The Sun.
London, England, 1827-03-06 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We insert a second letter, disavowing the charge of
enmity towards the Constitution, on the part of certain
Rev. Gentlemen, and others at Lisbon, and modestly
attempting to recriminate on The 77 mes, for being swayed
by a wish "to calumniate their religion, and injure
their country," &c. &c. Whether this purnal, or the
volunteer emigrants from Ireland to Lisbon, will have
proved themselves in the long run the most upright
and useful friends to the Irish interests generally, and
in particular to those of the Irish Catholics, we shall
not now raise a question. But for this especial nega-
tive upon our former statement, which went to accuse a
number of Irish Friars settled in Portugal, with inveterate
hostility to the free Constitution of that kingdom, we do not hesi-
tate to repeat that it is a fact notorious—and besides its notoriety,
one of which proof the most direct and unanswerable exists in the
hands of the Portuguese Government—we believe we may add of
the British Government also—that not merely all the Lisbon con-
vents, but all the convents in Portugal except one, did contribute
SUM of money for the support of Chaves and hir armed bands of
rebels. Our Lisbon letter give few or no facts, but lean to the
opinion that the rebel cause is rapidly deelining,—a belief, in
which we need not say what happiness it would afford us to con-
cur.— Times.

" We, the undersigned Irish Roman Catholics of Lisbon,
having seen an article in The Times newspaper of the 2d inst.,
denouncing us as the most furious enemies of freedom—as ca_
bailers' against the existing government,--abettors of arbitrary
power, and as ' moving Heaven and earth' to prevent the Portu-
guese people from enjoying the gift' of liberty,—deem it due to
ourselves and to our country utterly and indignantly to deny the
truth of that statement, which we solemnly affirm to be a foul,
false, and malignant slander, totally destitute of foundation.
" Mingled with other British subjects in a foreign land, there
is nothing in our political principles or conduct to call for a dis-
tinction, and the animadversions of 77te Times, apparently for
the purpose of stigmatizing us, calumniating our religion, and in-
juring our country, we conceive to be uncandid, unwarrantable,
invidious, and unjust.
" We likewise further declare, that, yielding to no class of
persons in ardent attachment to civil and religious liberty, we
would willingly extend to others the blessings we prize highly our-
selves ; and we do fervently hope, that the free institutions TeR oreal
to this country by a beneficent Monarch, may prove permanent in
duration, and productive of those advantages which well-regulated
freedom 11,1 been ever found to produce."
Lisbon, 20th February, 1827.

