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    it . The Bill will have the further good effect of doing away one topic of division among us—for after this , at ho General Election , and in no County , can the present Ministers presume to revive the cry of No Popery . July Wth ,

    The Courier ? in animadverting' on the paragraph in our Paper respecting the Bill which removes the great disability suffered by the Roman Catholics , says that wr omitted a sentence in the Bill , by which the measure is misrepresented . We sb' * 'd in n few words the substance of tl :: sentence ,

    viz . that there were doubt . s whether the provisions of the ancient Acts were still in force : the words beinar , " Whereas the practice of taking the said oaths , and making and subscribing the said declarations by officers ,

    previous to their receiving commissions in his Majesty ' s army , had been long disused ; and wliereas it is expedient to remove such doubts , and to assimilate the practice of the two services . —Be it therefore enacted , " &c .

    Now we submit to the consideration of our readers , whether we did not state this curious concession of ministers fairly and candidly . In regard to the army , our Roman Catholic

    brethren lived upon sufferance . The existing law was dispensed with . In the navy it was rigorously enforced . In the first i < hung" over them in terror em . In the other it was a positive exclusion . The liberal administration

    of Lord Grenville and Lord Grey exerted themselves to remove the obstacle to the fair and honourable ambition of gallant men ; and a cry was set up , that his Majesty ' s coronation oath stood in the way . The whole bench of bishops , with one single exception , stood up against the dreadful

    attack on the conscience of the King . The whole phalanx of the present administration joined the cry—Lord Grenville and Lord Grey yielded their places to their principles . The cry of No Popery was sounded all over the

    united kingdom , and a new parliament was elected under the influence of that clamour—a parliament that added several hundred millions to the national debt , and to which we are so peculiarly indebted for the burthens under which we labour ! The curiosity of the measure therefore is , that

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    it is identically the same as tfrat introduced by Lord Grenville anc } Lord Grey , and this is acknowledged by The Courier . " It is very true , " savs the writer in The Courier 9 " that this bill is nearly the same in practical

    effect , ns that brought in in 1806 , by Lords Grenville and Grey , and the defeat of which was one of the grounds of their retirement from office , bujt the event oniy shews how crude and undigested their measure was , aud how little the , understood of the case ,

    . since it is dear in ^ i the arm y was at that time in practice opvn to the Calholu- * , iUid that it is doubtful whether , in caw , both army and n \\ v \ were not so . " It is not easv to conceive a train .

    of reasoning more audacious than this , and it betrays the pen from which it came . Mr . Croker brought this famous bill into the House of Commons , after it had passed through the House

    of Lords , and this is the strain in which he supports it ii ) The Courier ! The measure is in effect practically the same as that of the bill of 1806 , and vet the former was crude and

    undigested . ' 4 'his bill is to settle doubts that existed on the interpretation of ancient laws—and so was the bill erf 1806 . This is to open both services equally to the Catholics , and to protect them against the intolerance of any man who might , by administering

    the oaths and requiring the declarations , prevent them from entering into the military or naval service , and so was the measure against which the whole pack of time-servers , lords of the back stairs , courtiers , bishops and expectants joined in full cry ; and

    upon which the present Cabinet , in an evil hour , was formed . So far , therefore , from the measure being crude and undigested , the conduct of the present ministers serves only to prove its wisdom and liberality , since after ten years' more experience , after

    having doomed the Roman Cathqlic population to ten years more of doubtful incapacity as to the army , and of total exclusion as to the navy , fhey come forward , acknowledge the

    injustice of the intolerant system , and adopt the very measure for which their predecessors were excluded from office ! In 1807 they gave a secret irresponsible advice to his Majesty * that such a concession would be at

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    Intelligence *—Concessions to the Catholics . 56 $

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    VOL . XII . 4 D

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1817, page 569, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2468/page/57/