The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-10-30 00:00:00

clause." He tells Lord John Russell that the longer
lie delays the complete settlement of the tithe ques-
tion, (that is their utter extinction in name and sub-
stance) by contracting the establishment to the wants
of its adherents, and appropriating its revenues to
useful purposes, the deeper will he his embarrass-

In his denunciations of the Protestant mission at
Achill Dr. APHale indulges in the most furious lan-
guage. He has evidently been made to feel that Po-
pery will not stand the test of examination. He says
that "the English and Irish public are deceived and
insulted by the lying accounts of trading missionaries,
who cross land and sea to make one convert, and when

they convert him, make him a child of hell." We
recommend this mild specimen of Popish aspersion to
the especial notice of our radical contemporaries, who
have lately been so lavish of their abuse of the Pro-
testant clergy who ventured to denounce Popery at
the meeting of the Reformation Society.
In the following passage we see all the persecuting
rancour of Popery bursting forth. Speaking of the
Achill mission Dr. M'Hale exclaims, " Surely such a
disgraceful traffic must be rebuked, it will be said, by
the proprietor of the soil or the government of the
country. The proprietor appears of late to be en-
tirely absorbed in religious concerns, and to feel more
anxiety for the spiritual than the temporal interests of
his numerous tenantry. As for the government, there
is no es idence that they discourage a scheme which is
productive of much annoyance to the inhabitants and
must lead to the worst cf consequences. The coast
guards are all under their control, and it appears that
some of that body have been as zealous in guarding
the natives against the horrors of Popery as they have
been in protecting her Majesty's revenue." From this
language it is impossible to draw any other inference
than that this true son of the church is anxious to put
down the Achill mission by the strong arm of power.
He would have the missionaries forcibly expelled from
the scene of their labours.
From the abuse of the Achill mission, which seems to
be a thorn in his side, M'Hale launches into a whole-
sale denunciation of the Irish system of education.
His anger on this subject scarcely knows any controul.
He has not a single good word to say for it. Of one
of its teachers, appointed, we presume, by mistake, in
his own diocese, he says, "an unprincipled creature,
once a Catholic," but who seems to have alternately
personated a Catholic and a Protestant, " was the
very individual," in the opinion of the board, " fitted
for such a place ;" for we learn that "so completely
did he illustrate in his own person the religious liar.
mony that is aimed at in their system, that to please
the priest he went to mass on Sundays, and on Fri-
days eat meat with the Protestant pastors, to show
what a fit medium .he was to reconcile religious dis-
cordance!" The titular is evidently "a whole hog"
man. He would not even have a single Protestant
teacher to he employed in the national schools, even
though his Protestantism. might sit so lightly upon him
as to permit him to attend the mass on Sundays. To
"eat meat on Fridays" is an offence so grave in the
eyes of M'Hale that it at once disqualifies a person
for the office of instructor of the " children of the
faithful." Who will say, after this, that Popery is al-
tered—that " the improved spirit of t'he age" has
tended to purge it of its pristine intolerance and su-
perstition ?

