The Sun.
London, England, 1829-03-23 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE LONDON JOURNALS.

(FROM THE TIMES.)
Almost every person whom we meet asks us—
" Is Sir Charles Wetherell still Attorney-General ?"
Our answer is uniformly—Whether he is or not,
he ought not to be so. When a functionary in a
high and confidential office not only declares a general
hostility to the Government, but accompanies that
declaration with insolent invective and all but per-
sonal outrage against some of the most important
:Members of that Government, his retention of his
office must be ascribed either to the fear or the con-
tempt which his conduct has inspired. Those who
have opportunities of observation know very well
that Sir Charles Wetherell is not a very formidable
person,—that he is a man who draws much more
frequently on the forbearance than on the respect or
admiration of his friends or colleagues. But though
this was perfectly well known to a considerable
number of persons, tho public generally knew no-
thing about it, and might have imagined that
the " honest" Attorney-General, who had de-
nounced his party with tones, and gestures, and
expressions unparalleled in Parliamentary recollec-
tion, was so important a personage that the Cabi-
net durst not dismiss him. We are quite sure that
the Government has been influenced by very differ-
ent motives : that if Sir Charles Wetherell has not
yet been dismissed, it is to be imputed to the deli-
cacy, and moderation, and good temper of the Mi-
nisters, who do not wish to visit the contemptible
folly of their servant with any precipitate harshness
of punishment. But we trust and believe, that now
that the Cabinet has shown its own temper and
forbearance by the slowness of its deliberation and
the reluctance of its decision, it will at length vin-
dicate its own character and importance by not al-
lowing itself to be bearded with impunity. If Sir
Charles Wetherell is not already dismissed, we feel
that Government will, with a proper sense of its
duty to itself awl the country, lose no time in ex-
pelling from its councils and confidence a wrong-
headed and impracticable man, who mistakes inso-
lence for independence, and who thinks it a matter
of conscience to obstruct those whom it is his duty

to obey.
The public heard with considerable emotion, in
the course of Saturday last, that a hostile meeting I
had taken place, about eight o'clock in the morning, ,
between his Grace the Duke of Wellington-and the
Earl of Winchilsea; but that, providentially, there
had been Rio personal harm suffered on either side.
In our humble opinion, if we may presume to form
one, the Duke of Wellington was the last man on
earth who could be called upon to defend himself
by duel against any attack upon his public charac-
ter. We must also add, that of all men existing,
Lord Winchilsea is precisely the one from whom
nobody need think of demanding satisfaction for
offences growing out of the Catholic question. Than
his Lordship, before he unfortunately ran mad upon
this subject, there was (and is still in private life)
Ito better kind of person : lie has always been harm-
less and free from guile,—indeed a thoroughly
honest well-meaning man ; but we think totally
unqualified to form a judgment for himself, or to
direct that of others, cn a political question which
required a good share of knowledge, a good share
of reasoning, and great freedom from prejudice,
to decide it safely. The Duke of Wellington,
however, having, under the influence of profes-
sional or fashionable habits, felt himself compelled
to notice formally the petulant outrage com-
mitted upon him by the publication of Lord
Whichilaea's letter to the Secretary of King's Col-
lege, has, by the manner of conducting les whole
correspondence, establiahed the highest claims to
general respect and admiration, for the inimitable
dignity, temper, and even kindness of his expo,tu-
latums with the man who had wantonly insulted
him. Te the very last, the veteran warrior appeared
anxious to leave or make opportunities for the Noble
Earl to reconsider, and retract, or soften, his furious
and unprovoked attack. Perhaps even the grossness
of that aggression, forming part, as it did, of a letter
deliberately written and published, may have
weighed with a Nobleman of high personal gallantry
like Lord Winchilsea, rather as an argument against
yielding to the Duke's demand, until the event of a
meeting might place him in a situation to defy every
misconstruction of Ida motives for doing justice to
his injured and reluctant adversary. We have heard,
what we hope is true, that, after the formal apology
agreed upon, the two Noblemen parted as became
brave and generous men, with expressions of mutual
courtesy and good will. It is a pity that their po-
litical differences should have given rise to any such
painful scenes, and we trust that if 0.0 other benefit
results from that which has just been happily termi-
nated, it may at least have a tendency to calm the
violence of partisans throughout the remainder of
these diseussions.
(FROM THE MORNING CHRONICLE.)
,Nothing was talked of yesterday but the duel be-
tween the Duke of Wellington and the Earl of Win-
chilsea. Of the letter of the Earl which led to this
affair there can be but one opinion ; but as his Lord-
ship has himself expressed his regret at having unad-
visedly published it, we shall say nothing on that
subject. With regard to the duel, Nye take it for
granted that, under the cireusnstances, it was una-
voidable. However much we might have regretted
another result than that which fortunately took
place, if a regard to his reputation demaorted from
his Grace that he should take the step, lie could only
alit as he did. No man could be a better judge of I
what the exigency required from him than himself,
to say nothing cf theiudgment of those by whose
advice he must have been aided. We have heard
his Grace blamed for exposing his life at a time 'when
so much depended on it ; and the case has been put,
would he, when the safety of an army depended
on his life, have deemed himself justified in hazard-
ing it We believe the case is not in point.—
A General, so long as he is at the head of an army,
is specially charged with its safety. But whatever
may be thought by others of the importance of the
life of any man in awe, lie is not himself at liberty
to assume the necessity of his life to the welfare of
the State, Nations cannot be destroyed like armies ;
and no public man is therefore placed, officially, in
the responsible situation of a General. A Nioister
is, therefore, bound to guide himself by the rules by
which any other gentleman ought to be guided.
And however calamitous the Ices of a life might be,
with which is bound up the success; pf measures of
paramount isaeortance to the country, his Grace
could not, fora moment, place himself in the 3itiia-
tion of the public. He had to consider merely what
a regard to his personal honour arid reputation de-
manded. The possession of that honour wed repu-
tation untarniebed was indispensable even to the
success of his futun'e exertions; for, whether well
or ill founded, the law pf opinioe in such matters
is not to be combated. If any man could have been
justified in disregarding opinion, that man certainly
was the Duke of Wellington.
(FROM THE NEWS.)

