The Sun.
London, England, 1867-05-30 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF TRE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.--We have just achieved one of those de-
s:!ents which whether it be one or many, whether it
be intended or much against inclination, whether a
feat, a folly, or a casualty, we do not know, and
never shall know. One occasionally reads of men
who have suddenly foundthemselves, how they know
not, at the foot of a precipice, with nothing worse
than a few scratches and a slight rent or two. They
can just make out here and there they slid off the
face of the cliff where not quite sheer, and that
lower down their fall was broken by branches and
twigs. The mud and sand at the foot of the cliffs,
too, did their duty. If there was a fixed idea on the
subject of Reform at the commencement of this ses-
sion, it was a hard and fast line, with the security
of ratepaying, to be drawn somewhere. That por-
tion of the public which finds mental food and solid
fact in electoral returns was busily calculating, with
the most careful deduc ions and vigilant corrections,
how many of each class a given suffrage would give
us in every city and borough. Notes doubled and
trebled called attention to the cases, where at £6,
the new electors would out-number the old ones,
and so change the substance and character of the
constituency. These al inns, which were sounded
all last year, had so far told, either on leaders or on
followers, that even the suffrage upon which the
House had at last agreed last session did not re-
appear this spring without a load of securities and
compensations. It is evident that only three months
ago the majority of the Cabinet, the whole Conser-
vative party, and more Liberals than chose to con-
fess, regarded the £6 ratepaying franchise as a very
ugly descent to make all at once, and very likely to
overmaster the political engineers who were trying
to land . us safely at the lower level. But, hap-
pily, or unhappily, as the event may show, at
least one head in the Cabinet knew that it was
necessary to make a good bid for Reform ; that
it would not be satlicieat to keep in the track of the
last bill ; and that a measure out of which every
novelty would be knocked in debate, and nothing
left but the old
.Whig propos 11, would be
ruin to the Cabinet. As the conclusion was
foregone, small inducement was necessary. But it
was found in the black looks of the house, in the
eyes that opened and the ears that quickened at the
announcement of an old Liberal measure in new
Conservative harness. So what has been called the
Ten Minutes' Bill was abandoned almost as quickly
as it had been conceived, and we found ourselves,
to the surprise of many excellent people, landed on
Household Suffrage, guarded with all the securities
and counterpoises that could be invented or ima-
gined. That was the first stage of the glissade, and
in performing it we acquired an impetus which
some of us enjoyed very much, .though aware that
we were now carried off our legs, and could not say
where wo should find- ourselves. Then came the
question of the securities. These had been already
foredoomed by the dissentients in the Cabinet, but,
as often happens, they had seen, not the coming
event, but only its shadow. The securities they
seemed to have some sort of respect for, only like
other securities, it was thought they would be swept
away in a few years, and under the blast of agita-
tion. We have not had to wait for a Reformed
Parliament, an unexpected crisis, or the popular
impulse ; for all these securities, whether negative
or positive, whether disfranchising or enfranchising,
have been strangled in their very birth, abandoned
by their authors, and yielding not even the oppor-
tunity of a single hour's triumph to any supposed
foe. They have been knocked away one after
anotker, or suffered to fall by their own weight, as
cheerfully as all combine to release a newly-built
ship from shore and stay as she glides down her
ways into deep water. 'Where the resolution was
to let nothing hinder, it is not easy to ascribe any
reality of intention to any of these securities. It
is not easy to suspect Mr. Disraeli of faith in so
invidious an exception as the stipulation fur two
years' residence in the lower class of voters, or
in the newly-created anomaly of dual votes. But
the chief of these securities was that personage
who has been the true hero of this almost fabulous
Session, and whom his friends must have sup-
posed to be raised up by Providence in these latter
days for the deliverance of his country—the com-
pound householder. A year ago he was a myth to
all but parochial authorities, and the landlords and
tenants of small houses most of us only see as we
fly over them on railway viaducts. The whole sys-
tem of a legal composition for rates has come in.
very recently, gradually; and rather insidiously.
