The National Register.
London, England, 1812-02-09 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL ittGTSTER.

any alteration, as to their religion ? He did not mean to censinentleis
those speculative tenets, which had no political consequences—he should
therefore pass over the doctrine of transubstantiation, the adoration of
saints, and such like; but he would ask, if the dominion of the Priest-
hood over their flocks was not as absolute, and submitted to with as
blind a devotion at the present moments as at any former period ? Was.
there any change in the supreme authority of the Pope aver the Pile,t-
hood ?—( Hear, hear ! front Jktr. Perccval and others)—was not his power
as indefinite as ever ? Where was the change with respect to him, unless
that his being likely for the future of being at the appointment, and urns
der the dominion of France ? It had been said, that granting these claims
would produce conciliation In Ireland. This he much doubted, discords
ant materials seldom coalesced in a forced incorporation of opposite re..
ligions. If he was asked, why this should be so, he could only say that
it had always been so, and would be so as long as man was what he is.
Until man was indifferent to all religions, he must have his religious.
preferences. Religion, as long as man was a religious animal, must have
Its political weight even to the abuse of itself ; even though, to use the
word; of the Noble Lord (Morpeth), it b came a stepping stone to am-
bition. He denied the assertion, that lifting the Catholic religion to the
level of the Protestant could in any manner tend to secure the Protestant
establishment. He repeated his entire confidence in the loyalty of the
11-ish Catholics—(Hear, hear .o—Gentlemen at one time said, that the
Catholics manned our fleets, and filled our armies ; and at another, that
these concessions were previously necessary to induce them to enter eur.
sleets and armies—these were inconsistencies he left to those Gentlemen
to reconcile as they might. He warned the fieu4e not to mistake the
real sentiments of the English People upon this dangerous queiti.
He con] tired them not to misconstrue their silence, at tiP present mo-
ment, fur insensibility.—( Hear, hear! front Arr. Perr val and others.)
l'he spirit of tolerance had, he thanked God, extingu: bed ill religious
antipehies, but not all religions preferences. The silence of the people
of this. country was merely owing to 'their confidence, that the Constitu-
tion would not he changed. I- lad they ant, such ;apprehension the table,
would he covered with petitions, the ye ice of the (sentry would 1 e raised,
and mist be heard. As circumstances now stood, he trusted that Par-
liament was not to be teazed, much less intimidated,.into a premature.
anti. dangerous compliance. Where couhl they 'top more saf:ly than at
:hat point at which they were now arrived The circle round their
Protestant establidiments had been gradually diminishing—let it cons,
tract no further, lest it -liould reed, that vortex, within when; sweeping,
violence a Protestant Throne, a Protestant Parliament, and a Protestant
Constitution, might be enguiphed for ever !—(lltetr, hear, hear )
Mr. CANNING could not forbear expressing his .surprise at a great
part of the speech of his Right Honourable amid Learned Friend (Sir J.
Nichol) He was decidecly adverse to the greater part of the doctrine
of his Right Hon. aad Learned Friend. If his Nishlt4Friend intended to
convey any disapprobation of. the conduct of the frish.Government
in
taking upon thein'to decide what was the law in a case which seennef.
to Ms Noble Friend to he of a dubious nature, and proposed g. ing iero•
# Committee on that account, he (Mr. Canning) must at once give his
negative to the motion. His Right flonotirebie and Learned Friend
had treated this as it 'sere a question of Religion. He (Mr. Canning)
felt it his duty to consider it as one merely political. His Right Hon.
and Learned Friend, said he, should not enter inn-, the nature of transub •
gantiation. Put Why did he not so ? Namely, because he chose to as- -
sume every thing that was said on that subject as fact, without athiticirg
Any reasons fer that assumption. If the Catholics are but neutralized at -
hopse, my Right Hon. Friend appears to he satisfied. But let us exa-
mine these apprehensions It little more closely.. Imagine a Papist Chan-
cellor and a Papist General, and the danger dreaded is, that the Pope
and Buonaparte will necessarily lay their heads together, and contrive,
by corrupting these persons, to work the ruin of the State. lam ready
to allow that there were once times when an alarm of the kind was not -
purely visionary. There was once a period when Europe was divided
into two parts, when what of Furope was not Catholic was Protestant,
and what was not Protestant was Pen, thanks tcrßuonaearte,
such a division exists no more -he has caused the cristinctions of religi ii •
to give way to those of patriotism, and the war ot sects to lose itself in
the conflict between slavery and independence. French, or not Frerch ?
has been of late the only question among nations. Behold, then, Bettis-•
parte, the eldest sop ot the Church ; are the Catholics alene ietels •
and the,supporters of hisdominions! See Lutheran Sweden in his elieie
ere. Protestant Germany submissive to his will—see Prussia struggling
in his toils. Yet, while his Catholic Sceptre thus extends over the realms
ot Protestantism, our terror is not from Boo! aparte, but the Pope, and
while we tremble at the thunders of the Vatican, await with inditterents ,
the machinations of the Cabinet of France. Confident in our politicte
strength, but shuddering in religious weakness, we hid defiance to tem-
poral dangers, and stand alone on spiritual warfare. Of all descriptions
of Papists, the most devoted, the most. blind and superstitious are those
who are now resisting the progress of the french arms, and whom we
are assisting in. their heroic enterprize while fighting for the Cathencs
in Spain, it is rather ill timed to be contending with the Catholics at
home. The interests of the Church of England, I believe to he se,ure,
and in speaking of the Church of England, it may be with juetice ob•
served in its praise, that although nursed in persecutioe, and reared in
adversity, it has always extended mercy to others, and shown itself fore-
most to evince a liberal spirit of toleration. To assert, that
maiteion of a few Catholics to civil offices would be to shake our

the ad-
Church


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