The Sun.
London, England, 1850-12-05 00:00:00

ri”ro Kbitto-1
.43 11
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THE POPISH AGGRESSION.

MEETING AT FREEMASONS' TAVERN.
(THIS DAY.)

A large public meeting of the laity of the Established
Church was held this afternoon, at the Freemasons'
Tavern, for the purpose of addressing her Majesty on
the subjecia the recent Popish aggression. The meet-
iag was convened for one o'clock, but long before that
hour the large room of the tavern was densely thronged,
while the galleries were filled with well-dressed ladies.
The chair was taken shortly after oLe o'clock, by the
Right Honourable Lord Ashley, M.P. The requisition
and advertisement calling the meeting having been read,
and the Divine blessing invoked upon the proceedings of
the day,

The CHAIRMAN addressed the meeting as his Pro-
testant brethren of the Church of England, declaring
that the exigencies of the time rendered it imperatively
necessary that he should use that distinctive epithet
when he was speaking to the lay members of the Es-
tablisned Church. The meeting was convened to de-
nounce the aggressive proceedings of Rome. The laity
was as much a part of the Church as the clergy and
the bishops, and therefore it was their duty, as it was
their priviteer, to protest against this flagrant violation of
her rights and liberties.—(Cheers.) The Bishop of Me-
lipotamue had openly and publicly declared to the world
The opposition redact up against the invasive influence
of the Vatican originated in the interested motives
on the part of the clergy of the Church of
England, and it was for this meeting to
tell him that he was not only mistaken,
but that he had been guilty of an impudent and fla-
grantly untrue assertion.—(Cheers.) He for one was
astounded at the impertinence of the feeble old man who
was recognized and known as the Pope of Rome. The
coercer of his own miserable people, supported on his
throne by foreign bayonet:, and the oppres-
sor of man all over the world, had dared
not only to invade the right of England's So-
vereign, but had gone the length of insulting her people
by attempting t force an obnoxious hierarchy upon
them.—(Cheers.) This misguided man would find, how-
ever, that the movements of himself and his agents
would be resisted step by step and inch by inch, and
though his bishops and cardinals might be allowed to
remain in the land, they should never be recognised.
It was urged against those who took up the defensive
position, that there was nothing to fear in this aggres-
sion. What was there in a name? it was asked—
"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."
But there was more than a mere hollow-sounding title
involved in this Popish movement. Give the emissaries
of the Vatican the names, and they would not long be
without the territories and powers of bishops and arch-
bishops; and not even the right of calling themselves
nicknames ought to be conceded to them. Not that he
wished to coerce any body or sect. He wished not to
return to the days of bills of pains and penalties, or
disabilities acts, but they were now arrayed against a
power which extended toleration to no one. The Church
of Rome was oppressive and intolerant, and it was be-
cause it was so that he was prepared to resist its inroads
upon the civil and religious liberties of
Englishmen. The very principles of the Romish
Church were incompatable with anything even
appeoaching civil or religious linerty, and
he therefore hoped the country would not abate one jot
or tittle of all that their forefathers won for them.—
(Cheers.) The Pope held himself responsible to no
earthly power—a doctrine which ought not to be tole-
rated, let alone recogyised, in this free and civilized
nation, and the proceedings of his pretended
bishops must be resisted to the lest.—(Cheers.) So
_.much for the external evils that threatened Protes-
tantism from without. Now, let him glance for a mo-
ment to the dangerous enemies who were concealed
within,—(Cheers.) No one could hold these personages
in more abhortance than he did. It was to them that
they were indebted for this aggressive movement
of the Pope; but before the excitement subsided
he hoped they would be driven from the posts they so
unworthily occupied in tare Established Church.—
(Cheers.) God forbid that the 'election should ever
become necessary; bet, for his part, he should sooner
worship with Lytle, on the banks of. the river than
pray with a hundred surpliced priests in St.
Barnabas Church.—(Cheers.) To avert such an evil
as that they must petition her Majesty to put the con-
stitutional law of the land in force to cleanse the Church
of her insidious enemies, and he trusted the meeting
would be unanimous in attaining this end.—(Cheers.)
Captain Sir EDWARD PARRY proposed the first resolu-
tion, and declared his conviction that if Protestantism
had only to contend against Rome in the present struggle
it would have nothing to fear.—(Cheers.) But there
were sinister enemies eating the very bread of our Pro-
testant Church, and using her pulpits fur Popish pur-
poses, from whom they had mach to fear.—(Cheers.) Po-
pery itself was a ptantom, based upan a lie, which was
originally concocted to enslave the minds and endanger
the souls of men, and they need not be alarmed at its
spreading in England if its advancement were left solely
to the influence of Roman Catholic countries. But
there were Tractarians engaged in promoting Popery.
True, they denied the supremacy of the Pope, but like
Archbishop Laud, they wanted to be Popes in their own
dioceses.—(Cheers.) They had, therefore, been called
together to tell the Pope that, whether at St. Peter's or
Sr, Barnabaa, that they would net have Popery in
