The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-11-03 00:00:00

PROSELITISM AT CAMBRIDGE.

Several letters have, during the last few days, been
addressed to the Editor of the Times, disclosing several
very melancholy particulars relative to the perversion to
p,pery of a young undergraduate of St. John's College,
Cambridge.
The first letter, dated the 15th October, and signed
" A. Father," alludes to a paragraph in a Cambridge
paper, annotincing the unhappy perversion of the youth,
and also to a letter written in allusion to it by the M.A.;
and " A Father" supplies a statement of facts, connected
with the case, in the hope that it may awaken the authori-
ties of the College to a more decided performance of their
duties, and serve as a warning to parents and guardians of
the present state of undergraduate society at Cambridge.
The victim is a youth not yet 20 years of age, and was
intended for the Church. His father has long been absent
from England, and he (the son) had been educated by a
clergyman for three years, previous to his going to Cam-
bridge in October, last year, when he entered Trinity
College. Unhappily for him, " The Resident M. A."
became his tutor. A letter, which the latter wrote in
reference to his victim, is quoted, and justly and severely
commented upon by " A Father." That letter admits,
on the writer's part, that he had often conversed with the
youth on the position of the Roman Church, the difficulties
that prevented him from wishing to join it, and the sympa-
thies he entertained for not a few of its practices, and even
doctrines. Having imbued him with his ownsentirnentson
this subject. he obtained the youth "indirectly" an intro-
duction to Dr. Wareing, the Roman Catholic archbishop,
who happened to be at Cambridge, and with whom he
(the M. A.) had much interesting conversation. Through
him a party of several was formed, amongst whom were
two Roman Catholic priests. The M. A. personally in-
troduced the youth to the bishop, merely that "as a
matter of interest ;he might know a dignitary of the Ro-
man Church, and have the opportnnity of some ordi-
nary conversation." This led to an invitation to meet the
bishop at tea the same evening, and thither the "tutor.'
accompanied the youth. The result of the "conversation"
was that the youth declared his determination to join the
Roman Church immediately. The "tutor" states that be
advised him to postpone his intention, on account of his
youth, the absence of his father, and his want of spiritual
counsellors ; but the mischief was done. The father justly
states, " I am at a loss for fitting terms of condemnation
with which to visit the conduct of this gentleman ; but I
trust that you will hold him up to the scorn and indigna-
tion of every honest and virtuous mind. Cognisant of
every part of this youth's position, aware of the absence
of his father, of his intended profession for him—the
Church—he avails himself of his opportunities as his tutor
"in his ear to pour the leprous distilment,” and then
mocks him with pretended caution against the very course
along which, without sufficient honesty openly to embrace
it himself, he has scrupled to hurry a mere boy intrusted
to his teaching. I hear that his College has dismissed
this recreant son, but 1 think you will agree with me that
it is the bounden duty of the University, if it be anxious
to retain the estimation of the public, to mark its sense of
his delinquency in a more open and avowed manner than
a mere private deprivation from any future pupils. As a
father of a family having the intention of committing my
sons. I, at least, for one, require some better assurance of
their safety from pollution., '_

After severely but deservedly reprehending the conduct
of Dr. Wareing, who professes the divine obligation of
the Decalogue, " A Father" concludes—

" As far us this youth is concerned the die is cast, but
I trust that as regards others (and I fear that many are in
extreme peril at this moment at Cambridge, which is now
my only motive in addressing you) I shall not have raised
my warning voice in vain."

To this 'letter of " A. Father," the Tutor and M.A.
attempts an exculpatory reply, but the conclusion to be
drawn from it is most impotent. He consented. forsooth,
to introduce the youth, at his own request, to Dr. Ware-
ing, which he admits was " extremely wrong and grossly
indiscreet," but he " can only say it was an error in
judgment, done on his part most innocently !" He de-
nies that he was the willing instrument of converting the
youth to Romanism, or that he has ever interfered with
the religious opinions of his pupils, and urges the injury
to his own prospects which misrepresentation of the event
is calculated to produce. His ycung friend acted, he
says, solely on his own convictions! He concludes,
however, by admitting that the step taken was " precipi-
tate, unfortunate, and injudicious," and that if he were
the unconscious cause, he must answer for it. He also
complains of the " allusive attack" made upon him, and
of "A Father's" procrastination in making it.
" A Father," in a brief and indignant reply to this at-
tempted exoneration, proclaims the re.•reant M.A. to be
Mr. F. Paley, and accounts for the delay alluded to by the
fact of the father of the youth having only recently arrived
in this country from India, and his friends being deterred
from pressing the publicity of the case until they obtained
his sanction. He adds :

" A son has been lost to an attached father, and his fall
must ever be a weight upon bis heart which Mr. Paley's
deepest contrition could not have lightened ; but be would
appear rather to rejoice in his defection than sympathise
with the sufferings of the parents and friends of the youth.
I will only add, that the infatuated young man was prof-
fered, if be became a convert to Roman Catholicism, dis-
pensation to appear as a member of the Established
Cburch,—to attend chapel at the University, &c., for the
openly expressed purpose of deceiving his mother, till his
father's return to England, when he was counselled fo
gradually unfold his apostacy to them."
It appears to us, from this exposure, which the attempted
defence only serves to confirm, that Mr. Paley was guilty
throughout, though lurking under the wing of an English
Protestant University, and looking to her for promotion
and pay, of allowing, or at all events of not doing all in
his power to prevent being handed over, from her pro-
tection and tenets, a youth whose mind was scarcely
formed, to the antagonist and pernicious school of
Romanism!
"Can such things be,
And overcome us like a summer cloud,
suchxhpeerecreants,ll ecl do nt
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ap
inenr permitted
this
necodasisena,f_oeuttyrhnefaotarional universities,
Without our special wonder."
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country who aspire to high and dignified stations in life,
clerical or lay, through the education imparted at those'
establishments.