Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Jesuit in the Nineteenth Century: An Historical Sketch of the Rise, Fall, and Restoration of the Society of Jesus
Popery and the Jesuits! What the Catholic religion, which you nickname Popery, had to do with Lord Palmerston, at such a time and in so promiscuous an assembly, or what those redoubted personages, yclept Jesuits, had to say with respect to the compli ment which the Town Council of Perth wished to pay to his lord ship, one certainly is rather at a loss to determine. You, of course, had your own designs in view. Doubtless, you supposed that the opportunity was too good to let slip, for that, by introducing Popery and the Jesuits, you might elicit some rounds of applause, and impart pungency to dull prose, by an ad captandum assault upon what you both hated and feared. The noble lord, however, was far more judicious in reply, and had the good sense to steer clear of the offensive matter which you so indiscreetly stuffed into your tasteless harangue, and which, in the opinion of many liberal-minded Protestants present, was equally ill-timed as it was uncalled for.
Now, my Lord Provost, I have the happiness of being a Catholic and a Priest and the Catholic religion, and the privileges of the Priesthood, despite of your sneer at priestly power, I am quite ready to defend, upon all fitting occasions. It is true, however, that I have not the honour of being a Jesuit, although I acknow ledge myself under many obligations to that illustrious Society; for, when a student in Rome, I was indebted to the Jesuit Fathers for much of my philosophical and theological education. As I am then morally certain that you are miserably unacquainted with the vast labours 'of that much-calumniated body in respect to religion, civilization, science and letters, I am almost tempted to write out, for your special advantage, a brief historical sketch of what Lord Macaulay calls the Great Order. This I should dub The Jesuit, and this, with or without permission, I should inscribe to james dewar, Esq., the present Lord Provost of Perth.
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