The Sun.
London, England, 1822-06-26 00:00:00

POPERY.

MR. EDITOR—One of your Correspondents
lately seemed to intimate that the arguments and
reasonings connected with what is called the Ca-
tholic Question, have been brought forward too
frequently, even to a tautological satiety. But
many others, and among these it is unnecessary
to add your present Correspondent, are impressed
with a sentiment of a diametrically opposite
nature ;,that there has been too great an oscitancy
and negligence in the nation at large of entering
into and acquainting themselves with the true
state of the question and the results inseparably
connected with it. The Author, from whose
history, I lately sent you some extracts, gives the
following particulars of the Bishops' trial :—" And
" now one would think it impossible that this
" modest submissive manner of delivering an hum-
" ble Petition to the King, by persons of such
" character and dignity, should be deemed a tu-
" multuary publication of a seditious libel : yet
44 so it was, and as such all these 'Reverend Pre-
" lates were summoned to answer for it at the
" Council Board, where they appeared, and

" having acknowledged the Petition to be
" theirs, the Council were pleased to 'order
" them to put in bail, to answer the King's
" suit the first day of the next term : which
" they refused to do, and pleaded that being
44 Peers they were not obliged, but ought to be
4C served with the usual process of subpoena only,
44 and not imprisoned ; which plea was over-
" ruled, and they (by warrant of Council) all
" seven committed to the Tower; an informa-
" tion of high misdemeanour being brought'against
"them. On the 15th June the Archbishop and

" his fellow-prisoners appeared at the King's
'' Bench bar, where, after some deliberation con-
" cerning the irregularity- of the commitment,
44 in which they were over-ruled by the Court,
" the information against them was read, setting
" forth,that the Archbishop of Canterbury, the
Bishops of St. Asaph, Ely, &c., did unlawfully,
" maliciously, seditiously and scandalously corn-
" pose and write a certain false, pernicious, and
" seditiOus libel, and being so composed and
" written, by force and arms did publish the

" same in the presence of the King"—(which
odious libel, stated with such malignant and
absurd exaggeration, was the above-named peti-
tion.) " The information being read, the Bishops'
" Counsel moved to have a copy of it, that they
" might be allowed time to plead to it : this
" was epposed, and they obliged to plead, which
44 they severally did Not Guilty ;' after which
4( the day of trial was appointed to be the 29th,
" and their Lordships•entered into recognizance
"to appear on •that day. Accordingly on the
46 29th June the Bishops made their appearance
" at the King's Bench bar,where were presenf a
" great number of the nobility as spectators ;
" and the Jury being sworn, the information was
44 again read, and the King's declaration was
" again produced and sworn to. After this
" the Bishops' Petition being produced and
" divers witnesses brought to prove their hand
" writing, &c. lastly the. King's Counsel endea-
" voured to make it a libel, in which they were
44 opposed by the Bishops' Counsel, who very
" learnedly and ingeniously defended their
" clients. The brevity .of an abridgment will
44 not admit of setting down the arguments ; we
" have only room to say that the dispensing
" power was the subject of most of them, •in
" which the Bishops' Counsel did sufficiently

".baffle the King's;' which dispute, when the
" Chief Justice Wright, and Justice Allibone,
44 who was a Papist, endeavoured to suppress,
46 they were opposed by Judge Holloway and
" Justice Powell, who did much appear on the
46 Bishops' side all the day. In fine the Judges
" summed up the evidence, wherein the Lord
" Chief Justice Wright ccave his opinion that
"" it was a libel,' as did Mr. Justice Allibone ;
" but Mr. Justice Powell the contrary. And
" it being 'now night, the' Jury
_were ordered
64 to be locked up, after some refreshments
" allowed them, till next morning." (What
a night of anxiety, suspense, and trepidation
must that have been to the Prelates, to the
Court, to the Capital, and indeed to the whole
Nation, as far as it was known !! " The next
" morning the verdict was given in, Not Guilty,
" which caused very great acclamations in the
" Hall, and even in the very Court itself, to the
great regret of the prosecutors. A week after
" this the King. removed Sir R. Holloway and
" Sir T. Powell from their places as Justices in
" the King's Bench." And yet the descendants
and successors of these men complain that they
are denied the power and political right to do all
this over again ! We have of late had numerous
proofs that what they have obtained already in
that way, is now too great, from the. use they
have made of it. Protestants of every denomi-
nation should be perfectly aware of those among
themselves, who, whatever may be the excuse
offered, excite violent disputes and animosities
among themselves on their separate creeds and,
modes of worship; as it has,been the most plau-
sible pretext for instituting, and chief instrument
in obtaining, that abhorred spiritual domina-
tion by which the Itomanists were enabled
to perpetrate their bloody yersecutions and
massacres through the dark ages. Fe know it
was their characteristic turbulence and intriguing
that caused the lenient and pacific Alexander to
banish that execrable fraternity, the Jesuits,
from the Russian dominions, to the number of
600 or 800, who have all been received into
this infatuated country, and where they have
erected chapels, seminaries, and monasteries, all
over the nation; and the blessed fruits have
been experienced in tumults, conspiracies, insur-
rections, and rebellions, growing more bloody
and formidable and general every day. Witness
unhappy Ireland, and our late disturbed counties.
The apathy also shewn to the sufferings of the
Greek nation under their inhuman lahometan
oppressors, notwithstanding the appeals made to
Great Britain, as the patroness of universal liber-
ty, is no doubt owing to the preponderance of
their secret influence in certain quarters,--as the
Grecian, and, indeed all the Oriental churches,
Waif always rejected with scorn the claims of
supreme authority set up by the Bishops of

