FIRST AMERICAN EDITION
OF THE WORKS OF THE
REV. D. W. CAHILL, D.D.
THE  HIGHLY  DISTINGUISHED
IRISH PRIEST, PATRIOT AND SCHOLAR:
CONTAINING
A BRIEF SKETCH OF HIS LIFE,
THE MOST IMPORTANT ADDRESSES, SPEECHES, CONTROVERSIAL
SERMONS &c. DELIVERED IN IRELAND, ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND,
TOGETHER WITH HIS
CELEBRATED LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL, LORD
PALMERSTON, THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON, THE
EARL OF DERBY, THE EARL OF CARLISLE.
&c. &c. &c.
BEING  THE  MOST  INTERESTING  WORK
EVER PRESENTED
TO' THE CATHOLIC PUBLIC.
BOSTON:
P ATRICK   DONAHOE,
23 FRANKLIN STREET.
18 5 —.








INDEX.
Page
PREFACE
A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF THE REV. DR. CAHILL............    1
CONVERSIONS IN ENGLAND-Letter of REV. J. COLLINS to
the REV. D. W. CAHILL-Reply       -............    6
Address to the Catholic inhabitants of Greenock...........  12
Controversial Sermons................................... 15
Address to the Catholics of Liverpool and Birkenhead....-.  27
Address and Presentation to the.REv. DR. CAHILL, from the
United Sons of Erin Society, Liverpool................  35
DR. CAHILL'S reply...................................  37
Anniversary Dinner inhonor of St. Patrick's day..........-  44
DR. CAHILL and the Hibernian Friendly Societies.........  56
REV. DR. CAHILL and the Catholics of Glasgow......-...  61
Letter to the REV. J. BURNS. of Whitehaven.,.........  81
REV. DR. CAHILL and the "Rambler".-...... 108
Second letter to the Editors of the Catholic Journals....... 122
Rev. Dr. CAHILL'S Speech at a Great Meeting in Liverpool. 14C
Rev. Dr. CAHILL Lecture on the Social Condition of Ireland 153
DR. CAHILL'S Speech in Liverpool......................   177
Letter to the RIGHT HON. LORD JOHN RUSSELL.   -..-... 19C
"  to the same.....................           202
" to the same....................... 217
" to the DUKE OF WELLINGTON.. —------—....... 234
"  to the EARL OF DERBY............... 249
"  to the same -------—.. —---------— 262
" to the same.................................... 278
" to the same........-. 278
"  to the same................        295
"  to LORD PALMERSTON...                  314
"  to the RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF CARLISLE -........ 330
" to the REV. DR. CAHILL from the EARL OF CARLISLE 341
DR. CAHILL'S reply............................. 342
Letter to the REV. WILLIAM ANDERSON............ 356
"  from FIVE PROTESTANT CLERGYMEN to DR. CAHILL.. 362
DR. CAHILL'S reply.......................  363
Letter of DR. CAHILL to 21 PROTESTANT CLERGYMEN.-...-. 374








TO THE READER.
WE present to public attention, in book form, the
Letters, Discourses, Responses and Controversial Sermons of that eminent Divine and Scholar, the REV.
D. W. CAHILL, whose eloquent and manly voice
and pen, have, like the bursting thunderbolt, cast dismay and confusion among the ranks of his country's
oppressors and persecutors-when pestilence, plagues
and famine, and an unfeeling and tyrannical Government and its subservient agents, had swept Ireland
of millions of its bravest sons and daughters, and levelled their humble habitations to the earth-when
annihilation would seem inevitable-then in Ireland's
supposed weakness, degradation and humility, her
heartless despoilers would feign re-enact and legalize
a new edition of the desecrated "Penal Laws," which
have crimsoned Ireland's verdant soil with blood,
and consigned many a Holy Divine and Scholar to
the scaffold or banishment for life from an ancestorial
inheritance. To' meet, and counteract in embryo,
these contemplated evil designs of the Government,
and an intriguing Cabinet, we find this invincible
and uncompromising champion of the Church —the




PREFACE.
philanthropic, patriotic and eloquent orator, pen in
hand in the field, confronting the degenerate " Iron
Duke," or upsetting the wily schemes of a Palmerston.
or a Russell, and awakening from her lethargic slumbers the Courts of Europe, which would have soon
fallen victims to English intriguing, and deceitful
and designing emissaries, with bland faces and craven and hollow hearts, who with a smile of deceptio~n
and a tongue of suavity, were plotting destruction
wherever they went.
Whether we view the Rev. D. W. Cahill, amidst
impending threats and frowns, undismayed, bearding
the insatiable and growling lion, or in his astronomical researches, with mind absorbed among the heavenly bodies, scanning the starry firmament, and defining each luminary orbit and revolution, with the
ease and familiarity we would define or depict objects momentarily exposed to observation-or, his
philanthropic and patriotic heart overpowered as he
reflects over some death-scene of starvation, where
his last shilling administered to the corporeal wants,
whilst his eloquent voice conveyed the last consoling
words, ere his holy hand extended the Unction, or
the anxious soul started from its earthly tenement on
its celestial journey of eternal bliss —no matter in
what capacity we regard the Rev. D. W. Cahill, we
must pronounce him the greatest living man in Europe at the present period.




PREFACE.
To wrest from oblivion, and collect in a neat volume the Letters and Discourses of this distinguished
and learned Divine has been our object —knowing
how unwieldy, and how liable to destruction newspapers are, the only manner in which anything of his
productions has appeared in this country as yet. But
did we say to wrest.from oblivion? No, while there
remains an honest descendant of "the Island of Learning and of Saints;" an uncontaminated descendant of
the line of Kings and chiefs-of patriots and warriors-. of Stiesmen, poets and wits-of honest, indusrious and manly fathers, or beautiful, virtuous, religious and affectionate mothers —so long as there remains a living remnant of the Celtic race, that has
not abandoned their God, their country or their faith;
so long will a Cahill live in the hearts of his country people, and all discerning admirers, of genuine
worth-and to such we humbly present this volume.








A BRIEP BIOGRAPHY OF THE REV. DR. CAHILL.
THIE distinguished divine and scholar is now' in the
full vigor of his age and intellect-he is approaching his
fifty-third year. He is the son of a gentleman well known
in the midland southern portions of Ireland, as an eminent engineer and surveyor, and was thus almost necessarily, from his earliest years, practised in those exact sciences upon which in a larger degree, eminence in those
professions are dependent.  Thus,-and in those early
years it is when instruction is imparted to command suc
cess, and when skill is acquired with a readiness almost
intuitive-was laid the foundation of that scientific eminence for which, in after life, Dr. Cahill has been remarkable.
By the female side, the subject of our sketch is of
Spanish descent; his patronymic is thoroughly Celtic,
and the whole temperament and habitudes of the man, so
far as the discipline of the priest permits them to be manifested, develops, in an extraordinary degree, the characteristics of both these ancient races. The Rev. Gentleman's pihysique, too, is indicative of this descent. His
complexion is brown, his hair dark, his eyes black, and
deeply thoughtful; his person tall, and of massive yet
graceful proportions; he presents, in these re cts, a personification of the attributes of both peoples;,most striking
and demonstrative.  In stature, Dr. Cahill far traiiscends
the ordinary, standing not less than six feet five inches.
The Rev. gentleman is a native of the Queen's Count-y.




2            BIOGRAPHY OF DR. CAHILL.
in Ireland, and a subject of the diocese of Kildare and
Leighlin. over which presided, when he was a young man,
the celebrated Dr. Doyle, the'I. K. L.' of the pre-emancipat;on period. The tendency of studies which he inevitably
entered upon, the combined Spanish and Celtic temperament, the physical development with which nature had
endowed him, tended naturally, one would almost say,
to direct his views toward the army, which, in those days,
presented a noble field to the aspirant after military fame,
and a theatre upon which engineering skill and scientific
knowledge were sure to rise in fame and station. Accordingly young D. W. -Cahill was originally intended for
the army. A more glorious field of operation, however,
awaited him,- a warfare more noble and more suited to
the powers he has since displayed-a contention in which
he has won a fame, which no facilities in another career
could have ever equalled, and from which Christianity,
it is hoped, has reaped some harvest, and mankind been
the gainer. Theyoung intended soldier rejected, like
St. Ignatius, the colors, the war-steed, and the cannon,
to enlist under the banner of the cross; and while yet a
youth, entered upon those studies which qualify the man
to become the minister of God, and the servant of the
altar.
The Rev. Dlr. Cahill was, at an early age a student of
the lay side of Carlow College, after which he studied,
for some time, under those masters of education who have
outstriped all other professors of the sciences, the Jesuits
Here, having entered somewhat upon those studies more
appropriate to the profession he had chosen, he was dis



BIOGRAPHY OFP DR. CAHILL.           3
tinguished as a scholar. In due time he entered Maynooth, and commenced that course of severe study and
rigid discipline, which have rendered that ground so
eminent, and made its alumni so eminent as scholars, so
self-denying as priests. At Maynooth, Dr. Cahill read
a full course of theology and natural philosophy, under
the distinguished professors of that time, Dr. Delahogue,
and Dr. McHale. now the illustrious Archbishop of Tuam.
In Hebrew and the cognate studies, he became a great
profi,'ient under Dr. Browne, for many years past the
exemplary-Bishop of Dromore. Under Dr. Boylan, who
was himself an ornament of the Irish Prelacy, he studied
German, French and Italian, in all which languages our
Reverend Friend obtained such proficiency, as placed him
amongst the most proficient not only of his age, but of
his college.
Having completed the usual but severe routine of the
minor ordinary studies, the Rev. Gentleman then received
orders, and was selected to the Dunboyne establishment,
of Maynooth, where he spent an additional period of years
in reading a more advanced course of theology and ecclesiastical history. In due time he was taken into full orders
in the Church, of which he is now so happily an ornament.
We have not spoken of the e'clat with which the subject of our notice went through his college studies; we
may say one for all, that the capacities then manifested
were such, and so prominent, as to prefigure the maturity of-their present development. The estimation in which
he was held at k7ome, where his qualities were best known,
was shown by his being selected for the professorship of




4            BIOGRAPHY OF DR. CAHILL.
natural philosophy in Carlow, then under the Rectorship
of the Right Rev. Dr. Doyle, himself a literateur of the
most distinguished character; and, as a proof his talents were recognised beyond the sphere in which they
were exercised with so much efficacy, we mnay mention
that the degree of Doctor in Divinity was conferred upon
him by the Pope.
In Carlow college, he continued for some years to teach
not only natural philosophy, but mathematics and astronomy; in which latter science, we believe, he possesses an
eminence not exceeded by any man of our day.
As a scholar in practical science, we should mention
that the Rev. Doctor studied chemistry, as a laboratory
student, under the late Dr. Barker, of Trinity College,
Dublin; a gentleman who produced such celebrated pupils as Sir Robert Kane and others.
So far of Dr. Cahill as a student and a professor,
the rest is known to all his countrymen; it may briefly
be communicated to others. After a residence of some
years in the Colleges of Carlow, the Rev. Gentleman, at
the earnest desire of many distinguished personages, who
being Catholics, were desirous of having their children
educated in the faith, as well as in the higher sciences,
transferred the sphere of his operations to Dublin. For
many years subsequently the Doctor had a seminarv at
Seapoint, near Blackrock, which, for eminence and respectability, was not exceeded by any in the country.
During all this time Dr. Cahill was known as a preacher of singular force and clearness, and of great, yet
simple, eloquence - characteristics, which his scientific




BIOGRAPHY OF DR. CAHILL.
acquirements, and knowledge of ancient and modern classics, qualified him largely to put forth. He was invited,
consequently, to preach in many and distant portions of the
kingdom of Ireland and in this country also, upon important occasions. At whatever inconvenience to;'li
self, he never negatived these applications, which are sv
frequent; the result was, that he gave up the seminary
to proclaim more and more the great truths of the gospel
to the world.




CONVERSIONS IN ENGLAND.
LETTER OF THE REV. J. COLLINS TO THE REV. D.
W. CAHILL:-REPLY  OF THE REV. DR. CAHILL..... ___ —           -
The following correspondence has taken place between our distinguished  countryman, the  REV. DR.
C AHILL; and the REV. J. COLLINS, recently a clergyman of the Church of England, and who has become
a convert to the Catholic faith within the last few
days:Crooked Billet Hotel, Liverpool, May 31, 1851.
REV. AND DEAR SIR.-Permit an anxious clergyman; sixteen years
an active minister of the Church of England, and has labored the most
of that period in this nation, to address you on, to him, an all-important
subject.
For years I have been dubious of the position which the Church of
England-the undefined and extravagant vagaries of private judgment;
the numerous and conflicting sects; the levelling divine mysteries with
human reason; the discarding the sacrament of baptism through the
caprice of a state official, and the want of a spiritual head to the scholar and conscientious, are mournful and alarming reflections.
Following up thbe legal motto, "Audi alteram partem," I attended
your lecture lately, in Liverpool, on the Sacrifice of the Mass. Many
points about which I hesitated, were lucidly unfolded and convincingly
smpressed; on a subsequent conversation on the Real Presence and
Transubstantiation, many doubts were dissipated, and, though some
doctrines are mysterious still, which appear " as through a glass darkly,"
yet, " I am determnined to trust, where I am unable to trace."




REV. J. COLLINS' LETTER TO DR. CAHILL.            7
I amn a Master of Arts of my University, and hold testimonials from
dignitaries, clergymen and congregations, perfectly satisfactory.
I leave my church with anguish, and feelings similar to those experienced in parting from a beloved parent, yet I cannot be wrong in following the example of so many learned and good. I henceforth profess
myself a Catholic, if permitted to enter the fane from which my forefathers strayed.
I have the honor to be, Rev.-and Dear Sir, your very faithful servant,
JOHN COLLINS.
REPLY.
St. Mary's Church, Liveryool, SMay 31, 1851.
MIY DEAR REV. FRIEND. —I feel urged thus to address
you in the language of warm  affection, in order to give
you a hearty welcome, as you set your foot for the first
time within the wide-spread and time-honored walls of
the universal church.
I have never read in so few -words a more comprehensive statement of the incongruities of the Protestant
Church, than you have put forward in the second paragraph of your valued communication. Alas! reformed
England has no Church, since she separated from  the
communion of Tertullian —she is in the "position" of a
body without a head, the members deprived of spiritual
life, having no source of spiritual vitality-she is in the
"position" of a withered branch broken off from the trunk,
and producing no meritorious fruit; and hence, I am not
surprised at your doubts of the spiritual position.  Her
"numerous sects," as you appropriately call them, are
the sure indication of the storm that rages over her spiritual domain.  They are the clear result of an ecclesiastical disturbance-they are the palpable demonstration that,




8       DR. CAHILL'S REPLY TO REV. J. COLLINS.
the national faith is shattered into fragments. Like the
swelling surges of an agitated sea, these acts multiply,
and rise, and foam as the tempest rages; and they contrast strongly with the solemn repose and universal calm
which reigns over the boundless empire of the Catholic
Church.
Private judgment, in "its vagaries," has thrown down
all the ramparts of Christianity, and has actually blotted
out the Gospel; it has taken away the Seven Sacraments,
and destroyed Purgatory and the Holy Sacrifice of the
altar; it has denied the Divinity of Christ, and has disputed the personality and the existence of the Holy Ghost:
it has corrupted the Bible, and has robbed mankind of
their title-deeds to their future inheritance —in a word —it has pulled down the whole fabric of the New Covenant,
and has left nothing behind except the soul, standing
alone in the wide waste of doubt and Atheism, with no
mark to direct reason and faith, save the canopy of the
skies and the boundless horizon.
I do believe, that Lord John Russell, in "his official
caprice," ismthe greatest enemy the Church and State of
England ever had; he has insulted the Catholic world;
he has paganised the Protestant creed; he has degraded
the British constitution; and, if not stopped in his capricious career, he will lower the dignity of the crown.
Hence, I do not wonder that the scholar and the Christian should leave an establishment where trick, and stratagem, and caprice, and despotism, and mere human laws
are substituted for confidingness, honor, order, charity
and the ordinances of God.




DR. CAHILL'S REPLY TO REV. J. COLLINS.    9
I feel very happy, indeed, by your remarks, in reference to our interview. I have ever felt intensely the
strong conviction, that no Protestant could long remain
detached from the true Church, if he permitted his mind
and heart to yield to a calm and unprejudiced investigation of the truths of our holy religion. You, my dear
friend, are now the best judge of the truth of this assertion; and I pray God, that many may be induced to read
your letter, and to follow your example. There can be
no doubt of the necessity of a sacrifice in the Now Law,
as the established, essential worship of God; and surely,
the cross were the fulfilment of the bloody sacrifices of
Old Law; the Last Supper was the fulfilment of the
priesthood, and the offering of Melchisedech. If bread
and wine, then, were the type, surely bread and wine cannot be the fulfilment; if so, the typical thing and the thing
typified, would be the same thing. The type was the
shadow of some future perfect reality; and surely the
shadow and the reality cannot be the same thing. Hence
as the offering at the Last Supper was the real'ty of Melchisedech's type, it follows, necessarily, that it must be as
exalted above the type, as the priesthood of Christ was
above that of Aaron, and the atonement of the cross,
above the blood of oxen. This reasoning furnishes a
demonstration to prove that the new priesthood and the
essential sacrifice, will be continued through all-coming
time, "to show forth His death till He come." And
hence the Catholic Church has now a sacrifice which is a
perfect propitiation for sin, an offering suited to all the
conditions of divine worship, and a gift to present to the
throne of mercy worthy the acceptance of God.




10     DR. CAHILL'S REPLY'TO REV. J. COLLINS.
My dear friend, it is a melancholy and most deplora
ble fact, that there is no worship worthy of God in the
Protestant Church, as they neither have a priest to offer,
or any offering to make, which is the essence of worship.
That church has actually gone back to Judaism by celebrating the type and the memorial of bread and winethat is to say, they preserve the slender taper of the Old
Law to direct and to light their steps, although the sun
itself has risen in the skies, and pours a burning flood of
light ove' the spiritual creation.  How wretched and
foolish to see men (who read the Scripture,) kneel down
in their plain senses before bread and wine in the NEw
LAW-that is, they adopt a type, or a memorial, or a shadow, in the face of a perfectfuVlilled covenant. May God
enlighten them. They deserve pity, to see them like fools,
hold up the light of a farthing candle to direct the world,
while the sun stands blazing in the meridian. It is Judaism to adopt this ceremonial, and it is blasphemy to kneel
before avowed bread and wine.
The man who searches is not certain of truth; the man
who changes his belief to a newer creed, cannot dare to
say, that the all-wise unchangeable God dictates these
novelties and contradictions. Now, if a witness, who
doubts, and hesitates, and changes his evidence, would
*not, or could not be believed by an honest jury at a petty
court, surely a doubting, changing testimony to FAITH
cannot be received at the tribunal of God. Clearly then,
there never was, or never can be Divine FaitA in the
Protestant Church-that which is unworthy to be human,
cannot deserve to be divine.




DR. CAIILL'S REPLY TO REV. J. COLLINS.   11
I fully appreciate, and I entirely enter into your feelings of anguish on leaving the Protestant Church; but,
being guided by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, your
sorrow will soon change into joy; and as many of your
brethren (who rank amongst the best and most learned
men of the present age) have set you an example, you
form an additional member of the glorious band, who
within the last few years have broken family ties-have
given up station and emolument, and, at the sacrifice of
every worldly advantage, have yielded to their convictions in joining the faith of Augustine and Jerome, of
Irenaeus and Chrysostom; ranging themselves undqr the
victorious colors that are seen flouting the skies, above
the old infallible rock on which Peter has planted the
eternal standard.
I beg to say, in conclusion, that while I advocate the
principles of my church, and while I am prepared to die,
if necessary, in its defence, I have never uttered one word
from the pulpit in disrespect to the conscientious creed
of Protestants; and moreover, I say, no matter what provocation I may receive in England, I shall never deviate
from this charitable and inoffensive course, which I have
observed since I entered on public life, and which I hope
to practice to my death.
I am about to proceed to Manchester, where I shall
remain for a month; and in the meantime, I beg to recommend you to the care of my dear friend, Rev. Mr.
Sheridan, of St. Mary's, Liverpool; who, I take leave to
say, is one of the most zealous, and disinterested, and per.
fect Catholic clergymen in England.




.12           ADDRESS AT GREENOCK.
Believe me, my dear Rev. Friend, faithfully and
attached brother in Christ.
D. W. CAHILL, D.D.
To the Rev. JOHN COLLINS, M. A.
ADDRESS TO THE CATHOLIC INHABITANTS
OF GREENOCK,
DELIVERED ON THE 26TH OCTOBER 1851.
ON Sunday the 26th ult., DR. CAHILL preached in
the Rev. MR. DANAHER'S church in Greenock, the
church was crowded to excess, and many persons
were compelled to go away for want of room. On
the following day, a deputation of the Catholic inhabitants of Greenock, waited on the Rev. Gentleman
with an address, expressing their admiration of his
high attainments, and his exertions in the cause of
religion and of his suffering country. DR. CAHILL
replied as follows:GENTLEMEN: —I cannot find any form  of language
capable of expressing my feelings of grateful acknowledgment for the address you have just read. I have
never received a more distinguished compliment; and I
can no more hope to imitate the style, or your composition than I can repay your affectionate kindness. When
I heard that address, I felt that you had been unconsciously drawving my picture from an image of me which
your own ardent fancy had painted; and it is to your
warm Irish hearts, rather than your deliberate judgments




ADDRESS AT GREENOCK.             13
I am indebted for the flattering copy. I can read, how.
ever, from your eloquent words, an inspiring lesson to
stimulate me to an ambitious attempt of approaching the
exalted reality which your patriotism has sketched.
In my strictures on the English minister, I only claim
the merit of a feeling heart, and the advantage of a Continental observation. The history of Europe has unfolded, within the last five years, many a fierce revolutionary
struggle excited by English diplomacy; and it points out
many a concomitant attempt to uproot the creed of Jerome, and to tear the triple crown from the brow of the
successor of thre fisherman. My merit merely consists,
in sounding the alarm through the world against this unexpected, this unexampled, this secret, and this perilous
perfidy; and, like the shepherd's whistle during the night,
I am only a mere voice amidst the darkness of my country; but I have aided by that voice in collecting together
the scattered flock, and arresting the treacherous wolf in
his stealthy, ravening career. And if I have succeeded
in publishing the woes of Ireland in foreign countries, I
have only transcribed the history which is carved on the
deserted villages, and on the red graves of my unhappy
country. Who could fail to write the eloquence of the
heart, while beholding the faithful Irish banished from
the homes of their forefathers-seeing the tottering, naked grandfather, carrying in the trembling arms his starving grandchild-and hurrying in thousands towards the
emigrant ship, as to a place of refuge fiom persecution,
famine, the poorhouse, and the coffinless grave?. And
who could stand on the oozing pit, where the naked re



14             ADDRESS AT GREENOCK.
mains of thousands of half-starved victims lie in rotting
masses below, and not write in words of fire on the cruelties and the woes, which, like a torrent, has swept without control over unfortunate Ireland, and carrying away
in the devouring flood, abandoned thousands of my poor
faithful countrymen? Cold must the heart be, which
speak icicles while looking into the furnace of persecution;
and unfeeling and coward must be the bosom which could
talk in bated breath and whispering humbleness, while
the flesh of the murdered Irish poor protrude through tthe
clay, on the top of the putrid masses that rot below. I am,
therefore, only a faithful copyist of Whig cruelty-of
what my heart has read and'committed to its eternal
memory.
I feel extremely happy that my exertions at Greenock,
have been so successful, as you state, but you give me
the merit which most appropriately belongs to yourselves.
All education is imperfect without the knowledge of
God's law; and the man who, in the deserted cabin,
teaches the orphan child the faith of Christ, and the
Lord's Prayer, fills a higher office than the accomplished
scholar, who, beneath the gilded ceiling of the imperial
palace, instructs the son of a king in philosophical science,
the history ofthrones, and the conquest of nations.
Gentlemen, again accept the ardent expression of my
sincerest gratitude, and believe me to be, with lasting
and distinguished regard, ever faithfully your devoted
humble servant,
D. W. CAHILL.




CONTROVERSIAL SERMONS,
BY REV. D, W. CAHILL.
This eloquent Divine delivered two controversial
sermons on Sunday, 21st. of December, 1851 at St.
Peter's Catholic Church, Seel street, Liverpool.
The subject of the first one was " The Bible, as interpreted by private judgment, false as a rule of Faith."
"Long before eleven o'clock, says the Dublin
Tablet, the hour announced for the discourse, the sacred edifice was crowded to excess, and several well
known clergymen belonging to the Protestant Church,
and a large number of their flocks, were present. A
considerable number of persons, who came at the
time appointed, had to return, as they could not procure places, and many others were content to stand
outside the doors, and hear as well as they could
under the circumstances. The Rev. Gentleman came
before the altar habited in his surplice and stole6; he
was accommodated with a seat. The most profound
attention was observable throughout his brilliant discourse, which lasted nearly an hour and a half. It
was indeed a master-piece of eloquence. "
We are able to give to our readers a complete analysis of this sermon, as it was published by the above
named journal.
The second sermon was preached on the evening




16           CONTROVERSIAL SERMONS.
of the same day in the same church, which, as the
Tablet says, was thronged as full as in the morning.
The subject was " The Real Presence in the Blessed
Sacrament, " which he proved in the most convincing
manner to all who heard him. The very Rev. Divine,
that journal adds, has won golden opinions from all
parties in that city, by his moderation and the inoffensive manner in which he put forth the powerful
truths on both subjects. "
ANALYSIS OF DR. CAHILL'S SERMON.
"The Bible as interpreted by private judgment, false as a rule of Faith."
The distinguished orator commenced by stating, that he
hoped to prove by the clearest evidence, that the Bible,
as interpreted by private judgment, was false as a rule
of Faith; and he then proceeded to show that from the
creation of the world up to the time of Moses there was
no written work in existence whereby true believers could
have been directed or governed; and yet, after all, Faith'had been handed down pure from generation to generation, from father to son, and so on. There was no law
written as regarded Faith; so that at least for a period
of twenty-six hundred years after the creation of Adam,
man had no written book to guide him as a rule of Faith,
and yet God was worshipped by man, and the true Faith,preserved all that time without a written book, and God's
law was obeyed.
The law was imparted by God to the Patriarchs, and
by them it was handed down from one generation to ano



CONTROVERSIAL SERMONS.           17
ther; so that, according to the doctrine that the Bible
was a rule of Faith, how could man have been saved in
the Old World until the coming of Christ? When Christ
came' on earth, and died for the redemption of the world,
he descended into Hell-Limbo-to preach the glad tidings of redemption to the souls that were there-not by
a book, but by the authority of his word. He had there
to tell them that the Faith which they had held from the
creation of the world-which had been handed down
from father to son-had been accomplished in his death.
The Patriarchs were not guided or governed by any
written law, but by the authority which they had received
from the beginning, and which they imparted from one
to the other-from generation to generation.-There was
therefore, no written book from the commencement, but
the faith was communicated by word of mouth, and living
authority, and he (the Rev. Preacher) would submit that,
that was a very strong point. —For twenty-six hundred
years the Church of God was governed, not by written
words, but by true living authority communicated to her
by God himself. He would now come to the New Law,
as established by Christ —for up to the time when he
made his appearance upon earth, salvation was obtained,
not from books, but from the living authority which
existed without any book. Coming, therefore, to thle
New Law, he wanted to know where it was written, or
ordered to be written, as an authority to be guided by?
It was not written, but it was spoken law. If it blad
been necessary for Christ to have written a book on thle
subject, He would have done so, or He would have comrn



IS           CONTROVERSIAL SERMONS.
manded one to have been written; but the fact was, that
Christ never during His life on this earth, wrote a book,
nor did He speak about having a book written. He said
to His Apostles that he would send the Holy Ghost, who
would teach them all things, and bring to their minds whatever He had told them-and whatever he had told them
He commanded them to do. He did not say to them,
" write a book, " but He commanded them to go and
preach the gospel all over the world —not by writing,
but by teaching by word of mouth.
Wihen, then, did the sanction of the first book appear
on the subject after the death of Christ?  Not for three
hundred and seventy-five years after the death of Christ.
It was that time, before the stamp of the Church was put
upon any book-not but that the Scriptures were written and in possession of the Church before it, but they
had not been stamped with the seal of authority up to
that period. The Old Testament had been written by
Moses-the New Testament had been written, and was
in the possession of the Church; but, as he before observed, they were not stamped with the authority of the
Church for nearly four centuries after the Gospel was
preached ( not written) by Christ and his Apostles. No
book was used during that time; but the Gospel existed,
and salvation was obtained through the Church, speaking'
by the living authority alone.
There were twelve Apostles, and out of those, only
five wrote books. He would ask if it were necessary,
why did not the remainder write? The four E vangeiists
wrote three works, not as general to the Church, but at




CONTROVERSIAL SERMONS.            19
the special request of individuals. Mathew wrote at the
solicitation of the people of Palestine; St. Mark at that
of the people of Rome; St. Luke to an individual; and
St. John wrote, to put down a heresy that had arisen
amongst some early Christians. The writings were not
general, but written locally, and for local purposes, not
as the guidance or rule of' Faith. Suppose that Queen
Victoria had occasion to write to an individual in Liverpool relative to some local act of parliament, did any
one think, she would sit down and write the whole
code of laws by which England is governed to that individual? So it was with the Scriptures. If they were written for the government and law of the whole Church it
would be clearly so stated and set forth; but they were
not; they were written for local and special purposes,
without reference to the general government of the
Church, which was preserved in the Church itself from
the beginning.
The Rev. preacher then stated in detail to whom and
for what purposes the Gospels, the Acts, the Epistles,
and the Apocalypse were written, and stated that the
Church, as the depository of all truth, had by her authority set her seal on the Scriptures, but that it was not
until nearly four hundred years after Christ that she thus
collected and set apart the sacred volume we now possess.
Yet, the Christian Faith existed before that. Christ did
not say to His Apostles, "Go and write to all nations in
my name," but, he said, "Go and teach, and preach to
all nations: " and St. Paul expressly states, that Faith
comes by hearing alone. Now, hearing must come from




20            CONTROVERSIAL SERMONS.
one living man to another living man, who, by speaking,
communicates the Faith to him —that Faith haviig come
down firom the earliest times to its possessor, through the
authority of the Church. A man cannot hear with his
mouth or his eyes, but with his ears he can hear what the
mouth utters to him. Christ was a living man, and he spoke
to living authorities, who, in their turn, spoke also to living
authorities in the Catholic Church, and thus the Faith
was preserved pure and spotless down to the present
time, and would ever continue so to the end of time. It
was clear, therefore, that Faith came by hearing, that
Faith being spoken by the authority of the Church, and
that was the Faith and the belief given by Christ to His
Church on this earth.
His first point, was therefore proved; and his second
fact, was equally strong. It was avowedly admitted that
for nearly four hundred years after Christ, that there was
no book stamped with the authority of the Church. If the
rule of Faith of the Catholic Church was confined to books
of Scripture, many of those were lost; but, notwithstand.
ing that, the Faith was fully and entirely preserved in
the Church, for he had received his Faith from his spiritual Fathers in the Church as pure and spotless as the
stole he wore. He was the legitimate descendant of that
Faith, and would not part with it but with his life, nor
would any other Catholic in the world. Suppose the
Scriptures were the rule of Faith, why they ought to have
the whole Scriptures; but they had not the whole, as it
was well known, that nearly the half of the books were
lost; but yet, the Catholic Church preserved the Faith




CONTROVERSIAL SERMONS.            21
whole and entire. If a man kill another, he violates the
Fifth Commandment, and although he did not violate
any of the other ten, yet he could not be reconciled to
God, untilhe returned to grace and repentance; and, in the
same manner, if a man violated any one of the dogmas of
Faith, he could not preserve a part thereof: so that if the
Scriptures were a rule of Faith, man should have the
whole, and not a part, of what he founded his Faith upon.
Catholic Priests were reviled, and charged with not reading the Scriptures; and they were further charged with
preventing the people from reading them.
Now, he would tell such parties, that every Priest at
his ordination was obliged before the Bishop, with his
body prostrate on the ground, and his hands stretched
out, to take one of the most solemn oaths that man could
take, that for the remainder of his life, he would devote
at least one hour and a quarter every day reading the
Scriptures. So that any one who asserted that Priests
did not read the Scriptures, told a falsehood. They say
also, that Priests prevent the people from reading the
Scriptures-that is another falsehood. Also, let any man
go into any shop in England where books are sold, and
he would get the Scriptures to purchase, if he had money
to pay for them. In fact, that was a matter of mercantile speculation; but see how easy it was to choke two
such bold lies as were constantly uttered against Catholic. Priests and Catholics. But, he would ask, how could
the whole Scriptures be read? Where were the lost
books to be found? He would now come to that point,
and show how many books were lost: and this he would
prove from the books that remained of the Scriptures.




22            CONTROVERSIAL SERMONS.
In the Book of Numbers, xxi. 14, there is the followmng
passage —" Wherefore, it is said in the Book of Wars of
the Lord." Now, where was that book? It was not to
be found-it was lost. In the Third Book of Kings it is
stated, that Solomon wrote 3,000 proverbs; there was
not more than 1,500 to be found-the rest are lost: and
in the same book it is stated, that he wrote 105 canticles;
there is not the half of that number to be found in the
present Bible; they are lost. Then, there it is stated,
that there was the Book of Nathan the Prophet-there is
no such book now; it is lost. In the Book of Chronicles,
it is stated, that the acts of David are written in the Book
of Samuel the Seer, and Nathan the Prophet-no such
books are to be found; they are lost. There was an
Epistle of St. Paul to the Colossians lost. St. Paul wrote
five Epistles to the Corinthians, but we have only two of
these.  There were altogether twenty-three books belonging to the Bible lost-twenty from the Old Testament, and three from the New; so that if the Bible was
to be a rule of Faith, how could it be proved that the
-whole Bible existed?
If a man made his will, and left his son his property,
and that in the course of time, twelve men on their oaths,
came to decide on that will, and found only the half of it
in existence, would they, or could they as honest men,
say that it was the man's will? It was manifest, therefore, that there was a time when there was no Bible; yet
Faith existed; and it was equally manifest that the Bible
as interpreted by private judgment, was false as a rule of
Faith. Catholics respected the Bible, but they did not




CONTROVERSIAL SERMONS.            23
make it the rule of their Faith; but they respected' it and
believed it, because the Church had sanctioned it-that
CLurch which was unchanged and unchangeable. How
was that portion of the Bible preserved?  Why, firom the
fall of the Roman Empire in 475, for nearly nine centuries, every country in Europe, was in a constant state of
revolution, confusion, and civil war: and where was religion, piety, literature, Faith, and morals preserved all
that time? In the faithful repository and bosom of the
Catholic Church-that was known all over the world,history records it. And how was such preserved? By
teaching the doctrine which was confided to the Church
by Christ and his Apostles-the living authority being in
the Church.
It followed, that those who made the Bible the sole
rule of Faith, ought to have the whole Bible, which they
had not, and if they had not, why they must be in doubt
every moment about their Faith. They could not be certain of the truth or of the Faith, and therefore they must
be in the dark, and to be in doubt on such a matter, was
to be always in a state of unhappiness. Moses wrote a
portion of the Old Testament, but it was admitted on all
hands that for twenty-six hundred years before he wrote,
that no book of the law existed, yet the Faith was preserved all that time by the Patriarchs, who handed it
down, one from another. Christ said to his Aptes,
when speaking of the Scribes an  risees, not to do as
they' did, but to ob~serve what ~.heysaid for thex sIok
the law with their lips, bqt their h~arts were.:nna
do not as they do, but do what they say. They taught




24           CONTROVERSIAL SERMONS.
the law of Moses, who was dead fourteen hundred years
before that time. The command of Christ was in the
imperative mood-do not what they do, but what they
say: so that here again Faith came by hearing.
He would ask those who followed their private judgment,
and made the Bible the rule of Faith, if they understood
Hebrew, for the Old Testament was written in the Hebrew, and then translated into Syro-Chaldaic; and the
New Testament was written in Greek —he would ask a
man depending on private judgment, then, do you know
Hebrew? He would answer, no. Then how could such
a man say that he founded his Faith on the Bible, when
he did not know whether it was truly translated or not?
The same thing must be said in reference to the New
- Testament; and in both cases, such a man after all his
boasting, was depending not on his own judgment, but
on the judgment of others, of whom he could know nothing, not even their names. Now, would it not be better for such parties as he alluded to, to depend on the
Pope and the Bishops whom they did know, than to depend on parties whose names he was ignorant of? He
would ask such persons —" Is there any person in your
Church who cannot read?"  He would be answeredyes. Then, how do you teach persons to form their
Faith by private judgment? By teaching them the Catechism. Yes, but where do you get that Catechism?
From other authority. Then, where is your private judgment? You don't get it from your private judgment, but
from authority, as you call it, of which you are totally
ignorant. The Protestant Clergy were obliged to swear




CONTROVERSIAL SERMONS.           25
to the truth of the Thirty-nine Articles, and where Jdid
these Articles come from?  They came to them on the
authority of an Act of Parliament; and yet, such clergymen were obliged to swear before God to the truth of
such Articles. Acts of Parliament were made by the
House of Commons and the House of Lords, which comprised about 1,000 persons, including old Bishops, all
differing in religion, and many having no religion at all;
and yet, these were the persons upon whom Protestant
-Clergymen, and Protestants were to rely for their rule of
Faith —whose judgment they were obliged to obey, in
swearing to the Thirty-nine Articles.
He would ask-if the Pope and the Bishops of the Catholic Church, who had preserved the Faith for so many
hundred years, pure and spotless, were not better authority than such men as le alluded to? He then alluded
to the Acts of Parliament made by Cranmer in the reign
of Edward VI., and contrasted such Acts with the conduct of the Popes and Bishops who governed the CathoChurch, and who preserved the Faith of Christ as it had
been given to them by Him and the Apostles. Up to
the time of Luther in 1517, the authority of the Popes
and Bishops was acknowledged all over the world-Purgatory, prayers for the dead, invocation of the Saints, and
satisfaction for sins-all were acknowledged; but when
Luther threw off the authority of the Church, he flung
aside those dogmas, because if he retained them, he must
obey the authority of the Pope; and from that time to
the present, his followers had been gradually getting rid
of everything they thought proper-all on private judgment, of course.




26           CONTROVERSIAL SERMONS.
He alluded to the Gorham case, and the decision thereon. In the same manner the Protestant Church got rid
of the Sacraments; and he would ask, what belief had
they now? There were the Unitarians; many of whom
he knew to be learned men, and by the same process of
private judgment they denied the Divinity of Christ; in
same manner the Greeks denied the personality of the
Holy Ghost. The Protestants first began to take the
slates off the house, then they took away the roof, next
the pillars; and lastly, they carried away the walls, and
left nothing behind; all from private judgment, of which,
they confessed themselves to be totally ignorant, for they
depended not on their own, but on the opinion and judgment of others, of whom they knew nothing whatever.
Such was their Faith.
He then referred to the Acts of Parliament made on
the subject of the Church of England government, and
Lord John Russell's opinions, which governed such Acts,
and concluded by stating, that persons who were depending on the Bible as a rule of Faith, as interpreted by private judgment, were the most inconsistent in the world,
and that they stood alone in the world, in the midst of the
most frightful doubts and perplexity, which nothing could
remove from their minds. They should; therefore, have
recourse to the only true and infallible test of Faith, which
lay alone in the bosom of the Catholic Church from the
earliest time, and would continue so to the end of the
world. After resuming his argument, he concluded by
passing a well-merited compliment on the Christian Brothers who had charge of the schools, whose cause he advocated, and showed all the good they had done.




REV. DR, CAHILL'S ADDRESS
TO THE
CATHOLICS OF LIVERPOOL AND BIRKENHEAD.
This letter was intended to prevent the Catholics
from walking in public procession on St. Patrick's
Day. He gave the five following reasons for so doing. 1st. That it never had been in any part of Ireland a public procession solely ni commemoration of
St. Patrick, but in honor of the holy cause of temperance. 2nd. The meeting of the Catholics might be
deemed as a menacing show of physical force, and as
a challenging attitude. 3rd. The degrading scenes
of intemperance of some few, may be ascribed to the
whole Irish race and creed. 4th. By a supposed or
real insult, personal conflicts, or general riots with
all their bad consequences, have been the results of
these processions.  5th. If anything tending to
arouse social animosity is criminal at all times, on a
Sunday or Holiday, must be of deplorable affliction
to the Church.  The eloquent Divine exhorts the
Irishmen to save virtuously a few pounds, and give
relief to the many suffering poor Irish exiles who
have been banished froni their country by a cruel,
persecuting Cabinet, making the English towns crowded with the "wretched victims of English misrule,
who fly from Ireland to seek shelter in England, from
I




28           ADDRESS AT BIRKENHEAD.
injustice and famine, and to earn their bread in honest industry and hard labor."
An exhortation to make England their home, concludes this letter: he advises his countrymen "to
identify their minds with her interests, and to form a
real bona fide integral part of her community." By
an observance of his recommendation, and their obedience to the voice of the Catholic Church, they will
convince Lord John Russell and his perfidious colleagues, that they have not succeeded in gagging the
mouths, and tying up the hands of the Irish priesthood.
SAINT WERBTJRGH'S BIRKENHEAD, Feb. 13th7, 1852.
BELOVED BRETIHREN AND FELLO*-COUNTRYMEN: This
is the first time I have had the pleasure and the privilege
of addressing you by a public letter; and, as I am about
to speak to you in the name of religion, and under the
sanction of the Catholic clergy, I feel assured that I shall
command your willing and prompt obedience to any request I may find it necessary to make. Therefore, with
perfect respect, and with warm affection, I beg of you,
or rather command you, to abstain on next Patrick's Day,
from your annual custom of walking in public procession. I am induced to make this request from a variety
of cogent reasons, the force of which, under the existing
circumstances, and from a clear view of the case, you will
yourselves, readily admit.
Firstly-Then, we have never had, in any part of Ire



ADDRESS AT BIRKENHEAD.           -29
tand, within my remembrance, a public procession through
the streets, solely in commemoration of St. Patrick. We
have had public processions of the Temperance Societies
during several years past in Ireland, and St. Patrick's
Day has been appropriately selected for that purpose, in
order to celebrate, on the patron day of the Apostle of
Ireland, the triumph of Irish virtue over the most degrading vice, and the most brutal debasing habit that could
pollute the human heart, weaken our reason, and stain
the soul. But on those occasions, the procession was not
intended in commemoration of Saint Patrick, but in honor of the holy cause of temperance. I have seen these
assemblages at different times, formed solely of the pledged members of the Society, headed by the Catholic clergy, accompanied by several respectable members of the
Society of Friends, and composed of Protestant and Catholic tradesmen, all united in one charitable brotherhood
of virtue, and vying with each other in advancing the
cause of reason, sobriety, order, and religion. Surely,
therefore, you cannot feel an objection at my earnest request, to give up a procession which has no precedent in
the history of Ireland, or in the commemorative festivals
of your country.
Secondly-However laudable may have been heretofore the intentions of our countrymen in these public demonstrations, our meeting at the present moment, might
be deemed as a menacing show of physical force, and as
a challenging attitude of illegal and public intimidation.
From the recent insults inflicted on our country and our
creed by the lies and the perfidy of the present Govern



30           ADDRESS AT BIRKENHEAD.
ment, your Protestant neighbors and fellow-townsmen
might feel uneasy, lest in your accumulated numbers, and
your just indignation, you might be betrayed into any
expressions of recrimination, or into any breach of the
peace; you must judge of their feelings by your own, and
as their political processions justly give you offence, you
must not yourselves sanction the practices which you
condemn in them. True, you have no arms in your hands,
nor do you walk in commemoration of a political and national triumph, but numbers even without arms (at the
present time,) has the appearance of a challenge, and
cannot be viewed without apprehension by any dispassionate observer; it is in itself calculated to engender bad
feeling, to awaken embittering recollections, to lead to a
breach of the peace, and must therefore be discountenanced by every sound thinking man, as mischievous and subversive of the public social order.
Thirdly-It has often happened, that the friendly meeting of the morning, has ended in the riot of the evening;
that'the sober multitude of the mid-day have been disgraced by the degrading scenes of intemperance at night:
and the bad conduct of some few (as is always the case,)
has been ascribed to our race and our creed, as a national
reproach, and as an essential vice of our name. Surely,
you will not contribute by any act of yours to perpetuate this unjust accusation, but rather to wipe away by a
superior character of peace and order, any stigma which
have been cast upon us by the recklessness, or the misguided patriotism of a small section of our countrymen..
Fourthly-In some instances, a supposed or a real in



ADDRESS AT BIRKENHEAD.             31
suit, coming from a suspected quarter along your line of
procession, has led to personal conflict or general riot;
and the subsequent dismissal from employment, the loss
of situation, the punishment inflicted by Courts of Justice,
imprisonment, and all the consequent misfortunes of idleness, poverty, and beggary, have been more than once
the afflicting and melancholy results of the insane celebration of a day, which, in place of being the memorial of
national piety, has been often incongruously converted
into the signal of mutual revenge. You will, therefore,
agree with me, that every true lover of Ireland, and of
her invincible name, will aid in putting a stop to the revival of any act which would tarnish our national virtue,
imperil our mutual strength, or defeat our essential future
combination.
Fifthly —Anything that tends to rouse social animosity,
to awaken religious hostility, is criminal and wicked of
course, at all times and in all places; but scenes such as
I have described, become on a Sunday or on a Holiday,
subjects of deplorable affliction to the Church, which commands that so solemn a festival as the 17th of March,
shall be kept holy by all the faithful, in proportion to the
benefits conferred by our Patron National Saint, and to
the imperishable deposit bf Christian faith, of which this
day is the joyful sacred commemoration. Your compliance, therefore, with these views of mine, will give satisfaction to the clergy who love you, will honor the religion you profess, and will be a lasting testimony of your
obedience to the letter and spirit of your faith.
I have been informed, on an authority which I cannot




32            ADDRESS AT BIRKENHEAD.
doubt, that, on one occasion, the loss of employment, aris
ing from circumstances such as I have described, deprived the working classes, within one month of no less a sum
than twelve hundred pounds, or thereabouts: and hence,
if you will now kindly follow my affectionate counsel, and
thus avoid a similar loss, you can subscribe a few pounds
of the virtuous saving, and give relief to the many suffering poor Irish exiles, who, being banished from their country by a cruel, persecuting Cabinet, stand at your doors
every morning, begging a morsel of food to save them
even for one day from the ravages of hunger, inflicted by
unjust laws. This is an appeal to your hearts, which- you
cannot reject; and the man who, on next Patrick's Day,
would be seen wasting money, and drunk and riotous,
would appear before me as wanting in common feeling
to our poor countrymen, and I should consider his conduct on this occasion as a palpable departure from the
obedience due to ecclesiastical authority, and a violation
of the personal respect which I humbly claim as due to
myself.
It is very easy for those who are ignorant of the persecutions -of Ireland, to find fault with the conduct of
Irishmen in England; but the residence of one year in
our unhappy country, would convince the most incredulous, that no nation in the whole civilised world has ever
endured so much persecution, and borne their heavy misfortunes with such national fortitude and national honor.
If common justice were done to the Irishmen at home,
the English towns would not now be crowded with the
wretched victims of English misrule, who fly from Ire



ADDRESS TO TrE SONS OF ERIN SOCIETY.       33
land as from a furnace, to seek shelter in England from
injustice and famine, and to earn their bread in honest industry, or hard labor.
And if I could add one word more of advice, that word
would be an advice to mnake England your home; to
identify your minds with her interests, and to form a real
bonafide integral part of her community. This idea gives
a fixed aim to all your exertions, and cannotfail, in the end,
to have a decided salutary influence on your temporal interests and social position. Irishmen live in England and
Scotland as in a place of transit. They mean to stay in these
countries only till they Will have acquired the means of
returning home or going to America. This feeling is highly patriotic, but it is romantic and imprudent. They live
in Great Britain like travellers in a ship; they care little
about the safety of the vessel except during the passage; and as a matter of course, the captain and the crew
always look on them with suspicion-treat them as strangers, and' only entitled to a temporary civility, perfectly
careless of their after fate; and hence the intention of
not making England your home produces a habit of
recklessness; engenders an unsteadiness of conduct injuriou:s to fixedinterests, and subversive of the sincere English friendship which a sober permfianent residence never
fails to secure.
Under all these circumstances, then I call on you, ( as
one who loves you, and who could die for you if necessary) to fulfil my earnest command on next Patrick's Day.
Keep that remarkable and eventful holiday with becorm2




34     ADDRESS TO THE SONS OF ERIN SOCIETY.
ing sobriety; remain at home during the evening, with
your little families in peace and quietness, set an example
of order and edification to your children, and God will
pour a rich blessing on your obedience and your conduct.
But, above all, convince Lord John Russell and his
perfidious colleagues, that they have not succeeded in
gagging the mouths, and tying up the hands of Catholic
clergy; tell him in words that cannot be mistaken, that
the priests are your magistrates, and that their words are
more powerful than an armed police; proclaim by your
good order, that the Popish bishops, whom he attempted
to disrobe, consume, annihilate, and after that to deport
to the colonies, are not dead yet; but on the contrary ( as
we say in Ireland ) "are alive and kicling;" and let him
know, that when I choose to address you under the sanction of the church, I can command you to. do what I
please, and that you will neither walk, nor drink, nor sing,
nor dance, but according to my pleasure, I hope soon to
meet you in a public assembly, where, from the bottom
of my heart, I can return you thanks for a conduct which
obeys the church, pays respect to the civil authorities, advances your own interests, and offers a lasting, and a
distinguised compliment to me.
Believe me, beloved brethren and fellow-countrymen,
to be for ever your ardent friend, and your devoted Irish
priest,
D. W. CAHILL, D.D.




ADDRESS AND PRESENTATION TO THE
REV. DR. CAHILL,
FROMI THE
UNITED SONS OF ERIN SOCIETY, LIVERPOOL.
The result of the address to the Catholic inhabitants of Liverpool and Birkenhead, were, that a deputation from the United Sons of Erin Society waited
on Dr. Cahill, and assured him, in the name of those
whom he exhorted not to walk in public procession
on next St. Patrick's Day, that his advice would be
followed to the letter. Afterwards, they presented
him with a beautiful gold snuff-box and the following
address. The box bore this inscription: "From the
Mlembers of the United Sons of Erin Society to the Rev.
D. W. Cahill, in token of their admiration of his virtues,
talents, and patriotism." The box was manufactured in
Dublin, and bears, as the motto of the Society, four
hands united, to signify the union that ought to exist
among the children of the four provinces of Ireland
(Leinster, Munster, Ulster and Connaught;) and
under them are the words: " United we stand-divided
we fall." The Irish harp, surmounted with a wreath
of Shamrocks, crowns the devices, and gives a rich
appearance to the whole.
ADDRESS TO THE REV. DR. CAHILL.
REV. AND DEAR SIR:-We, the members of the United Sons of
Erin Society, have long desired this opportunity of expressing to you
our admiration and respect for you. As Irishmen, we cannot but feel
pride in you, as a distinguished advocate of civil and religious liberty,




36      ADDRESS TO THE SONS OF ERIN  SOCIETY.
and, as Catholics, we are honored by your virtues, talents, and scientific attainments.  While therefore, we deplore the ruin and desolation
which was fallen upon our common country, we rejoice to think that
your life is an illustration of the fidelity and devotion with which your
Reverend predecessors in the ministry of the Gospel, clung to their
invincible faith, when all things else were wrested from them; and you
wil1 pardon us, for adding that your missionary labors forciby remind
us of those bright and glorious days in Ireland's history, when her priests
and her philosophers went forth, from her hospitable shores, and
distinguished seats of learning, as venerable and illustrious apostles of
Christianity and civilization to the various nations of Europe.
Approving as we do, the sentiments contained in your admirable letter to the Catholics of Liverpool, we have resolved to abstain from
celebrating the approaching anniversary of our patron saint by a public
procession. In adopting this resolution, from  a conviction of its
propriety, and in obedience to your desire, we do not wish to be regarded as surrendering any right which'is recognised by law and usage.
We believe, however, that the interests of Irishmen in this town will be
best promoted by avoiding all such public displays as would irritate
the feelings of our British neighbors, whose bad passions have been too
much excited for sectarian and partypurposes, and we are prepared
and determined to prove by our conduct on the anniversary of our National Saint, that we can make sacrifices to further the ends of peace
and charity.
We would here beg to remark, that outr purpose, as a society, is mo-'
rally and socially to elevate our fellow-countrymen in Liverpool, and by
word and example, to disarm, as far as possible, those English ( per
haps unconscious ) antipathies and prejudices, of which a poor and
down-stricken people are invariably made the certain victims. We are
therefore, anxious to produce among the Irishmen in Liverpool a perfect unity of feeling and action; to abolish, as far as we can, all provincial distinctions between natives of the same country, and to excite
among them a just appreciation of that harmony and unanimity, the
absence of which'has hitherto considerably impaired their effieciency in
public affairs, and detracted from that social and political influence,
which, constituting as they do, nearly one-third of the entire popula



ADDRESS TO THE SONS OF ERIN SOCIETY.            37
tion of this great mart of commerce, they might otherwise possess.
In this work you have given us, by precept and example, most valuable aid. We beg, therefore, on this account, and for the reasons we
have already assigned, that you will accept this gold snuff-box, as a
small but sincere token of our gratitude, admiration, and respect which
we entertain for your person and character. Signed on behalf of the
Members
DENIS ARKWRIGHT, Chairman.
LIVERPOOi., February 20th.
DR. CAHILL'S REPLY.
ST.WERBURGH'S BIRKENHEAD, Febrnary 20th, 1852.
BELOVED  FE.LLOW-COUNTRYMEN: -As I had read,
through each succeeding paragraph of your most valued,
and most complimentary address, I found my mind insensibly and agreeably carried back to the days of Ireland's
past history, and I felt my heart excited by feelings of
far higher interest and pleasure, than of mere personal
gratification. I am not at all surprised, that you exaggerate into the largest proportions any slender pretensions
of mine, while you have your eyes fixed onl my Irish
predecessors in the Catholic Church; and I am quite
sure that in your fond and glowing panegyric on me, you
have mistaken me for one of those glorious ecclesiastical
ancestors of mine, whom  you had in view, when your
hearts composed the flattering document now before me.
But the picture you have drawn shall be carefully studied
by me, and I shall make an effort to approach the original,
and many a glorious masterpiece of Irish sanctity, and Irish
learning, and Irish patriotism, is planted in every page




38    ADDRESS TO THE SONS OF ERIN SOCIETY.
of our distinguished and checquered history, to publish
to the coming and unborn generation of Irish priests,
their ecclesiastical lineage, their unsullied name, their
eminent services, and their unconquered faith.
The historical monuments of ecclesiastical Europe, at
this moment, bear venerable and imperishable testimony to
the ancient celebrity of Ireland, in letters and faith; the
churches dedicated to St. Patrick, to St. Martin, and to St.
Bridget, proclaim from their tottering foundations throughout the neighboring Continent, that they received the Gospel from the famed missionaries of Ireland; and following
the idea suggested by your historical observations, the
surrounding nations must acknowledge, that whatever
perfection they now possess in religion and learning, they
lighted their first torches of Christianity and civilization
at the sacred fires which burned on the ancient altars of
Ireland.  But, alas, and alas! this was a long time ago;
when the Irish owned Ireland —when there was no poor
in our land-when our shores were the mart of national
abundance-when our hearts were free, our limbs unfettered, our race unproscribed, our names respected, and
our doors the hospitable retreat of the stranger. Alas!
beloved countrymen, this was a long, long time ago! but
though, still far away in the darkness of ages, it is a holy
and an inspiring practice fo direct our piercing and searching thoughts through the long silent night of our sad history; and as we gaze on the sparkling firmament of our
ancient glories, sigh for the coming auspicious morning,
when the sun of Ireland shall rise again over a united
people, a free nation, and an emancipated faith.  This




ADDRESS TO THE SONS OF ERIN SOCIETY.             39
holy thought, should be the subject of our universal morning prayer, and our vesper songs, in order that the voice
of liberty and of patriotism, shall never be silenced through
the struggling vicissitudes and the dark mysterious history of our country.
" Let Erin remember the days of old,
Ere her faithless sons betray'd her,
When Malachi wore the collar of gold,
Which he won from the proud invader;
When her kings with standard of green unfurled,
Led the Red Branch Knights to danger,
Ere the emerald gem of the Western world
Was set on the crown of a stranger.
On Lough Neagh's bank, as the fisherman strays,
In the clear cold eve's declining,
He sees the round towers of other days
In the waves beneath him shining;
Thus shall memory often, in dreams sublime,
Catch a glimpse of the days that are over,
And, sighing, look through the waves of time,
For the long-faded glories they cover."
I had written to you in the name of the Catholic clergy,
and I asked permission to add my own sincere request,
and my affectionate counsel; and now, on their parts and
on my own, I return to you my most grateful thanks, and
very deeply felt acknowledgments for the very prompt
respect, and the willing obedience with which you have
adopted my views.  I can add nothing to the paragraph
which you have written on this point; your own words
are your highest eulogium; and they prove to the clergy
of Liverpool, that your obedience to their authority and




40    ADDRESS TO THIE SONS OF ERIN SOCIETY.
to my request, is the motto, which, in imitation of your
fathers, you have-written on the front of your banners;
and they demonstrate, that love of countrj, pure patriotism, and ardent nationality,rare imperishable words carved-on your hearts as well as on your flags, but that the
love of your Church and of your Faith is the unfading
device, which shall ever move in the van, in lofty preeminence, and shall for ever take undisputed precedence
of every other historical memorial in all your national demonstrations.
I should be the last man in Ireland, who could think
of crushing the public expression of your cherished nationality during. your residence in England; and the fondness with wvhich you cling to every sacred feeling that
swells your rising bosom for Ireland, is an additional
argument to prove how much you have sacrificed in the
first instance to obey the church, to respect the laws, and
to honor me. Neither the clergy of Liverpool rior I,
ever can, or shall forget the debt we owe you for this
act of your obedience, -which is at once the public guarantee of social harmony in your city, and of universal
advantage to yourselves. I wish you to understand me
on this point. I do not mean that you should never have
any public demonstration on certain state occasions that
may be named by your committee.
This assumption would be demanding too much, might
condense your feelings under too perilous a-pressure, and
might end in a disastrous and fatal explosion. I mean no
such thing. I know too much of the world, and vastly
too much of Irish ardor, to think of enclosing the feelings




ADDRESS TO THE SONS OF ERIN SOC1ETY.    41
of one hundred and thirty thousand men, women, and
children in a nutshell. What I mean and advise-and (I
may as well say it) command-is that you shall have no
procession, no offence to your fellow townsmen, no endangering of the public peace, no violation of the law, no
embittering demonstration of physical force, no profanation of a holiday, no immoral results of your assemblages,
and no national reproach affixed to your name. This is
mny clear meaning; but the request is not intended to prevent you forming an evening party, holding a soiree, calling a public meeting, appointing a chairman, adopting
useful resolutions, and having these joyful, social, and
peaceful proceedings enlivened by a brilliant orchestra,
and terminated by one loud cheer for Ireland.
Can there be any idea more glorious than an evening
spent in the manner I have described, without offence to
God or man, and in the harmonious commemoration of
our love of Ireland? On the following auspicious day
the sun will rise on a happy community, respected by the
civil authorities, beloved by the clergy, happy with your
little children. and families, and in peace with yourselves
and with all the world.
The cordial co-operation which your society has given
me this day, by following the advice which I have offered to the Catholics of Liverpool, places your corporate
character in an eminent position of prominent public order, which must be long recollected to your advantage,
by every advocate of the public peace, and by every lover
of Christian morality. From the affectionate respect
which I entertain for the United Sons of Erin's Society,




42    ADDRESS TO THE SONS OF ERIN SOCIETY.
I feel pride and pleasure, that you have been the first pub.
lie body which stamps with your approval and united
support the address to which I have referred; and I feel
confident that the character which you have earned and
won from the public concurring testimony, shall never be
forfeited on your part, by any act at variance with the
expectations now so anxiously felt towards you. There
can be no doubt of the fact, that a united, well organized,
and properly directed society of Irishmen, can effect much
good towards the relief, advancement, and social stability
of our countrymen in Liverpool; and as the stream runs
muddy or clear, according to the character of the source
where it rises, it is undeniably true, that your personal
example and official character, will give a corresponding
tinge to your public transactions, and will be felt by the
remotest object of your corporate care. But, alas! as I
conclude your third paragraph, you remind me of the
chief, inherent misfortune of Ireland —our own internal
divisions. Alas! these suicidal conventions have ever,
through all our past history, weakened our national
strength, defeated our combined efforts, given power to
our enemies, and ultimately enabled the despoiler and the
tyrant, to forge chains fbr our enslavement, and to bind
our hands, enfeebled and exhausted by mutual conflicts,
in permanent bondage and degradation.
If there be any one precipice of Irish woe which has
no bottom, it is the awful depth of the disasters inflicted
on our name, and on our ill-fated race by our mutual
jealousies; and if there be any one warning more than
another, which I could give to my beloved countrymen,




ADDRESS TO THE SONS OF ERIN SOCIETY.      43
it would be to avoid the fate which has enabled England
to enslave our country, to~ rob us of our inalienable rights
of civil and religious liberty, and to make a barren waste,
a howling wilderness, and a universal putrid churchyard
in our ancient country. And how happy shall I be, if,
by any advice of mine, I shall be instrumental in uniting
these scattered children of the four Irish provinces into
one Irish family, one fond national brotherhood, and bound
together by the lasting principles of order, patriotism,
and religion. This would be a confederacy of virtue, possessing resistless power in all the private and public walks
of civil and social life.
I have never on any former occasion, felt greater pleasure than I now experience, from the public compliment
which you have this day paid to me; and the valued and
valuable gift which you have kindly presented to me,
shall ever remind me of your distinguished regard for me,
and of my deep debt of grateful acknowedgments to you.
I therefore thank you with the warmest sincerity, and I
hope very soon to have the extreme pleasure of meeting
you all in public assembly, when, at the top of my Popish Irish voice, and in the sweet tones of our own accomplished Irish brogue, I shall imiprint the inspired cutting
remarks of our national bard on your attentive Irish
hearts:"'Twas fate they say, a wayward fate,
Your web of discord wove,
And while your TYRANTS JOINED IN HATE
You never joined in love.




44      ADDRESS TO THE SONS OF ERIN  SOCIETY.
And hearts fall off thatought to twine;
And men profane whE GoD has given;
And some are heard to curse the shrine
Where others kneel to heaven."
Believe me, beloved fellow-countrymen, your attached
and devoted Irish priest,
D. W. CAHILL, D.D.
ANNIVERSARY DINNER IN HONOR
OF
SAINT PATRICK'S DAY.
The anniversary of the natal day of the Patron
Saint of Ireland, for 1852, was celebrated by the Catholics of Glasgow at a public banquet in the large
hall of the Tontine Hotel, the walls of which were
tastefully festooned with evergreens for the auspicious
occasion. The Glagow Free Press speaks in the fqllowings terms of this feast:
The presence of the illustrious Dr. Cahill-aptly termed by the Chairman-" the flower of the Irish priesthood "-imparted unwonted  Mclat
to the proceedings, and never, indeed, were we called on to record festivities on such a scale of magnitude as those which this year were held
in honor of St Patrick. The Rev. Patrick Hanley discharged the du
ties of the chair with an ability and tact which were the theme of gene
ral commendation. Upwards of 200 sat down to dinner.
After proposing and speaking to several toasts, the chairman said"The health of our respected friend, Dr. Cahill." ( Drunk with all the
honors, and one cheer more ).
Dr. Cahill on rising to reply, was accorded a reception, which for




ADDRESS AT GLASGOW.               45
the warmth of its enthusiasm, we have-never seen equalled in any public assembly, the audience getting on their feet eat masse, and cheering
for several minutes.
After a few words on Lords Russell and Palmerston. he commenced by modestly declining the high eulogium  conferred by the Chairman on his services,
which only consisted in his knowledge of the sad history of Ireland; if in his sympathies he seemed to
weep, it was because he followed tens of thousands of
his persecuted fellow-countrymen to the tomb, and
because he dipped his pen in their graves. Every
Irish heart, would have done what he did.
The patriotic Divine cast a glance of anguish over
the present state of Ireland, as compared with the time
in which St. Patrick first set his Apostolic foot on its
soil; then, it was the seminary of Europe; now, it is
stormed by the emissaries of Satan.  Catholicity is
almost natural to an Irishman: it cannot be effaced
from his heart. An interesting anecdote on the
Irish character, a vivid image on the celebration of
the day of St. Patrick in several countries, and a
splendid eulogium on the friendly crowded shores of
young and vigorous America, and the blessings of liberty, prepare us for a pathetic apostrophe, and a prayer, followed by a picture of emigrants. On finishing
his interesting discourse, the learned gentleman sat
down amidst an enthusiasm of applause, and d-emonstrations of respect by the waving of handkerchiefs and




46             ADDRESS AT GLASGOW.
continued cheering, "such, (says the Glasgow Free
Press,) as we have never before witnessed in this city."
DR. CAHILL'S SPEECH
Mr. Chairman and beloved fellow- countrymen, I do
believe there is no nation in the world able to shout with
the Irish. Our countryman, Dean Swift, counseled the
Irish people in his day, not to make speeches at public
meetings for fear of the Attorney General. "4 Do not
speak, " said he, " when you meet, as the law may
punish you; but there is no law against shouting-hence,
groan and shout."  And from that day to this, we can
groan and shout better, than any people in the whole
wGorld. Till I came here on this evening, I thought I
could never forgive either Lord J. Russell or Lord Palmerston; but the speakers who have preceded me have
inflicted such a castigation on them, that, with your kind
permission, I will forgive them-not in this world-but in
the next (laughter.) For this purpose, I must have the key
of the Kingdom of Heaven, and also the key of the other
place, in order that, when I first let them out, I can next
let them in. (Roars of laughter, which continued f'or
several minutes. )
Mr. Chairman, you have exaggerated my small services in reference to the'public letters which I have written. Whatever merit I may have, consisted in my knowing well the history of Ireland. The history of other
countries is learned from the cool pen of the historian,
but that of Ireland is learned from the crimsoned tombs of
the dead. The higtory of other nations is collected from
the growing population and successful commerce, but




ADDRESS AT GLASGOW.                4T
tke sad story of Ireland is gathered from the deserted
village, the crowded poor-house, and the mournful swelling canvass of the emigrant ship. (Loud cheers. ) You
gave me too much credit for those slender productions of
mine, and perhaps you are not aware that it was on the,,graves of the starved and shroudless victims' of English
misrule I stood when I indited the epistles.  I dated them
from the grave pits of Sligo, and the fever sheds of Skibbereen. If 1 seemed to weep, it was, because I followed
to coffinless tombs tens of thousands of my poor, persecuted fellow-contr.ymen; and if my descriptions appeared
tinged with red, it was, because I dipped my pen in their
fresh bleeding graves, in order to give suitable coloring
to the terrific page on which a cruel fate has traced the
destinies of Ireland. (Enthusiastic applause.) It was
not my mind but my bosom that dictated; it was not my
pen but my heart that wrote the record.
And where is the Irishman who would not feel an inyoluntary impulse of national pride, in asserting, the invincible genius of our own creed, while he gazes on the
crumbling walls of our ancient churches, which even, in
their old age, lifttheir hoary heads as faithful witnesses of
the past struggles of our Faith, and still, stand in their
massive frame work, resisting to the last the power of the
despoiler, and scarcely yielding to the inevitable stroke
of time?  (Long and loud cheering.)  And where is the
heart so cold, that would not pour forth a boiling torrent
of national anger at seeing the children of forty generations
consigned to a premature grave, or banished by cruel laws
to seek amongst the strangers the protection they are refused at home?




