The Sun.
London, England, 1827-10-06 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Our readers will see by an extract from the
,Piedmontese Gazette, slated Rome the 20th
salt., that an important treaty for the settlement
of ecclesiastical interests in Belgium, has been
concluded between his Holiness the Pope, and
his Majesty the King of the Netherlands. The
conditions of this Concordat are in few words—
That when an Archbishopric or Bishopric be-
comes vacant, the power of electing a new
prelate shall vest in the chapter, and that of con-
.. firming the election in the Pope. It is further
agreed, that candidates for the sacerdotal office
in the Catholic Church shall not for the future
be .compellet to frequent the schools 9,f the
Philosophical College; but shall, in respect of
the course of their education, conform to the
orders of the prelacy. In this last provision,
though for some time contested by the King of
the Netherlands, there appears to us to be no-
. thing inconsistent with the political interests of
a free state, unless the establishment of a Catho-
lic Hierarchy itself ought to be so considered.
If Popish priests are to be permitted atid sup-
ported, it is better that they should be prepared
by their education to discharge unexceptionably
the professional duties imposed upon them, than
that they should be educated so as, in the sequel,
to despise or neglect those duties, If the Ca-
tholic Hierarchy is- to be abolished, well and
good—let no man receive an education bad
enough to qualify him for its functions ; but if
such a church is still to he tolerated, it must be
suffered to stand upon its own principleson
the authority of Popes and Councils, not on rea-
son. To apprentice a young priest in a "school
of philosophy," is to teach him a different busi-
ness from that by which he must earn his bread.
It will of necessity render him a hypocrite or an
outcast. Better let him obey the orders of his"
diocesan, and learn to be an honest bigot. With
regard to what is described as the 3d article of the
Concordat, viz. that which assigns to the Pope and
Chapter their respective rights in the choice and
appointment of Bishops,—there seems to be no-
thing contended for on either side but what is
within the natural relations of the Head of the
Church and its inferior functionaries. The
Pope is, indeed, allowed the privilege of rejecting
the first choice of the Belgic Chapters, And send-
ing them to a new election ; but, besides that
his objections must be strictly on canonical
grounds, it is perfectly well known in practice
that such a power can.be only nominal, and has,
in the several States of Europe, been for centu-
ries more a form than a substantial veto upon
the choice of the native authorities. It is at the
same time worth remarking, that the Protestant
King of the Netherlands, though with sufficient
inducements to suspect a large proportion of his
Catholic Flemish subjects of partialities to a
powerful foreign State, has not felt it at all de-
sirable to interpose his own Royal and tempo-
ral prerogative in the appointment of the Belgic
Bishops. There has been no stumbling-block
placed on this occasion before the parties in the'
nature of a Royal veto; and we believe it might
be taken for granted, that if Romish Prelates
had no popular grievances, no reasonable discon- '
tents, or inflammatory topics to work upon in
the minds of their laity, it would matter very
little with whom the creation of such mitred Po-
tentates was to rest. Nothing is more striking
in this solemn document than the unambiguous
and emphatic esteem and deference with which
the Holy Father expresses himself towards the
person of " King William I." There is nothing
in any of the phrases employed by his Holiness,
when speaking of his Belgic Majesty, from which
it would be possible to infer that he was looked
upon at Rome as a heretic and enemy of the
church, to be persecuted or anathematized, or
stripped by a bull of the honour and, allegiance
of his people. Had King William been the
most obedient of the feudatories of St. Peter, he
could not have been describsd_by the Holy See
in more affectionate and benignant terms—a
proof, for those who want it (though we do not),
that a practical and effectual, as well as formal
revolution, has been wrought in the very central
point of immobility—the sanctuary of the Vati-
can itself, and wrought upon it insensibly by the
general progress of man rind, as remote in time
present character with which it has inspired the
whole frame of Popery, from the spirit which
it breathed even a century ago, as are the laws of
modern war from those which governed the Ro-
man legions, or the morals of Christian society
from the licensed corruptions and savage cruel-
ties of Olympus. This Concordat, we sincerely
trust, will become the instrument of peace and
confidence between the King of the Netherlands
and his ecclesiastical subjects : elsewhere, like-
wise, we should rejoice to think that if its details
could not serve absolutely for a model in prin-
ciple and temper, it might be looked to as a sa-
lutary guide.—Times.
The subjoined reioliition has been transmitted
to us by post, as the act of a worshipful posse
of Yorkshire Justices, who met in Quarter Ses-
sions at Beverley, on the 9th of last July. if
our informant speak the truth (and for that we
must let the ensuing six days determine), the re-
solve of these grave personages is in danger of
being confirmed so very speedily, that we publish
it as a warning to the whole of Yorkshire, in the
hope that some power may yet be found within
the precincts of that great county, not wholly in-
Flipable of averting so dismal a consummation.
Weare aware that the terms of the " order" (if,
as we have already hinted, it be a,genuine order
for which our Beverley correspondent must be 1.
answerable) give no further notice than that the
resolution will be " considered." Now, with a
certain class of versonages, every body knows,
that to " consider a foolish or mischievous pro-
position is a preliminary to its irretrievable adop-
tion. And this seems more especially the case,
when time projected plan is one which extends
the authority of the parties about to " consider"
it, and flatters their insolence or conceit. The
Quarter Sessions of I3ceerley, must, of course;
exhibit a fuller attendance of those Justices who
dwell in the immediate neighbourhOed of the
town) than of the mote distant Magistrates of the
Riding. A resolution, therefore, which confines
to a majority of a Meeting where the majority is
constituted by Beverley men; the choice of Ma'
gistrates for the whole East Riding of York
shire, is one which invests this knot of indivi
duals with a most odious patronage, and with
monopoly of magisterial influence the most
alarming. If the 'country gentlemen of the
Riding in general, choose to submit themselv4
to an abuse of power so vexatious in its opera
hon upon themselves, we have no concern bu
with 'the precedent, which every subject of th
realm ought to protest against, or it may end ia
the establishment of a licensing' system for Ju4
flees of the Peace, not a whit more defensible i
argument, and ten times less to be endured i
practice, than that which inflicts upon the cornr
munity the trash called porter,
might
pain of havins
no malt liquor at all; for thi
s be to rendei
justice itself a system of
combination, monopyl?,

and favouritism, like that of the bad poiter
served out to the lieges by'the annual votes of it
" majority of licensing Magistrates," or to visit
the people at large with the alternative of having
no unpaid Magistrates to appeal to ; yea, to
strip the country gentlemen themselves of the
means whereby they •are now enabled to take
summary vengeance on a poacher. We repeat,
that ere the 9th inst., some efforts must be made
throughout the East Riding to defeat this un'-
couth enterprise of their Beverley wor-
ships, or the thing may be too late ; but at the
same time we conclude as we set out, with the
proviso that this case has been fairly represented
to us.