The Sun.
London, England, 1836-12-01 00:00:00

and projects of their governors. They have now a clue
to all their actions—from the elevation of the Papist
standard in every city gird province of Ireland, to the
municipal promotions of Socinian functionaries
England. `they have the touchstone byith they
may test all their coming measure?; 'a‘,,a if they quietly
lie down to be tratupleA 'Upon by a crew whom they
could annibi4rt3 by one honest burst of indigneun,
upon thtiri be the shame for ever ! But no such re-
sult is to be apprehended ; the people will rouse them..
selves. By the help of those great legal means still
left to us, they will, with combined force and untiring
energy, repel the profligate and traitorous attacks on
their institutions, and wilt save the ark of the Cousti
tution from further damage and pollutienss==riotes.
We have certainly no reason to sflppose that, among
the members of that majority by which Lord John
Russell was supported throueth the agonie last
campaign, many individuals are lik4Cy to be converted
by argument, or to he convinced by experience. We
have little 'nor tVt n of those who profess impartiality
in ;no soberest tones, and preach piety with the gravest
faces. Whatever additional light may be thrown
upon the councils of the bigot and the rebel, we shall
still hear our honest Denisons and our amiable
Puseys chaunting their comfortable belief that the
Church is best protected by the spoliation of het re-
venues, and that the Union is best maintained by the
exaltation of its foes. It must, nevertheless, be recol-
lected that every day of the recess affords a volume of
instruction as to the designs of the enemies of the
Constitution, which, upon the re-assembling of Par-
liament, if it does not enlighten the discernment of
such weak but well-intentioned men, will surely in-
creasea hundred-fold the tremendous responsibilitywhich
rests upon their political course. The last shred of
the flimsy veil under which Popery and treason had
concealed their horrible deformity is now rent away.
The long-dissembled purpose is openly avowed—the
long-denied guilt is ostentatiously proclaimed. They
who are found in the company of the felon cannot plead
ignorance of the matter he has in hand. Among our
English gentlemen the agitator may have some tools ;
but henceforth he cannot reckon on one dupe.
Men professing a conviction that the Protestant
Church teaches the truest and surest path to salva-
tion, have voted for the appropriation of a part of her
possessions to other than ecclesiastical uses. How
have they justified to themselves, to their country,
and to their Maker, a policy of which the moral
rectitude is, to say the least, paradoxical ? It was
argued " We give up a part to secure the remainder ;
we purchase the tranquillity of Ireland at the cheapest
rate ; we secure the persons, and we extend the effi-
ciency, of the Protestant Clergy by stripping them of
the superfluous wealth which stopped the ear against
their doctrines, and directed the bullet against their
lives." Such common places were welcomed with the
applause of the Papist, the Socinian, the Atheist—all
conscientiously united in the laudable endeavour to
confirm the stability and widen the usefulness of the
Protestant Establishment in Ireland. Now we shall
hear no more of this inane twaddle. In the' next
session of Parliament it will be too impudent for Sir
John Campbell, too silly for Lord Morpeth. Mr.
O'Connell, and Mr. Sharman Crauford,
" Indigni fraternum rumpere fcedus,"
are once more friends : and by the conditions of their
friendship some perhaps may be startled who-were not
moved by the arguments of Sir R. Peel, or by the con-
fessions of Lord Melbourne. The Popish Sanhedrin
resolves that, however desirable it may be to take at
all times whatever can be got, no settlement of the
tithe question can be satisfactory or final which is not
based upon the principle that no man should contri-
bute to the support of a Ministry whose ministration
he does not attend. The declaration, therefore, of
war against the very existence of a Protestant Esta-
blishment in Ireland is no longer to be considered as
proceeding from a few stray demagogues, who go a
little too far. It is ratified by the unanimous assent
of that numerous and noisy body which very fairly
represents the " all Ireland" of Mr. O'Connell. We
know, therefore, what we are to expect. In the eyes of
Irish Popery the property of the Protestant Establish-
ment is all surplus. Surrender the cathedral, the
claim is for the parish church. Strip off the mitre,
the demand is for the cassock. Give up the tithe, the
cry is for the glebe. Abandon ninety-nine per cent.,
and all the machinery of agitation, with its addresses
and its petitions, its mobs and its murders, its pas-
sive resistance and its justice rent, is in motion for the
remaining instalment. So long as the Irish national
Church is Protestant, however degraded in her digni-
ties, or impoverished in her possessions, so long is it to
be safer to violate than obey the law ; so long is sedi-
tion to be a better protection than loyalty ; so long
are the agents of justice to be defied, and the Minis-
ters of religion to be hunted to death, Are we then
prepared to abolish the Protestant Establishment in
Ireland ? \Ve believe that Popery would not be sa-
tisfied even could we give her more ; but we know that
she does not even promise to be satisfied if we give her
, I less.—Morning Post.
Is

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1836.