The Sun.
London, England, 1835-11-10 00:00:00

,Pmrr OF TI

C JOURNALS.

We find that we were not Inii;ta',:en when we an-
nounced a division in the Tory camp, on the suhiect of
the policy to be pursued cowards the Irish eatholicf%
The Times out-k:od:; Herod in

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thi's su!ijeot. One dav it nnkes the discovery that Cie
Catholic. Priests poscss, in their power of cxcommu-
nication, an exclusive conrce cf spiritual influence,
pregnant with danger. to the goVernment of the coun-
try, and enabling them to render the law a dead letter ;
and next clay it proposes to lalal these very Priests into
the' pay of the State. At present the Priests are paid
by their docks,' and the people not only ret;pect them
for their superior intelligence, .hut resign themselves
implicitly' to their guidance, from a persuasion that
those Atordians can have no interest %ill:ph is, nDt
identified- 1,-..411 their welfare. The peasantry. have
been taught, by long and hitter experience, to look
upon the landlords as their natural enemies ; and the
late hostility of the Times to the Pri'ests would seem
to have been solely occasioned by their efficiency
as protectors of the people against the domination
of the landlords. To remove the only check
on the landlords, the Times proposed yester-
day that the Prie.:ts should be paifl by the State
It was not, Heaven knows," says the Times, " from
approbation of their tezots, or from esteem .of _those qua-
litieS, professional or prsru:.-:, -the worst, of which, they de-
rive, no doubt, partly from the oi,:,7tural and vit:cus dis-
cipline to which they are sul,jected, but some part clso
from the political position to which they Iliac -• hitherto
been condemned by the State—it is, we say, froM nr4hirg
like sentiments akin to a love of priests or of Popery that
we have ever entertained the hope of effecting good
aiding the subsistence of that ambitious, turbulent, and
dangerous body. Our purpose has not been to arm them
with fresh weapons against the Protestant Monarchy and
free Constitution of England ; but to buy their help in
defence of both. The design of such a policy is not to
strengthen a hostile power; but to subjugate it ; not to en-
courage disaffection; but to conciliate it, and to engage in
the service of law, peace, and magistracy those who have
heretofore shown no disposition in their favour, nor, to
speak the truth, had any inducement to uptiOld them. We
are anxious to have it understood by our Protestant readers
that this is no tribute to Popery, but an expedient through
which Popery may be reedered, on terms advantageous for
its ministers, and certainly not humiliating to them, instru-
mental to the geuerril security of them."
Against this :proposal the Standard is up in arms.
“ Our first objection to such a provision (says the
Standard) is one the. direct importance of which some
will not recognise ; but every rational man must feel its
reflected weight. We believe, and we scorn to conceal
the belief, that a State establizhment of Pottery--a ,State
violation of our Gospel Covenant, renewed at the Refor-
mation, would be greatly displeasing to Almighty God ;
and would provcke Lim to withdraw from this Empire the
blessings showered upon it in miraculous profusion during
SOO years."
But the Standard has another argument :--

6f Every body who knows any thirFg of the cha.-acter
of the Romish Church knows well that with money
never can be saturated. Give a million and a half per
annum to the Irish pribstS to-morrow, and except you make
some tperative bargain for the abandonment. of their pre-
sent capitation tax to that amount, you simply double the
income of the Popish Irish Church : double the number of
Missionaries of uncompromising hostility to England, or in-
crease their luxuries and power, if the numerical addition
be smaller."

