The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-08-23 00:00:00

OPERATIVE PROTESTANT ASSOCIATION.

A very numerous and highly respectable meeting of St.
Jude's branch of this association was held last night in the
large school-room attached to St. Jude's Church, Oakes-
street. The Rev. Mr. Talloon was in the chair, and opened
the meeting with an appropriate and impressive prayer.
After descanting at some length upon the conduct of Daniel
O'Connell, and the Jesuits, he introduced the Rev. Mr.
Nolan to the meeting amidst considerable cheering.
The Rev. T. NOLAN, of St. Barnabas, was next called
upon, his appearance was welcomed with long and hearty
cheers by the meeting. As the frothy declamation and scur-
rility of the Lord Mayor of Dublin in this town have been
made the most of by our radical contemporaries, both here
and in Ireland, we are anxious to give as much space as pos-
sible to Mr. Nolan's admirable remarks upon the calumnies
of that worthy. After some preliminary observations, Mr.
Nolan proceeded nearly as follows :—I hold in my hand, sir,
a paper containing the report of Mr. O'Connell's speech at
the Amphitheatre, upon the occasion of his recent visit to
' this town, and I feel that an explanation is necessary for
bringing it under your consideration at all. It is not the
elegance of the style, nor the charity of the sentiment, still
less is it the proverbial veracity of the right hon. speaker
that would justify my trespass on your time to-night, in call-
ing your attention to this worthy advocate of Loyola and the
Jesuits. Nor yet is it, in consequence of his cowardly and
calumnious attack on the high-minded and intrepid minister
of the gospel, the beloved and respected President of this
Association—(loud and long continued cheers)—so much as
on account of the reckless hardihood with which he ventured
to assume principles, coupled with the daring defiance of
truth with which he stated facts, that the ignoble lord's ,1
speech is worth a second thought. There are many with
whom a bold assertion supplies the place of proof, and a con-
fident statement passes for truth. As these constitute the
chief staple of Mr. O'Connell's tirade, accompanied with an
extra share of personal invective, in compliment, I suppose,
to the alleged bigotry of Liverpool in general, and of the
Rev. Mr. M`Neile in particular, it is necessary that some of
these statements be met and refuted, for Mr. O'Connell's
character, notorious though it be, the selfish, wicked, mer-
cenary tenor of his public life, although, no doubt, it makes
his slander the only encomium which an honest man could
accept at his hands, is by no means a security that his state-
ments may not carry weight with even more than the unreflect-
ing multitude; for minds conscious of their own incapacity to
calumniate their fellows, or to falsify facts, are slow to sus-
pect others, and consequently may believe as true, if uncon-
tradicted, assertions which are light as the foam on the
waters, when falling from the lips of Mr. Daniel O'Connell.
(Cheers.) But I must follow the meanderings of this rather
tortuous oration. His first attack is upon what he is pleased
to call the " joint-stock churches," and the " bigots red hot
from Ireland " that minister in some of them. It is a sore
point with the learned Jesuit, and with those in the town
and council of Liverpool of whose sentiments be is the in-
dex, that St. Jude's Church is filled as it is—with Truth,
and people that love the Truth. lam glad of this taunt at
the constitution of some of our new churches : it is a good
argument for church extension ; and perhaps the Premier,
in his promised deliberations on the subject during the re-
cess, may take a hint, and relieve our future churches from
those conditions and restrictions ,phich necessity imposed
on those which have been erected far some years past. It is
not the constitution of St. Jude's Church, but the influence
of the doctrines taught in it, and the extent to which they
are leavening the minds of the people of this town, that
makes your church and your minister a chosen target for
the shafts of impotent fury. Would to God that Mr.
O'Connell felt in his own heart the power of those saving,
sanctifying doctrines that are preached there in all their
breadth and fulness, pure and unadulterate from the living
fountain of Eternal Truth, by that eminent man, whom, in
terms, no doubt, equally characteristic of the genius of the
speaker, and adapted to the refined tastes of his auditory, Mr.
O'Connell has accused of bigotry, falsehood, and calumny;
and at last, with peculiar elegance and felicity of expression,
has designated the deuce's own lump of a liar. (Laughter.)
