LAUNCH
OF A
NEW IRISH
NEWSPAPER,
TO BE ENTITLED
THE
CARLOW PROTESTANT
DEFENDER
In an age like the present, when the human
intellect ridded of the incumbrance in which slavish superstition had
enthralled it, is seen expanding in all directions with a force and
lustre hitherto unknown, it is to be hoped, that every one, who has the
interests of humanity at heart, will step forward, and by his means and
influence accelerate a work so glorious in its nature and so conducive
to the happiness of man, as the propagation of intelligence.
Were a proof wanting of this sprit so honourable
to the feelings of our nature, the mind is only to be directed to a
survey of those labors in which all are concurring, and of those
sacrifices which all are making, in promoting, through the medium of
missions and circulation of the scriptures, the principles of rational
piety and of consistency in obedience to the laws and institutions of
society.
With such a spirit before him for encouragement,
and with the likelihood of having his zeal favourably though of by the
liberal and philanthropic, the projector of this undertaking, ventures
to intrude on their attention, and to solicit their aid in forwarding
the great work he has been noticing, in a quarter as effective for the
purpose, and with a probability of success as certain, as could be
expected from any speculation ever suggested by human calculation.
In the town of Carlow in Ireland, which not
improperly may be named the stronghold of Roman Catholic domination in
that country, and for a wide circumference around it, the bulk of the
population, as is the case with Ireland in general, are Roman Catholics;
and who are, at this moment, at that point, the most critical the human
mind can encounter, in a state of hesitation between truth and
falsehood; and of which the Roman Catholic priesthood are so extremely
sensible, that they are redoubling every energy to confirm that bondage
from which its victims seem desirous of escaping.
In the midst of this struggle, it is a matter of
no less regret than truth, that the interests of the Protestant Church,
of religion and of humanity, are at present in a state of neglect and
waste; a circumstance not perhaps so much owing to the indolence of
those to whom the care of religion is entrusted, (as perhaps in some
cases it may,) as to the want of a public journal, which might circulate
a proper and necessary spirit among the Roman Catholic portion of
society, whose minds are, to a certainty, in a great degree, awakened to
reflection.
Of the spirit of the journal already established
there, it may be only necessary to observe, that ever since the
projector of this undertaking left its direction, it has become the
organ of the Catholic priests, who, he has every reason to think, are
determined to make it decidedly a medium for the dissemination of their
own opinions, as well as for counteracting the influence which the late
bible discussions, in that quarter, have had on the public mind.
In opposition to this, he has projected a new
newspaper to be published there, under the name of the CARLOW PROTESTANT
DEFENDER, in which he means to maintain a warm, exclusive, and unbending
devotion to the interests of the Protestant Church; to meet the
violence, scurrility and abuse which unhappily prevail in that
neighbourhood, with sound argument and Christian temperance; and, aided
by the information and local knowledge which his late situation afforded
him, to stem, at its source, the torrent of rancorous hostility which
the Roman Catholic clergy are so sedulously propagating; and, in short,
to keep in view, the manner in which the most efficient services may be
rendered to the Protestant Ecclesiastical Establishment, as well as to
our excellent Constitution.
The paper will be published every Wednesday and
Saturday, and will appear early in the month of September 1825.
- Mr. Roberton
- 6 Bridgewater Square, London, June 28th 1825.
Transcribed by Noel Roche
Note:
Bridgewater Square. London. EC2
After a fire that destroyed the Earl of Bridgewater's
home in 1688 Sir Christopher Wren and George Jackson purchased the land
and developed this small square on the East side of Aldersgate. It was
surrounded by a tree hedge.
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