31 AUGUST 1850, Page 14

PROTESTANT MORAL OF THE SYNOD OF TILl7RLES. Tax Synod of

Thurles has been formally opened with .a grand Serio-comic spectacle, in which, we are informed by jour- nalists, " everything was exactly copied on the model of the ope's chapel at Rome." There was " the canopy of the Primate repre- senting him, to act as delegate of the Holy See, and the Bishops seated around him, like the Cardinals at a congregation of the Sacred- College. And from the same idea, the escutcheon of the Pope's arms, in red velvet and gold, and another escutcheon with the tiara and keys, were in conspicuous parts of the church." The Primate himself, clad in amice, alb, cincture, pectoral cross, stole, red. cope, and rich mitre, sat upon a throne covered with crimson velvet, upraised on a dais of three. steps covered with tapestry. He was led to his seat of honour by mace-bearers, crucifers, priests, bishops, and the mitred Abbot of Mount Melleray. The proces- sion was guarded on its way through the grounds of St. Patrick's College, and over the public road, by an escort of honour, supplied by the Constabulary, in their picturesque dark green uniform and with their muskets ; and the people fell on their knees as it passed along. Mass having been sung, the Primate laid aside his cha- suble and other vestments of the mass; and having endued himself with the ea; magna, " a very gorgeous costume of crimson silk," and assam • a rich jewelled mitre and crosier, he seated himself on his throne, and, "as representative of the Holy See, received the ho- mage of the Bishops." At a subsequent stage of the proceedings, the Legate, on his knees and touching the holy Gospels, took what seems to have been an oath of allegiance to the Pope ; which he after- wards administered to the Bishops kneeling before his throne. The Synod having been thus inaugurated, the most reverend fathers retired into secret conclave, to set about their work in good earnest. What they do, is not, it seems, to be made known until it shall have been submitted to the Sacred Consistory at Rome. It will probably very much depend upon the signs given by the British Government. If those be such as to convey a satisfactory assurance to the reverend gentlemen that the official disposition is to.trackle their voice and words will grow big accordingly. If, on the other hand, the Ministers act with a proper sense of self- respect and of duty to the British nation, the statute of Thurles de non divulgandis decretis will be thoroughly respected; the de- orees of the Synod will be forwarded to Rome, and allowed to sleep quietly there until they shall be forgotten. In the mean time, the progress of the game is, so far, favourable to these foreign enemies of the British constitution, and of that free- dom, civil and religious, which has hitherto constituted its essence. The organs of the Papal Legate boldly announce that the God- less Colleges will be excommunicated, and the National system of Education proscribed, so long as any practical control over those institutions shall be "conceded to an un-Catholic Princess and her Ministers, who may be either only Catholic in name, or Pro- testant, or InfideL" Bishop O'Donnell is very intelligibly warned that an eye will be upon him should he carry out his promised in- tention of stoutly defending the College of Galway. "It is ru- inoured that the Dean of Residence is withdrawn at Cork, either by the obedience of that gentleman to the judgment—which few now can doubt—of the National Council on the Colleges question, or in deference to the expressed wishes of his diocesan." While this is going forward on the one side, we have heard that the known sycophants and eavesdroppers of the Government, both here and in Ireland, are whispering in men's ears of the revolutionary dangers of resistance to priestly authority—of the facility of a reasonable compromise.

Thus it seems evident that a new Irish crisis is approaching, and it behoves reflecting Englishmen to observe well its signs. They will understand them better if they look at them by the light emanating from the collision between freedom of opinion and the Papacy that has just occurred in Piedmont. If they desire not the establishment of a clergy in Ireland which will refuse the last rites of religion to minister or magistrate who may have been in- strumental in rendering them amenable to the civil courts, they will inquire seriously, whether those invested with the civil au- thority are adequately meeting the responsibilities of the occasion. And in the course of this reeonnoisance it will be well to mark the quoins of vantage already in the possession of the encroaching Ro- manists. While the ultra Protestants of Ireland have been dreaming over their old " ascendancy," and while their leaders, in the truest spirit of faction, have been vexing the ear of Parliament with lamentations over the defunct 'ebbing and bigotry of the Kildare Place Education Society, the Romish eoclesiastics have been esta- blishing their church ; making it a part—bat a separate part—of the law and polity of .the country ; procuring it State endowment —but fencing it out from civil onitrol. This is the isoteric sense of the introduction of Romish Chaplains into the staff of the workhouses, gaols, lunatic asylums, and other State institutions ; of the salaried appointments of Deans of Residence in these same " Godless Colleges ' ; of the uncontrolled extension of the May- nooth grant. These acts of the State have so far established the Romish Church in Ireland.

And now for the Protestant moral of the tale. Since civil equality was tardily conceded to the Roman Catholics, their Church has claimed and obtained lay assistance in these progressive move- ments towards establishment, by appeals to sectarian pride. The priests were able to say to their flocks—" You number three- fourths of the Irish population ; why should your pastors not be placed in positions of honour and advantage like to those occupied by the teachers of the minority of your countrymen ?" The ap- peal, under the circumstances, could not fail to be loudly responded to. It will continue to be urged, and with progressively increasing success, so long as any appearance of State preeminence remains to the Protestant Church. Will the struggle cease when ecclesiasti- cal equality shall have been attained ? Perhaps an answer to the question may be spelled out of the preceding abstract of the glories of the Synod of Thurles. But, we may be asked, what can be done to mend matters ? The days are gone by for raising Protestant ascendancy on the points of bayonets : we cannot go back. Then, we reply, go forward. While it is yet time, let such an arrangement of the Anglican Church in Ireland. be made, as while it will not damage the use- fulness of its ministrations will yet separate it from the State- Take from it the character of an establishment, which but fixes it as a target for the arrows of every enemy. Restore to it the mis- sionary liberty which in all probability will reconquer for its min- isters missionary influence. Leave no excuse to friend or foe for further progress in the establishment of Papal domination in Ire- land—a tyranny which forbids the means of intellectual cultivation to the people, and arrogates for its Synod with " special legatine powers" in that behalf, the passing of irreversible decrees.