The discussion of the Catholic question, MR our rea''•ere
will see from our Parliamentary Report, is adjourned
over to this day. The fliti'lllllll,Clit tick place at or
earlier hour than usual, am' stoel,! -!.e House proceed
at the -same rate to-night, a tr. usual speak-
eprsebottitte thisinti s
tqueexstteioni(ti
probable, that the 'evvileinnotot la'altlirit'leenclay}.learßd'uto,ritthieg
much longer debriait‘eisithnatsiviltlhta.atkeofPilleset ttoli-gligt.,lte'oanfct-eera -
nience dictating the reserving the .severestAiseuesion for
the second day, on account of the rest which may then
be taken. 'Die heads of the opponents of the Cathotee
Claims seem very oddly constructed. TILT affect libe-
rality, dread Catholicism as a slavish religion—a religion
hostile to good government. We have always understood,
that Government was for the benefit of the people, and
that the Government, under which the great body of the
people were in a state of misery and discontent for genes
rations must necessarily be bad, as failing to effect the nb.-
ject for which Government is instituted, Now, aceorde
ing to Mr. Dawson, the Church and State GOvernment of
Ireland, so far,from promoting the peace and prosperity of
the country, is the cause of all the disorder and discontent
prevalent in the country. " The overthrow of the Pro-
testant I eligion (he says) was the great object aimed at
by the Catholics, and from generation to generation they
had been supplied with arguments for the overthrow of
the glorious Established Church, by the harangues of Ca-
tholic demagogues. For this object the priests had been
always struggling. What had been the cause of the deso-
lating wars which had so longoverspread Ireland ? Catholic
hostility to the established Protestant Church." But if
Catholic hostility to the established Protestant Church be
the cause of the desolating wars which had so long over-
spread Ireland, the established Protestant Church is, on the
other hand, the cause of the Catholic hostility. Nov the Pro-
testant Church may be a glorious Church; the Protestant
establishment may be a glorious Protestant Establishment, for the
Protestants to whom it gives an ascendancy ; but if that Esta-
blishment, and the ascendancy which it involves, provoke the
hostility of the Catholics, and cause desolating wars and disor-
ders, this only proves that the glorious establishment which is so
irreconcileable with the peace of the country, is condemned on
every just principle of Government. ' Human nature is- the same
its every country, and if Irish Catholics differ.from-the Catholics
elsewhere, we must place the difference to the Government and
laws under which they live, and not to their religion. Now, out
of the two hundred millions of people in Europe, there are not
above thirty millions of Protestants,—with the exception of the
members of the Greek and Mahometan Churches, and the Jews,
all the rest are Catholics. Yet we find the most of the Catholic
nations peaceable and orderly enough, and sufficiently disposed to
live on friendly terms with their Protestant neighbours. Of the
people speaking the German language, little more than one-third
are Protestant, yet the Catholics do not -oppress the Protestants
on account of religion, neither do the Protestants oppress the Ca-
tholics. If an impartial person were to compare the Netherlands
or the north of Italy with England, we fear that he would not
give to the population of the latter the palm of superiority
for correct conduct, industry, and good feeling. If, then,
the Catholics elsewhere are not disorderly, and if they
live on good terms with their Protestant' neighbours, while
.in Ireland they are inflamed with animosity against the
Church, that alone is almost a proof that the peculiarities of the
Irish Protestant Church are the great cause of the difference be-
tween Irish and Continental Catholics, and, consequently, one
great cause of the misery of Ireland. Accordingly we find, that
in all the countries in which the Catholics and Protestants live
harmoniously together, there is no ascendancy—the law interferes
to protect each, and not to enable one church to oppress the other.
The Irish Protestant Establishment, says Mr. Dawson, is a glori-
ous Establishment. Mr: Dawson is a Protestant, and it is glori-
ous for him ; and with a selfishness too common in the world, he
thinks every thing ought to give way to himself and his likings.
If Juggernaut were established in Ireland, and church lands and
tithes secured to its worshippers, they would. also say it was a
glorious establishment which enabled them 'to live -so splendidly,
and to trample on the great majority of the people. But the liberty
for which Mr. Dawson and his associates contend, is the liberty
of the Popish Lord and the Virginian Planter, He did not die-
guise ,
• for their own (the
landlords') benefit. The Irish tenants, it ought to he recol-
possessions
the matottetrh.e
t‘e‘nTanhtes linrisahglarenadtlomnrisas(,lizsays) had given their
make them freeholds, and the tenants were .in some mea-
sure, henotleases
lsikewetrlete
coEnnfgerlirsedh teinnan:use. h Aa grmaeantaerpoaratiotno
o
recol-
lected,
Cr
et eth,d:'for w a
certain season, considered as trustees for the
landlords." This is the Irish landlord's reading of the British
Constitution—that Constitution which is the envy; of surround-
ing nations and the admiration of the •world. The freeholders,
trustees of the landlords for a certain season! The landlords are
every thing—Government, Constitution, Church-=-the People
nothing ! This is one of the most 'barefaced aiowala ever made.
The freeholder is to be a mere pipe for the landlord to blow.
The moment he has a will of his own, he is an invader of the
property of the landlord, to whom his actions belong as much as
his ox or his ass. Impudent Aristocrats ! To hold such a lan-
guage before that Europe which they are every day stunning with
their hymns in praise of British freedom ! Would it not be better
to spare the torture of the poor wretches, to give the landlord at
once a number of votes in Ms own person, corresponding to the
number of his acres ; or if he must make. &show of dominion over
animals, to allow to drive his cows to the basting!, and count a vote
for each cow? With this contempt for thepeople, their feelings, their
religion—this assumption that whatever the .ruling. castling, set
their hearts on is super-excellent, and:ought to be placed beyond
challenge, how is it possible that the country should. be anything
but a scene of desolation? Can any country be possibly tranquil
in which the opinion of the great body of the people passes for
nothing ? Would the Scotch have been tranquil if their religion
had been trodden under foot like that of the Irish Catholics, and
the Church of England, ,of which they kicked out the Clergy at
the Revolution, been permanently fastened on :them ? If the
Scotch had not succeeded iu doing themselves justice, that tur-
bulence which distracted Scotland so long would have grown with
the growth of the people; and we should have.had .the. Dawson
and other profiters by the glorious Establishment, attributing. all the
mischief to the hostility of the Presbyterians to the Established
Church ? The finest part of all this is the complaint of the Pro-
testants that they are oppressed. Their meaningno doubt, is that
the Catholics occasionally wince under the oppression to which

