The Sun.
London, England, 1829-03-03 00:00:00

TO SIR PETER LAURIE, KNIGHT AND

ALDERMAN.

WORTHY SIR PETER,—There is one point on
which you bnd I are agreed—heartily agreed—
would that you were a Baronet, and not a nice City
Knight ! Only think, Sir Peter, of the awful
dilemma in which I am placed, compelled either to
address a City Knight or to allow, some most spe-
cial nonsense to go without any reply.—All I say is,
would you were a Baronet ! !!
To you, Sir Peter, who are, I am told, a wealthy
and a worthy man, it may seem strange that I should
deem it an imperative duty to notice the nonsense
of Aldermen anti" such like little deer," as Shako,
peare has it. Nonsense and hatred of Popery, and
of the horns of the Pore, and, above all, and before
all, of the wild Irish Popish Priests—all this has,
time out of mind, been the privilege and prerogative
of a certain class of non-thinkers in England. You,.
therefore, u plain matter-of-fact man as you are,
must be greatly astonished to find me become so
sensitive on these trite subjects as to be under the
absolute necessity of discharging this dignified, but
familiar, epistle at your head, on the subject of the
Meeting of the Corporation of London held on
Thursday last.
Before I proceed let me tell you a small anecdote,
which I borrow from a grave and very religious per-
sonage who has lately published his life, Mr. Thomas
Townsend, Editor of a most loyal and Protestant
Paper, the Cork Constitution—what a portentous
name, the Cork Constitution! ! ! " I remember,"
says this pious man,- " when I was young, ray two
grand-uncles, Alderman Tom Evanson and Alder-
man Dick Harris, after drinking their wine and
smoking their pipes, with devout gravity, for four
long hours in solemn silence, to have broken out
into the following dialogue :
" Alderman Dick," said Mr. Evanson, " I hate
these vile Papists, but curse me if I know the reason
why !"
<iAlderman Tom," replied his friend, " I hate
them also, for precisely the same reason ! ! I"
Now, Sir Peter, I respectfully submit to you that
it would be difficult to reason either Worthy Alder-
man out of his opinion. But the times are changed,
Al,l,Tmen are not all alike. " The Schoolmaster is

abroad," the march of intellect is, I understand,
beat on the drums of the Grenadier Guards in the
room of " The King of Prussia's March." It is
even credibly reported that an eatire syllogism has
found its way, unbroken, into dna Bestia of Penen-
den Heath, and that the process of ratiocination has
actually appeared above ground in_ the vicinity of
Exeter. The times are indeed changed.

Accdrdingly the Corporation of London have, by
a majority of very near two to one, declared in
favour of common sense—of freedom of con-
science—of the pacification of Ireland—of the
strength and security of the entire British empire.
Allow me, in sober seriousness, and with the most
respectful gratitude, to thank the honest, the able,
and the truly Christian men who composed that
glorious majority. The display of talent on that
occasion would have done credit to any assembly ;
and the kind and benevolent disposition evinced try
the various speakers affords a proof how easy it
would be to amalgamate all classes of Christians
into one undivided and dutiful body of subjects, if
they were not forcibly kept asunder by the bad
policy of bad laws, made for had purposes by men
who had religion on their lips, and selfish interests
in their hearts. This decision of the Corporation of
London will ever live in the grateful recollection of
the people of Ireland.
But my present business, Sir Peter, is with the
opponents of the measure; with those who desired
that our evils should remain unredressed, that our
exclusion should be perpetual. I mean, in perfect
good humour, to canvass all that I can collect on
the reasons of our adversaries, and, amongst them,
of your's; and if you really be, Sir Peter, the honest
man I am told you are, I do not despair of making
you yet a convert to that daring principle of my
public life—that conscience should be free, and that
every man should be allowed to worship that God
who shall judge us all, without being punished by
pains, penalties, or privations, for the sincerity of
his conscientious belief.
This principle' has, in my mind, no limits or
qualifications. I hope that you will yet become a
convert to it, and, although you may bring to its
support all the warm zeal. of a convert, you will
never advocate it with more sincerity than I have
always contended for liberty of conscience for all
classes of Christians all over the globe.
In order to aid in your conversion, I request of
you to consider the answers I shall give to the ar-
guments urged against religious liberty, by you
and your colleagues, at the late Meeting. I take
those arguments as I find them in the Morning

Chronicle.
The first of our antagonists was Mr. Savage, a
most unpropitious name, but one so obnoxious to a
pun, that any man must have the heart of a savage
who could jest at his cognomen.
Two arguments against 'Catholic Emancipation
are attributed to Mr. Savage. They are these :
First—That the only object of the Catholics is
to supersede the Established Religion, in order to
place one of the Stuart family on the Throne ;
and—
Secondly—That the Catholics sustain no injuries
from the Penal Laws against them, because they
have only to take the same oaths that P-rotestants
take, and thus they are emancipated at once.
In plain truth, Mr. Savage is very ignorant of
ethics and of history—of history, otherwise he should
know that there never was a race of men more de-
tested and despised by the Catholics of Ireland than
the Stuart family. lie is ignorant that no family
ever inflicted so much permanent mischief on say
country as the Stuart family inflicted on Ireland.
He is ignorant that the Irish were plundered of their
properties, persecuted in their persons, and swindled
in their civil rights in the reign of the first James.
He is ignorant of the atrocious and (one may call
them from their extent) magnificent robberies com-
mitted on the Irish Nobility and Gentry during the
earlier parts of the reign of the first Charles. Has
he never heard of the atrocities of the Earl of Staf-
ford—the " black Tom" of Irish Legends—whom
the Irish peasant to this day shudders, at as almost
an incarnation of the demon ? He is ignorant how
the Catholics were deluded and betrayed by " the
Royal Martyr" during the Cromwellian rebellion.
He is ignorant of the knavish cruelty by which the
estates of the Irish Catholics, who died in defence
of the throne of that martyr, were transferred by. his
son to the murderers of his father. He is ignorant
that James the Second personally shared in the
plunder of the Irish Catholic Royalists. He took
his share, no less than eighty thousand acres, of the
forfeited estates of the Irish Catholics—forfeited for
no other reason than that they adhered to his father's
cause. He is ignorant that when the Irish Cabo
lies raised and clothed and armed at their own ex-
pellee, for James the Second,. 50,000 men out ofiiia
population not exceeding one million, the paltry crea-
ture ran away during the first battle, and, next ac-
tually gave the command of the Irish forces to a
foreigner—a Frenchman—and saved his own person
by an ignominious flight from Ireland.
Supersede the Established Church in order to
place one of the Stuart family on the throne ! Why,
Sir Peter, we would not supersede a pig-stye to
place the Stuart family on all the thrones in the
world!!
Besides, Mr. Savage should know that Irish Ca-
tholics of all classes, Nobility, Gentry, and Laity,
take, and take readily and cheerfully, the oaths of
allegiance and abjuration—allegiance to the illustri-
ous family on the throne—abjuration of any allegi-
ance or fealty to the Stuart family. Why, our oath
of abjuration is rather more strongly worded than
the oath taken by Protestants ; and, if Mr. Sa-
vage can invent any stronger terms in•en oath to rib.
jure the Stuart family, why, we consent that the
stronger terms should be substituted. •
I mean you, Sir Peter, no disrespect;' but I
should really be glad to know whether the case
which aurroundt your brain be made of penetrable