The Sun.
London, England, 1817-07-19 00:00:00

CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION.,

Tliefullotving extracts fro►l► Mr.PtTT's Speethes,
delivered in, ti►e years 1790 au►l 1805, on this
'subject, afford unequivocal proof tl►at he
,was

Etrori?,ly adverse to granting what is 'commonly

called Catholic Emancipation ; and therefore that
The PITT Cttin, assenibled the 28th of
May, .to celebrate his birth-day, Acted agreeably
to his .sentinlents.•on this subject,

PROTESTANT ASC6ith %NC? as a toast•.
the 2d of March, 170, Mr. Pox having
moved for a rel►eai of th'eyest Laws, Mr. PITT
used, .among others, tl►e folloWiog arguments
against. that Measure. The point at iss►tr. be-
tween then► was; whether the [Louse should or
should.uot, at once relinquish those Acts, Which
bad, by the wisdom of our ancestors, served as a
bulwark to the Church, the Constitution of which

♦vas so connected and interwoven with the inte-
rests and preservation of the State, that the former
could not he endangered Without hazarding the

safety of the latter i—
cl He had heard with approbation the Right
Hon. Gentleman's arguments against persecution,
and in favour of toleration, but he was surprised
at the latitude of definition to which. he seemed
4n-infect to carry toleration ; an extent of defini-
tion wtalt it would not bear, and which, he was
cemv;(teed, had never before been given to it froth
the begimaing (if the world. Toleration could by
no means be considered as equality ; it differed
from persecution, and it differed from establish-
ment. Ile Was willing to grant every protection
of the laws, in support of the religion and pro-
perly of 19frtividslais ; but the necessity of a cer-
tain, iretrilaneut, and specific Church Establish,
ment, rendered it essential that toleration should
not go to equality, which would endanger the
EstabliShment, and thence no longer be tolera-
tion. The ..extent of the Right Hon. Gentle-
noto's principles, he said, went to the admittance
of every class of dissenters to a full and complete
rqoaliry, and even to the admittance of those
who might conscientiously think it their duty to
obvert ti.e Established Church. The Right Hon
Gentleman's principles went, not only to the tl-
m_ttance of !lONIAN
.CATI-10LiCS, but Patqsts,
properly so called (and he observed, there was no
material distinction between them), the latter ac-
koowlOging the supremacy of a foreign, though
no ecclesiastical prince, who, according to the
Right Hon. Gentleman, with all the odious, de-
testable, mid dangerous principles that belonged to
his•charrh7(l), Ought not to be kept out of the
most important official situations, befUre the com-
mission of some overt•act against the Constitu-
tion, maailested by force of arrus, in the open
field, by which the policy of prevention would be
done away, ant) a dangerouS door be opened to
the absolute ruin
.of the Constitution. The TEST
and COEPoRATION AtTs, he said, bard been wisely
adapted to secure the Constitution, and had it not
been for. then), the family of STUART might
have been at this time in possession of the
Throne, and the Right Honourable Gentleman
not have had an opportunity,tb state those opi-
nions in the House which they had that day
heard. (2) The Right lion. Gentleman, he said,
was mistaken in his assertion, that no religions
Test Was taken by the Members of the Legisla-
ttire. Every Gentleman present had taken a re-
ligious test; by making a solemn appeal to provi-
dence, when he took the oath against transubstan-
tiation, which was purely religious. (3) He urged
the propriety and advantage of tests, and con,
tended that all Governmauts adopted a test of
some kind or other ; but in a country like this,
where the Monarchy was limited, it is particnlarly
necessary, that the executive power should be ad-
mitted to exercise a right of discrimination into
the fitness of individuals to fill those stations, for
which the executive power is responsible. As
pitblic offices were created for the public at large,
the idea of a right to fill them was ridiculous, un-
less it conic! be proved that they were made for
the benefit of the holders, and not as ti trust for
the Public. In our mixed Constitution, the ap-
pointment to offices necessarily and naturally
rested with the EXectitive Power, over which the
Legislature hail made a wise application of limited
Monarchy, by a restriction on even the Monarch
timself, in the disposal of those offices. br pri-
vate life it was a common policy, for no 111811 to
admit another to the management of his affairs,
if he did not think well of that man's principles.
The same policy kept good in States ; it was
therefore no usurpation in the Government, if not
approving of the political principles of the Dissen-
ters, they excluded them from office."

