The Sun.
London, England, 1829-02-02 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE LONDON JOURNALS.

(FROM THE TIMES.)
Often as we have had occasion to impress it on
our readers, that the best security against any dan-
gerous increase of power in the Catholic Church of
this kingdom would be an extension of constitu-
tional privileges to the Catholic laity, we cannot shut
our eyes to the fact that there is little prospect of
carrying emancipation through Parliament without
some legislative provision, in the nature of more for-
mal and distinct securities. The several species
which have passed in review before the public, arid
been alluded to by this amongst other journals, may
be comprised in two divisions.
Ist. Such as will give the Crown or Parliament an
effectual restraint by law over the Catholic priesthood ; and,
241. Such as will effectually restrain the Catholic Ipyman
from exercising, through his legislative privileges any power
of the Protestant church - _

The first class of se .urities, or of professed secu-
rities, are looked for -ia-veto" of some kind upon
the election of Catholi Bishops by the Irish clergy,
or on the confirmation of their choice by the Pope.
And to such a control' lg prerogative in the supreme
Government, over me who, whatever may be their
spiritual character, do :et possess, if not, all the
power ascribed to them, much real influence over
the actions of a large body of the King's subjects,
we should not in our own judgment have antici-
pated any serious objection. In this particular
we have been deceived. Although many en-
lightened and temperate Catholics have declared
themselves favourably towards enactments which
recognize the principle of a restraining autho-
rity in the King's Government over the appoint-
ment of Catholic Bishops, that body appears to have
entertained such dread of any interference with its
church government by a Protestant state, and so con-
siderable a proportion of the laity have concurred with
the priesthood in deprecating that interposition under
any form, that it has naturally become an object of
anxiety with the friends of emancipation, to devise
same expedient of a different description, though of
equal force, as a measure of satisfaction to the Pro-
testants, and at the same time not offensive to the
conscientious jealousy of our Catholic fellow-sub-
jects, for the maintenance of their religious freedom.
The least objectionable of these plans which the
necessity of the case has put the friends of emanci-
pation upon suggesting, and which come within the
second head of securities—viz. such as do not give
a power of interference to Protestants, but such as
deprive Catholics of it—appears to be that of Mr.
Wilmot Horton, which has more than once drawn
expressions of approbation from this paper. In re-
verting to the project of the Right Hon. Gentleman,
we now present it under a novel aspect, as forming
the matter of a highly interesting correspondence
with Dr. Baines, a Catholic ecclesiastic of consider-
able station, and in the confidence of the Roman
See. The correspondence is introduced by the
Right Hon. Gentleman in a well-written preface,
sad shows the feasibility of accommodating the
measure of qualified emancipation to the feelings of
the Catholics, if only their religious freedom be
respected.
(FROM THE MORNING HERALD.)
It is to be hoped that Burke will not be the only
example of retributive justice arising out of the de-
tection of the system of wholesale murder in Scot-
land. The lowest calculation admits that, within
the short period of one year, 17 human beings were
slaughtered by Burke and his associates, for the sun•
gical shambles, just as calves or pigs are killed for
the market. This calculation is believed to be consi-
derably under-rated, and it is suspected the public
are far from knowing the full extent of these hor-
rible transactions. But, taking the destruction of
human life at the lowest estimate, it must be ad-
mitted that the conviction of one of the gang of
Sends concerned in this infernal traffic, is but a poor
atonement to the laws and to society. That Burke
was a monster, in whom the human form was united
with a ferocity worse than that of a wild beast, can-
not be denied; but, unfortunately for the character
of human nature, he did not stand alone. Though
his sanguinary depravity was so fierce and reckless,
yet there was an organised system in his operations,
and those of his associates, which showed that
" science" had, somehow or other, mixed itself up
with the most dreadful criminality that ever dis-
graced the name of man. It is not to be credited
that the ignorant ruffians who were the instruments
of this system could have murdered their victims so
scientifically as to deceive, in every instance, the
eyes of experienced surgeons and anatomists, and so
perfectly to convince them the bodies which they
brought fresh from the scene of recent slaughter had
died a natural death, that they should go on inno-
cently encouraging the dreadful traffic by affording
the highest " market price" for the " commodity, '
without thinking it necessary to ask questions. If,
indeed, they were sodeceived, they must be less intel-
igent in the "art of healing" than the wretches they
patronised were in the "art of killing." It is impos-
sible to say how long this novel mode of supplying the
Scotch surgeons with the human subject might nave
gone on, unless an accident, or rather Providence
over-ruling guilt by apparent chance, had brought
the foul deeds to light. At all events, society ex-
pects, and justice demands, that all persons who have
had any counectior, with those transactions would
undergo such a juu,cial investigation as will si.tisfy
the feelings of the country.
(FROM THE MORNING CHRONICLE.)
Some of our contemporaries would have us be-
lieve that France, wh,ch may be called the very ideal
of the mercantile system, is flourishing under it in a
most wonderful mann :
" In 1826 (says the -'forming Journal) the measures o'

ilk Trade came in