THE " TOMFOOLERY " AT EXETER HALL.

IT is a difficult matter to persuade even the most ignorant people in this country that their Romani Catholic fellow citizens are the base wretches that the High Church bigots, for their own purposes, do out scruple to represent them to be. The lives of Catholics give the lie to the slanders of Orange parsons and factionists. Perhaps the most bigoted, the must devoted Catholics in Europe, are the people of Tuscany; yet there is no people in Europe so free from crime. But we need not go abroad for proofs of the monstrous folly and injustice of the slanders which are now profusely heaped uron the pruftosors of the religion of FENELoN, Bosstoor, and Pasc.‘ L. lll our own country, who would object to place confidence in, or to have dealings aith a person, high or low, merely because he was a Catholic : Is Lord SiantEY less trustworthy than Lord SraNLEv, or Mr. OTOUGII LEN than Sir RooLar 'mita s: Are not Catholic merchants as honest, Cathol is soldiers as faithful and brave, Catholic tmen as viituous, as Protestants? His experience must Lc very limited, er his partisan bigotry exceedingly intense, ho S " no " to these queries. You caunot make a man believe that to be true which every day of his life he finds to be false; and therefore it is, that in spite of all the efforts of the Orange party in this country and in Ireland, to create dissension and di.Orust, there is a kindly feeling grOwing up between the people or both countries; and this disposition to live in utility is eucou- raged and fostered by the measures and declaratiens of the King's present Ministers. It was in pursuance of the disloyal design to create hostility where peace should always be, and with the ulterior view of forwarding certain party projects connected with the support of Ecclesiastical abuses, that some itinerating Irish clergymen called a ineetino. to be held on Saturday last at Exeter Hall. The os- tensible object of the meeting was to inform us, ignorant, benighted Englishmen, as to the real nature of the Catholic faith. On t his side of the Channel, it was taken for granted, that no means existed of acquiring correct information on the point ; wherefore several Orange parsons were despatched from Dublin to enlighten our darkness. This of itself was sufficiently impudent ; lint the way in which these missionaries set to work was an insult to the good sense of the community,—though it seemed perfectly right in the eyes of that brainless sineeurist Lord KENYON, and sir IlAncouRT LEES S patron, Lord oDEN. Tickets of admission were given to those utilr who \were known or believed to be of the right Orange hue ; so that the Hall was filled with a packed mul- titude of fiery zealots, ready to give an unanimous assent to what- ever might fall from the lips of the orators of the platform. No- tice of the meeting had been given, it is said, to the Catholic Bishops, who were invited to authorize some person to speak on behalf of the arraigned religion; and Mr. O'CONNELL was also requested to attend, in order to admit that a certain book to be produced as containing a true account of Catholic doctrines, was so considered among Catholics, or to impugn its authority. Of course neither the Catholic divines nor Mr. O'CONNELL took the least notice of the communications addressed to them for such a purpose, from such a quarter : and the Orangemen had it all their own way,—for they would not permit some unauthorized persons, who wished to speak, to say a word on the question in disputta. The first performer on the platform was the Reverend Mr. M•GnEE ; who produced a book which, we dare say, the immense majority of Catholics never heard of, entitled Dent's complete Body ql Theology ; published, in Latin, in 1808. This book, it was asserted, bad been circulated to the extent of 6000 copies among the Catholic priesthood, with the sanction of their Bishops; who also directed certain parts of it to be taken as theses for discussion in the seminaries of their order. It was declared to contain the true exposition of the Catholic faith ; and Mr. O'CONNELL was formally cited by Lord KENYON, the Chairman, to gainsay the assertion if lie could. Mr. O'CONNELL, as we have before said, was not such an as as to accept the invitation of the Protestant agitators : and so, judgment against the whole body of Catholics was incurred by default,--in other words, the following resolution, preposi d by Mr. rillfnEr, was adopted by the meeting, only six or itANCu hands out of the four or five thousand being held up against it- " That it appears to the sari .:faction of this meeting. that Denis (Ample& llady of been adopted by the Roman Catholic Bishops of Ire- land, a containing those principles which they approve for the guidance of the Haman Catholic priesthood since tl:c year I50$, and set up fur the conferences of the priests in the primitive of Leinster since the year ISM."

