The Sun.
London, England, 1818-02-17 00:00:00

:LETTER, X.

MR.tinTOß,=;t may appear superfluous to
'add any further illustration of the design so ob-

vious in this public Appeal of the Irish Papists,
by the, adoption of a pop►tlar and general mode of
expression, to cajale the PrOtestants of the Unit-

'eti Kingdom into a notion that -their principles are

tint only perfectly'innocuous, but that they in
truth differ little, and in no instance -essentially
frOm out own ! But, in case any of your headers
should be so far influenced by time liberal habits 'of
the age, as to.require the confession of their op-
ponents, before they can be persuaded to give
credit to any charge brought against them, I will
present tá you and to them, one extract from
their official appeal, which will speak volumes to
the most liberally incredulous man in the United
Kingdatn.

Having recapitulated in terms rather new to
the purpose of 4 Papal. Confession of Faith, they
"'Phis snminary of religious doctrine is re-

say,

cognised by us, in common with every Christian
Community—but ottr coincidence with our Protest-
ant Brethren (the Churcl► of England), is not con-

fined to a mere recognition of general principles.
Oar Ecclesiastical Constitution is Episcopal, and
observes the same orders of Hierarchy as is oh.
served in the Protestant Church. We approxi-
mate VERY CLOSELY in the observance of rites, and
our approximation is still more observable in our
Liturgy or Form of Prayers, the difference in very
many instances existing solely in the language i►t
tehich the same sentiments are expressed. In our

'political and social relations the similarity is Con-
'FLETE. We hold the FAME: ALLEGIANCE to our

most gracious Sovereign we venerate the sAmE
CONSTITUTION ; we Kre governed by the some Par-
liament; we contribute squally to the supply of the

FECUNIARY, Naval, and Military Resources of
!be State, and in the several transactions of life,
we are regulated by the same principles, and in-
Aueneed by the same motives, as those which our

fellow-subjects approve and adopt." They then
proceed regularly to their conclusiou, that 'g thus

it is manifested that EVER- relitg,ions ail(' political

principle, essential to the good order, and to the
subsistence of our State, is EQUALLY recognised
by Protestants and Catholics, and it would become

a difficult question to ascertain How two classes of
WIT Population, THU 3 UNITED it) 13R/NCIPLE and
PRACTIca, could be subjected toNdifferent measures of

Government ?"

This difficult question is, however, solved, by

-charging the crime of separating the congenial
systems of Popery and Protestantism upon interested
individuals, who, in a fit of unaccountable caprice
'or anger, are said to have established a wanton

scheme of persecution, by which " the rights of
one Class of subjects is rendered tributary to the
prejudices of another !"
Now, Sir, I repeat, I might.safely leave this pre-

cious and rare specimen of falie statetnents, and
forced inductions, to operate upon the minds of men
of the most ordinary capacity, but it is so much
easier to depend °pun others, when a question is
to be analyzed, that nine men in ten, in a state of
high civilization, are content to take current opi•

Mioll3 Hs they flow, without giving themselves the
trouble to ascertain upon what foundation they
are built, or, indeed, whether they be true
or false. If the generality of men would think
for themselves, divesting their minds of the broad
and sweeping assertions of Journalists and Re-
viewers, whose principles are necessarily incited.
only to partial views in every public question; if
they would dispassionately look at the great lead-

ing objects of public interest, and weigh every
measure professedly proposed for its promotion,

both as to its immediate constmences and to its
remote or contingent effects, we should have less
to deplore from 'the stages of faction, and be a
-more prosperous and• inure happy race of people

titan we can pretend to be in the present day.--
We should Dave practical wisdom in the place of
flimsy speculation, and instead of trying er.Peri-
wents upon the machinery of the noblest Consti-
. tution ever framed by the wit or valour of man,
,ive should be continually hedging it round with
safeguards to protect it from the innovating hand

of time, and the aggressive violence of TRA /TORS,
who &grade the name and titles of Patriotism, or
of JESiYITS, who smile in our face whilst they arc
mining the foundations, and lighting the torch at
°oz./ll:ars, which is to involrethe Whole in one mil-

versa! conflagration; and SUCCEED THEY WILL, if
the good sense of the Nation be not reused and unied

against the Hydra 1-lead of Sedition and Rebellion,
fomented and vitalized by the pompous inanity of /i-

