THE EARL or DONOUGHMORE'S MOTION FOR A COMMITTEE ON THE CIVIL DISABILITIES OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS. (Hansard, 21 April 1812)

HL Deb 21 April 1812 vol 22 cc509-703 509

The Earl of Donoughmore
moved the order of the day, for a Committee to take into consideration the Claims of the Catholic body, for the removal of the disabilities under which they labour. The Order having been read,

The Earl of Donoughmore
rose and said:
My lords; The Petitions on the part of my Catholic countrymen, which your lordships have heard read, are sufficiently explicit in stating the objects of the petitioners, four millions of your fellow-subjects, the Irish nation. What are the grievances of which they complain?—That they are excluded from the enjoyment of those constitutional privileges, which they claim as the birth-right, and the inheritance of every member of the British Union. What is the remedy for which they make their firm, but respectful appeal to the justice of this House?—The removal of unjust restrictions—the revival of suspended right.
This is not a new question, brought forward for discussion, now, for the first time. Your lordships have already heard the weighty arguments, by which the affirmative side of it stands supported, repeatedly put, with all the appropriate force, which talent and zeal will always give to a good cause, to every objection, which the apprehensions of his own mind have ever suggested to the well intentioned alarmist, the strong powers of truth and reason applied, again and again, with irresistible effect; and bigotry itself dislodged 510 from its strong holds, defeated and rebuked.
There is, however, one preliminary objection—that of bringing this subject forward, at a time peculiarly unseasonable, against which I must guard myself at the outset. I must not be told, that lam now renewing a discussion, on which your lordships have decided twice during the present session. It is certainly true, that during that period, two questions have already engaged the attention of the House, in both of which the just claims of the Irish Catholics formed a strong and prominent feature. Indeed, I know not how I could select any question, of vital importance to that country, which must not embrace the necessity of conciliating them, so irresistibly must their present condition force itself into view, as the master grievance, whenever the alarming state of Ireland, at such a crisis as the present, becomes the object of consideration. But in both cases, the claims of the Catholics made but a part of the subject, which thus engaged the attention of your lord-ships. In both, it was complicated with other considerations of a weighty nature; with the administration of justice in Ireland, and the conduct of the Irish government in the one case, and with the removal of the ministers in the other. On the first occasion, it was the operation of the Convention Act, which was the immediate subject of complaint. In the other the general misconduct and impolicy of his majesty's ministers, on all the leading and most important measures of their administration.
On the motion of the noble earl (Fitzwilliam) at the commencement of the session, many of your lordships might not have been prepared to have voted a censure on the Irish government, however anxiously they might have wished, that the Catholic grievances had not been interrupted, in their progress to parliament and to the throne. On the motion of the noble baron, (lord Boringdon) your lord-ships might have been still less ready, to go the whole length of passing sentence of execution, against the whole administration. Some noble lords might have been desirous to have given a long day, in order to have afforded to a noble viscount, (Sid-mouth) and a noble earl (earl of Buckinghamshire) who have lately joined the administration, an opportunity of taking their part on the solemn occasion. Others, 511 in compliment to the feelings of a noble earl, (Camden) long supposed not to be a fixture in the government, might have wished to have afforded him an opportunity of escaping from the head of the council board, before the day of retributive justice.
Against the question which I now offer to your lordships' notice, no noble lord is pledged, by either of these his former votes, nor by any feeling such as I have described. From my present proposition, no one need withhold his assent, who is not a devoted and pledged friend to intolerance and exclusion, on their own intrinsic merits. Simple and uncomplicated, in all its native dignity and importance, the cause of your Catholic fellow subjects now approaches your lordships. And the known removal of that obstacle, which has so long stood in the way of its accomplishment, leaves every man at liberty to take up the question now, on its own peculiar grounds. And though there should be some little deviation from former opinions and former votes, no one need be ashamed of such a change of sentiment, or of turning, however late, out of the road, in which he has been travelling too long, into that path, which leads to national conciliation, and national strength.
But, from the experience of some of your lordships, and the history of the progress of this question in the sister country, this House cannot be unprepared, for changes of opinions somewhat sudden, in those who are now at the head of the Regent's councils. Let me remind a noble earl, (the earl of Buckinghamshire) who has been lately added to the confidential servants of the government, and the noble earl (the earl of Westmoreland) in the blue ribband, of whose administration in Ireland he had made a part, of the proceedings in that kingdom in 1792, and 1793, compared or rather contrasted with each other.
The rejection of the petition of the Catholics, in the House of Commons of Ireland, in 1792, for only a limited elective franchise, by the noble earl, at the head of a triumphant majority, pledges of lives and fortunes, for the perpetual exclusion of the Catholics, by every corporation throughout the kingdom, great and small, in which the ever obsequious corporation of the city of Dublin took the lead, but, unfortunately for the public, did not stand then, as it does now, the solitary example of intolerance, the miserable object of ministerial 512 power. A Petition, notwithstanding all this, from a representative body of the Catholics, elected by all the Catholics of Ireland, sitting in the metropolis for many days, found its way to the foot of the throne, although the two noble earls, who then administered the Irish government, would not suffer it to pass through the regular official channel. The memorable session of 1793, opened with a speech from the throne, delivered by the noble earl in the blue ribband, strongly recommending to the parliament the Catholic Claims, and the elective franchise, unlimited and entire, and all the valuable concessions of the act of 1793, restored to the Catholics, by a Bill, introduced into parliament by the other noble earl, and backed by all the influence of his Majesty's government.
The obsequious Commons of Ireland, among whom, in the preceding year, forty-five were only found, who did not pledge themselves against the grant of any further concessions to their Catholic countrymen, now and for ever, inspired on the sudden with extraordinary sentiments of kindness and liberality; the intolerance of the petty corporations abashed and put down, and by the timely and discreet recantation of the Irish parliament, and the wisdom and firmness of a noble viscount (Melville) now no more, then the Secretary of State for the Home Department, and to whose memory, for this just and merciful act of his administration, I shall always look as to that of a great public benefactor, the important conciliation of 179S, accomplished, without a struggle.
So much for pledges, so much for consistency, so much for that infuriate religious phrenzy, which outstrips and insults reason; which is not the child of our understanding, but the offspring of our worst passions; which is not real, but affected; which is provoked, and excited, but not natural; which hypocrisy assumes, and interest deposes; which a tender heart could not feel, and an honest one would not practise.
But every former relaxation of the penal code, in favour of the Irish Catholics, from 1778, when their situation first engaged the attention of parliament, to the period of the great concessions of 1793, was in every instance, the measure of the ministers of the crown, recommended on the last memorable occasion, by the king's representative, in his speech from the 513 throne. And it was particularly fit and becoming, that so signal an instance of justice and mercy to his suffering subjects, should proceed from the gracious and immediate interposition of the common father of all his people. For in what other character could the sovereign power exhibit itself, with such appropriate grace and dignity? And so deeply is that feeling impressed upon my mind, that I should accept, with some mixture, almost of regret, as the mere triumph of the political struggle of contending parties, the important object for which I am now contending for my Catholic countrymen; if the unhappy circumstances of the present moment, did not lead me now nearly to despair of its accomplishment at any time, as the measure of unenforced liberality.
But, why was not this question already put at rest, and the good work of conciliating Ireland at least begun, by the gracious reccommendation from the throne, of the Catholic Claims, as an early act of the Regent's unlimited government? For the last twelve years, the accomplishment of that healing measure had been rendered, perhaps, impossible, by those conscientious scruples, which were known to have existed in the mind of a certain illustrious individual; though the moment, at which the existence of such an obstacle was announced to the public for the first time, was assuredly not the most appropriate and satisfactory; under all the circumstances of the case. It was not, till after the ministers in both countries, and amongst the rest a noble viscount, who sits in the other House, had given to the Catholics the strongest grounds of being assured, at least of the early and favourable consideration of their claims, in the imperial legislature, and that they had accomplished the measure of union by such effectual aid, that they discovered, or at least communicated to those whose services they no longer needed, that they could not perform their part of this so strongly implied contract. It is, however, matter of public notoriety, that such an obstruction has now entirely ceased to exist. To whatever I or any other person may conceive to be the actual opinions of the Prince Regent, at the present moment, on this or on any other public question, I know it would not be parliamentary for me to allude in this place, But, if I may be permitted to argue, from what the opinions of the same illustrious person were known to have been, as prince 514 of Wales, and before he had assumed the exercise of the executive functions—

Lord Kenyon
called the noble lord to order. He thought it highly disorderly to allude to the opinions of any person exercising the royal functions of the realm, or to conjecture what they were; as it was quite unparliamentary, to attempt to influence the deliberations of that House, by stating the opinions of the Prince Regent.