they are constantly subject. A Protestant, according to the ear. t•
process of reasoning, by which lie finds out that a Church
400,000 out of seven or eight millions, is a glorious establis:
ment, conceives that he has a perfectly good right to drive
ti
Catholics about, and to oppress them in every possible wa'
When he cannot oppress them freely, he complains tb
he is himself oppressed. The question for Englishmen no•.^
is, not whether the Catholic or the Protestant religion be tl
beat, but which is the best way of treating the Irish, ~f
which the great majority are and will be Catholics. To tht-
transcendant talents, who say we can make the Catboli
Protestants, we have nothing to say. But to those wi, ,
believe the Irish will remain Catholics to the end of the chapter•,
we would say, will they be better fellow-subjects if treated ill thl:n
if treated well? If we cannot make them Protestants, let th.
make them good Catholics. As to political power, God help e 1,2
poor man whose brain is filled with any alarm on that score. Ii
they become the great majority of both nations, their politic:3
power might enable them to succeed in the objects imputed to
them ; but Emancipation will not add to their numbers ; and
if they have numbers without Emancipation they will neces-
sarily have power also in time.—Morning Chronicle.

A strange perversity sometimes manifests itself in the
affairs of this world. The last intelligence from Lisbon
seems to prove, that the Portuguese Government has been
criminally lax in the exercise of that power, which it
ought to have employed more vigorously, in giving effect
to the friendly co-operation of England. If the Mini-
sters of the Princess Regent had erred from ignorance—
if they were unconscious of the dangers that beset them—
if they had miscalculated the extent of those dangers—or
if they knew not how to cope with them—we might have
pitied the fate of a country so misgoverned, but we could
not have arraigned the motives of the Executive. The
case, however, was not so. They were admonished—
they were forewarned—they were instructed—and they
disregarded the wise one, who raised his prophetic voice from the
sacred recesses of Blackfriars. " Months ago," says the Times
of yesterday, "We called upon the Portuguese constituted au-
thorities to confiscate, by law, the estates of these incorrigible
rebels, and to set, by proclamation, a price upon their heads. If
no steps of this kind be adopted, it is plain that the Government
chooses to be a party with the rebels." Months ago, the oracle
from the banks of the Thames caused to be heard on the shores
of the Tagus, the counsel, in which was conveyed the salvation of
Portugal ! But they were deaf and they heard not : they were
blind, and they saw nat. " Months ago we called upon the
Portuguese constituted authorities" Good God! what a page
will that be in the history.of this ill-fated country, where it shall
he recorded, that the Times, somewhere about Christmas Tues •
day, in 1826, not only predicted, but supplied the remedy, for
cilaMities which were matured by Shrove Tuesday it► 1527 !
.2Vc.ta Times.

FOREIGN EXCHANGES ON LONDON.
AMSTERDAM, MARCH 2.-12t—Two Months, Ilf. 95. to 92,A;
HAMEURGII, Fits. 814.—Two Months, 36. *j.
LETPSIC, FEB. A—Three Months, 6. 174.
Bp:ar.r.v, Frs. ?A.—Three Months, 6. 28%.
17(sxnA., Fss. ll.—Three Months 9. 58.
Prrsissesnm, FEB. 17.—Three Months, 16.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE TO-MORROW.
Morning 43 minutes after S. I Evening ....... 15 minutes after P,

Zin ,s)snu

LONDON,
TUESDAY EVENING, MARCH 6, 1827.

