The Sun.
London, England, 1850-10-29 00:00:00

-imixTuy

LONDON, TUESDAY. OCTOBER 29, 1850.

Some weeks since it wr..s our painful duty to direct
the public attention to a most mischievous and highly

inflammatory document, which had been extensively
circulated among the tenantry of a property which
was about to he disposed of under the provisions of
the Act for the Sale of Encumbered Estates in Ire-
land. Tnis manifesto—which plainly and distinctly
intimated that the law of the land would be set at
open defiance, that the rights of purchasers,
under the decree of a competent tribunal,
would be strenuously resisted, and concluded
with rather a significant hint, that the writer and his
retainers would, " during the short days and long
'nights of winter, MEEKLY await at the old gateway
for the coming of the stranger"—was the more objet-

tionable—we might add, the more incomprehensible— ;
from the quarter whence it emanated. It was no i
rude illiterate,rnan, strongly imbued with local pre-
jed ces, and ignorant of the mighty power with
which he was about to enter into collision, thit I
endeavoured to excite the passions of the people, and
to induce those who had been accustomed to ,
look up to himself and his forefathers for
instruction and advice, to join in the agrarian out-
rage which had brought disgrace and ruin on so many
districts in unhappy Ireland. It was, on the con-
trary, a person who by birth, education, and profes-
sion, was placed in a superior position. As a barrister
at law, Mr. THOMAS O'BRIEN, of Fairfield, could
not possibly have misunderstood the true character of
the act be was committing; but when we consider
that be has already filled the important public situa-
tions of stipendiary magistrate in Ireland and of colo-
nial secretary at Sierra Leone, words are inadequate
to express our astonishment at the entire transaction.
In this strange document Mr. O'BaiEN declares,
that "not a farthing of English or Scotch capital
will be caught in the gambling and disgraceful
market held in Henrietta-street." That which he
terms " the grossest false pretence which ever accom-
panied any public measure," was undoubtedly one of
the objects of the Bill, and despite the denunciations
and diatrib( s f Mr. O'BRIEN, it is one which
will most unquestionably be accomplished. But is
it not Mr. O'BRIEN himself, and persons of
a similar character who are preventing, or endeavour-
ing to prevent, the influx of capital from other parts
of the empire ? Is it one of the tempting inducements
to a purchaser which should be prominently put for-
ward in the advertisements that the quondam pro-
prietor " has very great doubts whether the purchaser
will get quiet possession ;" that he declares his inten-
tion of testing " the power vested in the auctioneers
of Henrietta-street," and that "he is not resisting law
but confiscation, not opposing the entrance of a law
officer, but a robber ?" It is not for nothing that
he promises the tenantry that they " shall have the
land at any valuation they please, and leases MINT be
granted to the most faithful and loyal amongst them."
Why, Mr. O'BarEN is even more liberal than any one
of his ancestors, who during the four hundred years
they held the property never committed a " landlord
cruelty or even a neglect." His ability to discharge.
the obligation is, however, more doubtful. Promises
are of but little value when the power of performance
is altogether wanting. They may, however, be suffi-
cient to prevail on the unfortunate and misguided
peasantry to join him in his " meek" watch for the
stranger, and in giving the new comer a reception
much too warm to be agreeable, and are, therefore,
exceedingly mischievous, and to be deprecated by all
right-minded men.
But in sober earnest, for such a subject is by far
too serious to be even for a moment treated as
a jest, does Mr. O'BRIEN forget the position of
his unfortunate creditors—of those who, having
advanced their money, have been long kept
without either principle or interest ? He may
feel deeply the severance of links that
have existed for so many centuries ; but
what must be the feelings of those whose unquestion-
able rights have been so long withheld? How would
the case of Mr. O.l3gtEN have been improved if the
obnoxious Act had never passed the Imperial Par-
liament ? According to his own statement, his lia-
bilities amount to 13,0001. ; his property was for-
merly estimated at 17,0001. A gentleman who so
keenly feels that " property has its duties
as well as its rights must be well aware that even in
such a case he could not treat his faithful tenants as
they deserved—" give them the lands on their own
valuation," " allow for improvements," or " grant
leases to the most loyal." These are acts which can
only be indulged in by unincumbered proprietors.
The embarrassed landlord is driven by his own
difficulties to greater harshness, and if Mr.
O'BRIEN is really actuated by the feelings
he professes, if he is willing "to stand
naked in the world, as when he entered it,
if his liabilities be only discharged," why should he
object to have as large a sum as practicable realised
for the benefit of his creditors ; or, if he desires to
promote the interest of his tenants, why should be
desire to deter a nobleman, whom he acknowledges
to be " one of the best landlords, and the most
unsullied private character in Ireland," from becom-
ing a purchaser or even a bidder at the approaching
sale ?

