Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

case had given offence, prepared another petition, merely praying that the House would take into consideration, whether the removal of some of the grievances of the petitioners might not be compatible with Protestant security. This petition was presented by Mr. Egan, on the 18th of February; and on the 20th, was afterwards rejected, on a division of 200 to 23.

On the same day was also rejected a petition from the Protestant inhabitants of Belfast, which went much farther than the petition of the Catholics, as it required that they should be placed on the same footing with their Protestant fellow-subjects.

It was on the 3d January of this year, that Mr. Burke published his letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe, in which he gave that learned and liberal opinion upon the subject of the elective franchise, which, it is said, obtained the royal assent to the measure that afterwards was adopted for conceding it. This letter was fadmirably well adapted to meet every species of objection, moral, local, and constitutional. It was calculated to remove the prejudices of the Church of England and every sect of Protestant dissenters; and, above all, it was quite conclusive, as a demonstration of the compatibility of Catholic emancipation with the coronation bath.

At a meeting of the general committee, on the 4th February, the following resolutions were agreed to, and afterwards published, with an address to the Protestants, written by Mr. R. Burke, and corrected by his father. To this address were added the answers of the foreign Catholic universities to questions that had been put to them in 1789, at the desire of Mr. Pitt, concerning the existence and extent of the Popish dispensing power.

Resolved, That this committee has been informed that reports have been circulated, that the application of the Catholics for relief, extends to unlimited and total emancipation; and that attempts have been made, wickedly and falsely, to instil into the minds of the Protestants of this kingdom an opinion, that our applications were preferred in a tone of menace.

Resolved, That several Protestant gentlemen have expressed great satisfaction on being individually informed of the real extent and respectful manner of the applications for relief, have assured us, that nothing could have excited jealousy, or apparent opposition to us, from our Protestant countrymen, but the abovementioned misapprehensions.

[ocr errors]

Resolved, That we therefore deem it necessary to declare, that the whole of our date applications, whether to his Majesty's Ministers, to men in power, or to private members of the legislature, as well as our intended petition, neither did, nor does contain any

thing, or extend further, either in substance or in principle, than the four following objects.

1st. Admission to the profession and practice of the law. 2d. Capacity to serve as county magistracies.

3d. A right to be summoned, and to serve on grand and petty juries.

4th. The right of voting in counties only for Protestant members of Parliament; in such a manner, however, as that a Roman Catholic freeholder should not vote, unless he either rented, and cultivated a farm of twenty pounds per annum, in addition to his forty shillings freehold; or else possessed a freehold to the amount of twenty pounds a-year.

Resolved, That, in our opinion, these applications, not extending to any other objects than the above, are moderate, and absolutely necessary for our general alleviation, and more particularly for the protection of the Catholic farmers and the peasantry of Ireland; and that they do not, in any degree, endanger either church or state, or endanger the security of the Protestant in

terest.

Resolved, That we never had an idea or thought so extravagant, as that of menacing or intimidating our Protestant brethren, much less the legislature; and that we disclaim the violent and turbulent intentions imputed to us in some of the public prints, and circulated in private conversation.

Resolved, That we refer to the known disposition of the Roman Catholics of this kingdom, to our dutiful behaviour, during a long series of years, and particularly to the whole tenor of our late proceedings, for the full refutation of every charge of sedition and disloyalty.

Resolved, That for the more ample and detailed exposure of all the evil reports and calumnies circulated against us, an address to our Protestant fellow-subjects, and to the public in general, be printed by the order and in the name of the general committee. The queries and answers concerning the Popish dispensing power, are as follow:

1st. Has the Pope or Cardinals, or any body of men, or any individual of the Church of Rome, any civil authority, power, jurisdiction, or pre-eminence whatsoever, within the realm of England ?

2d. Can the Pope or Cardinals, or any body of men, or any individual of the Church of Rome, absolve or dispense with his Majesty's subjects from their oath of allegiance, upon any pretext

whatsoever ?

