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come a source of political Patronage and Intrigue. Your Clergy were doomed to pass in servile and periodical review before the Minister of the day: whether he should happen to be some furious Bigot, or some cold and shameful Reviler of CHRIST; no matter: but the Successors of Patrick; the Champions of your Religion; the anointed witnesses to the purity of your Faith; the conservators of the purity of your morals, were to be appointed under the effectual controul of such a man.

"The treacherous bargain has been held out to our brethren of a neighbouring country. They have received the ad

lacy of your Church was destined to be- I the danger to which their religion was exposed, and accordingly a letter was sent from this country to the Right Rev. Dr. Moylan, requiring that the Rev. John Ryan should be suspended from the discharge of his clerical functions. Mr. Ryan had left the diocese of Cork in the interim, and had gone to Dublin. Information being obtained of this, an application to the same effect was made to Archbishop Troy; but that Prelate considering the passage as a very excellent admonition to the Catholic body, declined complying with the wishes of the meek and submissive adherents to the spiritual authority in the English Committee. What a striking similitude does this application for the suspension of the eloquent preacher bear to the Canandian instructions. Let, say the "The same insidious overture has been Vetoists, those priests who dare to exmade to Catholic Ireland. Her prover-hort their flocks against the fatal meabial attachment to her faith has consures now pursuing to subvert the quered. Her superior constancy, like the superior chastity of her daughters, has purity of their religion and its minisspurned the seducer, with the calm but ters, be suspended. Let, say the irresistible authority of virtue. I conProtestant-ascendancy men, all the gratulate my country on this event; it Romish priests be forbidden, upon pain will form an era in her history, honour of deprivation, to inveigh in their serable alike to the present venerable Suc-mons against the religion of the Church cessors of St. Patrick, and to the people

vances of the seducer with servile com

placency-a single pillar of their little Church stands alone to uphold the tottering fabric; and the name of MILNER has become identified with whatever of honour or of safety may yet remain to the Catholic Faith in his country.

entrusted to their care. Thanks to GOD they have not dishonoured the memory of their forefathers. A great question, involving in its consequences the purity of their Faith, has not been discussed in the midst of a Feast-No profane levity, like that of Herod, has hurried them into a rash UNDEFINED PROMISE, or placed their Church, like the blood of the Precursor of Christ, at the mercy of its bitterest foes: nor has the honour of our

Peerage been prostituted in a vile attempt to seduce or overawe a single Bishop into an abandonment of his trust."

This sermon appeared in London, and the passage here quoted excited great displeasure among the lovers of the spiritual authority in the English Board. For what reason I am at a loss to conjecture, except for the just delineation given of the then progress of the Veto here in England. However, these gentlemen determined to wreak their vengeance upon the Clergyman who thus dared to warn the people against

of England. By this, my friends, you may see the dreadful gulph in which the late relief Bill, with its infamous we should have been enveloped, had clauses, which M. Quarantotti decreed we should have received with gratitude, passed into a law. By this you may discover what sort of loyalty would have been requisite in a divine to have qualified him to pass through all the tricks and machinery of the proposed lay committee, before he could, according to law, have exercised his pastoral functions, What thanks! what gratitude! do we not owe to those venerable and patriotic men, who exerted themselves so nobly and courageously to avert the greatest and most fatal misfortune which could have befallen us-the most alarming calamity which has menaced our faith since the days of Luther. And shall we then hesitate to join the standard of the supporters of our religion? Shall we

