The Sun.
London, England, 1812-11-12 00:00:00

ROMAN CATHOLICS,

It is too much the fashion of
,the present day to
blame the conduct of the present and past GO-
yernments of the country • tor their treatment ofi
the Catholics. Those who thus inconsiderif'elv
censure measures which have afforded their'_ pro-.
tectiOn for so long a period, should read the his-
tory of.past times wilh attentiori, and bear in re-
collection that it k the peculiar ekiracteristie of t
itom4n Ca:thatie to remain unchanged m every
age. The fmioxi.ing extracts from parnpLlets.plib
lished in 1622 and 3, will slier ‘vhat • they have
been, while the intemperatelangnage whicli 'soma
of that party use at this present day indicates that
the same spirit, in degree at least, lives in them:

In 1641 the whole body of Irish Catholics con-
federated' in rebeilion, and presented the follow-
ing demands to the State and Council of Del-

lin:—

" We, in the name of,the Nobility, Gentry, and
Commonalty of Ireland, before God and all the.
world, as most reasonable in the sight of all good
men, we the 'above-Written - do require 'of t'.ie
Crown of England, and- that Crown. Ministry or
State that di; officiate in this kingdom:
" Because, as.good Christians, we ought, in the
first place, to have the chief care of our sous.
We, therefore, the Barls,:Barons,-and Gentlemen
under-written, do demand the full, free, ()pep, ge,.
neral, and uncontrolled profession of the ancient.
and only true Roman Catholic religion in this an-
cient kingdom and dominion of Ireland.
Knowing that we cannot enjoy our religion,
and the public profession of it' in an universal
tional way, •as by usl3,meant, 'except we may
likewise have our churches, oracles, and covenant
temples, and chappels : we therefdre demand all.
our churches, chappels, oracles, temples, as u ell
private parishes as general and city cathedrals, to
be given up to our• use, the native inhabitants of
this kittdome.

" Seeing that our religion cannot be enjoyed
or exercised but by,men of learning and abilities
fitted for than purpose, we therefore demand
re-
stauration of all religious hous-es, whether abbeys;
priories, monasteries, or ancient universities, their
ancient lands and denteanes, and that all lands aryl
'livings be. restored unto those owners, if yet liv-
ing, or to their undoubted, heirs, and very neareA
of kin, that were taken :away in Queen Elizabeth
or King James's time."
These demands were actually enforced by the:
Council of Kilkenny, 1642, which issued the fol-
loWing order, to. which all the Popish Bishops set
. their names.

Item, it is ordered and established, that the
possession of Protestant Archbishops, Bishop,;,
Deanes, Dignitaries, and Parsons, inTight of their
respective churches, or their tenements, in the
beginning of these troubles, shall be deemed
taken, and. construed }IS the then possessions of
of the Catholic Archbishops,, Bishops, Deaues,
Dignitaries,' Pastors, and their 'tenements respec,
tively, to all intents and purposes, and that these
possessions are intended within the precedent or-
der of settlement of possessions."

It must be observed, that the Ronran Catholics
of the present day demand no More than the pro-
fession of their teligion in a universal and natihn-
al way ; and it Is not possible to guard against
any future generation of Catholics, provided they
should be inclined to put the same construct-lon
upon these words as • those of 1642 have done :
even suppeng the present race of men mcahahle
of adopting this sense: ,yet the Protestaht Charf..•ll
can have no security that the public profession of
the Roman Cathode Religion, in a universal and
national way, might not tercafter be construed
to mean that which it meant in 1642, parzi.:.:hiarly
as that was the sense in which it was tts,ed by the
Irish Church, Which; as a Catholic body, never
-errs or ehAngeS: The horrible massacre which
took place in helandSha't: liceh• sometiines eAenu-
atiql by attributintcit'to the passivins of the 10wt77:
orders. But the artick,here quoted is the delib..7.•=
rate act of the chief men and chief Priests in the
kingdom, who established in this Connell of Rif-kenny at this time the most, complete miEtary anti
ecciesia-Aical despotism that ever existed. Charles
the Fir.it unfortunately signed a - treaty with this
party, and took their solnior,: into bia. pay, roil
then (butaiot before) our Parliament, ahumed at
this coalition -so unnathral,- joined the Scotch
Parliament; and signed the Solemn league. and co-
venant, which otherwise it never would hale
done. .After a very long negociation
sighed the Roman Catholic Treaty, the lAth of
September, 1643, and ou the 18th the, English
Parliament agreed to the solemn league. it is
clear, therefore,, that the coalition with the Ro-
man CathOlies cost Charles the First his life ; and
it would be hut conunoa caution in Ministers not
to advise his Majesty to follow a line 'of poli.cy
which has already cost one King so much.