We received last night the Paris Papers of Saturday,
with the Etoik date:: Sunday morning. The latter does
not contain a syllable of importance. The Constitutionnel
of Saturday mentions, under the head of Madrid News of
19th Feb. that orders have been given for l 20,000 Royalist
Volunteers to be put into a state of readiness for active
military duty; and the Journal des Debats also asserts, on
the authority of accounts from Madrid of the same date,
that the warlike preparations still continue, the Ministers
of Finance and War working day and night, the one to
procure money, and the other to direct the armament and
movement of troops. The Quotidienne, on the other
hand, has changed its tone, asserting that there will be no
war, but it draws this conclusion from its own assertion,
" that the attitude of FERDINAND has struck the other
Cabinets of Europe ;" and from the report "that the
house of ROTHSCHILD is about to establish a firm at Lis-
bon." If these are the only grounds on which an opinion
can be formed that War will not take place, we think that
the preserVation of Peace between Spain and Portugal
rests on a very insecure foundation, when we daily receive
fresh accounts of tue military preparations of Spain, and
of the repeated instances which she permits of a violation
of neutrality by the conduct of her authorities on the fron-
tiers towards the Portuguese Rebels. A declaration, how-
ever, by the Court of Madrid is said to be daily expected,
which will leave"no doubt respecting the equivocal situa-
tion of that Cabinet.

The Journal du Commerce says, that it is very seriously
proposed henceforth to pay the interest of GUEBIIARD'S
Loan only at Madrid, and that it is hoped that this mea-
sure will accelerate the conversion of this Loan into a per-

petual annuity.
Letters from Rome mention that the Irish pupils, under
the direction of their Rector, MICHAEL BLAKE, Vicar-
General of Dublin, tool- possession, on the Bth February,
of the College of Ecclesiastical Studies, which has been
granted to them by them. by the POPE.
We subjoin the price of the French Funds on Saturday

evening
STOCK EXCHANGE, SATURDAY EVENING, MARCH 3.
—Five per Cents. 101 f. 55c. 50c. 35c. 50c. 55c. 50c. ; Three
per Cants., 69f. 30c. 20c. 15c. ; Bank Stock, 1,937 f. 50c.;
Rentes de Naples, 751. 45c. 40c. SOc. 25c. 20e. ; Bente§
d'Espagne, 11. ; Royal Spanish Loan, 53 ; Rente perp.
d'Espagne, ; Haytian Loan, 630 f. 6251.—Exchange on
London, one month, paper 25f. 30c., money 25f. 30e. ; three
month, paper 25f. 15c., money 25f. 15e.

All the accounts which continue to reach us from Por
tugal agree in describing the state of affairs in that country
as most unfavourable. The intelligence from Elvas and
the Frontiers of the Kingdom, describe the preparations on
the part of Spain as decisive of her intentions against Por-
tugal, while the state of Lisbon itself skews that the exist-
ing Constitution is by no means universally popular : and
that a signal only is wanting for an attempt to over-
throw it. This signal will be the manifesto, which is
talked of as likely to be issued by FERDINAND, or some
other distinct act, which will ensure to the friends
of the old order of things in Portugal, the entire support
of their Spanish neighbours. That no great length of time
will elapse before Spain will thus throw off the mask ap-
pears to us to be certain. The great military preparations
which she is nicking i❑ all parts of the kingdom, the state
of defence in which she has placed all her frontier forts,
and the continued increase of her forces in their neighbour-
hood, coupled with her conduct towards the Portuguese
Refugees, can imply no other intention. If our infor-
mation and our reasoning upon it should prove cor-
rect, it will become matter for most serious consideration
how this country is to act. If, indeed, the majority
of the Portuguese Nation are in favour of the old form of
Government, we presume our treaties do not bind us to
support that Constitution which has been lately establish-
ed, and, in that case, if the overthrow of it is brought
about by the Portuguese Nation themselves, and it should
prove that the object of Spain is thereby accomplished,
and that she is willing to disarm her newly organised forces,
and to resume relations of amity with Portugal, then, in
that case, we say, we presume our forces will be with-
drawn from Portugal, and that Kingdom will be left to the
enjoyment of all those blessings of absolute Government and
Priestcraft, which the majority of the nation would than
seem anxious again to possess. But if, on the other hand,

it be ascertained that the real majority of the intelligent
classes in Portugal be in favour of liberal Institutions, and
that the machinations of the less numerous, but, perhaps,
most influential party, as including all the Priesthood, be
engendered, fostered, and called into action, Ly the secret
aid, and open demonstrations of Spain ; or that Spain
has other and sinister intentions on Portugal, for the pur-
pose of territorial aggrandizement, and that she is encou-
raged in either of these objects by France, of which we can
never divest ourselves of the suspicion,then, we say, it will be
necessary for us speedily to reinforce our army in Portu-
gal, and show at once that we will not permit either secret
interference or open aggression on the part of Spain.
This course we have steadily advocated, and we are con-
vinced that the necessity for its adoption (unless in the
case for the abandonment of Portugal, which we have
above hinted at) will shortly arise. As a matter of pre-
caution, we think it would have been a wise step to
increase our force, but for the defence of the integrity
of the territory of our Ally it will soon be a matter of
necessity.

