The Sun.
London, England, 1825-11-15 00:00:00

THE LONDON JOURNALS.

DAILY

Extracts from the Morning Pipers, N0v.15, 1 52.5.

[MORNING HERALD.]
The policy which the English Catholics have
of late adopted does not appear to be more con-
sistent with discretion and good sense than that
of their brethren at the other side of the water.
Their last Meeting did not give us much reason
to anticipate the adoption of any measures of
a sound or enlightened character. But we were
hardly prepared for so silly a proceeding as the
new project of the distribution of tracts. If their
" orators" would only endeavour to make a fa-
vourable impression by means of argument and
conciliation, instead of indulging for ever in the
vulgar intemperance of personal abuse against all
who conscientiously differ from them, it would
do them more service than all the tracts which
they can circulate for a century. But what is
the great object of those tracts ? To make pro-
selytes. And is it possible, that by a manufac-
tory of such idle productions they can hope to
Romanize the English faith, and reverse the Re-
formation ! Do they want to prove to the world
that ages of civilization have passed for• them in
vain, and that they are infected with the hopeless
bigotry of the Itomish Friars and French Jesuits
But they say that the Methodists distribute
tracts—so they do, and the Catholics hare long
been in the practice of throwing ridicule on the
proceedings of the _Methodists, yet now they
solemnly undertake to imitate them. For our
own part, we dislike the tract system, whether in
the hands of Methodists or Roman Catholics.—
It •is less excusable, however,- on the part of the
latter titan the former, as the Methodists do not
appear before the public as a political body, but
the Catholic Association does. Its leaders should
leave religious conversation to their Priests, and
if they are not themselves capable of shewing, by
argument, the political expediency of emancipa-
tion, they should be silent, and leave to their
advocates in Parliament to plead that cause for
them which intolerant declamation only brings
into peril and disrepute. We have stated that
we dislike the tract system, and the reason is be-
cause- we know that tracts are, in general, mere
trading things. Some well-meaning people may
be concerned in them; but usually, societies to
distribute tracts are set on foot by a few inte-
rested individuals, among whom are always to be
found one or more needy literary persons—a
paper•maker, or wholesale dealer in paper—
a printer—a publisher, and salaried secretaries
for distribution. Such is the machinery that
sets the tract system going ; and whatever may
be the ostensible purpose to which it is applied,
money getting is the real oject. It sometimes,
indeed, happens, that persons who do not care
one penny for the contents of the tracts which
they disseminate, are the most active in their dis-
tribution. These promoters not unfrequently
show that, however anxious they may affect to be
for the spiritual welfare of others, they render
more sincere and substantial attention- to their
own temporal advantages. We would therefore
recommend the Roman Catholic concoctors of
those things to give over the distribution of them
—for the Protestants will only laugh at them as
the Catholics laugh at the Methodists, and they
will besides most assuredly prejudice the ques-
tion of Emancipation. As long as the Methodists
admit of no Foreign authority out of the State,
and are not amenable to its la ws,so long any erro-
neous views which they may take of the interest
of their own body will be comparatively harm-
less. But the Catholics, by circulating tracts to
convert the people of England, will only keep
alive and vigilant the rooted aversion which the
Eoglish mind entertains towards the Papal
dominion and its inquisitorial code. They will
also bring into the popular recollection times dis-
tinguished by an ardour for conversion, which,
for their own sakes, they ought to wish
forgotten. But suppose the Methodists should
oppose the Catholics at this game—then it wodid
happen, that whenever an indifferent person en-
tered' .a speechifying meeting, on one side he
would have thrust into his hand a Catholic tract,
and on the other a Methodist tract; and what
wotikl be their contents ? Why, abuse of the
Catholics by the Methodist hired writer on the
one hand, and abuse of the Methodists by the
Catholic hired writer on the other.—People in
generiil do not like to have tracts thrust upon
theft) under such circumstances as these.- The
policy of both parties is in bad taste. Both
evince more sectarian vanity than a knowledge
or love of the pure and benignant precepts of the
Goepel. Both afford a specimen of that un-
charitable spirit, of which Christianity, as taught
by Its Divine Founder, is not the model but the
contrast. In the mean time, while the Christian
Doctrine suffers, the needy literary persons,
whose interest it is to keep up this paper war—
the printer, the wholesale paper-dealer, the pub-
'Wier, and the salaried secretaries, make a profit-
able business of it, and, on their account, the
manufactuie and dissemination of those articles
are persevered in.

- ' [ll E TIMES.]
The French Papers of Saturday, which arrived
last night, contain a great deal of speculation, but
very little fact. The Constitutionnel inserts a
letter from Lisbon, making some remarks on the
recent treaty between Portugal and Brazil, and
stating some reports of the aversion of the Holy
Alliance to the nature of its stipulations. if we
can-trust this authority, the project recommended
by the Continental Courts stipulated for the con-
tinued-union of the American and European divi-
siOns:.of the ancient Portuguese monarchy, and
only allowed certain privileges to the former,
" issuing from the free will" of his Faithful Ma-
jesty.; 'but the Brazilian Commissioners in Lon-
don repelled the proposal with indignation. The
latter would be satisfied with nothing short of
the proclamation of independence, and the gua-
rantee of indemnity. It could not fail to strike
every reader of, the treaty actually concluded
under the mediation of Great Britain, that it was
defective inone of the most material points which
a treaty can be required to settle. It made ao
pro Vision for the succession to-the throne.of Por-