48              ADDRESS AT GLASGOW.
Nature does not deny a home to the untutered savage
that wanders naked over her boundless domain; even the
maternal genius of the inhospitable forest gives a welcome asylum to her young; she brings them forth from
her bare womb, suckles them on her stormy bosom, and
feeds them at her desert streams. She teaches them to
kneel beneath the dark canopy with which she shrouds
the-majesty of her inaccessible rocks: she warns them to
flee from danger, in the moaning voice of the unchained
tempests, and she clothes her kingdom in verdure and
sunlight to cheer them in their trackless home. Well has
the divine heart of Campbell given a preference to the savage beast over the ill-fated lot of the exiled Irishman, in
these immortal lines which express the history of our
nationWhere is my cabin door fast by the wild wood,
Where is my sire that wept for its fall?
Where is the mother that watched o'er my childhood T
Where is my bosom friend, dearer than all?
" Sad is my fate,',' said the heart-broken stranger,
" The wild deer and wolf to a covert can flee;
But I have no refuge from famine and danger,
A home and a country remain not for me."
(At the conclusion of these lines, many of the assembly
melted into tears, amidst the deepest sensation.) Oh! if
St. Patrick were now to visit Ireland, what changes
could not the historian recount to him since he first set
his Apostolic foot on the soil? For many centuries after
he died, Ireland enjoyed a profound peace, and a national prosperity. While, on the fall of the Roman Empire,
most of the kingdoms of Europe rose up in vindication of




ADDRESS AT GLASGOW.               49
their national rights, and all the neighboring nations were
filled with the disastrous accompaniments and results of
war; Ireland cultivated the arts and sciences, and practised the sublime precepts of the Gospel to perfection.
She was the seminary where Europe was then educated,
and whatever progress has been made by them in letters
and religion, they must own that they lighted the torch
of science and Faith at the sacred fires which burned on
the altars of Ireland. No doubt, a storm has in later days
been evoked from the abyss by the emissaries of Satan
against this ancient creed. It has burst over Ireland with
an awful violence, and in its devastating passage over
our fine country, it has blown down the venerable institutions of past ages; it has rent the monarch oak, which
crowned the forest with its lofty majesty-but the trunk
and the roots were too strong to be torn by the rage of
the hurricane; and here we are, the new growth of the
flourishing branches sprung from the old stock, and likely
to rise higher, and to spread farther than the parent tree,
which, three centuries ago, reached to the skies over Ireland.
In fact, Catholicity, if I may so speak, is almost natu,
ral to an Irishman. He is, as it were, a Christian before
he is baptized; he inherits Faith, by a kind of freehold
grace, which St. Patrick has bequeathed to the most remote posterity of Ireland. You can efface every feeling
from his heart but Catholicity; you can crush out every
sentiment from his mind but the love of his altars; you
may break him into pieces, and crush him into dust, but
like the diamond in fragments, Faith shines in him to the




50               ADDRESS AT GLASGOW.
last. (Loud, and long continued cheering.) The smallest
particle of the Irish nature-the poorest, the most abandoned of Ireland's sons, reveals the sparkling inheritance
as well as the most noble and lordly possessor: in fact,
the darkness of the night is more favorable for seeing the
native light of the fragment, than the golden hours of
noonday sunshine; and thus the midnight of national trial,
is the best time to behold the effulgence of Ireland's creed,
and to test the essential splendor of her national Faith.(Loud cheers.)  Or, as our own bard has it:The gem may be broke by many a stroke,
" But nothing can cloud its native ray,
Each fragment will cast a light to the last;
And thus Erin, my country, though broken thou art,
There's a lustre within thee, that ne'er can decay,
A spirit that breathes through each suffering part,
And smiles at thy pain on Saint Patrick's Day."
(At the conclusion of this sentence, the whole assembly
burst into the loudest applause.) No doubt, you have
heard the amusing fact of the Irish in a certain town in
England, when, in 1850, they proceeded there to burn
the Blessed Virgin in effigy. When all was ready for the
idolitrous conflagration, the Irish were seen collecting in
patches of tens and twenties, in the square where the faggots were prepared.  The police observed, that each
Irishman had a short, thick stick thrust up the sleeve of
his jacket; and on asking what use they intended to make
of these dangerous weapons in the present instance, one
of the Irish said —" why then, your honor, we were afraid
you might not have wood enough to burn the Virgin out




ADDRESS AT GLASGOW.              51
and out, and we brought these few kippeens, astiore, to
keep up the blaze." (Roars of laughter, which continued several minutes.) It is unnecessary to say, that the
Virgin was not burned on that day; and the Irish on returning home, were heard saying to each other-na bocklish, avick. (Repeated roars of laughter.) Fellow-countrymen, this is certainly a great day for Ireland.
As your chairman has given me credit for having some
knowledge of astronomy, I must take the liberty of informing the people of Scotland, that the length of the day and
night in Ireland is twenty-four hours —(loud laughter)and that it was twelve o'clock noon, in our colonies in the
east, at about four o'clock this morning in Ireland; and
again, that about this present hour, while we are filling
our sparkling glasses, the Irish are just going to Mass,
with the shamrocks in their hats, at twelve o'clock in America. The Irish soldier, therefore, on this morning, at
four o'clock, saluted the glorious memory of St. Patrick,
at the mouth of the Ganges; he began the shout in the
east as the sun culminated over Pekin; and as the day
advanced, and that shout rolled along the foot of Himalaya, it swept across the Indus, passed over the track of
Alexander the Great, was heard in ancient Byzantium,
disturbed the slumbei of the sleeping brave in the gray
field of Marathon, reverberated along the Seven Hills of
Rome, and almost awoke, about ten o'clock this morning
old Romulus on th'e banks of the Tiber.
Owing to the mysterious destinies of Ireland, and of our
scattered race, there is not a spot, from the Yellow Sea
to the Pillars of Hercules, from Garryowen to Melbourne,




52             ADDRESS AT GLASGOW;
in which some merry Irishman does not on this day fix
the green shamrock in his cap, and, with overflowing soul
and wild transports of native joy sing the inspiring airs of
his country, and chant aloud thb magical tune of" Saint
Patrick's Day in the Morning."  (Loud cheers for several minutes.) But the commemorating voice of this day
through primaval Asia and old Europe, is weak in comparison to the power it attains when it has crossed the
Atlantic, and reached the friendly crowded shores of
young and vigorous America. There, many a fond Irish
heart welcomes the well-known cheers, as they burst in
the patriot skies of Bunker's Hill: there the shout assumes
the majesty of thunder as it rolls in peals, again and again
repeated over the boundless piairies that skirt the Mississippi, and is echoed and're-echoed along the chiselled
Alleghanies, until it dies away into silence about two
o'clock to:night, as it re-echoes the placid, boundless bo.
som of the Pacific. (Great cheering.)
Thus round and round the globe, is the voice of Ireland
-this day heard by all mankind-thus her scattered and
fated children sing the wild song of their native land to
the stranger-thus they pour forth the patriot strains of
their beloved country to the idolatrous Tartar; to the
polished European, and the savage Indian; thus they
stretch their united hands to each other on this day, and
round the entire world they form a girdle of national love
and patriotism, which reaches from the east to the west,
and we couple the north and the south poles within the
wide circle of our exiled but glorious affections. (No one
except those who heard the conclusion of the sentence




ADDRESS AT GLASGOW.               63
can form any idea of the wild enthusiasm which followed. After silence was again restored, and every ear
again on the strain to drink in eagerly the burning language of the gifted orator.)  He proceeded-Listen for
a moment, about twelve o'clock to-night, and you will
hear our own harp pour forth its Irish, plaintive voice
from New York, across the broad enraptured waters of
the Atlantic. Even now, if you will be quiet,' you can
audibly distinguish the shout of joy raised by seven millions of our blood, our race, and our Faith along the
free shores of glorious, hospitable America.
Oh! America, how I love your green fields, because
they are now the resting place of the wandering children
of our country! I worship your lofty mountains and your
rich valleys, because they afford an asylum and a barrier
against the storms of adversity, which have swept away
and withered the ancient homesteads of Ireland. I bless
your majestic rivers, your magnificent lakes, because I
behold the friendly canvass of your marine spread on
their joyous waters, conveying my forlorn countrymen to
a peaceful and plentiful home. Oh! America, I could
die for your generous people, because they have opened
their arms to welcome the ejected sons of St. Patrick!I long to stand in the presence of the patriot, the accomplished Mrs. Tyler, and the incomparable ladies of America, that I may, offer to them the deep homage of my
grateful heart-that I may present to them the respect
and the enthusiasm of the people of Ireland, for the ws ithering chastisement they have inflicted on the sainted
cruelty of the Duchess of Sutherland, and for the grate



54              ADDRESS AT GLASGOW.
ful dignity with which they have exposed the wellmeaning hypocrisy of her noble committee. And T long
to behold the country where the broken heart of Ireland
is bound for, her daughters protected, her sons adopted:
where conscience is free, where religion is not hypocrisy,
where liberty is a reality, and where the Gospel is a holy
profession of Divine love, and not a profligate trade of
national vengeance. (Applause.)
How long, O Lord, wilt Thou hold Thy omnipotent
scourge over Ireland, the most faithful nation of all the
kingdoms that possess the Divine revelations from Heaveni?  But till Providence is pleased to stauinch the flowing blood of Ireland, and to heal the wound; we, her persecuted sons, are bound to raise the cry of horror against
our relentless oppressors; to keep up through each coming year and each century, the watchword of our sires
for freedom, till the happy day of our deliverance. It is
glorious to struggle for the redemption of one's country;
it is base tamely to submit to the tyrant's frown-liberty,
and then death, is preferable to slavery and life. Oh!
eternal liberty-inheritance of the soul!
" Better to bleed for an age at thy shrine,
Than to sleep for one moment in chains."
(Wild and rapturous cheering.) Beloved fellow-countrymen, of late years I have had more opportunities of seeing the sufferings of the Irish than many others.  I meet
them at the seaport towns; I hear their complaints; I am
familiar with their hard trials, and feel intensely their
dire fate; and, in the midst of all their misfortunes, they:




ADDRESS AT GLASGOW.              5
never lose the native affections of their warm  Irish
hearts.
About the year' 1849, I went on board an emigrant
ship at the Custom-House in Dublin, in order to see the
accommodation of the poor emigrants. While walking
on the deck, I saw a decent poor man from the county
Meath, with the ugliest dog I ever beheld, in his arms.
He seemed to be keeping up a kind of private conversation with this dog, and occasionally he kissed him so
affectionately, that I was led to speak to him, and made
some inquiry about him. He told me that the-dog's name
was Brandy; that he and his mother were in his family
for several years, and that he wzas the same age as his
-youngest child. (Loud laughter.) He continued to say,
that on the day he was ejected, and his house thrown
down, Brandy's house was thrown down, too; in fact,
that the poor dog was exterminated as well as himself.
That he took pity on him, brought him to Dublin, paid
fifteen shillings for his passage to America, and that he
would support him with his children as long as he lived.
While we were speaking, the dog began to bark; on
which I inquired what he was barking at. "Oh! Sir,"
said he, "he knows we are talking about the landlord.
He knows his name as well as I do, and the creature always cries and roars when he hears hisname mentioned."
(Roars of laughter, which lasted several minutes.)
Oh, many a trial the poor Irish have endured during
the last six years! Many a volume could be filled with
ftie cruel persecution of the faithful Irish. From Galway
to America, the track of the ship is marked by the whi



56             ADDRESS AT GLASGOW.
tened bones of the murdered Irish that lie along the bottom of the abysses of the moaning ocean. And yet
those that have reached the friendly shore, still drag a
heavy chain which binds them to their native land; still,
they long to see their own beloved hills, and lay their
bones with the ancient dead of their Faith and their kindred. And if death summons them beyond the Mississippi, or amidst the snows of Canada, or the pestilence
of Mexico, they turn their fading eyes towards the daystar that rises over Ireland, and their last prayer is offered to Heaven for the liberty of their country-the last
sigh to God, is made for the freedom of her altars.
DR. CAHILL AND THE HIBERNIAN FRIENDLY
SOCIETIES.
DR. CAHILL'S letter to the Catholics of Liverpool,
produced an Address of the members of the Hibernian
Friendly Societies, giving him the most sincere thanks
for that letter, and assuring him of their esteem, regard, and unbounded confidence. They proved by
various quotations from the English Code the legality
of their Society, and showed its object to be that of
law, order, and ounity of sentiment.
Dr. Cahill in his affectionate response says: "lihe
is made very happy by the practical evidence they
gave to him of their voluntary obedience; he is proud
of being the recognised peacemaker of that community; and entreats them to persevere in the observance




HIBERNIAN FRIENDLY SOCIETIES.                   67
of law, prudence, and union, as all illegal societies
must fall.  He hopes to see all the Irishmen in England living in mutual love; and to have very soon
the pleasure of meeting them in Liverpool, to receive
their pledge to abandon party strife, to love each
other like brothers, and to stand together in one united confederacy."
TO THE VERY REV. DR. CAHILL.
VERY REV. ANT DEAR SIR:-We, the officers and members of the
First, Second, and Third Hibernian Friendly Societies, beg to tender
to you the warmest expression of our best thanks for your admirable
letter to the Catholics of Liverpool. We need hardly say, that you
command not only the esteem and affectionate regard of your fellowcountrymen, but their unbounded confidence. We, therefore, take no
credit to ourselves for at once-complying with your advice and council.
We may here be permitted to remark, that our Society is founded on
a perfectly legal basis. By its Thirteenth Rule, which is in strict accordance with the provisions of 10th George IV., chapter 56, as amended by 4th and 5th William IV., chapter 40, we are empowered to walk
in procession with flags. banners and music. We may further add, that
the object of the Societies in question, ale purely of a benevolent and
charitable nature. First, to support the sick: Second, to bury the
dead: and, Third, to alleviate the miseries of the widow and the orthan. As a proof of this fact, the Second Hibernian Society has paid
from the 1st of May 1847, tod the 1st November, 1851, the sum of ~861
for funeral expenses alone and the support of females.
Law and order, unity of sentiment among Catholics, and a total oblivion of all provincial distinctions, rank among the chief objects of our
associations, and distinguish all our proceedings.
With these few remarks, and with profound respect for yourself per
sonally, we have the distinguished honor, and the supreme happiness to
be, Very Reverend and Dear Sir, your ever faithful and loving
countrymen.
(Signed on behalf of myself and fellow-members.)
JAMES M'CORMICK, Chief Preadens.




i8  REPLY TO THE HIBERNIAN FRIENDLY SOCIETIES.
DR. CAHILL'S REPLY.
ST. MICIIAN'S, DUBLIN, MIonday, March 1st, 1852.
BELOVED FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN:-You make me very
happy by the unqualified obedience which you show towards my late affectionate advice to my countrymen in
Liverpool; you give strength to my words, and you add
public respect to my name, by placing yourselves implicitly under my command; you raise my request to a level with the authority of your magistrates, and follow my
will as you would submit to the law. There can be no
compliment paid to me higher than this practical evidence
of your voluntary, submission; and there could be no
public station in your city to which I would aspire with
more ambition than to hold the distinguished rank of being the recognised peacemaker of a community of nearly
half a million of inhabitants, healing old wounds, inspiring social union, effacing the memory of past contention,
laying the foundation of public harmony, and cementing
at the same time, into one confederacy of loyalty, order,
patriotism, and love, every Irishman in Liverpool, without distinction of parish, or province, or name. This is
avowedly a lofty station for any man to fill; I am grateful to you for this place; I value it exceedingly, and the
more so, because it is a free public gift.
And now may I hope that you will never deprive me
of the eminence to which you have raised me; that you
will continue me in office; and that by your observance
of law, and by prudence, and by union of national sentiment, you will enable me successfully to fulfil the duties




REPLY TO THE HIBERNIAN FRIENDLY SOCIETIES. 59
of the responsible post which you have called on me to
take. I promise to you on my part the most faithful services; and, I undertake to earn and to merit your kind
and entire confidence. WVhen next Patrick's Day will
have terminated in public peace and social happiness, I
shall consider myself unregistered member for the Borough
of Liverpool; having, and holding my place, not from a
majority of votes out of old rotten ten pound tenements,
but from the devoted warm young hearts of my countrymen, from the sincere estimation of every lover of peace
and morality, whether Protestant or Catholic, in the entire community. Let my brother members in the Borough, therefore appropriately attend to your politics and
to your property, my parliamentary business is solely confined to your character and your lives; and with the blessing
of God (as I hope to have a clear case,) I shall explain
before the first of next July to the Home Secretary, the
extent of my official services, and the support I expect at
his hands.
The basis of your societies, appears from your statement, to be laid with prudence and judgment; as any
society not invested with strictly legal conditions must
fall, as surely as the leaves will fall in October. Illegal
societies have within themselves an inherent internal cancer, which must of itself consume and dissolve the entire
frame. They are like bastard seed planted in a bad soil,
it never can come to perfection, it must ultimately perish;
and I have never known an illegal society in Ireland
which has not been secretly founded by our deadly enemi 
encouraged by our relentless foes, carried on in blood,




60  REPLY TO THE HIBERNIAN FRIENDLY SOCIETIES.
and ending in the transport ship or the reeking scaffold.
With what pleasure, therefore, do I behold your societies, established on such clear legal foundations, and effecting such incalculable good amongst our poor but unparalleled Irish females-in feeding them, in clothing them,
protecting them, sustaining them. Oh! such a Godlike
work, to protect these innocent, ill-fated children, far from
home, and to gladden their breaking hearts with kindness
and charity.
I fondly hope to see the auspicious day, when I shall
see all the Irishmen in Liverpool, and in all the other English towns, living in.mutual national love. It makes the
heart sick to see Irish against Irish, heart against heart,
kindred and blood against kindred and blood. It is a national disgrace, and a national reproach; if we are faithless to ourselves, how can strangers rely on' our fidelity?
If we are enemies to each other, how can we complain
of the persecution of strangers? Wolves do not devour
each other-and there is no shame which causei such a
crimson blush in the face of every real friend of Ireland,
as to hear of Irishmen eating Irishmen's flesh; or, as
Cromwell would say it, roasting each other on a spit for
interest or revenge.
I hope very soon to have the pleasure of meeting you
all in Liverpool; and one of the proudest moments of my
life would be to find myself surrounded by the different
heads of all your societies, from the four provinces, and
to place your hands joined together within my hands,
when I would make you all give a pledge to me, and before God, to abandon party strife, to love each other like




ADDRESS AT GLASGOW.                       61
brothers, and to stand together in one united confederacy
of virtue, and order, for the remainder of your lives.  I
shall feel highly honored to become the Vice President
of such an united body of men as I have here sketched,
and you may command my services to any extent, and
rely on me with most implicit obedience.
1 thank you most sincerely for the remarkable expression of your respect towards me, and believe me, beloved
fellow-countrymen, your devoted Irish Priest,
D. W. CAHILL, D.D.
REV. DR. CAHILL AND THE CATHOLICS
OF GLASGOW.
The Catholics of Glasgow, numbering between two
and three thousand persons, entertained the Rev. Dr.
Cahill at a public Soiree in that city. The Rev. J.
Danaher occupied the chair, and delivered the following introductory address:
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. It now becomes my pleasing duty to call
upon you for a demonstration of respect towards the distinguished individual whom we have the honor of entertaining this evening. ( Great
demonstrations of applause, which continued for several minutes. )After the cheering had subsided, the Rev. Gent. in the course of his eloquent observations said-As a priest, a patriot, and a scholar, Dr. Cahill
is entitled to our respect, esteem and admiration. (Loud cheers.) In
this threefold capacity, he has now for years occupied a high position
in the affections of the people. He has made his vast scientific acquirements subserve the cause of religion, and by his golden eloquence,
has caused the learned, and the wealthy, atdjthe.great, to respect a




62                 ADDRESS AT GLASGOW.
creed which they were in the habit of regarding as a folly. ( Cheers 
During his stay amongst us, you have allsbecome acquainted with his ap'
titude to illustrate Faith by the mysteries of nature. But, ladies and
gentlemen, Dr. Cahill has established other claims on our admiration,
which it is impossible not to advert on the present occasion. When on
a recent occasion a tremendous deluge of woe swept over our countrv,
prostrating the energies of a nation; when our countrymen become thi
victims of famine, and pestilence, and law; when men and women and
children were sheltering in the damp ditches, and rotting off the earth
one by one; when the workhouse doors were crowded with gaunt, naked, and hunger-stricken human beings; old women with the bones
protruding through their skin, and children with the hideous fur of famine thick over their fleshless limbs; when the loud but unavailing wailing of famine rang from shore to shore, a surer index of a more indiscriminating slaughter than was ever effected by the hand of the destroying Angel; when desolation thus hung over tile country, like a pestilential pall, eager to embrace within its deadly folds the wasted rem
nants of a devoted nation -this was the time above all others selected
by a British ministry to proclaim war against our church, and this was
the time above all others, that the champions of a free constitution
showed their zeal for civil toleration by branding bishops, insulting priests
mobbing nuns, pulling down churches, and preaching up infidelity; then
it was that Dr. Cahill, in those powerful letters with which you are all
acquainted, published to the world -his indignation of the criminals
and the crime, and inspired an universal hatred; or rather gave expres
sion to an universal hatred, already inspired against enomrmities de.
tested by God and execrated by man.
At the conclusion of his brilliant speech, the Rev.
Chairman read the following address from the Catholics of Glasgow to the Rev. Dr. Cahill. It was
printed on white satin with golden letters.
ADDRESS TO REV. DR. CAHILL.
REv. DOCTOR.-The Catholic inhabitants of Glasgow, beg leave to
offer you, on this festive evening their united expression of protound respect and affectionate regard. They unanimously hailed your visit to this




ADDRESS AT GLASGOW.                       63
city with feelings of joy and exultation, and they now bid you farewell
with sentiments of increased admiration. We are proud of you as an
Irishman -we value you as a patriot-and we venerate you as a priest.
When a hostile government planned and abetted the overthrow of
Catholic monarchy on the continent of Europe, the cause of truth and
justice was indebted to you for those letters which have unmasked the
hidden treachery of our deadly enemies-which, in their wide circulation throughout the nations of the earth, have awakened a universal
feeling of execration against this infidel conspiracy; and which,
have ultimately resulted in the final overthrow of this infamous scheme
against civil and religious liberty.
There is no Catholic mind or Catholic heart in this empire, which
does not feel an involuntary impulse of gratitude towards the name of
Dr. Cahill, when we recollect the burning invectives which burst
from your pen against England's cruelties during the famine and pestilence that afflicted your country. These noble appeals in favor of your
poor countrymen, are written in all hearts, and are pronounced by every
Irish tongue.
Whilst they consoled the poor victim in the wasting poor-house, and
cheered the bioken-hearted emigrant on'his melancholy banishment
from the home of his fathers, they will remain for ever in Ireland, an
imperishable monument of the melting generosity of your heart, and the
unquenchable love you bore your ill-fated country.
We confess here, publicly, that we thank a kind Providence-for having raised up such a man in Ireland to defend our name and our faith.
We are proud to feel that the man who at this moment possesses the
affections of the whole heart of Ireland, by his patriotism-who takes
his place next to the Liberator, in the public confidence, has wrung, at
the same time, from our bitterest foes the expression of their admira
tion for the extent of those literary and scientific attainments which the
public voice now willingly concedes to you, almost without a rival in
this age of letters.
At one time, the public listen with ecstacy to your lectures on Astro.
nomy-at another, we hear of your brilliant dissertations on Chemistry;
again, the Press refers to the crowded audiences of the learned who
attend you on Geology, Mineralogy, and the whole round of the varied
branches of Natural Philosophy. But the most astonishing fact yet re.




64                 ADDRESS AT GLASGOW.
mains to be told-that is, while you are thus lecturing on different subjects, the churches are, immediately after, everywhere filled with thousands, hanging on words of almost inspired eloquence, and the Press
is filled with these splendid letters, which start into existence almost in
an hour.'Any of your avocations would be more than sufficient work for the
most learned amongst us, and hence the aggregate of these labors can
only be executed by the man, whose surprising attainments we are endeavoring to describe.
When we heard, through the public prints, that in Liverpool, Manchester, London, and elsewhere, you attracted whole cities after you
wherever you went, we could never understand the circumstance, till
we have been honored by your present visit to Glasgow. We now understand it, and we behold a tide of human beings-in fact, the whole
Catholic population. following you wherever you go.
The result is, that an amount of moral good has been effected in this
city through your discourses, which cannot be sufficiently appreciated.
Reformations and conversions have been made in several instances, and
in the short space of five weeks, since you commenced your lectures in
our churches, we have collected several thousands of pounds for the
various charities of the town.
We therefore beg leave to thank you —we are all desirous from our
hearts to honor you-and with the united voice and prayer of the thousands who are assembled here this evening to bid you farewell. We
join in a heartfelt, universal prayer, that God may long preserve you.,
the ornament of the priesthood, and the fearless, invincible champion of
your creed and your country.
The chairman was frequently cheered during the
reading of the address, and on Dr. Cahill presenting
himself was received with unbounded enthusiasm.
The Glasgow Free Press in alluding to the effect of
this,powerful speech, says:
"On bowing and taking his seat, an assembly of between two and
three thousand ladies and gentlemen standing, the Rev. Gentleman
was greeted with a demonstration of enthusiasm  which was never,which could not be surpassed-the gentlemen cheering and the ladies
waving their pocket handkerchiefs."




ADDRESS AT GLASGOW.              65
REV. DR. CAHILL'S ADDRESS.
M]. CIAIRMAN LAD IES AND GENTLEMEN: I am laboring
on the present occasion under a deficiency, for which I am
convinced you will pardon me, namely, I am afraid you
wtill not understand me, in consequence of my Irish accent.  (The conclusion of the sentence, like the wand of
a magician, set the whole house in a roar.) I now beg
to tell you with the deepest feelings of a lasting gratitude,
that, although I have received many marks of public
favor heretofore in Ireland and in England, I have never
found myself placed in a position of such exalted distinction as on the present occasion. Surrounded as I am,
not by hundreds but by thousands of gentlemen and ladies,
by priests and people, I return my homage for your advocacy on this evening, of a great principle in thus honoringthe individual who now addresses you. (Loud cheers.)
Your eloquent and valued address written on satin in
golden letters, shall be preserved by me as long as I
live; it is a model of exquisite taste, and conveys impressions of affection which I shall carefully bind up with
the most cherished feelings of my life; but there is an eloquence of soul which the golden ink. could not express;
and that silent thrilling language must be read in the merry faces, the sparkling looks, and ardent bosoms which
reveal to my inmost heart the sincerity and the intensity
of your feeling towards me. (Enthusiastic cheers.)
In associating me in the most remote connexion with
the great O'Connell-( at the name of O'Connell the
whole assembly rose and cheered) —you do me an honor
3




66              ADDRESS AT GLASGOW.
which would raise even a great man to imperishable fame:
as you illume me with a lray from that immortal name
which sheds unfading lustre on the records of Ireland's
saddest and brightest history, and which will live in the
burning affections of the remotest posterity of a grateful
country. (Loud and long cheering.) I am like a jollyboat following a line of battle-ships, as I move in the foaming track of this leviathan guardship of Ireland. Large
as I am, I am lost in the spray- of the rudder; and no
one who has ever witnessed the discharge of his broadside against the enemy, heard the thunder of his command,
or saw the fatal precision of his aim, will ever think of
comparing any living man to the great departed Irish
champion. (Loud cheers.) And it was not the fault of
our old commander if his invincible bark did not convey
the liberties of his country to a successful issue-he sailed
in shallow water, he was stranded by necessity; but no
one hah ever dared to say, that either he-or his gallant
"'~j ever quailed before danger, or struck their colors
to the enemy. And when the returning tide rises and the
breeze freshens, the old noble ship shall again set her sails
before the wind; and, changing her name from Repeal to
National Equality, her fearless crew shall again shout for
freedom, and, with some future O'Connell at the helm,
she will, and shall again face the storm, and ride the swollen flood in pride and triumph. (Enthusiastic cheers,
which continued for several minutes.)
Whenever I go to Dublin, I pay a sorrowing visit to
the tomb of our old commander, where I shed a tear over
his ashes, and plant a flower on his grave. (Here the




ADDRESS AT GLASGOW.                67
wnole assembly audibly wept and sobbed.) I mourn for
the lip of fire which was wont to kindle into resistless
flame our universal patriotism; I grieve for the melting
tongue that could dissolve the whole national will into a
flood of resistless combination: and as I gaze on the dark
vault that spans the horizon of Ireland, and see pretty
stars shining in the Irish skies, I weep as I think on the
brilliant sun that once careered in these skies in peerless
splendor; the luminary-which guided our destinies for
upwards of half a century, but which now, alas! has set
forever below the saddening west of time, leaving the
crimsoned clouds, like funeral drapery, to shroud the fading twilight that hangs over his departed memory. (A
loud burst of the most enthusiastic emotion rose from
every bosom at the conclusion of this sentence.)
Oh, if he had lived to stand on the heights of Ireland,
as the churchyards during the last seven years, sent their
united wail of woe across our stricken land: oh! if he
had lived to gaze on the red waves of the Atlantic, and
heard the wild sinking shriek of Irish despair, wafted
from the moaning abysses of the deep, as our kindred
perished on their exiled voyage-he, and he alone, could
raise a cry of horror, which would be heard in the ends
of the earth-could shake the foundation of the nations,
and wrench justice fiom even the iron bosoms of our
cruel oppressors. None but he, could pronounce the funeral oration of the Irish, for he had a voice that could
fill the world, and enchain the attention of mankind; and
he alone had a heart to express the greatness, the perfection, the fidelity, the sufferings, and the death-struggles




68             ADDRESS AT GLASGOW.
of his unfortunate country. He was Ireland's own son,
the irnpersonation of her own heart-and he alone could
sit at her bedside and speak words of consolation for the
extermination and the massacre of her defenceless children. (No one can describe the rapturous cheers which
greeted the orator at this part of his speech.)
Your allusion to my public letters, makes me very
happy. There can be no doubt that England has endeavored, since the year 1815, to bring to a successful issue
the largest conspiracy, ever perhaps, known in the whole
world. When she placed Louis the Eighteenth on the
throne of France, after the Battle of Waterloo, she found
herself for the first time, for the last 700 years, virtually
directing the politics, and practically planning the counsels of France. This was a bright opening to her intrigues and ambition; and from this period.may be dated
the commencement of a scheme, which for hypocrisy,
anarchy, deceit, and infidelity, has no parallel in the history of the civilized world.
Secure in organizing an English party in France, she
next proceeded to enslave to her views poor Spain, already
demoralised, plundered, weakened, and exhausted by the
presence of two contending armies. England, therefore,
first planned the separation of her South American dependencies and allies, and hence she revolutionized all that
territory into petty republics, and located a powerful,
designing party in the Republics of Guatemala, Chili,
Peru, Columbia, La Plata, and Alonte Video. Spain herself, thus become an easy prey to her perfidious diplomacy; and hence, in the year 1832, she changed the sue



ADDRESS AT GLASGOW.             s9
cession to the throne, divided the nation into two hostile
factions, and raised up at the Court an English party,
which governs there at the present moment. She, even
made a bargain, which I am able to prove from undisputed documents, to lend money to the Queen's party, on
condition of guaranteeing to her the repayment of the
funds so given from the confiscation of all the Church
property of the nation.
In the year 1833, she carried out the same design precisely, in Portugal; placed the daughter of a rebel son
on the throne, advanced money for the execution of this
palpable rebellion, on the condition of being repaid in the
same way-namely, the'confiscation of all the Church
property in Portugal. Here again she planted her English party, who rule to this day the kingdom of Portugal. And with such desperate fidelity did England carry
out her plans, that, within two years, she sold the churches
in both countries, and converted them into theatres: she
took possession of all the convents in Spain, both male
and female; she seized all the large convents in Portugal: she banished from their cloisters, one hundred and
fifteen thousand monks, friars, and nuns, who perished of
hunger, affliction, and a broken heart. The debt due to
England by Spain, has been already paid; but I am in a
position to prove that the wretched Portuguese have not
as yet, cleared off their unholy national mortgage to the
English bankers, who, twenty years ago, advanced the
money on English Government security. (Enthusiastic
cheering.):The Duke of Wellington has received many Protestant
laurels from his campaign in Spain, and the partial histo



70             ADDRESS AT GLASGOW.
rian pronounces glowing panegyrics on his honor and
character in the Peninsular War. True, he paid, in gold
principally, for the food of the English army there; but,
he inflicted a thousand times more injury on that country
than the plundering army of the French. Under pretence of depriving the French of any point of attack on
the English, he threw down the Spanish factories, burned -their machinery, beggared their merchants, ruined
their commerce from that day to this, and has thus been
a greater enemy to Spain, than the most savage Hun that
ever spread death and desolation over that fine country.
l must tell you an anecdote of Wellington. About the
year 1816, there was a tavern in old Barrack Street, having over the door'the sign of the old goat.' The tavern
keeper made a fortune by the call of the County Meath
graziers, who frequented his house. He gave his daughter in marriage to a young man on the opposite side of
the street, who, seeing the good luck of his father-in-law,
set up a public house in opposition to the old man, and
he, too, placed'the sign of the goat' over his door, to deceive the customers. The old man then, in retaliation
wrote, in large printed letters, under his sign,'the real
old goat.' (Loud laughter.) But soon changinghis mind,
as the Battle of Waterloo had taken place the year before,
he ordered a painter to draw out the Duke of Wellington in full military costume, in place of the old goat. The
painter did execute the work, but he forgot to efface the
words of the old sign; and there the Duke of Wellington
appeared with the General's truncheon in his hand, and
having the words,' the real old goat,' written under him,




ADDRESS AT GLASGOW.              71
(Roars of laughter, which lasted several minutes.) I tell
you, now, that the real old goat was the most persecuting
foe, the most deadly enemy, that Spain ever saw.
The English conspirators being now secure in the principal thrones of Europe, proceeded to Austria, where
they encouraged the civil war which has reddened the
soil in human gore, and has eventuated in the most disastrous results to that great Catholic country. Not a city,
town, village, in Austria or Hungary, in which an English agent was not found working like the devil in his
vocation of civil strife and national revolution: and it is
an admitted fact, that the English party had become very
powerful through every part of the empire. But Switzerland was the great focus, where the English party
openly avowed their sentiments, and publicly threatened
the Catholic powers of Europe with immediate civil revolution.
The world will be surprised to hear, that the English
party and their confederates, amounted in that country
alone to the astounding number of 73,000 sworn enemies
of Catholic monarchy. I here pledge myself before this
assembly, to prove the perfect accuracy of this statement.
They next spread themselves into Naples, where the
king, unaware of this English conspiracy, admitted them
into his confidence, and gave them official places in his
public schools. They ultimately succeed in forming a
perfect network over the whole surface of Europe; and
while they were laboring to lay the materials of a universal explosion beneath all the Catholic thrones, they were
confederating all the Protestant powers to act with one




72             ADDRESS AT GLASGOW.
simultaneous effort when the day of their matured plans
should have arrived. (The entire assembly, who, up to
this moment, listened with the most breathless attention
to this statement, now gave vent to their feelings in one
universal burst of applause.)
During all this time, England appeared kind to Ireland: spoke largely of Catholic monarchy in the Queen's
speeches, and talked of honor and international law. But
under this exterior of good feelings, she preserved feelings of the bitterest private rancor towards universal Catholic policy.
This conduct reminds me of an old Tory grand juror,
from the hanging town of Trim, in Ireland, during the
judicial reign of Lord Norbury. It was in the year 1818,
when O'Connell was working for Emancipation. This
old gentleman had dined with Norbury, heard him speak
against Catholic Emancipation-took too much champaigne, and fell in a ditch on his way home —le wore a
fashionable red waistcoat, and- a turkeycock seeing the
red colour, flew to him in the ditch, and commenced
blubbering over the head of the juror. (Loud laughter.)
He fancied it was Lord Norbury who was still inveighing against Emancipation; and whenever the turkeycock
paused in his blubbering elocution, the old juror would
exclaim "Quite true, my lord; these are noble sentiments,
worthy of your lordship, and highly honorable to the
Crown." (Roars of laughter.) Here the turkeycock
would again resume, and cry out "blubber, blubber, blub.
her," to which the old Brunswicker would reply —" I
agree with your lordship; your remarks proceed from




ADDRESS AT GLASGOW.              73
true Protestant principles worthy of a bishop; and they
eloquently defend our holy church; I always admired
your language as the ornament of the bench, and we both
shall die sooner than retract one word of your brilliant
speech, or emancipate these Catholic rebels." (Roars of
laughter, which burst out again and again for several
minutes.) Now, here was an old fellow so drunk that
he could not distinguish between Lord Norbury and a
turkeycock, and yet the devilment of bigotry was so much
in him that he would not agree to unchain the very men,
who, perhaps, sat by his side on that day, and for whom
he had pretended to entertain feelings of friendship and
toleration. (Loud cheers.)
Up-to the year 1846, the office of a British Minister
seemed to be revolutionizing the neighboring States, and
making royal matches. They have attempted to place a
Coburg in all the royal palaces of Europe, and to transfuse the influence of England into the blood of several
royal houses. Not a revolutionist in Europe, who was
not the intimate friend and correspondent of the English
Foreign Secretary. The very men most abhorred in their
own country, were received at all the English embassies;
and there could be no mistake that England advocated
their cause, approved their schemes, and assisted their
machinations. Every rebel foreigner appealed to England for advice, and in his difficulty flew to her for protection. (Breathless emotion chained the entire audience.)
Concomitantly with this political scheme, the English
Bible Societies, under the protection of England, sent
their emissaries into all these countries; and by misrepre



74             ADDRESS AT GLASGOW.
sentation of the Catholic doctrine, hv lies of the grossest
invention, and by bribery, they opened a campaign of
proselytism in every Catholic city in Europe, and united
their efforts against Catholicity with three resident conspirators against monarchy.  The lodging-houses, the
hotels, and the watering places, were everywhere filled
with a swarm of Soupers and Biblemen, Tourists, novelists, naval officers, military men, young lords, correspondents of the London press, were to be found at every
town of the European continent, all pressing forward to
carry one point-'namely, the slander of the Catholic
priesthood. Stories about convents, lies about priests,
anecdotes of monks, filled thousands of nicely bound small
volumes, and sold at all the railway stations in England;
and no less a sum than five millions pounds were annually expended by these societies through Europe in this
flagitious work of calumny, lies, profanation, and perjury.
Not an ambassador, an attache', a charge d'afaires,
a, messenger was employed in our diplomatic circles who
was not as unprincipled a writer as Sir Francis Head,
as conceited a historical libeller as Macauley, as great a
hypocrite as Sir Stratford Canning, as ridiculous a Souper as young Peel, and as mean a bigot as Sir Henry Bulwer. Not a man would be accredited to any Court who
had not the kidney of Shaftesbury, the rancor of Palmerston, and the intolerance of Russell. It was a strange
sight, indeed, to behold other names, which I shall not
mention, teaching sanctity by corruption, publishing faith
by infidelity, propagating truth by lies, enforcing purity
by profligacy, and really worshipping God by the devil.




ADDRESS AT GLASGOW.              75
(The whole audience here again, after a long pause of silence, burst out into the loudest acclamation.)
Fortunately for the cause of religion and of order, this
doubly infamous conspiracy has been wholly. detected
and laid before the gaze of mankind: most propitiously,
Louis Napoleon has succeeded in rescuing France from
an abyss of national disaster, and most providentially
every Catholic country has escaped an awful catastrophe;
and they all now, by a united reaction, have detected
England's perfidy; have banished her spies from their
respective territories; have degraded her diplomatists;
insulted her name; banished her from their international
councils; and at this moment, she hangs her head like a
convict, in the presence of foreign courts-the detected
assassin, the perfidious enemy of the religion and the liberties of Catholic Europe. (Loud and enthusiastic
cheering.)
All these men are now defeated and degraded: Russell is a discarded hanger-on, waiting at St. Stephen's behind the chair of a successful rival: Palmerston, like an
ill-conducted servant, has been reduced from Foreign
Secretary, to a detective superintendent of police; and
like an old jaded actor, who once took a first part in the
performance, but being ultimately unable to act, still
clings to the stage, and earns his bread in a minor office;
we behold in pity the Foreign Minister, once the terror
of Louis Philippe —once sweeping-the Mediterranean
with an invincible fleet, now reduced to be a Crown prosecutor against his former companions at Old Bailey by
day, while at night he receives a precarious employment,




76             ADDRESS AT GLASGOW.
snuffing the candles behind the scenes at Lord Aberdeen's
benefit. (Vociferous and wild cheers.)
Lord Palmerston's fate reminds me of a man in the
County Leitrim —a terrible bigot —who, during one of
the paroxysms of a brain fever, fancied that one of his
legs turned Catholic. (Loud roars of laughter.) In his
indignation at seeing Popery contaminating his Protestant
person, he jumped out of a window to kill the Catholic
leg, but he unfortunately fell on the Protestant leg, and
he limped on the Protestant leg all the days of his life
after. (Continued roars of laughter.) Poor Palmerston,
I think, will have an unbecoming halt during his life on
his Protestant leg. (Immense cheering.)
In what a proud contrast does not Lord Aberdeen appear in reference to his Whig predecessors. The friend
of the Catholics, the advocate of justice, the enlightened
and consistent supporter of toleration, he has won our
willing veneration, and has earned the respect of Christian Europe. No bigot, no hypocrite, no persecutor, he
has already gone far to heal the wounds of former administrations; and by perseverance in his honorable career,
he will succeed in due time, in removing the contempt,
and suspicion, and the hatred in which the British Government and the Protestant creed have been held during
the last few years, by the Catholic Sovereigns and people of Europe. Many a million of money this British
fanaticism will yet cost England in the maintenance of an
army to defend her shores against the numerous enemies
she has made: and the Protestant church will soon learn
to her cost, that her lies and infidelities will yet concen




ADDRESS AT GLASGOW                77
trate upon her the just indignation of mankind, and, at no
distant period, will sweep her tenets and her name from
the map of Christian Europe. (.Cheers.)
When I use the word "England," I do not mean the
noble, generous people of England; no, I mean the mean,
the'perfidious, the persecuting Government of England.
And all Europe now understands this distinction as well
as we do; we thank God, that England is at length detected, convicted, and degraded all over the world. At
this moment, whenever she speaks of civil liberty, all the
world call her liar, tyrant, assassin; whenever she talks
of liberty of conscience, all Europe scouts her as a persecutor. a hypocrite, an unblushing slanderer; whenever
she attempts to introduce the name of God, and to talk of
sanctity, and of English Christianity, all Europe bursts
out into an immoderate fit of laughter, and cries shame at
her, and points to her treachery, her scandals, her murders, her suicides, her blasphemies, her infidelities, her
crimes, her enormities; and mankind considers Sodom
and Gomorrah, and Babylon, as so many earthly paradises
in comparison of the multitudinous sinfulness of England.
She is met in every market place in Europe at this
moment, and called liar, and demon; her ambassadors are
jibed at this moment at every Court in Europe, and called hypocrites, Soupers, infidels; and her travellers, tourists, correspondents, are watched in every corner of Europe, as so many burglars, assassins, and demons of naked
infidelity. The Lord be praised, she is caught at last, and
poor Ireland shall soon be free. (Loud cheers.) Yes,
Ireland shall soon be free from English persecution, and
from the oppression of the Protestant establishment.




78             ADDRESS AT GLASGOW.
Two curses have been inflicted on Ireland-namely,
the rackrenting landlords, and the accursed tithes. These
two embodiments of malediction, have bent Ireland to the
earth, and have crushed her body and soul; and, like a
swarm of locusts, they eat up every green and living
thing, and left nothing behind but the flint of the land.After centuries of this oppression, it suddenly pleases our
rulers to make a law of Free Trade. No one, more than
I do, advocates the principle of cheap bread for the working man, and of employment for his children in the mechanical arts of commerce. But the principle has introduc.
ed a scene of woe, which no pencil can paint. The poor
are exterminated, the ditches are crowded with the weak
and aged; the poor-houses are charnel places of pestilence and death; and the emigrant ship, like an ocean
hearse, is sailing with her flag of distress hoisted, moving
slowly through the waves, as she throws out her putrid
dead; and, like the Telegraph Company laying down
their submarine wires, the crews of the emigrant ships
have learned, by long practice, to tell off a line of the Irish
dead along the bottom of the deep, and, at the same time
to sail six or seven knots an hour. (The deepest sensation.) England has practised them in this ocean sepulture, so that, before the end of the year 1849, they could
smoke, tell off the winding sheets, and sail, all at the same
time, from this dexterous, nautical, cholera practice.(Death-like silence pervaded the entire assembly.)
Men there are, who assert that the Government could
not avoid this catastrophe. I answer, it is a cruel lie.
If there must be a change in the laws of trade, well, then




ADDRESS AT GLASGOW.               79
let it be made; but let the law-makers bear the responsibility. (Loud cheers.) If they must have a new law,
well, then, let them pay for their whims; let them make
compensation for the damaging results of their own free,
deliberate acts. They say the law is good in principle;
I answer, but bad in detail. They say it has healthy premises; I reply yes, and a deadly conclusion. They say,
it is perfect in argument; but I assert, it is murder in
practice. They assert, it is the law; but I resume, and
say, so much the worse-it legalises and authorises the
public massacre of the people. This is a legal mockery,
to hear the legislators tell the dying, starving, rotting peasant, that he ought to be quite content with his lot, since
he dies a constitutional death, he will be buried according to law, in a Parliamentary churchyard, and will sleep
till the day of judgment in a logical grave. (Here the
whole assembly cheered.)
I am no politician; all I know is, that the English laws
have killed the people; and what care I for the principle
of Protection, or the logic of Free Trade, if the triumph
of either party murder the poor. And I reply to the
Freetrader, and to the merchant, and to the Cobden's
school, by saying, if you will and must have your way,
then be prepared for the consequences, meet the consequences, pay for the consequences-if there is to be suffering, then let the guilty suffer-punish the landlordsafflict the money lenders-exterminate the House of Commons-murder the English Cabinets-extirpate the Protestant church-yes, punish the guilty who produced the
catastrophe: if there will be a famine, then buy bread




80             ADDRESS AT GLASGOW.
for the dying, give them the twenty millions of gold you
have in the Treasury; add twenty millions more to the
National Debt if necessary-treat the Irish with" the same
justice as you have treated the slaves of Jamaica-do pay
for your own acts-rdo punish the guilty-but in the name
of honor, truth, justice, humanity; and in the sacred name
of oaths pledged and ratified at the foot of the throne, do
not punish the innocent poor-spare the unoffending peasantry-shield the defenceless tenantry who trusted you;
do not massacre the millions who confided in your former
laws-(here the gifted orator lifted high both his arms,
with clenched hands,) and as you have done it-and massacred all Ireland trusting in you, I swear, before high
Heaven, that you have mixed up a curse with your bread,
which will eat into the marrow of your bones; and you
have awakened in the swelling bosom of Irishmen, a
flame of legitimate anger which will never be quenched,
till you shall have made satisfaction for the sufferings, the
extermination, the expatriation, the death; and, I shall
add, the massacre of the unoffending children of Ireland.
(Any attempt to describe the wild enthusiasm that followed this sentence, is totally vain.)
Ladies and Gentlemen, after a very happy sojourn of
nearly two months amongst you, I must say the sad word
farewell. I am impressed with many struggling feelings
at this moment: sorrow, pleasure, gratitude, enthusiasm,
pride, are strangely mixed up in my bosom; they are all
your work; you have remoulded me. I came from London to Glasgow, and in parting from you, I proceed to
Derry in Ireland. You gave me a warm welcome on




ADDRESS AT GLASGOW.                8i
my arrival, and I must bid you a sorrowing farewell till
our next eeting. I can well understand now the words
of the baTlad familiar to you in Glasgow:"If England were my place of birth,
I'd love her tranquil shore;
If bonnie Scotland were my home,
Her mountains I'd adore;
Though pleasant days in each I've passed,
Still I dream of hours to come.
Then steer my bark to Erin's Isle,
For Erin is my home:
Oh, steer my bark to Erin's Isle,
Old Erin is my home."
LETER OF REV. DR. CAHILL TO THE REV.
J. BURNS OF WHITEHAVEN.
REV. Sir-Your letter published yesterday evening in
the Cumberland Packet reached me last night. Many
thanks for the kind expression of your good wishes for
my salvation, and for desiring the eternal welfare of all
Catholic souls. I hope the public voice of this town will
learn fully to appreciate thfe sincerity of those feelings,
and to make you a suitable acknowledgment.
I beg to tell you, with great respect, that you are probably unacquainted with our doctrine of the Eucharist!
we do not "create our Creator."  If this language were
uttered by any other person but by one of your known
liberality and acknowledged education, I should designate it as the lowest form of vulgar bigotry Such words;




82                 EON THE EUCHARIST.
coming from  you, are simply a mistake; and your only
fault in the present case is, your writing ova subject
which avowedly you have not studied.
The editor of the  Wkitehaven Herald will not keep
his columns open for my reply to you longer than twelve
o'clock on Friday; and hence I shall conclude this short
note, and reserve any further observations on the -subject
for my public answer. —I have the honor to be, Rev. Sir,
your obedient servant,
I). W. CAHILL.
" Feelings of unmingled love and compassion for your soul, and the
souls of those who are misled by the Romish priests, constrain me to
use every effort in my power to awaken in you and in them the dormant feelings of common sense, and to arouse you and them to attend
to the voice of reason and the voice of God. I believe your religion to
be false, and truth and justice compel me to publish my conviction.
I seek to gain your soul and, therefore, I write plainly, and let none.of my fellow-men judge me an enemy because I tell the truth.' *' Every hour you consecrate a bit of bread you create your Creator!
"Grant me, sir, as a common ground of argument, that God Almighty
made you,: and gave you the faculties you possess, and I will undertake
to show, by self-evident truths that the doctrine of transubstantiation is
subversive of the foundation of human belief, and therefore incapable of
being proved by any evidence, or being believed by any man under the
influence of common sense. If God made man, then the testimony of
the sence, is the testimony of God. To seek to support this testimony
is absurd, and, to doubt it, is to be mad.  *     *      *
" Now, Sir in all controversy, the proof rests on him who takes the
affirmative side of the question. If you wish me to receive your doctrine
you must furnish me with the grounds on which to rest-my faith. To
justisfy me in rejecting your dogma, I am not even obliged to produce
direct proof of its falsehood. It is enough if I can show that the proof
you allege is not sufllicient.-The doctrine is overturned if it be not prov



ON THE EUCHARIST.                       83
ed. If I can show that every passage you bring forward is according
to the usual laws of language, fairly capable of another sense, I have
overturned your doctrine; and if this principle be just, then the battle
is-won without firing a single shot of direct disproof at all. *  *
I think the soul can no more feed on flesh and blood than on bread.
If, then, the body of Jesus be food to the soul, it must be so, not literally, but figuratively. The soul cannot eat His flesh in any other
way than- by believing in Hitn. It eats by faith, and not by teeth. See
how hard it is to force Scripture to sanction what is false and absurd
" Ibeseech you, Sir, to put all your trust in the blood of Christ
which cleanseth from all sin, and renounce the vain effort of adding to
its perfection. Cease that blasphemy that represents the work of
Christ even yet unfinished, and keeps Him continually a sacrifice on
the altar. Come to Him and He will give you salvation without money and without price. "-Vide Letter of Rev. J. Burns.
WHITEHAVEN  Wednesday  Dec. 7th.
REV  SIR: —I have selected  a few  passages of your
courteous letter to me, to which I shall more particularly
direct my reply; and ifI were not made acquainted with
the profession of the writer, I should have never supposed that the author of these extracts could have read even
the elements of theology or moral philosophy; but above
all, I could not have believed that a clergyman of high
character and station, could make a statement exhibiting
such a deplorable ignorance of the fundamental principles
of our common Christianity.
Firstly, then, since you  set up in spiritual things the
the evidence of the senses (as you call it) as theinllible standard oof;jouirS'ait;h7u will tell the world how
can you believe in             o d, W'lo is a pure spirit, and thereJ
fore cannot possibly fall directly within the domain of the




84              ON THE EUCHARIST.
senses. Secondly, will you say by what evidence of
the senses you discover three distinct persons in one God?
Do, Rev. Sir, say how you arrive at the conclusion by
the senses, that trinity is unity, in essence, and unity essentially trinity?  Thirdly, will you kindly inform poor forlorn Catholic souls, how you detect the presence of
divine grace by the senses; that is, how can you see,
feel, taste, smell, and hear divine grace, which St. Paul
describes as " the emanation of God, " and " the charity
of God poured abroad?" Fourthly, will you say, Sir,
how you can even know you have a " soul, " by the evidence of the senses?  Fifthly, will you tell the Romish
priests, where did you learn the existence of eternity, of
heaven, or of hell, from the evidence of the senses? St.
Paul tells us, that "neither the eye hath seen, nor ear heard,
or the heart of man conceived, this place," and therefore,
will you be pleased to tell us, how it has happened that
the air of Whitehaven has so elevated the action of your
eises,,that you and your congregation can behold, with
an unclouded vision, what the tongue of St. Paul could
not utter, or the heart of St. Paul could not conceive?
We poor Romish priests educated at Maynooth, always
fancied these things were known by " faith, " and not
by the senses; and we have foolishly believed faith to
be "the gratuitous gift of God," and not at all the philoso.
phical result of the most perfect examination of the senses.
Sixthly, will you be pleased to inform the senseless Catholics how you discover the original sin, in a newborn baby,
by the aid of the senses? I venture to say, that even a
Whitehaven baby appears to the senses the very same,




ON THE EUCHARIST.               85
self same child before and after the sacrament of baptism?
If therefore, Rev. Sir, you will believe nothing but what
can be proved by the senses, your act of faith must, beyond all dispute, deny every single word of the creed
which you publish on every Sunday from  your pulpit
to your unfortunate congregation.
You seem very fond of employing the words "common
sense " while speaking of faith. They are not accidental
terms in your mouth; they are scientific, official, professional phrases; and you so jumble together logical, theological, and elocutionary language, that, in almost every
sentence you have written, there is a scientific mistake, a
mistake'of words, and a clear incongruity in theological
terms. You reject everything which you cannot conceive
is your common sense. This is certainly your statement.
Firstly, then, will you therefore prove to us Romish
scholars, how does your common sense understand and
explain that God has no beginning? Our Popish common
sense cannot conceive any existing thing without a cause.
r Now, as you admit nothing which you cannot understand>
pray tell us on what principle you understand an effect,
which is not an effect, a ggxra-ion without being generated; miio~ti, and power witho5u-t a beginning.
Seil- ee Ee siy,` tlliieianot De as old as God, as it
would then be God; nor can it be made out of the substance of God, as matter would then be composed of spirit,
and inanimate clay formed of the essentially living God.
Hence the earth must-come from nothing, and called from
this nothing by a mere act of God's will. Will you say,




86              ON THE EUCHARIST.
in your science of your common sense, if you understand
the natural mystery?  If you do not understand it, of
course, as you have said, you cannot believe it; and therefore you are bound, in vindication of your system, to state
publicly, for the salvation of the Romish priests, and
of all the Papists, whose interests are so near your heart,
that, as you cannot conceive by common sense how matter was created, or how man was formed, that therefore
there is no such thing as Protestant tithes; that the Scottish kirk is a public delusion; that the sermons in your
church are baseless visions; and that the public letter lately addressed in this town to Dr. Cahill is a dreamy
image and a fantastic, ideal, deceptive sound.
Thirdly, will you again explain the incarnation by
your system? I have learned in the schools, that divine
faith cannot be tested by the rules of logic, much less by
the common seflse of the world. I have been taught, that
although there are three persons in the Trinity, each distinct, and each God; still, it does not follow from these- de..fined premisesthat-there are three distinct Gods.
/Fotirthly, will you be pleased, Sir, to explain to me, by
Jcommon sense, how the two distinct natures of God and
man, have only oneperson in Christ? how can there be
nature without a person? how can a finite human nature
fill an infinite divine person? or how can an infinite divine
nature be confined within the figure of a finite humar
person? Will you kindly say whether thespirit washuman or divine, or a mixture of both, half finite, and
half infinite?
Fifthly, pray explain again, how God could become




ON THE EUCHARIST.               87
man, the incarnate unembodied Word could become flesh;
how  the eternal person could be torn; how immortalit
couldd         n immaculate God could assume uman
guilt how the mockery, thejapny, - thee crie te   ovSon of God could please the Father?  Sisthly, will
you say how- it is, that,' alth-6ought";r   iS whole and entire,
in the million and tens of million of places in space, there
is but one God?
Ah! Reverend Mr. Burns, your loose assertions and
unscientific statements, convince me of the truth of Lord
Shaftesbury's report on the lamentable deficiency of,
Protestant clerical education; dTnst r.ea
culate woundin mis-statement under the cqver aadthe"
imposition of religious.eal  Finally, w..wlain  -
the justice oTGo, i./n chargin g on a child born 1853 the
crimr Ahof ~aei;ms  esobedience committed nearly six thousand years ago  — It was metaphysically impossibl  that
C:.    A........... l.*
the free w'il of this child could enter into this act,.
Adam as an accomplice, the soul of the childi being not
created at the' time; and it was equally impossible for
the same wil. to prevent or avoid this fault. fdamNow the com-mon seiis:~and -t:c'cmmon laws of Englishmen, to which Zyou appeal in matters.of faith,. willnot
charge one man with the guilt of a third:party, who was
not, or could not possibly be an accomplice.
You have, Sir, to account for- thi's fact by your system-,
of common sense, and thus settle this most vital question.
The plain palpable result of this absurd and fatal
nisapplication of reason to faith is, that you have made




88               ON THE EUCARIST.
your creed a mere worldly system; and you have forced
even your friends to regard your religion as a human
constitution, sustained by the same kind of principles as
you smelt iron, spin cotton, form railroads, and conduct
commerce. Your public, perfectly understand this system, and hence they have lost confidence in all your spi.
ritual ministrations, and all respect for your profession.
The laboringo classes seldom enter theJ'
es, Their common sense, they think, is as good as...ious; and as they can read the Bible, and " eat faith"
at home, they generally sleep till two o'clock on Sundays, and never listen to the parson until he has invented
a story about a priest, a monk, or a convent, or the bones
of a child being dug up, some time ago, somewhere, by
somebody, in some nutnnery. The total absence of all
reiigious instruction in these churches, added to the constant teaching of doubting the entire evidence of antiquity,
has converted the finest nation and the most generous people into a ferocious multitude of bigoted infidels.
— Irf-ld- Ashley's Report {which'I have not read, but of
which I have heard,) reveals a state of religious ignorance
in this country beyond the most exaggerated powers of
credibility. His description of the factories and collieries,
awakens thrilling feelings of pain and shame in the bosom of every honest religious Englishman. Think of
hundreds of grown girls, who could not tell "who was
God, or Christ, or the Holy Ghost," and who were sunk
at the same time, in the lowest state of immorality, too
extended and too gross to be named in this letter. Hundreds of colliers were never even once in a church-had




ON THE EUCHARIST.               89
never learned one word of their catechism, and perfectly
ignorant of the cross.
One main being asked who made him, answered, "My
mother:" a second being. questioned as to the number of
Gods, replied, "That there were seven, and that he was
able to fight any one of them:" a third, being pressed to
tell who was Christ, said, "He did not know him, as he
had never worked in his pit: a fourth being asked if he
-was afraid of God, replied, "Na, na, but that it was the
otther b-   he dreaded," (meaning the devil): a fifth,
being interrogated if he was afraid 01 the punishment of
the next world, appeared quite surprised at hearing of
future punishments,'and replied that, "If his friends/
would bury his pickaxe with him, there was no place
made, even of the hardest rock, could keep him confined."'Why, Sir, the history of the Snake Indians, or of the
Bosjesmen, does not reveal such hyper-barbarian ignorance as can he met with in some districts, callings, and
trades in England. How can the Protestant clergy, who
receive annually eight millions sterling, look men in the
face, with the crimes of this barbabrity on them?  And
how can the acute English nation continue to be gulled
by the notorious lies of Irish conversions, invented-l!'
hired' calumniators, in order to divert the public mind
from beholding the annual millions of this overgrown robbery, or canvassing the flagrant hypocrisy, and the antichristian slander of this infidel conspiracy? The brutal
murders, the wife-killing, the infanticides, and the avowed spreading of infidelity, and the thousands of children
whose deaths are daily concealed, are the frightful fruits




90               ON THE EUCHARIST.
of your system of the doctrine of the senses, and your hu
man faith. Was there ever heard such insane audacity,
as to assert that God could reveal nothing which the Protestant conventicle, or the Scotch kirk could not understand? It is the same kind of rampant and ridiculous silliness, as if a congregation of oysters or frogs denied that
there existed such things as the truths of algebra, music,
or photography, merely because some few elders of these
tribes could neither see, hear, feel, nor understand the
subject. This system will soon make all England infidel.
Hired lecturers, are now publicly delivering lectures
on the opposition between what they call "the secular
creation and the gospel creation," —that is, on palpable
open fidelity. Depend on it, that your teaching will, at
no distant day, sap the very foundations of social order in
this country; that you will call into existence a generation of men, who, if not checked, will threaten the very
existence of English monarchy; and the throne of Great
Britain will yet have to rely on Catholic allegiance and
Catholic fidelity for its preservation and security.
You seem much captivated with the reasonableness (as
you call it) of the figurative sensebeing applied to the
words used by our Lord at the Last Supper. Now, Sir,
I look on the Protestant doctrine of the Last Supper, to
be such an aggregate of incongruity, that, if one were not
certain of its being believed by a large section of persons
in this country, it could never be supposed that such an
opinion could be seriously held by men who believed
Christ to be God, and to have uttered intelligible language.




