The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-07-03 00:00:00

ROMAN. CATHOLICISM IN, EDINBURGH.

•
Our readersniust have perused, with as, much disgust at regret,
an extract in-our last from the Edinburgh Observer, headed " St.
AlarFarers—Siaters.of. Charity,-Admission of Novices." We
say disgust and regret, that the powerful progress of popery-in
this country, and the re-Appearapce of its mummeries, ig
land, are described not only. in a spirit of irreligious,levity, but
of pain and open approbation. It is a meloneholy proof alike
of • the 'ignorance and irreligion of this (falsely callO) en-
lightened-age—that not content with an amateur description of
these popish mummeries, the writer has the boldness to give an
indirect .censure of our glorious reformation, which swept away
those deus of vice and ignorance, of sloth and sensuality, which
still disgrace and degrade many regions of Europe, and of
Whose restoration Edinburgh is now' giving the fair promise'.
The following passages are more like the mawkish luctibrations
of some cloistered monk or half-fledged- infidel, than-of a
Scottish Presbyterian whig
"The times have changed, when- in presbyterian Scotland, ,
from whOse soil the fury of the reformation had swept away
every monastic and conventual establishment, one of these pro-
scribed institutions -has at length, at the distance of three cen-
turies, ventured to rear its head, in all the security afforded by .1
the tolerant spirit of a more enlightened and beneficent age.
This event was, on Tuesday week, signalized by the solemn
dedication of St. Margaret's, where, in its beautiful Saxon
chapel, the chef d'ttuare of Gillespie Graham, was at the same
time performed the. interesting and affecting ceremony of ad-
mitting three young persons, who then entered their noviciate,
into the community of the Sisters of Charity. The company
present was not numerous, but select, and the scene appeared to
make the deepest impression upon all who witnessed it, The
whole of this imposing ceremonial, new in Scotland, occupied
nearly three hours, but it was regarded throughout with un-
diminished interest and attention ,by all present, amongst whom
were a considerable number of Protestants."
We have a strong suspicion that the article in question is the
effusion of a papist, or of some one very nearly allied to a papist.
Why should liberal men not bestow a little of their .praise of
popery on the holy wells of Ireland, the miracles of Hohenlohe
and Dr. M`Hale ? Why do they permit in silence the whole-
sale overthrow of convents, and the.plunder of monks and nuns,
in Portugal, and anticipate with joy similar scenes in Spain?
Why not chaunt a miserere? We' should doubt very much of
the genuine quality of the "considerable number of prOtestants,"
on whom this folly, the prelude of something worse, "made a
deep impression." We trust the recent expus4 at Exeter Hall
will open4he eyes of all who are not blind, to the unchanging
and unchangeable deformity of popery, under all its veils and
masks. We believe that, the press of this country is much
under. the influence of that soul-destroying system. yWe know
also, that the article "Bible" in a certain great national En-
cyclopwdia, was, after being revised by an eminent iainisterand
scholar of the church of Scotland, subjected to the pruning-knife_
of certain popish dignitaries in Ireland, who exact this privilege
on all articles affecting popery, as the price of their permission
to its free circulation in Ireland. Protestants must look to the
signs of the times. We fear our Sdottish dissenters, by their
encouragement of popery and liberalism, are endeavouring to
purchase, at
.too dear., a rate, the overthrow of the establidied.
church.—Scottish Guardian.