The Sun.
London, England, 1827-01-19 00:00:00

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PRICE 7D.

Commons," once so ready_ to impugn my conduct, passed the fol-
lowing honourable testimonial, signified to me by its Speaker.
This testimonial includes the period in which I was once presumed
to have incurred the public displeasure :
" Resolved, That the thanks of this House be given to Field
Marshal his Royal Highness the Duke of York, Commander-in-
Chief of his Majesty's Forces, for his continued, effectual, and un-
remitting exertions in the discharge of the duties of his high sta-
tion, during a period of upwards of twenty years, in which the
British Army has attained a state of discipline and military science
hitherto unknown; and which, under Providence, have contributed;
in a great degree, to acquire for this Empire its present height of
military glory among the nations of Europe."
As I am addressing all classes of my countryinen, I may explain
that which to all may not be known, or clearly understood,
namely—" the sale of Commissions." On the occasion alluded
to, many, in all probability, considered, that from such sale ad-
vantage was derived to myself—nothing can be more erroneous.
The sale of a Commission, and its purchase, are affairs resting en-
tirely between officer and officer; the Commander-in-Chief tak-
ing care only, that the regulations, under which the transfer of a
Commission from one officer .to another takes place, are com-
plied with. All other Commissions are free gifts from the
Commander-in-Chief; which being originally given, often be-
come of great value when disposed of by the officer. It is
not for myself to say, how I have dispensed this branch of my
patronage.

I trust, that I have spoken as delicately as possible of myself,
where myself is so much concerned. I wish not to open old
wounds, or revive past contentions ; but am anxious, that as
" Commander-in-Chief," the Duke of York may rest in his grave,
acquitted of all wilful error, and deemed faithful in his post, as far
as human infirmity is capable of the performance of high and im-
portant duties.
I come, at length, to the question, dear, most dear to my heart.
And now, thank God ! I feel a self-approval, which softens much
the pain of a separation from the world, and cheers me onward
towards that Throne, before which princes and peasants meet,
clothed alike in spiritual equality : for the King upon his throne,
and the cottager of the village, who, in their distinct and several
stations, have each performed the duties of such stations, stand
before the Divine Judgement-seat, arraigned upon their deeds done,
as relative to the duties respectively required from them.
My beloved countrymen will immediately revert to my mean-
ing, and allude to the brief speech made by me, in the House of
Lords, April 25, 1825. It has been broadly hinted—that I was
counselled and advised to this my declaration. I deny the asser-
tion. The act was of my own-free determination ; nor did I
consult any political advisers with a view to its expediency or in-
expediency ; its propriety or impropriety ; its fit or its unfit time,
liness. I saw the occasion one of most interesting moment; that
the balance of the Constitution was fearfully vibrating. I
thought the time was come, when I could no longer delay to
add a Parliamentary avowal to sentiments which I had always en-
tertained ; iu which I gloried ; in which I had lived ; and in
which I die.

Amidst all the invectives of party, the maledictions of the Ro-
mans, and the doubts which many advocates of my own opinions
entertained of the necessity or prudence of my avowal I never, for
one moment, have regretted that I had made it. At this awful
juncture, I feel, that I then performed my duty to the Throne—to
the Altar--and to the People; and I would desire no further
tablet to my memory, than an inscription to record my decease,
my age, and this my speech upon a petition, which being com-
mitted to my care, it became my duty to present :—.