On this subject the following correspondence has
passed between Mr. O'BaIEN and the Earl of CLAN-
cAnTY

"24, Sonthville, Wandsworth, Oct. 18.

" My Lord.---Some days litnce, in a letter addressed
to my tenantry, I made mention of your Lordship's
name. The purport of that letter (a copy of which was
duly transmitted to your Lordship) announced my de-
termination to resist the sale of my properties under the
powers vested in the Encumbered Estates Bill for Ire-
land. As the largest bidder for one of my estates I had
necessarily to allude to your Lordship, but I trust with
that respect which I shall ever entertain for the intellec-
tual and moral attributes you so amply possess. As the
time approaches (early I believe in November) when the
estates are again to be placed in the market, I think it
but due to the feelings I entertain towards your Lord-
ship, as well as to my own character, that I should learn
what course your Lordship purposes pursuing, and whe-
ther you will still lend the high sanction of your name
to support the favourite measure of a Minister who dis-
played, during the last session of Parliament, when the
alleged interests of the savages of Africa were at stake,
a more obtrusive and petulant sympathy than his Lord-
ship ever exhibited—a well-grounded and rational sorrow
at the unexampled depression of the land, not only of
your birth but of your adoption.
" I have the honour to subscribe myself, your Lord-
ship's faithful servant,
" Thostes O'BRIEN, late C.S. for Sierra Leone.
"Right Hon. Earl of Clancarty, Garbally.
" P.S. I shall look upon your Lordship's reply in a
public light."

The following is his Lordship's reply :
" Garbally, Oct. 21.

" Sir,—l beg to acknowledge the receipt of your
letter of the 18th instant, as well as a printed copy of
an address to your tenantry, to which your letter refers.
" However unusual is the inqiry you make relative to
my intentions about bidding for your property when
next advertised to be sold by auction, I will answer you
to the best of my ability. I have not seen any adver-
tisement for the sale of Fairfield since the last sale was
set aside ; and until it is advertised, and the rental and
condition of the property are submitted for public in-
spection, I cannot form a judgment whether,
supposing I should have at the time the m mey
to lay out, the investment:would be eligible. Of this,
however, I may a:sure you, that appreciating your here-
ditary and very natural attachment to a property so lung
in your family, I shall gladly forego the consideration
of any convenience I might derive from the annexatioe
of the lands of Fairfield to my property adjoining, if
my again bidding for them should stand in the way of
arrangements by w!-:ich you might be enabled to resume
the possession and management of the property.
" With reference to the address to your tenantry, you
will, I am sure, upon a re-perusal of it, excuse my de-
clining further to notice it than to acknowledge its
rcce:pt.—l am, Sir, your obedient servant,
" Thomas O'Brien, E: q." CLA NCARTY.

The answer of his Lordship is that of a nobleman and
a gentleman. We only regret that Mr. O'BRIEN'S pro-
ceeding was not more in harmony with his former posi-
tion, as a public servant, and with that which he still oc-
cupies as a bArrister. Lord CLANCARTY declares that,
appreciating the hereditary and very natural attach•
went to a property so long in the family, he will
gladly forego the convenience he may desire from
the annexation of the lands of Fairfield to his own
property adjoining, if his bidding tor them should
stand in the way of arrangements, by which he
(Mr. Oliazari) might reserve the possession and ma-
nagement of the property. On calm consideration,
however, Mr. O'BRIEN must see that such an expec-
tation is altogether visionary, that no reasonable hope
can be entertained of such an event. Whatever
might once have been the value of his property, it
has suffered from the general depreciation, and he
should, as an honest man, rejoice at the facilities
afforded by the new Act, which, by giving a clear,
perfect, and unimpeachable title to the purchaser,
increases the value of the lands, and, by render-
ing the cumbrous machinery of the Court of
Chancery unnecessary, leaves a larger sum
for division among the parties justly entitled,
taking it from lawyers to distribute among creditors.
We trust that on calm consideration Mr. O'BRIEN
will be inclined to disavow these incendiary publica-
tions, or at least to ascribe them to some temp3rary
hallucination, of which he sincerely repents, and fur
which he is anxious to render the only reparation in
his power—a firm determin.tion henceforward to co
operate with his much-aggrieved creditors in procur-
ing them a speedy payment on account of their re-
spective demands. The tropical sun of Sierra Leone
must have heated his brain to the verge of insanity,
or be could never have been guilty of conduct which

he himself must admit to be so wholly indefensible

Eind unwarrantable.

