The Sun.
London, England, 1844-12-25 00:00:00

highly pleased with it, as they have given proof.
This fact, that the law is well received by the ,
well-disposed and intelligent and, indeed, by
all the proprietary class of Roman Catholics is
important, because it ensures that an adequate
number of Roman Catholics commanding public
confidence to work the commission will never be
wanting; so as fully to justify Dr. Murray's expla-
nation, if not apology, that if he did not take a
place on the commission, another, perhaps less zealous
for the Roman Catholic faith, could easily be found,
who would not have any scruple upon the point.
It would be ungenerous, probably unjust, to say
that all or any of the Roman Catholic gentlemen
who have agreed to act upon the commission have
been determined by this kind of pis-aller conside-
ration ; but it is a consideration which, used by any
of them as a defensive argument, would be unan-
swerable. How, then, was Mr. O'Connell to pilot
his way through the labyrinth of difficulty in which
he found himself? If he were to approve of the
Bill, and boast, as the Morning:. Chronicle advises
—that it was " his thunder," the fruit of his
victory and sufferings—the priests, whose bread
he eats, and who in their secret souls abhor the mea-
sure, would owe him little thanks for such "inoptata
tonitrua hand facientia camas'—they would reject
with scorn such fruits of victory and martyrdom.
And this is not all. Had he avowed approbation
of the measure, he must have stultified his
own Bill upon the same matter, and of a precisely
opposite character. Finally, he must have sacrificed
one topic of agitation, and condemned himself to
show respect to one law of the Imperial Parlia-
ment—offerings to loyalty and common sense
quite foreign to his metier of " monster men-
dicant." But it is said he has embroiled himself
with his Church by condemning a measure acted
upon by three of its bishops. He has, however,
done no such thing ; he has a majority of the
Roman Catholic bishops, and nearly all the Roman
Catholic priests upon his side. It' any one can be
said to be embroiled with the Roman Catholic Church
in the affair, the parties so embroiled are the five Roman
Catholic Commissioners. A few weeks will tell which
party will lead the priests and the ignorant populace.
Meanwhile it is most unjust to assume that
Mr. O'Connell, who never in his life made a
mistake where the main chance (money) was con-
cerned, blunders at that period of life when, as it has
been said, all other faculties take leave, to set the
party free to give his undivided energies to money-
getting. No, no, Mr. O'Connell has made no mis-
take—" an sic notes Ulysses ?" There is no one
living who feels more sensibly the force of the old
rule :

"Be it for better, or be it for worse,
Stick fast to th• party who carries the purse."

PROM VIII MORNIIS• naquits O' THIS DAT.