England, but were determined to rid themselves of the
foul pestilence which the Vatican had imprudently
lended upon our shores.—(Che ere) The Gallant
Cap Leh, concluded by moving the following resolution:—
" that raise meeting has esitnessed, with the deepest
indignation, the recent act of the Bishop of Rome, who,
in detieeee of her itleteste'e prerogative, has presumed
to parcel cut her Majesty's dominions into provinces
and dioceses, filling them with his nominees, and invest-
ing the holders thereof with territorial tittes, assailing
thus the icdeenuence achieved by our forefathers at
the glorious Refer mattion, and aspiring at the establish-
ment o: a power not permitted even in the darkest pe-
riods of the middle ages."
Mr. O'MALLEY, C.C., seconded the resolution, and
reminded the meeting of the great responsibility which
it had taken upon itself, It would not do to leave that
hall under the impression that all the work had been
done; nor ought they to feel that they were engaged in
an exciting pry movement, so much as in a step which
should serve to extend the glory of the Deity and
our Saviour.—(Loud cheering.) Ho recognised no
fine•drawn distinction between policital and spiritual
supremay. The Queen, since she was the head of the
laity was the only living head of the Church, and they
were bound to resist all movements which had a ten-
dency to subvert that supremacy from her Majesty to
the clergy of the Church.—(Cheers.)
The resolietion was then put and carried unanimously.
Aar. CHILDRRS, M.P., moved the second resolution,
at followeh—
" Thai this meeting is ,also compelled to express its
convieteon, confirmed by the recent testimony of several
bishcepe of our Church, that the Court of Rome would
never have attempted such an act of aggression, had
not, encouragements been held out to that encroach-
lr.g power by many of the clergy of our own
thurch, who have, for several years past,
shown a desire to assimilate the doctrines and
services of the Church of England to those of
the Roman ;Communion. While we would cheerfully
contend Tor the principles of the Reformation against all
open enemies, we have to lament that our most dange-
rous toes are those of our own household; and hence we
feel that it is to little purpose to repel the aggressions of
the foreigner, unless those principles and practices, which
htr', e tempted him to such aggressions, be publicly and
universally repudiated."
Le had always been a friend of toleration; but resisting
oppression was not an act of intolerance. The Tracta-
rians had good cause to cry " heaven save me from my
friends;" for the shining forth of the Roman sun had
brought to light a crouching or hidden viper that
lurked in the Established Church, and he, for one,
hoped shortly to see cast out. The Tractarians were
now beginning to be held in contempt by even those
whom they looked upon as their friends, and nothing
would more clearly prove this than a boa mot he heard
the other-day. A Roman Catholic priest was asked if
he had been to St. Barnabas', and his reply was very
significant. He said ho did not like mock turtle.—
(Cheers and laughter.)
The Earl of CHICHESTER seconded the resolution,
giving it as his opinion that the conduct of the Trac-
tatian clergy had not only been erroneous but culpable,
and they had a right to demand of the heads of the
Church if their practices were in accordance with the
laws of the Church.—(Hear, hear.) If they were,
it was their duty to endeavour to get those laws
• altered, and the Church purified from such evils.—
(Hear, hear.) But in his view no such alteration was
heeded —(Hear.) He had always_ been favourable to
ex.Oencling toleration in matters a religious belief as far
as lc could go consistently with the due safety of the
Constitution, and it was because he still entertained that
opinion that he was averse to Popery; for whenever
-,t'opery gained the ascendent toleration was at an end.
Lord CHARLES EIISSELL supported the resolution.
Rome had ala ays been insolent and insidious—insolent
in her dray of power, insidious in her penury; but he
W
if defy all her insolence and all her insidiousness,
they had not enemies to contend against within. With
the °alines of those enemies before their eyes they must
be Convinced that the time had arrived when the Popish
aggression ought to be met by a great lay demons!ra-
tiwa..—(Cheers.)
The resolution was then put and carried unanimously.
Mr. BAXTER moved the t resolution, as follows:
" That, while this meeting pcseious that
'the true and ffectual remedyee for the dangers s
humanw t ich
beset our Protestant Church belongs taou
power, but only to the Supreme altad of the Church, whose Almighty aid is to be sought by humble, per-
t, veriog prater, it is thankful that, by the British
Constitution and the existing levy?, the re i 3 vested in her
Mateety, tas the earthly head of our Church, a
wholesome power of interposition—which power we
ern,reat her itlejesly now to exercise. The records
of the reigns of her lelejesty 's illustrious predecessors,
both le.fore acrd duce the glorious Revolution, furnish
Tetley examples of the manner in a hich the mischiefs
and abuses which a; various times have sprung up in the
Church, have bean dealt with, by the exercise of the
Royal authority; and it appears to this meeting, that on
no wittier occasion hue a more urgent need existed for
seek as interposition,"
seee This aggreasion of the Pope would .not have been suf-
fered in Austria or other Roman Catholic dominions,
.- where Roman CathafieiSm not only existed but was es-
ta.blished; and why, nlidutel they: sit quietly- .down and'
....,.....tcderatii these -proceedings?e-(Cheers.). Nothing short
of a blind infatuation could have betrayed the