ON THE EUCHARIST.                     91
That doctrine states, that " the Last Supper is a memo-\
rial of Christ's sufferings and passion: where bread and
wine being taken in faith, Christ is spiritually received."
The four terms, therefore, within which this doctrine is
included, are the words "memorial, faith, (bread  and
wine,) and the spirit of Christ."
As you, therefore, appeal to the standard of the Scriptures, and the standard of language on this point, I shall,
for a moment, meet that appeal, by quoting some texts
from the Gospel of St. John, chapter the sixth:,
" v. 52. —If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever, and the
bread that I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world.
"v. 53.-The Jews, therefore, debated among themselves, saying,
how can the man give us his flesh to eat?
" v. 54.-Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his
blood, you-shall not have life in you.
S" v. 55. —He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath ever.
lasting life, and I will raise him up in the last day.'v. 56.-For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed,
" v. 57.-He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, abideth in
me and I in him.
" v. 58.-As the living Father hath sent me, and as I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, the same shall live by me."
In the foregoing texts our Lord uses the words "eat
myfesAh" five times; and it must be well remembered,
that these words were employed four times after the Jews
debated among themselves "how  can this man give us
his flesh to eat."  He heard their objection (" how CANhe;") and, of course, according to all the rules of a public speaker to his audience, he replies to the difficulty
which they proposed; and in place of retracting his




92               ON THE EUCHARIST.
words, or altering them into other clearer words, or mak.
ing any change or explanation in his expression, he, on
the contrary, becomes more emphatic in his manner, and
repeats four times, with evident increased energy, the
self' same words.
And it must not be forgotten, that, in thus re-asserting
these words four times, in the teeth of their contradiction,
he also adds some new circumstances of vital interest to
the question under debate; namely, in v. 53, he threatens
damnation to the man who merely omits what he orders;
in v. 55, he offers justification to the man who fulilt his
statements; in v. 56, he asserts twice, that what he has
said is a literal statement (alethos;) in v. 57, he again declares, that the man who corresponds with the conditions
named, is intimately identified with him; and lastly, in
v. 58, he utters Two OATHs-namely, "by his mission and
by his life," that what he stated would give eternal life;
and finally, in all these assertions, threats, promises, and
rewards, he uses the word " eat his flesh" with an unvarying consistency in reply to their objection. Now as
the whole Jewish religion was made up of types and figures; and as a matter of course, the Capharnites were
perfectly acquainted with this fact, can any man believe,
that Christ would hold out threats of perdition, and would
swear twice, in order to make them believe the most
known fact of their country?
Now, Sir, by what authority do you, who seem so
much attached to the word of God, take it on yourself to
change the clear, expressed words into a meaning certainly
not asserted, or affirmed in the written or spoken language'




ON THE EUCHARIST.                93
You reply that it must be received in a spiritual orfigzurative sense, from the impossibility, as your common sense
asserts, of understanding these written words in their literal sense. You, therefore, assent that flesh means "faith,"
means "figure of flesh," means "spirit," means "metaphor," means "image or memorial." In the first place,
this is, on your part, a most unwarrantable assumption,
it not being affirmed in the words: and secondly, it may
turn out, as I hope presently to show, that your meaning
must end in an absurdity of idea, and in an incongruity
of language, such as would deprive Christ of all future
confidence in the expression of his thoughts; and convert
the language of the Testament into an unmeaning or incongruous symbol. If, then, your meaning be correct, it\
follows, of course that, that mode of expression must be
just, which describes a man, as "eating a spirit, eating
an image, drinking a metaphor, eating an allegory, and
drinking a shadow."
Now, Sir, if all this language be perfectly just, and the
ideas congruously expressed, it follows, of course, all the
pther cognate words of " the verb to eat," can be similarly
used, with equal justice and equal correctitude: hence,.
Sir, we can employ with equal truth the words' to wash I
a spirit, to weigh a spirit, to bleed a spirit, to boil a spirit, to roast a spirit, to salt a spirit," as well as we can 
say "to eat a spirit."  The words are decidedly of the'
same cognate character, and if one of them can be used
with precision, so can all the others. Then, it is perfectly correct to say, "to wash an image, to bake a meta-.phor, to boil an sllegory, to salt a trope, to eat' a.iidow,




94              ON THIE EUCHARIST.
to wash a shadow, to bake a shadow." And then, again,
Sir, it will follow, that the image faof a hin justify
the soul, and the metaphorf a ithing canf.lhe soul..
tiiTa'gain, Sir, you represent Christ as swearing-by two
oaths that these are his words, and that this is his
meaning!'!!
You have, therefore, adopted the most incongruous and
ridiculous form of words, such as no rational human being has been ever known to use; you have, in the face of
heaven and earth, translated the word "flesh" into " spirit, image, shadow, — metaphor;", and you have done all
this, forsooth, because you could not understand how
" He could give us his flesh to eat."  But if you will reflect on the crib, on next Christmas night, and ask how
can a trembling, poor, naked, abandoned child, be the
eternal, consubstantial Word, the King of Kings; your
common sense will be shocked, till you see the heavens
opened, and hear the angelic choirs rend the blue vault
of His Fathers skies, saying, "It is he." How can you
understand a word to be flesh, a God to be a man, infinite
dominion to be weakness, infinite power to be destitution,
infinite riches to be poverty, infinite majesty to be slavery, immortality to be death, and infinite sanctity to stand
{charged with human guilt. Now, all these mysteries are
placed in the very alphabet of Christianity, in order to
level all human reason on the very threshold of the New
Law. Our doctrine isjust the same kind of mystery; and
while we are astounded at the statement contained in the
words, we at the same time hear him re-assert it over
and over again, and we bow and believe. And I could




ON THE EUCHARIST.                  95
no more consent to believe the absurd, ridiculous, the incongruous, the newly invented meaning of your altered
text, than I could consent to believe our blessed Lord to
be an idiot or a maniac. YOA, therefore, perceive Sir,
how absurd is the novelty, how ridiculous is heresy.
In order to see more fully the consistent language of
our Lord, I shall again quote some texts from St. Mathew, chap. 26
" v. 26.-And whilst they were at supper, Jesus took bread and
blessed and broke, and gave to his disciples, and said, take ye and eat,
this is my body.
",v. 27.-And taking the chalice, he gave to them, saying, drink ye
all of this.
" v. 28.-For this is my blood of the New Testament, which shall be
shed for many, for the remission of sins."
Now, Sir, according to your assumed meaning, Christ
said " this is my body," meaning that this is my spirit.
Now, Sir, since the invention, improvement and perfection of human language, have you ever seen, read, or
heard of any human being, in any age, or any country,
use the word "body" to mean "spirit'"  It is precisely
the very opposite, and cannot by the rules of language,
be employed even as a metaphor, as there cannot be any
resemblance between two things which-are metaphysically opposite. And when we come to apply your meaning to v. 28, it is hard to say whether one feels a greats
amount of ridicule, or pity, or contempt, for the teacheris 
of a doctrine which would go to say " that the blood of
the spirit was shed, the blood of a metaphor shed, the
blood of a shadow shed, the blood of an image shed, the




96                 ON THE EUCHARIST.
blood of faith shed, the blood of a memorial shed! "Now, Sir, in your own language, do you see how ridiculous is error, how absurd is human novelty in Revelation?
I shall, in conclusion, quote by your standard of the
Bible, and the criticism of language, some texts on the
subject from St. Paul to the Corinthians, chapter the eleventh of the first epistle, v. 23:
"v. 23.-For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered
to you, that the Lord Jesus the night in which he was betrayed took
bread,
" v. 24.-And giving thanks, broke and said,' take ye and eat, this
is my body, which shall be delivered for you; Do THIS in commemoration of me.'
" v. 25.-In like manner, also, the chalice, after he had supped, saying this chalice is the New Testament in my blood; THIS DO YE as often
as you shall drink, for the commemoration of me.
" v. 27.-Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink tne
chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the
blood of the Lord.
" v. 28.-But let a man prove himself: and so let him eat of that
bread,.and drink of.the chalice. -
"v. 29.-For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and
drnketh damnation to himself; not.discerning the body of the Lora.:;
You see, Sir, in these texts, that St. Paul keeps up the
same consistency of word and idea as our Lord; and that
he asserts his having received the above communication,
not from the Apostles, but from the lips of Christ kimse~f,
after his resurrection, in order to stamp that communication with an importance beyond anything he had to tell
them. Here St. Paul clearly speaks of the GUILT of the
body and blood of Christ. Now, Sir, be candid with me:
has any man, in any age or any country, ever heard of




ON THE EUCHARIST.               97
"spilling the blood of a spirit, murdering bread and wine,
killing a metaphor, sheding the blood of bread and wine,
killing a shadow, bleeding an allegory, taking the life of
a trope, and murdering a shadow 2"
But, above all, can you have the cool hardihood to
preach before any assembly of rational beings, that Christ o
would pronounce a double damnation against a man for
not " discerning a BODY in a spirit, a body in a metaphor,
a body in faith, a body in a shadow, a body in bread and
wine?2"-that is, he has pronounced double damnation on
a man for not discerning what cannot be discerned, for
not discerning an absurdity, an incongruity, an impossi-bility:-that is, he damns a man in double torments for
not seeing a part greater than the whole; for not seeing
a square as a circle; for not seeing the colour of white as
black. What Christian acquainted with the life of Christ,
could seriously believe that his last will, (which David
foretold in reference to Melchisedeck, and which he himself foretold in his disputation with the Capharnites,) contained the bequest of metaphors, figures, and shadows, to
feed and nourish,,and strengthen the life of the soul!!This is theology with a vengeance!! May God, Almighty
God, forgive you, Sir, for teaching such insanity to your
poor dupes; and may HE in his grace open your eyes,and the eyes of the poor creatures who are doomed to
listen to such absurd, and ridiculous, and degrading doctrines as England and Scotland have adopted since the
days of Luther and Knox.
Your church has never ceased to publish through the
world her great respect for the Scriptures, and to express
4




98               ON THE EUCHARIST.
)aer horror at any robbery, as she calls it of the Word of
fGod. Will you, then, tell me why you have, with such
palpable shamelessness, mistranslated, subtracted, and
added to the most important passages of both the Old and
New Testament? I shall, therefore,- select one text in
reference to the present subject-namely, the 26th verse
of the 26th chapter of St. Mathew. As it happens that I
have not a Greek Testament with me, I must quote from
memory; and as your journals here have no Greek type,
I must write in the English character. You will, of
course supply the long Vowels where they occur.
Your Greek-original of the text alluded to, is:Esthionton de auton, labon o Iesous ton arton, kai eulogesas, ekiase, kai edidou tois mathetais, kai eipe: Labete,
phagete, touto esti to soma mou.
Your translation of this text, taken from an edition in
1846, printed by Mr. Spottiswoode, Fleet-street, London,
is: "And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and
blessed it, and broke it, and gaveit to his disciples," &c.
Here you introduce the pronoun " it " three times, in order
to carry the antecedent " bread," as it were, through the
whole text, and therefore show that it was this said bread
the Apostles eat. Now, the pronoun'-it," is not found
in the original; and thus the Protestant church with a palpable and a shameful interpolation, corrupted the Greek
text, in order to make out a lie to meet their absurd doctrine on this vital point. I have taken the trouble of comparing with the original text the gospel of Saint John, the
epistles of St. Paul to the Corinthians and to the Hebrews;




ON THE EUCHARIST.                 99
and I have found one hundred and eighty-four texts mis-Q
translated, being either interpolations, or new meanings,
opposed to the' philology, the genius, and the received
construction of the Greek language.
There are upwards of sixteen hundred errors in translations and additions or subtractions, or interpolations in
your Bible. The Protestant church can lie in print as'
well as in speech: the pen can lie as well as the tongue.
I freely admit the honor and truth of their clergy in social intercourse: there is, however, no lie however dishonorable; no misstatement, however discreditable, to
which they will' not stoop in matters of Catholicity. I
should be sorry to say one word hurtful to you personally, as I can have no cause to do so, and as I can have no
feelings towards you but those of respect; yet, considering the shameful forgery of the Protestant Bible, I would
prefer that a Catholic should read the worst books of immorality, than this forgery in God's Word —this slander
of Christ. (Oldge can check immorality, but the forgeries of God'_s  lokhe lies told of Christ, the wicked perversion of the inspired volume, the base substitution ot
words, the flagrant robbery of the.text of. life., are so many'hideoous crimes of Protesttism, —that, in vengeance for
ud- bla'sphiemous ineo.lation, the curse of all crimes,
and of all'errors, and of naked infidelitiy,. $ems..e,  be-' inflicted on your entire nation. And this is the Bible, this
public' fo'rgery on the name of the Holy Ghost, this libel
of-God the Father, this slander on Christ, which you
wish to give to the poor children of the Irish.
You seem to smile, in what you are pleased to call




100             ON THE EUCHARIST.
" indignant sarcasm," against the follies, "the nonsense"
of transubstantiation. If, Sir, you have any sympathy to
spare, may I beg you will reserve it all for yourself, in
order to console yourself in the midst of the indignant
sarcasm to which your clear unacquaintance with this
question, will expose you even before your friends.Transubstarntiation, though a stupendous, mysterious fact,
and beyond the power of men, is yet, Sir, a very common
occurrence with.God, and, indeed, may be called one of
the most general laws of nature, and may be seen among
the very first evidences of His omnipotent will towards
the race of men on earth.
First, then, he created man by changing "' the slime of
the earth" into the flesh and bones of Adam, in his first
official act of transubstantiation-that is, by the word of
God on matter. HIis second official act, of changing the
bony rib of Adam into the flesh and blood of Eve, was
also transubstantiation, by the Word of God the Father
on bone. The first official act of Christ on entering on
the three years of his mission, was performed when he
changed the' water into wine at the wedding of Cana, by
the word of Christ on water. The food, Sir-that is, the
bread and wine, which'you, and all men may have eaten
on this day, has been changed into flesh and blood on your
own person, and on the persons of all men, by the word
of God on the vital action of the stomach. The universal crop of wood and grasses, arid flowers and vegetables,
and human and animal food, which the'earth actually
produces, is an animal evidence of transubstantiation of
clay by the word of God the Father, on the productive




ON THE EUCHARIST.              101
energy of the entire earth. The hat on your head, the
silk in your cravat, the linen on your back, the cloth of
your wearing apparel, the wool or cotton in your stocks
ings, the leather in your boots, the Whitehaven coals in
your grates, the gas in your lamps; the bread, the butter,
the cream, the sugar, the tea-leaf on your breakfast table,
the mutton, the beef, the bacon, the fowl, the wine, the
brandy, the ale on your dinner table; in short, almost
every object the eye beholds on earth, is one vast aggregate of evidence of transubstantiation, by the word of'
God on matter.
Beyond all dispute, all these came from clay. Even
the paper of your spurious Bible, the leather on the back,
the Indian ink, are such evidences of transubstantiation
that one can scarcely conceive how you could read that
very Bible without being burned with scalding shame at
the stark-naked nonsense, and incongrous maniarm you
have written to me on the subject. God has supplied us,
during four thousand years with this- mighty, universal,
constant evidence, in order to prepare us for the more
mighty, infinitely more stupendous evidence of the same
principle in the New Law, by the power and the word of
Christ. The Father has given life and preserved life in
all living things on earth by this principle of nature, in order to make us behold the uniformity of action in the
Trinity, when Christ at his coming will give life to the
soul and preserve it in grace on the self-same principle,
"the bread that I will give is my fleshfor the life ofthe,
world. " I would undertake, as a chemist, to prove, that
there are more, far more mysteries (but of course of a dif



-102            ON THE EUCHARIST.
ferent kind), in a 7andful of clay, than are contained in
the entire code of the Christian Revelation.
You will reply to me and say, that while God has done
all I have said, yet that man could not do it. You mistake; a man can do it, when commanded to do so, by the
Word of God. Moses changed a rod into a serpent,
and changed a serpent into a rod; he changed the waters
of the river Nile into blood, and the same river of blood
into water, by the word of God on his lips. And do you
not think, Sir, even in your common sense, that a man in
the New Law could do the same thing as a man in the
Old Law, if he were commanded to do so l The word
of God will certainly have the same power in every place,
in every age, and in every man on whom that word will
descend. Now, Sir, you have seen in St. Paul to the
Corinthians the text where St. Paul, in an ecstasy of astonishment, told them that he heard from the lips of
Christ how he changed bread and wine intohisbody and
blood, and concluded by also; informing them that in the
same breath, Christ had ordered the Apostles, by two
distinct commands, to mark its importance, to DO THE
SAME in remembrance of Him.
And lest it should occur to your common sense that the
Apostles had not the power to execute the command, will
you hear, Sir, the words of Christ to them? "All power
is given to me in heaven and on earth; RECEIVE ye, therefore_, the HOLY GHOST."  This text, therefore gives not
only the gifi2bf-ts-eb foly Ghost, but the third person of
the' Trinity himself, as an official resident, with the Apos- ties and their successors, in order to communicate the per




ON THE EUCHARIST.             103
manent official presence of the Holy Ghost, equal to the
Father and Son, I think, Sir, your common sense must
yield at length, and acknowledge with candour that our
case is complete, our warrant of office in this great act
most decided, and, of course, efficient exercise of our
power beyond the reach of cavil or contradiction.
But you will say that such a fact has never occurred in
the New Law. This is a mistake; it happened in the Incarnation. When the archangel (a creature,) announced
to Mary the will of God who sent him to wait on her,
and to tell her that she would bring forth a son, "she replied HOW CAN IT BE, as I know not man: " he resumed,
" it will be done by the power and operation of the-Holy
Ghost."  Here, Sir, is a position which might be argued
as a clear case of transubstantiation in the very first act
of the New Law-namely, the blood of Mary, the relative
of Adam the criminal, changed into a human body for the'secKnd' 8peros1r   t e -. ty y the power of the Holy
Ghost. Thus, Sir, if the redemption and the pe'rfection
of fallen man commenced by an act of transubstantiation
in the Incarnation, why not continue the same principle
among all future men by the power and operation of the
same Holy Ghost?
But you will certainly re-assert, as you have done in
your illogical, untheological letter to me, that a thing
must be always essentially what it appears to hbe. You
are generally right, Sir, in the laws of nature; but in the
laws of grace, the senses must be silent under your most
favorable position, whenever the word of God makes the
contrary statement. Thus the dove, which alighted on




104              ON THE EUCHARIST.
(the shoulder of Christ at the Jordan, had all the appearance of a dove to the sense of seeing; ai.is sense was
noa,:  ceived, because its domain is entirely confined to
appearances. But, Sir, it     not a dove  t was the
Holy Ghost under the appearance of a dove to point out
the spotlessness o'ihrist.  Again, the twelve tongues of
fire, which d'escenided on the apostles, were not tongues
of fire, but " the form of tongues of fire; " but they were
really the Holy Ghost, in order to express the new burning zeal and gift of language given to the apostles. Will
you say why cannot Christ appear under the appearance
of bread and wine, as well as the Holy Ghost under the
appearance of a dove and tongues of fire, in order to
point out how he feeds the soul, and thus carry out the
promise he has made, when he. said —"the bread that I
will give is my flesh, for the life of the world."
Why do you not tell your congregation at'Whitehaven
not to believe that "the dove or the fiery tongues, " were
the Holy Ghost?    ou are bound to do so in your system of the in.i.;ity of your Pi tait eyesight. You
ought to tell them that you cons'ideri t-he testimony of the
senses, as the senses of God, and therefore the eye is right!
You ought also to inform them, when you are alone in
your drawing room, and neither see, smell, taste or feel
the air, that therefore there is no air, Whitehaven; tell
them, also, that as the eyes of the Jews did not see the
Godhead in Christ, that therefore he was not God; tell'
them also, that as he appeared a criminal, it must therefore be a fact (founded on the senses and God) that he
was a melefactor; tell them, also, that the ascension of




ON THE EUCHARIST.              105
mur Lord is a mere fable, because from the laws of gravitation (to which the senses bear unerring testimony)
no body can ascend upwards composed of flesh and bone
as His,was —"The senses are God's own law, and he can-,
not contradict himself."  Tell them, also that as fire cannot burn a man's thoughts, that therefore it cannot reach
the soul; that the senses tell you that the fire can only
reach matter, and consequently you have the testimony of
the senses and God, that there is at prefent no hell, as
the body has not yet risen. Do, Sir, tell the world all
this  hiteha/enh theology, and let nothingbe believed
unless it is as palpable as a railroad, and can be seen
working like a steam engine!
You also ask, how can His body be present on our altars unseen? and when I reply, "by the sacramental
mode," you cannot comprehend me, and you have recourse
to your "indignant sarcasm."  Now, Sir, as you are
perfectly acquainted with the coals Whitehaven, will you
be pleased to see hard coal going into the furnace of a
gasometer: see it very soon bituminous, tarry, liquid coal
— that is to say, it is palpable in the furnace, impalpable
in the gasometer: that is to say, again, invisible in the
tubes, and visible in the jets; that is to say again, darkness in the tubes, ahd light in the lamps; that is to say,
opaque in the furnace, and transparent in the tubes-will
you kindly tell us, how can the same thing be palpable
and impalpable, visible and invisible, darkness and light,
opaque and transparent?  Now, Sir, if all these modes,
apparently contradictory and even contrary, belong even
to the ordinary forms of matter, will you tell us, why can



106             ON THE EUCHARIST.
not Christ assume any bulk, or any form in any mode of
existence He pleases, and still be the self-same Christ, but
in a new mode of existenceS This, Sir, is the case on our
altar; it was the case when, after His resurrection, when
He entered the closed doors and stood in the midst of
the apostles.
/?^~am now done with the mere cursory view ofthis
question, with one additional remark on the words you
have used, namely, " that we create our Creator"  This
phrase does not bec )me you; and your bigotry will gain
notoriety by this phrase, at the expense of your education as a theologian. You are clearly palpably ignorant
of our doctrine, and it is distressing to reflect how a
gentleman could not have honor to spare the Catholics,
and discretion to sparc himself, by publicly writing on a
subject which decidedly you have never studied as. a
scholars. No, Sir, we do not create our Creator!
Hear me. m we uust dow      e commanded to do;
heUce, when'He' took bread -and chanlge' it into His
bo'dy he commanded us to do the same, and we believe
we dq change it into  His body. In lilke manner heiie'cnged the wine into His bloo'd, and told us to do the same,
and we believe we change the wine into His blood.
But He has not said " this is myi ditiniity, do this," and
therefore, we do not do that; andahence- you malign and
calumniate when you say "we.create our Creator."
Our office is changing the bread and wine.ntothe humanity Riot the divinity of Christ; bUtah   -}it manityJo w,
since the resurrection, essentially united with the divinity, therefore, wherever the humanity is present there also




ON THE EUCHARIST.                       107
must be the divinity, not by our creation, as you are pleased to write to your dupes at Whitehaven, but by the
essential concomitance of the two natures of Christ, which,
since his resurrection, can never be  separated, standing
before God for ever as the livilng triumph of His mission, 
as the eternal pledge and security of man's unchanging
justification.
I have the honor to be, Reverend  Sir, your obedient
servant,
D. W. CAHILL, D.D.
P. S. —You cannot retort on me,\ and against my belief on the Eucharist, the same cognate words which I have applied to your new interpretation. The retort would only prove that my belief may subject the
host to be profaned-I admit it; it may be profaned by sinners, but
adored by all the good. But even so, that profanation, since the resur
rection, cannot be accompanied with shame, or sorrow, or agony, and
whertr the infidel asks you, can you belief in a God who was mocked,
blindfolded, spit upon in the hall of Pilate, flogged naked at a pillar,
crucified between two thieves, and his blood spilled and profaned; will
you say, Sir, what is your reply? You admit the whole charge, and
answer that these facts, so far from destroying your belief, only confirm
it, and prove beyond all other facts that he was our Saviour. If your
reply to the infidel be valuable and invincible, the same reply from me
to you must be equally valuable and invincible. If his retort on you
would be foolish in Christian faith, yours would be equally foolish
against me. You cannot make an argument serve two opposite points
-an argument cannot be urged pro and con. If your retort against me
possesses force, the infidel triumphs over you. Therefore I admit that
the Sacred Host may be profaned by sinners-and ifeverythingin faith
must be rejected which is or may be profaned, you must on this principle reject the Father; the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and grace and
faith, and the entire Christian Law.
All the objection you can raise to our doctrine is, that it exposes
Christ to be sacramentally profaned, a fact, which he once borne n hia




108          DR. CAHILL AND THE RAMBLER.
natural form; what happened once can never, therefore, be deemed ab-'surd or incongruous; whereas, our objection to your irnterpretation is,
that it standshbefore the mind, if I may so speak, an evident absurdity, a plain impossibility. Our doctrine may therefore end in the profanation of Christ from sinners, a position which, I presume you frequently put forth, in reference to the' conduct of sinners, before your
congregation; but our creed can never be charged with a metaphysical absmdity, such as eating an image, boiling a ghost, bleeding a spirit, salting a metaphor, and baking a shadow; and feeding the soul
with the nutritious spiritual food of metaphors, tropes, allegories, figures, and ideal resemblances!!!
REV, DR. CAHILL AND "THE RAMBLER".
In consequence of the former letter, an anonymous
article was published in the London Monthly Rambler, under the title of "Dr. Cahill's Letter on Transubstantiation," and a friend of our author wrote to
the Editor, asking a convenient space in the  next
number of that Journal in order to answer to the misstatements, gross falsehoods, and calumnies of said article, "which," he added, "did produce what may be
called a wide-spread feeling of dissatisfaction amongst
the clergy  and laity."   He proposed "to show by a
single reference to the letter of Dr. Cahill, that his
arguments were misrepresented; and that an unjustifiable meaning has been attached to his words."
This the Editor refused to do under several pretexts, and Dr. Cahill thought proper to address himself to the Editors of Catholic Journals, relating these




DR. CAHILL AND THE RAMBLER.          10(
facts, and stating, that "in every paragraph-indeed,
in almost every sentence-gross falsehood is asserted,
palpable calumny is uttered, my clearly-expressed
meaning is distorted, and ibhole sentences are carefully
suppressed." After a full preliminary notice of all
these incidents, the Rev. Doctor came to the controversial part of his letter, as follows:
NEW BRIGHTON, February, 1854.
In approaching the theological part of this letter, I feel
unusual pain in being compelled to expose the want of
truth on the part of the Rambler. God knows, I cannot
rejoice in a triumph over the writers-victory in this case
is defeat. Exposure of those who have joined my Church,
at much personal sacrifice, is, to me, the bitterest pain;
butr.they have forced me into this unwilling course by an
inevitable necessity.
Before criticising my letter at Whitehaven, one should
suppose that the writet vwould, as a Catholic, have sent
to me a private letter, stating his objections, and demanding an explanation; but no such prudent letter came from
the English Vatican, No. 17 Portman-street, Londonor, at least, one should imagine, that this model of logic,
criticism, and grace, would have read the original letter
of the Rev. Mr. Burns, to which my reply was directed,
and he could then understand the line of argument adopted against the objections made. Yet, strange to say, this
eminent censor has not read that letter: and, hence I
shall, beyond all dispute, prove to the reader before I
shall have concluded this letter, that this clique have mis



110        DR. CAHILL AND THE RAMBLER.
taken their case, and that they have earned the crushing
expression of public ridicule and. public censure. -Hear
them on this point:" Of the letter of Mr. Burns, which has called forth this reply from
Dr. Cahill, we know nothing more than is to be gathered from the extracts
which the latter has prefixed to his rejoinder."Now, if he had read that letter, he would have earned the direction of my answer, and have avoided the imprudent article he has penned. Hear Mr. Burns,-" I
ask you, Sir, what can be the reason that Mother Southcott was thought crazy for pretending to give birth to the
Messiah? and that you, a priest of Rome, can, without
exciting ridicule, make a Messiah every time you celebrate Mass?-What is the extravagance of Joanna Southcott to the extravagance of the priests of Rome? * * *
If God made man, the testimony of the senses is the testimony of God: if the senses deceive me, then God, my
Maker, is the deceiver. And thus your doctrine is incapable' of being believed by any man under the influence
of common sense."
In order to meet his appeal to his common sense, I ask
him, how he can apply the rules of common sense, and of
his senses, to the doctrine of the Trinity, Grace, Original
Sin, the Incarnation, the Existence of the Soul, or even
the Immortality of Man: and I conclude by inquiring
how he could even explain the Transubstantiation which
is every day elaborated by nature through almost every
substance by which we are surrounded? Although my
meaning could not be misunderstood by any, one outside
No. 17 Portman-street: and although my words are clear



DR. CAHILL AND THE RAMBLER.               111
ly applied to the modal changes in nature; and although
I have adduced this section of my reply, as a mere illustration, a mere comparison sub uno respectu, and not at all
as an argument of demonstration, the writers in the Rambler, by introducing words of their own forgery, by suppressing whole sentences of mry letter, and by an evil-designed ingenuity seldom surpassed, have devoted nine
pages of deliberate falsehood and scandal to the palpable
distortion of my clearly-expressed meaning.  In order toconvince the reader of the truth of my statements, I shall
select only two extracts from my letter.
The first is as follows:-" GGod has supplied us during
four thousand years with this mighty, constant, universal
evidence (i. e., of nature), in order to PREPARE US for the
more mighty, the INFINITELY MORE STUPENDOUS evidence
of the same principle in the New Law, by the power and
the word of Christ."
Now, I ask any candid, any honest man, if I have not
in this extract pointed out the changes in nature as a mere
preparation for a change INFINITELY MORE STUPENDOUS in
the New Law?  Surely one thing infinitely more stupendous than another thing, cannot be the same thing. Now,
gentlemen, hear the writers in the Rambler on this point so
clearly expressed:"What, then, must we think of the snares which beset the' popular'
contrpversialist when we turn to the next paragraphs of Dr. Cahill's letter, in which he asserts that the miracle of Transubstantiation is'a very
common occurrence with God, and may be called one of the most general
laws of nature?' Again we say that we acquit him of intending anything approaching to that which his words imply. He is carried away
by that unfortunate desire to bring down the ineffable mysteries of faith
to the level of human capacities, which is the bane of some minds; and




112         DR. CAHILL A~D THE RAMBLER.
which has here led him into statements, which, viewed merely as rhetorical illustrations, are inaccurate and worthless, but if looked upon a4
a declaration of Catholic doctrines, are shocking to the last degree."
In the quotation just made, Gentlemen, there are two
cases of grievous injustice:-firstly, it is clear that I have
not identified the changes in nature with the mysteries of
the Eucharist; I have clearly stated these two things as
infinitely distinct: and yet, the Reviewer would fain
make me say, that they are identified. But mark his hesitation while he writes: he says he is sure I do not intend it: that it is a mere illustration: and yet observe
his dishonesty, where he insinuates again, in the same
hesitating style, that I have put forward these changes in
nature as declarations of Catholic doctrines/  On this
point I shall leave the public to judge of the prudence,
the candor, and the justice of the writers. But I have a
heavier charge still to bring forward against this last quotation of the Reviewers. They have uttered a palpable
falsehood in the extract adduced-they have forged a
word which I did not use; and I therefore brand them
before the public with the most dishonorable trick which I
have ever experienced from the veriest characterless bigot
of the enemies of the Catholic Church. The forgery is as
follows, as you will soon see. Their words are: "Dr. Cahill asserts, that the MIRACLE of Transubstantiation is a
very common occurrence with God, and may be called one
of the most general laws of nature."
Gentlemen, I have not used the word " MIRACLE:" this
is a plain forgery: any reader can see the truth of what I
say. I was speaking, beyond all doubt, at that time of the




DR. CAHILL AND THE RAMBLER.              113
laws of nature: they wish to distort my words as applied
to the Blessed Eucharist: I was not speaking then of the
Eucharist: Idid not write the word MIRACLE in that or any
other place. -Although it is but one word, it is decisively
applied to the Eucharist: it fixes irrevocably a particular
meaning: I did not use it: theyforged it: and introduced
it, where it is evident I could not have employed it: and I
have thus caught the malevolent clique in their own snares,
from which, and I say it with sorrow, they can never extricate their honor as Gentlemen, or their honesty as Catholics, as long as they live. But, Gentlemen, I have still a
far more weighty charge against the ecumenical trio of
Portman-street. What will the public think of them when
I shall quote extracts from their anonymous article, where
they ask whether my meaning is such as they describe,
*and where they palpably distort it, and fix to it a sense of
their own construction the very opposite of mine?  And,
Gentlemen, what will the public think, when I shall prove
beyond all contradiction, that these good Catholics, these
pillars of the council of Portman-street, have-with a duplicity, a perfidy, of which there is no parallel outside their
former theatre of Exeter-hall-suppressed the very section
of my letter, which is a perfect categorical answer to the
questions they put? Firstly, then, hear their own quotation —their questions:
"For ourselves, we would ask Dr. Cahill whether he really means to
insinuate that the change produced by the consecration of the sacramental elements, is:of tke same nature as the chemical changes to which
he has likened it; a mere natural growth from one form to another, an
aggregation of additional particles of matter to an original substratum?
HIe cannot mean it. We will not wrong him for a moment by the supposition. Why, then, does he employ this series of most profane and irreverent illustraions V




114         DR. CAHILL AND THE RAMBLER.
In this passage, again the writer utters his contradictory
hints: he asks, " Can't I mean a certain thingS" then he
says again, "I can't mean it:" and yet he leaves the clear
impression behind, that I do mean to say that the change
in the Blessed Eucharist is of the same kind as the chemical changes of nature. Now, Gentlemen, will you hear
me while I make the extract from my letter, and while I
inform the reader, through you, that this clique of parsons
have suppressed the entire extract, which follows the very
extract which they put. Gentlemen, when you will have
read over again the above quotation from the Reviewers,
read the following extract of my letter: " I undertake to
prove, as a chemist, that there are far more mysteries,
but, of course, of a different kind, in a handful of clay,
than are to be found in the entire of the Christian Revelation."
This extract was the concluding sentence of my illustration from nature; it is a perfect, direct answer to the
questions put by the Reviewers, and this extract they have
suppressed. As I conclude this section of my reply, I
charge the writers so far as I have gone, witl an undeniable forgery, with a dishonorable suppression of the
truth, with the hostile publication of a calumnious and
scandalous article, and with the cowardly injustice of refusing to an English gentleman, and accomplished clergyman, the opportunity of making a defence for his slandered friend. But depend upon it they shall not calumniate
me with impunity: and I finish this sentiment by exclaiming, "Oh, would mine enemy should write a book!"
In reference to these passages, in which the Reviewer




DR. CAHILL AND THE RAMBLER.                115
speaks of "illustrations and metaphors, " one is amused
by the hesitations and contradictions which occur almost
every sentence. It is evident, that he would fain find
fault if he could: it is clear he comes prepared for censure,
at all hazards, but not having sufficient data, he hesitates, advances, withdraws: says and unsays the sef-same
thing, in the same paragraph.
" Many and many are the false and pernicious impresszons which
lave been conveyed through the medium of illustrations,-powerful and
beneficial, as is the effect of metaphors in theological writing, when they
are critically correct and applicable-harmless, as they may be when
employed uncritically on trifling subjects; and delightful, as the charm
they convey when springing from a deep, clear, and vigorous imagina
tion, we cannot but think that the greatest caution is needed in their vse
when employed to illustrate those ineffable mysteries; " and in page
172 the same writer calls " illustrations profane and irreverent."
I have read the passages quoted over and over again,
to learn what is really the opinion of the Reviewer with
regard to illustrations: and I have been unable to glean
any accurate idea from the half-smothered sentiments of,he writer except a wish to express a censure which he
cannot justly make, and which he is afraid plainly to
utter. The reader can see that in the same paragraph,
he calls the same thing "false, charming, profane, irreverent."  The only thing required in the use of them is'caution," which of course, no man or set of men living
can employ to perfection, except the three parsons of
Portman-street!!!  Be it known, therefore, to the
church of England, Ireland, and Scotland, that, whenever any one wishes to employ an "illustration" in religion, the incautious and illiterate English, Irish, or Scotch
preacher must write a polite note to the ecumenical




116         DR. CARIUtlL AND THE RAMBLER.
triumvirate of Portman-street to learn the precise use of
metaphors, and after waiting for a reply from these models of learning anid good breeding for nine days, perhaps
they may be favored with " a hearing, " as to whether
they will be permitted, in the judgement of these profound theologians of Oxford ( where theology is less than
half taught), to read the following Gospels without the
presence and instructions of"the  three, tailors" from
Tooley-street:The kingdonm of Heaven is likened a treasure hid in a field.-Matthew.
The kingdom of Heaven is likened to a merchantman seeking pearls.
-Matthew.
The kingdom of Heaven is likened to a householder going to hire
laborers.-Matthew.
The kingdom  of Heaven is likened to a certain king, who made a
marriage-feast. —Matthew.
The kingdom of Heaven is likened to ten virgins with lamps, going to
meet the bridegroom.-Matthew.
The kingdom of Heaven is likened to a man travelling in a far country.-Matthew.
The kingdom of Heaven is likened to a sower going out to sow seed.The seed is the word of God.-Mark.
"As the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith, without good
works, is dead. "-St. James.
In the whole course of my experience, I have never
read anything that can even approach the sickening conceit, exciting a smile of pity, of the writers of the above
paragraph on illustrations, where they clearly set themselves up as the models of criticism, the teachers of the
priesthood, and the infallible guides of the whole church
of these countries.
On that part of their Review, where they cavalierly




DRA. CAHILL AND THE RAMBLER.        117
avow that they had not read the original letter which
called out my reply at Whitehaven, I have one remark
to make, in order to prove the reckless imprudence of
the writers. Every theologian recollects the trouble and
vexation which the Popes Leo and Gelasius endured
from the Manicheans of their day, who refused to admit
the doctrine of the church in reference to the consecrated
wine in the chalice. Hereupon the Popes refused to admit these persons to Communion, unless they received
Communion in both kinds, adding " that they could not
permit them to divide the Sacrament and thereby render
it null.
If these words: are read in a mere logical and theological point of view, and' detached from the case of the
Manicheans, it would seem as if Communion, under both
kinds were essential to the integrity and validity of the
Sacrament. Protestants constantly quoted these Popes
on this point. But when it is recollected that the language
of the Popes is directed against persons who deny the
chalice, it will then be evident that the command of the
Popes: to drink of the chalice, is imposed (in this particular case ), not because both kinds are essential, but in order to uproot at once the growing heresy, and to silence
perfectly the objection that Christ is not present in the
chalice. If the Reviewers had the prudence to understand the objection against which my illustrations were
employed, they would not have now to defend themselves
against the reckless falsehood they have uttered of me;
nor would the public have to deplore the scandal they
have given to the faithful.




118        DR. CAHILL AND THE RAMBLER.
I have seldom read the sermons of Catholic preachers,
or studied the doctrine of the Church, as laid down by
the Fathers, in which are not to be found abundant illustrations such as the Scriptures themselves present; and
so accustomed are the public tothese illustrations that not
one individual amongst the most illiterate of our communion would ever think that these illustrations are to be
taken as strict declarations, sub omni respectu, of doctrine. In the Gospels already adduced, what man would
ever think that the kingdom of Heaven was " money hid
in a field:" or " the captain of a ship: " or "a farmer
hiring labourers; " or " a king:" or " ten young women i"
or 1" that faith died like the body, and was buried and grew
putrid;" or " that the word of God was an ear of corn,
made of potash, phosphorus, and sulphur?" Every one
knows the value of illustrations; and hence the readers of
my letter have perfectly understood my views. I have
received communications from Bishops, thanking me for
the letter: and one of the first Theologians in England, a
Professor of twenty-one years' standing, wrote to me to
say, that he CONSIDERED that letter "a masterpiece of controversy, both in matter and manner."
There is'in nature a change from one substance to another, from natural, chemical, and mechanical agencies;
but there is no " total conversion; " according to our idea
of the difference of substances, the wool on the sheep's
back is different from the turnips on which it feeds: but
this change is modal; and except under the one solitary
illustration of" change," has no relationship whatever
with the change or t conversion" in the Eucharist, which




DR. CAHILL AND THE RAMBLER.          119
firstly, is of a different kind, and secondly, is NOT a modal
change but "a total conversion."  While on this point I
would suggest to the Theologians of the Rambler to forbear their explanations of the manner how this change is
effected. Their words, ARE it is effected by the annihilation of one substance, and the substitution of another."
It would be much more prudent in them, to read the Catechism of the Council of Trent, and adopt the old words,
"A conversion is made of the whole substance of bread,
into the substance of the body of Christ, and of the whole
substance of wine, into the substance of his blood."
These words annihilation and substitution, are unnecessary words, and at present I shall merely call the attention
of Theologians to these phrases, but shall not utter one
word more on this point of my subject.
Gentlemen, I have at this part of my letter, met half
the objections made by the Editors of the Rambler; you
will therefore be kindly pleased to keep your columns
open to me in your next publication, for a second letter
from me of the same length as the present one. In that
part of their Review; where they speak of the Protestant
Bible, I will fill with bitter sorrow the Catholics of this
country, with the views of our infallible council of Portman-street. In all my life, I have not read anything to
resemble the combination of glaring falsehood, and palpable Protestantism, rampant Protestantism, to be deduced
from their assertions in this part of their Review.
I also demand from you, Gentlemen, that you will not
permit any opponent to reply to me, till my second letter
shall have been published-: that is, till my full reply shall




120         DR. CAHILL AND THE RAMBLER.
be given. This request I demand, as an act of justice. I
should be very sorry, indeed, to identify these three writers of the Rambler with all the converts. God forbid!
Their conduct is the act of'individuals, and not of the
body. Oh, no! And their motives cannot be mistaken.
It is a small movement on Puseyite principles —it is a little imitation of Tractarianism. It is the old idea of progress. The Lord knows where it will end. Perhaps it
may terminate in a new Puseyism, as far beyond old Catholicity, as the first Puseyism is on this side of it. The
Lord protect us, the old fashioned Priests, from the genteel theology of Portman-street!  The motives of this
movement are clear: I wrote to Rev. Mr. Burns, Dec. 7,
1853: and although weeks and weeks elapsed after that
letter, yet not a word of censure from Portman-street —
not a line in the Rambler of January, 1854. But some
few weeks ago I wrote a letter to Prince Albert, and I
mildly quoted the Oxford Commission, when instantly
onevconvert from Bayswater, in connection, as he stated,.
with other converts, wrote to me a letter, with which the
public are already acquainted. He again received a letter from another convert, thanking himfor hisfalselood;
and, lastly, the three converts of Portman-street, in an
article embodying the word " we" in every sentence, made
the unjustifiable attack, which is the subject of this reply.
These simultaneous, combined, and coincident letters,
look very like a malignant spirit, proceeding from men,
who should more appropriately be consigned to the position of learners, rather than assumingly usurp the office
of oppressive dictation.




DR. CAHILL AND THE RAMBLER.        121
They have mistaken their case: they have built their
spite too high, and it will fall: and what I regret most,
is, they have ruined their once useful periodical. It will
in future, be called the Parsons' Hornbook. These gentlemen, remind me very much of the old fable, where a
boy being once very fond of his cat, prayed to Jupiter,
that the cat might be changed into a woman. Jupiter
granted his request; but some time afterwards this lady
having hleard a mouse at night making a noise behind the
curtains, forgetting she was a woman, jumped out of bed,
and pursued the mouse with the former instinct of the
cat. The application is not inappropriate: our Reviewers
of Portman-street, although changed into Catholics, cannot divest themselves of the old instincts of the Protestant alliance; and, in some instances, would, if they dared,
pursue the Priest, their old victim, with the same malevolence, trick, and misrepresentation, as wten they formerly stood on the hostile platform of Exeter-hall.
Gentlemen, I am now done for the present. Your
readers must recollect who have commenced this painful
controversy, and no man of candor, can complain of me,
if I repel gross falsehood, and gratuitous misstatement by
public exposure.
I am, Gentlemen, your obedient servant,
D. W. CAHILL, D.D.




THE REV. DR. CAHILL AND THE "RAMBLER."
SECOND LETTER TO THE EDITORS OF THE
CATHOLIC JOURNALS.
NEW BRIGHTON, February 21, 1854.
GENTLEMEN-Within the last two years, an opinion and
a feeling have been extending through almost every rank
of Catholic society, that some few converts have been
erecting themselves into a sort of inquisitorial tribunal;
in these coteries the habits of the old clergy have been
rather too freely criticised, and an unbecoming assumption and an ill-concerted dictation gave much pain to
numerous Catholics, who were too respectful to check
and too confiding to notice, this now almost universal impression. When the heart -is full of anything, the mouth
cannot long keep the secret enclosed within the gushing
bosom; and hence our new critics are not ashamed to tell
the public, that they themselves are henceforth the infallible guides and the sole teachers of Catholicity in Great
Britain and Ireland. Let us hear them in page 176:
"There is no foundation whatever for the prevalent Protestant notion that he (Dr. Cahillb is to be taken as a
chosen champion of the faith."
It is the first time during my three years' residence in
England, I have heard of the championship of England
in Theology even talked of; it is to me quite a new idea;
and it appears to me to be a phrase, rather borrowed from
the old London Ring than from any modern rumor. I
have never heard that phrase applied to my humble
labors; I have asked several clergymen if they had heard
it; and all have declared the idea to be quite a new thing




DR. CAHILL AND THE RAMBLER.         123
lately promulgated from Portman-street. But, although
the public have never conceived the bright topping idea
referred to, not so the three Parsons in Portman-street;
their indignation at any one occupying any place, however humble, becomes so irresistably consuming that they
cannot avoid telling all whom it may concern, that Dr.
Cahill, or any priest,, or the most eminent ecclesiastic in
England is not to dare to light a farthing candle in the
Church without their kind permission; that Portmanstreet is the great ecclesiastical gasometer of the nation;
that no lamp can be fed from any other source; and that
they, (not Dr. Cahill, or any other priest, not having undergone the double-milled training of Portman-street), are
the sole importers of theology into this country and the
redoubted champions of England. Let any candid
reader review the page quoted from their malicious article, and it is impossible not to see the absurd affectation
and the killing self-suffciency of these blind half-bred
zealots.
But the public will be much surprised at the next qaotation from these models of Christian teaching. In page
176 they say: "Why do-the Bishops and Clergy permit
him to write and lecture as he does?"
What will the reader think of the constant, the unbroken falsehood of these men, when I now tell them, that,
since I came to England, I have written only four letters
on religious subjects; and these letters were answers to
challenges, repeated challenges from Protestant clergymen. TIear me. Up to March, 1853, I never even acknowledged the receipt of the numerous and insulting let



124       DR. CAHILL AND THJU RAMBLER.
ters of challenge which I received from all quarters.
Having made a rule to give. no offence in my duties as a
priest, to any human being in his consciencious belief, I
did not even reply to these challenges. But, an English
Bishop, second to none in his lofty position, having heard
me utter these sentiments at his own table, where I had
the honor of being invited, suggested and requested that
in future I should reply to all these letters of challenge.
Accordingly I sent my first reply to a clergyman in Glasgow. My second reply was made in Letterkenny, in the
house of the venerated and beloved father of the Irish
Bishops. My third reply, at Birkenhead, was written in
the house, and with the cordial sanction of an English
Canon and Dean, a gentleman most decidedly equal to
any clergyman in England of his years and station, and
who, I fondly hope, will yet add an expected ornament
to the English hierarchy. And my fourth and last letter
was penned while travelling in the company of the Bishop
of that diocese, whose consent (on my own responsibility)
I had previously obtained to answer any of the numerous
challenges I had received in his diocese.
Gentlemen, I have here explained an important point
in the letter of the veracious Parsons of Portman-street
Their language is an unmitigated falsehood; and affords
an irritating instance, that while these parsons have
changed their faith they cannot change their logic; and
that in furthering an ungenerous and an ill-founded feelIng, they can have recourse-to the self-same bare-faced misstatements as their former companions-the calumniating
mountebanks of the Protestant Alliance.




DR. CAHILL AND THE RAMBLER.           125
But this is not all; let any one read pages 176 and 177
of (what I am now justified in calling) their lying article,
and he will read about as impertinent a lecture to the
Bishops and Priests of England as could securely be penned by any man, outside of Bedlam-read it, Gentlemen.
The Bishops are there taught what their rights are, and
what they are not. They are informed to temper their
authority with prudence; that much of their authority is
a mere moral influence, not a right; and, of course, as
the superior teaches the inferior, the English hierarchy
must in future learn Canon law, and above all they must
learn to behave themselves well while under the ecumenical tuition of "the three tailors from  Tooley-street."
Nor is this all, on this long homily, "ex sermonibus sanctorum Redactorum."' Not at all; the English priests are
also informed that the only reason why Bishops do not
more frequently reduce them to the proper sense of their
duty, is for fear they would " recalcitrate hopelessly."
The English clergy are, therefore, placed in the position
of eternal gratitude to these sleepless sentinels, for putting
them on their guard under their perilous circumstances,
and warning them with such timely prudence, in their
conciliating periodical, of the fate'that must await them,
if they trespass too far on the endurance of their Bishops.
While on this point, I gladly here seize the opportunity
of expressing in an enduring public letter, what I said in
Ireland with undying gratitude, in reference to the
English Priesthood.
As I am leaving England in a few weeks, perhaps
never again to return; and as I have made a final engage



126          DR. CAHILL AND THE RAMBLER.
ment to visit America in some months hence, I can now
freely indulge my own heart in giving utterance to feelings which just now, at my departure, cannot be liable
even to a suspicion of flattery or selfishness. During the
three years I have been in England, I have lived exclusively with the clergy; and from the moment I entered
under their roof, I was placed entirely under their control. I never delivered a lecture or moved one step without their command or sanction; and their courtesy, their
kindness, their affection to me, cannot be expressed in any
one form of words which I can here employ. They all,
without even one exception, received me as their nearest
friend; I made their house my own; and if I were to aid
any one feature more remarkable than another in their
attention to me, it is, that.I always felt they accumulated
on me the distinguished compliments because I was an
Irishman. I wish to repeat this idea over again, that
myv countrymen may read this letter in Ireland; and that
whenever they shall have an opportunity (when I am far
away from them), they will ever express to an English
Priest, wherever they meet him, for my sake, some token
of the vast amount of the gratitude which I owe them,'which I shall carry with me to the grave, but which I
can never hope to repay.
In reference to the article of the Reviewer, therefore,
where they ask: "Why do the Bishops and Priests permit me to lecture?" it furnishes a sad instance of the folly,
the pitiful, exasperating folly —and I will be excused now,
when I add the lies of these three self-sufficient inquisitors; and on this point I would venture to offer one




DR. CAHILL AND THE RAMBLER.            127
remark to the Bishops, whom they presume to lecture;
and this is, that these prelates would in common charity,
take their mad lying pens out of their unsteady hands and
close the new shop in Portman-street, where they have
erected their forge, for manufacturing culpable falsehood
and public scandal. Their remarks in reference to the
clergy, in the extract quoted above,.do not press on me so
much as on the gentlemen who have invited me to their
churches; and before the expiration of a month hence, it
may be, that they shall find it necessary to retract their
foolish offensiveness. I have said, in my last letter, that
I should surprise the Catholic public with the rampant:Vrotestantism of these writers; and hence I proceed to
fulfil my most unwilling promise; at the same time believing that my remarks on this part of their article will give
an additional warning to Catholics against the Protestant
Bible.
Those half-converted gentlemen, are so unconscious of
their want of biblical and theological knowledge, that they
undisguisedly, but disedifyingly utter sentiments in reference to the Protestant Bible, which are the appropriate
expressions of the Soupers of Connemara-misstatements,
genteel Protestantism, and rank heresy are contained in
almost every word they have written on this subject.
In page 170, they say:
" The Protestant Bible has abundance of errors, and some of them of
very serious importance;" and in a few lines further on in the same
page, they call these errors "mistranslations."
Here we learn from out superiors at Portman-street,
that clear, decided additions, subtractions, suppression
_of whole books, denial of the inspiration of the whole




128         DR. CAHILL AND THE RAMBLER.
books, alterations, in facts, in words, in tenses, and consequently in doctrine, are things of rather "serious importance;" that is to say, they are things not to be laughed
at. Has any one ever heard of serious heresy —a term,
which, I suppose, these teachers employ by way of
contrasting it with "jocose heresy."'  And has any
Catholic work ever described sins, as sins of "importance!" this word so offensive to "ears polite," makes the
crime of heresy look rather a respectable thing. The old
priests who have not had the advantage of being brought
up and educated at Portman-street, would call these wilful perversions of the Bible, according to the examp!e of
St. Paul, by the names of grievous, soul-killing, damnable,
subversive of authority, and giving the lie to the Holy
Ghost: but now, the Lord be praised, we are informed
that these mistakes aie merely like the fluctuation in the
funds or the cotton-market; or like an increased duty on
tea, they are rather serious and important; and they are
to be described in the same language, as when we speak
of the improvements in our shipping interests, or the
casualties of commerce; they are things not quite a joke,
and therefore are matters of importance. The very phrase
proves that our Reviewers do not know the ordinary
language of our ancient Catechism.
But they go further, where they call these heretical
declarations of false doctrine by the genteel name of
" mistranslations."  Indeed! Upon my word, we have a
right to be proud of the masters of the Rambler, when
the omission in the Protestant Bible of two books of the
Maccabees, containing thirty-one chapters, is only a " mia




DR. CAHILL AND THE RAMBLER.         129
translation!" We have splendid teachers, indeed, when
we learn from our superiors in Portman-street, that six
books of the Old Testament, declared apocryphal by the
Protestant Bible, against the supreme authority of the
Church, is a fault merely amounting to a mistranslation,
and is just a sort of thing that a man ought to think of
before dinner, when he is disposed to be- serious.
And when any of the old-fashioned priests (who have
not read the genteel Theology of our new masters,) charge
the old Protestant Bible (still adopted by the Lutherans)
with throwing out of the Canon, the epistle of St. Paul to
the Hebrews, the epistle of St. James, the second epistle
of St. Peter, the second and third of St. John, and the
epistle of St. Jude, the Lutherans and all Protestants can
quote the Theologians of Portman-street, as superiors, and
the champions of all England and Wales and the Colonies, by observing that these trifling things are indeed
rather " serious " and are " mistranslations "' And when
any poor persecuted Catholic from Dingle, Kells, Achill,
or Connemera will ask our infallible Theologians of the
unfortunate Rambler, if there be any harm in purchasing,
keeping, and reading a Bible, which throws out books
declared canonical by the authority of the Church, which
despises therefore that authority, which substitutes facts,
which adds prepositions,. and in fine which changes the
word of God at pleasure, how happy must that poor
Catholic feel, when he has the superior advantage of
-learning (the Lord be praised) that this kind of a THING,
is indeed rather a " serious" consideration; that the thing
is of some "importance," and that the whole weight of




130        DR. CAHILL AND THE RAMBLER.
the thing may be classed under the head of a " mistranslation." Only think of the accomplished and respected
parish priest of Connemara, Rev. Mr. Kavanagh, exhorting
his flock against the Soupers and Bible-readers, telling
them  that the danger of receiving Bibles fiom  these
wolves, was rather a " serious" thing; but that the guilt
of their receiving these Bibles, amounted to an important
literary fault, namely, mistranslation.
But, as these gentlemen are so finished in Greek and
Hebrew, I shall take the great liberty of daring to ask
them some few questions, touching this case of " mistranslation," and concluding this section of my observations
by calling their learned attention to the view taken of the
point at issue, by the Council of Trent in its serious
declarations, called "Anathemas."
I shall now proceed to examine the facts of the case, to
see if our masters of the Rambler have critically told
the truth, in calling the errors of the Protestant Bible by
the name of "mistranslations."  One of our proofs of the
doctrine on the official right of the Church to impose temporal punishment, or penance for sin, is taken from the
first epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians, chapter the
5th: "Ede kekrika os parQn ton onto touto katergasamenon."  Our translation is: " I have already judged as
though I were present, him that hath done so."-The
Protestant version is: "I have already judged concerning
him," &c. Our translation, which any one can see, gives
St. Paul the power to judge the man-"ton katergasamenon:" while the Protestant translation makes St. Paul
only judge the case, not the man: and this palpable cor



DR. CAHILL AND THE RAMBLER,            131
ruption is done, not by a mistranslation, but by the introduction of a preposition not contained in the original text.
In Matthew, chapter 3rd, the Church translates the
word "metanoeite," "do penance;" whereas the Protestant Bible has it, "repent ye."  Their meaning is founded
on the philosophical derivation, "zmetanoos," change of
mind. On the same principle might they translate our
word "collation" (viz., our fasting meal,) into the word
"conference."  And hence, if they use the words "repent
ye" in the case before us, with philolo gical accuracy, it
can be said with the same propriety, that on fasting days,
the Catholics at their breakfast eat a conference; as every
scholar knows that the philosophical meaning of the word
"'collation," is "a conference." But there is more mischief in the two cases adduced than the genteel fault of
"mistranslation." These two gross additions and perversions involve a greater crime than this delicate Protestant
phrase: they go to invalidate the Sacrament of Penance:
they not only insinuate, but palpably deny the existence
of penitential works; and they ascribe the justification of
the sinner, to mere internal sorrow, to the exclusion of
the works of penance.  Now, in order to convince the
readers of the Rambler, of the false guidance of the three
Parsons of Portman-street, I shall quote the Canons of
the Council of Trent on this point, which will show these
readers that these mistranslations are not quite so jocose
as our masters have stated them:
Canon the Twelfth: " If any one saith, that God always remits the
whole punishment, together with the guilt: and that the satisfaction o!
the penitents is no other than the faith, whereby they apprehend that
Christ has satisfied for them, let him be Anathema."




132          DR. CAHILL AND THE RAMBLER.
Canon the Thirteenth: " If any one saith, that satisfaction for sins
is nowise made to God by the punishment inflicted by Him,or patient
ly borne, or by those enjoined by the priests, let him be Anathema."
Canon the Fifteenth: " If any one saith, that the satisfactions by
which penitents redeem their sins, are not a worship of God, but traditions of men, let him be Anathema."
I undertake to say, gentlemen, that before I shall have
concluded the genteel doctrine of " mistranslations," the
public will learn that curses upon curses, Anathemas
heaped on Anathemas, will fall upon the unfortunate
dupes who may be induced to follow the palpable ignorance, the undisguised Protestantism, and the heretical
teaching of the Parsons' Hornbook.  But I proceed:In the Epistle of St. James, where the sick are commanded, in the imperative mood, to bring in the Priests
of the Church to annoint the sick man, and to forgive him
his sins —the Church translates the words, " Proskalesastho tous Presbuterous tes Ekklesias," —" Let him bring in
the Priests of the Church;" whereas the Protestant Bible has it, "Let him call for the Elders of the church."
Now, in reading Cicero, if any schoolboy, meeting with
the words, " Patres conscripti," translated them, "0 conscript married men having children," the world would
laugh at the stupidity of the boy: and his master would
tell (not the paragons of Portman-street,) that the word
"fathers," did not critically mean married men with children, but men of official, senatorial, legislating, governing
dignity.  And precisely on the same principle and historical fact, (independently of the authority of the Church,)
the word " Presbuterous," does not mean any old mall in
the Church, but it means the men invested with official,




DR. CAHILL AND THE RAMBLER.            133;udiclal, governing dignity: it means authority, not years:
and hence the Protestant mistranslation substitutes one
fact for another in this case, and is a clear, decided, obvious declaration of a heretical doctrine.
But let us examine the Council of Trent on this thing,
which is not a joke, or a thing rather serious: vide Homiliam de Portman-street:
CANON THE FOURTH-ON EXTREME UNCTION:
"If any one saith, that the Presbyters of the Church are not Priests,
who have been ordained by a Bishop, but Elders in each community........ let him be Anathema."
NTow, it is clear from these Canons, tnat the Anathema
of the Church are pronounced on any one who saith the
doctrines referred to; but our Protestant Bible expresses
these doctrines as clearly as words can express them; and
hence, I feel, their own imprudence has placed them in a
difficulty from which not all their stratagems can extricate them.
But, I shall proceed: In Genesis, chapter 14th, "Melchisedech," king of' Salem, bringing forth bread and wine,
for he was a priest of the Most High God, blessed Abraham." In this text, the causal Hebrew particle, " for,"
is introduced, in order to show that Melchisedech brought
forth bread and wvine because he was a priest: and that
therefore his office was to offer bread and wine. But the
Protestant Bible takes away the particle " for," and substitutes the propositional copulative conjunction " and,"
in order to make the words " bread and wine" be a mere
casual occurrence, and not a thing necessary to be offered:
and thus laying the fbundation of denying the Priesthood
in the New Law.




134          DR. CAHILL AND THE RAMBLER.
In Malachy, chapter 1st, we find the words:
"From the rising of the sun to the going down, my name is great
among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is
offered to my name a clean oblation."
In the Protestant Bible, the words are:"And in every place incense shall be offered to my name: and a pure
offering.'
In this text, the very sense is not only mutilated: false
words are not only introduced, as any one can see by reference to the original text; but the word incense is substituted for sacrifice. It is putting the thing which accompanied the sacrifice, for the sacrifice itself: as if Protestant
writers would put the candles that are lighted on the altar
during Mass, or put the bell that rings during the Elevation, for the Mass itself; and then tell the world, that the
Alass is a mere ceremony of a bell and a lighted candle.
In the same way, in all the Prophets, wherever any remote or covered idea of sacrifice is hinted or expressed, the
Protestant Bible, in all these passages, always substitutes
the word "prayer."
In order to show how exceedingly incorrect and mis.
chievous it is for any untutored tyro, in our Church, to
call these gross corruptions and misstatements by the name
of " mistranslations," we have only to read the Council of
Trent on this point, in reference to the sacrifice of the
Mass
Canon the Second: "If any one saith, that the sacrifice of the Mass
is only a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving; or that it is a bare commemoration of the sacrifice of the cross, and not a propitiatory sacrifice.....  let him   be Anathema."




DR. CAHILL AND THE RAMBLER.              135
I have thus, Gentlemen, taken pains to prove that the
plain miswording, the additions, the corruptions, the entire
removal of whole books, the denial, and the contempt of
the authority of the Church, involved in denying the authenticity of other books of the Holy Scriptures, constitute an awful amount of guilt in the Protestant Bible; and
I trust I have demonstrated that this guilt is expressed in
such clear language, that no reader can mistake it; and I
have added to this indictment against the Protestant Bible
several Anathemas of the Council of'Trent, in all these.points at issue: and hence I shall be enabled, in the remaining part of this letter, to place before this nation
(what I now  am justified in designating) the ignorance,
the assumption, and the impertinence of the article of the
Rambler, proceeding from the half-bred, half-converted
clique, who have written such calumnies of me, and who
have deliberately penned the fbllowing most gross misstatement, and which at the same time evinces such a decided leaning to the Protestant Bible: Hear their words:
" Take, for instance, the astounding assertion, that he'would prefer
that-a Catholic should read the worst books of immorality,' than the
Pirotestant Bible! If any of our readers have not already seen Dr. Ca-hill's letter, they will lift up their hands in astonishment, and question
the accuracy of our quotation; nevertheless, we assure them that we
are giving the exact words."                      *
In the whole course of my life, I have never Inet anything like the undeviating falsehood, the reckless disregard for common honesty and of truth, which appear almost in every sentence of these malignant Parsons.
In the following quotation from my letter, you will see
at a glance, whether they have given my exact words, as




136          DR. CAHILL AND THE RAMBLER.
they have emphatically  "assured" their readers.  My
words are as follows, in answer to Mr. Burns's appeal to
his Bible:
"Considering the shameful forgery of the Protestant Bible, I would
prefer that a Catholic should read the worst books of immorality, than
this forgery in God's Word, this slander of Christ. Old age can check
immorality; but the forgeries of God's book, the lies told of Christ, the
wicked perversion of the inspired volume, the base substitution of
words, the flagrant robbery of the text of life, are so many hideous
crimes of Protestantism, that in vengeance for such blasphemous interpolation, the curse of all crimes, and of all errors, and of naked infidelity, seems to be inflicted on your entire nation. And this is the Bible,
this public forgery on the name of the Holy Ghost, this libel of God the
Father, this slander on Christ, which you wish to give to the poor children of the Irish."
Could it be believed possible, that any man, pretending
to the character of common decency, could write such a
gross falsehood and trick, as are contained in the quotation which he calls my "exact words." I need no greater revenge over this wretched clique, than the indignant
contempt which they must receive from the decision of
any man who reads even this one shameful misstatement.
And now let us read their next paragraph, which follows:
In speaking of Protestants they say: —
"What story of Catholic wickedness will they not henceforth believe?
What tale of priestly licentiousness will from this time, be too monstrous for their credulity? The Protestant Bible has abundance of errors, it is true, and some of them of very serious importance; but is it
not a violation of all common sense and decency, to pretend that a Catholic had better read the filthy productions of obscenity, than the book
in which these mistranslations occur? Is there a priest in the United
Kingdom who would bear out Dr. Cahill in such a notion?  Would not
all, with one accord, denounce it as a perfect portent in the domain of
morals and casuistry?"




DR. CAHILL AND THE RAMBLER.         137
Here any one can behold the wrathful resentment of
the Parson, at my denunciation of the mistranslations. —
Could any speech at Exeter-hall surpass the malignant
spirit detectable in this quotation? But I repeat again
the same sentiments; and I again declare, in spite of these
advocates of the Protestant corrupted, forged Bible, that
I would prefer (between the two evils,) works of immorality to works of infidelity; and I shall forthwith state
my reasons:
Firstly, then, old age, of itself, cools lown the immoral
heart, while infidelity and heresy gains strength over the
enfeebled intellect. Secondly, immorality is scouted in
all society of every creed, and must not dare to lift its
head except in secret; while Protestant infidelity is laaded, encouraged, rewarded, and therefore confirmed by the
very society that condemns immorality. Thirdly, immorality stands opposed only to the ten commandments of
God; while infidelity adds to this crime, the opposition
to Christ and the authority of the Church. Fourthly,
immorality practices vice, but dare not teach it in public;
while infidelity not only practices deadly, mortal guilt,
but teaches it, declaims it, demands honor for it; and can
command large audiences to learn it. Fifthly, immorality has generally but one accomplice at a time, while infidelity can have ten thousand. Sixthly, all the infidels
of Christian countries are apostates from the Church, and
St. Paul tells us that, " it is impossible for such persons
to be renewed again to penance;" whereas there is no
such impossibility pronounced against immorality. Seventhly, the immoral man can repent, and be prepared to




138       DE. CAHILL AND THE RAMBLEVR.
be forgiven in a short time: but the infidel man has to
repent also, and to learn the Christian doctrine, which requires time and perseverance. Eighthly, the immoral
man merely injures himself and a few accomplices; while
the man who adopts the Protestant forgeries, in spite of
the Church, joins the Soupers, encourages the Protestant
Alliance, betrays the Priesthood, sells his country, and is
the enemy of God and a perjurer to man. Ninthly, the
immoral man acknowledges his weakness and his crime,
and so far pays homage to God's law and judgments;
while the infidel refuses homage, makes a profession of
opposition to inspired teaching, and opposes an obstacle
to the success of the Cross. Tenthly, the Canons of the
Council of Trent, have pronounced several Anathemas
against the man that saith any of the clear infidelities of
the forged Protestant Bible; while the immoral man is'
left to the ordinary denunciations of the Gospel. 1 therefore repeat the proposition I have advanced, and which
has so much offended our masters the Convert Parsons ot
Portman-street. Lastly, one act is on moral principles
more grievously sinful than another, if in its " eiid, object,
and circumstances," one contains a larger amount of guilt
under these three heads than the.other: and hence as infidelity, for the reasons already stated, opens an extent of
guilt indefinitely larger than mere immorality, it strikes
me, that the Converts have read as little of our moral treatises, as they have of Mr. Burns' letter; and that they
have, with all their other qualities, a matchless effrontery,
of which the public will soon form a correct opinion.
I have thus given my reasons for the statement which




DR. CAHILL AND THE RABLER.         139
I made, and I undertake to say, that in place of denouncing the casuistry of -Dr. Cahill, the whole nation, lay and
clerical, will say of the clique who praise the Protestant
Bible, that if they were alive in the days of Elizabeth,
they would be found near Tom  Crammer's grave praising the new parliamentary prayers, and trying to patch up
a piebald Pusey4te gospel, in order to suit the genteel
Protestant taste of the day.
Gentlemen, I am not done with Portman-street as yet.
I have not reached as yet, the lowest depths of their folly,
their uncharitableness, their malignity, and their calumny.
I beg to assure the public that I have charges still more
grievous to put forth, on the subject of their. articles in
the ]Rambler, which will still more surprise the public;
and hence, while I ask the favor of a third and LAST letter in your columns, I think I can with truth convey to
you the thanks of the clergy and laity of these countries
for your kindness to me in the present instance. The
Reviewers, of course, will answer me in their anonymous
periodical; but give me your impartial columns, and,
depend upon it, that their conduct to me will not leave
ten readers to the Parson's Hornbook within three months
from this date. The public know me too long to encourage a book of falsehood and calumny against me: and I
feel my hunible name has been stamped with too flattering partiality by the public approval to permit any man
living, or set of men, be he or they who they will, without putting forth whatever power I possess, and covering my gratuitous calumniators with universal and wellmerited censure. In all this exposure they must blame




140           SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL.
themselves: when they joined us, we clothed them inthe
lion's skin, and admitted them to our society, begging of
them to be silent: but if they foolishly begin to bray,
and imprudently raise their voice and show their long
ears, the fault is entirely their own.
I am Gentlemen, your obedient servant,
D. W. CPiHILL, D.D.
REV, DR, CAHILL'S SPEECH
AT A GREAT MEETING IN LIVERPOOL.
On August 30th 1852, a large and important meeting of Catholics took place in the Concert Hall,
Liverpool. The secretary having read an address tG
the Rev. Dr. Cahill on his appearance amongst them,
and then having detailed the happy results exhibited by the absence of a procession on St. Patrick's Day last, stated that the people were resolved in future to abstain from all processions. The
celebrated Divine came forward, and delivered a
speech, of which we copy the abstract given by the
journals; and as it was pronounced amidst the most
rapturous enthusiasm, and immense cheering, we will
omit the frequent exclamations which did interrupt
at every moment the orator. The multitude dispersed after adopting a resolution to the effect that the
Catholics of Liverpool were deeply grateful to the
Rev. Dr. Cahill for the magnificent address he had.




SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL.            141
delivered, and that they were resolved ill future to
do all in their power to carry out the views expressed
by him and the venerated clergy of Liverpool.
The Rev. Doctor said:
He could assure them, that in the whole course of his
life, he never beheld a more important and influential
meeting —none but an Irishman could understand it. And
what was he to say to that great meeting?  He had it.
He was a " chip of the old llock " himself, and as such he
stood before them. He was glad to hear them praise him
so, for he was sure he must deserve something when they
did so, for if he did not, such applause would not come
from that great meeting. He would, if he could, contradict them in what they had said, but, if he did so, he would
be contradicting himself. If he were anything in their
sight, it was they who made him so-they had created
him something. They had given him strength in Liverpool, and that proved their own power. He had something to tell them-he had got a new suit of clothes since
he last saw them. He wished to appear before them as
respectable as he could; -and who did they think was his
tailor?  Why no less a personage than Lord Derby. It
was a fact. Lord Derby had made the coat he wore;
and he believed they would think it a good fit. He begged of them also to look at his vest. It was cut precisely
after the fashion of the 4th Victoria-the Processions Actby Lord Derby, who had become tailor and general
barber to the Pope. Yes, it was Lord Derby who made
his clothes; and as that Noble Lord had turned tailor and
barber to the Pope, and as he (Dr. Cahill) was a Popish




142          SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL.
priest, he thought it right to patronise Lord Derby; and
so now he appeared before the meeting in his new parliamentary dress, and if any one in that meeting had garments to make, he would advise them to take such, for
manufacturing to Downing-street. He had been writing
a letter to Lord Derby, and they would find it in the Dublin papers of Saturday next. It was that letter which
made the clothes he now wore. When he looked on that
great meeting, and saw such a- number of people present,
his point was gained in Liverpool. What could he say,
or how could he thank them?  They had followed the
advice which he had given them, to observe peace, law,
and order, and if they wished to continue in that brilliant
course for the future, he would ask them to hold up their
hands as a pledge for the future. Before he quitted the
subject of Lord Derby's tailoring, he must observe that
although he was long aware of the dexterity exhibited on
the thimbles by that Noble Lord, yet he was not aware that
his Lordship was so expert at the needle as he proved himself to be. They had told him that it was he who
instructed and guided them on the late occasion of their
having given up their annual procession. Well, if he
were their guide and instructor, he would do something
in return for them for their obedience; he would therefore tell them some news-news from the Continent, and
even other places in the world, and he was much mistaken if they would not be pleased with what he had to
tell them. Ife would begin with Austria. When ittrembled and shook with revolution-when Hungary raised
up Kossuth in order to free his native land, that miscreant




SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL.           143
committed suicide on his country. Yes, he did, but who
were the prime levers in that murder? —the English
Government.
Mark, not the English people, for it should be always
borne in mind that he made the most emphatic difference
between the English Government and the English people.
To illustrate that, he had never yet met an Englishman
who did not cry over the misfortunes and the misgovernment of Ireland-sigh for the advancement of the trade
and commerce of that country, and longed to see her free
and happy. Therefore, let no one connect the English
Government with the English people. It was now on
record, that the English Government were the engines
which deluged the Continent with blood, and made the
whole fabric of European kingdoms tremble with revolution. It was by the machinations of that Government,
that Lombardy, Sardinia, and other countries were left
tottering on their unsteady foundations. He need only
refer them to the manner in which poor Charles Albert
was treated and betrayed by one Howard-they were all
pretty well aware of that, and now that unfortunate
monarch was rotting in his grave, the victim of English
perfidy. Let them  again look at Rome-Rome, that
belonged to the Popes —a few Italian States, about half
the size of Connaught in Ireland.
These States were given as presents by the emperors
and kings of Europe to -the Popes, and no power in
Europe had a right to interfere with the government or
management of these States. In fact, they were private
property given to the Popes, but England's Government




144             SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL.
cast its eyes towards Italy, and sent a Lord Minto there.
They had heard of Lord Minto. He (Lord Minto) said,
he was asked to go to Rome, but he was not; yet he did
go, and by his vile conduct he involved the whole country in a state of frightful confusion, and attempted to
upset the very foundation of the Vatican itself. The King
of Naples trusted in the English Government, and the
English Ambassador at that court supplied a torch that
nearly destroyed that poor country. Let them go to
Spain, and look at the English work there in 1832. The
English Government promised to place a usurper on the
throne of that kingdom, provided they got in return the
Church property of Spain-and they did get it, and
placed the usurper on the throne. They demolished the
Convents and Nunneries-turned out the Monks on Is. 3d.
a day, and the Nuns on 10 1-2d.-they left but one Convent standing in the kingdom —broke down the religious
establishments-destroyed the dynasty of that country,
and committed the most awful acts the world ever beheldand were guilty of the most perfidious cruelty ever heard
of in any country on the face of the earth.
Again, let them look at Portugal —the English Government
entered into a conspiracy there, against the Catholic Church
property, and in that country there was another instance
of the murderous hand of England in the spoliation of
Church property. He now came to France. The revolution of 1830, (he saw it, for he was there at the time,)
was fomented and got up by the English Government.
The English Government was at the beginning and end
of the revolutions that had taken place on the Continent,




SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL.            145
and which shook the foundations of the empires. They
almost annihilated Catholic education in those countries he
had mentioned. The Cross-the emblem of man's salvatlin, was trodden under foot. Morality ceased, and all
those horrors were committed by a clique of the English
G4overnment for the purpose of extinguishing the Catholic
Church. However, he was glad to tell them, that the
aspect of affairs had lately changed, and that Austria,
Sardinia, and Naples, were not now cursed with such
iniquity.
And as for France, just now, she had it all her own
way. Austria, Italy, and France, had seen the machinations practised towards them; and they had driven the
usurpers from their territories; and these countries were
now free in religion, politics, and Catholic education.
The English Government had fired the Church with the
torch of infidelity; but he (Dr. Cahill,) had come to tell
them, that the Catholic Church had recovered part of its
property on the Continent. In Austria, the Emperor
had placed the Catholic schools under the Jesuits-and
could the youth of any country -have such perfect instructors? The King of Prussia had given a full and fair
extension to Catholic education. Rome had maintained
her ancient name for religion and education. The King
of Naples had discovered his mistake; and now all the
schools in Naples were under the control and vigilance of
the Catholic clergy. The best of all remained to be told —
France-glorious France —ad recovered her long lost
rights, and now enjoyed the blessings of Catholic education. He then alluded to the College of France at a for



146           SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL.
mer period, when the students were ordered to read the
Catechism, but so far had infidelity worked there, that
they refused, ran out of the College into the streets,
shouting out, " Long live the Devil, but no Catechism for
us!"  Look at France now-the oldest daughter of the
Catholic Church, which can date as far back as the
renowned Charlemagne-at least one thousand years.
He next alluded to the conduct of France, who drove
seventy-three thousand plotting miscreants from Switzerland-fellows who were bribed to foment rebellion and
revolution all over the Continent; but the Prince President, soon made them walk about their business. In 1846
and 1847, the Catholic colleges, the monasteries, and nunneries in Switzerland were overthrown by the miscreants
whom he had spoken of. And they even penetrated so
far as the monastery of Mount St. Bernard, and committed ravages wherever they went. No country on the
earth presented such scenes of murder and bloodshed.
He would now tell them the object he had in these
matters, in order to contrast such horrible atrocities with
peace, law, and order. The workings which he had
mentioned, were the workings of the British Government,
but Ireland, amidst surrounding nations,, preserved peace,
law, and order, and loyalty to the throne of England.
But Lord John Russell was not Satisfied with that, he
-sent out his missive to create a revolution-he, did not
succeed. How has he been answered?  He (the Rev.
Dr. Cahill,) would tell them how Louis Napoleon had
answered him.
The other day, at the ceremony of blessing the eagles,




SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL             147
the imperial eagles of France, which belonged to his uncle,
Prince Louis Napoleon, with an army of three hundred
thousand fighting men-in presence of the Archbishop of
Paris, had a throne raised for that celebrated prelate
seventy-two feet high, and above that throne, a.cross one
hundred and forty-four feet high. The Archbishop celebrated solemn High Mass, in the presence of three hundred thousand French soldiers, armed in steel-and at the
elevation of the Sacred Host, 100 pieces of French ordinance were discharged in thanksgiving to God.
That was not all; the 300,000 soldiers of France, drew
their swords, knelt on one knee, (as is the custom in all
Catholic countries for soldiers,) and amidst the clang of
three hundred thousand swords, and the thunder of one
hundred cannons, the Holy Host was lifted to Heaventhe grandest spectacle ever witnessed in Paris, since
the days of Charlemagne. That was the answer given by
Louis Napoleon to Lord John Russell, who incited the
people of this country to trample on the Cross, and burn
the effigy of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was a good
reply on the part of Louis Napoleon. When his (the
Rev. Dr. Cahill's) tailor, Lord Derby, issued his proclamation against a religious procession which took place at
Ballin'asloe-the Irish name of that place was "Kylena
spithogue,"-h6 liked the Irish names —Louis Napoleon
answered him as follows:-Riding in his carriage the
other day along the Boulevards, the Prince saw a religious
procession headed by a number of clergy, who carried a
Cross, and when he saw it, he bowed to the Priests, raised
his hat, and when the Cross appeared, he stood up in the




148            SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL,
coach, took off his hat, and remained uncovered, bowing
his head all the time until the procession passed on. That
was the answer he gave Lord Derby. He answered
John Russell one way, and he replied to Mr. tailor
Derby in another.
The Reverend Gentlema4 went on to detail the proceedings which had recently taken place on the Continent,
in reference to the expulsion of English incendiaries; and,
attributed such to the firmness, good sense, and determination of Louis Napoleon, who was a good Catholic, and
loved the. religion in which he was educated, and in which
he would die. He (the Rev. Dr.) would call another
witness in the shape of America; and the Sultan of Constantinople, who assisted a short time ago, at the marriage
of a Catholic lady and Greek gentleman in that city, the
ceremony being performed by a Catholic Bishop. The
Sultan attended and remained uncovered, and expressed
himself in terms of admiration for the Catholic Church;
and observed, that no man should stand covered in the
presence of God, and while assisting at a most sacred
rite of the Catholic religion.
He then summed up his observations, and said he had
thrown them  out for the consideration of the English
Government, if they still wished to pursue the persecution
of the Catholic Church. He then referred to Greecethe late intended quarrel, which arose about the loss of
some Englishman's breeches and a cabbage garden; and
after dwelling in a happy strain on the return of an English fleet crowned with victory from Greece, (after making the above conquest,) he went on to state the difficulties of England with America, China, India, Kaffirland,




SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL.            149
&c., and said that England was not at present able to
fight an American tom-cat. And as to prevent the Americans from going where they pleased, he was sure so
far as any opposition that England could give to America, the boats of the latter, might sail into the bay of Galway, and catch as much fish as they could. China, the
Burmese Empire in India, Kaffirland, America, Canada,
the latter only waiting for a favorable opportunity to
shake off the English yoke. France, with nearly a million of soldiers -but no one could tell what France
would do yet; and they should remember that in England
alone there were two millions of Chartists only wanting to
put their hands to their staves, for they all had staves;
and the Manchester factory people, who if deprived of
cheap bread, and the import of eleven million of pounds
worth of cotton from America, would assuredly starve
if the supplies were stopped-they would have nothing to
eat unless they devoured brick or the Established Church.
The latter, he thought, would be more agreeable picking
than baked clay. All those things were pressing on
England at the present moment, and yet she was the
only country in the whole world that persecuted her subjects for their religious opinions. Yes the government of
England was the solitary one on the earth's surface that
persecuted her own people for the sake and in the name of
religion. Let him again not lay this crime on the people of England — it was the Government. If England
only knew her duty, she would hold out the right hand
of fellowship to her subjects in Ireland, and that hand
would be met in affection and harmony.
He drew a picture of the desolation to which Ireland




150           SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL.
ha& been reduced, and gave, amongst others, an instance
of where a poor widow woman in Mayo (her name was
Byrne,) had. to carry her seven sons to the grave, which
~she dug with her own hands, and when the last of her
boys was deposited there, she died herself, and was burried in the same grave, shroudless and coffinless; two poor
women having borne the body wrapped in hay, to its final resting place. All this, while there was nineteen
million of money in the Exchequer of England, a great
portion of it having been plundered from Ireland. He
gave several instances of where the dead bodies of the
people were dragged from the holes into which they had
been thrown, by dogs.
He knew an educated man in Dublin, an apothecary,
who had to go into the South Union Workhouse. The
poor of Ireland had sunk into the grave-the middle
classes had descended to the vacant place of the poor, and
the landlords had been swallowed up by the infernal law
made by themselves and the Government. Emigration
was now sweeping away the bone and sinew of Ireland,
and whatever mgney was left in it. And was it for hatred
of the country the people were flying to glorious America? No, it was hatred of the English Government;
and who could tell, in the course of a short time, what
that hatred might not eventuate in? In the midst of all
Ireland's misfortunes, she lost one of the greatest patriots
that the world ever saw-the burning flood of whose eloquence made tyrants tremble? Oh! if he were alive now,
with what a meteor voice would he not fly through the
country, comforting the afflicted, and seeking redress for
the people of his: glorious native land!




SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL.I          151
He need not tell that meeting that he alluded to the
immortal O'Connell. Oh! when he was called to the reward of a well-spent life —liberty gave a departing sigh
in Ireland, and patriotism's sun set in the land of his
nativity. Such a time did the enemies of the country
take upon them to renew persecution. And yet during
seven centuries there was not one act of disloyalty ever
proved against the faithful clergy of Ireland. On the contrary, the people of Ireland had suffered and died in defence of the English throne.
He then went on to show how the Irish had acted in
the case of Charles the First, and from him down to King
James-that they had suffered for their loyalty; and the
only return they got, was persecution, insult, and death.
He then proceeded to thank the Irish people in Liverpool
for their cheerful obedience to his request, and the request of the venerated bishop and clergy of the town and
district, with whose co-operation he had been successful
in preventing a procession on St. Patrick's Day last.
He told an interesting anecdote about a man, (to show
what feeling the Irish entertain for anything belonging to
the country,) whom be saw leaving Dublin and taking a
dog with him to America. The man told him the dog
cried so much when he saw the house pulled down by the
landlord, that he could not leave the poor brute behind
him. At this moment the dog began to bark, when the
man said, 4" Sir, he hears us talking of the landlord now,
and he knows all about the way he treated us, as well as
myself!"
The Reverend Speaker then drew a comparison be



152            SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL.
tween the adventures of Lord John Russell, Lord Derby,
and others, and the travels of Gulliver, in which he'was
most happy, and loudly applauded. He then impressed
on the assembly the necessity of their strictly adhering to
the principles of peace, law, and order, and to continue in
the good resolve they had formed —to abide by the advice
of their excellent clergy, and that they would be happy in
this world and the next. He next alluded to the determination of the Irish Members, and said, although the Government might vapor under their weakness, yet the resolution of a steady band in St. Stephen's, would soon wring
justice from them. He implored all, to be united in bonds
of peace and charity, and to take the hand of the English
and Scotch, and identify themselves with these people;
and for their cheerful acquiescence to his request last year,
he promised them an excursion to Wales next May,
when they would renew their friendship, and invite even
their enemies to accompany them, in order to show that
they were the preservers of peace, law, and order. It
was by such conduct as this, that they could conquer their
persecutors, and defy the world. He then passed a wellmerited compliment on the chairman, for his honesty, patriotism, and love of religion; and said, while the people
had the wise counsel of such a man and the clergy, they
need not.doubt of their success. He sat down amidst the
most rapturous and prolonged cheering.




REV. DR. CAHILL'S LECTURE.
SOCIAL CONDITION OF IRELAND.
In accordance with announcement, the Rev. D. W. Cahill, D. D., delivered, for the benefit of St. Augustin's Schools, four Lectures at the
Concert Hall, Lord Nelson street, Liverpool-three on Natural Philosophy, and the fourth, which is reported as follows, on the Social Condition of Ireland. The Hall was crowded to excess, there being not
fewer, perhaps, than 2,500 persons assembled. On the platform were
several of the well-known Catholic Clergy of Liverpool and neighborhood. Upon the Doctor making his appearance, successive rounds of
the most enthusiastic cheering greeted him.
As soon as the enthusiasm had somewhat subsided, he
commenced by saying:-" Ladies and Gentlemen, I have
again to repeat my sincere thanks to you for this most
ardent reception which you have given me., Though
somewhat accustomed to receive those hearty demonstrations, yet, I must confess, that on this occasion, you have
outdone yourselves. (Cheers.) Several nations are very
remarkable for music, others for drawing, others for sculpture, others for eloquence; but I don't think there is a
nation in the world able to shout with the'Irish. (Loud
cheers.)
I assure you, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have a most
difficult office to discharge to-night. The statement of
Lecture is worded in this way —" The Social Condition
of Ireland." There never was a heavier or more responsible task; yet, to an Irishman, it is a somewhat easy task,
as it is his constant study. (Hear, hear.) I don't appear
here to-night to inflame your feelings with animosity, to




154        SOCIAL CONDITION OF IRELAND.
introduce amongst you national feelings. No, I appear
here to-night as Counsel for Ireland, and you shall stand
over me as a jury. (Cheers.)
In the present instance, I have a tmwo-fold object in
view-I wish to inform the Irish about our country, and
to the Englishmen, to give a clear and impartial apology
for the condition in which my country is placed, on account of the constant and horrid discord into which misgovernment has plunged it; and the terrible poverty consequent upon this mis-government, which, so pressed the
yoke upon the finest country and the finest people in the
world. (Cheers.)  The charges brought against us, are:
that we are lazy and won't work; that we are improvident, and won't accumulate capital; that we have no enterprise, and would not engage in commerce; that we are
discontented, and would not be propitiated; that we are
rebellious and would not submit to the laws; that we
are disloyal, and would not be content with the throne.
Now, my business here to-night is not to make a speech,
for my language would be unable to do justice to the sdubject: but, as a Reverend Counsellor, to lay bare and uncover the wounds of Ireland. And, as I know that several wounds have been inflicted upon the body of Ireland
since I was born; and my father said deep wounds had
been inflicted upon the body of Ireland since he was born;
and my grandfather told him wounds deep and ghastly,
had been inflicted in his days; my great-grandfather had
said the same. I found myself taking off the bandages
for the last three hours before I came here. (Cheers.) —
I only point out to you the grievous distress our poor




SOCIAL CONDITION OF IRELAND.        155
country has suffered. I have to go back, not for a century, nor for two centuries, but very near 700 years, before I can do justice to this most distressing case of Ireland, which I promise to lay before you. I should be
exceedingly sorry if any English gentleman should think
that I was guilty of stirring up any anti-national feeling,
or giving any expression unbecoming the sacred profession which I hold. (Cheers.)
First: Therefore, I begin with the years 1172-7, when
Henry II. conquered Ireland through the dissension and
treachery of our own countrymen; and from this time
down to 1570, for nearly 400 years, there was continued
struggling between England and Ireland; and during
these 400 years, they could never conquer Ireland-never
able to pass Leinster, so that three other Provinces were
never conquered. And in these times the most barbarous
cruelties were practised on the people. (Hear.) It is
scarcely sinful to say, that never was the Protestant cruelty of England surpassed by the Catholic cruelty of Ireland. Amongst other instances, he would mention that
the English soldiers were not allowed to deal with usnot to spread even what civilization they might boast.
Never were the conquered treated with greater cruelty
than from the reign of Henry II. to that of Henry VIII.
The execution of Clare he would allude to, when the British soldiers outraged the wives and daughters of the Irish
before their faces, and shot them, or tossed them over the
rocks if they complained. Five hundred lashes was the
punishment if a British soldier married an Irish girl; and
I am happy to say to you, to the credit of the gallantry




156        SOCIAL CONDITION OF IRELAND.
and taste of some of those men, the beauty of the Lasses
of Limerick tempted them, in spite of five hundred lashes.
(Cheers and laughter.)  I could point out to you, if I
pleased, several instances of the most blackened cruelty;
but it is not necessary, since I look upon them as dreadful stories; and it is more to the credit of a lecturer to
moralize on fact of history, than merely recount them.
Now, I ask, what agriculture could have been successfully pursued in a country like ours, which, during the
four hundred years we have now in view, was a scene of
perpetual struggles between the oppressing conqueror and
the poor conquered? (Hear.)  How could commerce
be entered into, while the enemy's camp was at their
gates, and they were nearly all occupied in repelling the
invaders? (Hear.) Every honest Englishman will bear
me out in these conclusions. In England, at the very
time commerce was beginning, the crusades had begun,
and all their opening and kindling influences of chivalry.
During these 400 years England was cultivating learning
and the arts and sciences, with the most important characteristic-combination amongst themselves: while poor
Ireland was learning war, and feeling its fury, which made
it a theatre of animosity and dissension. (Hear.) To you,
Ladies and Gentlemen, my jury, I now appeal, and ask
whose fault was it that our country was so wretched?
Was it the fault of the Irish? (Cries of no, no.) No, Gentlemen, it was the fault of fate; a strong and foreign enemy was against us, and pressed us down. (Applause.)
And after this, next came the disastrous period of Henry
VIII.  He found fault with his queen; dismissed her;




SOCIAL CONDITION OF IRELAND.       157
quarrelled with the Pope, because he condemned him; and
married a subject in 1553. He was succeeded by two or
three young princes, whose career lasted, including Elizabeth, until 1603.
Those years were the most disastrous in Irish history.
England had changed her national faith, but failed in
changing the Irish. The conquerors took every acre of
land, as the law said: "An Irishman must only have an
acre of arable land, and half an acre of bog. The laws of
Elizabeth were levelled against the three most important
things in a nation's welfare-property, education, and the
religion of the people (the Catholic faith.) During the
seventy years we have now in review, persecution raged
to the greatest extent; and Elizabeth contemplated the
entire subjugation of Ireland. About the end of her
reign, by dint of the cruelest warefare, and the banishment of 70,000 Irish, she subjugated that country, leaving
behind her the most withering, burning destruction, and
heart-rending cruelty that have ever been recorded
against any nation.
Look, now, at the position of our poor country —no
agriculture, no commerce, no learning, no education, no
homes, no property, no position! And don't you think,
now, that succeeding historians behave very wrongly,
when they charge and upbraid the Irish with want of
education, when all education in it was by law extinguished? And don't you think that the English historian is a
villain to so charge them. But I will say, to the credit of
the generous frankness of the English, that I never sat
with an Englishman for an hour, that would let me go on




158        SOCIAL CONDITION OF IRELAND.
with my statements, before his generous disposition swell.
ed with indignation at the injustice and iniquity of the
treatment of my country. To the glory of my country I
tell it, though so persecuted, even the seventy thousand
banished Irishmen never gave up their faith. England
gave it up-but all Ireland remained faithful. She never
flinched, but perished at the block sooner than forswear
one shred of her ancient faith.
I give you an idea of the fidelity of Ireland. I will
give an instance: in 1654 nineteen Catholics were
seized in old Leighlin, on account of their faith. They
were promised extensive landed property, if they would
change their faith.  Three days were allowed them
in prison to think upon the subject; but when asked on
the first day, they all replied, "No."  The second day,
and again the same answer. On the third, when told to
prepare for the block; they all answered as one man,
" The sboner the better."  One of the company, a young
lad of eighteen, when brought before the executioner,
requested to see the Governor; his request was granted,
as something important was expected. He humbly asked
pardon for being so bold in soliciting the Govern2r's
presence, and then begged that he might be beheaded
first, as his father was among the others, and he could not
bear to see him put to death. The youth's request was
granted, and then followed the decapitating of the rest,
the nineteen heads being cut off upon the block, sooner
than say they surrendered the faith of their fathers! And
so terribly was the persecution carried on in these days,
that to shoot an Irishman was only X5 penalty. I will




SOCIAL CONDITION OF IRELAND.         159
give you an instance. Some soldiers were passing an
hotel, into which they entered. In some difference or
frolic they shot the waiter dead. The landlord, deep in
grief, made a statement of the grievous murder to the
colonel. This gentleman treated the matter quite coolly,
saying that he must have given some reason, and jocosely
said, " Oh, never mind; put him in the bill; I'll make it
all right." So, Gentlemen, the waiter was put in the bill,
which ran as follows: "Breakfast, Is. 6d.; dinner, 2s.
6d.; shooting a waiter, 65."  And shooting a waiter was
only X5!
And now, as I have gone over the events of these
seventy years, will you allow me again to moralise.l How
do you think Irishmen could preserve their property, be
educated, and maintain their faith under such trying cir.
cuumstances?  Their-heroic conduct under these oppressing times, was far better and more glorious than was that
of the noble Greeks under Leonidas, at the pass of Thermopyle; for they stood bravely under it for seventy
years. It was in these times, that the Irish priest and the
Irish people became first perfectly acquainted with each
other. The people only knew us before as the heads of
the Church; knew us in our rich vestments, gorgeous
ceremonials, golden croziers-the Irish Church being rich
and powerful in these times. The people knew the Priest
only by the great superiority of his learning, by his
religious counsel.
But the days of persecution came; the Priest had to
put off his vestments and assume the freize coat; had to
leave his altars and preach by the hedges; had to roJ'




160        SOCIAL CONDITION OF IRELAND.
about himself the chains that bound the people, live in the
forest with them, and descend with them into caves; and
still more, if necessary, to perish' with them. And from
that hour to this, the people venerate the place called the
"Mass bush," or the "Mass rock."  For the poor Priest,
at the risk of his life, would privately attend at these
places; and perhaps, as the morning sun arose, he would'uncover the Host of Salvation to the people and to God.
You know, that I am acquainted-with the inmost chords
of an Irishman's heart, and can touch them when I like;
and none but an Irishman can know how to speak to you.
No persecution, no events since, not the most refined
tyranny, have been able to break these bonds of sympathy
between the Clergy and the people, which will go on, and
strengthen in Ireland to the very end of time.
And now, we go on to the third period of Irish history,
from the reign of James I., 1603, until the beheading of
Charles I., in 1649; and how did we fare now? Worse.
Poor Ireland was conquered; and now we might naturally
suppose that there would be an end to it. But no; we
were again subjected to the fresh evils and cruel persecution by our conquerers under the Scotch Monarch. And
again, I ask, how is it possible, with such evils to contend
against, for Ireland to have advanced in those arts which
would make her happy, prosperous, and free?
In the troublesome time of Charles I., we fought for our
King, the King of England; and yet, the English historian
calls the Irish rebels, because we did fight for Charles I.
and the samie historian calls the English loyal, though they
fought against him. But it is one of those cases which




SOCIAL CONDITION OF IRELAND.       161
the Catholic historian puts forward as a proof of Irish
loyalty. Catholicism is eminently monarchical; the loyal
Catholic throughout the world has ever died at the foot
of the throne; and it is the only religion in the world which
stands without a stain as the tried friend of monarchy.
We now arrivp at 1649, when Charles was beheaded.
And what sort of a period now follows. If the devil
himself ever came upon earth, he came in the shape of
Cromwell. He came to Ireland, wrote to the ancesto.
of the present Marquis of Ormond, to the following effect.
"Ormond, I command you, under the penalty of death, tt,
surrender to Cromwell; and if you surrender, you shall
have 6C30,000, and do so, I advis'e." I saw the manul
script of this letter in Trinity College, Dublin. Ormond
did surrender  but the Irish Catholics, to the last man,
fought for their King. And when the greatest persecutor
that ever lived came to our country, we resisted him, and
yet we got the name of rebels. Tipperary was the most
violent in the defence of their King. Tipperary previously had been very wealthy, and the most religious
people in Ireland. They had more to lose, more to fight
for. These two things taken from them-their property
and their religion-have made them the most violent of
all Ireland from that day to this. Cromwell, in order to
curb them, made a plantation here; yet, not a man would
volunteer to face the Tipperary boys, excepting the most
reckless and depraved. So, the earliest settlers were the
wickedest oft the troops; and these becoming landlords,
had been the most tyrannical; whilst the people had been
the most furious in opposition to them.




162        SOCIAL CONDITION OF IRELAND.
Now,- it is pleasing to me to read the history of the
struggle, as it shows how nobly they fought for' the
defence of their country and their faith. As an instance
of the condition of Ireland, and the opinion formed of us
at this time by the English; there was in 1654, a wonderful bear exhibited in London, which could tell the age of
tie moon, tell what o'clock it was, and could tell who
was the biggest rogue in the room. It was so clever that
the whole audience took it to be a Tipperary man. And,
one day, the population actually came to the theatre, to
insist that the manager should bring out the bear, to show
it was a bear, and not a Tipperary rman. Such were the
results of misgovernment. And while I look upon the
government of England as being the most diabolical and
the most infernal on God's earth, I look upon the English
people as the most honest, and the most noble. I have
travelled Europe over, and I must say, if the English
people were Roman Catholics, there never would be a
finer people upon earth, I have only just to mention their
earnest exertions in having fifty-three Bible Societies, and
spending one and a half million a year in religious works,
which may be regarded by them as exponents of their
deep religious feeling, although I differ from  those
societies.
Again, in reviewing the last period-sixty years of
cruel war. I ask what could we do?  Could we carry
on agriculture? advance in science? engage in commerce?  Don't you see I am going on year by year, and
minute by minute, to lay bare to you, as my jury, the
deep wounds I have alluded to? Was there a moment




SOCIAL CONDITION OF IRELAND.          163
for Ireland to breathe in the midst of all this?  Some people
would ask, how do you account for the remaining at all,
under these violent persecutions, of any Irish in Ireland?
I will tell you. When James I. made his first plantation in Ireland, he said to his men, "You must take as
much land as you can keep." So these soldiers and
adventurers invited the poor Catholics from their hiding
places, and let them small parcels of land by the year, at
high rents; and, by this means, from a desire to make the
Irish subservient to his aggrandizement, the Irish people
and Irish religion, were preserved in Ireland. From
this began the idea of tenure in Ireland. Notwithstanding the gross misrepresentation of the English historian,
they could see that the only two faults of Ireland are the
defence of her political rights to the very death.
To this day, you will hear men talk, how the Irish
hated the English. And why not? Would any man smile
if a dagger was stuck in his bosom? How could a nation
respect laws which deprived the people of their lands,
robbed them of their religion, and deprived them of education?- Yet, I am not depreciating the English of the
present day. I am proud when abroad of being addressed
as an Englishman. Much as I love France, I would
rather live in England a thousand times than in France.
If England would only give us laws, as she has herself,
we would do well. There never were any such laws
before, or elsewhere. But Ireland was subject to every
persecution, and from none did she suffer more than from
Orange Irishmen. We have a story in Ireland about one
of these Irish Orangemen, called Tom Smith, a -bailiff of




164         SOCIAL CONDITION OF IRELAND.
Leinster.  He Wras a remarkable man, being blind of one
eye and lame. Nature closed one of his lights, and he
could not see much with the other, which he always kept
half shut, as if afraid to see, or be seen. He was also an
appraiser, in connection with Orange authorities; and as
persons would not pay tithes, Tom Smith was called in to
take the goods in payment. He was so excessively conscientious, that when called upon to testify that he had only
taken goods to the value required, he would put his little
finger through his waistcoat button-hole, and declare upon
oath, that it was through (true.)
Another instance of legal justice. A man was tried
for murder; and after the jury had found a verdict of
guilty, and the Judge had put on his black cap, to pronounce sentence —the man alleged to have been murdered walked into court. The Judge thereupon took off his
cap, and addressing the foreman of the jury, said, they
must reconsider their verdict, as the circumstances of the
case had been altered.  The jury did retire, and after a
long deliberation, returned with a verdict of guilty. The
Judge, in astonishment, asked how that was, when he
was told,' the prisoner at the bar stole an old grey mare
eight years ago from one of the jurymen, for which he was
not caught, and so we'll let the verdict stand as it is.'(Groans and hisses.) Now, all such abuses were carried
out under sanction of law. n
The Reverend Lecturer again reviewed the historical period down to'William III., Prince of Orange, who overcame James II. at the Battle
of the Boyne. He is usually taken as the representative of Orange
principles, but he was far from any such low character. This king was
a most worthy man —he had many excellent qualities. He was very




SOCIAL CONDITION OF IRELAND.                165
imperfectly appreciated and misunderstood in Ireland. He was a man
of wide and tolerant principles, and Orangemen did him much injustice. However, the moment he succeeded in his conquest, his party
were let loose upon Ireland, and the people never suffered such
tyranny. (Hear, hear.)
From George I., 1714, to George III., 1760, Ireland
was still persecuted. The Catholics were deprived of all
their rights, except what was given to them- by stealth.
But George III. was a good man; but a stubborn old fellow. He sat on the throne for fifty-three years, with his
judgment matured, but he never could spell the word
emancipation without the letter's,' instead of' c.''When
George IV. and the Duke of York were boys, under tuition, the old king heard them crying. He asked what
was the matter, when the master said, it was the Latin
Grammar they were averse to.' Pho, pho,' said his Majesty.' What do they.want with Latin?' There's plenty
of fellows about them that will know plenty of Latin for
what they will want.  (Laughter.)  The year 1760 is a
most important period.
George III. came to the throne in perfect peace, and having nothing
to do, they were determined to tax the American people. The Americans remonstrated, and sent Washington to London to state their grievance. He waited on the Prime Minister several times in the Court,
to get a hearing. He was treated so lightly, that at last, he said to the
Minister:'I call here frequently, and yet I get no conclusive answer;
what shall I do?' The Minister laughed at him; and when Washington got into the street, with his hat off, he vowed vengeance befbre God
against England. (Rapturous cheering.) He returned home, fired the
zeal of his countrymen. In battle after battle, he was victorious over
the English, and in 1782, he lifted the flag of American independence.
(Applause.) I intend going to America shortly, and I will take a bottle of Irish poteen, and when within the nearest distance of Bunker's
Hill, I will drink on deck to the American flag. (Cheers.)




166        SOCIAL CONDITION OF IRELAND.
After these reverses, you never saw anything in your
life so agreeable as England became to Ireland. Again,
the French Revolution began in 1789, in which she overturned her altar and her throne; and England, in terror,
then gave us the privileges we now enjoy, and which gave
us leave to worship God. Maynooth College was founded about this time, 1795. Carlow College, 1799. And
we also got leave to vote at elections. England yielded
through fear, what she would not give to justice; and the
heads of our party said they did not thank England for
what she had done. England gave a paltry -E9,000 for
the College of Maynooth, and o30,000 to the Lock Hospital in Dublin, for the encouragement of vice. In the
language of those great men, Shiel and O'Connell, England's difficulty is Ireland's opportunity. As Shiel said
in one of his parliamentary speeches-" Ireland is like a
convicted felon in a convict ship, his only hope of escape
and relief is the wreck of the ship."
From the year 1793 to 1830, when the Irish were allowed to have property, and vote at elections, they acquired two twenty-fifths of the whole property of Ireland, by which the industry of the country was encouraged; a clear proof that if we had accomplished so much
under a tolerant Government in a few years, we should
have done very much under a propitious Government.There is no other nation under heaven, that has accumulated money with more honesty, more industry, and more
frugality than the Irish. Again, look at the illustrious
names, that like stars, burst forth in the firmament of
literature, when the ban upon education was removed.




SOCIAL CONDITION OF IRELAND.       167
We have l~ilner, Lingard, Shiel, O'Connell, Dr. Doyle,
and many others, who stand before all Europe, as the
most eminent men who have graced the annals of any
country. On the contrary, from 1622 to 1793, we had
not a single individual to write in our favor, and represent our grievous case, in opposition to the lies of English historians, which, like the pediments of a bridge, are
the foundations upon which succeeding historians have
built their bridges; so that there are lies lying beneath
the very depths of the structure.
The 40s. freeholders, were created about this time, to
carry out a deep laid plan for the destruction of our National Parliament. In eight years, by bribery and intimidation, England succeeded in taking away from us our
National Parliament. It was a remarkable time; it was
on a first day of a first week, of a first month, of a first
year, in a new century; on a Monday January 1st, 1801.
They succeeded, by spending four and a half millions,
and have left Ireland without a Parliament from that day
to this. Our Parliament gone in 1801, what more did
England do? She took away our Linen Trade, by putting a duty upon them: she discouraged our trade, beggared our commerce, and made that verdant, beautiful
Island a desert. Yes, it was the Irish landlords sold our
birthright, and by their treacherous conduct has come
upon us, the greatest curse Ireland has ever sustained.
Between the years 1793 and 1815, land rose cent. per
cent. in Ireland; provision rose in equal proportion; the
wealthy left it; clothes became dearer, and the young men
entered the army; so that the Irish could live no longer




168        SOCIAL CONDITION OF IRELAND.
in their own country; they had to leave Ireland, come to
England, and go abroad. The gentry lived upon their
incomes, in luxury and waste, so that they sank Ireland
into still greater depths of poverty-14-25ths of the landed property being mortgaged.
We now come to 1830, and look at our position. We
have cruel middlemen upon our lands, exacting the highest prices, and the poor tenantry rent-racked, the landlords
spending their money, and living out of the country; corn
cheap, and no money; no manufacture, not a chimney in
Ireland except in Belfast. Catholics then got the Emancipation Bill, but what did that do?  It introduced elections, but yet, when they elected Roman Catholic friends,
they were ejected and turned out of their homes the next
day. Awful times followed. Mr. O'Connell began to
agitate for another Parliament, but his professions were
doubted; as it was alleged, they wanted to separate Ireland from England. A new spirit arose amongst the
young men of Cambridge and Oxford, the nursery of
statesmen, to look with suspicion upon the movements of
Ireland. The press headed the outcry, and scarcely a
newspaper in England, but what contained something to
the discredit of Ireland. The Protestant church in Ireland was consolidated by law. English feeling was never
more jealously manifested. So what did we get by Emancipation. Thus we see we have only had about twenty
three years, in which it may be said Ireland could advance in improvement.
And now for the charges brought against us. We are
idle. Idle I Where is the work to do? There is no




SOCIAL CONDITION OF IRELAND.       169.work. We are improvident and beggarly. Yes, like a
story I heard the other day of a poor fellow that was going to America, by one of the emigrant ships at the Waterloo Dock, when he was accosted by a German, who
sold boxes, with-' Buy a box, Sir.' What for? said our
friend.' To put your clothes in,' replied the German.'Bedad if I do, then, I'll have to go naked on deck.' We
have no enterprize, and not a single chimney or manufactory. We are dirty-hbut give us the price of razors and
soap, and we will show you that we are clean.
I'll tell you a story of a party of Cromwell's soldiers,
who went into a cabin in Ireland, and demanded the
second best bed in the house. " That's bad news for Morgan, Sir," replied a poor fellow, sitting at the fire. "Who
the deuce is Morgan?" asked one of the party. "Morgan, Sir," answered the owner, "is no other than the pig."
Not contented; when able-bodied men are laboring for
4d. a day, and some girls, young women, for 1 1-2d. a
day. I dined with a Scotchman lately, near Limerick,
who recently invested much money in Ireland, and this
gentleman said, speaking of laborers, " I never saw such
men; I had no idea of them before I came. I will' give
them Is. id. a day, with a kind word, and they will lay
down their lives for me. I never saw such men." Idle
they are called, when there is no work to do. What! Lazy
upon 1 1-2d. a day! Would it not be better to starve by
a ditch rather than work for 1 1-2d. a day?
And nowv, will you allow me to ask you, as my jury,
who is to be blamed for all these evils? I don't want to
blame the English solely. We call upon the Irish land



170        SOCIAL CONDITION OF IRELAND.
lords to open the rich and varied mines that are beneath
our feet; to open manufactories; to amend their laws of
land-letting, and stimulate Irish commerce. Look at our
kindred in America; don't we see them there, free from
the vices attributed to them here?. We have been much
maligned by the press and Protestant Church during late
years, when our only crime has been, we have fought for
our political privileges and our religious creed. But yet,
he was proud, notwithstanding, of the English character.
Just look at a company of ten gentlemen, none speaks
before the other is finished; how bland, how graceful,
each listens, and none obtrudes. Get ten Irish gentlemen,
just as well bred, and you will hear them a mile off, all
speaking at once at the top of their voices, and each beginning his speech ten minutes before the other ends, so that
he may come in at the finish; but if you get into the company of ten Irish ladies, you would hear them two miles
off: But I must certainly say, that the English are always
grumbling, because they have too much to eat, and an Irishman grumbles because he can't get enough to eat. There
was a fine little fellow lived down in the west of England,
he was the son of a nobleman, and one day he was sitting
on the garden wall, enjoying himself with a large piece
of plum-cake; when all of a sudden, he alarmed the whole
household by most heart-rending and piteous moans. His
poor mother flew to him and clasped him to her bosom,
inquired most anxiously, " Johnny, dear, what is the matter??' Johnny, with big tears in his eyes, exclaimed,
"Oh, Mammy, I can't eat any more!"
1 will now sum up as counsel for Ireland. I only wish




SOCIAL CONDITION OF IRELAND.        171
I might have a week's discussion with Lord John Russell or Lord Palmerston, and you know you would have
the better side of the question. You that are in England.
I would charge you not to think of returning to Irelalnd,
but identify yourselves with this country, and try to place
yourselves in respectable positions. There is no work
for you in Ireland; there is in England. I congratulate
you upon the good use you have made of my letter of
counsel to you from Scotland, last July. It has saved
you from many broken heads, and breaking the peace. I
wrote to Sir George Grey, who thought I was a fire
brand. But I was no firebrand, but a peace maker.
The only firey trick I ever did, was to bring the blush into
Lord John Russell's face. I am in correspondence with
every Court in the whole world. I have just had a letter
from Vienna, which says there will be no war, though
Russia depends upon the perfidy of England. By this
right hand, and by my influence with you, I have laid
the basis of permanent peace in this city, and when I
come to Liverpool, the merchants of Liverpool ought to
acknowledge the debt they owe me. At your soiree-at
my soiree-you did not mention the name of Dr. Cahill,
then in Scotland. I did not forget it, and I do not forgive it.
I will conclude with the year 1847, when the potatorot famine, and fever staggered the living and scourged
the land. The poor Priests lived by your side at the
time, they did not neglect you. In Liverpool, thirteen
Priests, in their black shrouds, lie buried under your feet.
Then came the cholera. The poor tenantry, turned off




172        SOCIAL CONDITION OF IRELAND.
their farms, and under the burning heat of July, might
have been seen without shelter-290 persons living in the
fields, lying dying in all the horrors of wretchedness.
The famine-and plague were not sufficient, but the exterminating landlords levelled the cottages of his poor tenantry to the earth, and sent them out in emigrant ships,
packed so that it became almost a floating funeral hearse
over the broad waters of the deep. Ten thousand of these
poor persons perished in America, and others perished
through ague. But Ireland, now, is getting better; she
is getting free from all her poverty and ailments. The
green grave is closing over her wounds, labor now begins
to look up in Ireland. Manufactories are springing up
in large towns, the people are spreading over the earth
to improve their condition, and in America, in every village may be found and Irish home. Irish abound from
the shores of Canada to the forests of Mexico.
A lamentable scene was mentioned a few days ago, of
a poor Irish woman in New Orleans. In one of the chief
streets was to be seen at noon-day a poor woman, raving
in sorrow, with her hands to her eyes, and clinging to her
on each side was a child. Before her, in a cart, driven by
a negro, was the corpse of her husband, carried off in the
yellow fever. She pitifully exclaimed, " Oh, Jack, dear,
was it fbr this I came to America, to lose my poor husband! Oh, that I had never crossed the salt seas. Here
I am and nothing to eat, and nowhere to go." A gentleman, overhearing her, kindly gave her a sovereign, but
her grief was so heavy that she scarcely recognised the
gift.




SOCIAL CONDITION OF!RELAND.         173
Such were the hardships our people pass through. I
perceive now there is no slander or articles against us in
the Times. And do you know why?  Because Napoleon
III. stands at the head of 150,000 me,:. The Emperor
and Empress lately attended a review in France, where
100,000 men were present. They attended High Mass in
the field, and in the sight of the whole troops, knelt down
humbly before the Priest. One hundred and ten cannons
were discharged when the Priest lifted the Sacred Host to
the blue vaultof Heaven, and 100,000 men bent upon their
knees and adored their Lord and God. When Prince
Albert was in Dublin, I thought to write a letter to him
upon the grievances,of Ireland. I shall do so yet. The
Governments of Europe are beginning to stir. Austria
has turned the Times newspaper out of her dominions;
the Queen of Spain has prohibited it also. Bulwer was'turned out at forty-eight hours' notice from Spain, in consequence of his interference with the Catholic worship.
We have now seven Catholic thrones; and when Leopold
dies, his son having married into a Catholic family, we
may expect an eighth. So, as God is just, we may expect
the triumph of the true Faith. And, as all nations come
to an end, there may be a time when England shall fall,
and receive that retribution attending all injustices. To
use the words of Macauley, whom I don't like to quote,
there may be a time when a New Zealander will stand
upon London bridge, sketching the ruins of that great
city. Nineveh, with all her beauty, perished; Palmyra,
the great seat of learning and architectural splendor, is
now crumbling into dust. Babylon, the great terror of




174        SOCIAL CONDITION OF IRELAND.
her time, is now punished for her cruelties. Scarcely
a vestige of ancient Rome is now standing-all goneruined; and I wish England to take my warning in time,
and beware of the wrath of God, in persecuting his
Church, and the faithful Irish people, for in the words
of the Scotch poet" By oppression's woes and pains,
By our sons in servile chains,
We shall drain our dearest veins,
But we shall be free"
The Rev. Gentleman then retired amidst the most enthusiastic cheering.
DR.  CAHILL'S  REPLY  TO AN   ADDRES
OF THE CLERGY OF BEVERLY.
The members of the clergy of the diocess of Beverly, availing themselves of the opportunity of a second
visit of the Rev. Doctor to their neighborhood, tendered an address, testifying their admiration and gratitude for the services rendered to religion; and wondering "that men calling themselves the children of
the Church, should have stood forward to misrepresent his arguments, to deny his right to be considered as an exponent of the Catholic Faith and to stigmatise him." Dated February 27th. 1854.
VERY REVEREND AND REVEREND GENTLEMEN-  The
regard, the affection, and the kind condescension which
breathe through every line of your most valued address




TO THE CLERGY OF BEVERLY.           175
render it impossible for me to make a suitable reply in
any form of words at my command. This public document is, under existing circumstances, a most necessary
rebuke to persons who, f~om being treated with courtesy,
and perhaps flattered, seem to have lost sight of all prudence; by puttingforth their crude knowledge without
sense, their blind zeal without charity, and their offensive
criticism without learning. They appear to have conceived the possibility of converting their old friends, by
praising Protestantism and by abusing Catholicity; they
seem to think that they can reduce their present position
to a happy mean between our Gospel and the Book of
Common Prayer; and it would strike any penetrating
observer, that these gentlemen have joined us, more because they try to scape the contradictions of Protestantism,
than to embrace the convictions of Catholicity. This liberal compromise will never succeed, "No man can serve two masters."
But it is fortunate they have been checked in this early
stage of their Tractarianism: no one could volunteer to
give the public correction which they compelled me most
reluctantly to administer; and if proofs were wanted to
show the untamed tone of their minds, it can be found in
every sentence they write in reference to me, where, in
place of making an apology for their gross misstatements,
they are still struggling to defend their foolish conduct in
the face of the indignant public.
Gentlemen, just read that sentence in their article,
where they say that the word " Transubstantiation " was
created by Catholic Theology to express "the annihila



176         TO THE CLERGY OF BEVERLY.
tion of one substance and the substitution of another'
Here they identify the questionable opinions of some few
theologians with the unquestionable dogmas of faith; and
if they read Bellarmine and St. Thomas, instead of Vazquez and Perroni, they would pause before they exposed themselves to the just criticism of the scholars of
the Church.' Again, hear them while they tell the faithfull, in page
173, that the "Accidents in the Eucharist (the only portions of matter, which are, as far as we know, cognisable
by the senses) remain unaltered."!! Here we are informed, firstly, that our sensations are "' portions of matter;"
and secondly, that although the Council of Trent declares that there is a total "convertion of the substance of
bread," yet here it is stated that "portions of matter " remain unaltered after the consecration.
-In reference to the shameful observations made by the
writers in the Rambler on your "English Choirs and
Church Services;" there can be but one opinion. These
gentlemen have carried into our Church, all their former
antipathies against everything Catholic, without adopting the charities of their new faith. Only hear them designating the English Church by the name of "AngloCatholic;" calling the sacred music performed at the
Holy Sacrifice of the Mass by the name of "Mass Music."
They speak as lightly of it as of a Scotch reel or an Irish
hornpipe. Listen to their description of the English Choirs,
where they use the words - "gross irreverence, pitiable ignorance, scandals, concerts, offensive exhibitions,
the congregation smiling, the performance, some of the




SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL.             177
Choir kneeling in mockery, the confusion, the disorders,
a system, the church converted into a concert room, irreverence behind the gallery curtains."  Gentlemen, you
have done well to call the public attention to this distressing article; and I hope it will be at once the means of
discontinuing the further scandalous publication of the lamentable Periodical, till the Bishops and Priests, in their
own defence, will place it under the guidance. of some
person who has solid learning, who can write the Catholic sentiment, and who understands the Catholic doctrine.
I might regret having taken so much notice of these
imprudent persons if I had not received this address; but
now I am pleased that any circumstance has occured,
which has placed before me a precious document, which
makes my heart so happy, and which I shall bind up
with my choicest and warmest feelings, as long as I live.
I am, Very Rev. and Rev. Gentlemen, your for ever
attached,
D. W. CAHILL, D.D.
P. S.-The third letter, which I prornissed on next Saturday, I shall
reserve; andf I shall, if necessary, publish it in some future occasion.
DR. CAHILL'S SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL.
The following speech was received with great applause at a meeting of the Irish residents of Liverpool
to express their sympathy for Mr. John O'Connell,
as the son of the Liberator, and to open a subscription for him.




178           SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL.
The orator commenced with a brilliant sketch of
the political career of O'Connell: the injustice inflicted on his country did not rouse his energies so much
as the wrongs perpetrated on his creed; he was the
impersonification of Ireland's own child; he was the
master of all ages, the patriot of every nation; his
name is raised higher in -the national history than the
Irish eternal mountains; he has rivalled Cicero in
classic eloquence, has equalled Demosthenes in patriotic fire, and has surpassed both in national virtues;
he placed himself at the head of ideas, not soldiers; all
the nations were his people; all mankind are under an
obligation to him, which they never can repay, and
Ireland stands at this moment charged with the
whole debt due to the imperishable success of O'Connell, who has descended to his honored tomb without
a nail in his illustrious coffin purchassed with the money of Ireland. John O'Connell can show his own
achievements in the field, to prove his, claims on his
country; he has never betrayed the cause of his countrymen, as many recreants have done; he has avowed
the noblest feelings for them.
When the speech was over, a number of subscriptions came in, and several persons called for collectors' books. The meeting shortly afterwards separated, cheering most vociferously for John O'Connell,
Dr. Cahill, MIr. Levingston &c.
MR. CHAIRMAN, LADIES, AND GENTLEMEN-There is
not a nation under the sun, able to shout with the Irish




SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL.             179
Catholics. Being bound hand and foot so long in national
chains and penal servitude, and being prevented from
speaking by the Attorney General-the eternal, undying
Attorney General-of Ireland, there was no way left to
express our feelings, except by national shouting; and
hence, there is an eloquence, a poetry, a patriotism in the
Irish cheer, which is more tragic than Shakespeare, more
burning than Demosthenes, more inspiring than Milton —
and if ever that cheer rose up into the regions of divine
fancy itself, it is when the Irish soul is stirred up from its
deepest recesses of feeling by the magic sound of the
immortal O'Connell. (Here the entire assembly rose
again and cheered again and again for the immortal name
of O'Connell.)'When, in the beginning of the present century he commenced his political career, he could procure only thirteen
persons to attend a meeting in Dublin, to petition for
Catholic Emancipation. He was then, if I may so speak,
a mere ensign in politics; but he rose fiom rank to rank
with a brilliant name, and with unexampled success, till
he took, by universal consent, the supreme command of
the national force, and in numberless skirmishes and one
hundred battles, he met the foes of Ireland foot to foot,
and shoulder to shoulder, and by courage that never
quailed, a perseverence unsubdued, and a genius without
a comparison, he struck off our national chains, conquered
ancient oppression, and won the Emancipation of Ireland.
(Wild and rapturous cheers, which lasted several minutes.)
And when we throw ourselves into his mind and examine
his heart, we learn that the injustice inflicted on his coun



180             SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL.
try did not rouse the great energies of his being in half
the mightiness as when he concentrated his power against
the wrongs perpetrated on his creed.
No one ever heard him address a jury who did not find
his feelings enlisted for his client; it was impossible to
listen to him for five minutes in an assembly of his countrymen, as he poured forth from his burning bosom his
own flood of melting eloquence, over the woes of Ireland,
without resentment for our national degradation; but
when the insults to his religion awoke his passion into
legitimate anger, his whole soul glowed with brilliant
fire, and as he directed the flashing torrents against the
opponents of his Church, his consuming words resembled
the rapidity and terrors of the lightning. (Tremendous
cheering.)
He was the impersonification of Ireland's own child;
he was the son of Ireland's own heart; he possessed the
tongue and the soul of the true genius of his country.
Other men have had an evening in life,'he had none;
other great characters were seen to ascend to the horizon
of their career and gradually set,-his sun stood fixed in
the meridian in full dazzling splendor, without a motion
to the west; and when he departed from us, it was the
whole span from mid-day to night, leaving his country
covered with a sudden darkness and mourning, after burning skies, during half a century of patriotism that never
has been surpassed, and a national fame that perhaps
never can be equalled. (At the conclusion of this sentence
no words could describe the enthusiasm that followed.)
But if ever a memory could be said to be palpable, it was




SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL.             181
his-and if ever the instructions of a master could assume
a living form, his lessons are still breathing and alive all
over the world. He was not merely the teacher of Ireland and of his own age —he was the master of all ages,
the patriot of every distinguished nation. (Loud cheers.)
When the present representatives of Ireland'defend
our country and our creed in the British Senate, I think I
hear his words in their mouths. They are children, to be
sure, compared with the aged father of Ireland; but when
they speak with energy, and honor, and patriotism, I think
1 recognise the accent, hear the voice, and feel the enthusiasm of the ancient orator of my country. (Loud and
continued cheering.) I fancy he is still alive in Ireland,
when I read in the newspapers the success of the poor
Irish tenantry to return to Parliament a friend to the poor;
when I dwell on the speeches at elections, the orations at
the public dinners, given to the tried advocates of our
national rights, I recollect well that they are only repeating the language they once heard from him, retailing his
arguments which he once flung from his great mind, and
rekindling the fire which once blazed on his electric lips.
(It is quite impossible to describe the enthusiasm of the
assembly at this moment.)
And the fire burns in America at this moment with a
brilliancy that will yet send its glorious illuminating
beams back again across the Atlantic, to the poor old
mother land-many a fervid heart along the rapid StLawrence and the swollen Mississippi, who have learned
patriotism at the feet of Ireland's orator-many a patriot
out there who has been trained in the lessons of national




182             SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL.
independence in our popular assemblies in poor Ireland-.
and many a thousand hearts in time to come will be ready,
when necessary, to lend a suitable aid (when Irelard sh all
most need their succors,) to the cradle of their faith, the
scene of their patriotism, and the theatre of their national
struggles. (Wild cheering, and waving of handkerchiefs.)
Wherever an Irishman is placed, all the world over, he
boasts of the name of O'Connell; that name is raised
higher in our own national history than the eternal mountains of our country, and it will last as-long in imperishable existence; and when the Romans talk of their Cicero,
and the Greeks of their Demosthenes, we point to the
Irish forum, and the British Senate, to a name that has
rivalled the one in classic eloquence, that has equalled the
other in patriot-fire, and that has surpassed both in national
virtues. (Any attempt to describe the emotion of the
meeting is impossible.).
And not alone-has. Ireland learned from him the science
of freedom, and the art of national independence: he has
taught all the nations of the earth, by the science of
reform, by a moral and peaceful combination. He placed
himself at the head of ideas-not soldiers; he took the
command-not cannon; and by the triumph of reason, he
gained victories such as no conqueror ever achieved by
the flashing sword, or the thunders of the artillery.
(Loud cheers.) Twenty-three French peers, with Count
Montalambert at their head, presented to him an humble
address, in which, after offering to him their homage, they
-acknowledged that he had invented a new political stratagy; that he was the author of a new principle of national




SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL.            183
reform; that he had discovered a mighty plan, by which
the greatest advantages to man could. eventually be
acquired by the steady application of the primary laws of
God, and that, by carrying out his ideas, the combination
of men's hearts would be in the end more successful than
the united terrors of the sanguinary steel. (Loud cheering for several minutes.)
From Ireland, as from a professor's chair, he delivered
his lessons to universal mankind —all the nations of the
earth were his people, and his voice was heard from
East to West, from North to South, and for half a century
along the boundless horizon. No man can ever again
take his place. He filled the whole world with his famehe was the light of our skies, the undying creation of our
age, the ornament of our race, and the imperishable monument to the name and character of Ireland. (Loud
cheers, waving of hats, handkerchiefs, &c.) There can
be no doubt that he has placed all mankind under an obligation to him which they never can repay; and his name
will go down through each successive generation of his
countrymen, gathering accumulated honor, as it is heard
through coming time. The poor Irish did endeavor to
give their devotion to him while living; the poor man
contributed his mite, in his yearly duty to the national
gratitude.
But whatever the nation gave, the nation received back
again; their national devotion was annually repaid; what
they bestowed on the patriot, the generous patriot refunded the same year; and thus our nation stands at this moment charged with the whole debt due to the imperisha




184             SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL,
ble success of O'Connell. (Loud cheers, and cries of "it's
true, it's true.") If Ireland purchased an estate, in fee for
O'Connell, and that his children's children inherited it.
and lived on it, I could place a graven plate on the gate o'
the family mansion, to commemorate the sciences of the
departed orator, and the honor of my grateful country.But I protest, when I consider the disinterestedness which
returned the gift each year to the poor who bestowed it,
I place the nobility, the honor, the pride of this act alone,
the highest point of the patriot's fame; and his memory
stands before me unsullied in its purity, by retaining fol
himself not one penny of the money of the nation. (Here
the audience rose and expressed their feelings of delight
by a loud burst of applause.) Mr. O'Connell died without
being indebted one shilling to our nation; and consequently we still owe to' him the full amount of her services.He lived in comparative poverty on our account, and we
therefore stand indebted' to him for his sacrifices. Not
one of his sons or family wear a single glove or ribbon
purchased from the donation from Ireland; and'hence,
while I value his success, while I am grateful for his sacrifices, while I venerate his patriotism, while I admire his
genius, and worship his eloquence, there is one point higher than all, and that is the lofty pride of his heart, by
which he descended to his honored tomb without one
nail in his illustrious coffin purchased with the money of
Ireland. (Loud and rapturous cheering.) The only act
of his glorious life with which the future historian will
find fault, is that he deprived his family of the large resources of his profession, and that in fact he robbed his




SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL.            18l
sons of their just hopes, their expected fortune and merited position, in order to devote his Whole life and resources to the services of Ireland. (Loud cheers.) But
when Ireland has followed his example for fifty years,
there is one part of his character in which our nation will
not take part in his career, and that is, Ireland will not
rob John O'Connell of that just debt which Ireland owes
him. (No one can describe the emotion of the meeting at
this time, amidst cheering, &c., all standing.) No, I thank
you for this rapturous enthusiasm. No, no, Ireland is too
honest, too grateful, to rob John O'Connell, on his own
account-and on this evening, and in this place, shall begin our instalment of the debt which Ireland will certainly discharge. (Here loud cheers were given for- John
O'Connell.)
John O'Connell need not point to the statues of his ancestors to prove his claims on his country; he can show
his own achievements in the field, already the tried champion of nineteen years. In every battle for Ireland during
this eventful period, he stood by his father's side, and
whenever the heat of the fight raged most violently, there
might be seen the unflinching, fearless son, with his sword
drawn, standing in front of the lofty plumage and glittering armor of the giant father, as he repelled the advance
of the enemy. (Loud and rapturous cheering.) I am delighted to find that you are in such good humor. (Loud
laughter.) They tell a tale of an Irishman once in France,
and being asked by a Frenchman what kind of a looking
man was the great O'Connell? The Irishman paused for
a moment, and then said: " Why, then, I'll tell you that




'186            SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL.
he is, for all the world, like the Lakes of Killarney." —
(Roars of laughter.)
Now, if any one here has not seen my friend Mr. O'Connell, I must tell them that he is descended of the Lakes
of Killarney; and that if you remove the father out of
view, while you are looking at him, his political honesty
and national fidelity will not suffer by a close comparison
with any one of his age or standing. Since he commenced his political career, many a recreant betrayed our
cause-John' O'Connell never (cries of never, never;)
many a man left our ranks and sold Ireland for gold, but
John O'Connell never: and if the creed of St. Patrick,
and if. the religion of Ireland be maligned, listen to the
rising voice, observe the boiling anger, and look in his face
and see his passion, as it mantles his indignant brow, while
with all his mind, and with the whole of his father's heart,
he defends his country's faith against the malignant assaults of its continued enemies. (Loud and long cheering.)
But this meeting is not a political assembly; if it were
political, I should not have attended, lest one word might
escape my lips that could give offence to any one of the
advocates for the rights and the liberties of Ireland.(Cheers.) - I like every one who struggles for Ireland; I
love all who maintain the political interests, and defend
the religious creed of Ireland. One man may labor to advance the civil rights of my country, another person may
strive to strike off the chains that bind the cross of Christ,
but give me the man who labors for both; I respect all
the others-but I love with my whole heart, and all my
sympathies are with the poor-the poor abandoned, persecuted Irish peasant.




SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL.            187
When I go on board your emigrant ships, (which I do
whenever I am in your city,) and when I see the poor
old grandfather, with his worn frame and- haggard look,
and white scattered locks of tangled hair, carrying his littie grand-daughter on his back; and when I behold the
poor tottering old grandmother, without a bonnet or a
cap, with her little grandson on her back; when I look
at them carrying the children to the ship, my heart melts
to see the miserable looks of our poor Irish children, their
little bare legs hanging in front, in the pelting snow and
the biting frost-I weep for those poor little exiles, when
I think of their being wrenched at such a tender age from
the fostering care of a mother and kind home. It is a
heart-rending sight to see three generations, the grandfather, the son, and the grandchild, crawling in hunger on
the gangways of the emigrant ship, doomed never again
to kiss the Irish primrose, and lay their feet on the green
turf of their country. (Here the meeting was affected to
tears.) I always bid these poor exiles a last farewell,
with my eyes full of tears, and my heart bursting with
unmingled feelings of Irish sympathy, and legitimate political anger; and when I take my place on the shore, and
see the ships weighing their anchors, swell their canvas,
and move slowly on through the foaming deep, I hear my
heart foretelling as she clears the river, that she is a large
ocean hearse, and that before the sun sets twice, she will
bury her living cargo in the foundations of the sea, amidst
the crashing horrors of the yawning abyss, and the moaning terrors of the midnight tempest. (The entire audience here felt deeply affected.)




188             SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL.
How  grateful I felt, on reading the speech of Mr,
John O'Connell, to see the feelings he entertains for
his poor countrymen. It is what I expected from his
generous heart, and gives an additional credence, if such
were wanted, of his devotion to his country. But I must
say, that as all my sympathies are with the poor banished,
persecuted, exterminated tenantry, I feel all my soul
engaged in the plan that can give to Ireland such a law
of tenant right, as will protect her poor from the cruel law
of wholesale extermination; and the men who struggle to
procure such a law for the poor, deserve the admiration
of their country, and the gratitude of posterity; (cheers)
and I feel great pleasure in stating here, that in a communication I have had in London with one of the first (I may
say the first Catholic Irishman,) of our present Irish party
in the House of Commons, he stated to me that if a
national testimonial of ten thousand pounds were decided
on for Mr. John O'Connell, he would be found at the head
of the list, and, by his fortune and exertions, carry out the
work to its fiulfilment. (Loud cheers for Mr. Moore.) I
did not name Mr. Moore, but I suppose as I said he was
the first, you have selected him. (Cheers.) Well, as you
have named him, I shall leave it so, from my respect for
your opinions. (Cheers for Mr. Moore.)
You all recollect the tale of the Queen having, during
her stay at Balmoral, asked a Scotch girl what o'clock it
was? The girl replied, "Whatever you please, \'fa'am."
(Roars of laughter.)  Now, I say to you, in reference to
Mr. Moore, "Whatever you please;" but when I have a
good thing to say between friends, I like to say it. I




SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL.            189
wish I could make up the breach in the ranks of our gallant Irishmen; I would willingly go on my knees to
implore of all our friends to bury private opinions, and
unite in one compact body for the protection of the poor.
(Great cheering, and cries of " You are the man who can
bring them together.") I have only one more word to
say —namely, that Dr. Yore, the Vicar General of Dublin,
is the treasurer of this O'Connell tribute-an additional
reason why I am here this night; and, as I act under Dr.
Yore, and Dr. Yore under his Grace the Delegate Archbishop, and so on, you have a regular pyramid of living
ecclesiastics as a model for your conduct in this national
testimonial. (Loud cheers.) Mr. Chairman, Ladies and
Gentlemen, I am now done; I thank you exceedingly for
your overwhelming kindness, and your warm enthusiasm.
We shall reward Mr. O'Connell for his past honest political career, and his faithful services in the cause of Ireland,
and we shall do an act of justice which we owe to a tried
patriot, which we owe to the cause of our country, and
which we owe to the feelings of our own hearts. I thank
you on my own part as the private friend of the O'Connell family —I thank you on the part of John O'Connell,
and I thank you with all my heart on the part of my
country. (On bowing and retiring the Reverend and eloquent Gentleman was greeted with a degree of heartfelt
applause quite indescribable.)




