The star of the north. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1849-1866, 1855-07-05

| u not, let mem letrn u Dy your VlS'lance ant
firm resistance 10 every thing intolerant. Tol
eralon will then become habit and prac.
iices iEgrafted upon the manners of a people
when they find the law TOO strong for them
and that there is no use in being intoler-
ant.
! Ii is very true that the Catholics have q
double allegiance, but it is equally true thai
their second or spiritual allegiance has moth
ing 10 do with civil policy, and does not, in
the most distant manner, interfere with their
allegiance 10 The crown. What is mean, by
allegiance 10 the crown, is, presume, ODE.
dience 10 acts of parliament, and resistance
to those who are constltulionally proclaimed
to be the enemies of the county have
seen and heard OF no instance, for this cenlu-
ry and a half past, where the spiritual sover-
eisn has presumed TO meddle with the affairs
of the temporal sovereign. The Catholics
deny him such power by the most solemn
oa,hs which the wit of man can devise. In
every war, the army and navy are full OF
Catholic officers and soldiers and if their
| Ill uuuCio 10 uululPOoS'-
able and unimpeached, what matters 10 whom
they choose 10 pay spiritual obedience, and
TO adopt as their guide in gsnuhexion and
psalmody? Suppose these same Catholics
were foolish enough to be governed by set
of Chinese moralisls in their Giei, this would
bs third allegiance and if they were resu-
lated by Brahmins in their dress, this would
be fouiIh allegiance and if they received
the direction OF the Patriarch of the Greek
Church in educating their children, here is
another allegiance and as long as they fought
and paid taxes, and kept clear Of The quarter
sessions and assizes, what matters how many
fanciful supremacies and frivolous allegian-
ces they choose to manufacture or accumu.
late for themselves?
Mild and genleel people do not like the
idea of persecution, and are advocates for tol.
Grafton but then they think il no act OF in
tolerance TO deprive Catholics of political
power. The history of this is, that all men
secretly like to punish others for not being OF
the same opinion with themselves, and that
( this sort of privalion is the only species of
persecution, Of which the improved feeling
and advanced cultivation Of the age will ad-
nit Fire and fagot, chains and stone walls.
have been clamored away; nothing remains
but 10 morlify mans pride, and 10 limit his
resources, and 10 set mark upon him, by
cutting him off from his fair share of political
power By this receipt, insoence is Grati6-
ed, and humanity is not shocked. The gent
les; Protestant can see, with dry eyes, Lord
Slounon excluded from Parliament, though
he would abominate the most distant idea of
personal cruelty 10 Mr.. Petre. This is only
to say tha, he lives in the nineteenth, instead
Of the sixteenth century, and that he is as in-
tolerant in religious matters as the state of
manners existing in his age will permit. Is
itnot the same spirit which wounds the pride
of fellow-crealure on account of his faith,
or which casts his body into the flames -
Are they any thing else but degrees and mod.
ifications of the same principle? The minds
Of these two men no more differ because they
differ in their degrees Of punishment, than
their bodies differ, because one wore doub.
lei in the time of Mary, and the other wears
a coat in the reigh of George. do not ac-
cuse them of Intentional cruelty and iujus.
lice; am sure they are very many excel
lent men who would be shocked If they could
conceive themselves TO be guilty of anything
like cruelty: but they innocenty gave a
wrong name 10 the bad spirit which is with
in them. and think they are tolerant because
they are not as inlolerant as they could have
been in other times, but cannot be now. The
true spirit is 10 search after God and for an
other lie with lowlness Of heart; 10 fling
down no mans altar, 10 Punish no mans
prayer; to heap no penalties and no pains
on those solemn applications which, in di.
vers tongues, and in varied forms, and in
temples OF thousand shapes, but with one
deep sense of human dependence, men pour
forth 10 God.
II is completely untrue that the Catholic
religion is what il was three centuries ago, OF
that il is Interchangeable and unchanged
These are mere words, without the shadow
Of truth to support them. If The pope were 10
address II bull TO the kingdom of Ireland, ex.
communicating The Duke of York, and cut.
ting him off from the succession, for his Prot.
es,ant effusion in the House of Lords, he
would be laughed at as lunatic 10 all The
Catholic chapels in Dublin. The Catholics
would not now burn Protestants as heretics
In many parts of Europe, Catholics and Prot.
estants worship in one church---Catholcs at
eleven, Protestants at one they sit in the
same Parliament, are elected 10 the same Of
fee, live together without hatred or friction,
under equal laws. Who can see and know
these things, and say that the Catholic reli
gion is Interchangeable and unchanged p
" n ~ n
You talk Of their abuse of the Reformation
but is there any end to the oboquy and
abuse with which the Catholics are upon ev.
cry point, and from every quarter assailed |
Is there any one folly, vice, or crime, which