The Earl of Donoughmore.
If the noble lord's patience in hearing me had not been overcome, by his excessive zeal to preserve order, he might have learned, by this time, that I had no intention of saying what he has supposed me to have said. Had the noble lord heard me out, he would have found, that I was speaking merely to a point of history, to what history records, to have been, at a certain period, the political sentiments of the then Prince of Wales; to that, as such, I contend I have a right to speak; and I must beg leave of the noble lord to add, that such unseasonable interruptions are not the best means to preserve order, and that all similar attempts to obstruct my humble efforts in this good cause, shall prove as impotent as the present. My Catholic countrymen have not placed their interests in such hands, as will permit them to be thwarted and put down, by interruptions so unseasonable, improper, and disorderly.

Lord Kenyan
appealed to the House, whether, in his view of the noble earl's argument, he was not justified in calling him to order. If, under that impression, he had unseasonably interrupted the noble lord, he regretted it. He had merely acted from a sense of his parliamentary duty, without intending any thing personal to the noble earl.

The Earl of Donoughmore.
I admit that the interruption of the noble lord would have been perfectly just and seasonable, if I could have so entirely forgotten myself, as to have introduced the name of the Prince Regent, to influence the proceedings of this House. But what was the true statement of my argument? I had been reminding' your lordships, that every former concession to the Catholics, had been the professed measure of the minister, and in the instance of 1793, recommended to parliament in the speech from the throne. I had been explaining to your lordships, why, in deference to the scruples entertained in a certain quarter, such a recommendation could not have been reasonably 515 expected, daring the last ten years, and I was naturally proceeding to enquire, why, since such obstructions were, now entirely removed, no message had yet come down to this House, from the Prince Regent, respecting the Catholic Claims. Was this to be characterized, as an attempt to influence your lordships' deliberations, by the use of the name of the Prince Regent? My argument had an aspect directly the reverse. The object of my complaint was, and I thought it matter of serious regret, that the Regent had not, in this instance, exercised the legitimate authority of the third estate, by recommending a measure of such pressing importance to the consideration of parliament, and with which the former sentiments of his royal highness the Prince of Wales, were known to have been so completely in unison. Must I then be compelled to lament, the voluntary sacrifice of these acknowledged and avowed feelings, to the assumed scruples, and political religion of his Royal Highness's ministers? And is the public to be insulted still with the same ridiculous mummery? The convenient consciences of the ministers, and of their sovereign, continually changing places, and alternately giving way to each other, with the greatest mutual politeness, between the principal actors in this disgusting scene, and nothing appearing to be forgotten, but the interests of the people.
On behalf of the Petitioners, I do not call upon your lordships to come at once to the immediate grant of any further concession, to the immediate repeal of any of the still existing disabilities. The object of the motion, with which I shall conclude, is for enquiry only. Can any man be prepared to say, that in the long list of exclusions by which the Catholics still continue to be kept, in a state of marked and degraded contradistinction to the rest of their fellow subjects, there is not one, from which they may with perfect safety to the state, from which they ought to be relieved? Is it possible, that there can be any one noble lord in this House, who is now prepared, at once and without the decency of some little previous consideration, to pass sentence of perpetual exclusion against them; from every constitutional privilege, to the enjoyment of which they have not been admitted already.
But the noble lord on the woolsack, in resisting, on a former occasion, a motion somewhat similar to the present, asked 516 your lordships, whether it was not absurd to charge those with whom he acted, with refusing to discuss the subject matter of the Catholic Petitions? Was not the House, argued the noble and learned lord, then engaged in that very discussion, into which we complain that we have not been permitted to enter? But the noble lord must have been perfectly aware, that it was impossible to give to any measure a due parliamentary consideration, excepting in a committee only. For what arguments can it require, to convince any reasoning mind that no great measure can be discussed with a view to any practicable result, except in a committee. And above all others, the case of his Majesty's Catholic subjects; split, as it is, into so many subdivisions, by the various heads of proscription, to which they are still exposed; and branching out, as it does, into so many complicated relations, of individual interests and public security. To refuse to a subject, so extensively complicated in its several relations, so deeply interesting to the public weal in its important results, a grave discussion in a Committee of the whole House, is to say, in effect, that you will not discuss the subject at all for any practical result; it is to shut your ears against the Catholic grievances altogether and for ever; it is to turn from the bar of this House unheard, four-fifths of the population of the sister country, who claim at your lordships' hands the restitution of their own constitutional rights; and the other Protestant million of the constituency of the same state, who demand a free and complete admission, for their Catholic fellow subjects, into the constitution of their country.
Having at all times, whenever it has fallen to my lot to address your lordships upon this subject, put the question on the strong ground of constitutional right, I will hot now degrade its magnitude and importance, by condescending to enter into a detailed consideration of the particular impolicy and mischief of each existing disability; nor now be driven to argue every separate head of exclusion as a distinct grievance in itself, on its own peculiar constitutional demerits.
It is the principle of exclusion against which I raise my voice—that principle which would draw a line of perpetual demarcation between the citizens of the same common-wealth, the subjects of the same King—which would brand upon the foreheads of our Catholic countrymen 517 the foul imputation of unassured fidelity to the parent state—would claim for the Protestant part of the community the British constitution as their exclusive inheritance—and cut up by the roots every prospect of uniting those conflicting interests, by that complete and useful adjustment, which can be expected to stand on no foundation less assured than this; the enjoyment of the same constitutional privileges; the acknowledgment of the same constitutional rights.
Placing my argument on such high ground, I will not fritter its consequence away by endeavouring to shew, by a regular train of proofs, why the same man, to whom, as colonel, the command of a regiment is now confided, may not be safely trusted, as a general officer, with the command of a brigade; why those, who are already spread over the face of the whole country, as justices of the peace, and who, at the quarter sessions, in every one of the thirty-two counties, administer the functions of civil and criminal jurisdiction, so extensively, may not preside in the superior courts, as judges of the land; and why those who are already admitted into the elective franchise, should not themselves be eligible to the trust of representing others?
On the act of 1793 I take my stand, containing, as it does, a long catalogue of grievous disabilities: I produce it to your lordships as sufficient evidence, to prove the case of my Catholic countrymen, in the existence of those exclusions from constitutional privileges; the removal of which is the ground of their present appeal to the wisdom and justice of this House.
I produce the same statute to your lord-ships, as a most important document, in favour of the Petitioners' claims, in another point of view: inasmuch as, by the great importance of the privileges which it restores, it enacts the most authentic proof of the conviction of the legislature, that that class of persons, on whom it had conferred already so great a portion of political power, were worthy of perfect and complete confidence, as assured members of the Protestant state.
On that foundation, so ably and so broadly laid, in the statesman-like and weighty argument of a noble marquis (Wellesley) on a late occasion, I lay the corner-stone of my argument. I say with him, that every restraint, excluding a particular description of the subjects of any 518 state from the enjoyment of advantages possessed by the community, is in itself a positive evil.
Having thus shown the existence of the mischief, and established the title of the Petitioners to the enjoyment of these their common rights, from the intrinsic evidence of the statute of exclusion itself, I have fairly thrown it upon his Majesty's ministers to come forward, and exhibit to this House their apprehended dangers; and to shew to your lordships, if they can, that the removal of these exclusions would be attended with some great constitutional evil; that the continuance of them, at the present day, is rendered indispensable by some over-powering state necessity.
