The Sun.
London, England, 1839-07-17 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JULY 17, 1839.

affairs—(Cheers)—which they were resolved to main,
taro 'a-hart:tier might be the ordinances of the State—
however great might be the blandishments of its Exe-
cutive, and which they had ever maintained, however
strong had been its arm, and however threatening had
been the aspect it assumed.—(Hear, hear.) They were
resolved now to show the same respect to the institu-
tions and to the throne of their country, but the same
fidelity that they had ever shown to their altars. They
would not forget the divine precept which, while it told
them " to render unto Caesar the things which are
Cwsar's," enjoined them " to render unto God the things
which are God's," and while they were resolved to main-
tain an undivided allegiance to their Sovereign, a higher
duty compelled them to submit in religious matters with
implicit obedience to the authority of their Church.—
(Cheers.) He was glad to see laymen and ec-
clesiastics assembled that day for the pur-
pose of coming to a mutual understanding upon
the terms upon which they would receive any
system of national education, the relative duties they
had to perform rendered it necessary that they should
come to this understanding, and the agitated state of
the country upon religious topics, and the certainty of
there being about to be adopted some more permanent
system immediately, rendered it necessary that they-
should come to this understanding as soon as possible.—
(Hear, hear.) It was as evident as it was indispensible
that there should be an agreement between them, for
the Church was bound to administer religious instruc-
tioa to its fold, and the laity were bound implicitly to
submit. But both laymen and ecclesiastics had certain
civil duties to perform, and they could exercise certain
civil rights, by which any system introduced into the
country, must be to some extent controlled and regu-
lated.—( Hear.) But as, perhaps, they would be called
on to exercise that right soon, they had better come to
an understanding immediately, for the purpose of avoid-
ing any after disagreement, that they might be guided
in adopting any system by a distinct and an undivided
authority, and that when they adopted it, that they
might bring to its support one mind and all the efficacy
of perfect co-operation.—(Cheers.) There was many a
man who possessed zeal for the progress of the faith,
and who was stimulated with an ardent desire to main-
tain the religious independence of his Church, yet might
be induced, through thoughtlessness and ignorance as
to the opinions of his spiritual superiors, to give his
support to a system of education incompatible with
Church authority, and many an ecclesiastic who might
do the same to some extent ; and then you would have
a system of education about which there would be a dis-
crepancy of opinion amongst the faithful which would
give scandal to the cause of religion, and perhaps em-
barrass the progress of education generally throughout
the country.—(Cheers.) He was therefore happy that
they had assembled for the purpose of corning to a
mutual understanding, the Church to guide and the
laity to understand in what they were to obey.--(Hear,
hear.) It is was said by some that they were monopo-
lists, that they were exclusionists, because they wished
in religious matters to watch their own fold and to give
moral instruction to their own children. Now, he
thought it was those who flung the dirt whose faces
were besmeared ; he cared not whether they were lay-
men who desired invariably to regulate a religious in-
struction under a lay supervision, or churchmen,
who arrogated to themselves the right of in-
instructing all the community. The laymen said
they were not monopolists ; but what did they
do ? They said, We must have control over
all in matters religious as well as secular, and we, an
irresponsible body, not responsible to Heaven as Church-
men are by vows registered, that we, without any as-
certained knowledge of ecclesiastical matters or ecclesi-
astical duties, are to make out a rule of faith for the
children of every Church—(Hear, hear)—in fact, to
bring up the next generation upon joint-stock company
principles of religion.—(Cheers.) And what, Sir, do
the ecclesiastical bodies say—We have a right to the
religious control of all parties—we claim ad the funds
allocated for that purpose, and whether we educate or
not we have a right to keep the funds.—(Hear.) He
would read to them some remarks of Dr. Philpotts—
(Strong expressions of disapprobatiora)—on the subject ;
they were very short, but very distinct—" The first ques-
tion was, whether the Church had a right to the education
of the people at large, including that part of the people
millions in number—which did not belong to the
Church p It was by no means his opinion that the
Church had a right to enforce any system of education
on the people at large, and least of all, on those who