delay one moment to place our signa- | being obliged to lay aside those marks tures to a petition which will unite us of distinction which they had been inin sentiments with Catholic Irelaud? vested with in the most solemn manNo; it cannot be. Mark but the pro- ner, accompanied with much religious gress of those men who have hitherto ceremony, and some of whom have called upon you for your support; exa- worn them more than half a century? mine their conduct from the publication Is it not more mysterious that an order of the Blue Books, in which they pro- should be given in this country for tested against the just exercise of the Catholic ladies to lay aside all marks episcopal prerogative as an encroach- of being religious, at the same moment ment on their RELIGIOUS RIGHTS, that his Holiness was recommending the down to the late order for disrobing revival of religious orders, which had the Nuns of their religious habits, and been persecuted and abolished by the you will find that the same irreligious revolutionary government of Napoleon, and latitudinarian system which now and was setting the example in his own And is it not much more reigns amongst our Protestant country. states? men, prevails throughout the whole of mysterious that there should be men the proceedings of this dangerous clothed also with a religious character party. In 1790, these men were who can approve of such a step towards anxious to give us a new name: yes, latitudinarianism as the order exhibits? we were to lay aside the glorious name The number, however, in this metropoof CATHOLIC, and assume the anolis is but few-not more, perhaps, than malous title of Protesting-Catholic-eight or ten. And it is a great conso Dissenters!!! And now, in 1814, to gratify the wishes of our No-Popery enemies, and smooth the way to temporal advantages, they wish to see the Catholic religion secularized, and all religious societies totally abolished!!! If such is not the case, what other motive could induce the experiment to be hazarded in the instance alluded to, when there is not a statute law in the land by which it could be enforced? And why were a few defenceless and unprotected women selected as the victims of their craft? Why did they not, like men, if their motives were pure and disinterested, single out those who were able to defend themselves; and not torture the feelings of the weaker sex? These holy and secluded women endeavoured to soften the rigour of the order, and to get an extension of the time allowed for them to lay aside their venerated dress; but all to no purpose"the orders were absolute," and the application was deemed by some of the friends to the measure to be very MYSTERIOUS. Now, my friends, would not you have thought it far more mysterious if these persecuted and injured ladies had not expressed their regret and sorrow at

lation to me to say, that the measure is generally and warmly disapproved of throughout the kingdom. But it is not the less necessary that we should be upon our guard, and watch the motions of our pretended friends more narrowly than those of our open enemies, because the latter will discover themselves when the former lay skulk ing under the garb of hypocrisy. Let us then, be vigilant and active, my friends, in defence of our religion. Recollect that the basis of our Constitution is freedom. On this basis our Catholic ancestors formed Magna Otarta, the first article of which declared that the election of Bishops Our Protestant should BE FREX.

task-masters, when they framed their Bill of Rights in 1688, stipulated that the election of their representatives, whom they considered as the guardians of the public purse, should be FREE; and further, in order to remove their decisions from bias or suspicion, that they should hold neither place nor pension under the Crown. Now, if it was thought necessary for Protestants to guard against the Ministers of the Crown having any influence over their deputies in the State, surely it is in

power with which they have been invested for the protection of the spiri tual kingdom of their crucified Master; we shall give our disinterested pastors an opportunity of expressing their sentiments to be coeval with ours, in their civil capacity, distinct from their sacred functions; we shall exhibit to our Protestant countrymen an incontrovertible test of our sanctimonious adherence to the oaths which their

and display the inconsistency which they are guilty of, by making us swear that we abjure a foreign influence, and then calling upon us to admit it, before they will consent to grant to us our civil freedom; we shall unite ourselves with the great majority of our Irish brethren, with whom we must either stand or fall; and we shall render an essential service to the see of Rome, by enabling the illustrious and pious Head of our Church to form a more correct decision on the most momentous question that have occupied the attention of the Holy See, since the pretended Reformation of our country. I shall now conclude, my friends, by requesting your most serious attention to the following letter from my much-esteemed and truly respectable Correspondent, who signs himself" AN ENGLISH CATHOLIC," and remain yours, &c.