Mr. Henley calls. it " an invention of Old Nick,"
and Mr. Bright says it has never found its way into
the favoured borough of Rochdale. On the whole,
and taking a calm, dispassionate vi6ar of the de-
parted hero, once destined, as it seemed, to save his

country, we must say that such an offspring of
semi-pauperism and low speculation seemed hardly
adapted for the high function assigned him. It was
an odd quarter to go to for the salvation of the
country . What if no such practice had been in-
vented? Then, as composition is by no means an
unmitigated evil, but, on the contrary, in many
cases a convenient accommodation to facts, why
should it entail disfranchisement ? Well, the very
question had been already asked, and it bad been
admitted that there might be a percentage of
righteous men fit for the suffrage even among com-
pound householders. So our merciful rulers pro-
pose I a way of escape for them w:nch would at least
leave compound householders answerable for their
own doom. But then, not to repeat all the hard
words about " fines" and impossible labour, and so
forth, there was the moral certainty, in which we all
agreed, that these poor people woad not qualify of
thtiir own accord, and the mond support of these
masses would be lost to the new constitution. So,
after much trouble had been spent in the vain en-
deavour to make this man, half ratepayer, half pau-
per, wholly a citiz2n, Government accepted, as if
hailing a lifeboat from a wreck, the mild suggestion
to abolish the compound householder whenever he
stood in the .way of Parliamentary Reform. In-
stead of his fulfilling his mission by eating up the
worst end of the new constituency, the new consti-
tuency has done this for him. But here a slight
attempt was made, or seemed to be made, to arrest
the downward progress of. the bill. A hand was
stretched out, and it grasped a twig, or a straw, or
a little sand. Could not composition still be adjusted
to the franchise by the amicable co-operation of
landlord, tenants, and all parties? As composition
for rates is not itself the simplest thing in the world,
and electoral registration still less so, all sides finally
recoiled from the effort to make them work together
harmoniously, easily, and without the certainty of
corrupt abuses. So down went the compound house-
holder again, this time for good, and he is now his-
torical. Then came the enfranchised householder's
last peril. If everybody is to have a vote who pays
rates, then rates will be paid for everybody, and it
will cost less to pay rates for a small tenement than
for a larger. "So don't let's have the very little
people ; draw a line somewhere," say Mr. Powlett
Scrope and not a few Liberals—even Mr. Bright
himself, but for congruities and proprieties, would
gladly say the same, and do it too. But there was
no receding. The pace was too good to stop. The
bill went over this little hitch as easily as an express

train over a nutshell. The principle of household
suffrage is to be carried out, and there are to be no
sharp lines between a man paying Is. 6d. a week
for his cottage and his neighbour who pays fifteen-
pence. Meanwhile, quite by the way, and with a
sort of Paul Pry expression of " I hope I don't in-
trude," came in the lodger, who is now one of the
great British family. But then came the real down-
fall, the crash, the smashing, the dislodged rubbish,
the broken branches— everything coming down with
a run. Down came all the educational franchises,
orders, degrees, certificates, congregational "calls,"
and every mode by which learning or doc-
trine, or spiritual vocation, loves to authenticate
itself. Down came the money franchises, funds,
shares, and savings-banks. Whether they were
ever intended to stand, and whether anybody ever
thought them worth a straw in a bill which
gives the suffrage to every man who pays a
rate, is a mystery, into which we will not in-
trude. But when all this stage property had
been swept away, then came what some people
used to think a vastly more serious question than
any scheme of Borough Reform. The County
Franchise had to be settled. We have had bills and
debates about it every year, we think, for thirty
years. Sometimes these debates were animated,
and even important. They were always amusing,
and we used to hail the pleasant anniversary. It
will come no more. Mr. Locke King's day will dis-
appear from the Calendar. It has been settled at
a private meeting of county members, and in a
debate which, short as it was, was superfluous, that
£5 copyhold and £l2 occupation franchises will
meet the views of all parties, and we are not at all
sure Mr. Bright is not beginning to thank Heaven
that there is a county constituency. How long is
this pace to last, and shall we dash through the re-
distribution in three or four morning sittings? It
would take very rough driving to do that, for there
are ups and downs, and sharp turnings, and big
boulders on the road ; and every borough is a sepa-
rate question, which it is easier to get into than get
out of. However, we shall see. Where there is a
will there is a way, and there certainly is a will to
pass a Reform Wit.