DR. CAHILL TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD
JOHN RUSSELL.
Upper Gloucester Street, Dublin.
MY LORD-I make no apology for the liberty which I
thus take in addressing so exalted a personage as the first
minister of the most powerful empire in the world. On
this point, your Lordship must recollect that I have not
presumed to go up to your place; it was you, who, by
your most unexpected letter, came down to mine; and if
your Lordship find yourself now in my presence, you.must see, it was you who have approached me, and not
me you. As you have attacked-in a letter which will
yet surprise yourself, as much as it has astonished all Europe-every Catholic in the whole world, from the Supreme
Pontiff down to the " heathen" Irish, it follows, as a matter of course, that, in this large and incomprehensible insult to two hundred millions of Catholics in the old world,
your Lordship must necessarily have included me; first,
as being a countryman of the heathens, and secondly, as
being one of the traitors, whom (as Hume hints) you pretend to be afraid of, as aiding the Pope in his sole and
undivided sway over the realm of England. Your Lordship's late letter I consider, therefore, as partly directed to
me, and therefore do I feel myself partly bound to send
your Lordship an answer to certain passages which appear
to me not noticed by arty of those persons who have
already replied to you.
There can be no doubt at all that your Lordship intended to fill all England and Ireland with the cry of no
Popery, and to pelt the Catholic Priesthood with the old




LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.         191
degraded slander of being traitors to the Throne. The
Pope could not assume "sole and undivided sway over
tile realm of England," unless the Catholic Priests and
people withdrew their allegiance from the Queen, and
gave it undivided to him; nor could his sway be sole'
over the realm, unless the Priests and the Catholic people entirely ignored the Queen's supremacy, when, able to
do so, and transferred their entire allegiance to him.
This, then, I take to be your decided meaning-to inflame
the English mob, if English words have any decided signification. Although this ungenerous charge has been
already made ten thousand times, it ought-as Cobbett
used to say-to be again refuted with scorn ten thousand
times; and this is the point which I shall presume, first,
to discuss with you. Your Lordship knows better than I
do that the history of all Christian time over the world
has but one page in reference to the allegiance of the
Catholic Church to the throne-and that page is, an
unbroken, unshrinking fidelity to legitimate monarchy, to
legitimate power, in every country, and in every age,
even to chains and death. Let us examine the various
countries, and come to facts and dates:Firstly-Is not the French revolution in 1789, written
in the blood of the Royal Family and the French Priesthood? They lived united, and they fell together-they
were the faithful servants of their Royal Master, and
hence the streets of Paris ran red with their blood, and
thousands died in exile in a foreign land for their fidelity.
Secondly-In Spain, when the ancient constitution was
changed, and when [as the English Cabinet knows?l the




192        LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.
succession to the Throne was altered, the Priesthood
clung, with fidelity to the legitimate heir to the Spanish
Crown, and suffered trials and persecution —from what is
still called there the English party —which makes the
blood freeze. In one day, the 17th July, 1833, upwards
of one -hundred Priests were butchered in Madrid alone;
in Toledo, thirty-three Convents of Nuns and Friars were
closed, and the aged inmates pitchforked into the streets,
and left to die of hunger and cruel treatment on the public highway. They were attached to Don Carlos, and
therefore became the objects of plunder and assassination
to the enemies of order and to the conspirators against the
ancient laws.
Thirdly-When rebelion broke out in the Canadas —
what is termed the Papineau insurrection-the Catholic
Priesthood there received the thanks of the Legislature
for their distinguished allegiance; and all Catholics, are,
since that timp, admitted to a full share in the offices,
~emoluments, and honors of the State. Sir Francis Head
states, that the Catholics of Canada are the best support,
there, of the English Crown.
Fourthly —When Norway was taken from the King
of Denmark, and given by the allied powers to Bernadotte, for his services to them, and his treachery to Napoleon, the Roman Catholics-few in number-offered their
roperty and their lives to their King to resist the
encroachment, and, as Beere's narrative states, gave a
noble instance of fidelity to their Lutheran King.
Fifthly-In the various revolutions which have convulsed Europe since 1847 in Lombardy, in Naples, in




LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.         193
Austria, in Hungary, and in France, the Catholic Clergy
have not been so much as named for any disloyalty in
these eventful times; and when the whole populations of
whole kingdoms, such as Hungary, have been hurled
along in one tempestuous revolution, in a perfect hurricane-when prince, ministers, and generals, and armies,
yielded to the storm, will you point out, my Lord, the
kingdom, the province, the parish, the town, the village,
in all these countries, where the allegiance of the Priest
has been violated to the Crown! Tell me the place, the
name, the date, the office of the Priest who has been a
traitor to the King, in this European phrenzy, when monarchs fled from their capitals for fear, when their friends
abandoned them, and when almost half the Thrones of
Europe were nearly crumbled beneath the violence of
popular fury? 
Sixthly-Did not the Pope himself, who now seeks the
sole sway over the realm of England, did he not fly from
his capital sooner than declare war against Austria?
And yet, my Lord, are all these Priests, and this Pope,
now leagued in England to rob our Queen of her realm!
and claim undivided sway in her empire alone, where we
have the most perfect constitution that ever the world
saw, and where we are governed by the most exemplary,
the most illustrious, the brightest, and the most beloved sovereign that ever sat on the throne of Alfred? Are they
the men who bled at the foot of all the Thrones of Europe
in defence of their Kings-are they, my Lord, seeking the
sole sway over the realm of Victoria? Shame, my Lord —
I will not retract the word-shame, shame, Lord J. Rus7




194        LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.
sell, to have made such a charge of attainder against the
most faithful subjects of the Queen, and to have inflicted
a deep, deep, and burning insult on millions of your former friends, and nearly one half of the entire human race.
Seventhly-When I turn from Catholic Europe, and
come to Protestant England, let me ask you, when revolution raised its horrid head in England, 1649, who was
it, I ask, who sold a King, who fled to them for protection? who was it who bought that King with a national
oath to spare his life? who was it, who, in the teeth of
these national engagements murdered that King in midday, before the gaze of mankind; and before God and
man, committed an act of national baseness, national perfidy, national dishonor, and national cruelty, of which there
is no parallel in the history of the civilised world?
Eightly —Who again were these men, who, in the year
1688, joined an unnatural daughter in her disobedience to
her royal father? who were they who conspired with an
usurper, and expelled their legitimate monarch, and left
him to die in a foreign land, a beggar at the gates of the
French Court? who were these men, therefore, who, in
your own country, overthrew the realm which you now
pretend to be in danger? who were they? were they
Irish or English? echo answers English! Aye, and the
heathens, poor faithful fellows, clung to these Kings and
suffered from Cromwell, the foul monster, a cruelty which
can never be known, till the eight hundred women, whom
he murdered at Wexford, will stand before God, on the
last day, and cry for vengeance. These are your black
pages, my Lord; and before you ventured to raise a state




LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.          195
rebellion in England, in 1850, as your Cabinet did in Ireland, 1798, you should have weighed the difference of
times, and have seen that what a Prime Minister could do
in the end of the last. century, your Lordship cannot effect
in the middle of the present; therefore, it is the half century in advance, and not the intention of Lord John Russell, which has defeated the state trick.
Your Lordship has been pleased to designate the creed
which I profess as the "mummeries of superstition." —
This phrase is certainly not very courteous, although
coming from the fountain of toleration; and, in making a
reply, one is little disposed, even to you, to speak in language too highly perfumed. The Rev. Mr. Bennett, who
styles himself " your Parish Priest," asserts, that you
profess three distinct creeds —" that you turn your back
in the evening on the principles which you professed in
the morning;" and that, "when it suits your purpose,
you gladly ignore all the laws and obligations of every
church whatever." You are a Presbyterian in the morning, a Protestant at noon, and a Methodist in the evening; in fact, faith to you, my Lord, is a matter of taste
rather than of principle. You change your religion with
your dress; and hence you are a follower of John Knox,
in your morning-gown, of John Calvin in your dress boots,
and of John Wesley, in your night-slippers. You seem'
fond of namesakes in your various religions; and if Pope
Pius IX. happened to be called John, ten to one, if the
humor took your Lordship, but you would be found on
next Christmas night, at Saint George's-in-the-fields at the
midnight Mass of Cardinal Wiseman. St. Paul, uses the




196        LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 
words "one Faith, one Baptism, one Lord;" by which
he clearly teaches that unity of Faith is as essential as the
unity of the Godhead; and, consequently, that two or
more faiths are as absurd as two or more Gods.
Hence, my Lord, according to the clear logic of Saint
Paul, your professing three faiths (as Mr. Bennett asserts,)
is the same absurdity as if you worshipped three Gods;
so that, after all, your Lordship is, unknown to yourself,
a greater pagan, in point of fact, than all the heathen Irish,whom you have condescended to jibe in'your late encyclical. The only thing in nature that bears any resemblance to this multitudinous faith and worship of yours is
the sun-flower, alluded to in nice poetry in Moore's Melodies, as worshipping its God all day in different directions: or, as Mr. Bennett would say, turning its back in
the evening on the point where it bowed, its head in the
morning; in fact, my Lord, there is a sort of diurnal rotation in your creed, which partakes rather of mathematics and natural philosophy than theology. Your Lordship appears to read the Athenasian Creed through a kaleidoscope, where every article appears under a variety
of combinations, all equally beautiful. This idea enables
me to comprehend why you pity so much the ecclesiastical system of the heathen Irish-poor wretches, they
-have, I admit, only one faith; and, therefore, they must
appear extremely illiterate in revelation when compared
with those elevated minds which have learned and profess three or four. You profession in this respect, reminds me of an anecdote of a man at an election for a
Member of Parliament in Ireland, who carried the pla



LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.       197
card for the Tory member on his breast, and the placard
for the Whig member on his back, and thus earned his
hire shouting for the parties. This man was what might
be called by your Lordship a liberal politician.
Your Lordship states, that the danger "within the gates
is even greater," and causes to you greater indignation!
than even the danger from the Pope. On this point I
have the advantage entirely to agree with you; but the
danger to be apprehended is, that all England will rush
into wild infidelity, in consequence of your governing the
Protestant Church, (of which I wish to speak with great
respect) by the decisions of a Privy Council, and defining
by your degree the doctrine, which is not necessary to be
taught. All the world has heard of the Rev. Mr. Gorham, Vicar of Stampfordspeke, who believes in certain
opinions relating to baptismal regeneration, the minutia3
of which are so well known to your Lordship. His Bishop refuses to present him to the vicarage-Mr. Gorham
appeals, the Bishop persists; one says, that baptismal regeneration' is not an essential doctrine of Christianity; the
other says it is-Mr. Gorham says no: the Bishop of
Exeter says yes: Sir Herbert Jenner Fust, of the Court
of Arcees, says no: the Archbishop of Canterbury says,
yes. The Chief Justice, Lord Campbell, says neither yes
nor no: but in a letter to an English lady, says it is an
"open question."
At length, my Lord, you who are learned in all creeds,
take up the question, as chief in your Privy Council, and
like the cat settling the dispute between the rabbit and
the weazel, you make short work of it, and by a decision




198         LITTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.
of the Privy Council! you decide what is not necessary
to be taught in the Protestant church; and by way of
proving the apostolicity of your mission, you would send
down to Stamfordspeke a troop of dragoons, if necessary,
to give a gentle hint of your infallibility. By the decision of your council, you have bonafide ignored the Protestant religion in England; and you would do well to
record-the event, by the following memorandum:
"' The Protestant religion commenced in Germany, in the little town
of Spires, about the end of the year 1517; flourished for 300 years and
upwards in England, particularly in the neighborhood of cannon foundries and powder magazines; and ceased to 1be on the 16th July, 1850,
when by an order of the Privy Council, Rev. Mr. Gorham was informed
it was not necessary to teach any longer."
Now, my Lord, you are unknown to yourself, the Lay
Pontiff of England, and your committee. of three Judges
are your infallible tribunal-and the decision which you
and they assumed to Mr. Gorham, proves that you all belong to the respectable body of the " Society of Friends,"
since you all have decided against the doctrine -of baptismal regeneration. Your Lordship, therefore, has by this
act, shown that you have altogether four creeds! at present known to society. Now, my Lord, in sober sadness,
can you imagine, that any thinking man will, or can remain in what you call " a church," where your Privy
Council literally claims infallibility for the time beingthat is, till the next variation of this thing called a church,
will be made? In the time of Bossuet, there were 253
variations, and the remainder of changes since that period, are not necessary to be introduced in this letter.But, can you seriously expect that men of learning and
feeling can continue in an establishment where you set




LETTER TO LORD JOH-iN RUSSELL.      199
aside the ancient doctrines, once held to be essential —where you set aside the authority of a Bishop over his
clergy, as you would the authority of a Custom-house
Officer: where the Gospel is shuffled like a pack of cards;
where the articles of faith, which were "trumps" to-day,
may not answer " suit" to-morrow; where you settle the
exact amount of the invisible grace of God, as a mineralogist would determine the per centage of iron ore; where
you sell the cure of souls, as Rothschild would dispose of
government stock to the highest bidder; and where you
make essential doctrines, which were above par a year
ago, now received at a discount, according to the whim
of your Privy Council, and the demand for the gospel in
the English market? St. Paul, in the quotation which I
have already adduced, makes Baptism as essential a principle as " Faith, or as God;" but your Infallible Council
thinks otherwise, and hence you decide the thing at once,
Bishops exclaim against you,; but what do you care
for bishops? The diocese of Limerick, in this heathen
country, petition; but what does your Council care for
the Protestant clergy of Limerick? Eighteen hundred
Protestant clergy cry out against this interference with
their doctrines and the authority of their bishops; but
what care you for their clerical demonstration? All cry
out for the right of private judgement in this grave discussion, the essential principle of their religion; but you cry
out nous avons change tout cela; that was heretofore the
act of parliament, but since the seven hundredth variation!
has been made, that principle now rests entirely in the
Privy Council, and not at all in the bishops, or clergy,




200        LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.
or people, per Deun hkominunque fidenm!  Where this
thing will end, no one living, not even your Lordship, so
distinguished in theology, and in polytheism, can tell.
Your Lordship has been pleased to brand my church
as a church of "mummery and of superstition;" but if
ever mummery can be made palpable, it certainly can be
seen and felt in three judges and a country gentleman,
like your Lordship, changing the way to heaven as you
would change a turnpike road; and if ever superstition
stood naked before mankind, it is certainly to be seen in
the act by which you expect that any man, in his plain
senses, that any man except a born idiot, can make "an
act of faith," in you who profess four creeds at once, as
we know-at present-in you, who, as Mr. Bennett asserts,
are "bound by the laws and obligations of no church
whatever" —in your Lordship, who make creeds, as a
potter makes crocks, shaping them according to the public taste and the public demand-you even forgive sins.
The Bishop of Exter says it is a crying sin not to teach
baptismal regeneration-you deny this assertion, coming
from a common Bishop, and particularly not a member of
the Privy Council; and, to show your spiritual power,
you absolve Mr. Gorham from all guilt, and you give him
your warrant of authority to present to God as a guarantee against his justice.'Tis endless to recount the circumstances, the incongruities, the rank absurdities of your
present Church establishment; and ten to one, unless it be
managed by a skilful hand, it will bring a sad revolution
on all the land. You seem to wonder at the danger
arising from the crowds leaving your system, and'joining




LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.          201
the Dissenters or the Catholics-can you be so blind as
not to see the just cause of this secession?
In order that any Christian shall conscientiously belong
to this creed of your Council, it is necessary that he shall
make "an act of faith" in its decisions; and what man
under the sun can do that?-that is, "to make an act of
faith" that you and your Council transmit the precise
meaning of revelation from God-that what you decide
is precisely the same as if Christ spoke-that your decision is beyond all doubt the unerring truth; that you and
your Chancellor and Chief Justice, cannot deceive or be
deceived. Now, without meaning any disrespect, you
both are the two last men in England, on whose word in
spirituals, a Christian would make an act of faith. You
are clearly no theologian, or you would not profess four
creeds at the same time, and the Chancellor has not read
even Church history, as Mr. Bennett has already proved.
Your decisions are, therefore, filled with doubt which is
incompatible with belief; he who doubts clearly does not
believe; and hence thousands of the unthinking masses
of Englishmen are going into infidelity, as Rev. Mr. Jones
has proved before a committee of the House of Commons;
and all the reasoning portion, like the one hundred and
forty-nine converts from Oxford and Cambridge, are
coming to lay their weary heads beneath the roof of the
Catholic Church, where God's testimony need not a warrant of the Privy Council as the foundation of their faith,
and where they can with all their souls say, "I firmly
believe."
I shall now conclude for the present, my Lord, and I




202          LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.
hope I have not uttered one word of disrespect towards.
you. I apologise if I have done so. I think I have read
every printed speech and other works of yours which
appeared these last twenty-five years; and having so long
admired. and followed you, I should be sorry to be wanting in courtesy towards you.
I have the honor to be, my Lord, your obedient servant,
D. W. CAHILL, D.D.
DR.' CAHILL TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD
JOHN RUSSELL.
MIy LORD —I shall take the liberty to trouble you with
a second communication in reference to some additional
passages in your late letter, which might create, if unexplained, considerable alarm in the minds of the Catholic
Clergy and the people. The first passage is that where
your Lordship writes:- 
"Upon this- subject, then, I will only say, that the present state of the
law shall be carefully examined, and the propriety of adopting any proceedings with reference to the recent assumption of power carefully
considered."
From these clear words, it appears evident that you
are determined, if the present state of the law cannot meet
the recent grievance, to adopt such measures as will effectually crush any further progress of the Papal power.
This is a serious threat; and your Lordship being the
Premier of England, you hold the precise office which can
enable you to carry this threat into execution. You
have, indeed, thus re-opened a burning question; and,
from the history of your former life, you are the last man




LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.          203
in England who, one could suppose, would so degrade
your splendid name as to prop up your ministerial office
with the old rotten " rack " and rusty "gibbet" of the sixteenth century. You have exhumed "More and Fisher,"
with tens of thousands of English -and Irish martyrs to
conscience; and you have called a coroner's inquest on
the murdered dead, which will receive at present from
all nations of the earth a verdict of " guilty" against all
these sanguinary statesmen whose laws you are now about
to "adopt."
You have brought to us the cruel remembrance of
England's worst persecutors; you have stirred up from
the forgotten depths of their crimson history a national
agony which makes the Irish heart reel; and you have
evoked an English spirit of intolerance whioh will not
easily subside into its former composure. We, Catholics
in Ireland, thought you incapable of entertaining even
one intolerant feeling; but, my Lord, you have been educated, after all, in a prejudiced school, and, with your
mother's milk, you have sucked in hostility to Catholicity.
You took the bent in your infancy, which, now unknown
to yourself, you evince against the Catholic Church:"A pebble in the streamlet scant
Has turned the course of many a river,
A dew-drop on the baby plant
May WARP the giant oak for ever."
Since, therefore, you are resolved to turn back on the
path of legislation, and thus to rehearse the national tragedy of the penal code, will your Lordship be pleased to
inform us, in which of the past reigns will you begin?
which of the past Ministers will you take for your guide 




204       LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.
and which of the " legal proceedings " of these memorable
days will you " adopt" in order to repel the Papal power?
These are important considerations for the " aggressors,"
as they will direct them to examine the conduct of the
Catholics of the past days, and endeavor to imitate their
example. Pray, then, Sir, will you begin in the reign of
Henry the Eighth, and, with Thomas Cromwell for your
model, will you " adopt the proceedings" of plundering
the abbeys, demolishing the colleges, applying gunpowder
to the priories, expelling the Priests, hanging the laity,
and seizing the ancient legal property of the poor to the
amount of forty millions of our money? If your Lordship
will begin in this reign, and imitate your efficient ancestor
of that memorable era, you will soon put an end to the
present "sole and undivided sway of the Pope," and you
will, at one blow, annihilate all the "mummeries of our
superstition."
But perhaps you might rather choose to begin in the
reign of Edward the Sixth, and follow "Somerset" as
your example, when one Lord Russell hanged a Priest in
Devonshire from the belfry of his own Church —when
Bishoprics were seized to put down the bad example of
the Bishops-when Churches were thrown down in honor
of God's pure worship-when creeds were made and remade, in order, like a badly-made suit of clothes, that these
creeds might have the newest cut, and fit tight to the conscience-when books of prayer were received or rejected
by vote by ballot-when the office of St. Paul was set up
to auction-and when the Apostles' Creed was won, or
lost, or kept up by the distinguished players like a game




LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.        205
of "spoiled five" or "blind hookey."  There can be no
doubt at all, this "reforming" reign will supply you with
several facts which may serve as material for a second
letter to the Bishop of Durham and the mob, and will enable you to "adopt legal proceedings" as "plenty as
blackberries," for putting an immediate stop to Papal aggression.
I shall pass over the reign of Elizabeth, as I cannot
suppose you would resolve to begin in this reign, and
take either Cecil, or Walsingham, or Wentworth, as your
models; and I feel rather confident that you would not
" adopt the proceedings" of this Gospel reign, which
entirely consisted of the constitutional laws of " hot-irons,
racks, ropes, buckling-hoops, gibbets, and ripping-knives."
These legal proceedings, if adopted, would save your
Lordship the trouble of writing your late letter: "the
Canon law on the doctrine of Grace, and on our enslaving mummeries," because these English decrees of the
glorious Reformation, not only put an end to the abstract
idea of Papal aggression, but they entirely silenced,
removed out of England, and, indeed, out of this sublunary world altogether, the very aggressors themselves,
together with their wives and children; and, alas! bearing on their mangled flesh and broken bones in the grave,
the marks 6f "the proceedings" adopted by the Russell
of these days to establish the Royal supremacy, and to
crush the Papal power.
More blood has been spilled in England and Ireland on
the subject of the Royal supremacy, than has ever been
shed in any country on the earth, either from war, famine,




206        LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.
or pestilence, or from all three taken together. Neither
the Poles, under the Russian tyrant; or the Greeks, under
the Turks, have lost so many of their children by the
sword, the faggot, or banishment, as our country has lost
by the axe, the rope, and by torture, in sustaining the question which your Lordship has introduced, by a gratuitous
and wanton revival. Will you say, therefore, in what
glorious reign; under what Christian chief; and under
what legal statute, will you take your stand at the next
Session of Parliament?
I wish to inform your Lordship, that 1 am not one of
those who think your letter harmless, because it has, in
point of fact, produced up to this period no very pernicious results. The same apology might be made for the
assassin whose pistols-hung fire, and missed his aim; the
same excuse mightbe made for Guy Faux, who, in point
of fact, did not blow up the whole Parliament. I do hold
you guilty, and I do believe that you intended to produce
a most violent attack on the Catholics in England and in
Ireland; and, moreover, I believe, that if your letter were
not ignored by the sense of the English people, and by the
never-to-be-forgotten liberal feeling of the Irish Protestants, and by the Presbyterians in Ireland and Scotland.
the Churches of England would in all probability have
been torn down, and the Priests perhaps murdered in the
streets,
There is one passage in your letter, in which any impartial man will clearly see you had intended the worst results. Your Lordship says:
"Even if it shall appear that the Ministers and servants of the Pope




LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.          207
ih this country have not transgressed the law, I feel persuaded we are
strong enough to repel any outward " attack;" and again, " I rely with
confidence on the people of England."
No language can be more clear than these words, to
publish through England " that the Pope was not within
the power of the law;" and that consequently, you relied
on the people to exercise their strength (as mobs do) to
trample down, kick, cut, and demolish the Papists, who
were the enemies from without.
And hence, on the receipt of your command, scenes
were commenced and acted, which the future historian
of England will attribute to your name, with a censure
from which that name can never escape. French Revolutionists, hear the conduct of the English mob, under the
command of Lord John Russell! Yes, under your command-I repeat the words. Followers of Robespierreyou, who bowed down before the Goddess of Reason,
hear, and reflect on the London mobs, under the command of the English Prime Minister! They burned the
Pope in effigy-they burned Cardinal Wiseman in effigy;
they burned MonksS they burned Friars; and, prok paudor! they burned the Sisters of Charity / / /!
Lord John Russell, you have done this; and let me te'l
your Lordship, that the most ferocious bandit that ever
lurked in the dark trackless Alps, whose dagger has not
dried for years from the crimson stain of human bloodeven from the black heart of that monster one generous
feeling has been known to rise, and float above the tempest of his troubled conscience. That monster would not
cross the path of a Sister of Charity, for fear his presence
might alarm the consecrated virgin in her silent rounds to




208       LETTER'TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.
visit the abandoned sick, to bind the broken heart, to heal
the wounded stranger.
And, prok pudor! l7inc lackrymce /!  Alas! what
next? Your mob burned in effigy; yes, they did-your
mob, to the number of several thousands, burned in Putney, on the 5th Jan., 1850, the ever Blessed Virgin Mary!
The daughter of David, the Virgin 6f Lebanon, and the
mother of the God-man!-the descendant of Royalty, the
genius of the Prophets, the Virgin "full of grace," the
Mother of the Messiah, " blessed among women," could
not escape your mob.
Yes, my Lord, you did this in free England; and the
French Revolutionists never thought of such an act.Evev<Pilate" did not molest her, standing amongst the
Jewish mob, while he condemned her adorable Son to the
Cross; even the Deicide guards of thrilling Calvery did
not insult her while she sat weeping at the foot of the
Cross. No, no, my Lord, they did not; that act was reserved for the " Reformed" Minister o proud Albion, and
for his Christian mob, " as by law established." No, no,
she received protection from the Jets, but not from the
Christians of Putney.
Sixty-two days elapsed from the date of your letter till
this shameful occurrence at Putney; although you saw,
and heard, and read the various insults offered to Nuns,
Priests, &c., you never contradicted, by word or command, these proceedings; and hence, according to a wellknow phrase, as " an accessory before the fact, during the
fact, and after the fact:" you are decidedly guilty of this
outrage against religion and common decency. Would




LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.       209
you so treat the descendant of Alfred, merely because he
revived Roman law, and drew the first draft of Magna
Charta? Would you so treat the mother of " Nelson,"
merely because he widened the boundary of your Ocean
Empire? I shall not dare the conclusion by making comparison between man and God. I shall only say on this
point, that nothing further can be added to the insane extravagance of England's apostacy. And pray, my Lord,
is the savage  "Haynau" to be condemned for flogging
women, who, after all, conspired against the State —who
took part with their sons and husbands? And are your
men to escape with impunity for burning inoffensive Nuns
in effigy, and caricaturing the Mother of God? What
ambition is there in taking the place of savage Haynau?
He flogs —your men burn; he bleeds-your men scorch
Nuns and the Blessed Virgin; and when next you honor
us with a visit in Ireland, would it be surprising if the
draymen of Cork or Dublin, would cry aloud, " Haynau,
the burner of Nuns-Haynau, the caricaturist of the
Blessed Virgin?
But the day may come, when Englishmen may have
some heavier work to do than burning Nuns of pasteboard, and Cardinals of straw; and when Prime Ministers may have more important duties to mind besides encouraging infidelity, spreading national discord, burning
swaddling preachers, manufacturing a splendid pinchbeck
religion of the most modern pattern at present in use
in England, and placing Christian Faith in the very
apogee of Scripture, tradition, and theology.
My opinion, my Lord, of your penal threat is, that,




910        LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.
when you will have seen the general opposition to your
proceedings, you must let the contemplated measure drop;
and that, too, for many reasons —firstly, because the subject of the public panic is exceedingly frivolous, the whole
thing being, the difference between the words " Bishop "
and " Vicar-Apostolic;" and, again, between the words
" District" and " Diocese."  The dispute reminds me of
the nationalhorrors mentioned in Gulliver's Travels, where
two nations went to war, and fought several sanguinary
battles, to determine which end of an egg might be broken
at breakfast! One nation contended that the little end
should be broken, and hence they were called the " Little
Endian," somewhat resembling the diocese men of the present controversy; others contended for the big end, and
were called the " Big Endians," somewhat resembling the
district men of the present controversy, and fairly representing your Lordship, the Bishops, the Clergy, and the
London and Putney mobs. There can be no doubt, that
there is no more difference in the English controversy
than in the Lilliputian war; that Bishop and diocese, are
convertible terms with Vicar-Apostolic and district; and
that when men will seriously reflect on the matter, both
your Lordship and the English people will be perfectly
indifferent whether Cardinal Wiseman belong to " the
Little or the Big Endians."
Secondly-The Catholics, Presbyterians, and Dissenters, are very numerous in our European part of the empire; (more numerous than Protestants,) and hence, it
would be dangerous to make a law, which, in point of fact,
would and should, and ought to be equally insulting to them,




LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.        211
to the Catholics; and these are not times, my L&.d, to be
playing Parliamentary tricks with millions of people, and
quarrelling with loyal subjects and devoted friends, in
order to gratify the whims of a Church which cannot be
in existence in one hundred years to come. Your Lordship's Cabinet will, of course, advise laws not only for the
present generation, but for their successors; and I think it
will appear evident (as Sir Fowell Burton used to say,
talking of slavery in the West Indies,) that no Legislator
ought to make laws, which he ought to forsee must end in
revolution in half a century to come.
Thirdly, my Lord, I must take the liberty of telling
you, that there is not the least use in your framing laws
against the Catholic Church. She, has triumphed over
more powerful nations than England; defied even a
greater man than the present Premier of Great Britain;
and she has outlived tongues, and creeds, and dynasties,
which had a stronger case against her than the Putney
heroes.
Your countrymen are not more powerful than the followers of Ruric and Alaric the First; they never were so
terrible as Attila or Genseric; your Bishops are not more
learned than Gobaldus; nor any of your orators and philosophers at the late county meetings, to be compared with
Julian. Your national creed, is not more extensive than
Arianism; and yet, my Lord, these are all gone, departed, and forgotten, and their progeny extinct; while here
we are, the young Catholic branches of the old stock,
flourishing through the spring of ages, without sign or
symptom of decay. As long as the old roots of the old




212        LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL
parent stock are fixed in the soil, (which is true,) you may
cut down as often as you can; we spring up again when
the winter is past; and our motto is "Recissa Resurge."
You threaten us with Acts of Parliament. Excuse me:
we laugh at Acts of Parliament, because we know that
the same hand that balances creation has raised our Altars,
and will never disturb the foundation of His own Church;
because we know that the power which can chain the
whirlwind, and tame the swollen empires of the ocean,
can, when he pleases, subdue your heart and the Putney
mob; and, above all, we know that it is quite as foolish in
you, to attempt to impede our onward progress against
the will of God, by Acts of Parliament, and bonfires, and
bags of chaff, and barrels of pitch! as it would be, if you
sent the 12th Lancers to stop the tide, or called on your
astronomer at Greenwich to put off till evening an eclipse
of the English people.
And will you permit me to ask your Lordship, if we
are the barbarian Priests of a heathen people, why are
you afraid of us? How can such barbarian Priests, with
their rude clubs of "mummery" stand a moment before
the discipline of your Ecclesiastical " reformed " infantry
of Oxford and Cambridge? What are you afraid of?
Why do you meet our logic with the bayonet? Why
guard off our theology with burning faggots, and stop our
mouths with your favorite Scripture proofs (the rope) if
we are the sadly educated wretches, the Pagan vulgarians, the heathen mummers whom you represent us?
Pray, Sir, why are you so much afraid of us?  If our
superstitions are so filthy; surely the merchants, the




LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.          213
traders, the barristers, the solicitors, the physicians, the
scholars of Great Britain, so remarkable for their talents,
experience, tact, and knowledge, have only to see us, and
hear our doctrine, to be horrified at our confining the intellect and enslaving the soul-why, then, are you afraid
to let them hear us, and listen to our arguments? Is
there no internal evidence in the prohibition to hear us,
that you fear the force of our reasoning and the resistless
strength of our traditionary title deeds? Say what you
will-conceal it as you can-your fears show that we are
your masters in learning, and that we alone possess the
legitimate inheritance of being the lineal descendants of
the Apostles.
We have met your best men in controversy foot to foot,
and they were obliged to respect our learning, and pay
deference to our talents. Your most polished men are
becoming converts to our doctrine; and the erudition of
1800 years belongs confessedly to the Catholic name, long,
long before your Lordship's many-colored Faith was
known in the world. And yet, we, the modern Catholic
Priests, fight only with the small arms of our ancestors
in the Church. There is no man of the present day
amongst us whom the armor of St. Augustine would fit:
it is too large for modern men and too heavy for our
strongest controversialists to bear up for a moment. No
man of the present day could lift the club of Tertullian,
with which, in his ancient battles, he conquered all the
enemies of his creed; and the mouth of the "Amazon"
can alone give you the best idea you can form of the golden flood of language, the resistless power of eloquence,
which poured from the Catholic lips of St. Chrysostom.




214        LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.
My Lord, may I ask if you have read the history of
these men, and the victories they won?  Have you read
the history of the brilliant exploits performed by their suce
cessors, in all the Christian ages, and in all the countries i
and if not, I shall only say, when you have read them,
your Lordship will see at once how foolish it is to think
of subduing conscience by faggots of burning straw; how
insane it is to hope of teaching the Faith of the Gospel
through the light of pitch-barrels and bonfires; and how
ridiculous to fancy that " the children of the Saints could
tremble before the sons of Voltaire," or how the descendants of "Fisher and Plunket" could blench before the
successors of Cranmer.
Fourthly, your Lordship will not, I am sure, introduce
the penal bill, simply because you have too much to do
with other matters of greater moment to yourself personally. You have to compose all the elements which you
have called into furious antagonism. Thus you have
made an adversary of Lord Roden and his party some
time past; and hence you have hoped to pacify him by
giving the Catholic heathens (the Chippewa Indians,) the
late knock on the head. You have irritated the Dissenters of England by your late education policy, and you
wished to propitiate them by the late pitched-barrels, and
the phantasmagoria of Guy Fawkes. You have offended
the Protestant Bishops of England by your late liberal
policy; and hence it was necessary to return back to the
sixteenth century, and satisfy these Divines with recent
lectures on penal enactments; and most strange (as a
proof of your great talents,) you have so deeply offended




LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.        215
the Catholics of the whole world by your letter; you now
think, therefore, (in order to please us,) of uprooting the
Protestant Church in Ireland!! That you will do this
work, is as certain as that I am writing to you at the present moment; but on this subject I shall not say one word,
for fear I should utter one syllable of disrespect towards
any one member of that Church.
You have, therefore, a great deal to do. My Lord,
during the next Session of Parliament, you have to pour
oil on the waters which you have lashed into fury. In
fact, there has never been a Minister of Great Britain who
has been playing such tricks with the nation, as your
Lordship has been playing with all parties during the past
year  you have been encouraging the nation to carry on
the children's play of "weighdee bucketdee;" you have
yourself presided over the machinery-lifted all parties
up and down at your pleasure, like a magician, and all
this, in order to throw dust in the eyes of all England and
Ireland, while you yourself keep the secure post of Prime
Minister.
But if the Protestants and Catholics of Ireland could
only see this lessening performance of yours in its true
colors of knocking our~heads together for the amusement
of the English, we would unite in one compact body of
Irishmen, (making it a crime even to introduce the demon
discord of religious rancor into their Assemblies,) and if
this body would enter on their duties, not in giving opposition to Government, or in doing any \such foolish thing,
but attending to their own national interests, they would
soon compel your Lordship, or any of your official suc



216-       LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.
cessors, to treat us with more respect, and more seriousness than setting us to fight with each other, and carrying
on a shameful State-hoax upon the entire country.
In conclusion, my Lord, there is no more reason to
show that you will not unfrock the English Bishops just
now. There is a Royal personage who will not peimit
you. Her most gracious, and most beloved, and most excellent Majesty will not give you leave to put your thumbscrew upon our Church. No person can ever forget the
silent, dignified censure which her Majesty passed upon
you, during the reading of five most important addresses.
I need only mention the address alone from the Corporation of London, her own chief city; yet she never alluded
in her answer to this address from her own city, by everi
one word, to any one word in your letter. This Royal
silence on this important occasion, was, without any excep?
tion at all, the most withering, the most degrading rebuke
to a Prime Minister recorded in English history; and
there you stood in a pillory, swallowing your own words,
and, (to use a term from the clubs,) "snubbed" to your
face.
I say, that the Pope can never return sufficient thanks
to the Queen of England for this most brave and generous conduct. I question much, if any Catholic Sovereign in Europe would have the heart or the courage, under similar circumstances, so to treat her Prime Minister.
She did not endorse any one of your Lordship's sentiments. You are, therefore, clearly, my Lord, no longer
the exponent of the Royal mind, and not to be the exponent of the Royal mind, is the very definition of your dis



LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.         217
missal. Yet, your Lordship holds your place. For this
and all her other acts of kindness, may she long live to
rule over her boundless empire —may she triumph over
all her enemies, and confound their politics; may God
add still more to her domestic happiness; may her court
continue to be a model of virtue to every Palace in Europe; and may the stability of her throne be transmitted
to her children's children, is the prayer of every Catholic
Priest in her invincible empire.
I shall, my Lord, watch the progress of the next Session of Parliament; and if you will persevere in fulfilling
your promise of enacting any penal law against my
Church, I shall, most humbly, trouble you with a third
letter, in continuation of the same subject.
I have the honor to be, my Lord, your Lotdship's
obedient servant,
D. W. CAHILL, D.D.
DR. CAHILL TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD
JOHN RUSSELL.
AIRDRIE, SCOTLAND, November 4, 1851.
My LORD —This day brings before the minds of the
Catholics of the whole world the painful recollection of
your letter to the Bishop of Durham. Twelve months
have now elapsed since the publication of that inflammatory and persecuting document; and time and experience,
which are the best tests of political wisdom, have proved
that your views have been incorrect and your speeches




218         LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.
exaggerated. The Bishops have assumed their titles, and
they exercise their diocesan jurisdiction without infringing on the principles of the Constitution, or trenching on
the prerogatives of the Crown. Your statesmanship,
therefore, is a palpable failure-your penal law is a political lie; and Lord John Russell stands before the gaze
of mankind, a false leader, and a naked bigot.
As your Lordship is about to enter on this day into the
second year of your ministerial Hegira, it may not be
amiss to present to your Lordship, a historical review of
the conduct of your Cabinet during the last few years —
and to inform the people of Ireland and Great Britain, of
the disastrous position to which you have reduced the
British Empire, both as regards its internal interests and
its external relations. I have already laid before my most
persecuted fellow-countrymen the intrigues of Lord Pal-.
merston and his corps of diplomatique, in aiding the revolutionists of five different countries in Europe; and I have
proved, that he attempted at the same time to overthrow
the authority of the Pope, and to uproot the discipline
and the Faith of the Catholic Church. You were, of
course the abettor and the prime mover of these two-fold
intrigues; and thus, we clearly convict you of appearing
during five years, as the advocate of our national and religious liberties, while, in fact, you were secretly undermining our inherent rights, and treacherously sapping the
foundations of our creed.
Your letter of November, 1850, disclosed your real
character, developed your long concerted plans, and will
be distinguished in our future history, as the Russell con



LETTER TO LORI  JOHN RUSSELL.            219
spiracy; and it will take its place in enormity, and precedence -in the paragraph, next to the atrocious memory
of the Gunpowder Plot. Guy Fawkes and Lord John
Russell, will, therefore, fill two correlative pages, alike in
their aim, treachery, and their failure.
I informed my poor faithful countrymen, in last March
(that is such of them as you had not starved, and pitted
at that time,) that your intrigues were well known in
every Court in Europe; that you were digging a pit for
England, which very soon would engulph the whole Empire; and that -a European combination against the machinations of the English Cabinet, would be the inevitable
result of your unexampled political and religious deceit.
And I informed my bleeding country not to despair, that
the sword of God's justice would be soon drawn against
our oppressors —that the hour of their deliverance was
nearer than they imagined; and to stand fearlessly and
firm together in a national confederacy. I am now in a
position to prove these points, and to lay before the Queen
and the country, the undisguised expression of universal
hostility, which your unprecedented cabinet schemes have
lashed into fury in almost every Court in Europe. May
I, therefore, my Lord, beg your calm perusal of the following extracts; they will point out the unmistakable
combination of foreign Courts, and the gulf which you
are preparing for England:"A private letter from Frankfort, dated the 6th, and received in
Paris on Monday, states that Lord Palmerston has directed a note to
be presented through Lord Cowley to the President of the Diet, Count
Thun, in which he requests the Assembly to take steps with respect to
the Neapolitan government, in order to induce it to abandon the political system it has hitherto followed. The note was accompanied by




220         LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.
several copies of Mr. Gladstone's pamphlet. The affair was discussed
in the sitt*ng of the Diet, held on the 20th September. The President,
in an address at once clear and precise, showed how unusual and unbecoming such a demand was. He dwelt particularly on the extraordinary proceeding of a government claiming on the authority of any individual statement to interfere in matters purely domestic of another
nation, and with the administration of justice of an independent government, and he concluded by calling on the Assembly to reject the demand made upon it. The Minister of Prussia to the Diet, declared it
as his opinion that the demand of bLrd Palmerston was neither more
nor less than defiance to all continental policy, and should be met by a
very decided answer. It was, therefore, resolved that the President of
the Diet should be authorised to reply to Lord Palmerston to the effect
that the German Diet, having made itself acquainted with the note of
the British government, and the -contents of which appeared to it as
unusual, as they were little in harmony with the ordinary usages of international relationt practised by all Governments, felt all the less disposed to interfere with the domestic affairs of a foreign Government as
independent of itself, as it would not permit any one, whoever he may
be, to meddle with those of the Confederation; and it was for that
reason, it disapproved and rejected the line of conduct proposed by
Lord Palnerston in the name of his cabinet. An answer to that effect
has been made to Lord Cowley."
The Frankfort journals state, that Russia has replied to
Lord Palmerston's note, inclosing Mr. Gladstone's letter,
in a strain exactly similar to that put forth by the Ger-.
manic Diet against interference with the concerns of foreign countries.
In the foregoing communication, Lord Palmerston,
with his usual duplicity, endeavors to concoct a conspiracy against Naples, and he sends one of his characteristic despatches to one of his characteristic companions
(your nominees and servants,) to intrigue with the German
])iet —and P'russia to intrigue with Russia, and when this
snaking and most cowardly conspiracy should be finally
formed, then to menace Italy and Naples with a combined attack, in order to redeem your pledge to the unfortunate dupes and victims whom your diplomacy excited to




LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.               221
revolution, and drove to exile and death. But Germany,
and Prussia, and Russia, have clearly "snubbed" your
colleague, and have read to you and to him a lesson of
defiance, which places your Cabinet in the most humiliating posture.  But the contempt offered to you, does not
end here; Lord Palmerston grounded this your conspiracy, on the private communication of Mr. Gladstone,
which has been disproved, word for word, by Mr. M'Farlane and Monsieur Condon. And here I shall take leave
to present to the Queen, " snub the second," which your
honorable colleague has received from Prince Castelcicala, Minister of the King of Naples; let England read
this second contumely cast on this country:PRINCE CASTELCICALA TO VISCOUNT PALMERSTON..
15, Prince's-street, Cavendish-square, August 9th. I
MY LORD-In a report which appeared in the Times paper of yesterday, of the sitting of the House of Commons, I have read that your
Excellency,, in answer to a question put by Sir De Lacy Evans, relative
to some publications of Mr. Gladstone against the Government of the
King my August Master, said you considered it your duty to send copies
of the same to the British Ministers at the various Courts of Europe;
and since a reply to the said publication, grounded upon substantial
documents has recently made its appearance, I have the honor to send
fifteen copies to your Excellency, and therefore request your Excellency will take precisely the same means for distribution, as you have
done for those of Mr. Gladstone.
The known maxim Audi alteram partemr; the courtesy of your Excellency, and, in the present conjuncture, what is better, your justice;
all lead me to hope that your Excellency will not find my request
indiscreet.
CASTELCICALA.
It is -impossible not to see the sneer of contemptuous
derision with which the foreign Prince demands reparation for the national slander, backed as he is by all Europe, and the painful position of Lord Palmerston in his
shifting reply, excites pity for the man, and shame for the




222-          LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.
Minister.  Your Minister of War stammered, hesitated;
shuffled, before this honorable, and firm, and decided
request of Naples; and finally, with a doggedness so peculiarly his own, refused to make the reparation of a gentleman, for the most palpable misstatement, and the most
obvious perversion of facts.
My next extract shall be taken from one of the highest
ministerial and commercial journals of Austria-an  extract which places'your Cabinet in a position degrading
to the whole empire, tending to tarnish the high reputation of British honor, and which ought to be a sufficient
reason to remove you from a station which you fill with
discredit to the State, and with injury to the Crown. No
British subject can read the following extract without
shame, and horror, and indignation:(From the Austrian Lloyds.)
"The ovations, which are now under preparation in England, in honor of an Austrian subject guilty of treason to his Sovereign, and of
having ignited the flame of revolution in his native country, do not arouse
our indignation to any great extent. We feel a pity, mixed with
uncommon contempt, for the stupid, well-fattened (styipiden wahlgemastatem) aldermen of Southampton and London. In I848 the English
Foreign Office gave itself every possible pains to dismember the Austrian
Empire. The noble Lord at the head of the government tried all that
intrigue, duplicity, treachery and deceit could do, to obtain his ignoble
ends. Whilst a Minister of the highest diplomatic rank, represented
his Queen at the Austrian Court, and ostensibly in public, spoke of the
friendly relations existing between Great Britain and Austria, secret
agents in the pay of the English Cabinet, and its public servants-men
like Lords Minto and Abercrombie-were laying intrigues which were
soon to acquire an historical importance. The mines were dug, the
powder laid, and on a signal transmittedfrom Downing street, the explosion followed. A portion of South and Central Europe was in
flames. Lord Ponsonby remained in Vienna, a guarantee of England's
Punic faith to her old ally. Meantime, that unhappy King, whose tragic fate shields him from too severe a judgement being passed upon,
him, was driven to distraction and to death by British intrigue; and as
Kossuth can boast of Lord Palmerston'sfrsendship, with equal right may
it be claimed by all the rebel leaders in the different parts of Europe




LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.                  223
That many of them were discarded by their quondam friend in their
hour of distress, is no refutation of the fact. Even English Journals
have declaimed against Lord Palmerston for having unmercifully abandoned the men he had mislaid, as soon as their plans proved unsuccessful.
" Every victory of the Austrian arms in Italy and Hungary-the
close alliance between Austria and Russia-the successful suppression of
the revolution wherever it broke forth -the failure of the Prussian scheme to drive Austria out of Germany - finally, the consolidation of the power of the Empire -  were so many severe
and keenly felt blows to English policy. Never was a Cabinet compelled to make so many miserable retractions, never did a Cabinet suffer so many painful defeats, or lose so much influence, honor and res.
pect, as the English Cabinet at this period. Its influence in the Mediterranean, to which England attached so much importance, vanished.
The Cabinets of Madrid, Naples, Athens, justly regarded England as
their enemy. The infamous proceedings against Greece, aroused the
slumbering sense of honor and justice even of the British Parliament,
and threatened the ministry with a disgraceful termination of the office.
"Rage at foiled plans, vexation at the defeats sustained by Sardinia,
shame at being convicted of dishonesty, had been gnawing for some time
at the hearts of leading men in England. Their impotency to harm
Austria makes them give vent to their feeling, by making grimaces at
it. A man convicted in Austria of high treason, is therefore to be
received as an honored guest. This is not done so much in his honor as to offend loyal Austrians. We scarcely think this demonstration will attain its object. The loyal Austrian has reason to rejoice,
that the mightiest and most hostile endeavors, that the most deeply
laid and deceitful plans of one of the most powerful Cabinets of Europe;
have not succeeded in preventing the regeneration of his country; and
that England has no other means left to resort to, to express its rage
at its failure, but to render honors to a man who had been banished
from his country for political offences."
Verily, my Lord, your diplomacy on the European
Continent, is likely very soon to inflict a heavy blow on our
common country. There can be no doubt that all Europe is
beginning to combine, and, in fact, to arm itself against
England. You have roused (and the world will say,
justly,) the anger of Switzerland, and Naples, and Germany, and Prussia, and Russia, and Austria. Lord
Palmerston is, in fact, the Captain Rock of Europe, and
under the pretext of preserving European peace, you are




224       LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL,
fomenting a European war. Take care, lest the mines
you are digging under other nations, may be imitated in
return under England; and beware, lest the explosion
you have prepared for them, may not involve your own
country in irretrievable ruin. Verily, Lord John Russell
is rather unfortunate in his foreign relations, and as Lord
Stanley has already prophesied of your Cabinet, "unless
you are checked in this unrestrained career, you will
inevitably bring on a European war."
There can be no greater enemy to England over the
civilized world, which sooner or later will check her
dominant power, lower her high national name, and vitally
damage her commercial interests. The clear statements
of all reform associations show that the taxes, direct and
indirect, on every twenty shillings worth of consumption
and manufacture in England, amount to thirteen shillings
and two pence; that the people of England, therefore,
can claim as their own, (for their capital and skill,) only
six shillings and ten pence in every pound, which they
give the State. And hence, Sir, if through your unbridled ministerial dictation and domination through Europe, you compel foreign nations to quarrel with us, to
dread our connexion, to establish their own factories, and
to annihilate or diminish our trade, you will cause a revolution in England, such as history has never recorded, and
your name will be transmitted to posterity, as the greatest enemy that England ever saw. For the first time in
English history, we behold a decided and universal attitude of defiance, assumed by Europe against England;
your Ambassadors are insulted, your votes of diplomacy




LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.         225
scoffed, and one loud voice of contempt and indignation
is raised against your diplomatic conduct and your country, from the Baltic to the Mediterranean.
This is a fact beyond all dispute, and it establishes by
a clear demonstration, that England is regarded at this
moment by universal Europe, as the disturber of international peace, the fomentor of revolution, the secret enemy
of foreign thrones, and the insidious persecutor of-the
Catholic Church. If I were actuated by the revenge to
which your unexampled perfidy has reduced your country; but I am neither a revolutionist or a rebel, but I am
an Irish Priest. These two words contain the record of
national honor and of national loyalty. And when you
and your colleagues would behead the sovereign, as you
did Charles, and join a plebeian usurper, as you did
Cromwell, and expel your monarch, as you did James,
and receive a foreigner, out of a poor house, as you did
William I., and every one of the ancient order to which I
belong, would bleed at the foot of the throne, as we have
done, through every age and country. And when you and
the class to which you are associated, would change your
creed from Presbyterianism to Protestantism, and vice
versa; and from somethingism to anythingism or nothingism; and while you prove before scorning men, weeping
angels, and laughing devils, that your official cravat, or the
cut of your official coat; we, the glorious Catholic people,
and we, the heroic Priests, stand through all time, and place,
and circumstances, faithful to God, and loyal to the
throne; and we stand forth, a contrast to your officiality,
like truth — to falsehood, light to darkness, and national
honor to national perfidy.




226         LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.
Such, my Lord, being your official work on the European Continent, I shall proceed to enquire how matters
stand at home, in persecuted Ireland. But before I shall
commence this melancholy view of your disastrous legislation, I must beg leave to tell you, that, although Ireland is bent to the earth by the heartlessness, the calumnies, and the cruel oppression of your rule, we are still
firm and fearless, and we are undismayed, either by the
threats of unjust power, or the scandalous jibes of a lying
and bribed press. You may cut down, but you cannot
eradicate-you may strike us prostrate for a time of ferocious triumph, but we shall rise again-you may expel us
from the soil of our fathers, but we shall appear again,
renovated in number and power, on the glorious American
Continent. You may make cruel laws for the year 1851,
but take warning of the results of these laws before the
year 1951. You cannot keep us always in slavery and
degradation, the history of the world is against this position. Where you least expect a reaction, you may receive
a fatal national blow; and your name as an English gentleman,, and your character as a statesman, will live longer
in the future applause of the historian, for being the advocate of honor and justice, rather than the supporter of
perfidy and persecution. Powerful as you are, we shall
never learn a lesson difficult to the instructions which our
fathers have taught us; we have never yet yielded to
your injustice through three centuries of cruelty, and we
shall not now begin to take you, for our political and national master.
We believe, besides, that between the Kaffirs, and the




LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.        227
Australians, and the Canadians, and the peoples of all Europe, you have rather too much on your hands just now,
to appear in the second act of the late dramatic State Trials,
and we think (that is,- as many of us as are alive,) that in
the present state of France, (with which your Captain
Rock appears on such good terms,) you will rather defer,
for the present, the ancient custom of erecting your'gib-'bets and your old racks, on the red cross-roads, which bear
your name. Indeed, I may as well tell you, my Lord,
that, without meaning the least disrespect, of course, to
the Queen's Minister, we fearlessly set you at defiance;
and we are thoiroughly convinced (a position which I
could prove, if I wished,) that you have not the most remote notion of persecuting us at present; and we know,
that you know, that we know that you are very near a
crisis, when you will be compelled to cultivate our friendship rather than provoke our further anger at your unprecedented conduct.
Alas! alas! where shall I begin to tell your political
career, as regards poor trodden-down, faithful, persecuted Ireland? Nor is it with ink and paper, I would attempt the description of the woes of your rule. No, no,
my Lord; the deserted village, the waste-land, the unfrequented chapel, the silent glen, the pale face, and the
mournful national voice, stamp the history of Ireland
with the deep, deep impression of your administration;
while the ferocity of the unbridled landlord, and the terrors of the uprooted and mouldering cabins, and the cries
of the houseless orphan, and the tears of the broken-hearted widow, and the emigrant ship, and the putrid work



228        LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.
house, and the red oozing pit of the coffinless and shroudless dead-these, these, oh! all these, are all the thrilling
and eloquent witnesses, to publish to coming generations,
and to unborn Irishmen, the character and the laws of the
Russell Cabinet! Ah, Sir, when you had read the terri
fic facts of the mother living on the putrid remains-ofhel
own child; and when you saw the awful account of seve
ral eases, of the dead bodies of the poor Irish being ex
posed for days in unburied putridity, and devoured by
dogs in this unheard of state; and when you had heard
the cries that were wafted across the channel for help,
and those that rose to heaven for mercy, from Skibbereen,
from Ballinasloe, from Kilrush, and from Ballinrobe-has
your heart, Sir, ever smote you with remorse, that you
heard these cries of Ireland with a pittiless composure,
and sent to starving and dying millions, a heartless pittance from your overflowing treasury.
I distinguish your Cabinet from the English peoplethey stretched forth their hands with the characteristic
generosity of their nation; the Society of Friends well
fulfilled too, the expectations of their own philanthropy
in our regard-but you, Sir, from an exchequer filled with
eighteen millions of bullion; you doled out in withering
insult, (as to the beggars of a foreign country,) a miserable and totally inadequate relief: and you called by the
name of charity an act, which should be designated the
first demand on the realm, and the highest duty of the
Crown. Lord Stanley paid twenty millions sterling, to
give liberty to a few descendants of African slaves in your
petty West Indian colonies; to men who never manned




LETTEPR TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.       229
your fleets, or swelled your armies, or fought for your
name. But you, Sir, grudgingly lent in part, and bestowed in part, the paltry sum of eight millions, to aid the last
struggle for life of the faithful people, whose misfortune
in all our past history, was imperishable loyalty to the
throne, and undying devotion to our unfortunate kingsmen who belong to an ancient, unbroken race of forty
generations; lion hearts, which crimsoned with their blood
every ocean where your navy fought and conqueredwhich stood before the bristled steel of England's foes in
all your struggles; which shared the perils of a thousand
fields of blood by the side of your countrymen, and won
your victories-these are the men, and this is the nation
to whom you have given your paltry usurious charity to
preserve their lives. But the history of all nations will
yet tell that you permitted five in ten to perish of hunger,
while your exchequer was filled with gold. You, therefore, Sir, have made my country a desert-you have banished and starved the people-you have made a grave
for the Irish-and you have buried our race.and name.
May God forgive you this cruel treatment of our fine people-this ministerial atrocity. We charge you before a
revenging Heaven, with the exile and the death of our
people; both crimes lie at your door. And you have
added ingratitude to cruelty. WTe honored you, we followed you. You did not so much surprise us by the introduction of your Penal Bill, as by the historical falsehood, and the insulting bigotry of your speeches; they
were unworthy the historian, below the dignity of the
statesman, and dishonorable to the man. A  third-rate




230          LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.
orator amongst your own party, and a fifth-rate speaker
in the whole house-you never could lay claim to distinction, except from the supposed honesty and liberality of
your political opinions; but now your inconsistency and
your bigotry, having torn from your face the mask which
concealed your mediocrity; it is agreed, that the foremost
leader of the Whigs, has now been befittingly transformed into the last hack of- the Tories. Oh, for the ancient
truth and honor of the old English statesman! —oh, for
the sterling word, the generous foe, the brilliant genius of
the days that are gone; or as Pope would sing it:"How can I Pultney, Chesterfield forget
While Roman spirit charms and Attic wit?
Argyle, the State's whole thunder born to wield,
And shake alike the Senate and the field,
And if yet higher the proud list should end,
Still all will say-nofollower but afriend."
Now, the origin of all these misfortunes at home' and
abroad, arises from a two-fold cause; firstly, to organize
an English party in every country, as you have done in
Spain and Portugal; to keep a perfect internal system of
disorder in every nation, in order to keep the power of
each country engaged in quelling this Confederacy, and
thus leaving England free to pursue her views of conquest
and commerce, without fear of resistance from the surrounding nations: and secondly, the object is to uproot
Catholicity. This latter point, is in fact, your chief and
sole aim: and so wide-spread are your present stratagems
to speech-down, preach-down, write-down, drink-down,
eat-down, dress-down, sail-down, and shoot-down Catholicity, that all orders of the State are actually gone mad,
with what may be called a furious fanaticism to get rid




LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.         231
of Catholicity. All the lawyers are infected, from the
well-known Chancellor to the parish beadle; all the clergy are bitten, from Canterbury (the cubical head of your
present creed,) down all along to the thin curate; who
being the living definition of a mathematical straight line,
may be considered as the clerical element of the Archbishop. All your ambassadors, are actually become swaddlers in every Court in Europe, as I have already proved-so that yours should be called the Swaddling Cabinet. And the omnipresent navy, and the invincible army
of Great Britain have raised their swaddling colors nearly
as high as the Union-Jack all over the earth. All your
modern writers are innoculated with swaddleomania,
down from the historical lies and rhetorical foppery of
Macauley, to the half-penny sheet; there are even swad-'dling commercial travellers, swaddling hotels, and swaddling boarding-houses; and such is the vast ramification
of this most absurd, but terrific movement against Catholicity, that " Moore's Melodies," are banished from the
society of all anti-papal pianos, because they relate to Ireland, and were composed by the native fancy, that drank
its poetic inspiration at the fountain of Irish genius!
But amongst the various incongruities of this mania
which you have originated, there is not one which strikes
the observer with such preposterous associations, as to see
an admiral of a fleet dressed in the garb of Joanna Southcote! or to see a general of an army converted into a
Praise-God Barebones. Nothing can be so extremely
ludicrous as to see Neptune kneeling and praying on a
three-legged stool, dressed in a white cravat and a coat




232        LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.
of shabby black! or to behold Mars habited in lawn
sleeves and a powdered wig, reading and singing psalms
on a tar-barrel! There is scarcely a paper which does
not contain, with the cognizance of the Duke of Wellington, religious collisions in chapels, in barracks, and in
churchyards, between the faithful, fearless Priest, and
some Jumper in epaulettes, at the different military stations. Take my advice, my Lord, humble though it be,
and put an end to this monstrous state of things. The
individual who checks this incongruity, is the best friend
of the throne and the Catholic Church; stamp on the
earth, and stop its motion; command the tide, and arrest
its progress; prove your commission, and preach down
the Cross, and we shall believe you; but until you will
have demonstrated that your words are more credible
than "the language of an angel from heaven," we shall
laugh at your folly and despise your impotency.
In conclusion, my Lord, I must tell you, with the greatest respect of your exalted position, that this letter is not
so much intended for you as for the Courts of Russia,
Prussia, Austria, France, Naples, Spain, Portugal, and
the glorious Republic of America. I do not mention this
fact from any puerile allusion to myself; I cannot so far
forget the rules of public courtesy, as to be wanting
(while in your presence,) to the serious respect and becoming reverence which so humble an individual as I am,
owes to your exalted station; but I repeat that, men equal
to you in station, and your superiors in aristocratic associations, have made official arrangements to publish my
letters to your Cabinet all over the civilized world. My




LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.      233
only merit consists in publishing the woes of my country,
and the unparalleled cruelties of your administration to
the whole people of Ireland, and to our ancient Church,
and I shall undertake to say, that the united voice of Europe is already expressed against yosu in the various cabinets, (which I shall furnish to you in a succeeding letter,)
and that your treatment of Ireland, and your persecution
of the Catholic Faith, will raise such a combination
against you, during the next three months, that your Sovereign will be necessarily and justly compelled to remove
you from an office which you hold at present with such
injury to the English name, and so much indignity to the
British Crown. I am not influenced in the course I am
taking, by any revengeful feeling towards you. I am
grateful to England for whatever favors she has conferred
upon Ireland, and I am most ready to acknewledge it;
and I pray to God that he may change the hearts of our
rulers to govern us by the justice of law, and not by the
bigotry of persecution; but I shall never flinch from the
post I have taken in defence of my country and my creed,
though that defiance were visited with punishment or
death.
I am, my Lord, your obedient humble servant,
D. W. CAHILL, D.D.




LETTER OF THE REV. DR, CAHILL
TO HIS GRACE FIELD MARSHAL
THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.
"The French could detach a force from their army, which, if it were
transported across the Channel, could reach and occupy London. The
passage across the Channel could not be with any certainty prevented
by an ENGLISH FLEET. As to smaller expeditions, an army, exceeding
in numbers the entire military forces of Great Britain, could in all human probability be lodged in a fortified camp on our shores within a
week after the declaration of war. Not to mention the purely military
considerations, it is obvious that in the very names ofpeace and humanity such measures would be PREFERRED as would terminate the war
at the earliest moment by forcing the enemy to TERMS."
(London Times, Friday Jan. 23, 1852.)
NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE, ENGLAND,
Saturday, Jan. 24, 1852.
MY LORD DUKE-The announcement just quoted, and
published on yesterday by your own journal, cannot fail
to fill with surprise and delight all those who, throughout the world have been accustomed, up to this period, to
hear no language uttered by England except the voice of
triumph, defiance, domination and tyranny. There can
be no mistake in the official succumbing of the Times.
For the first time in the history of the last six hundred
years, England acknowledges the superiority of her old
rival, the facility of the occupation of her shores, the
successful storm of London, and the total weakness of
your fleet to meet the emergency. Alas! is it come to
this, in the craven article of your own organ; that England
sues for "peace" before war is declared-already offers
"terms to.the enemy; and, more strange still, talks of
"humanity" in. arms?  Proud Albion at last cries for




LETTER TO THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.       235
mercy; and the world has lived to see the joyful hour,
when the fleets of Marlborough and Nelson lower their
meteor flag before the old Eagle of Napoleon.
The hour of her degradation is therefore come; her
name is fallen; her prestige is at this moment a mere
historical remembrance; and I think I speak the universal
sentiment of mankind, when I say, that the voice of justice, liberty, and religion, will be heard all over the earth,
proclaiming the news that Babylon is fallen; and the
armament which rode over all the oceans in undisputed
sway; which swept the waters as with a brush; which
dictated laws to the world from Trafalgar and the Nile,
is the same armament which now craves "terms " in the
very Channel which flows by their best fortified gates, and
where-the chiselled coast was once declared impregnable
under the cover of their bristling guns., But there is a
Providence which, sooner or later, will inflict just punishment on human wrongs, will listen to the cries of the persecuted, and will humble the oppressor; and the history
of Babylon, and the drunken sacrilege of the cruel rulers
of that infamous city and Government, stand as a warning
to all future tyrannies, to prove that the most powerful
nations and the most impregnable cities, surrounded-by
armed fortresses and by gates of massive brass, are no
defence against the almighty vengeance of heaven and
against the retributive justice of God.
My Lord, there is no concealing the fact, that England
has provoked all the nations of the earth by her insidious
policy. She has created sanguinary revolution in all the
Catholic countries, and she has employed all the machi



236      LETTER TO THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON,
nery which bribery and infidelity could place at her disposal, in order to overturn Catholicity in Europe. Your
Grace knows much better than I can presume to inform
you, that the unprincipled agents of Lord John Russell
have fomented rebellion, and published infidelity in not
less than five kingdoms of Catholic Europe, and the
excesses of unbridled mobs, the pillage of Monasteries, the
plunder of Convents, and the crimes of mutilation, rape,
banishment, the flogging of women, the exile of men, pillage, fire, and murder, and then all the consequent and
just retaliation of the offended laws of those countries in
the infliction of confinement, exile, and death, have been
the clear and the culpable results of the mad and fanatical
career of a Cabinet, which has trampled on all the legal
institutions of man, and which has set at defiance the
very ordinances of God. I should not dare to make any
assertions in the grave presence-of your Grace, which I
am not prepared to substantiate by unexceptionable documentary evidence; and, I can, therefore, produce for
your perusal, letters, and despatches, and testimonies,
which demonstrate, beyond all dispute, that the present
Whig Cabinet did begin, conduct, and bring to maturity,
political and religious rebellions in Rome, Naples, Lombardy, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Germany, and
Prussia. All the rebels, and revolutionists, and infidels,
in these various countries, claim acquaintance, and even
friendship, with Lord Palmerston and his colleagues;
and, whether the object on hand was to overthrow a foreign king, or a Catholic Bishop, an English Envoy; or
Ambassador was recognised in the van of the foreign




LETTER TO THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.    237
insurgents; and a printed English libel on the foreign
Government, or an English printed tract of religious slander on the Catholic religion, were always found scattered
round the quarters of the well-known English agents.
No record of infamy, of either ancient or modern history, bears any comparison with the profligate and insane
fanaticism crf this English bigotry; and at every scaffold
in Europe, where the victims of this English demoniacal
scheme were executed for their crimes, the names of Russell and Palmerston are heard in the piercing cries of the
living, and may be read in the atoning blood of the dead.
At this moment, there is but one opinion amongst the
crowned heads of Europe —namely, that England planned
the ruin of their thrones; and amongst the classes of order
and of religion, there is a universal shout of horror and
execration raised against the Cabinet which could employ
the resources of an empire, and degrade the majesty of
our Queen, in the execution of a system subversive of
justice, abhorrent to humanity, and accursed by God.
And what renders the national disasters inflicted on these
countries so unendurable, is the incongruous and perfidious tone of the English despatches. These curious, vile
productions, publish panegyrics on justice, while they
advocate national spoliation; and they put forward the
words "righteousness" and "sacredness" in almost all
these documents of holy dissimulation, while at the same
moment, the writers of them were slandering religion,
burning the effigy of the ever-blessed Virgin, and spitting
on the Cross.
But this conduct, my Lord; as you are aware, is the




238      LETTER TO THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.
usual, plausible, sanctified show of holy insulting cant,
which England has ever practised during all her national
wickedness, since the beginning of the sixteenth century.
Henry issued a holy commission under the sanctified Tom
Cromwell, to inquire into the morality (!) of the Religious
Orders in England, while he was debauching his own
daughter, taking off the heads of his wives, and committing perjury and murder before God and man. He piously
complained of the injustice of all rich, wealthy Monasteries, while he was plundering, by fraud and force, the
entire Church property of this country; and he piously
inveighed, in holy indignation, against the intolerance of
the Pope, while he was preparing knives, and the gibbet,
and the rack, to rip up men's bellies, to stake them through
with steel, and to break their bones, if they dared refuse
subscribing to his new formulary of faith. Elizabeth reddened the soil of Ireland with the blood of the Irish, at
the time when she was set up in England as the Apostle
of," the Reformation," the head of Christ's Churoh, and
the fountain of divine perfection. And Cromwell and his
soldiers, sang psalms to God, while amusing themselves in
the holy recreation of tossing grown childreninto the air,
and in their descent catching them in scientific zeal on
their holy bayonets! or these ancient Whig zealots in
epaulettes, changed the holy fun, by holding a Papist
infant by the legs, turning round twice or three times,
and then dashing out its Papist brains against the wall.
You know, Sir, I am stating facts, strictly historical
facts, which time, and your scanty toleration, had covered
up in our aching hearts, -and sealed up in our burning




LETTER TO THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.         239
souls; and which, in our sickening hopes, we never suspected should be revived into malignant vitality, till the
iniquities, the cruelties, the oppressions, and the slanders
of the Russell Cabinet had worn away the superstratum
of charitable oblivion, and revealed the bleeding wounds
of the ancient persecution and tyranny which robbed us
of our national rights, proscribed our faith, murdered our
fathers in cruel torture, and consigned their mangled flesh
to a martyred grave. In a word, the history of England,
during the three last centuries of her godliness, furnishes
but one unbroken narrative of calumny, slander, lies,
spoliation, perfidy, perjury, persecution, exile, chains,
and death.
And the spirit of the English Cabinet towards Ireland,
possesses, at the present moment, the same malignant character which it had during the most sanguinary period of
Elizabeth's reign. The power, not the will, is wanted to
renew the list of proscription, and to repeat the scene of
Mullaghmast. What part of the tragical history of the
last three hundred years has been omitted in the Russell
Administration towards Ireland?  With a treasury overflowing with nineteen millions of bullion, he permitted the
death by starvation of upwards of half a million of poor
faithful loyal Irishmen. I am speaking facts-he is the
guilty man. A jury of respectable men, on their oaths,
at a Coroner's Inquest on the starved death of a poor Irishman, brought in a verdict of "wilfiul murder against Lord
John Russell, in the year 1848." The Coroner refused
to admit the verdict; but still, that -rejected verdict is
registered in Heaven, and will form part of the future




240     LETTER TO THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.,judicial history of Ireland; and it is true, to say, that if
such sworn verdicts would be received by the Irish Coroners, Lord John Russell would stand charged by the
united oath of a nation before God with more cases of
Irish murder than all the Irish culprits, taken together,
of your entire Penal Colonies. He therefore, folded his
arms on the Treasury benches, and he did aid culpably
in the starvation and death of our fine people. His Cabinet encouraged (and justly,) the fitting up various naval
expeditions in- search of one man in the North Seas; but,
alas! you would not send one ship or one surgeon to
convey the poor Irish exiles to a foreign land while living, or give one shilling extra to buy a shroud for them
when dead in putrid, national neglect.
The English Cabinet makes laws to protect the Irish
wild fox and the game, while they look carelessly on, seeing the cruel landlord uproot whole villages, exterminate
the poor, and kill them like vermin, as they make their
escape from the falling walls of their ancient home, and
the burning roof of their birth. Mazzini is lauded, Garibaldi caressed, Ciceroacchio modelled in plaister and marble, and Kossuth embraced; all the rebels of foreign nations are entertained; all the revolutionists feted, or pensioned, and all the infidels of the whole earth panegyrized
in the periodicals of the day, by this anti-Irish, anti-Catholic English Cabinet, while any one who dares to raise
his voice in defence of Irish liberty, or the Irish Faith, is
seized as an assassin, tried for his life, condemned to be
"hanged, drawn, and quartered;" sent in chains to the
English terrestrial hell, and even there, amongst the liv



LETTER TO THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.    241
ing damned, his mouth is gagged by his English keeper,
lest he utter a word of reproach against the persecuting
laws that murder the living and dishonor the dead. Algiers has offered a home to the Irish exile; Spain has
allotted part of one of her richest provinces to shelter our
afflicted race, while England, that has grown great by our
labors, powerful by our numbers, and triumphant by our
courage, banishes us in tens and hundreds of thousands
of naked victims to America,. where the hospitable forest
gives us a free home, and where the sheltered, untrodden
valley, affords us a friendly and honored grave. We
carry nothing to America but our ancient Faith, and we
bring nothing from Ireland that belongs by right to England, but our undying, -inappeasable vengeance. And
when every poor exiled, persecuted Irishman, (stript of
everything,) sets his foot in the ship which is to convey
him to a distant shore, he looks to the avenging skies, as
the swelling canvas urges his breaking heart from the
home of his fathers, and in the language of the English
merchantman, once mutilated by a Spanish crew, "he
cries to Heaven for mercy and to his country for revenge."
-And be convinced, my Lord, that this universal cry shall
yet be reverberated from America on cruel England, in
the ferocious shout of national triumph, and in the just
retaliation of accumulated revenge.
Oh, Sir, no pen can describe, no language can paint,
the heartless cruelties of the Whig Cabinet towards Ireland during the last, four years; and that cruelty has, if
possible, been increased, by the shameless bigotry and
the slanderous malignity with which our national charac




242     LETTER TO THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.
ter and historical race; our political principles, and oLr.
religious convictions have been assailed by the bribed
press, and the venal literature of every department of the
English administration. Having robbed us of our trade,
we are described as incapable of commercial enterprise;
having banished to America all our best tradesmen and
artisans, we are put down as men incapable of progress in
artistic talent; having filled all places of trust and eminence with men of English kidney, they ask where are
our men of distinction? and having centralized all emolument, and all gain, and all wealth in England, they jibe
our poverty, and proclaim the national beggary produced
by their elaborate injustice, as the result of Celtic blood
and hereditary recklessness! Having made at different
times what is called "plantations" of Scotchmen and Englishmen, in all the rich parts of Ireland; having banished
the proprietors to "hell or Connaught;" having allowed
only half an acre of bog and an acre of arable land to the
persecuted Irishman, with fetters on his feet, manacles on
his hands, and a halter round his neck, with rackrents, and
middlemen, they then employ such fabulous writers as the
black Calvinist, Macaulay, to publish, under the name of
history, the hereditary English lie-that Popish agriculture has never flourished in Ireland or anywhere else like
Reformation tillage!!
This rhetorical fop is about to favor us with a continuation of the fabulous production; and it would be only
doing justice to his system, if he would furnish a botanical
diagnosis, explaining why the "Reformation" potatoes
have failed in Ireland during the last four years, placed




LETTER TO THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.    243
as they were in such favorable circumstances of Lutheran
cultivation. What a pity, my Lord, that Lord Minto did
not succeed in scattering more Bibles in France and Italy I
If Macaulay be correct in his calculations, the grape and
the maccaroni of these countries must be prodigiously
improved by the holy presence of the English Bible there.
If mangel wurtzel, my Lord, grow to such perfection under Lutheran culture, to what celestial improvement could
not the Popish French champagne be brought; if your
Bible could be only read under the idolatrous branches
of the vine of these countries. Such an infamous system
of perfidious lying, and atrocious humbug never has been
carried on in any part of the world, for the degradation,
the oppression, and the burning injustice of a people, as
is shamefully.practised towards Ireland in every depart.
ment, by every villainous conspirator employed by a persecuting and a fanatical Government, to set our nation
mad, and to drive a whole people to distraction and despair. But, above all, and beyond all, having uprooted
our altars, demolished our churches, plundered our monastries, robbed us of all our legal ecclesiastical revenues
of ages, and still, withall, saddled the nation with the
yearly revenue of eight millions and a half! for the support of this apostolical establishment.
Lord John Russell has, in addition to this scalding tyranny and- consuming insult, encouraged the agents of this
living congregation of impostors to calumniate our creed,
during the last five years' in every city, town, village,
hamlet, and cabin in Ireland-to slander us by sermons,
speeches, tracts, ballads, and placards —to call the priests




244    LETTER TO THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.
by the names of idolaters, perjurers, murderers, and asas,
sins-to post them on all the pillars, walls, gates, and
corners of streets, as the priests of Antichrist-the emissaries of the devil-the corruptors of God's gospel, and
the preachers of perdition. Can the nations of Europe
believe, that England can encourage such disorder, such
injustice, such blasphemous antichristian antagonism as
forms the daily record of present Irish history?-or how
can you calculate on the allegiance and dutiful loyalty ot
a people, whom England thus excites to disaffection by
every art which the most refined perfidy could produce
in the hearts of an excitable people?
And can you again wonder, my Lord, when you hear
of an agrarian murder in Ireland?  If Government set
the example of perjury, and persecution, and death, why
should you not expect to see the example followed by the
victims of your tyranny? If you form a conspiracy
against them, can you wonder at Ribbonism against you?
On the contrary, one is- rather astonished that there are
not more scenes of blood, under a system of such monstrous national provocation, insult, and oppression. And
before God, I hold the Government of England more
guilty of the Irish murders, than the scarlet assassin who
reddens his accursed hands in the blood of his marked victim. The Government are absolutely guilty of the murdered blood that cries to heaven for vengeance, from their
maddening career in Ireland. What can we Irish priests
do to arrest the murderer, while such extended materials
of provocation to slaughter, lie all round us on every
side? For my part, my Lord, I would willingly, most




LETTER TO THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.    245
willingly, most ardently, take the duties, if I could, of a
policeman, and follow the assassin of Mr. Bateson, and
arrest him, at the risk of my life. I would, with pleasure,
if it were necessary, stand sentinel before the door of Mr.
Fortescue, and watch and protect his life, or the life of
any other man, be his creed or his politics what they may;
and every priest in Ireland would do the same to prevent
the curse on the soil, imprinted there by the shedding of
innocent blood. But what can we do, calumniated, abused, distrusted, as we are on one side, while on the other
side, there exists a fearful amount of provocation, which
the cruel Government seem rather disposed to increase
than to diminish   And as if to render the entire nation
frantic, and incapable of entertaining one solitary ray of
hope, from the kind, altered feeling of our rulers, the journals in pay of the Government, suggest the withdrawal of
all former Catholic privileges-the removal from office of
all Papists, and the total extermination of Irishmen from
the soil of Ireland.
There is, my Lord, no resting place now left for hope
for our country. All is persecution. A war is made even
upon our intellect; and we are called on neither to read,
or write except through a Parliamentary tutor. Knowledge of the most refined manufacture at Bamfordspeke,
is offered to our longing Irish minds; but we must drink
it from a scientific distillation, through a Lutheran alembic. The mediaeval and imperfect education of Bossuet,
Liguori, and Doctor Doyle, is to be removed, and replaced by the modern and improved system of Carlisle,
Tom Payne, and Straus. The ancient vulgarity of intro



246     LETTER TO THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.
ducing the name of God in science, shall in this modern
polite programme of studies, be entirely omitted; and the
imbecile meanness of mixing up the old fables of religion
with the fashionable development of the modern human
mind, will be avoided through the new collegiate curriculum, as an' exploded thing, and only suited to such
undeveloped minds as those of St. Thomas and La Place.
Why, my Lord, one would think, to hear these "rawhead and bloody-bone" scholars speak, that the studies of
a modern apothecary and the doctrine of potash constituted the very extreme point of literary, scientific and Cristian education; and if a beardless tyro happened to have
A.B. attached to his ragged classics and shabby science,
he is put forward in collegiate reports as a man capable
of teaching the Twelve Apostles, and making' laws for
Charlemagne. The world is disgusted with this loathsome and nauseous cant on education; and it is quite certain that if the illustrious Sir Robert Peel lived now this
fanatical and schoolboy ribaldry would not have been tolerated. From the absurd notions of this inane class one
might suppose it impossible that Shakspenre could compose Hamlet as he had not read "the Binomial theorem"
under a Bible-man; and it is even wonderful how your
Grace gained the battle of Waterloo, since the metallurgic
difference between potasium and sodium was not discovered till after the year 1815.
And besides this intellectual war these is also another
war made upon our conscience. We are compelled to
believe that the Q(ueen has received a commission to teach
the scriptures, so very superior to the commission of the




LETTER TO THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.    247
Apostles, that any one named and appointed by them to
teach (contrary to her wishes) is to be silenced, deposed, and
deported beyond the evangelical boundaries of this eucumenical empire; and we are called on to deny an office
which we have sworn to profess, to commit perjury as a
duty to the Queen; to deny God as a proof of our loyalty, to tell a lie, as a mark of our integrity; and, we are
gravely told by Parliament, that in order to make us
good and trustworthy subjects, we must be first perjurers,
blasphemers, and consecrated hypocrites. My Lord, I
have always, since 1829, presumed to entertain the loftiest notions of your naked candor, and your transparent
integrity. And will your Grace, therefore, permit so humble an individual as I am, to ask you, could your Grace
depend in the field of battle on-the fidelity of the soldier
who would forswear God to please the Queen; and who,
at the bidding of a minister, would sell his faith for gold I
And there can be no doubt, my Lord, that you will want
perhaps, even sooner than your Grace imagines, the whole
energetic and loyal support of every man in Ireland to
maintain the very existence of your Empire. Being rather successful in my predictions during the last twelve
months; do not, I pray your Grace, make light of these
warnings of mine. The lightest and smallest cloud that
floats on the breath of the morning, is the first to announce
by its flight, the approach of the storm. England is certainly in danger-and war once proclaimed by France,
her fate is sealed. Russia takes India —Canada revolts;
and how can we, the priests, or your Grace's name, keep
in fixed loyalty the Irish discontent, inflamed by wrong




248     LETTER TO THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.
and insult? Should the French, (which is not improbable) make a successful descent on our Irish shores, I would
most delicately suggest to your Grace not to enlist the
Irish, till at least you strike off our chains-till you withdraw entirely the burning insult of Lord John Russelltill you confine the Protestant calumniators within their
own mock churches-till you promise tenant-right; that
is to say, a bed to lie on, and a house to live in, for the
wives and children of the soldiers-till you induce the
English journals to cease telling lies of Ireland, and till
the Queen can return to revisit us, and hear from our devoted hearts (when all these conditions shall have been ful-.filled,) the loud, long, and ringing huzza, declaring that
we forgive and forget-and that she can command our
life's-bloood in the service of her throne, -and the maintenance of her authority. I am no rebel, my Lord, and I
abhor, national agitation, as a most unhealthy state of society; but I would rather die than flinch from the post of
duty, when my Irish country, and my Irish creed demand
my services.
But while such is the character of my determination, I
am prepared also to live in peace and amity with the Government of the country; to thank them for their favors;
to aid them in their efforts; and to identify my heart with
their duties. But I will never consent to execute these
dutiful conditions till my hands are unchained, my coun~try emancipated, and my creed set at liberty-perfectly free.
With distinguished admiration for your Grace's unrivalled military fame, and craving your pardon for this




LETTER TO TUIE EARL OF DERBY.                249
long letter, I have the honor to be, with profound respect, my Lord Duke, your Grace's most obedient
servant,
D. W. CAHILL, D.D.
LETTER OF THE REV. DR. CAHILL
TO THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF DERBY.
"In the first place, then, I can sincerely assure you of my earnest desire and determination to promote, to the utmost of my power, the
cause of Protestant truth, in opposition to Popish error; and upon:he
particular question of the grant to Maynooth.......... my inclination
and my opinion are, and have always been, opposed to the grant......
I am strongly in favor of an inquiry, and shall support Mr. Spooner's motion for a committee on the whole subject Qf the grant; and shall cordially and strenuously concur with Lord Derby's Government.....
for the entire repeal of the act of'45.  More than this, I cannot think
you will require from one, who aspires to be a Member of the Administration to which alone you can look with confidence for the sincere
and effective support of Protestantism against the spirit and inroads
of the Papacy."-Fttzroy Kelly.
PAROCHIAL-HOUSE, NAVAN, April 17th, 1852.
MY LORD EARL-The extract just quoted, is taken from
a letter recently written by your Solicitor-General; and
as he mentions your Lordship's name, the sentiments
expressed in his communication must, of course, be adopted by you. So, then, your Law Oficer for England and
Ireland sends forth a preliminary missive, in imitation of
the far-famed "Durham  letter;" and the Parliamentary
eloquence of'52, is about to rehearse the same foul-mouth
ed bigotry as the disgraceful Session of'51; and the
Wvords " Popish error," and " the Papacy," are again to
form the filthly vocabulary of legislative rancor; and the




250        LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.
new Tory Cabinet are ranging themselves under the old
faded colors of the "mummeries of superstition;" and the
Catholics of Europe, and the Catholic victorious armyI of
England, are again to hear the language of burning insult
uttered fiom the seat of justice, and stamped by the authority of the Crown. If, my Lord, the lowest law-officer of the lowest court of (what is called) justice in this
Empire, uttered the words of the extract quoted above,
he would be pronounced, by universal condemnation, as
unfitted for the impartial discharge of his duties; and he
would be distrusted in his decisions by every client of his
C ourt.
And can it be, that what would be disgraceful at the
Old Bailey, is honorable at St. Stephen's? or, that the
language and the conduct which would be contemptible
and criminal in the lowest officer of police, is professional
and suitable in your Lordship's colleague?  Europe has
not as yet had time to take repose since the revolutionary
convulsion which was planned and executed by your Whig
predecessors in office. The name of English bigotry is
associated with the plundered Convents of Switzerland,
with the assassination of the Priesthood, with the floggings
and hangings of the monster Haynau, and with the sanguinary scenes of Hungary, Germany, Prussia, Lombardy,
and Naples.
Since the expulsion of the perfidious Russell, and since
the humiliation of his colleague, Captain Rock, we, the
Catholics of this country, seemed to have a gleam of
hope that the official descendants of Pitt and Fox, of
Grenville, the Duke of Wellington, and Sir Robert Peel,




LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.         251
would not have the mean cowardice to kick us on the
ground, as-we lay prostrate beneath the ravages of famine, the cruelties of extermination, and the insatiable
vengeance of.religious penalties. We fancied that the
Earl of Derby, would not condescend to walk in the footsteps of Lord Stanley-that the narrow prejudices of the
green lordling would be lost sight of on the elevated
ground of the matured Earl; we fancied that the unripe,
petulent acrimony of the beardless Secretary of Ireland
would be dissipated before the meridian greatness of the
imperial Premier of England; but we have been deceived, and the letter of your subordinate, proves that the
giant-oak will take the warp of the baby-plant, and that
the ministerial successors of Somerset are ready to-day,
in the nineteenth century, to malign, to insult, to persecute, and to exterminate our race and our name, as their
ancestors were, in the very worst days of our ill-fated
country, and in the reddest scenes of our disastrous persecution.
The history of the whole world presents no parallel to
the ceaseless and the unmittigated ferocious bigotry with
which England has assailed our creed since'46. The
records of the Catholic Courts of Europe, furnish no modern instance where public official insult has been offered
to the Protestant creed of their subjects; but in Great
Britain and Ireland, the Priest is not allowed to touch the
ermine of a judge, although he has sworn to maintain the
supremacy of the laws; and his name or his profession
cannot be pronounced in the presence of royalty, although
he is prepared to fight for the honor of the Queen, and to
spill his blood in defence of the throne.




