The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-01-21 00:00:00

book of time

We conceive that there can be little doubt as to
the manner in which the insult levelled against our
Sovereign and her Protestant subjects can he legally
and constitutionally dealt with. The Pope of
Rome we recognise as merely the ruler of a petty
Italian principality, and a bishop over his own
benighted subjects. Oar Sovereign and her minis-
ters swear that he neither has, nor ought to have,
any dominion, spiritual or temporal, over the people
of this realm. He has, however, insolently assumed
the exercise of such dominion. He has parcelled
out the soil of Great Britain into spiritual fiefs for
his minions, with a view to their ulterior temporal
sway; and to resent such an assumption we should
.not be without warrant if we were to resort to phy-
sical force. We are not inclined, however, to crush
a fly upon the wheel ; and prefer leaving the Pope
and his nominees to be dealt with by the arm of
the law.

But we are met with a difficulty at the outset.
We have denuded ourselves, unfortunately, of the
power of inflicting defined penalties upon the offen-
ders within our reach ; and it is desirable that we
should legislate afresh to secure such power. But
this must be done without violating " the principles
of civil and religious liberty," or we shall have all
the mawworms in the kingdom up in arms against

us. The Pope of Rome is so particularly careful
to give civil and religious liberty to all the world !
We cannot do better than quote on this point some
very able remarks contained in the last number of
the Law Times

an admission, to the very fullest
e:,:terit, of the principles of religious liberty and perfect

toleration

" What do they demand
that ev

Neither more nor less than

man shall be permitted to hold any religious
opinions he pleases, and to worship Gld after his own
fashion, without being on that account subjected to any
civil disahil

atsoever.

" This is all ti

it any man may justly claim, and he may
nst anv law that violates this.

the question now at issue. What,
other hand, is the reasonable right of a people with
respect to the interference of foreigners ? Surely they
have a right to say to any foreigner, temporal or spiritual,
You shall exercise no power or authority in this our
realm.'

"Buy
on t

" Can it, ti

stly said that the exercise of this

it right

:jolts liberty ?

the Pope's c

f religious libert

truth ii is not so

" The Boman Catho
each and teach it, to v

is free to hold his faith, to
;hip according to his own rites,

to believe the I
obey him in all

to be divinely commissioned, and to

,urely spiritual

" But he 1

as a member fof another corn-

Rianee to another state, whose 1

enmity, ownir
and advantage

to tres

ss a single step

y spiritual recognition of a foreigner;
iguer the remotest right to concern him-
al affairs of the subjects of another
3er to control or direct the actions
He may advise them as much as he
iot act upon them or legislate for

the boundary of pt

s that fi

self with the temi
state, n

n any mar

of its subjects

hilt he T

them : he may to
to do ; but he h

. . _
em what, in his opinion, they ought
of the most remote authority to do

anything with them

Thus, tl
lies to organi

night recommend the Roman Catho-
tives,_ and to appoint for themselves

Or by any other name;

__tion of religious liberty and
ience to forbid him to do so. By pro-
frnrn exereisine dominion over Enelish

the rig

3 not controi

,ose sub-

the fr

still the

_ ment of the rights of conscience :
ay think, preach, and pray as they please, and
is citizens by reason of their opi-
right for a foreign potentate to
em, and to command_them, is

ut to cl

exercise ju

t will 1),

urd to ignore the plain

ritual o

at the pareellin
bishops to them, is a
1 act of the Pope.
all the history of the
assertion. it would

t that, according to the

s attached, in their contem-
*ises territorial dig.

r, bu
ic, which coml.

titles given to t

meaning of this ca

age of the Papal bull

- ,
The purpose of a

a violation of religious Jibe

ase. England form

to pres,

heir titles from the t
;onsolation of the Er

of the principles
b"), bore the aspe
:npl those will
tion of I

approval, and with how much greater authority, in the
sight of the country, came out the condemning syaodical
address from Thurlus, signed, in direct violation of the law
' Paul, Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of all Ireland,
and Delegate to the Apostolic See,'—with how much
greater authority, I say, than the pastoral letter announc-
ing that the writer is empowered to govern the counties of
Hertford, and Middlesex, and Essx, at ordinary thereof,
signed ' Nicholas, Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster ?'
" Can Protestant England, as she does feel just indig-
nation at the one, see no ground for a stern protest
against the other ? and, if she acquiesces in the movement
in Ireland, does she not admit a principle which will
justify the aggression in England ?"