do not belong to it ; but he said this—that the Church
had a right to demand of the Stale (and if both Church
and State were prepared to do their respective duty,
that demand would be answered) the means of affording
an efficient education to all the people, whether belong-
ing to thipurch or not ?" This was a precious pi,ce
of modesty. We must have all the power to instruct,
says the Learned Divine, but whether we instruct or
not, we must have all the loaves and fishes.—(Hear,
hear, and cheers.) Give us the power ; we will not
interfere with religious liberty, you may be certain,
for we will instruct as little as we can ; far, though we
are very fond of gold, we are proverbially fond of ease
and slothful negligence. All we want is, its the words
of Bentham, " superfluity of pay and liberty of negli-
gence."—(Cheers.) This was the modest request of the
sacred Coryphrous of his party. They were the mono-
polists—they ever had been the monopolists.—(leur,
hear.) They had ever endeavoured to exercise both a
civil as well as a religious monopoly.—(Cheers.) They
had their properties from the Catholic—they had taken
his civil rights from him—they would now take from
him his religious freedom—(Loud cheers)—but it
was placed beyond their control, it was in the keep-
ing of upright and honourable and conscientious
men those men who would take • from the
Catholic his religious liberty made the Cathutc
no exception, for they would do the same with every
other sect—(Hear, hear)--they were monopolists in
every thing—they were monopolists of every thing—
they would, if they had power, deal out the breath of
human existence to the mass of human life.—(Long
continued cheering.) But the Roman Catholics would,
under every circumstances, defend their religious prin-
ciples —they had ever done so they had every
thing to inspire them to do so—wherever they went in
this country they had the mouldering but proud records
of their religion—whateaer town they. entered they
had but to tarry in any Cathedral, and, looking
around them, they saw the grim evidence of
the antiquity of their religion.—(Cheers.) The classic
structures of England, said the Hon. Member, tell
plainly to the observer that it has been a Catholic coun-
try, and that the present Church is established upon the
ruins of the old. Let any man who denies this enter
within the sacred portals of Westminster Abbey, and
when he hears the service of a new religion chaunted in
a new tongue, let him reflect that there once the Te
Deum rose to Heaven, and that there the mournful
choir, chaunting the solemn service of the dead, accord-
ing to the ritual of the Church of Rome, once followed
to the dust England's proudest monarchs to their
last repositories.—(Loud and continued cheering.)
If he will but reflect he will have in all around him an
evidence of the antiquity of his religion, and that the
stone and marble will remain for ever to proclaim to
the world that there once existed in this country
another faith, which followed England and her Edwards
'o victory ; and that amid that monument of bygone
that that religion still reposed, until the genius of
architecture watched over its sleep, ready, if it should
wake again its antiquity and its claims.—( Loud che; rs.)
H begged leave to move the following Resolution :--
2d. That as such grant would thus be made out of a fund
arising from the contributions of all classes and persuasions, it
is the plain and manifest right of every class and persuasion to
participate, in the ratio of their numbers and wants, in the benefit
of such grant.
JAMES WHEBLE, Esq. said that it was unnecessary
for him to trouble the meeting with any remarks after
the arguments so eloquently propounded by the Hon.
Membr for Mayo, the cheers attending the concluding
words of which had hardly ceased to echo around the
walls. The arguments adduced must have satisfied this
splendid meeting that the resolution was a highly pro-
per one to agree to, in consequence of the first resolu-
tion having been adopted, and without attempting to
make any addition to what had been stated by the Hon.
Member, which would have only the effect of weaken-
ing his arguments, he would simply conclude by se-
conding the resolution.—(Cheers.)
The CHAIRMAN then put the resolution, which was
carried unanimously.
The Rev. Mr. StsK of Chelsea, was loudly cheered
on presenting himself to move the third resolution :-
3d. That we are deeply impressed n ith the perfect conviction
that to render education of real and substantial benefit, it ought
to combine moral and religious, with literary and scientific
instruction.

He felt proud of such an occasion as this to
have so excellent a motion put into his hand. It
condensed within a very few words everything that a
Catholic had to feel on this vital and important ques-
tion. He had to move that it was an essential prin-
ciple that all classes of the people according to
their station in life had a right to be educated
morally, literarily, religiously, and scientifically.