But here the advocates for perpetual exclusion interpose their never-failing objection, and ask us, with astonishment and dismay, whether we are really prepared to entrust the Catholics with political power? Surely, my lords, this argument has long since gone by; the question has been decided against their own objection, by the act of his Majesty's ministers of 1793.
For will any man affect to doubt, that the Catholics are in possession already of great political power? Is it not obvious that they are the electors of a great proportion, perhaps of the majority, of the Irish representatives? They are already admitted into the state, by the possession of the elective franchise; against the grant of which lord Clare, their great opponent, had argued, as the certain and necessary forerunner of seats in parliament. They have therefore thus acquired already, an irresistible claim to the restoration of that, the most important of all their present exclusions, from the evidence of the act of 1793, and the argument of as able, and as persevering an opponent, as the Catholic claims had ever to encounter, in any place, or at any time.
With respect then to those dangers which were still said to exist, as obstacles to the removal of the still existing disabilities, with respect to the additional securities which some still called for as indispensable, for the safety of the state, before that consummation of the justice of parliament, so devoutly to be wished for, could take place, it is only necessary for me, to desire your lordships to read the statute of his Majesty's ministers of 1793, as the title of the Catholics to the great constitutional privileges, to which they were then restored, as the firm foundation 519 on which they built their future hopes, as establishing the principle of legitimate claim on the one hand, and just concession on the other. For what did that statute say, in terms the most explicit? These are the tests of your fidelity to the constitution, this is the touchstone, by which your religion is to be tried, as it affects the Protestant state; take certain oath?, and disavow certain feelings imputed to your church, and we will heap upon you important advantages now, with an intention hereafter, of admitting you to a full participation of all those rights and privileges, of which you will thus have proved yourselves to be worthy.
But what is the language, and the conduct, and the conciliation of the ministers of the present day?—For these, I will first direct your lordships' attention to the proceedings of the other House of Parliament. The funds of the establishment at Maynooth, the only and exclusive source, as your lordships know, of education for the ministers of the Irish Catholic church, having been found inadequate to effectuate this, the avowed object of its institution, an application was made, and repeatedly pressed upon the Chancellor of the Exchequer, year after year, for such small addition to the annual grant, as should make it commensurate to the original purposes for which it was intended. What was the mighty sum required? An addition only of 4,000l. to the usual yearly grant! and that for affording the benefit of moral and religious education to the whole Catholic priesthood. But in what manner did the ministers receive, and answer this just and reasonable suggestion? With a blank, unqualified negative; and, as if to sharpen the edge of this disappointment, in itself sufficiently marked and goading, the scruples of the conscientious Secretary of State for the Home Department, are called into activity; and the Catholic insulted by the lamentations of the right hon. gentleman, that the college of Maynooth had ever existed at all, as an establishment supported by the state! Indeed, so much in hostility were the feelings of ministers here declared to be to all his Majesty's Catholic subjects, that it was matter of deep regret to this pure and upright servant of the crown, that the benefits of the education were ever, even in part, afforded to the members of that religion; the professors of which compose four-fifths of the whole population of the state, and where the conduct 520 of that population has been represented by a noble viscount, (lord Castlereagh) a member of the same House, and another of the ministers, as more influenced by their priests than by the law, or any other authority or consideration whatsoever.
Permit me now to ask your lordships under what circumstances it is, as relating to the disposal of the public money, that the ministers dole it out for the education of the Catholic priesthood, with so reluctant and so grudging a hand, in times of an unexampled waste and profusion, when the sum of 13,000l. is granted at the same time, in the shape of stipends, to the members of the Irish Protestant Dissenters; certainly an excellent and much deserving body of men, but whose congregations scarcely comprize one-tenth of the population of that part of the United Kingdom; and when, in the pure spirit of proselytism, which we are not disposed to pardon in any sect of Christians, with the exception only of our national church, for the education in the Protestant charter schools, and in the principles of that religion, of a mere handful of the children of Catholic parents, is apportioned the enormous annual sum of 41,000l.
So much for the spirit of conciliation towards the Catholic part of the community, which has so strongly marked the proceedings of the other House of Parliament. Now we will look a little nearer home, and see what the spirit of conciliation has been in your lordships' House. In the printed report of a late debate, on the motion of a noble baron for the removal of the Regent's ministers, one of them, another noble baron, (lord Mulgrave) is made to ask, whether the Catholics did not say, that they would be satisfied with the concessions of 1793, and yet they come again, continues the noble baron, like the beggar in Gil Blas, asking alms, with a pistol pointed to your breast.
As this is put interrogatively, and not in the shape of an assertion, I have a right, without offence to the noble speaker, to whom it is attributed, as my own knowledge of the fact sufficiently enables me to do, to meet his lordship's question, with a direct and unqualified negative; neither did the Catholics themselves, nor any friend of theirs, condescend to enter into so unworthy a compromise on their be-half. On the contrary, during the progress of the noble earl's Bill in 1793, he will remember that further concessions were moved to be added to it by way of 521 amendment, by the supporters of the Catholic claims in the Irish House of Commons; the noble earl will, I am sure, also do me the justice of recollecting, that I expressed my acquiescence in his lord-ship's measure in the other House, as establishing a growing principle of legitimate claim on the one hand, and just concession on the other.
The intention of this argument, if it deserves that name, was obviously this: to represent the Irish Catholic to your lordships, as an untoward, untractable creature, who must always have in his mind ulterior views, which he is in the constant habit of concealing, and whom you can never hope effectually to conciliate, or entirely to satisfy. When it is by such arguments as these that the Catholic claims are assailed, it is material to shew how little these insinuations are supported by the fact.
With respect to that general and misplaced invective with which the noble lord appears to have indulged himself, against the character of the Irish people—on taking counsel from his own better judgment and returning discretion, he will assuredly join with me in thinking, that these were not fit expressions, by which to designate a high-spirited population, whose feelings to the sense of injury or insult, are not less acute than those of his lord-ship; and in defence of whose national and individual characteristics, there is fortunately no necessity to require either the opinion or the testimony of the noble lord.
Are my Catholic countrymen then, to be characterized as beggars, by his Majesty's mild, conciliating, and temperate ministers? If they are beggars, who made them so? They have, unhappily, had the full benefits of your instruction and fraternity, for the last 600 years. You complain of your own acts: it was your own barbarizing code which forcibly arrested from the Catholic the constitution of his country, which was his inheritance and his birthright—that made him, as it were, an alien in his native land. It was the all devouring spirit of your commercial monopoly which stripped my countrymen of their manufactures, their commerce, and their industry; it was your insatiate lust of power that degraded the parliament, and the nation by the arrogant assumption of binding by your laws, another legislature as independent as your own. But when, and under what circumstances 522 did the Catholic, and the Protestant, and the parliament reclaim and recover their invaded right? In times of British weakness and apprehension. When did these invasions of their rights fall upon my countrymen with the greatest weight? In the most triumphant moments of British strength, pride, and prosperity.—Under such impressions as these, I feel it to be my bounden duty, earnestly to recommend to your lordships' prompt and favourable consideration, the manifold grievances of your Catholic fellow-subjects, whilst the grant may still preserve somewhat of the dignity and the grace of unenforced concession.
