The Sun.
London, England, 1850-11-05 00:00:00

T HE PAPAL AGGRESSION.

To TIIE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY;"
The humble address of the undersigned inhabitants of
the town and neighbourhood of Shrewsbury.
May it please your Majesty,
We, your Majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects, ac-
tuated by sentiments of firm attachment to your la-
jesty's sacred person and office, and by a deep-rooted
love and veneration for the reformed religion, under
which this country has, for many years enjoyed, by
the goodness of God, the blessing of a pure, holy,
and spiritual faith, desire to express to your Majesty
the mingled sorrow and indignation with which, in
common, as we believe, with the entire body; of Pro-
testants throughout the land, we regard the recent
attempt to re-establish in England an organised
Romish hierarchy, and subjugate her to Papal control.
That such is the true nature of the recent mea-
sures of the Bishop of Rome (notwithstanding an at-
tempt which has been made, with jesuitical duplicity,
to explain away the obvious and natural meaning of
words and actions), is abundantly evidenced and
made manifest by the tenor of the edict, by which
that prelate arrogates to himself the parcelling out
of your Majesty's dominions into episcopal districts,
to be under the government of ecclesiastics of his no-
mination, with titles derived from some of the chief
cities and towns of this kingdom; and also by the
equally or even more presumptuous and aggressive
language held by those who claim to exercise spiritual
dominion in their assigned districts, by virtue of the
edict alluded to.

We consider these proceedings to be insulting to
your Majesty, derogatory to your crown and dignity,
and a most illegal assumption of power, in direct vio-
lation of the principle of the Constitution, by which
no foreign prince, person, prelate, state or potentate,
bath or ought to have any jurisdiction, power, supe-
riority, pre-eminence or authority, ecclesiastical or
spiritual, within these realms—an outrage on the
most sacred feelings of Protestant Britain—and
fraught with danger to the tranquillity and well-
being of your Majesty's subject:, as openly intimating
a design eventually to subjugate England to a domi-
nation against which our ancestors, with a deep sense
of its numerous errors, corruptions and degrading su-
perstitions, combated earnestly, anxiously, and, by the
Divine blessing, successfully.
We are disposed to believe that the present offen-
sive measures of the Pope have been instigated by a
most erroneous estimate of the true sentiments of the
great body of this nation, and that the result will in-
contestibly prove that the same principles which, at
the Reformation tended, by God's assistance, to
rescue this country from the degrading thraldom,
scandalous practices, and corrupt doctrine of the
Romish Hierarchy, by the substitution of a pure,
biblical, and apostolical worship, are still deeply
rooted in the hearts of your Majesty's subjects
throughout the length and breadth of the empire.
Firmly determined to uphold the spirit of that
constitution under which this country has enjoyed the
mild sway of a long line of Protestant sovereigns, we
would most humbly entreat of your Majesty to adopt
such measures, with the advice of your Council, as
may, under the Divine blessing, at once and effectu-
ally prevent the threatened usurpation of power in this
land by the Bishop of Rome and his delegates—an
usurpation without parallel since the days of the
Reforraation.
In conchision, we pray Almighty God that lie
may be graciously pleased to continue to this hitherto
favoured land the blessings of our Reformed Religion
in apostolical purity and holiness, and to vouchsafe to
your Majesty a long and peaceful reign over a grate-
ful and united Christian people.

Address to the Protestants of the Empire by the Com

mittee of the National Club.
The clergy of Westminster have set a noble ex.
ample in conveying to their diocesan their deliberate
protest against the late encroachment of the Church
of Rome on the rights of the State and Protestant
people of England. On the presentation of an ad-
dress to him to that effect, on Friday, the 25th inst.,
they were informed that it was not the intention of
her Majesty's Government, as then advised, to pro-
test against this formidable and unprecedented attack
on our constitutional rights.
The Committee of the National Club, therefore,
deem it imperative on them to appeal to the English
people, and to urge them, on so grave a question, in
which the Government is thus quiescent, to rouse