The Sun. — London, England, 1820-03-11 00:00:00

TO THE ELECTORS OF UREA I' BM FAIN FELLOW COVNTRYMBN, You are, now about i 0 Choose those who are to give us 14 WA , and being the first Parliainent in the Dew reign, it may iintorAlly he looked to with more than common interest. I slab therefore to draw your pirticular attention to one point, on which 1 NM ill hopes touch agreement (Pt 3 (.1 1 6 111 , o t will prevail in the mititlle C1,1,3eS of situ joy, (which I take it for granted includes the greatest portion of the Electors,) however they may differ in their political sentiments on other matters. 1 mean the qtiestion of CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION ques , ion more nearly connected with our real happ , tiess, as coming tiontr to, and n ife ci log our domestic peace, our eel y fire-aides as it were, as well as our public weltme, than we ace apt to imagine, merely l believe becatise we never con template the evil until it threatens; and when a smell tuaiori;y of the Eloule or Commons has put it aside, we also put aside our thoughts ou the cr, %/111 , itever may be said by the movers and sup porters of every questioii htonght forwards in the House on Catholic Emancipation, although they spay tell yoti it is only our Voile indulgence more, by way of ni,king the Carlodies attached to Go veroment , anti great deal besides of very amusing soplii,ory ; the plant risked ihat C%-rqo tic EmANcirATIoN means CAltioL:c. As...;ENo aNCY, which the Cath°flee are deterlilitled to Ob.. tAlti if possible, and the ptutleot pat t know the smest And roily way of accomplishing it, is by getting on with one step at a time. I say the prudent part, for the iue l rodent part in Ireland have not been it iae enough to conceal their aims tint Irate publicly declared, that they peremp torily mats! utt having the AsCIiND.INCY in SPI MTV AL MA - LA - Las; that they will admit of no retos to annul their choice of Bishops ; 81111 that they will not be satisfied, 01 even accept of, any thing less. Coustquently their loyalty or at tachment to Government, is not to be bought for any trifling concessious. But you will say, that although this may be their wish, how are they to attain it, so long as we take care that the Protestant 'Members of the Douse of Commons be in the proportion of three or four to one ; and, that only a few Catholic Alernbett be admitted, to represent the ma jority of the Irish people who are Catholics ? Supi.oseiby way of Jrgurnent then, we admit only ten Catholic Members, or even ii , e ; it ip not rely long since, that a question i , n Catholic Emanci pation was decided by one single casing L'ote ; and therefore had there been only one Catholic Alt:tither, in the place of those deLidedly Protes tant, (I mean the majority,) the question would have been carried; arid rousequenily it is difficult to say whet number (however small) eft Catholic Mend), rN, may not he stithrieni for obtaining CA THOLIC ASCI.NOANCY. If the Catholics gain only one major ity, they Will 1101 stop there ; no arti fice will he heir wailed to obtain more; and it will be soon discovered, that not five or ten Melll. bets a II tie thought au nil( qoite representation of all the Catholics in Great Britain, and Ireland; but that mote must soon be added. ft is matter of great surprise to rate, that in a house of Commons, piotessedly all Protestants, every agitation of this subject strews, 00 the di visions, nearly one half of the Memb. is to be on the side ut the Catholics ; surely the Members must be strangely blinded by their notions of liberality and toleration, if they do not perceive, that if these measures were carried according to their votes, it would severely injure, it riot to tally destroy, the very stamina by which the strength anti happiness of this Country is up• held. I mean, the moral principle of the people. It was this principle that obtained tor Bri tain the hi g h pitch of pre-eminence she held in 1815, when during the preceding wars, every other nation in Enrope, had in some way or other, been obliged to contess the superiori►y of one con quering po , er ; while Britain alone, wise, strenuous, firm, of unsuhmitting soul," constantly wet its threats with defiance, and ul timately triumphed. The superiority of this country was acknowledged by the great powers engaged in the same contest placing, with general consent, the Duke of ‘VaLt.twoTots in the com mand of all their Armies of Occupation, at the bead of their own most illustrious and distinguish ed Generals. The moral, not the physical