The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-09-10 00:00:00

PROGRESS OF POPERY.

(From the speech of Dr. Wiseman at the consecration of
the Roman Catholic Church at Nottingham.)
His Lordship (said Dr. Wiseman) had alluded to what
is commonly called the religious revival of the day.
There is now only one opinion on this subject, the reality
of which was only a few years ago doubted by almost
every one. It was then supposed that certain temporary
feelings which had been excited in the heart of the
Church of England, and which showed an opening to-
wards Catholicism, although it might for a time go on
widening and deepening, would again be swallowed up
and absorbed, as it were, in the systems and doctrines of
Protestantism, and wou'd eventually be of no benefit to
the cause of Catholic truth. It had indeed been doubted
by many individuals until within the last four or five
years, when the change could no longer be concealed
from the most sceptical, whether any real alteration in
the public mind was taking place. And while they were
engaged in anxiously inquiring and pondering over the
thoughts and sentiments of our opponents, which were
tending to the support of their own belief, they were
taking no note of the quiet onward movement which was
taking place among themselves.
Since his first commencement Mr. Pugin has erected
thirty-four new churches; I believe he has built as many
churches as he has lived years, and if he is spared during
a long life, I hope. to see England covered with churches,
the architecture of which will be after the ancient models.
In addition to that number, twenty other new churches
have been built by other architects; and thus in six years
we have an aggregate of fifty-four new Catholicchurches.
This increase exceeds that of a much greater number of
the preceding years; and by its means we have fifty-
four new churches built on good principles, and on the
scale of the largest parochial buildings in the country, in
the largest and most populous towns in the kingdom—
such as London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester,
Derby, Nottingham, Newcastle, Newark, Coventry, and
other similar places. The church which has this day
been opened is the largest now finished in this country
since the Reformation. When St. George's in London,
is completed, it will be the largest in the metropolis, ex-
cept St. Paula. For ail this to be done in this short
period is very extraordinary, and ought to excite the
greatest gratitude to Providence, by whose power the
hearts of men were inclined to furnish those means,
without which, the erective talents of Mr. Pugin, be-
stowed for the noblest ends, could never have been brought
into action. Mr. Pugin has also, in the same period,
erected four new religious houses, and others have also
been built, making a total of seven religions houses within
the last three or flour years. This does not include those
which have been rebuilt, or those which have been caused
by communities removing from one county to another,
but totally new communities for which conventual build-
ings have been erected in strict conformity with the prac-
tice of ancient times.
Few persons have taken any account of the religious
communities which had arisen during the last six years;
there are nineteen new communities of nuns established
in England, and, with one exception, all are of different
orders to those previously existing here. There have in
that period been also nine houses of religious men es-
tablished ; making an aggregate of twenty-eight religious
houses added to the Church during the last six years.
Within the last few.years, the press at Derby has issued
between one and a-half and two million volumes of Ca-
tholic publications, a number which I am sure will cover
the amount issued for the last ten or fifteen years from all
the presses in the country united. These publications
have been disposed of in a manner very different from
those of a Bible or a Tract Society, in which great num-
bers are given away and scattered in every direction by
agents or wealthy individuals, as the press of Derby is in
the hands of one to whom the publication of these works
is entirely an affair of commercial speculation. Catholic
books are now bought and read in the most eager manner
not only by members of our Church, but by all classes
and all religions.
During the last few years nine clergymen of that
Church have joined the Unity of the Catholic faith in
England ; and no inconsiderable number of young men
destined for the ministry, have transferred themselves to
our own dear Church, and become candidates for a better
and truer priesthood. Here we have a variety of causes
for the changes in our circumstances of a complex cha-
racter, and over which we could not possibly have any in-
fluence. It was not owing to us that a few clergymen in
one of the Universities chose to write tracts in our favour ;
men who had not the slightest tendency towards our
faith, and who protested their object was to prevent their
fellows from being led away and deluded by our religion
(as they chose to express themselves.) It certainly was
not we who bestowed upon the gifted man to whom I
have alluded his extraordinary talents ; neither could we
open the hearts of rich and poor to furnish the means for
his magnificent edifices. Neither was it we who have so
wrought upon the minds of the populace that where we
formerly met with contumely and insult, we now meet
with blessings and respect. A few years ago, we dare not
have assembled as we have done to-day ; we could not
have gone through the town in our ecclesiastical habits ;
we might not even have made our circuit and procession
round the church in the midst of an immense concourse
of people, without receiving taunts, insults, and perhaps
personal ill-treatment.