The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1819-03-05 00:00:00

CATHOLIC CLAIMS.

Lord NuolaT ro►e, and spoke to the following
effect .
•, Sir—l have the honour to hold in my hand the
Petition of the Roman Catholics of England. a
body who form a considerable part of its popish'.
bon, praying to be relieved from the penalties and
disabilities which press upon them.—(Heer.)—
It is signed by upwards of 10,300 persons, many
of them the representatives of the noisiest and most
ancient families in the kiugdom—Wear.)—Among
the siKnatures appear those of eleven Peers, Oil..
teen Baronets, arid malty hundreds of most is.
spectable gentlemen. The House will bear with
me while I add, that the name at the head of ri•is
list is, that of the Luke of Norfolk, hereditary
Earl Marshal of England, premier Peer—(liens.)
For the present I shall content myself with 00000 tong,
that the Petition be read and laid on the tAle,
without inquiring what measures the House may
hereafter deem desirable or practicable in compli.

ance with its prayer; particularly as Members must
be in possession of the itature and bearings of the
question, from the fell and ample discussion it hoe
undergone on former occasions. The letiguage of
the Petitioners is temperate and respectful in the
very highest degree; they do not presume to pre-
scribe to the Legislature the mode or measure of
relief which they humbly seek.—(Hear.)-1 think,
however, that their application is peculiarly entitled
to the consideration and attention of the Hotter.
It is expressed in nearly the same terms es the Peti-
tion which has often before been presented from the
same body; and which, though it failed of success.
gained, I may say, the general approbsti and
kindly feeling 01 t..e House, for the temperitteness,
discretion. and modesty of its )
In bringing ►his Petition under the tritice Of the
House. the memory irresistibly forces itself on one
of those great and good men, now no more, to whose
hands it was for many years intrusted. The r.eol.
lection, while it snakes me feel how incompetein I
am myself to succeed to such worthy nod cele-
brated men--at the same time convinces me what
strength the cause has derived and should derive
from such illustrious advocacy. The advocacy
of these distinguished men is still fresh in the
recollection of the Utilise. The last of them,
indeed, coning eerily he forgotten, though the
Catholics of England ate for ever deprived of
his support. When I name Mr. Elliott—(/teer)
—lt name the last of that great essemblage of
public men who hail advocated their came for the
Petitioners. Though this distinguished eller:icier
was unhappily uo more, they had yet the great
value of his high example; they had the value
which must attach to the support of such a man—
or the support of a Statesman entineutly
dts-
tinguirhed for his knowledge and virtues--
and who. perhaps more than any other man in late
times, left behind him a high example of modes's.
lion as well as steadfast principle. after a lung life
of public service, in the most trying and contentious
times.—(Hess, hear, hear.)-41y such a man lord
the Petition of this Imig-discredited portion of his
Majesty's subjects been last presented to ilie eon.
sideratiou of this Il••use ; it had 'been bequeathed
to him, utmost in his lest moments, by his dis-
tinguished friend. Mr. Witidhstm, who had been
long its illustrious advocate. The list of the eden.
cites of this great cause comprised all that was
illustrious in the former taletit of our courtly—
coseptieell ell those names which are cherished and
revered by the wise and the good, from the names
which I have just mentioned up to the revered
*Ames of a Saville and a /Irate. The whole of
them illustrious characters had been the steady and
liens advocates far the repeal of the bloody and use.
sierra enactments winch we call the Penal Code.
--(Hear.)--1 am aware that the general elate of
the Catholics of Ireland will he shortly !nought
ruder the courideration of this Mauer. by the
venerable and distinguished man .(Sir. Grattan),
who has often, and with so much ability, in.
trucheced it. From him you will hear that advocacy
which shall be worthy of so great a cause.
those arguments, the cogency of which most by
irresistible. At no distant period then will the re•
dress sought for by the Petitioners be. I trust,
abided to clear Ult II sultsfactiun •raid %hot of Ow

people et Idrge. The time has, I trit,t, -rri,.4l,
when the spirit of usitvrt.Nl freedom owl
rK frlt end acted upon by the people of
The motion of my linci.t II 1111 l ou.r3l)lr Fri,ll.l
I fed confident, schurve liir. übj.. r Mc ,

sinners. I .611 not. thereftere.
bale which lie means to induce, but tuer•-ly

serve, with reference to the Ertgireh Cunt/Ate., t;„,t
their grrAt cud high spirit itas it.en 13111 y i'!,
by their patient endurritrii*nl long, .eitt.t.-,
untnerited tow

however, one conviction, which 1 rhnnl•l vrt.tts•r
imprtior iipun the Prtitiolletri. 1,
hese they Intl it already, that lino, flirt,
and steady conduct as subjects dn.'
the stinfurus tone and tentirer of th,,i,
applications to IParliatnen►,,, they
!persuaded, established a wood titling for tikm,
and their cause in Oils Hou•e,
flea thew to every reliance not
humanity, but our justice. On the •uhjrct
. _

are termed securities,' all I I yis
that no good can portably arise from thr con.ideia.
tion of this branch of the subject, if such it can he
called. There was no Io hcs, or rather the poi!• v
was fats!, which prniniitvd any orgovotioin
the subject of •termir between Parliament owl indi-
viduals, with the view of snaking the itir,i7tirr of
the relief consonant to their own ferliou•-• From
a orgociation between two such virtie.4s

meat mud the Pettttosters. no Kona eth pt,sibly
to either—it mot only end its dowewi,:ssr.sitt,,og them-
KA res.—told for tam it can only end so lurs •rstsK tt,e
lue of the relief whiels we may tlwisomesl to rxiro 1.

