The Sun.
London, England, 1835-05-08 00:00:00

POPERY.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Six,—To what are Catholics indebted for all that deadly
hatred, and still persevering antipathy, on the part of Pro-
testants, which has unceasingly attended them, from the very
birth of Protestantism to the present period,—if not to the
groundless imputation of what our protesting brethren are
pleased to term Popery ?—groundless, I say, and perfectly
gratuitous—for, in no part of the Christian world has there
ever existed, or ever will exist, a single individual professing
the strange and horrid creed ascribed by Protestants to each
individual member of the Catholic Church ; that is, to the
immense majority of Christians spread over every part of the
universe where Christianity has ever been introduced in each
revolving age. Adoring wooden gods, worshipping the Vir-
gin Mary with divine honour, paying the grossest idolatry to
the bread in the Eucharist (whereas Catholics do not believe
any bread at all to remain after the consecration, but merely
'the outward species of bread and wine), with an infinite num-
ber of other false and equally groundless aspersions and most
slanderous charges, any one of which would prove the hitherto
nominal Catholic no Catholic at all, could it be substantiated
against him—all, notwithstanding, included in the charge of
Popery, Romanism, Papistry, and other elegant misnomers of
the Catholic religion, and imputed by the very terms, in the
ordinary Protestant acceptation, to every individual professor
of the Catholic creed. Catholics, then, have still sufficient
reason to complain of the uncharitable feeling, yet so prevalent
in the breasts of their Protestant fellow Christians, against
them. But all this, it would seem, is not deemed sufficient by
the Tory and High Church party. In all appearance, they
would (if they had it at their option) re-adopt in practice, if
not all the corporal inflictions, at least the mental thraldom and
degradation from which they are just emerging, against their
brethren of the Catholic faith. Their unseemly rage against
their own dear bantling—Popery, is, in my opinion, Sir, any
thing but natural.
Pontefract, May 6, 1835.

A TRUE RADICAL.

