ON THE NECESSITY OF ESTABLISHING | well as our civil principles regarding A NEWSPAPER free from PARTY- the state. Such a press, conducted SPIRIT, AND GROUNDED ON THE on such grounds, would have graVOICE OF TRUTH, RELIGIOUS AND dually undeceived our protestant POLITICAL. country men, and removed from before them the falsehoods and misrepresentations which had been gathering and increasing for an uninterrupted space of three hundred years. Unfortunately, however, for the interests of religion and of truth, the men who had it in their power to direct public opinion were more in FRO ROM the time of my first acquaintance with political concerns to the present day, I have never ceased to regret the want of a public vehicle, on which the people could rely with confidence for the accuracy of its reports of the events of the day, or its candour in remov-clined to follow the way of deceping any wrong impressions it may have conveyed by an unintentional mis statement of facts. From the period of the reformation, so called, catholics have been excluded the use of the press till within the last twenty-seven years; during which space they have laboured under the most atrocious calumnies, and have been held out to their fellow-countrymen as the most base and wicked of the human race. On the partial repeal then of the penal laws against them in 1791, by which they were allowed the liberty of the press, one of the first concerns which ought to have occupied the catholic body, should have been the establishment of an honest press, whereby the catholics might become acquainted with the proceedings of protestants, and the latter have learned the genuine doctrines of the church, as ORTHODOX JOUR. VOL. VIII. tion, though their ancestors and themselves had suffered so much by it, than they were disposed to pursue the straight and steady course of consistency. Hence the catholic body, like the protestant people, be came divided and distracted. As the latter had their whig and tory factions, so had the former their orthodox and protesting dissenting parties. The press was, of course, resorted to, but the circulation of opinions was of so limited a nature, that no other advantage could be gained from it than a protraction of the dispute, without any benefit to the public whatever; on the contrary, it rather tended to increase than allay the feuds of faction. Twenty years were thus suffered to be lost, when circumstances called me up to the great city, and as I had seen the great delight which the ca 3 C dividuals. In order to afford them this opportunity, and to enable them to discuss the merits of emancipation upon the catholic principles of TRUTH and UNITY, this work is offered for their support and patronage. Its object is to conciliate by conviction; not to divide by im. proper concessions. Among the many publications issuing from the press at this important juncture, it is singular that none have been established in aid of the above cause. Attached most ardently to the divine faith of his ancestors, and a warm admirer of the true principles of the British constitution, as established by Magna charta, the editor throws himself on the indulgence of the catholic shall be spared to render the work both useful and instructing. He is well aware of the difficulty of his task, but he relies on the purity of his motives, and the justice of the cause, for success in his endeavours. The plan may be comprised under the following heads, viz.-Original communications-Select extracts and "Every sincere professor of the catholic faith must have witnessed, with the deepest auguish and regret, the late attempt to degrade and persecute that highly meritorious and self-denying body of men, the catholic clergy of these realms, by the intolerant ecclesiastical clauses introduced into the late (improperly called) catholic relief bill. No mea-public, and assures them no pains sure ever proposed by the weakest of statesmen was less likely to accomplish the object it professed to attain; and no measure was ever more repugnant to the true spirit of our excellent constitution. By the great charter of our liberties it is declared, that the election of bishops SHALL BE FREE; and yet in this enlightened age-in this "new era"-entertaining tales-Poetry- Epito when we are ever boasting of our great liberality and freedom, we have witnessed the introduction of a bill into the house of commons, under the sanction of those who call them selves "the friends of civil and religious liberty," which, had it passed into a law, would have deprived the catholic clergy of the benefit of that constitution, to the establishment of which they were so instrumental; and have erected a secret tribunal over them far more despotic in its power, and more unjust in its principle, than the lately abolished inquisition of Spain, or the tyrannical star chamber of the Stuarts.To such arbitrary laws as these against their clergy it is hoped the great body of catholics will never silently submit, nor suffer their complaints to be stifled by interested in me of political and law intelligence, relating to catholic affairs. To the latter department particular attention will be paid, which, from the failure of the late bill, and the great sensation it has already made in the sister