But they as Catholics knew that this was the
reverse of the picture which had been drawn of their
principles and of their holy religion. They were.held
forth as bigots, as illiterate, as the fosterers of
ignorance. These were the charges which had rung
in their ears, and which had been palmed upon the cre-
dulity of the country for three successive centuries. It
behoved them, therefore, to come forward manfully and
resolutely, in order to repel these insidious, these false
slanders.—(Cheers.) He would come forward to re-
ply to an address made the other day in the Upper
House of Parliament—an address which received a very
suitable answer.—(Great cheering.) He could not
help thinking at the moment, and revoking in his own
mind that there was not many centuries ago another
Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton, who did
not step forward to trample von his fellow-subjects,
to deprive them of their just rights, but who stood for-
ward prominently to extort from the King of this
country that charter of liberty which they now enjoyed.
—(Loud cheers.) But he bad much to say to this
Archbishop of Canterbury. In a speech, certainly of
much assumed modesty of manner, with
great affect-
ation of mildness and temperance, he inflicted upon
the Catholics of this country the most grievous, the

most shameful accusations. His first accusation was
that there was in this country—" their Lordships would
be surprised," he said, and so would this meeting be
surprised, gt to hear that much ignorance existed in this
country at the Reformation, and also that there were
no schools." Now he would have the Archbishop re-
collect where he received his education. He' would
ask him to examine the records of Oxford, and, instead
of the few colleges and the few halls that were
there, he would find at that unhappy period that
there were 400 colleges in the city of Oxford.—
(Cheers.) But the Archbishop seemed to assume, as
a consequence, that it was the province of the Catholics
to keep the people in ignorance. Let them look back
to the state of Europe at that period. Let them go
to Italy, that field for bigotry and fur everything that
was infamous--what did they find there ? Let them
go to Padua—to Bologna—and who did not know
that Bologna was the seat of the arts and sciences ?
Who did not know the great University of Padua? But be
would not leave his native country. He found. on examin-
ing- its records, that there were at that unhappy period
640 monasteries, each of these having schools, and let
it be marked well, to teach the poor gratuitously.—
(Great cheering.) These were not all. There were
90 colleges. Had the Established Church 90 colleges
at this des/ ? If the quest:on was put, no man would
have the hardihood to say so —(Mr. M'Donnell—
" Nor nine.") Nor, as his Friend Mr. M`Donn,ll
said, nine. Perhaps it might be thought that the
Popes, who were the heads of the Catholic religion,
(which was held forth as a system of bigotry and intole-
rance) they in these dark ages took a prominent
part in making the world ignorant. He would go back
600 years from this time, and he found that the Popes
were forward in promoting knowledge and instruction
among the people. Pope Alexander 111., Pope Inno-
cent /IL Pope Honorius 111., Pope Gregory IX.,
exerted their utmost efforts to promote education. At
the great Council of Lateran, held in 1179, Alexander
111. passed a decree enjoining every Cathedral church
to maintain at least one theological professor to instruct
candidates for the holy ministry. This was renewed by
Innocent 111. in the fourth Council of Lateran held in
1215. Let them mark that these were the dark ages. But
granting that the people were kept in ignorance at this
time, what did the Council of Trent do ? Why, it en-
joined every Bishop throughout Christendom to have
his diocesan seminary, in which candidates for the holy
ministry were instructed. Now he asked was there any
thing like that in the Established. Church of this
country ?—(No, no.) Had every Bi shop in this country
a diocesan seminary to instruct his Clergy ?—(No, no.)
But independently of these circumstances, it might be
imagined that at all events we had fallen off in this
respect. It might be imagined there was not that
nerve, that energy to impart instruction to the people
now. Let them cast their eyes on a neighbouring
country, France. He took that instance, because it
was called an infidel country, an irreligious country,
where it was supposed nobody went to Church. But
what did he find in that country ? He found there
were orders of men of very wide extent, separated from
all worldly ties, devoting themselves ,to the office
of instructing their fellow-crew tures, and more
particularly young children—he found that the
" Brothers of Christian Doctrine" had upwards of
three millions of children under their superintendence,
and after their other labours were over, these Christian
men devoted two hours in the evening (from eight
till ten o'clock) to teaching the Scripture truths to
adults ; and that a lesson from the New Testament
was daily committed to memory. He would not
detain them longer—he would only for a moment
refer (among other associations) to that excel-
lent institution for the education 'f 'the people—the
Jesuits.—(Cheers.) The colleges which those men had
instituted throughout the world were numerous, and all
were furnished with most excellent lib varies.—(Cheers.)