But who is he, we may ask, who thus vauntinglyputs himself
forward as the champion of truth, and love, and good-will
amongst men ? A man, doubtless it will be expected, of un-
impeachable veracity, upon whose character, pure as un-
sunned snow, the sliehtest breath of suspicion bath never yet
descended ! Let the story of David Murphy, as brought out
before the House of Commons, attest at once the right hon.
gentleman's tolerance and his truth. This man, for giving
an honest vote at an election, brought himself under the ban
of the liberal Mr. O'Connell, who recommended that a
death's head and cross bones should be drawn over his door.
When charged with this by (I believe) the Right Hon. the
Recorder of Dublin, in the most solemn manner, he denied
the charge, calling God to attest his truth. When inquiry
was made, the charge was found exact to the letter—and how
did this right hon. man satisfy his conscience and the House
of Commons as to his former solemn disclaimer ?—forsooth,
a mistake had been made in his Christian name. The charge
made against Mr. O'Connell was of having acted so and so
towards a man whose name was John Murphy, (Suppose.)
Whereas, it appeared that the occurrence took place in re-
ference to David Murphy ! Worthy disciple and cham-
pion of Jesuitry ! Another instance :—a letter from Mr.
Edward Orpen Palmer, a solicitor of Dominick-street,
Dublin, who compelled Mr. O'Connell to pay his tithes,
writes in the public newspapers, May 16, 1840, that Major
Brown, of the constabulary, had written to him on the 24th
April preceding, acquainting him that plans were laid for his
assassination. This he ascribed to language used with refer.
ence to him by Mr. O'Connell, the year before, in Tralee,
Boys, for my sake, you won'tforget him." (Hear, hear.)
But why go farther than the contrast of his conduct as a
member of parliament with the terms of the oath, on the
security of which he is allowed to take his seat. The oath
binds him not to weaken the church as by law established,
and every act of his public life in and out of the house, has
been openly and avowedly directed towards the subversion
of it. He does not read the oath so : true, he does not, he
has a Jesuit commentator to interpret it for him. But the
conduct of several English Roman Catholic gentlemen, who
regarding the sacredness of their oath, refused to vote on
any question affecting our church, shows that in some minds
at least, though not with Mr. O'Connell, the spirit of the
gentleman predominates above the purposes of party.
(Cheers.) His professions before he was made Lord Mayor,
and his conduct since, to the Protestant holders of office
under the late corporation, is but in keeping with the rest of
his character, and helps to show the extreme fitness of the
Right Hon. Daniel O'Connell, to stigmatise any man as a
calumniator and a liar. Yet this is the man (and I only
allude to public documents appearing in the public prints),
who has the hardihood to asperse the fair fame of Hugh
M`Neile. (Tremendous cheers.) Methinks some echo
might have responded to him

" Measureless liar! thou hast made my heart too big for
what contains it."
It suits not thee, vain boaster—it suits not such as thou
To speak of Him but with respect and veneration."
1 pass, however, from his invective, and proceed to examine
some of his arguments, the chief of which, in favour of
Romanism, he derives from her numbers. Has he forgotten
that Christianity itself, if weighed in this balance, must give
way to heathenism ? Has he never read that, " broad is the
way and wide is the gate that leadeth to destruction, and
many there be which go in thereat ; because straight is the
gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few
there be that find it." Romanism, the predicted apostacy,
is only running its appointed course. Doctrines of demons,
damnable heresies, are brought in privily. Merchandise is
made of men's souls. The gospel likewise is accomplishing
the Lord's will, and prospering where he sends it; consuming
Rome with the breath of His mouth ; taking a people out of
the Gentiles for His name's sake, until the times of the
Gentiles are fulfilled : then all Israel shall be saved. The
" man of sin" must be destroyed by the brightness of the
Lord's coming. The residue of men, even all the Gentiles,
shall seek after the Lord ; and the earth shall be full of the
knowledge of the glory of God. The kingdom of this world
shall become the kingdoms of the Lord and his Christ. Even
so, Lord Jesus come quickly. (Cheers.) This Mr. O'Con-
nell does not, perhaps cannot know, for it must be spiritually
discerned. Except that nothing from Mr. O'Connell can
surprise us, we might be astonished at his effrontery in
speaking of the " ancient faith of the land," and of " minis-
ters of Christ proclaiming the gospel of truth in the words
of truth and charity." Why Mr. O'Connell's faith is just as
ancient as the 15th of November, 1564, the day on which
the new creed of Pius IV. was published—(hear, hear)—
in connexion with which creed, for a man to speak
of Romanism as a " proclamation of the gospel of
truth," betrays either wilful ignorance or gross delusion.
