The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-05-07 00:00:00

government ; but he believed that to support Popery directly
by grants of money, was a step in advance. (Hear, hear.)
He would not deprive the poor Roman catholic of the, legisla-
tive franchise, but he could deprive him of the power of send-
ing men to parliament, who from their principles were not fit
to legislate for us. Neither would beltake away the privilege of
religious toleration. He would not if he could, take one brick
out of any mass-house in England :Ireland, or the world ;

he would not touch a hair of the head of the pope, or of any

Romish priest, or of any man upon earth, for the sake of his
religion, but he would have the true protestant churh of Eng-
land in the ascendant. The rev. gentleman, whose eloquent

address we have been reluctantly obliged toeurtail froni the

great demands upon our space, concluded by seconding the
resolution, and it was carried with great cheering.
Mr. JAMES MATTHEWS, in an eloquent address, moved
the second resolution _ _

" That this meeting approve of the petition already
adopted at a public meeting in Toxteth-park, in favour of
Mr. Colquohoun's bill, and that every exertion be used to
obtain signatures to the same." [The petition was inserted
in the Standard of the 20th ult.]
Mr. W. R. PRESTON cordially seconded the resolution,
and on being put it was unanimously carried.
The CHAIRMAN then said—You have now pledged your-
selves to the signing of this petition, and Mr. Stowell has
told you how far Manchester have got. The agitation upon

this subject is not confined to Manchester. I -want to tell
you a very remarkable circumstance that has occurred in the
south of England. Sir Henry Smyth, baronet, member of
parliament for the town of Colchester, addressed his consti-
tuents some time ago, and in the course of his address he
made use of these words—
" At our last meeting I used strong language respecting
the College of Maynooth. I think I made use of the words

'-I;ea-sily iloctrines:taught there ;' and I do not recall them

A. gentleman of this neighbourhood wrote me a letter on the
subject in a newspaper, which I did not answer, because I
thought it not written in
_such language as one gentleman

ought to address to another. Helives within five or six
miles from this place, and he will hear of this, because what
_ .

I say will be reported in the public papers ; and I say I am

. . .
willing to meet him with any number of friends, and by the
class books of Maynooth, I will prove that I was justified
in using those words ' beastly doctrines ;" and though it
may not satisfy him it will justify me." _ _

_
The person here referred to is a Mr. North, a Romish priest.
He was roused by Sir Henry Smyth applying to the doctrines

.. . _
taught at Maynooth, the term "beastly," and he thought
by writing a letter in such terms as Sir Henry says one gen-

tfeman ought not to address to another, he should browbeat
the baronet, and claim the Colchester agitation in favour of
the priests and the college. He has been disappointed—
(hear)—Sir Henry Smyth was not_to be put down so. He

addressed his constituents again, and told them he was ready

to meet the priest, and from the class-books of Maynooth to

justify the application of the term " beastly" to' the doc-
trines there taught. (Hear.) Well, now, the next point is—

the priest refused to meet him—he would not come (hear,

hear, hear); but Sir Henry was not so to be silenced, and he

invited a meeting of gentlemen of full age, for he had to
deal with a subject painful to every gentleman, impractica-
ble in a mixed assembly, corrupting to youth, utterly inde-
fensible even for allusion before the female sex. (Hear,
hear.) He had to go into the doctrines opened in the
class-books of Maynooth, in all manner of disgust-
ing detail, from which books you would imagine it was ne-

cessary for every young confessor in his confession box to
be a perfect anatomist, to be a practiced accoucheur, to know
every species of congugal detail, while he himself is personally
sworn to e:libacy ! ( Hear.) Sir Henry Smyth knew the

subject he had to deal with, and he invited only men to hear
him. He had a meeting of 150 gentlemen, and I hold in my

hand his address to that meeting, wherein he does justify, by
the most awful disclosures, the application of the term
" beastly" to the doctrines taught at Maynooth. (Hear.)

