The Sun.
London, England, 1853-02-14 00:00:00

spring of a persecuting faith ; the one leaving
Catholics free to do everything but assume the
emblems of sovereignty over our soil, the other
prohibiting Protestants to have and to circulate
the Holy Scriptures ; the one sanctioned by com-
paratively light pecuniary penalties, the other by
imprisonment for long years in a felon's dungeon;
the one drag-chained by every legal hindrance to
its being enforced, the other diligently worked by
spies and police; the one practically left as a dead
letter, the other remorselessly pressed against the
debilitated and the dying ; the one touching only
conspicuous men not easily oppressed, the other
pursuing a poor lodging-house keeper and his wife
into their humble apartments ; the one unsup-
ported by any kindred legislation, neutralised
rather by its opponents, composing half the
Government of the day, the other backed by the
bloody guillotine as more Catholic (we regret to
write it) than the gaol. Let Mr. LANGDALE look
on this picture and on that—let him say what
feature is exaggerated either way—and let him,
and let all Catholics blush to mention in the same
breath the bondage and the blood which Popery
demands for Protestants reading and circulating
their Bibles, and the paper penalties which Eng-
lishmen have laid by in their archives against
trenching on the secular rights of the English SOVE-
REIGN. Let Mr. LANGDALE and the Catholics be
aware that the majority of intelligent Englishmen
regret enough the foolish measure of 1851, but
that it is vain indeed to think to blind them to
the Catholic atrocities of dungeons and death for
Bible-reading, or Bible-teaching either, by throw-
ing in their eyes the dust of an Ecclesiastical
Titles Bill.

We can just discover the difference between an
unenforced fine and attacks on our liberty and life.
We can assure Mr. LANGDALE of another thing :
and that is, that from persons from whom we
should not have expected it, we have heard the
ss
o
remark, that if French and Austrian bayonets are
to claim the right of upholding the POPE and per-
ewhether England ought not to occupy Florence,
or c uti
some
n e in
other Italy—, it may well become a question
place for the interests of Protestant
liberty.

Several of the Metropolitan Railway Companies
have brought forward Bills for authority to con-
struct connecting links or branch lines, which must
exceedingly promote the public convenience, while
at the same time they will, we trust, prove remu-
nerative speculations. From _ the list of those
Bills that have already received a first reading, in-
serted in another part of this day's impression, it
will be found that the London and North-Western
and the South-Eastern Company are exhibiting
extraordinary exertion. The former company has
no less than seven bills, viz. :
"I. To construct line from Northampton to Market
Ilarborouc,h. 11. Ditto from Tring to Oxford. 111.
Ditto frol Crewe to Shrewsbury. IV. To _make
branches to Stourbridge. V. To obtain additional
powers as to the Oldham branch. VI. To construct
branches to St. Albans and Amersham. VII. To con-
nect the Buckinghamshire with the Oxford, Worcester,
and Wolverhampton."

These improvements, if carried into execution,
must prove exceedingly beneficial to the inhabi-
tants of the districts traversed by the new line,
allowing opportunities for considerable savings,
both of time and money.
The South-Eastern projects are no less impor-
tant. They are as follows :

"I. To form a junction with the Great Western at
Reading. 11. To make a branch from the North Kent
to the Thames. 111. Do. from Lewisham to Bromley
and Croydon. IV. Do. from Strood to Maidstone.
V. To vest in the South-Eastern the Canterbury and
Whitstable Railway and Continental Packet Company."
The public will owe a debt of gratitude to the
Directors of this important Company for the spirit
and enterprise displayed in these valuable addi-
tions to the railway communication of the country.