The Sun.
London, England, 1828-03-08 00:00:00

THE SPIRIT OF THE PETBLIC JOURNALS,

We are sorry that a distinct debate upon the true
bearing and character of the Treaty of Limerick
has taken place, because so far as the said Treaty
goes, it appears to its that a good deal of secondary
rubbish had been cleared away from that broad,
though difficult path, by which the great measure of
Catholic Emancipation is destined ere long to attain
its final accomplishment. There seems to us no
particle of ground to stand on, for those who con-
tend that the pledges of the Treaty were fulfilled
towards the Catholics of 1691, or that the King's
übjects who now represent them, have no claims
upon the State for that rich political inheritance, of
which their confiding ancestors were faithlessly and
unmercifully plundered. For those who assert with
Mr. Peel, that the rights. and immunities engaged
for, comprehended only the garrison of Limerick,
and the people of some parts adjacent, it is enough
to quote the first clause of the Treaty, viz.—" The
Roman Catholics of this kina-dom shall enjoy such
privileges in the exercise of their religion as are
consistent with the laws of Ireland, or as they did
enjoy in the reign of King Charles IL" Then fol-
lows an assurance, that the King and Queen will
endeavour to procure for them from Parliament full
security against " any disturbances on the account
of their said religio'n." There is no allusion
here undoubtedly to the garrison or people of
Limerick only ; the freedom from disturbance on
account of their religion, is guaranteed to all the
Roman Catholics of " this kingdom." The
clauses which bear a restricted reference to the
inhabitants of Limerick, and to the garrisons
still outstanding against King William, were
framed so as to provide securities which could
taa requisite only, and therefore only applicable, to
men ao baaaairrz arms against their 6overeign,—
men who, if not shielded by such formal guarantees,
would have been liable to confiscation of property,
amoozat the other punishments of rebellion. These
men were all washed clear of their offences by sub-
mitting to the new Sovereigns (William and Mary)
and by taking as a proof of it, " when thereunto re-
quired" (but not otherwise), the oath of allegiance
only. So noblemen and gentlemen referred to in
these partial articles—that is tl e offic of the Irish
army, who complied with the above conditions,
were at liberty to ride with arms. And this leads
us to a tolerable specimen of the clearness and ex-
pansion of Mr. Peel's talent for political reasoning.
After quoting this permission to the r.oblemen and
gentlemen to carry arms, he asks, after this, is it
possible to " suppose that such an article could have
been introduced into the treaty, if it had been inten-
ded to admit every nobleman and gentleman to a
seat in Parliament, on merely taking the oath of al-
legiance ?" Yea, we reply, both possible and rea-
sonable; and, indeed, we are bound, and at the
same time sorry, to add, that the question argues
either very feeble facilities, or a very crooked pur-
pose. Nothing could he more consistent than to
give especial liberty to a certain description of men
who must have been looked upon so pecu-
liarly and prominently open to suspicion on the
part of the Government,—namely, to those who
composed the army with which King William was
to that moment at war; and to leave all others,
who were not in that state of armed hostility against
the Sovereign, in the natural and unstipulated exer-
cise of the same privileges. It was not noblemen
and gentlemen generally who were authorized to
possess or carry arms, for in general no such autho-
rity was required; but the gross error which runs
through the anti-Catholic construction of all these
articles is, the assuming that the whole Catholic.
community was treated by the King's negociators
as in a delinquent state, and released from it by con-
ditions which have no application but to the troops;
whereas, in the sound and wholesome view of the
question, had no Treaty of Limerick existed, the
frisk Catholics, as a body, (not the English but the
Irish Catholics), were possessed of every right and
privilege enjoyed by them snider Charles 11., that of
holding office, and sitting in Parliament included;
and the Treaty of Limerick provided nothing fur-
ther than there should he no exceptions to the en-
joyment of the common right, not even in the per-
sons of those individuals who were engaged' in bodily
warfare against the Protestant Sovereign. Truly
considered, the Treaty was an instrument not for
restoring an entire community to the rights which
t had forfeited, but merely—and this is a most im-
portant view of the case— •for raising one (viz. the
armed) portion of that community to the same con-
stitutional level from which the bulk of it had in fact
wever fallen. There is a tremendous confusion made
by applying the laws of the British Parliament, and
for Britain only, as rnles for determining the legal
condition of the Irish Catholic; and whatever might
be the oaths and qualifications imposed on Bri-
tish Catholics by their own legislature, the oath
of abjuration, when introduced after the
'treaty of Limerick into a certain act of
the Irish Parliament, was protested against by
Sir Toby Butler as an infraction of the Treaty of
Limerick, which confirmed to the armed Jacobites
among the Catholics the right not previously denied
to the unoiTending portion of their brethren, viz.
that of qualifying by virtue of the oath of allegiance
alone. Sir Toby Butler protested against this, as a
direct and manifest breach of faith. Had the Treaty
of Limerick not been signed, he might have pro-
tested on broader ground,—minaely, that of usage
and public right; but his business was with a formal
treaty, as ours has been in the present argument.
The Treaty of Limerick, however, is but paltry
ground. It is a wretched eaTedient to resort, in an
age like this, to a parchment executed a century and
half preceding. The Catholics humble and de-
grade their cause by :rusting it to the protection of
an ancient and controvert 01 bargain. They have
the present century to stand pn,—they have the
ripened wisdom of a snore instructed world. Those
political exigencies which have been so Widly dere-
operl by the state of the British empire, end by the
changing combinations of Europe, are on their sido,
the running fire of liberal opinions throughout so-
ciety has prepared the Protestant to communicate
freedom to his fellow, and has fitted the Catholic to
enjoy it. Common sense, common feeling, common
justice, enable the friends of emancipation with im-
munity to join the Orange monopolists of Ireland in
committing the Treaty of Limerick to the flames. A
race of new intellectual powers and of new national
necessities have arisen, which tend to facilitate for-
every Government the opright application both of
laws and treaties, by giy:ag it a preceptor in the
people.--Times.
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In the course of the discussion in the House of
Commons on Thursday, upon the subjept of the
~.on,2ulsOry Manumission of Slaves in the Weit
Indies, doctrines were broached and supported by
Lord Nugent, Mr. Whitmore, Mr. W. Smith, and
Mr. F. euxi-pn, which might warrant the inference
that these persons are the determined enemies of all
improvement in tts state of society in the West
Indies, if we did not, indulgently to them, prefer
the mcre charitable concigsion, that they labour un-
der an unfortunate incapacity to understand the
most obvious points and bearings of the subject to
Which So much of their attention has ben devoted,
and upon which they appeared to think themselves
qualified for Leaders. A very few words will suf-
fice to place this matter in the clearest light, The
man who purchased a -West India estate twenty,
,or ten, or five years ago, did so in the persuasion
•
ti:at the gangs of slaves attached to it, were to
he a permanent part of his possession, and this
persittoion was sanctioned and inculcated by the
jaws of the Colonies, by the laws of Eng,.
/and, by the principles repeatedly and during
a long course of years, and in every possible
manner proclaimed by the Governments and Legis-
latures of the Sugar Islands, and of Great Britain.
The gangs of slaves are. necessary to the cultiva-
tion o the estate. Without them its value is not
impaired, but annihilated, This is asserted by every
man who has any interest in the West Indies—by
every man who ever set his foot in the WeSt
and very feebly denied even by the Philanthropists
who haying not a shilling's worth of property in