WHALLEY'S FOLLY.
THIS week we have to chronicle a devoted and daring deed of heroism and liberality. In the presence of a large body of Orangemen from Liverpool and the neighbour- hood, who came down by an early train, Mr. George Whalley, M.P., has solemnly consecrated himself to the cause of Protestantism. He has also consecrated an orna- mental tower, which seems to stand on the summit of a hill in his domains at Plas Madoc, to the same excellent service. The accession of Mr. Whalley and of his tower will indeed revive he drooping spirits of all true Protestants. In these days of the Papacy and priestcraft, when the doctrines of Luther and Melancthon are in danger, when the Papist is abroad, and even Whalleys are compelled to tremble, it is something to know that 1200 Orangemen marched out to their noble champion's country seat, and had lunchon seated side by side in one compact invincible unsurrendering Pro- testant phalanx. They wore orange sashes to a man. They did not indeed go armed to the teeth, like the Orangemen of Canada on similar occasions, but they had flags and a military band, and they presented an aspect at which the boldest Cardinal might stand aghast. The British Consti- tution, on the other hand, the episcopal bench, religion, manners, and learning were secure, at least for that single afternoon, and when Mr. Whalley, wearing perhaps an orange sash himself, met his brother Orangemen in his park, it was a proud moment both for England and her Church. The political objects of this reunion were twofold. First and foremost, a Protestant demonstration is never out of season. It is always time, as the Belfast Orange orators would say, to be " up and doing." Things in general seldom look so bright that a little true agitation for such a noble cause can be said to be thrown away. Indeed, at the present moment, the " cause" may be said to be encompassed with perils. There exists somewhere (can a Whalley doubt it ?) a base design to convert to Roman Catholicism the Prince of Wales himself, and some of the little Princesses. Several Roman Catholic Bishops have been seen disguised as penny postmen in the neighbourhood of Buckingham Palace. It is re- ported that a widely-ramified conspiracy has been discovered at Windsor. General Sir Charles Phipps is said now for some months to have been hampered by a compulsory oath not to eat meat on Fridays. Even within the walls of the establish- ment itself there is too much reason to suspect treachery and perversion. It is not generally known that one of our most distinguished prelates never takes his candle at bedtime without the suppressed sound of secret flagellation being heard in the episcopal palace for hours afterwards into the night. The Bishop of Blankshire has holy water brought up to him every morning at seven, and is training down half a dozen of the cathedral choristers till they are emaciated enough to serve for acolytes. As for the Pope being in distress at the present political juncture, it is all a hoax.. No such thing. His Holiness is quite capable of pretending to be unhappy. Beneath his mask of woe lurks a countenance of guile. A Whalley knows that Babylon is Babylon, and that Pio Nono, at the very moment that he is supposed to be scarcely master of the Vatican, is, in reality, panning with diabolical circumstantiality the details of an invasion of these shores, and that the first act of the Jesuit general on landing will be to march straight to the Protestant country seat of the member for Peterborough, and compel him to undergo privately rites too horrible to mention. This is indeed the reason why Mr. Whalley dedicates the tower. It is for pur- poses of observation and defence. A watchman, with an orange sash, seated within that theological edifice, will be able to detect the first approach of the Catholic host, and give the signal for the eruption of Whalley and his Liverpool army. In the interval, however, which must yet elapse before this Liverpool Armageddon, the building will be de- voted to "lectures," which Mr. Whalley will himself deliver for "the furtherance of Protestantism," and the awakening of men's minds to the awful danger in which we all stand.
