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PROTESTANT MAGAZINE.

OCTOBER, 1846.

TREASONABLE LANGUAGE OF POPERY.

"We are ourselves shocked at the High Treason of this language." A ROMISH newspaper of Saturday, August 29, commences its leading article as follows:

"DEFEAT OF THE GODLESS COLLEGES.

The news, not of the week, nor of the month, nor of the year, but (speaking of Ireland) of the century, and in its consequences extending considerably beyond the century, is the glorious intelligence just come from Rome of the total and absolute condemnation of the Godless Colleges.*

It is even so. It could be no better, it is no worse.

The cardinals to whom the consideration of the Infidel scheme was referred, after due deliberation upon the matter, have come to a hearty, unequivocal, and unanimous decision against these vile and infamous-we were going to say establishments; but, thank God, established they are not; they are accursed and condemned for ever.

The 13th of July, 1846, is memorable by being the date of this all-important decision. On that day the cardinals unanimously made a report hostile to the Colleges, and on the Sunday following-that is, the 19th July-their report was to receive the formal sanction of the Pope, which it was well understood would not be withheld.

*

We cannot express our delight at this result. It is literally unbounded."

It was not, we believe, till about the year 1832, that the Government of this country held official intercourse with the Roman Catholic Bishops of Ireland, on the subject of the education of the people.

The result has been such as entirely to disappoint their expectation. Instead of controlling they have been controlled by Rome, and been governed, instead of governing. It will be so more and more in proportion as greater efforts are made to govern the land through the agency of Popery, whether lay or

clerical.

Very strong Resolutions have been recently adopted by Romanists in Ireland on the subject of the Irish Colleges and education.

Referring to the postscript to these Resolutions adopted in the

* [The “Times," of Monday, 21st Sept., informs us that the "Nation," contradicts this. We will not here attempt to settle the question between the “Tablet,” and the "Nation." The remarks of the journal are not the less striking. The "Tablet," of September 26, reiterates, with some modifications, its former statement.-ED.]

VOL. VIII.-October, 1846.

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New Series, No. 10.

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diocese of Clogher, on this subject, wherein the expression, on which the national system of education has been tolerated by the Holy See," occurs, the article in the same journal of September 19, thus proceeds :

"Some of our English liberal friends cannot endure the word tolerated in this passage. We confess we think it the very best word in the sentence. The notion of the Pope tolerating anything in this country, in England—that is, of course, in Ireland-is to them very shocking, but to us very consoling and delightful. England looks down, no doubt, with amazing condescension on the Pope, and is prepared to patronize him in the most amiable manner. She is prepared indeed to tolerate him, and to stretch herself to the utmost verge of her competence in the matter of liberality to accomplish this pleasurable task. But that he should think of tolerating her; that he should venture to ride roughshod over an omnipotent Act of Parliament, and treat it as if it were so much waste paper-mere dust and rottenness; that he should venture to extend his sceptre over 'the sacred soil of Britain,' in which our liberal friends imagined they had seen long since the Altar and the God sink together in the dust; that he should dare to assign conditions to the execution of a statute; and affect to teach grown men their duty in these islands, and in this nineteenth century-all this appears to them so monstrous, so impudent a pretence, as well as so dreadfully unphilosophical, that it almost takes their breath away, and deprives them of the power of speech.

"Calm your perturbation, ye excellent individuals, and submit with decent dignity to the inevitable. It is even so. It must be so. It will be so yet more and more. You are only at the beginning of your perplexity. The Pope will speak more loudly than ever, and, what is more, he will be listened to. He will turn over your musty Acts of Parliament with finger and thumb, scrutinizing them with a most irreverent audacity; examining those which concern him; and when he has found these, rejecting some and tolerating' others with as much freedom as you use when you handle oranges in a shop, selecting the soft and sweet, contemptuously rejecting the sour and the rotten. And then-oh! dreadful thought-he will insist upon being obeyed. The very slates of Exeter Hall must erect themselves in horror at the bare thought of such a thing. What! The Bill was read three times in each House of Parliament; it was twice passed; engrossed on parchment; garnished with a waxen appendage by way of seal; and has had over it pronounced by Royal lips the mysterious and creative fiat, La Reine veut. The Queen wills it; the Lords will it; the Commons will it. What does it want to complete the perfect fashion of a law? Nothing of solemnity, nothing of force, which the Imperial sceptre of this kingdom could give, is wanting to it. But, truly, it may want the sanction of religion; the Pope snuffs disdainfully at it; an Italian priest will have none of it; it trenches upon his rights, or rather upon his duties; it violates the integrity of those interests which he is set to guard; and therefore Commons, Lords, Queen, wax, parchment, and all, avail it very little. You may call it law if you please. You may enter it on your roll. You may print it in the yearly volume of your statutes. But before long you will have to repeal or alter it, in order to procure the sanction of a foreign potentate, without which it has not, in the end, the value of a tenpenny nail. "We are ourselves shocked at the high treason of this language, and have a due dread of the vengeance of the British Lion; but, on the whole, we are pretty sure our words represent the fact of the case, and therefore we cannot but again record our satisfaction at the expression which has so potently excited the bile of a Liberal contemporary, and then pass on to the main subject before us, from which we have digressed."

We have not here taken notice of the fault found with the measures, because we are approvers of the Act referred to. We

condemn that measure. We doubt not but that our condemnation of it would be equally severe as that of the "Tablet" is. The Society of which our periodical is the organ has the following as two of its fundamental Resolutions :

"I. That the influence of true religion over a people forms the best security for their individual rights, and the surest basis of national prosperity.

"II. That the British Constitution acknowledges in its principle and laws the Sovereignty of Almighty God, and the Supreme Authority of His Holy Word, and has provided for the Scriptural Instruction of the people by its religious Establishments."

We contend that no education should be provided by a Christian State, but one based on the truth.

If asked, What is the truth-where is it to be found? In what quarter of the world? In what documents, amidst the various conflicting modes of worship, not only throughout the extent of the globe, but even in the dominions of the British empire? the answer is obvious.

We reply, it is to be found in the Bible, the written word of God, and that no Christian man, or nation, should support a system of religious instruction, which, on the one hand, rejects that word as not being a Divine revelation, or, on the other hand, denies its sufficiency as a rule of faith. We reply, in the language of the Sixth Article of our Church, "that holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation, so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of the faith, or be thought necessary or requisite to salvation."

But it is to mark this instance of alleged foreign interference, to point out the way in which Romanists would rejoice to see our State crippled, our laws no longer emanating from ourselves, and obeyed, because sanctioned with the authority of Parliament, and the Royal assent of the Queen; but emanating from the Vatican, and requiring the approval of the Italian bishop, before they are to be received by Her Majesty's subjects, as possessing any authority.

The restless ambition of Popery, and the altered tone which her organs now assume, are startling enough, one might think, to arouse the most careless.

Will not these things tend to open the eyes of our fellowcountrymen? Will they not have the effect of disabusing their minds of all ideas such as that Popery is changed, and no more likely to interfere with the institutions of our country?

The mask worn by the Church of Rome, is being cast off. She thinks there is no need to wear it. To such an extent has her audacity proceeded-so have we shrunk before her, not

In the name of the Holy Scripture we do understand those Canonical books of the Old and New Testament, of whose authority was never any doubt in the Church.-Art. vi.