Star.
London, England, 1828-03-04 00:00:00

AMERICA.

We have received New York Papers to the 10th ult.
On the sth, it was resolved, in tbe.House of Represen-
tatives, that a Select Committee should be appointed to
consider %%bat retrenchments could be effected in the
Public Orates and Departments, and whether any mo-
dification of the inking Fund Act could be made with a
view to produce the speedy extinguishment of the Debt.

The Committee of Congress on Trade made a Re-
poirto Congress on the Sd of February, and a Bill,
founded on the Report, had been twice read, imposing
higher- duties on the import of cotton and woollen goods,
on iron ware, on glass, on the goods manufactured from
hemp, and on -foreign spirits and molasses. It appears
Von this measure that the Americans are going on a
principle directly contrary to that of the British Ministry.

• Accounts from Mexico state, the Asia, late- Spanish
line of battle ship, had arrived at Vera Cruz from the
Pacific, and had joined Admiral Porter's squadron;
the latter intended to give battle to the Spanish fleet.
At the Havannah the Asia captured a sloop ot war
from Spain, bound to the Havannah, with 2CO recruits.
The accodnts from Mexico, by this arrival, announce
that on the 24th ot December the Extraordinary Ses-
sion of the Federal Congress terminated. The Sot of
December 25 contains the Address delivered- at the
opening of the extra Session of Congress on the 20th of
same month, by his Excellency Lorenzo de Lavellor.
It also contains a Decree of the sovereign State of
Vera Cruz, issued by the Vice-Governor, relative to
the time fixed for the departure of all Spaniards. The
new tariff was to go into operation on the 22d of Fe.
bruary, 1828. -The Ccinsolado duty of 1 per cent.
was abolished ; all goods not enumerated in the tariff
were to pay forty per cent. duty, on the vallation
the majority of three persons appointed by the Con-
signee, the Collector, and the State Interventor. Goods
imported under the old tariff are to pay 17 per cent.
if dispatched to the interior; a proportionate reduction
to be made in the duties on damaged goods. The ton-
nage duty to be seventeen rials per ton. Exports of the•
country to be free of duty, except gold aed silver, which
remain as before. Goods imported in Mexican vessels,
direct from the country where manufactured, to pay
5.61hs of the duty named in the Tariff. The new Tariff
of the United States had been read a second time in
the House of Representatives, and 6000 copies ordered
to be printed.

The accounts from Columbia ate to the sth of January.
has been issued for the organization of the
Militia
the Provinces on the Northern Coast for secu-
riAirnaitoagainst order
the
expeditions fitted out at Ferrol and
Cadiz. In the Province of Valencia eight battalions
were to be formed, and in the other fifteen. Theie
troops were to be in constant readiness to take up arms,
and while actually employed, were to be paid.like
gular troops. •

