The Sun.
London, England, 1819-04-20 00:00:00

influence.

In recurring to our present subject, it will be necessary to
consider what was the situation of the Roman Catholics pre-
vious to the Revolution, and what was the state of things
established at that period with respect to them. The state
of Roman Catholics previous to the Revolution was one of
complete proscription, brought aboht by their own conduct in
the reigns subsequent to the Reformation. Their Properties,
their• Religion, their means of defence, and their rights of ac-
tion, were taken away from them; indeed, such was the se-
verity of these laws, that the President Montesquieu has ob-
served, " That they were so rigorous, though not professedly
of the sanguinary hind, as to do all the hurt that could pos-
" sibly be done in cold blood." (Sp. L. G. 19. c. 27.) These
Laws, however, were merely enacted as emergencies arose,
and were never intended to form a permanent system of Le-
gislation. At the Revolution the restless conduct of the Ro-
man Catholka ;t necessary that they should still be
retained ; they were accordingly so until the causes which
proelueed most of t hem 'had ceased to exist. Such eif them were
then repealed as did not immediately affect the Constitution
of the Country, and all that are now retained are those which
exclude Roman Catholics from Parliament, from holding
certain Civil and Ecclesiastical situations, from presiding in
our Courts of Law or Equity, and-from rising to certain rank
at the Bar.* The Properties, the Worship, and the Civil
Rights of the Catholics have now as much protection as those
of the Protestants ; and all from which they are excluded,
e those situations which would give them a Political in-
fluence over one Protestant Constitution, and a Legislative
(out rout over our Protestant Establishment.

Having thus premised, we.shall proceed to consider seria-1
tins the reasons which have induced some of our modern
Whigs to second the efforts of the Roman Catholics at the
present period to obtain Political Power in our Protestant
State. We have been told," That the present Test Laws, by
" which the Roman Catholics are crawled from power, did
" not originate at the Revolution, and that they are incon-
" sistcnt with the Toleration that Was then established." Now
let us for a moment refer to the Act of Toleration itself (t
W. and M. c. 18.) The Preamble to that Act runs as follows:
" !Forasmuch as some case to scrupulous conscience's in the
" exercise of Religion fluty he an effectual means to unite
" their Majesties' Paoy esTA NT SaV ects in interest and nice-
" tion." Thus it appears, that it was merely for the relief
of the " scrupulous consciences of PROTESTANTS iu the exer-
" cis,:‘ of Religion," that this Act was passed. The Act goes
on to exempt Protestant Dissenters from those severe Laws
which had been passed against Non-conformists in prior
Reigns, but at the same time contains two most remarkable
exceptions—exceptions which speak volumes upon the pre-
sent question, and clearly shcw that King William's general
ideas of Toleration never extended to Popery. So jealous
were the Parliament that passed this Act upon this point,
and so apprehensive were they that a Roman Catholic might
take advantage of a Law which was intended exclusively for
the relief of a Protestant Dissenter, that the Act of 25
Charles the Second (which was made " to prevent dangers
" which might happen from Popish recusants"), and the Act
of 30 Charles the Second ("for the more Teetually preserv-
" lug the King's Person and Government, by disabling-Papists
"front sitting in the House of Parliament") were especially
_excepted in the Act of Toleration ; and no Protestant Dis-
senter could take the benefit of that Act, unless he took the
',tabs and subscribed the Declarations which the two excepted
Acts contained, and-which were in the strongest degree ini-
mical to the Roman Catholic Religion and to Papal encroach-
ment. How can it therefore be maintained that the ideas of
Toleration, as entertained at the Revolution, were favoura-
ble to the claims now urged by the Roman Catholics, when
we see that it was made an especial condition with those who
availed themselves of that Toleration that they should dis-
tinctly recognize the legislative enactments which excluded
Roman Catholics from Parliament and from filling any Civil
Offices in the State ? The Revolution did indeed reconcile
Liberty with a Protestant Government, but it effected this
by driving Popery and Intolerance to their native shades, and
by erecting the standard of Civil Freedom upon the wreck of

Tyrannical U3Urpation.
We have been told, however, that " The Toleration, as
" established at the Revolution, was incomplete, and that it
" tuns the commencement, not the completion, of a system."--

S George la. c. (..icori;t ill. C. 32.

