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principles of religious liberty are fully as well understood , and as liberally practised , in Catholic as in Protestant States . We entreat you deeply to consider the effects of the example of the legislation
of this country on the various nations of the world : above all , weigh well Its consequences on the rising States of South America . We beg of you to keep constantly in view what power of argument the continuance of these laws of
exclusion affords to every enemy of li"berty , whether civil or religious , throughout the world . We request you to put this question to your own minds . Is there another country in the world where , for conscience ' sake , several of the most ancient nobles
of the land are deprived of their hereditary privileges ; where hundreds of gentlemen , possessors of ancient and large landed estates , are deprived of honours and rights , the usual attendants on birth and property ; where the industry of the merchant and the talent of the lawyer are checked ia the midst of their
respective careers ; where 6 , 000 , 000 or 7 , 000 , 000 of the people are deprived of the benefit of equal chances under equal laws ? And as a proof of the direful but natural effects of such a system of law , we implore you to look at Ireland , that island of genius and fertility . Behold her in all her nakedness and all her miserv !
Our religion is said to be peculiarly proselyting . If to proselyte be to convince by the use of fair argument , then is ours a proselyting religion . As Englishmen , we claim the right of free discussion , and we should be ashamed to call
ourselves your fellow-subjects could we forego this valuable privilege . Hut if to proselyte be to substitute force for argument , and to give premiums for apostacy and hypocrisy , such proselytism is a disgrace to any form of Christianity , and we solemnlv abjure it .
We entreat you to endeavour to divest your minds of preconceived impressions to our disadvantage , and calmly to examine the situation in which we stand . In a country boasting of peculiar liberality , we suffer severe privations , because we differ from you in religious belief . The remaining penalties , neithei few nor trivial , of a penal code of
unparalleled severity , still press upon us . A Catholic Peer cannot sit and vote in the House of Peers , and is thus depr ived of Ins most valuable birthright ; a Catholic Commoner cannot sit and vote in the House of Commons ; a Catholic freeholder may be prevented from voting at elections for members ; he am not sit in the Privy Council , or be a Minister ot
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the Crown ; he cannot be a Judge , or hold any Crown office in any of the Spiritual , Equity , or Common Law Courts ; he may practise at the bar , but he cannot become a King ' s counsel ; he cannot hold any office in any of the Corporations ; he cannot graduate at either of the Universities , much less enjoy any of
the numerous beneficial offices connected with them , although both of those seats of learning were founded by Catholics ; he cannot marry either a Protestant or a Catholic , unless the ceremony be performed by a Protestant clergyman ; he cannot settle real or personal property
for the use of his church , or of Catholic schools , or for auy other purpose of the Catholic religion ; he canaot vote at vestries , or present to a living in the church , though both those rights seem to appertain to the enjoyment of property , and may actually be exercised by infidels .
Such are our principal grievances ; but more than all we complain of the galling brand of disgrace which is the consequence of these disqualifications , which is more intolerable to honourable minds than the severest pressure " of penal infliction , and necessarily implies guilt upon our part , or injustice upon yours .
From early youth to the last stage of existence , we are doomed to bear about us a painful feeling of iuferiority and of undeserved reproach , tfc is to us no matter of surprise , that tales which malevolence invented in troubled times , which
party zeal propagated , and which , in many instances , were sanctioned by the forms though not by the reality of justice , should be perpetuated even to this hour ; and that a general mass of prejudice should have been created , requiring centuries to remove . The infant is
taught , with his first accents , to impugn our faith ; his education matures his early impressions , and he remains through life the creature of prejudice . Persons possessed of the most honourable feelings , and incapable of sanctioning injustice or deceit , are thus drawn in to become our opponents . We beseech all
such attentively to investigate before they finally condemn . We invite all to the cool consideration of our principles , because we know that they will bear the test of the closest inquiry . If there be persons who barter principle for place , trade in our degradation , and encourage
prejudices which they despise ; if SIIC ' there be , they are not more our enemies than yours ; and he it our mutual task to unveil them , that religion , the child of heaven , may not be disfigured by human passions ,, nor infidelity find an ally in our want of charity to each other , tf caring equally with you , our teliovv-
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628 Address of the Catholics qf England to their Protestant Countrymen
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1826, page 628, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2553/page/56/
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