The Statesman.
London, England, 1819-05-18 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF Lon u)s. MA• 17.
The fluke of Kewf, she Mario( Ilarborsoseb, Lard Ferber.
nod the Bitting, of Peterborough took the milli. and their seam.
Lord K ENY ON pre.essiett ersssioa from Manchester
egaieet the Catholic several ether Peliesom for aad
agsi.et the Casholias were labl on the (able, hot is ronaeqaeoro
of the gre.it riowd below the bar, is wa. formible to bear
from what places they ease. or In are the Peens bi a hors they
were pnermed
The Karla HARROW RY laid on she table she Revelation
he finteral. to white ase the flank Report. As fee ess she &as-
Mon of the bar permitted es to hear skews, !bey appear to he.
wish the reeetaary alteration of form. • (err of the recom-
mendation I. the Report of the Commence. They declare the
"'prefatory of more lung the Hanle Restriction Art for a time to
be Hailed t of payment by the Hank in gold hellion. as she
progressive rime( 41. It., 31. 19s. tel..sest SI. 17% mks.; mid
of the repeal of all the laws agaist the espeirtatioa of golJ.
'They were order& &le pp. h 5 .d.
CATHOLIC QULSTIOX.
The Earl of DON* ICCI/11110RE rose. in reemenee of the
posies he had gives, to call their I...relibips' attention to the
Petitions on she sable, praying for relief to she Roman Cello.-
Hes. In furtherance of the eliject he bad in view, he felt it to
be his deity to submit to their Lordiolops a Reinitiate*, le the
elect that this Home de revolve itself into • Cesionoilme to nee. l side' the mate of the taws which Indict civil dienbillties on ae.
.f fell/Lion. .Pinion., pal ticelarly in meter as thew laws
deprive hi. Mersey s Reiman Catholic subjects of she exercises
of their civil rights; sod le how far it may be espediem Walter
I er modify the .amen Kerb was she nature of she anoxia with
white he Weeded to ensclede, awl he believed no questisia
greaser importance in all is. relation, could be brought sow
the coasirterasson of Paeliamese. Tar Importance of she sob.
jets could not tail to be felt by iheir Lordships. when they re-
collected she greatpropeeiion of Isis Majesty's subject elected
by she revere. and, an be same consend, illiberal exclusions
which is ate his object le remove. The law, a, is new wood,
dionsalided and residered inempahleof oiteing is Parliamem and
bolding an,,.,.. civil and military 'attention.. nu less ikon 4•Stbs
of she population of that cuuntry from which west of she lie-
titian. now on she bible rebut.. 10 'hie queition had crone; sad
it to that portion were add-A the Roma Catholics of Logbood
and Scotland, it it mild be found that the eaclaiion applied to

nt least nae.fourth of the population of the *lode limited King.
dom. This was n state of thi.tgi which appeared. at the first
sight strongly marked with severity and injustice t fir the sea
csonprwisig this great propari,ou of their Lordships' fellow.
subjects were diopsal.fled by tin other apparent res.on than •
emoriteroitios adherent". to the principles of the religion ill
which they had Mess educated. The old acre:.-....aide grotto*
MI which their earlthion w t. defemb d bad er.clootly been
6MM...ed. The opinions which bad h: re. atirth...ted to them
had been. both in sad out of that Illonw, sick how !edged to
he hafoonded ; and yet laws enacted on there errors/sm. views
rime sti:l maintahsed in fewer. It had been a.-end, that
Rooms Catholics held the doctrine. that engagements mode
with permis professing other religion. weir not landing on
theyaselees, rad that they would make toe of the power
which they might olooto to destroy hew establishments la
(hard and State. If it were pwall.le that such absurd
charger had ever beds believed, the whole esperieace of the
Iw renlitry, and especially time of the last 40 'ears. was s.s.
dent to prove Its fal.eietowl. The Legllatore had. to a certain
extent. almods mitigated the laws whids operated aelstss them
smlfilltpsaportioa as the were miss/red, their loyalty
and attachment to the Conolnation hail brim tome amid mere
strowily evinced. %hat objection could now be made to the
total repeal of these disqualdiemoins ? No prod' had ewer ex-
isted of die charges which had been made ngain.t the Caiholies•
and nobody saw belie. eel th. so. As a proof of the change of
opinion on this subject, be wasld refer to what had paused is
another place, where a Right Ilemsoroble limailemao. ditila
evolved for his oppositioa to the Claims of the Catholics, hail
4.1 tars Is disavowed the aboard charges made *gismo them.—
The Noble lord opposite had also abandoned most of his .b-
-jetties to granting relief to the Catholics. and now lammed
only on nee Of talis pedant at alfording retool for opposition to
the relief demanded. These objection. were, the ramie judo.
diclim deeded to be ackaowledgrd by the Catholic., and a
petsismitta of the isspolicy of admiiiiiii Rosins embodies to
participate folly in a Protestant Constsintion. He had no doubt
that. like all other unfounded apprehensions, these would it...
be removed. As to dic tos.y linporlaitil point. the foreign an.
