The Sun.
London, England, 1821-11-22 00:00:00

COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, Nov. 21.

The business of this day was quite devoid of interest.
Mr. Serjeant LENS, in the case of DAVIS and OTHERS, as,
signees of BounciliEn against HENLEY, moved for a rule
to shew cause-why the warrant of attorney obtained in the
action should not be set aside, it having been obtained un-
der the following circumstances :—A person named John Hop-
wood repaired to Paris, and had an interview with the defendant
in the actions who resided in the Italian Boulevards : he told
him that tile object of his visit was to execute a warrant
which the Marshal Of the King's Bench had obtained from
Lord Castlereagh, and which required that the French Police
should immediately bring over the individual, unless he exe-
cuted to the said Hopwood a warrant of attorney in the parti-
cular action upon which he applied to him. This Gentleman
becoming alarmed at this order of Lord Castlereagh, complied
with the demand, and when Hopwood put the warrant of attor-
ney inihis pocket, he then said he was sorry to inform him that
the other action pending must also be settled, and that no set-
dement but cash would answer for it ; he added, that if this
were not done, the French police must be immediately called in to
execute Lord Castlereagh's order. The Gentleman becoming
again frightened at this formidable threat,delivered up to Hopkins
his ,gold chronometer and chain and seals, worth above 1001. and
1001 in cash, who, after declaring he was satisfied, observed,
that if his terms hat\ not been complied with, the Bens d'armes
were without, ready to be called in to aid the execution of the
warrant. The rule to shew cause was wanted.

PREROGATIVE COURT, Nov. 21.
LANGDON V. LANGDON AND JONES.
This was a testamentary cause. The testatrix left no rep:.
larly executed will behind her ; but in her •escrutoire a paper
was found, without date, signature, or concluding sentence ,•
the inception of which was conceived in these terms :
" My dear children, having little to leave except my blessing,
I make no will ; but I desire to make the following bequests,
which I have no doubt will be complied with." This paper
was left in this unfinished manner : In consideration of r.
Mayo's having been very kind to several Branches of the family,
I trust he will accept my organ, with 801. to repair it, if he likes.
I leave my harpsichord—
The property of the testatrix is of the value of between,
11,0001. and 12,0001. She died a widow, leaving seven chil-
dren ; and of these, 6 were enumerated by name in the paper
in question as the objects of her testamentary bounty, but the
name of her son Philip was omitted- This gentleman at the
time of his 'bother's death in June last, was resident at the •
Cape of Good Hope ; and the parties to the present suit were,
on the one hand, the next of kin, and on the other Mr_ Philip
Langdon, who opposed the paper now propounded for, and as
the last testamentary disposition of the deceased, by which he
would be excluded from all`Participation in the property left
by her.
Dr. ADasis and Dr. DODSON were heard in sup fort of the
paper before the Court. It was endeavoured to skew that Mr. P.
Langdon had already received in the lifetime of his father, and
subsequently to his death, such a proportion of fortune, as was
equal to that which the rest of tile family would be entitled tn
take, under the provisions contained in this scrip; 'and that,
from the embarrassments in which he found himself at length
involved, in consequence of his misfortunes or imprudence, he
quitted England for the Cape of Good Hope, in the sear 1805;
and had ever since remained in that settlement. The Learned
Counsel further stated, that from the evidence, it appeared that
Mr. P. Langdon, during the whole of this interval, had left his
wife and three children under the care and protection of his
family. And they argued, that upon these and similar facts,
it was to be assumed that. the deceased was aware of the fact of
his exclusion from this paper; that such exclusion was inten-
tional; that it was accounted for, and justified by the whole
complexion of the case ; that the paper, though informal, was
clearly-intended by the deceased to operate as the expression of
her.final testamentary intentions and that the Court ought to
pronounce for its effect and validity as such.
Dr. liu;;IIHINTON and Dr. JESSE ADDAMS, on behalf of
Air. Landon, contended that the paper was, on the fare
of it, not merely informal and unfinished, but not even a
paper originally intended to be operative by the deceased,
and afterwards interrupted in its progress towards comple-
tion by the act of -GOD. They also dwelt upon the very
affectionate terms of certain letters from the deceased to her
son, as contained in the evidence, and upon the strong regard
and interest which she was proved on all occasions to have
manifested in his favour. Upon the whole of these facts, they
submitted that the inference to be raised was, rather that the
deceased was more attached to Mr. PhiliAtiliangdon than the
rest of her family,• than that she viewed th resentment his
former misfortunes, or considered that he ad already had the
benefit of a sufficient proportion of that property which it should
rather seem she was desirous of bestowing equally and without
exception among the whole of her family. The Learned
Counsel also submitted, that where a paper was thus professed.
ly informal, nothing but the strongest evidence of testamentary
intention would so far satisfy the Conrt, as to induce it to pro..
nounce for it : they conceived that in the present case no such
testimony had been supplied; that nothing had been shewn to
warrant the exclusion of Mr. Philip Langdon, and that the
paper ought to be rejected.
Sir Jonw NICHOLL commented at great length upon the
effect of the depositions in the case, and finally declared, that
the Court felt itself bound to pronounce against the paper writ-
ing propounded.

