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

LONDON. SATURDAY. NOVEMBER 29, 1851

The first step has been taken, the war against
the absolute obscurantist conspirators of Europe has
been declared, and the gauntlet thrown down by the
Itramontauista has been taken up by the Protestant

Alliance. Little did the crowned and mitred con

spirators, who concocted the notable plan of Popish
aggression against the liberties of this country, which
roused the Protestant feeling of England last year to
such determined resistance—little did they imagine
that the first fruits of their impotent arrogance
would be the formation of a Protestant Alliance,
which should hold out the right hand of fellow-
ship to every nation and to every individual
struggling to cast off the yoke of abso-
lutism and of obscurantism—little did they
imagine that the immediate result of the aggression
of Cardinal WisEmix would be the expression of
sympathy for, and the offer of assistance to, the Con-
stitutional King of SARDINIA and his enlightened
subjects, in the struggle which they are now so nobly
and so successfully carrying on against despotism and
obscur.ntistn. The immediate object of calling the
meeting yeiterday was to petition Parliament to with-
draw the grant to Msynooth. This is a matter in which
we do not altogether concur with the Alliance. Had the
proposal been now made, for the first time, to vote a
grant to Maynootb, we should have strenu-
ously resisted it, but there is all the dif.

fer,,nce in the world between refusing to vote
a grant originally, and withdrawing it

after it has been voted. The Maynooth grant also
may be considered to the full as much an educational
grant as a religious one,. and moreover, as at present
advised, we are not quite sure that it could be with-
drawn without a breach of national faith, for we be-
lieve that the maintenance of the Maynooth College
by grants from the British Parliament was one of the
conditions, if not expressed, at least implied, of the
Union with Ireland, and a great nation should never
be tempted, even by the most outrageous provocation, to
a breach of faith. These arguments were only two
years since admitted by men of all parties to be so
cogent that even those who had all along conscien-
tiously objected to the grant were contented to let it
pass in silence, so convinced were they that they had
not the slightest chance of opposing it successfully.
The present agitation against it is the natural fruit
of the Synod of Thurles and the denunciation of the
Queen's Colleges by PAUL the Astronomer of Armagh,
and Joust the Lion of Tuam ; and should the grant
be withdrawn, the prelates who attended the Synod of
Thurles, and the Poi's who approved their proceeding,
will be alone answerable for such an occurrence. We
would also submit to the members of the Protestant
Alliance whether the withdrawal of the Maynooth
grant would not be a mistake, which in
politics is worse than a fault ? We re-
gard, however, this affair of the Maynooth
grant as .a matter of very secondary importance in-
deed, when compared with the great results that must
necessarily follow from the formation of a great Pro-
testant Alliance, on the principles announced yester-
day. The battle for the liberties of mankind, the
great fight for the right of private judgment, must
be fought not in England but on the Continent of
Europe. Obscurantism must be attacked in Rome
itself, the war must be carried into the enemy's ter-
ritories—it must be an offensive war, to be a suc-
cessful war. So long as the Romans contented
themselves with acting on the defensive against
HANNIBAL, so long the Carthaginian General con-
tinued to be master of the greater part of Italy.
It was not until SCIPIO invaded the Carthaginian
territory that -HANNIBAL evacuated Italy; and it will
only be when Protestantism shall attack priestcraft
in its strongholds and on its own ground that the
right of private judgment will be secured. We
therefore urge the Protestant Alliance to direct all
their exertions to the Continent, to hold out the right
hand of fellowship to the struggling patriots of Italy,
of Germany, and of Hungary, to make common
cause with them, to afford them every assistance,
material and moral, in their power, to exert their Par-
liamentary influence in such a manner as to secure
that henceforth, no matter what party may be
in power, the foreign policy of this country
shill be based upon free and Protestant
principles, so that all who are opposed to Rome and to
obscurantism, no matter of what creed or nation, may
rely upon England for support. Above all, let them
recollect this great fact—whoever is against Rome
must be with them, and w heftier he be a constitution-
alist or a republican, whether he be named Stec/alum
or MazziNi, whether he call himself a Protestant orby
any other name, he is an ally and a friend, and is en-
titled to their cordial and undeviating support.

--
The gallant and patriotic sentiments which pervade
the speech delivered by the Hon. R. J. WALKER, ex-
Secretary of the United States Treasury, at South-
ampton, on the occasion of the entertainment given to
KOSSUTH by the corporation of that town, gave us so
exalted an opinion cf the man, that we perused with no
slight degree of attention the oration in which he re-
sponded to the proposal of his health at the banquet which
took place in his honour on Monday evening at Liver- •