The Sun.
London, England, 1850-11-25 00:00:00

tr itio ft

THE PAPAL AGGRESSION.

PUBLIC MEETING IN THE CITY.
(THIS DAY.)

A public meeting of merchants, bankers, traders,
and other eitizens of London, was held this afternoon
at Guildhall, " for the purpose (as the placard an-
nounced) of taking into consideration the late
most unjustifiable attempt of the Bishop of
Rome to exercise an unauthorized and unpre-
cedented interference in the affairs of this
kingdom by the pretended creation of new Epis-
copal sees, and the appointment of bishops to preside
over the same, thereby invading the prerogative of
Pile Sovereign of these relms, assailing the indepen-
dence of the State and seeking the restoration of a
spirituakdomination from which this country has long
since delivered itself." The meeting was called by the
Right Hon. the Lord Mayor, in compliance with a
requisition which had been presented to his Lordship,
efgned by 120 of the principal merchants, bankers,
an traders of the City, and the chair, it was an-
..ounced, would be taken at two o'clock. Long before
that hour the Guildhall was filled to excess, while
iu the yard outside there were hundreds of
;emus unable to gain admission. T'ne side galleries
► the hall were also filled with ladies, and the plat-
-orm was crowded with the requisionists and others,
among whom we noticed the Right Hon. the Lord
'-layor, Sir James Duke, M.P., Alderman Thompson,
4.P., Alderman Salomons, Alderman Lawrence, the
h'ieriffs of London, Mr. David W. Wire, Mr. George
Stringer, and many others.
The Right Hon. the LORD MAYOR opened the pro-
- eedings by calling upon his secretary to read the
2quisition.
Tnis having been done, the Right Hon. the LORD
wiIAYOR, in a few words, exhorted the meeting to give
',very speaker who should present himself a fair
and patient hearing. It was felt that her Majesty's
nirerogative had been grossly infringed by the recent
proceedings of the Pope of Rome, and it was for the
-neeting to consider, and decide, whether an address,
expressive of its loyalty and attachment to the Throne,
should be adopted, as representing the feelings of the
inhabitants of the city of London. He would not
netain them further, but at once call upon Mr.
Masterman to move the first resolution.—(Cheers)
Mr. MASTREMAN, M.P., then stood forward to
love the first resolution, and was recived with loud
kheers. He said, in addressing that large and im-
portant meeting, he could not avoid, in the first place,
expressing his great indignation at the presumption of
a foreign power coming here to divide our country,
and to dictate to the people in matters of religion.—
(Cheers.) It was to him one of the. most astonishing
things he bad ever heard or read of, that a power so
weak as that of the Pope of Rome was at the present
moment—(Hear, hear)—should have had the audacity
to dictate to us how this country was to be divided
for ecclesiastical purposes, and to press on
. the consciences of the people the tenets of the
Roman Catholic religion.—(Cheers and uproar.) He
was sure the meeting was se well eatisfied• with the
kind and tolerant, sway of _the Church ,of England,
that it would never submit to the domination of that
of Rome.—(Cheers.) It was gratifying to him to
hear one universal voice over the whole country,
calling upon the Government to put a stop to the
unprecedented and unjustifiable act of aggression
which the Pope of Rome hart attempted to
impose upon it—(Hear, hear.) It was with geat
satisfaction that he viewed the determination of our
gracioes ,‘..zovereig-a to uphold the Protestant institu-
tions of the country—(Great cheering)—and if that
meeting had no other object in view, he thought they
should feel it their duty to show to her Majesty the
feeling of the country at large on this important
question. For himself; he should heartily wish to see
this aggression of the Roman Catholics put down; and
if the law in its present state should be found insuffi-
cient for that purpose, he thought the Government
should be armed with fresh powers to put an end to
the invasion.—(Loud cheers.) He thought the l2est
way to attain that object would be to send out of the
country those gentlemen who had been most conspi-
cuous in promoting the recent act of aggression.—
(Renewed cheers.) He believed the poor Pope
had been most grievously deceived in this mat-
ter by the grossly exaggerated statements
that bad been made to him of the some few learned
and so-called pious individuals who had seceded from
the Church of England.—(Hear, hear.) There were
many clergymen who, very much to their own dis-
honour and the inconvenience of the people, had in-
troduced ceremonies into their churches which had
given umbrage and annyonce to their congregations.
—(Hear, hear.) He hoped those gentlemen would
qeedily repent of what they had done; and
he would recommend them to consider the
error of their wait's, and to return to that pure
and simple faith from which they had so grievously
departed —(Cheers.) The Hon. Gentleman con-
eluded by moving the following resolution :—" That
in the opinion of this meeting the recent proceedings
of the Bishop of Rome, in assuming to himelf
authority to establish ecclesiastical dioceses in this
country, and to appoint archbishops and
i,hops to preside over the same, is an
invasion of the Queen's prerogative, an attack on the
institution of the State, and an interference with the
-train of this realm wholly inconsistent with its
national independence."—(Loud cheers.)

