The Sun.
London, England, 1845-01-24 00:00:00

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CLERGY.

The following is the petition fur the repeal of the
penal clauses affecting the regular clergy in the Emanci-
pation Act and the Chat itable Bequests' Act. It is now
in course of signature, with the earnest sanction of Arch-
bishop Murray, amongst the Roman Catholic clergy of
Dublin .

" THE PETITION OF THE UNDERSIGNED ARCHBISHOP AND

SECULAR CLERGY OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

IN DUBLIN.
" Most humbly showeth—That petitioners presume to
approach your Honourable House, soliciting your gra-
cious consideration in favour of the regulars or clergy
hound by monastic vows in this city and country.
" That petitioners have had long and constant oppor-
tunities of closely observing and intimately knowing tl:e
clergymen aforesaid.
" That this close observation and intimate knowledge
have rendered it evident to petitioners that the said re-
gulars have always constituted, and still constitute, a
class not only of peaceable and loyal subjects, but a class
entitled to great merit and great gratitude for their un-
ceasinc", extensive, and successful labours in the advance-
ment ofll morality, education, and soci. I order.
" That in the year 1829, when, in a spirit of liberal and
wise legislation, your Honourable House, by the Act of 10
Geo. IV., chap. 7, commonly called ' The 'Catholic Relief
Bill,' admitted to a very full participation in civil rights
the Roman Catholics of the realm, to whom, on account of
mere abstract religious opinions, these rights had long
been denied, the regulars were, petitioners humbly sub-
mit, unmeritedly excluded from a participation in the be-
nefits which that measure of justice and of wisdom con-
ferred on their Catholic fellow-subjects.
" That your petitioners, actuated by their intimate
knowledge of the deserts of said regulars, appeared at
that time before your Honourable House, by petition,
stating that the institutions composed of said regulars
were suited to the wants of Irwland, promoted exten-
sively the public good, without being, in any manner, at
all known to petitioners dangerous to the- Government
or prejudicial to the State, and that the suppression of
them would, in the opinion of petitioners, tend much to
retard the progress of education, and the moral improve-
ment of the people,' and praying that a measure of relief
and conciliation should not be rendered the means of vi-
siting with penalties and deprivation of character whole
classes of meritorious individuals. . .

" That, notwithstanding, petitioners saw with sorrow
your Hon. House pass clauses 27 to 39 inclusively of
said Catholic Relief Bill, which clauses enact most dis-
tressing disabilities against said regulars.
" That nearly sixteen years of additional experience
have confirmed petitioners in the opinion then formed of
the merits of said regulars, and of their value to the
morals, the education, and the good order of the pecple.
" That petitioners have now further to regret, that in
the last session of Parliament your Hoa. House thought
proper to enact section 15 of 7 and 8 Victoria, chap. 97,
commonly called, • The Charitable Donations and Be-
quests Act,' which section, while it provides for the pro-
tection and conveyance of ecclesiastical property held by
the parochial clergy, extends to said regulars no partici-
pation in said beneficial provision, and thereby virtually
declares said regulars still unworthy of the rights and
privileges of British subjects.
"Petitioners, humbly conceiving that these exclusions
and disabilities affecting said regulars are unmerited pe-
nalties upon a peaceful, loyal, and most useful body,
whose conduct individually and collectively petitioners
most respectfully submit deserves from a just and
paternal Government protection and not proscription,
humbly solicit your Honourable House to restore said
regulars to the rights and privileges of the other subjects
of the realm, or grant such relief in the premises as
your Honourable House in its wisdom shall graciously
Stink proper. And petitioners will ever jaray."
SICK AND INDIGENT BOOK-KEEPERS' SOCIETY.—The
annual meeting of this excellent society was held to-day,
at the Commercial-buildings. The Lord Mayor pre-
sided. Mr. O'Connell and several of the leading citi-
zens attended.
FEVER IS ENNISTIMON WORKIIOUSE.—We have been
informed that fever to an alarming extent has broken
out in the Ennistimon Workhouse. The master, porter,
and fifty of the paupers, young and old, are in hospital.
Several of the male and female children, and adults, are
also infected with the complaint called " tetters." The
workhouses throughout Ireland are too large, and con-
sequently exceedingly cold, particularly on the ground
floors, composed as they are of flags or earth.—Clare
Journal.

RECRUITING IN IRELAND.—The most vigorous efforts
are being made throughout the various recruiting dis-
tricts to raise recruits; and commanding officers of some
corps have received a most formidable circular, in J. E.
Napier's energetic style, to use every exertion to com-
plete the deficiency in their respective corps.— Cork
Examiner.

