The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-12-06 00:00:00

TO TUE EDITOR OF TUE TIMES.

Sit,—l hope you will not deem me inconsistently intru-
sive, when I request you to have the kindness to allow
the enclosed notes to follow their predecessors in your
columns. _

The frank acknowledgment of mistake on the part of
Dean Conybeare is as honourable to him as it is satis-
factory to me. What his son will say for his part in the
transaction remains to be seen.—l am, Sir, your obliged,
Liverpool, November 28. HUGH AINEILE.

Liverpool, November 22.
DEAR SIR,—In reply to your letter of the 17th inst.,
I beg to observe that this is not a matter of theological
controversy at all. I called in question none of your son's
theological opinions ; neither did I ask any explanation of
any of them. What I asked was evidence to justify his
charge against me.
You have attempted to supply this from a speech of
mine; and now you say that you " repeat most confi-
dently your entire conviction of the exact accuracy of
your recollection."
In your published letter you say London was the place,
and you twice mention the Bible Society as the cause on
behalf of which the speech in question was delivered ; and
now you add, that you heard me "as the advocate of an
institution which you have always felt yourself conscien-
tiously called upon to support." Nothing can be clearer,
therefore, than that, according to your recollection, of the
exact accuracy of which you are entirely convinced, the
speech of mine from which you quote was delivered at
a Bible Society meeting in London. You are ready to
say-7-certainly..

I have examined, in the Reports of the Bible Society,
the lists of all the speakers at all their London meetings
from 1812 to 1852 inclusive, and my name never once
appears. I never once, during all those forty years, spoke
at a Bible Society meeting in London. The evidence is
in print, and open to your inspection as to mine.
I need say no more, but I will say this—that your remi-
niscences are sincere, and their result sincerely given, I
cannot doubt ; that you have mistaken some other speaker
for me I am now certain.

I am daily expecting a reply from your son, to whom
I sent my letter, addressed,—" Poste restante, Nice,"
and I reserve to myself the right to publish this letter,
should I see cause for so doing.—l remain yours, faithfully,
Very Rev. Dean Conybeare. HUGH M`NEILE.

Llandaff, November 25.
.MY DEAR Sm,—Although it seems almost superfluous
to make the statement, I cannot satisfy my mind without
sending you my acknowledgment that the evidence you
have adduced entirely satisfies me that I was misinformed
as to your having been the spokesman to whom I alluded.
I was so informed at the time by some other of the audi-
ence, who I rejoice to find must have been incorrect.
At the time I was myself perfectly ignorant of your
person. I much regret that I should have been thus
misled into making what I must now consider an un-
founded charge.—Pray believe me very faithfully yours,
Rev. Hugh 111`Neile, D.D. W. D. CONYBEARE.

THE PAPAL SURP_REMACY AND
THE CIVIL POWER.

( FROM THE TIMES.)

THE Roman Catholic religion, or rather the Papacy,
with which its professors have identified themselves, may
and must change the scene of its labours, and has acted
and suffered during a period of fifteen hundred years ;
but, whatever the time and whatever the place, its policy
remains the same, and its encroaching and domineering
spirit unchanged and unchangeable. To regard temporal
power as the end, and spiritual power as the means, never
willingly to stop short of omnipotence in all matters, both
ecclesiastical and civil,—to adapt herself to the infinite
diversities of climate, manners, institutions, and creeds,—
to be all things to all men so long as she may win them to
swell the ranks of her nominal supporters and gratify the
pride of her leaders, have been her undeviating maxims
since the time of Constantine, and will be so long as there
is a human mind to fetter or a human conscience to mis-
lead. The soft inhabitants of Languedoc she encountered
with the torch and the sword ; the gentle Indians of
Paraguay she drove with the lash and the goad ; the
brave Huguenot of France she quelled with midnight
massacre; Ultra-Liberal and Democratic in Ireland, Abso-
lutist in France, Budhist in China, Brahminical in
Hindoston, never did any other institution combine so
much versatility with so much fixity, such unwavering
purpose with such ever varying expedients. One would
have thought that a power to which has been conceded
so immense a duration, and which has employed the
whole of its long life in the same indefatigable struggle,
would long ago have worked out its destiny, and either
thoroughly enslaved the human conscience to its will or
sunk overwhelmed by the obloquy which itself had cre-
ated. This, however, has not been the history of the
Roman Catholic Church. It has been pre-enunently a
church militant, carrying on an incessant war against
human progress and enlightenment, and shifting its
ground with infinite dexterity so soon as the last position
has become untenable. The same half century beheld the
Papacy strike a medal in commemoration of the massacre
of St. Bartholomew, and visit with ecclesiastical censure
and temporal imprisonment the discovery that the earth
revolved on its axis. Yet this same church does not
scruple to put herself forward, where it suits her pur-
pose, as the patroness of the advance of knowledge, and
the advocate of liberality and philaritropy. Still, with
all her labour and all her dexterity, the Church of
Rome is destined to roll the stone of Sisyphus. A
hundred times she has seemed on the point of putting
all things under her feet, and as often has some uncon-
trollable burst of that independence which lies at the
bottom even of minds the most sedulously tamed and
indoctrinated cast her down, and compelled her to begin
her labour afresh. Why can she advance so far and yet
no further ? Why can she succeed in subduing the human
mind to a certain point ; and why, when she seeks to pass
beyond that point, does she seem condemned perpetually
to recommence the task of subjugation ? We believe that
the cause is to be sought in that immeasurable arrogance
and uncontrollable lust for power by which the emissaries
of this great conspiracy against human liberty seem
universally to be animated. They are not content to
work for the distant future, but seek to enjoy in their own
generation the fruit of their labours and the objects of
their aspirations. Rome has gained new realms through
her missionaries only to lose or imperil old ones through
her Popes and Bishops. Successful as long as she confines
herself to individual action, she loses all by seeking to
grasp too speedily at a public recognition of her power.
* * * The Roman Catholic Church is at the pre-
sent moment rampant, rather than triumphant, through-
out the whole of southern Europe. Even in philosophic
France for the time it appears to have gained the upper
hand. That man, however, would be grievously misin-
formed as to the real signs and marks of the times who
should therefore imagine that we are to see again the days
of the Gregories, and kßecketts, and Loyolas. It is idle
to speak of Rome itself. We know as well as Count
Mamiani can tell us, that the chair of St. Peter is but an
uneasy seat for its present occupant ; that the Papal
Government is execrated by its more immediate subjects;
and that it needs but the first burst of war to shatter the
system at its very centre. She pseudo-traditions of the
Papal stool rely for support merely upon a foreign garrison.
The times have been but hard for the College of Cardin