A SHORT WAY WITH THE POPE'S PUPPETS. [From "Punch,"] To the Right Honourable Lord John Russell, m p.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 524, 23 April 1851, Page 4

A SHORT WAY WITH THE POPE'S PUPPETS. [From " Punch ,"] To the Right Honourable Lord John Russell, m p.

My Lord,—The Pope, in his scarlet audacity, cuts up merry England like a cake into thirteen slices.—a Twelfth Cake with all the images—giving a slice to one Cardiual and twelve Bishops. The Pope has stretched out his crozier, and pullsd the stray English sheep into his fold. And the sheep shall be better fed with the old Vatican waferi; and shall bear on its scat let wool the Seal of the Fisherman's Ring. Without knowing it, we are all of us the Pope's spiritual subjects j we have gone over to him in our sleep: in our beds have been carried to Rome, and aie only now awakened to the change. —Such are the glad tidings cried by Doctor Newman ; such the stirring trumpetnote of the Cardinal of Westminister! And now there are meetings of Protestant divinei; there nre addresses to the Bishop of Rome; and the Bishops' denunciation of Papal supremacy come thawed to us in a reply, like the melted tones long frozen in Munchausen's trumpet. Protests have been isiued ; the Pope pelted wilh »H sorts of names: and every man and woman exhoited to declare their unrelenting opposition to Rome—their indignation at its intolence and its ingratitude. My Lord this, is all very well; but we do not have meetings to protest against the crimes of pickpockets. We do not gather together to declare our uncom* promising hostility to buigltrs ; we do not avow our hatred and loathing of—and determination never, if we know it —to take a bad crown piece. No, my Lord. We pay for a police to seize the pickpocket if possible, in the fact; we shoot a burglar, though he may escape into a bush, »nd scrpam for mercy ; and for the tendered copper or pewter crown, we may either cut it in twain, and give over the pieces to the utterer, or nail the pocket-piece inexorably to the j counter. Now, my Lord, in something after this (ashion would I deal with all Cardinals and Bishops appointed with hat, pallium, and ring, to | English counties. In some 6uch way should ' I deal with the iniquity of a Church j that would pick the concience of this Protestant coun- I try—that would break into the house, and domineer at ' the fireside of every Enlishman—thai would substitute for the Crown ot England, the rule and potency of the triple crown of triple brass of the withering, man-des-troying, power of Rome. The way is brief and easy. Let your Lordship draw up a small bill. A plain unraistakeable bill j with every line and clause as clear and defined as a Smithfield gridiron. And let the bill rim as follows, with as little flourish as you may : — •' And be it enacted,—That any person accepting [of the Pope of Rome, or of any Pope, Cardinal, or Catho-

lie Roman Bishop soever, any Titular Jurisdiction as Cardinal or Catholic Biihop, of any County, City or Township, of Protestant England, shall be adjudged guit'y of High Treason ; and shnll suffer the penalty of High Treason a- may be adjudged in all Ca«es. •• And Further be it Enacted, — That the signing of any Address, Mandate, Letter, Order or Enhortatioo soever, signed by a Catholic, ns the Supreme Catholic Cardinal, or Bishop, of any County, City, or Township, shall of itself be adjudged as proof of the crime of High Treason against the Crown and Dignity of the Sovereign of these realms ; and the doer thereof shall suffer the penalty of High Treason, as adjudged." Here, my L<ird, are two little clauses ; A Bill in the • rough. Let it be, on the meeting of Parliament, forthwith cut into an Act, and set— the brightest jewel —in the Protestant crown of Protestant England. And in making the crime above recited the crime of high treason, I have no wiih to brinjj back tbe days of the hurdle, the halter, the axe, and the quarteringknife. But I have this.desire ; a most lively wish, that I would carry out by penal enactment. When a Roman Catholic Pope appointed Cardinal put on his scarlet hat, and called upon the city of Westminister to do him, in the name of Rome, all spiritual obedience, I would immediately seize such Cardinal, try him for High Treason, and, on conviction, send him, in convict grey, to the antipodes. The convicted Human Catholic " Bishop of Plymouth" should know the change of air breathed at the still-vexed Bermudas; and the 41 Bishop of Liverpool" quaff the bitter waters of Norfolk Island. The time is past when we ihould protest in the old way against the soul -enslaving power* of the Pope. Our new mode of protest should be delivered by twdre men in a box ; our appeal— not to the conscience of the Court of Rome, but to the Jury of the Court of the Old Bailey. I remain, my Lord, Your obedient servant and humble adviser, Punch.