The Sun.
London, England, 1831-01-04 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

If Catholic Emancipation had effected no other
good for the country, it has done this,—it has wiped
away from the Government, the Legislature, arid
the Protestant community of both islands, the guilty

stain of a gross priinci facie injustice. It has re-
moved from us Protestants the odium and the in-

famy of being wanton oppressors of our fellow-sub-
jects. It has stripped off the coat of art'ficial an ,1
extraneous colouring which had hitherto disguised,
to all but experienced observers, the whole mass of
Irish interests, politics, wants, and feelings. It has
satisfied all patriots, having the use of their reason,
that there is nothing in the present structure of the
state incompatible with the redress, through its ex-
isting powers, of whatever distinct and specific
grievances may have been introduced by time or
mal-administration into the affairs of the United

Kingdom ; and having thus simplified the con-
dition of Ireland, both in form and substance,
it helps us to an easier development of the
real motives and ultimate views of parties.—
We are authorized, by virtue of the recognized
equality of civil rights amongst all classes of
the people, to ascribe turbulence and agitation,
wherever they have since been found among the
members of either sect, as such, to other causes

than a love of equal rights; and, with whatever
pretexts a criminal ambition may varnish over its
false and hateful purposes, to unmask the hypocrite
arid denounce the traitor. The working of the
Anti-Union plot, by the cold leaders of the Roman
Catholic party, in Irelaud, ever since the professed
business of the Association was cut from under
them by the Duke of Wellington's relief
bill, shows them to be consummate masters of those
means by which societies are subverted. The mere
proposal of a " Repeal of the Union," by an Irish
Catholic,—above all by a restless, aspiring, and do-
mineering Catholic—an acknowledged and glorying
bigot to his creed, and champion of his church,—
ought of itself to awaken the suspicion of all loyal
British and Irish subjects who comprehend the state
of Ireland. The clamour for a Repeal of the Union
is, at the same time, as if to leave to men
of the least sagacity no shadow of excuse for any
further doubts upon the true nature of the project,
accompanied by the most savage outcry against the
character and existence of the Established Church,
the amount of its property, and the persons of its
Ministers. The Priests at first held aloof from Mr.
O'Connell ; but finding him successful with the
lower orders, the great patrons and supporters of
the priesthood, the Rev. body has taken the field,
with Bishop Doyle, a sort of Chief of the staff to
the Popish hierarchy of Ireland, at the bead of them.
What, then, is the scheme of this anti-Union con-
federacy ? To wrest from the people of England,
and from the Irish Protestants,—aye, and from the
higher and nobler class of Catholics themselves,—a
Parliament which shall sit in Dublin, unmixed with
any English elements, unrestrained by any powers
or influence, but those which shall have returned its
members. And what power, arid what influence
are they, through which the House of Commons
would now be chosen to sit in a separate Parlia-
ment ? Why, a conjoint demagogue and priestly
power, perpetual intrigues, extempore meetings, to
defeat any warning proclamations by the Govern-
ment, blustering speeches, enjoining peace by words,
but breathing deadly hostility to England, and
openly recommending as the dearest object of
Irish patriotism, such a change in the institutions
and establishments of the country, as could never
be prosecuted but through civil war, nor accomplished
but in a total overthrow of all existing law, magistracy,
and property, throughout Ireland. Such are the os-
tensible movers of that constituent force, by which an
Irish or " College-Green" Parliament would be re-
turned. To this would be added the secret, but
awful stimulant of the confessional chair ; and even,
as the holy war proceeded, the pastoral letter, or
the exhortation from the altar,—to do what ? To
elect such " friends of Ireland, and of the religion
of Ireland," and no others, as would take the tests
proposed by an O'Connell Committee,—and
what tests? The Repeal of the Union having
been already carried, what would then remain ?
—There would remain the public creditor, to be
cheated; the proprietors of all estates throughout the
country to be taxed, in case of their daring to quit
Ireland, 75 per cent.—thst is, rendered, like the
Russian serfs, adscripli glebcE, more slaves than the
most wretched of their own occupying tenancy :
above all things, would there not remain the Pro-
testant church to be plundered, and its spoils trans-
ferred? Such might be some among the blessed
fruits of the Anti-Union triumph—a priest-elected
Parliament—a demagogue dictator—a war with
England—a beggared people. Least of all men
have we been disposed to raise the cry of Church
and King, or that of " No Popery"—abused as it
has been to such deplorable purposes; but if there
ever was an attack deliberately projected against
the Protestant Church and State of the United
Kingdom, we have no hesitation in averring that this
O'Connell-scheme of the " repeal of the Union"
has no other aim. We declare broadly, that it
breathes civil and religious war, and nothing else.
That Ireland, governed by a separate Parliament,
will at once become such a country as James 11.
would have made it. There is no trifling with such
a prospect. The conspiracy must be put down.
Freedom, as well as peace, and prosperity, and re-
ligion, are endangered. Let not the disavowals of
any but " lawful means," on the part of these
fanatics in the united cause of revolution and super-
stition, be listened to but with distrust. Violence
is meditated when the tit moment comes, and fraud
is practised to cover the organization of violence.
Were the intention of these men as honest as we in
our conscience believe it to be otherwise, the instru-
ment they resort to is inconsistent with any policy
but that of ultimate war. Immense numbers of
half-barbarous men can never be wielded but as a
physical power : to talk of opinion acting through
such a medium, is most impudent. Look at their
conduct in the county of Kilkenny, as reported by
our private correspondent. The pretence of hurl-
ing-matches, as an excuse for mustering in almost
innumerable force,—the destruction of a gentle-
man's trees before his face, when he refused to
supply their demand of these weapons of exercise,
—the circular operations against Clergymen ire
bodies of several thousands, to " petition" for a re•
duction of tithes, in a far different spirit than those
of the poor English labourers, for with us it is an
affair of classes, but in Ireland of religious hatred.
Such proceedings, we say, are proofs that a repeal
of the Union is neither to be peaceably sought, nor,
when gained, will it be applied to tranquil uses.
But one fear which we had entertained a short time
ago is happily now abated. The boast of the
agitators was, last week, that Protestants had been
insane enough to lend themselves to this fatal plot.
The trick was ingenious, but it was a trick—a mere
falsehood. It appears, by declarations in the Irish
journals, that names said to have been those of
Orangemen, were not known among that body ;
and it is affirmed that the orange ribands ex-
hibited on the day when Lord Anglesea so
cruelly exorcised, by his presence, the evil
spirit of the O'Connell delegates, were as-
sumed by old Catholic partisans of that disturber,
engaged to carry on the delusion that the Repeal of
the Union was any thing but a downright anti-
Protestant conspiracy. The Government of Lord
Anglesea, we rejoice to find, has issued a circular to
the Magistrates of Ireland, which may tend to bring
matters to a crisis rather sooner than Mr. O'Con-
nell would desire. In this letter, which is well and
vigorously framed, the real objects of the disaffected
are placed in lucid contrast with their professions;
and while the constitutional rights of the subject to
present petitions, and to enjoy pastimes, are spoken
of with respect, and to be held sacred by the Magi,;-
trates, the abuse of such privileges to lawless and
thef i njSutsattiec ,e andno
traitorous ends is declared to be a legitimate cause
for determined interference and coercion. if the
Ministry, having right on its side, be firm, we have
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