I am impelled by this additional motive to press these suggestions on your lordships' attention at the present moment, for the purpose of putting an end to those violent and unmanly threats, proceeding not from the ministers, but from behind the throne; of tranquillizing your Catholic petitioners by military execution, and returning an answer to their respectful application to the Prince Regent and to the parliament, by his Majesty's guards, and a certain illustrious personage; for the purpose of exhibiting to my country-men more forcibly, the blessings of British protection; and thus conciliating, at the point of the bayonet, a brave and generous population, of four millions of fellow subjects. And finally, to protect the public peace against the recurrence, at any future period, of such unconstitutional, arbitrary, and sanguinary projects, as would justify and demand resistance from every lover of constitutional liberty, and detester of tyrannous oppression.
But, perhaps, such idle and impotent denunciations would be best answered by contemptuous silence, and by the consoling conviction, that their authors would assuredly, be more disposed to provoke hostility, than to take their place in the front of battle.
Since the commencement of the unfortunate reign of Charles the 1st, blindly welcomed by my Catholic countrymen, as a period pregnant with the happiest prospects, for their religion and for themselves;—to no event have they ever looked with so much confident and anxious hope, as to that auspicious moment, when, in the fulness of time, the present Heir Apparent to the crown should assume the government of these his realms. In him, they thought they saw the messenger of peace, with healing on his wing—the 523 promised guardian of the people's rights—of the fomented discord of his father's Irish subjects, the indignant spectator—of their interests, the avowed and zealous assertor—to Catholic privilege, an assured and plighted friend.
When the exercise of the executive functions was suspended, for the first time, by the same awful visitation, Ireland successfully maintained the cause of the Prince, not equally triumphant in this more favoured nation, committing to him, the legitimate heir to all the royal authorities, the administration of his own inheritance, till returning health should restore his sceptre to the suffering King.
The heart of the illustrious person overflowed with affectionate and just feelings; and my confiding countrymen fondly trusted, that they had bound their future monarch to them by a double tie.
How sanguine were these hopes! How strong and firmly rooted the foundations on which they seemed to rest! But they are gone—blasted at the moment of full maturity; and, instead of that rich and abundant harvest of national union and prosperity, which we were prepared to gather, as the first fruits of the promised conciliation of the illustrious person, the sharpened edge of a slumbering statute, which had never been awakened before for the annoyance of the people, called, for the first time, into mischievous activity, and turned against the Catholic, assembled for the lawful purpose of remonstrating for the redress of grievances; and those desperate men who dared thus to intercept, in their constitutional and legitimate progress to the parliament and to the throne, the petitions of an oppressed community of four millions of their fellow subjects, confirmed in the full possession of all their former power, in the full exercise of all their former intolerance, as the ministers of his own peculiar choice, by the first act of the unlimited Regent.
We have indeed been told, from the highest authority, that all remembrance of the past should now be buried, in mutual congratulations, on the happy prospects of the present moment—abroad, triumphant warfare—prospering commerce, and successful negociation at home, universal satisfaction, tranquillity, confidence, and concord.
A New Era, it seems, has opened upon us;—but what, my lords, let me ask, are those peculiar circumstances from which this high sounding designation has derived 524 its distinguished character? What is there, in the whole range of foreign or domestic policy, which does not continue to occupy its own former position? with the exception only of the public conduct,—perhaps the present feelings and opinions;—I will never permit myself to believe, the principles of the illustrious personage himself.
For what act of mercy to a suffering people has introduced, and graced the inauguration, if I may term it so, of this new order of things? What grievance of the state not unredressed? What pledge of a long public life not unredeemed?—Confidence unbounded to those very ministers who, but last year, would not confide to that illustrious person, the unshackled discharge of those royal duties, of which, from the high privilege of his exalted birth, he was the natural and only representative.—The just claims of our Catholic fellow subjects, the conciliation of Ireland, and every former impression on these most interesting and important subjects, complimented away, as a premium and a boon, for the continuance of such an administration as was never permitted at any former time of equal exigency and alarm, to insult the feelings, and betray the dearest interests of a devoted people.
Such are the true characteristics of this inauspicious crisis—these the distinguishing features of the new era, unequalled for the easy abandonment of all preconceived opinions and former pledges, by any other, either of ancient or of modern times; the most prominent and striking circumstances of which, it has been my necessary, though painful duty, thus to expose to your lordships' view, and which have excited the deepest and most universal spirit of regret, astonishment and indignation.
The ministers have drawn as it were a magic circle round the throne, into which none are permitted to enter, on whom the confidence of the illustrious person has been accustomed to repose. Within its range the artificers of mischief have not ceased to work, with too successful industry. What phantoms have they not conjured up to warp the judgment, to excite the feelings, and appal the firmness of the royal mind? But, though the evil genius should assume a mitred, nay, more than noble form, the sainted aspect which political bigotry delights to wear, or the lineaments of that softer sex, which first beguiled man to his destruction—though, to 525 the allurements of Calypso's court, were joined the magic, and the charms of that matured enchantress, should the spirit of darkness take the human shape, and issuing forth from the inmost recesses of the gaming house or brothel, presume to place itself near the royal ear;—what, though the potent spell should not have worked in vain, and that the boasted recantation of all incumbering prepossessions and inconvenient prejudices, had already marked the triumph of its course—though from the royal side they should have torn the chosen friend of his youth, and faithful counsellor of his maturer years, the boast of his own gallant profession, the pride, the hope, the refuge of my distracted country, and a high and conspicuous ornament of yours—though they should have banished from the royal councils talents, integrity, honour and high-minded-ness like his, and should have selected for the illustrious person, an associate and an adviser from Change Alley and from the Stews—though they should have thus filled up, to its full measure, the disgusting catalogue of their enormities, we must still cling to the foundering vessel, and call to our aid those characteristic British energies by which the ancestors of those, whom I have now the honour to address, have so often, and so nobly saved the sinking state.
Parliament must lay the spirit of evil which is abroad: beware how you neglect the performance of your part of that important duty. Public indignation, justly provoked, and the maddening sense of unheeded grievances and triumphant profligacy, are fearful reformers.
But I will not despair of better times. The illustrious mind cannot but loath the ignoble and degrading fetters by which it is enchained; the time cannot be distant, when the illusions of the present moment shall have vanished from the sight; may I not be permitted to anticipate the auspicious consummation of these my sanguine hopes? See, he has already rallied round him the men, in whom the nation puts its trust; the counsellors of his own unbiassed choice. See, he has broken the spell, and presents himself to his gratified country, with the olive branch of conciliation in his hand— Restitit Eneas, claraque in luce refulsit, Os humerasque Deo similis"— in all the natural and fair proportions of his own generous and enlightened mind, to heal all our wounds, and to unite all his people.
526 But here, my lords, let me put to the ministers of the Regent, one serious question; have they ever permitted themselves to call to their calm and deliberate attention, what those circumstances are, of their own country and of other surrounding nations, under which they are still prepared to exclude, from the enjoyment of their constitutional rights, so large a part of the efficient strength of the state? Have these puny politicians of the present day, and who are incapable of extending their views to the consideration of to-morrow, condescended to measure the true dimensions and magnitude of those dangers, with which we are now encompassed?
When was there ever, at any former period, directed against the existence of any nation, so formidable a mass of gigantic means? From the gates of the seraglio to the frozen shores of the Baltic, is there one friendly arm uplifted in our defence? Has not the ruler of France surrounded, as it were with an armed bulwark, the coasts of Europe and her ports, against the adventurous enterprise of British speculation? For our exclusion, has he not effectually locked the continent up; and does he not keep the keys in his own hands? In the peninsula indeed, the brave defenders of their own invaded rights, have admitted us to the illustrious fellowship of fighting by their side, for the display of the best energies of our gallant troops', they have given us an extensive field, in the bosom of their own wasted country, and the happy occasion of still continuing to shed additional lustre on the British name, by the brilliant achievements of our distinguished leader, and the bright career of glory which he has run.
