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

LONDON. THURSDAY. DECEMBER 23, 1847.  Every Roman Catholic in her -MAJESTY'S dominions feel grateful to the Earl of ARUNDEL and BURREY for the noble-spirited letter addressed by him to JOHN 'roam, the " Lion of the tribe of Judah." With a chivalrous sense o Ibis own position, and that of his co-religionists a time whee 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 experiented 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'IIALE 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," inin 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 the accuracy of those appalling accusations, and, in the event of their being erroneous, of releasing themselves from the odium which thereby indirectly heart rutp thato n this he e attaches itself to the religion. It exclaim point—how bitter it is to the writer's h 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. minding Archbishop ...11sHALE that the enemies of Roman 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, or 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 man, but of those whose