really the first time I have heard of a father confessor taking
upon himself to be the searcher of hearts and the diviner of
thoughts, and thus, even before he hears his penitent, pass-
ing judgment upon him without appeal.
My lord, let us proceed with method —lst• The sin of un-
authorised and presumptuous dictation and lay pretension.
My lord, it requires no knowledge of casuistry to under-
stand a question of plain common sense. I will, therefore,
enter at once upon the case. It is alleged, that, though
it may be difficult to contest the right of the laity to con-
tend against the clergy when engaged in political strife,
yet that in purely ecclesiestical affairs they at least have
no concern. And this we most willingly admit ' pro-
vided the exercise of ecclesiastical authority neither harms
the social, nor endangers the civil state ; nor yet trenches
upon the just rights and privileges of the laity. Upon the
occasion now before us, the ground for lay interference was
the evil which the undue exercise of ecclesiastical govern-
ment appeared to be bringing upon the social and political
condition of the country ; and which at once shifts the argu-
ment from the spiritual to the temporal. It, then, the laity
have an rights to uphold, any duties to perform, any re-
sponsibilities before the country, any reciprocal relations with
the state, this is their occasion. As legislators for the people,
on them greatly depends the condition of that people if,
then, they see, or gravely suspect they see, their hest endea-
vours frustrated by the crooked intermeddling of the clergy
in civil concerns, or by neglecting their own, is the spiritual
character of that clergy to be invoked and the lay-
man to be told that it is no question for him—
that his privileges are absorbed by the superior pri-
vileges of the church ? or, in other words, is all
the world to remain silent while Archbishop M'Hale specks
—that men may learn to listen and to obey ? Is be to stand
alone an irresponsible power in the commonwealth, wending
forth his mandates both to the governor and the governed,
and no man to gainsay his will ? My lord, I know the an-
swer is, that you offend no law. But in this our great civilised
community is there no law but that of King, Lords, and
Commons? Is there not a bar of public opinion before which
to arraign the public conduct of public men, and to condemn
or to acquit Is a bishop alone to be shielded from its influ-
enceoo not amenable to its jurisdiction Is he alone to" play
such pranks before high Heaven as make the angels weep,"
and none to be suffered to lament it here below, or to labour
to abate the scandal ?
My lord, when, in 1687, Father Strickland preached poli-
tics front the pulpit of Whitehall, and preached not the doe•
trines of the church, but his own, on the divine rights of
kings—their unlimited power and irresponsible authority—
I think no one will more readily acknowledge than your
grace that he was not then the churchman but the politician,
not assuredly the spiritual pastor of his flock to be implicitly
obeyed, nor even heard without a murmur.
My lord, to me it has ever appeared that you have exhi-
bited even a suspicious anxiety in all your public documents,
to identify yourself with the whole church in Ireland, and
through her, with that of the whole Christian world. But,
my lord, we view you in a two-fold capacity ;as a high dig-
niter, of the church, and ma political partisan. We desire
to separate one character from the other, because we never
desire to speak disrespectfully to a churchman, or, as
such, to call a churchman to account. When you speak
with the voice of the church we willingly obey, because the
church, 1n matters purely spiritual and dogmatical, has dele-
gated her authority to her prelates; and in such things, but
in such things only, can the church exercise that authority
over us. But when, my lord, you descend from your archi
episcopal throne, overleap the pale of the sanctuary, and
enter the hot arena of political contention, your character is
then changed, your responsibilities are transferred to another
tribunal, and there is no free man in the three kingdoms who
has not a right to criticise your doings.
My lord, we live in a land of civil rights, one of which
is freedom of discussion on civil and even religious questions;
Sit then to be tolerated that any ecclesiastic, how exalted so-
ever may be his dignity, shall interpose between the honest
exercise of these rights under a constitutional government
by which those rights are admitted and protected ? Is it to
be endured that the fair fame of a million of British cache-
lies should be sullied by the eccentricitiesof Archdeacon
I Laffan, and the unseemly demeanour of Father M'Dermott,
till an appeal be made and responded to from Rome ? Of
appeals to Rome we know the inconvenience, the delays,
and sometimes the detriment ; as when that moat estimable
prelate, the late Dr. O'Pinan, one of your rrace's euffragans,
was dispossessed of his diocese of Killala, and another thrust
into his place, as the successful issue of • party intrigue, for
want of better information amongst the authorities to which
the judgment of the came was referred. It is not, however,
to such appeals as these that I allude ; for here was a legiti-
mate and perhaps necessary cause. But, my lord, there
must be some more summary method of disposing of ques-
tions of immediate and pressing urgency ; questions, no
doubt, deeply interesting to religion, but in which the in-
tegrity of the socisl system of the whole empire may be at
least equally concerned, and which will admit of no delay.
My lord, Rome lm been appealed to, and has more than
twice told you to hold your peace, not to meddle in the
political contentions of the country, but to devote yourselves
to the sacred and far more necessary avocations of your call-
ing. But the clergy of Ireland—of course I speak only of
thus represented by your grace—instead of yielding a re-
verential deference (as many others to their honour did) to
the earnest recommendation of Rome—answered, that as
Route knew nothing of their condition, neither would they
heed her admonitions. Is it not then a mockery to tell us
that our remedy is an appeal to Rome? But, ray lord, my
argument is, that as tar as the laity are concerned, Rome
has no jurisdiction in the matter, for it is purely civil and
political, and no otherwise religious, than as every social
and political question, more or lees, incidentally influences
the interests of religion.
Surely,overt
suchm y Iporrodp,o,yiotionusas would
these?not seriously undertake tocontrovert
The time was when a geese and united effort of both
clergy and people was necessary for the accomplishment of
a wholesome and importaat object. But that time is now
past. The victory is won; buhen are we to enjoy its
fruits? They would be many ; btu the season of fertility
must be the season of peace; but you, my lord, have decreed
that there shall be no peace in Israel in your days; you will
speak peace neither to your people nor to us. The enemy
has been conquered, but your army is not disbanded. We
have the same menacing array, the same clang of arms, the
lame portentous threatening of another conflict, with now a
di s-
a
friend and not a foe. Can the country prosper under
turbance which brings into life every evil peseta of our
nature ?
My lord, you act for the good of Ireland, and in the name
of civilisation and Christianity—how comes it then, that
u have so signally failed in your endeavours:. That you
have excited the whole people of England as one man
against yourself, and alas ! too much against your country.
men in general'? that civilisation has retrograded under
your auspices? that religion has decayed within your in-
fluence ? whilst you have overwhelmed the faith which you
profess under a deluge of rebukes and reviling' from with-
out against which it is almost in vain for it to struggle ?
Such, my lord, is the unhappy result of 20 years of your
warring against the state. 'Would it not be wiser to enter
into alliance with it, and to become an availiay in the great
work of reform, instead of obstinately maintaining an wrote
sive hostility to the government, and marring every inspimit
effort at improvement, by decrying it as the devise of as
enemy, and the dictate of malevolence ?
comMrny
olnorwdeal, itthts.
God. It the law offend her, let her strive discreetly far
up in defiance otinnhf atht"ethmaiceivciFulinr,ottheserh—Cofhuranrd
authusp:wiTinrttairielei=
its amendment. If evils assail her, and afflictions 001118
upon the people entrusted to her keeping, let her renew
strata with truth, dignity, and jaittoe, not cutup di