The Sun.
London, England, 1836-03-28 00:00:00

before our readers the manner in which that tyrannical
:lominion has been invariably exerted. The atrocious
prosecution of Abraham Sly the other day at Carlow,
plotted for between two perjured witnesses, and 'coun-
tenanced at least by the priest who had Corrigan's con-
science in his keeping, will leave no one in doubt as
to the wicked ends for which the Popish priests of
Ireland are capable of abusing their unbridled power..
Yet it is upon a class of creatures, lower, meaner,
more abject in their submission to the ghostly tempter
—more illiterate, more devoid of all pretension to free
agency, beyond all comparison more so than the Cork
constituency, whose moral and intellectual nakedness
the Irish Attorney-General was so eager to screen—it
is upon nominal occupants of 5/. premises, besides
nominal ten pounders—it is on such priest-ridden
dupes and slaves that the municipal franchise is about
to be bestowed, under the name of a popular, free,
and enlightened institution T. There never was so
dark a crime meditated against the constitutional
monarchy of England—there never was a blow
more fatal struck against good government and
civil liberty—than this surrender to a gross, low-
minded, and turbulent priesthood, already gorged
with social domination over a superstitious race, the
guardianship of the very barriers which by our wiser
ancesters had been raised against its assaults, and the
authority to employ its myriads of vassals in the de.
molition of such our defences. With doctrinal Popery
as we have often said, the State has no concern—with
political Popery, much. The Ministry, bestridden by
O'Connell, is now handing over 50 or 60 Protestant
corporations. in Ireland to be devoured by a single
Popish corporation, that insatiable cormorant called
the Popish Church, by nature and necessity the sworn
foe of every civil power which strives for equality with
it. What political Popery has done for the further-
ance of its own objects it will do again for the further-
ante of similar objects. What reason is there why
the temporal power of Popery in Ireland should now
demean itself with more integrity than it did 150 years
ago, or with greater forbearance towards the members
of the Protestant community ? Let us present the
reader with a few further specimens of the wrongs
which were inflicted on Irish Protestants—of the de-
signs which were avowed for the extirpation of their
religion, and for the universal establishment of the
Romish Church and State in Ireland ; nor ought the
tricks played by these pious revolutionists, in what con-
cerned the corporations of Ireland, to be deemed un-
seasonable at a:time like this.
They affirmed, both publicly and privately, with many
oaths, that they would in a short time have our estates and
Churches ; that if they suffered us to live, they would
make us hewers of wood and drawers of water ; that Ire-
land must be a Catholic country whatever it cost ; and as
for the English, they would make them as poor devils as
when they came first into Ireland. And they assured us
that this was no rash surmise of their own, but that it was
premeditated and resolved, and that we should quickly find
it by the effects ; of which they were so confident (though
we could not believe them) that some of the most serious
amongst them advised their Protestant friends in private,
with all earnestness, to change their religion ; for,' said
they, you will be forced to do it at length, and if you
delay but a little time, it will he too late, and perhaps you
may not be accepted—for no Protestant must expect to
enjoy any thing in this kingdom ; and we resolve to re
duce all things to the state they were in under Henry VII.,
before Poiniug's Act."

" The sheriffs and deputy-lieutenants- of counties were
generally poor and mean people; many of them had been
servants in the meanest condition of Protestants ; who, if
they injured anybody in their employments, had not sub-
stance enough to answer the charges of a suit, much less
the damrp,-es expected by way of reparation.
After the Earl of Tyrconnel had named his sheriffs of
this stamp for the year 1687, it will hardly be• found that
any Protestant recovered any debt by execution. The main
reason of this was the poverty of sheriffs; which made men
unwilling to trust the execution of a bond for 20/. into their
hands, they not being responsible even for such a small
sum, as too many found to their. cost. The mayors and
other magistrates in their new-modelled Corporations were
generally of the same sort. In Dublin they could not pick
up men enough that bad the face to appear as burgesses ;
and some of those that they named had not money to buy
themselves gowns. 1 think their number was never com-
plete. It was yet worse in the country Corporations : in
many places they were not able to pay the Attorney-Gene-
ral's fees, which stopped their new charters, till the. calling
a Parliament necessitated him to pass them gratis."

