The Sun.
London, England, 1823-05-29 00:00:00

MERCANTILE SHIPPING.

_DEAL, MAY 28.—Wind N.E.—Came down from the River
and sailed the Thomas, Bell, for St. Vincent's; England,
Reay, for Bombay ; Mars, Davenhall, Montsertat ; Earl of
Selkirk, Walker, Gibraltar ; Margaret, Wildgooae, Grenada ;
Neptune, Douglas, Quebec ; Caledonia, Morley, St. Thomas's ;
and Jane, Bullock, Oporto. Arrived and remain the Wood.
bridge, Mason, from the Isle of France ; and Terceira, for
Copenhagen.
PonrsstouTrz, MAY 28.—Wind E.N.E.—Arrived the
Whim, from the Downs for Trinidad, and proceeded on her
voyage.
PLYMOUTU, MAY 27.—Wind N. and N.E.—Sailed the
Pox, Walker, for St. Mary's, Africa; Peter and John, Phi-
lippa, and Three Sisters, for Rouen •, Aurora and Louisa, for
Gibraltar. The two outward-bound FAA Indiamen are pre-
parin to start, and all the passengers are on board, but it is
not likely they will tonight.
FALMOUTU, MAT 27.--Wind N. to E.—Arrived the Creole,
Colesworth, from Pernambuco in 4t days; Henry, Quick, from
Iltunburgh for Liverpool. Off the port the Jason, Gamble,
from, the Cape of Good Hope for London. Sailed the Alfred,
for Tobago • Minerva, for Naples ; Britannia packet and Tula,
for Gibraltar ; Sprightly and Volusia, for Lisbon ; Harmony,
St. Andrew's ; Proselyte, St. Lawrence; Union and Norfolk..
for Mira; Alliance and Maria, for Quebec; and Tamerlane,
for Genoa.--The brig Rolla, Evans, from London with am-
munition, wail lost tllst January near Rosetta.

Last week, a very large matt of men went to the church-
yard of Dungarvon, Kilkenny, anti disinterred the bodies of
some near relations of a person whom they believed to be dis-
obedient to the orders of General Rock. They strewed the
bones of other members of his family throughout the burying
ground, broke the head-stone that marked the place of se-
palehre, anti committed other indignities which (to those who
are aware of the freling, bordering on veneration, with 'Width
an Irish peasant regards The 6 last bores' of his forefathers)
must be esteemed as tokens of the most envenomed hatred.

THE LONDON JOURNALS.

DAILY

Extracts from the Morning Papers, May 29.

[MORNING CHRONICLE.]
The confident manner in which it is asserted
in certain quartetsohat Morillo and Ballasteros
are in an understanding with Abisbal, has evi-
dently produced a considerable impression in this
country. It is natural that a disposition to
suspect the men in command in Spain should
prevail, the matter of corruption having been
placed so extensively within their reach. His-
tory teaches us that men in important posts do
not always refuse money, when it is offered to
them in sufficient quantity, and that when they
-can colour over defection with any thing like a
plausible pretext, it is most to be apprehended.
Hence all revolutionary periods have abounded
in venal officers, civil and military. The civil
wars of England furnish many instances, as
well as the wars of the French Revolution ;
and it is somewhat remarkable, that the
American Revolution exhibited only one venal
Officer of any note, the infamous General
Arnold, a man of profligate and expensive
habits. This class ought in all countries to'be
most suspected ; for the traitors are, seldom found
among the men who' like Andrew Marvel dine
five or six days running from. the same shoulder
of mutton ; and Buonapartey who knew but too
much of the bad side of human naturei was not
far wrong when he directed his agents for cor-
ruption to avoid the frugal,. and to commence
their operations with men who lived habitually
beyond their incomes. Mina is said to be dis-
tissguished for an almost Spartan austerity of life,
and the money of the French may not therefore
have charms in his ees, equal to the possession
of a good name. But fear as well as honour may
serve to keep the leaders of the Spaniards honest
at this time. In an armed nation the enjoyment
of the reward of treason may be extremely short.