He was glad that his mention of an order which had done
so much for the benefit of mankind, was so well re-
ceived by so respectable a company- The great phi•
losopher, Lelande, in speaking of tit em, and the sup-
pression of the order, used these strong words :
" Humanity has for ever lost, and. will never again
recover," (here he was happily mistaken) " that noble
and wonderful body of two hundred thousand men,
who laboured incessantly, and disinterestedly, in
preaching, instructing, reconciling enemies, comforting
the dying, in a word, in the dischartee of all those duties
which are most sacred and dearest t o the human heart.
Retirement, sobriety, and self-denia 1, admirably fitted
the society to be the depository of vi,,tue and learning.
I knew the Jesuits intimately ; they were a race of
heroes -heroes of religion and charity„ and from religion
they derived a strength that philosop' by cannot supply."
What associations for the instructio; r of youth like the
Jesuits, founded by St. Ignatius, who filled all Europe
with colleges, on a large scale, with libraries and pro•
fessors of the greatest erudition ; w-fs a have produced
elementary Treatises on every branch of education, and
who were not more distinguished in it he vast regions of
science and literature than in the let miblest walks of
knowledg,; ? Thu Society has pr oduced profound
philosophers; like Boscovich ; matt ematicians, like
Clavius ; naturalists, like Kirchner ; artists in his-
torical painting, like Pozzi ; men or ti ate, like Lanzi ;
theologians, like Peteau, Suarez, Tol:et, Do Lugo, and
Bellarmine ; orators, like Bourdaloue• and Segneri ; his-
torians, like Du Halde, Bouhoura, II srdoun, Barton, or
Pallavicini. There were many other and more eloquent '
speakers to follow, he was therefore be mad not to detain
them longer, though the question being so large he had to
exercise much forbearance in compres sing the remarks
had to make. It was with a proud fet :ling he witnessed
such a meeting. The Catholics had been oppressed
and insulted to the very utmost degree.. They had been '
reviled and cast down, but the Catholics had proved
themselves equal, if not superior, in ail! the arts and '
sciences ; and in oratory, where was Cher e a better than
the Hon. and Learned Gentlemen whoem he was glad
to see there that day.—(Cheers.) He concluded by
moving the third resolution.
The Rev. Mr. HARRINGTON, of Warwick-street
chapel, rose to second the resedution. He felt
proud of having the honour of ad dressing them upon so
important an occasion. It had been said that they (the
Catholic body) feared the light bee %use their deeds were
darkness. In that Meeting they lied given the lie to
the assertion—he would call it the- foul calumny—they
were there in the face of day to s ay, " that if Greece
must perish, let her perish in the op en face of day." All
they wanted was fair play, a clear stage, and no favour.
—(Cheers.) They had always been prepared to take
up their present position--all they wanted was a leader
of much courage who would direct their energies into
a proper course—they had now obtained Erne who, in the
Language of the poet, had
~ A form of adarnant—a soul of Ere,
Whom no dangers daunt, nor labours tire." —( Cheers.)
What were their principles? They distinct,ly held that
no Prince, Potentate, or Parham ent had any right over
the education of the children he tonging to th e Cathalic
Church—that Church established upon the rotindation
laid down by Christ the Redeeneer, Had not: .the Al-
mighty Father sent down his Sim as a Teaches- to the
nations ? Did he not call around him and fashion. them
according to the will of the Father ? Theirs, w at, an
authorized, a transmitted power ; for did not Christ' say
unto his disciples--" He that. despiseth you despiseth
me, and he that despiseth me. despiseth him that sent
mc." They had a forni of doctrine—a systee lof treth
which was immutable. The doctrines—the truths of
the Gospel, were so fixed and unalterable tie et St. Paul
declared if any of the disciple s, or were ev en an angel
from Heaven to come down and preach atilt rwise than
according to the Gospel, let them be anatteert ma. It was
the bound and sacred duty of the priest to teach, the
people, and it was the sacred duty of the: flocee, to pay
implicit obedience to the doct tines of the Churc. h as laid
down by her authorised pastors,. 'lf they did nce ' follow
the doctrines of the Church, then:errors of a .heinous, nature
would naturally be the result ; ' were they to read an, d put
their own construction upon •.the -truths of 'tae ti.'bie,
errors would creep in in the sa me manner as the Paeean
world had imbibed them, fro m the Book -of Na.ture.
