The Sun.
London, England, 1847-12-06 00:00:00

PAPAL BULLS.

The Bishop of ST. ASAPII presented a petition
from the Masters and Wardens of Sherborne Col-
lege, Durham, praying their Lordships to prohibit
the circulation in Ireland of the Papal bull, " In
ccena Domini," the circulation of which was prohi-
bited in other Roman Catholic countries.
Lord BEAUMONT believed that bull was still in
existence, and was annually delivered out by the
Propaganda of Rome. The Court believed the
Sovereign and inhabitants of this country were
in error, and they merely denounced these
errors, and called upon ill Catholics to pray for
their conversion. But in Rome all that was under-
stood by it was, that this country was in error in
faith. The form was absurd and ridiculous, but no-
thing more. He believed the e whole of this proceeded
from not having diplomatic relations with Rome,
while they were kept up with overy other country ;
but the bigotry of this country had refused to put
itself in communication with a power, the existence
of which it was forced to acknowledge. He be-
lieved that if relations were opened with Rome, and
representations made :te, the Pope, the spirit of
reform would do.,awa3> ewith these absurd foring,
which shook the flings of some and misled others.

THE IRISH PRIESTHOOD.
Lord FARNHAM, in putting certain questions
t,Poritehsets. Government, disclaimed all intention of wish-
ing to embarrass them, or to cast any imputa-
tions on the character of the Roman Catholic
Indeed,m a n y 0
Lordships
fh e
their
and had
from the altar. Havingd
in which
the Catholic priests had done
of h
isen denounced
gnrcuce
an.
Ile
related
eiloetd;h the
someth
t 0 their Lordships somewinsastahins
on the part of the
speech, to which he should direct
that of Archdeacon Laffan, who Noblem u r
Lordmurderer r
in
1 lr
painful duty to submit
of a contrary con-
ductocieltFegiltientTioh:ras
was
at a time when murders were oi frequent4octh of
Nov.,'
and terror reigned throughout Tipperary, ventured
to denounce the Saxon, and to say that if the Saxon
suffered what the Tipperary peasant suffered, he
would, ifhldt,e fir
he had
madalti he sawwith a decent ilecourag e ofa man, sally
colyfoart thand
shoot upon

his back. (The Noble Lord then proceeded to read
at length Mr. Laffan's celebrated denunciation of the
landlords of Ireland to the vengeance of the peasantry.)
With regard to the defence that had been made of
that speech by the gentleman who presided at that
meeting, and who stated that Mr. Laffan had con-
cluded his speech by desiring his auditors to hand
over evil-doers to the law, he would remind their
Lordships that such was the general conclusion of
these inflammatory speeches, and he would ask, on
whom the guilt of these outrages rest ? He would next
draw their attention to the speech of the Rev. Mr.
Hughes, at the Castlebar meeting, held on Nov. 14th.
(The Noble Lord here read an extract from the Rev.
Gentleman's speech, denouncing the landlords, and
telling the poor that wild justice alone remained to
them.) The Irish peasant knew well what the wild
justice of revenge meant, and he asked what must be
the state of the country when the peasants were told
that they were to look for redress not to the laws,
but to the wild justice of revenge. The resident
landlords of Ireland endeavoured to do their duty, but
all efforts to improve the sccial condition of Ireland
would be useless so long as the people were told by these
agitators that they could only trust to the wild
justice of revenge. He would now refer to denun-
ciations of persons from the altar. In Tipperary a
man named Kavanagh had been murdered. The
priest was a,ked, had he denounced him from the
altar r The answer was, I did. When ?—At mass
on Sunday last. When was he murdered ?—At five
o'clock in the afternoon.—(Elear, hear.) He would
next elude to the case of Major Mahon, who was one
of the best landlords that ever lived. On the last day
of October the priest denounced Major Mahon from
the altar. The words used were—" Major Mahon is
worse than Cromwell, and yet he lives." Within 48
hours of that time Major Mahon was shot. In the
month of August the priest bad also denounced Major
Mahon from the altar. He asked if such language
and such conduct was, or was not, sufficient to bring
those guilty of it within reach of the law. No one could
be more opposed to the adoption of stringent measures
without necessity than himself, but he believed that
necessity did exist. He said the whole of Ireland
was in a state of disorganisation ; that there was a
widely ramified conspiracy, the members of which,
unless stringent measures were adopted, would ravage
and desolate the country. The crimes of Ireland
would disgrace New Zealand. There was no coun-
try in which the ingredients of crime were more
actively at work than in Ireland, and no
period at which crime existed with greater
atrocity. None but measures vigorous, prompt,
and coercive, could restore peace to Ireland, and he
called upon the Government to adopt such measures.
The Noble Lord concluded by asking whether these
.peeches the priests had been submitted to the law
officers of the Crown, while in their opinion thEy
would be warranted in undertaking a criminal pro-
secution against the utterers of those speeches, whe-
ther in the present state of Ireland it would be
deemed expedient to undertake such a prosecution,
and whether the Government intended to adopt more
stringent measures than tho-e already proposed ?
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE admitted that in
many chapels devoted to the worship of God, the
priests had uttered language most outrageous,
most inflammatory, and most contrary to Chris-
tian morality. They had attracted the most
serious attention of the Lord-Lieutenant, who
had been in communication with his law
advisers, but he could not state what steps had
been or might be adopted in consequence.
He had caused inquiries to be made, but as yet not
one information had been sworn. The matter was a most
difficult one, but the Noble Earl was exercising his
best discretion to bring the perpetrators of such out-
rages (for outrages they were) (Hear, hear)—
to justice. The law already provided a remedy—
to excite persons to violate the law was a misde-
meanour at common law, but in Ireland an Act
was passed some years ago making it a felony to
excite persons to outrage, and punishing with death
those inciting others to the commission of murder,
and enforced in Ireland, these acts would be the
means of procuring the conviction of offenders.
(LEFT SFEARING.)

HOUSE OF COMMONS.
The SPEAKER tx,ok the Chair at Four o'clock.
JEWISH DISABILITIES.

Sir R. H. INGLIS presented a petition signed by
the rector and inhabitants of the parish of Newport-
upon-Stroud, in the county of Worcester, and one
from the town of Alcester, in the county of Warwick,
against the admission of nonbelievers in Christianity
into the Legislature.

Mr. PLIYMPTRE also presented a petition from a
parish in the county of Surrey to the same effect.
Mr. LAW also presented a petition from the
students and graduttes of the University of Cam-
bridge to the fame effect. The petitioners stated that
they felt assured that the greatness and prosperity of
this country entirely depended upon the maintenance
of the establishment of Christianity, and they ear-
nestly petitioned the House that they would not press
any measure for the admission of persons professing
the Jewish religion into the Legislature, as they
were confident that such change would be attended
with a great shock to the religious feelings of the
country.