Many of the Irish Roman Catholic Bishops are friendly and useful to her Majesty's Government, and are only prevented by fear from being more so. Of late the machinery of Synods has been introduced in Ireland, with a view to stifle all independent action of the Bishops; and a Rescript has been sent from the Prefect of the Propaganda at Rome, enjoining that these sacerdotal assemblies shall be held in due order, "otherwise difference of opinions will daily increase." In like manner, the Brief of Pope Pius IX. has been issued expressly in order to enable a Roman Cardinal to organise the machinery of a Synod in England; and the provision in the Brief, by which the Pope reserves to himself the power of creating more Archbishops and more Bishops, intimates a further extension of the system. It is for England to take counsel where she shall make a stand. The Roman Catholic Relief Act has been clearly infringed with respect to the title of the See of St. David's. The State cannot safely ignore that fact. The point of the Papal wedge has been inserted: another Brief may drive it home, and the laws of England will then be scattered to the winds. Whatever may be the decision on the present occasion of those, to whose hands the destinies of England are entrusted, one thing is certain, that England must not enter upon a struggle with Rome in haste, or with imperfect preparation. England must not carry on "a little war" even with such an enemy as the Pope. The Bill of Rights, the Act of Settlement, the Coronation Oath, alike attest the resolution of the English nation that their land shall remain a Protestant land. If, in consideration of these and other impregnable bulwarks, any of the outworks thrown up in 1829 should be deemed worthless, and L it should be held to be a waste of power to maintain them, it must not be forgotten that the spirit of the garrison has been roused by the assault of the enemy, and it may prove a difficult task to persuade it to abandon the defence of the outworks, unless some measure of a comprehensive nature shall be proposed, which shall place it in security from future aggression. England has ample resources to bring the Papacy to terms, if her existing laws should only be enforced. It seems to be forgotten, that the whole machinery of the Religious Orders, upon which the Pope must rely for carrying out his scheme of propagating his power, so as to fulfil the pompous promise of his Brief, is proscribed within the United Kingdom, by the very law which secures to the Roman Catholic laity their civil and political liberties. Precautions were thus taken in 1829, that no ex post facto law should be required in that respect to authorise the Crown to repress any aggression of the Papacy upon the Protestantism of England through these organs. The law, however, has hitherto remained a dead letter*, owing to the mode prescribed for recovering the penalties. Two centuries have now elapsed since Milton penned his masterpiece, the "Areopagitica." It was written upon the wreck of a Throne, and amidst the ruins of a Church. Those results had been accomplished by a religious reaction of the English people against measures which tended, as they believed, to deprive them of their birthright in the Reformation. The same spirit burst forth at a later epoch, under similar provocation, and sealed the fate of an entire dynasty. Can it be * It appears from the Catholic Directory for 1851, that there are seventeen Religious Houses of men in England alone. doubted for a moment what the result of the struggle against Rome must be, if the moment shall arrive for England to put forth all her strength? "Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks: methinks I see her as an eagle muing her mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full midday beam, purging and unscaling her long-abused sight at the fountain itself of heavenly light; while the whole noise of timorous and flocking birds, with those also who love the twilight, flutter about, amazed at what she means, and in their envious gabble would prognosticate a year of sects and schisms." |