In the month of March, 1805, the Irish Roman
Catholics presented Petitions to both Houses of
Parliament, in which they prayed, that the Sta-
tutes now in force against them (including the
Test Laws) may be repealed, in consideration of
their uniformly loyal and peaceable conduct,
though they had raised two Rebellions for the
subversion of the Constitution, one in the year
1798, the otl►er.in the. year.lBo3. In these Peti-
tions they denied the existence of some of the fun-
damental principles of their religion, though they
are contained in the general Councils of their
Church, of which editions arc to be found in every
public library in Europe, and though every Mem-,
her of Parliament is required by ti►e Test Laws,
More he takes his seat, to make a specific rerun•
clarion of then.:''

Mr. PITT, .%35th his usual eloquence, resisted
titeir application.—r" He disapproved of the term
Euincipation, said was not in the
smallest degree applicable to a repeal of the few
remaining penal statutes to which the ;lowan Ca-
tholics were liable. He considered. the admissi;m
of them,to•any pests or offices as a matter of ex-
pediency,•and not of rib/it ; for they were created
for the benefit of the public;. for whose advantage
they were to be exercised, and not for the sake
of theindividuals who were to possess them. He
said that lie believed the line of argument which
lie took formerly was, that if it should be thought,
right to give.what the Roman Catholics required,

It 'might !)e given after the tfolott ui+u iii tie
safety to th empire ; and if it were thought pro-
per to refuse ft-, tital it might be refused, without
proilocing :di`etstrnut 'consequences which
might have been apprehended befOre the Union.
co7te, the t 6 the present perfectly flee
and uttlettered. I certainly *as of opioion, that
under an United Parliament, these privileges
might be granted 'niftier l'iroper guards and con-
ditions, so as noi tO produce any
.datiger to
the Established Church-, or the Protestant Con-
stitution.- I never thought that it Would have
»eel) wise or prodent to hive ll*town.down, rifdeiy,
and abruptly, the gucrds cmditues of the Col2Sli:
, train'. I formed A determination not ,to pies, it,
unless I thought it could be done with that pros-
pect of success, and with that general conciir-
fence, wMiout 11:ell it never ein be beneficial.
As to the chanct.' of carrying the question, at pre-
sent, with general 'concurrence., or gratifying the
ienlhan Catholics without offending the Protes-
tants, or confirming the affections of one, without
raising the suspicions of the other, not only in
Ireland, but in England, I confess there appears
to be none. I lament it as much as any man can.
I ask any Gentleman, whether he (ies not be-
lieve, looking to the opinions of the Members of
the Established Church, of the nobility, of the
men of propet•ty, and of the middling and re-
spectable classes of society, I ask him, whether
he does not believe, looking at the sentiments of
the mass of the Protestants of this Country and
Ireland, that there is the greatest repugnance to
this measure ? (4) and that even if it could now
be cariiedi so far from prOdUting conciliation and
union, it would tend, on the Contrary, to disap-
point all the prospects of advantage,which, under
other circumstances, would be derived front it ?
I do not mean wilfully to shut my eyes to this
con victiOn, that a Catholic, however honourable
his intentions may be, must be anxious to advance
the interests of his religion. It is in the very
nature of man. He may disclaim and renounce
this wish for a time, buCthere is no man acquaiot-
ed with the operations of the human heart, who
does not know, that the (Roman) Catholics must
feel that anxiety, whenever the power and the
opportunity may be favourable. (5) It has been
urged by some Gentlemen, that we ought to go
into a Committee, to take into consideration the
minor grievances under which the (Roman) Ca-
tholics labour ; Sir, I contend, that these points
are much too unimpot taut to induce us to go into
a Committee upon a petition, which embraces the
whole of this important subject, and which ex-
cites the hopes and fears of all the subjects of the
United Kingdom."

MELANCTLION,

(1.) It is absurd to suppose that Mr. Pitt, well knowing the
sanguinary and intolerant principles of the.ltoinish Church',
could think seriously of admitting its rotaries to political
power. •

(Q.) It is well known that Mr. Fox encouraged tilt-elvish
Papists to petition Parliament for Emancipation in the year
1803, but in the year 1801, when he and his friends came into
power, he endeavoured to dissuade them from tking
(3.) Every Member of Parliament, before Ist can take his
seat, is required to renounce, and ctindenth upoit oath as ias-
pious, damnable, and heretical, the deposit, and dispensing
powers long claimed and exerei,ed by 'inn-I'ol'k., and, that
faith is not to be kept with Heretics.

(4.) In the year 1813, tight years after this question was
discussed, most of the Counties and Corporations in England
and.lreland petitioned against making any more, concessions
to the Roman Catholics. See a list of them in the Protestant
Advocate, vol. I. p.
(5.) In the beginning of the year 1793, all the Penal Laws
affecting the Irish Roman Catholics were repealed, and they
obtained the Elective Franchise. They then declared them-
selves grateful and contented ; and yet in a few months after,
they formed afreasonable conspiracy to separate Ireland from
England, and to extirpate their Protestant fellow-subjects as
Heretics.