The Sun.
London, England, 1833-08-05 00:00:00

BILL RE READ THIS DAY A SECOND TIME.

Dissentient—l. Bec,iuse the adoption of the amend-
ment, that this Bill be read this day six months, after the
explanations that took place on the di-cussion of the mo-
tion, that it be now read a second time, and upon the
amendment to that motion, involves, in niy opinion, the
adoption of a principle by the House of Lords, which I
hold to be fatal to the civil and religious liberties of my
country, and to the civil and religious establishments founded
at any period of this country for the maintenance and pro-
tection of those civil and religious lib-rties.
2. Because I do not think that I am at liberty to be-
lieve, so as to act upon that belief in my legislative capa-
city as a Peer of Parliament, that it is my duty to protect
any Christianity of an undefined nature, much less any
Protestantism of an undefined nature. _

3. Because I do not believe that I have any right to vote
against the exclusion of any subject of the King of Eng-
land, who, by his birth-right, which is the act of God,
becomes entitled to British franchise, unless by some sub-
sequent act of his own free will, he commits certain acts,
cr adopts certain principles, which render his exclusion
from those fraochies requisite for the preservation of the
civil, or of the religious liberties of my country ; and that
I have official and legal evidence of the commission of such
acts, or adoption of such principles, and contumacious per-
severance in them, atter due citation to renounce them.
4. Because, in the instance of this Bill, I had the au-
thority of the Howe of Commons, which passed it and
sent it up to me, that it was not injurious to the civil and
religious liberties of my country that my fellow-subjects
should enjoy the franchises of the Constitution, in and to
which they were born, although they subsequently had
exercised their free will in the adoption of the Jewish re-
ligion, which I believe to be false and injurious to Chris-
tianity; as I also have exercised my free will in the adop-
tion of the Roman Catholic religion, which the majority of
my fellow subjects believe to be false, and injurious to
Protestantism.

- .
5.-
Because the adoption of the amendment appears to
me to cast an insidious, highly unjust, and extremely inis-
chi-.vous aspersion upon the Ci own of England, in ostnuch
as there is not at present any Peer of England professing
the Jewish religion, who would, as in the case of the Ro-
man Catholic Peers, be restored ipso facto to the exercise
of his hereditary rights in this House ; and that, conse-
quently, a rejection of this Bill by this House, after it has
p issed the House of Commons, seems to me to involve not
only an injudicious opposition to the will of the people of
England on the pill of the Peers of England, but a dis-
trust, for which no act of his prevent Majesty has afforded
the slightest pretext, of the attachment of the Crown to
the civil and religious liberties of this country, or to those
civil or religious establishments which be is sworn to
maintain in defence of those liberties.

6. Because, though I am nut convinced that the civil
and religious liberties of this country are essentially con-
nected with undefined Protestantism, I am thoroughly and
deeply convinced that they are essentially connected with
an adherence to the Christian religion, as defined in Scrip-
ture in these words of the Divine Author of that one, true,
and holy religion :—" All things whatsoever ye would that
men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is
the law and the prophets." —St. Matt. a. viii, v. 12.
" Hear, 0 Israel ! The Lord our God is one Lord.
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and
with all thy strength. This is the first commandment ;
and the second is like, namely. this : thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment
greater than these."—St. Mark. c. sii., v. 29, 30, 31.
It is, therefore, only inasmuch as any description of
Christians adhere to the Christianity of the Established
Church of England, not inasmuch as they adhere, or pro-
fess themselves to adhere, to any peculiar tenets of their
own, that I hold them competent to the duty of legislators
in the Christian and Parliamentary Constitution of my
country. CLIFFORD.