The Sun.
London, England, 1825-01-03 00:00:00

[MORNING lIICRALD.]

There are two descriptions of persons who
oppose the Catholic Claims in this country, who
are both entitled to every degree of respect—the
one consisting of those who are conscientiously
persuaded that any further concession to the
Catholics would be dangerous to the Protestant
Establishmet, both in Church and State ; the
other, from an apprehension that concessions
will only increase demand, and that there is
nothing which can be safely yielded which will
satisfy the eager longing after power, whidt
distinguishes the Catholic leaders. To the
first of these it is almost needless to address
an argument. The same kind of persua-
-1 sion which possesses their minds might be
used as an obstruction to the progress of science,
of the arts, and of every improvement conse-
quent upon an advanced state of society. We are
1 as warmly attached to the principles of the Re-
formation as any of those persons can be ; and
look back with quite as much horror as they can
do upon the blood-stained annals of Popery. But
still we cannot persuade ourselves that the sys-
tem of exclusion was ever meant to be perpetual,
or that, us far as civil rights are concerned, a
locus penitential was never to exist. For the hos-
tility of the second description of persons, the
Catholics have to thank themselves—or rather
the extravagant zeal and selfish arrogance of
their briefed and briefless advocates. We can
readily believe that there are among these many
ly.
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=rid upon.us for five,- the best way to put him
in the wrong and ourselves in the right, would
be to pay him the just part of his demand. So it
is with the Catholics. They-are, on the one hand,
excluded from privileges to the enjoyment of
which religious opinions ought not to be any
bar. They look, perhaps, to a preponderance,
absurd and preposterous in itself ; and to
which the; must and ought to look for ever
in vain. We are persuaded that by far too much
importance is attached to their exclusion from the
civil rights to which we allude ; and that they
are, in fact, merely made a tool and handle by
factious and designing persons, to suit their own
ends. But still, being, as we conceive, a just de-
mand, it ought to be paid ; especially as its pay-
ment would draw the teeth of faction, which
might, perhaps, continue to snarl, but would be
=able to bite.

NOR:VING CHRONICLE.I

- The Courier publishes one day a long letter on
the causes of the diSorders of Ireland ; of which
the chief is stated to be the amount of property
held by absentees, thereby inflaming the preju-
dices of the people of Ireland on this subject, and
leading them to infer that the separation of Ire-
land from this eountry, which can alone put an
'raid to absenteeism, would produce an important
change for the better in the circumstances of the
former. Another day he endeavours to alarm
the people of England by a laborious attempt to
prove that the Catholic Association, which repre-
sents all descriptions and classes of Irish Catho-
lics, aims at a " sweeping transfer of property
and power in Ireland, to the Romish Priesthood,
and other Roman Catholics in that country," be-
cause the Catholic Association approve of the la-
bours of Mr. Cobbett, and because at different
times the latter has advocated the restoration of
the Catholic forfeited estates The induction is
as admirable as is the consistency of The Courier.
Absenteeism is not the cause of either the disorders
or the poverty of Ireland, and such an idea, in
the present day, supposes in its advocate no small
portion of ignorance. On the other hand, any at-
tempt to wrest property in Ireland from its pre-
sent possessors, would find as many opponents
among the Catholics as among the Protestants, for
the best of all reasons, because the Catholics are,
extensively, holders of estates under Protestant
titles. No person, possessed of the least know-
ledge of the state of Ireland, can be led away
by such extravagance; and we regard the attempt
as the last effort of a writer, reduced to despe-
ration, by the impossibility of finding any plau-
sible reason for retaining Ireland in a state,ruinous
'to herself, and entailing a heavy burden of many
millions every year on England. If the arrest
of Mr. O'Connell, the exaggerations of The Cou-
rier, and the exposure of the attempts to create
a belief in insurrections in Ireland (one of which
our readers will find in an extract in another
column, from The Dublin Morning Register), do
not open the eyes of the people of this country
to the bad faith and sinister objects of the Orange
Party of the sister kingdom and its abettors here,
we should suppose that their faculties were ac-
tually benumbed by some enchantment. But the
concurrence of all the Daily Papers, with a very
few exceptions, in scouting the attempt at delu-
sion, may be taken for a pretty satisfactory in-
dication of the general opinion on the subject.

