The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-11-03
CONFESSIONS IN ENGLAND.

The London Whitehall Reriep prints
list of converts to Catholicism made during
this generation among the upper classes
II occupies eight and half columns of the
paper, and includes the names of duke
maTquises, earls, 10 barons and lords
taking no account of courtesy titles
baronets, 3 knights, a general, an admiral
10 members of Parliament, queens coun
sels, professors, 16S beneticed clergymen,
of whom 67 have become priests or entered
the Jesuit order, and 100 gentlemen, sons
of peers, fellows, ETC., of whom 81 have
become priests or Jesuits; also duchesses,
80 peeresses, wives of baronets and knights,
ETC., and 33 other ladies of position. The
tendency of the converts to ego over" in
whole families is noticeable, and in many
cases there are three or four relatives who
have taken orders in the Catholic Church.
Speaking of the motives which must
have Influenced these people to submit to
the teachings Of the Church, the Reuiea0,
which is a non-Catholic paper, says:
at could not we'll be love of power or
of fame that led DR.. Newman to exchange
the Oxford that adored him for the BIr-
mipgham that knows him not that
tempted Cardinal Manning to step aside
from the open path that lead easily on to
Lambeth Palace and a seat in the Lords !;
that weighed with a hundred rectors and
vicars-such as Oakeley and Faber and
Bathurst-who left fat livings and certain
promotions to labor as obscure parish
priests amongst the ignorant and the poor;
that brought the noblest of earth's sons
and daughters-with such titles as Nor
folk, Argyll, Leeds, Buccleuch, Hamilton,
Ripon, Bate, Londonderry, Lothian,
Queensberry, Denbigh, Gainsborough, and
Her rhert-to bow before the lowleet min
listers of the lowly or that led poets like
Coventry Patmore and Aubrey de We're to
adopt a creed that put them out of har-
was not Glove of ecclesiasticism" that
made Henry Wilberforce, Edward Wal
ford, Lord Charles Thyme, Mr. Oxehnam,
and hundred more, leave the cure of
sou's in the Anglican system to join a
Church where, from one cause or another,
they could never rise above the level of
the laity. 1t was no want of learning or
disin clinstinn to weigh evidence that led
men like the author of THE Apologize"
and Mr.. Allies, after years of controversy,
to change one creed for another. Pecuni
ary gain could hardly be the ground on
which clergymen with wives and families
gave up their emolumente to fight against
starvation as best they could, with strange
weapons, which one, at least, to our GER
tain knowledge, welded so i'll that he
sought, at last, shelter in workhouee !;
and love of money cannot be the conduct
guage of q company that includes Thomas
Henry, who became priest of the old faith
rather than q worldliDg millionaire and
George Lsre Fox, that eldest son of York
shire's greatest gentleman, the Squire of
Bramham, of whose enthusiastic zeal and
charity his -religionists are proud to
speak. 1t was not any want of hereditary
Protestant traditions, careful training, and
strong family ties that allowed nearly all
the Wilber!orces, the descendants of Sir
Walter Scott, the Lockharts, DR.. Arnold's
eldest son, Father Coleridge (brother of
the judge,) Miss Stanley daughter of the
Bishop and sister of the Dean), William
Palmer (brother of the Chancellor,) the
Bowrings, Miss Gladstone (sister Of the
ex Premier,) Lady Charles Thyme, Mrs.
Pye (both of them daughters of Bishops, }
and many more to drift away from the old
moorngs Nor did they, in most cases,
scale st. Peters bark without infinite sue
penee, hesrtache and difficulty. The hot
impulse of youth might possibly be urged
to explain away the conversion of Am
brose de Lisle when an Eten boy and the
stagnation of age to account for that of the
Octogenarian, Sir Boucher Wrey bat
every intervening stage of life is repre-
sented IN the list. Nor can it be said that
this Catholic revival has its origin in q
dilettdnte antiQ uariAnism, or in the dreams
of book wOrme, brought up 10 university
and unfamiliar with practical life, for some
of its most ardent disciples are gathered
from the ranks of gay guardsmen, and
many a whilom soldier and eailor con of
England has dotted his uniform to don the
coWl of the monk and the cassock of the
priest. Men of recognized learning in
truth are there. such as Paley, Professor
of Classics at Cambridge Professor Bartf,
the chemist; Seager, Assistant Professor
of Hebrew at Oxford and legal men, en-
inent as SERGEANT Bellasis, or as Edward
Badeley, Hope Scott, Mr.. Aspinsll and Mr..
Bagshawe-Q Qeen's Counsel all four of
them; but everything is not grave and
weighty where F. c, BurnanG is, aud Au-
thor A'Beckett and Author Sketchley-
q Protestant curate in the olden time.
Nor can "sillineas," as Exeter Hall sup