A comparison between several parts of the letters
of Dr. M'Hale and Dr. Murray respectively will fur-
nish us with some curious illustrations of the working
of the Irish system of education. For instance, Dr.
Nil-Tale alleges that the Roman Catholic bishopS of
Ireland have come to " solemn resolutions regarding
the choice and dismissal of teachers." Dr. Murray,
on the other hand, distinctly states that the present
operation of the system is perfectly satisfactory to the
majority of the Irish bishops of his persuasion. What
is the evident conclusion ? That these bishops are vir-
tually in possession of the power of choice and dis-
missal of the teachers. Dr. M'Hale again urges that
the inspectors should be Papists, and that no others
would satisfy the Popish hierarchy. Dr. Murray •re-
plies by saying that the majority of the inspectors are
Roman Catholics. We should like to be informed
what proportion among them are Protestants. Dr.
M'Hale objects to the Scripture Lessons, and declaims
against " the unbounded range of invidiously insinu-
ating their pernicious doctrines, which the vague and
indefinite interrogatories at the end of these lessons"
afford the Protestant inspectors. Dr. Murray removes
this objection by stating that the adoption or rejection
of the Scripture Lessons is perfectly optional with the
Catholic priests, and that they may substitute for
them other "approved and unobjectionable books."
Do the English advocates of the system need any fur-
ther proofs of its entire subserviency to the purposes
of the Popish priests ?
But it appears, after all, that the System is not ye
sufficiently under the control of the priests : for Dr.
M'Hale informs us, respecting the clergy of his own
diocese, that " impressed with the conviction that
persons professing their creed cannot be tit teachers
for those of a different religion, they came to the wise
resolution of never suffering the children to be under
the controul of Protestant masters and inspectors, the
latter of whom must exercise a dangerous influence
on the simple minds of unsuspecting children." His
principle is asserted to be identical with that of St.
Paul when he " cautioned the faithful even to avoid a
heretic." And yet, after using this stong language,
this fiery bigot cantingly remarks " we feel neither
contempt nor hatred for any on account of their re-
ligious opinions—they are objects of our charitable
sympathies." Is the conduct of Dr. M'Hale in re-
ference to the Achill misonaties any proof of- this
vaunted candour and forbearance ? Is the advice
which he gave to drive away the " miscreants" with
pitchforks to be taken as a proof of the " charitable
sympathies" which he entertains ? From such tender
mercies may we be ever delivered'.
The advice which Dr. M'Hale gave to the masters
in his diocese to refuse admission to the inspectors is
a consummate proof of his unbearable impudence.
This, however, is exceeded by the assertion that the
Board " cannot be released from the charge of ec-
clesiastical insubordiiiation, by writing to a clergyman
o dismiss a master in opposition to the commands of

his bishop !"
If the Board should resolve to withdraw their grants
from those schools which are under the influence of
Dr. he gives them, and government a tolera-
bly broad hint of the consequences which may be ap-
prehended. He says that "if they withdraws the grant,
he must be allowed to warn Lord John Russell " tint
half a million of the people and their faithful repre-
sentatives may soon withdraw their confidence from a
government which would encourage such covert perse-
cution." In reference to this threat, the Freeman
(a thoroughgoing Popish journal,) remarks :-
Glace has given a very intelligible hint to the Hun
Secretary—a hint which his Lordship had better take
in time—for we can assure him that Dr. M'Hale is
one of the very last men in the world to shrink from
what he believes to be his duty. A defalcation of
six in a division—and Dr. Wllale can influence
the return of that, if not a greater number, of Irish
members—might be attended with unpleasant conse-
quences to ministers." We cannot better express our
opinion of this boast than in the emphatic language of
our valued contemporary, the Dublin Evening Mail :
—"Hear this, ve friends and advocates of .Catholic
emancipation !
.Hear this, ye Roman Catholic nobility,
gentry, and laity, who fondly suppose'. the awbority of
your priests and bishops to be purely spiritual, and
their kingdom not of this world ! Hear this, and
answer how it comes to pass that one Roman Catholic
bishop nominates to six seats in the Imperial House
of Commons, and why it is not to be taken fOr granted
that every Roman Catholic prelate in the country has
a similar power in a greater or less degree ? Is this
fitting ? Is it safe for a Protestant empire ? Is it
favourable to the civil anti religious liberty of any
communion or persuasion in the state ?" These words
ought to convey a warning to every one in this king-
dom who has been deluded into the vain hope of paci-
fying the Papists by concessions.
We must now part once more with M'Hale and his
fulminating- epistles. We have been at some pains
to show, from the authority of the Popish hierarchy
and priesthood of Ireland, that the Irish system of
education, in order to be satisfactory to them, must be
essentially/ Popish. It must be the same in this town.
The corporation schools, supported almost exclusively
with money derived from the pockets of Protestants,
can never be in a satisfactory state to the Popish
clergy, unless they become instruments for the spread
of Popery. _

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