am sure, assert, that it is not in the power of the two Houses to recommend an alteration for the consent of the Crown; nor for the Crown to give such consent without an infringement upon the constitution of 1688. period down to the Act of Union with Scotland, that power was manifested by laws enacted in one course of oppression, and producing as a natural consequence, complaint, remonstrance, and dissension, constituting a body of statutes which have scarce a parallel in the history of civilized nations, unless it be in the single act exercised against the Protestants of France, who were but a feeble minority of the people, in the revocation of the edict of Nantz. By that Act of Union the two nations were incorporated; and it was therein declared that the United Kingdom of Great Britain should henceforth be represented by one and the same parliament, to be called the parliament of Great Britain. My lords, let us now turn, however, our attention to the more pleasing part of the subject: I mean to those acts which have during the last fifty years been so gradually. and progressively directed to the relaxation of these persecuting statutes just, mentioned; and I should come to the same conclusion, that every one of those statutary acts of grace and conciliation might with as much propriety, and equal justice, be characterized as a breaking in upon the constitution of 1688 as the present measure. The 22nd article of that Union regulates the representation in the two Houses of The Act of Union with Ireland in 1800 parliament, and the oaths necessary to be again recognized the principle of that taken by the members of the future parlia-power for which I am now contending ment of Great Britain; but expressly and brought it distinctly before the percep stating that these provisions were only to tion of the legislature, on the very point remain in force until the parliament of which is the subject under discussion at Great Britain shall otherwise direct; there- the present time. by declaring and demonstrating, as clearly as language can define, the power of parliament to direct otherwise, if time, circumstances, or expediency, shall render such alteration needful. Noble lords may contend that such time, or such circumstances, have not yet arrived; but they cannot, and will not, I serve to the Kirk of God and all christian people, true and perfect peace to the utmost of their power in all times coming, and that they would be careful to root out all heretics and enemies to the true worship of God;' here the king, much moved, interrupted the earl (of Argyle), and protested that he did not mean to bind himself by these words, to become a persecutor. And the commissioners replying that neither the meaning of the oath nor the law of Scotland did import it, his majesty rejoined, that he took the oath in that sense, and called upon the commissioners themselves and others present to witness that he did so.'" --Belsham's History of Great Britain (William III.) vol. i. p. 147, anno 1689. "The three commissioners were, the earl of Argyle for the lords; sir James Montgomery for the knights, or as they call them, for the barons; and sir John Dalrymple for the boroughs. When the king and queen took the oaths, the king explained one word in the oath by which he was bound to repress heresies,' that he did not by this bind himself to persecute any for their conscience; and now he was king of Scotland as well as of England and Ireland."-Burnet's History of his own Times, vol. iii. p. 32, anno 1689. In the 4th article of that Union it is stipulated and declared, that every lord of parliament of the United Kingdom, and every member of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom shall, unless the parliament of the United Kingdom shall otherwise provide, take the oaths which were prescribed to be taken by the members of both Houses of the parliament of Great Britain. Thus, my lords, the co-ordinate power of the two Houses and the Crown is declared, established, and recognized in every statutary provision which has been either enacted, altered, or repealed, since the constitution of 1688. And I need not remind your lordships, how wholesomely it has operated in the control it has exercised over every matter connected with the interests of the state; and in no way more beneficially than in confirming the responsibility of ministers, and elevating the royal the last act of the exercise of the power of power above all question or scrutiny, in parliament, by confirming or rejecting any measure proposed by the two Houses, to become the law of the realm. And, my lords, without the acknowledgment of this independence and responsibility, only let me ask, how we could have had, either that revolution in state, of which some persons are now so tender, or that reformation in religion, by virtue of which I now see that bench occupied by the right rev. prelates who fill it at the present moment. My lords, another objection which I have heard again urged by the opponents to the measure, and charged as a principal defect, is, that the Roman Catholic, by virtue of his connection with the pope, is in a condition, under which his allegiance to the throne must be necessarily divided and defective. But, my lords, this term allegiance seems to me to have been either sadly misunderstood, or very grossly misapplied. Allegiance is, properly speaking, purely a term of civil import; it means a faithful adherence to those civil obligations which are due from subjects to the authorities and laws by which they are governed. And all this the English and Irish Roman Catholic is just as free, and just as ready to observe as the English and Irish Protestant, and will be found, in the most trying periods of our history, ever to have so performed. I lament that the right rev. prelate, who preceded me in addressing your lordships, is at this moment absent from the House, as the point I am now arguing has a particular reference to what has fallen from that right rev. and learned lord in his speech to your lordships. It is not to be denied that papal usurpations were once pushed to the greatest lengths, and the yoke of ecclesiastical tyranny severely felt in these kingdoms. But these usurpations had their source and origin not in the will or dispositions of the people, not in any thing essentially connected with Catholic faith, or Catholic discipline, but in the dishonest conspiracy of popes and princes, bartering religious immunities and privileges for 'political equivalents; or in the folly and error of our public councils, The separation of the ecclesiastical from the secular tribunals, the celibacy of the clergy, the right of investiture, and the introduction of papal legates into England; were as much the work of our own monarchs as of the popes of Rome. Neither the people, nor even the clergy, had the blame of these progressive encroachments; but, on the contrary, were never backward, when properly appealed to, in lending their assistance to resist them.