The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1807-05-22 00:00:00

NORTHUMBE RI. .1 I) NOMINATION.

Speech of Lnrd Howsea, at the nomination of
Candidates for the representation of the County of
Northumberland, at Isforperh, on Thursday the
14th inst tot :

Gentlemen, my friend Sir John Swinburne
having done me the honour to propose me
to this meeting, as a proper person to represeet
this county in Parliament, it becomes my duty
to state to the free and independent Freehold-
ers of Northumberland, my pretensions far as-
piring to so important a trust. Should I be favour-
ed, Gentlemen, with a renewal of that confidence,
with which I have been so often honoured, it is my
determination to govern my political conduCt by the
same free and independent principles which have,
for more than twenty years, procured me your sup-
port. But it is not upon professions alone that Ide.
pend, in soliciting the distinguished situation to
which I aspire. 1 can, with confidence, apdeal to
the experience you have had of my past conduct,
during the whole of my political life, as the best
pledge for my future exertions in the service of my
cottutry. After having had the honour to repre-
sent you more than twenty years, and in seven suc-
cessive Parliaments, I could have hoped that this
appeal would have been sufficient to entitle me to
the honour of your suffrages; but, Gentlemen, I
feel it indispensably necessary, upon this occasion,
to enter into a full explanation and detail of the im-
portant trans:idiom which have occupied the atten-
tion of His Majesty's Government during the Last
twelve months ; tra isaetions in which I have borne
so conspicuous a part, and which have produced the
event that occasions me now to appear before you.
My conduit in these transaftions, Gentlemen. has
been the subjea of the most foul and infamous ca-
lumnies—calumnies, which have been propagated
in the most industrious manner, and for the basest
of purposes ; and which those persons who have
been most actively employed in circulating them,
could not but know to be utterly false. Strange as
it may appear to you, Gentlemea, I have been ac-
cused of an intention to subvert the Established Re-
ligion of my Country ; and well knows. as I am to all
of you, l am almost asnarned of the necessity which
compels me to make, on this occasion, something like
a declaration of my creed. Know 'kn. Gentlemen,
that I am a sincere Christian ; a Christian of the
Reformed Protestant Church of England, as ►y
law established, and to this faith 1 am attached,
not from mceives of blind seal, but from a deep-
rooted conviltion, that it is the best and purest sys-
tem of religious worship existing upon the face of
the earth. In this faith I and the whole of my fa-
mily have always lived, and in this faith I shall die.
But, Gentlemen, though I have the utmost rever-
ence for the Esnablished Church, I sin not insensi-
ble to its abuses ; and with all possible respell for
the Clergy of that Church, I can by no means ap-
prove of their mixing politics with their sacred
fume-lions. These professions of my religious senti-
ments, will, I am persuaded, be considered by most
of you as unnecessary ; and 1 should not hay* trou-
bled you with them, but that the rancour of party
seal might have taken advantage of my silence,
and still maintained the absurd cry of the Church
being in danger. But I trust--[Here the scaffold-
ing from which his Lordship style, suddenly gave
way, and a short interruption took place. On arising,
his Lordship good humouredly observed, ' In what
I was about to say to you, Gentlemen, I was unex-
pestledly interrupted; my period was broken, but
my neck escaped.'] I trust, said his Lordship, the
objet of those persons who have been instrumental
in propagating this absurd clamour throughout
the kingdom, has been sufficiently understood, and
that their inferno', condu& kill meet with me-
rited contempt.
ss It is unnecessary, Gentlemen, to enter into a his-
tory of my political life : the part I have taken has
been conspicuous in all the great questions which
have been agitated for the last twenty years. I
shall content myself, therefore, with an explanation
of my conduit in bringing forward and supporting
that important measure which has been the subject
of so much misrepresentation and alasm. When
His Majesty's late Ministers first came into power,
very serious disturbances existed in the western par us
of Ireland. It was urged by many persons, fonder
of exercising force than I have ever been, that we
ought to have recourse to measures of extraordinary
severity, to check this insubordinate spirit of the
people; yet we determined to confide in an active
exertion of the known powers of the law, and suc-
leeded in restoring tranquillity, without recurring to
those severities, which less politic, but more intem-
perate adviser,. had wished to recommend. But,
Gentlemen, after these occurrences, it became ne-
cessary to look to measures of a conciliatory ten-
dency. Among several measures which engaged
the attention of His Majesty's Ministers. that which
I had the honour of introducing into the House of
Commons, appeared best calculated to ►ecure the
affeetion of the Catholics in Ireland, while, by
afarding a vent to a superabundant populati,n, it
contributed to the strength and security of the
empire at large. By this Bill, it was proposed to
admit persons of every religious persuasion to serve
in the army and navy, on their taking an oath of
allegiance, and subscribing a declaration to sapport
the Protestant Succession. It also enabled them to
inllow their religions persuasions. without the law.-
ferenee of their commanding racers. What had
particularly dawn the attention of Ilia Majesty'.
Government to this subjed, was the strange eau-

