The Sun.
London, England, 1808-07-14 00:00:00

R7'4Z-lET;7:

The Cla:ms of the Itonir.n Catholics cotistitutibtially
coti-
sidered, in a Letter to the itiAht key. the Lord BishopNcrwich. -By T. BAsFI. or, M. A-

We have , been prevented by Pailiameritarydis-
cusSion);, and other important matters, from resurn7
ing this proyince of our publicati,m, but we shall re-
turn to it as. oaten as opportunity will admit, and
draw the attention of our Readers to every Work
which may be'conducive to the national intereSt'or
which may in any degree tend W. lessen the national
security., The zeal of Party, if not feelings of
a Allow. mischievoUs description, has lately revived
the subject of %the Catholic Claims, and •the most
artful attempts. have been Made to excite Prejudices,
against the present Adminlstration, becanse they
have been adverSe to the discussion of a question'
which at this period can wily teiid to:embarrass the
Nati:mai Councils. Among other.devices of Party,
Ministers have been, accused of raising the cry a
" No Popery," as if a resistance of •Popery; which
has immortalised-those by whom dur glorious Revo-.
lotion was erected, is to beheld a disgrace to their
successors, who are anxious to secure and perpetuate
the blessings which that Revolution produced. We
are surprised that a Party who pretend to revere the
Revolution should be so absurd as to' bring forward
such
.a.charge, or to conceive that there can be.atry
disgrace in it. Whatever May, he said of improve-
ments supposed to have taken place in the charaeter
of the Roman Catholic 130d,y, it is certain that their:
religious tenets arc tie same as they were two ce11....
ttiries ago, a-o'd whatever concessions might be snide
to them, they would think nOthing: gained if any
thing were withheld. This subject is so ably, so.
candidly, and so clearly treated in the PaMphlet be
fore us, that we think it our duty to submit a few
extracts to
_the. attention of our ReaderS, heartily
agreeing; with the 'Author, that though the Catholics
should enjoy a perfect tolet4tiOn, they never'should
be admitted to a partikipatien of legislative tune-
tions in this Country; since they Must, necessarily
be anxious to employ all the power with which they
might be invested in unremitting attempts to re-
store, their religion, to all the authority and all the
honours which it once possessed', and to overthrow
what -they. consider as a pernicious usurpation. The
dignified character to whom this Lettet is addressed,
is rePotted tO'have denominated the Irish Rotnanists
" a most respected and much injured set of men,"
a declaration which draws from cur Author the fol.:
lowing. observations : -
" positive injuries, the Roman Catholics, whe-
ther in Ireland or England, neither, do nor- dare •
compkain,. wfithout- libelling !the Constitution of
the kingdoin, and the Ant Porities by which it is
administered. 'But they are debarred froth certain
ofhees, and can obtain no,place in either Senate:-r='
All this may be a cheek to ambition, but no power
languageof can prove it tO be an i.njury. - -
" it all well-regn!ated Governments • there must
beistipulated. conditions and securities to bind the,
persons'ernployed; not only to the faithful discharge
. of their public duties, but in an obedience to the
• superior power. Now, so various and complex is
the human mind, that the same articles, tests, and
securities, will appear in different lights to chtferent
men ; and experience proves, that no seneralioi m
;cOuld be trallie..l by NA hich the winds 4,0 f ..411, intql ,
will be satisfied, and the safety of the State `fie
the same time preserved. Under such circumstances
what is to be done? Is there to be no fixed rule,
no settled form, to secure the obedience of the per-
sons employed and entrusted, but are all to be
left to a simpledeclaration of fidelity upon a,general
principle ?
This might. well be, _if there were rib Eccle-
siastical Establishment, nor any religious differences
among its. „But amidst so many discordant opinions
that prevail,. and considering the natural-desire there
is in. every man to promote they supremacy 'of his o‘; a,
some boundary
must be. set by the Give' nment,- to
-
maim:tin that which is established, and to prevent
the encroachments-of aspiring sectaries:
" -Such a boundary, let it be of. what natureit
may, will necessarily exclude those persons from
blhces of high station, and fr6m seats in:the Legis-
lative
.Assembly, whose .principles- will not permit
them to take the test, requited. What then, are we
to widen the as long and as oftemas new di3-
. sentieats shall arise, and new scruples•be formed in.
conscientious or capriCious minds.? .11 so, theforuF
01,Government itself must be subjected to-perpetual
changes, in accommodation to the fancies of new
theorists:
". Such a state would'be preposterous ; it -would
produce universal anarchy ; and in, a very short
time, the society which knew not the bounds of its
own power; or bad,not sufficient discretion and
firinness to define the. privileges and duties of its
urenaers, must be decomposed, and pass away into
a new form and order of things. . _

« There is a very foolish, if not, a very wicked-
notion abroad in the world, that all men, hace.a right
to share in the Gol'ernment of the Country where
they live.. Yet absurd and pernicious as this maxim
is, it seems to have entercd too'rnuch into the coun-
sels of those v. ho ruan:ige the copicerns peti-
tioning Rutnanists. They have, indeed, in a great
measure, adopted it as a self-evident principle, and
thus, at the very time, and in the same instrument
in' which they inake:a'great profession of obedic:ice,
they assert that which would go. to .overthrow .the
power of the Government, and the duty of the go-
verned, by a single stroke. , • ,
" If any party excluded by the nature'of their po-
litical or religious principles, insist upon a WIGHT
to a participation of power, - and CLAIM, as a matter
'of justice, she destruCtion of the barrier by which
,they are kept from it, the .conclusion is ogv;ous,
that the right of the Government to form and .main-
ta,in any such boundary of exclusion at all is denied.
Far be it from .tile
.to suppose for a moment, that
many of those who advocate the ca:ise of the Peti-
tioners, or who wish well to what has been most
unjustly termed catholic EmariCipation, would
sanction any such denmeratical dogma but be it
carefully observed, that the admission of a right, to
a participation of power on conditions prescribed by
the claimants themselves, does inevitably lead to
Lich consequences. ,

" If the Romanists are " a-rnuch injured bndy oC
men," because the wisdom of our:ancestors fixed a
boundary vround.the Legislative. and Executive Go.-