[Tito TIMES.;
We can express unmingled satisfaction at the
prospectof some degree of justice being at length
obtained for the loyal and respectable body of
English Catholics, long excluded from their civil
rights: Of the merits of this portion of the Ca-
tholic community, none has ever doubted : their
peaceful character, their temperate and unob-
trusive habits, and their large stake in the na-
tional prosperity, all plead warmly in
,their fa-
vour, and even cast a reproach on the country
for having shown itself so much more blind to
their merits than to those of the Catholics of Ire-
land, who many years since contrived, through
clamour and intimidation, to procure for
themselves a variety of indulgences of which
the English Catholic Gentleman is to this
hour destitute. That every poor turbulent
peasant in Munster should have the elective frau.
chile, annexed to his freehold of nominal 40s.
value, while a Catholic of Lancashire worth
5,0001. a year should be forced to look on and
witness the power of taxing and coercing him
bestowed upon a candidate in whose election be
can have no concern—that high professional
ranks and important functions should be open to a
Catholic middle-man of 2001. per annum, in Cork
or Limerick, while here a gentleman of the same
persuasion, however ancient in blood, affluent in
fortune, and irreproachable in his conduct, is shut
out from every corporate and magisterial office,
is a galling circumstance to a proud and honest
race of men. The inconsistency is now, we
trusts on the point of being corrected.

141 EW TI M ES.]
It is not unbecoming in a public writer occa-
sionally to retrace the statements which he has
made, and the opinions which he has delivered,
on any question which has long- occupied the at-
tention, and divided the judgments, of the public.
In every such case it is something for him to be
able to chew that he has preserved a singleness
of design, and a consistency of principle : it is
still more important to prove, (tom the evidence
or facts, that his statements have been correct,
and his prediCtions veritied by the event. This
is what we shall endeavour to do with respect to
-the view' at we have taken of the affairs of Spain.
-In the year 1808 we first devoted our pen to this
subject, in an article, now before us, relative to the
entry of Joseph Buonaparte, on the 20th of July,
into Madrid and we ventured to predict, that if he
did not remove thence, 44 the Conquerors of An-
dujar would speedily besiege him in his capital."
In point of fact, he abandoned that city on the
Ist of August following ; and on the 9th the
//Conquerors of Andujar" entered It in triumph.
For several succeeding years we exerted our
bumble endeavours (while the Spanish cause
was despaired of by Lord Grey and other great.
Statesmen) to cherish hope and perseverance in
those efforts, which were ultimately crowned
with such complete success anti we may with
justice repeat -what we said on the 15th
of last, July, that 44 From the moment the
Spanish people first attempted to throw off the
yoke of Buonaparte, we eagerly desired, not
only that they might be successful in that sacred
war, but that they might obtain the more gin-
riot's triumph of consolidating a free and happy
Government, in time of peace.' When, in 1812,
a very absurd scheme of Government was framed
by some foolish visionaries in the Cortes of
Cadiz, believing, as we did, that the intentions
of these men were honest, and knowing that their
system, not having received the Royal Assent,
could only be regarded by the Spaoiards them-
selves as a provisional arrangement, we forebore to
criticise it, hoping that, on the restoration of Fer-
dinand to his dominioni, all parties would concur
in establishing institutions suitable to their country.
Ferdinand, on his return, refused to sanction
this absurd Constitution : and he would have dis-
graced himself, and injured his country, had he
acted otherwise ; but on the 4th of May 1814,
be published a Manifesto, declaring that be de.
tested and disclaimed despotic power—that he
Would convoke the Cortes in a legitimate form—
that he would treat with them on the best means
of securing " the inviolable rights of the people"
—that he would guaranty " personal liberty,"

the liberty of the press," &c. and that the laws
in future should be passed with the consent of
the National Representatives.