maly which existed in consequence of the Aft of
1793, by which the Roman Catholics in that coun•
try were enabled t., held commissions in the army,
and to attain to any rark, except that of Corn
mander in Chief of the Forces, Master General of
the Ordnance, or General on the Staff. In conse-
quence of such permission to the Catholics of Ire.
laud, there was this striking incongruity :--If a
Catholic, who by law WAS qualified to serve in Ire-
land, should be brought into this country by any
circumstances which demanded the presence of his
regiment. he would he disqualified by lie from
remaining in the service, and would have only this
alternative, either to continue in the set vice, contrary
the law, and thus subjea himself to the penalties
and disabilities consequent thereon, or relinquish a
profession in which he had ri ,en to the rank he
might hold, either by the sacrifice of his fortune, or,
more probably, by a succession of meritorious
services, such as proved him qualified to defend the
prosperity, and assert the honour of the country.
('his absurd inconsistency it was a principal Mika
of my Bill to remove. I also wished to take away
the restriaions which prevented the preferment of
the Roman Catholics to the highest ranks in the
service : Fur, good God ! if a man has, creditably
to himself, obtained the rank of Colonel, and in en-
terprise and genius distinguished himself beyond all
others, shall he be left behind by persons of inferior
merit, because a Roman Catholic ? It has been
asserted that these restriaions are felt by few, and
that to remove them could be of little importance.
But, Gentlemen, it must be evident to every one,
that a stigma, however small, attached to a mat's
name, must discourage him from entering upon any
profession where it exists, or prevent him from pur.
swag it with that ardour which is necessary to in-
sure success. The measure gave rise to the most
absurd accusation of our wishing to place the power
of the sword in the hands cf the Catholics. Gen-
tlemen, I ask the elementary writers on the consti-
tutional laws of oar country, in whom the power of
the sword is vested, have we, the Protestants, at
this tinse, the power of the sword ? Certainly not.
The power of the sword is vested in the King, and
in the king alone. The Rill would only have given
the Catholics a capacity to serve ; and if it had been
passed, where would have been the danger to be
apprehended from it ? The King must still have
sanifi:•aed their appointments.
41 Gentlemen, as this Bill was to encourage the Ca-
tholics of Ireland to enter into the military service,
I proposed that they should also be admitted into
the navy, which weiald have given employment to
a number of persons in that country, who have
otherwise hardly the means of procuring a subsist-
ence. In the year 1793, a pledge to this effea was
explicitly given by the Lord Chancellor and Secre-
tary of Ireland (Lord Clare and Lord Bucking-
hamshire), and therefore we considered it not m re
a measure of general policy, than an as of good
faith, to allow the admission of Catholics both into
the army and navy. Gentlemen, another objea of
the Bill was to remit the resuiaion with tespea to
Prote.tent Dissenters, that numerous and respeaa-
ble body of His Majesty's subjeas ; for I consider
the Test Laws in the highest degree impolitic and
unjust, and I never would have beers a party to a
Bill by which Protestant Dissenters would be
excluded from indulgences granted to Catholics.
Such, Gentlemen, were the important objeas sae
proposed to accomplish. But finding insurmount-
able objeaions to some of the leading provisions in
the Bill, we determined, after anxiously weighing
all the circumstances of the case, to abandon the
Bill altogether.
r, Gentlemen, since the late dissolution of Parlia-
ment, I have heard a general cry that the Church
i. in danger. I wish to know in what that danger
consists? I should like the present Ministers to in-
form me hew the safety of the Church has been en-
dangered? Will the Duke of Portland, who, in the
year 1801, wrote a letter to the Command.r of the
Irish Brigade, pledging himself to support the
Catholic claims, will he say, that 14 the Church is
in dangi r?" Or will Mr. Perceval, who, in 1804,
as Attorney-General, made many promises to the
Catholics—promises which he had certainly nn in-
tention of violating—will Mr. Perceval undertake to
shew that there has been any foundation for this
alarm ?

