The Sun.
London, England, 1851-11-29 00:00:00

SAT UR D.AY

TILT PROTZ-2STAITT ALLIANCE.

(Fertll t'e Times.)
There is nothing more otlieult in human affairs than
to rl:serirn;nato the ee,act point at which activity be-
comes hurtful, end apparart inertness the wisest and
most efficient policy. Deep-laid intrigues have been
frustrated by too earnest a desire to urge them on to
their final corsumreation, aid battles have been lost in
the moment of victory [roma natural wish to push the
advaetage to the uttermost. Gaston do Foix had gained
a splendid triumph at Revenna, if he could have been
content with what he had wm, but in the rash attempt
to ride down ie retreating battalion of Spanish infantry
he fell, and with him deparnd the success of the arms
of France. We put it to those excellent and zealous
persons who met together yesterday at the Freemasons'
Tavern, under the auspices of Lord Shaftesbury, whether
it is not possible that their cruse may bo better served
by apparent incction than by the most strenuous and de•
terunined efforts. Since therevolutionary crisis of 1848
Popery has had tolerably far play in every country in
Europe. Trembling Governments have only been too
eheactpepsi yltsotr cetailil ilinbethrteiels'o of pis
tahs?tihresiurbajlly, and to barter the
crease of coercive power (seer the spiritcts
for
of f a
re slightv o n
The consequence has been that, in spite of the Con-
cordat which she has dictated to Spain and the momen-
tary ascendancy acquired in Austria and France, Rome
by again linking her destinies to those of Governments
already nodding to their fall, has voluntarily prepared
for herself a succession of self-sought reverses tied hu-
miliations. In our own country the Pope has assumed
the right of perfectly free action, and neither Queen,
Church, nor Parliament have been suffered to check his
arrogance, or to control his aggression. In Ireland, by
a similar abuse of usurped jurisdiction, he hes pro-
scribed the Government schouls and colleges, dsciared
open war against the far more respectable part of his
own bishops, and placed the government of his Church
in the rash and incompetent hands of Primate Cullen.
We will not apply a vulgar proverb to his Holiness, but
will content ourselves with remarking that he has em-
ployed the liberty which he enjoys most efficaciously to
ruin his own cause. The result has been that the con-
versions to Rome, once so frequent, have been arrested,
that the spirit of the English people is more than ever
alive to the dangers of Romanism, that the more sober
Roman Catholics draw back with shame and fear
from the intemperate zeal and preposterous credulity
of over-zealous converts, end that the people of Ireland
seem on the very print of emancipating themselves from
a spiritual tyranny whose deformity was hidden by per-
secution, and has been only revealed at last by its
LI marked antagonism to education and enlightenment.
Agreeing with the speakers of the Protestant Alliance
in the denunciation of the intolerant, unscrupulous, and
encroaching spirit of the Roman Catholic priesthood, we
would put it to them whether it is possible by reviving
political agitation on the subject to accelerate the doom
which the present policy of the Court of Rome is infal-
libly preparing for itself. We see more and more
evidences every day that the Ultramontane party of the
clergy are separating themselves from the laity, and that
the free action which is left to the Romish Church by
the cessation of Protestant meetings is tending to dis-
gust her best and most honest supporters. Nothing could
arrest this tendency to dissolution, except some aggres-
sive movement on our part which might have the
effect of uniting, from fear of a common danger, the
elements whose dissociation has commenced. All the
invectives of the Irish hierarchy and their representa-
tives have failed to persuade the people that the Eccle-
siastical Titles Bill is really a measure of persecution.
At present they have no grievance greater than the
existence of the Queen's Colleges, and with that misfor-
tune to the Roman Catholic Church their flocks cannot,
it seems, be induced to sympathise. It might be ex-
tremely impolitic, in the present state of things, to pro-
vide them with such a grievance. _

