The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-02-01 00:00:00

CATHOLIC: A.YSOCI.4TION.

An open Meeting of this .Vesoriation was held yesserday at the
frown and Anchor Tavern, for the purpose of petitioning Perlin.
errs for C•dbolle Emancipation, which was numerously and re-
"r- on tended.
lock Lord A a rstnr.t. (of Wanloury took the Chair.,
Ate oat c
Noble Chairman mid that lie could not refuse to accept the
Thr
de
lof Chairman at this Meeting, but he much regretted that
buset. of importance required hue attendance at Westminster
111.1Irt two o'clock; a friend, however, had kindly commuted to
male 111 M.
Mr.Br oust, the Secretary then addressed the !fleeting. Ile
tog, that since he last had the honour of addressing them—a period
of not more than three months—no less than 32.'100 publications,
jetsetter' as antidotes to the prejudices soughtu to bc reviveel against
aide Amociation. had been distrlbuted f which breathed the
pure spirit of Christian charity. and invited their fellow.subjecta
their claim to lie restored to the Consii.
exandne dispamionstely
totional rights sod mivileges of their ancestors. These publications
had Fineman,' been distributed wbere their opponents had must
secretor themselves in endeavouring to mink against them a feeling
of pehlic indignation, and he had the satisfacurn to say that though
6,1
.3rooor might, to r certain extent, not have been invoked
P°l7u—
to vain ; that the public opinion in favour of the justice of their
cause. was making hourly progress. TM talent, the education,
ugh` e country vi power them ;in every district tkeir
'efendsrs ers
broug torment a of argument. and a display of
ramoof which bigotry and pi. juristic would contend in vain.
Is proof el this, he (Mr. Bionnt) would first point out a
excellent artick which had appears/ in the last Edinburgh
Rect,s en divided allegiance, which proved beyond the possibility
o' doubt that the allegiance of Gotten/a to civil power was in tin
Way effected by the spiritual supremacy of the Sovereign Pontiff.
and that no portion of the poser conceded to him interfered in the
smallest degree with the institutions of the country. The next
circumstance that he(lllr.Blotritirreql!ected amongst many wu (rum
Yorkshire. where efiliets were unceasingly Made to fan the embers of
expiring prejudice : it ioo called the Ekefors' Guide, and united
with great power of argument an extensive knowledge of their
question. They were sin highly indebted to a gentleman at Be.
truly, shit exposed. with irresistible forte, the injustice of refusing
to stow the C thrdic to expound the doctrines of his own church,
but condemned him, by a creed not named for hini,and which creed
he utterly disavowed. Their thanks were also due to many other
advocates, whet had supported their cause In pamphlets, speeches,
and the public ;stints. so es to have left hardly any thing unsaid or
ummswerai. He (Mr. Blount) ***lied it to be buns in mind that
the gentlemen he had alluded to were all Protestants ; and it was
to be remembered that • love of truth, Mid a sense of justice alone,
bad indeced thole persona to come forward In their favour. To
many gentlemen of the Committee a debt was also due—a debt of
ratitutie. He (11r: Blount) hoped he might be allowed to 'tingle
out ore individual, a Right Rev. Prelee, rho now lay on the bed
of sickness. and foe whose restoration to health every British
Catholic offered up prayers. Ile (Mr. Blount) alluded to
Dr. Baines, whose sermon on Faith, preached at Bradford
in July last, could not be too e .tenaively circulated, or too
g-meralty read. The high situation he held in their Church gave
authority to his sentiments; and those sentiments were so cot.
genial wuh the mild spirit of Christianity, that he hoped their
opponents would peruse his pages with interne, and imitate his
conciliatm conduct. It could not be denied that persons were to
be found amongst their opponents whose occupation it was to re-
ceive every antiquated slander against them, to vilify their religious
practices, to charge on the bode to which they belonged the acts of
ioditiduala, which they could not control; and, in tine, who
searched the records of the eleventh century for grounds of sem-
eationagaiost the English Catholic of the nineteenth century.
Coredecting individuals did undoubtedly imbibe prejudices against
them on the credit of such persons. but they were but few. It was
to he hoped, however, that they would at length be induced to
judge the English Catholics as they won't' what to be judged them.
selves, not from surmises. prejudices, and slanders, but from the
firing evidence of facts. The English Catholics appealed from the
decimation of divided allegiance to centuries of untainted loyalty ;
from disregard of oaths, to the hourly evidence of political degra-
dation ; from the immoral tendency of any supposed practice of
his religion, the British Catholic appealed with confidence to the
integrity of his life, to the willing obedience he Payed to the laws,
to the ce of hie civil and social duties. The lion, Gentle.
than asked if their opponents had a right to ask more in a land that
boasted of Its flee institutions and liheral principles? Re con-
tended that they had not. It should be remembered that
white they inked this from the English Catholics. atheism
was preached in their public streets. He (Mr. Blount) did not
wish to invoke the civil power even there, but sandy It was the
height of inconsistency to ;vanish with privations and disqualifica-
tions the Catholic, whose faith approached so nearly to their own,
and to leave in full possession of die field :he gloomy Atheist, who
robbed life of comfort, and death of hope. Cod forbid, said the
Ilan. Gendarme°. that we should refuse to any candid person such
exposition of our creed as might remove the preconceived opinion
that we possess any tenet or principle inconsistent with the most
devoted loyalty to our King and country. Upon that we would
confide our cause, and await with confideuri an impartial verdict.
They bad been accused, in no measured terms, of stirring up a spi•
rit of religious warfare, by Irritating reflections on the tenets of
others as compared with their own. The accusation was unfounded.