island, cannot fail of being peculiarly interesting. The catholics of this country are in general completely ignorant of what is going forward in Ireland on the great work of emancipation, the proceedings therefore of that high-spirited and orthodox body shall be recorded with the utmost impartiality, and as fully as possible. The editor most earnestly solicits the assistance of the catholic literary world in these his humble endeavours, assuring them their favours will be thankfully received, and the earliest attention paid to their com munications. In undertaking this work, the editor is actuated by no selfish motives, but a desire to assist the cat holic cause in eliciting the TRUTH. As "base lucre" is consequently not his object, so he wishes not to risk more thau is necessary. He will therefore esteem it a favour in those who intend to encourage the work, to signify such intention to the bookseller with whom they deal by the 29th of this present month, in order that he may ascertain the number of copies likely to be disposed of, and should he meet with that encouragement which he is led to expect, the first number will be published as early as possible in July, and on the first day of every month afterwards. 66 W. E. ANDREWS." Sach were the sentiments under which I commenced this work, and from its first appearance down to the moment at which I am writing, I can conscientiously aver that truth has always been my guide, nor am I aware that any inconsistency can be discovered from the first to the last of my writings. I set out with the firm determination of supporting the independence of the spiritual authority of the catholic church, whether that authority was sought to be invaded by the legislative acts of a protestant parliament, or betrayed by the weakness or treachery of her own ministers. In advocating likewise the justice of the catholics of both countries being admitte to their civil rights, I have always rested their claims on the genuine spirit of the British constitution, founded by our catholic ancestors, and not on the influence and intrigue of this or that set of politicians, belonging to the in or the out party, or to both. Thus have I always acted upon principle, which being immutable, the man who guides his conduct by it, and disregards faction or favour, will go on amidst the variations of times and circumstan ces, unmoved by the railings of his enemies, or the fastidious delicacy of some of his friends, while the man who makes himself a slave to party, is sure, in the end, to disgust the honest and sensible part of the community. During the progress of my labours, two attempts were made to rival my claim to public opinion, but though my adversaries, who are the slaves of faction, had wealth and influence on their side, they did not succeed, but were obliged to leave me sole possessor of the field. why were they unsuccessful? Because the keen discernment of the public saw through the sophistical professions of their hirelings, and they prefered the honest effusions of an unpolished writer, whom they found determined not to deceive or delude them. And But, although I have not departed from my original intentions and declarations, such have been the extraordinary events of the last two years, such the portentous occurrences of the day, that many of my former admirers have become alarmed, and now blame me for adhering to the same line of principle on which I first set out. This change of opinion on the part of my friends I must attribute to the want of a newspaper on which they can rely for the correctness of the intelligence which they are anxious to receive. It is a well-known fact that in the present state of things, the periodical press of this country, with the exception of a few writers, is divided between the two political factions that have existed in this country since the days of evangelical reform. Each party has its hired and paid writers, who take care to represent each Occurrence in the political world according to the views of their employers, and thus the reader residing at a distance, and who has no opportunity of seeing more than one paper, gets his information from mencement of the reformation of religion, the professors of the old religion were nicknamed papists and slaves, by the then reformers of the day, so were the opposers of the war and the approvers of a reforin in the commons' house of parliament in 1793, opprobriously denominated democrats, jacobins, and levellers, by · the ruling faction of the latter period. These appellations were retorted on the opposite party, who were termed aristrocats, loyalists, and church-and-king-men, and hence the nation became divided into two furious parties, each reviling the other, each putting forth its own representations and constructions of the passing events, whilst the people became the dupes of their false statements, and the credulous instruments of interested politicians. a polluted source, and consequently his judgment is formed on erroneous grounds. But if this is the case with the people generally, how much more does it affect the catholic who can never take up a newspaper without having his religious feelings wounded by some bigotted or irreligious remark, in many cases I am ready to allow unintentionally, arising