252        ILETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.
This gratuitous insult, this governmental persecution,
the scalding bigotry, the flagrant injustice, this antiCatholic, this anti-Irish conspiracy, may be clearly defined, the perfect exponent of English tyranny; and if we,
the Catholics of Great Britain and Ireland, will tamely
submit to this incomprehensible insult, our base -cowardice is the admitted definition of national slavery. The
insane bigotry may, for a time, by its cumbrous weight,
smother our crying revenge; but the day may not be far
distant when Europe and America may adopt the insult
offered to Ireland, and prove to your Lordship's Tory
successors that there is more loss than gain in exciting
religious sanguinary animosities, in alienating the unbroken allegiance of seven hundred years, and in dividing
the devoted strength and proverbial courage of the onethird of your Empire.
As your Lordship is pledged through your colleague,
to support, in reference to the grant to Maynooth, Mr.
Spooner's motion for the entire repeal of the act of'45; I
can, therefore, have no hope of arresting your Lordship's
decision, in what I shall call "this mad career of legislation on this question;" but, like the humble historian, who
can, perhaps, describe the battle much better than the
general who commands, your Lordship will not, I trust,
consider it presumption in me, to lay before you what I
consider the clear case of "the act" referred to, and to
warn you against the trick, and the deceit, and the injustice of "the repeal," to which your subordinate seems to
pledge both your Lordship and the Cabinet.
For several years before 1782, your country attempted




LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.        253
to trample on America, in something of the same fashion
as your Cabinet now attempts to overawe unfortunate
Ireland; you inflicted "tonnage and poundage" on the
insulted Americans, just as you now inflict your spurious
Bible and your piebald creed on the maddened Irish
Catholic. And, as there is nothing new under the sun,
be convinced, that in the same manner as your beardless
senators, and your Biblical Cabinet lost heretofore glorious
America, the time is fast approaching when your scalding
tyranny all over the world, may yet rehearse the tragical
history of Bunker's Hill and New Orleans.
The revolution of France followed in 1789, and England, therefore, gave the Catholics a vote in the election
of a Member of Parliament in 1793. England was threatened by French Republicanism in 1794, and therefore
England determined to educate the Irish Priests at home,
in 1795; and Napoleon conquered Italy and Austria before the end of 1796, and therefore Maynooth received the
grant of d8,700 a year. I am not ungrateful for this act
of English political generosity; on the contrary, I am actuated by deep feelings of acknowledgment, although I
am forced to believe (from the avowal of the government
of that day,) that State policy, and not friendship towards
Catholics, urged the Parliament to decide on the paltry,
unwilling endowment. Sir R. Peel completed in 1845,
the common decency of English justice, in raising the
yearly grant to X30,000; and, although the Protestant
Church, of only half a million of souls, has 1,;3Q0,000
annually, and although the Presbyterian conventicle, of a
mere section of the population, has 6C38,000 a year, the




254.      LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERB'.
Catholics, who numbered seven millions, were grateful for
this additional, kind, and unsolicited grant of Sir Robert
Peel.
And although the Catholic Monasteries have been
thrown down, the Colleges dismantled, the Churches.plundered, the Abbey lands seized, and the consecrated
legal property of the poor and the stranger confiscated by
Henry and Elizabeth, and then settled by what are called
"Acts of Parliament," on our slanderers and calumniators: and although this plundered State of the poor of Ireland and England amounts, at the present day, to the astounding sum of eight and a half millions sterling, (annually,) we, the Catholics, had nearly forgotten this robbery of our Church, and of the patrimony of the poor:
and we were beginning to entertaih feelings of charitable
intercourse with the descendants of the greatest villains,
assassins, and murderers, that ever the world saw in any
age or country, till Lord John Russell raised the fury of
the Empire against us, by an insult and a slander, without a parallel in modern history. And as if it is intended
to tread out every feeling that could bind us to the throne,
your colleague, (which means your Lordship,) has commenced the Session of 1852, by a gratuitous insult on our
creed, and has threatened, in a rare combination of slander and bigotry, to support Mr. Spooner's motion for the
entire repeal of the grant to Maynooth.
And now, my Lord, will you be kind enough to tell us,
Catholics, how we have forfeited the confidence of the
English Government, and what fault have we committed
which merits the penalty of reversing the act of 1845.



LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.       255
This is a case in which the laity are not implicated, it is
a charge which solely concerns the Priestshood: I am a
very humble individual, indeed, but I demand from your
Lordship the precise criminality which justifies you in
making this grave charge through your subordinate, and
to pronounce the verdict of guilt, by visiting us with the
penalty of -30,000 a year. Your Lordship has, no doubt,
your Parliament at your back, to defend you; but we, too,
have our Parliament to support us. You have bigotted
England, rancorous Scotland, and Orange Ireland on your
side; but we have, all Catholic Europe, and all-glorious
America on ours. You shall have your verdict at home,
and we shall have ours abroad. And great as is th eEarl
of Derby in Downing-street, it may happen that the Irish
Priesthood may be more respected at Washington, and
that the shouts of your triumphant, base, bigoted majority in your venal House, may be drowned in the loud, angry cry of shame and scorn, which we shall rise against
you all over the civilized world. As your Lordship is
about to put us on our trial, we shall demand your evidence; and if you are determined to pack your jury, we
shall publish to all mankind the lies and perjury of your
witnesses, and then your verdict will be national dishonor,
and your victory will be royal disgrace.
Pray, then, Sir, what crime have we committed to justify your judicial " Praise-God-Barebones," in insulting
one-third of the Empire by the words " Popish error,"
and " the inroads of the Papacy?" And will your Lordship condescend to inform us, in what manner Maynooth,
forfeited the confidence of your Cabinet, to deserve to be




256        LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.
ejected on the " crowbar" principle?  We, the Priests
of Ireland, have never, within my recollection, even in
nme instance, opposed the administration of the laws. We
have never, in any one instance, encouraged insubordination to the constituted authorities. There is not a stain
on our conscientious allegiance. We are the avowed
abettors of order, and the public advocates of peace. Our
fault, if we have any, is our slavish submission to the most
grinding tyranny that ever the world saw-a tyranny
that has ejected the aged, banished the youthful, starved
the survivors, and dishonored the dead. If your Lordship, therefore, persevere in your determination of repealing the Act of 1845, you will be guilty of a palpable injustice, which has no parallel even in English Legislation, save the perjury of Limerick, and the murder of
Mullaghmast. If you succeed in this injustice and insult,
we shall publish your Lordship throughout Europe, as descending to a mean trick, practising a low deceit, and
guilty of a dishonorable injustice.
When your official ancestors (for the ends of state policy,) first endowed Maynooth, the Irish Clergy had forty-six friendly colleges on the Continent of Europe, having funds appropriated for the education of the regulaI
and secular Clergy of Ireland. Portugal, Spain, France,
Italy, Austria, Holland, Belgium, and Germany, opened
their seminaries to-the Irish student, when the racks and
the gibbets, and the ropes, and the scaffolds of your Evangelical Government were reeking with human Irish blood,
in honor of God. And if you had left the Irish Priesthood to continue their educational course on the Continent




LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.        257
ever since, these forty-six colleges would now be supplied with superabundant additional funds from the charity and the zeal of Catholic Europe, in favor of persecuted Ireland; and we should be now spared the galling insult of your Tory fanatical Solicitor, and of your Lordship's known bigotry.
Why did you take us on board your State ship against
our will in 1795, and then heave us into the ocean in 1852?
Why did you encourage us to build our houses over your
political magazine, in order to blow us up at a given moment? Why did you dry up the charity of Europe in our
favor, in order that after upwards of half a century of
suspended charity, you might cast us abandoned and
friendless on the world? Why did you flatter us, in order to throw us off our guard for our ruin? But above
all, why do you slander and malign us, eject us, banish
us, starve us, put us to death?
But in the name of the honor of your nation, do not belie us-do not forge calumnies on our coffins, or print perjury on our tombs —break our bones, as your ancestor
Wentworth did —banish us, as did your predecessor Somnerset; let your Solicitor hang us without a jury, as his
countryman Jefferies has formerly practised his profession at the bar of the ancient Lord Truro: but, Sir, leave
us our name, our zeal, our honor, our patriotism. Earl
Derby! let not your hatred of Ireland, or your insatiable
rancor against the Catholic creed, make you forget the
dictates of conscience, the principles of honor, and the
laws of justice. Do not, in imitation of some infamous
landlords of Ireland, eject the Priesthood with their rent
9




Z~5,~8     LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.
paid. Do not brand th'e honor of the Queen, by associating Royalty with the Crowbar Brigade. Give us due notice to quit, till we can have time to secure a Collegiate
home on the Continents of Europe and America: and if
your Lordship is the person selected to act the part of
Tom Cromwell, in Ireland; you may, like your predecessor, be approaching a near abyss of personal humiliation. At all events, our case is clear; namely, that with.
out a shadow of a fault against the laws of our country,
against our allegiance to the throne, and against the honor
due to the Queen, you have, in the face of God and man,opened your ministerial career with a threat of persecution, which, if carried into execution against us, has never
been surpassed, even in our country, for trick, insult,
falsehood, treachery, deceit, and injustice. But, believe
me, the time is fast approaching when the Methodists, the
Presbyterians, and the Chartists, will force you or your
successor to repeat the same experiment towards the Protestant Church, which you now practice to Maynooth;
and a breach once made in the old walls of the establishment, not all the artillery of your Lordship's eloquence
can repel the assailants, or defend the rotten, tottering
citadel.
What your Cabinet will do next, no one can tell; one
mistake, often leads to another more fatal error; and that
it may happen that " the errors of Popery," with which
your Solicitor seems so-well acquainted, may bear no comparison in point of number and magnitude with the errors
of the Derby Administration. But while we are partly
ignorant of the precise line of your persecuting policy,




LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.        259
our course is clear and decided; namely, to combine together legally and constitutionally, as one man, throughout your Empire; and if it appear that your instructions
are decided on new penalties, and on increased injustice,
we must be equally determined to raise a shout of contempt at your policy, and boldly set you at defiance.
When Lord Stanley purchased liberty, in 1833, for a
handful of slaves in Jamaica, he gave seven years' notice to their masters, for fear of injuring the feelings of
two hundred and forty slave-drivers; surely, then, when
the Earl of Derby (related somehow to that Lord Stanley,) inflicts slavery on the millions of Catholic Ireland,
and on the spotless Priesthood of their nation, he should
give a proportionate notice to the Ministers of God. But
the rage against Popery and the Papacy is the present
cry of bigotry; and from the Premier to the village Sexton, all are inoculated with the virus of this insane distemper, and all look delirious, when the name of the benevolent, inoffensive Pope, is uttered. And one should
think, your Lordship has had a salutary warning against
this shameful trick in the downfall of Lord Palmerston,
and in the defeat of Lord John Russell. Europe is now
perfectly aware of their machinations, and alive to the
dangerof trusting English fanatical diplomacy. An Englishman is now watched all over the Continent, as if his
presence were th, signal of treachery, and his correspondence deceit. Your Biblical Societies have been expelled from all the Catholic and Protestant countries of Europe, at fifteen days' notice, and the letters of the English
correspondents to the London journals, are stopped or




260        LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.
opened in all the post-offices, with the same terror as if
they contained treason against the Monarchs of those
countries. And I think, I speak the exact feeling of those
nations, when I assert, that while they hold the name of
English Whig in contemptuous detestation, they view the
name of English Tory in irreconcileable abhorence.
The universal voice of mankind, at this moment, brands
England as standing alone in the civilized world, the perfidious advocate of religious persecution; and the conduct
of the Sultan, standing uncovered, while a Catholic Bishop
in last August, married at Constantinople the daughter of
a Greek functionary of the Court to an Italian Roman
Catholic, (Signor Fetaldi,) stands in reproaching contrast
to the audacious bigotry of the Queen's Chamberlain in
the late case of Monsignore Searle; anid it proves that we
can expect more courtesy and higher consideration from
a royal Mahomedan and a royal Turk abroad, than we
can hope for at home from the Christian Monarch, for
whose honor, name, and throne, our fathers in arms have
died, and for whom we ourselves are prepared, from conscience and duty, to spill our heart's blood.
There is no one department of your Empire, social,
naval, military, forensic, religious, political, in which we
Catholics are not now met by studied insult and ribald
slander. The word "Popery," (as you insultingly call
our Faith,) is the universal watchword of reproach —the
combining signal of persecution; and if the Catholics who
fight your battles on thesbanks of the Sutlej, and win your
victories, are subject to your degrading insult, even while
leaning on their bleeding arms, the trophies of their cou




LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.        261
rage and your dominion, how can we expect your truth,
or your sympathy, or your friendship at home? Although
my poor Catholic countrymen pour out their life's blood
for you on the burning sands of India, you refuse them
the happiness of a Chaplain of their own creed, in all the
internal stations of the country; and when the poor Italian Priest, Father Francis, followed the 50th Regiment
to the battle of Moodkee, and was killed, while in the
heat of the fight, among the dying, your Christian Government refused to give him a mule to carry himself and his
slender baggage, you refused him the common necessaries of life, you would not give him one penny to console
the dying Catholic brave soldier.
And hear it, Robespierre; hear it, elder Napoleon in
your grave; hear it, French Guards of Marengo; hear it
thou, Irish Commander of our Forces at the Horse-Guards:
when poor Father Francis lay dead on the field, with two
sabre cuts on his neek, no British hand bore him to a foreign grave, no British honor saluted the fallen Priest over
an honored tomb, two poor Catholic privates laid him in
a rude coffin, made from the remains of two tea-chests,
and the abandoned fate, and the cruel neglect, of poor
Father Francis, at Moodkee, is the whole history of England to Catholic Ireland, from the first moment, when
their red gibbet was erected in 1543, to the late epistolary insult of your Lordship's Solicitor.
I shall take the liberty of occasionally coming into
your presence, and publishing my humble views of your
policy to Ireland; and I wish to inform you, that, these
letters of mine, will be read in every city in Europe, and




2t2          LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.
in every village and hamlet of America. I have the honor to be, my Lord Earl, with profound respect, your
Lordship's obedient servant,
D. W. CAHILL, D.D.
LETTER OF THE REV. DR. CAHILL
TO THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF DERBY.
HOUSE OF LORDS, MAY 21st.
"Earl Derby said:'What I have stated before is, that her Majesty's
Government have no present intention of making any alteration in, or
proposing any repeal of, the existing act, by which an endowment was
granted to the College of Maynooth.' " (Hear, hear)
HOUSE OF COMMONS, MAY 21st.
"Mr. Spooner, in answer to the appeal made to him as to whether he
believed in the present Session that an inquiry could be carried to a satisfactory conclusion, would at once say that he did not think it could.
(Hear, hear, from the opposition.)
"The Chancellor of the Exchequer said-'The vote meant that the
House of Commons should express an opinion whether there should or
should not be an inquiry in respect to the system which was carried on
at Maynooth, and when he heard the words'a mockery and a delusion,
used with respect to this debate, and the manner in which it had been
conducted, he must say, that with regard to the people out of doors, it
would indeed be a farce and a mockery, if, after all that had been said,
and all the feeling that had been expressed, the house did not come to
some conclusion on the subject of Maynooth.' (Hear, hear.)
" The Attorney General for Ireland said-'The Hon. Member for
Middlesex, referring to the Established Church, renewed the old exaggeration with respect to the value of its property, and the Right Hon. Member for the University of Oxford, as well as the noble Lord the Member
for London, warned the friends of inquiry to be careful what they were
about, lest they should bring about the reconstruction of religious establishments in Ireland generally. As a Representative of the Church,
however, he ( Mr. Napier ) would not acept that statement. If it
were thought a desirable thing, on its own merits, to interfere with the
Established Church of Ireland, let such a proposition be brought for;
ward, and he would give it a fair considleration. He did not forget that
in earlier days that church had neglected its duty; that Ireland condemned it, that the Almighty condemned it, but let it be borne in mind




LETTER TO THE EARtL OF DERBY.          263
that Eng'and did not condemn it. Now, however, that it had become
an active and living interpreter of God's word; speaking in the native
language, and had acquired spiritual power, an inquiry into the establishment was menaced, with a view to its reconstruction.' "
CAERNARVON, Wales, June 2, 1852.
MY LORD EARL-The history of our Imperial Legislature, affords no parallel to the hypocrisy, the meanness,
and the trick, by which the Government of England is
now systematically executed. I presume to express towards your Lordship, personally, the most profound respect; but what politician of any age of England's history,
has ever seen such contradiction, such swaddling, such
shuffling, or, as it is now-a-days termed, such "dodging,"
as are all contained in the extracts quoted above?  The
Mover, (Mr. Spooner,) for the Maynooth inquiry, who,
but some few days ago, spewed such filthiness on the confessiorial, now gives up that inquiry as not likely to lead
to a "satisfactory conclusion;" next comes your Chancellor, who contradicts the mover, and thinks an inquiry
necessary to "satisfy people out of doors," and to escape
being branded with the charge of " mockery and delusion;" your Lordship next comes forward in the order of
the political dodging, and takes a course peculiar to yourself, stating, that you have no intention of making " any
alterations in the act of the endowment of Maynooth;"
from whence it must be concluded, that all the past debates on Maynooth have been a mere Parliamentary farce;
and lastly, your Attorney-General for Ireland, concludes
the official melo-drama with a kind of ministerial doxology, in which he declares, as ex-offcio theologian to your
Lordship, that the Irish (Protestant) Church has "ne.




264       LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.
glected its duty," (oh, strange fact!) that it had been " condemned by Ireland, and the Almighty," (what a happy
coincidence of opinion, between Lord Roden and the Almighty,) that at present the same condemned Church has
learned to speak and pray in Irish, (oh! liturgy of Elizabeth! ) that consequently (the Lord be praised,) it has
again recovered the good opinion of Ireland and the Almighty! and is, at the present moment, (oh, ghost of Oliver Cromwell! ) the "active and living interpreter of
God's word."
I declare, I have never read, in the same number of
words, coming from the members of any responsible society so much trifling inconsistency, reckless insult, and
swaddling puerility, as may be collected from these specimens of Cabinet wisdom. I assure you, mly Lord, nothing but my deep personal respect for your Lordship, prevents me at present from laughing in y6ur face, seeing the
ridicule and the contempt with which your administration must be covered, all over the world, befbre every man
of common sense and common honor. Who can avoid
smiling in melancholy scorn, at seeing the reins of Governmept in this great, and powerful, and enlightened
country, entrusted to menf who plainly avow that they are
humbugging the nation, and that, in order to please the
unjust cry of ferocious bigotry, they are keeping alive the
feelings of religious rancor; and, without necessity or a
useful aim, ranging two hostile parties of our common
country in a perilous and a sanguinary struggle?
And is there never to be an end of this furious malignity against the Catholic name? Is the British Parlia



LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.         265
mnent to assemble, year after year, uttering the grossest
falsehoods, publishing the basest lies, and encouraging the
most relentless persecution against the creed of Catholic
Ireland? From Dioclesian to Elizabeth, from Julian the
Apostate to Lord John Russell, there never has been displayed, in any part of the world, a more debased, unceasing system of shameless misrepresentations, ribald insult,
and debauched lies, than has been promulgated from your
Senate House, against the Faith of two hundred and fifty
millions of the present population of the world, against
the creed of your English ancestors, and against -the venerable and imperishable records of all that has been
great, learned, and virtuous, of the past eighteen centuries,
in every nation of the earth.
This frantic warfare did not begin in drunken clubs, or
in infuriated fanatical enthusiasm; it did not commence in
Tyburn or Smithfield. No, it burst forth in the British
Senate: it was first announced from the Treasury Benches: it originated with the Premier of England: it was the
offspring of the English Cabinet: it was planned in silent
deliberation, urged in ministerial eloquence, and executed
under the sanction of Parliamentary wisdom. It employed Lord Minto to deceive the Pope; sent Peel to light the
fires of Switzerland; licensed Canning to endorse the pillage of the Monasteries; gave a military medal to Garibaldi; feted Kossuth; aided Haynau to erect scaffolds to
hang men and to flog women; encouraged Bern; and transported Smith O'Brien; and, while standing in Lombardy,
in the sight of Europe, flinging the red hissing balls of
sanguinary revolution over all nations; it was seen, at t]he




266       LETTER TO TIHE EARL OF DERBY,
same time, turning with the other hand the leaves of the
Bible, polluting God's gospel with reeking hypocrisy, and
provoking the indignation of man, and the vengeance of
God.
Yes, my Lord, the Legislators of England, during the
last three hundred years, have practised the Reformation
Act of presenting the appearance of sanctity in language,
while perpetrating, in fact, the blackest enormities of
crime. From Dean Fletcher, who had the shocking indecency to preach incongruous godliness to the Queen of
Scots, while the perjured executioner uncovered his murderous axe, down to the Jumpers of Connemara, it is all
the same system of lies, hypocrisy, and guilt. And, as a
matter of course, from the 4th November, 1850, (the date
of the Durham letter,) up to the presqnt sittings of your
" crime and outrage committee," there could be no possible phase of calumny and insult put forth in sanctimonious baseness against the discipline, the doctrine, the practices, and the Ministers of the Catholic Church, which has
not been shamelessly exhibited with a perseverance, a
malignity, an indecency, and a fury, which have no parallel in the history of modern times. Depend on it, my
Lord, that all this base slander and national injustice, will
end in the disgrace of your name, and in the weakness of
national power.
Vespasian and Caligula, tried this policy before the administration of Lord John Russell, and they failed: Attilla attempted in his day to uproot the Gospel and letters,
before the time of Lord Palmerston; and while the furious Hun is forgotten, they both survive: and Tom Crom



LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.         267
well was appointed the head of a commission, similar
to the plan by which you now assail Maynooth; and
Catholic Colleges still remain in spite of Cromwell and
his profligate master. All the enemies of Catholicity
through the past ages, have had the malignant triumphs
of their short space of life against our Church; and they
are all now dead, and she lives. Their lives were counted on the narrow scale of years, months, and days, but
her age is reckoned on the endless revolving circle of
ages; she enjoys a perpetual spring of youth, they are
sealed in the frozen winter of death. Their forgotten
ashes are now inorganic clay, the grave-worm sleeps in
their black hearts, and brings forth her young in their disastrous brain, while her lofty spires, and million altars,
and myriad congregations, spread all along the nations,
from the golden gates of the East, to her sombre turrets in
the Western twilight, proclaim her activity, and her life,
and her jurisdiction, wide as the National horizon, and
comprehensive as the human family.
Depend upon it, my Lord, you are placing yourself in
a wrong position, by employing the prestige of your great
name (for great it is,) in the cause of bigotry-persecuting
a people whose loyalty is without a stain; and inflicting
an unmerited insult in gratuitous vengeance against a
Seminary, which, during the venerable period of upwards
of half a century, has sent forth a Priesthood, the teachers
of morality, the abettors of the public order, the promoters
of peace, and the too faithful and zealous defenders of the
stability of the English Throne. Your Lordship has acquired great practical power; you have a just political




268           LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.
illustrious reputation amongst your followers, and hence,
you can, with prudence, calm the storm of party strife,
subdue the rage of religious prejudice, and be the father of
your country, not the demagogue of a ferocious faction. —
Those who presume to know best your Lordship's sentiments, assert, with confidence, (what I am anxious to believe,) that you-are personally and sincerely opposed to the
religious persecution of Catholic Ireland; but that the tide
of popular opinion running against you, you are forced to
yield to the public clamor. But it must not be forgotten,
that, it was your official predecessor, who has excitedthis
popular fanaticism; and hence, your Lordship, who now
holds the helm of the State ship, has only to reverse the
machinery, go back to the liberal, just course of Sir Robert Peel, silence insane devilry, unite the conflicting
energies of the Empire, give liberty to conscience, correct past errors, and surround the throne with the civilized courage and the invincible fidelity of the universal
people.
The entire aim of the present English Legislation, in
reference to Ireland, is based on insult, misrepresentation,
and injustice; the minds of men in office are so infected
with a hatred towards everything Irish and Catholic, that
it is painful to hear, in every society where the traveller
mixes, one unbroken tale of the grossest lies and the foulest bigotry. The slanders uttered in the Houses of Parliament, have passed for legalized facts through all the
Walks of life in these countries; and although one listens
at every turn to the most monstrous calumnies, it is perfectly useless, in the present diseased state of the public




LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.         269
temper, to attempt to correct their absurd statements, or
to allay their ferocious rancor.- Time alone, and the good
sense of the generous English people, will remove this
wicked scheme of the English Government; and as sure
as the swollen tide will recede in due time to the opposite shore, the excited feelings of the Nation will yet recoil in accumulated anger against the base Ministry, which
could from motives of vengeance, or mischievious power,
gain majorities by perjury, make laws by political prostitution, and stamp on the doors of the Senate House, a
notorious national lie, on the religion and the people of
Ireland.
Perhaps, the most fatal error your Lordship has committed since the commencement of your administration, is
the foolish malice of your spiteful Attorney in his Orange
interrogatories at " the crime and outrage committee."The attempt to connect the priest with the murders of
Louth, is a clumsy device, and shows what the heart of
your subordinate'could execute if he had the power. But
the priest stood considerably beyond the range of the
Orange rifle, and the lead fell harmless at the feet of the
unsuspecting victim. I consider the assassin of character
and the assassin of life, to stand in nearly the same category of guilt; and the priests of Louth, must in future
begin to learn, that they have foes in power, with hearts
as deadly scarlet as the murderers of Bateson.
I could wish it lay within the rules of Parliamentary
usage, that my oppressed poor countrymen could appoint
me as an occasional chairman of that committee, and I
think, I should be able to prove to the satisfaction of the




270        LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.
whole world, that the English Government are the real
assassins of Ireland-that the English Church is the great
Biblical mill, where all the lies against religion and morality all over the world, are manufactured; that Lord Palmerston, is the Captain Rock of Europe; and, that Lord
John Russell, is the " Ryan Puck" of Ireland. If I were
permitted to examine the Archbishop of Canterbury, and
Lord John Russell, and Lord Truro, for three hours., I
should hope to elicit to a perfect mathematical demonstration, that all the lies, and all the uncharitableness, all the
religious rancor, and all their smothered hatred, that, like
the tide, rises and threatens to roll in flooded devastation
over the barriers of Irish society-all the disorders, and
the heartburnings, and most of the riots of Ireland, are
solely to be ascribed to the irritating, unceasing provocation and insults of the Established Church. I should be
able to prove, that each successive Government of England have robbed Ireland, (by successive enactments of
oppression) of her commerce, her protecting laws-have
transferred to England every removable place of honor or
emolument -have purchased her Constitution by bribery;
have debased her leaders by corruption; have drained
her resources, weakened her strength, gutted the national
fabric of her ancient rights, and left her a helpless victim,
a whining beggar, and a chained slave at the gates of England. I could prove, that the laws are made to protect
the Irish trees and the Irish fences; that the fishes and
the foxes are taken within the care of our cruel masters, but
that'the poor Irish Catholic-; the poor faithful, grateful,
enduring Irishman, is placed at the mercy of a capricious




LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.         271
or cruel landlord; that he may be ejected, exterminated,
and banished without appeal; that he is deprived of the
right to live in the country of his birth; that the laws
leave him friendless, unprotected, deserted; that the cruelty of his Legislators fills him with revenge; the ill,
treatment of his landlord teaches him retaliation; that
the combination of his superiors against him, produces a
corresponding confederacy of his class; thousands perish
by his side from extermination, disease, and hunger; that
the laws make him savage, and their administration provokes him to revenge, and in his madness and fury he
stains his hands with murder; and while he erroneously
yet naturally, thinks you kill his class in tens of thousands,
he cannot be restrained in his wild anger from taking your
lives in dozens.
More lives have been lost in Ireland since 1847, under
the vile accursed administration of the Whigs, by extermination, starvation, and exile, than have fallen in all the
countries of Europe during the late revolutionary wars
of Napoleon; and while my unhappy country is starved,
banished, murdered, and shovelled, and pitted, by the
cruellest and most heartless Government that ever degraded the name of law; and while their tyranny still'rolls
over the soil, like a spring-tide, forsooth, a committee of
crime is called together to try, (by jibing and insult,) and
trace to a few assassins in Louth, the heartburnings, and
the disorganization, and the wild phrenzy, by which the
Whigs have torn asunder the very frame of society. My
Lord, I am not drawing a picture to my own taste. I
am copying from your original, which I abhor. I am




272        LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.
sketching the strict historical truths of Ireland; and sc
help me God, I look upon the frame-work and the administration of your laws, together, with the monstrous grievance and the provoking insult and lies of your Church
Establishment, to be the cause of all the disasters of Ireland; the source of our social disorders; the root of all
illegal combinations; and, the sole maddening draught
which arms the hands of the assassin, and stains our country with the red mark of murdered blood.
Lord Derby, I hereby accuse you and your subordinate, with a shameful and an insulting perversion of our
oppression and your conduct, to attempt to shift the murders of Louth, which your laws have notoriously excited,
from your own guilty heads, to the shoulders of the zealous, pure, unoffending priest. That is to say, while Ireland lies at your' feet a bleeding corpse, assassinated by
your treachery, you, forsooth, summon a jury, and, in ferocious mockery, you examine into the cause of her death;
while you yourself are stained with her blood, and the
reeking knife is seen in your hand. This insulting hypocrisy and conspiracy is a crime which no time can efface;
it is a sin against the Holy Ghost, since it ascribes the
wicked results of your own unjust laws to the agency of
the holy priest of God. ASl! my Lord, we have received
already superabundant insult from Russell and his despised cabinet; but surely, while the rotting masses of human
flesh still are scented on the putrid air of SkibbereenRussell's work-while the oozing blood still reddens the
clammy pit in Lord Sligo's field at Westport, (where fathers, mothers, and children died under a melting sun




LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.        273
without covering in the wild agonies of scarlet f'ever and
desertion,) you should not have permitted your Attorney
to add the last drop of shameless provocation to our former trials. While the history of the workhouses of Ballinasloe and Ballinarobe is recollected; while the name of
Gross Island is remembered; while the smoking roofs of
demolished villages are still seen; while the emigrant ship
is still laboring under its load of your ragged, starved,
and exiled victims, your man should have the decency
not to outrage every feeling of common sense, by abscribing the clear, palpable, ferocious results of your own'vile
legislation to the humble minister of God, who would arrest the murderer if he could, who counsels obedience to
the laws, honors-the Queen, and prays for his enemies.
And he is only one of a class. Every Priest in Ireland
is the same, it is our duty to respect even your bad laws,
to maintain obedience even to your cruel authority, to
support even a wicked Administration, to aid you in the
suppression of all illegal societies, and to die, if necessary, in defence of the throne.
Lord Derby, you have behaved very badly to insult
us, by the shameful insinuations of your Orange official.
We are not able to resent this cruel injury, this crying injustice: but we have the gift of speech left in spite of your
"committee of outrage," and we shall make all nations reecho the meanness, the indecency, the venom, and the
sneaking, cowardly insinuations of your swaddling Attorney; and we shall inform all mankind, that while religious intolerance and fanatical persecution are certainly
given up in every country in the civilized world as obso



274        LETTER TO THE EARL OP DERBY.
lete and disgusting, England alone keeps up her heavenly hatred-England alone has sickly mottoes from the canticles carved on her Protestant mouse-traps, electrotypes
her reformation-crockery-ware with orthodox prayer and
lovely hymns, and pours the abhorrent cant of her saintly
hypocrisy round every word of Godly slander which she
utters on Ireland.
Your Irish Attorney, my Lord, has thought proper to
enter the field of Theology in the extracts quoted above,
and in his swaddling divinity, has made some gross misstatements, or rather blunders, in reference to my creed.
He is very candid, in saying, that the Irish Church had
neglected its duties, and was condemned by the voice of
Ireland and heaven; but that having recovered from her
church frolic, she is now rather a sober, well-conducted
church, and is going on very respectable indeed in her
line, having had the advantage of learning Irish, within
the last twenty years, and thus is enabled by vernacular
flippancy to be an active servant, and very lively in the
interpretation of God's word. Really, my Lord, your
Theologian is no great witch in logic, or he could never
have uttered such a facetious admixture of the forciblecomical, and the feeble-religious, as is contained in the
official extract of his notable speech.
I think, my Lord, I understand him, when he stated
that Ireland condemned the Irish Law Church. Your
Theological Lawyer must have alluded to the tithe-system, when the Widow Ryan's son was shot in Munster;
when the murder of Carrickshock was perpetrated for
your church in open day; when Father Burke, of Meath,




.LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.         275
refused to take the census of his butchered flock, and when
the cross-roads of Ireland were red with the blood of the
Irish Catholic, slain in the name of God, in order to feed
the profligate luxury of the huge Moloch of your sanguinary creed. I think I understand your subordinate, when
he asserts, that your crimson church once stood "condemned before Ireland and before God." I think, too, I
can well explain the true meaning of that passage of your
Law Officer, where he states, that his recovered church
is now "an active interpreter of God's word." And I assure your Lordship, that in following the absurd position
of Mr. Napier, it is very hard to abstain from expressing
the ridicule which his speech deserves, and to maintain
at the same time the solemn respect, the distant veneration, and the becoming reserve which suits my position
while addressing your Lordship. No doubt your church
has been a most active interpreter of God's word, since it
has put seven hundred and seventy-six different interpretations on that word since the time of your great reformer, Luther; forsthe truth of which statement, in part,
I beg to refer your Lordship to Bossuet's Protestant
Vatiations.
By the first active interpretation, Luther t lew off the
authority of the Pope.
Secondly-He modified, re-interpreted, re-modified, rebelieved the doctrine of Transubstantiation and the Holy
Eucharist.
Thirdly-He and his followers, interpreted the Sixth
chapter of St. John, as " conpanation, impanation, perpanation, hyperpanation," and ultimately, this active church




276         LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.
has settled down into a Juidaical type on this Christian
doctrine.
Fourthly-The old Mass, and the Invocation of Saints,
and Purgatory, and the Sacrament of Penance, Confirmation, and Extreme Unction, and the Sacrament of Marriage, have been successively abandoned by this holy
"activity" of your church: and the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord John Russell, have respectively given
up the Sacraments of Holy Orders and Baptism within
the last two years. The "activity" of the ministers, has
given up the divinity of Christ: and the activity of the
" Greek Protestants, has denied the personality of the
Holy Ghost;" and thus your Christian church has reduced her faith to the simple idea and doctrine of merely
belief in the existence of God. This is pure Paganismand when we add to this fact, that Luther sanctioned plurality of wives, with the Landgrave of Hesse, (that is Mahomedanism,) we are forced to conclude, from clear premises, that your church, in its "active interpretation of
God's word," has unchristianized, has Mahomedanized,
has unscripturalized, has infidelized, has paganized, and
has demoralized the whole world.
There ct be no doubt tbat, by the active interpretation referred to, the Protestant Church (as its very name
implies,) has protested against the entire ancient record of
Christianity, has thrown down the whole fabric of the
new law, and has raised on its ruins a system of human
theory, wild speculation, philosophical compromise between reason and faith-all of which, clearly subject
religion to the laws of progress, inconsistent with the im



LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.        277
mutable decrees of God, and with the mysteries of Revelation. The Church of your Attorney-General possesses at
this moment an imperfect (scripture) of the New Law-the
mere words of the Law, without the inherent rights of that
Law; and as well might a Laplander, who chanced to find
and possess the parchment of the English Magna Charta,
insist he was an Englishman, and entitled to the rights ot
British subjects, as for your Church to call herself Chris-'tian and Catholic, from the mere possession of a printer's
copy of the Law, without acknowledging the legitimate
authority, without possessing practical allegiance to the
recognized head' of the Christian Constitution, without her
name being enrolled amongst the accepted subjects; and
without fulfilling the practical duties required, as the essential legal conditions to enjoy the rights and the privileges of the new Royal Heavenly Dispensation. Your
Lordship must blame your Attorney, and not me, for this
brief theological reply to his unnecessary and unexpected
strictures. Believe me, my Lord, that no Attorney can be
a proficient in theology; and hence, the sooner you keep
your man in his own department of ex-officio informations,
the better for the reputation and the honor of your Administration.
Penetrated with the greatest respect for your great
name and lofty position, I wish I could presume to tell
you how much good you can effect for the Empire, by a
course of truth, honor, and justice to Ireland. The disastrous divisions which your Government has excited at
home; the unmeasured contempt, with which your name
is assailed abroad; the perilous state of your commerce;




278       LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.
the conflicting interests of the various factions of your
country; but, above all, the keen watchfulness witfh which
a hostile neighboring power observes all your panics,
should induce you to heal the public acerbity, to forget
past rancor, to begin a new era of legislation, and comnbine all your strength, to govern with impartial justice,
to leave conscience between God and man, to soothe the
flagrant oppression of Ireland, to soften the tyranny of
ages, to be the father of the poor, the advocate of the oppressed, the emancipators of the slave, to have your name
graven on our hearts in national love, and to combine,
unite, concentrate, and bind in indissoluble amity the
energies, the courage, and the loyalty of this great Empire, ill one great invincible bond of national fidelity.
This is a work worthy of you, and a work which you can
execute; and a victory over bigotry and falsehood, which
will transmit your name to posterity as the benefactor of
my country, and not the persecutor of my name and race.
I have the honor to be, my Lord and Earl, with profound respect, your Lordship's obedient servant,
D. W. CAHILL, D. D.
DR. CAHILL TO THE RIGHT HON. THE
EARL OF DERBY.
BILSTON, ENGLAND, Aug'ust 24, 1852.
MY LORD EARL-As your Lordship has thought pro.
per to dictate new laws for reforming Popish cravats  and
as you have condescended to apply the English evangeli



LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.         26'9
cal standard to the length and the cut of our Catholic
beard; and as you have surprised the world by becoming
Constitutional tailor and barber to the present Pope; and,
finally, as your co-reformers in the Old Clothes Department of our glorious Constitution, are actuated with such
zeal to advance your Protestant views throughout this
Empire, as on several occasions to seize anti-Derbyite
scarfs, to knock off anti-Derbyite hats, to spit in the faces
of anti-Derbyite Priests, and to do several other Cabinet
celebrities, you cannot be surprised, if I, too, influenced by
your Lordship's example, change my former official position, and assume the novel character of satirist on Privy
Councils, and of impartial chronicler of the incomprehensible follies of Ministers, and the incredible meanness of
Cabinets-when grave Judges turn buffoons on the bench,
when they discharge the tripple office of witness, judge,
and jury; and when Prime Ministers turn Jack Ketch, I
fancy I am not much out of the present fashion in my new
vocation.
My silence since your Lordship's late proclamation,
(which I am flattered to think you have observed,) has
arisen from the fact, that I have been occupied in searching the pages of ancient and modern history to find some
Pagan or Christian parallel to the official careers of Lord
John Russell and yourself. Being aware, that there is nothing new under the sun, I concluded there must have
been some persons somewhere like you both, in the former records of our race. You must not be surprised or
angry, if I tell you, that I have discovered the exact resemblance of you both in the History of Gulliver's Travels.




280        LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.'
Lord John Russell's tour in Greece, in 1849, in order to
settle the vast claims of the loss of some furniture and a
kitchen-garden belonging to Messrs. Finlay and Pacifico,
is most perfectly identical with Gulliver's career in Lilliput; and your Lordship's late expedition to the Bay of
Fundy, is precisely the history of Gulliver in Brobdignag.
The poor Grecians (a diminutive race, only two inches
high in stature,) retired beyond the pass of Thermopylae,
when they beheld the great Whigman from England;
they procured ladders to scale the heights of his breast,
as he lay asleep at the foot of Mount Helicon.  The entire Grecian fleet weighed anchor, and sailed out under
full canvas, with the yards manned, between his colossal
limbs, as the giant British Minister bestrode the Gulf of
Lepanto. The flags of their men-of-war at their mastheads, did not reach higher on that thrilling occasion than
the large circle which surrounds the immeasurable circumference of his unponderable mighty Whig legs. According to the despatches received from our Admiral in
the Mediterranean, he stood on Parnassus in the sight of
the Muses; and the enormous creature (according to the
Greek historians,) extinguished a raging conflagration in
the palace of Kilrg Otho, with the same kind of an sffort,
and with nearly the same description of mechanical appliances, and with the same sort of eclat, as Gulliver,
(after a night's hearty wine,) put out the fire which threatened destruction to the palace of the Empress of Laputa.
And so wonderful and tremendous in Greece, is the terrestrial glory of the GREAT WHIG, (as he is called there,)
that King Otho, as you are well aware, has ordered him




LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.       28.
to be styled henceforward, " The Whig Man-Mountain."
The remaining part of the history is perfectly illustrated in your Lordship's late voyage to America. The
scene, however, is strangely changed. Your Lordship,
when compared with the monstrous Websters of that country, appears only about four inches high-placed side by
side with the great Leviathans of the fishing grounds, you
don't seem much larger than a scorpion; you would be
considered a mere dwarf at Bunker's Hill; your Lord-Z
ship would not be a match for a tom-cat at New Orleans;
your Lordship and Lord Malmesbury, and the Right
Hon. Mr. Walpole, and your entire Right Honorable
Cabinet, placed over each other, pillar-like, on each others
Right Honorable shoulders, could not raise the uppermost
Right Hon. Minister high enough to enable him to look
into an ordinary sized teapot at Philadelphia! You could
hide your whole Cabinet in a lady's muff at Washington!
and if the reports be true, which the American giants
have circulated at the fishing-grounds against English
greatness, your Lordship was nearly drowned in a Yankee cream-jug (others say, a small fish-kettle,) at the Bay
of Fundy, in your endeavor to escape from an American
rat, in order to hide your Lordship's head in the breeches'
pocket of Mr. President Fillmore. Your Lordship can
scarcely believe the indignation of all Europe, to see
England so contemptuously treated; our noble country!
the mistress of arts and science! the scourge of France!
the arbitress of Europe! the seat of virtue, piety, sanctity,
honor, and truth!!! the pride and the envy of the whole
-worki!! the patron of the oppressed!' the emancipator




282        LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.
of the slave! the country of the free, and the beloved sister of Ireland!!! 
Ah, Lord Derby, your Government can bully, and persecute, and spoliate, and infidelize, when your victims are
changing, and unable to offer resistance to your tyranny
and your accursed oppression; but, Heaven be forever
praised, the scene is at length beginning to change; the
sun of GREAT Britain is fast descending from its culminating point; your day of unrivalled sway is certainly
drawing to a close; your national character and prestige,
are beyond all doubt gone; your nation is now universally
branded as deceitful and degraded; you have decidedly
forfeited the confidence of Europe, and you are hated,
despised, and abhorred, by the whole world: your two
successive Governments have exposed England to the
contempt of mankind; you have made her a jester at St.
Petersburgh; a revolutionist and a base cringer at Vienna; a time-server at Paris, and an infidel at Rome; a
traitor at Naples; a burglar at Madrid; a perjurer at Lisbon; a persecutor at Berne;- a tyrant at Athens; a coward at Washington; a hypocrite at Rome; and the
devil in Ireland!
Oh, shame on you, Lord John Russell! and oh fie, fie
on you, Lord Derby, to employ the time of two successive
Parliaments in degrading your country, and to engage the
official services of bishops, judges, barristers, surgeons,
lords, and ladies; in endeavoring to dethrone the Pope;
searching out for the private scandals of ecclesiastics;
mending and dressing up for inspection at Exeter Hall,
old tattered calumnies on our creed; peeping into the bed



LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.        283
rooms of Convents; listening behind our confessionals;
dogging our school-girls to the Church; watching our
orphans at their meals; jibing Priests at their prayers;
mobbing Nuns in the public streets; counting the charities
they receive for their -humble support; and stealing
through lanes and alleys, looking for a case of slander
against the Faith of two hundred and forty millions of the
human population, and against the creed of the most ancient families in England and the most devoted subjects
of the Queen. Oh, fie on you, Lord Derby! to join in
this most disgraceful and insane ribaldry, and, instead of
walking in the footsteps of Canning or Peel-instead of
standing before the world as the sublime exponent of
British honor, truth, and justice, to ally your great name
and proud position with such gross bigotry, and to seek
renown from rolling in the mire with canting hypocrisy,
indecent impiety, and blasphemous falsehood.
Is there never to be an end of this Parliamentary absurdity?-is there no business to be done by the Cabinet
but maligning the Catholic faith?-will Government never cease the degraded and shameful practice of.uttering
the grossest indecencies, and the most filthy abominations
and palpable lies against the Catholics of the whole world?
Why do you appear in a farce?-why seek applause from
the gallery?-why do you become a harlequin when you'
can succeed in the deepest characters of Moliere and
Shakespeare?-why do you take Russell for your model,
when you can imitate the meteor genius of the masterspirits whose place you fill? You are a man of talent,
we own it; and why employ your great mind in the




284           LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.
scullery of St. Stephens? If you are called to be the
centre of a microcosm, why are you not the sun of the
creation?-why do you choose to be the satelite of the
world of which you ought to be the light and the ruler?
Believe me, you are fallen; your occupation is gone; your
jaded audience will not hear you much longer. Rely on
it, if you persevere in your present career, you shall feel
the disgrace of being universally hissed off the stage. —
Your own countryman, Mr. Pope, will read your Lordship a lesson on this point:-'Fortune in men has some small difference made,
One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade:
The cobler proned and the parson gowned,
The friar hooded and the monarch crowned;'What differ more,' you cry,'than crown and cowl'?
I'll tell you, friend-a wise man and afool."
There can be no doubt at all, that Lord John Russell
and his vile Cabinet, endeavored to create throughout
Catholic Europe a revolution in religion and government;
and although your Lordship and Lord John, hold opposite opinions on general politics, you are the conjugate
foci of each other on Catholicity, and you reflect each
other's hostile feeling on my creed, as faithfully as the unerring science of your positions. You are certainly
agreed with him in his policy of weakening all Catholic
sovereignty, and of overturning the Catholic Faith. But
you both have signally failed, and in your discomfiture,
you have added a new proof of the strength of my church,
and you have at the same time, ruined your name and
your country. You have unconsciously done a lasting
service to Catholicity, and you have permanently awakened all Europe to the perfidy and the deceit of your
Governments, whether Whig or Tory.




LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.          285
While you were laying the plans of your traitorous
views on the surrounding nations, the Irish Church seemed cherished with your perfidious care; your gifts had
nearly worked her ruin; but since your schemes have
been detected here, and in the neighboring States, we are
made the appalling victims of your disappointed rage.Our defenceless institutions, and the unprotected monuments of Irish piety, are now assailed by all the malignant power of your hostile Empire —your Senate, your
Courts of Law, your army, your navy, your universities,
your literature, your church, your historians, your pamphleteers, your novelists, your caricaturists, your aristocracy, your merchants, your artizans, your mobs, are all
united into one powerful force of infuriated assailants
against our creed; and by misrepresentation, falsehood,
calumny, slander, lies, persecution, extermination, banishment, starvation, and death, you and your associates have
attempted, through solicitation, seduction, place, pension,
bribery, intimidation, and stratagem, to thin our ranks, to
shake our faith, and to break a passage through our anci~nt camp, and seize our fortresses; and although you
have uprooted the cabins of the poor, thrown down our
villages, wasted our fields, starved our tradesmen, expatriated the living, murdered the dead, and filled the poorhouses and the red grave with the martyred Irish; praise
be -to God for ever, and honor to the ever blessed Virgin
Mary, you have not taken one stout heart from the faithful
ranks, or disturbed one stone in our ancient and time-honored turrets. Eternal praise to the faithful Irish, who
preferred exile to an alliance with you-who died of star



286 -     LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.
vation sooner than taste the bread of apostacy, and who
preferred the coffinless grave, rather than live in the dress
of perjury and perdition. Your perfidious predecessor
and yourself, are avowedly beaten; the worst is passed,
and we now set you at defiance. We have the voice of
Europe and the world in our favor: and our honor, our
courage, and our national fidelity, will damn you and your
cruel confederates to eternal fame. You are certainly defeated; and when you now calumniate us, we have an
answer ready from the sympathy of Europe.
When you malign the Jesuits, we point to Hungary,
where the ]Emperor is now employed in placing these
pious, exemplary, and learned men, over all the schools of
his subjects. When you speak of the success of your
Bible Societies, we send you the judicial decision of Austria and Napiles, where an English Protestant missionary
is ordered from these countries within fifteen days under
penalty of public and forcible expulsion. When you talk
of your Protestant liberality, we call your attention to Naples, also, where no Protestant teacher would be permitted to superintend any public class, in consequence ofOthe
interminable calumnies which these creatures are ever
introducing against the Catholic faith. English travellers,
English tourists, are now stopped, questioned, and examined throughout Europe, as if they were intriguing villains, disseminating rebellion and infidelity wherever they
go. The correspondents of the English journals are hunted like felons from every city in Europe, their letters examined, and themselves ordered to quit in forty-eight hours,
when their occupation of slander and infidejity is known.




LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.        287
Yes, our answers to your base calumnies are now published in our favor, by the universal cry of shame from all
foreign nations.
Hear it my Lord-while you were slandering us in the
Lords, and while Russell was spewing his Woburn apostacy on Bishops in the Commons, the French army, the
nvincible sons of the glorious Franks, were kneeling before the mitred Archbishop of Paris; and as he raised
the adorable Host beneath the blue unfathomable vault,
the loud clang of the French steel, at " the Elevation,"
as the army drew their swords, and presented arms to the
God of battles, amid the thunders of one hundred pieces
of ordnance, was the significant and appropriate answer'which glorious Catholic France sent on the morning
breeze to bigoted England, in reply to your Parliamentary vituperation. And when you issued your proclamation against the processions which took place at Jacob's
Ladder! and at Solomon's Temple! and in all Christian
places all over the world, from Constantine to Prince
Louis Napoleon, and when you spread the awful majesty
of your laws (with such a master-stroke of statesmanship)
over the evangelical town of Ballinasloe, formerly called
by the Popish name of Kylenaspithogue; in order to protect these holy places from the danger of wax-candles
and white rosin: did your Lordship remark the cutting
reply which the Prince immediately sent to'you in the
studied bow, which on his return from the passage of the
Rhine, he made to the surpliced Archbishop and Clergy
of Paris; and did your Lordship read that passage in his
processional progress along the Boulevards, where seeing




288        LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.
the cross raised " he rose in his carriage, took off his hat,
and bowed long and reverently to the cross."
There, Sir, is the glorious answer of France to your
far-famed poclamation; there Sir, is the triumphant, scathing, crushing reply to your "anti-long-beard -anti-candle-anti-cross —Derbyite-anti-shortbreeches-proclamation." I have never read anything on any subject which
has filled me with more sincere pleasure than that Christian conduct of the Prince. In that bow, Sir, read your
own shame; and in his bare head before the cross, learn
to spare your Catholic fellow-subjects; and learn to respect the emblem of your salvation, the cross of Christ.For that glorious act of the Prince, I hereby offer him
my heartfelt gratitude and my sincere homege; and I
also present him with the ardent love of one million of
my countrymen, proceeding from breasts as faithful and
as brave as the world ever saw. I must also inform your
Lordship that the Prince will read this letter on next
Thursday morning before his breakfast; and moreover I
must tell you that he will send to me a vote of thanks by
the very next post —a piece of good breeding and courtesy which I have seldom received from my correspondents in the English Cabinet.
You have decidedly put yourself at the head of a vast
mob in these countries by issuing your late proclamation;
and it is quite true that we are indebted to the good sense
and generous feeling of the English people for having
escaped the most degrading ill-treatment in all places of
public.resort. But we have our satisfaction in the univer-.sal contempt with which your name and your laws are re



LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.         289
ceived in every country in the world. Three members of
the American Cabinet (PJrotestants) have already spoken
on the subject with unmeasured ridiculer; and one of
them joined in a Catholic procession, as the best testimony
hae could offer against English bigotry. I beg, therefore,
to offer to President Fillmore, and to these three members, my warmest acknowledgments, and to assure them
that they command the liveliest gratitude of the Irish and
the English Catholics in these countries, and that we all
long-for some occasion to testify to them that we love
them as much as we abhor the English Government.
The case between you and Catholicity, stands thus: the
schemes which your Government have been devising
against our Faith, our discipline, and our system of education, have been palpably detected, and as clearly defeated. Your name is detested in all the neighboring countries, and your accomplices have been expelled with a
summary command, and, indeed, with an insult, which
you have not, or dare not resent. Beyond all doubt, you
and your rebel and infidel accomplices have been removed from Austria, Hungary, Prussia, (Protestant,) from
Rome, Naples, and Lombardy. Your Bible Societies,
which are reported as your emissaries of insurrection,
have been watched as public enemies; and it is an historical fact, admitting of no doubt whatever, that neither
in public, nor in private, will these countries tolerate English influence to be exercised in their religious, social, or
political concerns. The Continental education, which you
had nearly corrupted by your money and your emissaries,
has now undergone a total change. The Catholic Clergy
10




290        LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.
are now placed in all these countries as the sole directors
and guardians of the education and literary and religious
training of the rising generation; and Prince Louis Napoleon, now so much abused by your journals, has introduced changes in all the educational schools of France,
and will soon restore the ancient discipline of the Catholic Church, which placed education in the hands of the
ministers of religion. The " College de France," which,
according to the testimony of the Count Montalambert,
sent out nine infidels to one Christian pupil, (un sur dix,)
has been remodelled, and the infidel element extracted
under his vigilant care. You are, therefore, defeated in
every part of the world in your schemes against the
Catholic religion and education.
Your last effort is carried on against Ireland, where as
sure as the sun will rise to-morrow, you will be surely
defeated: and if the Board of Education in Ireland, will
permit you to interfere in their arrangements, Ireland will
lose her life's blood sooner than have Voltaire her classbook, and Carlisle her master. Depend upon it, if there
be a God ruling His Church, you cannot change His laws,
no more than you can arrest the tide, or stop the earth's
motion by a proclamation from Downing-street. Our
Faith, and our discipline, and our mode of education, existed before you were born, and will, in all likelihood, survive your Lordship's name many years, and even outlive the English rule and German blood.
"Shall burning Etna, if a sage requires,
"Forget to thunder and recall her fires,
"On air or sea, new motions be impressed,
"Oh, blameless Albion! to relieve thy breast;
"When the loose mountain trembles from on high,
"Shall gravitation cease when you go by "




LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.        291
Under these circumstances, our duty will be, to obey
all the laws, as we have ever done, but to keep clear
from all contact with you. During the late revolutions
of Europe, there is not one instance recorded against the
Catholic Clergy, of disloyalty to the throne. Under all
the provocation and insult which you and your coadjutors
have heaped upon us, we stand blameless before God and
the laws of our country. We appeal to universal mankind for a verdict of our innocence and blamelessness
under the most grinding tyranny, calumnies, and lies, that
perhaps ever the world saw. We have been ever, we
are at present, and we shall continue to be in the right.
Let you proceed then against us in your usual course,
and advance in the wrong —go on in your career of insult,
and injustice before mankind, and we boldly set you at
defiance. We do not court your hostility, or challenge
your persecution; no, but take your own course, proceed
in your national perfidy, and we despise your last effort
of vengeance. We have been grateful to former statesmen and former friends, for the small measure of justice
which they offered to our plundered Church, and to our
wounded and bleeding country. I own it, we have been
grateful; but if you, Sir; retrace their steps and blot out
their generous acts in the consuming fire of your wellknown bigotry, we boldly hold your threats in utter contempt; we believe it better to have our Church surrounded with a crown of thorns than purchase a diadem for it
made of apostate gold; and we are convinced it is better,
far better, to have our rising generation bred and educated Irishmen and Catholics, as our fathers, at the foot of




292        LETTER TO THE EARL OP DERBY.
the mountain, (if necessary,) sooner than drink from your
poisoned fountain of knowledge the coward draught of
education, which must be swallowed at the expense of national honor, and by an insult on our ancient Faith.
Pray, Sir, how have you returned from America?  How
did you effect your escape from Mr. President Fillmolre's
breeches pocketS Ten thousand blessings upon his giant
heart, if he had kept you and the "great Whig," and all
your tiny Cabinets, a sport for his cats at Fundy. But,
indeed, he has exhibited you before the world in your
fallen greatness. England has been literally horse-whipped, and she sneaks away a grumbling coward, degraded
by Whiggery and sunk by Toryism. You had no idea,
my Lord, of going to war. What! WVith the Kaffirs
decimating you; the Burmese occupying your time; the
old Sikhs beyond the Sutlej; the Chinese keeping you
engaged; the Canadians waiting their time; a national
debt of nine hundred and fifty-four millions; with a Protestant establishment of nine millions and a half yearly;
with two millions of Chartists, with their staves ready for
an onslaught on your purses, the day you sell a dear loaf;
with one million of armed hostile Frenchman at your
gates; and with one million of Irishmen, goaded, and
wounded, and bleeding with the chains of your wanton
cruelty; and you pretend to go to war wit-h America,
(or as Lord Palmerston calls them,) your cousins, with
all these trifles on your hands!! Pshaw-the world
knows you are water-logged, and that an additional ton
would sink you. No, Sir, but the Americans could even
come into the Bay of Galway to fish, and you could not




LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.       293
resist them, you dare not; and more than this, if they laid
claim to Ireland, in right of all the Irish whom you have
unlawfully and unjustly expelled from their country, you
would surrender Ireland to America, nearly as readily as
have given up your claim to the Lobos Islands. You,
Sir, are openly, and avowedly snubbed, and cuffed, and
kicked, all over the world at this moment; and the only
glorious achievement in which you stand unrivalled above
all mankind, just now, is your conquest over poor, helpless Nuns, and unoffending Priests.
If you could be influenced by the magnanimity which
belongs to your exalted place, you should be struck with
admiration at the incredible fidelity of the Irish people,
who present to the impartial historian a spectacle of national virtue and national greatness not surpassed, or equalled by any generation in the story of Grecian and Roman
patriotism and virtue. You behold a people ground to
the very dust, with the most merciless administration of
law which ever cursed society-you see them beset on
all sides, with the persecutions of land grievances and surrounded with all the torturing machinations which the
furious zeal of a bigoted hostile Church would employ
against their Faith; you observe them crowd the putrid
poor-houses, fill the emigrant ships, and die in naked starvation sooner than surrender what they believe their
truth and national honor, and with such faithful instances
of the endurance of a whole people, could any, except a
soul pierced through with the incurable cancer of bigotry, fail to give credit to the feeling which could stand
with such invincible firmness in defence of creed and of




294       LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.
country? Why would you not court the confidence and
secure the love of such a race? Why would you not endeavor to connect them with the throne by a tie which
Ireland never broke —namely, the tie of gratitude? Why
would you not open our metallic mines to keep them
alive, rather than open the grave for their death? Why
would you not purchase implements of trade and husbandry for the wealth of the nation, rather than buy coffins
for the extermination of the people? Why do you not
give us bread instead of your apocryphal Bible? Why
not justice instead of calumny? Why not treat us as subjects, and not as slaves?  Why meet us as enemies in
all the walks of the Empire? Why not try the rule of
equality with us.  Why do you weave Protestantism
into all your dealings with Cathoiicism?  Will you
never permit us to address God unless through an act of
Parliament? Why do you insist on putting a chain of
Swedish iron on our consciences?  Protestantism has
deceived you; bigotry has set you mad; and in placing
your laws above God you have insulted mankind, misinterpreted religion, and ruined your country.
In my next letter, I shall place before your Lordship
some few important facts, with which I do believe you are
unacquainted; and till then, I have the honor to be your
Lordship's obedient servant,
D. W. CAHILL, D.D.




