The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-17 00:00:00

CATHOLIC POLICY.

Now is the time for Catholics to show that
they are not Tories merely, nor Whigs merely,
but Catholics, prepared to test political mea-
sures simply by Catholic principles. This is
not saying, as we were once accused by the
Saturday Review of having said, that Catholics
are to confine their action simply to the pro-
motion of their own immediate interests, and
leave the nation, if so be, to perish. Quite
the contrary. We believe the best way of
serving the highest interests of the nation is
the application of Catholic principles to poli-
tics. Fortunately, politics is not so much a
matter of abstract discussion as a life of ac-
tion. At critical times like the present, when
grave measures, affecting vital interests and
involving essential principles, have to be set-
tled, Catholic politicians, in as far as they are
something more than Whigs or Tories, appear
to great advantage. They have a clear and
certain rule of conduct to guide them in their
judgment of the measures propounded by
Tories or criticised and opposed by Whigs. In
the confident hope that Catholics will be
Catholic first, and Tory or Whig second, we
look forward to a bold and independent judg-
ment on their part, whether in Parliament or
out, on the policy already announced, or to be
hereafter developed by the Government in re-
gard to the Irish Church and the question of
education, both in England and in Ireland.
The manner in which the Government pro-
poses to deal with the Irish Church has not
the slightest chance of removing or remedying
a national wrong, or helping in the least in
appeasing the discontent of Ireland. The Go-
vernment, if it really intends endowing the
Catholic Church, in order by this means to
resist the disestablishment of the Irish Church,
has committed the same kind of blunder
which Sir Robert Peel's Government did in
establishing the godless colleges. The means
will not answer the end. The Catholic hier-
archy have persistently and emphatically re-
pudiated any endowment out of the revenues
of the Protestant Establishment. Nothing is
more incontestable than their determination of
not entering in any manner into pecuniary
relations with the State. In their mature and
deliberate judgment they hold that any such
connection with the State under the peculiar
and actual condition of things in Ireland would
not be for the good of religion. Under such
circumstances, the proposal of the Government,
without consulting the ecclesiastical authorities
in Ireland, is worse than a folly ; it is an act of
insincerity and duplicity. Such is not a worthy
or statesmanlike manner of dealing with a great
question. By such subterfuges or makeshifts
the present Government shows that it pos-
sesses neither greater insight nor greater
courage in dealing with a long-acknowledged
anomaly than the Whig Governments, which,
one after another for a long series of years,
have treated the Irish Church as a political
shuttle-cock, to be tossed to and fro before
the public eye whenever such a display of skill
suited the exigencies of their miserable party
prospects. As far as Catholics are concerned,
the proposal, not of levelling down the Estab-
lishment, but of propping it up by endowing the
Catholic Church can only meet with simple op-
position. For us it is not a question to be
treated in the abstract ; we do not care to lose
sight of the practical remedy to be applied to a
long-standing abuse by a discussion as to the
principle of the relations which ought to exist
between the Church and the State as to the
respective merits of endowment and the volun-
tary system, far less as to the obligation of the
Catholic Episcopate of accepting, whenever it
is proposed, endowment from the State. Of
what is required by the highest interests of
religion under existing circumstances in Ire-
land the Irish Episcopate, subject to the
Supreme Head of the Church, is the sole
judge. They have pronounced their opinion
deliberately ; it is for Catholics to show that
they are really under the influence, not of party
spirit, but of Catholic principles, by resisting
as one man, without reserve or after-thought
of any kind, the scheme proposed by the Go-
vernment, in spite of the known judgment of
the Episcopate, of endowing the Catholic
Church in Ireland.—Westminster Gazette.

MEG. By Mrs. Eiloart, Author of " The Curate's
Discipline," &c. 3 Vols.—" Meg is a book which is every-
where well written, which has many well-drawn and ori-
ginal characters, and which is pervaded throughout by a
tone of true, healthy, womanly feeling. It is humorous,
it is pathetic, it shows much originality; it is full of ob-
servation. Some of the scenes which describe the diffi-
culties of a Ritualistic coterie are touched off 'with admir-
able spirit and humour. The story and fate of poor Meg
herself isall full of tenderness, and pity, and pathos. There
is a deep, clear moral in the whole book."—Star.

DEATH OF DR. LEE.—The Rev. Dr. Robert Lee,
minister of Old Greyfriars' Church, Edinburgh, and well
known in connection with endeavours to introduce into
the Church of Scotland what are called "innovations,',
died at Torquay on Saturday last. The doctor never
recovered entirely from a severe shock of paralysis by
which ho was attacked in May last, and he left Edin-
burgh for the south in October, for his health. Besides
being minister of Old Greyfriars, Dr. Leo was Professor
of Biblical Criticism in the University of Edinburgh, and
one of the Deans of the Chapel Royal. Ho was in his
63d year.

The newspapers are teeming with references to econo-
my in tea by co-operation. Hornistan and Co. have for 30
years co• operated through Agents to supply tea on more
advantageous terms than by the ordinary channel; their tea
reaches the consumer in the same pure state as it leaves the
grower, as it is secured in packets.