The second object of the ceremony was the recognition of Mr. Whalley in his new office. He has appointed him- self, it seems, to fill that arduous post which till lately was discharged by the inestimable and interminable Spooner. He is to act as leader of the Protestants in Parliament, and to give himself up entirely to the question of Maynooth. This is a high and noble mission, and it is to be hoped that Mr. Whalley will be able to discharge it to his own satisfac- tion. His promotion was acknowledged with enthusiastic and pious alacrity by the 1200 Orangemen. The Rev. Dr. Blakeney offered up a prayer on the occasion, hoped that Mr. Whalley's efforts might be successful, and more espe- cially that Providence would take under its peculiar protec- tion the tower. An address, signed by Dr. Alfred Whittle on behalf of the Orange societies of Liverpool, was presented, thanking Mr. Whalley for his willing sacrifice of himself. A Protestant luncheon was served under two Protestant tents. A wild Protestant oratory then became the order, or rather the disorder, of the day, Mr. Whalley himself appearing and disappearing with terrible pertinacity and frequency on his legs. Lastly, Protestant display of oratorical fireworks was furnished at intervals by gentlemen of the name of Harper, Whittle, and Byford. Cheers were given. The National Anthem was played, and, after a brilliant theological day, the 1200 sagacious Orangemen—or all that were in march- ing order—went home, fully determined to die rather than to surrender, and to have the Maynooth grant repealed next session, in spite of Jesuitism and the loss of Mr. Spooner.
Papists to right of them, Papists to left of them, Jesuits behind them,
Spluttered and thundered. Back by the latest train Homeward they rode again, All that was left of them,. Left of twelve hundred.
Mr. Whalley's speech in reply to all the congratulations that were showered upon his chivalrous and unsurrendering head, was replete with that maiden modesty which, as Don Quixote says, becomes the true Christian warrior. He told his friends that there was nothing to thank him for, nothing indeed. In succeeding to the mantle of the late lamented Mr. Spooner, in taking up the cause of Protestantism and " No-Maynooth grant," he has but done his duty. Any obligation that existed between them was due to the generous confidence which they and the other Protestants throughout the empire had reposed in him. He did not despair by any means of success. A strange infatuation had befallen the emissaries of Rome in this country. " It had been difficult to detect in the soft and stealthy step of the leopard, as it has crept in subdued spirit among us for many years past, -the insatiable ferocity of its character and the vigour of its claws." Popery at last has thrown off the mask. It stands detected in all its craftiness before Mr. Whalley, though several of its votaries "are concealed from ordinary obser- vation under the jesuitical mantle of some of the bishops and clergy of our established Church." They parade their converts among the most wealthy and distinguished of the land, presuming even to enter the precincts of royalty itself ; and in open day they dog the footsteps of the Prince of Wales, as at Maynooth the other day, and recently, on a world-wide platform at Canada." Thus " the Almighty maddens those whom he dooms to destruction." We hope we may observe, in passing, for Mr. Whalley's sake, that the converse of this last awful truth is not established, and that temporary hallucination is not a necessary prognostic of coming doom.
What on earth have the unfortunate Roman Catholics done lately to call for this absurd terror on our parts ? Many of them are no doubt extremely silly and intolerant. So is Mr. Whalley. Many of them would persecute their religious opponents if they dared. So apparently would Mr. Whalley. Their religious opinions are deplorably erroneous. But, in the name of Protestantism, we beg equally to repudiate the opinions of Mr. Whalley. We should be sorry to think that twelve hundred Englishmen can have been found to travel from Liverpool to Plea Madoc Park to listen to such stuff. Probably some of them were Irish. We fancy we recognize in the ceremonies of the day some trace of that astonishing ignorance, folly, and vulgarity, that brave bully spirit, that incredible and incomparable mixture of cruelty and feebleness, which, under the name of Orangeism, insults the innocent, attacks the unarmed, and slanders the charitable and the tolerant from the pulpit and in the streets of Derry and Belfast. Protestantism can dispense with Mr. Whalley and his tower. But as he has devoted both to the service of our faith, let the sacrifice be accepted. We will suggest a plan for benefiting by it. Let him go in proces- sion to the tower, with as many of the Whittles and Harpers of Liverpool as he can get to follow him, and as many Orange sashes round his waist as he can possibly carry, and solemnly, but resolutely, shut himself up. Let nothing— not even Papist wiles—induce him to come out again till the next Papal invasion. He will be quite safe inside from the Jesuits, if he sits inside and keeps the blinds down. Parliament will get on as it beet can without the Maynooth question, and the public will be spared the degrading spec- tacle of an honest, but ignorant, gentleman pandering to Orange fanaticism. The wisest course for Mr. Whalley, under all the circumstances, to adopt, is to take up his per- manent residence in that tower, which henceforward shall be called " Whalley's Folly."
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