But is it, let me ask your lordships, the war of rival sects, or the thunders of the Vatican, which have convulsed and shaken to its centre astonished Europe? No, my lords, it is the sword of as great a conqueror as any, either of ancient or of modern times; it is the energy of that comprehensive mind, which, in the pursuit of its vast and magnificent projects, can unite all nations, languages, interests and religions.
At such a moment as the present, what pledge should be required from British subjects, of their fidelity to the state? Perpetual hostility to France, the foe to Britain, and to British greatness; universal amity, and union, and concord, and concentration at home.
The state of our relations with foreign powers, thus presenting to our view prospects 527 so truly dark and gloomy, and in the condition of our people at home, driven to despair, by the suspension of manufactures, the ruin of their trade, the weight of the public burthens, and the pressure of private distress, with so little to console and animate. With four-fifths of the population of the sister country, taught by the perpetual babble of our Anti-Catholic ministers, and by the concurrent testimony of their favourite code of proscription, that the Catholic subjects of the same King, must of necessity continue for ever, and under every possible change of circumstances, irreconcilable foes to their Protestant countrymen, and to the interests of the Protestant state. Under such circumstances as these, would not the confidence of the most assured believer in our deliverance from these impending dangers, be melted down, and every hope extinguished of the continuance of those relations, by which the discordant parts of this United Kingdom, have been so unsuitably linked together?
My lords; this is not precisely the favourable moment for sporting with the feelings of our Catholic millions; we have no indispensible necessity for strife or division. At a conjuncture like the present big with our fate, an awful crisis! when the union of all hearts and hands would not be more than enough to save us! wantonly to irritate to distraction, a generous, gallant, high-spirited population! the sinews of our military strength, is absolute insanity. It is the sure sign and prognostic of divine anger, dooming an empire to perish. Quippe, inductabilis fatorem vis, cujuscunque fortunam mutare instituit, mentern corrumpit. Against the fatal effects of such mad and desperate counsels, the constitution, however, has not left the country without a resource. To parliament it has confided the salutary power of arresting the course of weak and wicked ministers; reforming the errors, and even rebuking the follies and the vices of the first magistrate of the state, whenever they become inconvenient or dangerous to the public weal. Sure I am, that we are now arrived at that alarming and portentous crisis, at which is has become imperative upon your lord-ships, to call into activity, for the salvation of the empire, those high controuling authorities with which you are invested. You have two weighty functions to discharge; the one, to conciliate a large and 528 important part of your population, driven by impolicy and rashness, to the brink of despair; the other, to deliver the nation from the obstinate incompetency of its present rulers. Happily these duties are not inconsistent one with the other. From his place in parliament, the first minister of the Regent has informed us, in an authoritative tone, that he has made a compact with the representative of his sovereign, and has obtained from his royal master, the rejection of Catholic concession, as the consideration and the price of his own present and future services. I therefore call upon your lordships, to acquire for yourselves, a double claim to the gratitude of the public; by opening wide the doors of this House, to a candid and just consideration of the Petitioners' case; and by the extensive and sweeping benefits of the same healing measure, to redress and wipe away the two great grievances of the state; the exclusion of our Catholic fellow subjects, and the administration of the right honourable gentleman.
But we must not be too sanguine in our hopes, nor promise to ourselves the easy accomplishment of an object of such incalculable public benefit. We must expect a hard struggle, and be prepared to encounter a resistance, decided and formidable, from those who have created the mischief, or nursed and brought it to maturity, and who are themselves the great grievance of which we complain. If by such a combination, our best efforts should be defeated for a time, it to the returning wisdom and justice of parliament, that the Catholics are still to look for ultimate and sure redress. Persevering with unabated ardour in the pursuit of this their claim of right, I would bid them beware of the suggestions of intemperate counsellors, or of yielding too much to the guidance of their own justly roused and irritated feelings; I would say to them in a voice to which they have been accustomed to hearken without distrust—
" Brave and much injured countrymen, do not take counsel from despair; continue to confide in the unquenchable energies of the British constitution; of which you are the joint inheritors with ourselves, and, which all the corruptions of the government have been insufficient to extinguish, the guardians of your rights and privileges are at their post. Except in one solitary instance, the firm phalanx of the friends of the people remains unbroken. 529 Office and emolument,—power and honours the most distinguished, have been proffered in vain, as the price of political inconstancy, and of a disgraceful connection with the present administration; formed under auspices the most odious and disgusting, and whose watchwords are, intolerance and religious war. Even the Garter itself, that high and eminent distinction, has been put away;—as ceasing to be an object of honourable ambition; under the degrading colour of these disastrous times. The Catholic cause, and the cause of the British empire have been loudly proclaimed, by all our great constitutional leaders, to be one and the same. Eternal hostility has been sworn, against your calumniators and oppressors, upon the altar of our common country. The minions of the court have been dragged from behind the throne, and exposed to the view of an insulted public, and the whole system of misrule, by which this devoted empire is oppressed and goaded, has been denounced to this House by a noble friend of mine^*—in a strain of masculine and indignant eloquence, which, if equalled at any time, has never been exceeded within these walls. That clumsy combination of vice and bigotry, from which you are now seeking for a deliverance—on your own part, and on that of the suffering community,—is composed of materials so wretched in themselves, and held together by a cement, which has in its nature, so little of what is permanent, or binding, that the whole pile exhibits, now almost at the moment of its construction, the obvious principle of decay—and, assuredly, cannot long continue to interpose itself, between the representative of the sovereign power, and the best interests of the people."
My lords; I will not permit myself to doubt of the salvation of my country—encompassed though it is, by difficulties and dangers on every side; and, that there is yet in store, for this united kingdom, a long and bright train of prosperity and of glory.
Animated by this consoling hope, I will still continue to recommend patience to my calumniated and oppressed countrymen; for the hour of their deliverance cannot be far removed.
My lords, I have done—and have only to express my acknowledgments, for ^* Earl Grey, on lord Boringdon's motion. See p. so. 530 the attention with which I have been honoured, during so long a trespass upon your lordships' time; and humbly to move you, That a Committee be appointed to take into consideration the laws, imposing civil disabilities, on his Majesty's subjects, professing the Catholic religion,
And to refer to that committee, the several Petitions of the Catholics of Ireland, now upon your table; and, also those of their Protestant countrymen, strongly in affirmance of the necessity of conceding to the justice of the Catholic claims. No counter petition having found its way to either House of Parliament, from any quarter, with the exception only of that solitary attempt, to raise the Protestant cry, in which the ministers have succeeded, in the obsequious city of Dublin, by a miserable majority of sixteen; and after a former baffled effort, these two classes of Petitions contain, I have a right to assume, a fair expression of the undivided sentiment of the Irish nation, on a question to them of vital importance, and not interesting, in any proportionate degree, to any other part of the United Kingdom.
It is also my intention to move your lordships, to refer to the same committee, the Petition of the English Catholics, that truly respectable class of our fellow-subjects; together with the several petitions for religious liberty; from different denominations of Christians; which were presented by my noble friend (earl Grey) at the same time.
For the purpose therefore of taking into consideration, the laws imposing civil disabilities, on his Majesty's subjects professing the Catholic religion, I now move your lordships to resolve yourselves into a committee.

