The Sun.
London, England, 1828-12-30 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE LONDON JC;U;tiNALs.

A serious injuty to the Catholic cause in Le-
land has been of late years derived from the
_

systematic efforts made to merge the principle of
mancipation, and the welfare of the echo N 3

Catholic body, in the personal parade and con-
seq►►ence of one or two men, whose talents have
not rendered them more conspicuous than their
strange and perverse vanity has drawn upon them

the ridicule of all dispassionate observers. The
cause, again we say with deep regret, has suf-
frred, though it ought not, for this unfortunate
characteristic of some of its most strenuous ad-

vocates. Frankly we have noticed whatever ap-
peared in their conduct of a nature to shock the

feelings of the people of England, and thus to
react in an unfavourable manner upon the cat►s:•.
In this spirit we deprecated the election of
O'Connell for Clare, which we described to be

a virtual disfranchisement of that county, so
long as a Catholic, and therefore (under the ex-
isting law) a nominal representative, should

cecupy the place of one who could sit and vote,
and do real Parliamentary service. With the

same view of preventizig mischief to the caw ,c,
we ridiculed that silly project of sending a corps
of orators from Ireland, to stun the ears of
Englishmen, and disgust their feelings by a
transfer to this country of all the minor cru.

ditics of the Association. So with regard to
Mr. O'Connell's fantasy of surrounding himself
by a Catholic legion of knights, men-at-arms,
6allowglasses, &c.,—on an occasion so utterly
inappropriate to any such pageant as would be
the grave and nTumeutative endeavour (for so
it must be) to introthice himself as a Member of
the I louse of Commons. This appeared to us
a proceeding at once tasteless and childish—
offensive to the habits of the assembly into

which it was the learned gentleman's purpose to
gain admittance, and of the people of England.
who would be spectators of such an useless and

barbarous nuvehy. We trusted, and still trust,

that the farcical show will be abandoned. But
in expressing this wish, are we actuated by
" enmity to Air. O'Connell ?" For ve hate,
it appears, by a foolish writer in a Dublin ut•:+i-s-.
paper, been accused of " contemptible enmity !,
on no better ground than that of ,ftriving, tti
avert a foolish perlonal exposure, which, how-
ever it may serve to bolster up Mr. O'Connell'3
importance among the vulgar of his own coun-
trymen, or to sooth his mortification under de-
feat by annexing to him a train of fellow-suffer-
ing satellites, would have and could have 140
other effect upon the Catholic cause itself tau

;o raise up against it new enemies, and to furnizth
;o the old ones a fresh handle of boisterous

triumph. But it is inconceivable that the jute.
rests of millions of men, and the peace of a
mighty empire, should thus be mingled with—,
nay, postponed to, and eclipsed by, the into-
lerant arrogance and soreness of a single' lawyer,
or • the saucy indiscretion of his partisans.—,
If Mr. O'Connell's friends or clients, for
we know not but the Freeman's Journal may
have " made its election" to be ere long his
political client, if they seek to impress upon
the world that no man can be the honest
advocate of Emancipation, but he who sees it
through Mr. O'Connell's spectacles, and consi-
ders it as a mere expedient for promoting his
personal views, the inevitable consequence will
be, (and indeed it has been in many instances),
than mankind will exclaim—" Why, we have
been humbugged all this while ; this same eman-
cipation is not a thing for the general relief of
our Catholic fellow-subjects, or for the peace of
Ireland, or the security of England : we find
that it is a mere personal job—a sword in the
hand of a single executioner, wherewith be cuts
at every body that displeases hits--a book in the
hand of one high demagogue, whence he curses
every man that dares to be independent of him.
It is not millions whom we are called upon to
up
.incyrieol
anttiol
mischiefe
iste,st,
liberate,lic:layt
to ltuo
,ovven efi
oane whomAs tiart.ev'd.oe
dons: we have stated now what as
proposi-
tions
will be sure to
follow from the unchecked chattering of his
partisans. In explaining both, we arc good
friends of Emancipation : we disdain to add a
disavowal of being Mr. O'Connell's enemies.
For years we have laboured to effect for him,
and all his brethren, a free and full admission to
that Assembly, into which he now attempts to
force himself by means which will too surely
fail him. If pamphlets have not been written
against the right °f a. Catholic to legislate; without
a previous change in the law, as there have un-
doubtedly been others printed to persuade us
of the existence of that right, we are afraid that
a widely different conclusion may be founded on
such a negative circumstance, from that which
the Irish Newspaper seeks to establish : we fear
it is because nobody thinks it worth while to
prove, what no dispassionate person dreams of
doubting,—viz. that without taking the usual
oath, it is impossible, as the law now stands, to
be a member of either House of Parliament.
We heartily wish that the law were not so.
There is not a political discovery to be imagined,
from which we should derive a pleasure more
unspeakable, than from the finding that Mr.
O'Connell may actually take his seat as mem-
ber for the county of Clare. If lie can, we shall
have as much pride in confessing our error, and
in congratulating every friend of' civil and re-
ligious liberty, as he or any of them can feel
triumph in convicting us of, and laughing at. us
for it. But, in the mean time, we can assure
the Catholics that their presence is not necessary
in the lobby of the House of Commons, to sa-
tisfy the people of England that Mr. O'Connell
enjoys both the " countenance" and the well-
earned confidence of his own countrymen. He
has laboured long and manfully, and with (all
things considered) extraordinary success, for a
cause which is not his alone, but that of policy,
and equity, and humanity, and truth. If, with
all his tact in what concerns the popular feeling
of Ireland, he blunders continually in his at-
tempts upon Eaglish feeling, let him not quarrel
with his monitors. It is rather too Royal an
irritability ; and as nobody in England cares one
straw about his anger, his ravings render him
merely ridiculous.— Times.
The late proceedings in the High Court of
Justiciary, at Edinburgh, have affected the pub-
lic mind with a degree of horror such as we
never before witnessed. We have really pain in
speaking on the subject, lest the discussion of
murders of the most appalling kind should fa-
miliarize the mind to the crime, and render the
commission of it under certain circumstances
less horrible and less revolting to human nature.
We therefore hasten to the inferences which we
would draw. First, we think that the Fofes-
sional person who had the body of the murdered
woman, and those, it may be feared, of other
unhappy creatures who had been made subjects
for dissection in the same way, is so highly cul-
pable, as to be little short of particeps el-hubris.
We know the light way in which seine medical
people speak of the several proceeses by Mali