The calibre of Mr. M'GnEE's mind may be measured by the following extract from the speech which he pronounced on the passing of this resolution-

" My Land, I hvg. to congratulate you, and this immense ense and respectable as- sembly, on the decision In which you have now come. You have this day decided a qttestion which has f 'root obaost Gine intottotoritt/ baffled all the wit and inyc,4,4i(y same q• the yreatest awn of successive s. You h aye de- cided that which Pitt, with all his statesmanlike abilities, and his applications to Foreign Universities, could not achieve. You have come to a decision on a question on which some of the gteatest of your statesmen were mud& to draw a cpuclusion. Von hare decided, and decided, I must say, upon proofs Ouch will miry conviction /10040 to every impartial mind—ion hare shown what are the doctrines of Me Boman Ca.tholic Archbishop and Bishops of

"

Ireland. Your decist.. go drawn as a part of the history of the country. ' You have pronounced that' this wink • below me is the authorized system of

the Roman Catholic hierarchy of Ireland :

theology, sanetioued and ado,.. 'tv1 by

to a'

and in doin so, am sorry e obliged to say that this book contains erroi g as bad, and doctrines as perseentil.:-T• as .tiW' worst enemies of the Church of Rome had ever charged her with tote rt,""log."

og.,

It is not very necessary to point out the absurdity of concludin that because a book is directed to be s: tidied, till its contents ate to be taken by the students for gospel ; thougi; that is but trifliug com- pared with the enormous thlly and impudence of the assumption that the packed meeting in Exeter Hall you'd determine what was the rule of faith of the Catholic hierarchy. Suppose Dr. ti taut kv or Dr. NPII.1.1.E were to deny that DENs expounded their faith cur- reedy: and to assert that his book was put into the hands of the Catholic priesthood only as an excellent study in the art of theolo- gical dialectics, and as a storehouse of the arguments in defence of all the decisions of Councils and Popes,--w hat, we say, could be replied to this? Even the sapient Lord KENYON could not pretend to know what a man believed, better than the man him-elf.

From the extracts from 1)E NSS bunk real at the meeting, we should deem him a subtle and hold logician, w lio did not fear to IA- low out his principles to their remoter consequences. It is ceriain, that 11' any form of Christianity bemuses connected with the State, its professors will be under the temptation to use forcible means to procure conformity, and cruel punishments to cure heresy : it is equally certain, that if texts from the Old Testa- ment and analogies borrowed from the Jewish dispensation are admitted to have authority as guides of conduct in modern days (and even Protestant clergymen will be cautious how they maintain the reverse), violent means can be justified Oat the punishment of dissent from the established religion. It will be seen by the following extract from DE N S, that he adopted this mode of justifying the nttile, to death of heretics. The ques- tion proposed is, " Are heretics justly punished by death?" this is the answer- - st. trianna, anoviosa 22 roieo. it art. 3 in ciao.. v., ; toe., 1 or 111,1110y, or other distill:bet:sof the state, are Pest IV pi MI:41M With d atb ; thererni alSo horot %din are hirL'ersi of the faith, :mil, as experienee testifies, ictoasl■ disturb the faith. " This is confirmed. hecait,e I io 1, hi th, &reit the htho prophets to he Main; and ill POOL wii. 11?, it is decreed. that if :toy oil.. will act rrotoll■ and will not t,hey the eurnman Is of the loic•t, lc' him he put to ih•iith. Se.• t!so the Is; h chapter. "The same is pl., fr0:11 the out or the 14th article of John IIuss,iii the COlinell (.011Stallee."

