The Sun.
London, England, 1829-02-09 00:00:00

cions tis it is contemptible. We know that no con-
scientious Catholic can be content so long as. the
Roman Hierarchy, which forms an essential part.
of his religion, is separated from the State, and
deprived of all civil and political authority. He
may indeed be quiet from policy, and be is found to
be so when circumstances forbid the hope of ad-
vmicing his religion by his efforts. But does any
man in his senses think that the Roman Catholics
of Ireland, 7,000,000 of people, under the absolute
command of their Priests, will believe themselves
to be in a situation in which all further efforts in
behalf of the Catholic religion are hopeless,
and niter having already prevailed too, by
menaces and intimidation, upon the British
Government and Legislature to surrender to them
an important pait of the British Constitution ? Or
is there any one so regardless of experience, so in-
fatuated and bewildered as to doubt, that let their
future pretensions be what they may, they will find
support in Parliament from men calling themselves
Protestants ? Did not Bonaparte (when his avowed
object was the annihilation of England) find men
in the British Parliament to applaud his conduct
and to promote his views ? And yet these men
called themselves Englishmen. Did not the in-
sane claimants of a Parliamentary Reform, which
would at once have thrown all the powers of
Government into the bands of a fierce and turbu-
lent Democracy, find men in the British Parlia-
ment to advocate and espouse their cause ? And
yet these men call themselves loyal subjects of the
King. What the spirit of party effected in Parlia-
ment on behalf of the tyrant of the Continent—
what it effected on behalf of the Revolutionists in
our own country, it would effect also on behalf of
Roman Catholics, were their claims to extend, as
they will extend, if they do not now receive a
cheA, to the selection from among the Priests of
their communion, of all the Archbishops and Bishops
of the United Kingdom. If the proposed surren-
der of the Constitution should take effect, a fierce
and protracte.l struggle between the Protestants
and Roman Catholics of the United Kingdoms,
for the ascendancy and dominion of their respec-
tive churches, is inevitable, unless the former
are prepared to persevere in concession, to give
up their church and their faith, to prefer the
glory of martyrdom to the peaceful advan-
tages of toleration, and to stipertnd.itift,:id.
gar process of Trial by Jury
and mysterious invest- --, favour the silentent
xdtions of the Holy Office.
are or; .
This strugul:' .
-.11,.,.mu5t ensue if the Roman Catholics

oi.;,!;i• admitted to political power, notwithstan,

'lug all the guar& and securities to prevent it whici
human ingenuity can devise. We rejoice, however,
that guards and securities arc talked of; they must
excite protracted discussion, and by whatever means
time is gained, if the people of England use it as
they ought, an additional chance is afforded for the
preservation of the country. There is the further
hope also, that in the progress of these discussions
the Catholics may so expose the ulterior objects,
which, whether they expose them or not, we know
they must entertain, that the consequences of yield-
ing to them any increase of power will be evident
to the dullest apprehension, and undeniable by the
most headlong and perverse will.
(FROM THE MORNING HERALD.)
Admiring, as we do, the personal character of Mr.
Peel, and his hitherto unimpeached political inte-
grity, we regret that we cannot applaud the course
which he has taken upon the Catholic Question , or
consider it that which is likely to confirm and per-
petuate his reputation. Indeed those who watched
the Right Honourable Gentleman's words and man-
ner, during his speech on Thursday night, agree in
declaring that he seemed to shrink within himself,
and had all the appearance of one who had a task to
perform, in which his. mind end inclination bad but
little share. Laying aside the merit or demerit of
the course which the Duke of Wellington is now
pursuing, it cannot, we think, be denied that Mr.
Peel, at least, was too deeply pledged to one view of
the matter, to render his sudden conversion in any
point of view excusable. There are those, we sus-
pect, (rho will be inclined to ask, " What is there
after this that public men may not be expected
to retract ?" " Their very allegiance to the
Throne may at last be found to hang upon
some point of temporary necessity." Mr. Peel is
avowedly not a convert from conviction, but
from necessity; and, therefore, had we been his
counsellors, our advice would have been that he
should not have been a convert at all; and that he should
have sacrificed his place, rather than those principles
upon which his public reputation has hitherto mainly
rested. It may, perhaps, be said—and not untruly
—that the most difficult task which the Duke has
had to encounter upon the occasion has been to win
over the consent of a high quarter to the ceurse
which his Grace has at length determined to take,
it'd that Mr. Peel's assent to the measure in ques-
ion was a necessary preliminary to such a conces-
We confess that there is much weight in
nis ; but still the " oracle tea virtute" so power-
fully dwelt on by the first Lord Chatham, in his cele-
brated letters to the first Lord Catnelford, should be
uppermost in the mind of every honourable man ;
and a forced consent, " where discontent sits heavy
at the heart," finds but a poor apology in mere ex-
pediency. ! lad Mr. Peel dull been justly alive to
the value of his reputation, he would have left the
Government (however embarrassing to himself and
it)—have left it for a time, at least—rather than
have imposed upon himself the sombre and unen-
viable task of making a recantation.
(F ROM THE MORNING ADVERTISER.)

