The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-08-05 00:00:00

TUESDAY MORNING, AUG, 5, 1851.

ANOTHER ILLUSTRATION OF POPERY

IN LIVERPOOL.

THE Romish priesthood are illustrating the Jesuit
maxim, that "there is no fool so bad as a zealous
fool." The folly of their present proceedings is
surely on a par with its impertinence, for they are
daily stripping the Church of Rome of the character
of mystery with which some weak-minded and amia-
ble dreamers in our own Church deligiited to invest
her. They are taking care that she shall no longer
appear, even to the most silly under-graduate, as a
haven of rest and a centre of certainty. She is
standing out boldly as apolitical system—a strongly-
banded conspiracy against human freedom—a con-
federacy, the existence of which is as dissonant
from the character of liberty in a naticn as that of
the "free companions" of the middle ages, or the
most violent and absurd of the Proletaires of
Europe at the present day. Wiseman, it appears,
was not originally intended to be "Archbishop of
Westminster, but the Propaganda changed their
mind—a palpable instance of second thoughts not
being always best ; for how can it be wondered at,
that the inferior priesthood should conduct them-
selves with the intemperance they are now showing,
when they have seen " His Eminence," while he
was yet doubtful, whether or not he would be
arraigned as a criminal at the bar of the Court of
Queen's Bench, insult, like a schoolboy, the Dean.
and Chapter of Westminster, because part of their
property bore the character given it in Popish times,.
when Popish bishops assumed the right to license.
the commission of habitual vice.

The subjoined letter exhibits Ur.; desperate eager-
ness with which they try to seize upon the moment
when reason is tottering in the dying patient, and
grief of relatives blunts the watchfulness that all
Protestants keep against their multitudinous
attempts. The " neighbours" mentioned by our
correspondent, doubtless meaning well, are yet
schooled to act as they did, in sending instantly for
a Popish priest, that the opportunity of reporting ano-
ther so-called conversion might nut be lost. In fact,
to explain the varied machinery of the Church of
Rome, which she adopts to effect her great object of
bringing England back to superstition, would be to
occupy half a life-time. in every grade of her
clergy, and their lay assistants, there exists the
stimulus of personal ambition. Something is pro-
mised for every service rendered to the church, and
the effects of such a spur are thick around us. Bat
the zeal it creates is a zeal without knowledge. If
the Popish priest had succeeded in performing his
assigned duties over Mrs. Vernon, he would have
had no gain, for these men, half I-alian and half
Irish, cannot be taught to see that a successful
trick in England only injures the man who performs
it. The church may pardon deceit, if she pleases,--
she can never in this country profit by it.
But the Rnmish priesthood have proceeded to
steps still more bold. It appears, upon sufficient
evi.lence, that they have at one of the London Rag-
ged Schools been instigating the burning and
tearing of Bibles. This is no new phase of Popery.
They have been pursuing the same course from
Luther's time till now ; and many will remember
well the shudder that ran through the country on
reading the evidence of Dr. Doyle,—styling himself
Bishop cf Kildare and Leighlin,—before the parlia-
mentary committee, in which he approved the con-
duct of the peasant who, when the rector gave him
a bible, would not touch it with his hands, but
"took it in the tongs, and buried it in the garden."
Dr. Doyle might well call kim faithful and obedient,
but he had about as much intelligence operating
to guide him as the Hindoo widow has who mounts
the funeral pile. The priesthood of Rome, it seems,
have got some idea that they can drag back the peo-
ple of England to the condition of mediaeval blind-
ness, and leave them in the state of the bible-burner
we have above described. They have got a very
unwilling scil to work upon. Neither the disposi-
tion of the Anglo-Saxon nor his temperament is
towards passive obedience; and whether expressed
or dormant, Wiseman knows by this time that
there is in the English heart a long-seated disposi-
tion to have "no peace with Rome." She may entrap
enthusiasts by pomp, and speculators by concessions,
she may gain over the hoary profligate by promise of
absolution, and the heart-sick sceptic by hope of
rest; but Newman was right, though he did not
mean it : "A country once left, Popery never
returns."
TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

SIR,—On Saturday last my wife took most da3geronsly
iil. She was visited by some of the neighbours, who,
seeing her dangerous state, asked her if she would require
a clergyman ? to which she replied in the affirmative.
They immediately ran and brought a Popish priest. On
his arrival I was informed that he was a clergyman, and I
asked, as a matter of course, what clergyman ? and was
told he was a Roman Catholic priest. I replied that 1
had no use for him, as we were Protestants. The priest
then boldly insisted on seeing the sick woman ; on which
I ordered him to depart. He objected to go ; but I told
him that if he did not instantly leave the house, I would
take active and rigid means to compel him ; and when he
saw the determined stand which I took, he was obliged
to leave, without making, as he anticipated, a convert.
Since that time I have been threatened, by an infuriated
faction, with being torn to death, or tortured in some
way, by the hands of a priest-ridden party of Irish bigots.
Trusting you will give this a place in your journal, and
expose such a glaring attempt of a Popish priest to prose-
lytise the wife of an unflinching Protestant, I am. Sir,
your obedient servant. FRANCIS WINTER.
Vernon-place. Carlton-street, Liverpool,
30th July. 1851.

GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY OF CANADA.
IN another column of to-day's paper will be
found a report of a meeting on this subject, which
was held at Manchester on Wednesday last. It
will be seen that the opinions which we expressed
on this scheme last week were corroborated by the
leading railway authorities present. Indeed, Mr.
Laing, the chairman of the London and Brighton
Railway, stated his intention to transfer from other
investments a sum sufficient to take up no less
than two hundred shares in this undertaking—and
he is no mean guide to follow in such matters.

THE LAW OF RAILWAY ACCIDENTS.
A VERY signal verdict has been delivered in the
case of Mrs. Blake, of Sheffield, who proceeded
under Lord Campbell's Act for damages against
the railway company for the death of her husband.
We, of course, have no pleasure, nor have the
public, in seeing any public company come to
unexpected loss ; but, for the sake of the future
safetylof all travellers, we cannot but hail the verdict
in this case as an event likely to be of wholesome
example. Indeed the case itself is well worthy of
consideration. An able and venerable judge, a
learned lawyer, and a distinguished scholar, Baron
Parke, out of his old stores of reading, reminded
the jury of the utter barbarism in which our law
formerly existed on this particular subject. There
was a maxim of the law, (like all the legal maxims,
trite and true,) Aslimatio vita null; est, and yet