The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-08-21 00:00:00

for the propagation of knowledge, wisdom, and under

not a 'ward of church instruction societies, nor mecha-
nics' libraries, of the virtue that adorned the social circle of
the truly pious, nor of the growth in every thing admirable,
which was so worthy of remark in this privileged land.
(Cheers.) He had been for some tune resident in England,

and of late travelled through a great part of it, audit had
astonished him to hear of the multitude of great characters
who were growing, unnoticed, in almost every locality, men
whom their religion called into moral being, who derived from
it all the attributes which adorned our nature. The Irish
newspapers said nothing of these. (Cheers.) No ! The
vice of England arose from the neglect of English religion.
Thank God, English religion was not itself a vice—(cheers)
—a crime, a blasphemy, bringing down from on high a
curse, a moral paralysis, that sunk the people into the
very depth of spiritual degradation. (Cheers.) He con-
tended against Popery not because of the crimes in certain
stages of its being that it originates, but because of the moral
blight—the tremendous curse—the
_degradation that it lin-.

posed even on its pious votaries. Were there not a prisoner
for trial in the gaols of Ireland, not a crime recorded in its
calendars, he would still contend against Popery as the most
gigantic of evils. (Cheers.) Popery' was a systein of lies,
and therefore it was a system of tyranny and bondage. How
could Popery tolerate liberty ? Liberty would necessarily
destroy it. Is it to be supposed that the fable of St.:Denis,
with his head under his arms, or St. Nicholas abstaining
from suck at his nurse's breast on Wednesdays and Fridays—
(loud laughter)—that these monstrous absurdities could stand
in the light of a free press? (No, no.) To be sure not.
Popery must persecute. They gave a free stage to all sorts of
opinions, conscious that as they stood on the ground of truth
they were immoveable. (Cheers.) Every Popish country
was an enslaved country. England was an enslaved country
',while a Popish one. Popery froze the intellect—debased the
understanding—filled the mind full of the most stupid fables
and absurdities—and therefore, quite irrespective of its moral
effect necessarily deraded those who were its victims. (No,
no, and disturbance He said again—yes, yes. Allow him
to illustrate his position. by reference to a book which he had
in his hand. • (A voice—Was it printed in Exeter Hall ?)
No, indeed, it was printed, strange to say, in Heaven. (Great
laughter.) No less—in Heaven. (Cheers.) It was the life
of Saint Philomena. (The rev. gent. then gave an account
of the book, which convulsed the house with laughter. For
the absurd character of its contents it far surpassed anything
we ever heard of even in Popery. Among the miracles which
it recorded was this—that when a large edition of the work was
sold off, the writer and main actor in the discovery of this uew
saint, going to his bursau, found a miraculous supply of fresh
copies !! ! This and other statements were published with the
approbation of a Roman bishop.) There, what did they
think of that ? (Cheers.) Let them note—this was no an-
tiquated superstition ; the book was published in 1835' and
there had been many editions since ; in the nineteenth cen-
tury this stuff had circulation among papists. He insisted
that a people so infatuated as to receive it was a degraded
people, if they were distinguished by ever so much mere
morality. Their minds were a mass of fatuity—steeped in
midnight darkness. (Cheers.) Was the reception of such
stuff consistent with the progress of knowledge ? .(No, no.)
Certainly not. Could such dreams co-exist with the educa-
tional institutes of England? (cheers) or if England were in-
volved in the old womanism (begging the pardon of the old
women) of so degrading a system, would she, or could she,
occupy her place among the nations ? (Cheers.) No, she
would be reduced to a level with Spain, or Italy, or Ireland.
(Cheers.) He rejoiced in the feeling ich influenced them.
He exulted in the laugh of scorn which convulsed the thou-
sands before him—(cheers.)—but he besought themlo con-
sider the subject in the light of truth—to solemnize their
minds while he directed their attention to its serious bear-
ings. This system infatuated the people. Aye, but it
brought a curse upon them also—it made them a byword
among the. nations, and a wagging of the head among the
people ; aye, but it made them also an abomination in the
sight of God. (Cheers.) Its absurdity divested them of in-
tellectual eminence, but the curse that was visited on them
by it, stripped them naked, kept them hungry, drove them
into exile, made them the victims—the willing victims of
ten thousand tyrants. the beggars—the mendicants, of the
whole world. (Loud cheers.) Popery was of the devil—it
abode beneath the wrath of the most high—it was the prime
plague and pestilence of the world, and he asked what could
be expected when the English nation, made great and emi-
nent, by opposing this system, and to oppose it, resigned
itself to the work of extending its influence, and rivetting its
chains. (Cheers.) Would it be to be wondered at if cala-
mity and overthrow had followed a line of conduct so utterly
inconsistent with truth and principle. (Cheers.) Let them
not deceive themselves, England was not respected at
the present day—England, strange as it might seem,
was despised in Ireland. Mr. O'Connell did not con-
ceal the contempt with which lie regarded this country. He
well remembered, when that gentleman first entered the Bri-
tish parliament, the awe with which he seemed to view the
greatest assembly in the world. It was apparent in his lan-
guage. But he had discovered the secret of their weakness
—he held the keys of their power—and now the British par-
liament was 600 scoundrels ! The terror of the British name
had departed. France swaggered, and England was tranquil.
It was interesting to note how Mr. O'Connell triumphed at
the prospect of war. His language seemed to be, " Let
England go to war if she dare ; I glory in the prospect of
war, for it will enable me to make my own terms." How
so ? He knew that a large portion of the army was papist,
and that the Irish police force was almost exclusively
popish. He knew well that all the strongholds of Ireland
were in his hands. He calculated that when lie chose

