The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-05-28 00:00:00

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/Innen are seeking to ate; the Ipided geptr

the plain English of the matter ; and here is their fa-
vourite mountebank avowing the intention, and seek-
ing to justify it. Come forth, Mr. Owen ! here are

plenty of people now to keep you in countenance!
Your social community cannot fail to extend rapidly.

The millmen claim a commonage throughout the king-
dom—nay, throughout the world. No vested rights

—no previous acquisition—no length of possession—

nothing, in short, is to stand in the. way of their inor-
dinate cupidity. Admirable schoolmasters
and enlightened expounders of Holy Writ!
Mr. Cobden next proceeded to speak of distress in
Manchester, which he represented as extreme; but he
had the candour—or rather, we think, we should call

Pious

hat inconsequential sort of stupidity which happily
companies and neutralises everything intended to be
;chievous that comes out of his mouth—to avow

that it was NOT FOR THE SAKE OF THE POOR that
he came here. Let this also be noted. These robbery-
commending millocrats distinctly admit that it is not
for the sake of the poor, but for their own sakes alone,
that they are agitating about the corn-laws. Mark

ye poor ! Well may we say that these men are
I your friends, and that it is from no love to you
at they call out for a cheap loaf and a ruined hus-
Lndry. THEsz are the very men who /rave made you
)cat. The manufacturers of cotton have been the

manufacturers of paupers.
The mills have collected the people in dense masses ;
machinery has thrown the people out of employment, or
reduced their wages to the lowest point at which life
can be sustained ; production and the instruments of
production have gone on increasing till they have sa-
turated all the known channels of demand ; the millo-
crats have made immense fortnnes, wrung out of the
toil and misery of the poor; but at length the cupidity
of their gains has received a check, and, kind souls!—
injured innocents !—they have turned their attention
' to the probable advantage of robbing the gentry and
landed interest, and trafficking in their ruin. But
who will assist them in this most profligate and
atrocious attempt ? Will the poor whom they have
made ? We trust not. Who will then ? Why just
those whom their words may deceive, and their money
can bribe ; for they are rich—exceeding rich—and they
care not how they lavish their wealth—how extensively
they employ the means of corruption, so there be any
prospect of effecting the great spoliation which they

meditate.
We shall take another opportunity of further dis-
cussing the merits of the pundit Cobden—the most
erudite, but, at the same time, the most transparent
blockhead and humbug of the whole crew.

The Dublin papers give the particulars of an affair
which is not undeserving of attention, as it exhibits the
activity and vigilance of the Pope's church in our fo-

reign dependencies, and shows, at the same time, that
the advances which she is making abroad are not al.
ways carried on with that smoothness which she might

wish for

The government of the Romanist Church at Gibral-
tar, it would appear, has been, time out of mind, in the
wands of a local council of elders ; but this adminis-

xation not being found sufficiently vigorous to satisfy
;he growing ambition of the church generally, it was
letermined to overturn it, and to put in its place the

absolute authority of a single monarch. This determi-
nation, it appears, was taken by Doctor Murray, the
titular Bishop of Dublin—under what pretence, or
claim of jurisdiction, we are unable to discover; but
having gained over the Pope, he found no difficulty,
no matter what his claims might be, in forwarding a
work that seemed likely to advance the church's cause.
Doctor Murray accordingly selects the man—an Irish
priest, named Hughes—and having obtained all the
necessary confirmation of his appointment from the
Pope, sends him out to Gibraltar, with the title of
vicar apostolic," to rule despotically over that por-
tion of the Ro man bishop's pretended diocese.
For a short time this Hughes walked circumspectly,
and avoided giving any offence to the council of elders;
but at length he threw off the mask—began to play
" Lord Peter"—denied their authority—helped himself
to whatever he pleased—swept all the fees of the coun-

cil into his own coffers—refused to account with them

—and so highly provoked them, that they sued
him at law, obtained a judgment against him,
and had him thrown into prison, where his vicar-