TIMES.—The Irish Roman Catholic Bequests
Act has formed an important epoch in the modern
political annals of Ireland, by the signal defeat which
it has brought upon Mr. O'Connell. We have al-
ready directed attention to this very significant and
encouraging fact. But there is another point of view
in which the same law is of no less—perhaps even of
greater—interest and importance. It is in itself the
establishment of a great revolution. It introduces a
more startling element of change than almost any
other of the numerous organic dislocations which our
day has seen. Yet there are few similar enactments
which can, in cur opinion, plead so much both of ne-
cessity and justice in their support. It is the legalisa-
tion of principles long contended against, but now, it
may be almost said, already established and conceded ;
but it is yet a legalisation which has been conducted,
as it seems to us, upon sufficiently safe and moderate
grounds. The Roman Catholic Bequests Act: has ef-
fected two separate objects, the proposal of either one
of which would, a few years ago, have most effectually
swamped any measure that was encumbered with it.
This Act has, in the first place, granted to the Irish
Roman Catholic Church that kind and degree of esta-
blishment which is by many writers on this subject
considered to constitute the best and most essential
substance of State recognition ; and, in the second
place, it has pretty nearly repealed, in favour of the
Irish Roman Catholics, the main enactments of the
laws of mortmain. Now, no one can say these are
small things. There mny be differences of opinion
about their right or expediency, but, most un-
doubtedly, they are great concessions. The first
provision to which we have alluded is thus stated by
Dr. Murray in the pastoral address we published
yesterday, and on which we have already commented.
One object of the Act, he says, is " to enable us to
invest property in perpetual security, for the purpose
of procuring glebes fur our clergy, and building and
maintaining churches for the due celebration of
Catholic VI orship;" and the words of the 15th section
of the Act expressly recognise a Roman Catholic bishop
and his successors as a body capable as such of taking
and enjoying a perpetual trust in lands and goods.
Now, this is not indeed a recognition of the Roman
Catholic Church as the national Church of Ireland,
but it is a grant to her of precisely the same privileges
as those upon which the " nationality" of the pre-
sent established churches, both in England and Ire-
land, was originally founded. It is said, that the ori-
ginal consecration of tithes and other ecclesiastical
endowments throughout Christendom was, for the
most part, the work of individual acts of donation ;
and, whether this view be strictly accurate or not,
there seems at least to be little doubt that it was in
such acts of individual piety and munificence that the
general, the universal, the compulsory, the national
endowment of churches first took its rise. This ele-
ment of endowment first put the present Church of
Ireland,—the church which at the Reformation be-
came " Protestant " against the corruptions of Rome,
in the seat and position which she now occupies;—
this same element has now been conceded to the
Romish Church, which, on account of such
her protestation, then separated from her. The
concession of such a privilege we conceive to be
a matter of mere justice. The existence of the
Romish Church in Ireland is a fact which must be
met and dealt with. Division must of course be
always an evil, and a lamentable one,—and it is the
duty of a Christian statesman to take every possible
means to put an end to, and avoid it ; nor would
we in the least countenance the logic or morality of
that careless and mischievous indifferentism, which,
while professing to hold that two antagonist and in-
consistent claims are both equally true, really rejoices
in suggesting the inference that both are equally and
comfortably false. But the claims of the Anglican
and Romish Churches in Ireland are not by any
means (at least the former is not) essentially and
entirely exclusive of the other of them. All that is
inconsistent in the co-existence of the two bodies is
their division and distinctness. The position and
external facts of the case render it unnecessary, in
the matter of so plain a concession as this, to in-
quire into the theological merits of the con-
troversy. The power of self-endowment is a
right which has been conceded, in some shape or
other, to every Diesenting sect in England. With
what reason then could it be denied to a branch, how-
.tver perverted, of the Catholic Church ? The recog-
nition of the Romish bishops is, indeed, another
question. Here, it must be admitted, that further
inquiry becomes necessary. But we confess, for
ourselves, that the result of that inquiry leads us, on
the whole, to approve the recognition. The second
great feature of the Act of Parliament on which we
are commenting is its repeal of the mortmain laws.
Registry of the gift three months before the death of
the donor is all that is necessary under this Act to
constitute a good charitable bequest or devise. In
England it is necessary that twelve months should
intervene between the gift and the death, and the
gift must, moreover, be made, not by will, but by
deed ; and by deed executed and enrolled with
certain prescribed formalities. Now, we confess
ourselves that we are very glad to see the
experiment made as to how far these formalities and
precautions are necessary. We are no advocates for
their hasty and precipitate abolition in England with-
out inquiry or examination. It is only because the
evils which attend on their existence have in many
cases forced themselves upon us, while it has seemed
impossible to test satisfactorily the danger or advan-
tages of their abolition without a trial, that we have
ever urged any modification or experimental altera-
tion in them. But now, it seems, the experiment
will, at all events, be tried; and that, too, under cir-
cumstances which can hardly fail to be convincing.
If the Roman Catholic testator, holding the doc-
trines of the Roman Catholic Church with respect to
death-bed donations and bequests, can, without
the protection of the mortmain laws, be safe from
fraud or undue influence, much more, one would
think, ought a Protestant to be so. We cannot con-
clude our article better than by quoting the very
strong, and unqualified expression of opinion on this
point which is contained in Dr. Murray's address,
with respect to the three months' limitation still re-
tained in the Act. The distinction made in favour
of the poor is worthy of all praise. " Having had
occasion to mention the limitation of time within
which bequests of land for charitable purposes would
be valid, I cannot avoid expressing my deep concern
that such a general limitation should have been
established. Had it been confined, as it was in the
original form of the Bill, to bequests for the service
of our Church, I would never utter asword of objec-
tion against it, because I do not desire that our
Church should be enriched by the possession:of exten-
sive lands. But when I find it also extended to be-
quests for the poor, I cannot but consider it an undue
interference with the dominion of God over his (own
gifts, an attempt to limit the operation of his com-
mand to "give alms," and an unholy instrument for
disturbing the peace of a penitent soul when about to
render an account of its abused stewardship before
the throne of justice. * * * I hold it to be
unwise to leave on the statute.book a law which has
the appearance of contravening the Jaw of God ; and
which, therefore, a virtuous Christian might consider
it a conscientious duty to endeavour to evade."