The Express.
London, England, 1850-11-07 00:00:00

LORD JOHN RUSSELL AND THE PAPAL

TO Tat WORT REV. THE BISHOP OP DURHAM.

My dear Lead ,—I agree with you in considering
" the late aggression of the Pope upon our pro-
testantism• u "insolent and insidious," and I there-
fore feel es indignant ea you can do upon the subject.
I not only promoted to the utscet of my power the
claims of the Roman catholic to all civil rights,
but I thought it right, and even desirable, that the
ecclesiastical system of the Roman catholic should
be the means of giving instruction to the numerous
Irish immigrants in London and elsewhere, who
without each help would have been left in heathen
ignorance.
This might have been done, however, without any
such innovation as that which we have now seen.

It is impossible to confound the recent meuares
of the Pops with the division of Scotland into
dioceses by the Episcopal Church, or the strange-
ment of districts in England by the Wesleyan Con-
ference.

There is an sammtption of power in all the dam-
!tents which have come from Rome-4 pretension
to supremacy over the realm of England, and a claim
to sole and undivided sway, which is inconsistent
with the Queen's supremacy, with the rights of oar
bishops and clergy, and with the spiritual Indepen-
dence of the nation, as asserted even in Roman
catholic times.

I oonfess, however, that my alarm is not equal to
my indignation.
Even if it shall appear that the ministers and ser-
vants of the Pope in this country have not trans-
gressed the law, I feel persuaded that we are strong
enough to repel any outward attacks. The liberty
of protestantism has been enjoyed too long in England
to allow of any successful attempt to impose a foreign
yoke upon oar minds and oonscienoes. No foreign
prince or potentate will be permitted to fasten his
fetters upon a nation which has so long and so nobly
vindicated its right to freedom of opinion, civil,
political, and religious.
Upon this subject, then I will only say that the
premed stria of the law shall be carefully examined,
and the propriety of adopting any prooesdings with
vallsomiss• to the :asset eastiroption of power &G-
-maliared.
Then le siaager, however, which alarms me much
noes than any aggression of a foreign sovereign.
Clergymen of WO own church, who have subleribad
Ow Thirty-nine Articles, and acknowledged in ex-
plicit terms the Glenn's supremacy, have beep the
meet forward in leading their flocks, " step by step,
to the very verge of the precipice." The honour
paid to mints, the claim of infallibility for the
*arch, the superstitions use of the sign of the
Oress, the muttering of the Liturgy so as to dis-
guise the language in whiah it is written, the recom-
mendation of auricular confeeelon and the adminis-
tration of penanceand absolution—all these things
are pointed out by clergymen of the Church of Eng-
land as worthy of adoption, and are now openly re-
pashamded by the Bishop of London in his charge to
.the dewy of his diocese.
Whet, than, is the danger to be apprehended from
a foreign prism of no great power, compared to the
within the gates from the unworthy sons of
theoltruch of Eagiaad herself P
I hays little hope that the propounders and
lianas et these iaeovations will desist from their
httidtoae coarse. Bat I rely with oonfidettes on the
Os* of England, and I will not bate a jot of
bsNS 111 bap so long as the glorious principles and
AM lading swim of the Reformation shall bo
WI in revenue by the great mese of a nation
"disk looks with contempt on the mummeries of .
superstition, and with EOM at *a labourions entice-
yours which are now laskiag to confine tbe intellect
and enslave the sent . .
I remain, with great respell, ks.
J. RUSSELL.
Downing-street, Nov. 4.