The Sun.
London, England, 1819-05-17 00:00:00

FOR THE SUN.

ROM.kN CATHOLIC QUESTION.

Mtt. EDITon-It has been sufficiently shown,
both in my last letters and hi those of your more
able Corresprindents, that the noman Catholics
coisnot with any truth advance their present cliims
upon a principle of equality of right, of neon
pretext of enduring slavery or persecution under
the existing laws. Slavery and Persecution are
favourite terms in use amongst the Advocates of
" resent the ettect of
Emancipation," to misrepresent
those very laws which have hitherto been (as the
great Commentator calk them) " the Litilwarks
of oor Constitution," and of that Liberty we
all--02rotestants and Catholics--,-alike et6oy;—
They too well know how many are (triode(' to an
actpicAcence in their claims by the cry of " Eman-
cipatinti and Liberty," wbo would decidedly op-
pose them if iirrred honestly but less speciously,
ciainis of Privilege and Power.
Political privilege and power are, in tact, (and
in many instances are a.cl.ttowlydged to b.) the
teal objects for which the Itotn.in Catholic; ate

now contending : altd, notwithstanding the cou-
victims which the most cursory retrospect of the
Briti,b Ann ds would he stiflickot to produce that
Popi,h Tyranny and • Ambition were the sole
causes of those miseries under which the British
Nition groanel, till the Revolution its 1685 ef-
fected for the Pi otest ant 9 a glorious Emancipa-
tion from real slavery—notwithstanding all the

expt;rience England has so dearly purchased—not-
withstanding every principle which then actuated
Popish ambition is authoritatively known to re-
main " to the least tittle unchanged"—and,
notwihstanding the various and ample proof of
the utter impossibility of a Popish Admioistra-
tion conducing to the interests of a Protestant
People, there are unhappily those wlt maintain
that Papists cannot be excluded from those pri-
vileges (Aide!) would pave the way to an ultimate
asoendancy of destructive power), consistently
with justice, while their Protestant Brethren are
admissible to them. But surely, Mr. Editor,
these men must be wilfully blind to that vast
distinction which exists between a Protestant and
a Papist on the score of eligibility. Roman
Catholics acknowledge the supreme authority of
Foreign Power—Protestants own no other
Power whatever than the British Sceptre., le is
this connection :vith a Foreign Power which forms
a principal, and a very sufficient groom!, for pro.
nonncing Roman Catholics ineligible and inad-
missible to stations of Political Power in Pro-
testant England. Those who maintain this ob-
jection are stigmatized as illiberal advocates of an
unjust monopoly of privilege—and sufficient as it
is, we are told by the liberal party that it s
overthrown by the assurances of the Roman Ca-
tholics that " they do not acknowledge any tem-
poral or civil jurisdiction on the part of the Pore
extending over the Bi it is b Empire." Let me di-
rect your attention to the sophistry of the
Papists in making this declaration. Observe—the
Spiritual Dominion of the POPE has never been
denied even by those who, simply on their own
unsupported and individttal authority, have dis-
claimed the temporal power—evidently with the
intention of beguiling Protestants to a belief that
they•decid(dly disavow all those intolerant and
arrogant doctrines, and tyrannical usurpations,
which have scourged the nations of every age anti
country. litri this is not the case—these declara-
tions, so sevming fair, are totally delusive, and
correspond exactly with all the former Gotorious
soi&stries of the Romish Church. She never
pretended to claim a foreign temporal jurisdic-
tion, for by virtue of her impious, .assumption,
that to her is delegated power jure divino " over
all the kingdoms of the .earth," she will declare
that she has ever held the wiloLe world to belong
and to he subject to tier maternal and Spiritual
Authority, anti that therefore no part can be fo-

reign to her jurisdiction.
Besides, it is the Spiritnal Power of her haughty
Pontiffs we have most reason to suspect would be
employed against our Constitution. It is this Spi•
ritual Power which has ever been the mighty en-
gine employed by Popery to accomplish its ini-
quitous and arrogant designs. Was.it the Tem-
poral Power of the Pope which threw all Christen-
dom into uproar, and caused such confusion here
in the time of our 2d Henry, in the affair of the
insufferably proud Thomas a Becket ? Was it to
the Temporal Power that Monarch bowed (on
which occasion one of the Cardinals blasphe-
mously applied the words of the Royal Psalmist
in the Pope, " He looketb on the viral, aro!
:snake'lt it to tremble, &c. He is terrible to the
I;:iiigs of the earth !"), and was compelled to walk
barefoot to his shrine, and pray to him as a saint
rind intercessor, who living had beet' his greatest
rnemy ? Was it the Temporal Autholity of
Illnoctot. 111. which laid ibis whole realm under