The Sun.
London, England, 1823-04-25 00:00:00

CATHOLIC CLAIMS.

A PETITION of the Rev. Sir Ilmtcounr LEES,
Bart., of Black Rock, County of Dublin, was
presented and read in the House of Commons on
the 17th inst., setting forth,
That the Petitioner having observed with the deepest con•
cern and alarm, that a Bill is to .be immediately introduced
into 'the House, having for its object the admission of Roman
Catholics into the Legislature of this free and tolerant empire,
has presumed to submit to the House that this measure is in
direct violation of one of the most fundamental principles of
Government established at the Revolution, namely, the exclu-
sion of a sect professing spiritual, and in many most important
concerns temporal obedience to a foreign potentate, from both
Houses of Parliament, as also from various offices of high trust

anti political power, essentially controlling, by the necessary
influence attached to their jurisdiction, the most vital interests
of the established Church; that the Roman Catholic Religion
is by its constitution, its doctrines, canons, and general coun-
cils, intolerant and persecuting, avowedly hostile, by the de-
claration of its present visible head to every other religious
establishment professed or acknowledged by the Christians,
and consequently at direct variance with every other system of
ecclesiastical freedom of divine worship ; that the annals of all
former ages, and particularly the passing events of the present
alarming times, most incontestibly prove, that the Church of
Rome is equally unfavourable to the civil liberties of the sub.
ject, whilst the late Rebellions, whenn considered with the
exclusively Popish conspiracy, at this moment maturing to per-
fection in Ireland, will further establish beyond all possibility
of doubt in every reflecting and well-informed mind, that the
eventual object of the Court of Rome is, through the massacre
of the Irish Protestants, as confirmed by the testimony of con-
victed traitors at several trials, to overturn the Government of
this Country ; anti having thrown off the yoke of England, to
consummate the mysterious and sanguinary machinations of
the Jesuits, by the final re-establishment of Popery in
Ireland ; that there is not the slightest cause for believing
that the fundamental principles of the Popish Creed have
been or ever can be ameliorated, the highest authorities, both
lay and ecclesiastical, and amongst the latter, particularly
Doctors Troy and Milner, having publicly declared and pro-
mulgated that the religious principles of the_Roman Catholics,.
being unchanged and unchangeable, are applicable at all times,
and that the ecclesiastical jurisdiction assumed by the Kings of
England is in its origin, and still continues to be, &profane. asap.
Fawn, whilst Mr. Francis Plowden has explicitly acknow.
ledged, that if any one says, or pretends to insinuate, that
modern Roman Catholics Who have been the late objects of the
bounty of Parliament differ iri one iota from their ancestors, he
'either deceives himself, or wishes to deceive others, temper
t'adent being not more emphatically descriptive of the religion,
than of their jurisprudence • that the three great leading prin.
eiples of the Roman Catholikhurzh; thus dogmatically declared
di be unchanged and unchangeable, being the Infallibility of. the
Pope, exclusive salvation, and that most dangerous of all doe.
trine; that all Roman Catholics are bound under penalty of
eternal damnation to' believe 'as the Church ordains, at once
place the entire of the. Roman Catholic population of Ireland
under the direct spiritual and temporal controul and manage-
ment of the Popish Priesthood, who are all sworn, by a pre-
vious oath of fidelity to the Pope, to extend, enlarge, and pro-
mote the interests and ascendancy of the Church of Rome,
whenever they have the power to do so ; that the present as well
as former insurrections, which have so frequently taken place
in this unfortunate country, must on reflection convince the
House that every concession made to Romanists, every degree
of political encouragement that can be extended.to them, short
of an unqualified surrender of our Constitution, our civil li
berths, our religion, and eventually a Protestant throne, can
never for one moment weigh against the paramount influence
and papal engagements of a bigotted and intolerable hier-
archy,, who, not satisfied with publicly libelling the pious
and enlightened Prelates of the Reformed Church, denying
the validity of their ordinination, their episcopal succession,
and even their right to the temporalities, have lately, for the
first time since the Popish Parliament of James the Second,
reassumed the dangerous power then so successfully employed
of influencing openly at the hustings the vines of Popish
freeholders, and under the threatened horrors of an excom.
munication, of dividing the formerly submiesive tenant
from his Protestant landlord and thus most impiously
have established upreeedent, which if not immediately checked
by those Legislative Measures for re-modelling the elective
franchise so frequentlypointed out by the Petitioner, will in.
vitably constitute; the Popish Priets, anti not the Sheriff's, the
returning officers at all future elections in Ireland, and will, if
