The National Register.
London, England, 1819-03-21 00:00:00

SUNDAY, MARCH 21, 1819.

acquaintance with history has (anther taught us, when
we remember that Protestants were once persecuted and
burnt by Catholics, not to forget, also, that Catholics
were persecuted and burnt by Protestants in their turn,
and has shewn us that to the sink ti sociev, rather than
to any inherent property of their faith, the violence and
errors of both parties are to be referred. To all this we may
still further and particularly add, the many and glorious
opportunities that have beet, afforded to the Catholics
of proving, by positive facts, their unquestionable loyalty
to the throne, and attachment to the constitution.—
Tinoughout the late arduous and protract,d struggle,
their blood has flowed qaite as freely in their country's
cause as our own, and their share of the ',italic barclens
has been borne with as exemelary a p,itiellee. Lastly,
we must not forget to mention, that all those obnoxious
and anti-social tenets, so long charged upon them, and
so generally believed, have been formerly and soienitily
disavowed by every Catholic university and college in
Europe. Nor has the more abstract question of moral
and political justice, as connected with their cause,
been less successfully argued and determined in their
favour. All the greatest masters of human reason and
philosophy have agreed that conscience, inasmuch as it
is beyond the reach of laws, and even ond the eon-
trolli of a man's self, can never be a pripi.r object of hu-
man legislation ; and that it is equally a violation cf all
equity and justice, either to demand the performance of
an impossible duty, or to abridge a star of whatever
rights and priaileges belong to the society in which he
lives, for not doing that which he has it not in his
power honestly to pet Piens. No civil Magistiate,"
says Locke, " can have mole than any other man, the
care of souls. It is not committed to loni by God, nor
can any such power be vested in him. even liy consent
of plot people." The rights of con,eiiatee are namral
rights, both antecedent and superior to alp human insti•
unions. They are what laws never gas c, and is hat laws
cannot tale awa:'. Any particular church, also, is no
more than a free and voluntary society. Men are not born
either Catholics or Protestants, nor bound by any natural
connection to any sect or denomination whatever. Nor
again, is a church establishment any proof of the truth
of the doctrines maintained within it. For otherwise
the faith of Brantah would be true in India, of Malio-
met in Turkey, and of Christianity in Italy, France,
and England; and if it were, you cm still base no
power or authority to compel a man to follow even
truth itself, if he prefer being a disciple of error. if
then you can have tin right to interfere with liberty of
conscience, you can certainly ti the tin just plea for re-
ligious disqualificatious. You may erect a national reli-
gious establishment, and may clothe it with whatever
dignities and emoluments you may think most condu-
cive to its welfare, and best adapted to promote its pro-
per end, the spiritual advantages of all its members.—'
And as an established religion necessarily pre-supposes
that it is so constituted by the consent of the majority
of those who are to live under it, that very circutn-
stanee renders it the bounden duty of all, even of thine
who arc not associated its thecommunion of its worship,
to contribute to its maintenance, and to do nothing ,
which may direetly tend to injure or overthrow it. It
is a natural ally of the state, and entitled to a civil alle-
giance equally:extensive. But here all civil jurisdiction,
in matters purely sp'ritual, necessarily ends. Offences
against a national religious establishment, are offences
against the state; but until any individual has actually
committed some overt act of aggression, you have no
right to legislate upon his presumed hostility. Yon have
no right to subject him to any civil disfranchisement
when he has incurred no forfeiture. These distinctions
are the more important, as they contribute to set in its
proper light the nature of that obligation which has
so long been considered by many, and unfortunately