The Sun.
London, England, 1840-05-28 00:00:00

,VENING EDITION.

CAT LIOLIC INSTITUTE OF
GREAT RRITAIN.

ANNUAL MEETING.
The annual meeting of the Ca4iolic In,titute of
Great Britain took place on Tuesday, at the Freemasons'
Tavern. The hour appointed for the meeting was
twelve o'clock, but, long previous to that period, the
doors of the tavern were beset by hip..-lily respectable
persons, anxious to gain admission. The doors were
opened shortly before twelve o'clock, and many minutes
had not elapsed before the room was crowded to suffo-
cation. The Hon. Charles Langdale took the chair
shortly after one o'clock ; at. which period we noticed
on the platform Lord Camoys, Lord Stourton, Lord
Clifford, the Hon. Charles Clifford, Mr. P. Howard,
M.P., J. Husband, Esq. of Dunfermline, the Rev. Mr.
Sisk, the Rev. Mr. Robson, Dr. Hughes (the Bishop
Coadjutor of New lurk), ClFles Wills, Esq., Charles
Townley, Esq., and severlT other Catholics of dis•
tinction. . .

Mr. LANGDALE, upon taking the chair, was most
enthusiastically cheered. He said—Gentlemen, I be-
lieve it may be generally known that the present meet-
ing is an adjournment of the annual meeting of the
Catholic Institute, appohited to be held about a fort-
night ago. Whatever doubts there may have been in
the minds of the gentlemen then present, as to the pro-
priety of adjourning that meeting, I am quite sure,
from the appearance of the present, and from the num-
ber and respectability of those I now see around me,
there can be no longer any doubt on the minds of any
gentleman then present. Gentlemen, 1 for one am not
very fond of seeing subjects connected with religion
frequently brought under discussion in large public
meetings, but I must say, considering the Catholic In-
stitute has enacted, and I think wisely so, to hold
but one meeting in the course of the year, I think it
highly desirable on such an occasion, that as much pub-
licity as possible should be given to the day on which
that meeting is to be held—(Cheers)—not only to the
Catholics in the seetropolis and its vicinity, but to the
utmost extent of Great Britain, to which the branches
of the Catholic Institate extends.--(Cheers.) I think
it highly desirable, upon an interesting occasion such as
the present, that every Catholic should have an oppor-
tunity of reviewing the proceedings of the Society for
the past year, of approving or disapproving of those
proceedings, and also that they should be called upon,
if they desire it, to give their sanction to the proceed-
ings that it may be proposed to adopt for the ensuing
year. I lament that another object which we had in
view, in adjourning this meeting, has not been suc-
cessful. We had hoped that the Earl of Shrewsbury
—(Cheers)_the President of the Society, whom we
understood was already at Paris, on his return to this
country, would have taken the chair.—(Cheers.)
Gentlemen, personally I deeply lament that the Noble
Earl is not present, because I feel how much more ably
and appropriately he would have filled the chair than I
can possibly do ; however, I feel I shall best fulfil the
duty You have imposed on me, if I proceed at once to
the business of the day. It is not my intention,
in that respect, to trespass long upon your
attention, and I shall leave it to those gentlemen
who have resolutions to propose, to comment upon the
matter and substance of those resolutions. (Here Mr.
O'Connell entered the meeting, which was the signal
for the most enthusiastic cheering, which lasted for
several minutes. When quiet had in some measure
been restored, the worthy Chairman proceeded.) lam
happy to say that one of the observations I had to
make to the meeting has been forestalled by the ap-
pearance of my Hon. and Learned Friend who has just
arrived.—(Cheers.) Before, Gentlemen, as I was
stating, I call upon any one to move these resolutions
I cannot resist the opportunity of congratulating the
meeting and expressing my great gratification at the in
crease, the rapid increase, which the Catholic Institute
bas succeeded in obtaining during the short period of
two years. Whatever doubts there might have been
entertained, and I believe there were some very con-
scientioue doubts, as to the propriety of the course then
adopted, I believe that the meeting can well testify to
the high approbation of the course then pursued. I
believe, Gentlemen, that the progress the Institute has
made, spreading its branches to every part of the
country through the breadth and length of the land, is
the best testimony of the stability of the ground on
which it is formed. There is one other circumstance
I cannot help alluding to, though it forms the subject
of a resolution. I allude to the high and gra-
tifying sanction which the Catholic Institute has received
from the venerable head of the Church of Rome-
and I cannot but congratulate the gentlemen who form
the members of the Catholic Institute on sharing in the
apostolic benediction which has been sent by the Divine
Founder of our holy religion.—(Cheers.) I wish to
call to the recollection of those gentleman who may
have resolutions to propose the grounds upon which the
Institute was originally founded—namely, that it was for
the defence of our religion against the calumnies uttered
against it—for the instruction of the poorer members of
our religious creed—and finally, it was for the defence
.1 the poorer members of our faith from those remnants
of intolerance which I am afraid still remain in too many
of the institutions of the country. I may also add that
a day appears to be approaching when we may be
