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. UUUCACao . THE ANTI-POPERY MOVEMENT. T...
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The Royal Classes Of Europe Appear To Be...
may see police justice duly administered , and prison regulations improved . With all these changes and adventures abroad and at home , we are not allowed to forget the no-Popery tumult , although the unceasing din , like that of a weaving-room in a factory , has halfdeadened the public ear to the noise . Some new actor is continually coining on to the scene , to lend at least a personal novelty to stale avowals . This week , for example , we have the Archbishops and Bishops , all except Tractarian Exeter and
Philosophical St . David ' s , joining in the clamour for some " measures . " The Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland is remarkable among Protestant agitators for the candid and temperate tone of its protests , and the definite suggestion of a parliamentary enquiry into the practical bearing of Roman Catholic regulations , socially and politically . The incorporated Law Society is as vague in its clamours as any set of untutored " laymen . " On the other side , Sir Benjamin Hall seizes the occasion to write at the monstrous accumulations and distributions of
Church property ; and Mr . Roebuck indites a sarcastic letter to Lord John Russell , and exposes the mischievous futility of the excitement and panic , in his usual style of keen , cool sense . Although " the cry is still , they come , " there are signs that the agitators begin to tire j the very multiplication of the clamours , without a single charge against the accused sect that is either substantiated or substantial , without a single hint to assist Ministers in
gathering what practical measure they are to devise against an * ' aggression " of no substance , has exposed the utter futility of the outburst which Lord John Russell ' s letter invited ; it must have helped to confirm Lord John ' s own difficulty in trying to think what he can put together to follow up his letter with decent propriety , and satisfy the multitude whom he has called forth . They say that he is already flinching under the difficulties of that hopeless task iciorv
866 Trf)E 3ttaiiex\ [Saturday,. .... - ¦...
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. Uuucacao . The Anti-Popery Movement. T...
. UUUCACao . THE ANTI-POPERY MOVEMENT . The Anti-Catholic meetings throughout the country this week have been so numerous that we find ourselves unable to give even a bare notice of them . We have noticed below a few of the more prominent ones , and also a few things springing out of the
move-. A protest against the Papal aggression , signed by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York , and most of the Bishops , has been presented to the Queen . They say they consider it their duty to record their united protest against this attempt to subject our people to a spiritual tyranny from which they were ireed at the Reformation ; " and ask her Majesty *• to discountenance by all constitutional means the claims and usurpations of the Church of Rome , by which religious divisions are fostered , and the labours of our clergy impeded in their endeavours to diffuse the light le committed to their
of true religion amongst the peop charge . " Mr . Roebuck has addressed a letter to Lord J . Russell , " concerning the mischiefs which now threaten the peace of this empire : " and addressed to his lord-Bhip because " greatprinciples are in danger , " and to him is attributable the eminent risk to which they are exposed . " The «« great principles" in question are those of Mr . Pitt , Lords Grenville , Wellesley , and Grey , Mr . Grattan , and Mr . Canning , to which the Duke of Wellington and Sir R . Peel gave reluctant recognition in 1829 , and on which Lord J . Russell
has laid the " superstructure of his policy . " These principles he ( Lord John ) has now imperilled by raising " a wretched fanaticism , " a spirit of ' religious bigotry , " of " detestable intolerance . " " Neither party rage , nor love of office , nor of praise , " he is told , «• could so have blinded you as to make the events of the last few weeks a surprise . If , indeed , they were not foreseen , then must you confess yourself a short-sighted politician . If , however , you did believe that such things might happen , your present indignation must be feigned , and put on to serve a purpose , or your past confidence wan falsely assumed and equally intended to deceive" " Your unwise and unstatesmanlike letter
has served as a trumpet to call into action the worst and fiercest and most dangerous passions that darken human reason and harden thu human heart . " " And now , my lord , I put the question which you , as a statesmen , ought lonjj since to have naked yourself—Hoio is Catholic Ireland to ho governed V u To you , my lord , posterity will refer as the man who , just when the real difficulties were conquered , when , by the united and continuous labours of our urrutest statesmen , the law had becomejust , and
peace and good-will were about to be established , took advantage of your great position to rouse up the spirit of strife and hatu among us , to quicken into active life the demon of persecution , and to rend asunder a great empire , which , hut for your fatal interference , would soon have become firmly united , peaceful , and prosperous . A melancholy distinction this , my lord , for one who all his life has styled himself the friend of religious as well as civil freedom . " A letter has boon addressed to the Archbishop c i Canterbury by Sir J 3 . Hall , in which the honourable
baronet treats at considerable length of the causes of the Pope ' s late usurpation . If Puseyism be one of the causes , he asks why have the Bishops " been so careless and so indifferent as regards the welfare of our Church and the maintenance of Protestantism as to allow Puseyism to gain so great An ascendancy , bypermitting those clergymen who are now designated as * traitors to the Established Church' to continue ministers of the reformed religion of that Church ?"
