The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-05-05 00:00:00

eri4 any petition, during the melon, for the abolition of the
greatest curse under which a nation could groan—the system
of slavery? (Cheers.) No member of the American cone
press will be' allowed even to moot the question, whether
berfy
.shall be enjoyed by three millions of her subjects !
America! celebrated for its murderous Lynch-law ; within
many of whose States neither life nor property is secure, and
wherein prevails a savage system of duelling, and the Bowie
knife is frequently seen to triumph over the very sword of
the magistrate ! (Hear, hear.) I say, then, in England we
have enjoyed a larger measure of well-regulated liberty than
in any other country, and that because the constitution of
the country is based upon the principles of the word of God.
(Cheers.) It may, indeed, be perfectly consistent for a Ro-
man Catholic, upon his platforms and at his dinner assem-
blies, to toast civil and religious liberty throughout the world;
but I would just ask him to put his finger upon any Roman
Catholic country where any full measure of civil and religious
liberty is enjoyed. (Hear, hear.) When the Spanish nation
sent its celebrated Armada to invade England, and to de
throne our good Protestant Queen Elizabeth, we know that
it was freighted with a cargo of something very likely to in-
terfere with our civil and religious liberties. (Hear.) You
are aware, for they are in the Tower of London, and I have
seen them myself, of the thumb screws and other instruments
of torture with which the Spanish Armada was freighted, in
order to give England a taste of civil and religious liberty
after the Romish fashion. (Hear.) And if I might specify
our blessings, I would say we have had prosperity ct .home,
and we have been respected abroad, and also placed in a con-
dition to be the great missionary nation to the world. These
blessings we owe to Our CHRISTIAN PROTESTANTISM. (Hear.)
Remember, I distinguish here. There is a species of Pro-
testantism which is not Christian, which is based upon expe-
diency instead of principle. We have suffered under its
operation in times past, and we wish to guard against it now ;
what we wish now, and the object of this association, is the
infusion of a larger measure of CHRISTIAN PROTESTANTISM
into the land. (Hear.) It is for this purpose we hold our
meetings, distribute our tracts and lectures, and call upon
you to enrol yourselves members of these associations. And
if I am asked whether I really and conscientiously believe
these great privileges are in danger at the present day,
I unhesitatingly avow my belief that they are. (Hear, hear.)
We are in danger of losing all the blessings of which I have
spoken ; and who are our enemies engaged in the assault ?
You will remember that with the downfall of the established
church, the constitution of the country is gone. We have
first of all the POLITICAL LIBERALS, who consist of two
classes. The first class contains ell infidels, deists, and so-,
cinians in the land • they are all liberals to a man ; they de-
test all sorts of religion, and are anxious that all religion
should be nationally cast out of the land. The next section
consists of those who profess and feel some regard for reli-
gion, hut seeing the tninds of men are divided upon the sub-
, ject, and fixing their eyes exclusively upon certain abuses
connected with the establishment, are desirous that all that
is religious should be torn out of the heart of the British
constitution ; and that the nation as a nation should know
nothing of the subject. (Hear.) Then wp have upon the
other hand, those who call themselves voluntaries. They are
persons who are specially opposed, as they gay upon conscien-
tious principles, to the existence of an establishment. 'Why
do they oppose it ? 1 may illustrate the character and reason
of their opposition by a reference to a very celebrated cha-
racter of antiquity of whom you have doubtless heard. There
was an extraordinary old voluntary in times past called Dio-
genes, who used to roll about in a tub ; and when on one
occasion he was asked what he wanted; he said, " Stand out
of my sunshine." Now when we see our modern volun-
taries rolling about in the tub of their discontent, and ask
them the reason of their opposition to our establishment,
they tell us it stands in their sunshine. They are not such
great men as they would be if there were no establishment,
and they would then be on a level with all the other teachers
of religion in the land •, it is not so much because they wish
to step up to our level, but because they desire, worthy gen-
tlemen, to draw us down to their level. These are the vo-
luntarious gentlemen. Then, between these two sections of
political liberals upon the one side, and voluntaries upon the
other, there comes in a third party, and who is he? (Hear.)
