The National Register. — London, England, 1813-02-28 00:00:00

FEB. 2 G u m ail lei , ,$ • He 11,', presented a Petit'. a Ir•nn the vi sse nti. Mib.!.. , t 4of triree t.r the Same etrxt.—Hc alsci ore4ented • Petition front the Um arian Society in South pr,Visig tr allowed liberty of consc ence This Society of Dissin tees, he said, was tne ~nly one till. was not allowei this religious li betty, and he meant s . ..rtly to bri: g hi a Bill for that purpose. Mi. MA. TAYLOR n otice. that o fuesday next he woull submit a motioit iii H use for the setlaration of the bankrupt busi ness from the Oth.e ord Chant: 11.4. I'Ri P't IIq!:ESS OF WALES. Mr. COCI42ANI 1 oilusToNi. -Sir, I rise to give notice, that, on M inday nz-x . , I suotaot to the House a turnout eel live to the t.eedings 13,t th• inquiry, instituted by his Majesty's connuand, on the subject of her Royal Hi ; liness the Prine , . of Wales. Conceiviog this, Sit, to he a matter of the deepest importance, involving no less than the su , :ei , 1. , . to the Throne of England, I The SPLAKLR —•• It is the umtge tor any Hon. Gentlernas who gives a notice. ;Al 1- d.scriptioatof his intended m0ti0.,." Mr: CoCHR A N jonNsroux---" Sir, 1 WAS only going to a'kt, that 1 Wive tiiouo.t it my tio•y in tfanstnit to his I\lajest s Ministers . ‘ O l - the it •!soluti..i. , inch it i, my intention to move, in justii... both to myself and to the.i."— Adi !timed. THURSDAY. FM 25 A number of Petitions b. ti. for and against the Catholic Claims, were cid on the table of the 'Luse. el Committee was ballotte . : for and sworn to try the Veristol Elec tion Petition Mr. k. Trioaneon presented a Perla.- from the East India Com. patty, pray ing tor the renewal ot their Chart er ; a nd another Pe..ition for a Bill to en t'sle the Company to settle accounts with the Pub lie, and borrow more money On new securities.—Referred to a Cori er nice. Previous to Mr. Grattan's motion on the Catholic Question, Mr. Eector presented a Peritit II from the English Ronan Catho tics, on wl 1. 1 1 he rem irke:'. to .it the English Catholics, endured evils of a peeidia nature, and which it was the duty ot an enlightened L :a•ure forthwith to remove. Though they Were the peaceable and loyal natives ot eur even soil, they were, by an ill-directed po. hey,. exctuded from holding any civil public employment, or be cemnie Members of eny Corporate Body, or even taking a Degree at either or . 0- Universities. Although many of them were exten,ive •7.c.vt.• Pi:, and living among their tenantry, they were by 1.1 diequailtiol firm te•coming M lgisttates. They could not sit in Par- Renee!, n,r vote a' an Elec'ion for a Member. lii England they• could e er hold a Cotninissi iin the airily, but. were they to remove t Irc:anit, teey might attein the rank ut . Coloi.el, and on their ye ti'''.... 'a..mil:me he that el) , c tv, t .ey became subject to prosecu to. I icy ;right, indee.i, tt.e to the Bar, but not hold even a suitor.ii... , le sit" itinii ni any it the rts L.!w. These Petitioners mostly iie3..en ,e.I from some of the most Illustrious families that ever ,•-lear:d in this Couotry ; yet the only offence for which they eii lured oto •ny hart. hips, was t'leir mist-ken attachment to a reli whcse t. nets and et.cl• tic,il polity. we still retained no it opsidetal le portion It vi.as the religion professed by those great men, who, lett by a rit•gnanimiels Prelate, once asserted and restore , ' the liberties of the people, when tit .e)t..ntAi by a tyrannical end posit teeinee,e, ee. • efe ll to ht. surtendereO el the Pope. No other religioti did England know when her sons fought the memorable and glorious battles ot Cressey wet Agileourt, ane defeated the f e-midable Spa- nish Armada. manned by Catholics fer the subjugation of England. We had establis ed the Catholic Religion in Clnada, yet denied its exer:i e to our subjects at h me ; and we employed whole Foreign Cal lene reeimente, and even had a Foreign Catholic General in our service, altiniugh native-b;nn Englishmen were denied the seine ho pour. —1 he Petition wits then read. and otdered to lie on the table. The Reeolutio ! agreed to last Session, whereby the House wag bound early in this Session to take into considecetion what Penal Sta tutes stiii continued to affect the Roman Catholics of I reland, was then real ; and on the motion of Mr. Yorke. .parts of the Act of the lot of William and Mary, as well as certain parts of the Bill of •Rights Mr. Wit. Smut'', professing himself to he a Protestant D'ssenter, rieig . e! himself never to stand up in that House exclusively to obtain the removal of the laws operating against the Dissenters, without counlieg with it a motion for the restoration of their rights to the Ro man Catholics, who were eqeally entitled to relief. THE CATHOLIC QUESTION. Mr. GRATTAN commencedby saying. that it was his intention to Make the very section of the Declaration of Rights, which had been rea'! noon t!e motion of Mr. Yorke, a part ct the preamble of the order to assu.e the Protestants of the security of the Act ot Settiement. the eetition upon which he should submit his to the House was, he said, morally, lie would not say metaphysi cally, the petit.on of the Roman Catholics of Ireland. He meant that it contained, the sentiments of the great hotly of the Remit , Catholics ; and the motion he should ground upon it was, that the House should go into a Committee on the laws affecting that body, pursuant to the resonation of last Session. He knew that these reso lutions did in bind the Par Lament. He had to lament that nume- TOus is lions bid been prestatc.l againat tl>K claiwi of the Catholfes, . : • ! • - VIE NATIONAL REGISTER, 537 for many parts of his own, a$ well as of thii country. He condemned *. the manner in which the Protestant Petitioners had spoken of their Catholic Brethren, 'but he would not therefore retaliate upon• them by adopting a similar style