The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1822-05-01 00:00:00

But could any thing be more strange? A
Peer had two dreitee to perform ; one to sit and de-
liberate in Parliament before his equals, and in the
Ts •f his country ; another, as an hereditary
Counsellor of the Crown, to go into the presence
and advise with his Sovereign secretly. If he
denied the temporal authority of the Pope it '
was enough, lie became a sufficient and good
adviser of the Monarch and his Cabinet ; hut
to sit and vote in Parliament, he most declare ex-
plicitly on the spiritual and ecclesiastical authority.
He may. for aught contaiurd in the oath of 1791,
• doubt the supremacy of his Sovereign. and yet nosy
commune with him, and whisper secret councils.
• This would be strange enough did it appertain to
two individuals, hut it was to the same pereou it re-
ferred. A Catholic Peer might drive to St.James'e
and have hi. audience, by acknowledging the tem-
poral and civil authority ; but the moment the
horses' heads were turned towards Parliament, he was
checked, and must call upon a Justiceof Peace, in his
way down to the House, to protest by oath to his
belief in the spiritual and ecclesiastical supremacy.
Was it possible for any persons, even with the dread
of buying the Papal thunders in all their former
rage at their own doors, to wish for the continuance
of subh absurdities ? He must infer that the Lords
legishated on the Bill in duress; idly. that there
was no danger as t• any thing alleged in the
preamble ; said from sham he concluded. that
if either of the Aets of 167 s and 1791 were
right, the other 6 not be too soon repealed.
They were qfteo checked iii their deliberations in
the House, by the danger of creating what were
called anomalies. He might sok, what could be
more anomalous (hail the facts which he hail cited?
The reign of George 111. which had proved so
fruitful of reliefs from the penal code, had intro-
duced these anomalies into the case of those noble
persons. But there were others which had occurred
from the proceedings of the present reign. For the
first time since the Reformation. Catholic Peers
were seen aiding in the ceremony of a coronation, au
augost ceremony, which it would be depot:hag to
themselves to consider as au creterustietre pageant,
when it was in fact nothing less than a 'solemn re-
newal of the civil compact by the Monarch, sur-
rounded by and receiving the homage of his imbles
and all the orders of the realm. This took place
before the eyes of the representatives of the -Owls-
lien Potentates, both Catholic and Protestant, all
effected with n solemnity calculated to impress
them with an awful sense of the majesty of
the Kmg of a free people. Among the assem-
bled Noblere,, who overtopped his fellow Peers
of the egret- emila The Catholic Lord Clifford.
Who apoke to, express: the homage of the
Dukes? The Catholic Duke of Norfolk. Who
was directed to convey the gratulatious of his Mo-
tarch at the banquet in return for the loving kind-
nese of his subjects ? The same Catholic Duke of
Norfolk. Could it ever have occurred to the spier,- •
did crowd of illustrious guests at that entertainment
that these Noblemen were to return and strip off
their robes, and hang them up until called for
• by the recurrence of the name sort of occasion ?
Did the Duke of Norfolk—did Lord Clifford. re-
presenting a long line of ancestors, imagine that
they, like the paraphernalia of the feast—the lights,
or the decorations. were to be thrown by until the
nest occasion of the kind P Could they have iron-
, glued that they wore to he considered worthy of
the exercise of that privilege only, and that they
were never to be allowed to discover their loyalty
and zeal to serve the state iu the proceedings of
legislation, of which their preserve there proved
them to be a part ? The matter was not so light
as might be supposed. It would have been better
to have let them remain in their former state,
than to have called them forth merely to ac-
complish a pageant, then leave them with the
supposition that their minds could be satisfied
with so paltry a distinction. At an indication
of their rank in the state, that distinction might
be desirable; but when offered as an exchange of
their rights, every additional distinction would only
be felt by a generous mind as an additional degra-
dation. In the late benignant visit of the King to
Ireland, which was as full of wisdom as of grace, a
Noble Catholic Lord had received from the hands
of his Sovereign the national ribbund of Ireland. the
decoration of the knighthood. He (Mr. C.) had
been curious to learn the particular circumstances
belonging to the honour of this ribband. He
referred to the statute for the installation of
the Knights of St. Patrick ; the preamble set out
the qualifications with words like these Wheress
it has been the practice of wise and beneficent
Princes, in all ages, to distinguish such of their
subjects as have vhewn themselves of the greatest
dignity and merit in the offices of the State and
the service of the country, that so others wit-
nessing their deeds and the rewards which they
receive may be led to admire slid emulate
them."—For those reasons, Lord Fingal re-
ceived a ribband from his Majesty. But when
Lord Fingal returned from the Court, the meanest
peasant on his estate possessed more of his civil
rights. He might have a vote for the member who
represented him, but his Lordship could never
participate in the Legislotura iii soy way. This was
another anomaly. In the event of his motion being
carried, he intended the Bill to be brought to
reach the case of the representative Irish Peers
and those who elected them. Hitherto he had
spoken of the Act of 1678 as political—it had,
however, a moral operation tit to consider. They
could not look at the period and circumstances
without seeing that it w::s passed by • Le-
gislature under duress, and that upon weak and
false pretences. II •Il this were held so at the
time, they had less difficulty on seeing it now ; and
ao he thought also, that the Popish plot which
grounded the Act had no fuusidation iu truth.