primary, it was alt..gether spiritual. nut the Roma. Catholics
nettle. ledge nom that is any way interfered with their allegi-
ance. Oa skis point they were willing to give the maw tam.
plate pledges and ; and if that were done, surely ea
objection could elk, in th. mind of the Noble Earl to the re.
rat the di.qualit log Minutes— laws which, far from afford-
ing nay advantage to the State, tended only to its injury, by
exasperation/ the feeling. of those against whom they were do •
reeled. If the Mom went into the Committee, the aberier
measures *huh he should propene would be chiefly some altera-
tion in the oaths required to he taken by Member. of Praha.
meat and petums holding appoinimems soder the tioveraseed.
la the Oro place he would propose the repeal or modification of
detimatimi, a great part of which whammed largely Modest -a the
of doctrines held by Mote who believed lAMB to be the great
truths of the Christian Religion, and had no refereace whatever
to the political que.hutt im which di.qualitying blialotes had
been founded. His heal object would be to obtain the repeal
of the oath of abjuration. 14 hat ressoa there could be for
maintaiiiiiig on the s,tatote Hook an oath against the claims of
a non-ezisinc lousily. except to exhibit to the world an ab-
sordity, he Mt not know. The oath of sapreasocy, he Mangan,
might mimic After all that had passed, and
,the great light
a hick had remedy been thrown no the subject, he trusted that
tin' ielief asked by the Roman Catholics wield be granted.—
hroogh the whole of his Parliamentary lift be hod ea:newly
Rod sincerely supported their claims. It would be dilleult for
him to seer any new arguments in their support ; but bethought
it would he will more difficult to maiwain the temente of the
problem. and show any good ',moo for their recluses* from
the benefits of the free Cutotttotios a bleb their fellow-subjects
had the happiners lin snippy. He should, therefore, refrain
from troubling their Lordships further.—[Herr, bear, hear I)—
Were it necessary, which it certainly was not. he was sot
well enough to eater into all the details whirl. thi, important
question presented, sod should, comequenily. conclude by
moving thr llr.ulaili•• stated la the Catalleeiremeat tit his speech.

The II shop of WORCESTER could not give Isis
eoncurrenre to the prayer of the Petitions on which
the Noble Earl bad founded his motion. He was
surprised at the strange notions which prevailed on
this subject; and that it should be supposed by any
persons that a professor of the doctrines of the Church
of England most ner sssss ily be hostile to the grant.
log the Claims of the Cstholies, merely ow the grimed
of their religiose opinions. Nothing could be more
unfounded thin each an idea. Their Lordships would
allow him to says that whoever supposed that mem.
be,. of the Church of England could be enemies of
the Roman Catholics on such grounds were Ignorant
of the filth professed by that Church. It did not
follow, however, that the Roman Catholics should
be admitted to all the privileges they claimed. What-
ever unnecessary severity (misted in the laws it ems
proper to remove, and loch had been the course par.
sued by the Legislature. Mach had within the last
twe years !seen done in this resp►ct. An Act had
passed which admitted Roman Catholics to tbe mili-
tary and naval service, but he could not think it ad-
visable that they should he appointed to the highest
commando, or permitted to 611 the highest offices
in the State. The loos against them had hitherto
been administered tenderly stud sparingly. Those which
still 'listed would doubtless continue to be so silminis.
tiered, sinless some event should occur to ►ender their
strict enforcement necessary ; and on that ground it
meld beinsprudent to repeal thews. It was void, that the
motives which induced the Roman Catholics to refuse
taking the oaths ought to be treated with candour.—
It was doubtless their Lordships' duty so to do; but
it was also their duty to guard against the influence
of a captivating expression, and to take Cafe, in fol-
lowing the advice to esercise caudner to one party,
that they did not injure another. Could he persuade
himself that no injury would accrue to the Constito.
Lion from their admission to all the privileges of the
Constitution, most readily would be accedes to their
Claim. To emend those privileges to ail descrip.
Hon' of persona was doubtless what would be the first
feeling of their Lordships on the proposition of such
a question; but feeling was not the only rule by
which they were to be guided in legislating. In for•
suer discessions on this question much stress bad beets
laid on authorities, awl the name of Locke had been
referr6ll to on both sides; but before his general
principles on civil rights could be appealed to as au-
thority, their Lordships ought to consider what he
bad stated in his first letter on toleration, part of
which had been remarked upon by a dignitary of the
chords. That writer had said, that the Roman Cs-
lholks had ne right to indulgence from others, as they
granted no indulgence themselves. This, he admitted,
was an indefensible proposition; bet the other part
of the argument, that those who hold utlices under
the Government should be of the religion of the
Stare, wss in his opinion well founded. The reason
for adhering to this principle in this country was
particularly forcible, as the Protestant religion was
so intimately interwoven with the whole system of
the Constitution. Under such a Constitution, it
would be ding to admit to once, of high treat
persons Indifferent to the religion of the State, and

still more danger... so to, admit the enemies of the,
religion. Ile was aware that many Noble Lords its
that Howse enterteineri • view of the sehlect very
different from his. They placed fell confidence in
declaration, of attachment to the Constitution{ and
bad oo a prehension of any danger from the admis-
sion of Roman Catholic, to every privilege. He was
disposed to give fall credit to the sincerity of those
who made the declarations in question, :et still
thought that general declaration. were to be received
with caution. A foreign authority lass acknow-
ledged by the Roman Catholics, mad though it was
asserted that that scknowledgmeat had ne political
thornier, it as still a ground of suspicion; for it
was °Woolly entrately dated', if not imposaible,
to separate entirely temporal from spiriteal authority.
