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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
In the spring of 1848 a number of respected English vicars-general, William Bernard Ullathorne of the Western District, John Briggs of the Northern District, and Thomas Brown of Wales decided that one of them, together with Fr Luigi Gentili, the Rosminian missioner, should proceed immediately to Rome. Their object would be to support, by personal intervention with Pius IX, a memorial drawn up by Briggs, signed by twenty Irish and three or four bishops in Great Britain, which was solemnly presented to the Pope by Thomas Grant, President of the English College in Rome. This memorial ran:
we most... solemnly declare to Your Holiness that British Diplomacy has everywhere been exerted to the injury of our Holy Religion. We read in the public Papers that Lord Minto is friendly received... by Your Holiness At this very time, however,... the first Minister of the British Government, the Son in Law of Lord Minto is publicly manifesting in England, together with his fellow Ministers, his marked opposition to the Catholic Religion and the Catholic Church. Another cause of our serious alarm is the very general hostile and calumnious outcry now made in both houses of our Parliament and throughout Protestant England against the Catholic Priests of Ireland, falsely charging them with being the abettors of the horrible crime of murder whilst as true Pastors they are striving t o . . . console their... perishing people and like good shepherds are in the midst of pestilence giving their lives for their flocks.
I am grateful to the Very Reverend Monsignor George Bradley, archivist of the Leeds Diocesan Archives, for facilitating access to the valuable papers of Bishop John Briggs, and to the Most Revd Dr Conway, bishop of Elphin, for information on the Mahon case.
1 Briggs Papers, 1693; Dec. 1847.
2 Palmerston to Queen Victoria, 31 Aug. 1847, Royal Archives J1/8 in F. Curato, Gran Bretagna e Italia nei Documenti della Missione Minto (Rome, 1970), 1, pp. 44-5.
3 Russell to Clarendon, 15 Nov. 1847, PRO, Russell Papers 6G.
4 Hansard, 3, xcv, pp. 680-3, 6 Dec. 1847; pp. 1208-11,16 Dec. 1847; Times, 28 Dec. 1847; Palmerston to Minto, 3 Dec. 1845, Foreign Office Papers in Curato, Gran Bretagna, 1, pp. 240-1.
5 Minto to Palmerston, Palmerston Papers in Curato, Gran Bretagna, i, pp. 238-9.
6 McDermott to editor, Free man ‘s journal, 10 Dec. 1847; Bishop Browne to Shrewsbury, Tablet, 3 Jan. 1848.
7 B. Donlon, ‘The Mahon murder trials’, County Roscommon Historical and ArchaeologicalJournal, 1 (1986), pp. 31-2.
8 Clarendon to Russell, 10 Dec. 1847, Letterbook II; Clarendon to Reeve, 20 Dec. 1847, Clarendon Papers.
9 Shrewsbury to MacHale, Morning Chronicle, 4 Jan. 1848. Laffan made an inflammatory speech at Cashel, Nation, 20 Nov. 1847.
10 Pagani to Briggs, Jan. 1848, Briggs Papers, 1754A.
11 Shrewsbury to Clarendon, 7 Feb. 1848, Clarendon Papers.
12 For Connelly see D. G. Paz, Priesthoods and Apostasies of Pierce Connelly: a study of Victorian Conversion and anti-Catholicism (1986).
13 The replies of 24 Irish and some English and Scottish bishops are in the Briggs Papers, nos. 1718-56.
14 Cardinal Luigi Franzoni, Secretary of the Congregation of Propaganda Fide, to William Crolly. archbishop of Armagh, 3 Jan. 1848. Irish Catholic Directory (1849), p. 292.
15 Maginn to Crolly, 21 Feb. 1848, Archbishop Murray Papers, Dublin Diocesan Archives.
16 Slattery to Fransoni, 7 Feb. 1848, Slattery Papers, Cashel Diocesan Archives.
17 Newman to Dalgairns, 21 Dec. 1847 in C. S. Dessain (ed.), The Letters and Diaries of John Henry Newman (1962), 12, p. 135.
18 Minto to Russell, 14 Apr. 1848 in Curato, Gran Bretagna, 1, pp. 194-6.
19 Russell to Clarendon, 23 Apr. 1848, Clarendon Papers, Box 43; Murray to Clarendon, 26 Aug., 2, 3 Sept. 1848, Murray Papers; Nicholson to Murray, 12 Sept. 1848, Murray Papers.
20 Brevi Rilievi supra il Sistema d’insegnamento Misto che si cerca dislabiliere in Irlanda nei collegi cosi delti della Regina (1848).
21 Decreta Syrtodi Plenariae Episcoporum Hiberniae apud Thurles habitue, anno mdcccl (1851); Clarendon to Russell, 31 Aug. 1850; Clarendon to Sir George Grey, 20 Sept. 1850; Russell to Clarendon, Clarendon Papers.
22 Cited in Keogh, D., The Vatican, the Bishops and Irish Politics, 1919-39 (London, 1986), pp. 69–9 Google Scholar.