strength of Britain, achieved all this : industry Int nished wealth, integrity credit ; public spirit applied them ; and religion gave courage and persever ance. While our physical strength, front extent and population, bore no comparison to many of the cotemporary powers of the Continent wh• had been severally vanquished. In order to ahew how this vital stamina, the moral priuciple ut the nation, will be injured by Catholic emancipation, I must assume, for the sake of argument, that they have obtained indul geoces to a moderate extent ; and gilt suppose that tne Throne and the highest Offices of State, remain Protestant ; that the interior Offices of Stale, both Houses of Parliament, the Army and Navy, the Magistracy and Corporations, have a small mixture of Catholics in each. That the people of every persuasion are carefully to ab stain front interrupting each other in religious ceremonies, *sod every one to serve God in his own way, and observe only such forms and re strictions as his Church or Sect enjoins. For a wort:, it might-be supposed, all parties would go on comfortably enough together; and if there were none butt enlightened, well-informed Lay Cd(110110, it might possibly last. But the Court vt Rome will not suffer it. For, that the same thirst for Supremacy, the same desire to keep the people under the influence of the Priests, and at tain thereby the Catholic ascendancy, in the Church at least, of every Country, still exists io the Conclave, appears evident, by the vigilance they exercise to prevent the propagation at the Gospel, by Bible societies, wherever they have influence : while, I ke the Pharisees of old," they compa,l sea sit I,4nd to make one proselyte; . --- The Catholic Bishops, therefore, will receive ing tl u c Ti on3 f rom Hie Pope to exhort and stir up the Priests to use all diligence in snaking eon verts ; by such means best aaswer that pnrpose. The-e means will not be by terrors, but by temptations ; at least until they have gained suffi cient acce , sioo of numbers to contend. Eve, y Roman Catholic Countiy has its grandest holiday on a Sunday : more Operas, Ballets, Theatres, and public places of amusement are open on that day, and are more frequented, than on any other day in the week : let it he remembered that it was in coining out of the Opera HutlSe on a Sunday Evening. that the Duke of Beam was assassinated, The Catuolies who have wanted only one vote nu a forwr occasion, to carry que•tion in the Howe of Commons, when no Catholics were members, will not then want influence to get a few minor Theatres licensed, 111 London and all the corpot ate Towns, for the amusement of CntiOdlCS WI Sundays. The irre ot ail sects nod parties will soon join such an arcommodcing faith, at least will j..in their mode of fi.iishing the Sabbath ; and thus give a great accession of numbers in their favour. The undecided iu religion, and most of those young persons who are from under the controul of their parents, or superiors, on that day, will be in clined to take an innocent petit at first, and seeing no harm as they think, will gradually prefer sitting ill a 'Theatre at a small expense, (tor low prices will he a part of their policy here la it is on the Continent), if it be only to look at young pet sons of the opposite sex, to staying at home, reading, or yawning over the fife, in pro testant dullness.—Even many middle aged persons it is to be feared would not be very particular about gojuv sometimes ; when coil= had render ed these exhibitions more familiar. Now, what would be the consequence of this, as to bringing on a laxity of the mold principle of the nation, I need not be at touch trouble in pointing out ; I need only request you to enquire, if you doubt, what ate the a enereJ morals of Catholic countries on the Continent ; and which are greatly owing, think, to these causes. But the grand engine which destroys all morality, root and branch, amongst the luwet orders, is the knowledge that they can get absolution, on some terms or other, from the Priests ; and finally escape the punishment of hell, as they think, for every crime. I firmly believe, drat it is this persua sion, amongst the lower orders of the liish, that has led them to commit murders and robbery to such an extent as they are continually doing ; especially on the Protestants ; EIS if they had nothing to lear front the vengeance of God, and had only to evade the punishment of malt. It is true Oleic hive been instances of retaliation, on the part of the Protestants ; but they are rood) more rare ; and these, 1 have no doubt, ate from the bad examples and irritation of the Catholics ; and I make this inference, front there being no instances, or at least none in comparison, of murder and assassination being set about systematically in bands, in those coun tries where the lower population are Protes tants of the reformed Church; while Italy, the very home of the Pope, and the fountain bead of Popery, and other Catholic countries, are in fested with hordes of ruffians ; living professedly by pillage and murder*. It may be said it:is the fault of their Governments ; pray then what Go. •ernment is Ireland tinder 1 1 say, it is the tank of their religion ; which has taken from them the., fear of God ; for they believe, that even ill got wea! , h will purchase absolution' of the Priest at the hour of death. As the causes before mentioned will more par ticularly tend to demoralize the lower orders, and affect in a certain degree the middle class e s, roust crave a little of your attention, to another cause of demoralization ; which I snppose Ssill have most effect on the middle and higher orders of society. The female character in this country, I Apprehend, to have great influence on the mo rals of the community. The conjugal happiness, domestic order, and pure morals of every family, , depends much on the mistress. Atte increase of Catholic people, will no doubt produce a pro portionable (or more than a proportionable) number of Priests. Well educated young men of this class will be gladly admitted into society ; and as parties must consist of Romans and Protestants indiscriminately, it may be sup posed intermarriages will take place more fre• quently than heretofore, between Protestant men and Catholic women ; for in youth, personal at tractions and pleasing manners, are 'often such ir resistible arguments, as not easily to he overcome; especially as our Clergy are not authorized' to thunder out their anathemas of eternal damnation, to prevent it, as the Catholics are, unless the parties will profess a conformity to their Church. "[hi, introduction of the Priests into general so ciety, and these intermarriages, would give them great opportunities, by assiduity and frequent in tercourse, to make converts of many protestant females, and finally to exercira that ascendancy over the Ladies of this country which the young Abbees (not always by purely spiritual argu meutr,) exercised over the Ladies in France; and which was so unfavourable to the female cha racter and to public morals. lam very willing to give Catholic Priests credit fur as much virtue as other men ; even the Protestant Clergy not ac cepted ; but their religion forbidditig them to marry, and the confession of a woman's frailties, made to them with her own lips, in order to ob tain absolution, together with much leisure, and without any worldly pursuits to excite their am they me exposed to peculiar temptations ; and am not incliued to ascribe so large a share of sanctity to any sect of Priests, as to suppose that they are not men of like passions with others. I leave it therefore to every Protestant husband, to judge for himself, if by any means Catholic influence infects the females of Isis family, %vise titer the frequent domiciliary visits of the Priest, or the closetings at confession, and the ideas of what may be the c on s equence , w ill not a b ate Moldy confidence, poison conjugal felicity, ,and not only, as I at first asserted, bring evil to is man's fire-side, but in many cases, corrode likes canker worm, the very core of his heart. I will now thank you for your patience, and drop the elf bject ; for I shall nor Pretend to dis pute, whether the Pope is Christ's Vicar oil earth, Mr. Collier, an English Gen'lernan of distinction, was not very long since murdered in Italy sylien travelling with fib uttclidwite, in-mid-day, by et coia,pany of Iktuditti. We received this morning the Paris Papers of Wednesday last. The following are extracts : CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES, TurwAr, MAncti 7. " The discussion was resumed on the projet respecting individual liberty. AI. Courvoisier moved to strike out the words the safety of the State' hi the first article, in order to confine tie projet to Conspiracies against the King and the Royal Family. ,• if M. Ctldbron dc Solilhac supported, and M. Martin de Grey opposed the projet. " The Minister of the Interior, in en able speech of considerable length, maintained the necessity for the proposed Law, and to prove it he gave the following information : At