The condenthatien of Huss is in this way artfully defended by the quotation front the Old Testatnent. 1Cc give another extract to illustrate the acuteness of Dasts. He is seeking to prove that liberty of conscience should not be allowed: and is answering the objection raised by the "dilemma of Gamaliel," Will), in re- ference to the Apostles and their preachiog and miracles, said, " Refrain from these men, and let them alone ; for if this counsel or this work be of man, it Will collie to nought, but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it." 'to this argument DENs replies- - We aosmer. la. This is a ililethma u. .1 of the Scri:anre, bat of (fain:diet,

who, this apparent argument, wished to rescue the ap, st.es, whom he hcioured,

from present danger. " We answer, 2ndly, that granting the .ir;tutnent of I ianciliel to be valid, there is this difference. that the cause • of unbelievers is ant iloota tot In the or the Church as that of the Apo-tics was to the Jews; but it is clear that it is certainly false and condemned; whence it is nut to he mice rat' but extirpated, mitt dare may be suns prrrlrati•rl rraSo. ,S Odell t • t t• rate it."

This last clause is a saving one. We fear that if Mr. M`GnEE, Mr. 0.SuLLiyaso and the rest of the clique, had their own way, prudential dictates would seldom prevent the extirpation of those whom they deemed heretics.

It is nut necessary to follow this part of time subject any further. It cannot be denied, that authority for every kind of severity to- wards heretics may be found in one or another of the decrees of the old Councils, and in the writings of Catholic authors : but the injustice consists in imputing to the Catholics generally of the present day, the doctrines and opinions of the dark ages, or of melt of extreme opinions who wrote in later times; and the absurdity consists in persisting to impute a belief in these dogmas to men who utterly disavow them. Mt. Stmt. has the following remarks on this point, in a speech delivered at a meeting in Louth, in reply to a gentleman who called upon the Catholic hierarchy to disown the authority of the Councils-

" How much more wise it nimbi lie of Mr. Ms-Hillock. instead of referring us to the Council of Lateran, to icier his realm-believers to the mogre-is of ei,ios, to in, win veiso alfroi..0 of hears...we. and the niat4abit etimigo ankh kith of .:11114v, natal ants has underuou-. The .rhete of human loam ledge bas ad- %al:c.d. and the cat iva ie chard, has been carried :thing iu t he tinkers:II ',mgr.'s-ion. (blur faith is I he sante, hot oar s.i1c111 ut rrrlcsia.lical g e.ernmetd whinyKama:Mimi cannot he considered a, Si, ingredient in a.min's creed. It may. indeed, he the result ia hi, prinriples, hnl canto)! he considered ns oft he essence of his It were niscr for Mr. M Cliut.ok to hs I, at the ileeiaiat ions of Catholic I Mici sit ies, denying the alionlinable doctrines imputed to us, to the re( rut profiist of the Catholic Bishops of Ireland, and to the oath which mery Roman Catholic takes, to the math eaten volumes smith %illicit he has been replenishing his :Moil.'

