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

It it truly reeognlged the lest resort of British Ingle',
it the Roman Catholics really and truly enjoyed the privileges
of the British constitution, if jurors could he depended upon,
if they were not afraid in the jury-box with regard to the
verdicts they should bring in, if witnessess could be depended
upon, if they were not under restraint because of the sur-
rounding people and the priests watching what testimony they
shall give,—if these things could be depended upon as in
England, I say of the testimony of witnesses, if the free un-
fettered verdict of juries in which British liberty rests, and
without which it cannot continue, could be depended upon in
the Romish population, then political equality might be what
some call it, justice to Ireland. (Hear.) But as it is, po-
litical equality upon the statute-book becomes injustice to
England in the practice. Injustice to England, I said,—
for equality is utterly impossible. The systems can't be
equal; they cannot continue parallel; the Romish system
must either be so placed under restraint as to have no prac-
ticable opportunity, or it must be so placed above compare
as to have no hindrance, no opposition, in the way of its utile
versal power. (Hear.) Romanism is not a lovely thing to
be fondled up to a certain point, and there kept still ; it is a
mighty engine urged forward by the hosts of wisely or-
ganized men, cunning, crafty men, taking counsel together
peaceably and quietly, and putting on any external exhibi-
tion that best suits the feature of the times they live in, and
the country it is intended for—wearing one feature in Italy,
another in Spain, another in Austria, another in France,
another in Ireland, and another in England, just to suit the
tone of the times, obtaining in theory the name of unchanga-
ble, and exhibiting in practice a perpetual camelion. (Hear,
hear.) It is never the same. What a mystery of iniquity is
here ! Its present aspect is this country is two-fold. .It has
one species of books for England, and another for Ire-
land ; it has a modified theology fit for the English mind in
which all the baser principles are completely obicured, in
which the most amiable sentiments are professed, and the
charity which is known to be the idol of the present indiffer-
entism is highly extolled. But it has a different species of
book for a different species of readers. I think it may be
well to supply you with one specimen of this difference—a
specimen of the mode in which a certain subject is treated in
a book intended for the amiable, intelligent, and educated
population of England, and how the same subject is treated
in a book intended for the practical purposes of Romanism•in
other countries. (Hear.) Here is a specimen of the lan-
guage in which they treat on one subject when intended to
suit the taste of English readers. You will observe I
am going to meet the reproach so frequently thrown out
against us that we slander the system, that we are
bigotted misrepresenters of our Roman Catholic fellow-
subjects. •1 am not willingly a misrepresenter of any
one, but I have been painfully compelled to the conchs-
sion that Romish writers misrepresent their own system, in
order to deceive British Christians. (Hear, hear.) The
subject which I have selected to supply you with a specimen
of this is their treatment of images. I hold in my hand a
book of the celebrated Mr. Gother, which has gone through
a great many editions ; this is anew edition printed in Edin-
burgh in 1836, and intended for the reading of Englishmen
and Scotchmen. (Here the rev. gentleman read a passage
from Gother, containing a softened gloss on the use of images.)
This sounds eery simple .and very innocent ; and this is al-
leged to be the only use Roman Cathclics make of
.pictures.
Here is a representation of the case in a book intended for
English readers. I protest that if I had access to no other
books upon the subject, if I were so easily to be taken in as
to take Mr. Gother's word without examining other hooks,
or to take the celebrated Bossuet's word, who wrote for the
purpose of salving over the mischief popery creates, by ap-
parent sympathy for the people among whom it rests—l say
if I were content with this sort of reading I should be a libe-
ral. I should say, my good friend Mr. Ould is a perfect
bigot to ascribe such sentiments to persons who write so gen-
teely as this. (Hear.) Nov here is the very delusion they
have practised upon England, and here is the very delusion
we want to dissipate by means of Protestant Associations ;
we do not desire to misrepresent Popery, but to draw away
the mask by which they misrepresent it in order to gain upon
you. (Cheers.) Now, I will give you the use of images as
it is set forth practically to my poor fellow-countrymen, and
not to them only, but to the great bulk of what is called the
Catholic world. I turn to the Second Nicene Council, ap-
proved by Pope Adrian, kept by the whole church, declared
to be a general council, and referred to by the inspired as-
sembly of Trent. At that council the Bishop of Constan-
tinople told these circumstances concerning the use of images
as a practical illustration of the sentiments he laid down.
