THE ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTHOOD AND THE LATE REBELLION.

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 270, 30 December 1848, Page 3

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTHOOD AND THE LATE REBELLION.

The following will surprise many of our readers as coining from the Morning Chronicle. " Our policy in Ireland bhouldbe neither Protestant nor Romanist ; but of the two, there is fw more to be •aid for the former than for the latter ; and if we mult adopt such a pernicious coune as that of governing the couutry through the instrumentality of a faction, it is better that we should side with our iriends than with our enemies. Yet we are informed, and we believe, th»t the intention of the Whig government at this moment— an intention to which they have already begun to give effect— is to attempt a revival of the old alliance which formerly kept them so long in office, at the expense of their own character and of the peace of Ireland. We have reason to fear that overtures have already been made to the leaders of the eccleiiastical party among the Repealers, according to which the government and patronage of the country is to be handed over to them, on condition that they use their influence to keep the people quiet, and to save the government from embarrassment and expense. Now, independently of all other objections, a radical error, in the view on which this plan is founded, exists in. the belief that the priests are able to keep the people quiet, if they like it, or to exercise tne lame influence over them for good as for evil. It cannot be too often repeated, or too thoroughly understood, that neither in this, nor in any insurrectionary movement, can the priests do more than follow in the wake of other and ttronger influences. In the present case, both the inspiration and the force of their pacific homilies were derived from the bajonets of the soldiery." In connection with the same subject the followingremarks, copied from the Dublin Evening Herald, art* d seiT ng of attention : — " The pro-popish press are making the most of the alleged employment of priestly influence in favour of j tne cause of order. What is the truth ? For twenty years the priests have been the ringleaileis of an agitation which hat blasted the interests and debauched the mmdi of the country. They have not even limited their active co-operat'on to that period of the movement in which it affected constitutional forms. They have continued their support through all its phases ; and even when disguise had vanished, and the avowed object of the demagogues was an armed insurrection, the prieitu continued to countenance with their potent but more cautious support the rebellious conspiracy. They did not, it it tme, manoeuvre upon the drill ground, leain the pike exercise, or cultivate rifleihooting; but when in the projected league vva« pie* sented to the timid an opportunity of expressing without any direct risk their sympathies with the hardier dticiplei of the natioual school of sedition, the priests flocked in, not by twos and threes, but in troopi of eighties and hundreds at a time. Long after John Mitchel had given to the agitation its blood-red hue, no less than five dioceien, headed by their mitred titulars, without the exception of a single priest or curate— comprised in their respective muster rolls — marched en masse into the movement. Looking to their language, their wiitings, and the significance of their conduct, we are justified in saying that, in il* latter phases— as in its earlier— the Popish hierarchy have been in the main supporters of this agitation. They have (at a safe distance to be sure) proceeded with it step by step — as>soci<ue"d with the rebel captains m the half-completed league— and contributed by letters, speeches, and even money, «o the exasperation of that very temper which the rebel chiefs were most anxious to excite. True, they have not now, ' at tha last hour of the act/ redeemed their implied promises. They have not backed the innovations of Smith OBrien by the incentives of clerical authority. And why ? Simply because the rebellion has exploded prematurely, and is obviously without one chance of ultimate success. This is all the wonder ! The combustibles have providentially missed tire, and the in - cendiariei now play the water engine. Thanks be to God, and not to thorn, thfre is uo couftagrauou to. l>q l>Ut out."