The Sun.
London, England, 1808-05-13 00:00:00

TO TIIEED.I7'OR 0 TII.B SUN,

M R. EDITOR,

I was somewhat surpris6d on my return to town
a few days since; to fuel that the Catholic Body of •
this City had deemed it expedient to leave a paper,
purporting to express the opinions,ot several Noble-
men and Gentlemen on the subjea of emancipation,
in some blow.. public News ItOtns. Still more sur-
prised was I to find that, not content with permit-
ting this paper to lie silently in the morn, to be
signed only by those who telt disposed to do so ;
not content, I say, with permitting Oentletnen to
exercise their own unbiased opinion on the subject,
every person was applied to and solicitod to add their
signature to the declaration. Many serious obje'e.
tions to this mode of proceedits presented them-
selVes to my mind, and I wondered they had not ape
peared sufficiently, poWerful to the instigators of
thismeasere, to induce them totally to abandon
bin, in the pursuit of a favourite object, we are apt
to cohunit improprieties, aiid in the bustle of activi-
ly we sometimes forget the dictates of wisdom and
discretion how many are the Motives which may
aee emetic to obtain signatures to this declaration )
our patrons, the desire of
'lhm friar of thecie"-„!!'"4
pleasing our friends, both
,:nufate us to a compli-
bold to assert,
ance with the requisition. I. ail !?e
that the majority of persons signing this p4l4s* have
been influenced more by reasons of a pre:ate natue7,
than by •att opinion of the efficacy of this wished
fie' emancipation. I, amongst others, was applieel
to for, my signature ; I declined complying with the
request, but I did it silently ; I did not with to insH
volve myself in a contro% ersy, where to produce
conviction was more than itnprobable; where to
avoid giving displeasure,. and to create unpleasant
disputes was next to impossible. Ilut metliought
I could have addressed the applicant to nearly the
following effete s---" The question' on which yoU
are desirous I should express so decided an opinion
is one which must, on all sides, be allowed to be
of very considerable importance, and one on
which we find. the ablest men, the Most en-
lightened and pious charatters," have entertained
opinions decidedly opposite, I must naturally feel
diffident on such asubjea to express an opinion
without mature deliberation. Your •body have
unanimously thought' fit to lay their claims before
the IMperial Parliament, and I should feel dispoied
silently to await their decision ; but, since you have
pressed me on the subjea, I feel it incumbent .to
declare that my opinion is unfavourable to further
concession .to that body of which you are atueruber.'
I would ask, whether you demand these conces- •
trions as a right, or whether you are disposed to ac-
cept them as a gratuity 1.. 1 consider that, in point
of right, your claims are totally groundless and un-
founded. We find that your body has ever been
inimical to the established Government ; that rebel-
lion has followed rebellion in such qui& succession,
that Memory, can scarcely retain then number. h
not every page of your History dyed with the blood
Of yoer Protestant Countrymen I Does not every
page recount softie effort by which you hoped to •
overtheow the .establisharent both in Church and
Slite ? And do we not knew that it the Govern-
ment still exists, it is because its supporters have
been more courageous, mare powerful, or better dis-
ciptined than yourselves ? How, then, can you
come and demand from this Govcrumem, as a mat-
ter of right, to admit you to a lull patticipatton of
the power and influence of the Slate ?
"I winnow consider the question in another point
of view.-. We are all but too well acquainted With
the melaticholy situattou of this Country—laid waste
by internal discord, convulsed by civil 'feuds, we
every day hear of aets of savage ferocity ; frequency
has alinast reconciled us to the mention of robbery,
rape, and murder ; we hear of acts df almost unpa-
ralleled atrocity withiaut astonishment ;—things.,
%Olen familiar, cease to surprise :—we find that a
people naturally brave, generous, and humane, have
abandoned themselves to every species of iniquity,
and who, to use the words of a learned Judge,
seem to have 'the ditipcisition of wolves. In
discover the cause of this disquiet, and to apply
some healing remedy thereto, should without doubt,
be the most anxious care of those who have taken..
upon themselves the direction ()four GovernMent. It
behoves them to use every endeavour to calm this poe.
pular phrenzy, to quiet the minded the deluded pea-
santry, and restore order and peace to a country
fur which " Goo has done so leech and Mae so
little." Among a variety of plans likely to produce i
results se truly beneficial, t has been asserted that
complete Catholic Emancipation is the most likely ,
to have that effeet. It is here I will consider the
expediency of • that measure, as connected merely
With this itippoied etiedt, and not as a matter
which the Catholics demand as a right. We find
that en the accession of his present Majesty the Ca-
tholics laboured under a great variety of penal sta-
tutes ; we, find that the present reign has been a
period of almost unceasing concession ; we find the
Catholics coming forward at,'different times with
fresh demands, which have been almoit invariably'
granted, and at which they have expressed theme'
selves satisfied, and yet what areas have we foond
to teselt from this system of conciliation and con-
cession ? Why, we have found that it was during',
this very reign that the most general disaffettion
has prevailed,, that the most powerful rebellion was
concerted and carried into effeet through9ut the
kingdom. It was during this reign that a rebellion
raged, in which, generally speaking, every Catholic
was concerned. And what is now the situation of
a Catholic ? Frans what benefits is'he excluded, or
what hardships does he labour under I Why truly
he cannot sit on the Beneh and he cannot be ad-
mitted into Pal-Hammel and 'willany one seriously
maintain that this exclusion: of the. Catholics is. the
' cause of the calamities under which this Country
new labours ?"

Such, Mr. Editor, are the arguments 1 would
have used, but for the reasons 1 have taatett--42you
think them worthy a place in your.l4apera.theinser-
tion of them will oblige •
it . A MoDEIiATE MOT.

On Tuesday morning, about eleven •o'driek,
Mrs. Taylor, of Manchester, was. passing , along
Cheapside, near the end of Bow-lane, she washus-
tied and. robbed of her pocket-book, containing tvs.
and bills to the amount'of wSt 1.