The Sun.
London, England, 1812-04-24 00:00:00

•euns of his motion. He would, therefore, make it
a Motion fur the mere consideration of the Catholic
Cairns. •lluring this,. he trusted, those who had
rippled him before, would be ready to vote for hiM
now. Those who thought the situation of the Ca-
tholics ought in any respell to 'be altered, t lithe who
thought they ought to be enfranchised' in every re-
sped, and those who thought they ought to be par-
tially enfranchised, upon certain conditions in a
'cord, all but those who meant to shut the doors of
Parliament against them for ever, he hoped would
vote for the motion which he was about to submit
to the Heuse. The consideration of the Catholic
Question he wished coupled with another consider-
ation, that of the situation and condition of the
kingdom. These were but two countries which
cotrd be very much affeded by these decision s,
Ireland and America., In others, fortune might do
a greet deal for them, as in Spain and Portugal, for
instance; but Ireland and America their folly might
• ruin, or their wisdom might save, and with their
destinies, the destiny of England was joined ; and
if our conduct towards them were unwise, we
,might lose our anchor in the old world, with our
power end interest in the new. The question did
not now conned with any temporary bar that might
hsveiheretofore been opposed to the Cetho:ics.—
Every thing of this descriteien had been rethotied.
They' might lament the cause, but they must ac-
knowledge the fad. The question was now to
stand on its own principles, to be decided on, not
with a reference to any extraneous circumstances,
but solely with a reference-to its merits. The doom
of Ireland was now before them; and if they decid-
ed that its prayer should not be heard, they deprived
three-fourths of the, people of Ireland, and oree-'
fourth of the people of the British Empire of their
civil rights and liberties for ever. Gentlemen who
might say they would not now vote for an inquiry
into the subjed, meant they never would ; but to
such a sentiment they would not give its appropri-
ate 'phraseology, as there was a something too mon-
strous, too abominable, too unimaginable to such an
expression. It went to exclude the people of Ire-
land for ever, from the enjoyment of their civil
liberties in their own country, it they 'continued
conscientiously to fell'oee the religion of their h: arts.
Religion was the property of oo one, the gospel
and revelat4cin were the gift or God, and it was.for
man to interpret them in the best way he cenld with
the understandieg God had given eim. Irishmen.
rs &shipped theireGod , without a license from the
King, 'end the, exercise of their religiOn constituted
their comfort here and their hopes of salvation and
happiness hereafter. Those, then, -who presumed
to interrupt t hetu•in the discharge 'of 'this duty, for-
feted their owls,: and p(leal an niejustitiaole part
evilest their fhliow cteatres and against the rig.is
oh men. He did not mean to deny that there might be
citcumstances canneded"with religion which might ,
justify and even cell for Legislative, interference, This
might be proper when cercemstances were mixed
up with reheion, which went to aired the ley ilty of
the subjea. In such a-case,. Goeernment ought to
interfere, but then it ,00ght. to henot with the reli-
gion, hie with the disobedience. Here no such 'die-
rosechence could be proved. Here practical proofs
'of allegiance were-given, when' it was known that
Irish Catholics Acre. every day d ing in our service;
and possessing this knowledge of their conclect, the
falsehood of the assertions, made to the prejudice of
the Catholics, must hErknown. - T'hat witch appear-
ed to give a colouring of truth to the statements
which were made on this head were, in point of tad,
a reproach to the Government. The assertions
.that the heed of the Roman Catholic Church could
absolve the.subjed from his allegiance, and that the
Catirol,cs could feel theinseltes bound by leo °ells
to keep faith with Pretsseents, were answered by
this fad, that it was impossible for them to be true.
If true,' it would have beer) impossible for the Go-
vernment of any Roman Catholic country to have
held together. for, one year. These assertions hail
been solemnly contradicted by six Universities; by
those of Rotten, Paris, Dourly, Val idolid, seed
Salamanca. These Universities free dented that
Ole Pope had rely temporal power in the pieta's
dominions; and to the queation whether a Catholic
could feel himself bound by any oeh to lie. p
faith with a Protestant, they had answered with
the horror and disgust, which it might well be ex-
peetel to' call forth. Such
:statements, however,
were aoswered in a way which could not.ad nit
Of tuisintet pretation ; they were anse ered by fads
opposed to sophistry. The very papers on their
fable acciniyted the Catholics, and proving their in-
t:cermet., convicted the Legislature of he istice to-
-wank them.., le addition to this, he might mope
the sanetion whirs they themselves had given to
the evidence to which he had alluded, and the in;
nurnerahle Petitions which had been presented in
support of their claims. Where, he would ask,
were those Petitions %lomat them, which they had
been told they night raped ? Where were those
Petitions, beneath the weight of which it had-been
said the table would bend, against the prayer of the
Catholics ? Where was the Petition from the Ciiy
' of Loudose ? Where the Ktition from the Unit er-
xity of Dublin ? Where were those Petitions which•
were to speak the alarm of the people, and call upon
them to defend England from the prevalence of the
influence of the Pepe, and the seven sacraments,
by hostility to the civil liberties of the Catholics,
and by an eternal separation of the interests of Eng-
land and Ireland ? •Witle respetit to the Church,
where was' the horn of alarm which was to have
been sounded ? Where were the cleeey who were
s to damn all who differed from themselves ? Where
the pulpits which were to exhibit the barriers of in-
tolerance, and the ensigns of bigotry with all the
fervor ots Ecclesiastical hostility ) Instead of doll
divines attempting to distinguish themselves, by
acting such a part, it was theirs to witness a more
gratifying spedecie. It was theirs to see with pious
z. al and anxious humanity the clergy corning for-