The Sun.
London, England, 1835-07-06 00:00:00

OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

he REFORM ASSOCIATION II6S published at
-)GWAY'S some admirable plans and legal digests
securing the full Enrolment of a Liberal consti-
ency at the approaching Registration. We recom-
mend them to the immediate notice of Reformers, that
they may be extensively disseminated throughout the
United Kingdom. The 20th of July, the last day for
the delivery of titles to the elective franchise in counties
and towns, is near at hand ; our Liberal countrymen,
therefore, must lose no time in taking the field and
forming local associations where none exist. We are
well aware that during the last month the Reformers
have been most active, but much remains yet to be per-
fected. The cities and boroughs require little com-
parative attention, except to ensure the payment of all
taxes and local rates essential to the electoral qualifica-
tion ; for the registration is to a certain extent compul-
sory on the local officers, and in the large majority of
towns active committees exist, who arc sedulously at-
tending to the popular interests. The overseers return
in the original lists all persons who appear to them
entitled to vote, and it therefore only remains for the
Reformers--,first, to pay up all arrears of taxes by the
40th of July due before the 6th of April preceding ;
second, to see that, before the 25th of August, a due
and full return has been made by the overseers, or to
claim a rectification ; third, by notices of objection, on
or before the 25th of August, to oppose all false re-
turns or illegal claims. But the rural or county re-
gistration is the all-important subject which demands
immediate and active attention. A county vote de-
pends entirely on the act of the qualified person, or the
activity of the local associations in collecting, register-
ing, and maintaining all legal claims to the county
franchise. In this department of the Parliamentary
Registration the Reformers have been most deficient
and remiss. The Tories possess superior advantages
and peculiar party means for effecting a county regis-
tration of votes, and for debasing the Registry. The paid
agents—the land-stewards—the hired attorneys—the
Tory clergy (all the machinery of Toryism)—consti-
lute a standing army of electioneering partisans, posted
in every village and parish. The check on the frau.
dulent registration of tenants is difficult, and has been
sadly neglected ; but it is still practicable, if the Re-
formers will only afford a temporary attention, display
a little patriotic activity, and, above all, collect small
but adequate funds for the object. Nothing is so com-
mon as the fraudulent registration of a father and a
crop of sons, for leasehold or tenanted property which
the parent alone really holds ; and in all cases the Re-
formers should have an eye to the value of the pro-
perty qualification. Whenever they see on the pub-
lished lists an ant-hill of family-names, and a clan of
kindred electors for the same qualification, strict in-
quiry should be instituted. So far as to the registra-
tion and scrutiny of the enemy. Liberal registration,
however, in the counties, is the most important subject
to which the reformers can apply themselves. The
freehold and leasehold qualifications for counties,
existing in the towns, especially, have been ex-
tremely neglected. In the manufacturing and
commercial counties, and in divided counties, the active
registration of the smaller class of freeholders ought to
secure the exclusive return of Liberal Representatives.
We have heard of numerous village and suburban dis-
tricts in which hundreds of freeholders are unregistered.
The Reform Association has excellently pointed out
the mode and easy practicability of county and district
Committees, in " Suggestions for Registration Asso-
ciations in Counties." They have also lithographed a
plan or sectional county map, as a model for facilitat-
ing local division and district communication. The
digests, a " County Elector's Manual," and a printed
broad sheet on county qualifications and registration,
are invaluable guides for the accomplishment of the all-
important object of complete registration. We there-
fore call on the. "Reformers of England,.Wales, Scot-
land, and Ireland, to give their immediate and active
attention to this object of the most urgent and national
importance—we do not say their disinterested exertions,
for every man is concerned in promoting an object which
conduces to his individualadvantage. The recklessparty
activity of the Tories, who resort to every corrupt means
