The Sun.
London, England, 1853-01-26 00:00:00

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importations have done their and it is Ite-
11i07000ed tohratnt,hweroe
pareer,eorcin Twuhsocaanrey tsepl,iviatuoor:o,,
roc v
ing God's Word. Rome knows this, an
shakes to her centre when thus assailed. She then
flies to her never-failing refuge—persecution. By
her having resort to this, we may know her fears.
She eschews persecution where she is the weakest
party, as in England and America. She does not
employ persecution where the people are her de-
voted slaves, as in Spain and Portugal. Like Sir •
Anthony Absolute, she is the best-tempered crea-
ture in the world, when she has everything her own
way. But when her supremacy is assailed, as in
Italy just now, by the circulation of the Holy
Scriptures, there she rages ; and if she may, she
will destroy by force all such attempts to resusci-
tate the knowledge of the Gospel.
As Lord Carlisle remarked in his letter, which
we gave on Monday, and as the meeting of yester-
day stated in its resolutions, these doings plainly
refute the assurances by which we were deluded by
Sir Robert Peel and his followers in 1829 and 1845,
that the old Popery was extinct, and that the
Popery of our day was a civilised and altered thing,
which filight be admitted to our firesides without
danger. The Popery of Dominic and of Alva is
the Popery of 1853. The Popery which burned to
death the aged Archbishop of Canterbury in the
streets of Oxford is the same Popery which now
immures two harmless, inoffensive creatures in the
dungeons of Tuscany, to the great peril of their
lives, for the crime of reading the Scriptures to their
maid-servant. Nay, it has gone farther than this.
Garducci was so far aware of their watchfulness
and their bitterness that he never ventured to read
the Bible to his wife until he had first sent his
maid-servant out on some errand
.! Yet this
cautious man, the trusted and valued clerk in a
bank, was seized in the dead of night, and now
liesin a dungeon, because, on searching his house,
a Bible was found in it.

[PRICE SD.

nobleman who has violated the law of his country to
this degradation. But all Europe is stunned with the
clamour raised by a pack of fanatics, every one of whom
is a persecutor in heart, and would be an exterminator
if he or she had the power—because two Italian menials
are made amenable to the laws of their country.". That
was thought an excellent sentence, no doubt ; but to
him it indicated the very essence of that church of Rome
which he detested. (Cheers.) If nobles had been

