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

I THE CHARITABLE BEQUESTS
BILL.
(From the Southern Reporter.)
The Dublin Evening Mail utters a loud exulting
shout because three Roman Catholic Bishops are, at
length, gazetted, as, according to their new-found
eulogist, the firm, uncompromising supporters of the
Bequests Bill. 'We deeply deplore the cause which
has given room for the triumphant boast of the un-
scrupulous calumniator of Catholicity. It is not for
us to question what the motives may have been which
induced the Right Rev. Prelate to countenance this
inroad on the rights and freedom of the Church.
They must have been deceived by that consummate
diplomatic artifice which has over• reached worldly
and wary politicians, and made even them playthings
in the hands of England, or, as we before stated, and
still suppose, they have consented to accept places
on the Board to mitigate the evils which others in
their position could inflict. We are convinced that the
Right Rev. Prelates would advance on all occasions
the true interests of religion; that will not be dis-
puted or denied, but the more we examine the more
fully are we persuaded that the Bill was concocted by
enemies of the Church, with that enmity burning
strong within them. What is it that has hitherto
preserved the Roman Catholic Church and the reli-
gion which it teaches•; by what means has she,
through such a long night of persecution and danger,
protected herself successfully in Ireland ? Was it
not by steadily refusing—by firmly resisting all inti-
macy with the State, and by standing on an isolated
eminence to which the waters of corruption could not
ascend ? She has been surrounded by enemies
who have often menaced, and endeavoured to
scale the battlements by which she was protected ;
but of all other Churches of the earth, she re-
mained uninjured by secret sap or open vio-
lence. The foe, we fear, has reached the citadel
at last, and, at the first signal from abroad, will be
ready to open wide a passage by which the whole
orce of secular authority may enter. Our fears may
perhaps exaggerate the effects which we apprehend
may follow from the compromise which has already
taken place, but the very parties, the Roman Catholic
clergy themselves who, it is stated, will profit by the
law, are filled with alarm, and protest strongly
against its operation. The Irish Church in general is
free from the imputation of courting a State all'ance.
She has never solicited its favour or looked for its
endowments, or begged its gold. At all times, at
every opportunity, she spurned pecuniary and other
favours, and maintained herself untainted and un-
touched by their enervating influence. Why, then,
should we be persuaded that she ought now to descend
from her " vantage ground," or daily with the seducer?
—What can she gain by a State connexion—nothing
whatever. She must lose largely—in character, in
revenue, for an endowed Church and clergy generally
lose remuneration from the people, seldom preserve
their respect, and, never, as far as we can at this
moment recollect, have held firm in their affections.

By deed or by will, said the deliberate opinion of
O'Connell, it was lawful for Catholics, before the
passing of this Act, to convey property for every
imaginable charitable purpose ; now, only for the
support of bishops and priests, and for building manse-
houses, are any new powers given. Because the
clergy are permitted by the law—and how permitted?
through the favour of the Protestant majority of the
Board—to live and inherit property devised three
months before the donor's death, we are called on to
shake hands with Peel and fling our caps into the
air through joy. Before this law all this and much
more may have been done, and again, we ask, where
is the advantage ? And it is thus the clergy
would be benefited, or rather it is thus they
would be divided from the people. A State pro-
vision would never pass the English Legislature.
England would not support in Ireland a second
stipendiary Church, and Irish priests would
not receive the bribe. But, fruitful hi wiles, the
Government hit upon the expedient of making Ro-
man Catholic piety the instrument of subsidising
them.' Peel would hope to make them gradually
wealthy, he would allow them to receive property in
the expectation that they may become indolent or
indifferent to the welfare of their flocks, or inactive
in the cause of liberty. He sees what benefices and
pomp and revenues have done elsewhere, and he
would use the antidote to spiritual zeal, and to politi-
cal agitation which he believes they contain. lie
would absolutely punish the Irish people for their
patriotism through their piety, by making it instru-
mental in their subjugation, and the mode of doing
this aggravates the dishonesty of the attempt, for
though the clergy may be the recipients of wealth, a
mixed Government Board is to be, as it were, the con-
duit through which the impure stream must flow.
There were two inconveniences which, it is affirmed,