The Catholic Relief Bill, it will be seen by out'
Parliame!- tary Intelligence, was read a second time
on Wednesday, after an adjourned debate, by a ma-
jority of ISO; the division being 353 to 173. This
result is supposed to have settled the question in
the Commoua ; unless the Ultras mean to try aa-
other-division on the- third reading, which will pro,
bably-take place on Wednesday or Thursday. The
more this important question "progresses," the
more personality and acrimony appear to mingle
with it. It is well that the angry effusions which
escape the Ultras in the souse of debate—for the
wrath is all on their side—are uttaed in a place
where the forms enjoin a submission to being called
" miserable disreputable apostate" " a dirty tool"
-" unprincipled deserter" " fool," &c. &c. by any
personage however insignificant, or there would have
ere now been mixed- up with the consideration of
the Catholic Claims, various pistollings, cudgellings,
or pinkings—for it must be allowed that the pa--
tience of one portion of the House has been griev,
ously exercised by the viperine language of the
other. Had this abusive line of conduct proceeded
from young, hot-headed, inexperienced Members, it

would not have so much astonished us; but grey
bearded veterans have been foremost in it—and I
amongst the foremost of the foremost, in the race
of oral libel and personal abuse, is the very man
whose station in life, should more especially
have taught him to keep his tongue and temper
under due controul. We a;lude to the rambling
bear-garden speech of the Attorney-General
in the House of Commons on Wednesday even-
ing, which we have, reported at length in our se-
cond and third pages. It would seem that in the
opinion of this Learned Gentleman, the English lan-
guage hardly afforded bitterness of expression
enough for him to heap on the devoted heads of
Mr. Peel, Lord Lyndhurst, and Sir N. Tindall.
One is an " apostate," " black one day and white
another"—the second " a Protestant Master of the
Rolls on one day and a Catholic Lord Chancellor
on the other" —and the third, whose only crime
appears to be that he did what Sir Charles Wethe-
rell refused to do, draw the Bill in question—is "a
dirty tool." " I would not," quoth this mild spoken
Gentleman, " I would not condescend to frame
such a Bill—no Minister in this Country—no man
in this realm should compel me so to stultify my-
self. I refused to draw it. I would not be guilty of
such folly, such inconsistency, as that which must ac-
cumulate upon the head of the man who drew it. I
said, you may turn me out of office, but I will
never consent to be the dirty tool to draw such a
Bill. I would not soil my hands with it."—lf Sir
Charles had been as careful of soiling his tongue as
his hands, such expressions as abound in his speech
• would never have been tittered in any society of
gentlemen. That his personalities are only fit to
be laughed at, on account of their grossness and
. absurdity, we admit, but the intent to wound is
. the same—and it deserved to be visited with an in-
• fliction, which the forensic libeller would not quickly
I have forgotten.

