Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1855-07-26
rhe maxnooth Debate.

John Francis Mcguire, M p, for Dungannon,
and editor of the Cork Examiner, made very
able speech in parliament the Maynooth
Grant, in which he gave the following descrip
ton of Catholic priest 5 life in Ireland;
"Let me now give the house description Of
what the Maynooth priest really is. Hear. If
there be any clergy in the world emmnenty
suited TO their vocation, and better adapted to
the scene of their missionary labors, IL is the
clergy educated in Maynooth. admit they
not dandiied clergy laughter)- are not
ambitious and pretentions scholars, snch de-
light to shine at literary scientific
though many of them profound scholars, and
most of them are sound thinkers, clear reasoners,
and thoroughly grounded in that knowledge
which belongs to their profession. They were
more than that-they were bold and courageous
I'M the performance of their duties. See him
tested in the hour of national trial, when the
plague breath swept over the land, and men, and
women, and children withered beneath its bale
full influence-see him rushing into the midst of
the, contagon, and drinking in the fGtd breath
of his dying felow-creatures while administering
to him the last consultations Of religion. Cheers.
Nay, regard him in the ordinary circumstances
of his laborious mission. He is the curate of
country parish. He has been occupied all day
! in going from village to village, from hamlet to
hamlet, from house to house, visiting, catechis-
ing, instructing, and he retires to bed wearied,
faded, but still cheerful. it is possible that his
heavy slumber may be undisturbed and that he
may rise in the morning invigorated for renewal
of his missionary labors; but it is quite as posi-
BILE that he may be reused up by the frantic APP
peal of distracted father, husband, wife, or
child, on the part of sick or dying relative
Does the priest hesitate for a moment to respond
to that passionate appeal Not he; he rises
cheerfuly from the comfort of his warm, though
humble couch, hurries his clothes, and on
horseback, but more probably on foot, he pro-
ceeds to the scene of his duty, over bog, and
| valley, and mountain, in winter as in summer,
whether in rain, and snow, and storm, and dis
| lance, and Mt any hour of the night In fact,
no soldier obeys with more alacrity the com
mands of his officer than does the Catholic priest
the obligations of his duty and the dictates Of his
conscience. Loud cheers The Catholic priest
| hood of Ireland, instead of being, they were
falsely accused of being, the foes Of learning and
the enemies of human enlightenment, were par
excellence the friends of education. | myself
know many Catholic clergymen who have beg
CARED themselves, who are involved in almost
| inextrcable embarrassments, in consequence of
their efforts to establish national schools in
cases as many as four five schools in their
parishes. To say, then, that those men were the
friends of darkness and ignorance is the foulest
SANDER that bigotry has ever concocted. Catholic
gentlemen in this house have been specially OK
empted from the slanderous aspersions cast upon
their priests and their religion; but in the name
of the Catholic gentlemen here assembled fling
| back with contempt those hollow compliments
which are paid us at the expense of our priest
| hood, and to the dishonor of our religion.
| [Cheers | will tell the honorable member for
| North Warwickshire what | saw in the pages Of
the Times of yesterday; and how il exemplies
| on the one hand the valor, and loyalty, and sul-
| ferngs of Irish Catholics, and on the other the
| hypocrisy and dishonesty of their traducers. In
one portion there list--a long list--of the
| killed and wounded before Sebastopol from the
4th to the 10th of June. read over that list Of
nearly three columns in length, and venture 10
assert that more than half, certainly not less than
| half, were Irish Catholic solders-'idoators a.
| they were insolently termed, even in this house
| lhear, hear who had been instructed in their
| youth from Catholic affairs, and had learned from
the Catholic priest, the Maynooth priest, or from
| a Catholic mother, that catechsm which, while
| it rendered him more moral did not render him
| less brave and heroic, Cries of tHear, hear I
But look to the other part of the Times, and be-
hold the downfall of humbug in the person Of
one who brought sorrow and desolation to many
n home, who plnndered the widow and the or
phan-but who masked his hypocrisy and rotten
ness by pious herror Of Popery and punctual
attendance in Exeter Hall, whenever the iniqu-
ties of Maynooth were to be exposed and a
sanity chairman required 'Hear, hear
and laughter. What splendid commentary on
a barefaced imposture is the downfall of this
modern St. Paul. Loud laughter. 1t is a
warning TO the world not TO trust ambitious law
yers or sanity bankers, when they make a stock
in-trade Of no-Popery."