ATTEMPTED SUICIDE.-On 'Tuesday, between
eight and nine o'clock, a female of respectable
appearance was seen on Blackfriars-bridge, in
a dejected condition, clasping her hands, and
praying at intervals. At length she got on one
of the seats, and endeavoured to get over the ba-
lustrade, but was perceived by a person who had
been watching her, and pulled back. She made
no acknowledgment for his interference, but
burst into tears, and walked towards Black-
friars-road, followed by the person who pre-
vented her committing the rash act.

Yesterday afternoon, the servant of Mr. T.
WHITE, 19, Castle-street, Holborn, imptu 'ently
left the street-door open whilst she went on au
errand, and during her short absence, some vil-
lains, who are constantly on the look out for
plunder, entered the parlour and stole front
thence a portable writing desk with valuable
contents, and several books with which they got
clear off before the return of the maid-servant.

FOR THE SUN.

IRISH PAPISTS.

MR. Forma—Formerly it was the practice
to accuse every man of bigotry and intolerance, who evinced
any attachment to institutions venerable from age and estimable
from experience. But the present period furnishes a new era
in history,when it is considered as a proof of disloyalty to speak
or to write in support of our glorious Constitution in Church
and State, as established at the Revolution, by the wisdom of
the greatest Statesmen our history can boast—that Constitution
which has secured our religious and civil liberties,—which has
given to Britain her proud pre-eminence in the civilized world,
—which has been the admiration and envy of surrounding na-
tions,—and which has raised to Empire the PROTEST -
AN T HousE of BRUNSWICK. So general has this modern
anti-constitutional mania become in Ireland that those Jour-
nalists, who' ail formerly been zealous in support of the Pro-
testant interest, have of late closed their columns against every
thing Protestant: but it is_easy to foresee what will be the re-
sult of this weak and strange apathy in Protestants,—this crimi-
nal dereliction of principle. In the hope, however, that the
rentagion may not have extended to your side of the water, I

ion :

am now induced to trouble you with a few observations upon
- .