mprisoned, then a deputation might have been sent
over, and would have been worthy of attention ; but
they were menials. (Hear, hear.) Why, it was the glory
of Christianity that it raised the menial—(cheers)—that
" in Christ Jesus there is neither barbarian nor Scythian,
bond nor free." (Loud cheers.) The Madiai were their
brethren in the hope of immortality ;'and • 'and whether they
were menials or nobles made no difference. It was the
glory of this country that the poorest man in the streets
was protected equally with the nobility ; and what they
wished to do was, to secure for Florence the same equa-
hty
,of rights with regard to religion. However a Ro-
man Catholic editor might pour contempt on the depu-
tation—for such men could rail when they could not
reason—they might appeal from him to one who made
pity for the poor and the oppressed the very test of dis-
cipleship. Gladly, then, did he tender a vote of thank to
the members of thedeputation. It mightlbe said that the
deputation, by its impertinent interference, had done
nothing but rivet the chains it sought to unloose. If so,
it had marked more clearly than it was marked before
the indomitable hatred of the Roman Catholic Church
to Protestantism and to Protestant piety. But the
effect would not stop there. That meeting was the pre-
curser of many others. (Hear, hear.) If they could
not appeal to the generosity of Roman Catholic gentle.
men or to their sense of what was right—and he be-
lieved that with numbers such an appeal would not be
in vain— (hear, hear)—at least they could appeal to the
polic3r-of - the coldest priest, they could appeal to the
policy of a Church which had never been accused of
been unskilful in that respect. (Hear, hear.) Let these
meetings go on, let them extend throughout the land,
and then a deputation larger, more zealous, more
trembling, than that which was sent from this country,
would be found first at the Vatican, and then at the
palace in Tuscany, to say to those who held the keys of
the Madiai's prison, "Let them loose, or we are undone ;
you are doing us an amount of mischief in England
which all your continental money cannot annihilate ; you
are convincing the people of England that our church
remains just as bitter, just as implacable, just as intole-
rant, as she was in the ,days when the Protestants of
France, and of the Low Countries, and of Piedmont, and
of every part of the known world, were sent to the rack,
and to the stake, and to the torture, for holding the very
principles which Englishmen maintain." (Loud and
long-continued applause.) They were called fana-
tics for exhibiting so much sympathy for the
Madiai. Such a charge sounded strange from Ro-
man Catholics. What did the meeting think of the
following advertisement in a Roman Catholic news-
paper ? Our Ladye of Grace of Acton.—Our Ladye of
Grace of Acton has well nigh 100 poor children, but she
has no funds for either school or teacher. Our Ladye of
Grace of Acton has a priest with a cure of 1,500 souls,
chiefly poor labouring men and women dispersed through
the villages, of Acton, Ealing, Turnham-green, Chiswick,
Sutton, and part of lrentford ; but she has neither church
for her people, nor rectory for her priest. Our Ladye
of Grace of Acton sits in her poor damp cellar weep-
ing. Such the sole shelter she has for herself, her
children, her people, her priest—aye, even for the
glorious presence of her son. Oh !—" vos manes qui
transitis per viant."—can you do nothing for our Ladye
of Grace of Acton, noble and rich ladies and gen-
tlemen, with pleasant houses, and bright, fair, happy
children—converts who owe your happiness to this same
—money
son—and
nrel
—e
obt
nua
yourselveseni llyadd dway
servantsec—hl
nothingut geracohcoihbdf
but
rtChristian
hmre
por
Mary?npo
oee yr neglectede p 1
ieaooidl people le eatyh
tabernacle
ll
cse hildren
things.
eohnnnogs
s__ p.
fml
oer
rooAfnhheheees
—moneys
send, then, some aid, even though the most trifling—
even a postage-stamp. Never was need more dire than
this." (Laughter.) Though he thought this country
might just as properly abandon its diplomatic relations
with Tuscany as with the most atrocious savage on
earth, yet as diplomacy was not a mere matter of com-
pliment, the resolution was, it would be observed, very
cautiously framed. What was desired was, that they
should as a nation manifest their hatred of this
atrocious conduct by nature of the relations main-
tained, and that the Grand Duke must not expect any
friendliness from this country if he continued to persecute
those who showed their convictions. (Cheers.)
Sir H. VERNEY seconded the resolution.

Surely, if we are not labouring under a judicial
blindness, these things ought to open our eyes.
We actually support a college to teach the doctrine
which lead to these results. For 30 years we have
been assured that all this was immaterial ; for that,
though the doctrines were there, nobody now
believed them, and that, havingnit6ii-into disuse,
they could do no harm. Who will argue thus now?
We see those very doctrines brought into use in a
friendly city, crowded with English ; and when we
intercede for the victims, we are treated with con-
tempt. Why are not the same things done in
England also ? Simply because the Rom9,nists want
power. Give them that, and the fate otGarducci
and of the Maliai would be the fate of myriads in
England at the present moment.
Yesterday's meeting called for the speedy solu-
tion of the question, at least so far as it might,be
achieved, by the withdrawal of the British embassy
from Florence. Such a step we knew would be
willingly seconded by the other Protestant powers.
We shall be curious to see how the present Cabinet,
depending for its very existence on the good-will
and support of the " Pope's brass band" in Parlia-
ment, will venture to deal with this request, mad
by a large and resolute body of Englishmen.