§ His Royal Highness THE DUKE OF SUSSEX:^*

§ My lords; every good subject must respect the laws of his country. It is not enough to begin by submitting to them; but it is our duty also to maintain them as long as they exist. This obedience, which must be religiously observed, does ^* From the Original Edition published by James Asperne, Cornhill, intitled, "The Speech of His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex in the House of Lords, on the Catholic Question, April 21,1812, with Proofs and Illustrations: Inde data legés, ne fortior omnia posset. Ovid, lib. iii. Fast.

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§ not prevent us, however, from investigating the inconveniences of laws, which, at the time they were framed, might have been political, prudent, nay even necessary, but now, from a total change of cir cumstances and events, may have become unjust, oppressive, and equally useless. If, on enquiry, the subject finds himself aggrieved, his next step should be, to petition the Sovereign, or both Houses of Parliament, for redress. This is one of the greatest privileges of our glorious constitution, upon which too much stress cannot be laid, as it tends not only to secure the liberty of the subject, but likewise to en sure the tranquillity of the state. 1 William and Mary, stat. 2, c. 2.

§ Such memorials ought always to be drawn up, and presented with all humility and respect; when it becomes the duty of the legislature to receive them in that conciliatory and gracious manner, and to pay them that due and serious attention, as will convince the petitioners of the justice and relief they may reasonably expect from the inclination which the Sovereign and Parliament cannot but at all times feel, to benefit the loyal and faithful subjects of these realms.

§ Influenced by such motives, we ought, my lords, to take the Petition presented to us into consideration, and give it that thought which the importance of the matter demands; bearing in mind the additional weight it has received from the respectability of the signatures, as to consequence, moral worth, and numbers.

§ The subject of the Petition is momentous in the extreme, as it claims redress on particular points, which all must allow are intimately connected with parts of our constitution. We ought not, therefore, to treat this supplication lightly; but to allow it a patient and impartial hearing, so as to prove to the nation, that we have favoured it with such a serious and fair discussion, as is alone likely to conduct us to a temperate and proper conclusion; and that the memorialists may depart satisfied they have not been dismissed with an impetuosity and frivolity, ill-suited either to the gravity or dignity of the highest, and, in that sense, the last court of appeal and equity in this country.

§ All impassioned feelings, however useful and praiseworthy, even at other times, should be set at rest for the present, whilst we ought to clothe and invest ourselves with the wisdom, calmness, and scrutiny, of a Plato or a Socrates, in order that, by 532 comparing the different bearings, and weighing the various points, we may form a correct, unbiassed and disinterested opinion, as to the fitness, propriety, and expediency, of the measure. Here, bigotry must skulk to the dark and loathsome recess of ignorance, presumption, obstinacy, and ill-nature; making room for truth, knowledge, reason, and generosity. With such pilots at our helm, we may be certain of bringing our vessel to a welcome port, and to a secure anchorage.

§ Much has been said lately, my lords, of a New Era; I have sought for it on all sides, with the utmost care and anxiety, but in vain. If, indeed, I should find, that reason has so far got the upper hand, as to silence and stifle the tea-table talks, and curtain lectures, of the abigails in the metropolis: when every horrible story of murders, perjuries, and a long et cetera of crimes, is conjured up, collected, and adorned with the phrenetic tales of heated and weak imaginations, such as the ghosts of murdered Protestants heard at Bam-bridge to cry out for vengeance against bloody Papists^*; and calculated for no other purpose than to frighten thoughtless children, like a Guy Faux, or to disturb the midnight repose of antiquated maidens.

§ If I should learn, instead of complimentary epistles addressed to divines under ministerial influence, encouraging and thanking them for inflaming the public mind by preaching on matters which had better be kept out of the pulpit—that a system of universal toleration, of evangelical charity, is to be held out, recommended, and approved;—then, indeed, I will bless the discovery, offering up my fervent and humble prayers of gratitude and adoration, before the altar of divine grace, and hail the nineteenth century as the era of light;—that era which we have so confidently expected, for which we have so constantly sought, and from which we have so continually strayed. An extent of time, to be counted, indeed, almost from the very first hour of the Fall of Man, but more particularly from the nativity of our blessed Saviour; not for the want of divine instruction, but from the misrepresentation of those sacred doctrines, which is solely to be attributed to the limited, selfish, and ambitious views of man alone, and to no other cause whatever. ^* An affidavit to this purpose was sworn at the castle of Dublin, about 1641.

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§ Pause then here, my lords, and let us examine the real source, the primum mobile, of those bloody tales, which have dyed the page of history with indelible and eternal disgrace. If the historian be impartial and correct, in man alone we shall find the whole to originate, who has at all times evinced himself to be an animal of blood; and the policy of states has seldom scrupled to associate, at least the name of religion, in the perpetration of its enormities. There is no doubt, but that state-policy, and the wicked love of power, was, and ever will be the first cause of those dissentions; and, therefore, to man alone must we look for their remedy.

§ If on us then, my lords, this task is to fall, if to us, in the midst of those difficulties, our fellow-subjects appeal for support, comfort, and redress; let us shew to the world at large, let us prove by our actions, let us convince Europe, more particularly appalled at this momentous crisis, that there does still exist a free country, an independent nation, in whose bosom, wisdom, justice, and generosity, still love to dwell, and fondly build their nests; that from that country, a light can, and will, go forth, to dispel and expose the dismal, the pestilential, and atrocious effects of tyranny, oppression, and atheism; and that those benefits, which elsewhere have been allowed by the all-wise, all-merciful, and all-powerful Director of human events to appear as originating in accident, and have been managed with the most refined Machiavelism, owe their rise and progress in this blessed island to a more pure, a more dignified, a more noble cause; to real unfeigned Christian charity, founded on the blessed Word of our Saviour, who came to save, not to destroy man.

§ I am well aware, my lords, that the man who ventures to speak the truth to contending interests, must expect the resentment of the fanatics on both sides; those men, who, losing sight of all religion, transfer the name to the secondary objects of their idolatrous doctrines, and veil their polluted politics with the sacred mantle of Christianity. To their resentment I know I am exposed; but the man who feels the amor patria, who disinterestedly and sincerely has the prosperity, glory, and welfare, of the nation at heart, should brave the danger, if he thinks he can be of any use; and arming himself with the courage of a Curtius, plunge into the gulph, should his country and his duty require it of him.

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§ Inspired with these sentiments; fully acquainted with the political causes, which placed that branch of the family to whom I have the honour to belong, on the throne of these united kingdoms, and professing the religion of the country as by law established, with which I am satisfied, considering it the most perfect, as long as I believe, and I am convinced, that it is the most charitable, I think myself called upon to explain to your lordships, the motives and considerations which determine my vote upon this great question. 'Homo sura; humani nihil a me alienum puto.'

§ I pretend to nothing else; nor wish but to recommend the moderation and gentleness, which belong to Christian hearts, instead of the rage which portrays the nature of tigers.

§ It is the cause of humanity and universal toleration that I am pleading, not from indifference to religion, which God forbid, but from a conviction that, when governments interfere with religious opinions, instead of protecting, they enslave them; which encourages hypocrisy; whereas they should tolerate their errors, without approving of them; suffering with patience all that their Maker permits from those errors to a far greater degree; and thereby endeavouring, after the example of our Saviour, to bring mankind back by a mild persuasion.

§ If man be prevented from manifesting his religious opinions and tenets, he will either become silent and a stranger to his neighbours, thus rendering himself suspicious to the commonwealth; or he will turn hypocrite, by connecting himself with a religion which he abominates, and which, therefore, can have no tie upon him; or he will end by being a freethinker, an atheist, denying the existence even of his Creator; and consequently depriving society of that security by which the religion he originally was inclined to profess, would naturally have bound him.

§ In tolerating all religions, government becomes acquainted with their tenets, and of course knows the limits, as well as the extent, of the pledges requisite for the tranquillity of the state, besides what holds it has, or can have upon them.