Mr. Alderman THosarsots, M.P., stepped to the
front of the platform, amid the loud acclamations of
the meeting, to second the resolution. He said he
Celt himself complimented in having been invited to
second the resolution which they bad just heard read ;
end he felt equal gratification in being afforded
en opportunity of addressing so numerous and so in-
fluential a b ,dy of his fellow-citizens as bad been
convened together by the Lord Mayor, for the pur-
pose of di,eussing and deciding upon the course
which might be most fitting, in order to manifest
their disgust and disapprobation at the arreganee
and presumption of the Pope of Rome and his emis-
saries, whom in his conscience tie believed were
aiming to undermine the religion and liberties of
the people of this country, and their allegiance to
their Sovereign—(Laud cheers)—a Sovereign illus-
trious and venerated by all her subjects, sad who,
under the blessing of God, was distinguished by all
those qualities which made England a great, a glo-
rious, and a happy country.—(Rene wed cheers.) He
said advisedly, attempts to undermine their allegiance
to their Sovereign.—(Faint shouts of " No,"
drowned in responsive vociferations of "Yes,
yes," enforced by the waving of hats for
soma moments.) What was that thing—brief,
or bUll, oz whatsoever might be its proper
ecclesiastical designation, but, in point of fact, treat-
ing England as a vanquished country, dividing it into
parcels, and giving authority over the several dis-
tricts, thereby signifying that they, the Protestant
people of lingland, were prepared to forget the glos
;Lolls principles of the Reformation, and to return
Main within the pale of the Cnurch,of Rome,?—(Vo-
ciferous cheers.) He knew how futile was their
expectation, and how contemptible was the attempt.
—(Cheers.) Let them compare for a moment
the tenure by which their beloved Queen of England
end the Pope of Rome held their respective temporal
powers, The Queen of England, it was truly said,
reigned in the hearts of all her subjects. Her
most humble, as well as her most elevated subject,
would be prepared to shed his blood, in order to pro-
tect his Queen from insult.—(Cheers.) What was the
tenure of the temporal power of the Pope of Rome ?
He (Mr. Alderman Thompson) would venture to say
that 9,99 of his subjects out of 1,000 would heartily
join in a subscription to send him to some other
country.—(Cheers and laughter.) What was the
loyalty of his own subjects ? They would again
gladly lend him a suit of clothes to escape in.—
(Laughter.) He (Mr. Alderman Thompson) said
further that this act of Papal aggression was
aimed at the: repeal of the glorious Reformation,
which the blood and spirit of our ancestors, especially
of the city of London, won for us. The Archbishop
of Westteinster's account of the new Roman Ca-
tholic " development" in this country, as compared
with its former system of government by vicars-apos-
tolic, was, according to him, a distinction without a
difference, and that the vicars apostolic had as much
power as the new bishops were to have. Why change
it then ? He (Mr. Alderman Thompson) had always
understood that the purpose of vicars-ppostolic was
to look after the moral character of the:priests of the
Roman Catholic Church in this country--(A laugh) —but he never understood that they were to have
a portion of the territory of this country and assume
a government inconsistent with the laws and consti-
tution
of this realm, Cardinal Wisernan—(Laughter
and hissing)—further told them that although lie
was to be the Archbishop of Westminster—(Shouts
of " No, no")—He would not touch a single
farthing of the revenues of the Dear, and
Chapter of Westminster.—(Laughter.) Did the
meeting believe that ?—(Shouts of "No, no.") Nor
did he (Mr. Alderman Thompson) either. He be-
lieved that all those proceedings, all those appoint-
ments of archbishops and bishops, were intended as a
ladder by which to reach the revenues of the Pro-
testant Church of England.—(Loud cheers.) They
contended that the Pope of Rome had the
right of nominating bishops- throughout the
world, that was, according to the Roman Catholic
canon law. Although Cardinal Wiseman was
supposed to be an acute, clever man, he had
read very little of history, and of Roman Catholic
history too, or of the Protestant history of Europe
during the French revolution, if he held such a
dogma u that.: If he had read history aright he