The Sun.
London, England, 1827-03-21 00:00:00

civil capacities, for offering up our prayers to God according to
the mode of worship transmitted to us from our ancestors ; wbe-
ther, in the present unparalleled distress of the nation, they still
desire that Ireland should be a source of weakness, instead of
strength ; whether they are anxious to retain that country fOr ever
in a state of discontent ..and military subjection; and in fine,
whether they are resolved that, among the nations of Europe,
England shall afford a perpetual example of bigotry, which must
be bailed by her enemies as an omen of weakness, and regarded
by her friends as a blot upon her fame.
Resoeven.—That we most sincerely and most cordially sym-
pathize with our fellow-sufferers in Ireland, under this new and
grievous affliction ; we are firmly persuaded, that if the passions
were calmed, and the interests of every class were amalgamated
by equal laws, the present lamentable discord would cease, and
persons of every religious denomination would be linked together
in the bonds of peace and good-will.
Resoevin—That we cannot too forcibly impress on the minds
of our Protestant countrymen the cruel and humiliating degradas
tions to which we, 89 professors of the' Catholic religion, are con-
stantly reduced under the existing penal laws; reproached with
idolatry in our worship, superstition in our tenets, and slavery in
our principles; our solemn oaths and declarations disregarded;
yet sharing, in common with our Protestant countrymen, the
burdens of the State, and the dangers of the field ; whilst the ave-
nues to honourable ambition and profit are closed against us.
Never has there been presented to our observation a
more moving picture of grievous distress--or an appeal to
the justice, honour, and generosity of Englishmen more
irresistible, than that short and comprehensive recital,
contained in the last sentence which we have quoted—of
what our Catholic fellow subjects at this moment endure
under the penal Code of this United Kingdom. " Re-
proached with slavery in their principles"—well might the
Catholics be thought deserving of such an imputation—
were they to bow in base and prostrate acquiescence before
the rod which scourges them—yet their enemies, who
load them with so humbling a -reproach-=who refuse them
liberty, because they are in love with bondage—raise a
fresh charge against these unhappy and injured 'pen for
the restless and almost convulsive impatience, with which
they he•lrly clank *their chains, and apostrophize their in,-
tractable oppressors. The Catholics in the above affect-
ing peroration of what may be considered their memorial
to the people of England, complain that they are calum-
niated as a race, not merely of servile Principles, but as one
whose." solemn Baths and declarations" ought to be " dis-
regarded." On this point, it does appear to. us, that the
Catholics have been; and 'continue to be, treated with a
mixture of stubborn malice and inconsistency, which is not
more revolting to the heart, than utterly confounding to
the reason. If the morality of Catholics be such that they
hold themselves released from the obligation of keeping
faith with heretics—that is to say, if they merit so little
confidence from their fellow-subjects, that their oath of
allegiance' which 'they are all willing to take, ought to
go for nothing as •a security against their subsequent trea7
son, why, we ask, should they be more unwilling to take
the oaths of abjuration and supremacy, than the said oath
of allegiance? If the Pope, or the conscience of a Ca-
tholic gentleman, can absolve him from the force
of an oath, can it not, also, from two ? Then see
(for the hundredth time) how stands the proposition.
The Catholic disregards an oath ; the Catholic is
dying with eagerness to enjoy all his rights as a citizen.
