The Sun.
London, England, 1825-07-05 00:00:00

THE DUKE OF YORK.

WEYMOUTH, JULY c2.—The following is a copy
of the Address from the Inhabitants of this town
to his Royal Highness the Duke of YOR.K,:-
May it please your Royal Highness,

We, his Majesty's most loyal and dutiful subjects, thelnhabis-
tan ts of the borough and town of Weymotith and Melcornbe Regis,
in the county of Dorset, most humbly and most respectfully beg
the permission of approaching your Royal Highness to express
our fervent gratitude for that most constitutional and seasonable
speech which your Royal Highness lately delivered in the
House of Peers. We would not presume to set ourselves up as
judges in profound questions of State, for which we are not
qualified by our knowledge, our habits, or our pursuits; we
would rely, for the decision of these, upon the wisdoL! and ex-
perience of the Legislature and of his Majesty's GoVernment.
But the dangers of the change in our Constitution, recently at-
tempted, it is within the capacities of our minds clearly to corn-
prebend. We cannot forget the lesions of. History, the faithful
recordr of the past, and the instructor of nations. We cannot •
forbear still to contemplate the sad picture which it draws of I
then dismal ages when the Papal Hierarchy reigned triumphant
through the fairest parts of Europe, in the full exertion of its
cruel and unrelenting tyranny over. the human mind. We look
with thankfulness and joy to the blessed era of the Reformation,
which rescued this great kingdom from its spiritual and tem;
poral captivity under the Church of Rome; which beheld .a
multitude of sainted martyrs devoting their lives in the sacred
cause, the revival of gospel truth,, and consequent establishment
of those 'religious and civil liberties that confer upon the people
'of 'Greet Britain a personal-and general happiness, to which' no
generation of antiquity can supply a parallel. We cannot,
therefore, suppress our feelings of astonishment.and grief at the
repeated endeavours which hare been made in the course of the
list twenty five years to repeal those lasts which the wisdom of
our ancestors have provided for the security of the Protestant
Religion, and by such repeal to render our fellow-subjects of
the Romish profession in England and Ireland capable of ad-
mission to a scat in the Legislature, and to other offices of
poli-
tical power. Such a measure, if once carried, would be the first
;step towards a Revolution in Church and State, because the
,very essence of our Constitution is Protestant; none but a Pro-.
testant King can wield the sceptre of these realms ; he is bound
to maintain the present order of things inviolable by the Coro-
nation Oath, which is so clearly
_worded that no subtle refine-
ment—no • arts of sophistry--can explain it -away. All his
Councillors and -Ministers, who advise him on public affairs,
must he Protestant.; the Judges who sit in our Courts of. Justice
must be Protestant. How, then, we ask, can the privilege of
participating in the enactment of our laws, and in the adminis-
tration of our Government, although so strenuously, .and,
some cases, so violently pressed, be extended to the Professors
of the Papal Faith without a manifest incongruity, and the •
utmost danger to our religious and civil liberties ? But, what
we consider as an argument altogether unanswerable, ought
they to be trusted with . political power, whose allegiance is
divided between the Sovereign of this United' Empire and the
Pope of Rome ? Your -.Royal Highness, in your sound judg-
ment and wisdom, saw; the subject in a just and constitutional
--point of view, and influenced by your zeal for, the safety of the
Protestant faith, for the stability of eur religious freedom, and
for • the happir,css of his Majesty's people, you delivered in a
concise, but complete and convincing,, argument, so highly be-
,coming him who has so near an affinity to the Throne, your
• opinion against she perilous Bill, then in rapid progress through
the /louses of Commons. For this, the most important of all
your services to the British Nation, important as they have
been on other emergencies, the page of 'the flit= "Historiao,
when the-tnibitlent passions of this-age are at rest in the grave,
will throw an imperishable lustre of.glory round your. .
The England has made itself to be heard in accord with
' the :leo timemte of your:Royal 'Highness, anti declared aloud, in
all the energy of language, that the Papal-Religion shall never
be allowed to recover its ancient dominion in this, Protestant
_Kingdom.; We earnestly beseech Almighty God that he woubi
in his goodness prolong the life of nurGrhOotix Sovereign; and
of your Royal-Highness, to the latest term of yeart,•—and we
are, with the most animated gratitude, '
. Mayit please your Royal Highness,
• -Your Royal Highneses most dutiful' Subjects.

To which ROYAL IllailtiESi has been most
graciou,ly pleased to return the following answer:
Horse 'Guards, June 29, 1825.

Srn—l beg to assure you that I have received, with great
satisfaction the Address front -the Inhabitants of the Borough
and Town -Of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis, which you and
Mr. Untie have this day been: so obliging as to deliver. to me by
their desire; and 1 request you will do the the favour to con-
vey to the Inhabitants of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis,
my 'sincere thank* for the expression of their friendly senti-
ments, and to,.assure thetn that hare been much gratified by
the tcrms in which they marked their approbation of die' part'
whiCh I felt it to be my.duty to take in the discussion upon the
Roman Catholic Question, involving considerations of such vital
importance to the Established Religion.and to the Constitution
of these itealms. I am, Sir, your's,.
To the Right ILyn. Thomas FREDERICK.
Wallace, 31. P.