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Untitled Article
strong Papist influence exists in each , and is likely to include nearly every Irish member of the Commons after another general election . * No united ministry can be found to conduct our Government , without the absurd expedient of taking raw and unknown men ; the attention and energy of our Government are distracted and drawn away from all other important affairs of State , by this ever-urgent and hopeless topic ; the heirs-apparent of many
powerful men are at open variance with those whose places they expect to fill ; even the heir-apparent of the throne avowing an opinion favourable to the claims of the Papists . All things , in fact , are at variance ; disunion and disruption existing and increasing in every quarter , and in every rank amongst us . Affairs in Ireland are come to such a state , that no man , of any party , even pretends to suppose that a refusal of the claims of the Papists can have any other issue than rebellion and civil war . "—Pp . 15 , 16 .
The " Protestant" appears to be a Birmingham man , and writes primarily for his townsmen . He shews much good sense , seasoned with occasional smartness , in meeting the common objections to the safety of trusting Catholics with power . For instance : " How trifling the obedience is which the Catholics are disposed to y ield to his papal majesty , history shews , even when the pope had a great deal of the substance of that power of which he now retains nothing but the shadow .
Some of the severest laws that have ever beea passed against the interference of the pope in the concerns of England , were passed in the reign of Edward the First , that is to say , more than two hundred years before the Reformation was even heard of , and when the pope was acknowledged to be the head of the church . These laws , called the laws of prcemunire , impose very severe penalties on any one who shall venture to obey the authority of the pope , when opposed to that of government . And the king , by several direct acts ,
shewed how little he respected the directions of the representative of St . Peter . The pope forbad Edward ' s invasion of Scotland —Edward laughed at the pope , and marched northwards . The pope excommunicated an Englishman who had offended him—Edward ordered the messenger who brought the writ of excommunication to be hanged . The pope granted the English clergy an exemption from a tax that had been levied on the people generally—Edward seized on the property of the clergy in spite of the exemptions . ' —Pp .
16 , 17 . The " Rector of Alderly" endeavours , in a manner worthy of a minister of the gospel of peace , to enlighten his parishioners by an historical view of the conduct of the Catholics , intermixed with reflections of a truly Christian character . The Letter to the Rev . W . Thorpe is a most clear and cogent piece of argument , which we should gladly have inserted entire , had our limits allowed . We can only make two short extracts . The general principle stated :
" Whatever annexes temporal evil of any kind to the exercise or profession of religious opinions , whether by the infliction of disgrace and obloquy , of pain and fear , or of hatred and suspicion , —by injury to the peace , the property , the domestic charities , the civil rights and privileges , tbe influence and respectability of another , —or , by the destruction of liberty or of life , is an infringement on the rights of conscience : and , however inflicted , whether by the power of the tongue , the pen , or the sword , by the strong arm of human law and temporal dominion , or by the no less powerful influence of the press or the pulpit , —such infringement on the rights of conscience is a
spe-~~ ¦ ' f ¦ ¦ ' —— - ¦ ¦ i * " The recent election in the county of Claie reduces this probability ; ilmost to a certainty , **
Untitled Article
The Catholic Relief Bill . 279
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1829, page 279, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2571/page/55/
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