The Sun.
London, England, 1852-07-19 00:00:00

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MIDDLESEX ELECTION AND POPERY.
(From the Times.)
The interests invol
kinds—the first ed in a contested election are of two
attaching to every Member who is returned,
the seconds first
to certain men in certain districts.
From Connemara to the Orkneys the nation must needs
feel an anxiety and interest in the return of every Member
who is to snake up an unit in the grand total which repre-
constitution of these is'ilaanndds when we consider the popular
, and the vast influence which
that constitution, either directly by the prestige of our power,
or indirectly by the force of
exercise on the destinies of manakti example,
world, we may well regard the resultud is calculated
the
n every portion of
an event of no trifling magnitude in the 41311* every eleCtion as
history of the world
But besides this general interest, there are contests
for
certain Places where the constituency is l
the candidates distinguished and influenatriga and important,
7, and the prin-
ciple clear and well defined, which attract
an attention and
an interest which no mere increase or diminution of Par-
liamentarr strength can adequately represent. Such, we
must admit, was the recent deplorable contest r
. the town of
Liverpool, such the lately terminated election for the Uni-
versity of Oxford, and such the pending conflict for the re-
presentation of the 'metropolitan county of Middlesex. As
far as We are able to judge, the principle
at
alatrake. in
the rivalry between Mr. Bernal Osborne and
the
Blandford is exactly the same as that which anilialateed
the opposing parties in the recent election for
Liverpool. The enormous Irish emigration which
the distresses of the sister island have poured
upon our shores has carried with it the passion,
the virulence, and unreasonableness to which those who in-
terest themselves in Irish politics are, unhappily, too well
accustomed. Belfast, Dublin, and Liverpool have been three
chosen battle-fields on which these rival factions have exhi-
bited their bitterness and intolerance. Zealous even to the
shedding of blood, determined, to use their significant ex-
pression, " to win, tie, or wrangle," and providing themselves
for the purpose of a peaceful election with weapons Which
might figure more aptly in the sanguinary encounters of a
civil war, the Orange party have succeeded in these three
great towns, and now, flushed with success, seek to snatch
from the cause of liberality, toleration, and progress, the
county of Middlesex itself. While the contest is going on,
we are to hear of nothing but Protestant and Papist, the
Pope and the Bible, red stockings and black gowns. When
it is over, Mr. Herries or Mr. Beresford are quite ready to
convert a theological success into an economical victory, and
to claim as a stanch Protectionist the Member who was re-
turned as a rabid and illiberal Protestant.
Comparing the rival candidates for Middlesex together,
there seems little to choose between them if weighed by the
no-Popery standard. The Marquis of Blandford voted for
Maynooth, and Mr. Bernal Osborne against it. Mr. Bernal
Osborne voted against the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, and the
Marquis of Blandford for it. It would seem, according to
this statement, that neither of these gentlemen has a right
to say to the other, " I am more righteous than thou ;" but
by a more solemn demeanour and the support of persons
better known in the religious world the Marquis has con-
trived to persuade the electors that his opposition to the
Pope is far more genuine than that of his antagonist. If
we might presume to offer a word of advice to this great
constituency, it would be, to let the question of which hates
the Pope most stand over for the present, and to decide the
election on more tangible and more important grounds.
All over the country Protestantism has acted as
a lightning conductor to Protection, and Popery
has been a term of abuse expressly reserved .
conntexion
the advocates of Free Trade. What
there ie between freedom of private
commercial restriction on the one side, loss to and
and freed tradeen and
we are at a dis-
cover religious tenets on the other,
gained by
or an appeal
cover ; but certain it is that victories
to Protestantism have uniformly been claimede f
Protec-
tion, and that repulses designed for the Poop_ have uniformly
been ascribed to aversion to the doctrines
thus
Free Trade. It
is melancholy to see large bodies of maenth diverted from
the cause that is, to that which is not, t stake, and induced
to support economical fallacies underthe mask of religious
verities. We shall not readily be suspected, after the in-
dignant protest to which we have given utterance, of any
wish to support the Pope or defend his aggressions. But let
us ask those who stifle the voice of truth and reason by the
cry of "No Popery"
whether , they have ever considered
what those words
mean, and whether, if they should be
able to return a Parliament composed of Members
elected under this cry Popery will cease to exist. They
,
may recall the Parliamentary grant from Maynooth, but
when they have done so, will Popery cease to be the religion
of millions of people of these islands, possessing votes, return-
ing Members, and equal to themselves in the rights and pri-
vileges of citizenship? Do they really wish to put an end
to the reign of toleration—to rescind the Emancipation Act,
and to re-impose upon the Roman Catholics those grinding
civil disabilities, the disgrace of our nation, our Parliament,
and our faith? Do they believe that when they have deo
stroyedi
Maynooth, the Roman Catholic religion will die
aad
inanition for want of priests to perform her ordinanqs;
that because they are not suffered to be educated inert n'in.",.„
they will not be educated at all? Has experience of pd 01173,
shown that the Roman Catholic religion can be Put_olar cla-
Acts of Parliament, by hustins'
mour ?invective, or Ir,l'iens, and
And if we must have Roman Catholic Teligien, are
they must have priests for the exercise of t 113.0 better sub-
they prepared to prove that these priests_wn3soca, or Voila-
jects or better citizens if educated at "i
Sa UP within the
dolid, Douay, or St. Omer, than if b 0 g
rhue not
of our noble
jurisdiction of British law and under tre
not so, if Popery
or no, and exist in
Constitution? If those things
sweat it
will exist whether they shout eg