heal Thin'ker ail the Maebinatlons of ;'‘cictions.
Doers, by the•frivolity of ourdecting Disciples.
and lie .base3iypocrisy of desperate Leaders, the
childish Advocates of innovation, and the half-
witted, bur' totally unpritiCipled, deciainters for
'REFORM when no evil exists It is to the good
sense "of Britons that I now aapeal in layout of
our common Country—in that lies our only re-..
source. The mass of the population is led astray
in its judgment by the grossest misrepresentations
and the most 'unfounded calumnies, and it is only
necossAry for good men to combine, am] to In
up the standard of Troth, in older to bring hack
the deluded multitude to their sensee.:—Now, Sir,
such are the motives,by which I am' actuated in
analyzing the paragraph to which I have reqoested
you; attention, and that of your Readers, in this
most andacinui Appeal and Address to the Pro-
testant Population of these Kingdoms.
In the first place, the appellants make a pro-
fession of Faith which is not true, inasmuch as it
is not consonant, either in letter or spirit, with any
authorised profession of •Faith used or permitted
in their Clooeb.
Secondly, they assert the direct coincidence of
the Coitstirution of the Roman Catholic with our
tv'sr, 'from the fact of iis " being Episcopal, and
obi;eiving the same orders of Hierarchy." • Now,
mark, Si`r, the dishonest and disingentioirs suhtilty
which they employ iu this statement. We have,
unquestionably, Archbishops, Bishops, &c. and so
have they ; but have we a Porn ?—He is a Bishop,
it may be said ; but is lie a Bishop according to
our hierarchy—do we impute infallibility to mor-
tal man ?—And is not the introduction of such a
character, independently of its blasphemy in giv-
ing the attributes of the Ahnighty to an intriguing
Monk, sufficient to destroy efery characteristic
or common similitude between the tiro Churches,
since it alters the whole principle of Church
Government ? Is it not, in fact, the ground
and origin of our separation—is it not the
Nucleus roomd which the whole evil and cor-
ruption are accumulated against which our fathers
and ourselves have constantly protested? Are these
ITICii [lieu to be trusted or even treated with, who,
in a public document like that before us, demand
our conctssion as a matter of course to asserted
fac'.s which bear the stamp of falsehood upon
their front ? Who assume an absolute coincidence
upon the very point at issue between themselves
and their opponents, and then, with the coolness
of habitual•efici outcry, affect surprise that this fact
has not been previously established " since it
snook! become a difficult question to ascertain.
now two classes of our Population, TIIUS UNITED
lu PRINCIPLE AND PRACTICE, could he subjected to
different measures of Government ! !"-.

The sanie observations will apply 'to the next
clause of our extract-where they maintain', with
the B,inie plausible exterior of being actually in
earnest, " that they approximate VERY ctosELY
in the observance of rites." Have 11'e any of the
mommeey of the aas—the elevation of the host,
the adoration of the consecrated water :Have
we Elm, in short, pinged our rites acid CCECIIIOII CS
vaio pomp and external glitter of the
Roman Maanfactory ; anal is not this, like die
former inzputa.ian of similarity in the form of
Church Government, the great point of dissen-
sion between the Romatiists and Protestants ?
glut say they, " our approximation is still snore
observable •in our'LiNrgy ot. Form of Prayers, the
difiert•ute in very twiny instances existing solely
in. the 'language in which the same sentiments are
expressed. D(, %re itivocate Saints—do we pray
to the. Virgin—do we retain any single form or
prayer in common, which is not immediately
drawn from» the primitive sources of Christianity,
before the Despoiler of Christianity had usurped
the seat ot- St. Peter, and secularized the Church
Hof Christ for the attainment. of temporal Power?
_Here, as in the former instances, the very grounds
of separation ate consuned into points of coinci-
dence; and like the man who declared himself a
second Alexander, because his neck was awry, they
infer identity—becatrse a single feature may bear
a common resemblance. But I really want
words to express my contempt at the manner in
which the great question between the two
Churches, of opening the Scriptures to the people
in their native language, is evaded, and the fact
admitted incidentally as a proof of mutual con-
currence. They stare that " their approximation is
still more observable in their Liturgy and Form of
Prayers, the difference in very many instances ex-
ist ing solely in the language in which the same
sentiments are expressed." • The language is every
thing in this view of the question—for it is nei-
ther more nor less than, this, whether the people
shall consult- the Scriptures in 'nook' of the
Doctrines preached to them, or whether they
shall implicitly trust to their Priests and the
Dogmas of their Pontiff—whether they shall
dwell in the light of the Gospel, or be immersed
in the darkness of ignorance and- superstition ?
lt'is in short a main branch of the great separat-
ing line between 'he two Churches, and yet this,
like all the rest, is crest up with jesuitical craft,
to impose upon the unwary multitude, the great
and little vulgar, a notion that no such line of
demarcation exists ? lint to proceed—having thus
professed to establish link by link the close
connexion—nay the -identity of the two most
discordant forms of Church polity and worship,
with which we are arvainted—they on to
prove, by -the some iageaious proceSs of reason-
ing, that its their. political and social relations the
similarity is CO M PL ETE.--“ We hold (say they)
the same allegiance to our 'most gracious Sove-
reign !"—Allegiatice is allegiance-=—but something
stronger was necessary to impress upon our sms-
picious minds. the notion of the allegiance en-
tertained by the Roman Catholic appellants—
they hold the same allegiance to our most gra-
cious Sovereign -as we Protestants do f-7—lt really
is breaking a by ou the wheel—or rather fighting
a shadow—to hying torwardproof against this As-
sumption of a fact which disproves
they bear the same allegiance with the Protestant 9,
why are the Roman- Catholics Petitioners at
Claimants for admission to- the Coast itutioni If
they Will afford the required Test of the sane al-
legiance they are ipso facto in possession, by right,
of all , the privileges for which they now petition.
What Is it that excludes them foam power
ply- the refusal to give-proof of the allegiance which
their Protestant brethren Auld toteards their Sore-
sop's. But what is, the Emil lustead of bearing