" I hold in my hand a petition from the Dean and Chapter of
the Collegiate Church of St. George, Windsor, praying that no
farther concessions may he made to the Roman Catholics. lam
sure that any representation from so learned and respectable a body
will he received with the attention it deserves ; and therefore I
should not have troubled your Lordships with any observations in
support of it, if I did not feel this was au occasion on which any
man may well be permitted to address your Lordships. Ido this
the more readily on the present occasion, because, feeling that I
have not the habit of taking part in your discussions, I will not in-
terrupt the progress of the debate of the Bill to which the peti-
tioners refer, if it should come into the House. It is now twenty-
five years since this measure was first brought into discussion. I
cannot forget with what events that discussion was at that time
connected. It was connected with the most serious illness of one
now no more ; it was connected also with the temporary removal
of one of the ablest, wisest, and most honest Ministers that this
country ever had. From that time, when I gave my first vote on
this question, to the present, I have never seen any reason to re-
gret or to change the line which I then took. I have every year
seen more reason to he satisfied with my decision. When the
question comes regularly before your Lordships, it will be dis-
cussed much more fully and ably than I aan do it; but there are
two or three subjects on which I am anxious to touch ; one is,
that you place the Church of England in a situation in-which no
other Church in the world is placed. The Roman Catholic will
not allow the Church of England or Parliament to interfere with
his Church, and yet he requires you to allow him to interferewith
your Church, and to legislate for it. There is another subject
still more delicate, on which I cannot, however, help saying a
few words.. I speak (I beg to be understood) only as an indi-
videal. I desire not to be understood as speaking for any body
else; but consider, my Lords, in what a situation you place the
Sovereign; by the coronation oath, the Sovereign is bound to
maintain the Church established in her doctrine, discipline, and
her rights, inviolate. An of Parliament may release future
Sovereigns and other men from this oath, or from any other oath
to be taken ; but can it release an individual who has already taken
it? I speak, I repeat it again, as an individual, but I entreat the
House to consider the situation in which the Sovereign is thus
placed. I feel very strongly on this whole subject. I cannot for-
get the deep interest which was taken upon it by one now no
more, and the long and unhappy illness in which*—l have been
brought up from my early years in these principles, and from the
time when I began to reason for myself I have entertained them
from conviction, and in every situation in which I may be placed,
I will maintain them—So help me God."
As the press is now conducted, men exercising power, or en-
joying patronage, are not permitted long to remain ignorant of
themselves; though many have been charged with errors of which
they are innocent, while others have virtues attributed to them, of
which they were perfectly guiltless. These are the consequences
of party. As far as I can recognise myself as pourtrayed by the
a awarded
regards (and
writers who have for so many years fastened upon me as public
property;s
as
I find that of all our family the palm of superior intel-
lect,
brother i ;
most justly)arid.ofoitiond
our beloved
tliscrim
my judgment,
myself—l am put down as a good-tempered, easy-hearted man in
general, but determined and obstinate on particular points from
preconceived prejudices, rather than from the result of convic-
tions produced by deep consideration. lam happy, however, to
find, that no one has the ill manners or the courage, or the injus-
tice, to impute to my conduct improper motives ; so that, if I
do wrong, I am accused only of an imperfect or imprudent judg-
ment.
In fact, I am presumed to be a Prince without any artificial
qualities, unaddicted to intrigue and finesse; and supposed to
mean his words, and perform his promises.
I am willing to rest satisfied with the sentence thus pronounced
upon my character; and I may presume to add—that, if per-
sonal attachment is a proof of the estimation ht which individuals
are held, I have a wide circle of friends ; and have yet to learn—
who have reason to be my enemies.

I trust, then, that from a well-meaning man, one unaccustomed
is disguise hi s sentiments, and not unwilling to Acknowledge him-
self wrong, when •wrong—the explanation of my conduct
(I condescend to no justification) as regards the preservation
of the British Constitution in the principle of " Protest-
ant Ascendancy," will he received with that respect which
the opinions of a well-meaning man deserve. I have yet
to learn why—because brought up under the best of fathers, in
the principles of a Protestant Government ; my adherence to
Protestant principles is to be tot Lured into the terms of bigotry and
intolerance—Protestantism is the very antipode to bigotry and
intolerance—and not being able to adduce any grounds for. a
change of opinions, it well became me to support those to which
I adhered.

prevail.
No
when altP
bille
passed the

jority was

peat) was -eafitee Of the
Collegiate Church of St. George at Windsor, where -the'Royaf
Family were accustomed to attend the service of. their.religion,
(and which Church is, in fact,- peculiarly that of the Ning and his
family,) should place in the bands of one of such Royal family, as
a member of its congregation, a petition upon so urgent in oc-
casion. Fixed upon byso learned and respectable a body to present
their petition against further concessions to-the-Romans, could I,
without abandonment of all principle, hesitate for one moment to
accept the duty?

I will ask, for the purpose of placing this point in a clear awl
simple position, this one question. Supposing, when such petition
had been offered to me as a Peer of the realm, to be presented by
me in Parliament, 1 had refused to take care of it, what would
or what might have been the result ? The result would hays
been this.—A charge against the Duke of York, the presumptive
Heir to the Throne, of abandoning to its enemies in the hour of
danger and of trial, the principles upon which alone he oould ever
ascend that throne ; and of neutralizing the oath by which the
King his brother was already seated.

I will called upon then to fulfil a solemn duty ;. a duty ofiwhisi
my known and frequently avowed sentiments rendered the -perfurmatice suitable, timely, and conscientious. No other conduct
could have been worthy of the Duke of York, the well-weaning
nutn—z.znd. may I not almost note it down as a mark of degeneracy
in the age—that I was held up to scorn and ridicule, and. gross
animadversion, because I fearlessly did my duty in Parliament
upon my own responsibility, and in happy accordance with the
principles I had ever professed.
There was very little courtesy in the instinct in which the Ro-
mans treated me on the occasion. " 'Whet other course could the
Duke of York have taken?"—" It was to be expected from him"
—" It was at least consistent, however opposed to the attainment
of our objects"—ought to have been the language of fair oppo-
nents; but bigotry, intolerance, illiberalitv, and narrow-minded •
ness, to say nothing of later Bacchanalian exultations at the
near prospect of my decease, were the terms of reproach heaped
upon me by the Romans, and the free-thinking press.
I will here apprise such opponents—that the time will come,
when their conduct, to myself will be used as a povrerfml argument
in support of the unchanged virulence, and incapability of accord-
ance, which still exist in the character of Roman communisauts.
On presenting this petition, which my duty as a Peer of the realm
enjoined me to do, I acted only as an individual. All tho importance
and consequences attached to the step so taken, were so attached- by:
others, not by myself. It was a question on which Ilelt that
any man might well be permitted to address his Peers. And wag
the consequence of my rank and high station, and proximity to
the Crovin, to be tortured into reasons, why I was to remain si-
lent, and, unlike all others, debar myself from the expression of
my own sentiments? Which of the two was the most honour-
eble and best-meaning, and most correct step towards the party I
was presumed to oppose? To blind them by any silence, and
make the sentiments of the Heir Presumptive a matter of doubt,
or pivot of intrigue ? or, to remove all doubt, and leave the party
nothing to hope, as far as my opinion and determination were
concerned?

