The Sun.
London, England, 1825-04-26 00:00:00

LITERARY NOTICE.

POPERY and the POPISH QUESTION; being an Ex-
position of the Political and Doctrinal Opinions of IllessrF.
O'CONNELL, KEOGH, DROMGOLE, GANDOL PIIY, &C. &C.
By the Rev. GEORGE CRoLY, A.M. F.R.L.S.

The learning and talents of this Author are
well known to the Public; and ,therefore his
name to a work must render. it an object of at-
tention. His Poems place him upon a very high
rank in critical estimation. He has .displayed
his dramatic powers in a Tragedy that ought to
have been represented on the stage, and.: in a Co-
medy that was very successful and attractive. lie
is the author of several political tracts characterized
by loyalty and constitutional rectitude. In the
work before he has entered with great diligence
into the POPISH QUESTION, and has urged some
of the most powerful arguments, founded on facts,
and on the doctrines of the Romish.Church, and
has offered such weighty and striking reasoning
against the Catholic Claims as may well alarm the
people of this country. Hp observes that we ought
to repel the claims of they*)ists on " grounds of
general good, self-defench. and Public necessity."
Certainly if farther concessions to the Papists
cannot', be justified on those grounds it would be
madness to grant them. Mr. Caor.Y. seems to
have accurately examined everything that can
illustrate his reasoning and support his opinions.
If, as he states 44 Rome, at this hour, looks upon
every Protestant State as arebel left loose only until
she can have the power of fierce coercion. For
England, as the great offender, the very Chief of
the revolt, there is a black and consummate re-
serve of retribution," why should we hazard the
_danger, even if it be distant ? Are we to take no
interest in the welfare of our successors, and not
• to maintain what has been left to us by the virtue,
Wisdom and purchased by the sufferings, of
our Progenitors ? ": The Oath of Supremacy,
says our author, is thegeneral demand of the Con-
stitution. The Papist refuses this oath (which every
other subject takes) and demands the unconditional
surrender of the last security of the rights and
lives of Protestantism. And he refuses this al-
legiance to his King, while he offers it a foreigner,
elected to his throne by the influence of foreign
Potentates, who may be our enemies at any hour;
himself the ancient disturber of England., and
bound by the severest bonds of his arrogant and
tmscriptural faith, to extirpalcour Religion though
it were in our ashes." Our Author observes also
that " the spiritual allegiance of the Papist
usurps and commands the whole moral action, and
what is this but the whole mental and bodily
porter of the man." These brief extracts, however,
afford but a faint specimen of the work, which
is not only supported by powerful reasoning, and
elaborate research, but also by wit, humour, and
eloquence, not unseasonably introduced. We
heartily recommend•this work to our Legislators
in particular, as they are to decide upon the great,
the vital question, whether, they are now to gra:-
tify a portion of the people, who, however they
may out-number the Protestants in Ireland, are
yet a small of the general Protestant community.
We have thus briefly noticed the work because
the subject at present engrosses the attention of
the nation at large, but we shall not at present
presttme:te offer our own opinion .upon a question
of such vital importance, as it is in the hands of
our Legislators, and will doubtless be ultimately
decided-upon those grounds that will secure, as far
as human wisdom and foresight can secure, the
parity and permanence of that best of all politi-
cal systems, the British Constitution in Church
andStata. .