The Sun.
London, England, 1807-05-07 00:00:00

81171811 REPiEYV.

OBSBRVATiOICS ON THE CATHOLIC BILL, BY

LA WYER.

Though this little Traikis
savowed4r written by a
Lawyer, its -Meaning. is by no means shrouded
in techniCal obscurity. As far as we can judge. it
'comes from a Gentleman to ‘vliOnt the Public have
been indebted for Many 'valuable Works. We lately
extraefed a passage from rr ObseTvcillop on the Co-
'ronatiolt Oath," which We attribute to the same
hand. As so 'much has recently bem said on PLE6ES.,.
and particularly on ,the. l'ignoE understood to have
been demanded by Ht's AlAnisTy from his 'late Mi-
nisters, the following Observations in this Work ar'e.
well entitied"tO the attention.of our Readers:

• We are told that his Majesty's Advisers are not to
give? Pledges to his Majesty which, preclude' them
from freely offering him their counsel. It this is so;
bow then is it we hear of politicians being hound to
perform those things in office t( which they have
pledged themselves
.‘s• hile out .ofoffice One of them.
ispledged to a Reform in Parliatueut ; another is'
pledged to the Abolition of the Slave Trade

other is pledged for the Catholic Emancipation ; one
is pledged to his party; another i 4 pledged to'the mob;
another-is pledged to himself : all these pledges are
deemed good among politicians; and many an honest
man looks tor their being redeemed. But when these
Statesmen come into the King's Council with their
scar kles; bonds,' their promises,', their obliges=
tion3,, all voluntarily entered into, for bringing about
something which is contrary to law, these Statesmen,
forsooth, are not to be. pledged to the King to . for-
bear moving him on a point where be stands in sup•
port of the lady, and where he is by, the Constitution.
of the Crown, and under .the_ obligation of his Oath,
the:sole judge of the mode, manner, and degree of
the. matter in question. :No, the King is not to
have the same benefit of pledges from Statesmen,
though thepare his own Counsellors, that his-Sub-
jeCts claim for themselves; but, on the contrary, the
King's constitutional pledge, Made with all his Sub,
jeas individually, at his Coronation, is to give way
ta-projeas of innovation that- have no other sanaion
or origin than the overweening iinaginatibns of those'
who propose them, and who are undc,r ob•
ligations to propose them'at all*.
For my part, I wish the. King would' dethand':
Pledges of his Servants, and require the assurance to
be tirade doubly sure, that they should try no inure
theoretical experiments upon us, especially in points
where the Public sentiment, equally'with that of
Majesty, is already known. It was certainly known
before, that on'the Catholic Question the King and
his Subje&s are of the' same sentiment ; it is now
known, as to the present Bill, whether it is a Catho- •
lie scheme, or whetheftt is a ;,atithdinariart:scheate
for lowering all religion: from the rank of a national
establishment ; it is known that the good sense of
the People is in unison with the sentiments of otti
wise and good Monarch, and that they are thankful
to him for stopping, in their outset, all designs'.which
expose the Protestant Church tO be assaulted or un-
dermined by the experiments of politicians, who may
have given up their understandings to fanatical theo-
ries in religion, or in philosophy, ; for unhappily we
have both.

The pretence' held out in the preamble and title of
the Bill is deserving of notice : Far "enabling Ma-
jesty to avail himself of the Services of all his liege.
,Subjects, in his Naval and Military Forces. It shoal
se.em_ from this, that nowjorthe first time, the va:.
rious sees of religionists were to be invited into the
army and navy ; and that heretofore we had no Sol-
diers or sailors but Church of England.meti. Every
One knows the contrary, namely,' that Scotch and
Irish Catholics. and Presbyterians make some of the
most valuable part of his Majesty's forces by sea and
land ; and it haslately been 'proclaimed in the Hobse
of,Commons, by an Irish Gentleman; that 3000 out
of tour.thouSand of the victorious troops at Monte
Video were Irish Catholics. Where then is the need
of Ads of Parliament to give his Majesty the service
of all his liege Suljeas This pretence was dilated
upon in debate, and was pushed to-a very extrava-
gant length ; the language was, that we were to
avail' ourselves of the population of Ireland. It was
nOtAlte gentry,: not the class of persons who are like-
ly become Officers that were cited as objects of
consideration. This.would.not have raised sufficient
alarm to frighten people into a compliance with the
metpiure t we were, to be persuaded that the discon-
tents of the lower Irish could alone be calmed by these
Catholic concessions. The evil spirit was made tocry
out, my name is Legion,lbr we are many, to try once
more it by such diabolical terrors Religion and Truth
could be scared from the firmnesS of their purpose.
Eut this it ever the way with,theoretical projectors;
they ascribe their own feelings and sentiments to the
,persons whom they make the object of their vision-
ary schemes ; and they endeavour' to persuade us
that such persons are ready to rise in arms
.to second
the declamations of their political patrons. Btit we
have seen too many of these presumptuous fallacies,
4o give credit to- them now : w6may rest assured the
lower class of. Irish, those who make soldiers and
sailors, care no more for Catholic Emancipation than
the inhabitants of Biriningharn care for sending
members to Parliament ; and we shall see the Catho—
lic Emancipation as much ourof countenance as the
Reform of Parliament, merely from the apathy and
contempt which the one scheme as well as the other
meets with among the very persons for whoSe bend-
-fit. these unsought blessings were contrived.

* rdo not mean to admit that the King did adually de—
mand a },ledge tin this occasion. It seems tome that the Mi-
nisters stipulated with the King, rather than the King with
the Ministers.

It is a remarkable faEt, that during the space of
five weeks the tbllOwing very' old incumbents in the
Diocese of Norwich have died, viz. Mr. Carter, in-
stituted to South Cove, in Suffolk, in 1758 ;
Sandby, Denton, in Norfolk, in-1750 ; Mr. Piper,
Sudbury All Saints, in Suffolk, in 1750 ; gr.
Bridges, Pudding Norton, in Norfolk; in 1744.
Their united ages amount to 345 years.

611112 NLIVS.

CRAVISEND, MAY 5.

, -
Passed by —the Eurydice, Compton,. from.Surinam.
SAW— th;:. Auieli,, Brunckuidn, Conunerce,
Fox, Brciois, New hope,. Story, and Isabella and Margaret,
Pans, for Elsinore.

pubostied by WiLLIAM AaMIGKR. Scittrrs. of South Mo,
For the Paper, 1 et4rs for the Editor, &c. (post-paid),

,ton-sireet, G rosycnor-Squarr. ;
411.15 t Lge.. aqresed.