In another column will be found the answer of the
Bishop of LONDON to the address of the Westminster
clergy on the subject of the recent appointment by
the POPE of a Popish Archbishop of Westminster.
The Bishop of LONDON characterises this assumption
on the part of the PorE as a schismatic act,
which he trusts will not be quietly tolerated, and
he thus proceeds to advise the memorialists as to the
conduct which, in his opinion, they ought under
existing circumstances to pursue :
" With respect to the conduct proper to be pursued by
you on this occasion, it ought in my opinion to be tem-
perate and charitable, but firm and uncompromising.
" You will do well to call the attention of your people
to the real purport of this open assault upon our Re-
formed Church, and to take measures for petitioning the
Legislature to carry out the principle of the statute which
forbids all persons, other than the persons authorised by
law, to assume or ttse the name, style, or title of any
archbishop of any province, bishop of any bishopric, or
dean of any deanery in England or Ireland, by extend-
ing the prohibition to any pretended dioceses or deaneries
i❑ these realms.

" It is possible that such prohibitions might not have
the effect of preventing the assumption of titles by the
Papal bishops, when dealing with their own adherents;
but it would make the assumption unlawful; and it would
mark the determination of the people of this country not
to permit any foreign prelate to exercise spiritual juris-
diction over them.

" But there aro other duties besides those of protest-
ing and petitioning, the performance of which seems to
be specially required of us by the present emergency.
Unwilling as 1. am to encourage controversial preach-
ing, I must say that we are driven to have recourse
to it by this attempted usurpation of authority on the
part of the Bishop of Rowe, and by the activity and
subtlety of his emissaries in al parts or :the
kingdom. We are surely called upon for a more than
ordinary measure of watchfulness and diligence in ful-
fillirg the protnist• which we gave when we were ad-
mitted to the priesthood—' to 'banish and drive away
all erroneous and strange doctrines, contrary to Gou's
Word.'

Let us be careful, as well in our public' mi-
nistrations as in our private munitions and exhortations,
to refrain from doing or saying anything which may
seem to indicate a wish to make the slightest approach
to a Church, whch, far from manifesting a desire to lay
aside any of the errors and superstitions which com-
pelled us to separate from it, is now re-asserting them
wail a degree of boldness unknown since the Reforma-
tion ; is adding new trredenda to its articles of faith,
and is undisguisedly teaching its members the duty of
worshipping the creature with the worship due only to
the Creator."