mon.

The temper in which the important communica-
tion respecting the Catholics of Ireland, which his
Majesty has made to the Legislature, will be received
in the country, will be looked for with some anxiety.
In the Papers which have already reached us there
is but one opinion expressed, and that opinion, we
need scarcely add is in favour of the important mea-
sure which the Cabinet is about to submit to the
Legislature. We recceive also that several meetings
have been held in different, parts of the country, and
petitions signed, in favour of the Catholic Claims;
and there is but little doubt, in consequence, that the
Bill for conceding them will pass with but very par-
tial opposition. It is but fair, however, to allow, in
speaking of the measure, that the Cabinet has, in
this instance, taken the lead of public opinion, in-
stead of following it ; and that were the votes of the
whole people of these realms to be taken on the
subject,- there would be a considerable majority
against the Catholics.

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.

LIVERPOOL.

LIVERPOOL, FEBRUARY 5.--Wind
water 49 mioutem past eleven.—Arrived the Indian Chief,
Gill, from Demerara ; Eagle, Batty, front the Cape of
Good Hope ; Arethusa, Wright, from St. John's, N.B. ;
Mary, Harry, from Genoa; Lyra, , from Ham-
burgh ; Menta, George, from Charlestown; Hannah,
Cowan, from Poole.

Sailed—The Georgia, Snow, for Boston ; America,
Evans, for Neiv York ; Euphemis, , for Nassau ;
Try, , for Gibraltar ; and Union, Steadier, for
Barcelona.

The Trusty, from St. John's, N. B , is supposed to be
arrived off Dover.

FELL 6.—Wind N.W.—Arrived the Stir, Davies, from
Cadiz ; Dogoe Selin, —_—, from IsLintes ; Jessie, Con-
nor, from Ile of Man; Sovereign, Kegg, ditto; Jane,
Leitch, Fort William.

Sailed—The Euphemia, Findlatcr, for Havannah and
Nassau; Earl of Surrey, Barney, Isle of Man ; Gnlnare,
, from Naples.

FFI3. N.W.—Arrived the York, De Cost,
rom New York ; Arab, Ball, .Savannah ; Golconda,
Janvrin, ditto; Alexander, Fryer, Paraiba; Brazilian,
, from Buenos Ayres; La Amiable Eugenee,
Havre de Grace.

Sailed—The Mii., Iloseason. for Barbadoes ; Three
Sisters, —, for Maranliam ; John Welsh, Woodhouse,
for Jamaica.

On Saturday the despatches for Bengal and
China, by the Blythe, Captain George Clerk Arbuthnot,
were closed at the East In.,ia House, and delivered to the
Purser of that ship.