The Sun.
London, England, 1828-12-20 00:00:00

Church, and equally unlikely that they will have
the will. It is very natural for Clergymen, to
1 whom the Church is all in all, to suppose
that there is nothing in men's minds but
! subverting or restoring Churches. The In-
, than, in an Essay of Franklin, could not
' conceive why all the white men should meet
together in a large house every seventh day, ex-
cept to lay their heads together to cheat Indians,
in bargaining with them for beaver. People
have a variety of things in the present age of
taxation, and speculation, and exertion, to busy
themselves with, besides Church matters; and,
without claiming the gift of prophecy, we think
we may venture to observe, that should the re-
pose of the Clergy ever be disturbed, the cause
will be the necessities of the State, rather than
any particular fancy for re-investing the Church
of Rome with its former splendour. But this
return to moderation on the part of the Clergy au-
gurs well. As the members of that body, how-
ever defective they may be as speculative politi-
cians and reasoners, have generally an extraor-
dinary quickness of scent where Ministerial fa-
vours are concerned, we attach no little import-
ance to these indications. A hint even would
have served to call forth a holy and fervent zeal.
Knowing this, we' are satisfied with our present
prospects—Morning Chronicle.
We are quite willing to take the account of
the City licensing system as given by Alderman
Weidman, in his second letter, instead of that
first described ; viz., that in the Alderman's first
letter there was a mistake of " opposition" for
" application :"—in short, that the Common
Council of each ward are the whole and sole
judges of who shall or shall not carry on the
trade of a victualler. This system, too, the
worthy Alderman is stated to hare described as
having " worked so well" in the City ; but
whether the proofs of this working are taken
from the " Newgate Calendar," or the daily
samples of civic sobriety and decorum produced
at the Mansion-house and Guildhall, the worthy
Alderman does not condescend to inform us.
The Alderman thinks, too—nay, he is con-
vinceds—that there is nothing like undue in-
fluence exercised on the occasion ; and would
have us seriously believe that those who could
sell the office of Secondary, and impose upon
their fellow-citizens and constituents the hardship
and the extortion consequent upon such a pro-
ceeding, are quite alcove receiving any im-
pression from those who know how to manage
such matters elsewhere. Now, cheap as we
hold the majority of those throughout the king-
dom who carry into effect our precious licensing
system, we hold the civic body cheaper still ;
but whether they be deserving of more regard
than we entertain for them or not, one thing is
certain—that it is not to them that the law has
assigned this power ; and, therefore, for the
Common Councilmen of this or any other
Ward to meet, and decide by vote upon
questions of property like these is an assump-
tion of power illegal in itself, and not at all
palliated by any good which it has produced in
the result. If any man doubt this, let him stand
for ten minutes on the steps leading to. Saint
Andrew's Church, Holborn, and he will see
haw " the system works" in the Ward of Far-
ringdou. If he wishes, too, to see how the
same system works, both in the city and other
parts of the metropolis, let him read the account
of the trial for conspiracy which took place at
Maidstone a few days since, which he will find
in our paper of Wednesday last ; from which he
will find, that, though one main duty of the
Licensing Magistrates is to look to the moral
character of the persons who keep public-houses,
no small portion of them are in the hands of
thieves and prize-fighters ; and that, in fact,
half the robberies which are committed are first

planned, and afterwards accelerated, in places
which these guardians of public morals take such
extraordinary pains not to purify. Yet, if a
hotel or coffee-house keeper require a licence, the
worshipful body are all in arms, from "Vile-end
to Kensington—not for fear public morals
should be deteriorated, but lest the wholesale
dealers in poison should suffer any diminution
of their righteous gains ! Such being the case,
the Legislature is bound, we think, to protect
the community from that being turned into an
evil ,Which was meant to be a benefit. Whether

the trade can be safely thrown open we are hardly
prepared to affirm ; but that the better part of it
should not he sacrificed to the worst—the hotel-
keeper to the gin-shop—is a proposition which
none but those who have either a very dull
vision, or who see things through an interested
medium, can for a moment doubt.—Morning
Herald.

The events of die last few months have effec-
tually settled the question of Emancipation.—
These were the words of one whose opinion is
at tl:e present moment of immense practical im-
portance, and who, among his other valuable
distinctions, reckons that of never employing
any expressions unguardedly. In this opinion
it will soon be found that all intelligent and
impartial spectators of the events alluded to fully
concur. It would be an error to consider the
proceedings which have recently taken place in
Ireland as presenting merely temporary and acci-
dental impediments to the admission of the Ro-
manists to political power, for this would not he
effectually to have settled the question. These
proceedings are to be viewed as exposing more
fully, and placing in a new and clearer light, so
as to render them universally intelligible, the
character and tendency—the permanent charac-
ter and necessary tendency—of the measure of
Emancipation, which had before been but nn-
' perfectly understood. The election for the
county of Clare completed and rendered wholly
irresistible the evidence that the Roman Ca-
tholic Hierarchy of Ireland is essentially a po-
litical corporation, and that it possesses
the power of controuling and commanding, wi
tn-
! out any reserve or limitation, the political con-
duct of the entire Catholic population of that
country. Thus what had before been matter
only of probable conjecture and reasonable ap-
prehension, as to the
.new relation in which that
body would be placed towards the Protestant
Church and Constitution of the Empire, by any
measure giving an Increase of political power to
the Catholic Laity, stood forth with all its odious
lineaments and foul proportions, in the full blaze
of light. It could no longer be doubted that
the practical effect of Emancipation would be to
give the Popish Hierarchy the Command of a
hundred votes ill the House of Commons. This
exhibition of Roman Catholic Ecclesiastical
Power naturally elated the adherents of Popery.
They fancied they were going to carry their point
by storm, and in the triumph of their fancied
success, some of their leading Agitators, Lay
and Ecclesiastical, no longer thought it neces-
sary to conceal that they had further points
which in dile time and succession they were de-
termined to carry also. Those who had any
accurate notion of the genius and character of
the Roman Catholic Religion needed not this