The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-05-10 00:00:00

THE LAWS OF THE PAPACY.

" THE NULLITY OF THE GOVERNMENT OF QUEEN VIC-
TORIA IN IRELAND ; OR, THE POPE THE VIRTUAL
RULER OF THE LAND. Being an Exhibition of the Laws
of Papacy, set up by the Roman Bishops in 1832, by ab-
juring which they gained political power. Containing the
Original Documents, with Translations, the Bishops' Oaths,
and a copious Table of Contents, &c."
The above is the title of a work recently published and
written by that noble champion of Protestantism, the Rev.
R. J. M`Ghee, and we have much pleasure in extracting the
following preface, being an address
" TO HIS EXCELLENCY LORD VISCOUNT EBRINGTON BARON
FORTESCUE, LORD LIEUTENANT GENERAL, GENERAL
GOVERNOR OF IRELAND, &C. &C.
" MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY,
" MY LORD—If the title of this book is not justified by
its contents—if a liberty is taken with the name and autho-
rity of our most gracious Sovereign—if any-act of innstice
is committed towards any of. her Majesty s subjects, over
whom your Excellency has been placed as the representative
of her royal person and government—then, my Lord, no
language can adequately express the audacity of the indivi-
dual who presumes to offer to your Excellency's considera-
tion a work which, under such circumstances, were worthy
of your most severe displeasure and reproof. But if, on the
contrary, my Lord, it is an humble effort of one of her
Majesty's most loyal and faithful subjects to vindicate her
Majesty's honour and government, as the Sovereign of these
realms, from the base conspiracy of an order of men who
make religion, which ought to be the handmaid of loyalty
and virtue, the instrument of treason and of every crime—
if it be a faithful, honest exposure of a system which, by the
instrumentality of a perfidious policy which is called religion,
seduces her Majesty's subjects from their allegiance to their
lawful Sovereign, and transfers that allegiance to a foreign
tyrant—if it lays before your Excellency, with plain and
honest fidelity, a tissue of iniquitous deceit and domination,
which is treachery to one class of her Majesty's subjects,
tyranny to another, and the fruitful source of misery and
ruin to them all—if it exposes the real cause of the miseries
of that unhappy country, over which, in candour, but with
all respect, it must be said of your Excellency, or any Vice-
roy, that he has the misfortune to pri side—if it exhibits to
your Excellency's view the reason why Ireland requires a
vigorous administration of the laws, and why it thwarts and
impedes their execution, why it mocks the wisdom of the
legislative and paralyses the arm of the executive authority,
why it defies coercion, why it contemns concession, stamps
ignorance and folly on the one; and evades the imbecility of
the other—if it exposes immediately the cause why the rule
of your royal Sovereign is reduced to the mere shadow of a
shade—if it informs your Excellency of a tissue of perjury
which you could not have imagined, of crime, of cruelty, of
treachery, of intolerance, of sedition, which you could not
have possibly believed to be connected with any system of
paganism, much less of nominal Christianity—then, my
Lord, there is no individual in the nation to whom this work
ought to be so commended as to your Excellency ; and it is
therefore most humbly submitted to your Excellency's most
grave and gracious consideration.
" Your Excellency will perceive that it is very simple in
its construction. It consists merely of two parts—First, of
a detail of parliamentary evidence, of the accuracy of which
your Excellency can easily be satisfied. Much of it, no
doubt, was given in your Excellency's presence, and is to
be found in the parliamentary records, with which your
Excellency is familiar, and which are easily accessible. The
other part consists of a number of documents, the principles
of which, and in some instances the documents themselves,
your Excellency sees were denied on oath by the men who
gave that evidence ; the atrocity of these principles it were
impertinent to point out. There cannot be a doubt that
your Excellency often revolved them in your mind ; and,
while you could not believe that there were any men on
earth so base as to entertain such principles, you have always
considered it most illiberal and uncharitable to impute them
to the persons who denied them even upon oath.
" Your Excellency now can see and judge for yourself.
You know, my Lord, the high authority that records the
test of truth— He that doeth evil hateth the light, neither
cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved ; but
he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may
be made manifest that they are wrought in God.' Your
Excellency will admit the perfection of the rule, and you
now can judge of the force and power of its application. It
is clear that the character of these men, the truth of their
oaths, the nature of their principles, the whole system of
their religion, all that is dear to them, is at stake. It is
clear that the proof of the case is put to a fair and honest
issue. If these Popish bishops stand forward before the
Roman Catholics whom they enslave, and the Protestants
whom they betray, and produce the documents, I propose,
to redeem their character, their oaths, their loyalty, their
principles, their religion ; and, if they succeed in their effort,
then the report of their success shall be laid before your
Excellency, and I will confess with grief and shame that I
have been guilty of a gross mistake, to whatsoever extent
they may be able to prove the same, and that I have pre-
sumed unworthily to call your Excellency's notice to the
subject—l shall recall this book from the press, and bow
with all suitable contrition to the just sentence of your Ex-
cellency's displeasure.
" If Mr. O'Connell, for whom these bishops and priests
impose an annual tax on the affectionate credulity and warm-
hearted zeal of the poor Roman Catholics of Ireland, that
they may maintain him, as the agent of that seditious and
insurrectionary spirit of hostility to that Protestant govern-
ment which it is their aim to shake off, and to that Protestant
population whom they are bound, as your Excellency sees
by their secret laws, to exterminate ; if Mr. O'Connell ven-
tures to take the position of counsel for these bishops, on
the platform, in the court of public justice, or to argue the
case before the bar of the House of Commons, and if he suc-
ceeds in defending them from the facts alleged in this book,
then, my Lord, let British statesmen still bow to his dicta-
tation. Whatever may be said of their principles, they will
at least be rescued from the humiliating position of being
dupes, of being imposed upon by the patrons of perjury and
sedition, being made the pitiable, though, it is to be hoped,
unconscious instruments of their Sovereign's danger, their
own dishonour, and their country's ruin.
" But, my Lord, if your Excellency sees that these men
dare not venture upon the task of their own exculpation—if
you see them shrink in conscious guilt from the publicity of
the platform, the press, the court of justice, and the senate—
, if you 'see that they skulk away in terror from the fear of
giving to their crimes the validity of public proof, by any
attempt at a public vindication, then, my Lord, your Excel-
lency will see the true position in which you stand as the