and eornprotannag our own IrgtOali.e 1.‘,%%r%
Petitioner% ni etomplaisitog of the {navy buff
they enduied, state that they latwur 'Hider Itv

l'it

gri;vances—the one them i.ohtic,it
dttxqualifi. anon, and the other religious ohloriiis—
mil obloquy indeed maitily grown orit of their ivil
btete—u political disqualification 111,0,1
them, not ou account of any political tenets w1,,r11
they may happen to hold, but solely on account _ . .

spiritual faith; or. in other words, 011 ilcomalt of
cerrsui scruple., which it is presumptuous fur marl
_ .

to judge, and for the exercise of which turn sliquld
alone be answerable to his God and bis coloc.eoce

hear)—scruples, indeed, the edherence to
which is the hest proof and earnest the Petitioners

can give of the integrity of their moral principle,
the steadiness of their religious obligation, and the
permanence of that social virtue %Inch thr reAt
object of laws to inculcate and enforce. The dis.
gracefel disqualifications which our laws sills to
tba exercise of mere opinions, such as thn.4e
which the Petitioners hold, do not affect them

only in one instance—they meet them in every
way in which penal enactineuts can be fr..int,l
to operate—they go into their pursuits in all the
relation* of sotiety—they meet the to in the puss tit
not only of all honourable career, and just awl k.-
gitiniate ambition, but also in every sphere is
which the mind prompts a man to exercise his 'doh-
tiee and his efforts. The horrible spirit of 3, ur
laws is, that you mark out the Catholics as a sect or
east separated and contradisinignished from your-
selves., on account of some undefined suspicion of
their pi iiiciples. This enspicion is the more ignoble
when you apply it to English Gentlemen lake the
Petitioners. who are silliest iu 3 ourselves by all the tie*
of birth. education, feelings. and blood, but whom
you doom, for conscience sake alone, to hitter and
galling incapacines, on account of the constancy
with which they have adhered, thronglo ages of ,err.
**cation. to their own religious rites, to the attar;,.
meld they bear to what they comteive to he their
spiritual obligations. For this adherence to their
own conscientious belief, in a matter iii which they
hare no right to be coutroled by the arm of tha
law, you point them out as a separate claws from the
rest of your fellow subjects—you proscribe them
with unparalleled ri..;our—)oil ni .ke them alien*
in the laud of their birth.—(llear, hear.)—Ttity
have. indeed, the right of inheriting the property
of their micestors—property which, in matiy in-
stances. carries with it the marks of their dtirewaril-
ed loyalty to that Static which yet proscribes theist.
and fur the preservation of which they made sari i-
lice. whorl) leave hero acknowledged only by a
continuance of their disfranchisernent.—(llear.)
In looking at the history of the English Catlio.irs.
who can fail to recognize, in the ciiiiste_ucy of th-r
principle'', the purity of their moral character?—
who cat, fail to recognize the uttuteritell lingoes
which the Legislature has c..st iii this class
of the people. and %Inch must still attach to I'v-ue
until the iiiterveution ef as inure liberal pohcy ?
The laws have made the refusal of the Cathy{ c to
conform to our faith the canes. of Ilia disquatilic.-
tion ; and the test you propose for *tering los i
allegtatice, is the violation of his conscieuttuu• fr.l*
ing—.4lse tleparttire Irons his avowed fehtli.--
(Ifrar.)—lt at difficult to conceive a ware ito!);e "r 1
more iiiterestiog spectacle than that resented ley
the El:ghat' Cailintice—ecdowed all the ~,t-kti
kti
ire
vantages of birth, ploperty, honour talent,.
imbued as they Naturally are with ahoy rotates to
I ourable ambition which sorb attributes ir-
I they are doomed, and tlia4, tpli, by the
Isis' of their own country, to duipeleit in die
narrow sphere of private Isle the onyoystiessla which
their station gives them. Yoh,' leers hoe narrowest
their sphere and i:ligniansed their printittles—they
have coolined the ilisinensation of the blewongs which
Providence 111111 placed in their hasalse.and whicli
the wave and the good dispose of fur she fievetit of ;
society at large, to die narrow sphere of private lih, \
and local conuezions. But thus teatticled. this
large class of his hlajcsty's eubjects lieeprits a dip
Wird forbearance, an unabated attar idiottes to (last
laws. an nominates loyalty, II fifoMllo,lol rioCillar
which your outrageous laws have mantissa able to
eradicate, and which entitle* theta to Oil. Me opi-
nion of every reflecting sod well.regjihdp4onini.—
. flleor.j—The Petitioner. state tWeptvinice in
the language of moderation and twilit, They state
that they base been for centuries akstosalitied hy
ilia laws, without being guilty of say crime. Is
• looking at the period shortly' after these hiss wile
imposed. it was impossible to look at the couda( t
of the English Catholic without athiirotion I,t
his principles. Look et their et/induct in the iviAu
of Elisabeth..-look at them in those 0)1,1 pe-
tied* of our history, when their lorilt, was het /..
be shaken by yaw proecriptials—took at t1.t.,,
rallying foetid your, Putsti!,titina A Mai very li"/'
sliesasOilethAlleir attrvicea were irripprioul. and *1" "
they We droltilitidttlidrr use bilawasuisiutliotant of
your • penal laws.swlaws which I mod issuie voll*