The Sun.
London, England, 1852-06-16 00:00:00

EVENING,

' SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE MORNING PAP gRS OF THIS DAY,
TIMES.—Fee sometitivneaojaealst
of the streets of London
have bene infested bydirty people in the
dress of Roman Catholic ecciesit
of cur metropolitan reeders butrn There are few
omlsitelhave come across
sumo of these gentry in our fe7ded thorough-
fares. They generelly hunt in couples: A more uu-
pleasant sight cannot be enootinteredPines.th
t creatures enurec' °
of
tts
morning's walk than u brace of these file'
cast eyes
they glide eheut among the people with sr
and hasty step.. Oi course the object is to familiarize
the public with their presence. If Cardinal
and his Privy Council in Goidert-squ3re could 'lsenirien
defiance of the English law, establish the custom
should -
should seen liave our rtreetcrowdsiliTersiaed withine' "ye
conceive able costume of menkery. It is notorious every
conceiveable costume of monkery. It is notorious tha
when the Roman Catholic Relief Act was passed at
clause. was introduced: enacting " that no Itoman'Ca-
tholie nor any member 'of -any of the re-
ligious orders, communities, Or societies a the Church
of Rome, bouud by, monastic or religidus vows, should
exercise any of the'rites" or ceremonies of the Roman
Catholic religion, or wear the habits of his older, save
within the usual .places of . worship of the Roman
Catholic teligion or in private houses." Such is the
liw of England, add it is perfectly Well known to the
persons who have fersome time pist set it at defiance.
It .cannot be mid that this is an old worn out regulation
Such Bathe oho which forbade undertakers to bury the
dead in liken shrouds. The entitle provision was no
doubt iu into Various old statutea,' but when the
Roman Catholic Relief Bill was passed in 1829, it vies
retained and -soleMnly re-enactect Nor is there any.
reason why
,such a provision should' be suff4red to fall
into desuetude. • The Ron:fah:Catholic chieftains have
not contented themselves with sending their noisome
emissaries about the streets; it would seem as though
they hid issued orders directing them to disturb the
Protestant congregations while engaged in the Celebra-
tion of public worship. To pat the existing law in
force is, then, a simple act of self-defence. But even
were it not'for this additional aggravation, the reasons
for maintaining the laW in 1852 are stronger than they
were for enacting it in 1829. It was supposed at the
time that the presence of Roman Catholic priests—
the *sego of Roman Catholic processions through the
publits streets—might lead to a violation of the peace.
The same 'danger exists still, and' to a yet' greater
extent. We do not pretend to argue the point as feeling
any especial sympathy for persons who, with their eyes
open, set the law at defiance. Still it would be a deplo- •
rable thing, and a great reflection upon those who are
charged with the duty of maintaining the public peace,
if, from want of timely forethought, any broil should
occur in the thoroughfares of the metropolis. -It would
only need a brace of Passionists—a rabble of little boys
—and a gang of IriSh hodmen, to get up a row which
,might lead to the most serious casualties—pessibly to the
loss of life. It will be seen that the Queen, by a procla-
mation issued yesterday, has expressed the determina-
tion of the Government to put down the nuisance. The
proclamation itself will bo found in another part of our
impression of this day. It is therein stated that the Ro-
man Catholic ecclesiastics do wear the habit of their
orders in places of public resort—that Roman
' Catholic processions, with' all the ponip, pride,
and circumstances usual on such occasions, do
'perambulate . our streets—that banners aro dis-
played—symbols elevated in the public view,
and that consequently the peace of the town is en-
dangered: The offenders are solemnly warned that the
law will be pat in force against them to its fullest ex-.
tent if they `give further occasion of public scandal. We
trust that strict orders may be henceforth issued to the
police to conduct them to the nearest station-house. We
would' not—all considerationi of turmoil apart—have
the streets of London become as the streets of Rome,
'along which swarms of unwashed beings in robes black,
white, brown, or grey, 'are to be seen passing at all hours
of .the day, like clouds over a landscape. The Roman
‘Catholic.priests must matte up their minds to submit
to the same regulations as practically affect the Protes-
lent clergy. Although it is not illegal, no one ever sees
a Protestant clergythan bustling about Fleet-street or the
Strand in pudding sleeves and a square cap. •
There is no law on the subject, for none is
needed. The tacit good sense of the Protestant
clergy -prevents . them from dragging their sa-
cred vestments through the mud—and even running
the risk of exposing religion to contempt in the persons
of its ministers merely on. a question of Costume. Let
the Roman Catholic clergy folloW the wholesome ex-
ample: So, again, with the practice of out-door pro-
cessions and `ceremonials—the thing is simply impos-
sible in. England.- However much the, moderation of
the bystanders may endeavour to stave off such a result,
the moment would surely have come when a shower
of black mud would have expressed the state of public
opinion upon this 'feature' of " Papal Aggression."
Much more is this likely to be the case if the proces-
sions aro absolutely directed as hostile movements
against the tranquillity of a body of Protestant wor-
shippers. It has been reported to us that in the imme-
diate neighbourhood of Orchard-street, Portman-square,
a platform is erected on which, from time to time, co-
pies of the-Protestant Bible ure committed to the flames.
We warn the promoters of such proceedings, as they
value their own safety, to hold their hands while it is
' yet time.
• CHRONICLE.—We have received, from time to
time, very -strikieg accounts of the alteration of public
sentiment which has progressively disclosed itself in
France since the appearance of the Orleans decree.