Oh, sir, if Romanism were in truth what Mr. O'Connell
would have us believe it to be, our hostility to it were at an
end ; if her priests, instead of the putrid doctrines of Dens,
Bailly, and Delahogue, (and Mr. O'Connell speaks of the
morality of her teaching !!) were employed proclaiming the
truth as it is in Jesus to the Glory of God, and for the sal-
vation and sanctification of men, instead of being arrayed
against them, we should be found beside them ; instead of
exposing their infamy, we should wish them good luck, and
bid them God speed in the name of the Lord. But no, Sir,
Romanism, in the creed of Pius, has actually abjured Scrip-
ture. Her preaching of it can only be a pretence. The
apostolical traditions, or what she pretends to be such, are
her standard and text book. In these she pretends to find
countenance for the corruptions and innovations which she
has introduced into her amendment of that symbol of the
ancient faith, the Nicene creed, the Scripture must be kept
out of sight for fear the imposition would be detected, and
so it is. The rev. gentleman here referred to the creed of
Pope Pius to prove this lamentable truth, and referred to Mr.
O'Connell's allusions to the King of Prussia and the Arch-
bishop of Cologne, and then proceeded as follows :
Mr. O'CONNELL next says, that in France the progress of
religion, that is, of Catholicity, is rapid and triumphant.
Hear in opposition to this statement, vouched for by the
veracious student of St. Omer, the testimony of a French
writer of modern date. M. Fregier, in his recent work, on
" the Dangerous classes of Paris, writes thus, " Christianity
has no longer any hold on the public mind as a revelation
from Heaven the religious crisis which is now in pro-
gress
in Germany, was brought to a conclusion a century '
ago in France Religion is only regarded as a system of
moral discipline, and as such, is even only second to the
singing classes." As I have no evidence at hand to disprove
his statement about America, I am willing to suppose it
true, even though Mr. O'Connell asserts it. When he speaks
of the spread of Romanism in connexion with the happiness
of mankind, I suppose he had his eye on the neighbouring
colony of Newfoundland, whose constitution it was found
necessary to suspend from the arbitrary tyranny of the
Romish priesthood, the defender of whose enormities
and the champion of whose usurpations he recently exhibited
himself in the House of Commons. Returning to English
history with the Right honourable Liberator, we have a
valuable admissions from his lips, viz., that Queen Mary
did persecute for three years. In the next edition of
Dr. Lingard's history, Mr. O'Connell will be enumerated
amongst her calumniators, because he has told the truth—
though he ought to be forgiven, for perhaps he may never do
it again ; but as a set off for this truth, he repeats the oft
refuted calumny, that Queen Elizabeth persecuted for forty
years. It is, sir, on the authority of Sir Edward Coke, that
during Queen Mary's reign not less than 300 suffered for
religious opinions; whereas, during the 44 years of Eliza-
beth's reign, there were executed, for treason, thirty priests
and five accomplices, but not one for his religion. And
when it is remembered that Queen Elizabeth was excom-
municated by four Popes, viz., Pius V., 1569 ; Gregory
XIII., 1580 (the year he published the
andm Clementemorable'` C.voirritc:s,
Juris Cononici") ; Sixtus V., wi
1600 ; that the Spanish Armada was sanctioned and blessed
by the Pope for the subjugation of England, and the sub-
version of the Protestant faith, the surprise is rather at the
fewness of those who suffered, for the Jesuits were at the be-
ginning and end of every treasonable movement, and at the
hardihood of Mr. O'Connell, in alluding to that reign at all.
