On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
vital question of religions liberty , the time to speak is so long as life and breath hcrld with us ; the time to be silent will come when we are in our graves . '' ( Applause . ) Dr . Carpenter read and commented upon some extracts from a letter from Lord Holland , expressive of the Noble
Lord ' s opinion as to the course which it became Disseuters to pursue in the present state of the Catholic Question ; and of his confidence in their promoting , by the part they would take in the discussions now going on , both local and general , on this topic , the extension to others of the rights which had recently been recovered by themselves .
On Mr . Towgood ' s health being drunk , that Gentleman briefly returned thanks . The next toast , and it was drunk with continued cheering and applause , was , " The Marquis of Anglesea , and may there be no ascendaucy in Ireland but the ascendancy of just and equal laws . " Mr . Charms Butler ' s health was
drunk , upon which that Ge : ; tleman returned thanks . He said , that the whole body of Catholics to which he belonged , and that he himself , were highly honoured and obliged by the manner in which they had been mentioned , and the expressions in favour of Catholic Emancipation which had been used by several of the gentlemen present , and by the manner in which these had been
rereceived . He mentioned that he was in his seventy- ninth year ; that in his twentieth year , he had attended the trial of a Mr . Mahony , a Roman Catholic clergyman , who was condemned to perpetual imprisonment for baptizing a child after the Catholic rite ; and that ,
about the same time , he had attended the trial , at the Old Bailey , of the Hod . James Talbot , a brother of the then Earl of Shrewsbury , for saying mass ; and who , if the case had not failed for want of evidence , would have been sentenced to the same punishment . He had advocated the cause of Catholic
Emancipation during half a century , and had always advocated it on the broadest principles of civil and religious liberty—on principles equally applicable to every denomination of Christians—to Lutherans , Calvinists , Arminiaus , Presbyterians ; and last , but not least in love , Unitarians . Mr . Charles Fox had once sent to him , and asked him what was the best ground upon which he could place the cause of Catliolic Emancipation . He told Mr . Fox thut it was , that the state
Untitled Article
had no right to deprive any persons of any of their civil rights on account of their religious principles , if these were not contrary to allegiance , good order , or morality . " No , Sir , " Mr . Fox
replied , " this is not the best ground ; the only true and real ground , and such as is impregnable in every part , is , that aotioriy not principley is the object of penal infliction ; " that " priuciple , till it is carried into action , is no more than
thought ; " that " God rewards good thoughts , and the devil punishes bad ones , and these should "be left to him . " He had mentioned the trials which he had witnessed in the twentieth year of his age . In his seventy-eighth year , he had witnessed the noble legislative enactment for the repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts , —an event at which
none of his Majesty ' s subjects , not even the persons benefited by it , more sincerely rejoiced than the Roman Catholics . He declared that what had passed at that meeting would never escape his or their memory or gratitude . Before he sat down he begged to appeal to Mr . Blount , to confirm the truth of his representation respecting the feelings of Catholics towards Dissenters .
Mr . Blount expressed his gratitude to the Meeting for the flattering reception they had given to the mention of his name ; he assured them that no event had occurred for years which had been so grateful to the Catholic body as thre recent repeal of the Sacra
mental Test 5 that the Catholics had used their best endeavours to promote its attainment . The highest in the body , as well as others of every class , had pushed forward to sign petitions to Parliament in its favour ; and he knew no instance in which a signature had been refused . It had been insinuated to them
that the Catholics were not following the course , in so doing , the most conducive to their own interest—that they were assisting to diminish the mass of public discontent , and eventually ruining themselves . The reply of the Catholics universally was , No dread of consequences or measures of expediency shall induce us to be unjust , or to sacrifice the
principle winch we have laid down as the line of our conduct ; namely , that no human power was entitled to interpose between man and his Maker , by imposing civil disabilities on account of religious beliefs ; and that the Catholics would submit to any evil rather than abandon this sacred principle . ( Loud cheers . ) That in this instauce . however ^
Untitled Article
Intelligence . —Dinner to the Rev . H . Montgomery . 147
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1829, page 147, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2569/page/75/
-