The Sun.
London, England, 1828-03-29 00:00:00

CATHOLIC CLAIMS.

As the Catholic Question is shortly to be brought
under the consideration of Parliament, it is with
:ouch gratification that we have read a seasonable
digest of its leading characteristics, drawn up in the
form of a letter to the Speaker of the House of
Commons.
The author is manifestly a scholar "rid a gen-
tleman, and discusses his subject learnedly, yei
in a light, airy, and graceful manner. Another re-
commendation is his entire freedom from inflamma-
tory or seditious comment ; aware of the dignity of
his subject, be sustains it throughout by a corres-
ponding elevation of thought. No sarcasm points his
style; no invective deforms the fair face of hie al-gu-
n/era ;his treatise depends solely foretreet 'on the calm,
temperate, and manly sincerity that pervades it. The
early portions arc for the most part filled with a se-
tars of desultory observations drawn from the eccle,
siasticat histories ofPapacv, from which we learn that
the dot-trine of exclusive and unqualified submission
ao the Vicar of Christ--s much insisted on by the
opponents of Catholicism—is an innovation on the
original tenets of the Vatican, which even the
staunchest Papist mayreadily and conKiantiously dis-
allow*-. We will quote the passage in which this
remark occurs, for the purpose of enlightening those
tetek, lowly, and disinterested divines, Dr. Spry
and the Dean of Chester.
It is evident from what has been stated, tlett the belief
of any temporal authority- in the Popes, either as inde-
pendent princes, or as the regulators of sovereigns, or of
the obedience due to them from their people, cannot be an
Article of faith legally to be required from the Roman
Catholics. No groundwork upon which to found such a
pretension can he discovered in history ; no assumption of
any such authority can be produced in the early ages of
(liristianity. In the time of the apostles, and under the
fathers of the church, a constant submission, even to Pagan
.authority, exemplifies the sitbmissive character towards the
civil government; the meekness of the religion which our
Saviour vouchsafed to reveal to mankind. Upon the doc-
trines transmitted to us in the gospel, upon the conduct of
our Saviour himself, it would be va...n to attempt the esta-
blishment of the principle of any temporal authority. To
believe in, it can never ho necessary to salvation, and can
never 'ne demanded es a rule of faith.
If we deduct this argument of their unqualified
submission, from the sum total of those brought
=apirist the Catholics, if we track it through its vari-
.aas shapes and modifications of style and sentiment—
for in the pages of Dean Phillpotts (ex 71720 disco
~runes) it has a Protean power of transformation, and
is put forth under divers guises and disguises, so as
to indoce the unwary reader to suppose each repeti-
tion of it, some new and ingenious turn of thought;
—if, we repeat, we deduct this argument from the
number of those brought against Catholicism, we
shall leave a most scanty and penurious remainder.
Such is the flimsy foundation on which intolerance
7itui reared her superstructure! After describing the
exact nature and extent of the Catholic Claims, and
hinting eloquently, but somewhat too apprehen-
sively at the difficulties that will occur in con-
ceding them—our author reverts to the trite subject
of Ireland in this pungent and impassioned manner:—
When five millions of men are bent upon the attainment
-of an object they believe themselves in equity to be entitled
to, it is difficult to define the extent of the resources they
be able to apply to it. Up to the present time, but
with Open or concealed rebellion constantly in activity, the
power of England has been able to maintain its superiority
over the sister country ; but by its laws, it protects and
develops the increasing energy of the enemy it fosters in its
bosom. That which it could effect against three millions
of impoverished and divided subjects, it will find most
difficult, if not impossible, against fire millions, particularly
when actuated by one mind, and with augmented means.
If the animosity is to be kept up, if the boon is not to be
ceded, we most prepare for the inevitable contest we shall
have to maintain, by arresting the prosperity of Ireland.
While she is growing up in wealth, iu power, and Catho-
licism, we must look upon her as aia enemy till her just
rights have been conceded to her ; we must bind her to the
ground while we still hold her within our shackle'. Where
the means of doing so are to be discovered, it would he
difficult to say; but they must be found, and found
quickly, ur the moment will be gone by. She is moving
with gigantic strides towards influence and ascendancy.
The moans of overtaking and arresting her career are not
easily to be applied ; nor is there a British statesman who
wonlil demean himself by an attempt so unworthy the cha-
racter of his country. Yet it would be madness to build
up the power we must have to contend against. To be
lust, then, and generous, is our only policy. In all cases
it is wisdom ; in the present, it is necessity.
That the concession of the Catholic Claims to
the most Catholic country in Europe—to that corm

try which feels itself the enslaved enemy of England
7:o long as such claims are. withheld, and which will

nifallibly kind down the sense of its wrongs with

augmented energies to its posterity—that the con-
cession of such claims to such a country is a measure
not only safe and politic, but generous, and of the most
pressing necessity, there cannot be the slightestdoubt.
The present state of Ireland—to say nothing of the
past—is alone sufficient to corroborate our assertion.
From East to West, from Cape Clear to the Giant's

Causeway, a vast moral insurrection is going for-
ward—a slow but sure estrangement of the whole

nation's heart from England. We make them foreigners
in every thing, Parias in religion and Helots
in citizenship ; Call we wonder then at such aliena-
tion ? How deep must be that nation's sense of
injury, which rises, as one man, inspired with one
undivided impulse, in defence of whatever ordinary
individual may think fit to identify himself with its
wrongs ! A few months since Mr. /Eneas M'Don-
nell was a gentleman unknown, except to a
few of his own private acquaintances; Ireland
knew little, England nothing of him: now, how-
ever, thanks to his timely imprisonment for a libel in
behalf of the Catholics against a Protestant As-
cendancy man (one Archdeacon Trench or French)

he has been raised to the dignity of a martyr—
the idol of his country—" the young Astyanax
of niodern Troy." These scenes of ardent burn-
ing partizanship, not a single one of which
is without it, moral (if Orangemen had but
the common faculties of observation) can never

know an end, till the claims that originate
them are granted. It is not, however, by the recur-
rence of one or t tvo—nor yet three of such warn-
ing events, that the result we deprecate will
ensue; the rock is worn away, not by one storm in
particular, but by the encroachments of the sea for
ages : so is it with regard to Ireland; the misrule of
centuries on the part of Englauti, has been gradually
sapping her energies, and undermining her founda-
tion; and the hour is at hand, when the whole
loosened fabric, if not seasonably prevented, may
fall in thunder on her head.

« vide au interesting correspondence on this very sub-
ject (in the Appendix to the Pamphlet) between the late
Pepe and the King Of Naples, on the subject of some
trifling act of homage which the latter refused to concede
as implying an acknowledgment of lris Holiness's supremacy.
We may perhaps give this at eome flame opportunity.

Dr. THOMAS (Bishop of Salisbury), fon-rot
~,e day ha was to be married, and was
,surprised at his
aervanta bringing him a new dress. A gnat stinginc,
Lint in the leg, the Doctor stooped and scratched the leg
Pi 3 Gentleman who stood next to him—Mirror.

NlAnctt OF MlND.—While a ventriloquist
wan describing the nature of gas, a blue-stocking lady cla-
morously enquired of a gentleman near her, what he meant
by oxy-gin and hydro-gin, or what was the difference ?
" Very little, Madam," said he : "by oxy-gin, we mean
pure gin, and by hydro-gin, gin and water."