The Sun.
London, England, 1848-02-18 00:00:00

Ott Jening !.'-illifs

LONDON, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1848.

Yesterday the Bill introduced to the Upper House
by the Marquis of LANSDOWNE, in reference to the
establishment of Diplomatic Relations between the
Courts of Rome and London, was read a second time.
To-day it will go into Committee. Although the
Lord President of the Council has ineffectually endea-
voured to allay the fanaticism of those who are prin-
cipally opposed to the innovation, he has, nevertheless,
considered the question in language so manly, and
with arguments so cogent, that he has altogether dis-
sipated the doubts of those who looked upon the pro-
position with suspicion or indifference. The speech de-
livered by the Noble Marquis last evening, upon the
legality as well as the expediency of the intended addi-
tion to our list of Ambassadors, is, perhaps, the most
felicitous that has proceeded from his lips since
the organization of the present Government. He
examines each of the objections raised against the
extraordinary mission of Lord MINTO to Italy, and
more particularly against the principles involved in
the measure then lying under the consideration of
the House of Peers. One by one he examines those
objections—one by one he displays their flimsiness
and their fallacy—one by one he rejects them as
wholly insufficient. After reminding the House that
it was erroneously imagined by some dissentients to
the Bill that the provisions of the said Bill were
diametrically opposed to the spirit embodied in the
Bill of Rights and the Act of Settlement, Lord
LANSDOWNE succinctly enumerated a few of those
violations of the law which had been regarded by the
Ministry as precedents such as constituted a perfect
justification of the recent steps taken in this matter
by the members of the present Government. The
case of Lord CASTLEMAINE, which many might
have supposed to be the example most ini-
mical to the project of a renewed in-
timacy between ourselves and the SOVEREIGN
PONTIFF, is mentioned by the President of the Council
as the one which best shows the purport of the
measure then under discussion to be in strict accord-
ance with the preceding opinions of the British
Legislature; for it cannot very easily be forgotten,
that although Lord CASTLEMAINE was formally com-
mitted to the Tower of London for having under-
taken a mission similar to that of Lord MINTO in
appearance, but entirely different in purpose, he was
only found guilty of high treason and other heinous
misdemeanours on this count, because he had con-
ducted a friendly negotiation between the Popish
Monarch, King JAMES 11., and the then reigning
Pontiff. It would be preposterously superfluous to
explain the different circumstances under which
Lord MINTO has travelled to the Vatican during the
days of VICTORIA, and those under which Lord CASTLE-
MAINE proceeded to the same destination towards the
conclusion of the long but stormy supremacy of JAMES.
Among the most noticeable precedents adduced by
Lord LANSDOWNE were—First, the cordial communi-
cations adventured upon between the POPE and Sir
ROBERT WALPOLE. Secondly, the diplomatic rela-
tions which have been fixed upon a secure basis be-
tween the Courts of Rome and of Protestant Hanover.
Thirdly, the correspondence which took place towards
the commencement of the French Revolution be-
tween the Pontifical Government and Sir
JOHN CoxE HIPPESLEY in relation to the affairs
of the " Pretender," whereby a pension of 2,0001., or
3,0001. per annum, was settled upon the last de-
scendant of the STUART dynasty, the Cardinal of
YORK. Fourthly, the amicable interchange of good
offices between the Cabinet of the Papal States and
Lord Hoop, when that distinguished sea-captain
commanded the British fleet, in the Mediterranean;;
fifthly, the accordant decision of the Duke of PORT-
LAND, as Prime Minister of England, and Cardinal
ANTOLEDDI, as the representative of the Supreme
PONTIFF, as to the establishment of Christianity in
Saint Domingo ; sixthly, the correspondence
entered into by the Grenville Adminis-
tration, whereby two important concessions
were made to this country by the clement munificence
of the Roman Sovereign. Such were the most me-
morable of the precedents recapitulated by the Lord
President of the Council yesterday evening, and in
addition to these practical testimonies of the legality
of the scheme advocated by himself and his colleagues,
and formally embodied in the Bill now lying before
Parliament, the Noble Marquis quoted a splendid
authority who bad pronounced i❑ favour of the
revival of friendship between the Papal States and
the United Kingdoms—we mean no less an authority
than the Right Hon. EDMUND BURKE. "If we decline
all political connexions with the Court of Rome,"
said that illustrious man, in a letter, written on the 3d
of October, 1793, " the bigotry will be on our part,
and not OR that of his Holiness." Let it be remem-
bered that this sentence was pronounced upwards of
fifty years ago, and to this day, in 1848, the Lord
Privy Seal can only journey through the principa-
lities of the Roman peninsula on a questionable
errand, and with very dubious credentials I Shall
not this ridiculous anomaly perish ? Shall not Eng-
land, the free Government of England enable
herself to express her sympathy with the
nascent energies and the dawning liberty of the
descendants of the ancient Romans—candidly and
without quibble ? The passage of this Ministerial
measure through Parliament will remove the barriers
which still separate the people and the Governments
of VICTORIA and Pio Norio.

We shall follow he example set by the Right Hon.
Gentlemen, the Member for Stamford, in bringing
forward the resolutions of which he had given notice
with respect to the Bank Charter Act of 1844, and
abstain from any present discussion on the currency.
Our opinions on that all-important topic have been
so repeatedly put forward, that it is unnecessary to
repeat them, or avow our unshaken confidence :n et
ori n
their propriety and expediency. As some time, how-
ever, must necessarily elapse before any i
radical change can be effected in the principles of the
Act of 1819, and before the national circulation can
be restored to a healthy state, sufficient for our daily
transactions and the general exigencies of the coun-
try, it is desirable that the more recent Act, which so
fearfully aggravated the evils of the existing
code, and threw further impediments in the way
of the productive classes, should at least be suspended
during the progress of the investigation that has been