The temporal authority of the Pepe was disclaimed,
het he doubted how far this could be acted en by
these who so fully acknowledged hie spiritual power.
it appeared to him, that by concession the danger of
the establishment would be enereased tenfold. The
ant thing looked to in Ireland would be the esta-
blishment of the Rosen Catholic religion ; and the
irritation which prevailed, instead of Wog allayed,
would be increased; for a desirable object was al-
laths pursued with more plosion end energies, in
propellant es its attainment sppesred neer. fn that
country, where, according to the Noble Lord's state-
ment, the greet majority of the population was not
of the religion of the State, a Government of the
most mild and just character preesiled. The Noble
Lord at the head of that Government was most de:
servedly popular, and Onthing illiberal could be up-
pretended from him. Such was the way in which be
hoped the Government would always be administer.
vd ; bet be must pretest spit& brieging the Homan
Catholics within one single step of petting their church
lathe place of the establishment. They might then sty-
le the Li/Mature—You have given us our elective
franchise, you have educated our 'oath, you have
admitted us to civil sad military offices, and to seats
in Parliament, bat our religion it only tolerated ;
why Is it not established ? why is this last act 0/jos-
mice denied to us? Let it be remembered, that this
lie the language which might be expected to be heard
from. numerous and powerful body, from the great
majority of the population of tsue country. This
view of the subject presented ronsidetations of to
serious a aster. as weuld Induce their Lnrclahipe to
listen with castles le iheclaims which ',readdressed
to them.

The Bishop of NORWICH felt en attachment to
the Church sell the Constitution as aware and cor-
dial as that of his Reverend Friend could be, though
be was so unfortunate as to differ very widely with
him on the means by which security was to be given
to these establishments. He would never suppose
that the security of the Church was to be promoted
by suiting false and frivolous alarms. He was
anzious to cite his testimony against all et•empts to
raise a dentine among the Ministers of the Chinch,
on the pretence that the establishment would he in
danger, were the claims of one-fourth of the meals.
!ion of the British empire to the enjoyment of civil
rights granted by Parliament. That a Christian
church should be endangered by an act of justice was
a proposition contrary to the great basin, of the re-
ligion of Christ, namely, " What s you would
that others do to yes, even so do unto them."—
Amidst all the clamour which bad been raised he had
heard no solid objection against de measure de-
weeded by the Roman Catholics. The British Con..
Wieder' was best to be supported by carrying into
fell practice the liberality of its principles. The
broader the fousdation, the more secure would be
the superstructure. Now, when every argument hi-
therto urged against the Catholic Claims bad beets
triumphantly answered, their Lordships were told
that this acknowledgment of a foreign supremacy was
an insurmountable bar to the concession demanded
by the Petitioners. He should not trouble their
Lordships by entering into any details of the cots-
'Unction pet on the oath of supremacy by Archbishop
Creamer and others. ft was sufficient for him Ira
observe, that the Catholics in general were ready to
take the oath in its present form, with a slight addi-
tion, which would resider it equally binding. while
the change was vuesceptionable. The present forma
of the oath declared, that the person liking it de.
Died the right of any Prince, Potentate. or Power.
to exercise method!y in this country, either ecclesisse
deal or civil. The addition proposed was to this
effect—" In so far as the same envy interfere with the
allegiance due by subjects to their lassfel Seeeteign."
This he thought must prove perfectly satistactury.—
At all events, things could net long go on as they-
were. In the present state of knowledge and of
public opinion, so disgrscefel an meomaly as the
ezclesiou of epwards of Cita millions of people
from the privileges and rights of the Constitution,
merely on account of their conscientioes adheionce
to religious principles, could not long esist.—
This anomaly could the less be defended in the case of
the Roman Catholics, es it exhibited towards thefts a
cruel and unjust partiality, to which no other sect of
dissenters from the Established Church was solver,
and that, ton, merely no account of the oath of su-
premacy, which other sects were booed in ecrtiscieors
to reject as well es them. There war no virus
civil privileges to the members of the Church of Scot.
land. It toss admitted en ell hands, that .here was
not a better set of men in the Doltish dirsoirriens than
the adherents of that Church, more ellacSed to the
Constitution, more loyal in their principles. i
more submissive in their reindeer; and yet coney
no authority ill SIMI.
tnsl
eiml'atters, and that,r
joall•App.;;;I:lans;seolvresero.3:1171:1:111,1,:ael
was
the civil unsgistreo Dower
vested eatchlantsieheislySiliasitlKihrakd. They ato tir-hiner:-11Ye
leatey ::trf:falshre;:ilearreate, so on article of faith, that