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Untitled Article
manists are more sinning than sinned against . They , and they only , prevent the completion of their own enfranchisement . We confess that Emancipation must take place before the fabric of the British Constitution is finished ; but , at the same time , we maintain that it must be postponed from day to day , and from year to year , and from age to age , rather than be effected in a manner ( which will endanger the very Constitution itself .
< This is the point of view from which the subject should be presented to those who hesitate respecting the part which they ought to take . Many mistakes have arisen from looking at it in other directions . By denying that exclusion is an evil , the plainest dictates of common sense have been rejected The feelings of kind-hearted men , the principles of enlightened men , the experience of practical men , are arrayed against so monstrous a proposition . All that has been hitherto done for the Roman Catholics , all that has been
formerly and recently done for Dissenters of every other denomination , rises up and condemns such as say that Emancipation is never to be granted . The best answer that can be given to the advocate of the Roman Catholics , is to admit the general truth of every proposition for which he contends . Exclusion is a crying evil . When the number of the excluded is considerable , the nation at large participates in their sufferings . It is natural that they should endeavour to remove that bar which confines them within narrower
limits than the rest of their fellow-citizens . A feeling of inferiority , inseparable from their condition , must depress the timid and humble , and thus deprive the state of the advantage which it ought to receive from the unfettered exertions of the people . The same feeling will gall and irritate the haughty , the spirited , and the sensitive—men who are most able to benefit those they love , and to injure those they hate .
"Again , exclusion must always operate as an obstacle against inducing the Roman Catholics to reform their Church , or to join ours . Men of noble and generous spirits will stifle their convictions , will bow their neck to the Pope , will submit to be trampled upon by a priesthood whom they despise , and profess faith in doctrines which they disbelieve , rather than suffer themselves to be suspected of changing their colours for gain—of deserting a friend in the hour of distress , or of being bullied and beaten into truth .
" Let us hear no more , therefore , or , at all events , let us say no more of what has been said and heard too often and too long ; namely , that to deprive a man of office is not to deprive him of any natural right ; that Roman Catholics are tolerated , and ought not to ask for more ; that millions of our fellow-countrymen are doomed to perpetual restriction upon their political privileges , —to an . inferiority , a suspicion , and a jealousy , which must prevent their country from enjoying the full advantages of government , freedom , and
religion . Let the case be put the other way : —let us ask what the Roman Catholics mean by persevering in conduct which requires the continuance of that great evil—their exclusion from offices of political power and trust ? A serious evil we admit it to be ; but it is an evil which must be endured as long as circumstances require such a sacrifice ;—it is an evil which Roman Catholics can alone remedy or remove ; the Protestant has nothing to do in this
great crisis of his country ' s fate , but to bear whatever happens without flinching , to pity those from whose misconduct the calamity arises , and to assure them that he will persevere in an uncompromising resistance to their claims as long as they persevere in seditious encouragement of the demagogue , and in slavish submission to the priest "—Pp . \ 7 \ — 173 .
We congratulate our readers on these concessions , and still further on the admission , that , if Ireland were out of the way , there is nothing to prevent the English Roman Catholic from being placed on the footing of the Protestant Dissenter ; nay , further , that " if Ireland were at peace , the Roman Catholics might establish an undeniable right to every political privilege which other Dissenters now enjoy / ' Let no one , however , expect to reap much practi-
Untitled Article
108 Catholic Question .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1829, page 108, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2569/page/36/
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