To enjoy these rights in their fullest amplitude, there is
nothing necessary but an oath, which, were he regardless
of its obligations, he would take as a matter of course.—
Yet, still we see that he will not swear the oath which his
enemies accuse him of despising. What,. then, is the in-
evitable conclusion from these premises, but one or other
of the two which follow :-Ist, That all the-Catholics in
the empire are idiots, for not taking so short a cut to
emancipation; or 2d, that those who charge them with
contempt for" their oaths are guilty of an obvious and most
wicked falsehood. It may, moreover, be with justice re-
marked, that an WA 'Of- perjury, committed at this mo-
ment by a Catholic for-the sake of passing himself off as a
Protestant, and so getting smuggled into the Legislature,
Would be one. to which ,he is Li:educed by double the
amount of temptations which would act upon him after
being lawfully introduced into Parliament as a Catholic
member. A perjury now would give him the means of
acquiring the power which he might afterwards abuse, and
of acquiring it without conditions by his mete personation
of a Protestant. A perjury, after being adMitted in his
Popish character, would be a gratuitous and useless trouble,
for what could he obtain by it ? The happiness and
horiour'of betraying the country wherein lie acted as a
legislator and, a
.leader-.,-the country which embraced
within it_his fortunes his children, and his children's for-
tunes, every source of worldly enjoyment, every object of
personal ambition, every real tie and motive which touch
and' impel the heart of man. He' would gain, we say,
the happiness of sacrificing all these—to whom or for
what ? to the Pope of Rome—for a consecrated rosary
or relique ! As we shall find or make abundant
opportunities for recurring' to the Catholic Question
—while it remains—which we suspect it will not long
reinniii—a litigated question—we need not open another
branch-0 the subject at present, but conclude with stating
plainly, that those of our Protestant countrymen whose
imaginations teem with terrors drawn from the fourteenth
awl fifteenth centuries, ought to be convinced of the perfect
facility with which any Catholics who clioSe• to perjure
themselves, might, from the reign of William and. Mary to
that of George IV., have sat in either -House of Parliament,
and defeated the most rigorous laws enacted for their ex-
There is, in the nature of things, no test but that
of his own conscience, by which we can now have the least
security for a Catholic not being a Member of Parliament,
on Protestant conditions alone.—lbid.

Lord Wharncliffe's Bill for the Improvement of the
Game Laws was read a second time last night. It seemed
to he pretty generally avowed by their Lordships, that the
existing Game Laws had provoked such universal indig-
nation, that it would be impossible to enforce them
longer, and that it was therefore well to make a virtue of
necessity. One avowal, we own, gave us some satisfac-
tion, however much we may regret the demoralization—
namely, the statement made by Lord Redesdale, that the
gamekeepers were the greatest poachers; and that their
conflicts with the professional poachers were not the re-
sult of any zeal for their masters, but of a wish to put down
interlopers in their own trade. So that these village
tyrants, by grasping at impossibilities, have so surrounded
themselves with dishonesty, that they know not whom to
trust. A man must have a strange intellect indeed to
suppose, that in a country like this, it is possible to have
the exclusive possession of game ! Bless their feudal
noddles ! The insolence of such an assumption of right,
on the part of men who, according to Sir James Graham,
are in general only receivers of rents for others, is really
surprising. That rich men would not consent to be ex-
cluded from game, or any thing else, in which the belly
rejoices, might have been foretold to a certainty ; and that
gamekeepers would allow professional poachers to have
the exclusive sale of the game, was not very likely. Let
Lords take a warning from this, and suffer themselves to
be persuaded that they cannot effect impossibilities any
more than other people, even by the aid of Acts of Parlia-
ment. We were glad to hear from Lord Roseberry the
refreshing declaration, that " the absence of Landowners
from their estates could not, in many cases, be considered
by him as au evil, when he reflected upon the strife and
ill-will and malice which were engendered between them
and their poorer neighbours and tenantry, when they hap,-
pened to take up their residence at their country seats;
for (added he), if you allow the fundholder to eat game,
you must look with indifference upon daily and hourly
breaches of the law, attended with the commission of
dreadful crimes, and the infliction of misery to an extent
unknown in any civilized country." The sharing with the
game-keepers and the poachers in the proceeds of the
game, seems to tickle the fancy of their Lordships exceed-
ingly. It is pretty generally understood that several of
them have not waited the legal permission for a sale ; but
there are, no doubt, many great land-owners who would
scruple to violate the law.--11/orning Chronicle.
In reference to a letter which appeared in our paper a
short time since, relative to a new local Church Act for
the parish of Mary-le-bone, we now find it stated else-