Lord GWYDYR presented similar Petitions from Spibby,
Steeping, and other places, in the County of Lincoln.
The Dake of BEDFORD presented a similar Petition front
the Protestant Dissenters of Milton, in the County of Kent. •
Lord CLIFDEN had a Petition to present from the
Roman Catholics of the town of Liverpool, but shwas
a Petition in which they did not pray for any thihg far
themselves. A Noble Friend of his had presented last
week a Pe from a great number. of the Roman
Catholics o land, praying for the repeal of.the laws
rilf
which in' ed and insulted the Protestant Dissenters of
this country. And a Noble Lord in the other Heins* of
Parliament, who so worthily represented the borough
of Aylesbury, had recently presented to that House a
similar Petition, signed by above seven thousand Eng-
lish Catholics, with the Doke of Norfolk at their head.
The Petition which he bad now the honour to present,
was from ten thousand of the Catholic inhabitants. of
Liverpool, and the first seven signatures to it • wAre
those of seven Catholic Clergymen. There were some
who thought that the Catholics were necessarily adverse
to every thing Protestant ; but he thought these Peti-
tions might be taken as a sufficient answer to this accu-
sation. •• He would now intrude upon their Lordships
with a few words upon the general question, as, perhaps,
another op'poitunity might not be afforded hips. The
Test Laws were obnoxious to every feeling and princi-
ple of religion. They were the means by which men,
regardless of religion, obtained access to office. He
would put the case of a voter in a Cornish borough,
who might have the offer of a place. He would per-
haps say, "I cannot accept it—l am a Dilsenter." The
potion would reply, " Oh, oh, never mind, it is a mere
ceremony." And the man, perhaps struggling against
poverty, would thus be tempted to the violition of the
Sacrament. He would quote the lines of Cowper,
which were well applied to this subject:
" Hut thou by statute shoved from'its design
The &nova's feast, kis own blest bread and wing,
And made the symbols of atoning grace .
An office-key, a picklock to a place,
That Infidels may prove their title good '
• By an oath dipped in sacramental blood?
A blot that will be still a blot, in spite ..
Of all that grave apologists may write: -
And though a tishop toil to cleanse the stain,
He wipes and scours the silver cup in vain.
And bast thou sworn on e4ery slight pretence,
Till perjuries are common as bat pence ;
While thousands, careless of the damning- sin, •
spthe book% outside, who tu'er look Irithi'.
It was eeemed by many persons an• act of folly,on the-
part of the Catholics to interest themselves on behalf of
the Protestant'. Dissenters, whose religietii principles
ware the most remote from their okri.- . But the Ca-
tholics took a wise and more liberal view of 'the subject
—they knew that their cause must be promoted by the
abolition of any existing tests or disqualificatiOna of a
religious nature. In consequence of 'fire violation of the
promise given by Charles ur. at Breda, previoas to the
Restoration, by the estatifinent of
.the Five Mile Act,.
the Conventicle Act, anit.otberActs; for the seppres-
sion of Dissent, 6:0 tho-ussiiid Dissenters had been
thrown into prison. Charles 11. was, in fait, nn' better
than Henry the Eighth, and those` two powerful mo-
narchs had been aptly Ind eloquently denominated the
Belial and Moloch of Intolerance. He was convinced,
however, that the power of public opinion and of the
press could not longer be resisted. ..
Lord REDESDA LE said, that the Nord Lord oppo-
site was in error in some of his historical references.—
His regard to religion was equally erroneons,.for upon
his principle it would be a violation of religions liberty
to require the administration of an oath in a ()nun of
Justice. The principle upon which the. Test and Cor-
poration Acts were founded, was quite different from
what the Noble Lord had supposed. The pi inciple
was that no right, not even the right of property,
could exist in a state of security without the supre-
macy of political power being united with those rights.
.a--The principle, he contended, was a sound one, and it
was as applicable to the rights of the Church of Eng-
land as to any other. If they looked back into history,
they would find that the Church of England had been
overthroWn the moment the superior political power
and the army got into the hands of their opponents.
This was the principle of the Test and Corporation
Acts, and it was a principle which he should always
support. How had Henry the Eighth been enabled to
suppress the monasteries? He and his father, pne of the
ablest Monarchs ever knows to England, had availed
themselves of the circumstances of the times to centre
in the Crown a degree of political power which it had
not previously possessed, and this enabled him to ac-
complish his purposes, which were not undertaken from
any religious motives; for, excepting when he was
thwarted by the Court of Rome, he was a very zealous
Catholic. After a variety of other historical Mastro-
, tions, the Noble Lord pronounced it to be his decided
opinion that the Petitioners fur the, repeal of the Test
and Corporation Acts, Whether they wereCatifolica or
Protestant Dissenters, had in view thelLitne object—the
overthrow of the Church of EnglifitiC.This was On
object 'of the Petitioners. He had brit forward a
measure to relieve the Catholics from ,suns teal evils
' under which they laboured. • But the Irish Catholics
refused to take an oath,thich:the Englisheatholics
took without difficulty; ankihe only •groontl of this
difference which he could- everiliccree'was, that the
English Catholics wsre without: any tope of, re-esta-
blishing their religion in• this-eountiy, while: the Irish
Catholics still entertained some hopes of re-establish-
menties
in Ireland. - '

Lord KING said that the Noble Lord had treated
the question entirely a political one ; but seemed dis-
posed, levet thelesss, to draw to himself all the r algious
aid be could in support of these Tent. Ire 11;4 said,
that Charles the Second was not the Maker of these
Tests ; but if he was not the maker, be was certainly
one of the greaten tatters of them. Hebad
fied in Scotland as a Yrerbyteriaup to 911stoio the'Rayal
authority there; he ,bad afterWatdi qip E"B-
-" •,