The Sun.
London, England, 1845-04-21 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROX THE EVENING PAPERS OF SATURDAY.

GLOBE—The tone of fir Robert Peel's speech fully
proved that he felt his position. It was one more tribute to
the policy of his opponents in cultivating friendly relations,
with these permanently organised bodies which possess.
the confidence of the Irish masses. Every Government
that is not at war with its subjects must cultivate,
such relations. There are passages in Burke's Col.-,
respondence, applying to the Emperor Joseph 11. and
his subjects in the Netherlands, which are equally ap-
plicable to Ireland at this present day. We shall take future
occasions of reproducing them ; and at present have only to
say that, however questionable the shape or source of this;
measure, or the means of its execution, we cannot entertain a
doubt that an organised clerical body (like any other organ-
ised body in a country, Whose necessity and utility is ad-
mitted) ought to be made its friend, if possible, by the Go-
vernment of the country. And fur this plain reason—if both
are working for public good, they can assist each other ;
if either is working for public mischief, then indeed it is
clear that they cannot be friends ; but it is equally clear
that one or the other is not in its normal and natural state.

To conciliate a priesthood is not, iirifeea,---tO-;;Conciless
people ; nor is to endow a college even to conciliate a
priesthood. And the difficulty of the present men is .
that the slightest move which they make in this direction
arrays against them not only all that is genuine in zeal on
their own side, but a vast deal of what is genuine in popular
spirit throughout the country. Mr. Sheil may call this
fanatical insurgency by a very ill-advised figure of speech.
In the veteran ringleader .of the Catholic Association
the charge may excite amusement. But we beg to
remind Mr. Shell that in England we are accustomed
to think it y a loin de la p/nine an poignard. It is
precisely because Englishmen are in the habit of
petitioning, that they are not in the habit of insurrection.
They petition Pailiament when they are its constituents,
and they attend it when they are its members; they have
an innate contempt • for demonstrations of what they don't
mean to do, and threats of transferring allegiance as substi-
tutes for performances of public duty. If Mr. Sheil will pick
us out from the '• three denominations" on which his scorn is •
visited, twenty-five ministers of religion, sole signers
of a requisition for holding a " monster meeting," for
the purpose of defying the Imperial Legislature, and not
of petitioning it—we will be content to call such Pro-
testant ministry " fanatical insurgency." Not till then.
We are well aware that much of the fault of priestly
hostility is to be charged to that sinister policy, which
by exciting Protestant animosities, naturally aroused Roman
Catholic discontent. We are rejoiced to hear the final
declarations of Conservative statesmen that those days are
over. But English Protestantism (except passively and
ignorantly) had really nothing to do with the old system
of Irish ascendancy. Nor is English Protestantism of the
present day answerable for the difficulty of adopting a wiser
system. Sir Robert Peel long retarded that system; and
now, when he wishes to promote it, be is alike abandoned by,
his friends, who dislike his ends, and by the public, who dis-
trust his means. But he seems prepared to draw his mantle
round him, and fall decently.
STANDAltll.—The debate upon the second reading of the
Maynooth Bill, atter six days' continuance, terminated this
morning at a little before three o'clock, when the House
divided as follows :—For the second reading, 323 ; against
it, 176 ; majority, 147. We may not conceal that we are grati-
fied by this result, but it is not a case for exultation.
' The contest, in which we see opposed Members of
the same and of our 'Own party-4" cognatas acies7—are
indeed the u be/1a habifnra triumphOs.' We cannot
triumph because section of our friends has, even-in a
cause which we believe to be politic and just, overcome
another section of our friends, commanding, perhaps,
even a greater share of our respect and affection,
than the victors. There is one circumstance connected
with this great contest, however, upon which we can look
back with unalloyed satisfaction, because it is impartially
honourable to both divisions of Conservatives. We
mean the perfect fairness and courtesy with which
the discussion was conducted on both sides. .Nor
would we confine this praise to the Conservative party
only. Mr. Shell and Lord John Russell, and soma
others of the regular Opposition, are justly entitled to
share in it ; and we think all must acknowledge.
with Sir Robert Inglis, the honoured leader of the defeated
party. and a leader infinitely exalted by his noble though
unsuccessful struggle, that never was so long a debate so
little disgraced by deviations from, candour or good man-
ners. Some . sufficiently disgusting exceptions offer, no
doubt in the case of Messrs. D'lsraeli and Macaulay, and,
though in a far less degree offensive, one or two others; but,
on the whole the conduct and temper of the debate were ad-
mirable. Last night, as generally happens when an immediate
division is anticipated, the debate was highly animated. Mr.
Sheil and Lord John Russell spoke well. Sir R. Inglis said
whatever it was possible for an able and honest man to say
against the Bill, and said it with matchless ability. Sir R.
Peel never spoke with more perfect self-possession, or with
more complete success, than at three o'clock in the morn-
ing, at the end of a 'ten hours' sitting and a debate of Six
days. He therefore has not yet sunk under the combined
assaults of Messrs. Babington Macaulay and Benjamin
D'lsraeli. We cannot expect the attention of our readers
for a retrospect of the arguments in this long debate, or
even for an analysis of the last night's proceedings ; it ma
be useful, however, to point to a particular passage of Sir R.
Peel's speech which refers to that anticipation that more
than anything else has excited alarm in the minds of
Protestants. It will be remembered that the Chancellor of
the Exchequer distinctly disclaimed, on the part of the
Government, any purpose of proposing an endowment of
the Roman Catholic clergy, or any expectation that such
an endowment could be contemplated by any Ministry or
Parliament of the nineteenth century. Sir J. Graham on the
following night repeated the disclaimer on the part of the Go-
vernment, but let fall an acknowledgment that he himself was,
an individual, not indisposed to such an arrangement. The
acknowledgment was unnecessary for the information of
those who remembered the Right Hon. Baronet's former
connexion with a party with which this endowment has
always been a favourite plan ; from which party Sir James
separated only because he would not consent to a robbery of
the Church in order to provide the means of the endowment
in question.