DiR. CAHILL TO THE RIGHT HON. THE
EARL OF DERBY.
NEW-BRIGHTON, Saturday, October 21, 1852.
My LORD EARL-Some few months ago our gracious
Queen, in a speech from the throne, very emphatically
announced her royal determination to uphold the principles of the Protestant church, and she 6alled on her servants there assembled, in her presence, to assist her in
maintaining the liberties of the Protestant Constitution.
There must be, my Lord, in the royal mind some hidden
fear of this church being in danger, in order to account
for the large space which this idea has taken up in the
royal oration. If this declaration had been made by your
Lordship, or by any one of the present Ministry, it would
still command an important attention; but when it proceeds from the head of your church —from the ecuminical
source of all Protestant truth, it comes before the world,
invested with all the realities of parliamentary gravity,
and English history. For the first time in my life, I do
agree with the sentiments deduced from a royal speech;
and I do, therefore, believe that your church is in imminent danger at the present moment; and I believe, moreover, that neither her most gracious Majesty, with all her
royal power, nor Lord John Russell, with the base Whigs,
nor your Lordship, with the most judicious combination
of Whig and Tory, which your skill in parliamentary
chemistry can produce, will be able to stay much longer
the downfall of an institution, which is a libel on God's




296       LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.
Gospel, a fortress for public injustice, and the scandalous
disturber of our national peace. The danger to be apprehended, however, will not proceed, in the first instance,
from an external enemy; it will come from her long internal rottenness; and the public shame, and the public'
common sense, and the public indignation will soon be
seen struggling for the mastery in levelling with the earth,
and eradicating from the soil this anti-Christian monster,
which has been reared on the plundered food of the widow and the orphan, and which now makes its enormous
daily meals and annual feasts on the life-blood of the entire nation.
The long silence of the Catholics under your shameful
and shameless calumnies, and our superhuman endurance
under savage parliamentary insults and lies, such as are
actually unknown in any other country in the whole
world, have had the effect of encouraging our insatiable
enemies, in place of mitigating their fanatical ferocity.The oblivion which our writers have cast in charity over
the first flagrant iniquities of your church, has been misunderstood by your professional bigots, who, like a swarm
of locusts, crowd every thoroughfare in the Empire, enabling the passengers of all nations to read, in the malignant domination of their brows, that the hatred of Catholicity, the fury of unappeasable malignity, and not the mild
spirit of Christianity, is the predominant feeling of their
hearts, and the very mainspring of their entire conduct.
The Catholic public, too, have forgotten the early pedigree of the Reformation; and have, therefore, considerably relaxed in their watchfulness against their deadly




LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.         297
foes; and hence the public mind must be again roused to
a universal resistance against a congregation of calumniators, who, not content with living on the plunder of our
ancestors, are engaged, year after year, in maligning their
victims, spreading abroad uncharitableness, disturbing the
public peace; and positively, and without any doubt, disturbing the name and maternal interests of England,
throughout the entire world.
As Lord John Russell and your Lordship, have been
the principal promoters of this strange evangelism, I have
decided on addressing to you twelve letters on the subject
just referred to. They shall be divided into distinctions,
in which I shall prove beyond all doubt-Firstly, the unscriptural enormities and the theological incongruities of
these Protestant principles which you say are now endangered-Secondly, I shall demonstrate beyond all contradiction, that this Protestant Constitution has committed
the largest crime of plundering the poor, ever recorded
in history, and-Thirdly, I shall enumerate, to the satisfaction of every impartial man, the historical records by
which this church is charged with spilling more blood of
innocent, and defenceless, and unoffending Catholics, than
has ever been shed by the most ruthless tyrant that ever
crimsoned the page of human woe. In the treatment of
this subject, I wish to inform you, that I mean no offence
to the present generation of generous-hearted, honest
Englishmen; my charges are not against individuals, but
against the anti-Christian system, of which they are made
the wretched dupes. Nor shall I found my observations
upon exclusively Catholic authority, or on hearsay, how



298        LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.
bver respectable the testimony, or on loose historical assertion. I shall quote all my proofs from your own great
historians, from the Protestant Synods of Germany, Switzerland, Holland, and France; and I shall complete my
demonstrations from the acts of the English Parliament.
I shall not confine my views on the horrors of your evangelical system to Great Britain and unfortunate Ireland.
I shall trace them through northern and central Europe;
and I shall place before the Christian world the clear fact,
viz., that in whatever country Protestantism has been introdued in the room of Catholicity, there may be traced
all the maddening disorders which have almost ever
accompanied and followed it; namely, ferocious bigotry,
relentless persecution, sanguinary atrocities, social disunion, and universal wasting, public brand of beggary
and national distress, graven by the ruthless bigot on the
heart, and the bones, and the narrow of the wretched,
subdued Catholic.
And if I shall fullfil faithfully these my preliminary
promises, there is no honorable English or Irish Protestant, (who will take the trouble to read my proofs,) who.
can, as a scholar, a gentleman, and a Christian, be reasonably angry with me for exposing to'the public indignation, a system calling itself the Gospel of Christ, and
which, on examination, will be found an iniquitous aggregate of hypocrisy, lies, rebellion, spoliation, murder, and
blasphemy. I own it requires much deliberate reflection
before these grave charges should be made against your
national Church, and addressed to so exalted, a person as
the Earl of Derby. I feel this responsibility, and I fully




LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.        299
conceive my position; but I again repeat my charges, and
I shall forfeit all claim to truth, if I do not perfectly substantiate every point I have adduced. It is with feelings
of tremulous confusion that the historian of the present
day, will even attempt to write the details of the crimes
of this infamous band of anti-Christian monsters; and
hence, who can describe what must have been the bewildering, the shocking, the racking woes, of the persecuted
past generation which witnessed, and bled under their terrific realities.
The first unparalleled imposture which "the Reformation" invented, and which it has practised to this day, was
the self-appointment, and self-consecration of Henry VIII.,
to assume the title of "Head of the Church." One might
suppose that the man who robbed the Convents of Englishmen to the amount of millions of money, built and secured by the ancient laws of the realm, would be ashamed
to appear before his countrymen stained, as his character
was, with this public profanation; one might believe that
a monster who had divorced three wives and beheaded
two, (one of them probably his own daughter,) would be
afraid to let the eye of mortal see his hands reeking with
the blood of his innocent victims. Through all the past
history of mankind, if such a demon succeeded in escaping the arm of public justice, or the hand of the avenging
assassin, he fled from human intercourse to bury his guilty
head and racking conscience in the lonely cell of perpetual
penance, in order to expiate the thrilling enormity of his
black crimes.
But your apostle, the first head of your Church, seem



300          LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.
ed rather to rise, than sink by his iniquities; they appear
rather to qualify than incapacitate your gospel-founder
for his exalted spiritual post; and hence, he stands before
your tabernacle with his red hands lifted in prayer to God!
Yes, in prayer to God, your accredited proto-apostle, your
appointed Bishop and your consecrated Pope! the guardian of innocence, the model of virtue, the terror of vice,
th'e teacher of Gospel truth, the ornament of religion, the
standard of evangelical perfection, the infallible guide to
heaven, the successor of the Apostles, and the Vicegerent
of Christ himself on earth! He appointed and consecrated himself (Act Par., 1538,) Pope and Head of the
Church; and he appointed Tom Cromwell (Act 1533,)
his "Vicegerent in spirituals;" and he gave him, as his
Vicar-General, a commission with nineteen sub-commissioners, named, by his "English Holiness," to report on
the discipline and moral conduct and Faith of all the Religious Orders of England! The only parallel that could
be devised to equal this incomprehensible farce on Christianity, would be to see the Devil ascend the Mount where
our Lord delivered. his first sermon, and to hear him address the multitude on the Eight Beatitudes, in mimicry of
our Saviour, without any attempt during his discourse to
conceal either "his cloven foot or tail" from the congregation.
Do you wonder, Sir, why we Catholics laugh and
shudder at this, your first hierarchy? Can you be surprised why a learned Catholic trembles at this blasphemy
of the Holy Ghost, this mockery of Christianity, this jesting with God, this sporting with the Gospel, this jibing




LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.         301
with damnation? There is nothing like this scene of palpable mimicry of Christ and the Apostles to be found in
the entire record of the most insane infidelity. It surpasses in atrocious and tragic infamy, anything that has
ever-happened in the whole world; and it stands before
all mankind as the first page in the charter of your religion, the inauguration of your hierarchy, and the undoubted source of "the Reformation." There were many faithful, courageous Englishmen, who resisted this monstrous
iniquity, and if you wish to learn their names, go to the
prisons of your Apostle, where thousands of your coun'
trymen died in confinement; go to glorious France, where
hundreds of your relatives fled for safety; and, Sir, go to
the reeking block, where you can read in the martyred
blood of the illustrious More, the venerable Fisher, and in
the shameful murder of the noble Countess of Salisbury.
Read there the origin of your creed, the law of your Gospel, the decalogue of your ethics.
If these astounding scenes were enacted under the excitement of mere popular, or mere political fury, they
should not find a place in this letter to your Lordship,
which is intended for the discussion of the religious foundation of your Church; but they were the Acts of Henry,
as your ecclesiastical superior, [see Act,] they were exeouted in the name, and under the sanction of this new
Church; as such they were agreed to by the Drummonds,
and the Russells, and the Derbys of that day of English
infamy; and in the preambles of the Acts of Parliament,
the Assembly sat in deliberation "in the Spirit of the Holy
Ghost," and hence, these Acts of Henry, form, without con



302       LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.
tradiction, a record of your ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and
not of your political history. There is no generous, candid English Protestant, at the present day, who, I believe,
does not blush at the recital of these atrocities, and yet he
lives contentedly and unconsciously under the very same
hierarchal law; is governed by the reigning monarch as
the head of the Church; pays religious obedience in faith
and morals to the persons called, appointed, and commissioned to lead men's souls to heaven; and all this by virtue of the royal prerogative, as the supreme spiritual authority of the realm. Take away the crimes of your first
founder, and your present system is perfectly the saimenamely, human commission, human jurisdiction in the
kingdom of Christ! You might as well apply the laws
of gravitation to the soul, as to adopt a temporal rule to
produce the spiritual results of grace. You might as
well tell the world, that original sin is remitted in baptism
according to the laws of hydrostatics, as to assert that the
queen or king of any country can give, ex-oficio, a commission to save the souls of their subjects.
It is the Monarch alone of that Spiritual Kingdom who
can frame its laws, appoint his officers, give them authority, define their duties, and decide rewards and punishments; and this leads me to examine this principle of
supremacy in the reign of Edward the Sixth. Mr. Cobbet has already'glanced at this subject; but Mr. Cobbet
was no theologian-I am; and he confined his views to
England; I shall extend mine to every country in Europe where your Gospel has been preached; and I hereby humbly request of the Ambassadors of the Catholic




LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.        303
Courts now resident in London, (to each of whom I shall
send a copy of this letter,) that they will so far have mercy
on Ireland as to publish my proofs in each of their capitals, in order to inform their Nations of the insatiable injustice exercised towards us, by the cruelty of the English
Government, and to warn their countrymen of the danger
of permitting English missionaries and English spies to
reside amongst them, calumniating their creed and revolutionizing their laws.
One can scarcely avoid bursting out into a commingled
torrent of indignation, contempt, and horror, against a
band of plunderers, infidels, and assassins, who, in the
face of civilized Europe, could set up a child of ten years
of age as Pope the Second, thus placing the nation in a
position of spiritual ruin, and perpetuating the mad apostacy of the last reign. This, my Lord, is a new practicalspiritual phase of your Church. In the late reign, the
King proclaimed himself Pope; but here we have a born
Pope, a born Bishop, an Apostle in swaddling clothes,
coming into the world with a mitre on his head, the inspi.
ration of the Holy Ghost transmitted to him from his father
Henry, like freehold property, the grace of God running
in the child's pure blood by virtue of the character and
ecumenical position of his father; a born saint, like his father, and, like a child born with a wooden-leg, holding
the crozier in' his new-born hand, and wearing the mitre
on his apostolic-hereditary head!  Lord Derby, are you
serious in belonging to a system of such disgusting, incomprehensible follyl You might as well assert that a hawk
could beget a whale, as that a Bishop could be naturally




304        LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.
elaborated from the blood of Henry VIII. But this is
not all; this child-Pope made the "Book of Common
Prayer," and almost entirely drew up the Thirty-nine
Articles of what is called your creed.
And what renders the thing so utterly shameful, is, that
this weak, sickly boy, never perhaps, saw the book, or
read one of the Articles referred to; so that this principle
of the headship of the Church, which, in itself, is so ludicrous, is, besides all this, a most monstrous, notorious, palpable lie, as the baby-Pope, who is said to be head, has
actually, and in point of fact, no more part in this Reformation-jugglery, than the Gran "'-,rk. The idea of a
child making Articles of Faith, and t,.nposing prayers,
through an Act of Parliament as head of Christ's Church,
is so palpably ridiculous, that the Catholics at once ask
you: "What insanity has come over you, to leave a learned old Pope and a Council of Bishops, in order to follow
a child in a cradle and a Senate of shopkeepers?" Ybu
decide religion, as you decide the duty on your manufactures; you settle the way to Heaven, as you fix the direction of a turnpike road-namely, by a majority of votes;
and in the face of mankind you set up a baby in a cradle
as the expounder of the Gospel, although it cannot read;
as the teacher of the Gospel, although it cannot speak;
and as the head of your Church in all its duties, although
it has not got one idea in its head of any one thing in this
world!
But the principle has to be examined, in a new, astounding, third phase, viz:-After the death of Edward, it is
to be seen, residing in a young woman of six-and-twenty




LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.         s30o
years of age! of course, she too, is the sanctified descendant of the first head, Pope Henry. She, too, it seems,
inherits her father's sanctity; but the inspiration of the
Holy Ghost, does not fall upon her, till the mature apostolic age of twenty-six. Blessed family! to have men,
women, and children, all born apostles-angels of grace.
This lay Pope, this royal Nun, this consecrated virgin,
was the person who completed the inspiration of the farfamed Thirty-nine Articles of your Faith, not more than
ten of which, any educated respectable Protestant can conscientiously believe. Some of them are contradictory,
others absurd, and two or three of them impossible.
You, my Lord, who are so deeply read in canon-law, as
to see heresy in our cravats, and to read the violation of
your constitutional laws in our shoes and hosiery, will you
say how many of these articles do you believe? I never
knew any Protestant who had such a capacious draught
of sanctity. Lord John Russell, although a Presbyterian,
a Puseyite, a Methodist, a Protestant, and a Pagan, (as
he has expunged baptism,) does not, perhaps, believe
from these five creeds of his, so many as these Thirty-nine
Articles of Godliness. I believe it to be true, my Lord,
that; like razors made to sell, but not to shave; these Artiqles are made more for show than devotion. Excuse me,
mny Lord, if I, at the present moment, smile in your face,
at seeing your name enrolled in such an incongruous, insane system of absurdity, imposture, and infidelity.
But, my Lord, I amn not quite done with this young
lady-Pope. There is a new feature in her apostolic
reign, which we learn from Act of Parliament, passed in




3Q6       LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.
the year 1571, and in the thirteenth year of her reign, to
which I refer you. In this Act, passed by her Parliament of Englishmen, (manufacturers of faith,) and subscribed of course, by her holy hand, as head of your
church, it was enacted (Christ protect us!) that the crown
of England should descend, if she had no lawful heirs, to
her "natural issue." Do you blush, Lord Derby, to see
the crown of Alfred and Edward given by your evangelical Senate to such "an issue," by Act of Parliament!
Do you blush to see the head of your church subscribe
a public law of her own public shame! signing her hand
manual, to an act that would degrade the most infamous
inmate of the lowest of your London brothels-haunts of
pollution! I fancy it was this Act of Parliament which
Mr. Drummond read, on the night when he spewed the
filth of his Reformation creed on the spotless consecrated
Catholic virgins of Europe. He mistook them for the
virgin head of your church; he did-the wretched old
Reformer-he did mistake them; and in his filthy language he was protected by the Speaker, and thus applauded by the whole Senate of England. I say, Sir, he was,
and Catholic Europe should never forget the insult offered to their honor, their morality, and to their creed. My
Lord, what do you now say, so far as I have gone as yet,
to the early foundation of your " Reformed Church."
Amidst the records of the human race, there is a sense
of shame in the most abandoned, which prompts them to
conceal their personal crimes-wretches who have lost
every virtue, and are immersed in every vice, have still
left in their black hearts one small remnant of untainted




LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.        307
nature; namely, the inward feeling of condemnation of
their own guilt. It is so in the most degraded wretch
that expiates on the scaffold the enormities of a long obdurate life; it is particularly so in woman, whose -fine nature
can never be utterly trampled out by vice, but with her
life; and hence, when we find a Queen of a most powerful Empire, the head of a church calling itself Christian,
in the face of mankind, at the age of forty-nine, summon a
Parliament to make her prospective shame legal by English law! and when we behold herself in person sign
the record of her own crime —-she stands before the world
the vilest miscreant, the most abandoned wretch, the most
shameless monster, in woman form, that has ever stained
the profligate records of either ancient or modern infamy.
We have borne your calumnies too long in charitable forbearance-we have abstained these many past years from
repeating the anti-Christian, the scandalous, incongruous
tenets of your abhorrent creed-we have carefully kept
from the hands of the rising generation of Ireland the records of your Church infamies-we have actually robbed
our Irish children of the history of their fathers, in order
to maintain peace with you; but you have outraged our
endurance; you and your church party, both Whig and
Tory, have aided in calumniating us, with an indecency
of falsehood, that makes even bigotry blush; and you
forced us to come forward against our inclination, to recommence the exposure of your blood-stained creed, which
will end, as sure as I am penning these lines, in the overthrow of this iniquitous  establishment, and perhaps in the
degradation of your country. We shall no longer be si



308         LEfTER TO THE EARL OP DERBY.
lent on a system of religion, where your piety is vice —
where your Gospel is imposture —and the charter of your
creed is hypocrisy, shame, and sin. In order to meet the
objection, "that these Acts of Parliament had reference
to the political, the religious, not prerogative of Elizabeth," I subjoin the words of the Synod of London:
"The sovereign government of all her subjects, "lay and clerical, belongs to her in all matters without being subjected to anyforeign power."
Having thus glanced at the principle of the supremacy
of your Monarch, the next point in the regular order of
your hierarchy, is the ludicrous variety of your confessions of faith. From the year 1530 to the year 1557,
Protestantism has issued not less than eighteen confessions
of faith —all different, and varying not only in general
principles, but contradictory in most of the Articles of
Faith, and contrary on the same points of belief in not less
than four essential dogmas of Christianity. Your Confessions of Faith, are as follows: —Augsburg, 1530; Genoa,
1531; France, 1534; Melancthon's Apology, 1535;
Scotch Confession, 1536; Smlacald, 1537; Dort, 1541;
Szenger, 1543; Sendomar, 1546; Saxonic, 1551; Wurtemberg, 1552; Book of Concord, 1556; Explications
repeated, 1557.
Now, my Lord, if any one of our theories in chemistry,
in reference to the analysis, or the products of any chemical agents, underwent eighteen different, contradictory
and contrary demonstrations, is there any scientific scholar in the whole world, who would take his oath that all
these contrary theories were right: and, moreover, who
would hang, behead, and quarter any one who should re



LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.         309
fuse to take his oath in the same contrarities? And if
this doctrine in science would make all mankind shudder,
will you say in what language shall I attempt to explain
your faith, which ascribes to the inspiration of the Holy
Ghost, eighteen different systems of the grossest lies, the
most palpable contradictions, and absurd contrarities? If
the meanest man in Great Britain, were charged with wilful prevarication on his oath, in his statement in eighteen
different assertions, he would be branded as a debased
wretch, a public perjurer; and hence to ascribe thisiconduct to the Holy Ghost, in your eighteen sworn Confessions of Faith, is a depth of blasphemy, a hardihood of
insane iniquity beyond the comprehension of the impartial
observer;. but, like an old Juggler swallowing a dozen of
razors at a time; a feat which would kill twelve ordinary
men, your long habit of unpunished infidelity, has accustomed you to stand before the gates of heaven, and call
God a liar to his face. Saint Paul, endeavoring to express
to us unity of faith, could find no other image by which
he could convey his belief, except by likening it to the
unity of God, in that remarkable passage of Holy Writ,
where he writes to the Ephesians —" one Lord, one faith,
one baptism." As this language is so clear, it follows
that there cannot exist in true faith any change, contradiction, or contrariety, any more than in the very being of
God  and it follows, moreover, from the clear logic of the
text, that two or more faiths, are just as absurd as two or
more Gods.
But what signifies the testimony of St. Paul in comparison with that of Elizabeth, and what value can be at



310       LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.
tached to any scriptural record, when placed in juxta position with an English Act of Parliament! When a church
has arrived so far in the mysteries of faith, as to place at
the head of all spiritual power a monster, who has discarded three wives and murdered two; when it can propose for the salvation of the soul, a creed said to be made
by a child in a cradle; when a public sin against the sixth
commandment, by the head of a church is made legal by
an Act of the English Parliament; when the Holy Ghost
is publicly declared on oath, to have published for the
guidance of the soul in sanctity, eighteen avowed systems
of palpable lies, in' the short space of twenty-six yearsI fearlessly say, if these records cannot be disputed, there
is no candid Protestant who can complain if such a system
of perjury, pollution, and blasphemy, be vigorously denounced before the indignation and the horror of the entire
Christian world.
Notwithstanding these synodical contrarieties, we learn
the strange doctrine from "the Synod of Charteron," that
the entire varying Protestant communities of Europe are
still "the one society" of true Christian believers; that
eighteen different " distinct things " are the self-same "one
thing," is a proposition so utterly incomprehensible, as
even to surpass the phenomenon of your supremacy.
The only thing I ever read, which~ can at all approach
this article of your faith in point of absurdity is the Dutch
tragedy representing-Adam, about to be created: at a certain part of the tragedy, when all eyes are turned to the
deep, solemn tragedian, who is about to perform the act
of creation; Adam himself, the'first man, (though not yet




LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.         311
created,) comes out on the stage, with a new doeskin
breeches, boots, and spurs, to be created! With these
palpable absurdities, you call your Church the spouse of
of Christ-a lie which makes the skin creep, and the blood
run cold, to hear you connect with the name of the Saviour,
such an aggregate of obsceneness and impiety. From the
first year of your foundation, through the three hundred
years of your existence, no three individuals of your coreligionists could agree in doctrine; and at this moment
you present to the laughing world, a congregation divided
in all points, except the stereotype doctrine of "hatred of
Catholicity."
Lord John Russell, who can agree to almost any form
of Faith, cannot admit baptism; the Archbishop of Canterbury, who is paid oC24,000 a year for the gigantic
amount of his Faith, will not admit Holy Orders as necessary  even in time of general English cholera, our Doctor
Wheatley, in Dublin, the pre-anti-Catholic Archbishop
of Ireland, exempts unmarried clergymen from their attendance in blue Asiatic cholera. In their Lordships'
theological opinions, the attendance of clergy is only
necessary in fine weather, when new kid gloves can be
worn, when the tainted air does not blow from the east,
when the patient can receive these apostles on Turkey
carpets, and when there is no fear of the stench of the
dying'Christian coming "between the wind and their holy
nobility." And more strange than all, is the new change
of the Bishop of Exeter, approving the practice of "hearing confessions;" what an edifying Church you have!
What a venerated Senate!




31.2      LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.
You abuse, malign, and insult us, for the practice your
good Exeter now exclaims is the sure road to heaven.
And this is what you call the " enviable wisdom of the
English Parliament, and the evangelical unity of the Reformation." And these are the laws which you call on
us to respect and obey; this is the religion to which you
hope to convert the Irish people; and this is the creed
you offer to poor old Erin, in the fourteenth-hundredth
year of her Christian age. The venerable old lady, I assure you, is not accustomed to see her apostles dressed
in diamond rings and London boots. After her long
tuition under Saint Patrick, she is quite surprised to receive religious instruction from your Voltaires and Paynes;
she cannot understand why the education of Faith in
Christ, must be preceded by the knowledge of potash and
pyrites; and she is utterly astounded, to hear men assert
that the temple of the science of the saints must be approached through fields of SvWiedish turnips and nicelydrilled mangel wurtzel. After her long intercourse with
Columkill and Saint Bridget, she has learnt so completely
the Irish accent, that she can with difficulty comprehend
your Lordship's Saxon tongue; and although she has
often heard of the dialects of Greek, and the vocalic varieties of the Eastern languages, she has never understood,
till she read your Eighteen Confessions of Faith, how there
could be such a thing possible, as varieties and dialects in
the unchangeable professions of God's Gospel.
If you give me fair play, my Lord; if you do not set
your Times, and your Globe, and your Standard, and
your Punch, to ridicule and to abuse me; if you call on




LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY.        313
them to reply to me by argument, and not by abuse, I
undertake to rid this Nation of your Church Establishment, and thus to save for the Empire the eight and a
half millions annually, which it devours from the just
revenues of the naked widow and the starving orphan.
Depend upon it, my Lord, that I shall lay bare the appalling foundation of your Church, before I shall have concluded my next three letters on that subject. And believe
me, I shall convince yo~u, that it is far wiser to make Catholic Ireland your friend, than to make all Europe your
enemy; it is cheaper to secure the arms and the hearts of
one million of Catholic Irishmen by the words of truth,
honor, and justice, than to pay half a million a year to an
inefficient militia, by a useless, a pernicious, an angry taxation. Rely upon it, that your diplomacy will be more
respected and feared by foreign nations at seeing peace
than divisions in your own country; and take the advice
of an humble individual, when I presume to tell you, to
commence the next Parliament, (where you will keep
office precisely till the Christmas recess,) by retracing
your steps towards Ireland, and legislating for your country, not in the burning records of persecution and insult,
but in the imperishable laws of eternal truth and public
justice. And never forget the remarkable words of the
illustrious Lous Napoleon the -Third, "Woe beto him
(that is to you,) who gives the first signal of collision, the
consequences of which will be incalculable."
I have the honor to be, my Lord Earl, your Lordship's
obediept servant,
D. W. CAHILL, D. D.




DR. CAHILL  TO  THE  RIGHT  HON. LORD
VISCOUNT PALMERSTON.
CAMBRIDGE, February 23d, 1853.
MY LORD VISCOUNT-I feel much difficulty either in
renewing my correspondence. with you, or reviving the
controversy in the case of Madiai —that controversy is
now at rest. Proofs incontrovertible have been brought
before the public notice, to show that palpable misstatements have been made by English correspondents, and
by the universal press; and an additional case has thus
been placed on the records of English bigotry, to confirm
the public impression that the British Government will
grasp at any vague stories, and pervert every dubious
occurrence, in order to malign Catholic political legislation, and to belie the Catholic Church.
But, my Lord, I have, in the present instance, a graver
charge than all this to settle with your Lordship in the case
before us. I am come to accuse you and Lord John
Russell with a guilty suppression of the truth, on the
point at issue, in your ministerial capacity; and consequently arraign you both before this Nation and the Catholic world, of having encouraged, during the last eight
months, in this country public vituperation of the Catholic
Church, and the Catholic community; while at the same
time you both held in your hands the despatches from
your own ambassadors, which contradicted in toto this
unceasing and groundless insult to two-thirds of the citizens of this country, and the millions of the population of
those kingdoms, with which you state you hold interna



LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON.           315
tional and friendly relations. I owe it to the Catholics
of this country, to expose your unpardonable conduct in
this case, and I owe it to myself as a public writer, to
prove thd accuracy of my statements, and to demonstrate
the indubitable sources from which I have, in my late letters to the Earl of Carlisle, derived my political information.
I shall divide this letter into seven heads; and I beg to
assure you, that in the treatment of the subject, I mean
no personal offence either to your Lordship or Lord John
Russell. I am solely actuated by the desire of doing public justice to injured truth, placing the subject before the
impartial judgment of an honest British public, and warning them in future (an advice scarcely necessary,) against
giving implicit credence to any assertion of yours involving any statement where the Catholic Church, Catholic
Faith, Catholic practices, or the political laws of Catholic
States, are the subjects under your official examination.
Firstly, then, every one who has read the furious articles of the daily London press, must have been struck
this some time past, with the painful description given, of
"the appalling prison in which the Madiais were confined;
the damp floors on which they lived, the unendurable
penal dress in which they were clothed, the cruel treatment they received, the barbarous tyranny of excluding
all intercourse with their friends, and the murderous
results of this Papal persecution, which must very soon
end in the death of these most unoffending, most resigned
victims of Popish intolerance." Even Lord John Russell, writing on the subject to Sir Henry Bulwer, the pink




316           LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON,
of toleration and truth, has said, " It is the same thing in
effect," said his Lordship, "to condemn a man to die by
fire like Savornarola, or to put him to death by the slow
tortures of an unhealthy prison."
Here is the Foreign Secretary  himself joining in the
cry of the furious bigots, charging the Duke of Tuscany
with the indirect murder of the Madiai, and, as will presently appear, clearly prejudging the case.  This point
will, I fancy, be sufficiently proved by the following letter of Mr. Erskine, in reply to Lord John Russell, and
received by him on the 4th of the present month:"I am informed by-Mr Chapman," writes Mr Erskine, " an English
gentleman, who has interested himself most warmly in favor of the Madiai,
and who is permitted to visit them occasionally in prison, that he has
no fault to find with their treatment. The prison is in a healthy situation
at the top of a hill: and the infirmary in which the husband is lodged,
is in every respect as comfortable as any well regulated hospital for
persons at large. Mr. Chapman is equally satisfied with the attention,
bestowed on the physical wants of those Madiai at Lucca."
Again, we have an additional testimony in the Hon.
Mr. Scarlett, directed to your Lordship, December 19th,
1851, as follows:"In consequence of the great interest felt in the state of the Madiai, I
conversed with Rosa Madiai for some time in prison, and I am happy
to inform your Lordship, that the place of her confinement, though small,
is exceedingly clean, well ventilated, and warm. She possesses, by her
own admission, all the accommodation she requires under the circumstances. She makes no complaint of want of good food and clothing;
she has books to read, and she speaks in high terms of the superintendent of prisons, Mr. Peri: and she has not suffered in health."
Upwards of a year has elapsed since your Lordship
has received the letter referred to, and nearly a month
has expired, since Lord John Russell has heard the facts
issue from Mr. Erskine, and hence, -the public will learn
with surprise, that in place of the one retracting his mis



LETTER TIO0LORD PALMERSTON.         317
conceptions, or the other checking the misrepresentations
of the press, you both, on the contrary, have repeated,
on last Thursday night, in the House of Commons, (as is
reported,) nearly the same words, in the face of the public cognizance of the facts, and in the teeth of the official
letter of your public servants.  These brief remarks of
mine on this point, spoken in pity for you both, rather
than in anger, will, I fancy, settle lie the first.
Secondly, the entire press, Exeter HIall, and the inoculated conversion of private society, have all promulgated,
during the past eight months, "that there was no liberty
of conscience tolerated in Tuscany for any dissenting
creed."   This statement being perfectly understood,
what must be the astonishment of the thinking portion of
our community, when I inform them that in Leghorn, there
are, at the present moment, a Mahomedan Mosque, a Jewish Synagogue, and a Protestant Episcopalian Church;
that there are at least five thousand Jews residing there,
and possessing (as I am instructed to say,) about twothirds of the landed property of that district; and that
there is not even one instance on record where any Protestant, Methodist, Presbyterian, Jew, or any member of
any religion whatever, has ever been prevented from wor
shipping God as they may think proper in their own
houses of worship, and in their own families! - But, my
Lord, I have the authority of the Hon. Mr. Scarlett, your
official servant at Florence, in a letter written to yourself
on the same subject, nearly two years ago-viz., on the
22nd Aug., 1851-as follows:"I have been made aware by the Duke of Casigliano that all foreigners professing a different religion from that of the Roman Catholic, were




318        LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON.
always permitted in Tuscany, as much freedom of conscience-as thypleay'
ed in regard to themselves."
Here, my Lord, we have a clear statement made to
yourself nearly two years ago, giving an authentic account
of the point at issue; and yet you have in the midst of
the public misrepresentation of this country, kept the above
correspondence from the public eye-suppressed the clear
known truth at the very source of official information;
and thus, Sir, I impeach you before the whole world, of
the greatest crime a public officer can commit-namely,
cushioning a public document, and thereby encouraging,
and being a principal party to the slander, the censure,
and the calumny, which, during eight months of unprecedented bigotry in public meetings and acrimonious journalism, has been flung (through your culpable connivance)
on the temporal laws of an unoffending State, and on the
tenets of a Church, which even your own official organ
has been compelled to vindicate in the letter just quoted;
and this statement will, I trust, fully prove my second
point-or lie the second.
Thirdly, the public report has everywhere declared in
this country, that the Madiai have been condemned for
"reading the Bible."  To this statement is opposed the
fact, that Rosa Madiai had been a Protestant since 1847;
that she attended the worship of that church, and had
never been disturbed in reading the Bible, no more than
all those other religions-Jews, Mahomedans, Methodists,
Presbyterians, and all other foreigners referred to in the
foregoing letter of the Hon. Mr.'Scarlett; and this short
statement, my Lord, settles the proof of lie the third.
Fourthly, it has been industriously circulated, that at




LETTER TO LORD PALMIERSTON.           319
least no Tuscan Catholic dare change his religion and become a Protestant, under the heaviest penalties of the Papal law. To this statement of the English press, and to
this mistake of the universal.English people, it will be sufficient to quote an extract of a letter from Mr. Erskine to
Lord John Russell, on this partiqular point:"The Madiai. says he, are not, as is alleged, convicted of having
apostatised from the established (Catholic) religion, but of having sought
to seduce from that religion."
I shall not, my Lord, add one word to this appropriate
extract, which palpably demonstrates "lie the fourth."
Fifthly, the statement which through your connivance
produced the bitterest feeling in England, was that part
of the impeachment which declared " that all this tyranny
was to be ascribed to the authority of the Pope in Tuscany; and that all the consequences of this murderous
case, were to be traced to the doctrines of the Catholic
Church."
To this part of the question, it will be sufficient to say,
that the case at issue, is entirely one of the civil authority
of Tuscany, and has no more connection with what is called Papal authority (as such) than the submarine Telegraph
between Dublin and Holyhead has to do with the oath of
allegiance to the Queen of England.  The Duke of Tuscany could relax these laws, change them, modify them,
or abolish them altogether, without interfering in the
slightest degree with the principles of the Christian ceremony, which belongs to the province of what is known and
obeyed asthe Papal authority; and these observations
will make the public perfectly understand " lie the fifth."
Sixthly, the most malignant part, perhaps, of the entire




320         LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON.
English mania, is that view of the question, where, the
Catholic Clergy are represented as the sole instigators of
these laws and these penal enactments.  Your Lordship
has even given utterance to these sentiments in the reply
which you thought proper to make to the deputation,
which, having waited on you some few days previous, solicited your kind interference on behalf of the martyred
Madiai.  Your Lordship is reported to have said:"An Italian when he hears of the complaints made concerning the
restrictions imposed on reading the Scriptures, maintains that such restrictions are necessary, because,'if the people are allowed to read the
Bible, they would become Protestants either from conviction, or to escape the tyranny of Priests, and thus the Priests would be deprived of
power and support."
Without daring to contradict you, that no Italiahn can be
supposed to utter one word of what your Lordship states,
I am still very much puzzled, indeed, to comprehend the
statement you make, as it is founded upon a notorious
falsehood-namely, that the Italians are not allowed to
read the Bible. There are, in the first place, (as far as I
have learned,) upwards of forty editions of the Bible published within the last three hundred years on the Italian
Peninsula; and how, and why all this trouble, care, and
expense could be incurred by the crafty Italian booksellers; and why all these books, which "are to take all the
power away from the Priests," are tolerated by these allpowerful priests; or why they would print in such abundance books which no one is allowed to read, are really
such startling historical difficulties bound up with your
assertion, that I hope your Lordship will excuse me if I
shall take some considerable time before I believe what
you say.




LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON.         321
But pray, my Lord, in what part of Italy has your
Lordship heard this strange statement, or amongst what
description of persons has it been uttered? As the fact
to which you allude, is at variance with the doctrine of the
Catholic Church, which permits and encourages the reading of the Bible, it must, I am convinced, clearly turn out
that this statement must have been made to you by the
companions of Lord Minto in Italy —viz.: Mazzini, Garribaldi, and Ciceruacchio, &c. His being your family correspondent there, during the last five years of your administration, it is more than probable he is your authority
on the Bible-reading question; and, here, again, your
Lordship must excuse me, if for a moment I pause before
I receive his statements, even made through you, when
placed in contradiction to my own positive knowledge of
the subject confirmed by the world-wide doctrine of the
Catholic Church. Go on, my Lord, and continue your
correspondence, your statements, and your English bigotry; go on, and'have and enjoy your momentary
triumph; but it is more than probable, you will yet adopt
the language of the victorious Roman general —" Another
such victory will ruin me."
But, my Lord, there is a meaning rather significant in
this late speech to the Madiai deputation. Perhaps you
were speaking figuratively, as you did when you wept
over the destruction of the Convents and of the Colleges
of Switzerland —as you did when you interfered one week
too late in saving the lives of hundreds of persecuted Catholics from the murderous fire, and the inhuman butchery
of the free corps of the sanguinary Calvinists; or perhaps
11




322        LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON.
you intended to throw out some sage hint to your brother
Whigs (previous to Mr. Spooner's motion,) that the Irish
Priests have too much power in Ireland, and consequently that the clear plan of depriving them of their power
and their support, would be still more to join the Protestant Alliance; to turn all Ireland into a universal Clifden,
or a Connemara, or a Kells; to expend as much money
in repelling Catholicity, as you are now squandering to
guard against your maligned victims, the French. Perhaps, my Lord, this was your intention, (for what man
living is able to fathom you, except Lord Clarendon?)and if so, the Catholics of Ireland have gained one advantage from this calumnious, or figurative speech; namely,
they must be more than ever on their guard against your
machination; and these lengthened animadversions conclude all I have to say in reference to "lie the sixth."
Seventhly, the last most remarkable, and most embittering misstatement in this ministerial connivance, is that
part where the punishment of the Madiai "is represented
purely a spiritual tyranny, solely directed against the
Word of God, and intended by the Priests and the Tuscan
laws, to crush spiritual freedom of opinion, and the indefeasable rights of conscience."
These opinions have been circulated during the last
twelve months in every English journal, and the whole
mind of the British public, has been thus maddened by the
baneful prejudices of frenzy, arising from the continued
refuted publication of this anti-christian doctrine. And
what will Englishmen say now, when I shall lay before
them a letter which you received nearly two. years ago




LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON.            323
from the Hon. Mr. Scarlett, in which the very statement
at issue is denied; and the language of the most emphatic
denial communicated to you. Yet you have suppressed
that document, and by that suppression you have banded
the Protestants of this Empire in a course of falsehood and
furious insult against their Catholic countrymen; you have
looked on quietly, while you saw the Catholics urged into
unjust provocation, by an unusual outcry against us, while
at the same time, you retained for eighteen months the
very document which would cure the public rancor, and
restore peace to your injured and insulted Catholic subjects. The document referred to, is a letter you received
August 29th, 1851, an extract of which is as follows:"The Policy of the Tuscan government could not permit foreigners
to temper with the religion of the native subjects of Tuscany, more
especially at this time, as it is notorious that the pretended conversions
to Protestantism were a MASK for carrying out political views, which
were intended to sap theftundations of governments in Italy."
I shall not take away from the force of this extract by
adding any remark of my own.  This is my last point in
this unpleasant subject, and I now fearlessly assert, that,
in all your political career, during the last six years, there
is no one phase in your offidal capacity, which places you
before your country in so discreditable a position, as the
clear proofs of your having witnessed the grossest lies
published against Catholic States and people, while you
held in your hands the very official documents, the bare
inspection of which, would in one day, have spared this
country such scenes of degrading bigotry, as has no parallel in any country on the face of the civilized world; and
these demonstrations leave no doubt whatever as to "lie
the seventh."




324        LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON.
What a suitable time it was to open a mission of Godliness, just when the Pope was driven from the Vatican!
when Naples was enveloped in the flames of revolution!
when your friend and your-correspondent, Kossuth, had
nigh overturned Austria! and when your victim, Charles
Albert, was on his deathbed, broken-hearted! No language can sufficiently condemn the palpable scheme of
revolution, devised by a set of British officers, under the
appearance of prayer and the Word of God. What a
Godly, appropriate time, to commence the work of the
Reformation of Tom Cromwell and Somerset! But,
above all, my Lord, what an appropriate set of apostles
began the work; namely, Captain Walker, Captain Wilson, and a full military staff of evangelizers! how like the
work of God in such hands, and at such a time. I am
surprised that the French never conceived such a holy
design as this, during the rebellion of 1798 in Ireland, and
send a batch of French officers to Munster, like Ledru
Rollin, General Cavaignac, and others, to evangelize the
Irish, just at the moment when Hoche was approaching
Bantry Bay, with ten thousand men. Why, my Lord,
the heart sickens at contemplating the palpable audacity
of the English spies, in their cool attempt to persuade the
world that they mean to preach the Gospel, while the
swords and the muskets of their perjured apostles appear
beneath their crimsoned surplices.
My Lord, I am not influenced by any desire to give the
smallest offence or discourtesy to any one of her Majesty's
Ministers; I am, in my inmost soul, solely governed by a
conviction that you and your Whig associates have been




LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON.        325
running, during the last few years, a most disastrous
course; that you have laid a fatal plan of overturning Catholicity by falsehood, by misrepresentation, and by stratagem; that you have, perhaps unconsciously, been the
advocate of the most notorious revolutionists of Europe;
that you have made fierce and lasting enemies of some of
the most powerful kingdoms on the Continent; that you
have, beyond all doubt, been laying the foundation of the
ruin of your own country; that you are, at this moment,
squandering the public money in building harbors, equipping armaments, constructing fortifications, preparing
fleets to resist an aggression, which your own palpable
bigotry has excited against you; and that in the midst of
all these warlike preparations you neglect the chief
defence, the only defence-namely, cultivating the universal love, the undoubted allegiance, of the whole people to the throne, and giving vigor to tile blood, and
nerve to the arms which are to feed the cannon, and man
the ships, and lead the assault on the enemy.
Lord Palmerston, do not reject an advice coming from
the humble individual who has the honor of now addressing you.; high as is your ministerial flight, higher points
can be reached than you have yet attained, and you may
fall from the perilous eminence when you least expect it;
you are not beyond the reach of other men: the lowly
twig on which the meteor eagle has just but a moment
ago stood in pride, can be pointed with the barbed steel
and propelled to reach the lordly bird in his highest
flight, and it can pierce him too as he floats on the summit
point of the giddy elevation; depend upon it, my Lord,




326       LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON.
that when you expose yourself, a steady aim from a
watchful antagonist may reach your outspread wing, and
lay you prostrate on the plain. I have long considered
you the most plausible, the cleverest man in the British
Ministry of any shade of politics. I believe you also to
be the greatest enemy that the Catholic Church has ever
had during the last three centuries, and I am persuaded
that unless your Sovereign dismisses you from her Councils, you will, in furthering the ends of your insatiable and
unmitigable bigotry, involve our common country in irretrievable ruin. And I pray you not to make light of
these remarks of mine; you must excuse me, if I tell you
that I have as perfect sources of information on the subjects on which I write, as your Lordship can have; and
that while you have your Parliament to cheer you at St.
Stephens, I have my Parliament to cheer me wherever
the English language is spoken, and have friends to publish these remarks which I here make in every capital in
Europe.
I beg -of your Lordship to believe, that I am not an
enemy of the State; no, I am a sincere friend, as far as
my humble power can go. I am grateful to the past Governments of England for every boon they have bestowed
upon my unhappy country. Every one of my profession
are grateful for the efficient education you have extended
to our rising generation of the poor; we thank you for
your generosity in educating our national Priesthood;
we would fain be grateful to you for preserving the lives
of our peasant population against the ruthless extermination of the needy Orange landlords of Ireland, but you




LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON.           327
will not give us the occasion. You speak of your just
laws on this subject, we point to the emigrant ship; you
expatiate on the rights of property, we point to the red
grave; you write on the civil liberty of the English constitution, we point to "the crowbar;" you draw up long
statistics of your impartial justice, your national prosperity;
we point to the deserted village; you descant at public
meetings called in the name of religion on the universal
benevolence of your Church; we read the advertisements
in the Times for servants, with a nota bene " no Irish Catholic need apply." Ah, my Lord, not all your plausible
speeches and your able diplomacy can conceal from the
world the palpable afflicting fact, that the Legislature of
Great Britain is spoken with lips of honey, but written in
rivers of blood-is published abroad in wreaths of roses,
but felt within in our aching hearts, in the cold iron of
persecution; like the apples in the Lake of Sodom, you
offer us fine fruit in appearance, but jis poison in the taste.
The persecuting Protestant Church is the great Legislator of England; it is the great editor of England; it is
the amusing novelist of England; it is the Prime Minister
of England; and it is the parish beadle of England; it is
the painter, it is the sculptor, it is the traveller, it is the.teacher, the preacher, it is the general and the admiral,
and, alas! in all and each of these pursuits, positions, arts,
&c., it is the base maligner of Catholicity, the unscrupulous asserter of every falsehood which converts this country into a fierce battle-field, and makes Christianity resemble rather the malevolence of Satan than the charity of God.
Pray, can you tell, my Lord, what will be the next




328        LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON.
assault of Parliament against Catholicity. Tell us, pray,
my Lord, that we may be prepared for the voluminous
misrepresentations of your press, your pulpit, your Exeter
Hall, and your Senate House.' Is there any tale of scandal in reference to a Nun on the Continent of Europe, a
Convent in Asia, a Bishop in the Pacific?  Can there be
no story made out against a schoolmaster for whipping a
child, contrary to Martin's Act?  Can there be no indictment forged against Nuns, for withholding legs of mutton,
bitter ale, and apple-tarts, from orphans placed in their
charge? Is there no Priests to be exposed for asking
questions in the confessional on the subject of sin, to the
inexpressible horror of the spotless innocence, and of the
hysterical disedification of the angelic purity of your Divine Church? Is there no book in the Catholic Church
which defiles the transparent mind of Protestantism, and
which, therefore, ought to be brought before Parliament,
and there receive the just irrevocable condemnation of the
accredited judges of Christian morality and evangelical
perfection? Can no Act of Parliament be framed against
the unrighteous length of our Clerical surtouts, made as
they are, according to a Papal pattern, and with the clear
intent of ridiculing the Russell paletot!
Ah, my Lord, you have overbalanced yourself-you
have brought derision on your Government and on your
Administration, and you have made the name of Whig be
the by-word of broken faith and official perfidy-you are
at war with the whole world and with God-your shavebeggars in Canada, in India, in Australia, at the Cape, and
at home, are the theme of universal complaint in the en



LETTER TO LORD PALMERSTON.         329
tire journals of the country; and, in reference to my unfortunate, persecuted, plundered country, I have heard
from the lips of the illustrious, the venerable, Lord Cloncurry, that in all his experience, he "had never known
more than two Viceroys wko knew anytking of the government in Ireland." In the future speeches which you may
deliver on the state of Catholicity on the Continent, and
on the character of the Pope, and the conduct of the
Priests, do, I pray you to persevere, Sir, in your ridicule
and misstatements. All the world now understands you,
and that it happens the contrary of your statement is the
truth. Do not, therefore, Sir, malign us by your praise;
do, Sir, if you please, compliment us and our Church by
your distinguished misrepresentations. Do us the favor
of your disapprobation, and give us the character, before
all Europe, which knows you, of having earned the imperishable honor of your ministerial malignity. In these
remarks, founded on historical evidence, I fancy I am
the best friend of England's security, and the truest servant of the stability of the throne in thus exposing a system of policy, which has convulsed our entire national relations abroad, and has disturbed the universal peace of
our fellow-subjects at home. I have the honor to be, my
Lord Viscount, your humble servant, &c.
D. W. CAHILL, D.D.
N. B.-I shall send a printed copy of this letter to
your Lordship, but I do not expect an answer; and I shall
enclose a copy of it to all the foreign ambassadors of the
Catholic Courts resident in London, that they will dojustice to the injured cause of Catholicity, by publishing it in
their respective capitals.




DR. CAHILL TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE
THE EARL OF CARLISLE.
"I am aware that it is thought by many, that, so far from the case o;
the Madiai being a solitary instance, the prisons of Italy are at this moment crowded with the victims of religious persecution. *  *  They
have continually assured us, that the old principle and codes of intolerance, once certainly (and I readily admit, not exclusively) attached to
their Church, had fallen into practical disuetude, and were viewed by
them with at least as much abhorrence as by ourselves. We gave them
credit for the generous self-assertion. I will not waste your space by
a reference to what is of so little moment, as my c wn career; but I feel
that on the whole, it has not lagged in sympathy for their just rights.
What has since happened? A man is in danger of meeting with his
death under a judicial sentence, for the offence of reading the Bible.
The fact, as far as yet I know, is not controverted. It is known there
are some-it is believed there are many undergoing similar risks.
I must repeat, that upon the mode in which the Roman Catholic body
at large treat these contemporary occurrences, their place in the estimation even of their most sincere well wishers must largely depend."
(Extract of Lord Carlisle's Letter to the "Leeds Mercury.'"')
CAMBRIDGE, January 27, 1853.
3MY LORD EARL,-I have been very much impressed,
indeed, to learn from the London journals of yesterday
morning, that your Lordship has allied your most respected name, and added the prestige of your exalted character, to the insatiable calumniators of the Catholic creed;
and that, in the composed moments of a deliberate letter,
you have not only thought proper to make statements at
variance with historical, legal, and ecclesiastical records;
but, even, as may be gathered from the above extract, to
introduce half assertions and covert insinuations, almost
approaching to a sneer, below the dignity of Lord Morpeth, and the-world-wide reputation of the Earl of Carlisle. Having followed, for many years, the influential




LETTER TO THE EARL OF CARLISLE.        331
language of your advocacy of my unhappy country, it is
with great pain, that I have read your authority quoted
at Exeter Hall, by the unrelenting enemies of Ireland;
and although I should not have condescended to reply to
the scandalous misstatements, which issue like a foul torrent against Catholicity, from the overflowing daily publications of this country, your name demands an immediate
reply, and your services to Ireland, d-emand the most
graceful answer, which personal respect and public gratitude can diciate.
You are well aware, my Lord, that the writings of Voltaire, Diderot, D'Alembert, and Frederick of Prussia, and
many others, deluged the eastern and southern parts of
Europe, during the latter part of the eighteenth century.
These political and religious, revolutions proscribed all
monarchical and Christian institutions; "liberty and
equality," were the two principles which their disciples
published and advocated; and the united efforts of the
most abandoned men that the world ever'saw, were concentrated in the unchristian, sacrelegious, and treasonable
combination to " uproot the altar and the throne." In
order to carry out their principles of disorder, infidelity,
and vengeance, they met together under the name of "a
new and higher degree of Freemasonry, called Illumine-ism," and their places of meeting were so numerous, particularly in France, that Diderot was heard to say, "We
have at this moment enrolled in our society upwards of
six hundred thousand men, opposed to civil tyranny and
Papal authority."
The German Protestants followed in the wake of these




332      LETTER TO THE EARL OP CARLISLE.
revolutionists, and under the pretext of holding meetings
for religious worship, aided, as history asserts, the progress of the infidels against Catholicity. It was under
these circumstances, that both France and the Italian
States took the alarm, and passed laws to protect the
State and the Altar; and hence, in the year 1786, the
Tuscan Government enacted a law against ", private conventicles," which prohibited any one to hold a meeting
in- his own house, or to form a meeting in the house of a
third party, under any pretext whatever —even of religion, without the sanction, and the written legal license of
the civil authorities.
Two points, are therefore clear, from these premises;
namely: this Law, which was never before known in Tuscany, grew out of the acknowledged and patent danger of
civil revolution; and secondly, that Law had no reference
whatever, either directly or indirectly, to forbidding the
circulation of the Word of God, or punishing the reading
of the Bible. Its object was, definitely to refuse hiding
places to bands of sanguinary infidels, and to scatter the
dens of perjured revolutionists.
This is the Law under which the " martyred Madiai"
have been condemned-a Law, be it remembered, introduced for the first time into Tuscany, in 1786; and framed,
not against the Word of God, but against perfidy; not
against religion of any kind, but against blasphemy; not
against liberty, either civil or religious, but to protect
God and man from a scene of blood and devastation,
which these monsters soon after enacted in the streets of
Paris, in the autumn of 1791. The slaughter in that city




LETTER TO THE EARL OF CARLISLE.       333
on that disastrous day, the succeeding war of Europe, the
blood spilled in Spain, Portugal, Germany, Russia, and
Italy, and your own National Debt —all demonstrate the
prudence of Tuscany in the Laws of 1786, and prove,
beyond all contradiction, that your Lordship has made
misstatements, in ascribing ecclesiastical tyranny in what
you are pleased to call "the Roman Church," to the prudent and essential enactments of the Tuscan Government.
The Catholic Church, therefore, has no necessity to retrace her steps; her office, at present, is rather to teach
history to English Lords; and to entreat poets, that, before
they make speeches or write letters, they will pay more
attention to their loose statements, and be convinced, that
the applause of Leeds, is a small compensation for the
cutting and lasting iron of the Catholic historians of Europe.
I am now come, my tord, to the precise case at issue,
viz., the case against the Madiai; and I assert, that they
have not been visited by a "judicial sentence," as you are
pleased to write, for the reading of the Bible. I regret,
for the sake of your Lordship, that you have written these
words. Beyond all contradiction, you are unacquainted
with the case, and, therefore, your misstatement is the
result of very great culpability. Under a decided ignorance of the fact, you charge the Catholic Church with
intolerance; you awaken bitter rancor in hearts not yet
cooled down from a late religious burning phrenzy, which
has no parallel in Europe; and you call upon all the Catholics in these countries to "earn your future esteem," by
condemning laws which have never existed; and branding




334       LETTER TO THE EARL OF CARLISLE.
Tuscany for crushing the progress of civil revolution.
As I hold in my hand the indictment of the Tuscan Attorney-General, I can command your Lordship's attention, while I again beg leave to instruct you in the revival
of the law of 1786, and its practical application to the
case before us.
The history of Europe records in letters of fire, tha
scenes of revolutionary violence which have been enacted
-during the last six years in Switzerland, Hungary, France,
Naples, and Northern Italy. You are, I am convinced,
acquainted with these facts, and you have no doubt been
made familiar with the names of Lord Palmerston, Lord
John Russell, Lord Minto, Lord Cowley, Sir Stratford
Canning, and young Sir Robert Peel. And, no doubt,
you have heard of Garibaldi, Cicerouacchio, Paruzzi, the
free corps of Berne, and the Red Republicans of at least
five European kingdoms; and I dare say, you have seen
each and every one of the revolutionists; have had the honor of corresponding with her Majesty's Ambassadors at
the various Courts, being personally known to them, receiving presents from some of them; and, above all, of
being patronized by those official English noblemen and
gentlemen, at the very time when these incendiaries were
about to involve their respective countries in civil war,
banishing their lawful sovereigns, and preparing for unlimited spoliation and universal treason.
These are facts, my Lord, which may be read in the
records of every city, from Constantinople to Turin, and
from Berlin to Naples; in each of which cities, beyond
all doubt, they, the English Embassies, were the public,




LETTER TO THE EARL OF CARLISLE.        335
palpable places of resort of the revolutionists. In this
crisis, the Tuscan Government, finding herself threatened
on all sides, as in the end of the last century, and from
none more, than the paid spies of the English Government, revised, for the first time these last fifty years, Article 60 of the Law of the 30th Nov., 1786, and attached
new binding restrictions to the ancient Law in Article
1, 4, 9, 14, on March 4th, 1849; and they gave increased
power to their officials in Articles 34 and 35 of the Tuscan Police Regulations. But the revival of this Law in
1849, had no reference to the prohibiting of the Word of
God; its sole object being, as was the case in 1786, to
protect the State from the explosive elements of universal
revolution.
The law referred to, is "The Tuscan Convention Act,"
which prevents men, under the appearance of religion,
from meeting privately without the sanction of the civil
authority. And, here again, may I beg to ask you, if this
Law was not most prudent, seeing the French king hunted from his throne; the Pope concealing himself in civilian dress, as he fled from the Vatican; the Emperor of
Austria threatened with imminent danger; the King of
Sardinia killed by treachery; and the King of Naples all
but expelled his dominions?  It was in this crisis that a
well-known band of fifty English evangelizers entered
Florence; and, dividing themselves into five sections of
ten each, proceeded to open several conventicles in this
small city. They neither had, nor sought a license. Having a place of public Protestant worship in Florence, it
may be asked why have there been so many private un



336       LETTER TO THE EARL OF, CARLISLE.
licensed conventicles?  Again, I have examined the statistics of the city of Rome, and I learn that fifty Protestant families are the largest number ever known to have
resided there during the winter; twenty, the largest number in Florence, in the same season. Wherefore, then, the
ten conventicles unlicensed? And this too, during the,
year when the surrounding countries were shaken to their
foundations. Rosa Madiai resided in England sixteen
years, and returning to Florence, became, and was a Protestant during five years previous to the trial referred to.
She read the word of God to which you allude, during
these five years without molestation; she could go to
church without hindrance; and consequently your Lordship's statement in reference to "the offence of reading
the Bible," is a shameful misstatement, wholly without
foundation either in law or fact.
But I will tell your Lordship the offence of Signora
Madiai and her "dear" husband. They perseveringly
held closed-door conventicles against the warnings of the
police, repeated ten times; they distributed at least eleven
thousand copies of your Bible, containing, as I can prove,
upwards of sixteen hundred variations from the original
text: persuaded, inveigled, and bribed the Italian children to come to these five conventicles, to hear their instructions, and to take these anti-Catholic sources of instruction: they were associated with several coiporteurs,
as they are called, in sending these Bibles through the
country: they had indecent pictures of the Blessed Virgin in fly-sheets, to be distributed by two players of barrel organs, whom they hired for the purpose: they had




LETTER TO THE EARL OF CARLISLE.       337
slips of paper, on which was written in large letters in
Italian, " wafer-gods:" they had pictures of Purgatory,
with representations of souls looking through the bars,
and the priest in soutanne, bargaining with them for two
"scuddi:" they had uttered most indecent things of the
"Confessional," and ended all these readings of the word
of God by an attack on the Pope, characterizing him, as
the man of sin-the Antichrist.
This case, perhaps, the most atrocious that can be imagined against the feelings, the convictions, the conscience,
and the peace of their quiet and unoffending neighborsand expressed by your Lordship as "' reading the Bible,"
was decided on the 8th of June last, by Signor Niccola
Nervini, and the penalties of the violated law enforced.
The "judicial sentence," therefore, has been pronounced
against individuals palpably in connection with wealthy
English associates; men who could import eleven thousand Bibles; pay colporteuzrs, as Clarendon did in Spain;
employ barrel organ players; print caricatures of Catholicity; revile the laws of the country; insult the Pope;
defy the police; ridicule our Holy Eucharist; pay printers for a constant supply of all sorts of fly. sheets, and entertain with great expense, the fifty holy men who would
not read the Bible in a public church, but make the Word
of God a pretext for maligning the laws, creating civil
strife, and violating the public peace!
If the Duke of Tuscany, or any one else-no matter
who he may be, imposed civil penalties for the religious
opinions which his subjects may quietly and individually
adopt, I should be the first to raise my voice against him,




338       LETTER TO THE EARL OF CARLISLE.
and cry him down as a sanguinary persecutor. But he
has enforced the laws of his state against covert revolutionists, public calumniators, a band of foreign conspirators, and the unrestrained hired disturbers of the public
peace. And pray, my Lord, on what authority do you
state, that the prisons of Italy are "crowded with victims
of persecution?" I call for your authority, and I firmly
demand it. I know you are an historian and a scholarI respect your high acquirements, but I demand the authority on which you utter this most false assertion. I
challenge your Lordship to produce it; and I hereby undertake to say, that where the prisons are full, they are
filled with the followers of Mazzini and Garibaldi, and
with the known cut-throats of Italy.
Leaving the laws of Tuscany, my Lord, for a moment
to be.executed by the Italians, let me now turn to examine our laws on this identical point. And as I have formed an exalted idea of th'e honesty and religious feeling of
the English people as a nation, I shall not allude to times
gone by, when Acts of Parliament were passed, which,'I am convinced, make the present generation blush in
shame; when churches and lands were seized to the
amount of at least fifty millions of our present currency;
when laws were enacted against nonconformists and recusants, which, by fines, banishment, and death, made at
least seventy thousand victims in England and Ireland;
when to pray to God in public, was death; to read or
write anything under a teacher was felony; and, when it
was a crime even to be alive.
I shall not allude to these days, my Lord but shall con



LETTER TO THE EARL OF CARLISLE.       339
fine myself to the law called, "Dissuading from Worship."
This law, which was passed 35th Elizabeth, c. 1. s. 1., and
afterwards confirmed by the 3rd of Charles the First, c.
iv., inflicted fine and confinement on any person who
would" disuade another from frequenting the Protestant
worship, and who would hold a conventicle for the same."
But your Lordship will assert, as is your custom, that this
law has fallen into disuetude. Quite the contrary, my
Lord; as the present Lord Gainsborough has been persecuted for holding a private unlicensed conventicle, and
reading the Wor& of God in the same; and although his
Lordship, like Madiai, set up a plea that he was only
"reading the Bible," he was fined t20 by an English
judicial sentence, and if he had not paid the money on
the spot, lie would have been confined, like your Italian
martyrs, in an English Bridewell.
Hereis a case partly in point, my Lord, which cannot
be denied; and visited by English penalties although it
wanted the second ingredient of the Madiai case, viz., a
covert revolution against the State, and palpable combination with foreign conspirators. But, perhaps, your
Lordship will again say, this odious law is now at least
obsolete. Far from it. It is still unrepealed, and remains in
your Statute Book, to be enforced to-morrbw, against any
offending British subject, as well as Lord Gainsborough.
For proof of this, I beg to refer your Lordship to the Sixth
Report (page 110) of the Law Commissioners appointed
to revise what are called the Catholic Toleration Laws in
the year 1839, two years after the accession of our present gracious Queen. Their report is as follows:
"None of the Roman Catholic Toleration Laws make any mention of




340        LETTER TO THE EARL OF CARLISLE.
the 35th Elizabeth, or describe the offences therein contained. These
offences consist in the inciting of others, by a person who obstinately
refuses to repair to the church, to abstain from going there, or to frequent unlawful places of worship. Hence, there is no mode under the
existing law by which a Roman Catholic who commits any of the offences can avoid the penalties."
Here is the precise case of the Madiai; divested of the
revolutionary element (propagando Protestantismo,) here
is the exact case, so far as it goes, of obstinately refusing to frequent the Tuscan Church, and dissuading others
from the same; so that your Laws condemn for a minor
offence, what is only visited with the same penalties in
Tuscany when combined with covert conspiracy and political revolution.
From these premises, my Lord, it turns out, strangely
enough, that your condemnation of the Duke of Tuscany,
applies with far greater force, unintentionally on your
part, of course, to our gracious Queen: that the speeches
at Exeter Hall must be fairly shared by the Court of St.
James's with the Tuscan monarch: that the deputation of
Lord Roden has been a silent reproach on our own divine
laws; and that the deputation from Prussia to Tuscany,
at present in contemplation, would do well to come by
way of London, and make a remonstrance to our beloved,
upright, and decorous Lord John C.ampbell, before they
open their sacred mission on the Italian Peninsula.
You must, I dare say, my Lord, thus concede to me,
that I am well furnished with an accurate knowledge of
the Tuscan laws, with a clear statement of all the circumstances of the case at issue: that similar laws, divested of
revolution, remain unrepealed in your own country, and
have been enforced on a man still alive; and hence, I call




LETTER TO THE EARL OF CARLISLE.             341
apon you, as a sincere friend of Ireland, and of her persecuted, maligned creed, either to substantiate your unexpected charges, or withdraw your name from the list
of our calumniators. We are trodden down by a numerous host of unprincipled revilers, but Ireland has hearts
and tongues, and pens, still to sustain the ancient traditions of her unblemished patriotism, and fearlessly to defend, even unto death, those points in the citadel of her
creed where Augustin and Jerome once stood, clad in
the invincible armor which had never been pierced by
the spear of the enemy!
I have the honor to be, my Lord Earl, with the most
profound and grateful respect, your Lordship's obedient
servant,
D. W. CAHILL, D.D.
P. S.-I shall send a printed copy of this letter to your
Lordship, and any communication which you may condescend to address to St. Paul's Square, Liverpool, cannot fail to reach me.
THE EARL OF CARLISLE TO DR. CAHILL.
REV. SIR-Having sent my letter to a newspaper, and thus exposed
it to any remark, refutation, or censure it might meet with, it is not my
intention to enter into further controversy on the subject; but as you
have done me the honor to call my notice to a letter you have written
in reply, drawn up in a spirit of much courtesy to myself, as well as
with very great ability, I think it right to acknowledge the receipt of
your communication.
Upon the case in question, I content myself with observing, that in
the report I had read of the sentence pronounced upon the Madiai, one
of the distinct counts or heada of accusation is, that they had been en



342       LETTER TO THE EARL OF CARLISLE.
gaged in reading the Bible ( translated by Diodati,) in company with
three persons and a young girl, who was an inmate of their house; and
another is that Francesco Madiai had given a prohibited version to a
young man of sixteen. I am willing to admit, that'I should have expressed myself with more entire accuracy if I had said "under a judicial sentence for the offence of reading the Bible, and other acts of
proselytism."
I am not prepared to name any authorities for my assertion, "that
it is thought by many that the Italian prisons are filled with victims of
religious persecution."  The authority I give is my own. IT Is thought
by many; I have found the impression current in the society in which I
have mixed, and if it is a false one, it is certainly desirable that the
public mind should not be disabused.
I regret that from recent change of place this brief communication
will not reach you so soon as I should have wished.
I have the honor to be, Rev. Sir, your humble servant,
February 5, 1853                              CARLISLE.
REV. DR. CAHILL'S REPLY,
CAMBRIDGE February 6, 1853.
MY LORD EARL,-I beg leave to offer to your Lordship,
the unfeigned expression of my profound acknowledgments for the courteous promptitude of your generous and
characteristic letter, to the humble individual who has had
the honor of addressing you.
The Roman Catholics of Great Britain, who justly value your manly political career, -and my unfortunate countrymen, who owe to your consistent sympathy a debt of
national gratitude, will be rejoiced to learn from your
communication to me, that part of your charges against the
political government of a Catholic Sovereign was founded upon mere current English reports; and thatthe remaining portion of your public letter, arose from the circumstance of your not being minutely acquainted with the
indictment and the judicial sentence of the Madiai.




LETTER TO THE EARL OF CARLISLE.           343
I shall not dwell long on this point, except to assure
the accomplished, the high-minded, and the chivalrous
Earl of Carlisle, that he stands acquitted on the charge of
oining the ranks of our remorseless calumniators, or of
wounding our grateful national feelings.
I shall now, my Lord, take advantage of your sugges-ton, in reference to "disabusing the public mind of the
false impressions;n the Madi case, current in English
society;" and I shall direct your attention to the two
leading misrepresentations circulated with such industrious malignity in this country.
The first false impression which anti-Catholic journalism has stamped on the credulous, honest English mind,
arises from a passage in the reply of the Duke of Cassagliano to Lord Roden, viz:
"The Madiai, Tuscan subjects, to whom you refer, have been condemned to five years' imprisonment, by the ordinary tribunals, for the
crime of propagating Protestantism."
The second false impression sought to be made, is founded on the misstatement, namely: "that the Madiais are
punished for merely reading the Bible."
By the first statement, English Protestants are called
on to believe that a Catholic power punishes Protestantism as a mere religious tenet; by the second misrepresentation, they are urged into the calumnious conclusion
that the Tuscan Laws prohibit the Word of God, and
make penal the reading of the Scriptures. I assert then,
my Lord, that the first position is notoriously false, and
is contradicted by the clearest records of continental history; and I say that the second is a flagrant lie, and receives a flat peremptory denial from the charge of the




344       LETTER TO THE EARL OF CARLISLE.
judge, who was president of the court, and who pronounced the judicial sentence of condemnation on the Madiai.
In proving the first point, I regret being compelled to
recal past events of European history, which every generous heart would fain bury in perpetual oblivion, and
which makes every honest and honorable mind shudder,
at contemplating these crimsoned pages, and these antichristian deeds of our history, written in the days of " reformed gospel light, and executed in the name of God.But these chronicled facts are necessary in the present
instance, in order to show that the word Protestantism,
in its commencement, its progress, and its final consummation, did not mean, nor ever has been understood to mean,
in the history of Catholic Europe, the mere element of a
certain religious faith. No, my Lord, decidedly not; it
means, and has ever meant, in tht incontrovertible records
of European history, an aggregate of tenets, and a body
of collateral practices clashing with Catholicity, as a conscientious creed, opposed to the sacred ties of Catholic society, originated in professed hostility against the spiritual head of the Catholic Church, and leagued by the doctrine of their first founders against Catholic monarchy,
and Catholic political power. If these assertions be true
as recorded, not by me, but by the Catholic historians of
Europe, is it not a mean suppression of the truth to assert,
that the Italian States prescribe Protestantism, as a mere
conscientious creed; whereas, wherever the word occurs,
it means the aggregate of the historical indictment to
which I have just referred. You must understand me, my
Lc -d; I am not in this letter making these charges; cer



LETTER TO THE EARL OF CARLISLE.          345'
tainly not; I am explaining the language of the Laws of
Tuscany and of other Catholic States, in the case before
us; and in the succeeding part of this communication we
shall see, if they are justified in their legislation on the
aggressors of Protestantism, according to the universally
received continental impression.  I regret, sincerely, my
Lord, the cause, and the existence of these impressions; I
should efface them if I could; but I must take them as I
have read them, heard them, and, in fact, felt them; I
have not made the case, I merely exposed it.
Firstly, then, my Lord, Luther and associates, with one
blow struck down, as'the first.precept of his decalogue,
the spiritual authority of the Pope, as supreme head of
the Church; and this point being the very main-spring
of Catholicity, it is no wonder that such a levelling aggression should arouse the vigilance of every Catholic
dynasty in Europe; and this step was not an impulse of
the man, but a doctrine of his new creed, and violently
enforced to this day.
Secondly, he and his entire evangelical staff, ehcouraged polygamy; and, of course, plurality of wives, by
granting officially permission to the Landgrave of Hesse
to marry a second wife, the first being still living. And
this permission he gave not from the caprice of the mistaken friend, but from the new creed of his followers, and
in order to promote the salvation of the Prince and the
glory of God. In writing to the Prince on the subject,
he says:-'Your Highness, therefore, hath, in this writing, not only the approbation of us all, concerning what you desire: but having weighed it in
our reflection, we beseech and beg of God to direct all for his glcry
and your Highness's salvation!"