General statements of this sort are usually difficult to
verify, but their accuracy in the present instance is re-
inarkably confirmed in the effects of the "confiscation on
the three great bodies with which Louis Napoleon pre-
tends to share the sovereignty of the State. Is is to be
observed that, exactly in proportion to the measure of
independence they enjoy, is the susceptibility which they
manifest to the discredit in which they are necessarily
involved: The Senate makes, of course, .no sign. The
publication of the decree took place while that body
was in course of formation, and was just in time to pre-
vent its including a single! member who might have
made it othor than it was meant, to bo—namely, - .a co-
lossal contrivance for settling the- President's Civil
List, and for rewarding, the subaltern agents in the
coup ddtat. The Council of State, owing to the profes•
alone' contractor of most of its duties, is composed of men,
a thought more respectable than the Senators; but its
close connexion with the head of the Government would
have prevented its Voluntarily engaging in any proceed-
ing equivalent to a coudeninatiou of his policy. The
appeal of the Prefect of the Seine his, however, left it
no alternative but to sit in judgment on the President's
conduct., Although there seems no reason to doubt that
its decision on the competency or the civil tribunals to
adjudicate between Louis Napoleon and the Prince will
be favourable to the Government, it is notorious that a
most painful feeling pervades the Council on the ;object,
and it-is suspected that a judgment confirmatory of the
legality of the decree will probably bo followed by seve-
ral resignations. Indeed, on the very, eve of last Satur-
day's hearing, the managers of the case en behalf of the
e.dministration had to withdraw th.eir brief from the
hands of their chosen advocate, M. Roverehon, who
csnfessed that, even upon the ex parte inetrue-
tioos before him,' ho had come to a conelusion
gaiti t his clients. But that which, in the
Councillors of State, .is only unwilliegness
to reeks themselves open accomplices in the
confisoetion, becomes, with the deputies, a spontaneous
demonstration of disgust. As the representative bay
is, at all events, not directly dependent on or connected
with the President, it stands alone in having voluntarily
created the means Of, publicly disengaging itself from
the responsibility of his most conspicuous misdeed. The
common belief is that M. de Motitalembert has managed
to get inseresd, in the report of the committee' on the
Baeget an express censure of 'that invasion of right.
Whether this impreesion be or be not precisely correct,
the uneasy and deprecating temenf the newspaper which
has been promoted to the place of the Constitutionnel
makes it evident that some proceeding,. in the highest
degree distasteful to the Government, has been ventured
upon, or is being matured. The mere discussion of the
point proies the sentiments of the Assembly; and when so
feeble an organ sounds clearly, who can doubt that public
opinion, *ere it unmuffled, would speak with the voice of a
trumpet? 'lt is note always, or very often,'that the crime
for which a man is Most heavily and conspicuously, pu-
niahed is exactly the offence of blackest enormity which
he happens to have Committed. Tho convicted -pick-
pocket is frequently tin'utconvioted burglar; and report
runs that a noble personage who was drummed out of
society for cheating at cards, was heard to utter bitter
complaints sgainst Fortune, which had suffered him to
pass undetected in doctoring a horse for the Darby, and
then consigned him to ruin for turning up a king at
whist. For the ?ake, "therefore, of moral example, it is
well when the crime which goes unwhipt and that which
entails punishment are so clearly united, in point of time
or natural connexion, as to render unmistakable the
double character of the retribution. We have some satis-
faction in thinkiug,that a spectacle of this latter sort is
'Worded by the two, most: indefensible acts which have
been recently perpetrated on the theatre • 'of 'European
affairs. The seisure of Louis Philippe's inheritance
is v-ery feom rivalling in immorality the .long
which the President of the French Repub.
conspiracy wh
lie ie now known to have engaged against the institu-
tions of which he was the guardian and trustee. Yet all
the penal consequences which he hal incurred seem at
first sight it have owed ex. exclusively frpm the minor
,by considering the. confiscation of
oil me; and it is only
the' Orleans property as the necessary sequel of the trea-
.; t French liberty that we are enabled to et:icon-
s: agelfrisp-parent disproportion- of their results. If the
decree which Louis Napoleon levelled at the eons ofs outs
Philippe had never beet), issued at 611. it is 'doubtful whe-
ther there would have been a single flaw in the success of
the coup dela& Sobewilderingly had the. landmarks of
law and right been dispersed by a sti
ticee—so demoralisedwereetheilltletnolan of revels-
i °lessee by
their terror of the
wore crisiswbih the Censtitution had
prepared—so obscure
the elements of the strife
between the Prestdc.nt and his adversaries in the As-.
thc,t,
semb.ly— for all whknow, .public ,opinion, after a
few .
eavinrs
might have settled down into quiet accept-
pee of a Bouapertist despotism; and a virtual unani-
inig.ht have mode it un-
mite of approval or appla.Use
ful if uot improper, in elln orate to question
gra° • • t the oft the
a revmution sanction°game o
nstion. That no such general contentment has ensued
upon deliverance from an undoubted danger, must ho set
down entirely to the Orleans decree. Already it has
. eh"
ibly affected the 'sympathies of the French people
;Tit the existing Government, as well as their estimate
of the circamstauces which produced it;' and with-
Gut doubt it is destined to modify profoundly
the entire course, of French affairs, so long as' they.
are controlled by of
military rule of Louis Napoleon.
lie regards the greal cause of moral justice, the prin-
cipal use of the Orleans decree has consisted in the light
which it 'o'l3 thrown on.tho character of the President.
It has made misapprehension of his motives impossible,
and it hahstamped the leading features of his mind as
eemething distinct from that confusibn of principle on.
04008 of public and coutituticug tight which un-