The Sun.
London, England, 1851-05-29 00:00:00

F'l3
7 MAY 29, 1851.

SPIRIT' of the PU1314-e- JOURNALS:
TISIES.—There appears teminuch reason to fear thats
the same spirit of intolerant and' narrow-minded bigotry
which has induced the Pope to sacrifice the eubstantiel
interests of the Roman Cetholitet of England is shout
'to achieve a second triumph, riot so aich, over the Pro-
testant 'Government as over-the-moral and material ad-
rancernent of the Irish-people; eetfider the evil-guidance
of those whom Lord 8. brectsbuiy appropriately calls, in
his letter to Lord John Russell,
.the anti-English party,
Pius the Ninth is reported, and we fear with truth, to
have resolved on proscribing.the Queen's Colleges in
Ireland, forbidding positively the pleats from 'hying
any connexion with them, and ifireaiening the disobe-
dient laity with all alb vengeance.Ore.cclesiastical cen-
sure. The boon which Parliamenie'in its wisdom and
liberality, bestowed on the Irish pthiple is snatched away
from them by their spiritual bead,' and the doctrine is
broadly avowed that thefree and impartial instruction
of the !pity in secular knowledgeeisefound in this nine-
teenth.century to be utterly inconsistent with the ad-
vancemertt or even the existence of the Catholic faith.
The same power whose adherent's so earnestly insist
upon the compatibility of allegiance to her com-
mands with loyalty to' the Sovereign and obedience
to the law, Low puts aside' theilie flimsy professions,
and tells us, through the 'voices 'orher best accredited
organs, that she will endure no rival in the mind or in
the kingdom in which she has once obtained a footing.
In her view, no department of secular knowledge is in-
nocent or admissible which is aot taught under the, itn-
thediate superintendence of ecclesiaitios, whose ignorance
and shallow presumption may rephesent the truth of
science as a profane fiction, and the magnificent march
of nature as a splendid phantasmagoria. To give just
enough knowledge of these things to counteract the in-
,fluence and dispel the charm of ;104 noveltrand
granderic,=to inspire jiistlibimuch isitii for the arta as
may train the senses to take delight in pompons proces-
sions and empty decorations, without permitting the
mind to go deep -enough into their study to feel the
worthlessness of tawdry and flaunting ceremonies—to
mutilate and interpolate the page of history till its
darker or more startling warnings lose their significance
—to emasculate philosophy and peetry,—these are
duties which the Church wisely trusts to no profane
hand, but reserves to herself as moat able to fulfil them
No wonder that the spectacle of a Pontiff—who but
a few years ago astonished Europe by the proofs
which he gave of the sincerity of his belief that the
cause of the Church of Rome was not inconsistent
with intellectual progress—now formally recanting his '
error, and striving to obtain the most despicable of ends
by the most odious means, by employing ecclesiastical
tyranny as the means of intellectual degradation—should
fill with transport the Popish press, the only portion of
our periodical literature for which an Englishman is ever
called on to blush. It is not alone the triumph of igno-
rance, nor the palmy prospect which intellectual impo-
tence opens to nigotry, nor yet the arbitrary and un-
English manner in which these mandates of intolerance
are to be enjoined upon the clergy and forced upon the
laity, that charms them. These things undoubtedly are
sweet to the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland; but, to
use the words of their own national poet, there is in the
conduct of the Propaganda something more exquisite
still. It, is the gross and studied insult to the Queen of
these realms, who has condescended to accept the pa-
tronage of the institutions at which the meddling and
mischievous priesthood of Italy are hurling their anathe-
mas; it is the insult to our national honour and indepen-
dence, the injury done to those patriotic feelings which
Englishmen ufevery creed and shade of opinion once com-
bined to cheriAi and encourage, which it to the organs of
the Roman Catholic priesthood the daintiest dish in the
banquet of intolerance over which they riot and revel.
