The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-09-28 00:00:00

adopted by HE
to be

given to ti

public

The SOVER

iced to accord such a tribute to his memory; but it
is felt that it better becomes the nation itself,
through the two Houses of Parliament, to render

lemn im-

tutional (! 0 opposition to the Moloch of the Esta-
blishment ;" the object of this opposition being, as
it is variously expressed in Dr.M'Hale's florid style,
to "extinguish this national nuisance,"—to " re-
lieve the country from this incubus,"—to "ease
the country of the burden of that Establishment."
And this "resolve" Dr. M'Hale endeavours to en-
force upon the mind of the Earl of Derby by the
threat that his own and every successive Adminis-
tration which shall refuse to become the tool of the
Papal faction for extorting from the Sovereign a
violation of the coronation oath, shall be over-

thrown by the votes of the Popish r
House of Commons.

mbers in the

Now to this challenge there is a plain and an ob-
vious answer. When, some twenty-five years ago,
the Papists sued to the British Crown and Parlia-
ment for the repeal of those statutory enactments
by which they were excluded from the Legislature
and from political office, the most solemn asseve-
rations were made both by Popish Prelates and by
Popish lay aspirants to political power, in their ex-
aminations before Parliamentary Committees, that
it was not the intention or the desire of the Roman
Catholic body to interfere in any way with the
Church of England and Ireland as by law esta-
, blished, or with any of its property, its rights and
' privileges. The Papists, in fact, said, "We are no
longer the same people that we were when those
laws were enacted. We are not now the arrogant,
the persecuting, the disloyal body that we once
were. We have become humbled-minded, tole-
rant, loyal. All we wish is to enjoy, in addidion to
the freedom of worship already granted us, the free
and full exercise of our rights as citizens. Grant
us that, and we shall be content. We promise you
that the power which we shall acquire by such a
concession on your part, shall never be used to dis-
turb the settlement of religion or property in the
land, to subvert the Established Church, or to in-
terfere with her temporalities." To give practical
and permanent effect to these professions, an oath
was framed, with the full assent and consent of
those who represented the Roman Catholic body,
to be taken by every Papist before his admission to
any political office or to a seat in the Legislature.
In the teeth of all the professions made previous
to the passing of the Emancipation Bill,—in the
teeth of the oath in which those professions are
embodied, and which every Popish member has to
take at the table of the House, before he can take
his seat,—Dr. M'Hale now gives formal notice to
the head of her Majesty's Government, that under
the influence of the Popish hierarchy a number of
representatives have been chosen in Ireland, who
are "instructed not to wait, nor take office, nor
favour of any kind from any minister until the
country is eased of the burden of that establish-
ment," which they are solemnly sworn not to dis-
turb. On the part of the Papists, therefore, the
compact on which the Emancipation Bill was
founded, is plainly broken. They repudiate with
scorn the conditions on which members of the
Popish sect were admitted to the Legislature and to
political office. Let the Earl of Derby take them
at their word. Let him do what the illustrious
hero now waiting the last honours to be paid to his
remains, pledged himself to do whenever need
should so require. Let him introduce a short bill,
recounting in the preamble the breach of compact
on the part of the Papists, and repealing the bill of
1829, which was, at best, a weak concession to a
perfidious enemy. The Earl of Derby is the na-
tional heir of the pledge to that effect given by the
Duke of Wellington ; for the Duke of Wellington
was Prime Minister when the pledge was given, and
the Earl of Derby is Prime Minister when the time
has arrived for redeeming it. Nothing short of this
will secure the peace of the country, and curb the
arrogant and encroaching spirit of Popery.
The programme of Dr. M.Hale for the appro-
priation of the temporalities of the Church in
Ireland after their proposed confiscation, leaves no
room for doubt as to the ultimate objects of the
present agitation :—"Those ecclesiastical funds, so
long misused, should, after the life interests of their
present occupants, revert to their own original
purposes of promoting Catholic piety, charity, and
education. It is fortunate that there remains such
a fund for the erection and endowment of Catholic
schools and the building of Catholic Churches, and,
should it extend so far, to serve as an outfit for
the purchase of Catholic glebes, all as free and
independent of any sinister interference of the
secular power as were those funds when first
abstracted from those pious uses. It is only on
such conditions they will be claimed ; on no others
should they be accepted ;.and on such equitable
terms it would be the height of impolicy to with-
hold them. It will be ab act of just and tardy resti-
tution of property long diverted from its legitimate
objects." It is to procure "the legislative annihi-
lation" of the "Protestant Establishment," and to
enrich the Papacy with the spoil of the National
Church, now, as in the dark ages before the
Reformation, that the Parliamentary retainers of
Drs. Cullen and M'Hale will be sent to Westminster
in November next. Open war is declared by the
Papists against the Church and Constitution of the
realm. The question is not whether we shall
accept or decline that declaration of war; the only
option we have left us, is either to submit to Papal
dictation, or to crush the treasonable conspiracy
which is thus openly rearing its head, With such
an alternative before us, there can be no room for
hesitation, even though the adoption of the course
forced upon us by the Papists should involve the
humiliating confession that our forefathers knew
better what they were about when they enacted
laws for the exclusion of Papists from political
office and from the Legislature, than we did when
we consented to their repeal.—John Bull.