The Sun.
London, England, 1817-07-17 00:00:00

ROMAN CATHOLICS.

As it is one firm determination to resist every
.possibic effort on the part of the Advocates for
PtiPERY to overthrow the PROTESTANT ASCEN-
InANCY in the British Empire, we shall avail our-
selves of tvhatever may tend to support our happy
Estalilishment in thurcand State..._.Wet.there.-
-fore, now insert a more ample account of what
wits said by Mr. G. ALLEN on the-9th inst..in the
House of Commons, in consequence of the mo-
tion of Sir J. C. HIePESLEY, for an Address to
the PRINCE REGENT, for a Copy of the Con-
cordat of 1798, „between Portugal and the See of
Rome:—

" Mr. ALLEN observed, that as the Honourable Baronet
had availed himself the day before. on a motion for Papers,
to make -a long speech :on the general subject of the Catholic
Claims, ha trusted that he. might he allowed to make a short
one that day, taking
.adbantage of the same Privilege, and
not having had a previoussopaiortunity to express his senti-
ments on the subject. At all- early period of his life, said.
Mr. Allen, it fell to his lot, or rather, he might say, to his
happiness, to maintain certain principles in regard to obe-
dience to Civil Government, as connected with the Eecle-
'siastical Establishment of his country, and he thanked God
opinions formed at the age of twenty are those which he
cordially embraced at the present moment, and his most
anxious hope still was, that the religion of the State and civil
policy may never be considered by the Legislature, as abstract
questions, ip any degree independent of each other. On the
contrary, with a liberal view to a most extended toleration of
religious worship to every denomination of dissenters front
the national Church, he ni.vertheless felt it an indispensable
duty to insist on the necessity of an Ecclesiastical Establish-
ment, preduntimaOt in its powers, its dignity, and its privi-
leges, as essential fur the support of ail governments, and
for the good and vital prosperity of this_ Empire in partiall-
Jar. His idea, indeed, of toleration went no farther, he con
fesect,' or rather, lie was proud of the assumption, because
exped;ence'does not seem to warrant any extension of • a COW-
trary principle. His idea of a wholesome toleration, lie
'would say, went no farther than that of a mild and gentle
Sufferance of the Legislature, permitting individuals to em-
brace their errors, and worship God after a peculiar form- of
their own. To carry the principle beyond this, would be to
break do*n the harriers of the Constitution, to violate every
impulse of social or religious ordinance, at once to propagate
rebellion and auarctiy, apathy, and its conssquence, the
demolition of all national spirit and zeal. In these caissons
lie was practically confirmed by a residence in a'great and
widely extended kingdom on the Continent, some years ago he
admitted; but the impi essions then made on his mind, had been
rengthened by a continued correspondence, and by proclaims-
t .ons lately before the Public, in which societies dangerous tothe
State have [teen recognized and suppressed. In the country
be alluded to, the religion of the population is Ix rototafs,
and that of the Court CALVINISM ; but a general toleration
ysrNails; and, with the exception of Jaws, all are admitted
niffscrimiliately to places of trust and ollice in the tit ate:
and thus, by a conflicting variety of unwholesome morbid iu-
t crests, nec, sarily arising from such an heterogeneous order
of things, he witnessed irreligion every where, and a people
demoralized throughout. Public justice was but au instru-
ment iu the. hand of despotism, and the higher and lower
ranks of mankind, having no religious bond of union to ;it-
tact) then) to each other, were alike, in his view, profligate
and unprincipled. Even patriotism, a feeling so genia. to
the soul of ever? honest man, was to them a chimera, a
mere phantasm of the brain ; and the motto in every man's
mouth, was " Chi belie ihi patria :" which interpreted is no-
thing more or less than this—That is my country, that is the
country I would live in and call my own, where I can prac-
tise and enjoy every wanton propensity of the human heart
without restraint, and without controul. if he was not misin-
formed, America exhibits at this moment the same picture from
the same cause, and the inference he would draw from the pre-
mises is this :—There is itt the United Kingdom of Great Bri-
tain and Ireland, and in every country, a necessity for religious
tests to guard the Constitution and Established Church, and
the morals of the people, by the exclusion of dissenters of every
deitomination front places of trust or Mace ; and embracing
this opinion cordially, as he did, whatever may he the case in
Ireland or other countries, he trusted that he should never
live to witness such au outrageous anomaly is his own, as
that of a Presbyterian and an Anabaptist, a Church of Eng-
land-man and a Papist, sitting on the saute bench in West-
minster Hall, for the distribution of common justice, or the