CATHOLICS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF

DUBLIN.

TO THE RIGHT LION. ROBERT PEEL, &e. &e.
Sag—This letter merits your attention, both personally
and publicly.
You doubtless would not willingly leave incomplete the
great measure which, it may now be said, you have vir-
tually carried through the House of Commons. I am
about to submit to you a necessary and interesting comple-
ment to it, and to yosr own fame.
The Emancipation Bill which you have framed proposes
to leave untouched the disqualifications of Catholics in the
Universities of this realm—including, of course, Trinity
College, Dublin. I confine myself to this last alone, be-
cause it is the University with which alone I am compe-
tently acquainted, and because it is there the injustice
is the most pernicious and glaring.
The University of Dublin is a Protestant endowment
or foundation, intended by the Royal foundress, Elia ibetli,
and her Protestant successors to a very recent periods@ the
maintenance of Protestantism and Protestants exclusively.
Granted. But what are the objects and purposes of the Uni-
versity of Dublin at the present day ? This is the real and
only question—and the answer must be, that it is no longer a
Protestant, but a National Seminary. Now, Sir, I put it
to you, is it just or reasonable that in a nation where the
great majority is Catholic, the emoluments and honours of
this single overgrown endowment should be confined to
Protestants ? Catholic Students, it is true, are admitted,
and take degrees, but they are admitted merely to contri-
bute to its wealth, not to compete for its honours and
emoluments. To come to particulars—
The University of Dublin, as an endowed corporate
body by the title of " Trinity College, Dublin," consists of
a Provost, 22 Fellows, and '73 Scholars, exercising equally
and exclusively the Elective Franchise. The Provost has
almost invariably been previously a Fellow—Fellowships
and Scholarships, the former for life, with certain conditions,
the latter for tlie period of five years from Junior Sophisteis
to Masters standing, are obtained by the best answerers in
a prescribed course of reading, after a searching and cer-
tainly impartial examination.
Of the Fellows three are, by invariable usage, or a bye-
law, Laymen. Now, why should Catholics be excluded
from these lay vacancies ? It is no part of the business of
a Junior Fellow to teach his pupils religion. His hueinees
is only with logic, mathematics, physics, metaphysics,
and classics. And I never heard that a Catholic, as such,
was less competent to manoeuvre syllogysms through the
modes and figures—to demonstrate the equality of the
square of the hypothenuse to the sum of the squares
of the remaining sides—or of the latitude of the
place to the elevation of the pole, Pascal bad some
very incomprehensible notions about " la grace efficace,"
but was not the less a perfect reasoner, and a geuius in
the exact sciences. When the Junior Fellow becomes in
time a Senior, his being a Catholic would not interfere in
the least with his new duties, of occupying his easy chair
once a week, at the beard, and administering the over-
grown and overgrowing finances pf the University, with-
out the trouble of any responsibility or account beyond
the secret concert and conscience of his ln other Senior.
Bat I abandon Fellowships, except for the principle,
because the disqualification is very limited, if not
absolutely null, in effect. The Fellowship course of
reading is so overcharged with lumber, that it de-
mands years of toil and duty, and the lay vacancies, at
the same time, so rare, that no Catholics would devote
themselves, unless with the intention, secret or avowed,
of confirming and taking orders.
The great and crying grievance is the exclusion of Ca-
tholics from Scholarships. I will not now stop to inquire
what a seliolarship should of right be worth, I reserve the