of intimidating and influencing voters—the wealth
of the local leaders of the " Conservative party," their
notorious and avowed design to put down the Liberals
and the Reforming Administration by their corrupt
power over the constituencies, and through the affec-
tions of the Court, demand of the people the utmost
exertions to frustrate their designs. The ultimate de-
feat of Toryism is certain ; but if the Reformers sleep,
their triumph will be indefinitely postponed. Let
them act on the encouraging letter of Lord Stanley to
Sir T. Hesketh, the burden of which was, "for
Heaven's sake do not rally or unite the Reformers by
new Conservative Clubs ; leave them alone, or the
Liberals will assuredly prevail !" We again, there-
fore, urge the Reformers to take counsel, and every-
where and actively to form Registration Associations.
" To the ramparts_ I—our enemy is at our walls ! !"
Let not the Reformers, even where a minority, fear to
excite the Tories ; Liberal societies will ultimately en-
sure success, though at first they may not always be
successful: Give us a fair field, and we shall inevit-
ably vanquish the Tories. And again, under present
political circumstances and prospects, we require the
Reformers to adopt for their standard the watchword of
Union.—Morning Chronicle.
The Whigs are beginning to play the old game of
threatening "to swamp" the House of Lords. The
following delicate hint, to that effect, appears in the
Globe of Saturday. After a coarse allusion, by name,
to certain Peers who the writer thinks are likely. to op-
pose the Corporation Bill, he winds up his tirade
with the following kind of manifesto :—" That at-
tempts will be made to injure its provisions and im-
pair its general efficiency is likely enough ; but we be-
lieve that Government is resolved to carry the Bill
into a law essentially as it stands, and to suffer no
deterioration, of either its principles or details. We
have reason to suppose that Ministers possess the
power to do so ; and we are firmly convinced that they
will exercise it without the slightest hesitation." Is
this the language, we.would ask, which ought to be
used towards a deliberative assembly —an assembly
to which the Constitution has assigned the middle
and conhecting link in the chain of legislation,
and one which has exhibited more talent and apti-
tude for business than perhaps any other existing
legislative assembly in the world ? In saying this we
do not mean to disguise our impression that a large
proportion of the House of Lords may be behind ',,he
spirit of the age on the subject of Reform. T',115, to
sanguine minds, may appear to be a much greater evil
than it really is. To us the slow caution
and Conser-
vative spirit of the House of Lords rresents that kind
of preventive check which resemble.s the effect of a drag
put upon a wheel, which would., without it, descend a
hill with too rapid and dangr.:rous a velocity. And on
what subject and by whilm is this threat of swamping
the House of Lords htid out ? Upon a measure which
has been reeeived by the opponents of Ministers with
a degree of carrs'our, not to say of approbation, as to its
general objects, which has, in fact, annoyed and dis-
comfited its projectors, who themselves owe their politi-
cal existence to a faction unparalleled both in its objects
and component parts by any thing which the history of
Parliamant can exhibit ! While, then, on the one hand
we have no wish to see the House of Lords rejecting a
measure merely on the score of the party with whom it
may originate, neither will they, we trust, be deterred
from examining it minutely, and exercising an un-
biassed judgment on its principles and details, when it
comes before them, by any such threat as the above,
the decency and prudence of which we leave to be re-
conciled by those who, professing Whig
now,rinciplenow, know what they formerly professed to p
be. \Ve
know of no satire upon Whiagisin half so bitter as
these bruta fidmina of its modern professors exhibit.
There are few of the original principles of Whiaaism
better defined and understood than the attachment of
bt)
that party to what may be termed the balance of the
Constitution, or the manner in which its three com-
ponent parts are made to operate as a check upon the
encroachments and excesses of each other. Never
was the maintenance of that balance more important
than at the present moment, when the democratical
branch is prepared to run riot to 4/1 extent which calls
so loudly for the drag to be put upon its velocity. This,
then, is not the period when. any well-wisher to the
CrOnditUtioll "Mid Wibb to see one branch of the

