The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-03-16 00:00:00

TO TIIE CONSTITUENCIES OF PROTESTANT'

ENGLAND.-LETTER 11.

Infandum, Regina, jubes renovare dolorem.".

FELLOW-PROTESTANTS,

Before proceeding further into the subject Of my present
letter, allow me for a moment to recal your attention to the
two alternatives which are forced upon our acceptance by
Lord I‘lorpeth's bill. Either Great Britain must submit to
see that great principle of the constitution—its Protestant
ascendancy—destroyed, by the admission into parliament of
an overwhelming majority of Popish members ; either we
must submit to see the powers of the House of Commons
directed exclusively to the furtherance of Popish ambition,
and to the weakening of Protestant establishments through-
out the empire ; or we must at once, resolutely and sted-'
fastly, direct our energies to THE REPEAL OF THE BILL OF
1829 AS THE ONLY COURSE LEFT US TO PRESERVE THE
CONSTITUTION. Between these two alternatives, I submit,
the constituencies of England have to choose ; and .I now
proceed to offer to your notice a few considerations which

may guide you in your choice.
And first let us examine the practical working of the mea-
sure of emancipation, during a period of twelve years, up to
the present moment. We were told in 1829 that the admis-
sion of some thirty or forty members of the Romish faith
into the British House of Commons, bound by their oaths
to respect the property and the religion of the established
church, would, so far as Protestant interests were concerned,
be quite innocuous ; that such a body would soon fall into
the ordinary divisions of party, and, upon questions of civil
policy, would lay aside entirely the distinctive character of
their creed in promoting the general welfare of the commu-
nity. Let us see, then, whether this prediction has been
fulfilled.

The first circumstance which strikes us, in entering upon
this portion of our inquiry, is the startling fact that not even
one solitary member of the Romish church in the Rouse of
Commons can be found separated front tht bulk of his party!
The professors of other creeds—the most violent sectarians
even—can afford .sometimes to differ with each other upon
great political questions ; but Romish legislators seem to
have bound up their political sympathies and opinions along
with their faith, and to receive the impulse which directs
both from one common source. Upon no great question do
we find them, by any chance, voting upon opposite sides ;
and if occasionally symptoms of coldness may be perceived
amongst particular members, an unseen influence immedi-
ately restores subordination, and draws together again into
a compact body the conflicting or the lethargic parts.
It is beyond dispute, then, that Popery refuses absolutely
to allow her representatives to be merged in the general mass
of the legislature. Whilst the professors of other creeds
mingle freely in, and differ upon, those questions of general
interest which invite discussion within the walls of the House
of Commons, Popery alone " walks apart "—her sympathies
and her judgment steeled against the entrance of any convic-
tion which may draw them aside from the path which leads
to her ulterior objects. Whilst the professors of other
creeds, upon their admission to that house, become at once
the representatives, virtually, of the general interests of the
community ; the professors of the Romish faith never lose
for a moment the distinctive character of their religion—
never lose sight of the fact that they are representatives, in
reality, of the church, and not the people, to which they