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Untitled Article
tnnony of Mr . Pitt in favour of concession to the Catholics and Dissenters , *< LETTER OF Mft . PIT < T TO THE LATE KING . . /' . ' , " Dpwrting Street , " Sat urday , January 31 st , 1801 , "Mn Pitt would have felt it , at all events , his duty , previous to the meeting of Parliament , to submit to your Majesty the result of the best consideration
which your confidential Servants could give to the important Questions respecting the Catholics and Dissenters , which must naturally be agitated in consequence of the Union . The knowledge of your Majesty ' s general indisposition to any change of the Laws on this
subject would have made this a painful task to him ; * and it is become much more so by learning from some of his colleagues , and , from other quarters , within these few days , the extent to which your Majesty entertains , and has declared , that sentiment .
* ' He trusts your Majesty will believe , that every principle of duty , gratitude , and attachment , must make him look to your Majesty ' s ease and satisfaction , in preference to all considerations , but those arising from a sense of what in his honest opinion is due to the real interest of your Majesty and your dominions . Under the impression of that opinion ,
he has concurred in what appeared to be the prevailing sentiments of the majority oi the Cabinet , —that the admission of the Catholics and Dissenters to offices , and of the Catholics to Parliament , ( from which latter the Dissenters are not now excluded ) would , under certain conditions to be specified , be highly
adviseabje , with a view to the tranquillity and improvement of Ireland , and to the general interest of the United Kingdom . " For himself , he 13 on full consideration convinced , that the measure would be attended with no danger to the Established Church , or to the Protestant Interest in Great Britain or Ireland ;—
That now the Union has taken place , and with the new provisions which would make part of the plan , it could never give any such weight in office , or in Parliament , either to Catholics or Dissenters , as could give them any new means ( if they were so cUsppsed ) of
attacking , the Establishment ; —that the grounds ,, on > which the , laws of exclusion now remaining were founded , have long been narrowed , and are since the Union removed ; -r- , tyat those t principles , for * merly M& by the , Ga ^ hpfc , wfcfy made them conwktered m p # litiflafly , ^ angejouj ^
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have been for a course of time gradually devilling , sM , anlong the higher orders particularly , liave ceased to prevail :-tthat the bbribxious tenets are disclaimed in the most positive manner by the Oaths , which have been required in Great Britain , and still more by one of those required in Ireland , as the condition of the indulgences already granted ,
and which might equally be made the condition of any new ones : —that if such an Oath , containing ( among other provisions ) a denial of the power of Absolution from its obligations , is not a securitv from Catholics , the sacramental test is not more so •—that the political circumstances under which the exclusive laws originated , arising either from the
conflicting power of hostile and nearly balanced Sects , from the apprehension of a Popish Queen or Successor , a dis- ^ puted succession and a foreign Pretender , and a division in Europe between Catholic and Protestant Powers , are no longer applicable to the present state of things : —that with respect to those of the Dissenters , who it is feared entertain
principles dangerous to the Constitution , a distinct political test , pointed against the doctrine of modern Jacobinism , would be a much more just and more effectual security , than that which now exists , which may operate to the exclusion of conscientious persons well affected to the State , and is no guard against those of an opposite description : —
" That with respect to the Catholies of Ireland , another most important additional security , and one of which the effect would continually increase , might be provided , by gradually attaching the Popish Clergy to the Government , and , for this purpose , making them dependent for a part of their provision ( under proper regulations ) on the State , and by also subjecting them to superintendence and controul : —
" That , besides these provisions , the general interests of the Established Church , and the security of the Constitution and Government , might be effectually strengthened by requiring the Political Test , before referred to , from the Preachers of all Catholic or Dissenting Congregations , and from the Teachers of Schools of every denomination .
"It is on these principles Miv Pitt humbly conceives a new Security might be obtained for the Civil and Ecclesiastical , Constitution of this country ^ more applicable to the present circumstances , more free from objection , and more ef ~ fectual in itself , than any which now
Untitled Article
Critfcal'Notice * ., 605
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1827, page 605, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1799/page/53/
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