Constitution nullified ; and least of all is such an ob-
ject excusable in the quarter which, however, thus
unequivocally displays it.—Morning Herald. ,
We publish this day the official tables of the public
income and expenditure for the year and quarter which
terminated yesterday, compared with the statements by
which the nation was apprised of its financial position
this time last year. It will be seen with regret that
the income of the country has decreased, whether we
make our comparison upon the whole year, or the
single quarter. The diminution in the year is
1,758,386/. ; that of the quarter is 656,407/. These
figures unfortunately show that the defalcation of
the quarter just expired exceeds the average de-
falcation of the whole year, unprosperous as it has
been. We have no pleasure in contemplating the
figures which represent a declining Revenue, since
they are generally the forerunner of a bad Budget
speech, and bad Budget speeches arc our especial
aversion. Mr. Spring Rice will have to make a
speech upon the subject, which, but for the Church
Revenue Appropriation resolution of the House of
Commons, would have been in the hands of Sir Ro-
bert Peel ; and, all things considered, we confess wee
cannot consider the position of Mr. Spring Rice as
peculiarly enviable. Our Ministerial contemporaries
talk about the transfer of the tea duties from the Ex-
cise to the Customs as a mode of accounting for the
diminution of the Excise revenue. But the Customs
ought surely to have increased as much as the Excise
has fallen off, or there is no sense in the argument.
Now, the diminution of the Excise and Customs
taken. together in 'the last quarter, when compared
with the corresponding quarter of 1834, is just
736,750/., which is, as it appears to us, a proof that
the people of England, in these liberal and reforming
times, possess diminished means of consuming those
articles of comfort or luxury which are chargeable with
the Custom and Excise Duty ; the former as well as
the latter being a criterion of the enjo3ments of the
people. Many of the more simple of our countrymen
entertained the belief that the liberal principles
which are so well represented by Lord John Russell,
and Mr. O'Connell, Mr. Roebuck, and Mr. D. W.
Harvey, must conduce to the welfare of the people.
Those principles are now in full operation, notwith-
standing which it appears that the enjoyments and
comforts of the people, as represented by the Customs
and Excise Revenue, are progressively and rapidly de-
clining. This, we should think, must be a puzzle to
some of our very liberal Members of Parliament.—
Morning Post.
Some of our contemporaries appear to be rather
strangely affected by the disclosures made through the
Rev. Mr. M'Ghee's translation and publication of
parts of " Dens's Complete Body of Theology," a
book which has been published at avast expense by
the heads of the Popish Church of Ireland, sanctioned
by their authority, and enjoined by them as a text
book to the priests under their sacerdotal rule. In
connection, or contrast, with this elaborate, expensive,
and official work, which prescribes the answers to be
given to the questions discussed at the quarterly con-
ferences of the Popish clergy throughout Ireland, and
is, in fact, to be considered as embracing the whole
body of doctrine, as well as of religious exercise, to be
maintained and observed by the priesthood of their
Church—in contrast with it we are obliged to Mr.
M'Ghee for presenting to us certain declarations of
the Roman Catholic Bishops, made when, in the hot
pursuit of emancipation, it was the interest and the
object of these same Bishops to throw a smooth sur-
face over their principles, and, as Mr. M'Ghee ex-
presses it, to blind the Protestant Government to the
real projects of Popish supremacy entertained by them
and their confederates—the lay agitators. Here fol-
lows the placard, that is, the ostensible and make-
believe profession of faith, political and religious, put
forth for the mystification of the Protestant coinmun-
nity by these devout diplomatists :
" In the year 1826, when it was the interest of the Church
of Rome to blind the Protestant Government, the Roman
Catholic Archbishops and Bishops assembled to make a decla-
ration and protest, and to give their sentiments as ratified by
an oath to the Protestants of the Empire. The smoothness
and plausible tendency of this address is much to be remarked
it begins—
"' At a time when the spirit of calm inquiry is abroad, and
men seem anxious to resign those prejudices through which
they viewed the doctrines of others, the Archbishop and
Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland avail
themselves with pleasure of the dispassionate tone of the
public mind, to exhibit a simple and correct view of those
tenets that arc most frequently misrepresented.
" If it please the Almighty that th© Catholics of Ireland
should be doomed to continue in the humble and degraded
condition in which they are now placed, they will submit with
resignation to the Divine will. The prelates, however, con-
ceive it a duty which they owe to themselves, as well as to their
Protestant fellow-subjects, whose good opinion they value, to
endeavour once more to remove the false impressions that
have been frequently cast upon the faith and discipline of that
church which is entrusted to their care, that all may be enabled
to know with accuracy the genuine principles of those men
who are proscribed by law from any participation in the honour,
dignities, and emoluments of the state.'
" Their declaration is divided, then, into 14 heads, which
are numbered—and in the last they conclude with the same
protestation
" ' Whilst we have in the foregoing declaration endeavoured
to state in the simplicity of truth such doctrines of our church
as are frequently misunderstood or misrepresented amongst
our fellow-subjects, to the great detriment of the public web.
fare and of Christian charity, and whilst we have d.'isclaimed
anew those errors or wicked principles which Ilave been im-
puted to Catholics, we also avail ourselves i the present oc-
casion to express our readiness at all_ times to give when
required by the competent authority authentic and true infor.
mation upon all subjects connec*.ed with the doctrine and dis.
cipline of our church, and to e_eprecate the injustice of having
oar faith and principles ju'lged of by reports made of them by
persons either avowedly ignorant of, or but imperfectly
acquainted with, tbq nature of our church government, its
doctrines, laws, e:.;ages, and discipline.
" This declaration we approve, subscribe, and publish, as
well that those who have formed erroneous opinions of our
doctrines and our principles may be at length undeceived ; as
that you, dearly beloved, be made strong in that faith which you
have inherited as the children of saints, who look for that life
which God will give to those that have never changed their
faith from him.'—Job. ii, 18.
" Reverend Brothers—beloved children---:' Grace, mercy,
and peace be to you from God the Father, and from Christ
Jesus our Lord.'-1 Tim., i, 2.
" Dublin. 25th January, 1826.'
" ' Patrick Curtis, D.D. " Daniel Murray, D.D.
Oliver Kelly, D.D. Robert Laffan, D.D.
Farrell O'Reilly, D.D. J. O'Shaughnessy, D.D. •
Peter M'Loughlin,_l3,l). Thomas Costello, D.b. :•
James Magauran, a D. Kiaran Marum, D.D.
George T. Plur;Kett, D.D. Peter Waldron, D.D.
James Keat;:,,g, D.D. John Murphy, D.D.
Charles 7:usky, D.D. James Doyle, D.D.
Keerman, D.D. P. M'Nicholas, D.D.
?crick Kelly, D.D. P. M'Gettingan, D.D.
Cornelius Egan, D.D. Edmund Ffrench, D.D.
William Crolly, D.D. Thomas Coen, D.D.
Patrick Maguire, D.D. Robert Logan, D.D.
Patrick M‘Mahon, D.D. Patrick Burke, D D.
John M'Hale, D. D. John Ryan, D.D.'
" Nov you see, brethren, the signatures of all these Doc.
tors of Divinity, these Roman bishops, to this address and de-
claration, which, to give it more weight and authority, they
address to their priests and people.
" You have here only the first and last paragraphs of it,
which express their intention in its publication, as if, being
addressed to their priests and people, it furnished a conclusive
pledge and proof that they could never teach them any other
principles than those contained in this declaration. Now mark,
brethren, one of the principles which in the 11th head they
abjure on their oath:—