Paris a certain number of individuals have held conversation, approving of the assassination of the Duke de Berri, and desiring the occurrence of similar events. Several of the expressions used, however menacing, are not punishable under the existing laws ; but it would nevertheless be imprudent not to have the power of obtaining security against these atrocious men. Would you have an idea of the madness or the fury of some of them. A man named Lucet was for some days at the depOt of the Prefecture of Police, waiting in consequence of being de stitute of every resource to be conveyed to the house of St. Denis, where he had already been several times. On the 16th February, he wrote as follows to the Chef dc Division of the Po lice ' Monsieur,—l have learnt with very great pleasure the assassination of the Duke de Berri; and I think it would be desirable if the rest of the family met with the same fate. This would be only a just punishment for all the evils which they have brought upon France by their obstinacy in persisting to reign over a people who had rejected them, and had even for a lung time forgotten them. What glory has he acquired who struck the blow, and how much l envy hint th• act. May I one day be enabled to equal his courage.' • This letter, said the Minister, was written and signed by the man above alluded to, but upon application to the Tribunals, it was found there was no law to punish him. It is not at Paris alone that these symptoms have been manifested. Some traces have appeared in the Departments, which have increased since the commencement of 1819 , and have been ag gravated since the close of that year, particularly since the 13th of February. • The Minister went on (we have no room for the detail) to observe upon the identity of the se ditious expressions every wh:re used, and the re ports circulated, inimical to the rights of the reigning dynasty. Ile also adverted to the mul tiplication of the signs and embhms" of B't',na•, varte's Guvetninent, and of songs clo:lied in DIP' tery, but which were well understood in their allusions to Napoleon. He added, 'lt has also been attempted to introduce corruption amongst ttili troops by proposing the health of M. du gocher, as that of the common friend, and, the same pressions have been recognized which preceded the 20th March.' It is certain that in several of the Depart-. ments a great blow was announces for the m ontil of February or March. Was this a vague threat , or did it relate to the assassinatien of the Duke de Berri ?' " The Minister after finishing his speech ter' scended from the Tribune, amidst the cheers of 1 ' great part of the Chamber. " The projet was opposed by M. Basterreche and M. Benjamin Constant, and supported by the Count de la Bourdonnaye. " The discuniun was again adjourned till ‘Vectneaday. " PARIS, MARCH B.—The King yesterAhl transacted business with the Duke de Richelieu, and afterwards visited the Duchess de Berri. flrs Alajesty gave a private audience to M. Cront do Fougy, Councillor of State. " A dreadful catastrophe happened at the thedral at Bordeaux, on the 2d instant, dur ing the evening service. A pyramidal übelisi‘ having given way during a storm, fell upo" the roof of the Cathedral, and forced its will through carrying with it an immense mass of stones and rubbish ; 13 persons were killed end several wounded, one of then) mortally—some 0 ( the bodies were so mangled that they could tto be recognised. FIVE PER CENTS. Shut price Monday, Ex, Dir. DEFERRED STOCK Of the 22d March, 1217, 9.9 f. 45c. 441 `,icitt. 1819, id f. instead of animadverting at present on Elee• tioncering Proceedings, of which we give dug reports every day, we beg leave to direct the par" Ocular attention of Our PROTIISTANT PopuLATJO, to an admirable Letter in Tue SUN of this &PP addessed to the Constituent Bodies throughout the United Empire, on the evils which would probably' perhaps inevitably, result from any farther coo' cessions to Porauy. tVe heartily agree with the judicious and intelligent Writer on the proprieti of exacting A PLEDGE from all the Candidate/ that they will resolutely oppose in Polio went ALL. FUTURE ATTEMPTS OF THE PAPISTS to have any share in Legislative Power.--." Our Correspondent has entered fully into the cha racter and views of TUB PAPISTS, and has so ably pourtrayed the national and domestic evils dog may arise from any:increased indulgence which 114 may receive, that we trust his Letter will make 1 strong and lasting impression on all friends to ou r present happy and unrivalled Establishment ; 61 Church end State. For our part, we are so fa' cibly struck with the reasoning in this Letter, O A the danger, we may say the ruin, which it predict s from further concessions, that we shalt fed it t° be our duty to republish it on the very first or portunity. LIVZRPOOL.