The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-11-05 00:00:00

this realm

clergy of this di(

attitude, on this occasion, of the Protestant Clergy
and laity of Liverpool, heretofore so prominent in
their antogonism to the pretensions and the hereti-
cal doctrines of the Papacy ? We are happy to be
able to state that they are not likely to be found
wanting in this emergency. This day, we.
understand, a meeting of the clergy will he
held, at which no doubt a plan of operations
will be determined upon, commencing with a
public meeting of the Clergy and laity of the•
Church, comprising delegates from the entire
North of England ; and at this meeting we believe
that the feeling of those assembled will not he con-
fined to mere idle protest, or to the still more idle
palaver of diplomacy. The Pope of Rome is a
temporal as well as a spiritual ruler of his people.'
He has lately been forced upon the acceptance of
his subjects by foreign armies. When such a
sovereign, so sustained in his temporal power, com-
mits an aggression upon the privileges of another
sovereign, reigning in the hearts of her people, we
do not conceive that a mere protest is all that is
required. Something is due not only to the honour
of Great Britain, but to the religious liberties of
the Christian World. This Puppet Sovereign, up-
held by French bayonets, must not be allowed,
in his desperation, to outrage the constitu-
tional rights of free and independent nations.
We might, indeed, with perfect justice to
Rome herself, re-impose those protections against
her aggressive policy, wisely imposed by the
laws of England in the Act of Settlement : but
a shorter and more direct course is open to us,
and is pointed out in the following letter published
yesterday :

" RESISTANCE TO POPERY.
To the Inhabitants of the County of Kent.
Men of Kent,—l make no apology for calling your at-
tention to the present most remarkable crisis.

An Italian bishop has assumed to himself the power of
nominating archbishops and bishops in this our free Pro-
testant country.

Scarcely twenty years have elapsed since more than
20.000 of you met on Penenden Heath to warn our rulers
of the evil consequences of encouraging the infernal ma.
chinations of Jesuits, and the errors of Papal Rome.
Your warnings were slighted—your opinions set at nought.
Twenty short years have produced this result.
But the same hearts beat in the bosoms of the Men of
Kent; the same nobleman lives to lead you. Men of
Kent, up and be doing ? Let your rallying cry be Win-
chilsea and Protestant ascendancy ! Proclaim to your be-
loved Queen that you regard her and no other as the head,
under Providence, of the only Church established in these
her realms, and sooner than this accnrsed domination shall
prevail, let British cannon tear asunder the gates of Rome,
the cross of St. George wave over the Castle of St. An-
gelo, and the arrogant priest tremble in his Palace of the
Vatican.

We have had warnings enough as a nation from a mer-
ciful Providence to have no dealings with Popery, but to
cast aside as a plague-garment the contamination of her
most debasing error and slavery. May these warnings
not be disregarded !

I have the honour to be, Men of Kent;
Your faithful servant,
BROOK W. BRIDGES

Goodneston Park, Nov. 1, 1850."
Such a course would, we believe, command the
sanction not only of the Protestants of Liverpool,
but of the Protestants of the entire country.
A host of communications have been addressed
to us upon this subject. Our correspondents,
however, must bear with us, and give us credit for
being alive to the emergency which has been forced
upon this country. The following extract from a
letter addressed to the Rev. Hugh NPNeile, as to
the course to be pursued, which we have received
from a valued quarter, must not be omitted from
our present publ

cation
meetings.

" Call public _ ~ and memorialise the Queen to
prevent any such desecration of Englisn soil and her pre-
rogative, as the Pope and his myrmidons contemplate, and
demand if the law, as it at present stands, should not
meet the case, that she will immediately call together her
Parliament, and pass such a law as will fully settle the
point and for ever make such an aggression not only un-
lawful, but subject to heavy penalties and punishment. It
is gratifying for Protestants to know, and which I can as-
sure them of, from personal acquaintance with many well-
informed Italian and French gentlemen, that while the Pa.
pacy is extending her ambitious and presumptuous hand
westward, she is crumbling to the earth in the east, and on
the continent of Europe generally. Even in Belgium, the
hot-bed of Popery, the men hate the priests, and the
whole mummery; and it is seldom you will see a man, of
any station in life, attending worship, even in those ancient,
attractive, gorgeous churches and cathedrals. In fact,
though the people on the continent are generally Roman
Catholics by birth, they are of no religion in too many
instances ; and, in my humble opinion, are waiting for that
great change which I believe not to be far distant. And
I further believe that this last act of the Pope's will do
more to shake, if not to uproot, the Papacy, than any
earthly act we could have witnessed ; by knitting Pro-
testants more closely together, and by putting a stop to
those dissensions which have so unhappily been taking
place in the Church of England, it being now apparent to
the most sceptical that there is no appeasing the Church
of Rome short of our own sniritnal_ and entian."....fi.

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