The Tablet 1840
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Mr Ambrose Lisle Phillip's letter to the "Univers."

The Univers of Tuesday publishes a letter from Mr Phillips, dated "Grace-Dieu-Manor, Feast of St Peter; Martyr, 1840," on the causes of the present improved and improving position of Catholicity in England. The zeal and the abilities of Mr Phillips, and his undoubted services to the Catholic cause, render every thing that falls from him on this matter deserving of great attention. But we observe one or two passages which seem to us calculated to mislead foreigners, for whose perusal the letter is especially intended. Upon these we have a word or two to offer.

It is undoubtedly well to hope, even against hope; but it is well, also, to avoid any thing which may even appear to exaggerate the advantages of our position. To despair of ultimate success would be almost sinful. To hope for immediate success is indeed lawful, and even laudable, but has no warrant for it beyond the soundness of a human judgment. To magnify the goodness of our actual circumstances unduly, may lead persons of weak faith to despond, when their unfounded expectations are not realized. It is well to know that our prospects are brightening; but it is best of all to work on in silence, and to boast nothing of temporary success. The time for shouts of triumph is not during the battle, but after the victory. "Let him not that putteth on his armour rejoice like him that taketh it off."

The passage in Mr Phillips's letter to which we allude, is near its commencement, and refers to the late grant, under the sign manual, of powers to three of the Catholic colleges, to grant to their pupils certificates for taking degrees in the University of London. This Mr Phillips calls "a fact truly astonishing; a first act of royal reparation and expiation for all the sacrileges of Henry VIII and Elizabeth; an act by which the Queen of England solemnly recognizes the rights of the religious orders in her kingdom, and by which she clothes them with the most previous privileges."

Now this appears to us, we must confess, a mistaken view of the subject. The grant of the privileges in question to the Catholic colleges, was a simple act of administrative justice; one the refusal of which would have been as gross a breach of common honesty as picking a pocket. The University was established with the avowed intention of enabling young persons of all religious creeds, or of no religious creed whatever, to receive a cheap and good education in matters of mere human learning, and to illustrate their industry and acquirements by honorary degrees. To the institution which was the germ and origin of the present University - the London University College - persons of all possible creeds and colours have always been admitted. To our certain knowledge, the walls of that aspiring College have held at the same instant, Catholics, Quakers, Jews, Deists, Atheists, Presbyterians, Anglicans, and Sceptics; and there is nothing but mere accident to prevent the same motley assemblage being found within its walls at present.

It was desired to enlarge the right of contending for academical degrees, so as to include persons who had received a good education out of London; and accordingly, a power was reserved to the crown of determining from time to time what other establishments should have permission to send up their pupils to complete with the pupils of the two London Colleges. This principle being laid down, upon what principle of common honesty could a Catholic college be refused the privilege in question? or a Jewish college? or a college in which no religion whatever was inculcated? The principle upon which the University is founded is, that as to its degrees in arts, law, and medicine, it has jurisdiction only over human learning, and that to it a clever atheist is more welcome than a devout fool. It would be absurd to suppose that a Catholic could avowedly gain a degree in London, but that a Catholic college in the country could, on the ground of its being Catholic, be denied the power of sending up its pupils for degrees. If it were so, it would seem that Catholicism was to be considered a previous privilege reserved for the metropolis alone. The grant could not have been refused without gross injustice.

So much for the Catholic Secular Colleges. But as to the Jesuits' College at Stonyhurst, the case is exactly the same. The college at Stonyhurst is not formally known to be a Jesuits' college, whatever private rumours there may be to that effect, and it would be absurd and disgraceful for the Government to assign as a reason for refusing to grant this privilege, a fact which, if they had formal knowledge of it and disapproved it, would be properly made by them the foundation of legal proceedings. For, notwithstanding what is said about the religious orders being recognized in this country, it is to be noted that, by the law, they are recognized only as infamous , - the far-famed Statute of Emancipation placing the act of becoming a Jesuit on the same footing as the act of committing a burglary. For the information of the readers of the Univers , we may state that, by the 34th section of that statute, any person becoming a Jesuit or regular, is directed to be banished for the term his natural life. So much for the recognition of the religious orders. It is true, the law is nothing but the object of contempt, and is laughed at by every one; but it exists nonetheless, and the privilege which has first been granted does not in the least interfere with it. The law was never intended to be executed, and disgraces no one but the bigots, to please whom it was enacted. But there it stands, and the grant to Stonyhurst, though in reality a grant to a Jesuits' college, is not, and was not intended to be, a recognition of the order. It was a mere ministerial act, which could not have been withheld without the grossest injustice and the most ludicrous inconsistency.

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ABORIGINES PROTECTION SOCIETY. In another column will be found a short notice of the proceedings of this very useful society. The great press of matter this week obliges us to make this notice very short. We can only direct the attention of our readers to the subject, and inform them that we intend, on all occasions to watch very narrowly, and with great jealousy, any proceedings that affect the welfare of the native tribes in our colonies.

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