The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-07-23 00:00:00

to 'Moder, Were attacked by the Egyptians and dispersed. The
Egyptians then penetrated into the town and carried off' 1.090 men.
woman, and children.
Yesterday, at 3 p.m., Chevalier's thermometer was at 28 4-10,
which was its maximum to.day at 2 o'clock, 26 8-10.
Facucer Faxne—PAtis, Jut. 20.—Five per Ceara. 10.3 f.
26c.; Three per Cents, 761. 10 e.: Bank Stock 2200 f. ; Rennie de
Naples Cenif. Falcormet, 89f. rec. ; Reims d'Esp. 17 1; Royal
Spanish Loan, 64if ; Exchange on London, One Month, Z3f. ;
t hues Months, 24t. Sic.—Corrs Artheritiqrs.

The Catholic Associations, it seems, gain no ground
among the well-informed persons in Ireland, notwithstand-
ing the philanthropy of their avowed purpose—that of
producing peace and concord among all classes. Their pro-
ceedings do certainly not promise to realise this vision of
pacific empire. Mr. O'CONNELL and his friends have
chalked out a pretty broad line of conduct for their public
labours ; but to begin with evading a statute enacted for
preserving the tranquillity of Ireland, is to afford rather an
ominous prelude to subvert, to the utmost of their means,
the authority of a Legislature, and rather an eqtrivocal sam-
ple of their sincerity in preaching up obedience to the laws.
The Catholic chieftains put forth, as one of the prominent
features of their plan, that of numbering their population,
that its gross amount may be the more correctly compared
with that of the Protestants. It is expected, no doubt,
that on counting these legions, the latter will bow their
haughty crest, and that the British Parliament will be in-
duced to accede to those claims, which upon a calculation
of prudence it may be deemed unsafe any'lcinger to with-
hold. But in truth we should eepect no mei result from
this display. Catholic concession was never discussed as a
question of numbers ; it has always bceu made to rest on
considerations of a very different natant. That causes—
Igreat and just causes--of complaint exist in Ireland, can-
not be denied, and their removal must ever be an object of
enitout desire to the most enlightened minds. The true
bearings of the question of Catholic Emancipation have
never been placed, as it appears to us, in their true and
proper light by either of the leading parties, whether of its
advocates or its enemies. The friends of the Catholic
cause insist on the injustice of excluding any class of sub-
jects from any offices of trust and profit in the State on the
ground of their religion : while their opponents, on the other
hand, contend that the religion of the State, being esta-
blished by law, must be upheld and protected by the law,
which, for this purpose, is justified in excluding from the
higher offices of Government all persons of a different reli-
gious creed, inasmuch as their weight and influence, when
invested with power, may be employed to purposes hostile
to the interests of that Church which the Government has
pledged itself to the nation to maintain. Taking these
opposite grounds of opinion, both parties may'argue plau-
sibly and without end ; while the many, who would gladly
make up their minds conscientiously on one side or the
other, could they come to any satisfactory conclusion, are
left at the mercy of the last argument, on whichever side
it be : those who undertake, for the time, to think for
them, interweaving quite enough of truth into their rea-
soning to prevent their thinking for themselves.
That every man should be permitted to worship God in
his own way, and according to that form which he con-
scientiously believes to be acceptable to him, is a truth
which we should be sorry to hear controverted. It is a
truth which every honest and enlightened statesman must
admit ; it is a truth to which the clergy of our Established
Church most readily subscribe. But, this being granted,
does it not follow that no class of persons in the State
ought to be subjected to any civil disabilities on account of
their religion ? Assuredly it des. On what ground, then,
it is asked, is It. that the religion of the Roman Catholics is
made to disqualify its members from holding those offices
to which the law has declared them inadmissible ?—Here
it is that we pause.—lt is in reply to this home question,
arising out of a chain of reasoning perfectly logical, that It
becomes necessary to take those important distinctions
which can alone enable us to reply to it as we ought—that is,
fairly, intelligibly, and without shrinking from any one
consequence which the premises involve.
We say, then, that it is not the religion of the Roman
Catholics that either gave rise to their exclusion from high
official power, or that still continues in force the remaining',
disabilities of which they so urgently complain. It is the
political doctrines engrafted on that religion, and which I
have, from the very origin of the Popish councils in which
they were framed, been made subservient to the worst
excesses of spiritual tyranny—it is these, and the bulls, I
sentences, confessions, absolutions, interdicts, and dis-
pensations which follow in their train, that inspired that
dread of the re-admission of the Catholics to power and
place, and which bolted the doors of preferment against
them with such decided force. Every religion, in its
essence, must combine a regard for man with its love of
that Eternal Being whom it worships—it is not, there.
fore, against the religion of the Roman Catholics that those
laws are still retained from which they seek to be eman-
cipated: it is against those bigotted and sanguinary prin.
ciples which have governed the Roman Church from its

commencement, aril which will govern it to the end—it
is these, and the dread array of spies, inquisitors, and con-
fessors, which are identified with its hierarchy, that Pro-
testants fear to encounter, and which they would fain keep
at arm's length. The religion of the Catholic, viewed in
the abstract, has in it the essence of Christianity—it has
within it, consequently, the whole of those moral precepts
which Christianity enjoins ; it is not, therefore, against
the religion of Ireland—identified in all that is essential
with their own—that the Protestants of England stand
upon their guard. No ; it is to the complete dominion
over the conscience which the intriguing pato» of th2t
communion exercise,, and the studious care with which
they keep down the lower elms., in that state of
moil, ignorance, which makes them at all times the
fit tools as well u the ready instruments of their
priesthood, to whatever service they may be called ;
it is to this, and to the dangrr arising out of it, that they
look with alarm, and against which they meek security in
those remaining laws which they refuse to surrender to the
Catholic claims. Doer ott TROY, in his celebrated Pas-
toral Letter of 1703, says that the religious concerns of
Ireland are regulated by a College of Cardinals at Rome.
In our opinion, however, the reign of spiritual and tem-1
Iporal usurpation, as far as the Holy Pontiff is concerned,
is pretty well at an end, but is the hatred of heretics ex-1
tinguished ? Is the spirit of proselytism less active ? Is
the belief in miracles less implicit ; or is the machinery of
Popish superstition pla• ed off with less success on the ig- '
norant peasantry of Ireland at this day, than it has been
for ages past ? Have not the Jesuits, under the present
Pontiff, Leo Xll. pained an ascendancy in the Roman
States, and in all the Catholic States of the Continent—I
France among the foremost,—that threatens to throw

Europe back half a century in the progress of civilization?
Let not those among the Catholic leaders, who wish to lay
hold of popular disquietude to speed forward the canoe they
advocate—let them not urge that it is to their religion, as
Catholics, that our laws are host le. It is not the truth.
The leading doctrines of that religion make part equally
of the Protestant and Catholic faith. They are to be
found in :bat Gospel which they both eqnally revere.

~MIIM