•
iTte enure Aeelan(e ,sith their Protestant brethren,
-theyhire for the first time halted iii their
tovi,ilds HIM to ‘111o;io ALONE they consider
allegiance chiv-,-*OF:CAU3E t,e afforded his sanction
to a mere empty form of d,ferenee to him Minn' they
can their most gracious Sovereign, in the'dectioo
of their Bishops. The Pope would have had them
conform to the YuTo proposed by their own advo-
cates, and what were the term: to which they re-
jected it ? "that they considereA the grantiog to an
arta-Catholic Government any power, direct or indi-
rect, with regard to the appointment and nomi-
nation .of the Catholic Bishops in Ireland, at all
times inexpedient and that eircumStanced as
they are, they consoler the granting such
power not only ittexpedielit, but highly detri-
mental to the best and dearest interests of raj-
and pregnant with incalculable mischief
to THE CAUSE OF CATHOLICITY in Leland
But it proof were wanting to illn'trate the
nature of Roman Catholic ALLEGIANCE, anti to
shew that it is not the same with that Of the Pro-
testants, we might refer to the circumstante, not
sufficiently known, of a most atrocious publication,
called a " Statement of the Penal Laws which
aggrieve the Roman Catholics of Ireland,"
having been published hi Ireland, and by a Jury
declared to be -a sPoretous, and 712(likiOUS
libel upon the King's. Government , in Ireland.'
This was in 1813. lo 1814, " the Most Reverend
Dr. Murray," Coadjutor of the Archbishop of
Dublin (Dr. Troy), basing been sent'on a soletnu
mission to his Holiness the Pope (whialt mission,
by the bye, partakes of the nature of treason by
our laws), writes from Rome that it is extremely
fortunate that Cardinal Albea (President of the
College. of Propaganda) " understands English
very well, and has already perused most of
those papers which throw any light upon the
subject: and PARTICULARLY THE STATEMENT' OF
THE PENAL LAWS, WHICH HE HAS NEARLY COM-
MITTED To MEMORY. He expressed himself ia
unqualified terms of abhorrence of THE OATH,
and of some clauses in the late Bill:" This is
extracted from the official Roman Catholic Jour-
nal, the Dublin L:ening Post, of the 18th. of
August, 1814 Here, Sir, is a precious tonfirma-
tiou, it not " strong as holy writ," at least as-
authoritative, their own skewing ,as holy writ it-
self, of the Roman Catholic allegiance being THE
SAME with the Protestants—a recorded false, se-
ditious, and malicious libel upon the King's Govern-
ment, is mule qficiat document to lay -at the
feet of the Roman Pontiff (for lie and ALI. the
Cardinals welcomed the mission with the. highest
.honours), and is not only received with approba.
tion (after its solemn condtmuation'at home) but
committeirto" memory by a .Cardinal, Who. at the
same moment pronounces judgment en cathedra
against the proceedings of a British Parliament.
Really, Sir, it is difficult which most to admire—
the atrocious act of sedition arid hostility, if not
treason, against the Government of this country,
or the audacity of pien who probably di3patchvd
this very mission, .and certainly tire iminediately
connected with those who did, and now presume,
upon time blindfold fatuity of their fellow'country•
to assert in the face o.f day. that they bold
the rime allegiance for their Most gracious Sovereign
with themselves ! Sir, I do tnaiotain that if not a
line had..been written, not a voice raised against
the grant of power now solicited by the ,Flonian
Catholic claimants, THIS DOCUMENT ALONE,
connected with; the previous history and writings of
the Popish priesthood and the Jesuit casuists, would
be sufficient to unite every honest, sober-minded
supporter of the British Constitut hot ill open and
unhesitating opposition to the re-admission of
men to the privileges of legislation and diplomatic
agency,. who thus boldly declare that the princi-
ples which instigated their ancestors to deeds of
tyranny and oppression against their fellow coun•
trymen are unchanged and unchangeable, and
who thus betray in a manifesto, officially publish-
ed to the country, the same spirit of intrigue, the
same subtlety of illusion, the same perversion of
truth, and the same juggle of mental reservation,
which have ever marked their successful march to
power, and proved the precursor of the terrible
sod sanguinary Epochas of THEIR ASCENDANCY.

L ft ANC .

THEATRICAL REGIS:I4'ER.
Performed Lust Night.
THEATRE ROYAL, DRURY-LANE..—(7th time), The r.raie of
Abplos.: Sclita, Mr. Kean; Zulicha, Mrs. Marilyn. After
which, The Falls of Clyde.
TimAToz RoYAL, CorENT-GAnDEN.-:-(4t.htime),• Fazio: Ci-
raldi Fazio, Mr. C. tietAble; Bianca, Miss O'Neill. After
Liwiequils Gallirer. •

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