After some observations on the Bishop of London and Mr . Bennett , he says— " I am , however , of opinion that the Pope has been induced to issue his last bull , not solely in consequence of the advances of the Puseyites , but of the general discontent with regard to the Established Church which exists in this country , arising from the very unequal , very unjust , and most improvident distribution and management of ecclesiastical preferment and ecclesiastical property . " The honourable baronet contrasts the incomes of the
French and English Bishops , enters into lengthened details of the proceedings of the Ecclesiastical Commission , speaks in terms of strong animadversion on the state of the Collegiate establishments , and concludes by giving his opinion that if ( as is the case in Scotland , Switzerland , Holland , Sweden , and the whole of Germany ) the people in Great Britain were allowed a voice in the election of their pastors , such a course would speedily replace the Established Church on a basis too firm for any further cause of apprehension from the disciples of Pusey or the aggressions of Borne . The Reverend W . J . E . Bennett , of St . Paul's ,
Knight 8 bride , has just published a pamphlet , under the title of" A First Letter to the Right Honourable Lord John Russell , M . P ., on the Present Persecution of a Certain Portion of the English . Church , " which we only give a brief notice . Mr . Bennett addresses his lordship as *• one of my chief parishioners , and as one , also , charged by our Sovereign Lady the Queen to administer the government of this kingdom . " He gives a pathetic description of the
proceedings on several successive Sundays at the Church of St . Barnabas—an •* offshoot" from the congregation at St . Paul ' s—and of " the great trouble and distress " of mind consequent to the writer , his brother clergymen , and parishioners , particularly " poor , the timid , and women and children . " The church and parsonage , it is added , are " guarded night and day , " " as though in a state of seige . " It is then asked , What is the cause of all this ? Who has done it ? which is thus answered : —
" In walking through my parish but a few days since , I was met by a man offering to me for sale a slip of paper , purporting to be a letter from your lordship to the Bishop of Durham . And , shortly afterwards , I saw in a shop window the same letter advertized , with a great show of attraction , at price two shillings and sixpence per 100 . Of course I could not but be attracted by seeing your lordship ' s name appended to a letter to the Bishop of Durham . Knowing the troubles which now beset our unhappy Church—its many schisms , wants , and infirmities —I might have been pardoned if I had imagined a letter to the Bishop of Durham , suggesting some healing medicine for our wounds , pointing out some stay and comfort in our troubles , promising some synod or convocation for deliberation on our distracted state ; I might
have imagined a scheme for additional bishops—some enlargement of the national education of the poor—something , in fact , to help us on and guide us to deeper unity and more fervent love among ourselves . " But , my lord , what was my surprise when I found that your letter was no more or less than an attack upon the Bishop of Rome ; that it was a manifesto full of anger and indignation against a power said to be feared now , though it had been for twenty-five years , or thereabouts , sedulously courted , cultivated , and nursed up into its present condition by no other than yourself ? And what was my surprise , not unmixed with something deeper , to find that , although the Bishop of Rome was held up as a great source of danger to the mighty empire of Great Britain , at which I wondered , there was still a greater danger behind , at which I wondered more . "
The concluding paragraph , of Lord John ' s unfortunate letter is then quoted , and next the speeches at the Guildhall dinner are tartly noticed , and a slap administered to the Lord Chancellor : — " I was somewhat struck by this novel remark of the Lord Chancellor as to the ' simplicity of Christian worship which our Lord adopted . ' I had always thought that our blessed Saviour worshipped in the synagogue which was of the Jews , and in the Temple , under a most gorgeous , minute , and ceremonial ritual , concerning which his lordship might learn , if he had time to study in the books of the law of God ; and I also thought that the disciples of our Lord were called ' Christians first at Antioch , ' long after . "
The conclusion is drawn that , from Lord John s known connection with St . Paul ' s , Knightsbridge , that and St . Barnabas were especially intended by his denunciation : — " How , my lord , could we wonder any longer at what had taken place ? Why , it would have been a perfeot miracle had we escaped . You might as well have laid a train of gunpowder from Chesharu-place , stretching along the streets to poor St . Barnabas' Church , and then put into the hands of your friends , the people , ' a torch , and have said : — ' Now you know where the mischief is ; ' and then have expected that the torch would not have been applied to the train . " Mr , Bennett takes the liberty of showing the
Premier that he has not only acted a most inconsistent part with regard to the Catholics , but that his theological dogmas and his practice are directl y opposed to each other . He proceeds to condemn the rottenness and corruption in the English Church which he attributes to the royal supremacy as administered by Lord John : — " It is not the Queen's supremacy that we complain of —it is the Prime Minister ' s supremacy that we complain of—not the thing , but the abuse . Your lordship is very earnest in your cry for ' liberty of conscience . ' Why will you not concede it to us the clergy , as well as all
