The Sun.
London, England, 1828-10-23 00:00:00

a system which will perpetuate abjectness of mind,
disaffection, and all the vices which follow in the train
of political servitude, to the lateSt times, which
will entail on the, one island the expence of main-
taining a numerous garrison in the other to coerce a
population of degraded serfs, filled with hatred to-
tvards those who hold them in subjection ? Why
shall we perpetuate a system which must be ruin-
ously expensive in peace, and pregnant with danger
to our very existence as an independent nation in
war ? The most besotted of the thralls who bellow
out " No Popery !" must admit, that even allowing
the Protestant Ascendancy to trample on the Ca-
tholics, we should be placed in a situation of con-
stant danger, and that we shall have in prospect the
perpetuation of,an evil of mighty magnitude. Much
obloquy has been cast on the Rev. Mr. Horner, who
directly pointed to the utter extermination of the
Catholics, and to several of his Clerical Brethren,
who longed for a similar result, though their aspira-
tions were not so distinctly expressed. But there
is, at all events, some sense in the issue which they
advocate. If we cannot admit the Catholics to an
equality with ourselves, as far as civil rights are con-
cerned, and if they will not be satisfied with less, it
would be much better to rid ourselves of them at
once, and thereby rid ourselves of the perpetuation
of a servile population, and a constant source of
alarm and danger. We really can see no safety in half
treasures, because, so. long as Irish Catholics
will beget Irish Catholies, the very progress of
population must constantly add to the apprehen-
sion mid danger of PrOtestant Ascendancy. The
Brunswickers, therefore, who wish to be up to their
knees in the blood of Catholics, and not to stay

their hand so long as a Papist remains in the land
to upbraid with their desertion of God, are the most
manly and consistent. The expense would be great
but it would be borne once for all, and the interest
of the loan required for the war of extermination
would be nothing compared with the annual expellee
of garrisoning. and coercing Ireland. Political eco-
nomists tell us that any gap in a population, how-
ever wide, is almost instantly filled up, because the
annihilation of human beings not being accompanied
by the annihilation of
,the stock and capital of a
country, the population, however thin, would rise
instantaneously to the former level. The landlords
would, it is true, obtain from the remaining *Pro-
testants but scanty rents compared with what the
present competition for land gives them, for a score
or two of years, till the million of Protestants mul-
tiplied themselves into six or seven millions; and a
sudden fall of rents might lead to what might be
called an universal forfeiture of estates in favour of
creditors; but then, as there would be no Papists
in the country, there. would be this satisfaction, that
the estates would be transferred to good Protestants,
and the ascendancy would be stronger than ever.
As to the practicability of the extermination, that
can hardly be a matter of doubt. The Catholics
are now withoutirms—the country affords them no
safe retreat against cavalry and galloper guns, and
light infantry, and all that would be necessary would
be, to provide a sufficiency of powder and shot.
Besides, from the practice in killing which this ex-
termination would give, we should have a number
of men trained to a dexterity in homicide which
would render us formidable to all Europe. This
would make the Protestant religion become the
theme of universal admiration. Surely it is better
to get rid of one generation of bail subjects than to
have bad subjects for ever and ever or: our hands.
We say, then, if the choice is to be between servi-
tude and extermination, give us extermination, be-
cause servitude will not only corrupt the Catholics,
but corrupt us Protestants. But why must we have
either slavery or extermination? The Catholics
will never be contented, even if they obtain eman-
cipation; because every concession hitherto, has
only emboldened them to make futther demands.
The reason of this is, that they have never yet ob-
tained that which they are entitled to. First let us
do justice to them, and then we may object to their
dissatisfaction. We should then put them in the
wrong. At present we are in the wrong. It is
rather too much in us to be unjust to them—to
yield one claim to them after another, instead of
being just to them at once—and yet complain of
their unreasonableness in seeking more.—Morning
Chronicle.

In our report of the proceedings at the dinner of
the Brunswick Constitutional Club of Buckingham-
shire, the Marquis of Chandos is stated to have used
the following expressions :—" We war not with in-
• dividuals or their opinions : we profess no hostility
to any religion. Every man, we say, ought to be
allowed to please the dictates of his conscience in
the choice of his mode of worshipping God. But
that is a very different question from that of grant-
ing political power to a party in the State, which
party, when they before had it, exercised it not to
the advantage, but the destruction, of the rights and
liberties of ie country." This is a distinction
which every reasonable and judicious opponent of
the " Catholic Claims" will always keep in view.
It is not a question of religious controversy, but of
political dispute. It is not a question whether
Roman Catholics are to be free to believe in
transubstantiation, the invocation of Saints, the
worship of images, and other dogmas of their
faith ; but it is whether, obeying a power not
amenable to the laws of a Protestant realm, they
are to become legislators of a Protestant State.
To say that Roman Catholics come forward. to
ask freedom of conscience is a misrepresentation
—they do not come to ask for that which they
have obtained in the fullest manner already. Let
any one read the Act of the 31st Geo. 111., and he
will there find that the religious worship of the
Roman Catholics is as amply protected from molest
tation or disturbance as that of any Protestant sect
whatever. Their altars dare not be profaned, the
ceremonies of their religion dare not be intruded on,
without subjecting the offenders to the penal pro-
visions of that Statute. Their civil rights as indi-
viduals, their personal security and rights of property,
are also on the flame footing as those of Protestants.
Therefore it is not toleration they want, for they
have it ; but it is political power. When their
" orators" complain of " religious persecution" .and
" denial of freedom of conscience,' they use words
only intended to mislead and inflame the ignorant mul-
titude. The "liberal" Spanish Cortes, indeed, showed
what religious persecution was, when, upon the esta-
blishment of their boasted " onititutional system,"
they enacted a law,
that any person who preached
in Spain any other doctrine than the Holy Roman
and Apostolic Faith should suffer Death ! This was
persecution in its proper sense. The " liberal "
Cortes not only denied political power to Protest-
ants as such, but declared that any who openly
' preached their doctrines were unworthy to live !
The Roman Catholic priests may preach in their
chapels what religious opinions they please, and the
laws of England protect them, but the Roman Ca-
tholic Priests are not content with this. They once
had the rich livings, the offerings, the tithes, &c.,
which are now possessed by the Church of England,
and they wish to have them again. The proposi-
tion which Mr. O'Connell made in 1825, to take
about 600,0001. out of the pockets of John Bull to
whie for the
it had
pension the Romish Priesthood, that their allegiance,
as he said,
might be bound to the throne by a golden
Worldly
first step
treasures
nliroinn,iNsvial schhtui trcthh e t
the
lost in these realms. The Priests made use of
Mr. O'Connell to feel the pulse of John Bull ;
and Mr. O'Connell, having no objection to a silk
advocated their cause as one
gown or a Judge's wig, advo
interests was hi
who felt that the promotion of their c
bbett said in
own. Very justly, then, -has Mr. 0
_.
_i
his letter to " the Men of Kent," " Catholic Eman-
cipation taxes to the
cipation means the giving a share of the ,
Catholic Nobility and Lawyers, who, being empty,
would come upon us so sharply, as not to leave a drop
of blood in our bodies. We know well what these
men mean. They have once Already offered that
the forty-shilling Catholic freeholders of Ireland
should be disfranchised, if England would let them
into Parliament, and give them silk gowns, and would
pay salaries annually to the Roman Catholic Priests."
In fact, no man of sense believes the Catholic Ques-