But a the plot were true, if this, five Popish
Peers there executed hail been tried and COW.
victed, if the guilt of the itouicesit Lord Staf-
ford could he admitted, yet the Act ought not
to stand even on the grounds stated in the
preamble. They ought not to perpetuate dis-
ability indicted for temporary expediency. An
Act SO framed to bind remote posterity, where the
reason of it had ceased, was unjuit and unconsti-
tutional. and repugnant to the slim of the English
law. But when the haste and alarm of the period
were Wien into the account—when it was seen
that the Popish Plot itself was disproved by
the conviction of the chiwf' witnesses seven }ears
afterwards for perjury—ehen theft was us" at.

• ...,

tempt made afterwards to Maintain that Lord
Stafford deserved the death he died, staler the at-
taint of that odious law, there eould be no justifi-
eittiois fur its continaince. He believed that those
who posted the Bill had the some sort of feeling,
though they might have succeeded in persuading
themselves that there was enough in the plot, and
therefore contented themselves without inquiring fur-
ther into it. If they considered that this Act passed
under the same impulse which brought Lord Stafford
to the block, Parliament would do well to remove
every recollection of the stigma. The occutations
of Stafford and the five Peers were sent np to the
Lords, as the harbingers of the Bill. These mea-
sures so far succeeded that the five Peers tint only
suffered death. but the whole of the Catholic No-
*trine') were excluded. Lord Stalked was be.
headed, and on the conviction of his witnesses for
perjury, seven years after, • Bill was brought in to
reverse the attainder. The Bill failed in the
Commons, which was accounted fur by some hitt°.
Mons on the ground of the disinclination of the
House to entertain so flserant • proof of their
rashness and injustice ; other historians attributed
it to the troubles of Monmouth's lauding, the news
of which arrived on the same day. He knew the
arguments which had been used to defend throe
proceedingr—that there were besides the sympathy
for Ostes's severe punishment by the new Govern-
merit; hut there were some things which state neces-
sity con Id not justify. Whets he found one histories
representing this treatment of Lord Snaked—the
Bill of Attaitider, and the neglect of the Bill for re-
moving it, in terms of reprehension—deprecating
the injustice of it, yet excusing it as being pecti-
c:try to prevent too great a triumph of the Papist.,
aid too great an impeachment of the Exclusion
Bill, he felt that it was lot on the merits of the
Bill, or the facts, that the framers proceeded, but
on the exuediency only. He would not new say if
Home were right or not ; but he would ask did
any such now remain ? Had they any power to
look back and undo any of that mischief which had
worked such irreparable damage ? were they pre-
pared to repair the wreck which had beets made of
the rights sod liberties of their fellow subjects ?
