The Sun.
London, England, 1856-04-21 00:00:00

With Germany in such a state (it is unneces-
sary to repeat what we have so recently put for-
ward respecting Prussia), how can grave apprehen-
i ions be avoided—or how can there be real re-
joieings for a mere temporary armistice, when all
the elements of disturbance are in operation ?
We must know more within the week, for the
ratifications must be exchanged on or before the
27th instant, at Paris, and then the text of the
inauspicious Treaty will be exposed to public criti-
cism, and the people will know what they have to
rejoice for or to mourn.

' The House of Commons is quick to repent
of diseudowment. Oa Tuesday night it voted
the repeal of the Act for endowing Maynooth
College, but on Wednesday it refused to abolish
"Ministers' Money." One night it affirms that
Catholics shall not receive a penny by Act
of Parliament ; the next night that the Protestan3
;Ministers of seven Catholic towns shall be sup-
ported at the cost of Catholics. It sees no
harm in endowing Protestant clergymen directly
out of the pockets of Roman Catholics, but it
thinks it a great wrong to endow Catholic clergjr-
'nien—with' a-•little Latin; Greek, and—Mathe-
matics—at the expense of the national Treasury.
We care but little about the Maynoodi grant in
itself—if Catholics took our advice they would
thing it in the face of Mr. SPOONER—but it
is a grant which is equity itself compared
Lo the irritating tax which Mr. FAGAN
desired to abolish. It is common enough to com-
plain of the factiousness of Irish IVlember4 ; but
what shall we say for the consistency or liberality
~f a House which gives Mr. SPOONER a majority
for depriving Catholics of a small Government
rant, and Mr. HAMILTON a majority almost four
times as large for ra;ing Cttholic occupiers to the
z.upport of ministers whose orders they deny, and
whose ministrations they necessarily deem he-
rotical ?

Ministers' Money is, as many of our readers
will remember, an impost laid on some seven
Irish towns by an a.,t of CHARLES 11. It origi-
n tted in the inifatbli of forming Protestant co-
lonies iu Ireland, but has issued in forming only
sang incomes for Protestant clergyman by a direct
charge on professors of the tributary creed. In
1854 Sir JOLIN YOUNG carried au act which aimed
to mitigate the pressure of the burden without
removing a penny of it. Its collection was taken
froni the Ministers themselves, and intros ted to
the Corporations, and arrears were to be consi-
dered a debt from the Corporations to the Crown.
The Corporations, ho.wever, sympathise with the
oppressed, and not with the Government ; they
refuse accordingly to collect the tax. They have
no wish to be ecclesiastical publicans ; and Mr.
fronsmarr, while promising to try what the law
can do with the. recusant Corporations, confesses
his doubts about the result. The Corporation of

Dublin itself had waited on him, and 'with "the
politest negatives the green isle affords declined
entirely to enforce the tax. The Secretary could
only with equal suavity inform them that

Government must " see that the Corpora.

tion performed its duty." Most inconve-
niently, however, the act gives no definite
Powers of enforcement to the Lord-Lieutenant ; but
Mr. nonsmAN told the House he had handed
over the case of the refractory burghers to the
Crown lawyers, and if they could not help him he
would come again to Parliament. The whole case
is spl2staptigy the same as that of Church Pates
in England, and quite similar to that of the An-
nuity Tax in Edinburgh. All three are precious
specimens of ecclesiastical taxes, combining a
minimum of advantage with a maihnum of an-
noyance ; and all three are equally a disgrace to
the meanness and bigotry which will not give
them up.

To us, we confess, it is unaccountable that a
house of English gentlenien will consent so long

t° to made the mere catspaw of iatolerant and

interested clerics. Worship paid for by angry
householders can be neither Christian nor useful.

Expediency as well as principle demands the ex-
ticietioa o--such iipopta Optchety 132ta •

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Thich has been seriously ventilated at the
Longress, although possibly the reports of
the discussions on this alI-important topic may not
be as complete as could be desired. Her inter-
ference in the internal government of the smaller
States is of the most insolent and unwarrantable
description. In Tuscany she objected to the re-
ception of an attache to the Sardinian Embassy,
who had been previously approved of by the
Tuscan Government, 'and endeavoured, with
haughty and overbearing insolence, to force
. Piedmont, then .the_ faithful and efficient ally of
France and England, into war—a war that was
only averted by the extraordinary forbearance Qf
the Power so wantonly assailed. More recently
she has invaded Parma—acting as if martial law
had been proclaimed, seizing the inhabitants and
incarcerating them, without the shadow of autho-
rity, in Austrian dungeons, and without even
thinking it necessary to communicate the
facts to the local Governments treating it,
in fact, as a conquered province, towards
which not even the slightest courtesy -is
required. The States of the Church and of King
BOMBA are also treated as her own ; the authori-
ties being encouraged in their misgovernment and
in setting the voice of public opinion at defiance
by her sympathy in everything objectionable and
her opposition to everything good—while at the
same time she alienates the feelings of her own
subjects by her contemptible truckling to the
sacerdotal influence, which had so long been re-
sisted even by the different Cabinets of Vienna in
the olden time. How then, while matters are in
such a condition, and Austria is exhibiting such.
unjustifiable and unwarrantable pretensions, can
any well-founded anticipations be entertained as
to the permanent tranquillity of Europe ?
Nor is this all. Her troops still occupy the
Principalities ; and there is reason to believe
that the :strongest opposition was offered
at the Conferences to their withdrawal. By
their tyranny and oppression they have
earned for themselves the undying hatred of the
peOpre, wh6 contrast. very 'unfavourably-thecon-
duct of their pretended friends with that of their
avowed enemy, who seized by force that which
the Germans were very injudiciously permitted to
occupy as friends and allies. Difficulties may
arise on this part of the case from whence it is
impossible to see a mode of extrication.
But beyond all it is certain that the Austrian
Plenipotentiary is, or affects to be, greatly dis-
satisfied with various matters that occurred during
the course of the negotiations. She has found
that her truckling and contemptible policy has
earned the contempt ,of all, and that she stands
in just as bad a position even as Russia. The
CZAR" who reckoned on the obedience and the
gratitude (!) of his German Satraps, is disgusted
with the time-servers—and his representative
omitted no opportunity of snubbing Austria—
testifying respect for his manly opponents, but
none for the petty go-between, who had not
the courage to draw the sword openly, on either
side, but alternately favoured the one or the
other, according as the chances of success seemed
to predominate.