The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1869-08-22
Because.


The British House of Lords Is supposed
to be body of great wisdom and prp-
dence. a minority of forty seven OF It's
members, including some of the oldest and
greatest pames in England, ought certainly
to be considered q respectable one, and
entitled to large portion of the es-
TEEN which attaches to the whole body.
1t appears that such minority has en-
tered solemn written protest against the
passage of the Irish Church Bill, and it
must be presumed that in SO doing they
have had due regard to the gravity of the
question and to their own reputation. 1t
cannot surely be commended that they have
uttered this solemn proclamation hastily
and without time for due consideration.
The circumstance of the case and the
nature of the document forbid any such
idea, and they must be taken as having
deliberately said what they meant.
They give eight reasons of dissent, but
it is especially the sixth which excites sur
signed their names Marlborough and
Cairns-expressly rejecting the sixth rea-
son, but adopting the seven others, while
in the face of this direct warning the re-
manning forty-five members have adhered
to the whole eight reasons, including the
sixth.
Here is this remarkable reason for dis
senting from the passage of the bill:
g. Because it is.impossible to place Church,
disestablished and endowed, and bound to-
gether only by the tie of voluntary associa-
ton, on n footing of equality with the perfect
organization of the Church of Rome, whereby,
especially in ireland, the laity are made sub
servient to the priesthood, the priests to the
bishops, and the bishops themselves are subject"
to the uncontrolled authority of foreign po-
tentate.
at is impossible to place Church
bound together only by the tic of q volun-
tary association, on footing of equality
with the perfect organization of the Church
of Rome.'' Here then is the deliberate YER
diet of the most determined and nlustri-
GUS champions of Protestan tism upon Pro-
testantsm. They acknowledge publicly
and bitterly, in spite of a solemn warning
from two of their brethren, that the sects
cannot be put on footing of equality with
the Catholic Church, considering it's perfect
organization that without Government
interference they must so under. To be
sure the sentence concludes with an allu-
sion which is as false as it is bigoted, but
supposing it true, the deduction remains as
inevitable as without it. 1t is the deliber-
ate death warrant of Professionalism, no
matter how bad Popery may be, unless
Government protect the sects by the strong
hand of the tax-gatherer.
alt cannot be placed on q footing of
equality" That is to say, it cannot gain
| the popular support, it cannot raise the
! means necessary to n condition of prosperity
and strength, it must sink to an inferior
| position, and grow gradually less and less
important, until it will finally become a
mere question of time, when it shall pass
out Of sight entirely.
What a sharp ard bitter necessity it
must be that forces such an admission from
such men! They, the very columns OF
Exeter Hall, the forlorn hope of the Pro-
| testant cause! They have read the signs
of the times and learned the lesson of the
! age. Ireland, America, England, all speak
to them. Centuries of the hardest govern
ment interpretation have barely maintained
| Professionalism in Ireland. America, where
no open interposition of the law is recog-
nized, and where Catholicity was unknown
n few years ago, is rapidly beconing Ca
tholic, and in England itself, notw;thstand-
ing the alliance of Church and State, our
| holy religion is fast winning back its old
influence, not only with the masses but
with the nobility.
These men are ON the mountain; they
can see around them and to greater dis
lance than their co-religtonists on the
lower plain. The leaders of great move
ment have precedence of its fate unfelt by
the rank and file or officers of. the lower
grades. While all is still hope and conf
dence with the men, the General may have
/ means Of knowing that the cause is lost.
Perhaps the result may appear to him so
inevitable that he fears no harm in acknow-
lodging 1T publicly. The coming fate OF
I Professionalism Ia an n nnarerIT tn tbosa In e .