When Sir Robert Peel, in 1845, proposed his perma-
nent endowment of Maynooth we did not support him;
and assuredly, if that question were now in debate, we
should see no reason to alter our opinion. It was un-
answerably shown by Lord Shaftesbury and several
other speakers at the meeting, that no one of all the
consequences anticipated from this measure has been
attained. It was, indeed, a mere fragment of a policy,
the only chance of the success of which was in being
carried out as a whole. The necessary complement of
the permanent endowment of Maynooth was a State
provision for the Roman Catholic clergy, and it was
obviously not worth while for a Minister to propose the
one who shrank from carrying out the other. Con-
ciliation is a game which cannot be played by halves,
and therefore the endowment of Maynooth appeared to
us, and still appears, taken by itself, a political mistake,
and a needless trifling with the Protestant feelings of
England. Sir James Graham admitted in Parliament
that this measure shook the Government to its centre,
a danger which would certainly never have been in-
curred had its profitless results been foreseen. Still,
however, the measure has keen taken, and it is a widely
different question whether we shall undo what we ought
certainly never to have done. To those, indeed, who
look upon such an act as a national sin, and regard the
contest for the repeal of this law as a sort of Parlia-
mentary crusade, or battle of Armageddon, the ques-
tion presents no sort of difficulty. But those who look
on this matter in a light purely political may well
pause before they suffer themselves to be hurried
by zeal, by irritation, or disappointment, into a
step the first effects of which may have so impor-
tant a bearing on the future destinies of Ireland.
No intelligence could be more agreeable to Dr.
Cullen and his associates than the announcement that
the English Government bad determined to withdraw all
Parliamentary support from Mayuooth. They would
feel at once immensely etrengthened in their efforts for
the formation of arc Catholic University, against which
there is at present no more powerful argument than that
the existence of the College at Maynooth rend-re such
an institution absolutely superfluous and gratuitous. The
withdrawal of assistance which had been granted by Pitt
and Percival, by Liverpool and Wellington, would be
easily tortured into a recurrence of the policy of the
darkest times which preceded Catholic emancipation.
On this subject the minority of the Synod of Thurles
would probably feel as strongly as the majority. Nor
can we doubt that the position of the Established Church
in Ireland would would be coLsiderably weakened by the
severing of the only 111:k which binds the majority of
the nation to the State. If it offend Protestant zeal
that we should be contributing to the teaching of what
it deems error, it must be remembered, on the other
hand, that the Irish Roman Catholics are compelled
to support a church to which their objections are
equally strong and equally conscientious. We believe
the h
uatwiteracmouolndtainne npoarrteyspthecatnbbey petteorsneringve the interests of
and unsettling
the question of religious endowments. That the settle-
ment existing in Ireland is not the one which would
be adopted now, were the matter open for fresh discus-
sion, may be seen from the analogy of our colonial
churches, where Pretestant and Catholic are alike sup-
ported by the State on principles of the strictest reli-
gious equality. We have shown that the Maynooth
gran ought not to have been imposed alone, and it may
be very questionable whether it could be repealed alone.
It were but poor policy, fur the sake of a few Protestant
cheers, to rush into a measure the results of which lie
far deeper than is, at first sight, apparent. Possibly,
many of Lord Shaftesbury's Nonconformist allies might
view with satisfaction a complete re-adjustment of ec-
clesiastical property in Ireland. The Protestant Al-
liance is enthusiastic and unanimous against the Pope,
but on every other question of policy it is a mere rope
of sand. The revocation of the endowment of the Ro-
man Catholic College would be looked on by many
Protestunt Dissenters as the first step towards the vo-
luntary system. Will the contingent furnished by the
Church of England sympathise in the aspirations of
their allies ?

COURT CIRCULAR.
OSBORNE, Nov. 28.
The Queen and Prince took their usual early walk
yesterday morning.
The Rev. Mr. Birch had the honour of dining with her
Majesty in the evening.

Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, attended by
Lady Anna Maria Dawson, arrived in town yesterday
from Frogmore, and visited her Royal Highness the
Duchess of Gloucester at Gloucester House; and in the
afternoon returned to Frogmore.
Dispatches were received at the Colonial office yester-
day from the Governor of the Gambia. Dispatches
were sent off to the Governor of Canada, and the Go-
vernors of the other North Ameridan Provinces.

The Judicial Committee of her Majesty's Most Honour-
able Privy Council, sat yesterday in the Council Cham-
ber. The Lords present were—Lord Cranwortb, Sir J.
Knight Bruce, the Judge of the Prerogative Court, and
Sir Edward Ryan; the appeal from the High Court of
Admiralty, " Lunt v. Burnett" (the Fanchon), part
heard, was resumed; and an
Finney"
from the High Court
of Admiralty, " Burns v.nney" (the Europa), was
commenced and adjourned.,, 1

IRON IN FRANCE.—The annual iron fair held in
sat
the month of November, at Chalons, has just concluded, and
has been remarkable for the exceedingly limited amount of
resultsd which it pro-
duces, n s the
eco-
nomy business transacted. Prices, however, were fairly main-
tained. The great subject of conversation io
both n fromamongst its t
forgemasters was a new preparation known by the name of
el iar bo
inn Vfuuellc
,aian ,n
dand r which,from
the t is said,
superior
is likely to effect a great alteration in metallurgical
matters.
DEATH FROM ExCESSIVE DRINKING —Yesterday
Mr. W. Carter held an inquest at the Brown Bear Tavern'
Southwark-bridge-road , respecting the death of Mrs. Esther
Elizabeth Cope, aged 44, late organist to the church of St.
Saviour's, Southwark. Ihe deceased occupied apartments
at No. 2, Morriss-place„ Bridge-street., and had been some
years engaged as organist at. St. Saviour's Church, but for
irregular conduct had been discharged from her appointment.
On Thursday morning, she was found lying dead in bed.
There were no marks of violence, nor anything near her to
account for death ; but Mary Brooks, the servant who waited
upon her, stated that she had procured for her mistress gene-
rally three pints of brandy daily for the last ten weeks, which
she usual y mixed with water. Deceased always had a glass
by her side. Mr. Wooldridge, the surgeon, had been sent
for, and prescribed for the deceased,who told witness to throw
the medicine away, for brandy would do her more good.
The surgeon, who was called to see the deceased, said that
when he visited her he generally found her suffering from the
effects of drinking large pantities of brandy, and no doubt
she died from exhaustion consequent upon ouch habits of in-
temperance. The coroner remarked upon the case, when the
jury returned a verdict, • ghat the deceased died by the ex-
-1 cessive drinking of brandy."
THE 110LIENVELL-STREET NUlSANCE.—Notwith-
standing the proceeding of St. Clement Danes' late vestry
meeting, held only, a few weeks since, and the recent con-
viction of the notorious bugdale for selling indecent prints,
Sze., the denizens of Hol;:well-street are now pursuing their
illegal traffic with more effrontery than ever, and at some
of their shop windows they have even dared to exhibit
placards, headed, " Holywell•street Pest," announcing the
" Selling-off" of various indecent publications. How long
will this state of things be permitted to continue
'eraser.