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these Mr . Prel proudly replied ; but in general th ^ y were answered by his former opponents . In one instance the Duke of Wellington explained to a questioner , that when he wrote his famous letter to Dr . Curtis , he had not obtained the Royal permission to take the settlement of the Catholic question under the protection of the Cabinet . The principal oratory of the week was
ou Friday m the House of Lords , when the Earl of Winchelsea presented the Peuenden Heath petition , and Earl Grey spoke , whose eloquent defence of the great question of civil and religious liberty we regret we are precluded from giving .
February 16 th . A number of petitions were presented against the Claims of the Catholics . Lord Colchester , in presenting one of this description from the Protestant Bishops aud Clergy of Dublin , took occasion to avow that his sentiments remained unchanged ; that he saw with regret the course adopted by Ministers ; and that it would lead to the overthrow
of the Constitution as settled at the Revolution . ( Hear , hear . ) His Lordship concluded by asking for information in regard to the particular measures into jided to be introduced . The Duke of Wellington said , he had already stated the general purport of the measures , and he declined entering further at present upon the question . ( Hear , hear . ) They would be brought forward on the responsibility of Ministers , who hoped that they would be adopted by both Houses . They had not been resolved upon through fear , as had been alleged , nor any such motive , but from a conviction of the necessity of a final adjustment of the question . It was not an agreeable task , and he and his friends had sacrificed much , particularly
his honourable friend ( Mr . Peel ) in another place . When the measures came to be discussed , he should be able to prove , that the Protestant interest would be exposed to greater danger by allowing the present laws to remain , than by adopting the alteration intended , by which all the Catholic disabilities would
be removed , with certain exceptions . Lord Holland , in reply to Lord Colchester ' s assertion that the possession of political power by the Catholics would overturn the Constitution settled at the Revolution , observed , that the laws intended to be repealed were not created at the Revolution , were not fundamental principles of the Constitution , and would not have been passed if a Protestant
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Intelligence .--Catholic Question . 221
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Succession to the Throne had been established . The rights of the people wvre established at the Revolution , and among them is the right to be admitted into alt offices , aud to take a part in the government of the country . The repeal of the laws in question , so far from violating the Constitution , will restore it , and render the Protestant Succession more
secure . As long as the majority of the nation remains Protestant , there will be a Protestant Parliament , although Catholics be allowed to sit in it , as they were formerly . The King ' s right to the Crown was not , as some maintained , founded in his ancestry or in his
Protestantism , but was a clear Parliamentary right , derived from the powers of the Constitution and the Common Law , aud inherent in the people to provide for the security of the Government . ( Hear , hear . ) To call this right in question would be treason . Many important laws made at the Revolution have been since
altered . Frequent Parliaments were asserted by the Bill of Rights , and yet Septennial Parliaments had been made legal—so that the Constitution had not been held inviolable ; aud Noble Lords were not so anxious to uphold it untouched wheu the question related to the rights of their fellow-subjects ! Lord Eldov expressed his entire dissent from the arguments of the Noble Lord .
February 17 th . A number of petitious were presented against the Catholic Claims , and some in favour of them ; one from Worcestershire , signed -by 5 , 700 persons , but which , Lord Lyttleton contended , did not express the sentiments of the county , as it was not agreed to at a public meeting .
Lord Faliyiouth , in presenting some petitions from Cornwall , noticed the . « peech of Earl Grey , made a few nights since , and observed that the vote of the House of Commons , last year , was against the Catholic Claims , so that it did not appear that the public opinion had grown in their favour , as was asserted . He admitted that there was but a choice of evils ; that the overthrow of
the present administration would be a great one ; but contended that the greatest evil of all would be the breaking up that great and glorious constitution to which we were indebted for all our prosperity , —for all our prosperity ( said the Noble Lord ) was owing to our pure Protestant religion . He insisted that the conduct of Ministers had been brought about by intimidation .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1829, page 221, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2570/page/69/
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