called upon to act with greater energy, to restrict those
bigotted attempts which have been made to put the
Catholic religion under restrainh—(Cheers.) These
being the circumstances under which the Institution
was formed, I hope the resolutions will be strictly limited
to those objects. I believe the success this Institu•
tion has had is the best testimony of the propriety of the
course we have adopted, and I do believe we shall be
acting wisely and judiciously if we pursue that course
which has hitherto been adopted with such complete
success. I would, t therefore, earnestly press upon
those gentlemen who have resolutions to pro-
pose that in the wording of those resolutions
these objects should be kept in view. Perhaps
also, as Chairman, I may be allowed to impress on the
minds of those who address the meeting the high im-
portance of restricting their observations as much as
possible within the limits of the resolution they propose ;
I know, gentlemen, well the temptation in addressing
such a meeting as the present to be carried further in
the warmth of argument than you intended, but as
our Institution is formed upon the principle of self-
defence, so even on this occasion I should be glad to see
that that is the object of those who address the meet-
ing, and not retaliation upon others, which I fear there
is too much ground to justify. Having said thus much,
I shall best consult the feelings of the meeting by calling
upon the Secretary to proceed with the business of the
day. The first proceeding will be to read the Report
of the past year.
'rho SECRETARY then proceeded to read the Repor
of the last year, from which it appeared that the So-
ciety was advancing rapidly ; that several additional
Auxiliary Societies had been formed ; that several per-
sons of rank and station had joined the Institute ; that
the pecuniary contributions had increased ; that the dis-
tribution of tracts had kept pace with the increased
funds ; that many most gratifying communications
had been received from the Continent in favour of
the society ; that in British Guiana under Dr. Clanceyi
a Catholic Institute had been formed, and that legal
proceedings had been taken to set at rest several dis-
puted points with respect to the Marriage Act, and le
gacies left for Catholic purposes. The Report, which
was of great length, was cheered throughout.
The SECRETARY then read an address from the Li:
verpool Branch Institute, stating the exertions made in
that town in the cause, and exortiog the parent society
to proceed in its great work.
Lord CAMOYS then proposed the following resolu-
tion :—" That the Report now read be adopted, and
that the same, with the addition of such documents, as
the Committee to be afterwards named may think pro-
per to annex thereto, be printed and circulated under
the direction of the Committee." The approbation
with which the meeting had honoured the reading and
conclusion of the Report, assured him that the task
he had undertaken would turn out to be a most
agree-
able one.--(Cheers.) If the Report had contained
matter that required explanation, or justification and
defence, if its retrospect had been unsatisfactory and
gloomy, he should then have felt inclined
to
have ass:ened the task he had
int., the hands of those who now performed
veArTre more able
to grapple with it ; but the
the fact, from the beginning to the yendreeverseyt everything
was satisfactory, and from the experience of the ing
past
he thought they were justified in looking forward to
success for the future.—(Cheers.) In order to show
to the meeting more clearly the satisfactory nature of
the present report, he would attempt to compare it with
that of the last year ; that report was most satisfactory,
but the present was far more so.—(Cheers.) In the
first report nineteen auxiliary institutes bad been
stated to have been formed, while in the present there
were no less than 44.—(Cheers.) In the first report
the subscriptions had been stated to amount to 6001.,
while in the present one they amounted to nearly
1,000/., &c.; making that statement, he spoke of
money that had actually been received, and not of that
which was yet to be paid.—(Great cheering.) Ano-
ther subject of satisfactory comparison was the issue o
publications, while there were 38,000 last year, the num
ber during the present amounted to '218,000. They
had no such cause as Breeks and Wroolfrey to re-
port, nor an attack of Gathercole upon the nuns.
—(Hear, hear, and cheers.) These circumstances he
looked upon as satisfactory. When the present
was first established, or rather before i t was ov
iety
established,
attacks had been made with impunity
h Society no such upon the defence-
less, but slnce the institutiono
oc-
currences took place.—(Cheerste )
He thought the ne-
ceesity of this Institute must beet.pparerlt to all—there
was scarcely any denomination o
some society or other to regulate their o er nons
Christians but had
p
Ca-
tholics, therefore, in establishing this society ; the
ayd had
nutadopted
only fol-
lowed the example of others, though they h
their model—this Society had been instituted, not
the principle of retaliation, but defence.—.._(Cheer.
That was a principle so just and so satisfactory that it was
impossible impossible for any Catholic to hesitate a moment to join
it. This principle it was that had made the present so-
ciety so flourishing, but it was to be remembered that the
institute, as it was at present constituted, was insufficien
for its purposes—they wanted more members and
more subscriptions...they could not ha'u too much