Star.
London, England, 1805-05-14 00:00:00

TUESDAY, MAY i 4, iCos.

is, in other words, men have a right to the enjoy-
ment
of political privileges, when no neceffity,
founded upon common good, exins for the depriva-
tion. Some would ay, therefore, We are willing
to grant this or that, on confiderations of policy." I
would fay, grant it as a matter of right. It will be
found, however, that there is really no great differ-
ence between us in the end; becaufe it is in the one
cafe allowing the right to hold, where no fufficient
ground of exception eras. In the other it is con-
ceding that which no danger prevents from grant-
ing. I was dein ous of faying thefe few words upon
this cubjed, becaufe, in all probability, this difcuf-
(ion will not be only the quaint; of a day, but m.ty
be frequently under our confederation. It is to be
wilted, therefore, that 'we timid underhand each
other, and not difpute about the form of enunciating
certain propofitions which, however put, lead the to

. . .
fame practical concluflon. The application of there
confiderations to the Catholic queltion then obvinuf
ly is. that they, the Catholics, have a eight tit equal
political principles with others, when the exercife ofl
thofe principles would not be dangerous to the Sire
at large. In this application, I may think that no-
thing but neteflity can julfify the departure from the
general principles ; others may be contented with
expediency, or a much lets urgent and vilible ne
c. flity. But, I flatter myfelf that, as we proceed,
it will be found (nisei-flint's to difinote about nice
fhades of diflinflion, about the degrees of acefllty
or of expediency, and that we than find that the pri-
vation of political privil.ges to which the Catholics
are condemned, is %Omits tinjuilified by any circtim-
I flint-es that ought to call f‘u. the denial of the right,
or the tefulal (If the indidgr nce. I fay, then, that
the Catholics have an equal tight with other fubjefts
to a p.:rticipation of political privileges, but we know
tha! Government has thrlityhi proper to curtail that.
plivileges. Wilethet the penal law, .izaitrit the Ca-
tholics were of igitully juttitiable ~r -.4. it is not at
all nee, ir..t yto enquire. It is proper, however, to
I attend a li tie to 'he time and manner of the reltrie

tion• ;mooted 'moo them. No man, I believe, will
hazard any thing to exit. ,or ai to maintain
coat thr. laws aainll the Catholics are, at all event,,
now good by pt-efcriastion. Prefcrip..ion indeed may,
and dac., form an undoubted title to property, and
tot the hell reafim, ; but prefcription cannot apply
!fi laws by v.h.ch boffins of men are reftrained. In
Eta, fuck relltiflums are founded upon particular
cireumli anus, they are made on particular occafions,
and it would he a folecifm of the groffelt kind to fay,
that pre cripti,nt made thole laws good univerfally,
high could only he good in the pe-:trliar circum-
Ilaoces (.1 the cafe. It may be precipitate, no doubt;
to c that the uecellity which •jaltitied the de-
viation gime, but it would be mmttlrotis to atTome
1 a pre:ription for that which is only jult, becade, it
is an es.certion founded upon fpeci6c neceflity. ttt
th: in;tance blot e us, indeed, it will hardly be
til.nit;ht that the, e has been any precipitation in de-
flating the ce:fation of the neceffity. On the con-
trary, the neceffity feems to have been fo long admit-
ted. and the refiriaions fo long continued, that the
difficulty is to reftore with fafety, to the full enioy-
ment cf political rights, perfons thus deprived of the
tile of than.