" A carter went, with his goad in his hand, into one of
the churches of that city, (Cyprus) to say his prayers. In
the midst of his devotions, he chanced to see an image of the
virgin in cteours on the wall; upon which he lifted up his
goad, and struck out the right eye of the figure. On leaving
the church, he returned to his team, and soon afterwards
having occasion to use his goad, the instrument broke, a
fragment entered his right eve, and blinded him. This man,"
adds the bishop, " I myself have seen, and I know him to
have only one eye."
Now what impression is that intended to have upon the
mind of the reader with regard to the virtue of images ? "We
protest," says Bossuet, " that Catholics ascribe no virtue to
images—they' have only the same regard for them as any
affectionate Protestant might have for anything that had
belonged to his friends." Aye, but the carter that the Bishop
of Constantinople told about had a very different view ; he
felt what it was to touch an image. " Another man," says
the Bishop, "of the city of Citium, in the same island,
being employed to hang a church with veils, in honor of the
festival of the blessed virgin's assumption, in the course of
his work drove a nail into the forehead of an image of St.
Peter, painted on one of the walls. He fastened his rose,
and spread the veil; but, before an hour was over, he was
seized with an intolerable pain in his head, particularly in
his forehead; this continued.two days of the festival, during
which he lay in great torment. It happened, however, that
the bishop of Citium heard of the occurrence ; and he, after
giving the man a severe reprimand, directed him to go and
take the nail out of the image : he elid so, and, as soon as
the nail was extracted, his pain ceased."
(Laughter.) Now I pray you, Mr. Chairman, to observe the
connection with which I read these things. It is not to pro-
duce the passing laugh—l wish I could read them without
producing it, because when all we say and do is reported the
laugh seems as if we were laughing of our Roman Catholic
brethren. (Hear.) God forbid. I would not willingly laugh
at any of their absurdities any more than I would commit
any other sin, but I cannot be restrained from showing you
the excess of the misrepresentations, of the deceit, of the
men who know that this is the use of images upon tens of
thousands of people ; I say the deceit of the men who put
out such books as this.to make the people of England believe
that the Roman Catholic's worship of- images is perfetly in-
nocent. (Hear.) This is the cl arge, that Popery has
two faces. I want you to see teat it has one face
all blandness and all charity—anti, indeed, as I said before,
I do not wonder our liberals are deceived who will rot take
the trouble of searching for the other face. (Hear.) Them,
they say, that other free has been expunge d long since; i,:
was lost in the middle ages, and you are ungenerues b.sots
to rake up those stories and tell what passel at the Second
Council of Nice, as if it were in operation new in Ireland.
A VOICE.—I-fear, hear.
Mr. MeleTeree.--That is a liberal, I suppose. (Hear.) I
would ask him—Did you hear Mr. Ould's story about the
fairy, that occurred in Ireland the other day? (Cheers.)
I have said enough now, Mr. Chairman, to show your
friends in this place, in this large respectable and influential
assembly of your parishioners, our object in ionising Pro-
testant associations. If any man ask us "Is it right to
form such associations—is it right to go about agitating this
question," I ask him " is it right to keep England protes-
tant? (Cries of Yes, yes.') If it be right to keep Eng-
land protestant, then it is right to use means for the pur-
pose. (Hear.) To expect results without suitable means,
is the basest enthusiasm of an unreasonable mind; but to
use the means is sound practical wisdom. We anticipate
results; so do some who do not joie our agitation. There
are many who say, ' keep England protestant certainly, but
we will not join protestant associations." Who arc the instil-
meu then—the men who expect the harvest without the seed,
or the bold industrious labourers who drive the plough,
break up the tallow ground, and work it in spring time, that
they may leave a harvest as the legitimate result of their
pains taking and toil? (Hear.) You can all do something.
