The Sun.
London, England, 1850-11-04 00:00:00

upon "the bishops and clergy to give the new
law co-operation, and to avail themselves of all the
means they acquired under it for promoting piety and
religion." These are strange inconsistencies, but, un-
fortunately, no less true than strange. The Papal
Court is manifestly blowing " hot and cold," approv-
ing in one country what it prohibits in another—de-
nouncing in Ireland what it deliberately sanctions in
France and Belgium. Why then, we again ask, does
the PONTIFF endeavour to usurp an authority in the
British dominions which he does not claim in the
republic of France or the kingdom of Belgium ?
There is but one answer that can be returned, one
mode of accounting for this extraordinary proceeding.
The United Kingdom is wholly unrepresented at the
Papal Court. We have no minister or envoy to
remonstrate at any undue assumption of authority, to
protest against any act of aggression, and to exhibit
the just indignation of the British Government. Our
own absurd jealousy has prevented us from obtaining
the legitimate influence at the Vatican to which the
power and importance of Great Britain and its un-
questionable weight in the scale of nations would
otherwise entitle it. We recognise the Sultan of
TURKEY, the Schah of PERSIA, Mahommedans, or
Fire-worshippers, or Pagans of any description may
be directly negotiated with ; but we cannot have
a representative at Rome. The POPE is the only
temporal sovereign with whom we are by Act of
Parliament prohibited from maintaining amicable
relations. He has nothing to lose if he should dis-
please our Government, and nothing to gain if he
should be disposed to conciliate : neither hope nor
fear can influence his actions. But are we not our-
selves in some degree to blame for this untoward
state of affairs ? If in private life you exhibit a con.
stant and unceasing suspicion, an unreasoning an-
tipathy against an individual, you cannot reasonably
hope to avoid acts of retaliation on his part—be will,
in all human probability, endeavour to justify, or
rather to give you cause for, your bad opinion ; and
the same result will follow among nations, if a similar
course be pursued. We assume an attitude
of hostility against the Papal Court why
should we be surprised because it takes up a si-
milar position ? If amicable relations were subsisting
between England and Rome, would any of the three
grave acts of aggression, committed within a single
year, have been attempted ? Would the prelates and
clergy of the Irish Roman Catholic Church have been
insulted by the appointment of an Italian priest (and
we look upon the Rev. PAUL CULLEN as little better)
to the highest station in that Church ? That was but
the introduction of the point of the wedge, which will
on a future occasion be driven home, until there
will not be a single Roman Catholic prelate in Ire-
land owing allegiance to the throne of England.
They do not act in this manner in other coun-
tries. In Russia, for instance, although the AUTO-
CRAT is not in communion with the Church
of Rome, he still nominate the'prelates of that Church
throughout his dominions. There is undoubtedly,
by a species of pious fraud, an appearance of free-
will, as much as there is in the deans and chapter of
our cathedral churches in the election of bishops. In
the latter case the QUEEN issues a conga d'elire under
the great seal, recommending a certain individual,
and the quasi electors incur all the penalties of a
prcemunire if they do not select the fortunate indi-
vidual. In the other, the EMPEROR also recommends
an individual to the PorE, and the PONTIFF, "that
the Catholics of the country may not be persecuted"
(be it remembered this is the reason assigned by
Archbishop MURRAY), " appoints the individual so
recommended."

Again, we are justified in assuming from what has
occurred in France, that there would have been no
undue interference with the system of education
sanctioned by the National Legislature; nor would
there have been the parcelling out of England into
ecclesiastical districts, the conferring; ofg power and
authority within these realms contrary to the express
wish and desire of the Government and people of the
country, by a foreign potentate. Most certainly not.
We were formerly told by the most unexceptionable
witnesses, whose testimony was given on behalf of,
and adopted by the Roman Catholics of Ireland, " that
the decrees of Popes were not now considered obligatory
unless when sanctioned by the civil authority." But how
can we reconcile that statement with the passage in the
eynodical address,• which, speaking of the Papal re-
script, declares, " all controversy is now at an end
—the judge has spoken—the question is decided ?"
It is impossible, then, not to perceive that the Papal
Court has, since its return to the Vatican, assumed a
new policy with respect to England and Ireland, and
put forward claims which, if they ever existed, had
long been suspended. Dr. DOYLE, the celebrated
Roman Catholic Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, de-
clared in his evidence that the Irish Prelates " were
not less jealous of the interference of the POPE " than
of the Crown of England. He said, "We are
zealous for the independence of our church,
and we do not like that the POPE should in-
terfere with it beyond what is necessary
for preserving the Catholic communion." We
trust that a similar spirit of independence may now
be exhibited by the Roman Catholics of England and
Ireland, that they will assert their rights as free-
born citizens, and not surrender their unquestionable
rights and privileges on the most sacred point—the
education of their children—at the dictation of any
man or bo ly of men ; if, they do so they will no
longer be freemen, but slaves—they will recognize a
despotic authority absolutely inconsistent with
liberty. In resisting this unwise and impolitic as-
sumption of power, they will not be rebelling
against the authority which they have ever recog-
nized, but against its undue extension to points to
which, for ages past, it has never even been attempted
to be pushed. We look to the good sense and judg-
ment of the Roman Catholics themselves for the pre-
servation of their nationality, and the defeat of these
daring attempts at their subjugation.

Recently we took occasion to suggest the immediate
removal of certain eyesores and blemisties at present
existing very prominently in our metropolis. We
argued for their instant dissipation with a view to
improve the aspect of the British capital before the
commencement of next year's Exhibition. Among
these proposed innovations it can scarcely be
forgotten by our readers that we especially
particularised the termination of that disgrace-
ful system which has established money-
takers at the porches of our great ecclesiastical edi-
fices, and transformed the dean, the prebendaries, the
minor canons, and the canons residentiary of our
cathedrals into so many barefaced twopenny showmen!
Against this miserable and degrading practice we
ourselves, in common with the majority of our
brethren of the press, have inveighed again and
again, as against a system disgraceful to the Church
Establishment, destructive to the beneficent influence
otherwise exercised' by the hallowed precincts of
those abodes of religion, and derogatory in the
very uttermost degree to that simplicity and sanc-
tity which should ever seem at least to invest
those divine and consecrated palaces of Christianity-
Hitherto we have sedulously availed ourselves of every
opportunity presented to us of arguing for the abolition
of a scheme so pernicious in its operation and so repul-
sive in its character. We have insisted that in its
removal we recognise prospects advantageous to the
cause of general morality—seeing that the systems of
religion would thereby become in some measure
popularised, or would at any rate be relieved from
charges baneful to it in the national estimation. Never
has this conviction of the good likely to accrue from
the proposed alteration been so forcibly impressed
upon our judgment as at the present moment, when
the country is awaiting the approach of intelligent
travellers from all the corners cf Christendom, and
when moreover in consequence of that unusual influx
of foreigners the institutions and customs of our
people will be subjected to the closest and the most
rigorous scrutiny. By abolishing the plan heretofore
adopted more or less in all our cathedral establi,h-
ments, both provincial and metropolitan, we should
be at once ameliorating our own condition as a
Christian community and depriving our visitors of a
fruitful subject of scorn and animadversion.

Upon every previous occasion the Deans and Canons
of our Cathedrals have remained imperturbably in-
different to all, even the most earnest appeals, blind
to arguments the most self-evident, and deaf to en-
treaties the most fervent and reiterated. Now-a-days,
after so' many grievous disappointments, and
with the prospect before our eyes of having to undergo
in many respects such a minute and searching criti-
cism,we are disposed to throw aside all idle consideration