The Sun. — 1847-12-23 (London, England)

LONDON. THURSDAY. DECEMBER 23, 1847.  Every Roman Catholic in her Ma,rasTr's dominions will feel grateful to the Earl of ARUNDEL and SURREY for the noble-spirited letter addressed by him to Jour? TUAM, the " Lion of the tribe of Judah." `With a chivalrous sense of his own position, and that of his co-religionists, at a time when bloody murders are said to cry to heaven for vengeance against certain members of the Irish priesthood, who have profaned the holy day consecrated to the adoration of the Divinity by inciting the peasantry to deeds of brutality and violence, that young Nobleman has implored the Catholic Archbishop of TUAM to make such investigations into those charges against the subordinate clergy, as shall demonstrate either their guilt or innocence, and to exercise in all cases of proven delinquency the sacerdotal authority confided to him at the period of his consecration• Words could not be more impassioned or more pur suasive in supplication than those of the noble heir to the Dukedom of Norfolk ; they could not be more justifiable in their earnestness; they could not be more explicit in remonstrance ; they could not be more gentle or more definite as expressions of personal reverence and ecclesiastical obedience. It is such a letter as a HOWARD might have written to HILDEBRAND in the days of the Crusades. It enunciates a want which must be experienced by every member of that Church among the English laymen of which the Earl of ARUNDEL and SURREY is one of the most distinguished ornaments. It reminds Dr. M'HALE that the Roman Catholics resident in this island are just now subjected to a perpetual sorrow, because of their utter incapacity to vindicate the teachers of their religion in Ireland from the dismal accusations laid against them of being virtually murderers and the inciters of murderers. It explains to that prelate the anguish inflicted upon the heart of every conscientious Catholic by the reiterated charges made against certain members of the Irish priesthood, of being dyed with a guilt immeasurably worse than that of merely " moral complicity," in the most devillish of the agrarian assassinations. It calls to his recollection the fact that neither the Earl of ARUNDEL and SURREY himself, nor any of his fellow-Catholics in this country, are so situated as to be able by any means whatever to substantiate appalling ; accusations, the daccuracy of those of their being erroneous,an . the event f releasing themselves from the odium which therebyindirectly tthis attaches itself to the religion. It exclaims upon point—how bitter it is to the writers heart that he cannot defend the Irish Church in his intercourse with his friends, or against the attacks of violent opponents in the House of Commons. After re reminding Archbishop M'HALE that the enemies of Romaa Catholicism avail themselves of the oppor. tunity afforded by the indolence of the superior authorities of that religion in not bringing the supposed offenders to an ecclesiastical tribunal, and visiting them, in the event of their culpability being established, with those punishments of sacerdotal degradation, ~sr suspension from their duties as clergymen, which. are felt by a priest to be the most terrible and ignominious. "Oh, my Lord Archbishop," continues the Earl, " it is indeed severe to feel the justice of such remarks—not the remarks, be it observed, of thoughtless and uncharitable men, but of those whose