The Sun.
London, England, 1819-01-13 00:00:00

PROVINCIAL JOURNALS.

The followin!,; Extract from the Belfast News-
p(,prr is intended as an Answer to the Article on
the CATuotAc PETITION which appeared in THE
SUN of •yesterdAy. It is hardly necessary at pre-
sent .point out the weakness of the arguments
in c ipport of the CATHOLIC CLAIMS. by which
the subjoined Article attempts to enforce those

claims, or on the rule otts consequences which
would I►robably result from farther concessions
to the Members of that Religion, who would

deem it their duty to effect the total destruction
of the Protestants in this world, 40d their eternal

misery in a future state.

." PROTESTANT PETITION IN FAVOUR OF THE
CATHOLICS OF IREJ,4ND.
" Fr OM a Correspondent, in reply to an."lrtiele which ap-
peared in our last, entitled ' Catholic Petition.'
" The purport of the Petition in favour of the
Catholics is not to open the Throne to Princes
of that religion.—This is not the plain..inference.
-This is not the obvious intendment. It is a far-
fetched inference not worth the carriage ; and
from the suggestion of such extreme cases, there
might much more reasonably be inferred, an af-
fectation of fear, or a deficiency of argument.
" The words total and unqualified' refer
entirely to the liberties of the subject, not presum-
ing to meddle with the limitation of the. Crown,
which stand perfectly secure, and firmly esta7
blished by the law of the land, moil the ilous.e
of Commons, the House of Lords, and the King
or Regent, by an act of political suicide, consent
to the repeal' of those acts, that ascertain the
form of the monarchy, without, at the same time,
encroaching on the•essence of the Constitution.
" The Constitution is to be distinguished from
the Government. The Constitution is not radi-
cally,or cssentielly,eit her Protestant or Catholic*.
It is to be known and acknowledged by the great
•and fundamental principles of public and personal
freedom, embodied in Catholic Magna Chatta,
that sort of fellow which will not brook sove-
reign power') and other confirmatory documents
which sanction an equal distribution of civil
rights through all classes of freemen. The Con-
stitution withdraws its countenance from exclu-
siv. privileges ; and laws, particularly the penal
laws, are too often only exclusive privileges, the
tribute of all, to the advantage of a comparative
few. I! is then to the total repeal of these laws
that the Petition is directed, without ever advert- 1
ing to,' or having a thought of adverting to, the
limitations established by Acts of Parliament on
the head of the British Government.
" But, Were We. to conceive that all the three
estates bid become converts to Catholicism, had
abjured the Protestant religion, and abrogated
tie Protestant succession, still do I assert, that
the British Constitution might exist in its essence
and substance, although with this change of the
religion of the Monarch.
.•
" The term unqualified,' which might at first
Sight appear an unnecessary addition to the word
• total,' was meant to express theAisapprobation
of the petitioners, respecting the qualified and
conditional bill of repeal, introduced into Parlia-
ment under the title of Canning's Bill, a revival
of which may be suspected, but which is so ob-
noxious to the Catholic Laity, who resolved, that
• as Irishmen, and as Catholics, they never could
consent to any dominion or controul whatsoever,
over the appointment of their Prelates, on the
part of the Crown, or of the Servants of the

"By the words total repeal' are then to be
understood, explicitly, the admission of the Ca-
tholics to ail the civil privileges and capacities of
other citizens. without any exclusion from offices
of trust And emolument in the State, or, in other
words, what the huthor of the Caveat Card calls
universal toleration,' although 1 hold up my
bands against the term toleration,' which in it-
/ selt means nothing more than suspended perse-
cution .

By the words unqualified repeal' is to be
understood a protest, •on the part of the peti-
tioners, against those conditions, modifications,
and reservations, lately proposed and rejected by
the Catholics of Ireland, which tended to place
their church dignitaries under the influence of the
Alinistry of the day, and to render,permanent, as
of old, a political servitude Under the pretext of
a religious scruple:
" In short, the Protestantism of the King is
established by the coronation oath, and by the
law of the land, and securely upheld by the three
estates-of Parliament- ; but the deprivation of
Millions of the rights of citizens (the sole Object
of the petition), is contrary to the principles and
practice of the Revolution ; and to proscribe a
nation is not necessary for the existence of any
church, or for the head of the church of England.
The Throne will be best fenced' by the incor-
poration of the Catholics into the State ; and its
strongest bulwarks' are not the keeper ofthe
King's conscience (a phrase which George the
Third deemed almost ludicrous), or the Com-
mander of the Forces, or the Viceroy, or the
Primate, but the principles of the Revolution put
into practice,, and the validity of Acts of Parlia-
Ment which have established the Protestant Suc-
cession to the Throne of the United Kingdoms.\
"It is really/diverting to see how nutty bug-
bears
have been,made.to stalk, with threatening
aspect, over this stage of controversy. First came
Bnonaparte with „his truncheon ; then the old
man the Pope,iswith his tiara ; and after these
spectres have passed
,away, comes on the King, or
Regent, iu his sole attribute, as Defeilder of the
e. the Catholic Faith, and as fierce es the
Eighth. Henry' before
,his .conversion. :I,lese:
barely possible cases are evoked, a little before the
break of day,-by the witcltery.ofimagination, that,
in %visiting to 'terrify others, begins to be terrified
itself. They disperse—,Behold the suet
Wile» the augurs wished.to seop.t.lte progress
.of the itornan Comitia," one. of the College was

"al.eipost ze„atous Protestant in the nation ought to
wish that.aViiiiist.ihipid sudeeett to the Throne, with site))
Widtatibris.Th!i-wohlit rendef this tration free and independent,
t t t,,ttrotestmut. antnbest Prince without any."...—•
T rCki FA:. of .'„iALTOWN.

deputed to say that the time was not propitioue.
‘vov ? The chickens do not peck as if they were
hungry—a raven croaked to the left—the liver of
the ox just sacrificed was spotted—and, hark !
some one sneezes amidst the crowd—the assem-
bly must be dissolved, re-infeeta' and 4 sine die,'
it was done once and often, but, at last, the
charm dissolved, the spoil was broken, and the
freedmen of Rome, who had been rigorously ex-
cluded from civil and military honoims (whatever
might be the merit or fortune of their sons), who
had been esteemed unworthy of a seat in the se-
nate, and the traces of whose origin were not al-
lowed to be completely obliterated to the third or
foiirth generation, those freedmen became FREE-
MEN, hi the real sense of the word. They con-
tributed to sustain the glory of the Roman empire,
and to retard its fail.