It ought to be kept carefully in view, that almoft
all the t:iiriei ,rs impofed on the Catholics were itn-
of,:ed tom prlitical. not from religious motives.—
P,,fii!rly enough, indeed, fome who concurred in im-
p. ling !bore retttieions, may have ntiy.ed religions
feelings with political realons, though the latter were
toe only juttiliable grounds on which the rent ietions
were founded. To go very far back ; it was not reli-
gious tqntry that induced Queen Elizabeth to impofe
thole fevere penalties and rettraints upon the Catho-
lics, of which her reign fet the example. The re-
lie,ione fentiment, of that Princefs witre not perhaps
to different from the &Chines of the Catholics as
' forte may imagine ; but during the courfe of a long
r-igit of i pen war, or relllefs and unquiet peace,
Qteen Elizabeth was engaged in traniattions of toe
. ni*:,:rell importance with the other powers of Europe,
nianaoe:l by her with fuch courage, prudence, and
.lesierity, a, have tendered her reign one of the moll
1 g 1,,1 ion in otir history. But in her relationswithother
(bites' ko partictOlv alp! King of Spain, and during the
I prevalence of the 'Catholic league in France, her Ca-
' tholic lobjees wet c luppoted to be fo doubtfully affec-
ted, or inci,ned to co-operate with her external
' enemies, that they were coerced and retrained,
not from relig;,•iis hut political confiderations.—
! They were dcr_nit..l ditloyal fubjees and enemies to
1 Elizaleth's r.cricn and Government, and for that
realon they expetk:reed harth treatment from her
i G„veriiment. Dot in the reigns which followed,
t airiott innumerable unjust, vigorous, and cruel
i pillial laws, there were few rettrieicns and difabi-
lilies impofed en the Catholics. Thefe took their rife
in a later period. In the reign of Charles 11. they ori-
ginated in the jealoufy of the religious fentiments of
that Monarch—a jealoufy indeed which appears to
have been well founded. At the revolution, it was not
Catholics, but Jacobites, that were to be retrained.
(
Alter the at bitrary attempts and the tyrannical pro-
ceetlings of James 11. had driven him from the
throne, it was natural to think that a Prince who,
from devotion to the religion of the Catholics, had
facrificed a crown, would become the favourite of
that body. In Ireland this feeling was more Moog;
the union of James 11. and the Catholics was fo
much more complete, that the two things could not
' he levitated, and Catholics became objets of pecu
liar fufpicion and feverity to the law, as the adherents
of the exiled monarch. It was not their religions
driarines, hut their political confederacy with James
11. that .'crew down upon them fo marry penalties, and
~xyded them tr fo much feverity. William 111. I
have evzr c,nitidered one of the greaten Princes that
ever fi:!,:d the thron: of this or any other country—
;lll..ticit!"c::::.ll;':;i ywit'';:rllayteed" bn;Pnt nature raenr b I;
5 bigotry,hait to
inoteitt n0d..,:r.:. .to age the principles of freedom and
, L41,3-46°11. 1'0,..4'e who would rePrctent Bind %U.

Lam as a religious hignt, as a furious perfecutor of re-
ligions opinion, degrade a charader which they either
milieprerent, or do not underhand. It is perfedly
well known that he yielded with the utmnh reluelance
to the fevere reariettons that were impofed upon the
Catholics, and he yielded to them only becaufe he
was told, that thofe who were the enemies of his per-
fon and title could never fafely be entrusted with any
portion of powe-. Whether it wcfuld have been wife.
to foften the reltridinns, nr to have removed them

altogether, is not now the quellion. King William.
contrary to his principles and to his habit, acquiefced
in the wi(hes of a notiol he was called to govern, and
the reflritliors were implfed for the fecurity of the
new eilabliihment upon political, not upon religious
grounds. The years ilia followed the Revolution
were years ID: war, or of .ftifpicions, doubtful truces.
Dining ail that time it was the favourite policy of
France to embarrafsthis country by a difputed fuc-
.

ceton. She naturally, therefore, looked to the Ca-
thotics, particrlarly thofe of Ireland, as inliruments
of forwarding her defigns. The Catholics, therefore,
were more and more involved in the caufe of the ex-

