The Sun.
London, England, 1819-05-18 00:00:00

tecitn, ns hid &Aid ntiti aktserteii by Lord; Halo; '
Coke, and other great writers on the subject,
chiefly with reference to theisnprentacy of the
King, in spiritual 'as well as rempinal nttters•
mind, toleration should be treely:.given to
any set of men, not detrimental to these great
principles, or to the authorities founded upon
theni and it was the opinion of the veatest.an-•
thorities upon the subject, that political power
should not be extended to Roman Catholics as
long as they denied the King's Supremacy. From
the acquisition of political power, the progress to
ecclesiastical usurpation, which those persons ge-
nerally aimed 'at, was' n,:tural, and to be appre-
hended, and in such usurpation, front-former ex-
perience, they knew it generally terminated ;- and
he must contend that not only' Eeclesiatical tt6nr-
pation, but Civil tyl'anoy of the grossest nature,
would -have ensued, if the Revolution-"of-I688
had • not intervened. . The established Churches
in England' and Ireland were now united, and
the consetrences of allowing xn extension'of po-
litical power to lonian Catholics, especially in
the latter country, should seriously considr-
ed; ,ind how tar it might endanger the I);•Otestant
Establishment generalfv. Their seotitheots were
entertained by the first into in the c.intitry; and
with some of theAe he I,llllSeil thought the lat-
terly-suggested exprdieuts iu the way of security
were no,atistactory and inSdecpra:e. In Viewing
the 'remaining .points ot the'sonjeet, to Which he
directed the attention of the HOuse,.his Lordship
considered them on sifittlar principles,
geed against the «xperliency and policy of
agreeing (0 the ,Noble Lord's motion, which,,
upon the whole, he regarded as Itkely to tend to
00 beneficial result ; bat, on the contrary, that.
its tendency was rather injurious :pot
,impolitic.
The old maxint. " what is got with difficulty,
was to he twontained even is ithdifficulty," should
never he forgotten: Our libtriies and ma
constittition were not the work of a day, neither
were the fences which the wisdom of 'our ances-
tors deemed necessary to throw around their li-
• berties the result of pasiiion, hot the conse-
quence of inatnre consideration. It ssas true that
constitution .was one at- freedom, from which no
one was contemplated to be excluded ; -it acknow-
ledged all- except those who, refused to acknow-
ledge it, as Catholics virtually do :by the tenets
of their religion, which make it imperative on
them to divide their
,allegiance with the Pope.
Upon this principle of exclusion, in the Constitti-
,tion,„ there was considerahle difference of opinion ;
whatever some peonlemay think to the contrary,
he was convinced, from the nature of the Con-
stittitio'n'Ttself, from the Act of Parliament, and
frOm the 'conneliOri
sof both Houses with each
other, and,:vith'the•Throne, that: it 'was the great
'security .of the "Church of -England: He loid
known many Catliolis,' for wheat be ha the
• • greatest respect, but the iloctritte. professed by
them were still too exceptionable.- Our ancestors
never could separate civil from religioos: liberty,
and always loiiked upon 'Popery:as
,an.ehemy to
both. :.:His Lordship concluded by saying, that a
single vote was of no great consequence in a
question of this magnitude, but he should con-
sider himself as wanting in his duty, if -be forbore
to give utterance to his opinions.; and until the
Church had reponocedthejost fears it, had of the
danger of Popish influence, and until he should be
convinced that tliSe fetes 'Were groundless, he
saiv nothing- to Make him giVe tray to. the .claiins
of the Roman Catholics.; nntler the present
cunwauccs of the state of the.Church,—(Mar,
hear !)

had GREY began by protesting
.that be had I
.never used so s.weeping",.so general...awl so unjust
an expression, as that all lawyers were bad poli-
ticians. He had Only.said that'the technical ha-
bits of their profession tended to giVe'tlient views—.
:so narrow of political questionr. as to render their
judgment partial, and their authority unsonnd.—
One of the greatest,'best, and most amiable men.
he had ever known was. a lawyr of the first
eminence, who made his legai.acqUirements sul) •
servient to his love of liberty, who directed
,and
tegolated his talents'and skit by his love of
titinkiud, and who devoted his politicat know-
ledge to the st•rvice of his coontrY„—(lt is
believed' 'the Noble Lord alluded to Sir Sa-
mnel Ondoubtedli GI: not feel
himself qualified to contend on legal ques-
tions. with those Wl.o frevoted their lives to
the study of law, ..and least of all with the
Noble and L'ear'ned Lord who had, last spoken ;
but he conceived it to he his duty, 'as a Member
of that House, ..where judicial as well as legisla-
tive Meastires came under their consideration, to
discuss jtolicial questions. • He would accordingly
now proceed, with all. due respect', to dispute
some of the -points which the Noble and Learned
Lord had endeavoured to establish. The Nohle.
and Learned Lord , had now, as on former occa-
sions, made use of an argument,rwhiesh, ,if true,
put an -end at onee' to the: question. The argu-
ment was this Constitution, Sts csiablish-
ed in 1688, is essentially and
.fundaMentally-Pro-
testant ; the concession of the claims of the Ro-
man Catholics is inconsistent with this. Constitu-
tion ; therefore Stich a 'concession would be not
only inexpedient, bot injurious.. Upon this. point
he differed, with all due respect, from the Noble
and. Learned Lord, and he would attempt to
prove that the principles of the ConstitntiOn
admitted not of this 'construction. What laws
were fundamental, or were not, was a' qu-s-
-tion upon which he
.would, not now enter
bo when any alteration of a law was proposed,
lit was right to enquire how far such en ;theta:-
tion would militate, against the principles of the:
Constitutioil ; and if it had any tendency to de-
stroy the securities which .guarded-the'Constitn-
tint), it became a doty to resist it. The Consti-
tution, as established at the Revolution,. was es-
sentially and. fundamentally Protestant. No man
could, go farther thou he would go in making the
sacrifices necessary for maintaining this principle.
What were the essential and fundamental
principleS,otthaf _Constitution At the Revolu-
(too, when a ,overeigniof the .Roman Catholic
had been dethroned, it was provided that
Monarch a4tould be of the communion of the
orEn4land, which Chinch was establish-
ed by Isw, lids was Speeially provided for in the
Bill of Rights and the Act of Settlement.- It was
necessary to distinguish between laws that were
essential antauudatuental, and those that were col-