It is much to have stricken down knowledge, to have
blighted that humanising end conciliating influence
which the early association of men of the most different
creeds and opinions never fails to produce; but it is the
&bock given to cur characteristic and almost supersti-
tious veneration for our ancient laws and institutions,
to all which makes us what priest-ridden countries are
not and never can be. which fills the Popish press with
nn theseg e
a s triumphant effu-
the presence of
the mummy in the Egyptian 'banquet. The song of
tuhteerr ishitatcioonniraYstet a es
v se tnr ai
i
groundless triumph is hardly commenced when it is ex-
js
ebni ls a
changed for whining complaint or futile menace. The
very persons who announce themselves at one moment
as by the mere sovereign will and pleasure of the Roman
Pontiff triumphant over our Crown and,Parliament, our'
laws and institutions, complain in the same, breath
that they are the objects of, bitter and 'relentless per-,
secution, and threaten us with twenty years' agitation
to redress their cruel and unprovoked: wrongs. Then
the omnipotence of the Pope deserted them! Can he who,
according to them, found it so easy to scatter to the winds
the most solemn and authentic creations of the national
will, do nothing to protect them froni the same will
when employed for the repression of their insolence? Is
it only when enlisted against knowledge that4he Pope
is strong and it. the gists% of Rarue—Waitztreus whoonly
derives hie strength from contact With-'that ignorance
which may be truly considered his mother? Have the
Roman Catholic priesthood such unlimited power to put
down by a word the Queen's Colleges in Ireland, and are
yet utterly impotent to assert their territorial dominion
in England? If Parliament is really unable to do any-
thing against the jurisdiction of the Pope, why threaten
us with an agitation of twenty years to put down that
Which a few words from Rome can extinguish? Why
invoke the whirlwind to scatter those combatants whose
ardour a little dust thrown up in the air will so effec-
tually allay? But if, on the other hand,, the power of
the Pope, exercised within these kingdom exists just as
much by virtue of the sufferance of our Government as
his temporal dominion by our forbearapee, what be-
comes of these extravagant boasting and taunting chal-
lenges? We shall not follow the bad example set us
of affecting to despise and undervalue the mischief
which, in this their hour, it is granted "to these'men
to do. They cannot, as they pretend, control our Par-
liament or make void our legislation; but they can un-
doubtedly, by the systematic abuse of their spiritual
influences and the prostitution of the ordinances of the
Church for the purposes of a base conspiracy against
the progress and happiness of their flocks, effect much
evil. Still we question whether, misled by previous
successes of the same kind,' the Church of Rome has
not fallen into the error of overrating her powers of mis-
chief, and mistaken the intenseness of her evil will for
the extent of her power. No doubt the leaders of the
counter-revolutionary party throughout Europe, in their
abject dread of another political crisis, and their
desire to cling to and to employ in their defence every ,
reactionary tendency which society contains, have
flung themselves 'into the arms of the Pope, and have
bartered their future destiny and their progress for
the support of the spiritual power. Spain 'has sub-
witted, and Austria tamely bowed her head to the
yeke. No doubt, also, in the extreme. ultiamontane
party in Ireland R ime has instruments as ardent and
unscrupulous as ever employed the resources Of civilize-
tion to reproduce barbarism, and the cultivation of the
intellect to insure its degradation. Still we are much
mistaken if the Roman Catholic laity of Ireland will
tamely abandon the right of regulating the education of
their own children and Choosing the place and system
where and under which that education shall 'be con-
ducted,pontiff, priest,
to ell or bishop. There are
rights be sacred and so inalienable that even the blindest
tuliurstition recoils when the priestly director to whom
it hes abandoned the
government of its conscience ven-
tures to invade them. Among these rights none are more
sacred and inviolable than those which link the parent
to the child, and inve him with the power over his
and paramount to the decrees of Councils
actions prior
and rescripta of P ope a. I. is easy—it always Ilan been
easy for the priesthood of Ireland to wring from the
ands of
bard h
a starving peasantry the last halfpenny
which misery
has left, and, whether the excuse be re-
peal rent or Catholic instruction, rapacity has only to
ask, and superstition will be sure to give. But it by no
p rativ ly intelligent and
means follows that the
comae
hose
independent middle c{ loses of
Irelandcreated and" whose
benefitll
abandon the solid advantages which
the Queen's Colleges were
endowed,
wi
they promisee fur
the.sake of the caprice, the spleen, or the ambition of
any foreign Prince, although that Prince be their spi-
I
excitement
ritual head. When the of the present mo-
ment shall have died away, and the Irish nation shall
how cruelly its interests' have
wake to the-conviction h
been tampered with and sacrificed by those who prefer
,
taxing her extenuated resources for the purpose :of
fouuding a Catholic University, instead of availing them-
selves of the excellent system of instruction which Go-
vernment hap provided, wo shall expect to Witness a sa-
lutary reaction which may probably bear more substan-
tial fruits than a mere change in the seat of education.
