The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-02-22 00:00:00

DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH THE POPE

OF ROME.
A T a MEETING of the PROTESTANT INHA-
ti_ BITANTS of MANCHESTER and SALFORD, opposed to
Lord Lansdowne's Bill for Establishing Diplomatic Relations
between the Queen of England and the Pope of Rome, held at
the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, on THURSDAY, the 17th
February, 1848,
JAMES WOOD, ESQ. in the Chair;
It vat Resolved.
I. Moved by Mr. THOMAS GREIG ; seconded by the Rev.
HUGH STOWELL, Honorary Canon of Chester,
That this Meeting regards with great disapprobation and
alarm the Bill introduced by Her Majesty's Government into
the House of Lords, for establishing Diplomatic Relations with
the Pope of Rome. The repeal of the statutes forbidding com-
munion with the see of Rome would be a pr ncilia-
tion with the implacable foe of Protests , and of Protestant
England. It would involve a reco • on of his usurped
tual dominion, inasmuch as his poral sovereignty is founded
upon that dominion, and is rcised solely with a view to per-
petuate and extend it; that the rights, claims, policy, and
acts of the prince are entially those of the prelate. It would
afford reasonable g nd of apprehension that an ambassador
from Rome, whet er an ecclesiastic, or a layman attedded by
an ecclesiastic as his confessor and guide, would form a centre,
around which all the agencies opposed to our religious liberties
would gather; and that he would thus possess peculiar facilities
for aiding the extraordinary efforts now being made, again to
subject this country to the papal sway. And it would lead to
public acts and exhibitions which would familiarize all classes
of the people with the unjust pretensions of the papacy, under
circumstances favourable to the national acknowledgment of
them.
11. Moved by the Rev. RICHARD BUTLER, Incumbent of St.
Silas; seconded by the Rev. RonuaT COWE, Minister of
• St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church,
That the objections to the measure are materially strength-
ened by the consideration that, whilst the Sovereign and people
of England would thus cultivate the friendship of the Pope,
they both lie under the heaviest curse which it is in his power
to inflict, a curse which seeks to deprive the monarch of her
crown, and to dissolve the ties which bind her subjects to her
in dutiful allegiance. Nor has any case of political necessity
been established sufficient to prove the expediency of the mea-
sure, even were it right and safe. No exigency can be conceiv-
ed more urgent than those which have heretofore existed, and
which have been met by private and non-official communica-
tions, the very privacy of which has borne testimony to our
national fear and abhorrence of Popery.
Wesleyan minister,
111. Moved by the Rev. GEORGE OSBORN,

seconded by Mr CHARLES SWALLOW,
That a Petition, founded upon the foregoing resolutions, he
prepared, and that, when signed as extensively as possible, the
Right Honourable the Earl of Roden be requested to present it
to the House of Lords ; and that a similar Petition to the House
of Commons be prepared and signed at the same time, which
Lord Ashley shall be requested to present, should the Bill reach
that house. _ JAMES woon.

The Chair having been vacated by Mr. Wood, it was taken by
the Rev. Wiliam Huntingdon, rector of St. John's,
It was then Resolved,
IV. Moved by the Rev. W. H. M'GRATH, rector of St. Ann's,
seconded by the Rev. FRANCIS ATIIOW WEST, Wesleyan
minister ;
That the cordial thanks of the Meeting be presented to James
Wood, Esq., for the steps he has taken in connexion with the
convening of this meeting, and for his able conduct in the chair.
WILLIAM HUNTINGDON.