TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE PRPMIER'S ANTI-POPISH MEASURE.
Loan Jour RUSSELL'S letter to the Bishop of Durham, especially after the universal response which it has elicited, pledges him to some positive action against the Roman Catholic aggression. He is bound to follow it up with some practical measure, but what measure There's the rub.
The burst of public feeling has been quite natural; you can easily account for it. The arrogant character which belonge to all the proceedings of Rome, assumed a peculiar offensiveness from many impressive circumstances. The unfamiliarity of the Eng- lish at large with the style of the Romish documents and the bearing of dignitaries in the Roinish Church, naturally imparted to this sudden display of the hierarchical system and Papal dialect a superciliousness which seemed peculiar to the occasion ; follow- ing on the heels of the liberal concessions to Roman Catholics, the Papal sally had all the effect of ingratitude in return for gene- rosity—attack in return for liberation ; coupled with the half-de- tected Tractarian ferment in the English Church, the deploying of t'se alien hierarchy appeared doubly alarming ; and the call to arms from the Prime Minister was precisely the tocsin to endow every doubt, every emotion of panic, and every old hatred rising from the depths of tradition, with the force of truthfulness au- thenticated by the highest sanction. However failing, therefore, in substantial foundation, however exaggerated, however vague in
its practical aim, the excitement of the people commands respect, not only because it is the sentiment of the public, but because if
the country is alarmed at shadows, they are the shadows of great powers suddenly cast over our noon by the setting sun of ancient Rome, and the alarm has been fomented by the appointed leader of the country. From him, above all, it merits respect and a prac- tical deference.
But here comes the difficulty. It was easy to recognize the spirit that must move the country on seeing a Papal hierarchy marshalled over the land ; it was tempting to seize the occasion for becoming the leader of the people in a genuine and spontaneous national movement; it is gratifying to the political Achilles when he feels his own voice swelled. by the gigantic volume of the na- tional Minerva, and he sees the contending crowds sway to the tones from his own lips. But when in the calmness of the council the statesman is called upon to frame a measure which shall at once satisfy exalted anticipation and comport with the rules of ordinary sense—which shall not be an evasion, a mere formal compliance, and shall yet stand the test of debate and practical working—then he must feel the difficult task for which he has given the bond in his letter to the Bishop of Durham. It has been rumoured, and there is some show of corroboration in the Ministerial press, that the Law Officers have been engaged in framing a bill for next ses- sion : if so, Ministers have been brought face to face with the full difficulties of their voluntary task.
In contemplating any positive enactment, it seems impossible so to frame it as to avoid a humiliating pettiness on the one hand, without falling into the opposite disgrace of intolerant persecution : the suggestions which have been thrown out attest the difficulty of escape from this dilemma. Many can get no farther than to suggest a proclamation forbidding the Roman Catholic prelates to bear territorial titles. There would be a ludicrous bathos in seeing an imperial commotion followed up by a statute against names. The more so, since the measure could be but partially effective; for although the prelates could be forbidden to assume the title, no penalty could prevent a general and colloquial use of the for- bidden designation. Such a measure, therefore, would only take effect upon one man out of a multitude, and upon formal proceed- ings : the multitude, and the general public habit, on the surface could not be checked, and the Government would be committed to a ridiculous and impracticable contest upon technicalities and ter- minologies.
