The Sun.
London, England, 1853-02-23 00:00:00

[PRIOR SD.

act in a manner that would preserve that establishment
As to the Roman Catholics, it was expressed by the oath
in clear and plain words, that they were bound to pre-
serve the Protestant establishment in Church and
State. He was convinced that the system of educe-
cation carried 'on in Maynooth College really and truly
justified the conduct that they all s• justly deprecated
- -the violent, unconstitutional, and almost rebellious
conduct that had taken place during the elections in
Ireland ; • and if any man were tried for those overt acts
of riot and disturbance that had taken place during those
elections, he might turn to the books in the College of
Maynooth, and say, " You paid the priest for teaching
me, and I obey the priest." In those books the doctrine
was laid down that everything must be sacrificod for the.
interest of the Church. An oath was no longer binding
than it was consistent with the Church's interest, and
no faith was to be kept with heretics, if the interests of
the Church required the abandonment of that faith.
(Hear, hear.) He would prove that those were the doc-
trines which were contained in the books taught at
Maynooth ; and he asked if he were using too strong an
expression when he said that they justified the proceed-
ings at those elections by the education which they con-
tributed to give the Irish people ? Let them look to
Ireland, and see what had taken place at the elections,
and how the priests had behaved. Let them look to
what had taken place at the hustings, and how many of
those members who were sworn not to disturb the con-
' stitution in Church and State had declared that' they
would never rest satisfied until they had equality of
religion. (Hear, hear, from several members, the voice
of Mr. Lucas being particularly distinguishable.) He
was speaking ,in the presence of honourable members
who had sworn to maintain the constitution in Church
and State, and who had declared that they would give
no countenance to any Government unless they 'were
forgetful of the oath of allegiance theyhad taken to the
Sovereign, and of the-high duty they owed to Almighty
trod.. begged to call attention to the following
I statements, extracted from Irish journals in reference to
proceedings that had taken place in connection with
the last election, and would begin with the county of
Dublin. In the Evening Herald the following state-
ment was published :—" In the chapel of Lusk the
priest addressed the people at mass ; he called every
1 voter he knew to be in the chapel by name to the altar ;
he warned them of the strictly religious character of the
struggle now going on in the-face of the congregation ;
he cautioned them against voting through any influence
or circumstances for any other than certain candidates,
and said with respect to those who despised his advice,
and the interests of the Church, that he would not be sur-
prised if their houses were burned over their heads." If
a clergyman of the Church of England had said that the
whole country would ring with a cry for his deposition from
his office. He begged in the next place to read the fol-
lowing extract from the Kilkenny Moderator :—" They
say the most determined persecution of those who voted
against their Church has been entered upon by the; Ro-
man Catholic clergy. On Sunday Mr. P. Ryan, of
Castlecomer, who had split his vote between Butler and
Green, was going to mass, and as he dropped his money
into the box at the chapel-door' he was collared land
marched out by the direction of the priest, and handed
over to the tender mercies of a savage mob, who hooted
him and pelted him with stones." Then came the county
of Meath. A newspaper published in that county had
the following, which exhibited the extent to which
bigotry was carried on there :—A parish priest
in the county of Meath addressed his flock in these
terms during the last election :—" In the presence of
the Most High, by the living God, and by the crucifix
before you, will you not vote for Lucas ?" (Laughter.)
He would now read a passage from Saunders' flews
Letter, describing the state of things in King's CouSity :
—" The priests are busily engaged in endeavouring to
persuade the people to return their nominees, bal' of
whom are 'lan- strangers in the county. The violent
harangues de"vered each succeeding Sabbath from the
altar have now assumed an aspect which must be re-
garded with alarm by all who desire the common peace
of the community. The. crusade is against law .and
order and the rights of property. From one end ofithis
county to the other the most fearful anathemas' are
threatened on the heads of those who will dare to vote
against the nominees of the priests." There way' the
character of the priesthood of Maynooth, whose educa-
tion was to elevate their minds, to attach them more
and more to this country, and to make them good
subjects. He thought that went to prove howi far
the education they got at Maynooth had answered
the end intended by the Government in conceding the
establishment of that college. He would next read
an • extract from the Leinster Express :—" The view
into the other world of those Catholics who voted
for Mr. Browne (said the Rev. James Maher, at ' the
Carlow election) was far from affording consolation ; let
them go and be damned." (Laughter.) The same paper
said it had been credibly informed that a Roman Catholic
clergyman in King's County threatened suspension of
the Church's rites against those who would not vote as
he desired ; and that a congregation in that county was
addressed by another priest in these terms :—" You all
know Mr. ; well, he is a black sheep among you.
