The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-11-16 00:00:00

THE BREACH IN THE CONCLAVE.

PAPISTICAL UNITY.
From the Dublin Evening Mail.)
Which ever of the National Board it was that re-
fused a grant to the Rev. James Mac Hale (brother to
John of 'foam) for a National School to be kept in his
own [brother James's] house, has at least done this
good in his generation, namely, that he has rent asun-
der the flimsy pretence of unity of doctrine and disci-
pline on which the Church of Rome was wont to rely
as a mark of her oithodoxy and divine original. This
incident, trifling as it was, has given birth to a contro-
versy which, involing the Roman prelates in the most
contradictory opinions respecting the casket of the
faith committed to their charge, dispels the illusion
that the faith and discipline of their church—emanat-
ing, as they are-said to do, from one infallible centre—
are one and the same; and it for ever undermines the
claim, asserted by the Romish hierarchy, to a right of
determining for individuals all matters of controversy,
independently of the conscience or private judgment
of their communicants. Here, for instance, are•two
leading prelates of thetChurch of Rome [for Dr. Mur-
ray has left the bush, and taken to the open field
against his brother of St. Jarlath's] at direct issue, not
only on the religious education of their flocks, but on
the interpretation, force, and authority of a synodical
decree of the entire conclave of bishops, issued ex ca-
thedra, in the year 1826. We say nct which of them
is in the right ; but that one of them must be in the
wrong. But more : each party claims adherents
amongst the hierarchy; it follows, then, that one por-
tion of the Popish bishops of Ireland differs from the
other portion of the same body on subjects of vital
importance to the faith. The question then arises—
which leader or party is the laity to follow ? How are
the questions at issue to be decided (now that the in-
fallible authority is divided against itself, and its in-.
fluence thus neutralised) except by the private judg-
meat of the laity ? Some will tell us of an appeal to
Rome 1 If that. would have settled the dispute we
should never have heard of it in public; for the cham-
pions have appealed to Rome already (as lately ap-
peared in all the papers) and the continuance of the
controversy in public proves the insufficiency of the
infallible chair for the decision of the controversy. But
the champions have taken another course, and they
have both appealed to the tribunal of public opinion—
a practice as novel, we will venture to say, in the pru-
dent tactics of their church, as it will ultimately prove
fatal. For the appeal is now to the private judgment
of the laity : and the laity will soon discover that, if
their private judgments suffice for the determination
of such matters as are now in controversy between the
bishops, they are competent, by a parity of reasoning,
to decide on matters of doubt between the bishops and
themselves, and not only to decide which of the two
bishops is right, but to judge whether any of their
bishops be right at all.
This controversy is so edifying that we must trace
it to its original.

On the 30 oth of May, 1837, Dr. John M'Hale, the
Titular Archbishop of Tuam, made application, in a
letter bearing his sign manual, to the National Board,
for aid towards the establishment of a national school
in Hollymount. " This application unfortunately,"
says Dr. Murray in his letter to his Titular cunfrete,
" was of such a nature, that the commissioners did not
think themselves at liberty to accede to it. It was for
a sum of money to establish a school in the dwelling-
house of the Rev. James M'Hale. What new light,"
adds Dr. Murray, with his wonted suavity and slyness
of humour—" what new light this disappointment
may have thrown upon the national system it is not
for me to guess." Nor for us either; for it is not our
part to insinuate—as we fear Dr. Murray has done—
the detection of a job enveloped in " the sacred de-
posit of the faith." All we know is what Dr. Murray
tells us—and that is, that at the next synodical meet-
ing of the heirarchy—viz., in the February following,
Dr. Mac Hale, " in no measured terms, animadverted
on the commissioners for their imputed partiality, and
harangued the meeting on the dangerous tendency of
the system which they administered." We do not
pretend to trace here the cause and effect, nor to say
propter hoc quia post hoc ; all we are concerned to
know—all that the Roman Catholic laity are required
to exercise their private judgment upon, is the fact,
that since this event the orthodoxy of the Church of
Rome has been split in twain—that what is 9rthodar
in Leinstef, is heterodox in Connaught—that the lead-
ing prelates of the Roman Catholic Church disagree
Concerning " the sacred deposit of the faith ;" and
that the synodical decree, upon which one of the par-
ties takes its stand, is despised and trodden under foot
by the other as a matter of temporary humbug, no
longer binding since no longer convenient.
In this condition we cheerfully leave the theological
combatants—and commit them to the surveillance and
private judgment of their lay communicants. But
there is another party to the question at issue—and
that is, the Protestant community of Ireland. And
for this party it is our duty to watch, and to warn them
of whatever may concern their interests and welfare.
To them, we say, that, Whatever reason Roman Ca-
tholics may have to be satisfied with the national sys-
tem under Dr. Murray's patronage—they (the Pt otes-
tants) have the very reverse. This system—as Dr.
Murray triumphantly informs his rev, antagonist—
" does not breathe an atmosphere tainted with the
poison of heresy." To translate the Doctor's court
phraseology into the vulgar tongue, and say that he
exults because the breath of Protestantism is not al-
lowed to be felt in the national schools, were a super-
fluity as wasteful and ridiculous as to paint the lily or
add a perfume to the violet. But when he informs us,
as he does, that "of the masters now in training,
seven eighths are of the [Romish] faith," it behoves us
to inquire, and him to explain, what is meant under a
system so preponderantly Popish by the terms "joint
education of which Protestants and Roman Catholics
may equally partake withoutdanger of proselyteism ?"
Doctor M'Hale complains that the system is not Po-
pish enough—but that which is enough for Doctor
Murray is far too much for Protestants: and having
said this, we have exhausted the controversy between
the National Board and the Established Church.

Let Murray and Mac Hale contend for the more or
less. The Protestants of Ireland will have nothing to
do with either.

The letter which occasions those remarks will be
found in our subsequent columns. We doubt much
whether the very gracious style of the editor of Dens
will much appease the offended bile of the sucsessor of
St. Jarlath. The motto of his answer will probably
be—