3d. Is there any principle in the tenets of the Catholic faith,

by which Catholics are justified in not keeping faith with heretics, or other persons differing from them in religious opinions, in any transaction, either of a public or a private nature?

Abstract from the Answer of the Sacred Faculty of Divinity of Paris to the above Queries.

After an introduction according to the usual forms of the university, they answer the first query by declaring:

Neither the Pope, nor the Cardinals, nor any body of men, nor any other person of the Church of Rome hath any civil authority, civil power, civil jurisdiction, or civil pre-eminence whatsoever, in any kingdom; and consequently, none in the kingdom of England, by reason or virtue of any authority, power, jurisdiction, or pre-eminence by divine institution inherent in, or granted, or by any other means belonging to the Pope, or the Church of Rome. This doctrine the Sacred Faculty of Divinity of Paris has always held, and upon every occasion maintained, and upon every occasion has rigidly proscribed the contrary doctrines from her schools.

Answer to the second query.-Neither the Pope, nor the Cardinals, nor any body of men, nor any person of the Church of Rome, can, by virtue of the keys, absolve or release the subjects of the King of England from their oath of allegiance.

This and the first query are so intimately connected that the answer of the first immediately and naturally applies to the second, &c.

Answer to the third query.-There is no tenet in the Catholic church, by which Catholics are justified in not keeping faith with heretics, or those who differ from them in matters of religion. The tenet, that it is lawful to break faith with heretics, is so repugnant to common honesty and the opinions of Catholics, that there is nothing of which those who have defended the Catholic faith against Protestants have complained more heavily than the malice and calumny of their adversaries in imputing this tenet to them, &c. &c. &c.

Given at Paris, in the General Assembly of the Sorbonne, held on Thursday the 11th day before the calends of March, 1789. Signed in due form.

University of Louvain.

The Faculty of Divinity at Louvain having been requested to give her opinion upon the questions above stated, does it with readiness-but struck with astonishment that such questions should,

at the end of this eighteenth century, be proposed to any learned body, by inhabitants of a kingdom that glories in the talents and discernment of its natives. The Faculty being assembled for the above purpose, it is agreed, with the unanimous assent of all voices, to answer the first and second queries absolutely in the negative.

The Faculty does not think it incumbent upon her, in this place, to enter upon the proofs of her opinion, or to show how it is supported by passages in the Holy Scriptures, or the writings of antiquity. That has already been done by Bossuet, De Marca, the two Barclays, Goldastus, the Pithæuses, Argentre Widrington, and his Majesty King James the First, in his Dissertation against Bellarmine and Du Perron, and by many others, &c. &c. &c.

The Faculty then proceeds to declare, that the sovereign power of the state is in nowise (not even indirectly, as it is termed) subject to, or dependent upon any other power; though it be a spiritual power, or even though it be instituted for eternal salvation, &c. &c.

That no man, nor any assembly of men, however eminent in dignity and power, nor even the whole body of the Catholic church, though assembled in general council, can, upon any ground of pretence whatsoever, weaken the bond of union between the Sovereign and the people; still less can they absolve or free the subjects from their oath of allegiance.

Proceeding to the third question, the said Faculty of Divinity fin perfect wonder that such a question should be proposed to her most positively and unequivocally answers, that there is not, and there never has been, among the Catholics, or in the doctrines of the Church of Rome, any law or principle whch makes it lawful for Catholics to break their faith with heretics, or others of a different persuasion from themselves, in matters of religion, either in public or private concerns.

The Faculty declares the doctrine of the Catholics to be, that the divine and natural law, which makes it a duty to keep faith and promises, is the same; and is neither shaken nor diminished, if those, with whom the engagement is made, hold erroneous opinions in matters of religion, &c. &c.

Signed in due form on the 18th of November, 1788.

OR,

AN EXAMINATION

OF THE DEFINITIONS

OF THIS SUBJECT

GIVEN BY MODERN ECONOMISTS.

BY SIR EGERTON BRYDGES, BARt.

GENEVA :

PRINTED BY W. FICK.

AUGUST,-1821.

LONDON:1822.

« ZurückWeiter »