The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-04-21 00:00:00

ROMAN CATHOLIC LEGISLATORS.

The following is the oath taken by all Roman catholic peers,
or the Roman catholic members of the House of Commons, on
taking their seats inparliament :
" I do swear that.l will defend to the utmost of my power the
settlement of property within the realm as established by the ,
laws; and.l do hereby disclaim, disavow, and solemnly abjure
any intention to subvert the present church establishment as
settled by law within the realm• and I do solemnly swear that
I never will exercise any privilege to which I am or may be-
come entitled, to disturb or weaken the protestant religion or
protestant government in the United Kingdom: and I do so-
lemnly., in the presence of God, profess, testify, and declare,
that I do make this declaration and every part thereof in the
plain and ordinary sense of the words of this oath, without any
evasion, equivocation, or mental reservation whatever. So help
me God."
The above oath is in the 7th chap. and 2d section of the 10th
Geo. IV. in acts of parliament, and is the only security offered
to protestantism by the Roman citholic emancipation bill.
On the 30th March, 1835, Lord John Russell moved in the
House of Common* the following resolution :
" That this house resolve itself inta* committee of the whole
house, in order to consider the present state of the church esta-
blishment in Ireland, with the new of applying any surplus of the
revenues, not required for the spiritual care of its members, to
the general education of all classes of the people, without dis-
tinction of religious persuasion."
The Roman catholic members of parliament whose names are
here- given, did on the above occasion vote for the motion,
thereby laying a foundation "to subvert the present church esta-
bliAnzent," ,and to cause its revenues to be appropriated to other
purposes than those of the church :
Lord Surrey, 'l'. Wise,
M. O'Loughlin, W. F. Finn,
H. W. Barron, John O'Connell,
D. O'Connell, • G. S: Barry,
M. O'Connell, J. Meaghar,
J. H. Talbot, A. 11. Lynch,
Christopher Fitzsimon„ R. Sullivan,
Richard L. Shell, R. M. O'Ferrall,
• P. Howard, , It. M. Bellew,
Sir P. Bellew, P. Power,
D. C. Brady, N. Fitzsimon,
'•H. Bridgeman, Morgan O'Connell,
M. J. O'Connell, J. J. Bodkin,
O'Conor Don, D. Rouavne,
W. Roche, Sir R. Nagle,
C. O'Brien, J. Power,
A. C. O'Dwyer, M. J. Blake.
E. R. C. Sheldon,
By a decree of Pope Gregory IX. and Innocent 111. alt oaths
taken contrary to the interests of the church of Rome, ate net to
be considered as oaths, but as perjuries.

THE WESLEYAN METHODIST ELECTORS OF

DEVONSHIRE AND LORD JOHN RUSSELL.

We have 'read in the _limes and Morning Herald the following
notice respectingthe contest for South. Devonshire, should Lord
John Russell, by taking office, be compelled to face his present
constituents; viz.:—" 'hough the Vv esleyans have received
Orders froni their London Conference to support Lord John
Russell, it is expected that the contest will be a severe one."
That " the contest will be`a severe one," and terminate dis-
astrously for Lord John, we have no doubt; but as to the orders
said to have been Sent to the Wesleyans of South Devonshire
from their London Conference, we must declare our opinion
that such orders have never been given; or if they have, that
they were given by the Conference in utter ignorance of the
opinions entertained by Lord John Russell, both of their faith
and of their morality. For the instruction, therefore, of those
who are unaware of the noble lord's favourable regard for their
doctrines and practice, we will give a quotation or two from a
book written and published a very few years ago (though, we
confess, it has not been much read) by Lord John Russell, en-
titled " Memoirs of the History of Europe," 2 vols. 4to:—
" They Ci e. the Wesleyans) multiply miracles beyond the
regular and limited practice of the Rotnish church. • It' a metho-
dist preacher wants a dinner, a suit of clothes, or a few pence to
pay a turnpike he puts up a prayer, and his want is miracu-
lously supplied. Thus, between forger' and fanaticism, sober
and genuine christianity is utterly lost."—Mernoies, 4.c., vol. ii,
page 581,
Again, a few pages previously, his lordship says:— .
Another defect of methodism is, that by the confession of
V esley.hivaself,it borders close on doctrines destructive of all
orality."--Memoirs, vol. ii. page 579.
• We recommend the above passages to the c3lm consideration
of the 'Wesleyan methodist electors of South Devonshire ; and
we ask them to recollect that they were not uttered in the heat
and impulse of a debate, when some excuse may be made for
excitement, but that they were written deliberately and calmly
in the quiet seelusion.of the study—that they were published to
he world as-the conclusions of the noble lord's reflection upon
the subject, rand as indicatory of the opinions which he enter-
tained respecting 'Wesleyan methodist-la—not hurriedly, but
soberly and seriously formed.
It is rumoured that Lord-John dares not face South Devon-
shire, but intends to try Middlesex, Mr. Byng being made a
peer to cause a vacancy. If so, we call upon the Wesleyans of
the metropolitan county to consider also whether they ought to
support, or he represented by, a man who professes to hold opi-
nions of their faith and morality such as those we have quoted,—
opieions which are in print, and which Lord John Russell has
never attempted to explain or to retract.
We have the highest possible opinion both of the purity of
the doctrines and the excellence of the lives of the Wesleyan
Methodists; and we very much mistake their character, if they
do not prove the fast friends of the church of England. One
thing we do know—that they.will never all themselves to the
church of lime.
If, then, the London Conference has given the orders alluded
to, they must have been in ignorance, which we now dissipate ;
and we do not doubt but that, whether in Devonshire, favi-
stock, or Middlesex, Lord J. Russell will meet with a befitting
reception from those-whose doctrines he has vilified, and whose
morality he has traduced.—Age.