disastrous day on which a ROMAN CATUOLIC may he permit-
ted to set his foot within the threshold of the Houses of Par-
liament, hallowed and pure as they have been maintained
since the memorable era of 1688, when a liberal toleration was
wisely established, and the year 1778, when all religious re-
strictions consistent with the safety of the national Church were
removed. At that period, he believed, all the disabling sta-
tutes were repealed, except the Corporatiou and Test Acts,
justly described by a Noble Lord, who then Sat in that House
adorned by a blue ribbon, as the corner stones of the Consti-
tution. And may he who would touch those-nionuments of
the wisdom and moderation of our ancestors with a sacrile-
gious hand be devoted, if he might use the strong 'language
of a Right Honourable Gentleman nut tow in his place (the
Member for Dublin), misapplied indeed when used by him in
regard to the greatest man that ever gave dignity to this
House, or shed a lustre on the land we live in, but in his
opinion appropriate now,—he repeated, may he who would
touch-those stones with an impious intent, or, in plainer
ards, may he who would venture to move the repeal of the
Corporation and Test Acts, he devoted to an immortality of
eterital infamy. 10 the year 1757, the very year, lie believed,
iu which Dr. PatEsrLY boasted that atrain of gunpowder had
been laid, '-rain by grain, to blow our venerable Church Es-
tablishment into air, Mr. Di:aortae, a chemist of a kindred
but a milder spirit, proposed the repeal of those sacred sta-
tutes so far as they related to Protestant Dissenters, but he
slid not venture to suggest the removal of disabilities from
Jews, Roman 'Catholics, or Infidels. Happily he did trot
Succeed, or it is probable we might have had by this time
Jaws, RostaN CATHOLICS, and INFInEt.s, as Members
of the Legislature. And why nut the Jew as well as the
Catholic, if we can possibly forget that the former deities
the nativity of our Saviour, while the. latter, believing it,
relies oit the infallibility of a man, whom in his creed he
stiles " Dominus Deus ,roster Papa," our Luau Goo roe
l'oee. " Papa id est atlinirabilis, nec Deus nee homo, sett
quasi neuter aut niter utrutuque. Eccepto peceato mania po-
testqum Deus et sibi °lnnis potestas data est in terra."—lle
confessed, if he were asked the question, he would be at a
loss to determine which is the greater infidel of the two. The
Jew relies conscientiously on his Bible, while time immodest
Papist impiously invades the Godhead. It these ate not the
tenets of the Roman Catholics, let them he denied, and let-
them avow, by tests still stronger than those now in force,
that faith moo he kept with heresies, that. Popery is not un-
churtgerth.`e, and that Supremacy and Domination are nut its
elsjects. When this is dune, and properly guaranteed, it such
glut be done by any religious Papist, it may become a (Ova-
tion with some, whether the libitum Catholics may not safely
be admitted even within the walls of this House, still re-
taining the doctrine of transubstantiation, with all the minor
errors and fripperies of a deluded church. But for his own
part, his opinion being so intimately connected with a firm
conviction, that the Church of England can derive no secu-
rity from any concessions of the Church of Rome, and that
the tests now in force are absolutely necessary fot its salvo-
ti in,' be must declare, that it is his stedfast purpose to oppose
every measure that may be brought into this House, tending
in arty. degree to what is vulgarly called EMANCIPATION, as
ill his conscience dangerous to the Protestant Establishment,
and, he should tear, eventually destructive of Christianity
i• self. but, after all, he would wish to ask, whether these
are proper times to talk of concessions and compromise with
Papists, and whether, ou the contrary, the re-establishment
of the Inquisition in Spain, the ratification of it by Tile
the hordes of Jesuits now surrounding us, the per-
- seeution of Protestants in France last. year, and, what is
sem se; their subsequent proselytisn), whether, on the con-
trat y, all these timings ought not to remind us of the Revolu-
tion of Itiaa, and whethersit is not our imperative duty to
stand fast and firm by the Cuutten and CossoorurioN, and
to defend to the last the inestimable benefits given to us at
that most interesting period ? These were the outlines of his
sentiments on a subject to which he had devoted some atten-
tau,, ale thought the concessions already granted to the
itosiaN LA HOLICS 'of Ireland exceeded the bounds of civil
pruslt oce,•and'he trusted, 't hat as loog as be-might have the
"ninon. to he a Member of the Legislature, he should ever
lord his dots to oppose. the introduction of Partsrs into
I'arii assent, tar to act couseientitmsly, consistently, and reli-
giously, they twist meditate the subversion of Church and
`.taste ; and he thought with Lord Boat NOBIiONE, 01141 110 In: ll
,•It;11t to be admitted to power Under any Government,
to act CoNstsTEs:TLY With us:t wish the lit:sristre•
-;;J:s: otAr VEKa Govr;votrzr."