[MORNING POST.)
From the obscyre and confused mass of infor-
mation respecting the state of affairs in Spain,
which reaches this country from day to day, it is
next to impoSible to deduce a satisfactory or
consistent epfnion as to the value or consequences
of any particular occurrence. The conduct of
the Count d'Abisbal affords a striking istance of
the truth of this remark. The conrie pursued
by this Officer has been eagerly seized by the
Faction in France, which has precipitated that
country into a war no less dangerous than it is
unjust, as a theme of loud and unmeasured
exultation ; whilst in England it is viewed by
some as the mere triumph of. French gold over the
honour, the conscience, and the patriotism of an
individual ; and by others as an event so impor-
tant as to bring peace between the conflicting
parties and the belligerent States into immediate
view. We have not yet any precise data upon
which to reason in regard to the actuating mo-
tives of d'Abisbal ; but the mention made of
him in the Paris Papers received last night,
we regret to state, rather induce us to re-adopt
our original idea, and to consider him less in
the light of a patriot than in that of a traitor,
who, entrusted with an important military
command by the existing Government of
Spain, strives to discredit and subvert it ;
but whether with the purpose of placing himself
at the head of the party in Spain, which is anxious
4'or changes in the Constitution, at the same time
that it deprecates and resists Foreign interference,
or with that of rendering substantial services to
the cause of the invader, -is at present by no
means clear. If he intended 'to assist the pro-
gress—to propitiate the favour, and to earn the
rewards' of France, much of the language of his
letter is wholly unaccountable,. unless by the
supposition that he was desirous ofsoncealing his
real intentions from the dread of popular or mili-
tary indignation. And this attempt at deception,
unsuccessful as it was, would alone be sufficient
to prove that, in his judgment, the people and
the troops hold the invader in just detestation. If
he is on the other hand chargeable only with the
minor guilt of an act tending to increase the dis-
tractions of the country at a moment when the sole
and universal object should be to repel or exter-,
minate the unprincipled polluters of its soil, he
is subject to the imputation of folly, or of
treachery, or perhaps of personal ambition ;
whilst his misconduct neither strengthens the
chances of French success, nor conduces to a
speedy termination of the conflict.

[namsn pazss4
We refer with great pleasure to our report of
Lord Nugent's motion, last, night, in the Lower
House, for leave to bring in a Bill to-place the
Roman Catholics of Great Britain on the same
footing as those in Ireland. This most respect.
able and deserving body, comprising some of-the
oldest families in England, are still deprived of
many privileges which their more numerous
brethren in Ireland enjoy. If the Legislature will
not perform at once an act of solemn justice, and
completely emancipate the Catholics, of both
Kingdoms, it is due to this respectable body in
England to give them equal privileges with those
possessed by the Catholics of Ireland. The last
concession made to the latter in 1704, the result
of the exertions of the venerable John Keogh',
who bed an interview with the then Minister,
Mr. Pitt, on the occasion, compromised the elec-
tive franchise, with many other additions denied
to the British Catholics from that period, a me-
morable interval of thirty years. Nothing
further has been granted the Irish Catholics,
and those in England have been denied even
the few privileges conceded to those in the Sister
Island. Mr. Wortley seconded the motion of
Lord Nugent, which from its justice met the
qualified support even of Mr. Peel. We give
with pleasure the humble mtled of our approba-
tion to the Right Hon. Gentleman for the in-
creasing liberality displayed by him on the occa-
sion. Were he always to display the same feel.
ings, we should have little difference with him.
‘Ve trust Lord Nugent will carry his bill
through. He has been since the death of Mr.
Elliott the unceasing advocate of the English
Catholics—most consistent and steady in their
cause. This body in other days comprised
all that was great and illustrious In the land,
the Barons who wrung the charter of English
liberty from the tyrant Lackland—those who
fought at Azincour and Cressy. To this day it
includes some of the oldest blood in England—
the Howards, the Arundels, the Stanleys, the
Petres, the Mounts, the Jerninghams, the Till.
bats ; names and families that can be traced to
the Conquest, and through every page of
English history. In removing even partially
the legislative taint which has long affected
them, the Parliament will be only perform-
ing an act of impartial justice. Let us hope
that the spirit betrayed on this occasion
with the Commonss House is the harbinger of
complete and speedy liberty to the Catholics
of both countries, and that the degrading statutes
affecting this numerous portion of his Majesty's
faithful subjects will soon be expunged from the
statute-book for ever--Thus ensuring the tran-
quillity of Ireland, and the permanent gratitude
and attachment of the Catholics of both islands.