The Sun.
London, England, 1838-10-04 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Popish Press overflows with delight at the " im-
prudence" of our late attacks upon the rancorous, tyranni-
cal, and brutalizing spirit of the Irish Roman Catholic
Priesthood—attacks which are characterized by that
Press as betraying an " anti-Irish" spirit, and as giving
displeasure to the more respectable members of that
" party whose livery we wear." That it is for a political
faction to have left itself without so much as an apology
for an argument. The Popery and revolution mongers
can do nothing but lie, and cheat, and swagger. Such is
their notion of political controversy, and such their sinews
of war. If we have acted imprudently in speaking truth,
and offensively in reasoning from it, here we stand with
minds made up to reiterate our rashness—to administer
yet more largely than before to the " gratification" of
those worthy Popish aspirants who regard our modes of
thought and expression as so delectable, and to provoke
still further the displeasure of those incogniti whose
" livery," we are told, "we wear"—a phrase which comes
naturally enough to writers who never dreamed in their lives
of voluntary service, or of embarking in any cause but for
hire. We, as Conservatives, are taxed with having shown
that " Toryism is still Toryism," and that all our "professions
of moderation and liberality are nothing but a sounding
brass and a tinkling cymbal." Now it concerns us very
little whether " Toryism be• Toryism still or not." We
never were Tories nor abettors of Toryism, which means, if
it have any specific meaning, hostility to constitutional free.
dom, and which, in its historical character, implies an at-
tachment to Popery, and a league with Papists for the de-
struction of civil and religious liberty. If Toryism, there-
fore, be still unchanged, and if the brand of Popish and ty-
rannical predilections be still its distinguishing feature, the
curs who bark at us had best bethink themselves how much
they or their employers have gained by our showing up of
the " Tories." But our " professions of moderation and
liberality" are taxed against us as grounds whereon to ac-
cuse us of hollowness and untruth. Our answer is, that
we have not been called upon to make any such profes-
sions. We saw not the necessity of making any. We
were not conscious of immoderate or illiberal views,
and had no such distrust of our own integrity as to
plaster over the want of it, as others did, by fierce
pretensions to virtues which they had not. The contemp-
tible hypocrisy of some among the worst of mankind in
their eternal boastings of " liberality and moderation,"
when they meant nothing but intolerance, violence, and re-
volution, affixed so much suspicion to those heretofore ho-
nourable names, that honest men would have felt disgraced
by the use of them. We are charged with an " anti-
Irish" spirit, and with hatred to " the people of Ireland."
The charge is a deliberate falsehood. Resort is here had
to the fraudulent perversion of words which O'Connell has
introduced, and made current with the disaffected faction,
whereby the herd of agitators and Popish schemers against
the State assume to themselves to be the Irish nation,
while the Queen's loyal subjects, who would enforce the
laws, and the brave, intelligent, and independent Protes-
tants of Ireland, who would again, as they have done fre-
quently, defend, at the peril of life and fortune, the
Church, and Constitution, and British monarchy, and em-
pire, are slandered as " illiberal," and reviled, and
threatened, as enemies to the people of Ireland"—a
pretty specimen of a " people," God save the mark'
But the burden of the rebel song is, that we have set
up the " howl of No-Popery"—(and if we had)—
but of that anon. We have set up no accusation against
Popery which we have not brought home against political
P?Pery—that is, against the machinations of the priest, by
evidence incontrovertible, and by arguments which the as-
sailants of Protestantism have not dared to meet. Popery
is now, and has for years past been, engaged in an uninter-
rupted aggression against the State. There is not one of
our institutions—the most essential to our limited monarchy
—the most inseparable from the maintenance of public and
private property—the dearest to the hearts and affections
of the people of Great Britain, and to the whole race of
Irish Protestants, which the Popish faction, under the
guidance of the Popish priesthood, has not been labouring
systematically to destroy. Popery, with a perpetual whine
and snivel about the oppressions it endures, has been pro-
jecting, perpetrating, and inflicting upon us Protestants
the most grievous and appalling injuries. It is the
most intolerant, aggressive, and tyrannical rower exist-
or that ever has appeared on earth. The mind of man
is its chief and selected victim. It probes the very soul,
and tortures and ends by enslaving it. We Protestants are
reduced to mere self-defence : we are vilified and de-
nounced from altars, and menaced by nocturnal bands of
armed, sworn, unrelenting, and sanguinary fanatics : we
are denied the lawful right of resistance, and, when we do
not tamely submit to be trampled on by the hoofs of a
savage multitude, spurning as all laws but those of their
own ruffian societies, but presume to lift a hand in defence
of house or property, we are held up to the world as blood-
stained monsters, and the tribunals of justice, whence
we seek redress, are described as hostile to " the people
of Ireland." Why, is this not true ? True to the letter ?
Is it to be answered by a hireling in one of their news-
papers miscalling our statements a " No Popery
howl ?" Why should we not cry out "No Popery," when
the yell of " No Protestantism" stuns us from every Pa-
pist throat ? We say again they are tormenting the mo-
narchy ; they are assailing us on all sides wantonly, with-
out the shadow of provocation, and in pursuance of a fixed
plot for the extirpation of Protestantism, root and branch,
from Ireland. Let them try, if they be so minded, the
game of extirpation by force, and if one sect or other must
inhabit Ireland alone, we are ready
.for the trial, though
not of our seeking, and will trust in the Protestant arm,
under, and with reverence for, the Midity One who has
hitherto. upheld our faith and freedom. But if the issue
be left to fraud, without a timely effort by those who have
watched its movements and machinations to expose them
to the world, there is an end of us. Brave men who
fight in the open day are no match for the enemy they have
to deal with in this priesthood. The battle for religious
and civil liberty is then, for half a century, lost.—Times.