from the prejudices of education, yet nevertheless as disgusting as they are untrue. Commencing my political career in a newspaper office, where I had recourse to the journals of each party, an advantage which but few catholics, if any, enjoyed besides myself, I had the opportunity of marking the progress and effect of party spirit and prejudice, and comparing the conduct of the respective partisans with the precepts and maxims of the catholic religion. The result of this comparison was, that it appeared clear to me that although each man was boasting of his own attachment to freedom, ali were the slaves of party; but the catholic who acted up to the principles of his religion, who made its maxims the guide of his own conduct, devoid of personal fear or affection to any particular individual, was the most free in opinion and consequently the less biassed in judgment. In the course of my political life it was impossible for me to shut my eyes to the gross delusions that were practised on the public by the perversion of facts to suit the views of those who were interested in the perversion, and the still more gross credulity of those who were in the habit of reading none but the journals on their own side. The break-without which the interference of ing out of the French revolution, and the war which was afterwards entered into by the coalesced monarchs of the continent and this country against the people of France, occasioned the greatest excesses of party-spirit, and as, on the com One unfortunate effect of the French revolution was the destruction of those colleges which were the nurseries for the priesthood sent on the mission to this country. This took place in the early part of the distur bance, and the vicars apostolic were compelled to establish seminaries at home for the education of youth, who were thus nursed in the focus of political animosity and contention. I mention this circumstance not with any view to censure or reproach the establishments alluded to, but to shew, as I shall have occasion to demonstrate, before I close this article, the absolute necessity of having a paper on which some dependence can be placed, to obtain for those who are destined to guide others into justice, the means of acquiring a sound opinion on political matters, the clergy will only be productive of mischief. To illustrate this remark have only to mention the opposition which my journal met with on its first appearance, and the alteration which has taken place with regard to its late sentiments in throne of his ancestors the surviving the minds of some of its warmest supporters. The reader is already informed of the conclusions which a long intercourse with the press had enabled me to form with respect to the state of political parties in this country, With these impressions, and seeing the want which my catholic brethren laboured under, I started the Orthodox Journal in the month of July 1813, upon the principles laid down in the before-mentioned prospectus. At that time the country had sustained a war of twenty years duration, party feeling was at its highest pitch, the French people were still powerful in arms, and the whole energies of the coalesced sovereigns were required to obtain the ascendency. The men who had assumed to themselves to be the leaders of the catholic body were as actively engaged in deceiving the public, both protestant and catholic, by sophistical professions and ambiguous protestations, as the most venal of the hired partisans belong-efforts of these advocates for a paring to the press, and a project liamentary reform were treated with was actually on foot, but luckily disdain by the two factions, to both failed, of putting the catholic hi-of which, it should be here noticed, erarchy of Ireland, and the vicars apostolic of England, under a similar control of the minister of the crown, as that exercised over the established clergy. To resist this innovation I undertook this publication; and while my remarks were confined to the conduct of the lay-board and its abettors, I met with much encouragement aud praise from my clerical friends, nor did I hear any dislike to my political principles, though by no means varying from those I now hold. But the year 1815 brought us peace; the united strength of the continental monarchs and the British arms subdued the great colossal power of France, disarmed the mighty child and champion of Jacobinism, and sent him to the barren rock of St. Helena, restoring at the same time to the the pretended leaders of the catholic body had been paying their court, in the hope of soothing them to grant their admission into parliament, that they might become as subservient tools as themselves to party purposes and state intrigues. But when the effect of these reform writers became visible by the meetings of the people in all parts of the kingdom, and when the party-hirelings found themselves unable to reply to the arguments in favour of reform, and turn the tide of public opinion, now resuming its proper channel, they set up a clamour about revolutionary disorganization and atheism, and gave the supporters of reform the epithet of "radicals," at the same time representing them as persons of the most unprincipled and diabolical nature. It cannot be supposed that |