The Sun.
London, England, 1845-02-05 00:00:00

Ebtrb Utitttell

SUN OFFICE, Seven o' Clock.

• -
•
SP T* Au. PUBLIC- JOURNALS.
EVENING I'AFF.RS OF THIS DAY.
GLOBE. 1-1"04 Aobert Peel alone for " turning
diseases •to .cornindliriri tide ies, quitted by a colleague
of whom it ia 'not much- to sartlauthe was the sole re-
presentative in the Government Of tiny rif4:fotes.prin-
ciple of its party; and moreover that he .setes. Sin
Robert Peel's sole reliance in debate on many ques-
tions.. One would have thought this (morally speaking)
a heavy blow, and a great discouragement. Sir Robert
Peel makes a Merit of it He shows off Mr. Glad-
stone to the malcontent Irish Roman Catholics as a scape-
goat, whom he has driven into the wilderness, charged
With all the sins of his party. See what a prize Protestant
we have sacrificed !—what a credit to the flock we have
whistled down the wind. All for the love of the Irish Ro-
man Catholics !—all for the sake of "the Romish Church
n that country." In our humble judgment Lord J. Russell,
in critiscising the mode of passing the Charitable Bequests
Act, instead of pressing too hard upon the Premier, let
him off too cheap. That Mr. Gladstone did so is not
surprising.: As he did not mean to head a party against
his late chief, he could not gracefully go farther. But
we confess our surprise that the strongest point against
the party in power has been tressed so little ; especially
as that point is so salient that it canna escape any eye.
The point we allude to is the flagrant inconsistency
of S.r. Robert Peel's recent recognition of the Irish
Roman ecclesiastics—not merely with the principles
of his party—with thi professions of his past life—but'
with the Emancipation Act, if not with the Act of Su-
premacy. - The Oath of Supremacy, administered to
every candidate for a degree in the Dublin .University,
affirms that the Roman Pontiff " hath not any ju-
risdiction, power, superiority, pre-eminence, or autho-
rity, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within this realm."
An "Ex-Scholar of Trinity College, Dublin," in
the Dublin Evening Mail, puts the question to Dr.
Radcliffe, Vicar-General of that Diocese—" Whe-
ther, on perusing the Charitable Bequests Bill
—and observing that the ecclesiastical functions of men
are therein recognised and ratified by British law,
which functions are only conferred, and can be only
conferred, by the Pope of Rome—and that the men
bearing those functions are, in virtue of their official
station, invested with certain powers under that Act
in this country—permit me, Sir, to ask whether you
choose to stake your official character on the pro-
priety of administering to candidates for degrees in
the University, an oath in which they swear," &c. &c.
We can conceive that the Ministerial advocates may
get over this inconsistency, on the plea that they recog-
nise the Roman Prelates, not as appointed by the Pope
—an appointment which they choose to know nothing of
—but as the de facto spiritual dignitaries of the Roman
Catholic population of Ireland. . They do not acknow.
ledge the right of the Pope to appoint, but the right.of
the people to receive them ; and they recognise the in
only in consequence of the function they find them really
holding. Well, we will let the Ministerialists off on the
Oath of Supremacy. But let us just look at the Act of
Emancipation By this Act, at all events, they built a wall,
which, in the Charitable Bequests Act, they have been
themselves first to run their heads asainst. - The follow-
ing was a leading provision of the Act of Emancipation,
" for the peace and security of the Establishment and of
the Protestant religion t"—" Whereas the right and title
of archbishops to their respective provinces, of bishops
to their sees, and of deans to their deaneries, as well in
England as in Ireland, have been established by law;
Be it therefore enacted, that if any person, after the com-
mencement of Allis Act, other than the person thereunto
authorised by law, shall assume or use the name, style.
or title of archbishop of any province, bishop of any
bish, prie, or dean of any deanery, in England or Ire-
land, he shall for every such offence forfeit end pay the
sum of 1001." Certainly no enactment could be devised
better fitted to bring the law into contempt. The Doman
Catholics consider their, prelates as de jure bishops of
those very dioceses, whose titles Sir Robert Peel's Eman-
cipation Act forbade them to assume under a heavy
penalty. Of course the titles were assumed ; and of
course the penalties were not enforced. But what be-
came of that respect for the law, so desirable to create in
Ireland? And what becomes of Sir R. Peel's own re-
spect for his own enactment? He is its first signal
Protestant violator ! He is not content with having set
tip an Act of Parliament, as a thing of straw, to be dis-
obeyed with impunity—he is not content without
signalizing his own scorn for it in another Act of Par-
liamen's The Charitable Bequests Act recognises the
Roman titles which the Emancipation Act forbids.
Will it be said that those titles are neither recog-
nised as Roman nor local ? We will wave the
former—we will suppose there is no breach of
the Act of Supremacy. " C'est une fa-e supposition."
But that titles of bishops and archbishops always
suppose a " local habitation and name." Suppose Mr.
O'Connell Roman Catholic Mayor of Dublin in the face
of a Protestant legal one ; that the Act of Emancipa-
tion had imposed a fine of 100/. for assuming that
title; and that the Charitable Bequests Act had re-
cognised • Mr. O'Connell as Lord Mayor —of
Nowhere ? The Dublin Pilot pushes this recog-
nition to exceedingly awkward consequences :
" Spiritual peerage was a creation of the law of Eng-
land, while England was yet Catholic—meaning by
spiritual peerage the title of I-Ord or Dominus, accom-
panied with the right of taking a part in the LegiAa.-
five Council or I,Jarliament of the nation. The law con-
ferred this title
,and privilege on Catholic eeclesiust:cs,
in virtue of their having canonical consecration as pre-
late., which ordination and consecration they could de-
rive only f. ora -the See of Rome. Therefore, by the
ancient constitution or common law of England, which
time only can destroy, the title to the spit Dual peerage
is canonical ordination and consecration in communion
with the See of Rome. ...... The law
iow tardily, and, we suspect, not very honestly, does
recognise that SpiritUal peerage belongs to Catholic
prelates—and, indeed to them alone. We should like
to st e this great question tried at law. Suppose the
Most Reverend Archbishop Daniel Murray insists that
he is, as a British subject, and by virture of •the law of
England, the true, legal Archbishop of Dublin, and
claims to sit in Parliament, instead of Dr. Whateley,
and so appeals to a court of justice, what would be the
probable decision on such an issue ? Dr. Whateley
could only show that he derives his cure a souls, as
bishop,' from a lay tribunal. Dr. ti. urray could show
that he has the canonical ordination and consecra-
tion required by the ancient law to entitle him to
a spiritual peerage, which Dr. Whateley has not.
Consequently, he is, in our mind, the true and
legal Archbishop .of Dublin, and not Dr. Whate-
ley—and he, instead of the latter, should be
called to sit in the British House of Peers."
We shall no', of course, be supposed to acquiesce in
this Ronianising conclusion. But it is evident to us
that Sir R. Peel, . by the idle and most mischievous
provision which, we have cited from the Emancipation
Act, end by the . consequent unavoidable evasion in the
Charitable Bequests Act of the local titular recognition
of the Roman Catholic prelates, whom he recognised,
has created an •embarrassment which is by no means
merely fanciful. How much better, in the first place,
never to have enacted the penal provision ! Or secondly,
to have repealed it openly—And thirdly, to have given
the Roman prelates their entire popularly acknowledged
titles, accompanied simply by a saving clause for the
concurrent legal. rights of the. Protestant prelates. What
would have been simpler than to have recognised Dr.
Murray as Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin ?
which he is.