Now, I do not mean to call down the judgment of the
Almighty upon him, but if it so happens that he falls
from his horse and breaks his head, or that his house or
his hay-yard accidentally takes fire, I should not at all
wonder." Again, in the Waterford Mail he read : -
quoting from the Carlow Sentinel—of the exhortation of
a priest in that county from the altar, at the period in
question, to the effect that every man who did not Elide
with the Church by voting for the popular candidate
should be a marked man ; that he should be shunied
by all as a person infected ; and that the public
should compel their friends and neighbours to vote,
if they even dragged them out of their howles.
" The battle," the priest continued, " is now between
God and the devil— (a laiigh)—and if you do not win,
the nunneries will be broken into, the saints of God
ill-treated and your chapels broken down." But this
was not all. The Carlow Sentinel made a public state- '
ment of the persecution to which persons differing in
political opinion from the priests were exposed. The
statement was, in substance, that two most respectahle
Roman Catholic policemen, named Odier and Make,
who had gone to the chapel at Donegal to hear mass,
were received by the crowd with hooting and groaning :
that they were prevented from entering the chapel ;
that they were violently assaulted ; and that one of them,
Odier, was severely injured by a blow of a stone on the
head. This arose solely from the activitrof these con-
stables in preserving the peace at the election, and pro-
tecting the voters who were assailed. The same day,
at another chapel, a tenant of Col. Bruen was assaulted
with stones, and had to be escorted to the barracks IT
the police for safety. He would next read to the house
an extract from a letter of the Galway correspondent, of
the Western Star. It furnished a still further proof of the
prevalence of the system of persecution on the part
of the priests against the voters who supported the
candidates to whom they were opposed. This corre-
spondence was to the effect that the Right Rev. Dr.
Wllale had declared no Roman Catholic could vote for
Lord Derby's Government, except under these circum-
stances—namely, except he wished Mr. Lacey to em-
power some fashionable Adonis to invade the sancity
and seclusion of the nunneries—except he wished to
have the chapels of their religion wrecked—to see their
priests in prison—to see the God of Heaven, under the
form of bread and wine, exposed to blasphemous and
sacrilegious outrage, as happened on a late occasion—
except he wished to see every procession permitted, save
that of Corpus Christi, when God should hide his face—
except he wished not to see their houses of worship pre-
served to the people—except he wished to see the bishops
and priests undergo heavy penalties for violating an un-
gracious law—unless they wished these things, Roman
Catholics could not support Lord Derby's Governinerit.
Now, upon these extracts he grounded this argument
that they afforded most convincing and unanswerable
proof that the endowment of Maynooth College had
not answered the expectations which were formed
at the time it was endowed. The house was then
told that those who were the teachers of so many
millions of our fellow-subjects should cease to have
a foreign education ; that they-should have an education
at home ; that they should learn to feel a sympathy
with their own country ; and to be loyal subjects and
good citizens ; and that when that was the case, they
would no longer be exposed to that system of bigotry
which had been so long complained of by almost every
Government which had attempted to rule Ireland. He
submitted that that part of the case was at least made
out ; that so far as the effect of the education given
.at
,Maynooth was concerned, we had been grieveaoueselymtheade-
appointed.
(Hear.) And if so there was a
out that Maynooth had not aenseswweLehdeutnhd,i
the expectations
formed respectingit, and the ho
afrt osmomtehlaetncol-
lege. The hon. member proceeded .
of . .
to withdraw their supportadcountete
religious liberty, in which the writer stated that it was
from an article in the Rambler on the subject civil and
difficult to determine whether the so-called rights of civil
liberty or religious liberty, embodied the greatest amount
of nonsense or falsehood, and that these phrases, Sc) con-
stantly in the mouths of both Catholics and Protestants,
contained about as much truth as the cry for the inalien
able rights of suicide. How, for instance, could Lord
John Russell, with any decency, have persecuted the
Catholics unless he had protested that he did it in the
special
Oppositionbenefi tof
sacred name of civil and religious liberty; and how could
thoseheeeh
benches
sho consentco ntintuoedintaok
e sitlawwis for
with itmh ein thecin4
the rich and titled, unless by asserting that it was done
for the furtherance of that civil and religious liberty
which were the inalienable rights of the people ? The
hon. member then proceeded to refer to the case of the
persecution in Tuscany as a proof of the little value which
was placed upon the great cause of civil and religious li-
berty by Roman Catholics. An hon. member near him
(Mr. Lucas) had, upon a late occasion, actually vindicated
the conduct of the Grand Duke, and arraigned the conduct
of the house for lifting up its voice in the sacred cause
of liberty. He (Mr. Spooner) warned those who were
responsible to the Crown and the country for the main-
tenance. of our Protestant institutions not to trifle with
this important matter. The interests of the country, of
the Church, and of sound religion, depended muchi onf
he
the course which the Government mightpursue.
ande y
the cases of
were permitted to go into committee,
pre-
pared to respect every individual right h
professors and others who might be affected by the uld be
with-
drawal of the grant. But they were not merely educat-
ing priests for Ireland at Maynooth, large numbers o