This is all_very excellent advice, but it does not
go far enough. The Bishop of LONDON does not
go to the root of the evil. With the declaration of
the Univers, the avowed, the cherished, the petted
organ of Romanism before us, that " Protestantism
must be put down by force of arms"—a declaration
made by this journal, the journal of MM. DE FAL-
Loux and DE MONTALEMBERT, no longer ago than
Sunday last, it would be madness on the part of any
one who values the name of Protestant not
to adopt every measure possible to strengthen
our defences against the threatened attack,
and the first and most important of those mea•
sures is to at once expel from the camp every traitor
and spy. The Roman Catholic obscurantists are
themselves aware of the infinite importance of educa-
tion, and how utterly impossible it is to rivet the
chains of sacerdotal despotism around the necks of an
educated people. Their proceedings in regard tithe
Queen's Colleges in Ireland show the reck-
less spirit of hatred by which they are
actuated. Sir ROBERT KANE, himself a
Roman Catholic, and one who, from his position, is
perhaps better fitted than any other to speak on the
subject, thus describes the effects produced by the
teaching in those institutions, which the obscurantists
have the blasphemous mendacity to denominate
"Godless Colleges :"
" I appeal," said he in his opening address, " to the
experience of the parents arid guardians of students,
whom here present in such numbers I have the honour
to address, and demand it' there be any parent who
has found his son to be injured in morality or
religion by having last year studied in this college?
—(Applause.) I ask, if in the conduct of the
students or authorities of this college, known to so mug
there, the principles of morality have been violated,
or religion outraged? Was it the intlue nee of infidel
institutions which had induced the Roman Catholic stu-
dents at this college to fulfil the strictest religious duties
in a proportion such as has been almost unknown in
young wen of similar ages? Were those the results of
Godless colleges ?"
Such are the institutions which are denounced
by those who have recently assumed to exercise terri-
torial authority in this Protestant realm of England,
and who show the importance they attach to corrupt-
ing education where they cannot stifle it by filtir
unceasing endeavours to establish in Ireland
colleges where science shall be taught after
the theories of Dr. PAUL CULLEN, and charity
inculcated,by.the example of Dr. JOHN M'HALE. '
The organizers of the crusade against Protestant-
ism thus demonstrate the importance they attach
to the subject of education. None but a devoted slave
of the Roman PONTIFF will they suffer to have art or
part in the matter ; while we, on the con-
trary, knowingly permit those who are
teachers in our universities to pervert the minds of
the youths placed under their charge by teaching
Popish legends instead of Protestant truth, and thus to
recruit the forces of Rome by perverting Protestant
youth, they themselves being all the while in the
receipt of emoluments • derived from Protestant
foundations. Surely there must be some•
thing wrong in the constitution of that Uni-
versity which permits a man like Dr. PUSEY,
who has been actually condemned for false doctrine,
to continue teaching as a professor within its pre-
cincts. In addition, therefore, to the steps recom-
mended by the Bishop of LONDON, we would
recommend all true Protestants to memo.
rializa the Government and the University
authorities, beseeching them to take steps to purge
the Universities of all those who " repudiate the name
of Protestant."

Some weeks since we directed the public attention
to the evidence taken before the Deputy Coroner of
the County of Middlesex, and a jury empannelled, to
inquire into the circumstances attending the death of
a young man named JAMES GEARY, which was alleged
to have been occasioned by the brutal and unnecessary
violence with which he had been treated by two police-
constables some time previously. On that inquiry,
there appeared to be no controversy respect.
ing the facts. Many witnesses were pro-
duced, all of whom deposed to the atrocious
conduct of the policeman, and to the extraordinary
quietness of the unfortunate young man, who had
been guilty of no offence to warrant such gross ill-
usage as he was said to have received from two of
the appointed conservators of the public peace. There
was no rebutting testimony—no policeman tendered
his evidence to show that the proceedings were ren-
dered necessary, or were in any degree justified by
the circumstances of the case. It was distinctly
and positively sworn by MORRIS GEARY, a brother
of the deceased, that "in the charge-room, and
whilst on their way to the cell, his brother
and himself had been knocked about by one of the
policemen (whom be identified), who repeatedly
struek them on the arms and faces, and finally flung
them violently into the cell like dogs." This state-
ment, which could so easily have been contradicted,
as all the constables on duty at the station must have
been cognizant of what occurred "in the charge-
room,"
was permitted to go to the jury with-
out qualification or explanation of any descrip-
tion. The injuries received by the deceased were
spoken to by a respectable medical practitioner,
and on that subject there could be no mistake. " The
right arm was very much bruised from the shoulder
to the wrist; there was also a bruise on the right
side of the face, and a clot of coagulated blood on
the right ear. He likewise observed the rn arks of a
plow under the ear, which was a dangerous one from
its lccality. The deceased complained of injuries in
other parts of his body, which the witness did not
think it necessary to examine." From this it was
tolerably clear that the staves had been freely used,
whether teat proceeding could be justified or not
being another question. Sergeant BUSHELL, of the
D division of police, was pointed out as one of the
parties implicated, but his companion was not identi-
fied. The police kept wholly aloof; they would not
render any a-sistance, or throw any light on the
subject ; they neither cause forward to explain who
was the coadjutor of Sergeant BusnELL, or to de-
clare that there had been exaggeration or over-
statement of the real facts. It was an inferior tris
bunal, beneath the notice of "the force." Under these
circumstances, the inquiry was brought to a conclu-
sion, the Deputy Coroner, in his charge declared,
I " that there was not the least doubt that the police had