The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1872-03-10

s.nsoO 70 increase In power slowly, peaco-
ably, sedaegaAy. Under Edward II. they
annexed petitions to the bills by which
they granted subsidies, and under his son,
Edward iII.-he Of Crecy and POicters,,
they declared that in future they would
pot acknowledge any law to which they
had not expressly assented. They I'M
peached also, and caused to be condemned,
some of the frst Ministers of state under
Richard H., whose arbitrary conduct led TO
the overthrow of the House of PiantaReDet,
and the accession of the Lancastrian Henry
~. to the throne. 1t was during the reign
of that King that Catholic House of Com
for the burning Of heretics, and confirmed
their privilege aud that Of their servants
In being free from arrest and imprison.
ment. They established their claim also
to determine the particular object to which
the sums which they voted were to be ap-
pied, and their right Of enquiring into the
were empowered to vote in elections for
kn1shts of the shire in the reign of Henry
W.; and not even the din and clash OF
arms during the long and desolating Wars
OF the Roses prevented the people of Eng
land from improving their homes, and their
liberties. Under Richard of Gloucester
himself some admirable statutes were
passed, and the laws were for the first time
enacted in the English tongue. Lord
Campbell, In speaking of Richard ILLS
only Parliament, says awe have no diff
Guilty in pronouncing it the most meritori-
Gus national council for protecting the lib
erty of the subject, and putting down
abuses in the administration of justice,
which had sat since the time of Edward I"
The last Catholic sovereign of England
before the Reformation, Henry VII, came
to the throne under circumstances unfavor-
able to liberty. He was conqueror, and
fn Nhn NIL
nearly exterminated !; the people, wearied
with the calamities Of civil war, had no
heart for any thing but repese. They pur-
chased personal security at the cost of pub
lie freedom, and contented themselves with
asserting, by means of their representa-
tives in Parliament-a Parliament, happi-
ly, of the whole kingdom-the one privil-
ege of granting or refusing subsidies.
This was the sheet anchor of English liber-
ty; and by the help of this claim, this
right, they transmitted to their posterity
the Constitution which, in substance, we
inherit to this day. All the changes and
chances of three centuries have but con-
solidated its strength, and welded together
its component parts. 1t has survived the
tyranny Of the Tudor kings and queens
the overstretch of royal prerogative,; the
treason of Dudley and Lady Jane Grey
High Commission Court; the Puritan
Commonwealth; the subversion OF the
House of Peers by Cromwell, and his mill
tary rule; the trial and execution Of
Charles l.. the expulsion of Catholic Peers
from the Upper House under Charles II.
the Exclusion Bill; the ill advised exercise
Of the dispensing power by James II. the
the change Of dynasty from Stuart king
to the Prince of Orange the rival thrones
Df William III. in England and James II.
in Ireland the Triennial Act and Sunder-
lands Peerage Bill the Stamp Act and
the use of General Warrants the Reform
Bill, with its threatened batch Of new
Peers and Catholic Emancipation-which |
last, according to the predictions of Lord
Eldon and the Tories, was to have been it's
mortal blow. 1t has lived through storms
which have threatened to tear it up by the
roots, and has acquired strength by strug-
Cling with tempests.