nominal governor, in her Majesty's name, of Ireland—your
Excellency will see that you are placed to govern a people
whose spiritual teachers instruct them to despise the laws
you are to administer, and to hate the authority you represent
—you will see that your royal mistress is proclaimed in these
laws, not only in common with her Protestant subjects as an
excommunicated heretic, but that the poor Roman Catholics
are to learn that she must bow her royal head for pardon at
the feet of the Italian tyrant, that spiritual traitor, that man
of sin, who opposeth and ex ilteth himself above all that is
called God, or that is worshipped,' and who in the plenitude
of that blasphemy which is marked in the word of God as
engraven on his head, arrogates to himself the same honour,
power, dignity, and veneration of the Vicar and Representa-
tive of the Lord of Heaven and Earth, which, in a temporal
sense, is due to your Excellency in this nation, as represen-
tative of our most gracious Sovereign in this part of her
dominions.
" Permit me, with all due deference, to submit to your
Excellency's serious consideration how it can he possible that
a nation of men can be brOught to submit to a power which
it is made their religion to hate—how they can he brought to
pay any conscientious respect or obedience to laws which it
is made their religion to trample under foot—how peace can
be promoted when religion is made the instrument of war, the
handmaid of hatred, the sower of sedition, the prompter of
perjury. the mediator of murder, the parent of every cruelty,
the nurse of every crime ?
" Is it, may I venture to submit to your Excellency, by the
compromise of virtue, that voice is to be eradicated? Is it
by the compromise of honour that disgrace is to be averted ?
Is it by the compromise of loyalty that sedition is to be 'put
down? Is it by the compromise of all morality and all re-
ligion that the honour of God and the happiness of man is to
be promoted ?
" And here, my Lord, whether we look at the temporal or
spiritual aspect of this case, may I humbly take permission
to submit to your Excellency how far you think it justifiable
that men shall impute to those persons who feel called on
honestly and faithfully to expose the guilt, the wickedness,
and falsehood of the church of Rome—principles of illiberal,
uncharitable hostility to Roman Catholics, and how far you
think it justifiable that a compromise with the principles of
this church, and an admission that popery is christianity,
should pass for liberality of principle and for christian kind-
ness and charity to Roman Catholics. I most gladly avail
myself of that solemn sense of religion which public report
ascribes, and I trust truly ascribes to your Excellency, to
entreat your grave consideration of this subject.
" Without a tedious detail of the many awful idolatries
propagated among this unhappy people, I would just mention
one of such an authoratative standard that no question can be
raised about it.
" The present Pope sent over an encyclical letter to the
Romish bishops of this country, nearly seven years ago, viz.,
in 1832, in which he uses the following expressions :
" Now that all these happy circumstances may concur,
let us lift up our eyes and hands to the most Blessed Virgin
Mary, who alone has destroyed all heresies, who fills us with
the greater confidence, or rather who is the whole foundation
of our hope.'
"6 Now, this letter, with these words so translated, and so
marked, was sold, and is sold at this day, under the autho-
rity of the whole body of the Romish b shops, as of infallible
truth, to the miserable Roman Catholics of Ireland.
" Now, here is another principle of equal authority—a
canon of the Council of Trent, the first on the Eucharist.
Sess. XII.
" If any one shall deny that in the sacrament of the most
holy Eucharist is contained truly, really, and substantially
the body and blood, along with the soul and divinity, of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore Christ altogether, but shall
say that he is in it only, as in a sign, or a figure, or a certere,
let him be damned.'
6. Now, permit me, as a minister of Christ, while I lay be-
fore your Excellency these two specimens of spiritual dark-
ness, and while I humbly submit this volume of immoral,
antisocial and cruel iniquity, permit me, with all deference, to
ask your Excellency whether you consider that a man who
truly believes the glorious Gospel of our blessed Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ, who knows that his righteousness and
his atoning blood are the only refuge for a guilty sinner, can,
if he is faithful, compromise his Master's truth ?—can he, if
he have that truth in his own heart, cease to feel, and feeling,
cease to testify, on behalf of his fellow-sinners, against the
abominable idolatry and superstition of these popes and
councils ? Is it Christianity to take the crown off the head of
Christ and place it on a creature ?—to subvert the foundation
laid in Zion, and call the Virgin Mary the whole founda-
tion of the sinner's hope ?' Is not that, my Lord, most
awful idolatry? Is it 'Christianity to think that a priest, by
pronouncing a few cabalistic words over a bit of paste, can
embody into that the Lord of Life and Glory, and then pre-
tend to offer it as a sacrifice for sin, and hold it up to be
adored by a poor, blind, and ignorant population? Is this
Christ, my Lord, or is it not an idol, an Antichrist, that pre-
tends to repeat the finished sacrifice of Immanuel, and set up
a wafer to be adored for the Lord of Glory ?
" And now, my Lord, turn to the morals. Look at the
perjury, at the sedition, at the persecution, at the cruelty in-
culcated and exemplified in this book. Look at the fruits of
this faith, look at the offspring of this superstition. The
country over which your Excellency presides is an example
—` Si monunzenta quceris, eircumspiee.' You cannot look,
my Lord, nor can 1 show your Excellency, in the press, the
horrible obscenities of these bishops and priests, with which,
in their infamous confessional, they overwhelm and enslave
the minds of the unhappy female population, making slaves
of the wives that they may more • effectually enslave their
husbands, and slaves of the mothers that they may enslave
their children. But what I can show is enough to ask your
Excellency to pronounce in your own breast what is the duty
of any man in any station that calls himself a Christian and a
Protestant. Are we, my Lord, as ministers of Christ, to
mock the name of truth, by pretending to take the robe of
charity to cover a criminal compromise of truth, by leaving
our fellow men to perish in idolatries, in superstitions, and
in crimes like these which are revolting alike to religion and
to humanity ? Would Paul have done so, my Lord? Would
Christ have done so ? Is this the lesson taught us in our
Bible ? Is not apathy in such a cause dishonour to our God ?
Is not compromise with those who inculcate such a system a
guilty participation in their crime ?
" And now, my Lord, why do 1 venture to submit to
your Excellency these reflections on this subject ? Is it that
I would use an effort to injure my Roman Catholic country-
men, as being their enemy ?—to misrepresent. them •to your
Excellency ? My Lord, it is often a painful, but a necessary
duty, to take a public tyrant, a public traitor, a public per-
or a public vjllaiu, and wake him as he ought to be