Some time ago these allusions and false inferences, from
alleged facts, might have passed current ; the page of history
was unapplied, if not unread ; but since Mr. M'Neile has
set on foot these troublesome Protestant Associations,
inquiry is awake, tracts are distributed and read, the intelli-
wgeonrks o
t operativesf their
oowfoLi
andver
otherpoo l read
countries,their obiblesd ar andare
n historicalr4so
easily
misled as before; they are acquainted with historical facts,
and with Scriptural truths, and can give a reason for the
hope that is in them. (Loud cheers.) Hine al& lachryniw,
this is the cause that makes Mr. M'Neile such an object of
vituperation. But, they little know the man they have to
deal with. If they suppose they can either deter him from
pursuing the even tenor of his way, or tempt him to a re-
joinder unbecoming his deserved reputation as a bold and
faithful preacher of the truth, and an equally fearless pro-
tester against anti-Christian usurpations and errors. (Hear,
hear, and loud cheers.) But, though I feel I tresspass on
you too long (cries of " Go on") with an unworthy topic.
am not done with Mr. O'Connell yet. His next bounce is

•

into Ireland, and about Ireland, " Give him old Ireland
that never persecuted." Sir, lam bold to say, and in so
far to agree with Mr. O'Connell, that there is not a nation
under the sun, whose genius is more foreign to the spirit of
persecution, than the Irish nation : when not exposed to
those disturbing and perverting influences which have proved
themselves the bane and curse of that ill-starred land, ever
since Mr. O'Connell himself, has been in the ascendant. It
is the sage remark of JEschines, that a bad man, when he is
advanced to power, always effects national calamities. The
history of Ireland from the year 1829, affords at once a com-
mentary, and a proof of the wisdom of the observation. Mr.
Nolan then alluded to several of the bloody and stimulating
speeches of Mr. O'Connell, to prove the absurdity of his pre-
tended horror of persecution • and proceeded in the following
happy strain :—After this phil'anthropic disclaimer of persecu-
tion, comes next " Hurrahfor the Jesuits." Now, sir, what
does this mean ? It means hurrah for the Spanish Armada—
hurrah for the gunpowder plot—hurrah for the massacre of St.
Bartholomew's—hurrah for the French Revolution—it means
down with Pope Clement, who suppressed them in 1773.
Venice, Portugal, France, Spain, and Sicily, no less than
England, expelled these Jesuits ; an infallible pope suppressed
them altogether, yet they are now openly, avowedly estab-
lished amongst us ; and an audience of men, in the Amphi-
theatre of Liverpool, at the bidding of a worthless demagogue,
cries Hurrah for the Jesuits. No plot has ever been set on
foot against the liberty and religion of England, since the es-
tablishment of that order, either at home or abroad, by do-
mestic treason or foreign assault, that has not been secretly
worked and promoted by the Jesuits ; and Mr. O'Con-
nell, the avowed enemy of the union with England.
and of the existence of the united church (not churches)
of England and Ireland, is only consistent in crying out
Hurrah for the Jesuits—but shame on the recreant English
man that received or responded to such an invitation.
There is one taunt of Mr. O'Connell's which is severe, and
we must admit it to be just,—his allusion to the "Tracts for
the Times." I fully agree (and it is seldom I can do so)
with the right honourable agitator, that it is grossly incon-
sistent in a man to wear the honours, eat the bread, and sub-
scribe the articles of our church, while holding opinions the
fair side only of which is exhibited to us in the 90th tract. Of
this tract the Bishop of Exeter (whose charge in other re-
spects many admirers of that distinguished and respected
prelate have regretted to find a palliation almost amounting
to a defence of these unhappy tracts) has acutely pronounced,
that it contains just enough of truth to make it dangerous to
the unreflecting. There the effort is made with Jesuit ho-
nesty to prove that the Articles of the Church of England
are not at variance with the Canons of Trent. It is, to all
intents and purposes, a Jesuit tract, the notion of it being
borrowed from a suggestion of Bassnet with reference to the
Confession of Augsburg, and the execution of it plainly an
imitation of the work of Francis a Santa Clara, "Deus
Natura Gratia," intended for the very same purpose, to
reconcile the Articles of our Church with the doctrines
of Rome. But we repudiate these tracts and these writers
altogether. And Mr. IVl`Neile may as well be called to
account for the vagaries of Mr. O'Connell himself, as
for the opinions, and objects, and inconsistencies of the Rey.
John Henry Newman. Mr. O'Connell wished to have Mr.
M'Neile on the table, to discuss some of these topics with
him. I wonder did any one believe him when he said so?
