The Sun.
London, England, 1828-12-08 00:00:00

meeting. They had the advantage, too, of more
skilful discipline than their opponents; and of ban-
ners, with inscriptions, and the other devices for
captivating the mob, there was no lack. With all
these aids, and after a previous circulation of pla-
cards and hand-bills, they ventured into the field,
but were beaten.. To dwell on the importance of
such a victory, in' a great and influential town like
Leeds, would be a waste of words. Who is there
who does not know that Leeds and Manchester are
the two capitals of our two staple manufactures, the
woollen and cotton; that each is not only wealthy
and populous, but also the centre of a rich and po-
pulous district which it influences? The opinion
expressed in such a ' town is the opinion of the
wealth and intelligence of the county. But what
makes this triumph the more instructive is, that it
affords a striking proof of the rapid progress of the
cause. Mr. Baines, the intelligent proprietor of the
Lends Mercury, in a-speech, not delivered at the
meeting, but intended to have been delivered, says,
" Before you put the question 'upon the Address,
allow' me to congratulate the Borough of Leeds and
the country, in general upon ..the mighty change,
which a few years have effected in public opinion
regarding the Catholic Question. Fifteen years ago,
this question was publicly discussed in the parish
church at. Leeds. A cry was then, as now, raised
against the Roman Catholics, and the liberal party
was beaten by a majority of twenty to one."
Fifteen years ago the majority against. the Li-
berals, even in Leeds, a town always pre-emi-
nently distinguished for the intelligence of its in-
habitants, was greater than could now be obtained
in Wales, in the West of England, or in those parts
of Kent and Sussex called the Wealds, or any other
corners into which knowledge can only find an en-
trance slowly and with difficulty. There are ,yet
not a few parts of England, where as many people
would be ready to hold up their hands in favour of
a proposition declaratory of their belief in witchcraft
as in opposition to the Catholic Claims. It is in
places where men are brought into . collision with
each other, and can have access to sources of infor-
mation, that the struggle with error can be main-
tained ; and it is only in such places that any one
would think of ascertaining the state of public
opinion, We_ have then, in the result of_ these
two trials at Leeds, a striking proof of the great pro-.
gress which the Catholie- eiltIAP has of late made in
this country. The educated, the intelligent every
where, are favourable to concession. The Bar are
confessedly the cleverest body of men in the coun-
try, and a great majority of. the Bar petitioned for
concession. In one House of Parliament a majority
is favourable to concession ; in the other House the
.minority is gradually increasing. As Lord Morpeth
observed the other day in Dublin!, the educated
youth are every where favourable to concession.
Youth has not prejudices and prepossessions to con-
quer; it is not impeded by the reluctance to con-
fess error, nor awed by the dread of reproaches of
apostacy; -but viewing the question on its own
merits, and freed from all extrinsic considerations, it
does not hesitate a .mornent as •to- the decision.
Soon from this-cause, alone namely, the departure
of the old from the stage, and the entrance on it of
a new generation—the No-Popery cause trmq die
a natural death. If in the -short space of fifteen
years a majority of 20 'Ol has been convected into
a minority, in fifteen years more the
,Anti-catholics
must exist only in history. There are no young
leaders of any rank among them.
.The Eldons, the
idmouths,. belong to a past age rather than to the
present; and plentiful as the class of the Newcastles,
the Kenyons, and, the Winchelseas always is . in
England, even these men will have no successors ;
and the men who resemble them in head will be ob-
liged to signalize themselves by some other descrip-
tion of foolish and absurd opinions. Wherever an
appeal has been made in places where an independ-
gni:, npmfiuenced public opinion can be expressed,
the result has been favourable to concession. Any
Lord who has more money than wit may indeed put
his boors in. requisition for No-Popery; and the
Clergy, who, somehow or other, are not free agents in
this cause, may back him; but the opinion of the
people of England is not to be ascertained in
this way.