He had found the passage in Hume, which he would
read to the House, on the Bill for the attainder of
Lord Stafford. "Ws bill fixed so deep a repro-
bation in the public mind, that it met with great
opposition in the House of Lords. and wsadropt in the
Common. lifter one reading." This was not the
fact. It failed oil the second reading, that very day
the news of Monmouth's landing arrived, which
caused the breaking up of Parliament. [ Hie Right
Hon. Gentleman went on to recite the condemna-
tion of Hume on that transaction, and all that was
connected with the Popish.] lit the debates on
Mr. Warren Hastings's trial, on • discussion of
precedents, that of Lord Stafford was brought for-
ward. Lords Thurluw and Kenyon resisted the
application of it. Lord Thurlow declared that he
would never moment to allow • precedent draws
from the most melancholy and shameful transactions
of history. Lord Kenyon, though he had left the
possession of such sentiments to his son, was equally
averse to the precedent, which he characterised as a
legal murder. Here there was the opinion of Judge
Kenyon against the questionable pension of Titus
Oats. [The Right Hon. Gentleman proceeded to
argue on the invalid foundation of the &relation
Bill, thus shaken by the condenotiatom of Lord
Staffisrd, by whose trial, he snsintained,the Bill mom
stand or fall. He contended that Parliament must
remove the Bill—that the loss of. privilege to
the sufferers must be estimated by the feelings
of those who owned them—and that those of
the Peers could only, as they had expressed
it in their order, be lest with their lives them-
selves. He proceeded to explain the difference
in the privation of right between the Peer who
loses that of his birth to sot in Parliament,
and the Commoner, whose right would be, as it low
been, clogged with qualifications—and. indeed, as
no absolute right in itself, as millions are excluded
simply by non-election. That of the Peer, on the
contrary, was as winch his right as his life or any
other possession. Besides wbich, a Commoner was
not branded by exclusion; but who, that saw the
Duke of Norfolk; was not aware the his Lordship
was disabled?—that his honours and proud titles
were empty sounds, rather of ignominy than
honour, when the privilege which alone could give
them value was withheld? He wished to pay no
vulgar homage to their rank : but it was to
be remarked, that the Catholic Peers had pro-
fited nothing from the concessions merle in the last
fifty years to their Catholic brethren, whose
advantages they had silently and cheerfully wit-
nessed in that period. He again justified himself
from the supposition this he hod acted at all from
the instigation of others. He hoped that the Ho-
nourable Member for Somerset would allow that
lie had made his case out, us he hed led the Home
to anticipate. He again recapitulated the leading
facts which he had cited, and, supposing the pos-
sibility of the question being put in More before
a supreme morel tribune?, whether this Exclusion
Bill, so founded on false pretences and unjust Yee-
cutions, ought to continue or not, lie would ieita
ture his life on the decision tieing against the conti-
nuance of it. He proceeded to argue on the power
sod discretion of Parliament in repealing this Bill.
When the scheme was suggested for the gradual
raising of the currency of the kingdom to its pro-
! per level of value, by pitying gold kr paper in err-
nun quantities and under ceituon regulations, much
was said to shew that it would but aggravate tin:
evils of the depreciation to those who were not pos.
seated of sums of so great a magnitude. wits
said that the poor man's pound note would be
much lessened in value by pitying his rich neigh-
bour in gold. Parliament, however, did adopt the
measure, which, although not fully acted on, had
raised the value of the currency to all classes from
the highest to the lowest throughout the kingdom.
Aud so would it be in this cote ; the Catholic
'objects of every degree
would be raised in the
scale of his estimation as a member of the British
community, by the removal of the disabilities from
the first rank of that class of subjects with which
he was connected, and would plumlike in the exalta-
tion of the Catholic Peers, by their admission to the
full enjoyment of the privileges of their order.—
He had now finished the view which be hail pro-
posed to take of the several pointy on which his
proposition appeared to him to be founded; sod
he hoped he had kept his word by arguing the
questiou ou its particular grounds, wholty distiuct

from the general measure. If he were to he set
by being told that his proposition embraced tie
whale goon , and by a gem-roil argument foto,
ed eel that assumption, instead of being addr •
to the particular cote, he should 111113 k that .1.
question was g•ined.—(Cheer.).—He timughc,..„
Ball of the 30th Charles 11. was in tin pert of it
re-enacting measure. It was as entirely 110.11
the Act of Elizabeth had never passed. For,
though it renewed the provistooo of that Act, %.,
it did so alio intrine, adding to it oaths wheels
Act never contained, and which were expressly c.
dared to he framed for the purpose of ezeinde •
Catholics from sitting in either Home of Perk:
merit. It was not taking a fair view of this gm..
lion to put all the oath. (those entitled Ay t
Act of Elizabetli, and those introdtteral Lot i
first time 111 the Act 30th Charlesll.)
um Ole •41
footing; and he would ask, why %est. them- a .
exclusions added to those which were preemo.
existing ; by what policy could they have bees .1
hoed, unless by one of two reasons--either fey
purpose of excluding the Duke of York from I
succession to the crown, and doing it covertly a.