§ The wisest and soundest policy would leave all religions quietly to themselves, so long as they neither attack morality nor subvert the public quiet, either by their ambition or intolerance; their variety would not fail to produce a rival ship, 535 useful as a balance in the scale of power, and as an emulation to virtue. The state has no right to exercise its authority over the private opinions of any individual; but merely to notice those acts, which may endanger and disturb the regularity and good order of its civilized community. Man is amenable for his thoughts to no one except his Redeemer, who alone has the knowledge, power, and right to judge them.

§ A limited state may wisely adopt sumptuary laws; and, in that case, very prudently admit but of one religion; however, this would be a very narrow and weak policy in a great empire like ours, where the extent of our possessions calls upon us to govern a variety of nations, amongst whom there must naturally exist a diversity of opinions, and an industry which extends to an infinity of objects.

§ Thus situated, an enlightened, wise, and liberal government, should protect all religions, of whatever sects and casts, without any partial distinction; when jealousy, complaint of tyranny and oppression, and the loss of hope and confidence in the legislature (which must inevitably arise when they have been treated unequally and unfairly for a great length of time), would cease and give way to an union of interests. By such means alone can an immense state or empire exist, and be maintained, when every new acquisition and conquest will prove advantageous and beneficial. It was upon these principles that the Greeks and Romans conquered the greatest part of the known world; when they were every where acknowledged and considered benefactors and protectors, instead of conquerors and tyrants^*. ^* Cereali's speech to the Gauls, made to dissuade them from revolt. Speaking of the Romans, "Nos quamvis toties lacessiti, jure victoriæ id solum vobis addidimus quo pacem tueremur. Nam neque quies gentium sine armis; neque arma sine stipendiis, neque stipendia sine tributis, habere queant. Cætera in communi sita sunt: ipsi plerumque nostris exercitibus presidetis ipsi has aliasque provincias regitis; nihil separatum clausumve.—Proinde pacem et urbem, quam victores utique eodem jure obtinemus, amate, colite… This indulgence (of toleration) was no departure from the old maxims of government. In the purest ages of the common-wealth,

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§ The same plan, our chief antagonist, who narrowly watches, and strictly adheres to the examples and instructive lessons of the ancients, has craftily pursued; and such is the balm, and even charm, of religious toleration, that it has caused his iron-yoke to he borne with less clamour; and that the French nation, lulled asleep by the consolation of a promiscuous and free exercise of their religious tenets, have lost sight of the inquisitors' fagot, and unguardedly, before they were aware of the clanger, submitted to his temporal inquisitions and tortures†.

§ Should we not, then, take lessons of

§ Cybele and Æsculapius had been invited by solemn embassies. Livy, b. xi. p. 29. And it was customary to tempt the gods protectors of besieged cities by the promise of more distinguished honours than they possessed in their native country. (Pliny, lib. xxviii. Macrob. Saturnalia, 1. iii. c. 9, he gives the form of evocation.) Rome gradually became the common temple of her subjects; and the freedom of the city was bestowed on all the gods of mankind. (Minutius Fœlix in Octavio, p. 54.—Arnobius, l. vi. p.] 15.) Gibbon.

§ Rome, the capital of a great monarchy, was incessantly filled with subjects and strangers from every part of the world, who all introduced and enjoyed the favourite superstitions of their native country. Every city in the empire was justified in maintaining the purity of its ancient ceremonies. Gibbon. Sic dum universarum gentium sacra suscipiunt, etiam regna meruerunt. (Minutius Felix, in Octavio.)

§ † Buonaparté's Speech to the Deputation of the Protestant Clergy, upon the destruction of the French Republic. "Jeveus bien que l'on sache que mon intention et ma ferme volonté sont de maintenir la liberté des cultes. L'Empire de la loi finit ou commence l'empire indefini de la conscience. La loi ni le prince ne peu-vent rien contre cette liberte, tels sont mes principes et ceux de la nation et si quel-qu'un de ma race devant me succeder oublioit le serment que jai preté, et que' trompè, par Pinspiration d'une fausse conscience il vint a la violer. Je le voue a Pani-madversion publiqueet je vous autorise de lui donner le nom de Neron." (Reflexions Philosophiques et Politiques sur la Tolerance Religieuse, &c. page 47.)

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§ wisdom from our adversaries, and guard ourselves against such a dangerous weapon, wielded by the able hands of so wary a foe? By adopting a similar system of perfect toleration, which harmonizes so well with our constitution, and is so congenial with our ideas of liberty, we might produce incalculable advantages;—we should gain over fresh votaries to our cause, and lead the nation on to still greater victories and triumphs, by ensuring the united efforts and good wishes of many additional millions of grateful and loyal subjects.

§ Had we acted upon these salutary, generous, and' luminous principles, such scenes as took place in the East Indies a few years ago would not have existed to be recorded by the historian to our disgrace as a nation, and as statesmen, whilst for a time they must have seriously injured us, in our interests and good name with the natives^*.

§ By toleration, in short, is meant conformity, safety, and protection, granted by the state to every sect, that does not maintain doctrines inconsistent with the public peace, the rights of the sovereign, and the safety of our neighbour.

§ In proportion as civilization encreases in the world, diversity of opinions must naturally multiply; and on no subject so much as on that of religion, in which meditation has so great a share, in relation to the present security and future happiness of every individual.—As the mind of man improves, and expands by discoveries and communications with his fellow-creatures,

§ ^* P. 101, Reflexions Philosophiques et Politiques sur la Tolerance Religieuse, &c. "Ce que nous disons ici en favenr du Ju-daisme, nous le disons de meme en faveur de tous les cultes en général; car Petendue de territoire et d'influence de pempire Francais nous rend peu de cultes etrangers. Deja la France compte dans ses domaines, ou sous son influence, toutes les sectes Chretiennes avec le Judaisme dans ses anciennes possessions, elle compte pislam-istne dans ses nouvelles vers porient; bien-totpour punir un ennemi qui provoque sa propre ruine par son orgueil, elle sera dans le cas de compter aussi diverses sectes des Indes, il est impossible en reconnoissant pour citoyens les membres de tant de nations diverses, de ne pas reconnoitre et au-toriser leurs cultes; car on auroit beau se le dissimuler, on ne gagne pas les cœurs si on contrarie les esprits, les uns ne vont pas Iranchernent sans les autres."

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§ he is enabled to reason with greater advantage to himself, by comparison and reflection; and in no instance do the menial faculties shew their rapid strides so quickly, or under such a variety of forms, as in matiers of religion.

§ The unlimited extent he is naturally inclined to give to his speculations in discussions; as also the fecundity of methods he invents, to view and judge of objects, naturally induce him to resort to persons, whose ideas assimilate the most with his own, when during his research after truth and happiness, he almost as by instinct shuns those individuals, whose opinions are not congenial with his own impressions.

§ From this cause, a multiplicity of small societies is originally formed, which, en-creasing in numbers, become at length so many sects, or, in other terms, so many religions, for, though Christianity is a word, which, if properly understood, ought at least to unite us all together, yet by the misinterpretation of this august name, we abandon the reality for the shadow; which can but be traced to the infantine state of fallen man, in spite of all his acquired knowledge and boasted improvements.

§ A shade of difference on religious opinions, constantly gives rise to more acrimony and violence between the parties, than a total difference of faith: similar to the human heart, which is more liable to pass from love to hatred, than from love to indifference.

§ Let Christians agree in those points, which are admitted on all sides, as much as they differ with respect to private opinions of discipline; and dissension will soon cease.

§ The Roman Catholics, in common with the Protestants, believe in the mysteries of the Resurrection, Trinity, and Redemption; and are governed in matters of faith, by the same rules which govern the most enlightened divines in our Church,—that is, to admit things above, but not contrary to reason.

§ Church discipline, though useful and necessary, should not, abstractedly speaking, be a matter of separation between a Christian and a Christian; and provided they agree in matters of faith, and in moral sentiment, the great bar to communion is removed.

