Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1855-10-06
Opinions for the People.-No.-IE
Sidney Smith on Religious Tests

Opinions for the People.-No.-IT.
Sidney Smith Religious Tests.
"I beg leave, sir, before proceed this subject
to state what NEAR by Catholic emancipation-I
mean eligibility of Catholics to all civil offices.
" object, sir, to the law as it stands at present.
because it is impolitic and because it is unjust
" If you so into parsonage house in the country,
Mr.. Archdeacon, you see sometimes style and
fashion of furniture which does very we'll for U.S. but
which has had its day in London. 1t is seen in
London no more; it is banished to the provinces;
from the gentleuens houses of the provinces these
pieces of furniture as they discovered
to be Questionable descend to the farm houses,
then to cottages then to the faggot-heap, then to
the dung-hill. As it is with furniture it is with
arguments. hear at country meetings many ar
guments against the Catholics which are never
heard in London; their London existence is over
they only to be met with in the provinces, and
there they fast fastening down, with clumsy
chairs and illfashioned sofas, to another order of
But sir, as they not yet gone where L
am sure they going, l shall endeavor to point
out their defects and to accelerate their descent
Many gentlemen now assembled at the Tiger
Inn, at Beverley, believe that the Catholics do not
keep faith with heretics; these gentlemen ought to
know that Mr.. Pitt put this very question to six of
the leading Catholic Universities in Europe. He
inquired of them whether this tenet did or did not
constitute any part of the Catholic faith The ques-
ton received from these universities the most de-
cided negatives they denied that such doctrine
formed any part of the creed of Catholics. Such
doctrine, sir, is denied upon oath, in the bill now
pending in Parliament, copy of which hold in
my hand
% Look at the fact sir Do the Protestant cantons
Of Switzerland, living under the same state with
the Catholic cantons, complain that faith is kept
with heretics Do not the Catholics and Protest
ants i'll the kingdom of the Netherlands meet in one
conmon Parliament? Could they pursue a COM
mon purpose, have common friends, and common
enemies, if there shadow of truth in this doc
trine imputed to the Catholics? The religious at
fairs of this last kingdom managed with the
strictest impartialty to both sects Ten Catholics
and ten Protestants gentlemen need not look so
much surprised hear i positively meet together,
sir, in the same room. They constitute what is
called the religious committee for the kingdom OF
the Netherlands; and SO extremely DESTROYS are
they of preserving the sricest imPartiality, that
they have chosen Jew for their secretary. Their
conduct has been unimpeachablc and unimpeached;
the two sects at peace with each other and the
doctrine that faith is kept with herctics would
l assure you, be very little credited at Amsterdam
the Hague, cities essentially Protestant as the
town Of Beverley.
"Wretched is our condition, and still more wretch
ed the condition of Ireland if the Catholic does not
respect his OATH He serves grand and petty jul
res in both countries; trust lives, our liber
ties, and properties, to his conscientious
of OATH and yet, when it suits the purposes
of party to bring forth this argument, say he
has respect for oaths The right to a landed es-
tate of 3OOOl per annum was decided last week,
in York, by jury, the foreman of which was
Catholic; does any human being harbor a thought,
that this gentleman, whom all know and res
pect, would, under any circumstances have thought
more lightly of the obligation of oath, than his
Protestant brethren of the box? We all disbeeve
these arguments of Mr. A. the Catholic, and Mr.. B.
the Catholic; but we believe them of Catholics in
general of the abstract Catholics of the Catholic
of the Tiger Inn, at Beverly, the formidable
known Catholic that is so apt to haunt clerical
meetings.
cit is not true that the Roman Catholic reli-
gion is what it was. I meet that assertion with
plump denial. The Pope does not dethrone kings,
give pxtor t
has given up, in some instances the nomination of
bishops to Catholic princes in some, [ believe, to
Protestant princes, Protestant worship is now
ried on at Rome. In the Low Countries, the seat
of the Duke of Alvas crueties the Catholic toler-
ates the Protestant, and sits with him in the same
Parliament-the same in Hungary-the in
France. The first use which even the Spanish peo-
pie made of their ephemeral liberty, to destroy
the Inquisition. 1t destroyed also by the mob
of Portugal am so far from thinking the Catho-
lie not to be more tolerant than he was that l am
much afraid the English, who gave the first lesson
of liberation to mankind, will very soon have great
deal to learn from their pupils.
Some men quarrel with the Catholics, because
their language was violent in the Association; but
groan or two, sir after two hundred years of in
cessant tyranny, may surely be forgiven A few
warm phrases to compensate the massacre of mill
lion of Irishmen not unworthy of pardon.
All this hardly deserves the eternal incapacity of
holding civil offices. Then they quarrel with the
Bible Society; in other words, they vindicate that
ancient tenet of their church. that the Scriptures
not to be left to the unguded judgment of the laity
The objection to Catholics is, that they did what
Catholics ought to do. And do not many prelates
of our church object to the Bible Society, and
tend that the Scriptures ought not to be circulated
without the comment of the Prayer Book and the
Articles? If they right, the Catholics not
wrong; and if the Catholics wrong, they are in
such good company, that ought to respect their
3rrors.
"The volume of parliamentary evidence have
brought here is loaded with the testimony of wit
aesses of all ranks and occupations stating to the