Were people to read the Bible; and put on the- specta 'ales
of Antinornianisrn ?—(Laug'nter.) Others, again, read
the Bible with the spectacles vi Predestinariani sm,:veith
the notion of the Deity tleat he had foredo( mica his
creatures, leaving them without hope. Suet i was not
the teaching of the Catholic Chui ch. The la wof their
Church was that the people shot tld listen to the voice
of their pastor ; that was the prim: iple of their Church,
and that was her practice.—(Hear.) When_'! he looked
around him, and saw a wide circle of wise.; a nd pious
Bishops circling around the head of their Ci lurch—
when he saw the still more spreading circle cif pastors
teaching the people, and the people forming a stall wider
and more spreading circle, listering• eagerly i 4 the to-
struction of their pastors, which produced p ease and
harmony, he saw much that was gratifying and e 4tering.
He hoped such a pleasing picture would be con tiinued,
that so Heaven might look ;loam and see its own image
reflected in its breast. He trusted that meeting se's:eld
have the beneficial effect of making them and th, sir prin-
ciples better known to their counlrymen—tbat the sg-
noranee of their princin%es might be dispelled, and let
England know that till,ey feare,i not the light but: court -eel
it.—(Cheers.) He bad muck pleasure in seer mai. og
the motion of his Reverend Brother.
The resolution was then put and passed with' , accla- ,
relation

FRANCIS RIDDELL, Esq., cc ,uld not but reg ret that
the resolution he held in his ha ads had not fa lien into
those of a gentleman who woulul have been al de to do
more justice to it than he The fourth, resolution
which he had to propose app,mred .to him to .4) mbody a
truism, and followed as a ceoallary o f the 7dr-si fin, d others
which had been passed, for surely no, one would n
'y that
the children of their flocks should bee ducated in thci r reli-
gious duties by any other than the Ca tholic clergy, L
ap-
peared to him very extraordinary tha t after the CobtA lies
had been put upon an equality with t heir fellow übj
and when a miserable grant fort he -s
pur pese of -
tional Education was made by the 1 House o' Commoos,
that any party—even the Cons er rativo party in the
House of Lords backed by the Malmo"
of the Angli
can Church should see fit to . oppose any part of it
finding its way for the edr ,cation or; the Catholic.
There was no sect or set of men
who were more
wealthy, yet they had left the people' in ignorance, as

cur.

was proved by the madness of those followers of the
madman Thorn who were surrounded by their Clergy.
Were the Catholics quietly to sit down and give the
education of their children to the Bishop of
Exeter or the Clergy taught under that meek
and pious man—(Loud laughter)—of that man
who pushed his way to the prelacy by reviling and
calumniating. a great part of his fellow subjects.—
(Cheers.) Was he a man to whom the direction of
the education of:Catholic e'ildran should he left ? There
was a time, before emancipation was obtained, when it
might have been expected that the Church of England
would have stretched out her hand as she did now, but
after that triumph had been achieved by the immense
exertions of a great man, whom he was proud to see
amongst them that day—(Loud cheers)—he confessed
he was astonished that they should see the spirit of
fanaticism find a resting-place amongst the Tories in the
House of Peers. He trusted that the echo of that
great meeting would reach the House of Lords in such
a manner as might disturb the gravity of even their
Lordships. (Cheers.) He had much pleasure in
moving-
4th. That, as Catholics, we demand and insist that the re-
ligious instruction of Catholic children should be placed under
the exclusive inspection and management of the Prelates and
Pastors of the Catholic Church.
