The Sun.
London, England, 1836-11-11 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The French complained bitterly at Waterloo that
some of the English regiments did not know when they
were beaten, and clear the ground in due time. Our
Contemporary the Times seems to have some such
complaint to make against the Protestants of Ireland,
who, notwithstanding the imminent danger to which
their religion is exposed by rampant Popery, labour
under the astounding error of not perceiving the
danger. To the pressing summons from Printing-
house-square they turn a deaf ear. They are told that
tithes are in danger—that Hannibal is at the gates—
that if they do not hasten to the Registration Courts,
Bishops with princely revenues may soon in Ireland
be known only in history—that Bath, and Chelten-
ham, and Rome, and Naples, may not long be ho-
noured with the presence of fat deans and rectors—
they hear all this, and yet they will not budge. What
fatal delution has come over the Irish Protestants !

Was there ever such " criminal perverseness."
" How criminally perverse," exclaims the Times—
(and it is impossible to improve on the language
of our Contemporary)—" are the possessors of
such great advantages ; and how pitiful are the re-
sults derived from them to that cause, in which

Irish Protestants are more directly, and conspicu-
ously—though, perhaps, not more substantially—
interested than any other class of subjects in the
British empire." This is true,—they are not more
substantially interested than the other classes of the
British empire in that cause illustrious by the blood
shed at Rathcormac and Dunkerrin. But, with due
submission to the Times, we suspect that British
Protestants are as blind as Irish Protestants to the
advantage of expending blood and treasnre in retaining
the finest portion of the British dominions in a state of
semi-barbarism, merely that gentlemen in black coats
may derive large incomes for doing nothing. Protes-
tant ascendancy, like many other things, may be pur-
chased at too high a price ; and Protestant English.
men as well as Protestant Irishmen have begun to
count the cost of persecution in Ireland. Ascendancy
has its charms, but it has also its drawbacks. So long
as the Irish Papists had no objection to be treated like
Helots, and were without property and influence, as-
cendancy was worth something. But the Papists have
become refractory, and they have among them men of
talents and property, and they can give as well as take
an insult. The Irish Protestants may think a safe
equality fully as advantageous as a troublesome ascen-
dancy. But let us hear the complaint a little more in
detail :
" It appears from the letter of our correspondent, and
we can confirm from other sources the melancholy truth of
his complaint, that the most pernicious and disgraceful
neglect of duty has been exhibited by a large portion of the
Protestant community in Ireland, with regard to the regis-
tration of their votes as electors under the Reform Bill.
The registry sessions for Middleton, twelve miles from
Cork, closed (says this gentleman) on Wednesday the 2d
instant. The notices served for Conservative claimants for
the county amounted to 120. But how many of these at-
tended at the sessions to enforce their claims,' and see them-
selves entered on the registry ? Six.' Six' Conservative
electors for one political division of the extensive and po-
pulous county of Cork !" where, whatever may be the
numbers of the Popish multitude, the Protestant Proprie-
tors and qualified electors are so irresistibly powerful, would
they only exercise their power. What, however, did the
Roman Catholics on this occasion ? They made the same
number of claims as the Protestants, viz., 120, and regis-
tered 120 electors! Who can blame the Roman Catholics
for this ? They, in a bad cause, have acted like men of
sense and vigour. The Protestants, by indolence, coward-
ice, or something worse, have betrayed their religion and
their country. There are (adds our correspondent) at
this moment in the county of Cork 500 Protestants pos.
sessed of legal qualification, who have not taken the trouble
to register a single vote."'
Now, with all submission to the Times and its
correspondent, we should, from this fact that 500
Protestants in the county of Cork, possessed of legal
qualification, have got taken the trouble to register a
single vote, draw the inference that those who know
the Catholics 'ocst do not believe their religion in any
danger from, them, and do not consider them such
aliens in blood and in character as to prefer being with-
out the benefit of municipal institutions, rather than
-admit the Papists to participate in the privilege. lii
fact, this indifference of the Protestants gives, in the
most unanswerable manner, the lie to all the ealum-
siies heaped on the Catholics by Lyndhurst, and those
whom he led by the nose. The Protestants who live
in intimacy with the Catholics, entertain no jealous;
of them, and, notwithstanding the fulminaticns of
O'Sullivan, and Al:Ghee, and M'Neile, they have
no dread of the re-kindling of Popish fires. Many of
these 500 Protestants have in all probability Popish
wives, and are in daily intercourse with Popish priests ;
but because Peter Dens, like other good Church-
men in former days, trusted rather too much to
the arm of flesh, and wrote more nonsense, under
the title of Moral Theology than any sensible man,
whose time does not hang wofully on his hands, would
choose to read, they are under no apprehension of a
restoration of the defunct Inquisition cf Spain in the
province of Munster. The doleful lamentations of the
Times form a most refreshing commentary on the la-
bours of our Conte-mperary to gammon the people by
the pretext that their religion was in danger, because a
portion of the surplus wealth of a sinecure Church was
to be appropriated to the education of the great body
of the people by whose labour that Church was main-
tained. The Conservatives may see from this that the
people -now-a-days are not so easily duped as they
imagine. The time has gone by when Catholics
anct Protestants could be persuaded that it was es-
sential to their salvation, that they should break
each other's heads, and that religion and a sinecure
establishment are synonymous. Archbishop Magee
libelled the Presbyterians by telling them that they
had " religion without a church.' There are not
a few Protestants both in England and Ireland
who may be disposed to think that " religion without
a church" is preferable to a church which can only be
satisfied with the misery and degradation of seven mil-
lions of people. In fact the persuasion every day gains
ground more and more that they who are the most
alive to religion are the least noisy in their professions,
and that it affords but a sorry proof of confidence in
the superiority of a creed to claim for its professors an
ascendancy over other religionists, and their rigorous
exclusion from the benefit of municipal rights. The
Protestants of Ireland, at all events, show that they
are determined not to be puppets for unprincipled
Tories to play on. They are not such fools as to pro-
claim to their Catholic fellow-subjects that they con-
sider them aliens in blood and in character, and that
they would rather be slaves themselves than see their
brethren invested with the rights of free men.—Morning
Chronicle.

We believe that some surprise was excited by a re-
commendation in one of the reports of the Ecclesias-
tical Commissioners, that the whole of the patronage
of the Deans and Chapters should be transferred to
the Bishops. We have now reason to know that
this has been subsequently considered by the more
powerful part of the Commissioners as an ill-weighed
proposition, and that it will be withdrawn, or at least
greatly modified. Whoever recollects the names of
Tomline, Sparkes, and even Porteus, and the manner
in which these persons have crammed their still
surviving relatives and dependants with preferment
of every kind, will not think that the Deans and
Chapters have been the most reprehensible in be-
stowing their patronage. We know that a strong
feeling has been excited against one of the Right
Reverend Commissioners, as if he were the only person
from whom the obnoxious recommendation could spring.
The suspicionw e believe to be erroneous ; it was the
mischievous suggestion of a much feebler personage,
and too hastily adopted by the Commission. Another
and undeniable assumption of power, which we likewise
should deprecate, is alleged
as a proof of the va-
lidity, or at least the probability, of the preceding
imputation. Who is to have the patronage of all the
new churches about to be built by public contribution
within the diocese of London ? It is clearly too much
to put into the hands of one man. No one who has
now subscribed would have advanced a farthing for the
raising of churches which were to be filled by the tur-
bulence of popular election. This is contrary to the
apostolic practice, and of course contrary to the genius
of the truly apostolic Church of England. We are per-
fectly open to information and argument respecting this
subject. Why may not the patronage in question be
divided between the two Universities—not appropriated