made, a public example to the world. But this is my testi-
mony to my poor Roman Catholic countrymen. I firmly
believe there are not on this earth a more patient, enduring,
affectionate and grateful people in their own _unsophisticated
natural character. I believe they would be good tenants,
peaceful, hospitable, kind and cordial neighbours ; I believe
they would be loyal and devoted subjects to their sovereign ;
and, if they were trained to habits of industry, and had em-
ployment, they would be a prosperous and contented nation.
But the dark system of deep anti-christian iniquity inculcated
into them in the shape of religion, by their bishops and
priests, brings them to the state in which they are. Your
Excellency has in this book some of the doctrines and prin-
ciples which are instilled into their ears, you have the les-
sons of their instructions, the reasons of their misery, and
the causes of their crimes. The remedy to be applied to the
people of Ireland collectively, is the only remedy for man
individually as a sinner—the balm of pure, holy, undefiled
religion, a faithful exposure to the people of the iniquity of
those tyrants and traitors, that enslave and corrupt them, a
faithful, bold translation and exposure of such bulls as these,
and such theology as that of Dens—a faithful exhibition of
the conscious guilt with which their task-masters shrink from
the proofs of their iniquity—Christian fidelity against the op-
pressors of the people, combined with Christian affection and
kindness to the poor people themselves. These, my Lord,
united with a faithful administration of justice, a firm but
temperate rule, an attempt on your Excellency's part to fulfil
the duties of your high station, according to the language of
that prayer offered up in our liturgy in behalf of the repre-
sentative of royal authority, ,these would afford a hope for
the regeneration of Ireland. I cannot more appropriately
close this address to your Excellency than in the language of
the prayer to which I have alluded—' That it may please
Almighty God to bless your Excellency, his servant, as the
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and to grant that you may use
the sword which our Sovereign Lady the Queen hath com-
mitted into your hand, with justice and mercy, according to
God's blessed will, for the protection of this people and the
true religion established amongst us. That He may enlighten
you by His grace, preserve you by his providence, and en-
compass you with his favour. That He may bless your whole
council, direct and prosper all their consultations, to the ad-
vancement of His glory, the good of His church, the honour
of her sacred Majesty, and the safety and welfare of her do-
minions.' That this prayer may be sincerely offered up and
abundantly answered, and that your Excellency may be able
to give an account of your stewardship, exercised as in this
prayer, when,you come to appear at the tribunal of the King
of Kings, and Lord of Lords, is the sincere and humble hope
of one who has the honour to be, with all-due respect, your
Excellency's most obedient and very humble servant,
" ROBERT J. M`GHEE,
" Minister of Harold's-Cross Church, Dublin."