§ The first law is a law of eternal love, expanding into sentiments of benevolence, and teaching its votaries not only to forgive and forget injuries, but to return kindness 539 for harm, and to do good for evil; that, cemented by the blood of our Saviour, who suffered for, and redeemed all, who truly repent and believe in him,—we ought never to be divided, but always consider ourselves brothers of one flock.

§ My lords; had not the memorialists fully expressed their candid opinions, as to the doctrines of the supremacy, and of the infallibility of the Pope, I should think myself called upon to enter more minutely into an argument upon these topics, in order to convince your lordships that an opposition to such claims of the supreme Pontiff have, at all times, been invariably and constantly offered, by almost every temporal potentate professing the Christian faith, either in writings, or by the force of arms.

§ Many of the popes not only disclaimed temporal power over kings, but acknowledged themselves their subjects. In a letter addressed by Pope Gregory to the emperor Mauritius, who insisted on the publication of a law, he expresses himself to that very effect: "I being subject to your command, have caused the law to be sent into several parts; and because the law agrees not with God omnipotent, I have by letter informed my serene lord; wherefore I have in both done what I ought; obeyed the emperor, and not concealed what I thought for God."

§ Pope Eugenius received a caution from St. Bernard, admonishing him not to interfere in temporal matters in the following terms: "Earthly kingdoms have their judges,—princes and kings; why do you thrust your sickle into another man's harvest? St. Peter could not give what he had not. Did he give dominion? It is said in the Gospel, the kingdom of the Gentiles has dominion over them; but you not so: it is plain dominion is forbidden to apostles; go now, and there unite either dominion with the apostleship, or the apostle's dominion: you are plainly forbidden the one; if you will have both, you will lose both; you will be of the number of those of whom God complains: 'they have been princes, and I know them not.' "

§ Tertullian, a stranger to fear or flattery, has left an abridgment of the prayer offered up by Christian subjects for their Pagan rulers: "We pray for the emperors, and that God may grant them a long life and quiet reign; that their family may be safe, and their forces valiant: 540 their senate wise; their people orderly and virtuous; that they may rule in peace, and enjoy all the blessings they can desire, either as men or princes;—'et omnia 'quæ tendunt ad Cæsaris votum.'

§ The popes themselves were used to take oaths of fidelity, as appears from a letter of Charlemagne to Leo the Third,^* A. D. 796.

§ Many learned writers of the Church, amongst whom are numbered several popes,† call the king God's vicar on earth, forbid the priest to usurp the royal dignity; and confine the power of the Church to the dispensation of the divine, and that of the prince to the administration of temporal.

§ The Council of Constance in 1415, the Jesuits assembled at Ghent in 1681, and the clergy in France in 1682,‡ declared

§ ^* "Perlectis excellentiæ vestra literis, et auditâ decretali cartulâ, valde satis, gavisi sumus, seu in clectionis unanimitate, seu in humilitatis vestræ obedientia, et in promission is ad nos fidelitate," &c. Inter Epistolas Alcuini, Ep. 84.

† Eleuterius	185
Silesius	495
Anastasius 2	498
Simachus	514
Gregory 2	731
Adrian 1	795
Leo 4	855
John 8	882
Nicholas 2	1061
Celestin 3	1199
Nicholas 3	1280

§ From St. Augustin, in his 115th Treatise on the Gospel of St. John. "Audite regna terræ audi circumcisio, audi præpu-tium. Non impedio dominationem ves-tram, in hoc mundo, regnum meum non est in hoc mundo."

§ ‡ "Ecclesiæ Gallicanæ decreta est libertates a majoribus nostris tanto studio propugnatas, earumque fundamenta sacris canonibus et patrum traditione nixa multi diruere moliuntur; nee desunt qui earum obtentu premotum B. Petri, iisque successorum Komanorum Pontificum a Christo institutam iisque debitam ab omnibus Christianis obedientiam, sedesque apostolicæ in qua fides prædicatur et unitas servatur ecclesiæ, reverendam omnibus gentibus magestatem imminuere non variuntur. Heretici quoque nihil prætermittunt, quo earn potestatum, quâ pax ecclesiæ continetur, iuvidiosam et gravem regi 541 that kings and princes by God's ordinance are not subject in temporals to any ecclesiastical

§ bus et populis ostentent: iisque fraudibus simplices animas et ecclesiæ matris Chris-tique adeo, communione dessocient. Quæ ut incommoda propulsemus, nos archiepis-copi et episcopi, Parisiis mandato regio congregati, ecclesiam Gallicanam repre-sentantes, una cum caeteris ecclesiasticis veris nobiscum deputatis, diligenti tractatu habito, hæc sancienda et declaranda esse duximus.

§ "1. Beato Petri ejusque successoribus Christi vicariis; ipsique ecclesiæ rerum spiritualium, et ad eternam salutem perti-nentium, non autem civilium ac tempora-lium, a Deo traditam potestatem; dicente domino, regnum meum non est de hoc mundo; et iterum: reddite quae sunt Caesaris, Caesari, et quae sunt Dei Deo: ac proinde stare apostolicum illud omnis anima potestatibus sublimioribus subdita sit; non est enim potestas nisi a Deo: quae autem sunt a Deo ordinatæ sunt: itaque qui potestati resistit, Dei ordinationi re-sistit. Reges ergo et principes in tempo-ralibus, nulli ecclesiastical potestati, Dei ordinatione subjici, neque autoritate cla-vium ecclesiæ, directe vel indirecte de-poni; aut illorum subditos eximi a fide atque obedientia, ac praestito fidelitatis sacramento solvi, posse; eamque senten-tiam publicae tranquillitati necessariam, nee minus ecclesiæ, quarn imperio utilem; ut verbo Dei, patrum traditioni, et sanctorum exemplis consonam, orunino tenen-dam.

§ "2. Sic autem inesse apostolicæ sedi ac Petri successoribus, Christi vicariis, rerum spiritualium plenam potestatem, ut simul valeant atque immota consistant sanctæ oecumenicæ synodi Constantiensis a sede apostolica comprobata, ipsoque Romano-rum pontificum ac totius ecclesiæ usu con-firmata, atque ecclesiæ Gallicanæ perpetua religione custodita decreta, de autoritate conciliorum generalium; quae sessione quarta et quinta continentur; nec probata a Gallicana ecclesia, qui eorumdecre-torum, quasi dubiæ sunt autoritatis ac minus approbata, robur infringanl, aut ad solum schismatis tempus concilii dicta de-torqueant.

§ "3. Hinc, apostolicæ potestatis usum moderandum per canones spiritu Dei con-ditos, et totius mundi reverentia consecra-tos: valere etiam regulas, mores, et in-stituta a regno et ecclesia Gallicana re-cepta, patrumque terminos manere inconcussos:

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§ powers: and that they cannot be deprived directly or indirectly by the authority

§ cussos: atque id pertinere ad amplitudinem apostolicæ sedis, ut statuta et consuetudines, tantæ sedis et ecclesiarum consensu firmatæ, propriam stabilitatem obtineant.

§ "4. In fidei quoque questionibus, præcipuas summi pontificis esse partes, ejusque decreta ad omnes et singulas ecclesias pertinere; nec tamen irreformabile esse judicium nisi ecclesiae consensus acces-serit.

§ "Quæ, accepta apatribus, ad omnes ec-clesias Gallicanas, atque episcopos, iis spiritu sancto praesidentes, mittenda decre-vimus; ut id ipsum dicamus omnes, si-musque in eodem sensu, et in eadem sententia."

§ EETRACT of the Work entitled TENTATIVA THEOLOGICA; of Father Antonio Pereira, a Portuguese Divine; printed in Lisbon in the year 1766, pag. 195.

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