THE FOUL INFLUENCES.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SlR,—There are few features in your admirable paper more
to be commended than your able advocacy of the Ballot. To
that improvement in our representative system, recent events
are haply hastening us. Would Mr. Parker have obtained a
numerical majority yesterday, if the voter had been protected
by the ballot ? The foul influences were never more vigorously
worked than at the Devon election. The Corporation of
Exeter, only one degree less infamous than Liverpool and
Lincoln, and many times more powerful than either, in an al-
most unlimited command over the means of corruption and
bribery, were naturally found on the side of the candidate
whose political profession it is to protect all abuses, municipal
as well as national. Birds of a feather—they have a commu-
nity of companionship, and of interests—they conspire against
the public welfare, and band themselves to prolong their pos-
session of public plunder. The days of the Corporators are
numbered—the condemnation—the curse of the country is
upon them, and Exeter will find that the advocate whom they
have just purchased at so high a pi ice, will not be able to
arrest the heavy judgment which awaits their iniquities.
What is Mr. Parker ? An unit. Nay less—his influence in
the assembly of the people will b. a quantity less than nothing.
When he raises his little thin voice in the House—if, indeed,
he venture on such an undertaking—his Tory twaddle will be
as inaudible, as his attempts to perpetuate the Corporation
abuses will prove abortive. For Devon, which has done so
much for him, he can do nothing. I wish both parties joy
from their bargain.
The parsons, as usual, have been at their dirty work. They
have succeeded in seducing the shopkeepers and other depen-
dents on custom for a livelihood, into a surrender of their
electoral virtue. They, too, stimulated both by the Bishop
and the two seignorial personages, Lord Rolle and the
Courtenay, have industriously preached sermons in every
parish, the text of which has always been—" If you vote not
for him whom we declare unto you, ejection shall be your
portion." Is it, then, much to be wondered at, that the poor
ignorant dependent farmers should have been frightened into a
compliance with the lust of power. They had to make their
election between prostitution and beggary—they fell as many
before have fallen, poverty and not their will consenting. Let
us draw a veil over their errors. Their's is not a solitary ex-
ample of electoral frailty, nor is the vice confined to England.
In Ireland, Mr. O'Connell, in his forcible speech which I have
just read, informs us that in that unhappy country to the Tory
landlords the poor electors dare refuse nothing—unless with
the dreadful alternative of immediate ejectment, and the other
appliances of a persecution as immediate as it is always bitter,
cruel, and unrelenting.
With such a mass of evidence as comes before us every day,
showing the frightful extent to which intimidation is carried by
the enemies of the people, who will say that the protection of
the Ballot is not imperatively called for ? It has been proved
here in Devon, only a day or two ago, that no real represen-
tation can be obtained without it. Does not Lord John Rus-
sell owe his defeat entirely to the defective state of our elec-
toral system ? Hear what Lord John Russell himself says in
his last Address to the electors of South Devon To the
effect of intimidation and undue influence—to the temporary
alarm on weak minds, caused by the revival of the cry of No
Popery'—to the advantages gained by misrepresentation and
slander among the ill-informed ; and, lastly, to the great in-
dustry displayed by my opponents in registering their friends
and dependents, my defeat is to be attributed." There are
few—nay n•n© with honesty and truth, can deny that, but for
the foul influences, such a person as Parker could have been
returned when opposed to a man of the splendid talents,
large views, and enlightened principles, of a Russell.
From his defeat at Devon, however, I look for the
redemption of the pledge he gave during the progress of the
Reform Bill, in which measure he took so distinguished a part
._-.that if experience should show that the elector demanded
protection, he would consent to the introduction of the Ballot.
At the period which I have just referred to it was urged that
a place in parliament would, after the passing of the Reform
Bill, be of so little worth, that no one would take the trouble
either to bribe or intimidate. Have results justified the pre-
diction? No sir, the foul influences still exist, and by the
Ballot only can they be remedied. " How should we stand
now ?"—asked Mr. Charles Buller at a dinner of Lord John
Russell's friends at Exeter—" in this county, if we had the
Ballot ? Should we have to be nicely examining returns,
weighing the consequences of such a squire's ratting, or
counting the number influenced by fear of the tithe
proctor ? No ; we should rely on the ballot-box exhibit-
ing the same result as that we saw in the Castle-yard
to-day—and giving the Noble Lord a majority of three
to one. I saw the supporters of Mr. Parker enter the
town to-day—l know the look of the Devonshire farmer
when goina about a business of which his conscience
approves. am sure such was not the look of those who came
in to-day, under the guidance of the parsons, to vote for Lord
Rolle and the Bishop.—(Loud cheers.) These men came to
vote against their inclinations, and I would not have feared,
with the ballot, to stake the result of the election on the votes
of those very men."
In conclusion, I entreat Lord John Russell to introduce the
Ballot. He has the power, backed as he will be by the whole
body of the people. " I beg him to recollect the situation of
those who sacrifice their personal interests in order to vote for
him, and of those who, at the expense of their feelings and
consciences, are compelled to vote against him," and, so re-
collecting, he will not hesitate to give them the protection
prayed for. PLEBS.

THE CHURCH IN DANGER.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

It must, Sir, I think, be apparent to the least reflecting, that
there has long existed in the public mind a suspicion that in
the Church (so called) every thing was not so pure and per-
fect as it ought to be. This feeling has grown into a convic-
tion, founded on an examination of facts, and therefore inde-
structible, that in the system of administration the greatest
abuses exist. Although the number of dissenters from the
doctrines established by law are numerous, and their character,
conduct, and intelligence give them a deservedly prominent
place in the country's religion, yet perhaps it may be affirmed
that the national condemnation is directed rather against the
administration, than the doctrine of the Church of England,
—rather against its temporalities than its spiritualities. Nor
can we suppose that the large and enlightened body of seced-
ers from the establishment were not influenced in their separa-
tion by the undeniable abuses of the system, to the full as
much as by the debateable dogmas of its doctrine. It appears
its
offending. to me, that the abuses of the Church are the front of
offending. Let these be removed, and probably the Church
may still be saved. Its danger is from within, and, if it fall,
its friends will be the agents. Were she wise, and saw her
imminent peril, she would beseech God to save her from her
friends—friends indiscreet, misjudging, and intemperate—
friends who precipitate, by their acts, the event they deprecate
by their words. The Church of Ireland may be regarded as
on the road to reform ; the fiat has gone forth, and the hap-
piest results may be anticipated. Would it not be politic to
bring in immediately, on the meeting of Parliament, a mea-
sure having for its object the reform of the Church Establish-
ment in this country ? On an efficient reform, contemplating
the correction of all those notoi ions vices which have so long
been denounced by the good and wise, depends the preserva-
tion of the present tottering fabric. Need I enumerate the
reforms that are called for—non-residence and pluralities should
have a remedy at once applied ; the tithe question should be
boldly dealt with, the working Clergy better paid, and the
bench of Bishops have incomes more in keeping with their
apostolic pretensions. These points carried at once into effect,
would be the salvation of the establishment. If the denial of
such justice be much longer delayed, the cry will not then be the
Church is in danger—but men will say the Church was in
danger—it lay as it were on its death-bed, and yet repented not
of its sins—now look at its end

