The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1872-03-10
Tho Puritans 40 the Authors Of ConsttusaonA
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DR.. Palmer made the following statement,
as reported in the Southrestern Presbyterjaa
Of the 22d February:
So, too, the Puritans with oil their fantastic
superstition. lay the spell Of their name upon
MsaSauley and Carlyle and England, after ira
acknowledges that whatever she possesses Of
constitutional liberty, she owes to the Puritsns.
To the impartial student of history this
claim requires NO denial, butas many either
possess not the inclination or the leisure to
read sufficiently, and, following the Protest
ant rule, judge for themsel yes, but are sats-
scholar a. the Doctor, we copy the following
article from the London Tablet of the 10th
ult., leaving it to the reader to judge
whether the facts, as recorded therein, do
not entirely disprove his statement:
THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION PECULIARLY
ADAPTED TO THE CATHOLIC MIND.
True as it is that Catholics are commit
ted to no particular form of government,
but can be loyal alike to an absolute Sow
ereign, an oligsrchy, and q republic
that British Catholics are attached to the
British Constitution not merely because it
is, to an appreciable extent, analogous
with their Church polity, but because their
forefathers built it by slow degrees, and
they have received it as an inheritance
from them: It is, substantially, what it
was before the Catholic religion was sup
planted in these realms; and the Protest
ant regime of three centuries has not ma
terially altered the base Of the edifice.
Protestants have never commended that
Edward VI. or Queen Elizabeth framed the
British Constitution, but admit, one and
all, thatthe Sovereigns intervening between
Henry VIII. and our present Queen have
perpetuated only and modified as occasion
required, the form Of government which
they found ready made to their hands. In
tracing the history of its gradual forma-
ton, we are proud of the discovery that
Catholics made it, and that Catholics con-
tended successfully for those very features
In it which are now most generally ap-
proved as wise and just.
Though William I. introduced a new
order of things into this country at the
Conquest, it is important to observe that he
found in the old Saxon laws and customs
much that was worthy to be retained, and
much that, in effect, was eventually ANAL
gamated with the Conqueror's Anglo Nor
man Constitution. The English were al
ready accustomed to q species of Parlia-
ment-a Witanagemot, or Senate-whose
consent was necessary to enact laws, and
TO sanction public measures. In this coun-
Gil sat the King, the higher Catholic clergy,
the nobility and wealthy landowners. La
dies of birth and quality, and ADDRESSES, sat
with the Saxon Witan and this peculiari-
ty was observable also in Parliaments as
sembled many reigns after that of William
I. In the time of Henry III. and of Ed
ward 1. four abbessess were summoned to
Parliament. In the reign of Edward III.
the number of abbots in the House of Peers
was twenty seven, and in the thirty fifth
year of that reign the King summoned
thither ten ladies: The feudal system es-
tablished in England by the Conqueror
was, no doubt, essentially despotic; but the
arbitrary manner in which William /. and
his son Rufus exercised their power soon
led to the Catholic Lords and vassals
making common cause, and yielding to the
urgent necessity of placing bounds to the
royal authority. The tillers of the soil re-
sponded to the call of their landlords and
cheftains; but in doing 30 they insisted on
being themselves for the future lodged
safely under the protection of the law. In
ed by the clergy; and in the reign of
Henry l., not fifty years after the Conquest,
the feudal laws were not only mitigated in
favor of the lords, but, as q condition of
this indulgence, the lords were obliged to
allow the like freedom to their respective
vasUals. Under Henry III. the ancient trial
by jury was re established, though some
what imperfectly ; and St. Thomas of Can
terbury set his clergy and their hocks an i
example of constitutional resistance to
royal power when exerted in an arbitrary |
and unrighteous way. The Holy Father
himself, by espousing the cause of the per-
secuted Archbishop, may be considered as
contributing towards the foundation of
English liberties. Things, indeed, evil and
good, events adverse and fortunate, seemed
alike conspiring towards the same happy
result. The odious tyranny of King John
caused, by reaction, the resistance of the
barons, supported by their franklins and
vassals. The Charter of the Forest and
Magua Charta, which he was obliged to
sign at Runnymede, abolished the most
rigorous of the forest and feudal laws. But
they did more. They infused into the law
of the land the spirit of Christianity, by
protecting the lower orders in the State,
and providing that no subject, however
poor and mean, should be molested and
punished unless tried by his peers, and
found guilty according to law. Thus the
Barops at Runnymede, like good and true
Catholic mobiles, became the friends and |
champions of retainers and rilleins.
In the long reign of Henry the Third the |
great Chatter was confirmed, and new pri-
vieges were annexed to it. The Barons