The Sun.
London, England, 1829-04-04 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE LONDON JOURNALS.

The debates of the two last evenings in the House
of Lords require but little comment. The old ar-
guments (it is no shame to the speakers) were again
for the twentieth time :had recourse to ' • and what-
ever interest arose at of the discussion belonged to
persons more than to principles. It is but justice
to the King's 'Plots:,
.Minister to say, that no ma-
thematical proof coud be •more absolute than that
by which he enforces' the urgency of the_great mea-
sure of Catholic relief, by his exposition of the state
of Ireland—brio:Ong. home to every, man s•elsose
mind could admit the simplest proposition, the.
actual existence of an over-ruling necessity, 'which
left to any civilised Legislature no choice but in the
adoption of some Conciliatory: law. The Duke:of
Wellington proved clearly, that the Catholics .
had in their hands, and in their contempla-
tion to emplOy it, the engine of a worse darn-
civil war against the Governments--a civil war,
complete in all its parts, against the State,
while the plan of operations would be one to
which neither military force, nor. legal.coereiost could.
be applicable. Thin -Wei we conceive to' be one
in which neither rents nor tithes would "be paid by
the Catholic peasants,t-no contracts performed,-...;
no exciseable articles 'sionsutiteckss-no juries found
to give redreq jok wettings; and yet no display of
tunsultatoue ottsrages4soininittedr--.-
no-resistance to troops or magistrates;—one in
which the mooring-chains-which bound the people
to the State would be silently slipped, and the law
would hare no subjects to act upon but a mass of
inert matter, without sympathy, or life, or con-
vertible resources—that is, any such as could be laid
hold of by the Government. The hope, therefore,
of the monopolizing faction was groundless : here
would be no civil war, of the kind which they con-
templated—none that would furnish them with an
opportunity of shedding blood, and overpowering
the Catholic people. But if that blessing should,
by some permission of Providence, be attain-
able,—the blessing of a remedy for the evils of
Ireland by means of civil war,—let us hear what
the Duke of Wellington, a tolerable judge of
such things, says of . the advantages to be
derived from it. Why, with the feeling of a hu-
mane and honest man, and with the knowledge of
an experienced soldier, he declares that he would
" sacrifice his life" (and he is one who would do it
as promptly as he spoke it)—that he would sacri-
fice his life " to avert one month of civil war
from any country to which he was attached !"
Will this, then, satisfy the big-talking Bruns-
wickers, that there is no virtue in their only re-
medy to reconcile a civilized people like that of
England to its adoption ? Will this satisfy the
bullies, or the fanatics, that their remedy would
but aggravate the disease, and world never
cure it ? For at the end of one civil war we
should have to begin another, and another, until
emapcipation should be carried at last. We do
riot remember to have seen a public assembly
more electrified than the House of Lords was on
Thursday, when this brave soldier, grown grey on
fields of blood, declared his abhorrence of the san-
guinary schemes which had been proposed as alter-
natives for emancipation by men who never saw a
musket fired but for pastime. The argument is
one which sets the whole question at rest. That
faction, of which the only expedient for averting the
policy recommended to them is one for destroying
the people whom they wou!d keep down, will never
again be listened to in this country,,—the human
heart rejects them. The Lord Chancellor's speech
last night was the powerful and impressive appeal to
the common sense as well as the right feelings of the
nation. It was a masterly and lucid comment on
the text of the Noble Duke his eolleage. Masterly,
also, in argument, and energetic in language, was
his triumphant demonstration that the measures
now about to be passed violated no principle of the
Constitution of 1688. We beg, too, particular at-
tention to the spirited and important speech of Lord
Anglesea, whew views of Ireland are characterized
by equal sagacity and berievclence, Truly and elo-
quently did the Noble Lord observe, that the passe
ing of the Catholic Relief Bill will be worth
100,000 bayonets to the British Empire. But the
battle is now, moratiy speaking,. ended ; nur shall
we grudge a share of its fruits to the diseotnfited
ertemies of that cause which profits by the victory.
The debate WAS adjourned at a quarter past two
this morning, till one o'clock this afternoon.—Times.
The debate on the second reading of the Cathos
lip Relief Bill is once more adjourned, and, singular
enough„ to onc o'clock this day; so that by the
time our readers have gone through our report of
last night's discussion, the House of Lords will he
busied in debating. They must either close in
time to divide before the commencement of Sunday,
or adjourn main to Monday; but we suppose ten or
eleven hours' additional debating must pretty well
exhaust their Lordships. The discussion was opened
last night by the Archbishop of York, who oppos
sed the measure in moderate language, because the
Securities "did not appear to him at all sufficient
to protect the Protestant Church of Ireland, for '4e
admitted that the nieasure would be attended with no
danger to the Church of England. But, with refer-
ence to the Established Church of Ireland there was
nothing to prevent that conflict between the Church
established by Is,sv and the Roman Catholic Church
eppported by numhers, which there wes to much
reason to fear would 'follow this system of yield-
ing to the utmost the claims of the Catholics
of Ireland.—(Hear, hear, hear.)"—This is a valu-
able admission. Grace considers the people to
exist for the sake of -the Church, and not the
Church for the sake of the people, and that it is a
very sufficient motive for retaining .the people of
Ireland in their state of wretchecinesa anti misery,
that this is required for the security of the Protest:
I ant Church The Bishop of Durham gave a de-
cided opposition to the measure. The question
with him altogether one of religion. Johnson, al-
!tiding to the cci4royerss. between Salmasius and
Milton, on the Subject the death of Caries the
First, which had in their hands become a war of
observes, " no man folgets his original
trade : the 'right's of nations cnd of Kings sink
into questions of gramitiar, if .grammarians
cuss them." In the same manner it may be obs
served of the Right Reverend Fathers in God,
thalthey have the happy knack cf converting every
thing into religion. The Bishop of Durham ac-
a7diruzly
_reads their Lordships a lecture on ex-
communication, and the danger of connecting
themselves with idolators, somewhat in the Teats-
her- of' the Reverend }Award Irving. Having
in the course of his speech insinuated that the
Bishop of Oxfostrs principles were somewhat im-
itable, this called up the latter, who h.forme4 419
House that he had long been Regiu= Professor of
Divinity at Oxford, and that he therefore could
never have adopted Paley's principles of expediency,
• *hat he wits a
_favourer of the
and denied stou
L. .
march d intellect. The Duke of Sussex very
. . •
pity rallied the )6x-divinity rroiessors on their cons
Itroversy, observing that " the differences of opinion
between the different religious professors of divinity
in the different Universities, would at least have the
effect of causing him to pause, and to say, that lie
had a right to have an opinion of his own upon this
subject, for, according to the adage, when doctors
differ who shall decide."—(A laugh.)—His Royal
Highness gave en passant two or three hard hits to
I Lord Kenyon. Pot wp must reserve all comment on
the debate to a future day.,--illantizq Chronicic.