Itome.-7-(Dr. harvie's, Church history, .vni• 3,-
y. 50.) " Among those who have most firmly
" rejected the attempts of the Roman Pontiff,.
" Cyrillus. Lucar may be reckoned,—a man of
" real piety and extensive learning, beyond what
46 has usually filled the Chair of Constantinople.,
46 After diligently examining the Romish and
" Protestant opinions, he seemed much more CM'
44 posed to form a union with the latter than the
" former, and in consequence corresponded ivitn.
46 Protestants of eminence. This bitterly pro-
" yoked the- Catholics. The Jesuits, througu
the French Ambassador at the• Porte, exerted
cc all their influence to render Cyrillus odious and
" suspected by the Turks. Having gained some
" envious Greeks to their party, they formed •an
" aceusation against the good Patriarch, of pre-
" tended treason, and procured his death by the'
4' Ottoman Emperor's orders. His crime was--
" his piety, and disposition to unite the Greek
cc and reformed churches,—an offence inexpiable-
"in the sight of Rome and her satellites." A re-
petition of this scene, with still more aggravated
circumstances of sanguinary cruelty, we have seen
perpetrated in the butchery of the late Patriarch
and his suffragan prelates, who had formed a con'
nexion with the accredited agents of the British
and Foreign Bible Society, and manifested the
utmost gratitude-for the printing and dissemina:
tion, in their vernacular dialects, of the Sacre°
volume. As the wearer of the triple Crown
well knows, his impostures and impieties will be
completely exposed and annihilated by the atter
tive and general perusal of that volume, he has
laboured every where to counteract and suppress'
it.all over. the Continent ; and no doubt his
emissaries were as . busy on the Bosphorus as
elsewhere : for Leander von Ess and his Col,-
leagues, though professed members of that C0n.1."
munity, have experienced as much opposition-
and malignity as did Luther or Melancthon
themselves. When we see such a man as Frays'
sinous, the avowed advocate of fostering universal
ignorance, set over the French Church ; vibe°
we hear what nurnbfrs of our countrymen con`
tinually reside there and mingle with the dis:
sipated amusements, and learn the vices and.
infidelity for which that nation has alwaYs'
been notorious, it should excite a doubi°
vigilance against Roman encroachments here."
When we learn how much the public morals
have suffered' of late by establishing Sun'
day routes, Sunday promenades in the Parks/
pedestrian and equestrian ; and worst of all bf
Sunday Newspapers, that disseminate anarchl7
vice, and treason, with indefatigable assiduity, 41
their wide circulated thousands, we may well
look \ for a coming storm. The Divine patience
bears long, but will not bear always ; and " they
44 that being often reproved harden themselves
46 in crime shall suddenly be destroyed, and that
" without remedy."

June 15, 1822.

I am, respectfully, your's, •
ANTIPAPA•
.4,* Notwithstanding the decision in the
ouse of Lords on the Catholic Question, we
are desired by many of our Readers to insert
whatever letters may yet be sent to us in support
of the PROTESTANT ASCENDANCY, in order that the
question may be set at rest for ever, arid we
deem it our duty to comply with their wishes.

DREADFUL FIRE.---(Stockholin, June
the parish of G'-rue, in the district of gedernarl7l
in Norway, a church has been burnt, by whied.
many persons have come to a melancholy en
The church was of wood, and coated over Vfit
tar, so that the whole edifice was in flames in
few minutes. Several hundred persons whOl*ere
in it at the time rushed, to the door, wbenCe`i:
press was caused, which stopped the way. rffill
people then ran 'to the windows, wad thoug
they were high, leaped through them out of the
burning building. The clergyman, who washio
the pulpit, chose this shorter way, aud save a
life by a hazardous leap. But above a; huudre
persons, who could not make their escaP e
perished in the flames. The fire was occasions
by the carelessness of the sexton, an 01d $lll7l
w4ao had not used due ciution with the fire UeF
for lighting the tapers on the altar.
RIOT.—A number of per Sons were yestelti
charged, at Hatton Garden Police Office, with rioting west 'a.af-
peratety, and breaking the furniture of a public house !r,,,-ore
fron-hill, because the landlord would not serve them with —„otil
beer at a late hour. The whole were committed to prison-
they can find bail.