New-York daily tribune., 1858-02-24

The Kew. j. R. Bayley, hOmhh Cauiohc piS"oP
of New-Jersey, has issued an official manifesto
against the vice of Drunkenness and against those
dealers in Alcoholic Beverages who minister there
to. He suggests TO his parochial clergy that each
shall keep list of the drunkards and also OF the
Eouor.dealers connected with his church, and
adds:
aI am determined TO make use Of the most severe
measures against all who are addicted 10 ,s scanua M
ous ard destructive vice; and if they continue in the
nractce of il they must do it as outcasts from tue
Catholic Church. who have no night to the name OF
CATH Ole while they live, nor to Christian Duriai when
they die"
We have great respect for Bishop Bayley as a
man and Christisn who enjoys the esteem ahd
love of all Who know him, whether they concur In
or dissent from his creed. As the Bishop OF an
extensive diocese, welding on almost controlling
power over the faith and morals of at least sixty
thousand human souls, he has accepted tromen-
dous responsibility and it would be absurd to sup
pose that he does not mean to discharge that re-
spOnsibty according to the highest dictates of his
understanding and his conscience. In saying,
therefore, that we think he has taken hold of the
evil he here cOnironts at the wrong end, we imply
only cur conviction that the Bishop has studied the
nature and causes Of Intemperance less carefully
and profoundly than others have done, or than he
has studied other questions.
For how comes Drunkenness to be a pervading,
devastating sin and shame in the Catholic Church
as well as out oft Is it not manitestly through
the tolerance and cOuntenance accorded by that
Church to what is termed moderate, temperate
I,;, H., pt tha i'm another IIpht. Has
aIy one of the thousand or more churches in this
country which forbid the use or sale OF Intoxicating
Beverages by their members ever been scandszed
by drunkenness, OF compelled to declare one of its
members an 4" outcast" because of that vice ! We
know no instance of either. On the other band,
the Roman Catholic Church, which has steaeastly
denounced and reprobated drunkenness, yet toers-
ted moderate drinking and discreet selling, has
been nOtoriOu,ly scourged and shamed by lntem-
persnce. And We firmly believe that whatever
may be the errors or faults of her theology or ec-
clesiastica polty, her attitude toward lquor-sell-
ing srd drinking has subjected her to more prtju-
dice and opprcbrum this country than have every
thpg else. We practical Yankees could swallow
all the decrees of the Council of Trent, with the
Immaculate Conception to boot, much easier than
the internal Alcoholic cOnc0ctiOns dealt out on al
most every strect-corner from den which bears
the name Of some presumptvely Catholic TOoley
O'W hagg or Mike NuroOney over the door.
Bishop Bsyley in our decided judgment, will
never cleanse bis Church Of the sin and scandal he
deporcs unless lie sees fit 10 begn at the beginning.
He must loch the stable door bttore the steed is
stolen. There If no use in threatening drunkard
with excommunication, denial of Christian burial,
&C., for the fact that he is drunkard renders such
threats of no avail. He may resolve to drink more
carefully thereafter: but the first glass viii excite
q craving for the second, the second call still more
imperatiyely for third, and TIL the man snail
baye once more made complete beast of himself.
Unless the Bishop s willing TO have his llOck in
julge mc deately in blasphemy, fighting, adultery,
&C., &C., lie should epj0in them to shun the first
glass OF that which leads not only to drunkenness
but 10 al other vices and crimes. No one ever
earnestly resolved not TO drink intoxicating liquors
0f I'll, who found it really impracticable to keep
that resolve; while tens Of thousands every year
Die dunhsrds who have seriously and sternly re-
solved, and re-resolyed, to drink moderately.
Touch not taste not handle rot" is the only safe
maxim.