Star.
London, England, 1821-03-24 00:00:00

pad been destroyed : they were menaced by no foreign
rover, the sovereign Pontiff of the Catholic Church
imo waling to assent to the " Veto :" and those who
opposed the Catholic Claims were now driven to state
that the Catholics paid no regard to papal authority.
Was it because at some time in the sixteenth century
the professors of the Roman Catholic faith had, as
well as their Protestant cotemporaries, acted mis-
:ehiesousll towards the State, that the descendants of
those Roman Catholics were to be made answerable
ththe Protestants of the present day? This would,
joined, be to introduce into human life and political
eaninct the apologue of the lamb and the wolf: this
would, indeed, be to exclaim with the wolf—"- If
'you have not done it, it was done by your father—
or, it not by him, by your grandfather!" But it was
'contended, that the passing of this Bill would be to
'open a new sphere of political ambition to four mil-
lions of men. Was this an object, then, to be -con-
uraplated with jealousy or alarm by a British Leeis-
lour? What would Great Britain have been, had
wit the road of political ambition been kept open ge-
aridly to its subjects? He, for one, should scarcely,
if the Protestants were not anxious on this point,
deem them worthy of the enfranchisement which they
sought. What was the actual difference between the
situation of the Catholics and that of the Protestant
Dissenter? Tice latter was admissible to office, and
was safe in accepting it, by means of the Indemnity
Acts. Parliament thus retaitred in its own hands the
means of suspending the privileges and enjoymenv
of the Dissenters; but one of the consequences was,
to admit into power those who professed no religion
but that of liberty and nature, whilst we excluded the
professors of the same faith with ourselves. Those,
“ True to no King, to no Religion true,"
were thus favoured by the practice of the Constitution
above the sincere believers in Christianity, which had
been declared putt of the law of the land. The con-
duct of the Catholics, so far from affording the Go-
vernment nb securities, gave them a double touch-
gone, both by the oaths which they took, and those
which they refused to take—(Hear, hear).—The in-
consistency, therefore, was on the pa: t of those who
refused their oath, and wished matters to go on in
their present state of real inconsistency. For what,
was that state? " You refused to take this oath as a
test of their allegiance, and yet you have been for a
long period of time taking their oaths as witnesses,
as Jurors sitting in cases of the life and death of Pro-
testants, and also in cases of their property."—(Hear,
hear).—The Elective Franchise had already been
thrown open to the lower part of the Catholic popu-
lation—to that part more likely to act udder the in-
fluence of ignorance and bigotry ; and yet, from their
feelings and opinions, no danger was apprehended
the danger, forsooth, was from the higher orders of
the Catholics ; it was they who were to be the arch
enemies of the Constitution—they who were the fol-
lowers of a monarchical creed—the hereditary aris-
tocracy of the land—(Cheers).—To look in another
manner at this subject : would any man of this day
tolerate for a moment the re-enactment of the Penal
Code which yet, they were to be told, formed a part
of the Constitution ? Suppose, for instance, any Le-
gislator were now to propose an Act in these terms—
Whereas, it is expedient to exclude all persons from
trust or office who are not of the Established Church;
end whereas, this bill of exclusion shall be under•
stood to apply specially to Catholics. And whereas
Catholics are not bound by the security of oaths ; be
it therefore enacted, that the only security we do pro-
vide against their admissibility to power shall be an
oath"--(Hewn, hear).—And yet this, which appeared
so absurd, was precisely the form in which the law
of the case now stood. To persevere in this course
was, he thought, more than Catholic superstition—it
*al a heresy against common sense..-(Hear, hear).
The Hon. Gentleman then proceeded to state, that
the form of oath now tendered was not meant by
the proposers of it as a real security against any pro-
bable danger, but to •ilence the scruples of those
Who apprehended danger. If a man gave a bond,
together with his word, he did not, by giving the
bond, mean to stamp his word as worthless ; he
merely wished to satisfy any contingent apprehension
15f the party with whom he was dealing—(Hear).—
So with the advocates of the present Bill ; they ap-
prehended no danger : but to those who did, as they
'thought unreally, they tendered the present form of
Bath—(Hear).—The security was given, not against
danger from the Catholic, but against the possible
fear of the Protestant—(Hear)—lest by chance, in
the Midland District, about which the House had
been uonlglst alarmed, in a spot too central for any
light to have reached, in the valley of the shadow
of Dr. Milner—(Hear, hear, hear)—there he found,
among the weaker brethren of the Protestant com-
munion, any one whose appetite or whose slumber
may be disturbed by the terrors of one against seven
of the Vicars-Apostolic ; of that one whose authority
is cited to prove that the Catholics will not be satis-
fied with this concession. He did not wait to inquire
whether they would be satisfied or not—(Hear).—
Was Parliament about to make a treaty, or to make
k law ?—(Hear, hear.)—lf the latter (as he believed),
then they ought to satisfy their minds, in the first in-
ttance, that they were acting with wisdom and jus-
tice, and leave it to others to form whatever opinion
they pleased. If satisfactory to the Pope and the
Clergy, so much the better; but, if right, they need
not apprehend any danger from contrariety of opi-
nions—(Hear).—He would conclude in the words of
the great historian of Bt itish legislation—" Never is
a good Bill preferred, nor a good motion made in
trains Though it has sometimes paused, yet it never
ties; for at one time or other it has its good
effect"—(Repeated cheers).
Sr J. NICHOL observed, that all must admit the
Proposed alteration to be very great. He could. not
admit that the opposers of the measure were bound
to prove the dangbr ; that had been amply proved by
the practice and enactments of our ancestors. The
penal enactment had been long ago repealed, and the
!existing Acts had been merely defensive. These laws
lad not been made in the infancy of the Reforma-
tion, but the most important had been paced after
the Restoration, such as the Corporation and Test
Acts. and also the Bill of Rights in the time of King
William.. 'That Bill had been anxious to exclude
Catholics from places of trust and power; and in the
lath of William, all. these Statutes had been re-
11'.)acteds That was the Constitution under the gip-
tictuc King WiLiant, and the last Speech from the
s taune h.rd been drawn up by the great Lord Somers,
ttaavilt not ;ilea ikeflice. Tate same spirit bad pie-,