The pilot and transcript. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1840-1841, 1840-11-14
no PTsTT0F ENGLAND.


TO BISHOP ENGLAND
- oenned, have read in the
Catholic Miscellany your auniissiol ''"' y01
arc ono of the editors, and resPohSi0ie i"i WHAT
l.. hoen published iR that paper In relation TO
We now understand each other on that
-, You object to the terms "want of can
r. . want OF fairness" and ''jesuistical," as
.pplicd to your structures on what have writ
fen. might well submit the question of deco
rum and propriety of language, but | consider
the matter in issue so momentous, that cannot
be turned aside by any terms, however discour-
teous. you may use tender you my thanks for
the mart YOU have taken, and for the manner in
which YOU have sssailed me but for this, |, for
one would have continued TO slunber III false
security Having entered on the controversy,
propose to give you no apology to arrest it.
It is in vain for you to say that you have more
important matters on hand. As yet your contro-
versies have been with clergymen, and it has
been conducted in religious papers. BY using
your influence te control the Catholics, and es-
peciaIly the cmigrant Irish Catholics, in the
late Presidential election, you have raised the
question of how far your purposes are compati-
Bile with The safety of the republic; and having
attempted to arraign me before the Irish Catho-
lies as opposed 10 them, / now arraign you be-
fore the American people, as the emissary of
foreign despots, deputed and paid by them to
propagate doctrines fatal to the public liberty of
this country.
But while make this charge against you,
which make upon no slight authority, would
not Intentionally misrepresent your purposes OF
your creed. /, therefore, submit to you the fol-
lowing questions;
Do you believe that the Pope's instructions,
as the head of your church, are binding on you
as an officer of that church,
Are YOU a naturalized citizen of the United
States?
Do you believe that the Pope can absolve from
sim. and that he can release citizen from allie
glance to the State'
You cannot fail to perceive the bearing which
these questions have in the matter directly at
issue between US. If your answer be in the ne
rative. then it will be incumbent on you to show
how and when the GO unchanging church has
ehanged-if in tho Affirmative, it requires but
little argument for me to prove that the farther
progress of Catholicism in this country is dan
gerous to liberty.
know, sir, that this is the vulnerable point
in the case. Men are disposed to compro-
mise the future who will not compromise the
present There are those who will not make
question with priest about the things of the
next world, who will defy his power and resist
his influence whenever he attempts to deprive
them of personal liberty in this There are
members of your own church who yield you
blind submission in matters of religious faith,
who deny your right to interfere in their poll
teal opinions, and who will be among the first
to renounce your influence and the authority of
your church whenever they can believe that
your purpose is civil revolution by means of
the power of the church
renew the charge against you and your as
sociates. l believe that your deliberate purpose
is TO to subvert our free institutions, and that
you are the agent, and paid by despotie govern
ments OF Europe for that purpose. twill not
do for you to stand mute-to be silent is to plead
guilty.
Nor need you suppose that am alone in the
opinions avow. / am myself astonished at the
feeling YOU have aroused 1 an, but Of
many.