The Sun. — 1823-07-12 (London, England)

IRELAND.—The agitated state of Ireland is still, by the factious Papers on both sides of the water, ascribed either to bad government,.or to the violence and bigotry of Orangemen ; and thus the poor persecuted and harmless Catholics are represented as acting on the defensive, and as driven only by acts of oppression to their somewhat rough and prompt manner of redressing their grievances. We belieVe this to be a gross delusion, in some instances proceeding from ignorance, in others from wilful perversion and a design to mislead. Our readers know our sentiments on the system of letting and underletting lands, a source of great misery to the Irish peasantry;; but in this evil the Protestant peasantry have their full share, and there is nothing in that system which exclusively bears upon the Catholics. We ' have as explicitly expressed ourselves in favour of it system of Government firm, but mild and rigidly just ; and in favour of the suppression of every real abuse of power or influence, though such instances have most grossly exaggerated, both in number and degree. But do the present' disturbances, burnings, murders, and various atrocities, arise froM any of the supposed causes, so often put forth in order to palliate them ? We believe that it will be found, that a cause of a totally distinct kind, but far more operative, is producing these deplorable effects,-and is rapidly bringing the great part of the Catholic population into a confederacy, not against middlernen and tithe proctors ; not against Orange associations and the Dublin Cor. poration f but against the whole Protestant population itself. —The principle of hostility and hate to Protestants, as Protestants, heretics, and persons doomed to eternal wrath, be cause out of the pale of the Popish Church, have been constantly and carefully cultivated by the very priesthood, who, forsooth, we are told, are in the habit of discountenancing those passions which, in Ireland, are daily producing such horrors. This tenet, so calculated to render an ignorant and superstitious peasantry ferocious, has never been renounced by the priests.. The doctrines of charity have never been enforced, except by a few, and a very few exceptions ; and the right and duty; and even merit, of exterminating heretics, is the standing feeling and conviction of the great bOdy of the Catholic Irish. Here' lies the root of every evil ; it is one which fastens shame upon Popery itself and upon its priesthood ; and When a principle so deep and deadly exists, whatever calls it into activity kin. dies a flame, the ravages of which cannot be calculated, though we are sure that it must be ultimately suppressed. It is a matter of fact, that this deadly principle exists among the Irish Catholics ;:. and it is equally true, that. an ,exciting cause is at work, which, perhaps, more than any Other, is calculated to call it forth., We allude to those interpreta. tions of the Book of Itevelations; by Pastorini, (itself a fictitious name,) which promise the complete and speedy triumph of the Catholics over the Protestants, and the destruction of the latter. All know the infatuation which such predictions are calculated to produce among ignoritut and superstitious people. The followers of Richard lirotheis and .of Joanna Southeote are in proof of this; and when such an attempt is made to delude the imagination, in a case where a feeling of deep hostility exists among tens of chousands, and adapts itself to a favourite and long-cherished hope, the consequence must be tremendous. Of this inflam, oratory publication,, we arc credibly informed that many thousands have imued and are issuing from the Catholic press in Ireland, and have produced the worst effects upon the passions of the peasantry. To blind the Protestants and the Government, a mutilated edition of this work has also been published, with the most dangerous parts left out; lint the teal Pastorini has gone into every part of Ireland. Who furnishes the moms'? And who are the agents of the circulation ? These circumstances are in decided proof of a conspiracy to produce a universal commotion and rebellion. 11 e really pity the lower order of the Irish Catholics. They are thus led astray by de. signing men to their own misery, and the infliction of universal misery on the country.