London, Friday, September...
The French papers of 'T'uesday arrived last niglht; and(I we have given, under thc proper hcad, such extracts froiri thern as scem rnmsst deserving of attention. Among thcse is a paragraph, which we are at a loss to uniderstand ; and about the mcaning i1' wlich, perhaps, it is scarcely worth while to puzzle ourselvrs. SwiF1i, if we remernber right, nearly broke his teeth in cracking a nut, and found in it only a worm. So far as the obvious construction of wordsI would carry us, the Protestant Government of <Great Bri- tainl appears, by this patagraph, to have or(lercl a Catholic mlass to be said tor the soul Of JAS;Es If., onl the occasionI of translating from the church of St. Germains sanne of tthe mortal remains of the abdicated Monarch, anid to have employed the British Ambassador at Paris to make the ar- rangemenms. A Scotch Bishop in partihiLs was etgage(d to officiate ; and British subjects wevre invite(d to attend. i As Protestants, we have no idtea that mnass can do any goodI or harm either tothe livingorthc dead; and bythose who he- lieve in itsbuneficialefficacy, we object not to its performance, eitherfor a convictecd couspiratoror an exiled tyrant-forGuv FAUX, or JAfEs II. ; but why should British subjects be invited to attend a soleminity from which they are hound to absent thetnselves oni the score of religion, and which3 they nust abhor on that of civil freedom ? If such a service has been ordlered, there is veason to fear that the memory of the Royal exile is honourced, not as a Catholic, but as a le- gitiinate sovereign; andl if legitinate, as he dloubtless was on thle principles of the Holy Alliance, vhat becomes ol' the title of his successors ? The statement, after all, may be merely a mistake; as, if fact, it is certainly an absur- dity. If the Keeper of the King's conscience has ordered the Bishop of EDINBuRGH to 9ay mass for the soul of a Catholic King who died near a century ago, we shall hear no more of the toast of the ProtestAnt Ascendentcy, and sec uo mnore opposition to the Catholic claims. FnRNc11 FUNDS.-PATtIS, Sept. 7.-Five per Cents. opened at 99.15.; closed a, 99. 10. ex. div.; Bank Stock, 1.900.; Neapoli- tan tIve per cents. in ducats, 87J.; Royal Spanish Loan, S6i. Ex- change on London, one mnnth, 2.. 1o.; three months, 24. 95.- Couis AnI/hentique. !s LOND ux. FRIDAY, .S' PTEB,lBER 10, 1824.