he could make a surrender, and therefore he did not hesi-
tate to threaten as he had done. Was it not deplorable
to wisness the results of unprincipled compromise and and
christian expediency? (Cheers.) Every man was a sufferer
by the existing state of things. He confessed that he spoke
with a feeling of grievance resting on him personally. He
considered himself a sufferer by the policy now acted on.
He belonged to the church, and he considered himself just
as fairly entitled to expect promotion as his brethren (loud
cheers), but he knew that his zeal against popery was an ob-
stacle in his way. (Hear, hear.) He knew that the influ-
ence of the government stood opposed to persons of his
principles, and that therefore his opportunities of usefulness
were contracted, and his temporal prospects limited. (Hear,
hear.) Now was it not an atrocious and a monstrous evil,
that the very qualifications that should ensure success, were
a detriment and an obstacle to it. Was it not a monstrous
evil, that such men as Hugh Stowell, Hugh M'Neile, Thos.
Mortimer, Robert Montgomery, and Robert M`Gee, the
men that the church looked to as its lights, should, because
they were its lights, be excluded from its honours and from
its benefits, and that while their qualifications disqualified
them, treason to princiPle was the ground of preferment.
(Loud cheers, and cries of—lt is a shame.) Let him just
illustrate what he said. There was a short time since in the
church, a certain curate, of very high evangelical profession,
and greatly opposed to papacy, of the name of Mr. Hoare,
he was a curate, however, and he found that if he depended
upon his piety and his evangelism, he might expect to live
and die a curate; he therefore bethought him of a better
market for his wares—accordingly he wrote a pamphlet, eat-
ing up all his former professions—renouncing his former
principles—lauding the god system of education which you in
Liverpool so well appreciate—and presently he stood forth
an Archdeacon. (Hear, hear.) Well this did not satisfy
him. He wrote another pamphiet of the same character as
the former, and is rewarded by a rich living. A third makes
him a Dean—(hisses)—and now he has issued a new work,
which has [placed him in the position of being the next ex-
pectant Bishop. Allow him to give them an extract from
this pamphlet of Dean Hoare. (The reverend gentleman
here read a passage from Dean Hoare's pamphlet, in
which he alleges that the principles of the people in Ire-
land are more sound than in perhaps any country in
Europe. And they are not so " easily humbugged" as the
English, nor so prone to fanatical sectarianism, of the sort
introduced by Thom and Southcote, as they. The reading
of the passage seemed to give satisfaction to the Roman Ca-
tholic portion of the audience.) There was the language on
which Dean Hoare grounded his hopes for a mitre. He
lauds the effects of popery, and the insults the people of Pro-
testant England, by statements so grossly false as that they
seemed wantonly designed to pamper the appetite of the popish
maligners Of England, who govern, however, the patronage
of the kingdom. The English people are easily humbugged,
proclaims Dean Hoare. They are more easily humbugged
than the Irish. The Irish are not so disposed to new-fan-
gled notions in religion as the English, nor so easily hum-
bugged as they—why, what is popery but one great humbug ?
(loud cheers)—a gigantic system of humbug from the be-
ginning to the end. And yet the Irish are not so easily hum-
bugged es the English ! So says Dean Hoare, and expects to
be a bishop by the declaration ; and then " they have too
much of the organ of veneration to allow them to take
up new-fangled notions"—St. Philomela to wit. (Loud

