The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1872-04-28

Catholicism in England.
ARCHBISHOP MANNING-rHE CATHOLICS IN
PARLIAMENT,

PARLIAMENT.
1t would be difficult to find in all Lon
don two men who are more dissimilar thar
are Mr. CARLYLE and His Grace the Mos
Rev. Henry Edward Manning, Archbishop
of Westminster" They are both men o,
about the same age they are both learned
men; they both are men to whose words
all Auglo-Saxon Christendom listens. But
in the lives and works of the two men
what a va st dissimilarity is seen. The one
lives in isolation and disdainful disrep gard
for all the world around him he scolds at
it sometimes, and demonstrates the insane
foolishness of all mankind except himself
! and the select few of his heroes the other
has not a thought for himself, and is con-
| tent to be the hardest worker in all Lon
DON" the servant of the servants Of God
fined egotism that of the other is the
highest type of elevated altruism. When
DR.. Manning, for conscience sake, gave nm
his position in the English Church, he re-
signed not only wealth and luxurious and
easy life, but high honors that awaited him.
and for aheht that he even wished, the
rest of his life was to be passed az an OBJ
scure and forgotten Catholic priest, saying
mass in an humble chapel in some dfngy
quarter of an ugly town.. Now that he is
Archbishop of the Diocese of Westminster,
iigious houses of men and women under
his Jurisdiction, he tolls harder than the
humblest of his flock and lives the life of
an ascetic. The " Archiepiscopal Palace"
OF this great prelate is a modest house in
York place, Baker street, not nearly so fine
mansion as that inhabited by the Catholic
Bishop of New York. To this house come
visitors of high and low degree-dukes
and ditchers, lords and laborers, priests
and paupers, cabinet ministers and cabinet
makers, Journalists and journeymen, nuns
and nursery maids, ladies and laundresses,
Patrlclans and parvenus; and all of them,
l fancy, find in the venerable Archbishop a
guide, philosopher and friend. The Arch
bishop is now in his sixty fourth year, and
this is the seventh year of his adminstra-
ton. The interests of the Catholic Church
in Parliament are in the hands of twenty
three noblemen in the House of Lords,
and thirty-eight gentlemen in the Com
mons. OF the latter all but one-Lord
Robert Montague - are Irish members; |
Lord Robert is q recent "convert," and the |
famous trio, Newdegate, Whailey and Char
ley, were driven almost frantic when they |
found that notwithstanding his "apostacy"
the voters of Huntington county still in
sisted on retaining him as their member.
am not at all in the secrets of the policy
of the Roman Catholic Members of Par,ia-
ment, and l have often wondered at the
calmness and Indifference with which they
suffer themselves and their religion to be
aesailed by the aforesaid Newdegate,
ever saying a. word in reply. AS for the
Catholic lords, they never open their
mouths in the House to defend their inter
ests as Catholics. 1t is not because they
are Indifferent in matters of religion, or
care nothing for the interests Of their
Ch9rcn. On the contrary, the generous
zeal of the Duke of Norfolk, the MARQUIS of
Butte, Lord Howard of Glossop and the
other Catholic lords in contributing from
their wealth for the erection of schools.
churches and religious houses seems mex
iaustible. But perhaps for wise reasons
hey don't bring their religion into poll
'lcs, and at almost every season they suffer
n long speeches about "the aggressions of
popery without attempting q reply. In
he Commons there is almost as much reti
,ence on the part of the Catholic mem beers:
md not long ago, when dining with one ,
If these gentlemen, asked him why some !
If them did not occasionally come down I
IN Newdegate, Whalley and Charley, and {
lefend their religion from what seemed, {
wen to me, cruelty false and unjust as,
aults "Well," said he, ON explain Y
hat to you There is no use in expanding {
your own ammunition when there are |
plenty of others ready to fight for you g
These attacks upon the Church are, as you l
ay, so perfectly ridiculous, absurd and un- /
ust that they arouse the indignation of the d
lonest and candid Protestant members, a
md they are always eager enough to repel r
hem for us. We sit quietly and don't open t
'ur mouths but our Protestant friends \
imp up and Indignantly refute the mis- b
representations and falsehoods of our as b
atlantis or expose them to such ridicule b
hat they are laughed out of court. Where e
g, if we should undertake our own de-
ence, some other ProteaEants, who care q