LORD STANLEY.—We regret to state that Lord
Stanley is suffering from so severe an attack of gout in the
knee that his Lordship is not able to leave kis bed-room
without assistance:

TITS
EARL
.9F MORNINGTON.—The answer to
numerous inquiries,this morning was that his Lordship con-
tinued in the same weak state.
. The Earl ofLucanis to succeed the Marquis of
bilge as Lord Lioutenant of the county of Mayo. Her
Majesty will hold a Council to-day, at which Sir George
Clerk will be sworn a Privy Councillor, and named
Vice President of tho Committee of. Council for Trade
—Evening Paper.
SOUTHAMPTON, FEB. s.—The Peninsular and
Oriental COMpany's steamer, Royal Tar, Captain R. W.
Evans, arrived this morning, at eight o'clock, from the Pe-
ninsula, bringing the whole of the Peninsular mails. Her
dates of *departure' are 'as follow :—From Gibraltar,
26th ult. ; Cadiz, 2i to ; Lisbon; 29th ; oil Oporto,
30th; and Vigo, 31st. Ships of war lying at Gibraltar—
Her Majesty's steamer Flamer, Danish war-steamer Ilecla,
Swedish frigate Josephine, and corvette Carlskrona. At
Cadiz—Her Majesty's ship Scout, Danish brig Mercurius,
Norwegian- corvette Nordstjernen. At Lisbon-French brig
-Jan 29 -English transport, Cygne. • General Palmer, bound
to Ascension with troops, put into Lisbon on the 13th ult. for
repairs, having sprung a leak in a gale of wind. There are
twentv-three packages on board, and a fair average cargo of
merchandise.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

(THIS EVENING.)

HOUSE OF COMMONS.
The SPEAKER took the Chair shortly before Four
o'clock.

CALEDONIAN RAILWAY.
Mr. H. JOIINSTONE presented a petition in
favour of the Caledonian Railway Bill.
PONTEFRACT AND GOOLE RAILWAY.
_ Lord POLLINGTON presented a petition in
favour of the Pontefract and Goole Railway Bill.
A great number of petitions for new railway Bills
were presented, but the petitions were read so indis-
tinctly that the designation of not one of them could
be correctly ascertained in the gallery.
SLAVERY.
Mr. SPOONER presented a petition from the
Anti Slavery Society, signed by the chairman, against
the importation of Coolies into the West Indies, an
expedient which had been tried in the Mauritius, and
altogether failed there. The Hon. Gentleman pre-
sented another petition from the same Association
against the employment of an armed force on the
coast of Africa to suppress the slave trade—an object
which, in the opinion of the petitioners, could not be
effected by means of war.
PUBLIC-HOUSES.
Mr. BRIGHT presented a petition from Durham
against the extension of public-houses, and for the
restriction of the sale of intoxicating liquors on Sa-
y , turdy.
THE BLEACHING TRADE.
NALLACE presented a petition from the
bleachers of Lanark, Renfrew, and Stirling,
g of the oppressive nature of their occupa-
' 4-'7'4140. 113 we understood, praying for legislative re-
--2'N •
•

LI.