cumbent on us, my friends, in seeking for our rights to stipulate that Ministers shall have no ascendancy over the Prelates of our Church, who are by divine right the guardians and depositaries of that faith handed down to us by the Apostles and their successors. That such ascendancy will prevail, if Vetoism should be adopted, cannot be doubted, and I therefore once more call upon you to come forward and petition the Legislature for UNQUA-jealousy and credulity impose upon us; LIFIED emancipation. A petition, agreeable to the form which I communicated to you in my last is now engrossing for each House of Parliament, and will be ready for the signatures of the Catholics residing in and near the metropolis by the second week in February. In the mean time it is hoped that the Catholics in Birmingham, York, Lancashire, and other places throughout the kingdom will lose no time in seconding the measures of their brethren. Such congregations as are not sufficiently numerous to Occupy one sheet of parchment, can sign their names and transmit the sheets to the Editor, free of expence, who will see that they are filled up and attached to the general petition, and who is ready to give any farther information that may be required to promote the work of petitioning. It must, however, not be forgotten, that subscriptions are necessary to enable those individuals who have spontaneously come forward with the view of giving the Catholics an opportunity of expressing their sentiments and defending their religion; it is therefore earnestly solicited of the friends to the cause to be active in collecting the voluntary contributions of such persons as may feel disposed to give their mite in support of the undertaking. By adopting this mode of proceeding to gain our rights, we shall give a convincing proof to our ecclesiastical superiors of our sincere attachment to the divine authority of the Church, by shewing our readiness to forego any temporal advantages rather than endanger the independence or defilement of that

WM. EUSEBIUS ANDREWS, London, Jan. 25, 1815.

P. S. Since the foregoing address was put into the hands of the compositor, I have been favoured with the perusal of an article from The Sentinel Dublin paper, on the conduct of the party who are called Seceders, and who are for admitting the interference of the Holy See on 'the subject of our emancipation. The following extract will shew the light in which Catholics will be viewed by the really enlightened and unprejudiced part of our Protestant countrymen should they submit to any authority in the Pope to meddle with our temporal concerns:

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"The Pope will not interfere, and if he does, nothing is more certain to

which we have hitherto been refused, and we shall cordially assist you in the external exclusion of the slaves of Rome from the sanctuary of the Constitution." After reading this article, from the press of Protestants, can Catholics hesitate to sign a petition which will vindicate and establish their regard for honour and consistency in the eyes of all Europe?

SIR-I return you my best thanks for your manly and sensible address to the Lay Catholics. There is nothing in it, but what is entirely consistent with the spirit of a Christian, and, what seems to be in these times almost equally forgotten, the patriotism of an Englishman; nothing but what is dictated by a prudent foresight of approaching danger. The method

us, than that his interference will be instantly rejected. Then the question will come to this, that the Catholics will be excluded from the Constitution on the pretext of their admitting Papal influence in civil matters, at the very moment when they shall have given, in the face of Europe, the most positive evidence, that in thought, word, and act they utterly disclaim it. Then mark the good effect of consistency, rectitude, and simplicity of conduct. The Catholics put their enemies dis- To the Editor of the Orthodox Journal. tinctly in the wrong, and involve them in a glorious inconsistency before Europe. Will the Catholics be still excluded? Be it so, and how will the matter stand then between the Government and them? Why thus the Catholics may say to the Government, You first refused us our rights be cause you said that we admitted Papal interference in civil matters-and now you exclude us because we give you proof to the contrary, and refuse obe-you propose of averting the danger is dience to such interference.'-But how will it stand with the Seceders? They offered to obey a despicable Italian priest, the late creature of Bonaparte, who held power under him when all the Roman Ecclesiastics of rank and principle were in exile or dungeons. They admit the influence of the Pope or any Pretender in civil matters. Seek securities from them, for they admit papal influence in all shapes. They have justified by their conduct the slander on their religion. We always denied the influence; and now we prove it by our conduct. They too, denied the influence, but they convict themselves by their conduct. We are the Catholics, theoretically and practically rejecting the influence of the Popedom in all civil matters. They are the implicit Papists hitherto theoretically denying it when they thought the denial might promote their interest; now, theoretically and practically admitting it, when they think the admission may promote their interest, admit us into the pale of the Constitution on this manifest public proof of the untruth of the pretext on