lamat a loss, hone -er, to know upou what., grounds this
Opinion has formed. It has been said, that when the
Act of William was passed, a Catliolic exile King was living,
who possessed the affections of a great portion of his late
Subjects, among whom were men of the first talents and
property, and that even nanny of the Bench of Bishops were
then Jacobites; but what has this to do with the subject?—
Were ail that were called Jacobites favourable to the Roman
Catholic Religion ? Were not many of them Jacobites from
principle, and who conceived themselves so bound, by having
,worn allegiance to James, that they could not eonsejentiortsty
take the Oath to William ? What. was Archbishop Sancroft,
and what. were Bishops Kenn, Lake, White, and Turner?—
Were they Roman Catholics? No martyrrati !
they were the very men who were imprisoned for re-
sisting the dispensing power claimed by King James
'for releasine, the Catholics from the operation of the
Penal Laos and the Test, but who suffered themselves.
to be deprived of their fees rather than take the oath to Wil-
liam. These were men who suffered for conscience-sake; and
is it. to be now contended, that they were advocates for the
Repeal of the Test Laws, who suffered imprisonment for op-
posing that Repeal, and that Statutes, which Judge Black-
stone calls " the Bulwarks of the Constitution," are to be
now abrogated because Jacobites have ceased to exist, and
because some obsolete political doctrines have been explod-
ed?—lf any additional proof were wanting, that the present
Calms of the Roman Catholics are not comprehended in the
principles of Revolution Toleration, the celebrated Letter
which was written in 107 by Pensionary Fagel to Mr.
Stewart, by command of the Prince and Princess of Orange,
as illustrative of the principles which placed them upon the
Throne of England, most set at rest the question. This was
a Letter written in answer to one sent by King James, re-
vesting their Highnesses to aid him in his attempts to abo-
lish the Test Laws. The following are extracts from this
memorable document:—" Their Highnesses could by no
" means agree to the repeal of the Test, and those other Pe-
" nal Law', that tenfleofto the security of the Protestant Re-

114inn,sirece the Roman Catkolies receive no other preju-

" dices
,from these than their being excluded from Partite-
" ment, and Millie Employments ; and that by them the
" Protestant Relis,rion was sheltered from all the designs of
" the Roman Catholics against it, or against the Public
" Safety; that neither the Test, nor those other Laws, could
" be said to carry any severity in them against the Rowan
" Catholics upon Account of their consciences, being only
" provisions qualifying men to he Members of Parliament, or
" to he capable of hearing Office, by which they must declare
" before God and men, that they were for the Protestant
" Religion ; sn that, indeed, all this amounted to no more
" than a securing the Protestant Religion from any preju-
" dire it might receir, from the Roman Catholics. Their
" Highnesses were convinced in their consciences, that both
" the Protestant Religion and the safety of the Nation would
" be-exposed to most certain dangers, if either the T.lts, or

" those other Penal Laws, of which he had made fregnent
" mention, should be repealed ; therefore they could not con-
" cur with his Majesty in those matters ; for they believed
" they should have Inuckto answer to God, if the considera-
" Con of any present advantage should induce them to con-
" sent to things which they believed would not only be very
" dangerous, but prejudicial to the Protestant Religion:'t
This memorable document clearly skews what King Wil-
liam's ideas of Toleration were; and shall we, who are at se
remote a period from times when the operation of Roman
Catholic principles was manifested, adopto different line of
conduct ? Shall we learn nothing from that experience which
was bequeathed to us by our ancestors ? Shall no earnestness
be excited in us to preserve the liberties and religion which
they have bequeathed to us ? " 0 that I had words to represent
" to the present generation the miseries which their fathers
" underwent; that I could describe their fears and anxieties,
" their restless nights and uneasy,days, when every morning
" threatened to usher in the last day of England's Liberty.
" Had men such a sense of the miseries of the time past, it
" would teach them what consequences they were to expect
" from any successful attempt against the present Esta-
" blishment :."