of expression. He had aWO respect for the Protestant Clergy, who. had in a great measure united against the Catholics, but he would not therefore call them enemies ; on the contrary, he looked forward to that period at which they would prove their friendshie; and join in one common cause against the minim enemy. Religion, he observed, was not an encoureger ot eivit discord, neither was Revelation to come down like a firebrand. In speaking of the meetings at w , ich those Petitions originated, he said, h: objected in the highest d gree to the practice which was so prevalent of assembling the people by sects, especially religious ,eats, for fomenting political animosiites. This had the effect of making Ireland a divided colony, and Great Britain a divided empire. idle decision in such places was known by acclamations : the peti tions were called the4tent imeets of the . meeting, and a shout was the lict to which the Catholics were obliged to submit. He had near.' that loan had b:en acquitted by acclamation, but he had never head that a body of men were: sentenced by such a. formaliry before (Hear, Hear.) He had thee told that'the tone of the Cat ho lies :ea.: too high, bu• he would answer, that the question was not whether Mr. A . or Mr. B. spoke violently, but whether the Catho lic body aught to he emancipated. The question was, whether they could he taxed with want of elleeiance, and it they could not, Wile . her they were got entitled. te the liberties eejoyed by those of the Fetablished Church. The Catholics applied -for a political connec tio with their Protestant brethren ; they ilesirel that they might have the benefit of British subjects ; and that their cause might not - te tried by persons covenanted against their chilies. I t such a wish was ambition, Magna Charta was ambition, and the Bill of Rights was amintien. Time Cattiolics asked for pro eetion—the Protestaota the power The Protestants asked for the ascendancy of a sect—the Catho lics asked for the law. What was this but anapplication from one sect to govern another. ehe priori* upon which the Protestant had pro ( seded was nee which went to cstahlisla Church Government, one fee removed from those recogeised by the Constitntion, wfiich included every dissenter from the Es , eblished Church in the blessings it pro• lessed to diffuse: It was a most fallacious and idle thing to suppose- Cat the people oflreland were to be identifich with the people of this country be pains and penalties ;—privileees were the incitements to that bood by which the Constitution and the Church would be im movably fixed. It ,vas aporeheielee that four or five men like Lord Fingal might be dangerous in •hat House ; but could it he imagined that they would be more dangerous in that Howe than tour or five millions out of it ? But the op ; sosers of the Catholics had, for the purpose of strengthening their cause, gone back to the obsolete alto min 'hie canons, which the Catholics diseleimed and abhorred, and cited them as instances of what teas to be expected from induleence. !ter dwelling at tom.. length upon the cst telty, as well as the ahsue•-• dity of attributing to the Catholics the priheiVes upen which their ancestors had acted, he declared, that England,. alteough silt legatee I that her tv•leratiou was mere perfect than that praetoed elsewhere, very little deserved a comparisen tvith any nation on t h e Continent. in other countries there was toleratien with qualificamions, but here ere was toleration with paito and penalties. - In fluogary, tor in stance, it was a part of the code that public offices shoeld be given to natural born 1! uogarians who lia(Vserved ;t he state, without respest •o religious principles. There wag sums. diflerence between - this law aest Chit which denied the Catholic the common right ofcirgibility. Erg land acted towards the Catholies as if they carritel eoeut them ti.e evidences of that spirit by which tt.ey had been actitattet in the waist of times, and the Proteetant Clergy wished thstehese hisoultheica. tions by which their feelings wet: corrected, and their interests studs, shoeld ime continued, even after th: estehlishment of telthatien in every other country. The Catholics 11.1 t terrified the p•Mciples of their conduct by an oath, and had ie the most solemn memier ac quitted thenvelves ot all those crimes and violences attributed to their ancestors. It had been said that the Catholics were eiseinies to the Church. It was imp ssible to prove this charge, hut it would not be difficult to prove that the• Church was an enemy to the Catholics. It had been said that the Catholics were essentially by principle enc. , mel• to the Siate.• He did rot altogether understand thatlanuage, unless it meant that those who were enemies . by poi tmeiple, were triends in fact. He would indeed deem such a cr ime very venial if it was to be attributed to those who fought the battles of tide country, and who gave practical proofs of their leyalty, at thcesarne time that they amus d themselves with speculative disapprobation of the caote. 'I he Catholics loved the State and the Church, ;mil the very Bill of Rights were itselt a proof of their love of liberty,' because it contaieed All the old laws by which the Constitutioe had been pre served, and by which the liberty of the subject was contioned and se ' cured. But the itio‘t vile and abominable chargeasesinst the Catholics was that which described them as attached te Rem:kid:A power. This. was a charge which went directly to condemn them to execution. It fixed upon them tae character of murderer ;out contradicted the re velation cif God, by making mensters of men. , Mr. Grattan ended a 'very long and argumentative speech, to which our limits wit: not allow us to do justice, by moving, " That the House res a t . into a Cwiatittce the whole to take into - I -. ' 111 1 1 li i 1 • • ,tuie res Ave itself • cosuidcratiou the. °r a y