rights of civil liberty, or the rights of religious liberty is embodied the greatest amount of nonsense and falsehood. As these phrases are perpetually uttered, both by Protestants and by some Catholics, they contain about as much truth and good sense as would be found in a cry for the inalienable right to suicide. How intolerable it is to see this miserable device for deceiving the Protestant world still so widely popular amongst us! We say 'for deceiving the Protestant world; though we are far enough from implying that there is not many a Catholic who really imagines himself to be a votary of religious liberty, and is confident that if the tables were turned, and the Catholics were uppermost in the land, he would in all circumstances grant others the same unlimited toleration he now demands for himself. Still, let our Catholic tolerationist be ever so sincere, he is only sincere because he does not take the trouble to look very closely into his own convictions. His great object is to silence Protestants, or to persuade them to let him alone; and as he certainly feels no personal malice against them, and laughs at their creed quite as cordially as he hates it, he persuades himself that he is telling the exact truth, when he professes to be an advocate of religious liberty, and declares that no man ought to be coerced on account of his conscientious convictions. "The practical result is, that now and then, but very seldom, Protestants are blinded, and are ready to clasp their unexpected ally in a fraternal embrace. They are deceived, we repeat, nevertheless. Believe us not, Protestants of England and Ireland, for an instant, when you see us pouring forth our liberalisms. When you hear a Catholic orator at some public assemblage declaring solemnly, that this is the most humiliating day in his life, when he is called upon to defend once more the glorious principle of religious freedom'(especially if he say anything about the Emancipation Act and the toleration' it conceded to Catholics)-be not too simple in your credulity. These are brave words, but they mean nothing: no, nothing more than the promises of a Parliamentary candidate to his constituents on the hustings.-He is not talking Catholicism, but nonsense and Protestantism: and he will no more act on these notions in different circumstances, than you now act on them yourselves in your treatment of him. You ask, if he were lord in the land, and you were in a minority, if not in numbers, yet in power, what would he do to you? That, we say, would entirely depend upon circumstances. If it would benefit the cause of Catholicism, he would tolerate you; if expedient, he would imprison you, banish you, fine you; possibly, he might even hang you. But be assured of one thing: HE WOULD NEVER TOLERATE YOU FOR THE SAKE OF THE 'GLORIOUS PRINCIPLES OF CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.' 66 * Again, Why are we ashamed of the deeds of our more consistent forefathers, who did only what they were bound to do by the first principles of Catholicism? Shall I hold out hopes to him (my Protestant brother), that I will not meddle with his creed, if he will not meddle with mine?' "Shall I lead him to think that religion is matter for private opinion, and tempt him to forget that he has no more right to his religious views, than he has to my purse, or my life-blood ? ' "No; Catholicism is the most intolerant of creeds. It is intolerance itself, for it is Truth itself. We might as rationally maintain that a sane man has a right to believe that two and two do not make four, as this theory of religious liberty. Its impiety is only equalled by its absurdity.' Are the devotees of this most holy faith safe citizens? Shall they use their pens unwatched, and exercise their power unrestrained? In every way, indeed, they are creeping over the land, stealthily intruding themselves into all places of power and emolument. Popery is a pest, an annoyance to us. Is it not incessantly gagging some public meeting; seeking to teach in public schools; we have just heard of a Papist who entered a school as a Protestant teacher, and was only discovered to be a Papist by chance. They tamper with our educational works. They are perpetually ransacking old deeds and documents, if possible, to substantiate some long-submerged claim. We know what they are by death-beds, where property may be willed away. We are unknown in the chambers of the Protestant Alliance. We are not aware that we know, or are personally known to one of its committee. With its excellent and devoted Secretary we once had five minutes' conversation. But we can surely speak very impartially when we say that such a compacted and corporate confederacy as Romanism is-with its foreign priests and colleges, and princes-all very jealous that the magnificence of our ecclesiastical and municipal establishments should have passed beyond their touch-needs a vigilant watchman. It may suit the purposes of the Saturday Review, as we have said, to represent the Alliance as "a party of fanatics, with whom systematic slander is the favourite instrument for the propagation of their faith." We choose rather to regard them as a party of Englishmen, jealous of foreign insolence, determined to oppose the invasions of the Ultramontanists from abroad, and to expose the treachery of perverts, or semi-perverts at home. If we have been unsparing in some of our words, we have also been unsparing in our quotations; and we have been so because we were desirous of putting before our readers, at a glance, the words, the spirit, and intention of the Papal party in England. Where Rome is concerned, a little jealousy can never be far wrong. We are desirous of rendering all justice to the citizenship of the Romanist. We confess we have some doubts whether the Jesuit should be tolerated in any community. He, by his profession of principles, places himself outside the circle of the protective influences of human society. Jesuits, it will be seen, do not command from us, as they do from Mr. Turnbull, "veneration, honour, and esteem." If a man avows his belief that, under certain circumstances theft and murder are not crimes, he is not the