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New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 594, 12 April 1851, Page 3

The following letter on the subject of Papal aggression has been addressed to Lord Zetland by Lord Beaumont a Roman Catholie Peer * - • “ Dublin, Nov. 20, 1850. “My dear Lord Zetland, —I perceive that the newspapers have announced the intention of the High Sheriff to call a public meeting to consider the propriety of addressing the Crown, on the subject of the late insult offered to this country, by the Court of Rome; and I learn from the same information that the step on the part of the High Sheriff has been taken in consequence of a requisition signed by nearly all the resident peers in -lorKsnire. It is a matter not only of no surprise, but of no regret to me, that such a proceeding should be adopted by the country, for the acts in question are of quite as much political and social importance as of religious and sectarian character. Tbe Pope, by his ill-advised measures, has placed the Roman Catholics in this country in a position where they must either break with Rome, or violate tbeir allegiance to the constitution of these realms ; they must either consider tbe Papal bull as null and void, or assert the right of a foreign Prince to create by his sovereign authority English titles and to erect English bishoprics. To send a bishop to Beverley for the spiritual direction of the Roman Catholic clergy in Yorkshire, and to create a see of Beverley, are two very different, things—the one is allowed by the tolerant laws of the

country : the other requires territorial dominion and sovereign power within the country. If you deny that this country is a fief of Rome, and that the Pontiff has any dominion over it, you deny his power to create a territorial see, and you condemn the late bull as ‘ sound and fury signifying nothing.’ If, on the contrary, you admit his power to raise Westminster into an archbishopric and Beverley into a bishopric, you make over to the Pope a power which, according to the constitution, rests solely with the Queen and her Parliament, aud thereby infringe the prerogative of the one and interfere with the autnority of the other. It is impossible to act up to the spirit of the British constitution, and at the same time to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the Pope in local matters. Such is the dilemma in which the lately published Bull places the English Roman Catholic. I am not, however, sufficiently acquainted with their views on the subject, or their intentions respecting it, to give any opinion as to the effect this newly assumed authority of Rome will have upon their conduct; but I am inclined to believe that the Tablet and L'Univers newspapers speak the sentiments of the zealous portions of the Roman Catholic community, and that they are the real, if not the avowed, organs of the priesthood. The church of Rome admits of no moderate party among the laity ; moderation in respect to her ordinances is lukewarmness, and the lukewarm she invariably spues out of her mouth. You must be with her against all opponents, or you are not of her; and, therefore, when Rome adopts a measure such as the present, •it places the laity in the awkward dilemma 1 -have alluded to. Believing, therefore, that the late bold and clearly expressed edict of the Court of Rome cannot be received or accepted by the English Roman Catholics without a violation of their duties as citizens, I need not add that I consider the line of conduct now adopted by Lord John Russell as ithat of a true friend of the British Constitution.

“ Believe me, my dear Lord Zetland, “ Your’s very truly, “Beaumont. “ To the Right Hon. the Earl of Zetland.” The following letter from the Duke of Norfolk, approving of Lord Beaumont’s opinions, will be read with interest, especially as there is little doubt, that -the expressed sentiments of these noblemen are those of an overwhelming majority of the catholics of England : — “Arundel Castle, Nov. 28, 1850. My dear Lord —-I so entirely coincide with the opinions in your letter to Lord Zetland, that ! must write to you to express my agreement with you. I should think that many must feel as we do, that ultra-montane opinions are totally incompatible with allegiance to our sovereign and with our constitution. I remain, my dear lord, faithfully yours, Norfolk.”