ADVERTISER.—There seems no longer any reason
to doubt, that the condemnation of the Queen's Colleges
by the notable Synod of Patrice, has been confirmed by
the Pope, or rather by that knot of ecclesiastics at Rome
in whose hands the poor imbecile Pius the Ninth is a
mere tool—a machine for giving
effect to their rampant
bigotry, their ultra-aversion to religious feeedom, and
their cherished hostility 'to political liberty. All ac-
counts from Ireland concur in affirming, that though the
indorsement by the Pope of the decision of the Thurles
despots, has not yet been formally promulgated, it
has been received, and will be proclaimed in due time.
Were the fact not as we have stated, we do not well see
how it should be affirmed in so many .quarters, each
party having evidently derived his information from
some peculiar sources of his own. The Dublin Evening
Mail assures us, that the condemnation of the Colleges,
in due form, by the Roman Pontiff, reached Ireland ten
or twelve days ago. Our Dublin correspondent—a gen-
tleman having access to the best sources of information
—has virtu :ally put his seal to the soundness of the pre-
vailing belief. The Cork Reporter, a Popish journal,
but so far asserting its independence of priestly influ-
ence of the more bigot, d kind, as to be a supporter of the
Colleges, has no doubt whatever that the final' ratification
of the narks decrees is in tbe hands of the heads of the
Popish Church in Ireland. The Galway Vindicator, one
of the most ultra in its bigotry and intolerance of the
Popish newspaper progeny in- the sister island, not
only vouches for the fact, that the Roman Pontiff-has
ratified the conclusions cf the Thurles conclave ' of
Bishops, but even goes so far as to name the very day on
which the automaton, dignified with the name of Pope,
put his signature to the deed. That day, according to
our contemporary of Galway, was the sth of the present
month. But, perhaps, the best authority of all, in a
ease of this nature, is an obscure paper called the Tient

~Herald. The latter journal is the accredited organ of
no less a personage than the well-known Dr. Mg'hie.
It is, we believe, no secret among the initiated, that
John of Ttiam, -not only furnishes the-paper in question
with ecclesiiiitical information, inaccessible _to other
parties, but that his "fine Ronan hand" is often to be
traced in-its columns. He inspires its pages. He infuses •
no small measure of his own meek and mild spirit into
its articles and paragraphs. This model of all that is
moderate and unassuming in the Christian character,—
except on those occasions when, in his capacity of the
" Lion of the Fold of Judah," he is obliged to let his
roar be heard,—this pattern of Popish prelates is, very
probably, the parent of the amiable effusion on the sub-
ject which appears in the last number of that journal,
and in which it is distinctly announced, that not only
will no Roman Catholic clergyman be permitted to have
any connexion with the Colleges, but that any lay family
sending their children to these institutions, will
subject • themselves to " ecclesiastical penalties. "
Next to the Tuam Herald, 'as a provincial Popish
authority in Ireland, is the Galway Vindicator.
