The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-02-20 00:00:00

THE LIVV,RP(Xn STANDARP

to escape froni his boadage, may be shot, hanged, or flogved.
The aeholie, notwithstlnding what di, Re,'. H. Aißeile cwerts
to tke contrary, is a free agent, inasmuch' as he can at any time,
and Terthout incurring any penalty, quit the Catholic fold, atilt
become a member of the orthodox church of St. Jude's if his
inclination shoilld lead him in that diection. We know seve-
ral persons who have become Protestants after having been edu-
cated at CatholiC seminaries, and having long continued mem-
bers of the Romish church, but we never heard any of them
complain of having been subjected to the slightest inconvenience
in consequence of the change ; and as we can place more reli-
ance upon what we have witnessed than we can upon the mere
assertion of the man who repeatedly declared that the bible was
excluded from the Liverpool Corporation schools, we shall not
waste any snore words upon the Rev. Hugh M'Neile's parallel,
which is as defective as the inferences he has laboured to deduce

from such false premises."
This passage certainly proves one thing—that the
editor of the Mercury is ❑either a man of candour nor a
man of sense. He shows his want of candour by stating
that the Roman Catholic is subjef..,t to no persecution for
assuming the profession of protestantism : he shows his
want of sense in hazarding, an assertion the stupidity of
which is as glaring as its falsehood, and which must
make him the laughing-stock of the veriest school-boy.
Did the editor of the Mercury never hear of a horrible

dungeon called the Inquisition, in which persons only
suspected of Protestantism were immured for life and
subjected to the most excruciating torments? Has he
never read of the myriads of martyrs who have, from
age to age, suffered the vengeance of the Church of

,me (or their renunciation of her faith ? In short, is

the editor of the Mercury entirely ignorant of the history
of his own country ? Does he want a modern instance

of the tyranny and persecution of the Romish Church?
Let him take the following :

In the diocese of Waterford resides a popish gentle-
man, a Mr. Galwey. This gentleman had some political
difference; the nature of which he does not explain, with
Dr. Abraham, his bishop., In this temporal matter he
refused to yield to the bishop's authority. His sife, in
the meantime, was visited with a severe illness, and
could not leave the house. The festival of the incarna-
tion was approaching. Mrs. Galwey was desirous of
receiving •the sacrament at home, and Mr- Galwey ap-
plied to the priest of the parish to administer it. The
priest refused, assigning ashis reason that the bishop had
put Mr. Galwey's house under an interdict of the ordi-
nances of the church. Mr. Galwey wrote to the bishop,
to remonstrate. He received no answer. He became
indignant at such treatment, wrote the bishop a second
letter, and published both his letters in the newspapers.
The following are the letters:—

of their fellow-creatureS And we hhpe that whilst there
exists a necessity for the exercise of the virt tie, there will
ilways be found men who know hoW, to cast aside their
peculiar prejudices and predilections, and combine for the
purpose of doing good to their fellow-men. - But if our
contemporary means to insinuate that in redotnmending
the charity to the patronage of the public we have com •
promised our principles, we can assure him he is egre-
giously mistaken. To Popery wemust always be opposed
so long as its acknowledged principles are at variance
with civil and religious liberty, and so long as its policy
is opposed to the spirit and temper of the British consti-
tution. We believe it to be a system dishonourable to
God and degrading to man, inasmuch as it strips Deity
of its rightful attributes and denies to man .the free exer-
cise of his reason—the noblest quality with which lie is
endowed. But we would not on this account pollute the
sources of charity or dry up those springs of true benevo-
lence which cheer and gladden the hearts of thousands.
It is sufficient for us that misery exists toclaim our warmest
sympathy and support.