This extract was mad at the Exeter Hall meeting, as well as some declarations from Mr. O'CONNELL and the Catholic Bishops, repudiating the monstrous doctrines sought to be fastened upon them : still the wise and liberal orators at the meeting persisted in assuring their auditory that the Catholics did hold these absurd and treasonable opinions not withst They- knew that the man who wields the Catholic denweracy with such ease and effect, is one of the most liberal of modern politicians; they knew that he never lets slip au opportunity of Art eating the cause of perfect religious liberty: and yet they maintained that this demigod of the Catholics was a heretic from his faith, if he disclaimed the opinions they said were his—they pretended to be better acquainted wall time faith of the Catholics than the Catholics themselves arc. This rewinds us of a dispute between a Catholic and a Protestant of the O'SULLIVAN stamp, in which the lat- ter charged the former with being a worshiper of images : the Catholic denied this for himself, and all his friends; where- upon the Protestant, in a raue, asked if he dared at this time of day to affirm that lie, a Catholic, did not worship idols? Of course there was no use iu reply ing to a person witlt this descrip- tion of intellect. It is singular that the zealots who are so eager to prove that the Cal Indies hold certain odious opinions, though the Catho- lics deny that such is a true account of their belief, do not pl.- cui\■• 110W easily the tables may be Mimed upon them. For. ia- statire, we might prove that all Cal% Mists would burn Sociinans if they had !lie power, because tint f tunder of their sect not only procured the death of Sett v Prt's at the stake, but actually w rote a letter describing- the pleasure which this murder raft! him. The Independents of our day, and the Inembers of the Scottish Kitt, would either ridicule or Im shocked at the charge of being in this matter disciples of C.■ 1.v t N : Lett, according to the tnodeof ar- gument adopted by the Irish clerical a g it a tt os, thev could not escape front it. Again,tlw members of the EsMblished Church ju England might have the guilt of the burning of Catholics in the days of Eow inn the Sixth and Eta/. 11:1,T11, and still later, of the Arians in Kent and elsewhere, fixed upon them. In shit, if, in de- fiance of their owtt as, everatitm, to the contrary, and of their course of till', the members of :toy sect are to be made liable for all that their rulers or leaders have done or said, there is no eh: s; of religionists which cannot be painted in black tints: as-tiredly' the members of the Irish Church Nvould be coloured wi;li the darkest dye ; for never was any religious system maintained at so great an expense of bleoil, or by means so miff molly intomous and unjust, as the Irish Church Establishment. The history of Protestant Ascendancy in !Maud, front the dry s of and l'emiwELL, when the natiN es were extermioated by thou- sands, to the comparatively mild Tithe campaigns aril massacres of our oat n time, will justify this charge. The ministers of the Irish Church ought to be the last to throw stones at others: they ought to remain silent and surrowful until they have taken the Leant out of their own roe.

We have intimated that political agitation was at the bottom of this pretended zeal to unmask Cathoheisto ; and au incident oc• curred at the meeting which prove,: it. Mr. M'Cus:o alluded to the famous threat of " Death's-head and cross-bones," and pro- duced an enoraving of a figure of I )(edit stretched upon a cuilin, with assassins above it, and the inscription "There he is the sight of this caricature. or, as the reporter bath it, "this horrible device," nit huieseribob/o Aen.SitiiOn was IMAILleed IN the meeting. Were the auditory disgusted at this attenTt to blacken a whole class of Christians ; or did they really expect to find the picture nailed at their own doors when they returned from this Protestant meeting ? If the latter, they must have been com- forted by the information of Mr. Ml6noe: that the engraving was about three years old ; the copy he produced had been raked up to create an effect at the packed meeting in Exeter Hall. This exhibition showed the true aim and intent of the proceedings. The whole affair had a political object. They who believed that religion was at all in the thoughts of the Lords, Members of Par- liament, and itinerant agitators, were gulled. But let us have done with this "tomfoolery," as O'CoNNom, justly called it, by allusion, in the House of Commons. It makes us blush to think that any considerable body of decently educated people in London should have been made the tools of such poor creatures as they who got up this meeting. We subjoin a list of their names; from which it will be seen, that, vt ith the exception of one or two scheming politicians, who had their own game to play, the leading persons present are noted for nothing so much as intellectual :utility, or stupid Andrew-Agnewism.

The Earl of Roden, Earl Ifand,m, Viseount Mandeville, Lord Kenyon, Mr. /Tardy, M.P., Mr. Pringle, ALI', Mr. Phimptre, M.P., Mr. Finch, 31.1'., Mr. Caleraft, NI.P., Mr. F. Tomer, NIP., Mi. Chisholm, M.P., Mr. F. Shaw, AL 1'., Mr. Verner, 111. 1'., Nlr. D. Jack .011, Al. t'., Mr. Henry Max- well, M.P., Sir Hobert Bateson, M.P., Mr. J. E. condom Why did not the Bishop of EXETER form one of this wise and pious party ? His speed, in the House of Peers on Thursday proves that he belongs to the set. But the Bishop did his best in the way of agitation : it will not be his fault if the scheme of the "Protestant Unions" fails. Has he not a vacant living fur Mr. MC HEE ? The poor man is understood to be anxious for some-

thing more solid than notoriety.