He is the Roman Catholic. (Hear.) He finds himself in
strange company, but as his object is to obtain a certain end,
and as his alliance with these two parties is likely to attain
that end, he is satisfied for a time to be in bad company. He
differs from them both. From the political liberal he differs
in thinking that' religion is a matter of no consequence, and
that the state should have nothing to do with it. What he
means by religion is, the aggrandisement and supremacy of
his church—further than that he knows and cares nothing ;
he therefore considers that the religious part of the question
is just the most important, and his greatest anxiety is that
the state should have every thing to do with religion provided
it be the religion of the church of Rome. (Hear.) He dif-
fers again from the voluntaries, although he says he does not,
(but we do not believe him), in objecting to an establishment.
Aye, he says, I object to an establishment, not choosing to
remember that the church of Rome is established wherever
it can, and would be here if it could ; but he is willing to be
a voluntary, or anything you please for a time, so that it will
help to accomplish the desired end of his ambition which is
the overthrow of the Protestant Church established by law.
(hear). Now these three parties, thus strangely banded
together, are doing all the mischief in the country ; they are
the men whose machinations we are assembled to oppose.
The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through
God to the pulling down of all their strong holds ; we stand
here upon principle, with the word of God in our hands, and
as we humbly trust, with the love of that Saviour whom it
reveals, in our hearts. We care not what political party are
now, or may be in power ; if their principles and their acts
be consistent with the revelation of God we support them,
and if they are the contrary, we feel it our duty to give them
our most decided opposition. (Hear). What are the reasons
why we think our great Protestant institutions are in danger
from the machinations of these gentlemen ?We find popery
is now, for the first time, for some centuries at least, con-
siderably in favour in high places, that Roman Catholics, like
locusts, have even crept into the Queen's palace. We have
them in the houses of parliament; we have them in the cham-
ber of the Privy council ; and we have them even surround.
ing the person of our beloved Queen. (Hear). Is there no
danger in this ? (Hear). Does any one here ask " why is
it you are so afraid of popery?" I will tell you. I believe it
to be an idolatrous system ; do you not believe the same ?
(Cries of yes, yes). The worship of the Host and of the
Virgin Mary is idolatry. (Hear). Then we have decided
that it is an idolatrous system. We say 'again it is a
superstitious system. (Hear). Then there are some that
tell us it is changed—that though it was all this in times past
it is not now. Let us try this. It is not very many months
since a large cargo of relics, the skulls and hones of holy
men, were landed at the custom-house of London and no duty
paid upon them. (Hear). A considerable portion of that
precious cargo was sent over to the island of saints, and it is
an absolute fact that in one of the principal Roman Catholic
Chapels of Dublin, portions of these relics were daily exposed
to the view of the faithful, of course for—a consideration.
(Hear). Superstitious ? Why have we not read very lately
in the papers of aßontan Catholic in 'a southern county in
Ireland, who had the misfortune to have a child somewhat
deformed in person, and what was the sapient conclusion
that the Roman Catholic father came to ? That his child
was a fairy ! and he determined to ascertain by a stringent
process whether his suspicions were true or not. He applied
a red hot shovel to the child, deelaring that if it did not
confess it was a fairy, and point out the exact place where
the tine John Maloney was to be found, it should come in
contact with the red hot shovel The poor child under the
influence of terror made some confession, which induced them
to stay proceedings till the next morning, but when that
morning arrived the poor child was found dead ! (Hear).
Will any one after this say that the superstitions of popery
have changed ? (Hear). Was there no one in the neigh-
bourhood to prevent the perpetration of such an outrage ?
NO. Further, this is not only an idolatrous system as it
exists, and superstitious, but it is an arrogant system too.
When it pleased Almighty God lately to remove from
this life a public man, the late Under Secretary for
Ireland, what did the Roman Catholics of Dublin do ? They
made a proposal as appearS by the public journals, that his
remains should be given to them for interment in a Roman
Catholic burial ground, declaring that because of his opinions
he belonged rather to them, than the Protestants. (Hear,
hear.) It is an arrogant system then. It is further still,
a blasphemous system. (Hear.) I shall read you one very
short extract in proof of this assertion. lam reading now
from a treatise, Tractatus de Ecclesice,:one of the modern class
books of the Church of Rome in Ireland, where they say—
and you will hear this upon the lips of intelligent Roman
Catholics in Ireland—if at the last day, they should be
found in error upon the subject of salvation, they will lay
the blame of their deception upon Almighty God himself !