PRreF. OF STOCKS
, - flits n.v., ~:r TWFINE o'cocri.
C.,p,01s • 59 ii I Red. Anti.

TH l4l SUN
•

SOLEM QV'S DICERE FALSUM AUDEAT

LONDON,
THURSDAY, NOVISIMER 12, 1812.

We had yes terday thesatisfaction of laying before
our readers, in' a Second Edition,
Bul-
letins containing the. inbstanceof 'the Dispatches
received by Government from Lord CATHCART and
Admiral HopE. In the -course- of the evening' a
• . •
Gazette Extraordinary was published, which will
be found in a subsequent column. The Opera-
tions of the Russians have been attended in every
quarter with success, and the difficulties with
which BUONAPARTE is surrounded increase every
hour. 'We ventured some time ago to express an
opinion that BuoNA.PARTE could- not attempt to
take up his winter quarters in Moscow, unless the
•Russian army was completely defeated.; and we at
the same. time exipressed our opinion, that there
w-is no ground for the, apprehensions that
were entertained of his marching to Petersburgh.
+ale result has justified our speculations upon
the subject. BUONAPARTE found himself so com-
pletely straitened in Moscow by the two armies,
Under KUTUSOW and WINZENGERODR, the one to
the south at Kalouga, the Other to the north
at' TUrcr, that , be appears to have deterinin-
ed upon .one more desperate effort to anni-
hilate the main Russian Army under the for-
mer General.—With this view' he ordered the re-
serve, under VICTOR, to' advance towards Mos-
cow. This movement spewed that he considered
his situation as one that justified his run-
ming the greatest risques, for by moving the
whole of his reserve towards Moscow, he cer-
tainly endangered his communication with Po-
land. He knew, however, that if he could suc-
ceed in overwhelming KuTusow'.s army, his com-
munication might easily be restored. While VIC-
TOR was marching to the eastward, BtrONAPAETE'
by degrees reinforced his .advanced guard Under
MURAT, which was stationed opposite to ,KuTu-
sow ',to 45,000 men, and there is every reason
tá believe that he left Moscow with the main -body
of hic Army for the same purpose. If these three
corps had effected a junction, the R
would have been greatly out-numbered; bat Gen.
KUTUSOW foresaw the design of the enemy, and re-
solved to anticipate it. He, therefore, attacked
MUR/iT before he could be joined either by 800-
NAPARTE or VICTOR, and defeated him. In the
mean time Gen. WmzENGERODE succeeded in forc-
ing the French garrison to evacuate Moscow, leav-
ing behind them their hospitals' and magazines.
Under 'these cirumstances, BUONAPARTE must
either risque another general action, in which we
repeat that dereat,would lead to the annihilation
of his Army, or he must retrace his stepstowards
Poland.

The success which has attended the able and
gallant WITTGENSTEIN has also been, most im-
portant. After a most severe action, he took
Polotzk, where the French sustained immense
loss. The possession of this place will be of
great advantage to the Russians, in enabling them
to cut off the French communications, and to in-
tercept their convoys.

We are sorry to add, tt►at accounts have been
received, which state that General WINZENGE•
tuna fell into the hands of the French as he was
reconnoitring after he took Moscow.

It is stated, that after BUONAPARTE took Mos-
cow, he wrote to the Emperor of Russia, stating
there was nothing he wished for more than to
renew his friendship with the EMPEZOR, for whom
he had ever cherished the'highest esteem, and with
whose personal wishes he should at all times be
happy to comply;--that had ALEXANDER requested
him not to enter Moscow, he would not have en-
tered it 3—that he was even now ready to quit
the spot, if such was the desire of a Sovereign,
whom he was anxious to oblige. In short, that
if ALEXANDER desired peace, he had only to say
so, and peace should be that instant concluded."
It is unnecessary to add, that this piece of cant-
ing insolence met with the reception it merited.

This morning, and not before, Sir JAMES SAU-
mARE,r arrived at the Admiralty, and Ipid a long
conference with the Honourable Board.

As . the following Bulletin only appeared in a
pert of, our Impression yesterday, we think it ne-
cessary to insert it again.