The Sun.
London, England, 1823-07-08 00:00:00

FOR TIIE SUN.

MR. EDITOR. The Protestant Cause is greatly
indebted to our venerable and venerated LonD CISANCELLou,
for hit expressed intention of opposing-the hills which have for
their object an extension of further political privileges to
Itorntin Catholics.

That the loyalty, property, and respectability of many mem-
bers of the Roman Catholic. Communion are deserving of un-
qualified eulogy, I am quite disposed to allow ; there is every
thing good, great, anti noble amongst that Body ; but, as their
admission into an extended arena of political power would be
a recognition of a principle highly dangerous to our Constitu-
tion, I feel gratified that the measures to which I have alluded
are not likely to be adopted as mere matters of course. The
"proposal of putting the English Roman Catholics upon the
same footing as the Irish, is certainly very plausible; but it the
Parliament of one country have passed an injudicious law, is
it any reason why the Parliament of another shoUld follow
a bad example ? In point of fact attempts appear to be making
to carry by particles what it is well knoWn cannot be effected by
The Notice, or rather Bill, introduced by Dr. PRILLIMORE,
for allowing Minion Catholics to be married in their own
chapels, and by their own Priests, I look upon as of extreme
impostance: should it pass, it will be the height of injustice
to deny a similar indulgence to all classes of Dissenters who
may think proper to come forward and request it ; and, if this
be so, in what a humiliating situation will our venerable and
peace-preserving Church be placed ! Stripped of her authority
in one of the most solemn and important engagements of life,
her tolerant altars will become the objects of ridicule and me-
morials only of that dignity and connection with the laws which
they once possessed. If the Legislature give way to the
wretched principle of despoiling the Church of the privileges
which, were gained for her by the blood of those who opposed
RebelliOn and Popery, and whose exertions placed her lofty
spires and towers as so many beacons to warn succeeding
generations against Popery on the one hand, and fanaticism
On the other, 1, for one, say, that the system has commenced,
which wilreventually lead to a repetition of those national mis-
fortunes—the pressure of which our ancestors so severely ex-
perienced.
We hear much said against Orangeism and political associa-
tions; but, what is so likely to drive the friends of the Esta-
blishment into institutions of this description, as the weakening
of that connection with the subjects in general of the country,
which the Church of England has hitherto possessed ? Let
each one chuse .his own creed, and pay his worship where he
pleases ;_but should he dissent from the National Religion, let
him feel, that althargh he is free to
.dissent, it is necessary for
him once to approach the national altars and recognize their
existence. The principle contended for in the Bill to which I
have referred would, if pursued, extend to church rates, tithes,
and every.other species of church revenue. No doubt the Ro-
Man Catholic feels a conscientious objection not only to enter-
ing; but to contributing to the support of (what he believes) an
heretical Establishment ; and Dissenters, aided by the reflec-
tion of 'Noithern Luminaries; begin to see that they ought not
to support a Church from which they blindly conceive they
receive no benefit, but which, in point of fact, is the keystone
of the arch which upholds every, description of Protestantism in
this country, -1 am, Sir, your obedient servant,
Leicester, July 7, 111•23. BRITANNICUS.