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Untitled Article
those objects of lawful ambition which are the incentives and the rewards of a long * life of toil and labour , the freeholder , of the exercise of that qualification which is as dear to him as the proudest distinction is to the most exalted personage . " His Lordship justly complains of those who in the discussion of the Catholic claims confine all their inquiries to one source of information ,
and seem determined to rest their knowledge only in Protestant writers , who repeat obloquies one after another , which have been frequently and ably refuted , but never notice the replies . Among many who have done this , Dr . Southey in his Book of the Church r and the late Bishop of Winchester , in his life of Mr . Pitt , have not escaped his notice . A note in this part of
the Preliminary Observations deserves attention , in which , speaking of the wealth the Bishop left behind him , Lord S . draws a comparison between Protestant and Catholic establishments by no means favourable to the former , in permitting the revenues of the church to be appropriated to the aggrandizement of individuals who hold them , rather than to the repairs and embellishments of the churches and the relief of the necessitous . *
" Emancipation , " says Lord S ., " is no longer a question between two parties in the State ; it is a question between two nations , one struggling for its liberties , the other endeavouring to rivet the chains of slavery and oppression ; this is a contest going * on , and which will g * o on in the very heart of the British empire , and between two people not very unequally balanced in either physical or moral force ; and is it to be supposed that this struggle is never to produce any thing but angry murmurs and irritated feelings ?"
When will our rulers see that they are continuing this fatal division which must every day weaken more and more the strength of the empire , and alienate the minds of millions of its citizens , who , by a different treatment , might be ranked among the best and bravest of her sons ? Let those laws be abrogated which point out the Catholics as aliens and enemies , which stamp them with a brand of infamy , because they adhere to the dictates of
their consciences , and profess the religion which they have received from their fathers , and then , instead of being a separate nation struggling for its liberties , they will be a band of brothers ever to be found in the foremost ranks when danger threatens our common parent . The mischiefs which Ireland suffers by the operation of unjust , oppressive , and persecuting laws , are feelingly and eloquently expressed , and the apathy with which these evils are regarded by the English public forcibly and truly stated .
" Really , to judge from the contents of our public press , the details of a fashionable party , the birth of some unnatural monster among the animal creation , or even the flowering of a primrose in January , is of more importance to the people of England than are the most vital interests of the sister island , the possession of which has alone elevated us above the rank of secondary , nations , by fupnishing us with almost unlimited resources , by supplying half our navy and more than half our army . "
* Here we are afraid his Lordship has not been ingenuous , or has not extended his inquiries so far as he might have done . Some Protestant bishops have undoubtedly applied their large incomes improperly , but have not Catholic- prelates sometimes done the same ? Have not the nephews and nieces of many prelates ,
and eyen of some pontiffs , , been enriched from the incomes of the church ? When he recorded the large fortune which the late Bishop of Winchester left behind him , he should not have forgotten an instance of a different kind—he should also have stated th&t the truly illustrious Tillotson left to his widow no other wealth than the copy of to sermon * . .
Untitled Article
Review . —Lord Shrewsbury ' s Reasons . 46-1
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1828, page 461, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2562/page/29/
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