The Sun.
London, England, 1834-06-18 00:00:00

there may be a disproportion between the number
of members of a church and the pay of its clergy.
Our Tories say we must have well paid shepherds,
whether we have flocks or not. "It is a mea-
sure" (the anticipated new appropriation) says the.
Morning Post, " affecting not more the temporal
than the eternal welfare of our community—
not only the present, but all future ge-
nerations. Is' a Christian state bound by any
obligation to provide religious instruction for
its people Is that obligation, if it exists,
removed by • the ignorance or the obsti-
nacy of those for whose improvement and benefit it
exists ? Ought that instruction, if it is to be pro-
vided, to be such as is consistent with truth and
reason, or such as is adapted to temporary expe-
diency and parecular circumstances ?" The
Standard calls out lustily for another trial for the
Protestant Reformation. Three hundred years
have we been at the work of making Protestants
of the Irish ; but three hundred years are as no-
thing. There is a fable of an old man who ob-
tained a respite from Death on account of some
very urgent affairs which he wished to settle, but
who, on the re-appearance of Death at the appoint-
ed hour, had still more urgent affairs to settle.
The Irish Church would claim a trial of another
300 years, and, after all, would complain of not
having had a fair trial. Our evening contemporary
tries to frighten the people of England into his
scheme for a new reformation :

" It may alarm English pride to be told that Ireland
could subsist without the English connection. It may
flatter Popish arrogance and reason to confess that Eng-
land, single-handed, could not re-conquer Ireland, aided
by such allies as Ireland would be sure to find at the first
announcement of her independence. But though England
could not re-conquer, or without that aid even retain
Ireland, while England possesses that Protestant popula-
tion which has preserved, and may continue to preserve,
the integrity of the empire, she has nothing in that respect
to fear."

Then comes the panacea—the Third Reforma.

tion.

" That the possession of Ireland is likely to be irksome,
perplexing, productive of frequent disgust and occasional
alarm, while Ireland shall remain in great part Popish, is
what we are not disposed to deny. England is now pay-
ing the debt of starving the Reformation in the sister
kingdom. The manly view of the question, however, is
this :—shall we endure this irksome possession, or shall
we erect it into an enemy for our own destruction ? The
statesmanlike view would go still further—it would
inquire whether this irksome possession may not be
made a new source of wealth and strength ; whether,
by the same process, the State may not be relieved
or its perplexities, as regards Ireland, and rein-
forced by a prodigious accession of moral and political
power? Whether Ireland, in one word, may not be
made Protestant ? Whether the land of Bible-burners
may not be converted into a christian country ? What has
been done once may be done a rain. England, with as
numerous a Popish population, with infinitely inferior ad-
vantages for the purpose, and with motive beyond all cal-
culation less, was Protestantised in less than forty years.
Let us just compare the circumstances of the two coun-
tries—England at the accession of Edward the Sixth, and
Ireland at the present day—it is a large concession to Irish
Popery to say, that the unmerciful division of Papists and
Protestants is about the same as respects the two countries
at the eras alluded to. But at the accession of Edward
VI.. England had no elder sister—no other England, if
we may so speak, as Ireland now has, to support her steps
or to guide her into the path of truth. Bibles could not
then be had, even for the purpose of burning. The pro-
perty was, in great part, in the hands of Papists—the new
doctrines had notstood the test of time, and to the popula-
tion the effect of adopting these doctrines had been
painfully injurious, as the suppression of luxury and a
drying- up of the channels of indiscriminate almsgiving
ever will be found for a time. Need we say that no such '
injury would attend the Protestantising of Ireland ; that,
on the other hand, such a change would, by importing a
whole nobility and gentry, introduce all the profitable ex-
penditure of luxury, and expel a priesthood who are them-
selves the great absorbents of whatever alms the country
affords ; and so far from giving anything, even wrangle
with the beggar for his morsel, if they cannot succeed in
cheating him of it ?"
We wish with all our hearts that the Irish could
be made Protestants ; but, unfortunately, the Irish
are too cunning to swallow the bait held out to
them. They see that the object is not to supply
them with a church, but to supply a rich Protest-
ant church with a title to existence. So far from
there being a necessary connection between a richly
endowed church and the conversion of the Irish to
Protestantism, it may be laid down that the great
cause of the failure of the reformation in Ireland is
the wealth of the church. Before the revolution in
France, about seven-eighths of the property of
Alsace, and some parts of Burgundy and Franche
Comte, belonged to the church, and it was precisely
then that the clergy had least influence. In the
canton of La Vendee, and the other cantons on the
Loire, where the clergy were poor,. and lived in the
manner of the peasantry, the attachment to them
was beyond all bounds. The Scotch Covenanters,
in the time of the Stuarts, did not display more at-
tachment to their ministers than the French peasants
did to their priests during the revolution. They con-
cealed them at the utmost risk, and kindly sup-
plied their wants, and at their bidding they were
ready to embark in any enterprise, however dan-
gerous. If it be wished to convert the Irish to
Protestantism, we say the clergy of the Established
Church are not the men for the work. " Let them
take castles who're not worth a groat," says the
old soldier in Pope, after being well rewarded. No
rich church ever did, or will, make spiritual con-
quests. The reformation in England was effected
under very different circumstances from those under
which the third reformation in Ireland is about to
be undertaken. In England the Catholic church
was full of abuses—the clergy were rich and lazy,
and trusted to power rather than persuasion. Sir
Thomas More admits, in one of his apologies for
the Catholics, that the priests were too apt to try their
hand at burning as a heretic every man who com-
plained of their conduct. But the Irish priests have
long been dependant on the good opinion of the people,
and the people always reward with their attachment
those who show that they arc in earnest in desiring
it. We will not, however, insult the hierarchy and
the noble lords, by supposing for one moment that
religion is in their thoughts. Oh, no ! what they
are anxious about is Church property, and Church
property alone. Were the souls of the Papists
alone in question, the Lords would be as quiet as
lambs. Were they in earnest about the religion of
the people, they would prefer a poor clergy to a
well-endowed clergy. In fact, when the clergy in
England are in earnest about religion, they recur to
the voluntary principle. Whenever they make the
Minister dependant on the flocks, and take care
that their incomes shall not elevate them too much
above their flocks, success is certain. We have re-
ceived some curious documents on this subject, re-
•flecting the highest credit on a prelate of the.
Church of England,. which we will -lay before our
readers on a future day.—Morning Chronicle.