and continued cheering.) Why there is not a year that
passes in which popery does not invent some unheard-of
piece of, new-fangled monstrosity to meet the diseased appe-
tite with which credulity has provided its dupes. (Cheers.)
Yet this is the man, and a fair specimen of the men, now
raised to power in the church. He repeated that it was trea-
son to principle which was now promoted, and faithfulness
to principle which was excluded and punished. Was this
right ? (No, no.) He begged to ask, was it not a deplora-
ble state of things—was it not a monstrous grievance—that
sueh a man as Dean Hoare should be exalted in the church ?
Was it not? (A loud cry of " Yes, yes.") Let it go forth
to Dean Hoare, and to Lord Morpeth, who lifted him up.
that this is the sense of this vast assembly—that unmingled
indignation and disgust were excited by an account of the
vile compromise of principle that now receives the only re-
rewards which the state has it in its power to bestow.
(Cheers.) He repeated, then, that zeal for truth was
now the ground of exclusion—indifference to error the
reason for promotion. This was a state of things that
their association should endeavour to meet. He did
not know why the Protestant Operative Association should
not address the throne, urging that those alone should be
promoted in the church who are faithful to its principles.
(Cheers.) He, therefore, felt himself aggrieved, because he
telt himself excluded ; and not only so, but he knew it to be
a fact, that the, poor protestants of Ireland were now syste-
matically shut out from those offices to which their, above all
others, had the best claim. (Cheers.) He knew well that
the being an Orangeman was the ground of exclusion. He
had been an Orangeman himself, and he 6Yloried in it. (Loud
cheers, and a cry of " Rathcormac.") Was there anything
wrong in that ? (Loud cries of " No, no.") The society
was a legal society ; its objects just and christian. Its de-
sign was not to persecute those opposed to it, but simply to
maintain protestantism (cheers), afford defence to protestan-
tants, end maintain the cause of the family that sat. upon the
throne. (Loud cheers.) Now, he contended that it was a
sin in the sight of God that men, whose objects were so en-
tirely accordant with christian principle, should be made to
suffer for their christian zeal. (Hear, hear.) He believed
that it was more grievously offensive in the sight of God,
that one protestant should be reduced to a state of destitu-
tion and misery in consequence of his zeal for truth, than
that the whole Roman Catholic population of Ireland
should, as the natural result of the curse entailed upon
the antichristian system, be brought under the endur-
ance of all the heavy ills which it was notorious they had
already laboured under (hear, hear), and laboured under
simply as the natural and inevitable consequence of their
popery—(cheers)—the consequences visited on it in Spain,
Italy, Portugal, Austria, and every other country in which it
was found. Some one had taunted him with Rathcormac.
He was much obliged to that person for reminding him of
the circumstance. Allow him to tell them the history of Rath-
cormac. Mr. O'Connell wrote a public letter, dated 27th Sep-
tember, 1834, and in that letter he used the following lan-
guage .—" If I be a tenant from year to year, and that after
the Ist of November next, a tithe owner comes to distrain
my land, I am entitled to keep him off my land with a strong
hand, and if he persist in trespassing, I am entitled to wallop
him off my land, if I cannot otherwise get him off. The go-
vernment cannot allow him the aid of a military force or
police in distraining." Here was the language of Mr.
O'Connell. Well. On 'the 18th of December, in the same
year, the Rev. Mr. Ryder, aided by the military, went to
distrain the Widow Ryan, and the nine following per-
sons—plr. Gregg gave the names]—proceeded according to
Mr. 0 Connell's advice to wallop them off her land. They
fell victims to their resistance and to their reliance on Mr.
O'Connell's advice. Now mark. The Widow Ryan got up
a petition, entreating redress from the House of Commons :
this was committed to Mr. O'Connell for presentation. He
put a notice upon the books of the house that he would pre-
sent it upon a certain day ; the day came and it was put off
to another, to a second, a third, and a fourth, and finally
the thing was cushioned. Why ? Because, in fact, in-
vestigation into the subject could only have made it plain to
the whole world, that the men who were slain were Mr.
O'Connell's owq victims. (Loud cheers.) So far for Rath-
comae. Now a word as to the abstrait justice of tithes.
(Haar.) If he took a certain portion of land in Order
that he might make a living for his family out of it,
subject to the condition that he should give a tenth
of the produce to a certain person, was he not
dries
cboeus ofnd
to stick to his bargain or give his land ? (Loud