The rev. prelate reminds-us further Ott for years
we have been conceding power and privilege to
Romanism. We have been educating i s priesthood
and laity in Popish doctrine at the expense of the
State; and to conciliate them we even consented to
withdraw the scriptures from our national schools.
What wonder, then, can it be that, having gone
thus far, the present resisting attitude of the
Government and the British people should excite
the astonishment of the Pope and his creatures ?
What wonder that we should find Cardinal Wise-
man himself making such an admission as the
following, contained in an address to the Roman
Catholics of Limerick ? :
" The goodness of our common father, the Vicar of
Christ on earth, has bestowed upon his grateful children in
England a welcome and cherished gift in the restoration
of their ecclesiastical hierarchy ; but the misapprehen-
sion, complete as it has been itnexpected, of the objects
and nature of this great measure, by many of our fellow
subjects, has led, no doubt, to much distress in many,
and has caused affliction to us all."

Of course the " misapprehension" of the Pope's
meaning, and opposition to his insolent intrusion,
were most " unexpected." No reasonable beings
could have foreseen that an act which was not only
tolerated, but even invited, in Ireland, should he
regarded with such indignation as an assault upon
the prerogatives of her Majesty when extended to
another portion of her dominions.

THE accounts of the Church Expenditure Com-
mittee afford occasionally subject matter for cavil
to the ultra-economical and " liberal" party in the
Council. It is grievous in the eyes of some of
these parties that the Corporation should provide
and pay for churches at all, notwithstanding the
fact that, with only one or two exceptions, the
poorer classes of our parishioners are provided with
an ample allowance of free seats, and that we have
in certain prospect a considerable diminution in
the amount of salaries and stipends, to take place
on the expiration of the incumbencies of the
various ministers at present holding the sacred
office. It will he found, however, on enquiry, that
the Church Expenditure Committee possess in
reality very little control in the matter. From a
report of the Town Clerk, just issued, " as to pay-
ments in respect of churches." we learn that these
payments are chiefly obligatory, having been render-
ed so either by custom or by express acts of parlia-
ment,and where they are not obligatory they are such
as are necessary for securing the decent performance
of public worship. In a few cases, perhaps, a
little paring down might be justifiable, under such
heads, for example, as payment of organists and
choristers ; but the saving to be thus effected is
scarcely worthy of a thought. We throw away
yearly upon whims, three times, if not ten times the
amount that we could save by putting the whole
of cur churches into the required puritanic livery.
But there is another consideration besides the pal-
triness of the saving, if any, to be effected by dis-
pensing with organists, choirs, &c., which is worthy
of serious notice, and is pointed to not only in the
Town Clerk's recent Report, but also in the report
of a sub-committee appointed to enquire into the
subject in 1836. Referring to the expenditure of
St. George's Church, which is the most in excess
in its non-obligatory items, the latter Report
remarks :

" In the case of this Church, as the other Churches of
which the Corporation receive the rents, it will not be un-
derstood that all payments ' not obligatory,' are to be
taken to be illegal. In general, their continuance must
rest with the Council, who, no doubt, will consider rents
on the one side, and payments on the other, together
with the obligatory expenditure to a certain extent."

. .
And the Town Clerk in his recent Report says that
he :

"Concurs in the view here taken, and is of opinion that,
as to those churches the rents of pews in which are re-
ceived by the Corporation, the Council may, if they think

fit, legally continue payments for matters which, though
not obligatory, would, if not borne by the Corporation,
be provided by the holders of seats, and who would, pro-
bably, in that case expect a proportionate reduction in
rent."

It must be borne in mind too, that, on the faith
of their keeping up the payments legally due by
them for the support of, and decent observance of,
public worship in our Churches, in many cases as
we have already mentioned upon a limited scale,
the Corporation have already sold the advowson
and right of presentation of several for sums
amounting in the whole to less than £17,395; and
the following remain to be sold at the periods
specified, when they become the property of that
body

Churches.l When buil

Period above
referred to.

Trinity... !Built 179!

One After 60 years
Minister. from Conse-
cration.

Minister

ance. (Now
under 3rd Pre-
sentation.)

St. Mark'slßuilt 1803

After 3rd Aoid-
ance. (tow