LONDON LAW REPORTS.

COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH, MONDAY
THE QUEEN V. CROSSLEY AND ROBINSON.

This was an indictment, tried at the assizes at Liverpool,
against the defendants, the overseers of the parish of Tod-
morden, for refusing to account to an auditor appointed by
the poor law commiss: ners for the union of which the parish
of Todmorden formed 13,,, t. The jury returned a verdict of
guilty. A rule nisi to set a,ide the verdict—on the grounds
that the board of guardians had never been legally consti-
tuted, and that there was therefore no person in whom the
power was vested of appointing an auditor, and also that the
indictment was improperly framed on the 47th instead of the
18th section, inasmuch as it alleged general disobedience
instead of averring the particular act of disobedience—was
subsequently obtained, and Mr. Starkie and Mr. Peel now
showed cause against the rule, and contended for the validity
of the indictment.

The Court, without hearing Mr. Kelly, Mr. Dundas, and
Mr. J. W. Cobbett, in support of the rule, expressed a de-
cided opinion as to the badness of the indictment.
Mr. Kelly intimated that the question as to whether the
non-election of guardians by one of the parishes in a union
rendered the board of guardians incomplete, would be brought
before the court in another shape.
Rule absolute.

COURT OF EXCHEQUER, MONDAY.
(Sittings in Banco.)
THE CANADIAN PRISONERS.—JUDGMENT.