the existing law has removed, by abolishing trustee-
ships, and recognising the succession of Catholic
prelates and priests. But what mastered the first in-
convenience when men of honesty and honour were
continually found, and could be found, to act in the
required capacities, and if the succession of Catholic
priests and prelates be now .recognised by law, did
they the less succeed before ? Is it legal or apostolical
succession that is desired or necessary ? Is the State
to become a theological interpreter, and human to be
associated and to weigh with divine authority ? Is
there importance to be attached to the State recogni
tion of those apostolical titles which, after all, the
Bill does not confirm beyond the pre-existing law,
nor add to it in any one particular, for while the Most
Rev. Richard is in the State Gazette, affirmed to
be Lord Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Rev.
Archbishop Daniel ➢Murray, is not allowed to own a
local jurisdiction.
We have spoken of this cozening and deceptive Act
as it affected the position of the Irish Catholic Church,
for whose independence a struggle should be made,
if for no other reason than to win, on Irish ground,
the victory which has been lost in other countries.
Everywhere the attempt to get the Church be-
neath the hoof of the State has been attempted. Here
the villainous experiment is in progress also, but
we have not spoken of the undefended, inexcusable,
and infamous wrong which this Act offers to the
regular clergy and the monastic orders. The
most ingenious and intrepid of its supporters have
not ventured to justify it as regards them. It is con-
ceded that every atom of property can be, and must
be, swept away from them ; that the Catholic pre-
lates can be made, and must become their persecu-
tors, their despoilers, to feed the ravening maw of the
hybrid monster called a Board. It is not denied the
monastic orders will be despoiled, and are virtually
outlawed by this enactment; and yet defenders have
been found to abet and praise its provisions, and ad-
vise the Irish people to stand by and see their pious,
humble, and self-denying friends scattered and de-
spoiled. Shall they, who instruct the poor, who
sedulously prepare the way for the secular clergy,
and assist and strengthen them in their labours, be
unredressed ? We are mistaken in our countrymen
if they pause for an hour in the decision they should
make.

SERIOUS FIRE AT THE MARSION OF THE EARL OF
HARRINGTON, WHITEHALL-GARDENS. - Considerable
consternation was caused on Monday morning in the
household of the Right Honourable the Earl of Harring-
ton, in Whitehall-gardens, next door to the town resi-
dence of Sir Robert Peel, by the discovery of a fire,
which, it appears quite evident, had been smouldering
for a considerable time, and had broken out in the dress-
ing-room of his Lordship on the second-floor, imme-
diately over the ball-room. About a quarter after six
o'clock the attention of one of the inmates was arrested
by a crackling noise, attended by a strong smell of fire.
Upon proceeding up stairs and making
,strict examina-
tion in the several lower rooms, it was at length dis-
covered that the fire had originated underneath
the hearth of the dressing-room, passed along by
the joists of the flooring, which at that time were
all on fire, whence it proceeded to an elaborately
finished recess, most richly ornamented with
cornices of gold, of a very beautiful design, and fur-
nished
with a very handsome reclining couch, magnifi-
cently adorned. These at the time of the discovery
were burning rapidly, threatening the destruction of
the whole mansion. An immediate attempt to extin-
guish the flames was made by the servants, but, finding
they were unable to do so, a messenger was dispatched
to the Chandos-street station of the fire brigade, thence
to Mr. Fogo, the foreman of the western station, and to
the West of England establishment, engines from which
speedily arrived. A plug in the gardens was drawn, but
the supply of water was very scanty, and buckets filled
from the cisterns supplied around the edifice were used
with much effect in staying the progress of the
flames. By a continuous line of buckets, the supply
of water was well maintained, which was judiciously
distributed by the firemen ; but the fire was burning
in so large a body under the flooring, that it was
found necessary by Mr. Fogo to cut away the floor,
quite into the ball-room, a considerable portion of the
ceiling of which is destroyed. This ball room is a beau-
tiful specimen of modern architectural finish. It is
elegantly fitted up, and has a deep medallion pattern
cornice around the summit of the side walls. In the
end next to the dressing-room, where the fire broke out,
a hole is cut about two feet square, which it required
considerable labour and upwards of an hour to accom-
plish. This aperture passing through the ceiling of the
ball room, which, by the smoke, the fire, and the water
is damaged, the whole will have to be painted and re-
gilt. In the dressing-room much damage is done. The
recess is nearly burned out, the couch is destroyed, a
great number of classical figures, beautifully overlaid
with gold, are broken, and a variety of articles of vertu
are spoiled, as is much of the furniture and elaborate
appointments, both by fire, water, and removal, so much
so, that it will cost his Lordship a considerable sum to
renovate the mansion and supply the loss occasioned by
the disaster. _ _ _

PREFIRMENT.—The Rev. Dr. Jones, 8.D., of
Deptford, domestic chaplain to the late Lord Saye and
Sele, has been appointed chaplain to the Right Hon. the
present Lord Saye and Sele. The Rev. J. B. Smith,
D.D., Head Master of Horncastle Grammar School, has
been appointed by the Duke of Newcastle one of his
Grace's domestic chaplains.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer acknowledges the
receipt of one sovereign enclosed to him in a note signed
" China Crape," which money will be placed to the
public credit.