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

LITERATURE.
AIV,
.THE OPPOIVEnS_OF 71[1.0
• MA.I7.IYQOTFI ,WRANt. By ne# 11/4":-
- • nal; El.- • •-••-- -
This gentleman publishednumerOfisletters in a Morn-
ing Journal some years since, relative to the Govern-
ment oflrelandi and was strongly opplsed, if we re-
member correctly, to measures proposed by the
Whigs, and generally approved of by the Liberals in
both countries as remedies for Irish grievances. This
pamphlet, however, exhibits a different spirit. Its
object is to remove misapprehensions respecting the
Catholic faith, to encourage peace and Christian
charity among all classes, and to promote a measure
which he believes to he beneficial to his country and
to the United Kingdom generally. These are strong
proofs ofrepentance, and, therefore, looking at this
ephemeral production in that light, we are induced to
call the attention of our readers to the subjoined ex-
tract<. -In reference to the charge made by some
parties that the scheme is a " Popish plot," directed
against British greatness and British glory, he
says

"Thera is something most unseemly in all this. No
man .denies that the Catholics o: Ireland were subjected
to grievous impoverishment by British rulers, for Bri-
tish purposes. Yet, now, when this comparatively, small
proffer of liberality is made to them, an outcry is raised
by those who pr- end to xceed all others iu liberality,
and thousands Of petitions are concocted, in the hope of
paralysing the hand by which the offering is tendered !
Such are the notions, and such the practice of our self-
styled admirers of British greatness and British glory !
Let them beware. Resistance of this sort begets and
nourishes perilous reminiscences which should not ob-
tain any portion of public countenance or favour. They
may, nay must L
id Irish agitation, but they injure, in
the same proportion, British face and British strength."
And in another place, to show the utter hopeless-
ness of diminishing the number of Catholics by perse-
cution, he invites attention to facts :
"There was printed in London, in the year 1689, a
publication entitled—' A letter from Duke Schomburvh's
Camp, giving an account of all the Papists in Ireland,
their number and estates. &c., from the Camp at Dun-
dalk, November 4, 1689.' It will be found to contain
the fallowing statement:—' The whole of them (Papists),
men, women, and children, are but one million,—of
which 40 or 50,000 in arms. . . There are four
titular archbishops, 23 bishops, and 2328 parish priests.'
"From the time when that letter was published a sys-
tem of Anti-catholic legislation was pursued, which I
shall not distress myself or others by more specifically
detailing, than by assuring those opponents of the May-
nooth grant, that it fully accorded with their views, and
was expressly framed for their &elm ei purpose of pre-
nv in g
martilic e
thegrowth
cof s
a
l rPes°uPletrsYC:f thLe7rt ptohl'icsye. opp
onent
amounted,
Roman
ed,,men, Cwaotrnheolni,csan(difchlirledlraennd,,, wtohoo i
n,
enmilliGioBn9:
are returned by the Commissioners for taking the Irish
cetsTush,iiiri fart requires
qas si amountingresn o
illustration
but !
but I may, in reference to the present subject of May-
nooth, direct attention to the fact, that whereas the
Episcopal offices are now precisely the same in number
as they were in 1689, the number of parish priests, or
rather parochial clergy, for the 6,427,712 of Irish Ro-
man Catholics in Is4l, was 2239, being actually less, by
89, than the number of parochial clergy, for the one
million of Irish Roman Catholics in 1689, which we find
stated to have been 2328." _

With a view to refute the accusation which im-
putes to Roman Catholic pastors the desire and
habit to exclude from theircongregations the influence
of the Sacred Scriptures, he publishes a pastoral
charge of the Roman Catholic Prelates of Ireland,
addressed to their clergy and congregations in the
year 1824, in which the authority of the instruc-
tion given is made to rest chiefly upon these Divine
revelations, and introduces it with the following re-
marks :

" I entreat most particular attention to the lengthened
extract which I shall furnish, in the first instance, from
a grave and unquestionable record of that advice and
instruction, framed, adopted, and promulgated, some
years ago, by those Most Rev. and Right Rev. Prelates.
On reference to the signatures affixed thereto, I should
add, that the majority of those prelates were at the
time, or had been closely connected with the College
of Mayw)oth, either as trustee, superior, or student. I
feel assured that whenever the hurly burly of the pre-
sent organised Anti-Catholic agitatiln ceases to hold
possession of the mind, and restrain the exercise of
reason, I shall be secure of obtaining the admission that
such a document should be considered a better and
safer test of Roman Catholic instruction, than the im-
putations of avowed and actively hostile opp.ments."