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the design of the luminous " Report of the Secret Committee of the House of Commons , " in some shape or other to bring about ? With respect to the Catholic bishops , it would be difficult to point out any body of men who have displayed more loyalty upon all
occasions , or who have more earnestly endeavoured to impress upon the minds of the lower orders of society the important duty of civil obedience . Read their Pastoral Charges : through every page of those excellent publications , the genuine spirit of Christian charity is diffused ; and the beneficial effects © f their exertions were
acknowledged in more instances than one by the Government of Ireland . Nor are the Catholic priests of Ireland less remarkable for the exemplary discharge of their ministerial function . I speak , my Lords , of what I have repeatedly seen and known . Is infancy to be instructed , —is youth to
be admonished , —is old age to be comforted , —are the consolations of religion to be administered to * a dying peasant in his last moments , —the priest , however inconvenient to him , kr always at his post . He traverses a wide and dreary bog , in the midst of the darkest night , ^ and of the most tempestuous weather , —
" No dangers fright him , and no labours tire 5 " and for all this laudable performance of professional duty , he receives nothing which deserves the name of a compensation , in the present life . It
is , my Lords , with heartfelt satisfaction that I go out of my way to bear my humble testimony in favour of men whose merits are very- much under-rated ; and who are but too frequently neglected by those who , from worldly motives , should pay
them attention ; were it only on account of the influence which they deservedly have over the minds of their numerous congregations ; an in * fluewce which , if properly directed , would prove incalculably useful to the Government of Ireland ; an influence to which we are at this moment
in great measure indebted for the calm resignation with which thousands of miserable wretches bear up against an almost total want of food , of ckrthees , and of fire . Sucb being the character nod oaaduet of thes £
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excellent ministers of the Gospel , where , I again ask , is the expediency of making any alteration in their ecclesiastical discipline ; admitting , for a moment , the right of a civil government to interfere in the ecclesiastical
discipline or doctrine of individuals dissenting from the Established Church , but maintaining no doctrines either subversive of morality or injurious to the welfare of the State , —a right , which I was taught in early life to call in question by two of the greatest
masters of reason whom this or any other country ever produced—I mea t * Locke and Hoadley ? It is n 6 t , however , my intention to abuse your Lordships' indulgence by engaging in abstract disquisitions . I shall therefore only observe further , in
answer to those who say , and say most truly , that it is indispensably necessary that we should have ample security for our own civil and ecclesiastical establishment , —nothing , my JLords , can be more incontrovertible than this position—nothing more
just than the principle on which it rests ; but surely it is a principle which ought to be applied with some reference to a reasonable apprehension of danger . It is not every idle fear , every mean and narrow suggestion of bigotry , every injurious suspicion ,
every ill-grounded jealousy , which can justify the exclusion of five millions of loyal civil subjects from their civil privileges - Shew me , said a very able , a very eloquent , and a very
honest patriot , in another place , — shew me a real danger , and you shall have any security you wish for . This challenge , my Lords , never has been accepted , and , though no prophet , I dare venture to foretell , never will .
With a man who can seriously persuade himself that the admission of six respectable noblemen into this House , and of not twenty-six into the other House of Parliament , would undermine the fabric of our incomparable Constitution , it is impossible to reason : there must be something more than
reason at the bottom of ms objections * In truth , he who now talks oT danger from Popery , would ( asJDr . Jafanson observed ) liare cried out fire in the defoge * 1 ah&tf detain your Lordships no longer . You have it stilt in your power , by acceding to the prayer of the petitioner * for fcirtf pri-
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Speech of the JRitfiop ofNortvich in JFavour of the Catholics . 477
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1817, page 477, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2467/page/29/
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