The four Canadian prisoners were brought up at the sit-
ting of the court this morning, when
Lord Abinger proceeded to deliver the judgment of the
court. His lordship said,—This is the case of a habeas cor-
pus to the gaoler of Liverpool, on the return to which a
motion has been made to discharge the prisoners. The
court is bound to look at the substance of the return. If it
contains sufficient matter in substance to show that the pri-
soner is lawfully detained, we cannot discharge him upon
habeas corpus, though the return should in some respects be
informal, or should go into matter not essential to the ques-
tion. The return then, in substance, is this : that by an act
of the legislature of Upper Canada, the lieutenant-governor,
with the advice of the executive council of that province, was
enabled to grant a pardon under the great seal, upon such
terms as they might think proper, to such persons, then
under the charge of high treason committed in that province,
as should petition the lieutenant-governor before their ar-
raignment, praying for pardon ; and that the same act pro-
vids, that in case any person should be pardoned under that
act upon condition of being transported or banishing him-
self from that province, either for life or for any term of
years, such person, if he should return to the province
before the expiration of the period of his transportation
or banishment, should be guilty of felony, and liable to
suffer death ; that, after the passing of that act, the pri-
soner was duly indicted at a special court of oyer and ter-
miner, held by authority of another act of the same legisla-
ture, for the crime of high treason ; that before his arraign-
ment, in accordance with the statute, the prisoner petitioned
the lieutenant-governor, confessing his guilt of the treason
charged against him, and praying that her Majesty's pardon
might be extended to him upon such conditions as the lieute-
nant-governor, by and with the advice of the executive council,
should see fit ; that the lieutenant-governor did, with the
advice of the council, consent that her Majesty's mercy should
be extended to him, upon condition that he should be trans-
ported, and remain transported, to her Majesty's colony of Van
Diemen's Land for the term of 14 years next ensuing the date
of his arrival at Van Diemen's Land, to which terms and con-
ditions the prisoners assented ; and, therefore, the lieutenant-
governor did, by letters patent under the seal of the province,
remit and release the prisoner from all and every punishment
that might be inflicted upon him by reason of the said treason,
so confessed, upon condition, nevertheless, that he should he
and remain transported for the term aforesaid. The return
then states that there being no means of conveying the prisoner
directly, from Upper Canada toVan Diemen's Land, it became
necessary to convey him first to Quebec, in Lower Canada,
and then to England, for the purpose of transporting him to
Van Diemen's Land ; and that, accordingly, he was trans-
mitted, by authority of the Lieut.-governor of Upper Canada,
to Quebec, and from thence, by authority of the executive
government there, which issued letters patent in the name of
her Majesty to command that the prisoner'should be delivered
to Digby Martin, the master of the barque Captain Ross, to be
by him conveyed to England, to such place as her Majesty
should think fit, to the end that he might thence be trans-
ported to Van Diemen's Land. That Digby Martin accord-
ingly brought him to Liverpool, the same being the place w hien
seemed fit to her Majesty, and which was the most proper
place for the purpose, and there delivered him to the gaoler of
Liverpool, who retains him in his custody, whilst means are
preparing to transport him to Van Diemen's Land. This is
the substance cf the return, against which many ingenious ob-
jections have been urged. the principal of which seem to be—
that the legislature of Upper Canada had no authority to
make any such law ; that if they. had, it could be binding
only within the precincts of that province ; that it could
communicate no authority to any person out of that pro-
vince, and,- therefore, can give none to the gaoler of Liver-
pool; that even if it could have that effect, the pardon
granted under that law being conditional, it was not compe-
tent to the prisoner to accept a pardon whereby he submitted
himself to imprisonment or transportation; or, that if it
were competent to him to accept a pardon with such a con-
dition, he has still a right to retract his consent, and to be
set free from the obligation imposed on him by the conditions.
All these topics have been elaborately argued on both sides,
and have received due attention from the court, but in the
view which we take of the case, we do not think it necessary
to pronounce any opinion upon them. If the condition upon
which alone the pardon was granted be void, the pardon
must also be void. If the condition were lawful, but the pri-
soner did not assent to it, nor submit to be transported, he
cannot have the benefit of the pardon. Or, if having assented
to it his assent by revocable, we must consider him to have
retracted it by his application to be set at liberty, in which
case he is equally unable to avail himself of the pardon. Look-
ing, then, at the return, the position of the prisoner appears
to be this—that he has been indicted for high treason com-
mitted in Canada against her Majesty—that he has confessed
himself guilty of that treason—that he is liable to be tried for
it in England—that he cannot plead the pardon which he has
renounced, and that h:. is now in the custody of the gaoler of
Liverpool under such circumstances as would justify any sub-
ject of the crown in England in taking and detaining him in
custody till he be dealt with according to law. Any subject
who held him in custody with a knowledge of these circum-
stances would be guilty of a crime in aiding and abetting his
escape, if he permitted him to go at large without lawful au-
thority. How then can we order the gaoler of Liverpool or
any other person who has him in custody, with a knowledge
of these circumstances, to let him go at large ? If the pri-
soner cannot be lawfully transported under his present cir-
cumstances, it is to be presumed that the government, upon
being so certified, will take proper measures for prosecuting
him for the crime of treason, in England. For these reasons
we are of opinion that the prisoners must be remanded.
The prisoners were then removed in custody.
PIMM AND OTHERS V. CURREL AND OTHERS.

The argument in this ease (a right to the Monks Ferry)
was again resumed, and occupied the court the remainder of
the day, Mr. Cresswell, Mr. Crompton, and Mr. Williams
being heard on behalf of the defendants.
The court deferred judgment.