Here hre the very words :
" Domine, si error est secuti sumus, Tre ipse nos deccpisti
tam claro atque iterato precepto ecelesiam audiendi sicvt le,
nisi cum ethnicis partem habere bellemus. Fidenter dici-
mus, Domine, si error est quern secuti sumus, Tve ipse, de-
cepisti nos et excusamur." Tractatus de Ecclesiae Page
511. Dublin, 1795.

What think you of this? Is not this blasphemous? (Hear.)
This you know is the name inscribed upon the brow of the
harlot, BLASPHEMY ! (Hear). It is a treacherous sys-
tem also. The fashionable policy of the modern men who
rejoice in the name of a liberal, is to conciliate popery. I say
not only that it cannot be conciliated, but that it, ought
not to be conciliated. It is the enemy of God and man.
Every kindness we can shrew to the Roman Catholics per-
sonally and individually, it is our duty to do; but with the
system, whose principles are written in the council of Trent,
and whose conduct we see exhibited in the present day, is
a system which neither can nor ought to be conciliated—it
is that which every Christian is called upon by his fidelity to
God, to stand forward and oppose to the utmost of his
power. (Hear, hear.) How do we find a moderate Roman
Catholic journal in Ireland, speaking a few days since ?
Let us ponder the language of this most moderate journal—
the Dublin Register:—
"England deserves but little forbearance at our hands.
Many a battle have we fought for her, many a brave Irish
heart has been drained in her defence. We deserted not
her standard when it streamed against the wind: We stood
by her side on the field, and on the wave. What return has
she made for all? Oppression. insult, and persecution.
We have failed in our attempt to conciliate her good will.
L., us try
.what we can do by an appeal to her interest and
her fears. '
What is all this for? Because parliament is about to pass
a certain measure, the standard of repeal—which is a trea-
sonable cry, (hear)—is hoisted in Ireland: and here we are
told, after all the concessions, and all the conciliation, and
all the.healing measures of the last ten years, that Ireland
has never received anything from the hands of England, but
" oppression, insult, and persecution." That if parliament
passes one single, solitary measure, of which she disapproves,
behold her gratitude, " she will appeal to our interests and our
fears!" Aye, that will be the language of popery to the
last, and any attempt to conciliate it, therefore, must ne-
c:ssarily fail. (Hear.) Let me ask again, why are we
alarmed ? I find that within the last forty years, no fewer
than 500 Roman Catholic chapels, and colleges have been
built in the United Kingdom. There were only thirty then,
there are 352 now. (Hear, hear.) Within the last ten
years, there has been an increase of 88. (Hear.) There
are 74 Roman 'Catholic Chapels in Lancashire, and nine
Roman Catholic schools or colleges ; in Yorkshire, 50
chapels and two schools in Staffordshire, 29 chapels
and seven schools ; in Middlesex, 20 chapels and 13 col-
leges. (Hear, hear.) It is remarkable that whilst Roman
Catholi ; chapels have multiplied more in the provinces,
nearer the seat of government they have planted most
of their colleges; for there are,more colleges, 1.. e. nurseries
of popery, in Middlesex than in any other parr of the coun-
try. (Hear, hear.) And in addition there are £70,000
a-year given for the direct support and propagation of popery,
in the endowment of Maynooth, and the stipends of priests
and bishops in various ofour colonies. (Hear, hear.) Just
conceive what a powerful influence must he at work in these
days of retrenchment and economy in order to allow such a
large sum to he annually expended for such a purpose. In
addition to these things we have been lately astounded with
the intelligence that the Queen has been advised to grant
charters of incorporation to two Roman Catholic colleges in
'England, a thing unheard of since the days of James the
Second. (Hear, hear.) I ask, if these things be so what is
the duty of Protestant Christians of the present day ? We
have national sins to be humbled for, as well as national
mercies to acknowledge, and I will tell you what our national
sins are. We have been tampering with popery for forty
years. It is little more than that period since what is called
the Quebec act was passed by which the church of Rome was
established in Lower Canada ; that was the beginning of sor-
rows ; that was the first step we advanced towards the mo-
ther of abominations. How have we been repaid for that
act? By a recent rebellion in Canada, and by a modern
attempt too likely to prove successful, to seize what are
called " the clergy reserves," which were expressly set apart
for the support and encouragement of the Church of Eng-
land in that country. The next step was the endowrnent'of
the college of Maynooth, and' what has been the result ?• We
were told by the promoters of it that 4 domestic college