ship now lies, " chewing the cud of sweet and bitter
fancy," and moralising, no doubt, upon the uncertainty
of human greatness. Meanwhile, Murray and his
priests in Dublin memorialise the Queen to discharge
Hughes—of course as a spiritual person, profanely
seized upon by a secular court. But her gracious Ma-
jesty signifies her commands that the parties complain-
ant must appeal to her colonial secretary. They do so;
but his lordship informs them that the law must take
its course, and that he cannot by any means come to
the rescue of the unhappy vicar apostolic.
But neither are the council of elders at Gibraltar
idle : they have published a manifesto, declaring war
against Murray; and thus the quarrel stands in as
beautiful a fix as one could wish. We regret we have
not room for this document, which is addressed to the
Most Rev. Doctor Murray, Roman Catholic Arch-
bishop of Dublin; but we shall make a few excerpts,
which cannot fail to prove interesting :
You have attributed Mr. Hughes's imprisonment to the
jealousy and cupidity of Spanish priests. The only Spanish
priests resident here are the jesuits, whom this Mr. Hughes
has himself introduced, contrary to law, for the purpose of
carrying out his imprudent and foolish measures. Your im-
putation cannot be supposed to apply to them, and can only
be aimed at two Italian priests (the former vicar and curate
of our church), who have been displaced to make room for
Mr. Hughes and his jesuits. These two truly worthy eccle-
siastics—who, during a residence here of forty years, have
deservedly acquired the veneration and esteem not only of
their own flocks, but of all the inhabitants of whatever creek
—are entirely innocent of the imputation now cast upon
them ; and, so far from having instigated the proceedings
against Mr. Hughes, they have incurred the public displea-
sure for not stepping forth in the cause of their former flock ;
they have, in fact, most scrupulously abstained from all in-
terference, notwithstanding the injustice of Mr. Hughes in
withholding from them the scanty pittance which, under his
hand, he undertook should be paid them from the church
funds, and leaving them dependent on private charity for
subsistence !
Again, sir, it has been said in your Morning Register that
"for year after the Irish soldiers in this garrison were with-
out the religious consolations dear to their hearts—that there
were clergy there, to be sure, but that they did not speak
English, and, therefore, were unable to render to the soldiers
the best offices of religion." This is absolutely false !—the
. catholic soldier did not want for spiritual assistance. Ever•
body here knows that the two before-mentioned priests -
sess an adequate knowledge of the English language tor a,
necessary purposes ; and, moreover, you yourself well know
that, for some years past, there has resided in this place
an Irish priest—supported partly by government and partly
from the church funds—whose duty it is to attend exclusively
to the religious wants of the soldiers. How then, sir, can
you, knowing this, suffer such a statement to pass uncontra-
dieted ? The catholic population of this place, exclusive of
the soldiers that may happen to be quartered here, exceeds
1200 souls, a great proportion of whom do not understand
English. Of what use was it, then, to thrust upon them an
Irish vicar? Is it to be said that the general convenience is
to be sacrificed to the three or four hundred Irish soldiers
that may happen to be garrisoned here ? And that the latter,
in addition to having a chaplain at our expense, are also
to have our vicar to themselves ?
The public must not be deceived ; the truth is, the soldiers
serve as a mere pretext, the real object being to place all
churches in the British colonies under theexclusive manage-
ment of Irish pi iests, so as to give them as extended a grasp
as possible over the whole British empire. The catholics of
Gibraltar protest against such a plan. We have no more
affinity or natural connection with Ireland than with Canada
or the Cape of Good Hope. Let the Irish priests go among
those of their own nation, (where they will have enough to
do in all conscience,) and let us have pastors to our own
taste, and whose habits and feelings are identical with ours.
Let this Irish priest depart from us, and you will perceive
how soon we shall return to that religious harmony which
we enjoyed till he came among us.
The catholics, including all the respectable inhabitants,
held public meetings, and resolved upon seeking redress at
any cost. The elders deemed it their duty to invoke the aid
of the law, and commenced a suit in the Supreme Court.
Mr. Hughes appeared to defend it, submitted to the juris-
diction, and put in his plea; and, finally, after much delay
on his part, the cause was heard, when the elders proved, by
the most overwhelming evidence, the legality of the rights
which they claimed, and the court pronounced a decree in
their favour. Then it was, for the first time, that Mr.
Hughes discovered that the court was incompetent, and he
refused to obey its decree. But, happily for us, Sir, we are
living on British ground, and every fair and conciliating
resource having been in vain tried, in order to bring him to
reason, the law was finally allowed to take its course, and he
was committed to gaol for his obstinate disobedience to the
decree.

Now, most reverend Sir, are we to understand that you
and your clergy mean to assert that there is any man in the Bri-
tish dominions, however exalted his rank, that shall dare to
consider himself above the law, and shall with impunity set
at nought the decrees of the English court of justice? What-
ever excuse may be made for the ignorance of the Propaganda
of Rome upon this point, you, Sir, as a British subject, ought
to know, and must, at least, confess, that Mr. Hughes is now
only suffering the natural consequences of his own unwarrant-
able disobedience to the laws of the land—of his own stupid
obstinacy. Mr. Hughes was not wanted here. Before he
came he was acquainted with our institutions ; and, if they
did not suit him, he might have stayed away—he might have
remained at Adam and Eve Chapel—he might haxe continued
to distinguish himself for the squabbles which his peculiar
6 alents have been continually raising in his Franciscan con-
vent in Ireland. But he chose to come hither for the pur-
pose of undertaking to effect a revolution inour institutions ;
and if he has not had the talent and ability, or the good for-