The Sun.
London, England, 1818-11-14 00:00:00

PROVINCIAL JOURNALS.

Aq tie advocates for POPERY are I kely again to
hring forward the gnestion of what they stile
CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION, meaning nothing
t',ereby but the possession of POLITICAL Powgß,
in urger to enable them, if possible, to snbvert

the PROTESTANT RELIGION, we have extracted
the following judicious remarks from a respect-
able Dublin Paper, heartily concurring in the
bole scope of its reasoning.

(Front The Hibernian Chronicle)
C,ITHOLIC EMANICIPAtIOI4.—Upon this qoes-
tiiiii we have always taken a decidedly active, but
impartial part—and although we differ in the con-
clusions which many draw as to its completioo
being the ground-work of conciliatiog the opi-
nions and prejudices of Irishmen, still- we have
endeavoured to strew that in discuSsing its merits'
we have at all times laid aside local prejudices and
all angry feelings. We wish we could say as
much for those who have written for the Boman
'Catholic Press, and spoken for the Roman Catho-
lic Cause, We wish we could believe, that
yielding demands of the Catholics wool]
protect us from their ascendancy in Church and
State, and we should be the first to give in on the
occasion. But with the remembrance of past oc-
currences before our eyes, we must not, we dare
not, nay we C;10110t, bOtidivillk our eyes from the
light of truth, or our senses from the influence of
experieoce. Suppose, for instance, that the goes-
tiou were decided to-morrow, have we nor.aei-
dance before us of what is to follow ? The Catho-
lic Nobility and Gentry would no longer have the
slightest itatence, unless it were intended that
the' Ascendancy of the Church was to he invaded
by the admission of Popish Bishops into the House
of Lords, and Popish Agitators into the 1-louse
of Commons, and this we cannot for a moment
suppose can ever he allowed. If the definition of
Catholic Emancipation, by Mr. Colontbattos
O'Connor, the Catholic Bishop's Brother, be
correct, and which he has published-, it means the
restoration of the Roman Catholic Religion as the
E4tablislied one of the Country ! This would be
an awful event ! Now, in support of our position,
that the Roman Catholic Nobility and Gentry
would lose their influence by the question of
Emancipation being carried, we need quote no
better authority on the occasion than the speech
of 111 r. Bernard Coyle, one of the most eminent
Catholic Leaders at the Board, and in which lie
publicly denounced my Lord Fingal! as a traitor
to his cause, because he proposed Thanks to the
Doke of kVeilington, at a Public Meeting in the
County Meath ! But this is not all for we
have declaration of Mr. O'Connell before
us, at an Aggregate Meeting, at which Sir James
Riddall presided, to this purport—that he
would compromise, on the part of the Catho-
lics, for a re-enactment of the whole rod
code by a Repeal of the Union ! We have also
a proposition in the Board to invite a Foreign
Power to interfere in the claims of the Catholics
of Ireland ; and above all, lye, have an Address
• calc-ilaied to off-end a Royal Personage, and upon
it subject too delicate even to mention. Are we
nor, Len, to expect that passing the Question
%void(' read to augment the fears and jealousies of
our coutorymen, in place of allaying them ? In
the fits: place, nine-tenths of the Protestants of
Ire-haul are averse to the measure ; and in the next
• place, wr,itaiint; the question of the-Repeal of the
Union would he morelikelv to throw the coon-
' try into confu,ioothan !wenty quest:ous of ElliAtt-
cipat ion would do ; for we cannot disguise
• the tact, however ill-founded the premises may
he, that a Repeal of the Union would be a much,
• mote popular subjrct of discussion than Catholic
Emancipation, and therefore it is the more to he
dreaded. 'Can we think, either, that the smother-
ed sentiments of violent Demagogues
_will perish
by being defeated ? No, we should rather expect
tint explosion to be greater by longer confinement,
and that all those angry feelings would burst
forth upon us the instant that restraint was

removed.
Such are our reasons for considering the ques-
tion as one more likely to promote the discon-
tents of Irishmen than to conciliate them.—We
ts;:r not with.any man for his religion ; we should
not he Protestants, were we to do so, and we wisl4
as well to Catholics, individually, as we do
to Protestants. But arc we to shut out from
our recollection such facts as we have stated, and
are we not to dread a recurrence of consequences
similar to those we have know() ? Let the Cacho-
licS:give us, therefore, security, and we shall not
fear Emancipation. In England, for instance,
where people have learned to think and to act
upon the noble principles of the British Consti-
tution, we hear little-or nothing of Emancipation,
although in Englaod a Catholic cannot vote at an
Election for a Member of Parliament, whereas in
Ireland be can no:: only vote for one, but is dis-
satisfied that he cannot be in Parliament him-
self ! In the common - interchanges of property
between man and man, security is requisite ; and
yet in a question in which the existence of the
Constitution is involved, all security is refused
by the applicants. Will any man say this is
reasonable,. and can any rational Catholic refuse
to join wit-it us in the foregoing opinions ? There
is, Flowerier, in this country a very erroneous opi-
nioo preValent that all those who oppose Catholic
EmaneiPat ion offend the Catholic Religion : and a
pusillanimous Lord Mayor, aware of this, refused to
give a toast which every enlightened Catholic as
wellaS Protestant cottld not refuse to drink. Why
alt this is the extrenie of folly—for surely politics
and_ religion are very different things, and, be-
sides, too, this over-weening delicacy Would look
as if the country was essentially Catholic, where-
as three-fourths of the landed property of Ireland
is in the hands of Protestants—and it has been
:roved, that its physical strength of Protestants
been at all times triumphant. Who is there,
fore, who talks of conciliating Catholics
to the total exclusion of those who saved
,ountrv, that must-not prove labouring under
eficieney.of foresight ? and who will deny,
evidence of the great Catholic Star, Mr.
f.loit were Emancipation to pass to-
lie. very next question for agitation
,t Repeal of the Union ? Need we then

~'~. ,:

say to what a pliglit would total Emancipation
bring us ! Catholics in Parliantent, though few
in number, kvould naturally look to a ParliAtnent
in their country. The dic' (ince cast, the
throw could not he so easily revoked, hot the
chance should follow. But from such a chance
1113 y we be protected.