(Cheers and laughter.) Mr. M`Neile's face would have
been the most unwelcome apparition, you may depend on it,
that Mr. O'Connell could have witnessed at the time. But
this is only of a piece with the rest of his gascouading, when
he knew that the object of his slander and detraction was out
of town at the time, or at least not likely to be met with in
the same company with himself. (Cheers.) But, sir, I
don't see how Mr. M'Neile, with all his eagerness to defend
truth and expose falsehood and subterfuge, could have
stooped to meet the challenge of Mr. O'Connell. I know
that Mr. M'Neile's matured opinion is, that such matters,
to be discussed with profit, ought to be discussed on paper,
when opportunity for serious reflection is afforded upon the
grave topics of religious controversy. And even irrespective
of this, I don't think that Mr. M'Neile would—or ought in
justice to our dear friend and brother M'Ghee—interfere
with Mr. O'Connell till Mr.M`Ghee's challenge is accepted.
Oh ! this paragon of moral courage evades, insults, slanders,
and runs away from the Rev. Robert M`Ghee, and, forsooth,
only pants for the opportunity of breaking a lance against
the Rev. Hugh M'Neile, whom first he no doubt ascertained
to be out of town .at the time. He speaks of the Church
of Scotland. I wonder the mention of it did not raise up
the grim visage of the Lion of the North, the Rev. Dr.
Cooke, ofßelfast, before him. You recollect the shabby sub-
terfuges with which this grand boaster in Liverpool evaded
the honest open challenge of Dr. Cooke, to meet him in Bel-
fast, on his own chosen ground, the Repeal of the Union,
but to no purpose ;—the man of truth was at his post, and
the cowardly agitator skulked into Belfast, and hurried out
of it again, nursing his wrath, until in the congenial atmos-
phere of the Corn Exchange, he poured out the filthy stream
of his cowardly invective upon the man he had not courage to
meet face to face. And this is the man who has the audacity
to challenge the Rev. Mr. M`Neile in Liverpool. You would
find it a hard matter to arrange preliminaries to Mr. O'Con-
nell's satisfaction had Mr. M`Neile been on the spot, or did he
condescend even now to accept the challenge of the bravo.
He would find some excuse, some scruple of conscience, to
save him from confronting the man that in his coward heart
he knows he has dishonestly traduced. (Cheers.) Sir, I
have, in conclusion, to apologise for this immoderate tres-
pass on your time and patience' and that of the meeting;
but, in truth, when I received an invitation to attend a
meeting of the St. Jude's Protestant Association, I imme-
diately felt that Mr. O'Connell's ribald abuse, too foul and
false for the upright object of it to notice in his own person,
ought notwithstanding to be met and refuted. I thought,
likewise, that the absence of our beloved and respected
friend and brother, the President of this Association,
afforded an opportunity, where duty and inclination pointed
the same way,•when a friend, whose cherished privilege it is
to know and love your pastor in private, as much as (in
common with all the right-minded in the empire) he respects
and admires him in public, might, without presumption,
raise his voice to defend him, in his absence, against the
slanderous and cowardly attack of one long notorious as the
enemy of England, the libeller of her fair daughters, the
calumniator of her church and her clergy, the hired slave of
the Romish priesthood, who issue their behests, and pay
him his wages, in the shape of money wrung from the reluc-
tant grasp of a wretched and degraded peasantry—purposely
kept by his and their combined agencies, wretched and de-
graded still, though surrounded with capabilities, and en-
dowed with intelligence of as high an order, as a merciful
God, of his goodness, has vouchsafed to any country or
people on the face of the globe.
Mr. Nolan. at the close of his speech, which was received
throughout with very great applause, and produced the most
gratifying impression on the meeting, referred to Mr. O'Con-
nell's taunts as to the unity of Rome and the divisions of
Protestantism, the former of which he characterised as a
unity on those points especially which are opposed to the
word of God. He sat down amidst the most prolonged
cheering, which was more than usually extended to him for
his triumphant vindication of the Church of England, her
principles, and her ministers, from the lying calumnies of a
hired and infamous traducer.

Mr. RADCLIFFE, in a neat speech, moved a vote of thanks
to Mr. Nolan for his eloquent and able speech in defence of
their church, and their beloved minister.
This resolution being seconded by Mr. TAYLOR, was
carried with acclamation. A hymn was then sung, and the
meeting separated.