XL The Catholics of Ireland not only do not believe,
but they declare upon oath that they detest as unchristian and
impious the belief that it is lawful to murder or destroy any
person or persons whatsoever, for or under the pretence of
their being heretics, and also the principle that no faith is to
be kept with heretics.' "

Thus much for ostensible and skin-deep Popery,
placed in that point of view whence Protestants are
invited to behold it. But the canvass has another side
when exhibited to the eyes of true believers. It is
observed by Mr. M'Ghee, that " as the Roman Ca-
tholic church does not allow her priests to speak, every
man after his own private judgment, but has the regu-
lar standard of her infallible councils, according to
which those priests must regulate their opinions, the
questions discussed at their diocesan conferences must

be treated occording to some approved and accredited
standard of Roman orthodoxy," and if we could lay
hold of that standard, we should be at no loss to as-

certain what her principles are. The Rev. Gentle-
man then proceeds to inform us, from printed docu-
ments published by the Roman Catholic bishops, that
Dens' s Complete Body of Theology is in fact that stan•
dard book :

" At a meeting of the Roman Catholic Prelates of Ireland,
assembled, in Dublin on the 14th day of September, 1808, they
unanimously agreed that Den's Complete
,Body of Theology
Was the best book on the subject that could be republished ; as
containing the most secure guidance for such ecclesiastics as
may, by reason of the peculiar circumstances of this country,
be deprived of the opportunity of referring to public libraries,
or coastilting those who may be plead in authority over them,