THE " WESTMINSTER GAZETTE" ON THE REPEAL
OF OBSOLETE LAWS IN IRELAND.—Since no time is
more favourable than the present for putting an
end to the injustice still perpetrated in Ireland by
the enforcement against Catholics of religious dis-
tinctions, no effort ought to be omitted to press
upon Parliament the wisdom of removing from the
statutes of England every penal law, obsolete or
still in force, against her Majesty's Catholic sub-
jects. We are glad that even a partial effort is

being made in this direction • that certain oaths,
insulting to Catholics, are likely to be soon abo-
lished by' the bill introduced by Sir C. O'Loghlin,
Member for the County of Clare, and also that
Mr. M'Evoy, Member for the County of Meath, is
about to assail another of those penal enactments,
namely, the Ecclesiastical Titles' Act, to the gross
injustice of which we have already directed public
attention. But, instead of having private members
nibbling at the penal laws in this manner, we
would call on the Government of the country to
deal with the whole subject of them as wise states-
men ought to do, and bring in a general measure
repealing every penal law affecting our Catholic
fellow-subjects. This would be the manly and
generous mode of acting in the matter. If the pre-
sent Government undertake the passing of such a
measure, there is no doubt of their possessing the
power necessary for carrying it into law; and by
this one simple act of justice they will do more
to disarm rebellion, and conciliate the masses of
the people of Ireland, than they can ever accom-
plish by the suspending of the Constitution, the
passing of Arms' Bills, the issuing of Special
Commissions, and the punishment of unfortunate
rebels. We do not blame the Government for
dealing firmly with those who disturb the public
peace ; but, whilst they punish on the one hand,
we call upon ' them, at the same time, to remove
all just causes of irritation—and there are many
such—still existing in that long-misgoverned coun-
try. In our article of last week, on the subject
of British rule in Ireland, we showed by the words
of the Act of Parliament, 10th George IV., c. 7,
section 25, the wanton insults offered to the
Catholic judges, to the Catholic sheriffs, and,
in their persons, to the Catholic people f that
kingdom. This same penal law equally applies
to every Catholic chief magistrate and corporate-
officer, and there are few things productive of
greater mischief in Ireland at the present day—
for it keeps up a perpetual ill-feeling in the minds
of the people, and prevents the possibility of their
forgetting the old penal code of bygone times.
The Catholics of Dublin, for instance, form the
overwhelming majority of that, the second city
in her Majesty's dominions. Catholics also com-
pose the great majority of the Dublin Corporation,
and have the power, if they choose to exercise it,
of selecting a Catholic Lord Mayor every year.
But such is their generosity that they have elected
a Protestant to that high and' honourable office
every alternate year since the passing of the Muni-
cipal Reform Act, although the Protestants kept
them totally excluded from the Corporations for
centuries before O'Connell flung open their doors,
as he had previously opened the portals of the
British Parliament to the Catholics of these king-
doms. The fact here stated proves the kindly
feeling of the Irish Catholics, and surely it is not
creditable to the Imperial Legislature to maintain
a law at the present day which would deprive
the Catholic Lord Mayor of his office if he were
to enter his own church in his robes any Sunday
or Holy-day in the year. The Protestant Lord
Mayor attends his house of worship in Dublin
in his official robes. The Catholic Lord Mayor
invariably attends the Cathedral Church in Marl-
borough-street, on the first Sunday after entering
on his official duties, but is obliged by the existing
penal law, to attend without his robes, or any of
the insignia of hiS office. This distinction is so
hurtful to the minds of the people of Dublin, that
many thousands- of them, after the church becomes
filled, remain in the adjoining streets until the
service is ended, and during all that time are
engaged in condemning the law which subjt.cts
their magisterial representative to this indignity,
and which, in his person, insults and wounds the
feelings of every Catholic in the kingdom. This
open insult to their religion causes them to dwell
on the penal laws of former times, and keeps up
the tradition of the wrongs their fathers had en-
dured. Now, we ask, is this wise on the part of
our Legislature ? Would it not be better to allow
the Irish people, to forget the past, than to have
their minds constantly embittered by such recollec-
tions ? We ask our Protestant countrymen to make
it their own case, and say if they would like to be
stamped as the inferiors of Catholics, or of the
people of any other religion ? We know they would
not submit quietly to any such degradation, and
we would, therefore, call upon them to act towards
Irish Catholics just as they would have others act
towards themselves. It is evident, indeed, that
this remnant of Irish persecution, for conscience'
sake, cannot last much longer; for we know that
our leading Statesmen, on both sides of the House,
are in favour of the immediate repeal of all such
enactments as are in force at the present day in
Ireland. These enactments, affecting laymen, which
wo haye here. pointed out, are bad enough ; but

the penal laws now in force against the ecclesiag
tics of the Catholic Church are still worse. )31
the 24th section of the 4th George IV., C. 7, it 15
enacted that, "if any person" (other than Pro-
testants and Presbyterians) " shall assume or use
the name, style, or title of archbishop of any pro-
vince, bishop of any bishopric, or dean of any
deanery, in England or Ireland, he shall, for every
such offence, forfeit and pay the sum of one hun-
dred pounds." Such is the law passed in 1829, an',
which is still in force. But this law was not
deemed sufficiently stringent, and hence another
Act, the 15th and 16th Victoria, c. 60, commonly
called the Ecclesiastical Titles' Act, was passed
some two-and-twenty years after, which imposes
the same enormous penalty upon any Catholic,
ecclesiastic who shall assume or use the title 01
any town or place whatsoever within this realm'
Let us now see what the effect would be. if
this law were actually enforced. All ecclesiastica,
jurisdiction in the Catholic Church, throughoti,t
the entire world, emanates from the Pope of ILon
and is by him bestowed on the several arclibishoPs
and bishops, within the provinces or dioceses ,re-
spectively assigned to them. It is by virtue of 015
jurisdiction that the archbishops and bishops a,r°o
~.