We have learnt from a source on which we can
place implicit reliance, that both Mr. Stanley and
Sir Robert Peel have expressed their determination
to oppose at every stage, and in the most decided
manner, the renewal of the Irish Coercion Bill.
We expected nothing less than that these two
worthies would coalesce and endeavour to drive his
Majesty's present advisers from his councils ; and
we say so much the better. The sooner the cloven
foot is exhibited the better. It is high time that
the tares should be separated from the wheat—that
the characters of meri should be known for what
they really are—and that the mist which clung to
them in office should be dissipated by their resigna-
tion of it. Stanley is determined that the pulic
shall not be long in ignorance, either of his opinions
or of his feelings—and he deserves credit for it. As
to Peel's prudence in joining with him no one can
possibly question it. Arcades ambo !—Morning
Advertiser.

Lord Plunket has repeatedly argued, with great
force and with great eloquence, that the property
of the church is held upon a tenure as sacred as
that upon which the estates of noblemen are held.
And Lord Brougham, in reply to Lord Eldon's ne-
gation of the right of Parliament to newly appro-
priate the property of the church, observes that the
Parliament must surely have the same privilege of
interference with the property of the church which
it frequently exercises with the property of private
individuals. We concede to Lord Brougham that
the Parliament has such a. power as he claims for

'sit ; and we assert with Lord Pluracet that the Pa-
rliament has no more. We grant that it is possible
to imagine a case of necessity which should vindi-
cate an interference with the tithes of Dr. —, or
with the rents of Lord Fitzwilliam ; but we insist
that an interference with the one, must be
vindicated by as clear and as urgent a
necessity as that which justice would re-
quire for the vindication of an interference_with the
other. We propose to examine in succession the
circumstances incident to the tenure of ecclesiastical
property upon which the right to deal with it is
founded by the " new appropriation." But, before
we proceed to this examination, it is worth while
to state briefly the history of the present possessions
of the Irish Protestant Church, and to show by
what steps they. were settled at their present
amount, and . intrusted to their present holders.
The Church of Ireland was rich before the
Danish invasion. Its wealth consisted in land, not
tithes—in the contributions and bequests of indi-
viduals, riot the grants and appropriations of the
nation. Its bishoprics and abbecies, its colleges
and monasteries, were numerous in comparison to
those of other countries, and, in proportion to the
then circumstances of the people, amply endowed.
In the ninth century this splendid booty attracted
the cupidity of, the Danish invaders. For three
hundred years the endowments of the Church were j
plundered by successive spoilers. The natives of
Ireland, who had at first looked with horror upon
the work of sacrilege and desecration, in process of
time were led to share in the crime and the reward.
Chieftains sought renown by the burning of a
church, or • fortune by the sacking of a college.
Princes usurped the lands which had been held by
ecclesiastical foundations ; and, in some instances,
attempted to legalize the robbery by assuming the
titles of the prelacy together with its temporalities.,
Such a state of things threatened the very existence
of the clerical order. Its opulence, its power, its
usefulness, were all involved in the same ruin.
The Irish prelates applied for advice and assist-
ance to the Holy See, whose interference with the
concerns of their church up to this period had been
scornfully resisted. The Pope, of course, eagerly
grasped the opportunity for the establishment of his
authority over a previously recusant church. After
half a century of negotiation his supremacrwas
admitted, and his protection secured. King Henry
was invited by the Pope and admitted by the
bishops to become a party to their contract. The
result of that contract was the memorable Synod of
Cashel, which ,passed a decree—" That all the
faithful do pay to their parish church the tithe of
animals, fruit, and other increase." The ratification
of this decree was the first act of the new
Sovereign ; and the title of the Irish Church
to tithes, eo nomine, dates from the date of the
decree. Now, since subsequently to the period
of the holding of the Synod of Cashel every
foot of the soil of Ireland has been confiscated to
the Crown, and re-granted by the Crown under a
new tenure, the title of the Church to its posses-
sions is at all events, if it is based on the decree of
that Synod, older than the title of any landlord in
Ireland ; but since it must be remembered that the
tithe thus granted was but a substitution for the
property of which the Church had been openly
plundered in the three preceding centuries, and to
which it was still asserting an indefeasible right, its
real title is the title it might have established in
that property, a title as certain as any which can be
established ny law, or sanctioned by antiquity. We
shall to-morrow inquire how far the title thus ex-
isting has been affected by its transfer from Popery
to Protestantism at the Reformation.—Morning
Post.

COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, JUNE 17.

Sittings at Nisi Prius before the LORD CHIEF Jus-
TICE and a Common Jury.)
JENNETT V. ADAMS.

This was an action brought by the plaintiff, a me-
dical practitioner, residing in Gerard-street, Soho,
against the defendant, a gentleman of fortune, resid-
ing at Hampstead, to recover the sum of 219/ , being
th amount of his bill for medicine and attendance on
the defendant's wife.

So far back as 1824, the plaintiff attended the de-
fendant's wife, Mrs. Adams, who died in 1832. After
her death, he applied for the payment of his account,
amounting to 2191. which was refused by the defend-
ant upon the ground that his wife, Mrs. Adams, en-
joyed a separate property which was agreed to be ap-
plicable to her own use, of which plaintiff was aware,
being so informed by the defendant. The plaintiff
also attended the defendant, for which attendance he
was paid. The property enjoyed by Mrs. Adams de-
volved to her children after her death, one of whom
offered to pay his proportion, being a fifth share,
which was refused, and the present action was com-
menced against the defendant.
The Jury found a verdict for the plaintiff for
1341. 18s., being the amount of his bill from 1824 up
to 1829.

COURT OF EXCHEQUER, JUNE 17.

(Before Lord LYNDHURST and Special Juries.)

UNSTA MPED NEWSPAPERS.-TILE KING V. HETHERINGTON.

This was an information on the same grounds as in
the " King v. Cleave."

The SOLICITOR-GENERAL stated the case.

George Wheatley proved the WrCl:ase--of a printed
paper called the People's Conservative, and another
called the Poor Man's Guardian, at the shop of the
defendant, 13, Kingsgate-street.
In his cross-examination by the defendant this
witness, who described himself as an inspector of
stamps, admitted that he received a hundred a year for
going about purchasing copies of unstamped papers
for the purpose of prosecution.
Richard Rockling, also an inspector, proved a simi-
lar purchase of the unstamped papers the Conservative
and the Guardian.

"Ma. •
Two other witnesses swore to having purchased
he same papers.
Mr. Sidburne, collector of taxes, was called to
Drove that the defendant, now living in the Strand,
lad lived at the. house in Kingsgate-street, and he paid
axes for it.

Mr. Hetherington addressed the jury at great
Length, contending that the papers of which he was
tlie publisher were not newspapers, and commented
forcibly upon the mischievous and tyrannical nature of
the acts of Parliament under which he was prosecuted.

The SOLICITOR-GENERAL replied, and the jury re-
turned a verdict for the crown on the counts relating
to the Conservative, and for the defendant on the
Poor Man's Guardian.
Mr. SIIEPPARD stated that the crown would be satis-
fied with one penalty on each offence and paper.
Four papers were put in. The penalties are 100/.
for omission to file an affidavit of proprietorship, and
201. for publishing without a stamp.

MUSTACHIOS.—The exiled Poles have
wrought wonders among the fashionables. These file
hearty young fellows, with their mustachios curling
round their lips, have so alarmed the bucks that they
have hurried with their soft chins to the barbers, and
instead of getting the fuz cut off, have returned with
horns under their noses, much like those of a tumble-
bug. We pity the poor girls of these days: Their
hearts will be taken by fright, if not by a softer pas-
sion.—New York Journal of Commerce.

VIRTUES OF A DUCKING.—Persons out .of
their senses with love, by throwing themselves into a
river, and being dragged out nearly lifeless, have re-
covered their senses, and lost their bewildering
passion. Submersion is discovered to be a cure for
some mental disorders, by altering the state of the
body, as Van Helmont notices, " was happily practised
in England." With the circumstance to which this
sage of chymistry alludes, I am unacquainted ; but
this extraordinary practice was certainly known to the
Italians ; for, in one of the tales of Poggio we find a
mad doctor of Milan, who was celebrated for curing
lunatics and demoniacs in a certain time. His prac-
tice consisted in placing them in a great high-walled
court-yard, in the midst of which there was a deep
well full of water, cold as ice. When a demoniac was
brought to this physician, he had the patient bound to
a pillar in the well, till the water ascended to .the
knees, or higher, and even to the neck, as he deemed
their malady required. In their bodily pain they ap-
pear to have forgot their melancholy ; thus, by the
terrors of tha repetition of cold water, a man appears
to have been frightened into his senses ! [Hence,
perhaps, swamping the Lords has been recommended.]
—D',lsraeli's Curiosities of Literature.: -