FALLING OF TUBER NEW HOUSES IN LIVERPOOL.
—On Thursday night last, about ten o'clock, three new
and unfinished houses, in Upper Canning-street, fell with
a tremendous crash, the walls carrying nearly the whole
of the joists, floors, &c., into the cellar, and smashing the
timber into comparatively small pieces. The buildings
were of four stories in height, of brick, and formed the
eastern end of a new row of houses on the south side of
the street. Luckily no one was by at the late hour
stated. We find that the lower, or cellar portion of the
walls, up the datum level, was roughly built of broken
pieces of soft freestone, called " nobling," and so imper-
fectly put together as to be inadequate to support the
superincumbent weight, rising to an elevation of forty-six
feet. The walls wore but nine inches (or only brick
length) in thickness, which is sadly short for buildings of
that size. The buildings are upon what was formerly
Mosslake-field, in which the unbroken ground is yet a
black moss to the depth of two or three feet. The foun-
dations, however,- were sunk below this, to apparently a
stratum of soft sandstone, and the probability is that the
houses gave way from the cause assigned.—Liverpool
Coerrier.

--
ADMIRAL DUPETIT THOUARS.—There is a pom-
pous account in the French Radical newspapers of a
subscription to purchase " a sword of honour for
Admiral Deputit Thouars, who had the command of the
French expedition to Otaheite. We are told that sub-
scriptions have been received in all the principal towns
of France," and that " it is calculated that no less than
175,000 persons had joined in this expression of feel-
ing." From this it is argued how strong must be the
national feeling of France in favour of the Admiral, and
of all he had done against the actual or supposed inte-
rests of Great Britain in the Pacific. But what do our
readers suppose may be the total amount of the sub-
scription of these 175,000 French patriots ? The sum is
19,685 francs, with the addition (in order to be exact) of
five centimes, or one halfpenny ! As 19 then is to 175,
so is the subscription of each patriot to the munificent
sum of ninepence halfpenny ! The fact is, that 175,000
patriots have combined among them to put together
374,000 halfpence. Each patriot has, on an average,
contributed a fraction beyond one penny sterling, in
order to accumulate honour upon the Admiral of the
Pacific, and to impress England with a due sense of
French determination to uphold her officers, however
marked their hostility to British interests may be. We
are of opinion, however that this penny subscription is,
on the whole, a very ludicrous affair.—Post.
THE BITER BIT.—A gang of horse-jockeys made
their appearance before the magistrates on Saturday
last, charged with an a' tempt to swindle a farmer in a
most audacious manner. The farmer, it appears, had
brought a nag for sale to the fair, &c., and on the pre-
vious evening fell into the company of several dealers,
one of whom proposed to change horses with him, and
give him 30s. "to boot." The farmer closed in with this
offer, knowing that his horse was considerably inferior
to the one he was to receive from the dealer. On the
Saturday morning the exchange of the horses took
place, and the farmer mounted his new steed for a jour-
ney home. On arriving opposite the House of Correc-
tion, however, he was stopped by a jockey, who de-
manded in the most peremptory terms whither the farmer
was taking the horse, which he said belonged to himself.
The rustic at once explained the process by which he
became possessed of the animal ; but was instantly met
with the reply that the person who had sold him the
horse had no right whatever to dispose of it ; and was,
moreover, ordered to dismount, and to return to the
stable for his original steed. The farmer at once per-
ceived the " dodge" and knowing full well that if he re-
turned to the stable on foot he would lose both horses,
held firmly to that which he had, and referred his new
aqua stance to a policeman for satisfactio,n. The con-
sequence was, that the entire company had to make their
appearance at the Town. hall the same forenoon, when it
was clearly proved that the trick had been concerted
among them. The magistrates ratified the bargain
which had been male ; and the designing swindlers, in
order to escape further exposure, added- another sove-
reign to the exchange money, thus increasing the far-
mer's igain to fifty shillings, and leaving him in posses-
sion of an animal much superior to his own.—Prestun
Guardian.

T
HE RULING PASSION.—It It, perhaps, be re.
a fortnight membered, that we stated, or three weeks
ago, that a man named Birkenshaw had
to York, for trial at the assizes, for roabbbirgnanpnenirsmointtea(ti
Ardsley, near Wakefield, of a considerable sum of money,
and that the principal witness against him as a man to
whom he had confided his secret whilst under remand
in the House of Correction. This witness, whose name is
John Denison, was tried at Leeds Borough Sessions and
acquitted. He was bound to give evidence againstN
si t V
Birkenshaw at the assizes. During the recente7e
Nest
Biding Sessions, at Wakefield, he could not r
temptation of availing himself of the opportunity offeredst
by a crowded court to abstract a handkerchief from the
pocket of a person named George Haigh, of East Moor,
for which he was brought up before the magistrates a;
the. Court-house, Wakefield, on Monday last, and com-
mitted for trial at the sessions.—Doncaster Gazette.
The sum of one thousand three hundred pounds
has been subscribed for the relief of the widows and
children of the men who were killed by the explosion of
the boiler of the Gipsv Queen, at Blackwall, in November
last. The relatives of the sufferers have received weekly
ellovances since the accident, and some of them have
been supplied with mangles as a means of obtaining a
livelihood.