The Sun.
London, England, 1868-11-19 00:00:00

CONVERSIONS TO CA7'HOLICIS3f.

In last week's Tablet we read—ln addition to
Mr. and Mrs. Pye, the daughter of the Bishop of
Oxford, we have to record the reception into the
Church of Captain Pye, which took place in Staf-
fordshire on Sunday last. On Monday, Mr. J. M.
Bellew, with his wife and family, made their sub-
mission to the Church. Mr. Pye, in leaving the
Anglican communion, was called upon to give up a
stall in the Cathedral of Lichfield and a rich family
living. Mr. Bellew also has had to resign the in-
cumbency of one of the London churches, the value
of which is estimated at £l,OOO a-year. In the
literary world Mr. Bellew has earned a high and
well-merited reputation as one of the most accom-
plished and telling public readers of the day.
In the course of one month during the present
year 104 persons were received into the Church in
London alone.

In the Tablet for the present week we find, in fur-
ther illustration of the above, the following :
" We have to record the reception into the Church
of a Protestant community in Market Harborough,
Leicestershire. Four pious ladies, devoting them-
selves to the education of a number of orphan girls
after having carefully examined their religious dif-
ficulties, were received into the Church by the Rev.
F. Buckler, O.P. The brother of one of these
ladies, Mr. Douglas, a clergyman of the Church of
England, hastened to remonstrate with them on the
step they had taken; but, upon further examina-
tion of their motives, he ended by taking the step
himself. He has now entered the English College
at Bruges. The ladies offered to send home the
fourteen orphans under their charge; but their
guardians and relatives declined to receive them,
expressing their perfect satisfaction that they should
be brought up in the faith of their teachers.
Nothing can be less desirable than the circulation
of doubtful reports ; but it is right that we should
mention the more notable conversions which take
place from time to time, not in any unworthy
spirit of triumph, and far less in order to inflict
pain or annoyance on those who conscientiously
reject the Catholic religion. We do so for a dis-
tinct purpose—as an example of disinterested ad-
herence to the dictates of conscience, and as an
encouragement to those numerous persons who are
actually on the threshold of the Catholic Church.
The domestic and social persecution which maul
converts have to suffer, is a subject of constant
sorrow and sympathy. We gladly, however, render
this justice to the larger portion of the London
Press, and to the higher walks of public life, by
saying that they neither ostracize nor brand men
for their conscientious convictions."

Mr. Wallis, ex-Editor of " The Tablet•"

A proposition has been made to present to Mr.
Wallis, the late proprietor of the I ablet, some kind
of substantial token of the respect and esteem ill
which he is held by his numerous friends. Having
become by bona fide purchase the sole and indepen-
dent proprietor of the lablet, there is nothing to
restrain us from rendering our free and disinte-
rested testimony to the services of Mr. Wallis, nor
is there any surviving relation in Mr. Wallis to the
goblet which should prevent his accepting it at our
hands.

Mr. Wallis has always shown an unswerving
fidelity to the Holy See ; he was among the first to
defend the doctrine of the Temporal Power, when
there were few among us who had then Inas'
tered its true import and necessity. He has from
the first moment he entered upon the editorship
of the Tablet borne fearlessly before the people of
this country his testimony to the doctrines of the
Catholic Church. He has never for a moment tam-
pered with heresy on the one hand ; and, on the
other hand, he has never poured out venom and
bitterness upon souls that were groping after the
truth, and endeavouring to console themselves in
the delusion that their communion formed part of
the Church of God. or are these titles to our
gratitude surprising in one of Mr. Wallis's antece-
dents. The circumstances which led to his connec-
tion with the Tablet may not now be fresh in the
memory of our readers; we shall, therefore, briefly
recall them.

When Mr. Lucas passed away from his labours,
there seemed to be no one left capable of filling the
post which he had created in the Catholic journalism
of the country. Mr. Wallis was then in the prime of
life ; a lengthened course of legal studies had bees
completed ; he bad been called to the bar, and was
actually following circuit with equals who are now en'
joyiug the high honoursof their profession. His read'.
ness of speech and command of language, the keen
ne.is of his perception and a well-developed legal
mind, laid before him the promise of a future which
would have been enough to fascinate a calmer els
than his. But there are turns in the path of life
which no man can foresee, and so it happened with
Mr. Wallis. His friends came around him, suggest'
ing to him another course. They felt that if he de'
voted those talents, which were already beginning
to attract attention, to the cause of Catholic jour'
nalisrn, a great service might be rendered to the
Catholics of this country, and a great loss, is
part at least, supplied. Nor was it only the
personal friends of Mr. Wallis who pressed upon
him the adoption of this new career, but those
also who had the Church's interest most at
heart approved the choice and encouraged lise
to embark upon it. Mr. Wallis was not s
Catholic to close his eyes to the great interests of
his Church, nor to place his own personal and pro'
fessional aims before the claims of religion. Never'
theless, slowly and reluctantly he gave way before
the opinion of his friends, and determined to lea°
the profession of his choice for the hazardous as;
dertaking of a weekly journal. In this he has spel
the best years of his life, and so far as those greet
prizes which the legal profession offers to its f 01".
lowers are concerned, Mr. Wallis's chances are gone'
His chances are gone, and the Tablet has been no
equivalent for the sacrifices he has made.
We do not intend to enter upon any appreciation
of the political line which has characterized Alf.
Wallis's career as a journalist, nor to pass sentence
upon the ecclesiastical policy which has marked the
latter years of the Tablet. We feel that, in spite °
whatever divergencies we may recognise in the°
from the path which we have traced out for onr
selves, Mr. Wallis is entitled to any public reesg;
nition of his services which his friends may decide
on giving him. Whatever errors in judgment gf:
Wallis may have committed—and who is not liable
to err ?—they have not been committed on the 01`10
of subserviency to general opinion, or in the interes
of his own paper ; for he must have been well swab© b
that by the advocacy of his own peculiar views 1
forfeited much support which he might most easllol
have retained, and alienated many who had been "
friends. Whatever his conclusions, they were al-
ways honestly formed and expressed, and seecu.P.A
10'.•
parried with an exposition of such reasons as bad
him to adopt them. e
We shall therefore be happy, so far as it lies,
s
our province to do so, to further the proPss- b,
which Mr. Wallis's friends have made, and to ss,t
scribe to any testimonial which it may be thong
fit to present.—Tablet.