He read this address from a written paperpaperthat he had pre-
pared for the occasion : he had translated the passages from
the class-books of Maynooth,and read them in English to

the assembled gentle Men, exciting instinctive cries of disgust

and horror. (Rear.) tie has noi printed them in English—
he has used this discretion ; he knows the difficulty of ex-

posing what is vile, he knows as man is fallen that in the act
of exposure he contracts defilement ; that in point of fact it
is the excess of the vileness of the Romist confessional which
has to this day screened it from the exposure it deserves.
(Cheers.) They have made it so detestable that no man who
has any regard to his own feelings, no Protestant man, no
man who loves his Bible, can ever, except under the pressure

of a high public duty, venture to make himself acquainted
with those abominations. (Hear, hear.) I solemnly protest,
that in the exercise of the duty I have felt myself called upon
to discharge, to make myself acquainted with the class-books
of Maynooth, that in the privacy of my study my mind has
recoiled from them with horror ; that I have been tempted to
shut the book, notwithstanding the sense of duty ; and that
I have returned to it only under the most painful conviction

that a self-denying duty was to be performed, that 1 might
speak from what I knew and had read, and might not even
upon hearsay libel the Church of Rome. (Hear, hear.) Sir
Henry Sinyth expresses himself in the same way : he was

wounded to the quick by the necessity of performing this
painful duty, but he persevered because he felt it was a duty

he owed to his country. He did it; he read these extracts
from the class-books; some of them he has given in English

in this pamphlet ; but all calculated to disgust in detail be
has kept under the shelter of a learned language. Still here
is the substance, with the pages and the volumes of the va-
rious class-books of the college, returned by the professors
to the parliamentary commissioners appointed to inquire
into Irish education. (Hear.) He refers but to three books,—
first, De La Hogue ; second, Bailly ; and third, Cabassutias.

,
From these books he shows the character of the instructions
given to these young priests. Here is a specimen. You
need not, my de-r friends, be afraid. lam not going to read
anything from it unbecoming either of my own character or
of your Christian delicacy. But without doing so I cannot
give you an insight into the nature of the detestable details
that they are instructed to pry into in the confessional. De
La Hogue says—
" If a priest is questioned by a magistrate, as to matters
which he has learned by confession alone, he ought to reply
that he is ignorant of them • nay, he ought to swear to it,
which he may do without danger or falsehood. (Hear, and
cries of " Shame.") In doing so he neither lies nor equivo-
cates, since he frames a true reply to the intention of the per-
son interrogating him, because the magistrate asks him what
he knows in his character as a man, not what he knows as
God." (Cries of " Oh, oh l")- _

That is from the first volume of De La Hogue, p. 292. This
rests upon the dogma that in the confessional the priest stands
as God, that what he learns there, he does not learn as man;
therefore when he is asked upon it by a magistrate, who asks
what he knows "as man," he may say, " I do not know it,"
he may swear " I do not know it," and he neither lies nor
equivocates. (Hear.) Now with regard to the mode in
which enquiries are made in the confessional concerning the
sins committed by the penitent. You must know that the
person who come to confess to one of these Maynooth priests
is not left at liberty to make a voluntary confession. (Hear.)
The priest is instructed at the college how to extract a con-
fession—how to put inquiries—to elicita confession, and they
have a sort of memoria technica in a Latin line to help them
to all the particulars :
" (anis, quid, übi, quibus auxiliis, cur, quomodo, quando."
(Hear, hear.) You do not understand this yet, but I will
teach you the meaning of it :

" Qjuis? "—Who is the sinning party, and of what condi-
dition ? Old or young? Married or single ? Free or un-
der religious vows ? Quis—enquire all about the person.
(Hear, hear.)
" Quid ? "—What is the nature of the guilty act ? Whe-
ther is it a thought or an act ? Or a thought leading to an
act with all its circumstances and possible aggravations ?
Quid ! (Rear, hear.)
" Übi "—Ubi signifies where ? Where was it com -
mitted ? At home or abroad ? In a consecrated place or
not ? Was it in the chapel ? Was it in the grave yard ?
UN? In public or in private ? (Hear, hear.)
" Quibus auxiliis ?"—With what assistance ? Who was
helping you ? (Hear, hear.)
" Cur ?"—That is, why ? With what motives ? For the
gratification of which of the propensities of your evil nature?
(Hear.) Here is a large field for the young lad to draw out
confessions. (Hear, hear.)
" Quomodo ? "—That is, how ? How ? Sir Henry Smyth
says that is " a little word, but very large in its significa-
tion. comprehending every possible mode or position in which
a vicious act may be committed." (Hear, hear.)
" Quatzdo ? "—When ? How often ? By day or by
night ? Was it upon a holy day?
Oh, oh, oh ! (Hear, hear.) Now I shall supply you from
this pamphlet with a short portion of ecclesiastical history
with regard to this same private confessional :
"There is no doubt that during the first four or five centu-
ries of Christianity, the practice of confessions was public.
This afterwards gave way to one of a more mixed character;
the Bishops either receiving disclosures privately, or dele-
gating some priest to do so, and enjoining the penitent be-
fore absolution would be granted to declare publicly such
special sins as the Priest might choose to prescribe. But in
the time of Nectarius, the predecessor of Chrysostoin in
the see of Constantinople, an event arose out of this public
custom which caused a change in the ordnance." _