the

the only legal one to which we can re-
sort. In your petition I wish to make
but one change-add the word IRE-
LAND after GREAT BRITAIN, where
you state by whom the petition is
offered. If an Anti-Irish party in this
country has separated its cause from
that of the Catholics of Ireland, we,
the body of the Catholics of this
island, desire most earnestly to be
united with them. We are their bre-
thren in faith; we are more than equal
sharers with them in suffering; the in
sulting disqualifications and all the con-
sequent indirect persecutions,
worst of all persecutions," in the words
of the great Edmund Burke, "the
persecution of private life and private
manners," press on us even more than
on them. What has hitherto prevented
our union? Nothing but the intrigues
of a few selfish and unfeeling wretches,
who have reduced to insignificance the
Catholics of England; who have en-
deavoured to sell to a Protestant go
vernment the cause of the Catholics of
both islands; who, finding the gener
ous sons of St. Patrick to revolt at the
sacrifice of the independence of their

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Church, now strive to divorce those whom GOD hath united by a common faith, whom his divine providence and the laws of the country have connected in one empire. For myself, I would not wish the emancipation of the Catholics of England to precede by one day or one hour that of our brethren in Ireland, and I am persuaded every honest Catholic in England will join with me in this sentiment. Make, then, Sir, the title of your petition common to the Catholics of both islands; the substance of it is unobjectionable; and on our part it implies an union in sentiment and feeling with the Irish Catholic,-it implies that we will no longer be made the chattels and the merchandise of a vile traffic of needy political adventure or of disappointed malice. Let the legislature of the country, in its discretion, restore to us our birthright, or leave us as we are: let it, if it so please, (we dispute not its power,) let it order the introduction of two bills,-one for the removal of the disqualifications, and another for the outlawry and banishment of our clergy, or their subjugation, in concerns purely ecclesiastical, to the civil power; but let not these objects be both huddled together in one bill, and that bill imposed on us as "a bill for the relief of his Majesty's subjects professing the Roman Catholic religion."

ventors of it, of popish recusants? If religious animosity once so far perverted all sense of justice and of decency, was it for one portion of those who dwelt together in the house of God, as friends, to revive against the other the almost forgotten designation, and the penalties which shame had long induced our enemies to forego? So far from committing to such men, or to any who may be influenced by them, the concerns of my religion, I would not even trust them to drown a superfluous kitten, least they should torture it for sport.

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It is of most pressing urgency, that the form of petition offered by you, and a better cannot be devised, should be immediately adopted. If, when the legislature shall resume its deliberations on the Catholic question, there be no evidence before them of our wishes, but that contained in the petition of the Board, the arguments and proceedings of the Parliament may, very regularly and consistently, take their direction and quality according to the prayer of that Petition. Clauses and provisions may be suggested by treacherous trustees; instruments, and even instigators, of tyranny, may found, where intolerance itself could hardly expect to find them, where the generosity of the British government, because these they were found, has once disdained to use them, where the I am aware, Sir, that I have in this moral sense is wounded, and Christian letter made use of some harsh terms: charity deplores to think that they were for the justice of them I appeal to the ever found. Let us, then, without declause which you have recited, as pro-lay, present our Petition, that our Rulers posed to make a part of the bill for our relief in 1791. Of the dupes of the Catholic Board I say nothing now: but if the man be now living who drew up that clause, if there be a man now living who then approved of it, he deserves to be driven from the abodes of men into the haunts of wild beasts: he is worse than they, for they prey not on their kind. Was it not enough, that those who overturned the ancient faith should have once persecuted those who conscientiously refused to forsake it under the title, infamous to the in

may be informed, in due time, who are THE Catholics of Great Britain, that we may free ourselves from those worst of enemies, the enemies of our own household, and that we may offer to our brethren of Ireland a pledge of good faith, and of our desire of indissoluble union with them; an union necessary to the success of our common cause, and tending, as I have heretofore represented, to strengthen and consolidate the civil union of the two islands, and so to secure the peace and harmony of the empire.

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