You have had a petition against any further grants to May-
moth, I am informed. A petition against ' Maynooth
shows the nature of one part of our proceedings. Some-
thing was said by my friend Mr. Ould about politics,
and I confess I stood in doubt, at first, of what my friend
meant when he said, if this were a political object he would
not be here. Sir, it is a political object. (Hear, hear.) There
are various senses in which that word may he used, and he
was right in the sense in which he used it. It is a political
object in this way—it is a political object, because it inter-
ests the whole kingdom. What is the difference between
political and a religious object ? I said I felt in doubt, and 1
was staggered when I heard my friend distinguish between
political end religious, and say this was entirely a reli-
gious question. 1 know, however, that lie and 1 agree ;
know his meaning well, and I only refer to it that you rnal
know mine. Tile politicians have assailed our religion, and
they have snide the defence of the Bible to be a political
question; we cannot defend the use of the Bible without be-
ing accused as political partisans ; we cannot defend the,
free circulation of the whole Bible in the native language of
the country, or its use in national education, without being
abused for it as politicians. It is thus, not because we volun-
teer political .movements, but because our opponents vo-
lunteer anti-religious movements. (Cheers.) We are there-
fore brought into collision with them. It is not, however,
a party political question, and as my friend puts in that word,
Ido not object. Maynooth was founded by Mr. Pitt,
forty-five years ago this summer, and has been supported
by every British minister since,
of all parties, there-
fore when we oppose Maynooth, it is not a party question.
Sir Robert Peel would support Maynooth if he were
prime minister to-morrow, and I should be as much oppoeetl,
to him as I am to Lord Melbourne, so would Mr. Ould, and
so would all the protestant associations in the kingdom.
(Cheers.) We will make this quite clear as regards party
politics—we are repealers of a measure which the Duke of
Wellington and Sir Robert Peel carried. We want them to
acknowledge that they were wrong. We ourselves truly he-
lieee and think they were wrong. I wish the noble duke,
whose 71st birth day has been celebrated here to-day—(greet
careering)—oh ! it' he would redeem the pledge he gave us
1829, how would your cheering for bins be heightened an,",
improved'.! (Hear, hear.) He said if the emancipation bill
did not tranquillize Ireland, he would go down to the hots`
and ask for additional powers—and he had the same coeti-
deuce in their lordships granting them, as he now heel in ask'
ing them to pass the present bill. (Hear.) Has it tranquil:
lized Ireland.?_ au
• Herg isea curious specimen of
their tranquility, scarcely dry in the newspapers, where-the
great arch agitator, my brother repealer, only he means a
different act, said—

" Why, they did not give us religious liberty until the
year 1829—and then they did give it to us, even ? Was it $
free gift ? Were we not imploring them to give it to u$
before they consented ? Oh ! yes, we were imploring, t°
be sure, but we implored with five or six millions at our
backs. Whenever you want to persuade a stubborn fellow,
who won't go on, bring five or six and twenty fellows with
you—if you want to cow a fellow who won't do what is right
by all means have as many of your neighbours looking at you
as you can."
Perhaps you do not know what this means, but I dare say be
knows it very well—
" So we took five or six millions to look at Wellington,
and Peel and Co., and behold they took the infection .11-''"
as if we had the cholera. Peel and Wellington took the
emancipation cholera, and we succeeded in infecting then';
(Great cheering.) Yes, we got the emancipation, and ho°,;
We got it, and no thanks to them—that is the way we got
No thanks to them! 0 grateful, grateful Mr. O'Coune'.
(Hear.) But there is another passage in this speech that I
have a little more interest in. He says—
" Stanley may have the advantage of the bigotry so Ml,'
dominent in England, and which holds out such rewards
tit
those unprincipled and mercenary scoundrels who go
slandering the people of Ireland,"
He calls an exposure of popery slandering the Irish people' a s.
hence he means the speakers at the Protestant Associatio%,
Those unprincipled and mercenary scoundrels! M r.Chairtu4o),
a
conscience has been a subject of pains taking study with
for some years. and I have seldom met with more instr,,!,b,
tive sample than that presented by Mr. O'Connell. i,
manner in which he so rudely assails others as mercellarY'his
but the unintentional vibration of his conscience
tongue. (Hear.) Mercenary ! Where are our rents ?
cenary ! Where are the collecting boxes for Robert 0" pe,
Mortimer O'Sullivan, and Hugh M'Neile ? (Hear.) ,ich
defy him or any man to point out a single instance in n
we have been paid for our Protestant agitation, whil
11
easy to see that his agitation would have been t•Ltv
and brief but for the thousands wrung oat of the sc_
" y
earnings of a priest-ridden peasantry. Scoundrels !but
do not know the exact etymology of that word, to
its practical application is obvious. Again, I ret
f the
the valuable lesson to be derived from the study oc_e
human.conscience. Men have been detected, thleYes have