The Sun.
London, England, 1845-02-06 00:00:00

PION THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.

GLOBE.—Let Sir Robert Peel alone for " turning
diseases to commodity !" He is quitted by a colleague ,
of whom it is not much to say that he was the sole re-
presentative
in the Government of any one former prin-
ciple of its party, and moreover that he was Sir
Robert Peel's sole reliance in debate on many ques-
tions. One would have thought this (morally speaking)
a heavy blow, and a great discouragement. Sir Robert
reel makes a merit of it '. He shows off Mr. Glad-
stone to the malcontent Irish Roman Catholics as a scape-
goat, whom he has driven into the wilderness, charged
with all the sins of his party. See what a prize Protestant
we have sacrificed !—what a credit to the flock we have
whistled down the wind. All for the love of the Irish Ro-
man Catholics !—all for the sake of " the Romish Church
in that country." In ourhumble judgment Lord J. Russell,
critiscising the mode of passing the Charitable Bequests
Act, instead of pressing too hard upon the Premier, let
him off too cheap. That Mr. Gladstone did so is not
surprising. As he did not mean to head a party against
his late chief, he could not gracefully go farther. But
we confess our surprise that the strongest point against
the party in power has been pressed so little ; especially
as that point is so salient that it cannot escape any eye.
The point •we allude to is the flagrant inconsistency
of Sir Robert Peel's recent recognition of the Irish
Roman ecclesiastics—not merely with the principles
of his party—with the professions of his past life—but
with the Emancipation Act, if not with the Act of Su-
premacy. The Oath of Supremacy, administered to
every candidate for a degree in the Dubliis University,
affirms that the Roman Pontiff " hath not any ju-
risdiction, power, superiority, pre-eminence, or autho-
rity, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within this realm."
An " Ex-Scholar of Trinity College. Dublin," in
the Dublin Evening Mad, puts the question to Dr.
Radcliffe, Vicar-General of that Diocese—" Whe-

ther, on perusing the Charitable Bequests Bill
—and observing that the ecclesiastical functions of men
are therein recognised and ratified by British law,
which functions are only conferred, and can be only
conferred, by the Pope of Rome—and that the men
bearing those functions are, in virtue of their official
station, invested with certain powers under that Act
in this country—permit me, Sir, to ask whether you
choose to stake your official character on the pro-
priety of administering to candidates fur degrees in
the University, an oath in which they swear," &c. &c.
We can conceive that the Ministerial advocates may
get over this inconsistency, on the plea that they recog-
nise the Roman Prelates, not as appointed by the Pope
—an appointment which they choose to know nothing of
—but as the de facto spiritual dignitaries of the Roman
Catholic population of Ireland. They do not acknow-
ledge the right of the Pope to appoint, but the right of
the people to receive them ; and they recognise them
only in consequence of the function they find them really
holding. Well, we will let the blinisterialists off on the
Oath of Supremacy. But let us just look at the Act of
Emancipation. By this Act, at all events, they built a wall,
which, in the Charitable Bequests Act, they have been
themselves first to run their heads against. The follow-
ing was a leading provision of the Act of Emancipation,
" for the peace and security of the Establishment and of
the Protestant religion:"—" Whereas the right and title
of archbishops to their respective provinces, of bishops
to their sees, and of deans to their deaneries, as well in
England as in Ireland, have been established by law;
Be it therefore enacted, that if any person, after the com-
mencement of this Act, other than the person thereunto
authorised by law, shall assume or use the name, style,
or title of archbishop of any province, bishop of any
bishopric, or dean of any deanery, in England or Ire-
land, he shall for every such offence forfeit and pay the
sum of MC Certainly no enactment could be devised
better fitted to bring the law into contempt. The Roman
Catholics consider their prelates as cis jure bishops of
those very dioceses, whose titles Sir Robert Peel's Eman-
cipation Act forbade them to assume under a heavy
penalty. Of course the titles were assumed ; and of
course the penalties were not enforced. But what be-
came of that respect fur the law, so desirable to create in
Ireland? And what becomes of Sir R. Peel's own re-
spect for his own enactment ? He is its first signal
Protestant violator ! He is not content with having set
up an Act of Parliament, as a thing of straw, to be dis-
°!4eVed with impunity—he is not content without
ingnsaiting his own scorn for it in another Act of Par-
liament. The Charitable Bequests Act recognises the
toreen;. ttitlee ssa.Nyhich the Emancipation Act forbids.
Will
liised ".3.4°ltoraluathat those titles are neither recog-
former--we will
lt nor local: We will wave the
the Act of Suprema7ppose there is no breach of
But that titles of :.isho" C'est one fire supposition."
s and archbishops always
suppose a " local habitationP
O'Connell Roman Catholicandname." Suppose
Mayor
of
Dublin Suppose Mr.
in the face
of a Protestant legal ; thtt th
tion had imposed a fine of -tote fAoretasofsuEnsTnagneitPhaa;
Bequestser Act had title; and that the Charitablees
Mayor of
re-
cognised Mr. O'Connell
Nowhere ? The Dublin Pilot pushes this recog-
nition to exceedingly awkward
" Spiritual peerage was a creation of the law of
Eng-
land, while England was yet Catholic—meaning
.li
spiritual peerage the title of Lord or Dominus, accoui-.
panied with the right of taking a part in the Legisla-
tive Council or Parliament of the nation. The law con-
ferred this title and privilege on Catholic ecclesiastics,
in virtue of their having canonical consecration as pre-
lates, which ordination and consecration they could de-
rive only from the See of Rome. Therefore, by the
ancient constitution or common law of England, which
time only can destroy, the title to the spiritual peerage
is canonical ordination and consecration in communion
with the See of Rome ..... . The law
now tardily, and, we suspect, not very honestly, does
recognise that spiritual peerage belongs
should like; to Catholic
pre
lates—and, indeed to them alone.
to see this great question tried at law. Suppose the
Most Reverend Archbishop Daniel Murray insists that
t
lie is, as a British subject, and by virtir
England, the true, legal Archbishop of of the law of
f Dublin, andclamst sit in Parliament,insteada ph WiagtQieb