346      LETTER TO THE EARL OF CARLISLE.
And surely enough, my Lord, they all did approve of
it, and all signed the document in very discreet and grave
language; and in putting their names to the dispensation,
so scrupulously apostolic were they, that they would not
even omit the Saint's name of the day, it being executed
as they wrote it, "on the Wednesday after the feast of St.
Nicholas," and endorsed, Martin Luther, Philip Melancthon, Martin Bruce, Anthony Corvin, Adam Jeningue,
Justus Winterte, Denis Melanther.
Here, again, my Lord, it is not surprising if Catholic
States become exceedingly alarmed at the progress of the
new faith, seeing that besides mere mental, and spiritual, and supernatural tenets, it introduced Mahomedanism; blasted all conjugal bliss; rent asunder the sacred ties
of home, and undivided love; degraded woman into Pagan
infamy; converted matrimony into a licentious scheme of
perjury and adultery; and, according to the received laws
of Christianity, went directly to bastardize the rising Catholic generations of the world.
Thirdly, he called on the population of the German
States to rise up against their Catholic Emperor; and he
openly declared, that all allegiance should be withdrawn
from any king or potentate in communion with the Pope,
whom he denounced as the devil and anti-christ; and the
third development of his divine creed was not to be ascribed to the treasonable phrenzy.of the rebel, or to the
wild plans of the revolutionist. Not at all, my Lord; no
such thing. It was part of the new faith-an item in
the new inspiration, tending, as in the case of the Landgrave of Hesse, to the glory of God, and the salvation of
the soul.




LETTER TO THE EARL OF CARLISLE.        347
For the truth of this revealed, reformed, ethical dogma,
I beg to refer your Lordship to your own historian, Sleidan, book v., page 74. Such, even, was the violence
produced against monarchy, by this article of the new
Protestant Faith, that the Low Countries, Switzerland,
and all Germany, burst into open revolution; Zuinglius,
the co-apostle of Luther, even joined the rebels in Switzerland, and was found among the dead, killed in battle.
The dominions of the celebrated Charles V. were
menaced with such danger by Luther, and the princes
who joined his standard, that Charles was compelled to
give them battle, in which his troops were victorious,
scattering the enemy, and taking the Landgrave of Hesse
and the Duke of Saxony prisoners, on the Elbe, May
26th, 1547. Here again, my Lord, is it a matter of surprise, if all the Catholic Sovereigns of Europe hastened to
form a defensive alliance in order to guard their conscience,
their Faith, their honor, the sanctity of their families, the
cause of morality, the inheritance of their thrones, and the
possession and peace of their dominions from a system,
which tended to change woman into a beast, man into a
pagan, and which stood in naked defiance of the ordinances
of God, the Gospel of Christ, and the indissoluble laws
and customs of human society?
Fourthly, if these undeniable doctrines, and these authenticated historic facts, ceased with the name, character, and prestige of the first founders of these novelties, the precaution taken by Catholic countries might
also fall into oblivion, and European society resume its
former Christian and political peace. But, my Lord, the




348        LETTER TO THE EARL OF CARLISLE.
case is otherwise; and the history of England and Scot'
land, and Ireland, and France, and Germany, to which I
shall not here further allude, supply the thrilling commentary-namely, that during the one hundred and fifty
years which elapsed, after the death of these first' apostles,
a scene of practical persecution of Catholics, and a record
of universal desolation, marked the track of this Faith
everywhere it appeared, and made the name of Protestantism be identified with national spoliation, relentless
persecution, withering penalties on conscience, together
with the confiscation, banishment, and death of thousands
of its defenceless and wasted victims. Let us be candid,
my Lord; has not this been the universal character of
Protestantism in every country where a Catholic dare
raise his voice in defence of his creed or his country?
Let me be plain, my Lord; is not this the cause why every
Catholic country, where the standard of Protestantism has
been raised in dominant triumph, has been wasted, beggared, spoliated, and ruined?,Fifthly, do~you wonder, then, my Lord, that the laws
of Catholic Europe have been framed with defensive, not
offensive caution, against a system combining in doctrine,
and in the continued practices of successive centuries, an
aggregate of religious and political principles, incompatible with the security and the consistency of Catholic
States and people?
My Lord, 1 mean no offence, either to Protestants or
Englishmen, by recalling these dark scenes of your history; certainly not; I dare not offend in your presence;
and I feel assured, that Englishmen and Protestants of the




LETTER TO THE EARL OF CARLISLE.         349
present day, in this country and elsewhere, blush for their
ancestors in reading this sad and sullied page of their ancient story. I should not even allude to these past eventful days, under ordinary circumstances; but when I see,
read, and hear, one national huge lie, spoken, cried aloud,
posted, gazetted, published, printed, spouted, and preached; when I read American, Prussian, Dutch, Scotch, and
German interference called, in order to mitigate the sentence of imprisonment, put publicly forward, in the grossest falsehood ever promulgated in England; and when I
behold all the journals, all the Bible Societies, all the Irish
Parsons, banded together in swelling the discord of an historical, public, notorious, palpable lie, against the laws,
civic language, religion, creed, and defensive enactments
of a foreign Catholic power, I am come fearlessly forward,
sustained by the History of Europe, (to which I challenge
discussion,) to defend the thesis, "that Protestantism  has
never meant on the Continent of Catholic Europe a code
of mere religious, spiritual tenets;" but on the contrary,
its acceptation has ever been an anti-christian, anti-social,
anti-Catholic, anti-conju gal mixture of paganism, infidelity,
spoliation, and persecution. It is false, therefore, to assert
that the'word " Protestantism," in the note of the Duke
de Castigliano, means a mere religious tenet, detached
from its social and political associations.
This assertion is unequivocally false. The Tuscan laws
9n heresy are written in four volumes (quarto) in Latin, to
which I beg to refer your Lordship, and which, by their
dates and provisions will prove to your satisfaction the
position which I have taken.




350       LETTER TO THE EARL OF CARLISLE.
And will your Lordship give me leave to ask, if the conduct of Lord John Russell and Lord Palmerston, the old
decrepid family ministry, have served to awaken confidence in the case at issue? On this'point, I have, for years
past, already explained my views, without contradiction,
but I shall add one word more-namely, that in the whole
course of official recklessness, nothing, perhaps, has ever
appeared in the lives and annals of English Ministers,
which can bear the most remote comparison with the astounding assertion reported to have been made in the
House of Commons, by Lord Palmerston, viz., "that it
was the intention of the official men with whom he acted,
to form into one independent kingdom all that territory
which stretches from Genoa to Venice!" Hence, read,
my Lord, the present history and events of Piedmont;
look at the revolutionary spirit of Turin; and, (just like the
deceived Hungarians, the deluded Neapolitans, the relentless Swiss, and the ungrateful Romans,) these speeches of
our functionaries have encouraged the discontented of these
nations to rush into rebellion, and afterwards to expiate by
public degradation, banishment, or death, the evil foreign councils, when in a moment of misplaced confiding
honor, they listened to heartless bigoted diplomatists,
against the dictates of conscience, the voice of reason, and
the call of national duty,
In fact, wherever the emissaries of the Bible Society, or
the paid spies of the English Government were permitted
to innoculate the public mind with the doctrines I have
referred to, their victims lost all religion to God and all
allegiance to the throne. Seduced by bribery to abandon




LETTER TO THE EARL OF CARLISLE.       351
the Faith of their fathers, their consciences became seared
from their perjured change of creed. From perjury and
apostacy, the space, my Lord, to infidelity is not far; and
hence, these conventicles of Florence and elsewhere, were
avowed dens of revolution and atheism.  Beyond all
doubt, my Lord, the Tuscan Government, or any other
Government similarly situated; had, in the late circumstances of Europe, ~only two questions to decide-namely,
" Whether their duty was to teach order and Christianity,
or to preach rebellion and atheism." And they had also
another principle to decide-viz: "Whether they, the
Ultramontanists, should hold their tongues, and cease to
protect order, morality, truth, justice, and faith, for fear
of displeasing the intolerant framers of the Ecclesiastical
Titles Bill; contradicting the mild, and the wise, and the
grave, far-seeing Legislators of old clothes proclamation;
scandalizing the sacred career of the Saints of Exeter
Hall, incurring the holy anger of the modern, ancient,
mortified primeval Protestant Church, the true follower
of the cross, disturbing the last exemplary moments of the
dying apostles, the probates of whose edifying wills
amount in several cases to the truly apostolic standard of
two, three, and four hundred thousand pounds! these selfdenying creatures, having reserved this trifle in teaching
this most sacred reforming thing called Protestantism."
When, my Lord, if I were not restrained by the presence of your Lordship, my boiling blood, and the red
graves of my starved and murdered poor countrymen,
plundered by this anti-Christian church, would compel
me to raise my voice in loud contumely, and indignant




352       LETTER TO THE EARL OF CARLISLE.
scorn, against the universal cant, the unblushing hypocrisy,
and the gigantic lies of a band of imposters and bigots;
who have squeezed out the very dregs of our national
existence, and who raise, whenever a pretext offers itself,
at home and abroad, a cry of misrepresentation and insult,
which degrades the fine, noble character of the English
people as a nation —range in hostility to your name and
your country the disgust and indignation of Catholic Europe; and has already laid the materials of a disastrous
explosion beneath the foundation of England's power;
which, if not removed in time, by truth, kindness, toleration, and national honor, may, very soon, as your Lordship has predicted, be ignited by your injured, insulted,
and powerful enemies; and, in a moment of unexpected
fate, like your overthrow in America, shiver to atoms the
entire fabric of your national greatness.
In referring to the second point of this letter, I have already proved, that the Madiai were not condemned for
"reading the Bible."  The statement put forth in the public prints is utterly false. Their crime was "holding unlawful meetings with closed doors, contrary to the laws
of the Tuscan Conventicle Act"-in which unlawful meetings, held without even demanding a license, a band of foreign conspirators, by bribery, by ridicule of the clergy,
by caricaturing the Catholic religion, by reviling the
laws, by distributing inflammatory fly-sheets, encouraged
sedition, violated the public peace, and laid the foundation, as far as lay in their power, of those sudden and
disastrous revolutions which convulsed all the neighbouring States, and had nearly crumbled five ancient thrones.




LETTER TO THE EARL OF CARLISLE.       353
And while discussing this part of my subject, I shall take
leave to remind your Lordship of the standing, imperishable, eternal li'4which the Protestant church has stereotyped in all her books, lectures, sermons, letters, speeches,
through every part of the world where her literature is
cultivated, where her power is felt, and her voice heard.
The enormous, unfading lie, my Lord, is "that the Catholic church will not permit the reading of the word of
God." Our church declares the contrary; our bishops
write it, our priests preach it, our pamphlets publish it,
our writers promulgate it, our booksellers print it over
their doors, in their bills, their prospectus; and the whole
world knows it, except the poor wretched dupes of the
swarm of bigots who stop the ears, gag the mouths, blind
the eyes of their bewildered followers, to such an astounding, incredible, heartening degree of mesmeric biblicism and awful infatuation, that you hear and read statements every day made in contradiction to a fact, palpable
as the earth under their feet, obvious as the Thames that
runs through the city of London, and clear and uncloudded as a brilliant noonday sun in a summer sky. It is a
most melancholy thing to see a whole nation of people,
placed in such a deplorable hopeless state of utter mental helplessness, and incapability of seeing and believing
on the most notorious facts of the Old World.
The only thing which I can recollect, as approaching
at all in-incredibility to the biblical delusion, is the case
of the man mentioned in Moore's " Gentleman in Search
of a Religion."  This man took it into his head " that he
was made of fresh butter," and consequently could never
12




354      LETTER TO TIE EARL OF CARLISLE.
De induced to go near the fire; and although his. friends
made every effort that moral ingenuity could devise to
cure him, he went to his grave impervious to every human motive of persuasion, and died under ground, out of
the reach of the sun, shivering with the cold. Not the
least singular part, too, of this crafty hypocrisy on the
part of the foreign spy biblicals, is, when they assert that
the Catholics are hostile to the Word of God, because they
will not receive their English perverted text. And al-.though it is easy to see that they would not take our bibles, with our notes and comments; and they stand acquitted of all hostility to the work of God, yet they will not
allow the same argument to be applied to us, when we
spurn their mutilated, ill-translated text, where whole
books are omitted; where inspiration is denied; where
tenses are changed; particles omitted or introduced at
pleasure; where philological meanings are received against
the admitted practical, living, speaking interpretation; and
above all, where the bible-reader, who distributes these
stammering, broken records, does not write objectionable
notes and comments-no, he speaks his comments; he
spends hours and days, accompanying his readings wvith
caricatures of the Host; philippics against the Confessional; ridicule of the ever blessed Virgin Mary; lies of the
Pope; and, concludes all this pious reading in the Lanes
and the Alleys of London; in the hovels of Clifden and
Connemara; in the streets of Kells, as well as in the plains
of Lombardy, where he receives perjurious bribes from
the hypocrites of the Bible Societies of credulous England, and the remorseless, unmitigable Orange Parsons of
Ireland.




LETTER TO THE EARL OF CARLISLE.      355
But time may yet tell a saddening tale, my'Lord, when
the Legislators of England may wish to recal these cryinginsults to the Catholic name; when every available Irish
hand may be wanted to repel the foreign foe; when every
Irish heart, which now bleeds with the fresh opened
wounds of centuries of persecution, may be called on to
spring to the national defences, and there pour out, as
poor, insulted, faithful Ireland has often done before, the
last drop of her circling life-blood in defence of a nation
that oppresses us; of institutions that degrade us; a Parliament that insults us; a civilization that debases us;
a commerce that robs us —and a power that emaciates
and kills us. Wait awhile, my Lord; but I fervently
pray, that the future which your Lordship seems to dread,
may never become present; and that able statesmen, and
not fatal bigots; wise laws, and not insults; toleration,
and not persecution; honor, and not deceit, may change
the aspect of English legislation, and render England the
sincere, generous parent of all her subjects, and not the
tyrant and the enemy of a third of her devoted, and patient, and loyal servants.
I have the honor to be, my Lord Earl, with the most
profound respect, your Lordship's obedient servant,
D. W. CAHILL, DD.




LETTER TO THE REV. WILLIAM  ANDERSON,
PASTOR OF THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
GLASGOW, April 12, 1853.
REV. SIR —There can be no doubt that, in reference to
the Holy Scriptures, your teaching and mine are very different, -indeed. I have learned the creed which I profess
from the accredited voice of the Universal Church, from
which your predecessors in your faith have avowedly separated. The history of all Christian antiquity bears testimony, through all nations and peoples, to the existence
and the-entirety of my belief at the' time of your separation.  There was confessed but one church, and that
Church was the Roman Catholic — and as the Church of
Christ was built never to fail, but to be always existing,
living, speaking, teaching, and saving; and as the Catholic church was then the only church in the whole world,
it follows, it must have been the only true one at the time
of your separation-while not even one congregationperhaps, not even a single individual —through all past
Christian time, up to the period of what is called'this reformation,' can be found possessing the religious opinions
which you now hold. I regret that you follow these novelties, or that you teach them to others; but most certainly, I do not feel any sentiment of'odium' towards you or
your people. On the contrary, I entertain a high respect
for you; and in my private intercourse, and in my public
professional character, I inculcate this my own sincere impression to all those who may be guided by my words,
or influenced by my example.




LETTER TO THE REV. WILLIAM ANDERSON.   357
I respectfully beg to assure you, that you make a great
mistake, in supposing that Roman Catholics have any desire whatever, either to hear the tenets of your Church
discussed, or to examine over again in your Church the
motives which direct them in the choice of their Faith.
The disciples of the Roman Catholic Church attach very
little value (in reference to divine faith,) either to accomplished declamation, or brilliant oratory; they are entirely
guided by a living, speaking, infallible authority, which,
in their daily reading of the Scriptures, they behold expressed in the clearest, the strongest, the most obviousthe most literal, and the most emphatic clauses of the
last Will and Testament of our blessed Lord. No human
being of common sense, has ever been known to bequeath
in the solemn awful hour of death, metaphorical, or allegorical, or figurative property and power to his beloved
children; and the Catholics believe that our Lord, at His
death, has left a real, bonafide, substantial, living authority to guide His Church in Faith. Hence, they could
no more consent to go to your Church, to subject to pub
lic discussion the tenets inculcated by this authority, that,
they would agree to put to the issue of a public meeting
the very existence of Christ, or the value of the all-saving
atonement of the cross. In fact, the very decision of consenting to such an issue, would be equivalent to the erecting you and your friends into the infallible authority
which you denounce, and which you challenge me to defend in this case before us.
The second paragraph of your courteous letter to me
goes to concede, in clear language, the premises-namely,




358    LETTER TO THE REV. WILLIAM ANDERSON.
that you and your friends may be wrong, since you admit
the just hypothesis, that I might change your opinions.
On the part of the Roman Catholics, I could not admit the
tenable consistency of such a case, our Faith being founded on a provision which excludes the defensible possibility
of change —namely, an infallible authority, promulgated
by Christ officially, and judiciously practised by the
Apostles, and still further guaranteed through all coming
time by the permanent legislative presence of the Holy
Ghost. No plausible sophistry, no popular discussion,
no award of men's judgment, no majority of human voices
can outbalance the testimony or enactment of God, which
secures the immutable unity of our Faith, no more than a
single ray of light can pale the meridian splendor of the
sun. A Roman Catholic can never, therefore, grant the
tenable possibility of the case, which you admit, and cannot therefore consent under these existing laws, to the
popular issue involved in your communication.
I must say, however, that so far as you are concerned,
you are strictly true to your principles, in resting your
Faith on the issue of the popular will. All the varieties
o'f all the Reformation creeds, are the results of private
individual judgment, or of public Parliamentary decisions.
All these creeds are acknowledged creations of human
authority —all these creeds are made by man, and not by
God. And they have been formed too, to fall in with the
tastes, and the peculiarities, and the prejudices of the
various times in which they were enacted; and the clear
consequence of this accommodating principle has been the
incongruous fact-namely, that, within the space of three




LETTER TO THE REV. WILLIAM ANDERSON.   359
hundred years these creeds have successively passed
through upwards of seven hundred variations! The Roman Catholics smile in pity at a Faith, which admits the
principle of progress; they cannot comprehend how any
Christian mind can call that institution so divinely established by Christ, which is still continually altered by men;
and they are astounded to hear serious men declare, that
the Holy Ghost could be the propounder of seven hundred varieties of belief, from the self-same revelation.
They believe, that Faith, in point of doctrine and institution, was finished by Christ and the Apostles; and they
justly conclude, that men always looking for Faith have
never found it; that men always changing, must necessarily doiubt, and therefore not believe; that men always inquiring after truth, have never discovered it; and thus,
the Roman Catholics seem to have arrived at something
like a mathematical demonstration, that the interminable
changes, and the constant acceptance of new doctrines
contained in the Reformation principle, is the very definition of error; is the unmistakable mark that you have lost
the one essentially true' Faith4 and what is worse, that
you now seek to recover it in the wrong channel —namely,
the decision of human reason in public controversy, and
the award of human sanction in popular disputation.Whether, therefore, you are true to wrong principles in
deciding Faith in a popular assembly, is not so much, at
present, the object of my unwilling animadversion, as to
tell you that I am true to the ancient Catholic doctrine in
not admitting such a changeable, and such an incongruous
authority.'




360    LETTER TO THE REV. WILLIAM ANDERSON.
In your third paragraph, you say you select for assault
"the three first canons of the Council of Trent."  With
respect, I presume to tell you that " the three first canons
of the Council of Trent," do not treat of the Mass; they
have reference to the doctrine of "justification by grace
through Jesus Christ;" a belief which I fancy you do not
deny. I therefore think you made a mistake in the canons
referred to in your letter.
Refterring to the remaining portion of your letter, I feel
quite assured (judging from the tone of your communication,) that so far as could be expected, you would conduct
the controversy to which you invite me with an amicable
temper; but you will permit me to say, that, from my
experience of public controversial discussions, a wound is
always inflicted on true religion by these disputations.Public animosities are engendered; religious rancor is inflamed; social harmony is disturbed; the charities of the
Gospel are extinguished; and even the ties of long and
matured friendship, are but too often rent asunder by the
mutual argumentative recrimination of theological comoat. Catholics, whose failh is fixed since the beginning
of the New Law, can receive no benefit from these displays of argumentation. Dissenters have their old prejudices awakened, their dormant intolerance revived, and
they are often driven into greater errors than their former
novelties; seeking a refuge from their inconsistencies in
the unbounded license of naked infidelity. These views
are the result of my experience of public religious discussion; and while I place them with honest frankness before society, being convinced they will meet the approval




LETTER TO THE REV. WILLIAM ANDERSON.   361
of every reasonable Christian man in the community, who
witness the religious contentions, and reads the accounts
of the fanatical bigotry with which this country is convulsed and degraded; I should therefore suggest to you,
Reverend Sir, that our doctrine can be better learned
from the cool, clear pen of learned Divines,, than from the
incautious extemporaneous expression of heated debate;
and I shall add, that the mind, and a heart seeking really
a knowledge of the truth (as I feel confident you are,) are
more aptly fitted to receive the impressions::of grace in
silent prayer, and in deliberate, dispassionate study, than
in a crowded fineeting of contending parties, where the
passions are inflamed, and the judgment warped by the
excitements of public rivalship, and the hostile prejudices
of party triumph. My long professional studies; the various chairs of science which I have filled, are, I presume
to say, a sufficient guarantee, that the foregoing observations are the sole considerations which influence me, in
the course which I am about to adopt in the case at issue;
and for these reasons, therefore, you will be pleased, Sir,
to excuse me, if I decline the challenge to which you invite me.
In the course of religious lectures, which I am called on
to deliver in this country and elsewhere, I have invited
Protestants to attend. If they honor me by their presence, I take care never knowing to wound their conscientious feelings, either directly or indirectly; and I never
address my instructions to any hearers but to Roman
Catholics. You, therefore, have no right to call upon me,
to account for the doctrine which I have a right to teach




362     LETTER TO THE REV. WILLIAM ANDERSON.
to my people. You have thought proper to send me the
challenge referred to in this letter, and I have considered
it my duty (from the tone of that communication) to reply
to it; but as you can have no claim on me for the continuance of your respected, yet gratuitous correspondence, you give me leave to say, that my numerous engagements will not permit me to answer any future letters which you may think proper to address to me on this
subject.
I have the honor to be, Reverend Sir, with high and
courteous regard, your obedient servant,
D. W. CAHILL, I. D.
P. S.-As your challenge has been already made public, through newspapers and placards, I shall send this
communication to the Glasgow Free Press for reluctant
publication.
FIVE PROTESTANT  CLERGYMEN, WITH  THE PROTESTANT
ARCHDEACON OP RAPHOE, TO DR. CAHILL.
LETTERKENNY May 30, 1853.
"REV. SIR —We, the undersigned, having heard you deliver a con'
troversial lecture this evening in the Chapel of Letterkenny, feel it our
solemn duty, as ministers of God and ambassadors of Christ, to protest against the doctrines set forth by you, as unscriptural and contrary to the teaching of the Catholic church. We would therefore take
the liberty of inviting you to a public discussion, to be carried on in a
kind and Christian spirit, in which we call upon you to prove, that the
doctrines contained in the twelve supplementary articles of the creed
of Pope Pius the IV were ever propounded and set forth in the Christian church as a creed, before the year 1564.
"Secondly —We invite you to bring on the platform your rule of
faith, and give us your church's authorised interpretation of the 6th,
9th, and 10th chapters St. Paul to the Hebrews-or, if you prefer it,
your church's authorised exposition of the simplest portions of the
Holy Writ-the Lord's prayer.




LETTER TO FIVE CLERGYMEN.               363
"Thirdly-We invite you and any number of your brother priests to
meet an equal number of clergy of the church of England, to prove the
assertions you used in endeavoring to establish the unscriptural doctrine of the sacrifice of the Mass. Trusting you will receive the invitation in the same spirit in which it is dictated, we remain yours faithfully in Christ.
F. GOOLD, Archdeacon of Raphoe. J. W. IRWIN, Curate of Raymohy.
J. IRWIN, Rector of Aughaninshin. J. LiNSKEA, Glenalla.
R. SMITH, Curate of Cornwall.
REV. DR. CAHILL'S REPLY.
REVEREND SIRS-I have the honor to acknowledge
the receipt of your polite note, dictated in a spirit of great
courtesy, and having stamped on it the clear impress of
the distinguished character of the gentlemen whose names
it bears. I shall then at once proceed to give a hasty reply to these passages in your respected communication,
which demand commentary from me.
Firstly, then, I solemnly deny, and conscientiously protest against your unauthqrised assumption, of calling
yourselves " the ministers of God and ambassadors of
Christ;" and I complain loudly of your most unjustifiable
intrusion, in designating your modern local conventicle by
the name of the "Catholic Church." Gentlemen, I assure
you I do not mean, even remotely, to utter one offensive
sentiment to you personally by telling you that you are libelling God, and calumniating the Apostles in using this language. You are, on the contrary, the ecclesiastical ministers
of the British Parliament, you are the clerical ambassadors
of the Queen of England, and you are the rebel children
of the most terrific apostacy the world ever saw. The
Thirty-Nine articles of your creed (which learned Protes



364         LETTER TO FIVE CLERGYMEN.
tants call contradictory and incongrous,) are the accidental result of a majority of voices in the British Senatehouse of that day. This act of Parliament forms the preface of your Book of Common Prayer, and the decisions
of that Parliamentary Session, are unavowedly the very
basis and the theological title of the Anglican creed, at
expressed in these Articles. In point of fact, and accord
ing to the language of the English Parliament, that creed
should be appropriately called a " bill, " like any other
parliamentary bill passed by a majority in that House. Beyond all doubt, its proper name should be " the Protestant
Religion Bill" or some other such designation, proceeding,
as it does, professedly, and originating officially from the
decision of the Senate-house, and from the authority of
the Crown. The authority does not even pretend to be
derived from Christ, as it acknowledges itself to be fillible, and of course, progressive and human.
And the Prime Minister of England can lay aside any
of your present opinions when he thinks fit, as was recently proved in the case of the Rev. Mr. Gorham; and the
Queen can annul the united doctrinal decision of your national convocation at her pleasure. Argue this case as
you will, and call this authority by whatever name you
please, there it is, the supreme arbiter of your Church,
the essential sanction and source of your Faith. Thus, in
point of fact, you pray to God as the Premier likes; and
you believe in God, as the Queen pleases; and you multiply
or diminish the articles of your " Religion Bill," as the
Parliament decides. You are, therefore, judicially and
officially, the very creatures of the State; and you wear




LETTER TO FIVE CLERGYMEN.          365
your surplices, and preach'by precisely the same authority
with which a midshipman wears his sword, or a Queen's
Counsel appears in a silk gown; you derive your jurisdiction from an authority, at which the very Mahomedans
stand in stupid amazement —viz.: an authority, which
places a child in a cradle, a young girl in her teens, or a
toothless old- hag in the place of the twelve Apostles;
standing in the footsteps of Christ, the seat of wisdom, the
oracle of divine truth, and the expounder of revelation.
Except that we know this statement to be a fact, from undeniable evidence, no man living could ever think, that
any man in his sensesrwould submit to such an outrage
on the human understanding. Sir Thomas More, the
Chancellor of England, with thousands of others, preferred to die at the block, sooner than submit to this mockery
of God. This is the ludicrous jurisdiction under which
you teach and preach; but to call yourselves " the Ministers of God and the Ambassadors of Christ," is an act of
such reckless forgetfulness of your position (in reference
to jurisdiction,) as to set all the delicacies of truth and
fact at defiance, in a matter of the most public and palpable notoriety; in truth, it is unbecoming effrontery.
Again, all Christians of all denominations, admit that
the repeated pledges and promises of Christ guarantee
the indestructible existence of a true Church for ever on
the earth. The Word of God, the Father, fixing our sun
in our skies for ever, is not more clear and emphatic than
the Word of God, the Son, in placing the true Church in
a permanent unclouded existence on the earth for ever.
At the time of your separation there was only this one




366          LETTER TO FIVE CLERGYMEN.
universal Church on earth; there being but one in existence, it must have been this true one so guaranteed. You
have avowedly separated from this Church; and at that
time, in order to mark the doctrinal character of your conduct, you called yourselves by the appropriate name of
Protestants. You, therefore, at that time, resigned your
title to the Catholic Church, which you abandoned. You
rebelled against her authority, and from that hour to this
you stand expelled from her spiritual territory, and excommunicated by herjudicial penalties. On that occasion you
severed yourself from the source of all her spiritual power,
and broke the link that bound you to the long chain of
apostolic jurisdiction. Will you kindly inform the world
when and where did you become reunited to that Church?
You now call yourselves "Catholic!" Or, are you ilow
beginning to be ashamed of the word " Protestant?" You
see that this word argues the want of legitimate title to
the Christian inheritance, and you are trying to insert a
word by fraud into your forged deed.
Why do you not use the other three marks of the true
Church, and call yourselves, "One, Holy, Catholi*, and
Apostolic?"  Ah, reckless as you are in your assumption,
you are afraid of the jibes of the historian to assume the
other three marks. As long as your interminable (750)
changes in Faith are recorded, it would be injudicious to
invest your Church with the attribute of unity; as long
as the public reads the plunder of the abbeys, and hears
the universal spoliation of the poor; while the red gibbet
of Elizabeth surmounts your communion table, and while
your modern towers publish your recent origin, it would




LETTER TO FIVE CLERGYMEN.         367
be drawing rather too largely on the public credulity to
stifle this glaring evidence of your sins and character, and
to call yourselves, " One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic."
No, no; you are too clever and discerning to attempt
this palpable imposture; and hence, you are content to assume slyly the single term of "Catholic;" and thus you
endeavor to regain the place you have forfeited, and repair the connection you have broken. But, Gentlemen,
this dodge will not do; you may impose. on your own
flocks, who don't know you as well as we do; but as long
as I am placed as a sentinel at the ivy doors of the old
Church you shall not enter under false colors. Come in
your own clothes as Protestant ministers, Parliamentary
ambassadors, modern biblemen, from a petty district, but
you shall not assume the mark of the universality of time
-and place while I am present. Like sparrows hatched in
an eagle's nest, I shall teach yourthat, although you have
been born near us, you have neither the shape, color, or
genealogy of the royal breed of the Apostles, under whose
wings your Church has been fraudulently introduced and
nurotired into an illegitimate existence.
Whenever, therefore, you may in future honor me with
any, communication, may I beg you will announce yourselves in your Protestant profession; appear in your own
modern dress-assume your own Parliamentary titlesand do not add to your former prevarications to the living, by coming now in the end of time laden with the
spoils of the dead. Dress yourselves like Luther and
Calvin, and Knox and Cranmer; come with a sword in
your hand like Zuinglius, and with an axe like your first




368         LETTER TO FIVE CLERGYMEN.
apostles; don't assume the holy cross; do not put on the
robes of Jerome or Chrysostomrn; do not, for shame, rob
the dead of their hoary honors; do not appear in the unsullied robes of the Apostles, whom your ancestors have
betrayed; do not wear the crowns of More and Fisher,
won on the block, which your Gospel had erected. This
passage brings me in presence of the second part of
your note.
In consequence of the existence of an infallible authority framing our laws, and promulgating our faith, it
would be clearly an act of the most palpable inconsistency to subject to your decision, or to the award of a public
meeting of fallible men the doctrines already fixed by an
unerring tribunal. You are true to your principles in
seeking and yielding to this decision, since private judgment is your first principle; but I cannot subject my faith
to such a standard, believing, as I do, that a living authority has been permanently appointed in the Church of
Christ, invested with a command from Heaven to teach
all men, and sustained by the official presence of the Holy
Ghost, as a legislative guarantee for the immutable truth
of its decisions. There are no passages in the Scriptures
on any subject of divine faith, put forward in stronger or
more emphatic language, than these parts of Revelation
which enforce the permanent unchangeable existence and
practicable agency of this tribunal. The existence of
Christ, or the facts of the cross, the Resurrection and Ascension, are not expressed in a clearer official enactment
than the record of this living court of infallible decisicr.
I can no more doubt the existence of the Saviour than dia



LETTER TO FIVE CLERGYMEN.          369
believe this official prerogative of the Church of Christ.
I believe the one with the same precise amount of evidence I believe the other; and if you bring a doubt on
the authority of this court, you necessarily call in question
all the other parts, of the record of salvation. So perfectly logical is the inference, that history sustains my
assertions on this vital point: and it is quite true to say,
that since the fatal period of your separation, and since
you preached the overthrow of this first principle, you
have opened the floodgates of latitudinarianism, and filled
every Protestant country in Europe with wild rationalism and naked infidelity.
In a thousand years hence, when Protestantism will be
only recollected in name, like Arianism or any of the other
varieties of human wickedness or fblly-the future ecclesiastical historian will write the thrilling record-namely,
that of all the phases of irreligion which have appeared on
the earth, the Anglican heresy has inflicted the deepest
wound on revelation, from its encouragement to human
pride, and its official flattery of human passion. Human
reason in its practical workings has never been the same
in the same country, the same age, or even the same man.
If we except the truths of mathematical science, human
reason is ever changing, and I think it ought to be readily
admitted, that a God of rigid justice and truth, could never build the unerring enactments of revelation and salvation, on a shifting basis of such a variable construction.
Within the last twenty-five years, I have seldom read
the proceedings of any Protestant assembly on matters
of religion, in which the principal topics have not been,




370          LETTER TO FIVE CLERGYMEN.
viz: The usurped infallibility of the Church of Rome, and
the new articles of faith of the Roman church."  The ancient Protestant clergy of Ireland did not utter these falsehoods-they lived contented with their titles, and enjoyed their glebes, and drunk their claret without this eternal
calumny of the plundered Catholics. But, within the lastquarter of a century, a swarm of young clerical aspirants
invade all the public places, stand in all the thoroughfares,
and are heard on the four winds roaring and bawling,
wherever you turn, against the church of Rome. They
are to be seen at all the Protestant printshops, bookstands,
railroad stations, bazaars, excursion trips, botanical reunions; and I dare say, you will admit the powerfull fact,
that they have no conversation, no entertainment for all
who have the misfortune to come within the range of
their clerical contact, save one ceaseless, indecent abuse,
misrepresentation, and calumny of the principles of the
Catholic creed. And I am quite willing to admit, that
these gentlemen are persons of finished education, and of
delicate truth, and of elegant courtesy in their social character on most other points; but in reference to Catholicity, they are not ashamed to utter statements too foolish
to be noticed, or too gross to be told. Having apparently
no parochial duties to discharge, their sole occupation
seems to be calumniating their Catholic neighbors, and
forging misstatements of the Catholic clergy, who never
speak a word of offence to them, either in our public or
private intercourse. We cannot in these days instruct
our people without public insult, nor can we defend our
doctrines from misrepresentation without sickening chal



LETTER TO FIVE CLERGYMEN.          371
lenges from schoolboy declaimers, raw, jejune clerical graduates seeking notoriety in the service of God (?) by
falsehood, malignity, and sedition. This is a painful state
of society; the conduct of your brethren on this subject
has long since formed the topic of public condemnation,
even throughout Europe, and has by its excess and extravagance, nauseated the public taste, and, beyond all
doubt, has raised the spirit of inquiry in the detection of
this indecent imposture, and now universal exposure.
I am led into these observations, by your remarks on the
creed of Pius IV., in which you assert that novelties havebeen introduced into our faith.
Gentlemen, in all the public speeches and writings ofyour
brethren, they all (I hope not through calumnious design,)
make one common mistake, viz:-You call "a new decision of a council," by the name of a new act of faith-an
addition to the old creed. It is not so. The new decision of a council is rather a proof of an old doctrine, than
the evidence of a new one; it is the collected expression of
the old belief of the church embodied in a new decree; so
that, so far from being an evidence of a new thing, it is, on
the contrary, an inevitable demonstration of an old thing.
It is the official application of an old truth and principle,
to some new heretic, or some new error; so that while the
heretic is new to whom it is addressed, and the case is new
to which it is applied, the principle and the truth so applied, is ipsofacto already known as the statute law of
the church; and ten thousand new cases maybe settled by
one old principle, just as the Chancellor settles the unnumbered new cases of his court, without adding one tittle to




372          LETTER TO FIVE CLERGIMEN.
the old Statute Law of England.  When Moses Brought
down from Mount Sinai the ten commandments, embodied in a written decree from God, will any man assert
that this was the first time for twenty-five centuries, that
men received the commandments of God? Certainly it
was the first written decision of God that men ever saw;
but will any man say, that this was a new faith or morality
received under the Theoarchy, and that this was the
first time when God forbid the crimes of murder, adultary, robbery, perjury and idolatry, &c.! If, then, our
doctrine of an infallible tribunal be true, as it is; it follows
that a general council, directed by the Holy Ghost, stands
in similar circumstances ( as far as Revelation goes,) with
this Theoarchy, and hence that these new decisions, so
far from being acts of faith, are on'the contrary, the best
evidence of the already universally received opinions on
the point decided. All the new decisions of the church
against Arianism and Pelaglanism; and the decisions on
the consubstantiality of the Son with the Father; and all
the decrees on the natures and person of Christ, are all
nearly expressed in one sentence of the creed:-"Ibelieve
in Jesus Christ, his only Son, who was conceived by
the Holy Ghost, and born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified dead and buried, and rose again on the third day
from the dead, and ascended into Heaven. I believe in
the Holy Catholic Church &c. &c." This short sentence
with some few additional texts, form, if I may so speak,
the statute laws on the varied decisions, alluded to. In
fact, all the new decisions, such as your brethren allude
to, and such as you have referred to in the point at issue,




LETTER TO FIVE CLERGYMEN.          373
are merely so many legitimate deducibles from the record
of Revelation subjected to this competent authority, and
settled and published by a decree founded on the ancient
truths of Christ's Gospel as taught by the Apostles.
The Catholic rule of Faith, therefore, is the Word of
God interpreted and taught by this living Authority, as it
was from the beginning; and this rule is so clear, so obvious, so comprehensive, and so easily attainable, that,
with a penny catechism in your hand, and in the society
of a Priest, the accredited officer, you can learn, to your
perfect satisfaction, our entire faith, in construction, plan,
and indefectible legislative guarantees, within the short
space of one hour; and the authorized version of any
portion of Holy Writ is to be learned not so much from
its philosophical or philological construction, as from its
inferential adjustinent, and its substantial agreement with
the known truths, already believed and taught in connection with the passages under the examination referred to.
We do not receive our Faith from disputing, contentious
schoolmasters, but from ordained priests; we are occupied
with the substance, not the names of things; we take our
Faith from the guaranteed inspiration of the Holy Ghost,
not from the inflections and the rules of grammar; -and as
the incarnation and the death of our Lord are beyond our
reason, we have no idea of consulting that same reason in
laws beyond its reach, no more than the mysteries which
it cannot comprehend.
In conclusion, I beg to assure you, that I have felt much
complimented by your attendance at my lectures on the
Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and I have felt rather honored




374        LETTER TO TWENTY-ONE CLERGYMEN.
by the united note of the five Protestant clergymen, transmitted to me through the courtesy of the Protestant Archdeacon of Raphoe, and the brother-in-law of our late Viceroy.  I have not, I hope, in any words which escaped me
at that lecture, uttered any sentiment which could offend;
and I here disclaim again, intending to say one word in
this note (beyond my professional duty,) to give the smallest uneasiness to gentlemen, towards whom I feel much
personal respect, and to whom I beg unfeignedly to offer
the expression of high and distinguished-consideration.
I have the honor to be, Reverend Sirs, your obedient
servant,
D. W. CAHILL, D.D.
P. S.-As you nave gratuitously originated this correspondence, you can have no claim on me for its continuance; and, therefore, I respectfully decline taking any further notice of any letters which you may do me the honor
to send to me in future.
IMPORTANT LETTER OF DR. D. W. CAHILL
TO TWENTY-ONE PROTESTANT CLERGYMEN
FROM BIRKENHEAD.
On the 19th October, 1853, the Rev. H. P. Linton,'calling himself Secretary to the Local Comittee for special mission to the Roman Catholics of Birkenhead, wrote to Dr. Cahill "notifying him,the intention of
the Clergy of that place and its neighborhood, of calling on him publicly for proofs of his assertions in reference to the recent numerous
conversions from the Roman Catholic Church in Irelan4." He adds, that
"popular controversialists on your side have even seemed more anxious
to sustain their reputation by ad capftnduwn arguments, than by a strict




LETTER TO TWENTY-ONE CLERGYMEN.                  375
adherence to facts."  Lastly, he enclosed a copy of a letter directed to
Dr. Cahill, saying: I sincerely hope, that as you have, unprovoked by
us, brought charges against our Church and missions, necessarily calling
for controversy, you will not now shrink from that public test of their
truth, which you must consider as the inevitable result of your own
acts of aggression."
The inclosed letter was signed by several clergymen, and made the
following proposals to Dr Cahill: —"1st. If you furnish us wiih definite
charges against the Irish Church Missions, giving names, dates, and
other Circumstances connected with your charges, we undertake to
bring forward credible witnesses to disprove those charges, and to
give you a public opportunity of proving your assertions in the presence of those witnesses.
"2nd.-We are ready, on our part, to appoint a clergyman to meet
you, before the same assembly to discuss the points of controversy between our respective Churches.
"Having come amongst us with charges seriously affecting the charac-,ter of the "united Churches of England and Ireland" and also assailing
doctrines, which we hold sacred, we feel assured that the proposition
which we hereby make will be accepted as reasonable by all thinking
men, and we also hope that they will meet with your concurence."
On the 20th of the same month, Dr. Cahill addressed a private note
in answer. He said:
"I assure you I feel rather happy in the distinguished position in which
-he united communication of so many eminent persons has placed so
humble an individual as I am; and I trust I shall not, in my reply, depart from the example which is set before me in the politeness of their
language.
"I may here state that their letter has been conceived under some
most unaccountable mistake, as I am not conscious at this moment'of
having said or written anything to justify the position they have taken.
Will you kindly grant me the favor of not requiring the manuscript of
my letter, but be-content with receiving the printed answer in the Aler.
cury of next Tuesday."
REV. DR. CAHILL'S REPLY.
ST. WERBURG'S BIRKENHEAD, Saturday, Oct, 22, 1853.
REV. SIRS —I have acknowledged through your Reverend Secretary, your public letter to me, of last Wednesday's date; and I feel bound to say, that the courteous tone
ofyour communication, combined with the numerous dis



376     LETTER TO TWENTY-ONE CLERGYMEN.
tinguished names attached to that document, demand from
me the sincerest expression of grave respect. I shall at
once enter on the subject of that le ter, by assuring you'of my entire surprise at what I must call, your most unwarrantable assumptions. Firstly, then, I did not come
to this town to deliver lectures "on the character of the
Irish Church missions;" and secondly, I have never either
in this town, or in any other town or city in these countries, lectured " on the points of controversy between the
Churches of England and Rome." It is my invariable
practise to explain and defend my own doctrine against
Protestant calumnies, but never to discuss or ridicule the
creed of others. Such a'mode of lecturing is at once
opposed to my own feeling, and strictly prohibited by
my superiors: and I have never in my numerous subjects
departed from this rule, except occasionally on one doctrine-namely, whenever I maintain "the infallibility" of
the Catholic Church, as distinguished from "the Bible" as a
rule of faith. You, Gentleman, have fallen into the common mistake of editors of anti-catholic newspapers, and of
some Protestan clergymen who are continually calumniating me, and who are really putting forth statements, before the public, which in general and in detail, are one
unbroken tissue of gross( and I am compelled to say )
malignant falsehood. I shall now place before the public, the placards which invited Catholics (not Protestants)
to my Lectures; and the people of Liverpool and Birkenhead will thus no doubt form a correct judgement whether you have been justified (without reasonable data and
without waiting for a reply from me) in fixing on all the




LETTER TO TWENTY-ONE CLERGYMEN.             377
walls of your city and neighborhood, the letter which appears at the head of this reply. There were two placards,
as follows:
"On Sunday, the 16th inst.,the Very Rev. Dr. Cahill will preach two
sermons (morning and evening) in St. Werburgh's church, in aid of the
funds of the poor schools of this parish.'
My subjects were-1. "The parable of Dives and Lazarus'."-2. "The
casting out the dumb devil and the return of seven other devils, worse
than the first."
The second placard was as follows:-"And the Reverend Doctor will
lecture in the same church, three evenings of the next week-viz. Tuesday, the 18th; Wednesday, the 19th; and, Friday, the 21st.-on the following subjects:1. On Mortal,Sin. 2. On the Triumphs of the Catholic Church over
the hworld. 3. On Protestant Conversions, or the late attempt at Reformation in Ireland."
It must be borne in mind, that your letter was delivered
to me on Wednesday everiing, the 19th inst., that is, two
whole days before I discussed my last subject. And now,
will you give me leave, Gentlemen, to ask how can you
account, before the impartial decision of honorable, peaceful public opinion, for the clear, palpable misstatements of
your letter 1  Where have I, as you say, "unprovoked,"
committed an "aggression" on your doctrines?  Where
have I "attacked the character of the Irish Church Mission?" and, above all, how could you accuse me on TVed
nesday evening of charges which were to be made on the
following Friday?  How could you know on Wednesday, what I should say on the nextFriday? And how could
gentlemen of education, character, station, eminence, and,
I shall add, punctillious delicate honor, (which I willingly
admit,) be guilty of deliberately writing and' publishing
statements, which you ought to know (by referring to the
placards,) were an entire falsehood. With your hands,




378      LETTER TO TWENTY-ONE CLERGYMEN.
therefore, you have written in large capitals your own
blushing condemnation; and if you had printed your
names in red ink, it would be a more suitable color to express the ridicule and scorn with which every one of you
stands at this moment branded, before the clear public decision, You would involve me in difficulties if you could,
(a position in which I would not certainly place you, or
any one of you,) and in your intemperate precipitancy, you
have overstepped common discretion, and you charged me
with saying, what I have never even intended to utter.
But, on the other hand, as you have the peculiar logical
talent of drawing conclusions without premises, who
knows, but you took it int6 your heads to think, that I was
describing the genius of the Protestant Church, while I
denounced the rich glutton; perhaps you indiscreetly fancied, as I shuddered at the eternal furnace, where he was
buried, that I was depicting the future condition of your
archiepiscopate; and that while I unfolded therich
drapery of purple and fine linen, worn by Dives, or while
I described the sumptuous feast of the monster, as he gazed
the while on poor starving Lazarus, ten to one, but you
have uncharitably understood -me as painting your fat
angel of Canterbury, or, what is more ungenerous, perhaps our own apostolic Tom of Dublin. And as you
have the singular power of reasoning, without any imaginable data, I dare say, you believed my description of the
unfortunate man repossessed by the seven devils, as entirely applied to the members of the Protestant Alliance
of England; and it is not improbable, that in your jealous
zeal, you conceived my graphic description of the evils of




LETTER TO TWENTY-ONE CLERGYMEN.        379mortal sin, as a mere allegorical subterfuge, in order to
cover a pointed delineation of the doctrines and practices
of the Reformation Church. Gentlemen, you have originated this correspondence, without any provocation on my
part, either directly or indirectly; and I think it will be
admitted by the thousands, who have seen the placards of
my lectures, and heard me during the past week, that you
made two unbecoming mistakes-first, in making charges,
in a clear ignorance of your case; and secondly, in printing these charges without waiting for my reply.
I have been particularly struck with the first sentence
in Rev. Mr. Linton's letter to me, where he styles himself
" Secretary to the Local Committee for special mission to
the Roman Catholics of Birkenhead." This announcement
has led me to inquire, if the Catholics of this place had
any connection with this society; and, after a minute and
an accurate investigation, amongst those whose office and
duties enable them to form an unerring judgment, I am instructed to say, that Mr. Linton's secretaryship is an
office without a duty, a position without a place; and that
" the mission to the Roman Catholics," is something like
the echo of an imaginary sound. I have never read anything like this pompous announcement, except the inscriptions on the signboard of a London tradesman, who, within
the last few years, placed over his door in large capitals,
that he was "barber and hair-dresser to her present Majesty." Now this announcement could only gull the mere
simple ignorant, as it is evident that this man never will or
never can shave the Queen! and, therefore, the Birkenhead
puff, is the only parallel that can be drawn to the show



380      LETTER TO TWENTY-ONE CLERGYMEN.
board of the absurd barber, since every man, woman, and
child in this parish knows with a smile, that no Catholic
here ever receives one particle of these frothy missionary
ministrations.'
But under other circumstances, it is notorious, that Catholicity supplies an abundant theme for the pulpit harangues of these missionaries. The platform where you
speak, the columns of the English press where you write,
the festivals where you declaim, might be supposed to
give a field wide enough for the display of your zeal and
talent, against the tenets and discipline of the Catholic
Church; but it is only in your pulpits that your oratory
acquires the full bulk and growth of Protestant perfection,
and where it is poured forth on all occasions in a devastating flood against the profession and the name of what you
are pleased to call "Popery."  The sober, religious of
your congregations, as I am credibly informed, look in
vain on the peaceful Sabbath, for some words of charity
from your reverend lips. They are deceived; there is
only one subject at Birkenhead and Liverpool, viz.: the
errors of Popery; your race, being still true to the original instinct of your progenitry, still, stillprotesting against
the existing form of our worship, without adopting permanently any fixed symbol of your own. These inflammatory speeches from your pulpits, have produced the
natural and expected result. Grace can never arise from
calumny, nor faith from falsehood; ana hence, your
churches are empty, your ranks are thinned, and your
professional character is weakened. Your statements are
doubted, your assertions disbelieved, and while I am pre



LETTER TO TWENTY-ONE CLERGYMEN.       381
pared to concede to your honor, (as a matter of course,)
the highest and the most spotless truth, on all social, comnmercial and national subjects; I am reluctantly compelled
to say, that from your known and unceasing deviations
from strict statement, in matters connected with the Catholic doctrine and practices, it is now universally whispered, and (without wishing to give the slightest offence,)
it is the familiar adage at home and abroad, throughout
Europe, and the civilized world, to brand the statements
of your Church, in reference to Catholicity, as "unscrupulous, unprincipled Protestant lies."  And while you
have forfeited the public confidence abroad, you have,
beyond dispute, infidelized your own country at home..
From undeniable statistics, it is demonstrated that one
half the Protestants of Liverpool, never attend Church;
it is the same in Manchester, and in all the manufacturing
towns; the poor are never seen in the churches. The
Tinies has lately stated, that fifty persons are the largest
number known to attend worship in any church within the
city of London on Sunday. Rev. Mr. Jones, in his examination before a Committee. of the House of Commons,
has proved the existence of forty-nine known conventicles
of avowed infidelity in England; and he has demonstrated
that Protestant laborers and tradesmen, &c., to the number of at least 300,000 in London and the suburbs, live
and die without any practical religion or any form of worship. In fact, the entire Protestant ecclesiastical records
of this country prove at once, the total failure of your
Church Establishment, and publish the awful existence
of a growing and wide-spread infidelity; and the impar



382     LETTER TO TWENTY-ONE CLERGYMEN.
tial ecclesiastical historian will yet tell the sad truth, that
this most deplorable national condition is beyond all doubt
to be ascribed to the teaching of the Protestant Church;
which, by breaking tlown all authority, removing the evidences of all antiquity, and taking away all checks from
the heart, has flung the public mind on a troubled ocean
of doubt, has unbridled human passion, and precipitate'd
the national character into an inevitable demoralization
and a wild infidelity.
And not content with unchristianizing your own followers, your Church has, of late years, by a system of the
most unparalleled vituperation and misstatement, attempted to undermine the Faith of the Catholics of these countries, and thus involve our creed in one common ruin with
your own. The very titleunder which your society has
been organized, contains in the first line a palpable and
notorious falsehood. It exists on the assumption that the
Catholic Church withholds the Scriptures from her faithful, and it is set in motion under the pretext of distributing
amongst our people the Word of God. This assumption
and this pretext, are, without any exception at all, the
most flagrant instance of unblushing imposition which has
ever been practised on the public credulity, at any period
of Christian history. It is the widest calumny which the
Protestant malignity has ever forged; it is beyond all comparison the most unprincipled lie which English apostacy
has ever promulgated. Now, mark me, Gentlemen, I
disclaim uttering one syllable disrespectful to you persor.ally. I have no reason to entertain towards you, individually and collectively, any other sentiments than those.




LETTER TO TWENTY-ONE CLERGYMEN.       383
of exalted estimation; but I again repeat my utter abhorrence of the flagitious system which lives on falsehood,
grows fat on calumny, and' claims the venerable spotless honors of sanity, from perjury to man, and blasphemy to God.
Beyond all doubt, there never was invented, so gross a
fabrication as the nauseating cant-that- the Catholic
Church has never encouraged the reading of the Bible.
In the early ages she could not, of course, circulate the
Scriptures with such. efficiency as we can do at present,
because the art of printing was then unknown; but she
alone collected them; she alone decided their integrity and
their authenticity; the Protestant Alliance not being well
known in those days! She alone stamped them with her
authority, without which they could no more vouch for
themselves, than -a dead man could tell his name and
parentage; she alone, like a witness before a jury, proved
their inspiration before mankind; she alone, by her infallible reputation, chained the universal belief in them; and
she alone, preserved them amidst the wreck of the Roman Empire, the convulsion of ages, and the changes of
dynasties and races, creeds and tongues. The sickening
cant of the beardless strippling clerics of the modern Reformation conventicles, asserting their claim to the Scriptures, is the same kind of humbug and imposition on the
undiscerning mind of your dupes, as if a green set of young
English architects, declared it was the Protestant Sir
Christ6pheir Wrenn, who built and preserved the Pantheon at Rome; or that it was the present London School
of Design, which planned and kept in repair the Pyra.




384     LETTER TO TWENTY-ONE CLERGYMEN.
mids of Egypt!  Of all the instances of audacious, barefaced, cool, imperturbable insolence of Protestantism, their
claiming the Scriptures as preserved by them, and promulgated by them, is the highest pott of wicked, exaggerated, extravagant misrepresentation to which the ingenuity of man could build up a lie.
I So unceasingly laborious, on the contrary, was the Catholic Church in making copies of the Bible, that she kept
the Monks, and the religious of all countries continually
writing them; and whoever will attentively consider for
a moment the extraordinary labor of even making one
copy of the Old and New Testament-whoever will visit
any ecclesiastical library, and count over the folio volumes
of Saint Augustine, Saint Jerome, Saint Chrysostom, and
all the Greek and Latin Fathers, and calculate then the
difficulty of making unnumbered copies of these Greek
ponderous volumes-whoever will, like a candid man, reflect, that all the profane and Church histories of these
days-all the sermons-all the works on piety were copied, re-copied, and one thousand times copied by the
Monks of the Catholic Church, the surprise of the generous man, and the scholar amounts to a feeling of impossible expression, how the Church could have been able
to furnish copies of these vast accumulated biblical, and
classical, and historical works to every part of the world,
such as we know them to have existed before the Christian libraries were destroyed, and before the art of printing was discovered. And further, to prove this statement, the moment printing was discovered, and made the
vehicle after many improvements, of communicatlcn be



LETTER TO TWENTY-ONE CLERGYMEN.             385
tween men, the Catholic Church, so early as the year
1412, (almost immediately after the discovery of printing
and paper,) published the Latin Vulgate, at once to circulate the word of G-od, and that too in a language then
most- known  to the whole Christian world.  When the
Scotch Sir Walter Scott lampooned the Catholic Church
for her want of library facilities, in the middle ages, he
might as well accuse King Alfred'of ignorance, for not
using the electric telegraph, or charge Hannibal with a
blundering strategy, for not meeting the Romans with
artillery. The truth is, that the present issue of the
Times newspaper, at the rate of sixty copies in every minute by steam, is not a whit more-wQnderful in its way,
than the manuscript copying of the Fathers, and of the
Scriptures in the middle ages by the Monks, who supplied the whole world with as many copies, as the skill of
thousands of expert penmen could have executed.
In order to arrive at the palpable refutation in this Reformation lie, I shall make a few quotations for you, Gentlemen, which I do not intend for you (who already know
them so well,) as for the numerous readers who will see
this letter of mine, in every part of the known world:Aware of the-manifest dangers to faith and morals that are found in
corrupt- versions of the Bible - i.,insidiously issued amongst the people... we have not ceased to deplore this great evil, and to labor for its
correction. It occurred to us that the publication of genuine versions
of the Vulgate would be found amongst the most efficient means to neutralise the poison of these counterfeit productions. Accordingly we
aprove of this edition of the Douay Testament, Published by Thomas
Brennan, of this city, and recommend it to the faithful.
t JoHN, ARCHBISHOP OF TUAM.
St. Jarlath's Tuam, 1846.
13




38G6       LETTER TO TWENTY-ONE CLERGYMEN.
BELFAST, July 24, 1839.
This new and portable edition of the Douany Bible, has been diligent
ly and carefully collated with the most approved versions in the En
glish language, previously to its publication.  I sanction its circulation
among the faithful.               t CORNELIUS DENVIR. D.D.
Bishop of Down and Connor.
The new edition of the English version of the Bible, printed with oui
permission by James Duffy, carefully collated by our direction, with the
Clementine Vulgate of 1606, and with the Rhenish version of the New
Testament of 1582, and with other approved English versions, we, by
our authority, approve; and we declare the same may be read by the
faithful with great spiritual profit.
Given at Dublin, Nov. 4, 1846.              t D. MURRAY.
Extract of a letter of Pope Pius the Sixth to Anthony Martini, Arch
bishop of Florence, in the year 1778:Calends of April, 1778.
At a timewhen a vast multitude of bad books, which grossly atta.k
the Catholic religion, are circulated even amongst the unlearned, you
judge exceedingly well that the faithful should be excited to the reading
the Holy Scriptures; for these are the most abundant sources, which
ought to be left open to every one. This you have seasonably effected by
publishing the Sacred Writings in the language of your country, suitable to every one's capacity. We, therefore, applaud your eminent
learning, and we return you our due acknowledgements.
PHILIP BUONAMCI, Sec.
For proof of the above extracts, I beg- to refer you to
ATr. Rockliffee, the eminent bookseller of Liverpool, who
will place these editions in your hands, with at least ten
other editions of the Bible in England. I refer you again
to Mr. James Duffy, the eminent publisher and bookseller
of Dublin, who, I dare say, will show you at least twelve
editions of the Bible in Ireland. I again wish to inform
you, that there are forty-seven different editions of the
Bible, published in Italian on the Italian peninsula; and I
beg in addition, to tell you that, in France there are
126 different editions of the Bible published in French,
within the last 300 years, since the art of- printing has
been found out.  And, now, "Gentlemen  of the Homne




LETTER TO TWENTY-ONE CLERGYMEN.       387
Mission for Distributing the Bible amongst the Catholics
of Birkenhead," will you satisfy the public on the morality of organizing a society founded on a lie known to
every Catholic in England, Ireland, and Scotland-on a
lie perfectly understood in every Catholic country in Europe-a lie denounced by the very first principles of the
Catholic Church, and contradicted by the extracts I have
made, by Popes, Bishops, and the public historical facts
of your own country. No man of honor and conscience,
except yourselves, can understand how, in the teeth of
the most notorious facts, you can ascend your pulpits, and
there promulgate, before your unfortunate congregations,
what all the Catholic world knows to be the grossest misstatement ever yet uttered on any one subject, between
man and man, in any age or in any country.
This is the conduct which has earned your Church the
character all over the world, of unblushingly and unscrupulously asserting anything, however unfounded, provided it raises a momentary hostility against the Catholic
Church; and it is the practice, too, which has led the
impartial historian of your day, to say, "that of all the
Christian inhabitants of the civilized world, there is no one
nation on the earth kept in such a fatal ignorance of God's
real Gospel as the Protestants of England." Your bishops write pastorals, by which the clergy can believe
what they please:' Prime Ministers issue ecclesiastical
appointments, which sustain men in adding or curtailing
any doctrines they like; and the preachers publish such
lectures as induce the laity to follow any imaginary creed
they may fancy to adopt. The most fashionable, and the




388      LETTER TO TWENTY-ONE CLERGYMEN.
most modern phase which your chameleon church has assumed, is what is termed "believing on the Saviour." —
And in fact, these words are uttered in such a strange
vague signification, that your Protestant saints seem to
think, -that belief in the mere existence of Christ is an inspired act of heroic Protestantism; and it is impossible to
avoid feeling, that they imagine the historical belief in Hiis
existence and person, ranks far higher in their Christian
estimation than the precepts of His law, the definitive conditions of His revelation, or the expressed reward and penalties of His judgments.
Depend upon it, Protestantism can no longer deceive
even your own dupes; it is detected, exposed, and scouted wherever mankind are free from national acerbity and
professional bigotry. Austria, Bavaria, Northern Italy,
Naples, France, Spain, Portugal, all know the spirit of
Exeter Hall, and feel fully the revolutionary antichristian
genius of your creed; and never since Luther first lifted
the standard of apostacy, has Catholic Europe entered into such a united defensive compact, as she has adopted
since the famed year 1847, against the intrigues, the machinations, and the conspiracies of your insatiable and exterminating novelties. If our opponents were men of honesty in controversy, they would state the fact-namely,
that the Catholic Church encourages the circulation of her
own version of the Scriptures, but that she strictly prohibits the Protestant versions, because they contain 1,600
errors in grammatical accuracy, in sense, and in doctrine.
And besides these errors, the Catholic Church has an objection that your missionaries should call on our people,




LETTER TO TWENTY-ONE CLERGYMEN.       389
even to distribute our own version, as experience has
proved, that wherever they go amongst Catholics, they
are unceasingly ridiculing our worship, misstating our
principles and practices, and ever and always calumniating our clergy and our conventual societies.
It is not true, then, that our people are not taught the
Scriptures, or are not allowed the use of the Scriptures; 
our people are taught their doctrine by the teachers, with
(not without,) the Scriptures in their hands. Your people
are taught their creed by their own judgment on these
Scriptures. The difference between us lies in the teachers;
and we believe that the entire sacred volume, furnishes
no other position stronger than the one on which we rest
this doctrine of ours. There was no legal document drawn
with such consummate comprehensive provisions, as the
warrant from Christ, by which we believe in our official
essential character as teachers. We believe no one can
infallibly learn Christ's law without our teaching; and we
believe that the very provisions of the divine revelation
itself, are not more forcibly expressed and urged, than
our legal and essential appointment. We do not believe
that the teacher ranks as high as the thing taught; but
we believe, that according to the clear legislation of Christ
on the subject, the thing to be learned canot be securely
taught without the agency of the accredited minister; or,
can never be duly acquired by individual unofficial judgment. The document of appointment on this subject, is,
the finest piece of legislative jurisprudence published in
the sacred volume:



390        LETTER TO TWENTY-ONE  CLERGYMEN.
1. The appointment, and the Source of the power-"'As the Father
sent me, I send you."
2. The knowledge requisite to discharge the duties —"All things
whatsoever 1 heard from the Father I have made known to'ou."
3. The office to be discharged —"Go ye into thle whole world and
preach the gospel ".4. The subjects of their jurisdictionr-" Go ye and preach the gospel
to every creature. "
5. The extent of territory subject to their duties. —"Go ye into all nations."
6. The authenticity of their appointment, and the obedience to be
paid to them-"He who hears you, hears me."
7. The crime of not hearing and obeying them-" He who despises
you, despises me."
8. The rewards and penalties attached to their authority-"Go ye and
preach    *   * and he that believeth shall be saved,
and-he that believeth not shall be damned."
9. The security which is attached to the discharge of their office —
"Lo! I am with you."
1C. The term and tenure of their office-"All days even to the consummation of the world."
11. The legislative bond of Christ, like a legal security to all men
as a guarantee, that these officers so appointed, can never violate
their trusts to the public-"And the gates of hell shall never prevail
against it.'"
12. The presence of the Holy Ghost, as a further security to the performnance of their duties "I will send the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of
Truth, who will bring to your recollection all things whatsoever I told
you, and who will abide with you forever."
In the foregoing section of this letter, I have merely
glanced at what may be called the legislative enactment,
under which the Catholic Church holds her office of Godlike, universal, boundless, permanent, and infallible teacher
of men in the Law  of the Saviour.  I assure you, Gentlemen, I have often read over this commission in astonishment, as a mere product of legislation; and I have arriv-.
ed at the conclusion in my own heart, my own mind, and
my own soul, that there are no passages in the entire Last
Will and Testament of our Lord, put forth with even so
much emphatic legal earnestness and literal energy, as the




LETTER TO TWENTY-ONE CLERGYMEN.       391
comprehensive provisions which place in the hands of duly
appointed men the whole power of teaching and deciding
Christ's law. There is decidedly no evidence in favor of
the very existence of Christ, or in support of the very
atonement on the cross; which ranks higher in testimony
than the clauses in reference to the subject before us; and
hence I place this authority precisely on a level, in point of
essence and necessity, with any other provision of God's
Gospel. And beyond all doubt, if I;vould be made to
believe that all the provisions, and legal statements, and
high constitutional enactments which I have quoted, had
all failed, fallen into disuse, and ceased to be necessary or
essential; I tell you firankly, gentlemen, that the character of the rest of the volume, the reputation of the remaining provisions, the credence of all other clauses of the will,
would be so much lessened, damaged, and, indeed, forfeited, that I could have decidedly no reasonable motive
fbr relying on one word of the rest of the Testament. If
you take away credit from the sincere, serious, didactic
legal passages which I have adduced, I publicly avow
that I could not be a Christian: and hence I presume to
say with St. Augustine, " that I am held to the doctrines
of Christianity, only by the authority of the Catholic
Church."
Gentlemen, will you kindly excuse this long letter to
you?  I beg toexpress again my unfeigned respect for
you, although I do think you have not used me well,
in the indiscreet, precipitate, unfounded public letter you
have written to me. I pity you all much in the unchristian mission in which you are engaged, You can no




392     LETTER TO TWENTY-ONE CLERGYMEN.
more teach the truth, than I can teach falsehood. You are
doomed to a permanent error, by the very same evidence
by which I am appointed to essential truth. ~Vou must
be forever wrong, by the very self-same laws by which
I "am forever right. I act under a commissioned au-thoriity, you speak from a self-appointed intrusion; and by the
same bond by which Christ is bound, always to set right
the Catholic Church, precisel yon the same cause, it follows that your local modern conventicles, must be
through all coming ages and unborn time, permanently
wrong.
I have the honor to be, Reverend Sirs, your obedient
servant,
D. W. CAHILL, D.D
P.S.-As I shall leavee Birkenhead to-morrow for t.
North of England, and as you have gratuitously commenced this correspondence, I beg to say, with the highest
respect that I cannot attend to-any valued communication
with which you may condescend to favor me in future.