blasphemy [was perpetrated] by making the third Person of the Holy Trinity a type of Prince Albert". M‘Neile's immoderate preaching Another extraordinary aspect was his propensity for "[being] carried away into confessedly injudicious acts and words, which many would wish unsaid, undone" (Arnold, 1875, p. 307). On 28 February 1847, he preached that the Irish Famine was an act of God's retribution, punishing the Irish for their collective sins and their tolerance of Roman Catholicism. On the morning of 8 December 1850, when throwing "thunderbolts" at one of his favourite targets, the evils of the Roman Catholic confessional, M‘Neile made a series of outrageous statements of which, immediately after his sermon had been delivered, he denied any knowledge of ever having uttered; and, for which he specifically apologized at the evening service, and withdrew without reservation, as the following newspaper account relates: {{Quote box |title = The Anti-Popery Agitation – Dr. M‘Neile |quote = The frenzied vehemence of bigotry has reached its climax. At Liverpool, the Rev. Dr. M‘Neile, the notorious platform orator, uttered a sentence last Sunday morning, in the pulpit in St. Paul’s Church, Prince’s Park, which, we are sure, was never surpassed by the cruel ferocity of Popish intolerance, in the worst days of the Inquisition. To be sure, Dr. M‘Neile did not mean it,— he would shudder to be taken at his word; but why does he, a Christian minister, not bridle his tongue, unruly evil that it is? Here is the sentiment, at which Bonner might have blushed, in the bloody reign of persecuting Mary:— "I would make it a capital offence to administer the confession in this country. Transportation [to the colonies] would not satisfy me; for that would merely transfer the evil from one part of the world to the other. Capital punishment alone would satisfy me. Death alone would prevent the evil. That is my solid conviction." No, thank God, it is not your solemn conviction, Dr. M‘Neile nor is it the conviction of any English mind, however narrowed by sectarian jealousies, in this age of mild humanity! No bigot, no fanatic, now exists in England, who would, in deed and in fact, erect the gallows or the stake, for the punishment of an erring act of religious custom. Dr. M‘Neile, on the same Sunday evening, went into his reading desk, and pronounced before his congregation the following apology:— "In the excitement