Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 06.pdf/30

 Old-World Trials.

11

OLD-WORLD TRIALS. II. REG. v. NEWMAN.' IN the autumn of 1851, Giovanni Giacinto Achilli, some time a monk of the Domin ican Order and a priest of the Roman Catho lic Church, but at the time in question a convert to the Protestant faith and minister of an Italian Protestant church near Golden Square, London, was attending public meet ings for the purpose of denouncing the Roman Catholic Church in general and the Inquisition in particular. At or about the same time. Dr. John Henry Newman, then a priest, afterwards — as everybody is aware — a cardinal of the great ecclesiastical or ganization that Dr. Achilli attacked, was delivering a course of lectures in the Oratory of St. Philip Ncri, Birmingham, on " The Present Position of Catholics in England." The professed object of these remarkable lectures (which were subsequently pub lished) was to sweep away the film of prej udice and misconception through which the average Englishman regarded the sayings and doings of his Catholic brother. In other words, Dr. Newman attempted, with great ability, ingenuity and rhetorical power, to account for our national aversion towards Catholicism on purely historical grounds, without for a moment admitting its justice or propriety. Dr. Achilli's alleged disclo sures were obviously calculated to deprive this ' special plea ' of much of its force, and he was naturally and properly regarded by the Catholic community as a renegade and a dangerous foe. Now Achilli's reputa tion was not, unhappily, above suspicion. 1 Achilli v. Newman. A Full and Authentic Report of the above prosecution for libel, trial before Lord Camp bell and a special jury, in the Court of Queen's Bench, Westminster, June, 1852. With introductory remarks. By the editor of " The Confessional Unmasked." London. W. Strange, 8 Amen Corner.

In June, 1850, there had been published in the Dublin Review a sketch of his career, in which he was charged roundly and cir cumstantially with the grossest immoralities, and was challenged to an inquiry. For fifteen months he took no other notice of this libel than to deny its truth in general terms. The charges were soon, however, reiterated in a form that could not be ignored. In his fifth lecture (on " The Logical Inconsistency of the Protestant View"), Dr. Newman gave vent to them again in the following philippic : "And in the midst of outrages such as these, my Brothers of the Oratory, wiping its mouth and clasping its hands and turning up its eyes, it (i. e. the Protestant public) trudges to the Town Hall to hear Dr. Achilli expose the Inquisition. Ah! Dr. Achilli, I might have spoken of him last week had time admitted of it. The Protestant world flocks to hear him because he has something to tell of the Catholic Church. He has some thing to tell it is true; he has a scandal to reveal; he has an argument to exhibit. It is a simple one and a powerful one as far as it goes, and it is one. That one argument is himself; it is his presence which is the triumph of Protestants; it is the sight of him which is a Catholic's confusion . . . He feels the force of the argument and he shows himself to the multitude that is gazing on him. ' Mothers of families,' he seems to say, ' gentle maidens,' ' innocent children,' look at me, for I am worth looking at. You do not see such a sight every day. Can any church live over the imputation of such a birth as I am?" Then followed a specific enumeration of the immoralities of which Achilli was alleged to have been guilty.