The Sun.
London, England, 1832-09-13 00:00:00

His Holiness, the POPE, has just issued his
Circular, or " Lettre Encyclyque"—as we be-
lieve it is called—to all the Patriarchs, Archbi-
shops, Bishops, &c. of the earth. The reasoning
of this circular is curious, the spirit still more
so, and were it not that sundry sly allusions
are made to celibacy and so forth, we should be
very apt to mistake it for a High Tory Bishop's
Address to the clergy of his diocese. Dr. PHIL-
POTT'S must be exceedingly mortified to find
that the Papal absurdities, against which, in the
days of his blindness, he launched so many fine
pamphlets, are full as glaring as his own ;
and that pre-eminent in intolerance, as he no
doubt thinks himself (and with justice), he
is beaten even here, on his own vantage
ground, by Anti-Christ ! Henceforth, we sus-
pect the POPE will be viewed by the Bishop
' with feelings of the bitterest, personal jealousy, as
the most efficient poacher on his political and
clerical preserves. Indeed, we are half in-
clined to think that his Holiness has filched
from his Lordship the best portions of his last
Reform speech in the House of Lords, and
transferred them to his own circular. Now, if
this be really the case, we have not the slightest
hesitation in denouncing it as a monstrous act of
injustice. No man, not even the POPE, has the
right to strip the laurels of intolerance from the
brow of one whom they so well become, and to
whom they so rightfully belong, and transfer
them to his own. Such conduct is a species of
literary smuggling, which all good men and true
are equally interested in putting down.
But that we may not accuse his Holiness of
plagiarizing, without reason, we shall proceed to
look a little into his circular. The first pas-
sage that strikes us as a piracy, is the follow-
ing :—" It is with a heat suffering with pro-
found grief that we approach you, whose zeal for
religion is well known to us, and who, we know,
are extremely anxious as to the danger of the
times in which we live. We can say with truth,
that this is the hour when the power of dark-
ness is sifting as corn the sons of election ! Yes—
the earth is in mourning, and perishes ; it is in-
fected by the corruption of its inhabitants, be-
cause they have violated the laws." Now this,
we contend, is the good Bishop all over. It is the
very essence (though not, perhaps, the exact
words) of his late address to the House of Lords
on the subject of the evils to be apprehended from
Reform. But the next paragraph is still more singu-
lar in its resemblance. " We speak to you, venerable
brethren, of that which you see with your eyes,
and of that which causes us to be troubled, and
weep and groan together. It is the triumph of a
wickedness without bounds, of a knowledge
without shame, of a license without limits.
Holy things are despised, and the majesty of
the holy faith, which is as powerful as it is ne-
cessary, is blamed, profaned, and turned into de-
rision by perverse men. Neither the holy laws,
nor justice, nor maxims, nor the most respect-
able rules of society, are preserved from the at-
tacks of iniquitous tongues." If this passage
be not our good Bishop's own indisputable
property, then are .we " a shotten herring."
But, indeed, its very spirit proves that it ori-
ginated with the venerable Prelate, and applied
exclusively to his own circumstances. For in-
stance, in the " triumph of a wickedness without
bounds," he alluded evidently to that unbounded
iniquity which dared to brand him as an apostate ;
in " knowledge without shame," to the Press
which had libelled the immaculate purity of his
public principles ; and in the " license without
limits," to the unconstitutional refusal ofGovern-
ment to allow him to hold the fat rectory of
Stanhope. It is a hard case that a distinguished
author and divine like Dr. PHILLPOTTS
should have his best and most pungent things
filched from him in this unceremonious fashion.
We are not quite sure whether the trespass does
not amount to an invasion of copyright, though
were it even so, the poor Bishop could have no
remedy,for an action will not lie against Anti-christ.
But whether the Pope's circular be or be not
a plagiarism from the Bishop's speech, one fact
is certain, that in the fiery character of its in-
tolerance it bears the closest possible resemblance
to it. In point of political influence too, the
parallel, we suspect, will equally hold good.
The chief inference we draw from reading this
notable production is, that whether Popish or
Protestant, priestcraft is still every where the
same, hedged in by the same narrow prejudices,
influenced by the same selfish interests, inspired
by the same inveterate hostility to every thing
that tends, by improving the intellect, to ame-
liorate the destinies of man. The tyranny of
monarchs or of oligarchs may be amended and
compelled to come to terms with humanity ; but
the tyranny of priestcraft is indomitable.