The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-03-31 00:00:00

nominees of a rebel Popish Priesthood. AU this is true ;
and we may add that the reward for the votes of
the Pope's Brass Band in the House of Commons is.
the appointment of their friends such as Derby.
to places of trust in the Customs, Post Office, and
other departments of, the public service in England."
This writer seems to have a very strange notion as to the
effect of that particular religion; seems to have no notion
of the possibility of meeting and associating with men of a
different creed, or of agreeing to differ. I do not know
how you may teel in reference to that. I own that lam
a person upon that subject, of rather stiff-necked feelings.
I have no tear of anything that can be done to subvert the
Protestantism of this country. lam not afraid of our
ever being brought back by these measures to the rack,
or the torture, or the stake," and I should have a very
poor opinion, indeed, of the people of this country, if thee
were afraid of the possibility of ever being brought back
to such a state. It seems to me to be about as absurd a
suggestion as ever was made, and I could as soon beli, ve
that we were about to be brought under the dominion of
the empire of Russia. His lordship then prodeeded with
the next paragraph of the article which called upon
Englishmen to arouse to a sense of their duty, and to
return to parliament men of sound Protestant opinions,
who would insist on the withdrawal of the Mavnooth
grant, and other measures of a like character, and then
continued:—So far as that is concerned, I hire is no objec-
tion to it at all. The writer of this paper, or any person
else, has a perfect right to vote only for Protestants, and
to dete mine to make no grant of public money to any
Roman Catholic institution. That is one of the lair
means to meet them, and n?t by anonymous letters, or

.—...., . _
by attacking them in the public press. A man
to discuss thej subject of the Roman Catho
itself, and to discuss to the last fibre, and to us

as strong as he thinks proper wi

has not
be subject

has no right to take a private:individ
put himself fairly forward by any act of
i- --
of discussion. It by fair means, by n
fluencinA theelec-
tors of this great kingdom, and by having representatives
returned to Parliament who may consider it a proper
thing to repeal the Roman Catholic Relief Bill, that con-
clusion can be brought about and that people think it
desirable that it were so, the publisher of tins paper, or
any person else, has a right to resort to such means, but
at present, under the laws of the land in which we live,
Roman Catholics have, with certain excep,ions, equal
rights as the Protestant inhabitants of this country. There
are certain offices which they cannot, including that of
the crown, but beyond that they are as free—and God
forbid tho day should come when it would be otherwise__
as any of the other inhabitants of the country. His Lord-
ship then read through the remainder. of the article,
which was of like character with those passages we
have quoted, and continied :—We are told to-day that
this is not a personal matter between Darby and the
defendant. We are told that this is a discussion, not of
Darby at all in particular, or apart from all other Papists,
but that it is a discussion of some great principle involved
in the association, and which Darby is said to belong. It
appears that the defendant is not able to bring forward
anything against this man, who has presented himself for
cross-examination, having the remotest tendency to make
out that he is a traitor or villain, or a person unfit to be
trusted, or any of the other terms of abuse which have
been heaped upon him in this article. It was proposed to
examine him in respect to what passed between him
and his wife. I must say that the detendant, acting upon
principle, and resting upon what he could get out of the
man whom he thought fit to libel, without regard to the
injury, I must say that if the man who did that trusted
further to being able to make out a case against him by
extracting from him some communication between him
and his wife, it is only a piece with the former part of his
conduct. I must say I cannot conceive anything more
intolerable than that a man accused, without proof, out
of court, should be convicted in court by the details of a
curtain lecture. The defendant has allowed the two
opportunities of retracting and apologizing to pass by,
and the case is before you to say, under the circumstances„
what damages the plaintiff ought to receive for the injury
he has sustained, if you should find that he has sustained
any. The defendant, through his counsel, has addressea
you, and stated the reasons on which he fo,:nded his
defence. I had occasion to say in the eouse of the learned
counsel's address, that I heard part with pleasure, and I
astened to it with all attention. I heard with pleasure
that portion of the address in which the feelings of the

n which h,

speaking for himself, absolved the plaintiff from the per-
sonal imputation upon him. So far as the learned counsel

was concerned, that. was

graceful statement, and such

as one might expect from a gentleman ; and I was pleased
with it. It appears that there are two points upon which
the defendant relies. He snys, "I am the publisher of a
newspaper, and this action is an attempt to destroy the
liberty of the press. It is a topic which is always popular.
and always attractive. lam not surprised that it should
be popular with a jury, and attractive to them, because it
touches my own heart and commends itself to my reason.

Any appeiil to prevent the restriction of the freedom of

the-press shall always receive from the jury, and always

receive from the court, the greatest and largest measure
of attention and sympathy. In this country the press is
free ; the press of other countries is in the hands of
censors, that is, it is subject to be even repressed if its
writings be unpleasant to the persons in power. In this
country we, can afford that our press should be free—.
that is, we can allow every man to state fairly and boldly
sron unfair and

his opinions, s(
libellous attaci

)ng as

victuals
criticise