An acute writer in the Ministerial interest has seen the futility of taking away mere names and titles, and suggests—probably with an eye to the drift of the Ministerial measure in petto—that the real action of the Papal hierarchy must be controlled by for- bidding the spiritual influence under foreign direction to set itself against the declared intention of the British Legislature, as the Synod of Thurles did in the case of the Irish Colleges. Now, no instance could at once bring out the impracticability of the pro- posal and its utter needlessness with greater force. If it would be petty for the three estates of the realm to follow up the national commotion by bringing the legislative thunder to bear upon the prelatical titles, pointing the cannon to carry off the tip of the mitre, no practical step could be taken to bind the spiritual influ- ence in the way proposed, except by laws most inquisitorial, sec- tarian, and exclusive. The Roman Catholics were not alone in opposing the Queen's Colleges ; and if you would test the imprac- ticability of forbidding any "influence" adverse to a particular measure, ask what enactment could be employed to crush the opposition of a M'Hale party, while it should spare the party of Sir Robert Inglis and his Ultra-Tory sympathizers in Ireland, equally opposed to the " Godless Colleges." You cannot meet in- fluences by direct and positive enactments, without emulating that spiritual despotism which it is the very object of the popular cla- mour to forefend—without enthroning in Canterbury a red Popery, to defend the alarmed public against the shadow which has been set up in Westminster. you can only oppose influences by CO1U2-
ter-influences—expiring bigotries by opinions born of freedom ;
precisely as the bigotry of the expiring Roman influence has been eountervailed in 'Ireland by that new independence of mind among the Roman Catholics which in spite of Papal' prohibition has thronged the Queen's Colleges with Roman Catholic students. But, say another class of suggestors, who think that they see a clue out of the practical embarrassment. the aggression as .not purely spiritual : wrapped rip in the ecclesiastical robes is a poli- tical conspiracy ; an " inthenee " is -110'W set up to establislie foot- ing in the country, and thence by encroachment Jesuitism will obtain political influence, political power, iiossession of the 13tate. And are there not, say these farseeing politicians, eight millions of Catholics in the -United Kingdom ?--Now let us avoid oonfounding processes. If it is not a spiiitiialtiat a-political conspiraoy,which we are to encounter, let us meet it by political. meats. ' That will be at once the most!honest, the most dignified, and the most scien- tific mode of meeting assault. But in order to meet political at- tack, there must be political attaek ; and in sober frankness 'it must be confessed that as yet there has been no political attack from the Papists. In the mean time, the country is amply supplied with all the means and appliances of defence. There are two modes of meeting political assault—on a large scale by force of arms, and in detail by the ordinary law. If there are eight millions of Roman Catholics in the country, are there not sixteen millions of Protestants ? Spi- ritually the Protestant public may be a heterogeneous mass enough; but politically it comprises the great bulk of the Anglo-Saxon population of these islands, characterized by strong national feel- ing, and by all the vigour of the race ; while it so happens that the Roman Catholic eight millions consists mostly of the Celtic popu- lation inhabiting the remoter provinces, with a scattered con- tingent of genteel families, adhering, through sentiment or family pride, to the traditions of the past. The Protestant public is the English nation ; the Roman Catholics are the sons of a conquered race or a conquered faith, who hang upon the outskirts of the na- tion. Of course the English nation does not stand in fear of those its dependents ?
But it needed the utmost excitement of popular clamour to call up these farfetched ideas of civil wet; they belong to an imaginary and unattainable future. We have not as yet come even to that small kind of attack which the ordinary law stands ready to re- pel. Some confusion is created by the lax colloquial use of the word " aggression." Such aggression as there has been is of a moral kind, to be met by moral repulsions—an outrage on national decorum, to be met by national displeasure or social contempt. Tangible aggression, aggression upon any thing or institution, has yet to be attempted. There has been a talk of "jurisdiction," but no jurisdiction is asserted except over a volunteered obedience of the mind. With all its arrogance of style, the Roman Catholic jurisdiction has not yet attempted to order a single beadle, to open or close any one gate, to levy a single penny, or to exercise any other act of public authority. It has begged pence from the bounty of its adherents—" Volenti non fit injuria pence but the authority Which'begs is wholly destitute of the
power of enforcement. Were a penny demanded, the law would laugh at the taxgathereror punish the impostor ; were the hand held out to open a single forbidden gate, the law would chastise the trespasser; were the command of a single beadle attempted, some " quo warranto'" would visit the rash intruder with tremendous penalties of fine and costs. As soon as " aggression" takes a tan- gible shape—a shape of reality, it will be repelled by that iron power whose blows are never starless. On the political ground, therefore, positive enactment is as little needed or apposite as it is on the spiritual.
Nevertheless, Lord John Russell's obligation to follow up his pledge with a practical measure cannot be got over ; nor would it be in any respect desirable to leave the popular expectation un- satisfied. The desideratum therefore is, to find a measure which shall redeem Lord John Russell's pledge—shall fulfil the vague popular expectation for some measure—shall be neither petty nor tyrannical—shall be neither inanity nor surplusage. As usual, the right kind of measure is indicated by the nature of the want. The general feeling is one of indignation at what is deemed, in spirit, an invasion of the State authority ; and the want felt is the reassertion of that authority in its full supremacy over even the figmentary authority which has been intruded upon us. The want thus described would be most accurately met by a measure which has been sometimes depreciated by its misapplication to wrong purposes, and by its abuse as an evasion of responsible le- *slation,—a declaratory resolution jointly emanating from both ouses of Parliament, setting forth the nullity of any jurisdiction or authority pretended under the Papal bull, and the unabated. supremacy of our own Sovereign and Parliament. And if it were thought desirable that the Crown should partake in this national declaration, the resolution might be -incorporated in an address to the Throne, requesting the Sovereign to proclaim the declaration of the Legislature to the people. Such a course would effect all that is needed, while it would not encumber the measure with what is not needed and is not expedient. It would meet the ne- cessity with efficiency, with forbearance, with dignity.
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