The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-12-17 00:00:00

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Ind what are these two giant evils—these

" corroding and torturing sores " which taint to fa
ness the heart of society in France ? Why, the exi

ence of secret societies and of a corrupt anti,social and
anti-monarchical press ! The toleration of these by
the government of Louis Philippe is the cause of the
oft-recurring outbreaks and the source of the danger-
ous feeling which they develope ! Can blindness, we
ask, be more blind, ignorance be more ignorant, than
that of the man who can deliberately propound such
an absurdity ? Why, these two " corroding sores "

these secret societies and this traitrous press are but
themselves the outward excrescences thrown up by
the rank disease within. They are but the blotches of
the fever—the smoke and ashes emitted by the labour-
ing volcano. At the root is a thing more deadly far—
an evil which has once before plunged France into
anarchy and blood, and which is destined, we fear, to
do so again, and within a brief period.
France possesses amongst her people no vital reli-
gion ! The minds of her people are either sunk in in-
fidelity, open and avowed, or in practical infidelity
glossed over with false philosophy or hid behind the
folds of Popish superstition. She cast from her, in
the reign of her arrogant philosophy, amid the splen-
dours of her Revolution, all that was solid and practi-
cal along with the external adornments of the religion
which she possessed, and she has received nothing to
supply its place. She threw from her that religion and
its teachers. not because of their errors, but because
she prided herself in being able to stand alone by the
unaided lights of reason and vain philosophy; and now
a generation has grown up to maturity upon the soil
which was thus prepared, has been nurtured in merely
secular knowledge, has been fed with philosophy, has
drunk only from the fountain of reason, and has never
been led to that spring from which alone can be im-
' bibed the vivifying waters of the living truth.
Yes, France in her present condition, teeming with
the elements of social disorganization, outrage, and re-
volution, is a living example of the effects of mingled
" Liberalism " in politics, Voluntaryism in Religion,
and of SECULAR EDCUATION ! The existing gene-
ration of Frenchmen is the natural fruit of the com-

bined working of these baneful principles; and the
present insecurity of the social institutions, the peace,
and the monarchy of France, is the effect produced.
And yet it is to the adoption of such a system, based
upon such principles, and which must produce such a
state of society, that the Whig and Radical faction
would most gladly hurry the government and the
people of this country !

There is a reciprocal action between the political and
the religious influences of the Romish church, and
they assist each other most essentially. The religion
creates a political party; the political party, feeling its
dependence on the religion, is very grateful, and gives
its aid to the religion in return. This is one of the
main pillars of the Popedom. The political influence
acting this kind part, is not confined within the pale
of the church; it goes far beyond it. Thus you find
Protestant Dissenters who have gone to the antipodes
of Popery religiously, throwing a shield over its doc-
trinal errors, and deprecating an exposure of its inhe-
rent vices, merely because, in a political way, they find
a convenience in its support, and a support in its alli-
ance. Its political support is at least valuable enough
to neutralise the odium theologium of Dissenters of this
class, and if they cannot defend its theology, they will
not allow others, so far as they can prevent, to attack
it. Some, indeed, will even go farther, and would
grant away money for engrafting its errors on the
youthful mind, or for endowing colleges, or remune-
rating priests for teaching it. Ask these men, do they
approve themselves of the lessons which they would
so generously have others taught ? and they reply at
once that they do not; that their conduct does not
imply anything of the sort; that on this point they
suspend all judgment ; and all that should be inferred
from their acts is, that they desire to live on good
terms with their neighbours, and gratify their wishes
to the utmost extent in their power, without entering
into any nice inquiry as to the nature or character of
those wishes, or the results likely to know from their
gratification. Thus it is that political Popery enlists
so many Protestant Dissenters on its side, and that un-
happy Romanists who groan beneath the thraldom of
their church, and long to cast it from them, can enter-
tain no hope of being encouraged in such a step, or
protected in the performance of it, by politically-bound
serviles of this order. Such vassals of the Popedom,
though calling themselves Protestants, would be very
sorry to involve themselves in a quarrel with Roman
Catholic priests, or influential laymen of their party,
by showing favour to deserters from their camp. The
tyes of temporal interest are stronger with them than
those of futurity, and converts to the true faith must
expect no patronage at their hands.
With those who are actual members of the Romish
communion, the political affiliation must necessarily be
still more influential; Protestant confederates would
not dare to countenance converts from Popish error,
but Romanists would persecute them, and think they
were " doing God service."
Truly the state of men in whose minds some rays
of the light of truth have penetrated, but who are still
kept outwardly in bondage—we speak chiefly of the
humbler classes of Roman Catholics—is sufficiently
deplorable.
We have been led into these reflections by a special
service which was held at St. Jude's Church on Wed-
nesday last, for the purpose of receiving into the com-
munion of the Church of England some converts from
the Church of Rome. A crowded congregation as-
sembled to witness the interesting ceremony, and the
Rev. Mr. M`Neile preached, as he usually does, a
highly impressive discourse on the occasion. He ad-
verted to the topic at which we have been glancing,
and spoke more expressly of the hardships and perse-
cutions to which converts are exposed, even in this
town, on making an open abjuration of the creed of
Pope Pius IV. He mentioned also the fact, that of
eight persons who expressed their anxiety to be re-
ceeived on that day, into the ancient Catholic Church
as by law established, and of whose sincerity and in-
telligence he had been satisfied by careful exami-
nation, three had been wrought upon by some
means since a late hour on the preceding even-
ing, and had failed to witness that good confes-
sion which, up to so recent a period, they had appeared
both well prepared and anxious to do. The reverend
gentleman did not allude to this circumstance, cer-
tainly, as a proof of the extraordinary power or acti-
vity of the persecuting influence ; but it strikes us very
strongly as being corroborative testimony to this effect.
It is scarcely credible that these defaulters acted upon
the dictates of their own unbiassed judgment, when,
after having previously gone such lengths, they were
found at last wanting at the solemn moment when
they were called upon to appear. We have no hesita-
tion in expressing our own conviction, that they were
either terrified or tampered with by some of the many

scouts which Romanism keeps perpetually on duty to
prevent such desertions from its ranks. Such a " spi-
riting away" of individuals is quite an ordinary prac-
tice in the Pope's Church, when their perfect freedom
of action would be likely to cast upon her the intole-
rable stigma of abandonment ; and it is therefore, in
our mind, a strong and incontestable proof of the great
amount of undue influence which a convert from Ro-
manism must overcome before he asserts his freedom
of action, and makes a public recantation of his erro-
neous opinions, even in such a locality as Liverpool.

s there no remedy, then, for this evil ? Can no help,

ing hand be given to persons thus struggling with
conscience, and endeavouring to emancipate themselves
from the yoke of error, and the tyranny of their fellow-
men ? We say, Yes; we say, that as it is party com-
bination which gives so much baneful efficiency to the

,ersecuting spirit, so it is a party combination of the

;enerous and good, which can mar its power, and

defeat its machinations.
It would be the greatest possible blessing to Ireland
(and to England also), if many of her people could be
delivered from the merciless slavery in which they are
bound by the fetters of priesteraft ; but, highly as we
esteem the religious, and what we would call the intel-

lectual, ... -
means put in operation for this purpose, we do
not think, in all fairness, and with due regard for
human weakness, that they are enough. Popery is a
double system, and must be encountered with a two-
edged sword. We say, then, strengthen Conserva-
tism ; let us extend and consolidate not only our reli-
gious, but our political, Protestantism and party, in