The resolution was passed unanimously.
Capt. TROTTER then addressed the meeting as a member
of the deputation to Florence. Re commenced by ex-
pressing his gratitude at seeing such deep interest and
sympathy manifested on behalf of the poor Bible-readers
of Florence, adding that there were now in the state
of Tuscany upwards of 20,000 persons who had become
more or less convinced of the errors of popery. The
Madiai were, he observed, of a most respectable
class in life. Previous to their incarceration they
were highly esteemed by the other converts for their
devoted and consistent Christianity, and even Roman
Catholics respected them for their modest and consistent
deportment. Rosa Madiai was suffering in prison from
a spinal complaint ; and though she had been re-
moved in consequence (as was understood) from one cell
to another, there was no improvement in her posi-
tion, the cell being so damp that the very shoes on her
feet had become mouldy. Her cell and her . posi-
tion were described to him by Lord Roden, who
visited her, in the following manner. The cell was
a small one. Though condemned to hard labour, she
was employed only in light needle-work. A small
stool was chained to one corner of the cell ; in an-
other part was a bench, also chained ; and the two were
so far apart that, though afflicted with spinal disease,
she was unable to rest her feet on the bench while
sitting on the stool ; nor was the bedstead in a position
which made it available for this purpose. None but
those who had been afflicted with spinal disease could
tell what it was for her to be thus situated. The
meeting had been told that the punishment for reading
the Scriptures was death. That the law was not
meant to be inoperative would appear from the fact,
that the old guillotine, which was put away as use-
less at Lucca, had recently been cleaned up, and brought
back to Florence; and in the last month a guillotine man
was appointed at a regular salary, and was now waiting
to execute any poor Bible reader who might be
transferred to his hands. (Hear, hear.) As an illustra-
tion of the means which were being used by the Roman
Catholic clergy to stop the Protestant work in Florence,
he would just mention one fact. A young man in that
city, who had a sister who had just returned from a con-
vent, where she had been educated for some year; while
sitting in his father's house, observed a letter on the
table directed to the priest who was confessor and in-
structor to his sister during her residence in the convent.
Without any particular object, he took it up, when his
eyes became rivetted oh some words, which appeared to
him almost diabolical : though a Roman Catholic, he
said he could not have believed that such words could
be written. The words which fixed his attention
were these : "Do you suppose," wrote his young sister
to her confessor, "do you suppose that after being with
you six or eight years. (he could not remember the pre-
cise period) I have not learnt, when occasion requires,
to be able to deceive my mother." (Hear.) The priest
was, doubtless, employing the young lady to worm out
the secrets of the family, and to discover, if possible,
how the cause of Protestantism was progressing. (Hear,
hear.) Let them beware of the confessional in England.
(Cheers.) If it once prevailed in the Established Church,
God defend us from the consequences. (Hear.)
The Rev. Dr. ANDERSON moved the following resolu-
tion :—" That regarding the late proceedings in Tuscany as
indicative of the real character of Popery in its dominant
condition, and as furnishing the fullest disproof of all
those representations that its character has been amelio-
rated by which the British people have been deluded for
many years past—this meeting renews its protest against
all national encouragement of a system so adverse to the
commands of God, and so injurious to the best interests
of man. Especially it adopts petitions to both Houses
of Parliament, praying for the discontinuance of the en-
dowment of Maynooth College ; and for the enactment
of some provision which shall secure the due inspection
and proper regulation of all nunneries and convents in
the United Kingdom."
Mr. JOSIAH CONDER seconded the resolution, which
was adopted by the meeting.
The meeting terminated with a vote of thanks to the
chairman.

(From the Morning Herald.)

The meeting held yesterday in Exeter Hall was
probably the largest ever congregated within that
Ipacious building. Six thousand tickets 'ere
applied for, and as the place will scarcely hold
4,000, it is probable that nearly 2,000 left without
obtaining even standing room.
The resolutions adopted were of the firmest tone.
The chief point now aimed at, is, the withdrawal
of the British embassy from Florence. Surely y this
is almost an obvious course. The ur gent sentations of two of the greatest Sovereigruesprine-f
Europe have been disrec,arded,
dogged and obdurate tyrabnny is and a course o
pe.rseveied in.
Why should England and Prussia maintain ambas-
i sadors at a Court of so insignificant a character, if,
on such a point as this, their earnest intercessions
are treated with disregard ? Nay, are not these
Protestant Governments in some sort sanctioning
these persecutions, if they stand by, and attempt
nothing more than a few unheeded representations ?
One thing is quite clear, from the Madiai case,
the Garducci case, the Mazzinghi case, and many
others which have lately occurred—namely,
the Church of Rome in Italy is in a state of arrest
that
alarm. The odium of these persecutions ilu..rae,
her greatly, and she would not recklessly inceurytnex!
Odium, were it not that she fears for her
very
last
istence. During the various troubles
been seized
few years in Italy, the opportunity has
States many
of circulating in the various Italian
thousand copies of the Holy
works. These
.Scriptures, besides
Prayer Books, and small religious