of
Rome desired so much as to cultivate a good understanding with us.
He then told me a thing that surprised me, and which seemed to be
at variance with this supposition--that an application had been
made to the Pope very lately (through Seymour) expressive of the
particular wish of the British Government, that he would not
appoint M'Hale to the vacant Catholic bishoprick, _anybody but
him_, notwithstanding which the Pope had appointed M'Hale; but on
this occasion the Pope made a shrewd observation. His Holiness
said that 'he had remarked for a long time past that no piece of
preferment of any value ever fell vacant in Ireland that he did
not get an application from the British Government asking for the
appointment.' Lord Melbourne supposed he was determined to show
that he had the power of refusing and of opposing the wishes of
Government, and in reply to my question he admitted that the Pope
had generally conferred the appointment according to the wishes of
Government. Can anything be more absurd or anomalous than such
relations as these? The law prohibits any intercourse with Rome,
and the Government whose business it is to enforce the law has
established a regular but underhand intercourse, through the
medium of a diplomatic agent, whose character cannot be avowed,
and the Ministers of this Protestant kingdom are continually
soliciting the Pope to confer appointments, the validity, even the
existence, of which they do not recognise, while the Pope, who is
the object of our orthodox abhorrence and dread, good-humouredly
complies with all or nearly all their requests. These are the
national and legislative follies of this wise and prosperous
people, and such is the false position into which we are drawn by
a long course of detestable policy--policy arising at first out of
circumstances, and eventually adhered to from those powerful
prejudices which struck their roots so deep into the soil that the
force of reason and philosophy has not yet been sufficient to tear
them up. Peel, in one of his speeches on Catholic emancipation,
bade the House of Commons not to deceive itself, and to be aware
that if that Bill was carried, we must have Episcopal (or
Protestant) England, Presbyterian Scotland, and Catholic Ireland.
He prophesied well and truly no doubt, and to that consummation
affairs will eventually come, as they ought to come, though not
without many a struggle, through many a year. The prophecy of Peel
is advancing