possible, tend still farther to disseminate the seeds of disunion,'
disobedience, and rebellion throughout' every County inlre-
land, at least once in seven years, and this even without the aid
of Roman Catholic emancipation to accelerate the treason
are
ro
nuacisrsi
et
convinced
ooelni possessede
vrla. persecuting
nt icoe Id os and tti civil
wntihol
eriwhilst
p intolerant;liberty,
the
spiritual
i t uals6 nasautninbda
djl
consequence,
doctrines
na esdissenters
foa foreign
itgne
that his Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects enjoy every degree
in
ects
of religious
generallylaettuetir t)
power can have no just cause for complaint, much less for per.
petual irritation, particularly since their supreme head has au-
daciously declared even within the last seven years, as in the
case of the. Belgic Bishops, that no Roman Catholic can take
an oath of fidelity to any' Constitution which tolerates all reli.
gious sects ; that the Petitioner wishes to remind the llouse,
that the same holy and tolerant Pastor had only eight years
previous to the fulminating of this most treasonable injunction,
promulgated through a circular letter addressed to his Cardi.
nals,. that he had rejected an article prOposed even by Napo-
leon litionaparte, (to .admit of the free exercise of all religious
forms of worship in France, because such was contrary to the
Canons, to the Councils, the Catholic Religion, and to the van.
quillity of human life ; that the same piousittlocate for civil
and religious liberty addressed a Bull to the Primate of Poland
in 1816, in which his Holiness denominated the Bible Socie.
ties a pestilence and a defilement of the faith ; and, as the Pee
titioner supposes, for the purpose of preventing jealousy on the
part of his most faithful and. devoted subjects in Ireland, his
orthodox college of the de propaganda fide at lime forwarded
a shadier bull into that country, dated so late as September
1819, addressed to his Titular Bishops, containing the same
conciliatory sentiments, the immediate consequence of' which
was general insurrection in the Popish provinces of Munster
and Connaught ; that the saMe most Christian Potentate
had previously evinced his determination never to re.
Bounce his authority over foreign
.powers, by publibly
censuring his alearly beloved Son in Christ, Louis the
Eighteenth, for countenancing heretics, and finally, to leave not
a shadow of doubt upon the deluded consciences of the most
strenuous Protestant advocates for the advancement of Popery
in Ireland, his Holiness consummated his Christian labours in
the service of the reformed Churches of England, and this
country, by the sweeping declaration, under the auspieces of
theniost holy Inquisition which he had also re-established,
that he.regarded every indulgence to Protestants as an alliance
between Christ anti Belial, light and darkness, truth anti error,
sincere piety and impiety ; that the conduct of the Melt Titu-
lar Prelat has been in strict conformity with those Papal decla-
rations, as they have openly patronized the most blasphemous
and treasonable publications, particularly Pastorini's History
of the Christian Church, Ward's Errata of the Protestant Bible,
and his controversy of ordination, also the impious notes to the
Itheiniali Testament, all denouncing the Established Church
as a novelty, and prophecying the total extermination of the
' Protestants as
.being decreed by Almighty God to take place
in the year 1825, the name of the Popish Bishop of Cork being
publicly prefixed to the list of subscribers to Pastorini's work
of murder and desolation, printed, paid for, anti circulated in
thousands throughout all parts of the South, and even the North
of Ireland, within the last twelve months; that from these re.
cent and unanswerable facts, the Petitioner presumes to believe,
that a demonstrative proof is at length afforded, even to the
most deluded advocates for Roman Catholics advancement, of
the bigotted estimetion in which this discontented and clamor-
ous body of sectarians is likely to consider the rights and vital
interests of the Established Church of Ireland, in the event of
their ever being admitted into the Imperial Parliament, where
they would have the power to legislate for that Church whirl
they' had previously sworn to undermine and destroy ; or it
offices of high trust anti confidence, by virtue of which offices
they would assume a right, not onlyof recommending, but in
many cases of virtually appointing, the Prelates of the Pro-
testant Church, whets at the same time they refuse with
menace, and even insult, to admit the least interference on
the part of the Crown of England with the nomination of
their own titular Doctors • that the Petitioner,. now in the
awful presence of his doll, most solemnly implores the
House, whose dignity and character are dearer to him than
his blood, to reflect upon the following important fact be-
fore .it may. be too late for remedy or revision ; that the pre-
sent Pope of Rome issued a Bull, dated so late as August 1814,
addreseed to the Titular Prelates in • Ireland, as well as in all
the Ecclesiastical States, for the .restoration of the dangerous
and 'secret order of Jesuits; that intriguing society having pnr-
chaseti,an estate in the county of Kildare, and an extensive