The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-06-19 00:00:00

POPERY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

The defenders of Popery in our own country affect vast
indignation when its professors are accused of worship-
ping images, or praying to the Virgin, or to saints. We
are illiberal, they say, in making these charges against the
present enlightened generation. The practices referred
to were only rife in the dark ages, amongst our ignorant fore-
fathers. Popery, however, in Continental States, where
it has not to meet the searching gaze of Protestant truth,
still wears the same aspect, and still plays upon the cre-
dulity of mankind. An instance has just occurred in
the metropolis of France itself, amongst one of the most
educated communities—in the modern sense of the word.
—to be found in the civilized world.

The cholera is decimating the population of the French
capital ; and we read, from the correspondent of the
Times of Wednesday last, that—" The Archbishop of
Paris has addressed a circular to his clergy, advising
various services to be performed as a means of averting
the wrath of God, amongst which an appeal for the in-
tercession of the Virgin Mary and another holy virgin,
a patron Saint of France, is especially recommended."
Where is the difference between superstition like this,
and the worst mummeries of the dark ages ! The next
day's Times states :—" The Archbishop of Paris is said
to have been attacked with cholera shortly after leaving
the church yesterday, where he had offered up a solemn
prayer to St. Genevie've, the Patroness of Paris, for a
cessation of the malady."—Solemn prayers to St. Gene-
vieve ! Prayers to an erring human being; and this
mockery is enacting whilst a population is falling victims
by hundreds to one of the most frightful scourges ever
sent into the world by its offended Maker !
Another paper says that the Archbsshop has hit upon
a most notable plan for propitiating the Almighty
to remove the afflicting dispensation, namely, by
giving notice that he will celebrate a votive mass of St.
Genevieve, in the Cathedral of Notre Dame, to be pre-
ceded by a procession of the relics of the holy patroness of
Paris. Surely such exhibitions can only be regarded by
persons possessed of common sense as scandalous mocke-
ries, and be deemed much more likely to aggravate than
remove the evil which they pretend to deprecate. Poor
Miss Genevieve ever little dreamt that her marrowless
shanks would be appropriated to so shocking a purpose—
and yet the people of France are held up as par excellence,
a highly civilised people, proh pudor !

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.
(n EXPRESS.)

ROMAN STATES.—The intelligence from Rome is of the
Bth instant. The President of the Constituent communi-
cated to the Assembly, on the sth, a despatch from the
prefect of Fermo, stating that the garrison of Ancona had
made a sortie, in which they killed or wounded 500 Aus-
trians, with the loss of only fifty wounded and seven
killed. The deputy Gajani proposed that the representa-
tives should proceed to the different quarters to calm the
panic excited by the cannon balls and rockets thrown into
the city by the French. " The citizens of the menaced
quarter," he said, "crowd into the centre in the utmost
disorder, and it is necessary to inspire the people with
confidence both by words and example."
ROME.—The fire of cannon and musketry continues in
the direction of Porta San Pancrazo and the walls of the
Vatican, but not very actively ; meanwhile the Roman
ladies are taking their accustomed promenade up and
down the Corso, after having attended mass, and no one
would imagine that a besieged and bombarded city could
betray so few signs of agitation or alarm.
RIOTS AT LYONS.—On the 14th, a number of men
went to the house of the prefet of Lyons, demanding to
know the purport of a telegraphic despatch from Paris.
The information was declined, when the democrats circu-
lated a report that Ledru Rollin was master of Paris, and
the President of the Republic and his ministers were in
prison. This caused much excitement, and great crowds
began to assemble and threatened to enter the Hotel de
Ville. The Courrier de Lyons of the 16th, says that the
Poste of the Ecole Veterinitiri had been surprised and dis-
armed by a band of 600 or 800 men, which afterwards
went to the Croix Rousse. A conflict had also taken
place at the Porte St. Laurent and Porte des Bernardines.
Several men attempted to disarm the military posts
there ; the soldiers fired, and several of the aggressors
were shot. Subsequently to this the Poste of the
Eccle Veterinairi was re-occupied by- the troops.
Later news received from Lyons gives an account of a
tremendous struggle on the 16th. However, all the bar-
ricades were taken by the troops ; the loss of life has been
very great. It was expected that the insurrection would
again break out.