From The United Irishman, 12 February, 1848.
The mission of the Englishman, Lord MINTO, at Rome, is to make his Holiness, if possible, head of the Constabulary department in Ireland, and the Sacred Congregation a Board of Police Commissioners.
If the Pope attends to all the reports he sees in “English newspapers,” whether the same be called defamationes or diffamationes, it is no wonder he became alarmed about the state of the Catholic Church in Ireland. Once for all, we agree with the Bishop of ARDAGH, “that Lord MINTO was sent to Rome to deceive the Holy See, and that the means he and his friends use are notorious calumnies.” We agree further with Dr O’HIGGINS, “that under the name of legal right, the body of the landlords of Ireland are literally starving the poor, and doing so without a single remonstrance from our Lord Lieutenant, or his employer, Lord JOHN RUSSELL.” True as death. And we hold that it is the right and duty of these priests and bishops to stand by their poor people, who have no other friends, and to cry aloud, and spare not, against those tyrant exterminators who grind the faces of the poor, and strip them bare, and hunt them like beasts of prey off the face of the earth. When a price was set by the English on priests’ heads – long ago, before Lord MINTO was at Rome – the people stood by them, sheltered them, and confronted them, and with their lives defended them against the redcoats and ban-dogs of England. And are they to desert those faithful people now for the terror of “English newspapers?”
Here are shepherds who see their flocks invaded by ravenous wolves, and shall they, indeed, not lift hand or voice to plead or to save? Shall they not take the part of the weak against the strong, nor rebuke the wrong-doer to his face? Shall they not denounce, yea – “with staff and mitre,” or in whatever form is most effective, the men who devour the widow and the fatherless, and dip their hands in innocent blood? Wherefore, then, was the shepherd’s crook placed in their hands?
We believe Lord MINTO’s mission will fail; that the Pope will not help the English to govern us! and that Colonel McGREGOR, and Lord CLARENDON, and Sir EDWARD BLAKENEY, and the Chief Justice, will still have the onus upon them.