JUit only let our readers study the passag? which I

we are about to quote from this journal, and then, say
what Spirit Popery is of. "Ve believe," says Galway's
Vindicator," that there is not in Ireland a single Roman
Catholic, honestly attached to the principles of his ancient
creed, who will not rejoice to see the Queen's Colleges—
those favourite establiahments of the persecuting Russell,
of the Lacys, the Walpoles, and the infidel caluainitte
tors of our Church and creed throughout England—re-
ceive the fatal stroke beneath the guillotine of the Pro-
paganda. The usurper of Woburn Abbey has branded
the Roman Catholic religion as a fissile of mummeries;
• and as such he must, surely, to be consistent, wish to
eradicate it out of the latid. Now, to ataiwthis '.con-
summation ao devoutly to be wished; he willestigketkno
means, however: infamous; and this' eiing the case, we
ask what security can there be in these colleges for
Catholic faith and morals? We have learnt that there
are some individuals yet 'hoping against hope' that the
inevitable hour has not yet come—the hour which will
consign, as far, at least, as bond fide Catholics are con-
cerned, those Queen's Colleges to the grave 'of oblivion
—to the cold and silent tomb of the Capulets. Ire-
land sees now the animus of the Saxon towards her
Church and her creed; and, seeing this animus, she
will spurn the donors, she will repudiate
their gifts." Here we not only discover
the cloven foot of the priestly spirit, but a
priestly, most probably, a prelatic pen. But let that
pass. There are, doubtless, cogent reasons for delaying
the promulgation of the Pontifical ratification of the
rank bigotry which ',impregnated the decision of the
Thurles prelates. Nor can there be a doubt that these
reasons bear, more or less directly, on the Ecclesiastical
Titles Assumption Bill. The publication of this latest
emanation from the Vatican, it may be supposed by
John of Tuam and his co-prelates, would have the effect
of facilitating the progress of the measure in question
through Parliament, by showing more clearly than be-
fore, that Popery is still the same bigoted and persecu-
ting system it ever was. An assuredly it ought to satisfy
the Protestants of this country, that the Church of Rome
is not in the slightest measure modified by circumstances
or the liberal tendencies of the age, but that she is the
sanse:uncompromising enemy to the exercise of the judg-
ment, or to independent action, which she ever was.
But the cunning of Popery will in this instance be of no
avail. The mask has been pretty well torn from her
visage by recent occurrences, need she appears before us
in all her inherent hideousness. We own that we our-
selves have lately experienced a great change of mind on
this subject. We were inclined to take the most cha-
ritable viow of the character of the Romish Church.
We did think that Popery had been modified by
circumstances. We cherished the conviction, that the
lapse of time, and the influence cf those liberal institu-
tions by which the Church of Rome is surrounded in this
country, had in a great measure moderated the bigotry,
and diminished, if it had not extinguished, the persecut-
ing spirit of Popery. Events—and let us add experi-
ence too—have compelled us to change our opinion. We
have been driven to the conclusion by evidence which
it is impossible to resist, that the. Church of Rome is
the same now as she ever was, and that the disposition
to rekindle the flames of Smithfield exists just as power-
fully as it did in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Et is to the absence of the power to put Protestants to
death that we are to ascribe the fact that the fires of
Smithfield do not blase as fiercely now as they did two
or three hundred years ago. We speak, be it remarked,
of Popery as a system. Our observations apply only to
the majority of those who profess that creed. There are
eeeptions. It is our lot to mix largely with Roman
Catholics, and we speak from personal knowledge, when
eve' say, that there are many among them whose
generous natures enable them to triumph over the
worst features in their system of religious faith.. But
they are exceptions—rare exceptions—just as the spirit
and preaching of such men as Fenelon, Massillon
Boussett, and Pascal, constituted exceptions in
their day, to the spirit and teaching of their 'contem-
porary ecclesiastics. But our 'main object at present is
to appeal to the ratification by the Pope, of the condem-
nation of the Irish Colleges by the Synod of Thurles, in
proof of what we have so long affirmed—that Popery is
not a purely ecclesiastical system, but one which arro-
gates to itself the right to fetter the judgment, and con-
trol the action of its votaries, in secular matters. Not
only are the Popish priests to be prohibited from having
any connexion with the Irish Colleges, but no father or
mother is to send their children to them, on pain of
subjecting themselves to ecclesiastical penalties. What
ecclesiastical penalties are, in the view of a Roman Ca-
tholic, it is not necessary for us to say. Death itself
could scarcely be more dreadful. To many it would not
be so dreadful as to incur priestly displeasure, and be
made the object of-priestly denunciations from the altar.
Rather than run that terrible risk, they will surrender
their consciences, oven in secular matters, to the keeping
of their priests, submit to the worst tyranny, acquiesce
in the utter enthralment of their minds, and sa-
crifice' to any extent, their worldly interests.
The Pontifical ratification of the decrees of the
l'hurles Synod is to be regarded in another most im-
portant aspect. In that fact we sec Popery defeating
the policy of the Government and of the British Legis-
lature. All that the latter have done for the diffusion
of the blessings of a secular education throughout Ire-
land, with the view of ameliorating the condition and
elevating the character of the peasantry, is utterly de-
feated by the prelates at Thurles and the Pope at Rome.