The Marchioness of Salisbury packet has arrived with
a Jamaica Mail. She sailed from Jamaica, on the 26th
December, from Vera Cruz on the 22d January, and from
Havanna on 4th February.

A Baltimore Paper of the 3d of Feb. contains as fol-
lows :—lmportant rumour.—" There was a rumour in the
city yesterday, says the Philadelphia Palladium, that
orders had been received from Washington at our Navy
Yard, to launch and fit out immediately the national ves-
sels now in that place; and it is said similar orders were
transmitted to other Navy Yards. We know not the
origin of the rumour, nor whether any dependance is to be
placed on its"

Four Hamburgh and two Dutch Mails arrived this
morning. The Dutch Papers are to the 4th inst. and the
Hamburgh to the 27th February. Great apprehensions
were entertained along the Rhine on account of that river
and the Moselle being frozen over, and the danger likely
to result from the ice breaking loose during a thaw and
coming down with rapidity. The Prussian Government
had given orders for cannon to be placed along the banks,
in order to give notice to the stations below of the ap-
proach of the ice.
By accounts from St. Pctersburgh to the 15th February,
the Russian Government was adopting vigorous measures
for the prosecution of the war with Persia. Divisions of
troops were marching from the interior, and able officers
were ordered to join the army in Georgia.
Accoiding to accounts from Frankfort of 25th February,
the cold has been very severe in Southern Germany, and
most cf the rivers were frozen, some to the very bottom.

By the arrival of the Duke of Lancaster at Liverpool,
from Calcutta, we have received papers to the Ist of No-
vember, but they do not contain any news of particular
interest. We have been favoured, through a private chan-
nel, with the following information, up to the 9th of No-
vember :—" Earl AMHERST was well, and had reached
Allahabad. Indigo was selling at 320 rupees per Maum.
The troops had almost all left Rangoon, the last were
coming up the river on the Bth November. The Eliza,
MAINNE, arrived at St. Helena on the 14th January ; on
the 26th December, on the Bank of Lagullas, she spoke the
Bark, --, from Singapore and Penang, the 26th October,
which stated that there was a report that the Siamese and
Burmese at IVlirgui, Tavoy, and Martaban, had risen and
cut off the whole of the English forces there. On the 10th
December, the Eli;:a sent a boat on shore on the Eastern
Coast of Africa, for water, which was unfortunately up-
' set, and Captain Bergner, of the 60th Royal Bengal
N:ltive Infantry, was lost. He was an Officer of high
acknowledged merit, and his loss will be severely felt by
his brother Officers, by whom he was greatly beloved.
On the Line, the Duke of Lancaster spoke the hark
Prince Regent, from the Isle of France. The following
ships arrived in Bengal between the Ist October and Ist
November, 1826, from London and Europe :
OCT. 3.—Duke of Bedford, John Parsons, English. 8. Melpo-
inene, Johnston, ditto ; General Foy, De Allegra, French.
10. Susanne, C. Trelo, ditto. 17. Due de Bordeaux, Gellais,
ditto. 18. Rose, Honourable Company's ship, T. Marquis, Eng-
lish. 20. Asia, Honourable Company's ship, T. Balderston, ditto.
21. Malcolm, .1. Eyles, ditto ; Emma, C. Worth, ditto ; Sarah,
J. Miller, ditto. 22. Florentia, Honourable Company's ship, T.
W. Aldham, ditto ; Abberton, Honourable Company's ship, L.
Percival, ditto; Lady Raffles, Honourable. Company's ship, J.
Coxwell, ditto; Morley, G. Halliday, ditto. 25. Hope, T. Hill,
ditto. 27. Adesse, Des Landes, French ; Calcutta, C. H. Merien,
Swedish.
Nov. 9, Hercules, —.