EDWARD BLOUNT, Esq., said he had been only a few
minutes since requested to second the resolution, and
was therefore in some degree unprepared, but he could
never be unprepared on the subject of education.—
(Hear.) He was and always had been a decided friend
to general education in its most extended form. He
came forward to state a few of the grounds on which
he agreed in the sentiments embodied in the present re-
solution, and he fully agreed in the principle which had
been already laid down, " that the education of the '
Catholics ought to be committed to their prelates and '
pastors." With regard to the question of general edu-
cation, he wondered how any man could be found to
assert that the mind should not be instructed. What
was mind ? It was an emanation from the Divinity,
placed in their breasts that they might cultivate it—
that every individual should have the benefit of that im-
provement, which would accrue to the whole world by
its promulgation. He would ask them was not
poverty, and misery, and vice commensurate with
the ignorance of a people ?—(Hear, hear, hear.)
Was not the crying sin of the country its general de-
gradation, and in what better mode could they divert it
than by giving to mind its full and internal value. He
would not dwell much longer upon the subject, always
bearing in mind that whatever was done in temper and
discretion was much more efficient than what was done
in any other way. To whom, then, was the education
to be confided ? Was it to the calumniators of their
religion and the oppressors of their faith ? Were they
to confide it to these hands ?—(Cries of " No, no.")
If not then, to whom ? Just to the Roman Catholic Pre-
lates ; and he wished to record what he and every other
individual who knew them must feel as regarded these ex-
cellent personages. From the period when he could first
make any obzervation to the present moment, he had al ways
found them most exemplary, pious, and worthy charac-
ters.—(Hear, hear.) Was there any individual who
dared to affix a single stigma upon the characters of
these men to whom they wished to see confided the
education of their children ? Then as to the pastors, he
asked, could there be found in any society a body of men
more respectable than were their apostolic pastors?—
(Cheers,) They were individuals distinguished for the
excellence of their lives, by their exemplary conduct.
They preached a mild system of liberality and religion,
and their lives were as pure as the doctrines they
preached.—(Cheers.) Would they confide the educe
tion of their children to those men, or the party who had
opposed education in every form ?—( Hear, hear.) They
could have no better pledge for the purity and morality
of the education that would be conferred upon their
children than that it was confided to their prelates and
clergy. Under these circumstances, there was not one
ord of the resolution in which he did not cordially con.

The resolution was then put, and carried unan'
mously.

Mr. C. ANSTEY rose and said—ln addressing for
the first time an assembly of my countrymen met toge-
ther for the exercise of their high constitutional right
of discussing a question now before Parliament, and of
petitioning the Houses upon it, I most sincerely con-
gratulate you upon this satisfactory result of the long
and bitter agitation of which we have been made the
objects. If the assemblies of Catholics disused when
a tardy emancipation made them, in some measure, un-
necessary, should after an interval of repose be again
needed, for securing not the freedom itself, but the fruit
and consequence thereof, sure am I that when so re-as-
sembled, it will not be by cringing accents of serfship, or
even of inferiority, that we shall testify to those whom
we withstand, that we are alike unfit for our freedom,
and unworthy of their prowess. We have indeed
waited, but it was only till occasion should unbind our
utterance, and, since it has come, I trust that now and
in all fittint seasons, from this day forward, we shall
ever be ready and willing, openly and fearlessly, to
speak. In this instance, it seems to me, that we stand
in a peculiarly gracious and favourable position. We
find our Sovereign, and the Ministry of her choice and
confidence, assiiled and slandered by those whose pas- '
time or business it is to blaspheme our holy religion.
True defenders of Church and Queen we stand forth
to oppose tho-ward of Loyalty and-Faith to the blows
which, by a rare coincidence, Tory hands are dealing
against the Church our holy mother and our gracious
Sovereign Victoria. For it is remarkable that the very
freedom Irons all coercion on the part of the State,
which here, as always, is well understood to be most
'emphatically demanded for the Church by its venerable
earthly head, is precisely that element in the proposed
Parliamentary grant, which gives it all its value and its
beauty in the eyes of British Liberals ; the one element
mutilated of which all the rest beside would be worthless
and vain, and its maintenance, ceasing to be their duty,
would begin to be their crime and their reproach.
