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EEMARKS

SOME LATE PUBLICATIONS

FROM

OXFORD,

IN A LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING HERALD.

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BY
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AN AGED LAYMAN.
LONDON :
SOLD BY J. HATCHARD AND SON, 187, PICCADILLY;
AND IN KIRKBY LONSDALE
BY ARTHUR FOSTER.
1842.
To the Editor of the Morning Herald.*

SiK, — In a late number of your valuable
journal, I read some seasonable strictures on a
"Letter of the Rev. W. Palmer, fellow and
tutor of Magdalene College, Oxford," — "to the
Rev. 0. P. Golightly." Since that I have seen
the "Letter," and some of the "Tracts," which
have been so actively circulated from that quarter.
This has led me to write a few remarks, which
will probably soon appear in a monthly publica
tion. They would be too long for your crowded
columns. But if room can be spared at this busy
season, you may, perhaps, be able to insert the
following observations, which, hereafter, may
possibly be published in another form, incor
porated with what I have before written.
Mr. P., in his Letter, p. 12, says: — "If to
desire the restoration of unity with those churches"
(the churches of Rome itself, properly so called,
and the other foreign churches of the Latins, p.
11.) "be Popery, then I for one am a Papist from
* This Letter was inserted on the 28th of April last.
The Note [A] is now first added. (May 2, 1842.)

the very bottom of my soul; but I beg you to
take notice that my Popery is of a kind which
takes in, not only the churches now actually in
communion with Rome, but also the Eastern
Catholic churches, and the British, if their Pro
testant members will still allow me to call them
Catholic." It is not very easy to understand, perfectly,
the last part of this extraordinary passage. If
by "Catholic" Mr. P. means a member of the
holy Catholic, or Universal Church, no intelligent
member of "the British" church will hesitate in
"allowing" Mr. P. to call him Catholic; for he
believes his own, and every other Christian
church, to be a portion or branch of the holy
Catholic church, properly so called. He, there
fore, the English churchman, has no need to
"desire" a union which does already exist. But
if he be called upon to "desire" a union with
"the Church of Rome, and the other churches
of the Latins," he pauses; because, however de
sirable such an event might be, under certain very
improbable circumstances, he cannot, with Mr.
P., desire it, unless he could be assured that
"those churches" had renounced the errors against
which we protest — an assurance which neither
Mr. P. nor the authors of the "Tracts" can give.
These writers, to effect their purpose, have not
scrupled to depreciate the Church of England
and her formularies; at the same time palliating

the errors of the Romish and Oriental churches.
Many Instances from the "Tracts" might be ad
duced; but as they would occupy too much of your
space, one from Mr. P. may be sufficient at present.
In page 9 of his "Letter" he says, "I am for
no middle ways, as you will understand when I
tell you plainly that, for myself, / utterly reject
and anathematise the principle of Protestantism
as a heresy; and If the Church of England should
ever unhappily profess herself to he a form of
Protestantism (which may God of his infinite
mercy forbid), then I would reject and anathema
tise the Church of England, and would separate
myself from her immediately, as from a human
sect, without giving Protestants any unnecessary
trouble to procure my expulsion."
Mr. P. has no occasion to defer the fulfilment
of his conditional purpose until the Church of
England shall have made this declaration. She
has done it; and by the most conclusive means
that could be required, if her articles of religion,
her forms and ceremonies, and her accordance
with the laws of the land, mean any thing. She
has long ago professed, and does continue to profess
herself to he a form of Protestantism.
We cannot wonder, then, that endeavours have
been artfully made to nullify the Protestantism
of the Church of England, which Mr. P. has so
strangely aimed at; or by various sophisms to
explain away the Protestantism of her doctrines.

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articles, and formularies ; as seems to have been
attempted by the author of the 90th " Tract."
While these gentlemen have been thus sedu
lously employed, have the Romanists been less
active ? Any one who doubts this, may cast his
eyes upon the superb edifice which now displays
its spire and Its transepts, cathedralwise, at
Preston (the stronghold of English Popery) —
upon the great Increase of Romanism in that
populous town, and In the country around it ; —
upon the neighbouring splendid and extensive
college ; upon the growth of other seminaries for
the same purpose ; and the recent establishment
of nunneries and monasteries In our land.*
The Jesuits who, for their dangerous enor
mities had been suppressed in 1773, by Gan-
ganelll, were restored in 1814 (the Sovereigns
of France, Spain, Portugal, and Naples concur
ring), by another (but infallible') Pope : the
blgotted Ferdinand of Spain having, In the same
year, re-established the Inquisition.
The Papal Bull, which revived the order of
the Jesuits, declares, that " they may freely and
lawfully apply to the education of youth In the
principles of the Catholic faith ;" — and " direct
colleges and seminaries" — "likewise hear con
fessions," &c.
* From this enumeration must not be omitted, the "Roman Catholic
Cathedral" in course of building and now rapidly advancing towards
completion, in St. George's Fields, just beyond the bridges of the me
tropolis  Note In/ the Editor of the Morning Herald.

The spirit of toleration justly forbids us to
promote any restraint of Christian principles, or
of forms which may differ from our own; but
even that mild influence does not prevent us from
attempting to counteract, by legitimate means,
the mischievous effects of error upon our own
constitution. Are there, then, none of this obnoxious order
to be found in the United Kingdom — none at
Stoneyhurst — none at Maynooth or Clongowes
— none elsewhere ?
The Quarterly Review (vol. 37, pp. 459 to
484) gives many striking instances derived from
a most authentic source, the " Eighth Report of
the Commissioners of Irish Education Inquiry,"
printed by order of the House of Commons, In
1827. With respect to the evidence of some of the
witnesses then examined upon oath, the reviewer
says, "Nor is it less singular that Dr. Crotty,
(president of the College of Maynooth) and
the other witnesses, betray a remarkable unwil
lingness to allow that Mr. Kenny was a Jesuit.
He (Dr. Crotty) did not know whether he doubted
it or not ; he had never asked him, he had it only
from public fame, says Dr. Crotty; and Dr.
Anglade was not sure that there were any Jesuits
in the country, because he had no legal proof of
the fact. Yet both these doctors were at last
forced to admit that they were perfectly aware

that Mr. Kenny, and his ten brother professors at
Conglowes, a seminary only a few miles from
Maynooth,aS belonged to the society of Loyola. "[a]
Let us, finally, give a little consideration to
the consequences of the above-mentioned dis
affection among those who still retain their
connection with us, as fellows and tutors of col
leges, or as ministers of our national church;
as well as of the contemporaneous unremitting
activity displayed by Romish agents.
Some of these effects we have had deeply to
regret from the perplexity and distress excited
in the minds of many well-meaning individuals,
and still more in the secession of pastors, who
were once highly-valued, from our church to
that of Rome.
May those who have fallen into the snares be
happily brought to a right mind !
I am, Sir, your humble servant,
AN AGED LAYMAN.
Westmorland, April 19, ] 842.

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Can it be expected, that the sons of our Romish Nobility and
Gentry will from such instructors imbibe principles the best
calculated to make them patriotic legislators, or good subjects ?
And is it not too probable, that the pupils who are preparing
for the Popish ministry may, from such an education, be de
riving inclinations and faculties to aggravate, rather than to
beal, the lamentable disorders of our Sister Island ?

A. F08TEB, PBINTBE, KIBKBY JCONSDALE.

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