enabled to govern and control those placed unt!'
them. For example, it is not by any authoriq
possessed by him, as Paul Cullen, that the Cardinati
Archbishop of Dublin can condemn any seer;
society, or any member of any s•ich society ; but
is by virtue of the ecclesiastical jurisdiction con-
ferred on him as Archbishop of Dublin that lie
exercises his authority. Let us suppose,
that any priest in Dublin, or any part of the Po"
vince committed to his Grace's spiritual charget
were to favour Fenianisin to7morrow, and that
the archbishop deemed it his duty, as he deem'
edly would, to punish him for such conduct, he
could properly do so only by signing the sentence
as " Paul, Archbishop of Dublin." And it follows,
therefore, that in order to discharge his solemn
duty to the Queen, and render a service to the (1°
vernment, by preserving the public peace, tiled
Catholic Archbishop of Dublin would be compelle,
then,
to violate this most needless and absurd penal lam',
and be obliged to subject himself to a fine of tit'
hundred pounds. Could any Government, we ass'
enforce such a law at the present time ? Certainll
not. And if the law cannot be enforced—but if, ,°ll,
the contrary, the Government must feel thankieL
to the Catholic bishops for violating it, in erd.,,,r
to preserve the public peace—where is the use
keeping such a law on the statute-book ? What Iv"
have said of his Eminence Cardinal Cullen, al3
plies equally to every other archbishop and bis 11,01!
in these kingdoms. In the discharge of the dutie:
of their sacred office, they are compelled to 'l2O
the name and style of their See ; and area
therefore, daily compelled to violate this unils,
and oppressive law. It is the duty of all Catho,
lie ecclesiastics, but more especially of those el,eo
vated to high position, to teach submission if
the constituted authorities ; but the effects °,
their teaching on this head are likely to I)
weakened by the very fact that they who
cate the doctrine of obedience to the laws are WI,
selves obliged to violate some of their ena,cat
ments every day. We are certain, however, tuto
the nature and folly of these laws only require d;
in d'
be generally understood by the people of Engerorder to have them immediately repealed. It g
al
mistake to, suppose that it would suffic3 to rerra
the Ecclesiastical Titles' Act, in order to anase
liberty to the Catholic hierarchy. For this puTl3
the portions of the 10th George IV., c. 7, to ~ ,11
we have referred, must also be repealed. Thel;e,le
another enactment still more penal in its nav-tia
than
.any of :those we have above adverted to, lie
that is the law regarding the regular Catn°,lo
clergy. of these kingdoms. We believe that v,at
existence of such a law is not known to the grc,,,,
bulk of our fellow-countrymen, and that, if it Nve`u;
they would soon insist on the repeal of so ociiod
a statute. It is enacted by the 29th section a
the 4th George IV., c. 7, that if any welter
of any society of the regular clergy shall, "is
the commencement of this Act, come into t.'ity
realm, lie shall be deemed and taken to be gilt illy
of a misdemeanour, and, being thereof 10,0 be
convicted, shall be sentenced and ordered t°
fib,
of from the United Kingdom for the te'b,
of his natural life." In a former article on this 51141
ject, we told our readers that there was a Pel,:nt
law in force in these kingdoms at the pres'be
day which sentenced regular clergymen " t,°
ind
transported for being alive in this realm ;' ca
although we are sure such a thing must haves eenino
almost incredible to many, they can7now have d$
doubt of the fact, as we have quoted the waer,
of the Act of Parliament. The reader will P
ceive, by the wording of the Act, that it is nir
for committing any crime, nor even for perf°1:1110
ing any clerical duties, but, literally, for "
alive"btiiat
within any part of these kingdoms,
these Catholic priests are liable toe.transP°,r;or
tion ! Hence, it follows, that if the Elq,'-re
or Empress of the French were to come il;er
again, on a visit to our Queen, and bring °tlie
a, chaplain of any of the regular orders of 41,1
Catholic clergy, the imperial chaplain ly°`be
be liable, according to the letter of the law, t°o
seized, incarcerated, tried, and sentenced to trao
portation for the period of his natural life !
long is England, we repeat, to preserve oil -0
statute-book, despite her boasted Christianity, .30,
the enlightenment of the age in which We b ocl
such obsolete laws? We are sure that the eeoe
sense of the country will soon put an end to ti
in
last remains of •the barbarous code formerlY
force against the Catholics of these kingdoms'