THE AGITATION.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 599, 30 April 1851, Page 4

THE AGITATION.

[From Bell's Wee My Messenger, November 9.] The conduct of the organs of the Romish party is not calculated to allay the indignation which the issuing of the Papal bull has aroused. It is true, that attempts have been made by one or two parties to persuade the people of England that the whole affair is a mere matter of form—a mere change of names, and nothing more. But language of a very different kind is held by others, who speak as those having authority, and under circumstances which render it no longer necessary that they should mask their designs. Here, says the Morning Herald, is a letter from Mr. Ambrose Lisle Phillips, of Grace Dieu, to Lord Shrewsbury, in which he seems ready, on the part of the Romanist laity, to go to any extremes. His language is of this kind —

“ There will be no flinching on the side of the Catholic Church”—" the decree of our Holy Father the Pope has gone forth, and it will be upheld by every faithful Catholic, from the greatest to the least, though Protestant violence should convulse England to its very centre.”

--i “ You are on your way to the holy city”— " Pray our Holy Father to bestow again and again his apostolic blessing on his children here, who are ready to combat for his sacred rights." tl The Holy Father may count upon us; we are the children of the Crusaders ;we will not falter before the sons ofCranmer and John Knox.” In the Lamp, a Roman Catholic paper published in the city of York, we find the following piece of impudence, pointing in the same direction :— “ If we consider that one-third, at least, of her Majesty’s subjects are Catholics, and that Catholics possess the same faith, are united under one bead, and agree in one communion, we may calculate what a mighty engine is at work, against which no ministry can shut their eyes, or turn a deaf ear to, or pretend to ignore, the more especially when it is viewed in contrast with the remaining two-thirds, at variance among themselves, disunited, jealous, and unsettled.

“ A bill for diplomatic relations with Rome, and on Rome’s terms, must be passed by the British Legislature. Britain must yield, as the younger state should — Rome cannot bend. Her Legate must be received at St. James’s, and that Legate must be a Cardinal. Verily, too, (it is our impression), the Cardinal’s hat will be quite as attractive and as comely an object in a court cavalcade, as the jewelled turban of an infidel, or even the variegated caftan pf a Persian ambassador.”

The Univers, the official organ of the Roman Catholic party in France, and directly reflecting the opinions and feelings of the Court of Rome, says—- “ Since the promulgation of the Papal brief, the sees of Canterbury, of York, of London, and any other sees established before this reform, have ceased to exist. The persons who, in future, may assume the titles of Archbishop of Canterbury, or Bishop of London, will be nothing less than intruders, schismatic priests, without any spiritual authority. Since the Reformation, the Anglican bishops have been nothing else ; but the recent act of the Roman See settles this in a most striking manner. * * * * *

“ Most of the sees in England held their authority from the successors of St. Peter. Now it is beyond dispute, that he who can give powers can also retract them. ‘ Anything that may be done in opposition,’ says the Papal bull, ‘/mo matter by whom or by what authority (even in the name of the spiritual authority of the Queen), shall be null and of no

AVAIL.’ ” . ~ ' ? This,’.then, is the language, and these the purposes’of Rome. If the Roman Catholic laity of England do not at once solemnly protest against these things, they will tacitly acknowledge that die allegiance which they profess to hold to Queen Victoria exists.only in name. What, then, becomes of thejr claim to political power.