The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-12 00:00:00

,Slettit

T.O N D 0 N:
FRIDAY MORNING, JANUARY 12, 1844,

The conduct of the Duke of BORDEAUX in this
country does not tend to raise the BOURBON race
in public estimation. Every Englishman at first
welcomed him as an unfortunate exile frozn
France ; his sad lot, and the sufferings of his
family for three generations, called forth the
sympathy of every generous heart, and all, from
the SOVEREIGN to the peasant, would have been
anxious to pay a due tribute to his reproachless
life, and his position, as the last remnant of a
Royal Family that had performed a great part
for ages in the affairs of the world. But when he
aisumed the character ofa Pretender, when he en-
couraged die relics of the old bigoted and cowardly
n ddesse to come in crowds to England, and,
taking athantage of her liberal institutions, to
raise a standard which he could have done in no
other European State (with the exception of
Hanover), he was classed among the incorrigible
despots who would rule by divine right, and set
the people at defiance. LOUIS PHILIPPE was
elected Sovereign of France almost unanimously
—if there were any dissentients they belonged
to the party who had not the courage to express
their sentiments, and who have now come over
in shoals to pay court to the Duke of Bon-
DEAUI 113 HENRY V. It is unfair to make
England the scene of such an exhibition.
England had done and suffered much fur
the Bouatioxs ; but on finding them, from
the blind folly of CHARLES X., and the puerile
conduct of his son, utterly irreclaimable, even
the Tory Government of WELLINGTON at once
cast them off. What madness now to make an
attempt to resuscitate the worn-out dynasty, and
at the same time, by glaring indiscretion, to
offend a State that had done more than all
others to restore them to the throne ? Were he
not as blind as any of his family, he would see,
that if a revolution take place in France, it will
not be in favour of the young HENRY.
Young France and Old France, too, are
sick of masses and monks and Catholic
bigotry ; the fatal impressions made by the his

tory of the last hundred years have ~
sealed his

fate, and the revival of the CA PETS is as hopeless

as that of the STUARTS. True to the character of

The family, he yields when it is too late. He left

Brighton privately—he has remained for some
days in private at Belgrave-square, and he has
made hie escape privately to some part of the

As regards the State prosecutions of O'CoN-
NELL and the other Repealers, the Irish Execu-
tive has exhibited the national prospensity to
blunder, in the broadest and fullest light possible.
The very first step they took—viz., the prohibi-
tion of the Clontarf meeting, was a blunder;
their subsequent proceedings, as respects
HUGHES the reporter, were a series of blunders;
and now comes the crowning blunder of all, the
exclusion of all the Roman Catholics from the
jury. This last act seems to us one of the most
wanton, unjustifiable stretches of power ever
perpetrated, even by a Tory Government.
There is not the shadow of an excuse for it, for
it has been ascertained—says the Irish Corre-
spondent of a Morning Contemporary—" be-
yond all possibility of doubt, that several of the
Catholics struck off by the Crown, had never
been connected with the Repeal Association,
nor in any manner whatever identified with the
Repeal movement." Under such circumstances
who can wonder at the ferment now so general
throughout Ireland? Who can wonder that the
members of the proscribed faith are everywhere
sounding the tocsin of alarm—that they are in-
dignant at the slur cast on them—that the
Catholic hierarchy are coming forward to head
the movement—and that many of the most
wealthy, intelligent, and influential among their
flocks, who hitherto have taken no part in the
Repeal struggle, are now hastening from their
retirement into the field of active exertion? Of
course the object which the Irish Executive have
in view by such a bare-faced stretch of authority,
is to secure the conviction of the " conspirators."
But suppose this object accomplished, how will
they be the better for it ? Will the people re-
gard the conviction as one founded in truth and
justice—as a legitimate triumph of law ? As-
suredly not. They will consider it as a con-
summation brought about by unworthy means—
as a victory gained by chicanery ; and, thus
thinking, they will resent it as another flagrant
instance of the utter disregard in which the Tories
hold their feelings; and become more fixed than
ever in their determination to clamour for Re-
peal. It is a grave, a desperate blunder—this
exclusion of Catholics from the jury, and one
can scarcely exaggerate the lamentable conse-
quences that may result from it. In the
first place, it will degrade the sacred
majesty of the law in the eyes of the
Irish people, and teach them to regard it rather
as their oppressor than their guardian; and se-
condly, it will convince the Catholic portion of
the community that they are still a distrusted
class—still eyed with jealousy by the English
Government. "of what use is Emancipation
to us,"—they will argue, and not unreasonably:—
"if we are still to be looked on as aliens? We
sought a substantial equality with the Protestants,
not a seeming one. We demanded, and were
assured, that a generous confidence should be
henceforth placed in the purity anti uprightness
of our conduct ; and behold, we are not considered
worthy even to serve on a jury ! It is coolly taken
for granted that because we are Catholics, we must
necessarily be traitors to the cause of justice;
and, if placed in the jury-box, that we shall make
a point of declaring the " conspirators" innocent,
no matter how irresistible be the evidence against
them. Is this in accordance with those honied
professions of good will towards us which the
Premier made so often last session? Is it not,
on the contrary, a deliberate insult—a cruel
mockery—another striking proof that nothing is
to be hoped for from the good-will of a Tory
Administration ? It is so, and we are now
at length convinced that in a Repeal