In eaery accusation sent before the public by the British Catholic
Association such recrimination had been most scrupulously avoided.
In proof of it, a copy of each of the publications sanctioned by the
Catholic Association had been sent to the editor of nearly every
daily paper published In the metropolis. The Association had not
been so fortur.ate as to prevent a renewal of the accusation, but they
bad done that which a sense of what they owed to the public and
theniselvm demanded—they had proved the falsehood of the accu-
sation. Muth virulence had also been displayed against them,
where candidates for popular Favour augured success for themselves
by fomenting a feeling against the Aesociation. In one instance
the most offensive ribaldry was mingled with the grossest slander.
The candidate imagined that the way to the hearts of his electors
was by proclaiming to the world that he had violated the decencies
of private life. That man had the temerity to partake-of English
hospitality. to twat himself at their tables, and then to load his hosts
with the most scurrilous imputations; bls virtuous efforts had suc-
ceeded—as such always 'fruit' succeed with honest Englishmen—
be disgusted his hearers, and left the theatre of his ambition with
disgrace. In time sister kingdom. too, the English Catholics had
been assailed with imputations discreditable either to them or to
those who hat hazarded the accusations against them. The Assn.
elation were told that they disguised their faith to curry favour with
the Protestant public, and pledged themselves to the truth of their
denial. The English Catholics made no representation of their
principles which were not in strict conformity with truth, and they
asked whether they were to be judged by ins misrepresentations of
their enemies, or b their own declarations. What part of their
conduct warranted the imputation of bad faith. which the accusa-
tion charged them with ? Besides, the accusation of disguising the
extent of the Papal jurisdiction carried with it its own refutation.
It the Court of Rune were so jealous of its pretensions as it wu as.
Bunted to be. would It endure, in silence, a denial of its
prerogative? Would it allow the English Catholics to limit
its authority without censure or control ? If an, the thunders
Of the ‘'atican bad ceased to roll ; the anathemas with which it
was most to visit her refractory children were silenced, and the
mighty mischief to be apptehmded from papal jurisdiction was but
an empty sound. lie (Mr. Blount) hoped and believed that the
Irish of all religions were grown too wise to allow the progress of
Improvement to be impeded by persevering in those religious ani.
amities. which, by causing division, and consequently weakness,
had thrown them into the hands of unprincipled politicians, who
had had any object in view rather than the prosperity of 'relay 1.
Ile (Mr. Blount) firmly believed that net power on earth could pre.
vent that union taking place in Ireland among all religions which
was absolutely necessary to raise her to the rank she ought to bear.
All would juin to deplore the infatuation that prompted any one de-
actiption of Christians to pursue with bitter aniinosity their brethren
of any other persuasion ; one party gave the provocation, it mat-
tered not which, : the other resented it ; and both, regardless of
their own interests, and unmindful of their first duties, conspired
with frantic fury to tear the bosom of their common parent. Ile
(Mr. Blount) harl the honour to be, na a certain extent, and en-
tirely as far as his goad wishes for her happinee went, an Irishman.
Ile was; be adoption, a freeman of the city of Londonderry ; he
valued highly the distinction, and might be permitted to conjure
his-brother freemen, if they valued their own prosperity and
peace as much as he (Mr. Blount) did, to regard every man with
suspicion—.every man, of whatever faith he might be--who would
svelte in them a feeling of hatred against any class of their fellow
Christians and cOuntermen. They had worse evils to dread than
papal bulls, or papal jurisdiction—the unprincipled practices of
heartless politicians. Since he (Mr. Mount) had last meimoned
the state of the funds of the Association, little niteration hail taken
place; the receipts were about equivalent to the current expendi.
and the Association remained saddled with the same debt ; about
3001. was the amount of the deficiency ; a statement of the seccunt
was in the mom for the inspection of any gentleman who might
wish to see it. In conclusion he might be permitted, in the name
of the Committee to which be had the honour to belong, to urge the
meeting to use their influence with their friends to aid in the great
cause in which they were engaged. They were on all sides called on to
Justify themselves from the false impressions that prevailed respect.
ing their principles. The Protestants who had espoused the cause
of the Association had suffered much obloquy and ioiury, in comm.
quence of the necessity they felt in supporting the cause of truth,
justice, and enlightened policy ; therefore it wao necessary that
the meeting should go manfully forward with hand and heart. A
considerable expenditure was indispensable to give such a circulation
as was requisite to the dialemination of publications in defence/of
their principles ; and It was to the British Catholic public that they
must look for that assistance. The Committee took to themselves
the merit of not shrinking from personal exertion in the common
cause, and they would willingly persevere in their exertions if they
received such support as would give effect to them. Ile ( Mr.
Blount) would now proceed more particularly to the business of
the day. which was for the adoption of a petitiou to be
presented to Parliament for the recovery of all their rights in
the Constitution of the country. In obedience to the in-
structions of the Committee he had written to the local Catholic
Associations in England and Scott:sod. to learn their opinion on the
measure of petitioning or not during the approaching Session.
They had recommended with one accord that petitions should be
presented. The particular sentiments of thqe letters he would
read, If necessary ; Mtt a learned friend near hilt was just returned
from Lancashire, and would verbally give them such an account of
the moteedings, and et the feelings and views of the enlighteTed
Catholics of Lancashire, as would render any further statement of
his (Mr. Bloom's) ouiperfluons. Ile had almost forgot to notice.
that in London, through the zealous compilation of gentlemen
on whom, if they were not present, be would endeavour to Bestow
a part of that praise to which they were so eminently entitled, a