Those who might not be scared by the dread of the
consequences of supporting idolatry, are thus supplied
with the prudential argument that the outlay would be
fruitless. But the Standard has still another argu-
ment : •
" Would the precedent of a State establishment of Po-
pery in Ireland be wholly unfruitful ? Would it not justify
the loyal non-conformists in England, and even the most
seditious Dissentersseeing they cannot he nearer to trea-
son than the Irish Papists—in demanding to overturn the
establishment of the Church of England ?"
• It is not, perhaps, without reason that the Standard
puts this' question, for there are many Protestants in
this country who conceive the Church of England to
be idolatrous, and anticipate the consequences from the
continuance of its connection with the State, which
the Standard anticipates from the establishment of
idolatry in Ireland. In the Scotsman of Saturday
last there is an address from a Minister of the Church
of Scotland to the "Tory Ministers of that Church, in
which he reproaches his brethren with slumbering,
when 'Tory (:)-iin.sellOrs led to the establishment of
Popery in Canada; with lowing in acquiescence when
the ToFies gave up thirty thousand pounds of the
imblic money for the establishment of :Maynooth Col-
lege as a seminary for Irish Priests; with their assent-
ing when a Tory Ministry proposed the yearly grant
of nhic thousand pounds per annum, in order'to secure
the perpetuity of Popery in Ireland. But this is not
all—he reproaches his Tiny brethren for not pro;-
tsting af_,,ftinst the mischievous and Popish character
ofrthe Episcopalian Church of England:— '
' !` Oulaforefthers," he observes, " reprobated prelacy as
it is established in England, because it involves the essential
piinciple (j. Popery. * * * * * * The authori-
tative,poiver of .absolution in the priesthood constitutes, as
we are told by a distinguished prelate, Bishop Gray, in his
Bampton Lecture, 'its essential and important claim, with-
outkvhieb4he 'sacerdotal - commission is destitute of sane-
tiOns: 'ln Connection with this opinion, holding, as they do,
the necessity of episcopal ordination, to give validity to the
sacraments, and spirituality to the services of religion, nearly
nine-tenths of all the clergy in the united establishment of
England and Ireland consider the ministration of Presbyte-
rian Churches as uwuthorised and nugatory.'" In by far
the great majority of instances the preaching. of the minis-
ters of the Churches oi. England and Ireland ia a :::inure
of Popish doctrine as to the necessity of episcopal ordina-
tion to give efficacy to the sacraments, and more especially
to secure the benefit of baptismal regeneration. This is
almost univerrally the wretched and Popish character of
the Episcopalian Church. The tendency of all this," he
adds, " is to kta',pthe people in a state Of religious ignorance,
and under spiritual de:athletic:a In this way you have hin-
dered the progreSs of the truth, and opened up a way for
theadritnee of Popery throughout the breadth and length
of land. Because the principle of Popery is acknow-
ledged and is dominant in the Episcopal eccataunion, and
because it-has been allowed hitherto to pursue a silent, but
doll) tend, wide.-extended course, without any cheek frcm
any-barrier raised by your efforts—Popery has incre,lsed, is
increasing, and is no longer looked upon with that universal
dread which it•forrnatly tivill:o.ned among Protes=tants""
We, 'have no. croup that in character,•;ne the
,
ChUrChes of. England and Ireland as essentially Popish
nod:idolatrous, this Minister of the Church of Scot-
land epeaks the sentiments of nanny genuine Presby-
tetians. Where, then, are we to rest, if we essume
that the State' must. not ally itself with idolatry ? We
find the Irish Catholics branding the Protestant Epis-
copalians as heretics, the Episcopalians retorting ido-
latry on the Catholics, the Presbyterians bolding both
in abhorrence as Popish, and various sects, seine of
them ninnerouse though disagreeing. among them-
selves, yet nil of thien disagreeitig still more with the
Established Church. It is quite . clear that as each
seet.belitei-ts its own creed the true one, tile. principle
of•the Standard involves a trial of strengths, and lays
theloundation for eternal strife. If One man have no
rightlo impose his religious opinions on another, the
State, Which is inertly an aggregation of individuals,
can possess, Strictly El)aking, no more right. The
plain and simple course .Len would be to respect all
because thereligiou.-cpinioirs, religiou.ropinioils, merely
are the reli-
gious opinions of parts of the community and either to
leave to the various congregationsa!z the payment of their
,
tedthers, ns in America and among our Dissenters, or
to-follow the practice of the Continental Governments,
which Amy the teacherS of all religions. In this last way
tbe,?various sects entertain least animosity towards each.
()trier. In. Ireland, something- like this system must,
in time,, be resorted to. It is monstrous to suppose
that the Clergy of 700,000 inhabitara,3 will long be
allowed to monopolize the funds which belong to a
nation of eight millions: The only way of reconciling
the MeMbers of the different persuasions to each other
is to place all on .a footing of equality, and to distri-
bute the proceeds of the cee'.e.siastical property among
the teachers of all the communities in the ratio of
their services. The Times seems to have abandoned
the idea. of empl9ying force to compel the Catholic
Priests to abandon the power of excommunicating,.
The Times has in this acted wisely. Conciliation
mq'fail, but force must fail. And by the way, the
Tiki's; to have been consistent, must have begun the
wao botrie:,- We lind from the Christian Advocate
thac eig'4"'iUty a fierce contest among the ,
4, n. the Weslean
respect-
ing,N Hrel bet4Veee Priests:nnd the Laity
I Achigy,g,p9wer of excommunication claimed
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