" Gentlemen, Mr. Pitt's Bill of 1804, and most of
the present Ministers were then aEling with Mr.
Pitt, gave Foreign Catholics the right of entering
into toe English army, in any numbers. It allow. d
Foreign Papists t 3 hold any commission whatever
in regiments so formed.. It (teed all such persons
from taking any oaths, sleep: such as His Makisty
should direCt, and allowed His Majesty to station
ten thousand of these Foreign Popish in any part of
the Kingdom, and to billet them exactly as he dces
his Protestant British subjects. I ask, then, shall
German, Italian, nay even French Papists-s•Mtli who
owe no allegiance to His Majesty, and who are not
even required to disclaim those tenets which all our
fellow.seblefts of that persuasion have solemnly ab-
jured—shall they be admitted to hold the highest
ranks in our army, and yet the Catholics of England
and Ireland be deemed unworthy of the same c 05....
deuce and tavuur 1 1 will ask, then, Gentlemen, was
it proper, nay, was it decent, to refuse the Protest-
ant Dissenters and Catholics of England and Ire.
land these privileges which had already been grant-
ed by Mr. Pitt to Foreign Papists?
•• Gentlemen, when His Majesty's late Ministers
came into office, they hoped, by a conciliatory sy.-
tem ut Governme it, to keep the Catholic Question
fur ;some time at rest, and whatever little intiuvitte I
personally possessed was exerted with that view. But
irritated and disconteat.•d as the people .4 Ireland
continued, I would ask, Gentlemen, what the conse-
quauces might have been, had that man, who pre-
tends to give to all nations liberty and equal trgt.ts.
but who may properly be said to make all equ.l
slaves, effetted a powerful invasion ? I dreaded the
consequence, and to avert it was the ohjed of the
Bill winos I proposed, and which bas been so un-
fortunate in its issue. But the clamour is, the dan.
gerous tendency of the Bill. I ask this plain ques-
tion, if it is not dangerous to have Catholic soldi,is
in Catholic Ireland, can it be dangerous to have Ca-
tholic soldiers in Protestant England ?
Gentlzmen, the lee AdminiAration have
been accused of katiention to the Shipping In-
terest of the counts); (I wi.b now to be un-
deo stood as addre,:ing myself more particularly
DJ the freeholders from Newcastle and Shields,) I