Of course every body knows that there are difficulties, many
and great difficulties, in the way of effecting a legislative
reform of the Church ; but do not the dangers that at present
stare us in the face, by continuing a system so little in har-
mony with the r.ational opinion—do not these vast and immi-
nent dangers greatly out-number them ? After all, we per.
haps magnify the difficulties, and were they once fairly grappled
with. we should perhaps find that they required for their re-
moval only a vigorous hand, earnest in purpose, and true of
intent. The Bishops, supposing them to be no worse than
other men, would of course set up their backs against any in-
terference, either with their benches or their bishoprics ; but
truth and justice would prevail even against them—they alto-
gether are weaker than either by itself, and would be con•
strained to fall into a line where the sphere of their utility
and the compass of their true respectability would be enlarged
in a ratio to the reduction of their unmerited riches; for none
but the revilers of our prelacy—none but those infidels to
whom all religious establishments are hateful—would assert
that the true dignity of the Church consisted in sinecures,

.7"....,0 1,

pluralities, or exceeding great riches. The Bishops then may
easily learn by such a lesson, as a bold and enlightened
statesman might read to them, that acquiescence in a just and
large measure of Church reform, is a course dictated alike
by wisdom and policy. For myself, I will not wrong the
right reverend Prelates by supposing their preference of the
golden calf to the Liturgy, the rites, the ceremonies, and the
ordinances of our Holy Church. Assuredly, the beauties of
holiness, if exhibited to them in a strong light, so that they
may see its divine perfections, will prevail over Mammon—
over the pomps and vanities that render the entrance of a rich
man into the kingdom of God an occurrence, scripturally, of
the greatest conceivable difficulty. The Bishop's bench, then,
is not likely to offer an insuperable barrier. Who then will
hold out against the just demands of the people ? Not the
expectants of preferment—not the volo episcopari—albeit
they are numerous, for they are comparatively powerless—are
known to be obedient to their spiritual superiors, and are, in
common with the great body of the clergy, always found on
the stronger side. All a minister has to do is to demonstrate
the sufficiency of his power, and these pious men will regard
his law as the law of God.
The aristocracy have a ♦ested interest in the temporal abuses
of the Church, since its doors have always been open, and its
high places occupied by their connexions, forming a handsome
provision for all such of their families as may like to enter
therein, and enjoy those good things which the first-born has
monopolized, or the ancestor squandered. Yet, looking at the
signs of the times, these Noble Lords will see clearly enough
that to take care of their own house, to prop up the Peers is
their first duty—that will be their primary care. To set their
house in order, they know as well as we do, is far better
than to aid in its destruction. East Retford offers them
a lesson by which they will profit. They are not mad ;
nor are the events of 1831 and 1832 epochs in history
beyond their recollection. I fear no opposition they will offer
but to their organs. I would just observe, that to set up any
claim to religion would damage them still more in public opi-
nion, than the notorious profligacy of their lives has yet ac-
complished. Every body knows that the zeal for religion, on
the exhibition of which some of them at times have ventured,
is mere hypocrisy ; and to pretend to a religious virtue, which
they are known not to have, is only to add hypocrisy to the
already numerous catalogue of their vices, and thus plunge
themselves still deeper into irrevocable contempt.
The true breed of bigots is not quite extinct in England,
although few or none perhaps are to be found amongst the
Peers--but the battle of the bigots would be but short. The
time when, at the blast of bigotry, masses of men might be
called into the field, has passed away. Thank God, a George
Gordon could not gather a hundred strong now, nor aro there
any men in Birmingham now who could be incited to the out-
rages that banished Priestly the town—outrages fomented by
fanatics—fostered by the hypocritical, and supported not less
by the superstitious than by the sordid, who, under the cloak
of religion, seek only to plunder the public.
I have perhaps, Sir, said enough to show that the Church
is in danger from its friends, its sordid and foolish friends;
that Church Reform is loudly called for—that it cannot be
much longer witheld—that all opposition would be powerless
to stay the march of a great Minister, determined to carry this
great measure—that the battle is already half won by Lord
John Russell's resolution, and that Lord Melbourne should
now buckle on his armour, and go forth in the spirit of Christ
to fight the good fight, his followers being the whole people
in Great Britain. I am, Sir,
A COUNTRY CURATE.