The Sun.
London, England, 1828-08-20 00:00:00

modern times, contrary to the character of all
civil institutions, and tending directly to ge-
neral anarchy and confusion—if it be true that
an immense majority of the people look up, not
to the legitimate Government,' but to an irre-
sponsible and self-constituted Association, for
the administration of the affairs of the country
—if the peace of Ireland depend not upon t.lie
Government of the King, but upon the dictation
of the Catholic Association—if that Associ-
ation have defied the Government, and trampled
upon the law of the land—if that same power
which banished a Cabinet Minister from the re-
presentation of his county because he was a
Minister of the King, can maintain or disturb
the peace of the country, just as may suit its
caprice or ambition—if the same danger impend
over every institution established by law ; if this
be, as there can be no doubt it is, an accurate
representation of the state of Ireland, to what,
we ask, is it to be ascribed, but to that very sys-
tem of conciliation which has emboldened and
strengthened a cabal of Agitators, which has
held the laws in abeyance till they have become
the objects of contempt—which has condemned
the loyal Protestants of Ireland, a body
great and powerful in numbeii, a body in,
finitely superior to the confederated ene-
mies of Government and law, in wealth, in-
telligence, constitutional power, physical and
mental energy, to comparative silence and inac-
tivity, until their existence has been almost for-
gotten ? When we are told that the incomes
of the Clergy and Landowners of a:whole nation
depend upon the will of an illegal Association—
that the latter have become either ciphers upon
their own estates, or have been forced to become
the obedient tools of that illegal Association,
surely it requires no more to convince us of the
necessity of forcibly putting it down. An Asso-
ciation wielding such powers as Mr. Dawson
accurately described, is a monster to be pro-
scribed and destroyed, not an authority which
Government can either with dignity or safety
attempt to propitiate. All the evils, great and
numerous as they are, which would, in any
circumstances, as we believe, flow from what
is called Catholic Emancipation, would be in-
creased and multiplied if the measure were
an act of concession to claimants of this de-
scription. Whatever benefits the advocates of
that measure expect from it, must of necessity he
frustrated should it be weakly yielded to the cla-
morous demands of men usurping the powers
and functions of Government. The view which
Mr. Dawson has presented of the state of Ire-
land—and its accuracy cannot be disputed—re-
duces the question of Emancipation to a se-
condary question. The previous question to be
determined is no other than this : Shall the ma-
jesty of the Laws, and the proper functions and
powers of Government be maintained, or shall
they be abandoned to contempt and derision ?
In the present state of Ireland this is the simple
and paramount question, to which all others, in-
cluding that of Emancipation itself, from which
it is evidently distinct, must be postponed.
Upon this question we feel that to compromise
any thing is to surrender all ; and we do not
hesitate to declare our opinion, that whoever at-
tempts in any way to effect such a compromise,
let him be the advocate or the opponent of
Emancipation, is in effect, though not in de-
sign, the enemy of all law and government, and
is justly chargeable with the most pitiable
cowardice or the grossest folly.—Morn. Post.
When Mr. Charles Brownlow, in an unlucky
hour, turned his back upon his friends and him-
self, and, from being a zealous Orangeman, be-
came an active and noisy demagogue, the cha-
racters of our statesmen received a shock frOm
which they have not recovered. The ratting
was so glaring, and the motive for it so obvious,
that it did much to shatter public confidence,
and to induce men to view with an eve of dis-
trust and suspicion those whose faith and whose
honour they had been wont to consider as pure
as truth itself. Mr. Brownlow expected that
the Catholic Question would be 'carried and
settled—he was desirous to stand well in the es-
timation of Mr. Canning—he wished to come
round with a full sail, and be the first of the
renegade fleet on the tide of fortune, and, poor
man, though he only made himself ridiculous,
and evinced the equal shallowness of his morals
and his understanding, he inflicted much injury
on the reputation of modern patriots. There is
something in the " going about" of Mr. George
Dawson, which has a strong resemblance to the
"yeering"of Mr. Charles Brownlow. The patriot-
ism of the latter was born " to waste its sweetness
on the desert air ;" his hopes were disappointed in
the bud ; the measure miscarried, and death levelled
to the earth the dreams of his ambition and
his patron at the same moment. Mr. Dawson
is pretty nearly in the same predicament. At
the very instant he is provoking the hisses and
the reproaches of his insulted Protestant consti-
tuents, the cause which he' has abandoned is
daily obtaining fresh adherents, whose courage,
roused to madness, threatens to bear down be-
fore it all opposition. The Protestants have at
length taken the alarm, and have fairly thrown
off their apathy. They yielded to the admoni-
tions of the liberals as far as they could yield
with safety. They were silent to the last extre-
mity. They calmly contemplated at a distance
the designs of their opponents ; but now they
find that resignation has only invoked increased
resentments and more audacious threats—that
their silence is ascribed to their weakness—and
that if they do not rally and. exhibit their
strength, and declare their principles in a firm
and resolute tone, there can be neither safety for
them, their, estates, their rights, nor their reli-
gion. The meetings in all parts of Ireland are
a proof of this. ' The sentiments manfully re-
corded at the meeting of Mr. Moore's friends do
honour to the Protestants of Dublin. There
was no shuffling—no mincing of mock-patriotic‘
words—no flirting with opposite opinions—no
dallying with the fears, or the wishes, or
the injunctions of the Government—but that
open and undisguised language which bespeaks
union and determination. The Protestants of
Ireland are at present what their fathers were.
At the eleventh hour they arouse themselves,
and become sensible of their danger, and they
now show that they have the spirit and the power
to meet and crush those machinations which
have long been secretly directed to accomplish
their ruin—the ruin of the Established Church,
and the ascendancy of the Church of Rome.
From the bottom of our hearts we wish them
success ; with our loudest cheer we cheer them
on ; and we pray God that they may never re-.
linquish the struggle, never sit still in fear under
their threatened roofs, till they have extinguished
andthe drivenabo ninfarbonle, tirrealaninidy
theof tleeelu'rospedislai
agitators,
who have revelled and robbed, and disorganized
all that
countrv.is. dTehareyto thehave inhabitants
theirhandsof
tothatthe
plough ; they can conquer if they Will ; victory
is their own, if they pursue it; but woe be to