The Sun.
London, England, 1828-02-27 00:00:00

Intare no Scatcbman could serve in the army or nary o:

es...
the country? I can assure my Hon. Friend, unties, his
information is quite positive to the contrary, that his
Majesty's Government .are not in the least degree dispo-
sed to exclude 'the natives of Scotland from military or
naval service. At this moment I have been thirty-two
veers a Member of this House, and I now hear, for the
. first time, the repeal of these Acts called for. It is, in-
{lced, nearly forty years since this question was agitated in
Parliament. That fact alone is sufficient proof that the
evil cannot be very severe. But it is said this is a good
' • - rearm for the petitioners. They were in total silence
during these forty years, because they were years of alarm
• au:el:danger, when we were threatened with foreign invasion.
. During the progress of the war, we are told, the Diesen-
tire had no disposition to trouble Parliament with a di.s,as_
•- • idea adds sort. Is this really a correct statement? Does my
lion- Friend, know•o little of the history of the last forty
•. •yeare—of the last thirty years, at least—that he is ignorant
:during that period another question precisely analogous to
• this, relative to the principle of civil disqualification on ac-
count of religious dissent, has occupied more of the time
' of 'Parliament, created more excitement, and produced
• - longer and more violent debates, than any. question that
'44i. ever was discussed; that it has led to more bitter dissen-
sions in public life, and more strongly divided in opinion
. all the great men who have lived during" that period, and
even set the two Houses of Parliament in opposition to
each other, and that once, if not more than once, it has
• deposed the country of the most powerful Administra-
tion that ever guided the councils of the Crown.—(Hear,
Lear, hear.)—l, say, that if my Hon. Friend thinks
that the danger of discussing .thie question has led the
Protestant Dissenters for forty years to he silent, he has
not taken a well-founded view of the history of the cowl-
, try. lam quite certain, on she other hand, that the per-
. eons to whom I allude, the 'very respectable petitioners
whose cause is now before the House, and with whose
acute, intelligent, and elevated minds I am well acquainted,
• are remarkable for their steady pursuit of any object which
they endeavour to attain. Is it to be believed, then, that
. they who are so well disposed, and so fairly entitled,
.. to stand honourably in the eyes of the public, would have
rernairled for forty years perfectly quiescent, if they had
been suffering grievances of an intolerable character : On
the Contrary, ought we not to believe that they were
•-• under the actual practice of the law, and impartially en.
....keyed all the -benefits of the British Constitution ? I
• •well ,recollect the debate in 1791, though I was
not thou a Member of the House. During the long pe-
riod that has followed, what hare we seen ? The decision
of the question at that time has been attended with the best
possible results. All those peculiar distinctions which for-
merly existed have gradually abated. All the relations of
society have been brought closer. together, and all its
moyelnents rendered more accordant and harmonious.—
(Cheers.) lam bound to say, that in comparing the
efforts, of the different classes who have contributed to this
happy result, none merit a larger share of praise than the
Members and Minister's of the Established Church. None,
I say, have been so forward in contributing to this happy
result ; and as they were the first to promote it, so I trust
and believe they will he the last to interrupt it.—(Cheers.)
I will now tell the Noble Lord. why I regret that he has
brought forward4is motion. . It has, at least, a tendency
to interrupt that spirit of concord and harmony which now
happily prevails. It is attended by the danger of retracing
that line of demarkation which was . almost obliterated by
time. Mutual forbearance and reciprocal good-will had
Pearly worn out those lines, which could no longer be dis-
. tingniehed as separating the different members of the Pro-
. testant Communion .of this country. On this ground I
34114 „and lam ready to state again, that I do feel
great regret that this motion:has on. this occasion, without
any urgent or peculiar necessity, been brought forward.—
No Hon. Gentleman who Las observed the course of my
• public life, or done me the honour to attend to what I have
at differente.iines said on subjects of this nature, can sup-
-pose that I am a friend to the principles of religious teats,
with reference to the enjoyment of, civil rights. I am no
: ' • friend to that principle—(Cheers from both sides of the.
• " Nouse.) It is equally against the interests of morality,
s the interests of pure religion, and theainterests of the Eats-
• 'dished Church and the country. should be glad to see
all tents and qualifications removed ; but when I have laid
this down as a general principle, I must add, that when
' We come to the consideration of so momentous a subject,.