country. Even Cie loyal chronicler of his move-
ments leaves us to guess what is become of him.
The same journal has accurately recorded how
often he attended mass, as if that religious cere-
mony would raise him in the estimation of
Frenchmen.

The late meeting at Oxford to form a public
cemetery in the neighourhood of the city, ex-
cites some sad reflections. 'There is
.no fairer
way of testing the truth of any set of religious
opinions, than by examining their practical in-
fluence upon the every-day affairs of mankind.
Those principles which when reduced to prac-
tice are found to be inimical to the common in-
terests of our species, may rightly enough be con-
sidered bad ; and, on the other hand, when the
real substantial welfare of human beings is pro-
moted, we may be quite certain that there is no-
thing very unsound in the religious system by
means of which this good has been achieved.
Puseyism claims our homage, and the profes-
sors of the modern creed insist most pragmati-
cally upon the divine origin of what they in-
culcate; but if we decide upon the merits
of the system by the conduct of those who
preach it, we imagine we shall not be long
in arriving at a very unfavourable opinion
of what is presented to our notice. Oxford
is the quarter whence these dogmas have arisen,
and it is, therefore, well to direct our eyes thi-
ther occasionally for illustrations of the theolo-
gical system. The recent proceedings in reference
to the establishment of a public cemetery at
Oxford, supply us with some means of ascer-
taining the sentiments of the Tractariaa clergy,
when a great public good is under consideration.
The need of such accommodations as public
cemeteries we take to be so evident that
we shall not undertake to demonstrate it to
our readers. The old system of allowing
our dead to be buried in church-yards, placed in
the most densely populated parts of our most
densely populated towns and cities, for a long
time escaped all attention, excited no fears, and,
therefbre, met with no opposition. It was not
even suspected that the noxious vapours emitted
from putrid human bodies might exercise an in- 1
jurious influence upon the health of those resid-
ing in the neighbourhood of the church-yards
wherein they were deposited. Fevers, malaria
of various kinds, and the long train of disorders
which it is now ascertained owe their existence
purely to this cause, were then imputed to
irresistible agencies, which human folly or
human superstition had no hand in producing.
Hence we went on in our absurd and most in-
sane habit of crowding charnel houses with the
victims of our weakness, and they, in turn, con-
tributed to the prevalent evil.
But now we are beginning to know better.
Sad experience has taught us the folly and
danger of going on piling dead bodies, as though
they were merchandise, in the neighbourhood
of our dwellings; and there appears to be a
general desire abroad to reform what hitherto
has been done .so shamefUlly amiss. At
this crisis, however, the friends of im-
provement have an opponent to contend
with—an opponent powerful, resolute, and
energetic; and yet, strange to say that very
opponent ought to be a most zealous and ef-
fective ally. The Church—the Establishment
which has been called the Poor Man's Church—
appears to be most determined in her opposition
to the scheme for improving, by means of public
cemeteries, the health of our population. And
the party in the Church which has shown itself
foremost in this array is the party which is called
Puseyite. A t Oxford, on the occasion to
which we have been referring, the Tractarian
clergy mustered all their local influence, with
the view of either crushing the scheme of
forming a cemetery, or else of carrying out their
project, by rendering it a cemetery for purely
sectarian purposes. How little, how puerile,
how paltry this interference with the sacred
privileges of the dead! The grave has been re-
garded as the sanctuary from all the strifes and
animosities which too much agitate us frail mor-
tals while passing through this brief 'and most
perplexing scene. Why, then, convert it into a
source for perpetuating what already, to a re-
flective mind, must appear far too enduring
Surely, when we see a religious system int./A-
I eating 9iwch priaCipleS as this conduct evinces,
we may well regard it with suspicion ; and hew-
ever much its professors plume themselves upon
their honesty, simplicity, and devotion to truth,
we may, without want of charity, exclaim, how
contrary is such conduct to everything while
Christianity enjoins ?