a recent gross misrepresentation of the preponderance of the
Popish population of Ireland over the Protestant ; of which I
do not find that any notice has yet been taken ; and which, if
not contradicted, may have no small degree of influence upon
the minds of many in Great Britain, as well as in this country.—
Should
you think them worthy of a place in your constitutional
paper, they may lead to further communications upon this vital
question.
It has lately been mentioned in some of the public prints,
that the present population of Ireland amounts to six millions
and a half ; though I know not upon what authority. Of these
the Popish Bishops, in their late address to his :Majesty, claim-
ed four-fifths, or five millions two hundred thousand, as be-
longing to the church of Rome ; and, upon the like occasion,
the Presbyterian Clergy stated the members of their commu-
nion to amount to one million. This last estimate I consider
also is much too high, without the smallest idea of charging
those n-spectable Gentlemen with any intention to mislead; for
if, by a census taken in the year 1732, by order of Government,
the whole population was found to be under two millions; and
if, by the account of the lateDr.Burke,titular Bishop of Ossory,
it amounted in 1731 to two millions ten thousand two hundred
and twenty-one,—a difference so trifling as hardly to be con-
sidered as worthy of notice, it is certainly allowing a great deal
to say that it had doubled in the space of ninety years ; when
in England and Wales, the population had increased only one
million and a half in a century ; therefore, I think there can-

not be one million of Presbyterians, taking in every Scot, in
Ireland. Were that respectable body, the society of Friends,
commonly called Quakers, to claim the residue of three hun-
dred thousand, it might riot be a more extravagant hypothesis,
than that the Roman Catholics constitute four-fifths of the po-
pulation of Ireland ; in which case the Protestants would literal-
ly be " Men in buckram."
This hyperbole might be amusing, were it not mischievous ;
and, when the Conclave of Popish Bishops approach the throne,
with so gross a misrepresentation, it is time that the fallacy of
such vague assertions should be exposed—not by similar asser-
tions, but by references to authors of unquestionable credit;
nor will the Popish Bishops, it is supposed, presume to call in
question the authority of one of those authors, Doctor Burke,
Titular Bishop of Ossory, as to the proportion Protestants
bore, in the year 1731, to Roman Catholics.
A few years antecedent to the Revolution, the whole population
of Ireland, by Sir Wm. Petty's survey, amounted to one million
one hundred thousand ; and Mr. Chalmers, in the year 1791,
estimated it at tour millions two hundred thousand. The last
named author computes the population of England and Wales,
at the period of the Revolution, to have amounted to nearly
seven millions and a half; ard, in 1794, to nearly eight mil-
lions and a half; consequently, the population of England and
Wales increased only one million and a half in a century :
while in Ireland the population nearly quadrupled in the same

space of time.
Upon the authority, I suppose, of Mr. Chalmers, the Roman
Catholic Committee, acting on behalf of their Body, in the year
1792 stated the whole population of Ireland to amount to four
millions; of which number they claimed three-fourths, leaving
one million for Protestants, and every class of Protestant Dis-
senters. In the year 1803, Mr. Denis Scully, " the Catholic
Adviser," stated in his work, the Roman Catholics to be
four-fifths of the whole population,—a most miraculous in-
crease on their part, while the Protestants were on the de-
cline ; and the Popish Bishops have adopted the same
idea, in magnifying the physical strength of the Members
of their Church : but let the candid Reader judge, from the
following Extract from the Appendix to a work published in
the year 1800, and entitled " A Fair Representation of the
present political State of Ireland," how far those Reverend
Centlemen were warranted in making such a statement to their
Sovereign. _ _

