The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-03-22 00:00:00

milar as Christianity and Rome ! But, to my mind, you
have cause for grief ; for your black-hearted allies, the
priests, to me appear a troop of grinning undertakers,
trapped in the horrid livery of death, who seek to bind
you pleasantly, and then march you off alive to the grave-
yard of constitutional and religious liberty.
It was not enough for the Journal to insert, with a
malicious art, some garbled sentences from Dr. M'Neile's
latest speech, exposing the wickedness of the Papal sys-
tem and the character of the Romish priests. The Journal
must further give insertion to the epistle of one calling
himself " A Protestant." This self-constituted moral
policeman, who comes armed with choice extracts from
" Don Juan" and illustrations borrowed from the beer.
shop, thinks Dr. M'Neile, in his " perpetual bother
about the (Roman) Catholics," is creating " an intolera-
ble and dangerous nuisance;'' that his conduct "threa-
tens to be very mischievous to the best interests of
society ;" and that it must be " pComptly put down," or
public meetings of Protestants will be abolished, religious
institutions will languish, and benevolence will decay
and eventually disappear. " A Protestant" likewise as-
serts that Dr. M'Neile "takes upon himself the office of
lecturing and insulting the ministers of other churches ;"
that " all" his speeches " make the thoughtless laugh,
the prurient chuckle, the judicious grieve, and the modest
blush ;" that he assumes " to himself the privilege of
saying anything he pleases—none being able to make him
afraid or ashamed ; ' that his " platform performances
frequently overstep the bounds of propriety ;" that he
delivered "something in Latin" at a meeting in the
Collegiate Institution, which was indecent ; and that, in
bar-parlours a story " bordering on the improper" is now
termed " a M'Neileism." These are the charges in the
first indictment. " A Protestant," however, announces
his intention of administering not one, but a series of
epistolary exposures.
Let me examine the foundation on which these charges
are based. Beginning with the last, I fear "A Protestant"
will receive credit for reporting faithfully the " phrrse-
ology " of the " bar-parlour." I do not seek to contra-
dict his statement of the low estimation in which Dr.
M'Neile is held by midnight revellers—those who desert
their firesides to luxuriate in stories " bordering on the
improper" and to levy upon each other " fines of glasses
and cigars." Such people too often, like the witches in
" Macbeth," sing
"Fair is foul, and foul is fair."
The " something in Latin " which Dr. M'Neile had the
temerity to utter publicly in the Collegiate Institution
was spoken in the presence of the bishop of the diocese.
It is to be presumed by all men, and must be believed by
every person in Liverpool, that his Lordship would not
have permitted a clergyman of his diocese to speak or act
in his presence, unchecked, in a way unbecoming the
sacred office of a priest. Yet the speaker's conduct
(which so shocked the sensitive nature of "A Protestant")
was not deemed improper by Dr. M'Neile's spiritual
superior. That conduct admitted of no rebuke—it met
with none. Need " A Protestant "be told that, however
revolting the task may be, it is impossible for an opponent
of Rome to expose the iniquities of Anti-Christ without
alluding to the foul obscenity of her standards. No : it
is not at a Protestant meeting in the Collegiate Institu-
tion that we have to fear the exposure of those hideous
masses of corruption. It is the secret working of
Romish abominations among poor deluded Papists that
should make " A Protestant " quiver with righteous in-
dignation and holy wrath.
Dr. M'Neile is charged with " lecturing and insulting
the ministers of other churches." What are the insults ?
He has witnessed, in common with us all, the baleful pre-
sence of Rome's emissaries in the streets of Liverpool—
beings