touching and ptoving of this delicate topic for another oc-
casion. My present business is only with its actual value
to a Student, premising that Fellow Commoners (a nume-
rous class) never read for it ; that the candidates are Pen-
sioners for the most part of little means, and Siasrs of
still less. A Scholar has his chambers, commons, a
small allowance, sometimes as low as 41., and never
above 201. a year, and the elective franchise. The
emoluments, though email, are yet important to a
Student of limited means--and tl;g academical rink
which a Scholarship confers is a powerful incitement
to talent, industry, and good conduct. The Scholars ad.
minister no instruction or authority whatever. They are
simply Students, who go out like other Students, when
their course is finished. I put it, Sir, to your candour,
whether the exclusion of Catholic; from competition for
this reward of talent, industry, and moral corsilu;:t, be not
an unjust, uncalled for, and most illiberal exclusion.
One objeption only will and can be made, that Sao •
larships are a bounty by which the Established Church
raises vecruits from the ranks of the Catholics. I ad-
mit the fact—but is this quite moral ? to tempt youth
both in its poverty and its aspiriogs, by a bribe—
to tell the aspirant he must capitulate with his conscience
before he can start for the prize. M soy Students pre-
ronesly Catholic conform, I know, from honourable ino-
tivee,'from preceding latitude and liberality of opinion,
and an enlargement pf views, as they become more con-
vers int with science, their feilpw-students, and the world.
But these would either conform withou, thp bribe, or they
would return to the community, whence they caane, libe-
ralized f's stholics, the most useful class of subjects in the
peculiar state of Ireland. But the greater number of the
conformists disgrace, not strengthen, the Church to which
they desert—they carry into the bosom pf the Protestant
Ciluech their early bigotry, with the superaddtef viruleriee
or apostate/. Some, perhaps, retain the very dogmas of
their first creed, .tut 4 shroud their hypocrisy in intolerance
and exaggeration. It is nos" fame years, Sir, since you
were Chief Secretary in Ireland, and i well know that
vulgar partisans could as little apprpagli you Its a gentle-
man as they could influence you as a Minister. 134 YPu
isusst still know the state of Ireland well enough to be
aware that thp raost notorious and unprincipled of the re-
verend trailers in BetmsFssick bigotry and incendiary de-
clamation are renegades from she teligion which they ma-
lign—that their violence is not l; but the
F seairulence of
corrupt aspostacy, exaggeration, and bad faith.
I submit this question to you, however, upon broader
principles. Is if meet, I ask, that a national seminary
should be an arena for aectariaa proselytism:; that the
youth should continue fettered in the career o. 13.9 educa-
tion, whilst the man is mune:tailed, and his course tree ;
that the genius of intolerance should be alloitsed a last
refuge in the very first place where it should be expelled ;
the piece where the youth of a nation, various in creed,
first meet in the morning of life, with their feelings and
their minds yet fresh and notvorn ; in the ardent com-
munion of their studies, their frisinisiiits, and their pur-
suits of pleasure. The Irish University may lie (!.-;sc;;te,c.l
as a laboratory in weigh all that is best and worst in the
Irish character, and most intitteptial in Irish society, is
determined and formed. Surely, Sir, r
..L e/.:oold .be re-ad-
justed and purified in the general process of reviaten, god
thin may be effected by a clause of a.few lines in the ap.
proachiag committee on the Bill.
j. have the honour tc, be, Sir, f7e. &c.
Tr C. Pe

SECOND EDITION.
SUN OFFICE, Seven o'clock.

IM PER! A L PARLIAM ENT

TIIIS EVENING.

HOUSE OF LORDS.