So far as the Roman Catholics of Ireland are concerned,
the Colleges may be shut up forthwith. They are ut-
terly useless institutions. It is a grave reflection, that
the reins of government in Ireland should thus be vir-
tually, in a matter of so much importance, wrested from
the hands of the Legislature and the Executive, and that
a foreign Prince should, to all intents and purposes, be
,Aie ruling sovereign in the dominions of her Majesty.
Let us hope that out of an evil of such enormous meg-
''stitude good will eventually come. Surely, if any one
hesitated before, he can hesitate no longer, to admit the
'absolute necessity. not to say policy, of passing such
.a
measure as will effectually restrain the tyrannical pro-
'pensities, and _cheek the aggressive spirit, of the Romish
;Church.

DAILY NEWS.—Thanks to the M'Haie squad, Go-
Vernment is likely to get through the Eectesiestical
Titles Bill with large majorities. Thanks to the mode
end tone of resistance of this same squad, the Bill itself,
against Miniiterial hope, will be more stringent. There
ismo one who has observed the progress of opinion upon
the question but must have seen how easy it would
have been at one time to have carried a clause or an
amendment, exempting Ireland from the Bill. But the
tent and eloquence of Messrs. Reynolds, Moore, and
Grattan have nailed the Roman Catholic Church in
Ireland to the same conditions as that in England. We
are tar from thinking those conditions definitive. Were
this to be the final and determinate settlement of the
relation between the State on one side, the Ronan Ca-
tholic and Protestant Churches on the other, we should
be inclined to echo much of Mr. Milner Gibson's denun-
ciation of anomaly and injustice. But we look upon
the present as a state of war, of open belligerence be-
tween.the successors of Leo and. those of Luther, be-
tween , foreign dictationiats and native supremacy.
Were peace, present and future, to be obtained by sub-
inissiOn we should probably counsel submission even to
Romish titles and Romish territorial divisions. But when
these are but the first maeceuvres of war, the mere
trumpet sounds a proclamation investing the
sacerdot-al "generalissimos with authority, we are
certainly for taking the field forthwith against them,
denying their authority, denouncing their, spirit, and
repudiating their laws. When the Romans amongst ns
consent to be plain English subjects and fellow-citizens,
then we should be willing to treat them on a footing of
peace and equality. But so long as they come mounted
on Papal chariots, claiming the jurisdiotion of the
,
middle ages, we say, let us proscribe the pageant, an
a
mistake of regarding the presencas definitive
Legislation,th that no
and he would establish as a permanent ruleritar
ial au-
desecrate the idols. Mr. Walpole, however, makes the
Roman Catholic bishop should put forth ter
Whereas
thority, or even territorial titles, in England.
so,
but absolutely sanction it. This is certainly the gplest
waPro-
done so much
restant Church in Ireland; for, havingac
in
t
Mr. Walpole
y Irelandth at h
has
s-e
been ou would not
devised onlyo
t. overlooklettidtiohyweinr dtsohjimen
with regard to authority and
.suprfoernwirn,g
up the same
could not oppose any legislationharehl
property. We
principles whh regard to
the arrangements
cannot, however, believe that
between the English
between the Church, o
Catholich Church,
Pro-
testant Church, and theßoman
calf be anything else than a compromise. And no com-
as it does" by law the
by making
one party
prom set out
other shake off, of its own
State,waivei
saerepresentingllsitps possible,
sr sigibhles,
authority, every one. of its disadvantages. We do not
but that many of the disadvantages under which the
f ay
Roman Catholic Church labours in these realms are
either, tolerable or just; but vie. do net arrange and
create all laws and relations at once by reason or hy
-iafrildeuthe
gederosity. The position of the Roman Catholic:, is the
result, of several centuries of history, of party struggles,
constitutional campaigns, dynastic rivalries, hietly-con-
' tested fields of battle. All these leave results the more
durable perhaps the more free the people, and to be re-
moved and remedied as they can. The Protestants of
this empire came as early to a full sense of the injustice
of their eiscendancy as the Catholics themselves. But
they did not destroy it in a day. Nor did they put
arms into the hands of the Catholics, and say, recover

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