"That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth
And yet are on it"—
,
who walk with eyes averted from the passer-by, or who, if
they look up, look only to scowl. He has marked the
perpetual cloud which hangs around them; and he avows
—monstrous insult !—that in spite of every effort, he can-
not find a Romanist priest who will look him fair in the
face. A simple truth, which all but "A Protestant"
have long since realised, and which he may find illustrated
by walking at almost any hour of the day to his own door.
But, compare the " insults" of Dr. M'Neile with the lan-
guage of a writer in the last number of the ultra-liberal
and eloquently-written Westminster Review. "After
traversing the whole of Ireland," says this author, " the
observer has seen, perhaps, scarcely one priest who looks
even human. Their very preparation for office consists in
extinguishing human affections, while the passions seem
to be exasperated by the process. It is painful enough to
see in Italy the priests, who go about in couples—the fat
and thin, the jolly and ascetic ; but it is worse to mark
the two Irish classes—the brutes and the devils." What
will one so tender, and sensitive, and tolerating as " A
Protestant" say to this language from the great organ of
the British free-thinkers ?
But, I hear a voice exclaim, what of Dr. M'Neile and
the Ragged Schools ? Ay, what of them ? Let us hear
the story.
Roman Catholic parents, steeped to the lips in poverty,
are importuned to permit their children to enter an insti-
tution where they will be fed, clothed, and educated.
"No, you shall not take our children,—they are our sole
support," is the reply of the depraved wretches. The
little ones, instead of going to school, are initiated by
their parents in the craft of the criminal, and when in the
court of justice the sad tale of parental wickedness is told,
the judge and all around him are indignant, the press
echoes his wrath, and no member of the community can
find words strong enough to denounce the unnatural sin.
But I have a companion-picture to sketch. There are
cases in which the poor Romanists rejoice at the interest
taken in their children, whom they are thankful to see
cared for and tended in a good asylum, provided by those
whom they know have a sincere desire for their welfare.
This, however, cannot be tolerated. A dark cloud obscures
the happy scene. If, 'in one case, the parent has known
how to'do his duty, the priest is there ready and deter-
mined to undo all that has been done. He threatens the
parent with all the terrors that can be invoked—rudely
assails the schoolmistress—and carries away the child.
Whither ? To starvation, beggary, and sin ; from a life
upon which beauteous hopes and tender loves and noble
aspirations had dawned to a life of miseries and fears ;
from learning to ignorance, virtue to crime, usefulness to
idleness ; mayhap, from a godly career to the gallows.
The friend of humanity and the faithful Christian at once
points the fingerof indignation at the priest, and denounces
the wickedness of that falsely-called servant of God who
is permitted to instigate his flock to the commission of
'crime without, unfortunately, sharing in the penalty.
As a citizen arid a Christian, Dr. M'Neille stepped
boldly forward, and lifted his voice against the guilty
workers of iniquity, the promoters of crime, and the
filchers from the public purse. But the Ragged School
philanthropist, who is addicted to " toleration," cannot
desert his old principle; and though he would certainly
have denounced the parent, he defies you to stigmatize
the priest. The exposure of the priest's iniquity he will
nor hear, and so, in a mighty dudgeon, and with unseemly
mutterings, he relieves the assembly of his presence. This
is not all ; for, lo ! the moral policeman springs a rattle
in the papers, and the liberal editor of the Times joins in
the cry that Dr. M'Neille is an incendiary, and that the
victims of his most foul calumnies are sorely wronged
gentlemen ! And now " A Protestant"—forgetting that
Lord Carlisle has recanted his expression of faith in
Rome's respectability, and oblivious of the fact that the
Madiai were pining in Papal dungeons, and a brazen
Irish bandit daring to defend their imprisonment in the
British Parliament—stalks gravely forward in the pages
of the Journal, and pronounces his belief that Dr.
M'Neile must be "put down."
Some will regard, with suspicion the orthodoxy of
" A Protestant's ' creed ; myself among the number. I
fear he is one of those who are prepared to join in any
apparently popular cry, but very unwilling to prove that
"To do good sometimes is accounted dangerous evil."
His letter strongly favours the supposition, at all events,
that the pothouse is his house of prayer, Byron his
Bible !

The insane cry about Dr. M'Neile's " mania," as it is
called, is, I regret to think, joined in by others who
profess Protestantism. Church of England people, who
plume themselves on being "moderate" and " judicious ;"
" liberal dissenters," whose religion has a strong political
hue; as well as philophical freethinkers—to borrow Leigh
Hunt's phrase, " such piouslY-disposed persons as are
not of any visible church ;" all take occasion to pour
the vials of their wrath upon Dr. M'Neile for sneaking
what he feels to be the truth. The Mercury and Journal
head the assaults with an impudence that knows no blush,

a want of principle unsuriassed, and an industry that

mayi n
tseeref e
rtebnecier
The Popish priests may have domesticated detectives in
many Protestant families in Liverpool ; this free land of
ours may be overrun with Jesuits and social and domestic
flags.
The
jails
sy
neversscphiees m; est the
of a violent priesthood ; Cahill may launch with the fury
of a madman into a sea of sedition; the Patrick's Day
mob may fill the Concert-hall with groans when the name
of Dr. M'Neile is breathed; the Romish church every-
where may continue to bully the weak and cajole the
strong ; but the most monstrous accumulation of iniquities
can exercise no influence upon "A Protestant." We
have not the faintest hope for him or the peculiar class to
which he belongs ; for, of all kinds of madness, perhaps
fatuity is the most hopelessly incurable of them all.
Dr. Cahill need no longer light his brand on the banks
of the Mersey. Liverpool can well dispense with his

presence. His aid is more urgently required in other
English towns, where, alas ! no genius like our friend,
" A Protestant," rushes valiantly to the fight on behalf
of Rome, backed by unscrupulous members of the press,
who, forsooth, are pleased to arrogate to themselves the
name of friends of civil and religious liberty. Verily, we
have cause to exclaim, " Save us from our friends !"
Liverpool, March 21, 1853. A CITIZEN.