[MORNING POST.]

With the single exception of the apprehensions'
to be entertained should the machinations of the 1,
Catholic Association be suffered to proceed, the
history of this vast empire for the year now con-
eluded, and its aspect for the period now Coln-
mencing, have not been surpassed, if equalled, in
the annals of nations and of the world. At home
there is the most profound tranquillity—the most
sincere loyalty and affection among all classes of
the people for the gracious Monarch who fills the
throne, and the glorious institutions by which he go-
verns the country. All ranks are prosperous,happy,
and obedient to the laws ; and the very agitation
which exists in Ireland has arisen from the com-
parative ease and comfort of the people. The
condition of the lower orders of the Irish has
been confessedly improved, and if the leaders of
the faction in that country did not find their am-
bition stimulated by affluence, they would wear
their Constitutional restraints with becoming
meekness. The comparative order established in
the South of Ireland, and particularly in Lime-
rick, where, at the Sessions under the Insurrection
Act, on the 3d inst. there is not a single person for
tial,corroborates our as,ertions. The fAlowers of
Ca pt. Rock rose against hunger and want of employ-
ment, and having obtained food and work, they are
quiet. These facts show that even in the poorest
parts of the United Kingdom, the effects of a
wise system of Government and a just administra-
tion of the Laws are preceptible in the condition
and conduct of the people. In Great Britain the
evidence of national greatness is still more gra-
tifying. Notwithstanding the incessant remis-
sion of taxes for several years, amounting in
the whole to eight or nine millions annually,
the Revenue of the State is daily increasing
and not only all its expences punctually de-1
frayed, but the burden of debt remaining after
the last glorious war largely liquidating. 1111
short our domestic trade and manufactures, ns
well as our foreign commerce, are all flourishing
to a degree never before approached. The pro-
gress which the country has made in this exalted
course during the past twelvemonths has been
more rapid and brilliant than in any former year'
--nor is there in the nature of things any chance
that the future will not correspond with, or if
possible excel the present. These general obser-
vations imply every thing satisfactory respect-
ing the British possessions in all quarters of
the globe. It may not, however, be amiss
to remark, that within the last few months a
manifest amelioration has taken place in that
great and most important portion of the. Empire,
our Western Colonies. At the close of 18(23,
the West Indies were in a state of considerable
excitation, and the interest in England con-
uected with them both justly alarmed and
suffering serious losses. At present, owing -to
the iudicious measures adopted by his Ma-
.lesty's Ministers, those valuable dependencies
are restored to tranquillity—are in a fair

train of moral Improvement—and are at pnce
a'source of strength and support to the Mother
Country. Canada and the Cape of Good 'lope
are likewise in 'a most prosperous condition,
and the latter Colony almost completely es-
caped from the consequences of several dis-
astrous seasons, and unforeseen as well as
uncontroulable misfortunes. The East Indies,
too, with the exception of the transitory ope-
rations of the Burmese, are in perfect peace,
and productive of accumulating resources to
the Empire., Nor can we quit that hemi-
sphere without casting a hasty glance at the
astonishing success of the new and exclusively
English possessions, under the common desig-
nation of Australasia. Never, perhaps, was
a colony, by voluntary means, in the course
of being more quickly planted, or more,
progressively thriving than that of Van Die-
man's Land. In all the emigrations to that dis-
tant part of the world scarcely a single failure
is to be found ; and we have further the satisfac-
tion to know that, as might be expected, the
Trade between the Colonists and the Parent
State is widely extending and daily becoming
more lucrative.