§ Sir R. H. Inglisrose to move for information, to the production of which he understood the right hon. gentleman the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs had no objection, and to which, he trusted the House would have as little objection. He would not, therefore, detain the House further than by stating the object of it, namely, to obtain through his majesty's ministers and consuls in those countries in which the Roman Catholic religion is dominant, information 1276 relative to the exercise of Protestant Worship, and to the burial of Protestants, by law or in practice, in those countries.
§ Mr. Canningthought that the hon. baronet should have given notice of his intention to make such a motion. If such a return should be ordered, he should feel it necessary to move for a similar return of the rights enjoyed by Catholics in Protestant countries under similar circumstances.
§ Sir R. Inglisobserved, that he did not conceive that any objection could have been made to this proposition, as it was only a sequel to several motions made ten or twelve years ago for the purpose of obtaining information relative to the Catholic religion.
§ Mr. Denmansaid, that the motion which the hon. baronet had so unexpectedly brought forward, was one of a novel, and unprecedented description. It was a motion which called upon our different consuls to exercise duties which had never been supposed to belong to their office, and which, if they did exercise, would give them a claim to additional emoluments from the country. From the extensive nature of the inquiry which the hon. baronet proposed to institute it was evident that they must peruse an enormous mass of legal documents, and wade through a great quantity of historical evidence, for which their previous habits might not have qualified them. Besides, the information which the hon. baronet wanted would, if obtained, only tend to raise a clamour in the country upon an argument that was totally false in itself, and which had never yet been incorporated with the discussion of the Catholic question. If the motion were good for any thing, it could only be for advocating some reciprocity of measures from the English government to its Catholic subjects, founded on the measures adopted by foreign Catholic governments to their Protestant subjects. Now, if the conduct of Roman Catholic governments had been most execrable in this respect, it was only a stronger argument for an enlightened government like that of England to give to its Catholic subjects those privileges which had been withheld by the bigotry of less intelligent governments. He hoped the right hon. gentleman would pause before he gave his sanction to this motion; at any rate, he hoped the House would pause before it allowed the policy of England to take its colour from that of 1277 bigotted, intolerant, and unenlightened Catholic countries—countries which we had hitherto outstripped in the race of intellectual glory and happiness, and which we ought never to follow in that career of intolerance which had been the curse of the world in all ages.
§ The motion was then withdrawn.