—We have just received a copy ' 2/ Mr. CANNING'S Speech addressed to the Elector . of this town on IVednesday last, and we regre t that it came too late for us to avail ourselves of 1/ this day, but we shall certainly present it to out Readers on Monday. RADICAL HONRSTT.—A man of respectable sr pearance called two or three days ago on the Wi le of the old schoolmaster, now confined in Brid e well, on a charge of having made his hous e ' which is ne a r Cato•street, a ren d ezvous f o r 0 1 , 4 Conspirators, and informed her that her husbao' who was in the greatest want of food, had &' sired him to call upon her for a supply o f mool and clean linen. By the advice of a cauciat i o neighbour, the distracted woman was induced ( refuse the request of cl , e man, who went avg 4l much disappointed. The schoolmaster's daeg iv. ter then applied to Lord StiamouTit for p e rt - 0W sion to visit her father, which his Lordship inoo e ; diately sent to the house by a messenger. %Vi e t the daughter visited the old wan, she found the y no person bad been sent by him ; and that so t 6 from his wanting food, Lord SIDNIOUTH had c % ; pressly ordered that he should have every Comf ( l j that lie could ask tor, and that even poultry shoo' be purchased fur him at the expense of Gover ry ment. I BRIGHTON, MARCH 9.—His MAJESTY'S bee il ti t and spirits continue in the happiest state, ", public ings have not yet been had recourse t° s The weather, both yesterday and to day, 1 35 ic been comparatively favourable and bright, `l e with a wind unusually .keen for the season of t'", year. Should it become somewhat mild and I n a siting, it is confidently hoped and unders(°° that his MAJESTY will take a ride to-morrow•d r , Yesterday the Duke or Yoax. dined with and Mrs.Cotrrs and a select patty ; among 1-lig . _ was Lord Eststztrztt. The Countess Ddwager of HARCOURT been on a visit to the Princess AUGUTA;iO Fr ° ,; ' , to t e for s o me t ime. Th e li on . Mrs. has also been on a visit to her Royal I-141117g and her constant companion. and the hoe Representative ()ISt. Peter ; although trom what I have read of the Pope and St. Peter, their characters and conduct seem to me as oppo site as light sod dark : nor will I attempt to dis prove, that the Pope and Cardinals concentrated in Council, are not so fully assisted by the holy as to render their decisions infallible, aishe decree, of God himself, - and thereby give them, power tin dispense eternal rettattk and punish• ments at their will ; I will not, I say, dispute these matters here ; although most of my Lord Cardinals of England, and those who have come to this country from Rome, (and who it is fair to presume, brought RS much holiness with them as they set out with,) seem to have been influenced by a satanic spirit, rather than a holy one ; if we nre to believe our histot inns ; but will leave these matters to be settled by the Theologians ; and conclude with exhorting my fellow Electors, it th'ey would not like to see their Country reduced to a level with the Roman Catholic States in morals ; if they wish not to give tip the superior distinction now attached to a Briton ; if they wish to see comfort and confidence at their own fire sides ; if they wish to be independent in their families ; and not to be priest-ridden ; let them not tremble at the prospect like children, but avert it--at the present like men ;by boldly and po sitively refusing to vote for any Members to sit in the approaching Parliament, but those who openly avow their determination not to befriend Catho lic Emancipation ; so long as they ate sent to Parliament by Protestant Electors. I am, Gentlemen, Yaw's, &c. JOHN BULL. THEATRICAL. REGISTER. Performed Last Night. TREATRZ ROYAL, COVENT-GAHM:N.-Ail Oratorio. TMIGATKIL ROTAL, DRUILY-LANE.—No Perforruairce. PRICE 01 rills DAY AT 1' F STOCKS WELVF. WCI.I,CII. 9 per Cant. Cons 64i 1 India Bonds s per Ct. Navy A nu. 1034 Exch. Bills, 16. die. par 2s. dis. Irish 5 per Cent. MAILS. AMU Dublin:, 3 Guernsey and Jersey, l Holland, I France. Due-1 Waterford, 1 Gottenisurgli, 4 Lisbon, 4 Hausburgb. HIGH NATTER AT LOSIMN BRIDGE TOMORROW. blorning, 9 ointutte after u. I Evening, 41t minutes after 12. TH jai SUN. SOLEM QUI; DICEKE FALSUM AUDEAT ? LONDON, SATURDAY, MARC/I 11, 1620.