other of her Majesty ' s subjects ? You cry out against us , that we are enslaving the souls of the people , we cry out against you that you are enslaving the souls of the lergy ; that you are crippling , deforming , poisoning , the fountain of jurisdictions and the springs of the pure doctrines of the Catholic faith . If * civil and religious liberty' means anything , we have a right to say this , and to act upon it , and that right we claim . It is your inconsistency that we would point out to the world , in fighting so bravely and enduring so much for a principle in yourself , and for yourselves , which you will not concede to another . "
Lord John is reminded of what he has done in Ireland and the colonies for Popery ; and asked how he judges the practices he now condemns to be forbidden by the Church , except on the opinion of the Bishop of London , who himself distinctly approved the furniture and ritual of St . Barnabas . " Therefore , my lord , you have done unjustly by St . Barnabas . You have traduced our clergy here by imputing false things to them . It cannot possibly be that we are leading the people step by step over the precipice . How can we , when the bishop led the way himself , in consecrating and blessing the church which you now see ? " His lordship ' s own personal consistency is attacked . He has been reof StPaul
gularly attending the Puseyite Church . ' s , of which St . Barnabas is an offshoot , from 1843 up to Ash Wednesday , 1849 , on which day he and Lady Russell were present and partook of the Sacrament . So late as last year Lord John engaged to take part in " the festivities " at St . Barnabas , with his colleague , Earl Carlisle , and wrote to say that a Cabinet Council prevented him . This did not look as if he were opposed to the mummeries of Puseyism . The reverend writer desires the Premier , as his parishioner , to " escape from the teaching of Dr . Cumming , " and goes on at great length to express how deeply interested he was at witnessing , for so many years , the constant attendance of his lordship : —
" When I could not help seeing you , as I did , continually before me , subject to my teaching , hearing the elucidation of gospel truths and the Church ' s authority from my mouth , and joining in prayer and sacraments from time to time , a peculiar and awful sense of responsibility was felt to be kindled within . It seemed as if great things might have been depending on the rightness of my teaching , and that the Church , in her real beauty , and magnificence , and truth , might be lost or hoc lost by some mistake or want of judgment on my part . I knew your temptations and dangers . I felt for you m the awful responsibilities of your high office as the chief ruler of our country . I feared for you , and I prayed for vou . I would never have told this , as I now do , but for
the special and awful crisis which has , through your principal instrumentality , been brought about . But this now I will tell , known before only to God , that frequently , very frequently , in the lone night , and when you have been labouring in the House of Commons , I have been in the Church were you worshipped , and by name ( of course with others of my flock according to their needs ) have invoked the Almighty God of nations that he would vouchsafe to guide your policy for our country ' s welfare and our Church ' s blessing . Yes , often have I prayed specially in your behalf—often have I specially sought of God that I might have grace in . truths of most
preaching , to win you to the deeper our holy faith . I say this now , because at such a time it was ~ I mean in the year 1849 , so late as Ash Wednesday , 1849—1 find a note in my journal thus : — ' Lord and Lady John Russell at the Holy Communion this day . This looks well . Oh , that we could make them love the Church ! ' I give you , my lord , the genuine , simple words of my private journal , such words , of course , never expecting to see the light . But there they are , and I give them to you to show you how I felt them , and how rejoiced I was , on such a day , at such a time , to see the testimony of your faith , your repentance , ana your love . "
Not a little interest was excited , on Sunday , amongst the congregation of St . James ' s Catholic Church , Spanish-place , in consequence of its being announced that the Right Reverend Dr . Hughes , Archbishop of New York , was to preach the sermon during the high mass . At the appointed time his lordship ascended the steps of the altar , and commenced by reading the fourth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles . After saying that he had arrived only on Friday at the port of Liverpool , and was but a pilgrim passing through this countrv on hi 3 wav to the Eternal City of Rome , ana
that he had , entirely unprepared , acceded to a request to address them , he expressed how utterly astonished he was to find the state of excitement which now prevailed in England . Ho concluded his address by exhorting his audience to bear with patience the insults that were being cast upon them ; to nave charity for those who through ignorance thus actcm with regard to them ; to love- their holy religion the more , and . the illustrious prelates that presided over
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 7, 1850, page 2, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07121850/page/2/
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