Catholic, or from the discovery of the Popish
If they were fouoded no the latter groom',
should desire to know whether, not any site Of to .
individuals, but Parliament were now is the far -•
that the stories of the Popish plot were true- ? fle
would ask whether they thought that the Cathulit
Peers of that rierriud were justly or unjutity
peached if unjustly, why had they love fir.
chided frets Patheasent ? If justly, why had soh
one been brought to trial ? He would eel, whe.
titer Parliament still believed that one to have bdee
guilty ? Aud if they did not, why should the Ca-
tholic Peers and their desceudsuie ramose aid,
ject to the exclusion to which they bad been 4.
jetted, not became they had otteatiited
Lunt the State, but hiecauee the/ bed been aerseed
of doing so ? If this istasere stood on these
grounds, he should desist to know whether, bigeg
*ow happily free from all dangers sods alarms et
the score of Popish power, being disabused uf Kt
elvers which had led to the smiposittoo of the
guilt 011 which it was founded, they would my
longer persevere in maintaining a law which (sold
serve only as a memorial of their jusolicatioa hos
crime? He was aware of the many difficulties which
it might be attempted to throw in the way's( home.
tion, in discussing it as a question of expediea..!
The whole question of Catholic disabilities, us•
doubtedly could only rest on grounds of pralitie:.
expediency, from their operation ou the getter::
rights of the Bantry; and when a person cane t.
argue the whole question, he was necessarily oblige
greatly to understate this part of hie argunieti•
But now, taking it up on tliis part of the rate mill
he did feel entitled to take this quett;mb as ■ gee,
tion of right, though the whole question was one 5
expediency. He would appeal from mimesis; t•
ancestor ; from the times of old to times move re
cent; from Shaftesbury to Borleigh, from Oates t
Elizabeth. He would appeal to the oujoet decision c'
the House of Lvrds upon the case of LoidStAftet.
He called upon them to lei the cold-birx.oled caw
Lion of Hume, not to do too much its viodicwoo,
of the Catholics, oo longer stand in the way II
invoked them in the nettle of charity, to do the.
which was chseitable—in the name of God, to el
that which was just.—(Groat cheering heat sh
parts of the House.)—The Right I Inn. Gentlemen
theta moved for leave to bring in a Bill to repeal es
much of the statute of the Stith Charles H.
debars Roman Catholic Peep from the caeseireof
their right took and vote in the Houses( Lima.
Oh. G. AGAR ELIAS meowed the winelms. He mid,
after the elaborate sad toavinciag speech of I,is Right Rao.
Priced, he could sot think of hospataise as the banter
atiesaieo of the Hesse. He had always a decided opiiiiite ere
she justice sod humanity of grouting the ruenti Ilboavere at
Cat balk Eanoeipation, and he thought the portioa of ol
then brought before the House was eutit:ed to their r ,
because the disabilities to which it related Mad a difetew
ollgia. There was a class of dist lege ishei imilvidoals
were deprived of their rights ou account of a plot, is No
existettiee of whirti no one of the piesent day believed time
plot was the only gtound for paiiiiitie ILr Ise obi/head/Ike
from Parliament tbet Catholic Peers. He hoped that a la*
so originatiag, and so it/tended, would hut be all.wed le
remelt' any lugger a stain ou the statute book. lie mama
breed to have read a ssyisg of Elizabeth, that "Oita/it/-
fender of the Protestant faith aid ascend/we', "Awe cows-
gelled to administer tests to the CathuliCti, the refuted, say-
lag, She had better means of ascertaiiiiag the loyalty en
the Peen." After a few more oluservai /vas, whirls we rest)
eel hear, he erraeladed by givirtg his curdled support to the
met haw.

Mr. Secretary Peet. said, if lie Right Hon.
Friend knew to its full extent the sincere odsoirshos
which he had of his talents, and the delight soh
which he heard hire on every occusion which called
upon him for the exercise of those talents, he cosh!
then fully understand how much he 'feared to incur
the charge of presumption is veuteriog to oppose
bib motion while the fiscinatioo of hie powers yet
hung on the minds of his hearers. He knew haw dtr-
kith it must he to make a successful appeal toil*
sober judgment of hearers, uhtobe senses had
been so powerfully worked upon, and whose
feelings were inflamed by the fervour and
eloquence of the appeal of his Right flammable
Friend; and lie knew how little tlop.iied the House
must feel to attend to the colder stews and sober
ree!,Otis which he alone was competent ta present to
their minds, as the grounds nu which he dissented
from the motion. Ile must remind ht. itsvtas
Horton:able Friend, flint a. it was he (Mr. Coosa t• 1
who had given the challenge, according tie aN 115'
rules of war his opponents ought to have been
rd their choice of weapons in the combat. He (Mr.