iled family, and therefore rendered objena diflike
and diftrult to the fiends of the Revolution, on ac-
count of that connexion. Hence the Catholics were
in every fenfe of the word difarmect. They were
(tripped of power, of dillinetion, nay of property.
But it was owing to their political connexion with
the Stuarts, more than to their religious tenets, that
they were .oxpoftel to theft hardffiips. Some religious
bigots, indeed, may have eapeeted that the meatures
of levetity employed would have operated the con-
verfion of e Catholics of behind. With lenient
Meafares it is palible that this converfion might have
been efferfted ; but in the way in which things were
tondo:led, that was ma to be expetfted. The laws
under which the Catholics fuffeted, were therefore
in reality made against the Jacobites; and as the ap-
prehentions of the exiled family long continued, fo
did the laws made to reprefe the Catholics. The
gand concluet of the Catholics of Ireland,duting two
ebtßions, gave them claims to the favourable opinion
of the Government, but in late as thole events they
had nee ceafed to be objelts of furpicion, on account
of their fuppofed political partialities. Soon after
the vitiation of the latt of chore. rebellions, which
occurred during the two Frit reigns of the finure of
Brunfwick, a new =a was commenced. The danger
to the Conftitution and Government of this Coun-
try from the Stuart Family was wholly at an end at
the time of his Majefty's acceffion to the Throne—
nay, during the latter years of George 11. it was
quite contemptible. Then was the time at which it
mutt have become cafe, even in the opinion of the
moft timid, to mitigate the feverity of the laws againft
the Catholics. I believe that force fymptoms of a
relaxation, in fa ft, of the. prejudices and feverities
againtt the Catholics, began to appear under the
Lord Lieutenancy of the Duke of Bedford, who
held that office about the time his Majefly fucceeded
t"., the Throne. At that period there appeared cir-
curirttances which proved the caufe of the reftrietions
to be at an end. Sa far from fearing the Catholics
asenemiea, arms were put into their hands contrary
to law, when upon foam occalion the enemy appear-
ed off the Coalt of Ireland—thus, !hewing that the
Catholics, who by law were held fo forpeCted as to be
c'eprived of arms, were armed by the Adminifira-
don for the public defence. That the fituation of
the Catholics then b'liatsn to attrarft the attention of
public men, and with a difpotition to relieve them
from the hardthips under which they laboured, is
welt known, and I refer to Mr. Biti letters as a
proof of this. I remember, that fiv far back as the
year 1776, from an accidental circumftance that fell
out in this Houk, the fituation of the Catholics of
Ireland began to form the topic of converfation,
and it the feelings which then appeared, did not im-
mediately ditclofe themfelves in formal propofitions,
it may have been, that the intereft of the immediate
queftions of the time, and the warmth of party politics
left little room for other confederation. In conk-
qitence of the fentiments I have d.feribed, however,
I have no doubt that the Aft brought in for the re-
lief of Catholics by Sir George Saville and Mr. Dun-
ning, men wh on I name only to recall their memory
with feelings cf reverence and efteem, was introduc-
ed. I believe, ton, there is title doubt that that mett-
fine had a view to Ireland more than to England,
where cottons and forbearance had, in point of fart,
left lo much left to be done for the real relief and fe-
entity of the Catholics. I thought then, as I have
always thought tote, that to deprive men of political
rights for religious opininne, without a ftrong and
imperious neeeffity, was tyranny. What was done,
it was expated, might lead to fomething being done
in Ireland to the fame end, nor was the expeaation
difappointed. I tememher too, what tiaggered men
at that time, was not any dread of the Pope, or the
Pretender, of whom it was then ufual for many to
fpeak, time with a degree of compaction, fome with
triumph, but none with the fmallelt degree of alarm
or apprebenfion. The difficulty moll generally felt
was, that the long exiftence of the penal laws, toge-
ther with what (I beg pardon of the Irifh Gentlemen)
I cannot help calling the ferocious manner in which
the higher orders of the Irith Proprietors carried
themfelves towards the lower Catholic Body, had
produced inch a degradation in the latter as ren-
dered it doubtful, as Mr. Burke Rates, how far men
fo constituted could be trotted with the exercife of po-
litical rights. it was feared too, that from the effect of
the laws againft the Catholics, by changing the natural
current of property, by iiiteidiaing to Catholics the
acquifition of many kiwis of it, while by civil wars
and revolutions, the Catholics had been almoft en-
tirely depriaed of All property, fuch an extraordina-
ry (late of things had at ifen as would defy the appli
cation of common political principles. I would not
be thought tocompare the refpettive claffes of fociety,
thole who bad, and thole who had not property, to
the Negroes and Whites in the Weft India ((lands;
but certainly property was alma entirely in the
hands of what was called the Protettaut Afceudancy,