thou' I be very happy, if any gentlentin would
enme forward, and state in. what manna the sit,.
ping interest has been negletted. I believe the troe.
rican Intercourse Bull has given rise to comnla s
Now, it must he stiffi:lently knows,, that ner Aro,
Indian Islands are in a great measure dependent Tien
America, fur the articles of lumber sod provisions.
That previously to the passing of this Bill, tie c„.
Vernon of the Islands, on their own reponsibilitv.
instantly kept up an intercourse with Amnia, to
obtain such supplies as were necessary; and, in re.
turn, permitted the Americans to purchase and
take
away articles produced in the Islands. Bills of fo„
d•mn;ty to the Governors, on account of this illicit
but necessary troffic, were every year appliedlori
aad passed in Parliament. I submit, then, was i;
not better to legalize at once this interrolose
with America, and vest a general power in the
Privy Council tor its regalation, than trust to the
discretion of the West India Governors individean,
for procuring such supplies as the Island: might
be in want of ? Great complaint* have also
been cached against us on account of
treaty we lately negotiated with Arnerks,
though it would surely have helm time too,u;:,
complain when the mini of that treaty tame folo
the public. The Americans have not, hostooo,
thou& that the advantages were entirely In their
favour, for it is probable the treaty will not be ra
tified by their Government. Gentlemen, the gre ,;
aid unfortunate changes which have been effeCto.,
in the North of Europe, caannt but have ooerate/
severely upon your interests, and it leas been in..
possible to afford you any adequate relief. Restriso
tions were imposed upon neutrals, which produced
the strongest remonstrances from the Governments
of their respe.live Countries. One of my last arts,
while in office, was, to write a long letter to Deis-
mark, in vindication of our measures in respea to
neutrals, and I wish to God I could lay that letter
before you, to convince you how utterly unfounded
have been your complaints that His Majesty's 14 e
Nlino.ters were inimical to the Shipping Intetesu of
the Empire.
"Gentlemen, I shall make but a few more obser-
vations, and conclude. I think the late
stration the least objectionable the country ever hot.
It was a phenomenon in politics. We had intenCed
to render Ireland safe and tranquil, we had in con-
siderable preparaton, a plan for the modification cf
tythes in that country, and were not without &din
Cant prospnet of ameliorating the tything system :a
England ; tor I am convinced that without some
measure of this kind, the agriculture of the king-
dom will never be carried to that pitch of improso.
meet of which it is susceptible. I hope that the
present Nlinisters are pursuing schemes equally ad.
vantageons to the Empire. Those measures would
have been brought forward, not for the purpose
harassing and vexing, but to promote the bat in-
terests of the country.
" Gentlemen, when out of office, I wished for the
retom of Abuses in our expenditure—when in cite,
I endeavcured to entree such abuses, and d:sooer
public defaulters; and His Majesty's 1 ste Mininen
were on the point of bringing forward delinquents,
when the dissolution of Parliament put a stop to
their proceedings. When cut of office, I was an
advocate for the abolition of that inhuman and *to-
minable traffic, the .lave Tr./oleo—when in :floe.
that ()Ned was accomplished. The abeithiouor,ne
Slave Trade will always be the glory of the late Ad-
ministration ; it is a measure which Mr. Pitt, torn
all his vast popularity, seas never able to effe't.
" Gentlemen, after the Catholic Bill had been
withdrawn, in deference to His Majesty's opinion, a
pledge was required of us, with whicO we found it
impossible to comply consistently with any idea we
entertained of duty or honour. The consequence
was, our dismissal from the Councils of his Majesty.
I have been accused of wounding tho feelings t,t. my
Sovereign. The best answer to this infamous ca-
lumny, is afforded by His Majesty's gracious apps
bation of my conduct. And here I declare, that oa
every occasion where I hove had to communicate
with His illojesty, I have uniformly witnessed his
gracious and benevolent intentions towards his
people, and his desire to promote their happiness
and welfare.

Gentlemen I have detained you long to clear
myself of the wicked imputations and calumnies
which have been spread abroad with a view to my
prejuJice, and have to thank you for your atten-
tive haring. If you have found any merit in my
well-meant endeavours for the interest of you And
of your country, I entreat you to honour me with
your votes. If, in my confident ekpeetatiou of be-
ing returned for the Bth time yen/ R,presentative,
I should be disappointed, I shallretirc into private
life, conscious of my good intentions, and still grate.
tally rem-rnber the obligations you have already
cQuterred upon me."