With a view to.Pratical legislation, we are bound to look
at all the interests involved, and at the time during which
~ the existing system has .continued;. and when I look at
this question as a whole, I am not prepared to deal with it
as the Noble Lord advisee me, for after all I have heard,
I mutt consider this, not indeed as an imaginary grievance,
but certainly as a very secondary evil, and not to be put
in comparison by the side of that great question which in-
flicts so many real hardships on numerous classes of our
'• fellow-subjects, and is intimately connected with the best
interests of the State, to their great.disativantage and de-
•• triment.—(Hear, hear, hear.)—Look at that question :as
a whole, and in that point of, view it cannot be, severed
from considerations of vast magnitude, as to the prosperity
of the United Kingdom, and especially as to the strength
and security of the Enepire.--(Cheere.)—l teel that in the
view lam-mow stating, I do not stand with the authority
of ettch.great names as the Noble Lord quoted on opening
the debate ; but I say that this is the view which was
' taken of this subject by the greatest Minister this country
ever had, and,the most enlightened Statesman of the age,
e--(hear, hear,)-e.whose views and counsels on this, as
on all other occasions, I shall, as far as I can trace them,
be proud and happy to follow—l mean Mr. Pitt.—
(Cbeers.)—ln proof of what I assert, I request the Hon.
Gentleman to look at the Correspondence recently pub -
lished, which took place in 1801 between Mr. Pitt, then
--Prime Minister, and the late King. They will then see
• how anxious he was to modify the laws called the Test
'—aed, Corporation Acts ; but anxious as he was to modify
those laws, he was still more anxious to deal with that
greater subject, the Catholic Question. Mn Pitt" thought
that when that question *as settled, the fit opportunity.
• would have arrived to consider all these minor and subor-
dinate questions ; and then, and not till then, would he
'have merged all existing religious tests into some propevly
devised civil teats and securities for the protection and de-
fence of the Con.stitution.—(lleax, hear.)—Haying re-
ferred to this correspondence, I Cannot refrain from re-
turning my thanks to those who .have given it to the
world,—( Hear, henr.)—with this impression, Sir, I thank
them, not only on behalf of myself, but also of the cause
which that correspondence is calculated to support ; but
I not only look at it as. a public record, but as a tesei-
mony of the sincerity of the Statesman—(Cheers)—and
now that the letters have been published, I trust that
we shall never again hear, either in this House, or
in any other place, that this was an evanescent scin-
tillation, which suddenly flashed across the mind ,of
-;llthat great man.—(Loud cheers. )--I trust we .shall no
longer hear that he was unwilling to give . the subject
a fixed shape, or to follow it up by a definite refer-
• once to principle.---(Cheers.)—Sir, it is because I feel
anxious for the success of that principle, and because I
think the present discussion is not likely to advance it, that
1 express my dissent to the motion of the Noble Lord—and
I tell him that I honestly regret it has taken place. I con-.
eider that the
consequence of this measure, with reference
• to the principle of which 1 have just been speaking, must
be that it will rather retrograde than advance by it. The
great object in leaving these laws untouched, appears ,to
have been that the supremacy of the Established Church
might be recognised. But if we vote for the Repeal of the
Test and Corporation Acts, what becomes of this general
rule? It will stand as nothing; for the moment ,that we
• consent to that Repeal, we shall create an exception,
• and the Catholics alone will be the sufferers.—
(Hear, hear.)--The general rule that has been made will
.cease to exist, and its application will be le-
velled and directed against the Catholics alone. We shall
create in thetn a distinguishing and invidious exception,.
• where they now only form a part ; and I, therefore, ap_
• peal to those who, like myself, are anxious for the success
of the Catholic Claims, whether, by making this change
,in favour of the Protestant Dissenters, we shall not be, in
• impresNion at least, giving our countenance and support to
those who seem desirous of contending: that the Catholics
are not excluded as non--conformists, but as upholders and
• dieeiples of the See of Rome, and thereby introduce the
'principle of a divided allegiance.—(Hear, hear.)—I must
eonfeats that i
for one, am not prepared to make that tn-
preesion with respect to that important question, • more
• especially
u as I am fully satisfied that such an impression
t be, unfavourable to the class with whom it will have
most weight.
butLenrd JOHN RUSSELL said something across the table
so low a voice as not to reach the Gallery.
Mr.
.HUSKISSON continued —Whatever 'may be the
opinion of, the Noble• Lord, I think I know a little about
the state of feeling as well 1
• and I can tell him that
there is something a;
revolting to to one's feelings, in
continuing the law by which the first Peer and the first
Doke of the Realm is required to forfeit his privileges and
his rights, at the very time that we are displaying our
. liberality, by attempting to relieve excisemen from the
disadvantages under
which they labour ; and, for
the obtaining of which, I
subscribe one day's pay. do not believe they would
can tell the Noble Lord
A. that. I feel satisfied if this question should be carried,
•he will find—•l do not mean to say among the ,
well-educated part of the Protestant Dissenters, but
among the .greatest proportion of that body--an addi-
.