ssociation, and Reformation Society,' one sentence
of which is--'We have raised our voices against the spirit of
compromise, which is the opprobrium of the age; we have unfurled the
banner of Protestant truth, and placed ourselves beneath it, we have
insisted upon Protestant ascendancy as just and equitable, because
Protestant principles are true and undeniable.'
Puseyite Protestants tell a tale the very reverse of that so modestly
told by their nominal brethren of the Dublin Operative Association.
They, as may be seen in Palmer's Letter to Golightly, 'utterly reject
and anathematise the principle of Protestantism, as a heresy with all
its forms, sects, or denominations.' Nor is that all our 'Romeward
Divines' do, for in addition to rejecting utterly and cursing bitterly,
as well the name as the principle of Protestantism, they eulogise the
Church of Rome because forsooth 'she yields,' says Newman in his Letter
to Jelf, 'free scope to feelings of awe, mystery, tenderness, reverence,
and devotedness;' while we have it on the authority of Tract 90, that
the Church of England is 'in bondage, working in chains, and (tell it
not in Dublin) teaching with the stammering lips of ambiguous
formularies.' Fierce and burning is the hatred of Dublin Operative
Association Christians to Popery, but the reader has seen exactly that
style of hatred to Protestantism is avowed by Mr. Ward. Both sets of
Christians are quite sure they are right: but (alas! for infallibility)
a third set of Christians insist that they are both wrong. There are
Papists or Roman Catholics who consider Protestant principles the very
reverse of true and undeniable, and treat with derisive scorn the
'fictitious Catholicism' of Puseyite Divines.
Count De Montalambert, in his recently published 'Letter to the Rev. Mr.
Neale on the Architectural, Artistical, and Archaeological Movements of
the Puseyites,' enters his 'protest' against the most unwarranted and
unjustifiable assumption of the name of Catholic by people and things
belonging to the actual Church of England. 'It is easy,' he observes,
'to take up a name, but it is not so easy to get it recognised by the
world and by competent authority. Any man, for example, may come out to
Madeira and call himself a Montmorency, or a Howard, and even enjoy the
honour and consideration belonging to such a name till the real
Montmorencys or Howards hear something about it, and denounce him, and
then such a man would be
|