" Relative numbers of Protestants and•Romanists in lx eland."
" Sir., W. Petty, in his " Political Anatomy," states the
proportion of Protoakits and Romanists to be as three to eight,
• in the year 1672, Irears before the Revolution ;so that at
that time the Irish Protestants amounted to more than one-
third of the inhabitants of the Country. In the year 1732, an
accurate enumeration was made, by order of Government, of
all the families in Ireland, distinguishing the Protestant fami-
lies from the Romish in each province; and a calculation was
made from thence of the numbers of the Protestant and Romish
Inhabitants of Ireland : it was printed in Dublin in the year
1736, and reprinted in 1788. It appears from this calculation,
that in the year 1732 the number of Protestant Inhabitants was
to that of the Romish in the proportion of one-to two and a
half. Dr. Burke, Romish Titular Bishop of Ossory, wrote a
book in Latin, which he entitled ' Ilibernica Dominicana :' it
was printed at ,Brussels in the year 1762: and he particularly
states, an actual enumeration was made of the numbers of
Protestants and Romanists in Ireland in the year 1731, and
that there were, found to be seven hundred thousand four
hundred and, fifty-three Protestants, and one million three
hundred thousand seven hundred and sixty-eight Romanists•:
so that the proportion of Romanists and Protestants was not,
in the year 1731, quite two to one, according to Dr. Burke.—
It is very likely that this Romish Bishop had very accurate in-
formation of the relative numbers,—perhaps better than that
which could he deduced from the documents stated in the
pamphlet containing the calculation made in 1732. Dr. Burke
also states, that the proportion had much increased on the Pro-
testant side between the year 1731 and the year 1762, when he
wrote, by the operation of the Popery Code, and the Protestant
Charter ; and makes grievous complaints of the increase
of heretics., as he styles Protestants. The Popery Code conti-
nued in full vi our till the year 1776, and its operation, toge..
tiler with fie Chatter Schools, must have increased the
proportini on the Protestant side. There is a modern do-

cartrent Wlich tntitt have great weight in, this question,
taken from the numbers of beggars admitted into the House
of Industry in Dublin, for the course of six years, be-
girming with the year 1784, and ending with the year 1789 ;
and their respective religious persuasions."
"'The House of industry is a general receptacle for all beg-
gars, who flock into Dublin from all parts of Ireland ; for
there are no Poor Rates in Ireland. Divine Service is per-
formed separately in this receptacle for persons of the two per-
suasions, and Chaplains are retained for each by the Corpora-

Romanists.
1870
2435
2912
3341
3643
3615

Numbers admitted :
Protestants.
1784 696
1785 768
1786 1794
1787 1493
1788 854
1789 798

Sum total 6,403 Protestants.

17,816 Romanists.

" The Rorr.ish Beggars admitted during a course of six
years did not exceed the Protestant Beggars in the proportion
of three to one. The House of Industry is filled with the few-
est class; and as the property in the hands of Irish Protestants
is to that in the hands of Irish Romanists as thirty-nine to one,
the proportion of beggars on the side of Irish Romanists to'
those on the Protestant side must vastly exceed the propor-
tion of Romanists and Protestants in the Nation at large. Be-
sides, although wandering beggars flock to Dublin from all
parts of the Kingdom, the fewest certainly come from the Northern'
Counties, which abound most with Protestants; for having a
flourishing manufacture, those counties send forth fewest beg-
gars. From all those documents it may be fairly concluded
that Irish Romanists exceed Irish Protestants in numbers
throughout the whale Kingdom in no greater proportion than
that of two to one, perhaps in a much less."
I have now shewn, I trust to the satisfaction of every ra-
tional dispassionate Reader, from authentic Documents, that,
in the year 1672, the Protestants and Roman Catholics were in
the proportion of three to ,eight,—in the year 1732, as one to
two and a half ; and By Doctor Burke's account, which will
doubtless have greater weight with Roman Catholics than Sir
Wm. Petty's ".Political Anatomy," or the Census taken in
1732—that the Roman Catholic Population was not in the year
1731 quite two to one ; yet Popish Orators and Writers have,
for the last thirty years, blazoned forth the great superiority of
their numbers over Protestants, starting from three-fourths to
four-fifths of our whole population of Ireland ; and, strange to
say, the Advocates of what is called Catholic Emancipation,
have adopted the same boastful, some might think, threatening,
language. It is neither my wish tor 'my intention. to irritate
and, if Roman Catholics entertain the same sentiment, they
will refrain from such hyperbolical exaggerations of their phy-
sical strength, which savours too much .of-the old system to
allow their Protestant fillow subjects to think they were
sincere in their lately expressed wish for unanimity and con-
cord. SIDNEY.
Cork, 1821.