The only true criterion which we can adopt, whereby to
form an accurate judgment of any measures proper to be
pursued under circumstances of peculiar emergency, and with
which our ancestors have successfully struggled, is, to observe
attentively what were the measures adopted by them after the
struggle had ended, and what were the means devised to per-
petuate the benefits obtained by the contest. This is the
standard to which I would bring the present question, and I
shall endeavour to spew in my next, whether Roman Catholic
principles have so much altered as to render any change in
Legislation necessary. I trust I have shewn that the Tole-
ration granted by a William was not one which opened a
door to all sects without restraint, and disregarded an Esta-
blishment as necessary to the welfare of a Country; on the
contrary, that it was a Toleration .which was not in-
different to a particular Religion, and that it was one
which encompassed the Throne with Test Laws, and
vested the Civil Authorities of the Country in those who
professed the religion of the State. These are very different
principles of Toleration to those about which, we- hear so
much at the present day. Some of these, I ant greatly aps
prehensive, have originated in that disregard of all reli-
gious Institutions which characterized the French Revo-
lution. Establishments were then considered as unnecessary ;
a spurious religious liberty was the order of the day, and
every thing which was deemed sacred by our ancestors, was
ridiculed by their puny descendants. Far, very far, am I
from insinuating, and as far from believing, that any im-
proper motives are, harboured by the present supporters of
the Roman Catholic Claims ; many of
-them however entered
into life when the French Revolution was almost the only
topic, when it was the object of panegyric, and was holden
nut as an example for imitation. Its dire effects had not then
been seen ; the slavish chains which were afterwards manu-
factured at the Republican Forge, had not then bound down
the liberties of the people. May we not therefore be allow-
ed to suggest the propriety of an enquiry being made by some
of the present supporters of the Roman Catholic Claims, all
to the period when the principles of Toleration' upon which
they now support those Claims first began to take effect
upon their minds, and whether any ideas of universal free-
dom have not been mixed up, or at least confounded, with
the system of our National Toleration.
In my next Letter I shall resume the subject, and endea-
vour to 'hew how far the idea of Roman Catholic principles
being changed is founded in fact. Your's, &c.
Leicester, April t 6, 1619. BRITANNIcus.

* Bl : Coniw : vol. 4. j. 58.
t Kennet's History of England, vol. 3, p. 4G6.
Bp. Sher lock's " Discourses."

We received this morning the Paris Papers of
Thursday and Friday last. The following are

extracts :

" CHAMBER OF PEERS, THURSDAY, APRIL 15.

" The Baron de Montalembert, one of the new

Peers, took his seat.

The Chamber, after renewing the Bureaux,
&c. adjourned till Saturday, to discuss the projet
respecting tobacco.

g, CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES.

" The discussion was resumed on the proje

respecting the'Press.

" It was supported at some length by the
Chevalier Figarol. The Chevalier Cuvier replied
to the objections made against the projet, and
after a few words from M. Courvoisier, the dis-
cussion of the projet was closed, and it was then
commenced on the articles and amendments.

" The articles 1,2, 3,4, and 5, were adopted,

with several amendments, proposed by 111. JO'
quinot de Pampelune.
" The discussion on Article 6, and the follca.
ing Articles, was postponed till to-morrow.
" FRIDAY, APRIL 16.—The discussion was re-
slimed on the Articles of the projet respecting the

Press.
" Article 6, after a long debate, in which
MM. Benjamin Constant, Manuel, Chauvelin,
Courvoisier, Bourdeau, Benoit, the Keeper of the
Seals, and the Councillor of State Guizot, took %.
part, was agreed to, as was also the following
additional article moved by M. de Chauvclin,
amended by M. de Courvoisier, and approved °I
by file Keeper of the Seals
" The printers of publications, the authors nf
.
which shall be put upon their trial, and who shall
have fulfilled the obligations prescribed by Title
of the Law of 21st October, 1814, shall "t
prosecuted for the mere fact of printing suc—
publications, unless they have acted knowinglP
as stated in Article 60 of the Penal Code respect'
ing complicity.
" The discussion of the remaining
endatioli
newly divided according to the recomm
of the Committee, was postponed till co-
worn%
Adjourned. chapters,

" PARIS, APRIL 17.—The King yester(ll 11.0"
acted business with the Minister for Foreign A

fairs.•
" His Majesty has sent to the Persian Am";
sailor, as a present to his Sovereign, a chest
guns, pistols, and sabres, of very splendid //at'.
manship, from the Royal Manufactory of 'Vet'
sallies.
" The King has begun to walk about his apart;
ments. His Majesty, it is thought, will g°
on Sunday next. after
v7l
"It is said, that the Emperor of Russia' .ii
attending the extraordinary Diet at Warsaw.'
proceed to Brussels, where his Imperial Nialest
f °ell
i
is expected to arrive about the middle o
month.
" According to a private letter from Manbeitn,;
on the day of the assassination of Kotzeh" (2,3.
March), another Student attempted at Dresne,-
but not having lc-
to assassinate M. tie Stouria;
ceeded, he killed himself. The German ourns s_o
however,
stands in need of confirmation.
are silent as to this intelligence, which
Rome °Lth
" The Emperor of Austria arrived at
the 2d inst., %via% the Empress and the Arch..
duchess Caroline.
" The King transacted business on Wednesall
with the Count de Cazes.