We implore Members of Parliament to turn these
matters in their minds. They are characterisacs of
temporal Popery, unchangeable and intrinsic. They
apply as closely to 1836 rs they did to 1686. They
involve now, as. they did at that time, the whole fate of
Ireland.—Times.

Upon the third reading of the Bill for Irish Muni-
cipal Reform there will be a debate in which the Con-
servatives will undoubtedly be triumphant, and a divi-
sion in which the Destructives will probably be vic-
torious. If the battle were to be concluded upon the
floor of the .Lower House, we should not be well con-
ented with such an apportionment of the honours of
But, knowing that there will be abundant time
for an appeal to the calm and deliberate judgment of
our countrymen. upon this most important question, we
consent—while we see the brutal ferocity of Mr.
O'Connell foiled by the polished keenness of Lord
Stanley, and the tumid insanity of Lord John Russell
contrasted with the masculine energy of Sir Robert
Peel,—to have the balance of the strength of the de-
bate most imperfectly represented by the calculation of
the numbers of the division. Nevertheless we shall both
lament and 'condemn the absence from the struggle of
any whom their pledges entitle us to call the friends of
the Constitution, as it exists in Church and State. We
know that the Bill is in the most comprehensive sense
of the word unpopular ; that the mind and heart of
England revolt from the cause of the bloated dema-
gogue and the factious priest : that the enslaved Cabi-
net is a scorn and scoff even to the mob of the mar-
ket-place, even to the caucus of the tavern. Very
often have our adversaries concealed their actual weak-
ness by a show of noisy strength, overpowering the
still and quiet disapprobation of the million by the
boisterious and 'talkative sympathy of the score. "It
is in disputes," says Swift, " as in armies, where the
weaker side sets up false lights and makes a great
noise, to make the enemy believe them more numerous
and strong than they really are." But in the question
on which the House of Commons is now to pronounce
its judgment we have not even a show, a pretence, of
national sentiment. Where are the petitions, the ad-
dresses, the meetings, the pamphlets ? In perfect
reliance upon public sympathy and support, the
House of Lords may proceed to the discharge of its
duty. Nevertheless, it is not fair even to the House
of Commons that it should be suffered to appear
more averse to religion, more hostile to justice, more
forgetful of truth than it really is, and for this reason
the Conservative Member of Parliament will be guilty
of a grievous error who shall be absent from his
seat without sufficient cause on this momentous oc-
casion. It is not the design—nay, it is not the pro-
posal—of his Majesty's Government to frame a good
system of Municipal Government for Ireland. The
Bill which Parliament is called upon to pass does not
contemplate an improvement in the administration of
corporate funds, a change in the selection of borough
magistrates, better watching, better lighting—or does
not contemplate these things as the final object of its
provisions. It purposes to effect the return to Parlia-
ment of an increased number of Roches, and Ruth-
yens, and Wyses, and Finns. How does the best
witness describe the intended working of the measure ?
Does he talk of prevented peculation, of reformed
abuses, of corrected partialities, of removed disquali-
fications ? Psha ! he anticipates with exultation his
" normal schools for political agitation." He tells us
they have been erected in England, and must be erected
in Ireland. And if the English Municipal Reform
Act has really perpetuated an evil which it was in-
tended to remedy, has simply transferred an abuse which
it was intended to extinguish, it would be wise to re-
gard it, in those respects in which it has thus failed,
as a beacon to be shunned, rather than as a guide
to be followed. If in the English boroughs we see
magistrates and councillors chosen with reference to
no qualification but the fury of their political zeal, we
may be sure that in the Irish boroughs the application
of the same principles will not elevate candour and
impartiality to the Chamber or the Bench. If in the
English boroughs* we see municipal patronage exer-
cised for political purposes with a recklessness of which
Toryism never dreamed, we may be sure that in the
Irish boroughs we are not likely to see cooler eaution,