The Sun.
London, England, 1828-12-26 00:00:00

IRELAND-DUBLIN, DEC. 23.

The Marquis of Anglesea has given great satis-
faction by certain legal appointments which he has
recently made. You are aware that a great part of
the litigation, particularly amongst the poor in Ire-
!and, is managed at the quarter sessions, and that a
barrister of six years' standing at least presides on
the bench. It is a good plan, and if the barrister
Were unobjectionable in point of politics would, no
doubt, serve to correct the tendencies of the magi-
stracy, which you need not be told lean rather against
than in 'favour of the people. Until Lord Welles-
ley's time, the Assistant Barrister was selected
Without a single exception from the ascendancy part
of the bar. During the Administration of his Lord-
ship, some change took place, and two Catholics
Were, for the first time, appointed to this really im-
portant office. Three vacancies have just occurred,
and no little anxiety was felt as to the names of
those who should be appointed to fill them. They
Were declared yesterday, and the satisfaction of the
Liberal party was unbounded, when they learned
that the appointments fell on Messrs. Curran,
Tickell, and Nunn, three Liberals, and gentlemen
of very competent talents and acquirements.
The following copy of an important letter, as I
think you will deem it, from the Duke of Welling-
ton to Dr. Curtis, the Catholic Primate of Ireland,
will prove interesting at this period to the people of
England. I should acquaint you that a long inti-
macy has subsisted between his Grace and the Ca-
tholic Archbishop. The latter was Rector of the
University of Salamanca .when the Duke fought the
memorable battle at that place, and it is understood
rendered very important. services to the army, from
his great influence in the city and its vicinity
LETTER FROM THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON TO DR. CURTIS,

CATHOLIC I'ItI3IATE OF IRELAND.

"My dear Sir—l have received your letter of the
4th instant, and I assure you that you do me jus-
tice in believing that I am sincerely anxious to wit-
ness the settlement of the Roman Catholic question,
which, by benefitting the state, would confer a be-
nefit on every individual belonging to it. But I
confess that I see no prospect of such a settlement.
Party has been mixed up with 'the consideration of
the question to such a degree, and such violence
perics every discussion of it, that it is impossible
to expect to prevail upon men to consider it dis-
passionately. If we could bury it in oblivion for a
short time, and employ that time diligently in the
consideration of its difficulties on all sides (for they
tire very. great), I should not despair of seeing a
satisfactory remedy. Believe . me, my dear Sir,
ever your most faithful humble servant,
" London, Dec. 11. " WELLINGTON."

Mr. Chantrey is, we understand, about to
nuke an equestrian statue in bronze of hie present Majesty,
to be erected in London. The -example of Brighton thus
promisep to have, many imitatora; but we shall be proud to
think that Brighton has sat the example.
Gazitte. • —Brighton

ABSENCE -OF MIND.—A short time since, a
gentleman in this town, who had paid his friend a large
sum of money, observed him, while engaged in important
conversation, biting small bits of paper out of a piece
Which lie held in his hand. On asking him what he was
about, the absent man discovered that he had been engaged
in the interesting occupation of destroying a fifty pound
note. Fortunately the signature remained between his
thumb ae4 -finger, end with some difficulty several bits
Were found to compose the number, which enabled him
to obtain the amount at the Bank of England.—Chelten-
Tiam Chronicle.

LUsus NATUR/E.—A few days ago, a cat
belonging to a woman who resides in the English Town,
(Limerick) had a-kitten, which presented the singular ap-
pearance of two natural and well formed bodies attached to
one neck, and but one head. It lived for twit days, when
the woman drowned it, under the superstitious apprehen-
sion that it was ominous oksome misfortune.—Limerick
Zrening Pest. •

IRF,I.,‘N D.

THE CATHOLIC QUESTION- Tlt E. LSTABLISHED

CLERGY.

'lf the labours of those men who oppose the C 011.•
cessios of Catholic liberties were to be as success-
ful as their warmest wishes could ambition, what
benefit to themselves would they achieve by their
successful resistance ? The chief party which in-
directly resists the Government, in its avowed dis-
position to impart a portion of constitutional privi-
leges to the Irish Catholics, is the Clergy of the
Protestant Establishment. Those gentlemen can-
not be deprived of their possessions but by virtue
of positive enactments ; the laws under which they
retained the various appendages of Church property,
and spiritual privileges,have been so clearly defined,
and so sedulously fenced, against popular encroach-
ment, as any laws which bold a place on the statute-
book. No Irish Catholic has ever denied the legal
right of the present possessors to that property, or
the propriety of its continuing with their successors
to the end of time, if the Legislature shall so de-
termine—and it is almost certain that a total repeal
of the Penal Laws would render the Irish Catho-
lics as perfectly indifferent to the amount of Church
property as the most zealous stickler for the preser-
vation of that property could desire. The Irish
Catholics arc well aware that to the three estates
only belong the power of 'curtailing its magnitude,
and that if a Bill were immediately passed for their
enfranchisement, it would not have the most re-
mote tendency either to diminish the possessions or
weaken the power of the Church Establishment.
It may, however, be said, that many influential
Catholics have raised a loud and violent outcry
against the Irish Church Establishment, and a few
of its pastors. This is true; but it is also
true that the Irish, a very sensitive people,
had received the grossest and the most out-
rageous provocation from these intemperate men,
before they avowed a determined, a public, and a
-persevering hostility to that Establishment. Cle-
ment, the 14th, the Protestant Pope, has said, that
" honey catches more flies than vinegar." The
Pastors of the Established Church have hitherto
tried gall. Let them make a new experiment, and
try whether a little honey may not effect their ob-
jects with less peril and more certainty. Han inor-
dinate attachment to earthly lucre had not totally
blinded the understandings of these gentlemen, they
would, ere now, have perceived that they never
could lose one acre of the church domains, nor a
single sheaf of their tithe corn, by conciliating the
Irish Catholics, and they would not also fail to
discover, by a little reflection, that there was a bare
possibility of their losing, at least, some portion of
their income, by continuing in active hostility to the
people. This hypothesis is not founded upon any
apprehension of financial embarrasSment, or of fo-
reign war, or of domestic commotion. But upon
the single circumstance that there is now universally
prevalent in Ireland a perfect competency to calcu-
late the irresistible force of moral combination.
That this principle, if encouraged to operate with
general and permanent efficacy, will deteriorate every
species of property in Ireland, no man possessed of
Ordinary powers of calculation will attempt to deny ;
and will the Protestant Clergy be the smallest suf-
ferers under so calamitous a dispensation ? No, but
decidedly the greatest. Where a gentleman may
experience a ten-fold diminution of income, they
will sustain adoss of one hundred fold, and all this
may be effected without one peasant raising a
sbillelah cudgel to enforce his opinions.—Dublin
Morning Register.