Thus, happily for all, the vows of our holy Church, the
wishes of Government, and the demands of the great
Liberal party, combine in favour of the same grand
principle which asserts the unmolested freedom of con-
science. Neither State nor Church Establishment are
to exercise even the slightest controul over that which
is higher than either, the soul of man. The limits are
defined, which mark the separation of the two provinces,
the temporal and the eternal, nor can they be over-
passed safely or conscientiously, unless to the subjection
of the former, and the elevation of the latter. Either
a perfect independence must reciprocally subsist or the
Church must become the point which culminates. But

that the State should overpower the Church, that
the body should prevail over the ghostly, that
the world should triumph over Heaven, we
neither will nor can consent to tolerate.—
We leave the thraldom which we spurn from our-
selves, to those whose Hierarchy, Liturgy, and Articles
of Faith are but the progeny of Parliament, still craving
legislative monopolies and protecting bounties as their
daily bread, without which they famish, as the very
breath of their nostrils, without which they sicken and
die. We assert these principles in their own native
beauty, and we scorn their concealment. Why should
we dissemble ? Ours is not the whisper of a despised rem-
nant, crouching in corners and trembling lest the winds
shouldreveal our resting-place, or the birds of the air be-
tray our secret words, but the free, full utteranceof two mil-
' lions of Britons. What inducement have we, even could
our interests palliate such baseness, to seek favour frOm
our foes by relinqUishing the high ground whereon our
religious motive places us ? It is on Catholic principles
that I base my advocacy of this plan, and on no other.
We are not beggars for favours, but claimants for our
rights. Clothed with the same franchises as our country-
men, we are second to none in the faculties or accom-
plishments which are needed for their exercise.—
(Cheers.) They will hence understand that to obtain
our righteous share in the benefits of this or any other
public measure, we will compromise nothing, soften no-
thing, surrender nothing belonging to what they arc
pleased to call our spiritual darkness. The battle must
tis. fought : if it shall be won by us, we will use our
victory, nut abuse it ; if we fail, and England and edu-
cation are once more consigned to the tender keeping
of these masters from whom the masses have for three
centuries received so admirable a measure of moral and
social enligi?tenment, we shall record our protest against
the wicked itvustice, and gird ourselves to renew the
battle when the odds are fewer and the chances greater.
Of the infatuation vriaich is now at work among the
great Protestant aristocracy, I shall say but little.
One idea seems to possess them so exclusively, as to
leave them neither leisure nor space for others which
should come more home to their bosoms at this hour.
Their bugbear is Popery ; the foe of the Anglican
Church, the friend of rebel Ireland, the ally of the
Melbourne Cabinet! Surely the foe of the thing men
call Chnrch of England—its enduring foe--even as the
truth which inspires it must ever be of error ; but like
that truth, honest, scrupulous, God-fearing in its en-
mity-, But. are we the only enemies? Are there
none nearer hone ? Are we likely to raise the mob
above the throne„nr to prostrate the sacred barriers of
rank, property, and %-ested franchise, either before a
tyrant or a populace ? the grave and reverend gen-
tlemen who, laying aside the p,lnderous and inconvenient
tomes of other days, borrow Oseir immense theology
from the columns of the Times, p„..'l, and Herald—do
they really believe their own base slan,4ers, which they
would put off upon the public for current coin ? Do
even the parsons imagine that if their own abasement
should come to pass, and the Cross once more be e:aalted
—that if this long-deserted people should throng around
the old traditions of their fathers, asking of them that
life and health which were never asked in vain ; that if
they should
" Unthread the rude eye of rebellion,
And welcome home again discarded faith,
that we should imitate those excesses which marked
the foundation of their own Church ? Do they imagine
that we should study a single page in the history of
tbe, Refermation, unless, perhaps, to denote by a con-
duct most guardedly contrasted, how deep is our ab-
horrence of excess, and rapine, and bloodshed ? But
some of these dangers are now at their very doors.
They are already beset and harrassed by enemies as
determined as ourselves, but of a character which we