Peel) would, however, in the outset, dioclains alh Ir-
*vitt too of going into shegeneva I questa), and iocont-
pliunce with the wish exp r dby his Right Hot.
Friend, would endeavour to contior himself to the
limits which he bad marked out, sod to meet Wool&
the grounds on which lie bud rested this ass particu-
lar question. He saw DO reason why the Catholic
Peers should chitin any exemption from those rest rif•
tiolls to Willett the !louse of Continents was sultket.--
(Hear, hear.)—He undoubtedly felt the highest re-
spect fur those persons, and far the titration which
they occupied, but still he could riot feel sits that
ucconist soy reason for adopting in their favour soy
ineesure by which the other (louse wf Parliament
would be opened to them, while the House of Cum•
moos remained closed pgiiiiiiit persotui similarly cir-
cumstanced with respect to the Constitution. Ile
knew how cant it would be to attempt to chide the
watchfulness of his Right Honourable Frivoil.
Or to 011:11t soy thing to which he hart alluded
be would nut, titetelore, sticoept it, but youiil

d

eat were now in the fir •
r...41;11
inah plot were tripe? i
hairglit that the Catholic
re justly or rojesity
ir-
wiry had they hew* a
If justly, why hod skis
He would ask, why. •
reed that one to hare hits
not, why should thee
esceorlabie continue .016,
ehuch they bad been olio 111
had Weighted soot
.14.4 yid been screw
Maumee &toed on three tl
re to know whether, Wag
II dangers gads alarms so
r. being diiwilseted of lit sl
o the sniiposttioo of the
ouoded, they would asp
inning a law which child
of their justification boat •
the many difficulties whit*
throw in the w.s. a his att
a question of tipedienei 1
Catholic disabilities, 3
4 on grounds of pralitir•:
operation on the genet::
id when a perms) claw h.
he was necessatily oblige
is part of his argeniete
this part of the case Gull 1
A this quest•ori as I get,
whole question was owe c
appeal from ancestor t•
of old to times snore rt
0 Budeigh, time Oates t
!al to the enjem itecision c
the care of Lord Stiffest.
lit the col.l..b4ot.iled tee
i too much io vindicrww,
rr stand in the way-
or of chanty, to do At.
the name of God, to d.
.e
;Great cheering help
le Right lion. Gentleman
wing in a Bill to tepeel as
the 30th Charles Hs 111 1
Peer. from the ramie at
in the Houses( Lima.
owed the ern use. fie said, I
cieg opteeh of his Sod Mai.
of haps/rim ea the time
lad •Iways a decided °philtre so
r•ratiiie the general meareire at
he thoorght the podia's of
i•ci was eutit:ed to OW* r ,
which it related had a difetras
distiegoisboi ioulbsidisals whir:
ou ar-rooot of a plot, is tlis
the pierce* ilay believed: that
)a..iiry; It' law orbit bo exeledet
: Peers. He hoped that a Lao
idea, would out be •Howed so
the statute book. lie resew,
sf Elizabeth, that apirioadt-
h sod aseeodauey, yaws maw
be Catholics she rehired, say-
of ascrrtemioe the 10144 sit
obeervat tour, which 00 reek,
/Jag his cordial support toilet
said, if hi. Right Hon.
tent the sincere actioertios
entP, and the delight rush •
rery occasion which called 1
of those talents, fit mild
r much he 'feared to incur •
lon is veuturiie to oppose
•
•cinatioo of his powers yet •
bearers. He knew how dif-
• tuccrvefsl appeal to the
tiers, a hose anises had
irked upon, and whose
by the fervisor awl •
of
his Right Honourable
•
r little (top vied the House •
r colder stews and sober •
••
IP competent to presets* to
ds which lie disarmed
• .1
1.111119 t Wt tt:ritll4l:Nili r 1.11‘"a4lit.o.411";
lige, according tie' gN lid'
is ought to have been Wiwi-
•in the combat. lie (Mr.
the outset, disclaim all is-
mere I quest!en, and •
r dby his Right Hot. •
it to confine liiiiiirlf to tile
red out, and to meet him tat
bad resit., this as a portico- •
abtedly felt the highest rr- ;empttoii from choice Rat rle•
he couleh not feel g* Iltet t
&piing in their favour any
tier louse of Parliansent
while the Hower of Cum•
perwoushusilerly cur-
to the Constitution. He
br to attempt to chide the
?
fight I lonourable Frired•
o whirls he had allotted
• sticippt it, but !writ! 4
, •