The LORD CHANCELLOR, Lord SHAFTESBURY, and
Lord MELvlcr.r, sat as Commissioners at a quarter before
four o'clock, to give the Royal Assent to the Exchequer
Bills Bill, the Army and Marine Mutiny Bills, the Edin-
burgh Gas Light, and several private Road Bills.
The House then adjourned, and sat again at five o'clock.
Lord KINMORE presented a petition from the Minis-
ter and other Inhabitants of the city of Perth, against fur-
ther concessions to the Roman Catholics. Also two others
from different parts in the same county to the sane effect.
The Duke of SUSSEX presented petitions from the
Roman Catholics of Long Sutton, the parish of Sutton,
Lincolnshire, three from the county of Limerick, one from
Antrim, and another from an individual, an elder of a
Protestant congregationlin:Birmingharn, all in favour of
Emancipation.
Mr. ORD and others brought up from the House of
Commons two Private Bills; and also a message, request-
ing to be furnished with a copy of their Lordship's evi-
dence on Kyley's Divorce Bill.
Lord SIDMOUTH presented a petition against the
claims of the Catholics.

Lord LORTON presented 25 petitions from the Pro-
testants of different parishes in Ireland, against concessions.
The Bishop of BATH and WELLS presented a petition
from a parish in the county of Cumberland, against the
claims of the Roman Catholics. The Right Rev. Prehste
(as we understood,) stated in a very low voice, that in a
few days he should, as he had been requested, present a
petition from the Under Graduates of Cambridge.
Earl GREY presented a petition signed by 2,126 of the
most respectable inhabitants of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in
favour of Catholic Emancipation.

Lord DURHAM presented a petitio❑ from a parish in
the county of Durham, in favour of the Catholic Claims.
This petition would not have been brought before their
Lordships had it not been for one presented of a con-
trary nature from the same town, by the Noble Lord
(Eldon) on the cross benches.

Lord ELDON was quite sure that this petition could
contain no hind; like the number of signatures that the
one had attached to it which he had the honour of pre-

senting.

Lord DURHAM rose and observed that in getting
up the petition, more attention had been paid to col.
lecting the respectability of the county to affix their
names to it than in gathering together in a heterogenous
mass the names of all persons, however ignorant
and unintelligent that could be got hold of. An indivi-
dual, who had been requested to sign the petition, pre-
sented 11, Lord Eldon, praying their Lordships ; it was
stated to him to preserve the Protestant Constitution,
slid, " Yes, certainly, I shall, for I think there is nothing
more necessary than that Parliament should protect us
againq resurrectionists!—(Much laughter.)
The Marquis of LONDONDERRY presented a peti-
tion from the Roman Catholics of the county of Tyrone, in
favour of their claims.

Lord KENYON presented sixteen petitions, all against
further concessions.
Lord KING presented several petitions in favour
of i concession to the Catholcs. He acknowledged the
courtesy of Lord Eldon in having delayed presenting
a petition to the house for several days from Welch Cal-
vanists. Than those petitioners, a mole intolerant set of
beings never lived. Were he to be called out for the
purpose of being tried by a parcel of those Welch Calvin.
ists, or a parcel of Cardinals, and he, from his choice,
of the two he certainly should prefer a trial by the latter,
b:cause he was sure "he should stand a better chance of
olttaining justice. He had presented a petition from another
set of those persons, of a more tolerant disposition
and whom the Intolerants had turned out of their society,
in favour of the Catholics. The Noble Lord on the

cress-benches a few nights ago had presented a petition, as
he stated, from 94 Dissenting Ministers in London and
Westminster. The fact was, that only one out of those
94 individuals was a regularly qualified minister among
the three denominations of Dissenters, and the rest were
tailors and shoe-makers, probably good men in their stations,
of life. lie would just state, likewise, that a boy p..ssing
through the town of Exeter, and seeing an immense
rowel of persons going into a house to sign a petition
atlainst the Catholics, asked his companions to ac-
company him to sign the said petition also ; the
companion at first demurred, but after a little persuamn
consented. After they got in the boy, t.aok up his com-
panions paw (for he was dog) put a pen into it, and wrote
John Rover,—(immense laughter,)—and the petition
prayed that the Protestant Constitution might be pre-
s. reed as it was gonatituted in 1688.
Lord ELDON—No doubt the dog wagged his tail, after
having done it.—(Continued loud laughter.)
(LEFT SITTING.)