The National Register.
London, England, 1808-06-19 00:00:00

himseit .4 to maintniu the Protestant reformed religion as
by Jaw established.'' !Vow there are three ways in which
these obligations may be interpreted. The laws establish-
ed may wean the laws which at the time of King William's
accession to the throne, mina this oath was devised, hao
been already established : or may mean the laws which may
be successively established by the legislature : or may
mean the laws which shall have been established apd be
actually in existence at the moment when each successive
King shall ascend the throne. if the meaning be, tht
laws which at the time when the oath was devised had
already been established, then there is no impediment to
the Emancipation of the Catholics: for when that oath
was devised and taken by King William, the Catholics sate
in both Houses of Parliament in Ireland, and were eligi-
ble to all offices, civil and military : it was not till several
years had elapsed, that they were deprived of the rights
which they are now seeking to regain. If the meaning be
the laws which may be successively established by the
legislature, the legislature is thus acknowledged to possess
a right of establishing laws: and the King, as a part of
that legislature, is entitled to take a share in the forma-
tion of laws, according to which laws he has sworn that
he will govern, when they are formed. Such a law would
be that Emancipation which the Catholics now request
from the legislature. if the meaning be the laws which
shall be in existence at the moment when each succes-
sive King shall ascend the throne, then William and Anne
had no right to make those laws relating to the Catholics,
which, by diminishing their privileges, induced them to
rebellion : by inducing them to rebellion endangered the
State: and by endangering the State contributed to injure
the Protestant religion, as connected with the State. if
King William and Queen Anne had no right to make laws
thus dangerous to the Protestant church, then King
George, in repealing those laws, does no new act, but
only sets right those affairs which his predecessors had set
wrong : or perhaps, to speak more correctly, he only
pronounces void an act, which, being unlawful, was in
fact, ab inilio, void. But it scent's too ridiculous to argue
that the " laws established" really mean any thing else
than 46 the laws that may be successively enacted by the
" legislature." For if the King may not use his legislative
authority in altering the laws relative to the Church, lie
may not use his authority in altering any other laws : since
at the same time when be swore to maintain the Protestant
.Religion as established ky law, he swore also to govern
according to the statutes in Parliament agreed on. Here
if the laws established exclude the notion of the laws to be
established, the statutes already agreed tn exclude the no-
tion of statutes in be agreed on hereafter: and then the
King has no legislative power : and then what is the Br'!ish
Constitution

Besides, it should be recollected that the King has al-
ready made alterations in the lams relating to the Catho-
hes. During the last thirty years the Catholic subjects of
the King have been admitted to a crrrat variety of privi-
leges from which they mere excluded when George the
Third ascended the Throne : and who shall say that the
King has a right by his Coronation Oath to alter some
existing constitutions, and has no right to alter others ?
All that On be said appea-s to resolve itself into this : if
the King', notwithstanding his Coronation Oatl:, (lid con-
sent to the repeal of the penal stat► tes in 1718, or 1782, or
• 1793, he may consent, natuithstai.ding his Coronation
Oath, to the reveal of the disqualifying statutes in 1808.
Ireland has a right to the Emancipation of the Catholics.
When Mr. Pitt persuaded the lush people, or rather the
Irish Parliament, Io adopt th. meaglie of union, be offered
by way of compensation for the sacrifices which Ireland
must make of her independence, n:►y, of her very existence
as a nation, the complete Emaneipai ion of several millions
,of men from a state of exclusion the most painful and de-
grading. It was for the Emancipation of the Catholics
that Ireland consented to be no longer a country--to blot
honed from the map of the world. agreed to sacrifice