man we should choose for a companion in our household, especially if theft and murder may be to his manifest advantage. We are very far, very far, indeed, from making this our charge against all Romanists. We have no doubt there are to be found in the enclosure of Rome, men and women by multitudes amiable, excellent,; but the atmosphere in which all breathe, is mephitic. Many of the doctrines of the Papacy no doubt we regard as fearful heresies, but its true curse is its Priestism ;-this is the core of its whole creed. Take away the priest and all the cumbrous system of theology, entangling and amazing even the minds of scholars, falls to the ground; and the priest is the spring of the movements, which now are agitating the hopes of Rome, and the fears of Protestantism. Once more, we call upon all friends of freedom and Protestantism to be true to their principles; by all means, again we say, give to the Romanist every facility for happiness in his own service and worship, but not at the expense of our national character, and not to the cost of the conscience and conviction of the Protestant citizen. Brief Notices. TERCENTENARY OF THE SCOTTISH REFORMATION, as Commemorated at Edinburgh, August, 1860, with introduction. By the Rev. James Begg, D.D., Edited by the Rev. J. A. Wylie, LL.D. THE COMMON OR GODLIE BAND OF 1557, a Historical Narrative, with notes. By the Rev. James Young, Edinburgh. ON all hands, it seems to be agreed that the meetings held at Edinburgh in August last, to celebrate the tercentenary of the Scottish Reformation were, in many respects, a triumphant success. But to those without, like ourselves, there are some things a little startling, almost stumbling. We imagine that, somehow, it must have been found impossible to do other than was actually done; but the broad, bald fact flaunts itself in one's face, with a not quite pleasing effect, that the commemorative gathering, from beginning to end, was all but all, an affair of the Free Church. The meetings were held in the Free Church Assembly Hall. The rare memorials of the Reformation period were exhibited in the library of the Free Church College. The individual most prominent in making the preliminary arrangements, who also acted as secretary of the general business committee, was the Rev. Dr. Begg. The meetings were inaugurated by a sermon from the Rev. Dr. Guthrie a powerful, noble, glorious sermon. Most of the chairmen who presided over the different meetings belonged to the Free Church or its branches. The volume whose title we have placed at the head of this brief notice, is edited and prefaced by one Free Church minister, and introduced-very spiritedly and fittingly -by another. Of the fifteen more im VOL. V. portant papers read at the meetings, and which are printed by themselves in the commemorative volume, we are able to recognise twelve whose authors belong to the Free Church or its branches. The Presbyterian Church of Ireland and the Presbyterian Church of England, both branches of the Free Church, closely connected with it in its origin and throughout its course, were largely represented. The Church of England -was present in three of its ministers, excellent men no doubt, but without mark or importance. A stranger, like ourselves, to the inner and under movements, of which the commemoration was the upshot and the outcome, is forced to ask, where were the representatives of the vast nonconformist body of England? Or, to look only to Scotland, where were the Scottish Peers, whose fathers acted so grand and true a part three hundred years before? Where, above all, was the Established Church? Nowhere. Perhaps, no real blame is to be attached to any quarter, that thus it turned out. We, certainly, in our entire ignorance, have no right to impute blame, and no wish. But the result is to be deprecated. 'Tis true, and pity 'tis 'tis true. Reasoning as we do, altogether in the dark, two things seem to us tolerably plain; first, on the supposition that it was pre-arranged that the meetings should be held in a Free Church building, and that the leading parts were to be undertaken by Free Churchmen, the Established Church could not be expected to concur in the movement. Second, the Church of Scotland was the natural and rightful leader in any effort to commemorate the Scottish Ꮓ been unsparing in our quotations; and we have been so because we were desirous of putting before our readers, at a glance, the words, the spirit, and intention of the Papal party in England. Where Rome is concerned, a little jealousy can never be far wrong. We are desirous of rendering all justice to the citizenship of the Romanist. We confess we have some doubts whether the Jesuit should be tolerated in any community. He, by his profession of principles, places himself outside the circle of the protective influences of human society. Jesuits, it will be seen, do not command from us, as they do from Mr. Turnbull, "veneration, honour, and esteem." If a man avows his belief that, under certain circumstances theft and murder are not crimes, he is not the man we should choose for a companion in our household, especially if theft and murder may be to his manifest advantage. We are very far, very far, indeed, from making this our charge against all Romanists. We have no doubt there are to be found in the enclosure of Rome, men and women by multitudes amiable, excellent,; but the atmosphere in which all breathe, is mephitic. Many of the doctrines of the Papacy no doubt we regard as fearful heresies, but its true curse is its Priestism ;-this is the core of its whole creed. Take away the priest and all the cumbrous system of theology, entangling and amazing even the minds of scholars, falls to the ground; and the priest is the spring of the movements, which now are agitating the hopes of Rome, and the fears of Protestantism. Once more, we call upon all friends of freedom and Protestantism to be true to their principles; by all means, again we say, give to the Romanist every facility for happiness in his own service and worship, but not at the expense of our national character, and not to the cost of the conscience and conviction of the Protestant citizen. |