Two of our Contemporaries of adverse political senti-
ment, each occasionally distinguished by talent aid twaddle
—the Times and the Globe—have for the last two days
waxed violently wrathful against each other on a subjectof which both appear lamentably incapable of appreciating
the merits—the question of duelling. 13oth discuss the
necessity of the practice more in reference to precedent
and authority than to the existing habits and feelings of
society. Both, however, agree in the propriety of putting
an end to the custom of satisfying wounded feelings by an
appeal to mortal weapons. But while denouncing the
abuses, half-ludicrous and half-horrible, to which duelling
has been perverted, let us not forget that in the state of
transition from barbarism to civilization duelling has exer-
cised a. powerful effect in promoting the amenities and
courtesies of social life. In the more advanced stage
of civilization to which society i 3 progressing, duelling,
. however, becoming not only less necessary to the preser-
vation of the uslges of respectable life, but too abhorrent to
the general feelings of the con.munity to be resorted to,
even in extreme cases, without provoking the expression of
general condemnation. It is not, however, a subject in
which the Legislature is particularly called upon to inter-
fere. It is a custom which, having its origin in public
opinion, will cease when the sanction of that opinion is
withheld. To this conclusion we are fast advancing.
The existing laws, as evinced in the recent trial
of the two young gentlemen pre.st nt at the duel at Wim-
bledon, are sufficiently stringent to suppress duelling if it
were to be suppressed by legal means ; but it is to the cen-
sure of social opinion more than to the law that we must
look for the abolition of this sanguinary and revolting prac-
tice.—Morning Advertiser.

PEDESTRIAN Ism.-- isest and happiest tra-
veller is the pedestrian. If gTleenotle' evmen and ladies want to see
pictures, let them post to Florence, and be satisfied with learn-
m g what they can from the window
want to see either scenery or people, by the way. But if they
let all who have strength
and courage go on foot. I prefer thisso even to horseback. A
horse is an anxiety and a trouble.
and one is more anxious about its accommodation is sure to ail it ;
than about
one's own. There is no such freeman onwithin his
as he is for the
time. His amount of toil is usually his own choice_
n him,
stop when he
in any civilized region. He can
likes; if a fit of indolence osertgaio,ceos lire can linger
for a day or a week in any spot that pleases
is
not whirled past a beautiful view almost li3efore..3h him.ha seHere,
He is not tantalized by the idea that from this or he
paint he
could see something still finer, if he could but refatellaitit. The
pleasure is indescribable of saying to I
will
there," " I will rest yonder," and forthwith accomplishing it.
He can sit on a rock in the midst of a rushing stream as often
in a day as he likes. He can hunt a waterfall by its sound—.
a sound which the earri.ige-w heels preve.nt other travellersfrom
hearing. He can follow out any tempting glade in any Woo.
There is no cushion of moss at the foot of an old tree that he
may not sit down on if be pleases. He can read for an Lour
without fear of passing by s.,rnething unnoticed while his eyes
are fixed upon his book. His food is welcome, be its quality
ishat it may, while he eats it under Cie elders in se recess
of a brook. He is secure of his sleep, be his chamber e
sordid; and when his waking eyes rest upon his knapsack, his
heart leaps with pleasure as he remembers where he is and
what a day is before him. Even the weather seems to be of
less consequence to the pedestrian than to other travellers. A
pedestrian journey pre-supposes abundance of time, FO that
the traveller can rest in villages on rainy days, and in the
shade of a wood during the hours when the sun is too power-
Ill.—Miss Martineau.

As some workmen were cutting a large oak tree on
Kilgogue Farm, Tywardreth, on Saturday last, they found
that the progress of the saw was impeded by some bard sub-
stance, which after the tree was felled was found to be a stone
considerably larger than a man's fist, and so firm'y imbedded
in the centre of the trunk, that on the tree falling the stone
separated in equal parts, retaining its firm hold, where it bad
probably been for more than a century,l West Briton.