That cause led to private confession. A very untoward event
occurred, which led to the public confessional being dis-
continued ; the event was this. A woman was brought to
make her confession publicly, and she confessed publicly
that she had been guilty of adultery with the Deacon of the
Church. (Hear, hear.) Upon this the Bishop commanded
that all confessions should afterwards be private. (Hear,
hear.) Chrysostom opposed the private confession ; the
great Catholic Doctor Chrysostom opposed with all his elo-
quence the system of private confession, but still the prac-
tice prevailed throughout all Christendom.
" Thus," says Sir Henry Smyth, " this practice, instead
of being traceable to any Scriptural authority, was nothing
but an unjustifiable resource in a vicious extremity."
There is the origin of it ; I have shown you some of
the causes of it; and when you know it is systematically
taught at Mayooth, that the priests are drilled into it, that
they are made to learn the lessons given in this book as to
the quis, the quid, the übi, the quibus auxiliis, the cur, the
quoenodo, and the quando, (hear, hear,) you will contrast
that with the solid, wholesome, kind, delicate treatment
which our blessed, Lord is recorded to have manifested when
there came persons to him willing to magnify an offence, and
dragging into his presence a woman taken in adultery. Jesus
Christ stooped down, and wrote with his finger on the
ground as though he heard them not. When they perse-
vered in their charge, instead of gratifying their vile curiosity
by entering into an inquiry, lie appealed to their consciences,
" he that is without sin, let him cast the first stone at her."
They went out, one by one, convicted in their consciences,
and the poor trembling woman was left alone before the Sa-
viour. What then ? Did he then proceed to examine her as to
the particulars of her fault? No. " Where are these
thine accusers," he said, " has any man condemned thee ?"
She said, " No, Lord." Jesus Christ said, " Neither
do I condemn thee, go, and sin no more." There is the
dignity, the solemnity, the gravity, the holiness, the delicacy
of the confessional wherein Christ presided ! Oh, contrast
it with the dastardly curiosity, the vile, detestable, indelicate,
anti-christian abominations of the confessional of Rome, and
say, " Is the pope of Rome the vicar of Christ, or the sworn
enemy of Christ, upon earth ?" (Hear, hear.) lam thank-
ful for the solemnity with which this exposure has been re-
ceived. I hail your silence as a token of the depth of your
conviction, and I anticipate much real good from this ex-
posure of Romish iniquity. (Hear.) Well, you see then
that the Protestant agitation has not been confined to Liver-
pool. (Hear, hear.) I have called your attention to these
instructive facts which have taken place in the south of Eng-
land, at Colchester, and now we come to our own town.
Sir Henry Smyth has not been down here calling the doc-
trines of Maynooth " beastly ; " but several things have been
said here which have taken considerable effect, more than
they ate willing to acknowledge, upon the minds of Roman
catholic priests in this town. There is a very urgent enquiry
upon the subject of religion going on among the Roman ca-
tholic population of Liverpool ; there is an anxiety for en.
quiry checked by the painful circumstances of outward ne-
cessity, arising from the conviction if they be known to
enquire, they will lose their situations in which they are at
work. They find it difficult to get employment if it be known
they are hesitating in their allegiance to Rome. (Hear.)
Many in this town are checked by this very thing, but it is
felt that such an enquiry is going on. Accordingly one and
another of these poor men, facing all the risks to themselves
and families arising from possible starvation, consequent upon
their want of employment, do come out. They come as
Nicodemus came to our Lord and Master, after dark, to en-
quire from the clergymen of this town, about the Bible, and
ask them to tell them the way of salvation. (Hear.) They
come at night, poor fellows, when they can creep in and no
spy see them to tell the priests of Rome. (Hear.) The
thing, I say, has been felt : and it is not by accident that
another Roman catholic priest has come here ; things of that
, sort do not happen by accident ; priests do not stay eight
• or ten days in a town by accident ; they do not deliver
I lecture after lecture in towns by accident. (Hear, hear.)