I confess frankly, and honestly, and unreservedly, that had I
cone to the Throne of England, and taken the oaths now pre-
sented in the ceremony of the Coronation of the Protestant King's
of England ; and had a bill been subsequently tendered to me
which admitted the Roman Catholic into the British Protestant
Government, I could not have signed it—l dare not have signed
it. It was therefore much more just towards my opponents, that
they should know the extent of opposition which my conscience
would interpose in the attainment of their object, rather than
there should remain the least suspicion of any change in any
sentiments.

On the occasion, then, of my decease (I am tempted to nreo---
phesy), I should be inclined to think—that the Romans will alfeet
to bury all animosity in my grave ; and to dilate, upon what they
may please to call the obstinacy and inveterate prejudices of my
temper, as the errors of a mistaken man whom they may affect to
pity and forgive. Such a•dissimulating course will, however, be
easily detected ; it will be politic, it will be Roman ; for the country
will not be prepared to admit so immediately of any insult to my
memory ; and fondly do I hope, that in the future struggles in
defence of the corner-stone of the Constitution, there will be no
occasion to lament my death, and exclaim, " would that honest-,
York was now alive." I trust that never will arrive such OCCA.-
mien ; and that in the path which I have fearlessly marked out,
the su-ceeding members of my family will steadily
tor, when once the cords which confine and bal:nce the
Protestant Constitution of England are loosened or enapt ; the
country will then resemble a balloon, apparently magnificent in
its ascent, but uncertain of guidance, and teuding constantly to
annihilation. And yet I trust that I may be allowed, even after
this strong expression of my sentiments, to say, that to the pro-
tection of the Protestant Constitution I do not add the least ill
feeling toward the Roman religion; for amidst much that I,
being a Protestant, consider erroneous, I cannot but admire the
constancy with which the members of that persuasion adhere to
what is termed by them " the religion of their forefathers."
I wish the Protestant or Reformed Religion to be preserved
pure and sincere ; the Roman has the same wish for his 9wa
frith ; but the mode of preservation is totally distinct: the Diked
appeals to the exercise of individual judgment; the other only,
the authority of the priest. The Protestant is offered by his
Church a religion of which he may be the judge, and into the
merits of which he may inquire ; if he rejects the proffered doc-
trine, he may depart in peace, uncondeinned and unanathematimd-
To the Roman is tendered a religion, which is previously de-
clared pure, unchanged, and unchangeable ; if be accept it
not, he is denounced, proclaimed a heretic, and put out of the
pale of future salvation. This appears to me the distinction
which marks the two communions at their separate thresholds;'
and though the doctrines entertained may in many points .be
similar ; yet the willing freedom with which the one may be sus.
tamed ; and the positive and unconditional slavery of intellect
to which the other requires submission, create as muds distinc-
tion between Roman and Protestant, as between the tbllower of
the law of Moses and the Christian. The latter believes in Christ;
the former would do so, could he be satisfied that the real Messiah
hail appeared.
I take the simple question to be this—That it would be most
desirable that an unsuspicious and unsuspected union could take
place amongst all his Majesty's subjects. I, as a Protestant,
avow, that nothing could be more important, or conducive to the
strengthening of the British empire, or the increase of its deve-
loping powers. If I could have been convinced of the propriety
of the means, and could see how the many propositions for the
purpose could be carried into safe practice, 1 had never made the
declaration of April, 1825 ; for I admit, that in a divided Popu-
lation the seeds of danger and of disaffection are sown, which it
would he most desirable to eradicate.

As on my presentation of the petition from the Collegiate
Church at Windsor, I alluded to the late Mr. Pitt as one of the,
wisest, ablest, and most honest Ministers this country ever had;
and as I am also aware that this statesman so spoken of by me,
wasthat atin advocate
mimpossi for
bilityCoaftlatocic Emancipation;
eninviisbinghis design,
may dare
gn,upontitmo as
sert
that union
of Ireland, was created by the acts of the Romans themselves in
Ireland. The contentions and disputes between the Clergy and
Laity among the Irish Romans, put it out of the power of that
Minister to perform his pledge, even had not other obstacles inter-
posed.

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more natural, than that the Dean and Chapter of thp •--••