THE EARL OF ROSSE'S LEVIA.-
THAN T I LESCOPE.
We have been favoured by Sir James South, of the.
Royal Observatory, Kensington, with the following de-
saiption of the enormous telescope lately constructed by
-1.4,4 d Ross-, am. from the extraordinary powers of which
great discoveries have been anticipated
In the "limes of September last I had the gratification .
of announcing to the public that the construction of the
large telescope by the Earl of Rosse was so far advanced
that the instrument had actua.ly been directed to the
heavens. and that, too, with satisfactory results.
The great speculum, however, as then u_ed, had been
only approximately polished, and was inserted in the
tube merely to. ascertain if its focal length coincided
with that which it was . esigned to give it.
The difference being 'considerable, it was suffered to
remain iu the tube without having been used by the
Nobly Lord till Dr. Robinson's and my arrival at the
Castle at the commencement of February last ; but a
continuous series of b'ad weather having precluded all
possibility of observing any other object than the moon,
on the 21st of February the large speculum was re-
moved; and on the 4th of March, having been reground
and repolished, it was reinstated in the tube.
The diameter of the large speculum is six feet, its
thickness five inches and a half, its weight three tons
and three-quarters, and its composition 126 parts of
copper to 57} parts of tin ; its focal length is 54 feet—
the tube is of deal ; its lower part, that in which the
speculum is placed, is a cube of eight feet; the circular
part of the tube is at Its centre, seven feet and a half
diameter, and at its extremities six feet and a- half. The
telescope lies between two stone walls, about 71 feet from
north to south, about 50 feet high, and about 23 feet
asunder, These walls are as nearly as possible parallel
with the meridian.
In the interior face of the eastern wall, a very strong
iron arc, of about 43 feet radius, is firmly fixed, pro•
vidzd, however, with adjustments, whereby its surface
facing the telescope may be set very accurately in the
plane ,of the meridian—a matter of the gi eatest import-
ance, seeing that by the contact with it of rollers at-
tached to one extremity of a quadrangular bar, which
slides through a metal box fixed to the under part of the
telescope tube, a few feet from the object end of the latter,
whilst its other extremity remains free, the position of
the telescope in the meridian is secured, or any deviation
from it easily determined, for on this bar lines are drawn,.
the interval between any adjoining two of which corres-
ponds to one minute of time at the equator. The tube
and speculum, including the bed on which the latter rests,
weighs about 15 tons.
The telescope rests on an universal joint, placed on
masonry about six feet below the ground, and is elevated
or depressed by a chain and windlass,; and, although it
weighs about 15 tons, the instrument is raised by two
men with great facility. Of course, it is counterpoised .
in every direction.
At pros( nt it can be used only between 14 degrees of
southern altitude and the zenith, but when completed
its range will embrace an arc between 10 degrees of alti-
tude toward the south and 47 degrees north ; so that-all
objects between the polls and 27 degrees south of the
equator will be observable with it ; whilst in the equator
any object can be viewed with it about forty minutes of
time on either side of the meridian.
The observer when at work stands in one of four gal-
leries, the three highest of which are drawn out from
the western wall, whilst the fourth, or lowest, has for its
base an elevating platform, along the horizontal sur-
face of which a gallery slides from wall to wall by ma-
chinery within the observer's reach, but which a child
may
meridian,
n
theth the galleries
is a esc
hanging bout half an hour
overth eo
gap
a east s
between
of th the
the or, with
ea each
ie
e and
the walls present to a spectator below an appearance
pnsomewhatdc,no
,a
dangerous
safe o,
; ye t the
ground,bsery
4
one
galleries can be drawn from the wallto the telescope's
side so readily, that the observer needs no one else to
move ittf,ohrs him.
The
lying
at its least altitude can be raised
to. Tthhee by two men at. the windlass in six
givemetheanrtilgshot ainsacen nasgieoanbal en
di sdtechelineantoiromnooufsanmy
minutes;
:ceiesthtiaatl
object between these points, and I will have the object
in the field of. the telescope within eight minutes from •
preWs'ehnetnfothlleowobistebryv e
rr
ka sw fo'orukn
the first attempt to raise it.
d the bt
sj e
reach.ct , h e mAu
ss t
yet a t
within
it has no equatorial motion, but it very
at no very distant day clockwork will be connected with
it, when the observe r, if I mistake not, will, whilst ob-
serving, be almost as comfortable as if he d' were reading
at a desk by his fireside.
The night of the sth of March was, I think, the finest
I ever saw in Ireland. Many nebulae were observed by
Lord Rosse, l)r. Robinson, and myself. Most of them
were, for the first time since their creation, seen by uses
groups or clusters of stars; whilst some, at least to my
eyes. shoWed no such resolution. Never, however, in
my life did I see such glorious sidereal pictures as this
instrument afforded us. Most of the nebulae we saw I
certainly have observed with my own large achromatic;
but although that instrument, as far as relates to magni-
fying power, is probably inferior.to no one in existence,
yet to compare these nebulae, as seen with it and the
6-feet telescope. is like comparing, as seen with the .7.
naked eye. the dinginess of the planet Saturn to the bril7 •
v., .
Haney of Venus;..: . • '
.The most. siJ
popularly known . nebulas observed A
if, , the ...Clinta.Vfutifici, _or u„ etz.
were'jie-bul24,
the
51st of Messier 'a catalogue, which was resolved into
of 548 ;
stars with a magnifying power and the 94th of
Messier, which is in the ewe cowtellation, and which