The Sun.
London, England, 1835-11-16 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sin,—There is a bad spirit abroad, and one that, if not
crushed, will produce evils without end. That cause can-
not surely be sound which appeals to persecution and clings
to bigotry for support ; that cause cannot be pure which
rakes up the embers of uncharitableness, and tends to kindle
the flame of civil war. Among men of liberal minds, opi-
nions upon religious matters have always been deemed
sacred ; but the Tories scruple not to break into the sanc-
tuary of conscience, and insult whatever they find repugnant
to their own partigular views. With thundering anathemas
against the power of priests, and lauding to the skies the
blessings 'of toleration, they how their love of freedom and
practice of charity by stigmatising a body of two thousand
men professing the tenets of lossurr, FENELON, and
PASCAL, as " those Popish ruffians who disgrace the name
of Christian ministers in Ireland, and who enforce upon the
poor, by undisguised terror, the fulfilment of the most
savage and unprincipled of their own selfish machinations
against the 'fame, the comfort, the peace, and life of un-
offending and unprotected citizens." Thus, then, is at last
discovered the secret of all the miseries of unhappy Ireland !
We have been in error from not understanding the matter ;
she requires no secular reform, no abolition of tithes, no
laws for the instruction and comfort of her poor ! She has
everything within herself capable of bestowing happiness—
except the PROTESTANT CHURCH ESTARLISHMENT I
Here is the panacea, the cornucopia of old, from which drop
fruits and flowers, gold and silver! The Tories must in-
deed be in a desperate condition to talk such gross non-
sense. Without denying the power of the Catholic priest
over hie flock, is there, perchance, no such thing as Protes-
tant priestly influence? Is there no such thing in exis-
tence as Protestant political pulpits? Have the Clergy of
the Establishment passed their lives in disseminating feel-
ings of universal charity ? Have they never meddled in
elections—never influenced the humble voter—never told
him that Liberty was but another name for licentiousness
and infidelity ? If the sentence of excommunication has
been openly pronounced at the altar by one or two Irish
priests against some refractory voters—if, as a Morning
Jesuit declares, men have been " pelted with mud " at their
instigation, it is at most but a solitary instance, or other-
wise so much importance would not be attached to it :
whereas the Established Church has been for years, in ef-
fect, guilty of a like excess, by describing a narrow circle,
without the circumference of which the hand of cordiality
is never extended. Had the Clergy not exercised a marked
power over the people, how long, for instance, would the
Test and Corporation Acts have remained unrepealed ? Is
it not their immense influence at the present day that pre-
vents justice being done to the Dissenters—prevents them
from taking degrees at the Universities—and, worst of all,
obliges them to support a Church from which they have
conscientiously seceded ? When Protestants talk of the
" barbarous and brutalizing despotism of Popery," they for-
get much of the tyranny that disgraces their own Church ;
they forget, too, the extreme difference between religion
and a Church ; they forget that, if the pure light of the one
broke through the darkness of the sixteenth century, the
edifice of the other was put together by human hands, and
cemented by human mortar. The zeal of the early Re-
formers effected that religious emancipation on which the
Church, as established, was, founded. WIC*LIFFE and
LUTHER, only hastened a change which, from the necessity
of the case, was unavoidable. It was utterly impossible
for the Roman Catholic Church any longer to fetter
the minds of those so far removed from its immediate
sphere, and the administration of the reformed part of
it fell into the' hands of other ministers. But was this
Church more mild and tolerant than the subverted one ?
Look at the Acts of Parliament during the reigns of fIENRY
VIII., EDWARD VI., and ELIZABETH ; look at the monas-
teries plundered and emptied of their peaceful inmates, who
were driven like wild beasts naked to the mountains ; look
at the cruel enactments against those who kept away from
the church service, the tortures and imprisonments that
attended the obstinate non-conformist. None of this can '
be denied because it is a portion of history, a leaf taken out
of the STATUTE BOOK; and when we couple past with pre-
sent scenes, we shall find no great reason to boast of our
toleration, and had, therefore, better not animadvert too
harshly upon the want of it, in others. The friends of the
Established Church may rest fissured that silence is their
only security, for if they provoke the combat, victory cannot
be with them. Whatever distinguished individuals may
occasionally adorn the Church, there are so many objec-
tions to the system ; there are so many strong arguments
against the alliance of things temporal with things spiri-
tual ; there are so many astounding facts to annihilate its
justice or expediency, that, if they are not suicidally in-
clined, they will remain quiet, and allow events to take the
course which wisdom and humanity imperatively demand.

MILO.

We understand that Colin Campbell, Esq., (Jura,)
long a Director and active promoter of the objects of the
Glasgow Highland Society has presented that Society-with
1001. sterling in aid of its funds.