* In the reign of Edward 3rd, the reader must observe that the pretensions of the pope When popery was the only religion, we have, upon all occasions, repelled the encroachment of popes. It is not that kings have resisted for the preservation of prerogative, but that the people have done so for the preservation of their rights. I certainly, my lords, differ from a noble lord on the other side of the House, who seemed to me to consider history as of minor importance, with respect to this or any other state question. If I may be permitted to pronounce an opinion, I would observe, that my reasoning would bring me to a very opposite conclusion: for history alone can afford us that knowledge, and furnish us with that experience of past events, as will qualify us to form a righteous and proper judgment.* were opposed by the subject, not at the instisolely to protect the people in their independgation of royalty, to serve its own purposes, but ence. * (Anno 1163.) "He (Henry 2nd) summoned an assembly of all the prelates of England, and he put to them this concise and decisive question, whether or not they were willing to submit to the ancient laws and customs of the kingdom? The bishops unanimously replied, that they were willing, saving their own order; a device by which they thought to elude the present urgency of the king's demand, yet reserve to themselves, on a favourable opportunity, the power of resuming all their pretensions. The king was sensible of the artifice, and was provoked to the highest indignation. He left the assembly with visible marks of his displeasure. He required the primate instantly to surrender the honours and castles of Eye and Berkham. The bishops were terrified, and expected still further effects of his resentment. Becket alone was inthe pope's legate and almoner, Philip, who flexible; and nothing but the interposition of dreaded a breach with so powerful a prince at so unseasonable a juncture, could have prevailed on him to retract the saving clause, and give a general and absolute promise of observing the ancient customs."-Hist. Quad. p. 37; Hovenden, p. 493; Gervase, p. 1385. ration in these general terms; he resolved, ere it was too late, to define expressly those customs with which he required compliance, and to put a stop to clerical usurpations before they were fully consolidated and could plead antiquity, as they already did a sacred authority in their favour. The claims of the church were open and visible. After a gradual and insensible progress during many centuries, the mask had at last been taken off, and several ecclesiastical councils by their canons, which were pretended to be irrevocable and infallible, had positively defined those privileges and immunities which "But Henry was not content with a decla Your lordships will not forget, that to Langton, an archbishop of Canterbury and a cardinal, we are more than to any gave such general offence, and appeared so dangerous to the civil magistrate. Henry therefore deemed it necessary to define with the same precision the limits of the civil power; to oppose his legal customs to their divine ordinances; to determine the exact boundaries of the rival jurisdictions; and for this purpose he summoned a general council of the nobility and prelates at Clarendon, to whom he submitted this great and important question. other individual indebted for Magna Charta. It was Langton that convened the previous 'meeting in London. It was Langton that negotiated the terms at Ox his consent, and that the bishop elect should do homage to the crown; that if any baron or tenant in capite should refuse to submit to the spiritual courts, the king should employ his authority in obliging him to make such submissions; if any of them throw his allegiance to the king, the prelates should assist the king with their censures in reducing him; that goods forfeited to the king should not be protected in churches or church-yards; that the clergy should no longer pretend to the right of enforcing payment of debts contracted by oath or promise, but should leave these law-suits, equally with others, to the determination of the civil courts; and that the sons of villains should not be ordained clerks, without the consent of their lord."-Hist. Quad. p. 163; M. Paris, pp. 70, 71; Spelm. Conc, vol. ii. p. 63; Gervase, pp. 1386, 1387; Wilkins, p. 321. 1 "The barons were all gained to the king's party, either by the reasons which he urged, or by his superior authority: the bishops were overawed by the general combination against them; and the following laws, commonly called the 'Constitutions of Clarendon,' were voted without opposition by this assembly. It was enacted, that all suits concerning the advowson and presentation of churches should be determined in the civil courts; that the churches belonging to the king's see should "These articles, to the number of sixteen, not be granted in perpetuity without his con- were calculated to prevent the chief abuses, sent that clerks accused of any crime should which had prevailed in ecclesiastical affairs, be tried in the civil courts; that no person, par- and to put an effectual stop to the usurpations ticularly no clergyman of any rank, should de- of the church, which, gradually stealing on, had part the kingdom without the king's license; threatened the total destruction of the civil that excommunicated persons should not be power. Henry, therefore, by reducing those bound to give security for continuing in their ancient customs of the realm to writing, and by present place of abode; that laics should collecting them in a body, endeavoured to prenot be accused in spiritual courts, except by vent all future dispute with regard to them; and legal and reputable promoters and witnesses; by passing so many ecclesiastical ordinances in that no chief tenant of the crown should be ex- a national and civil assembly, he fully estacommunicated, nor his lands be put under an blished the superiority of the legislature above interdict, except with the king's consent; that all papal decrees or spiritual canons, and all appeals in spiritual causes should be carried gained a signal victory over the ecclesiastics. from the archdeacon to the bishop, from the But as he knew that the bishops, though overbishop to the primate, from him to the king, awed by the present combination of the crown and should be carried no farther without the and barons, would take the first favourable op-. king's consent; that if any lawsuit arose be- portunity of denying the authority which had tween a layman and a clergyman concerning a enacted these Constitutions, he resolved that tenant, and it be disputed whether the land be they should all set their seal to them, and give a lay or an ecclesiastical fee, it should first be a promise to observe them. None of the predetermined by the verdict of twelve lawful men lates dared to oppose his will except Becket, to what class it belonged, and if it be found to who, though urged by the earls of Cornwall be a lay fee, the cause should finally be deter- and Leicester, the barons of principal authority mined in the civil courts; that no inhabitant in the kingdom, obstinately withheld his asin demesne should be excommunicated for sent. At last Richard de Hastings, grand prior non-appearance in a spiritual court, till the of the templars in England, threw himself on chief officer of the place where he resides be his knees before him, and with many tears consulted, that he may compel him by the civil entreated him, if he paid any regard either to authority to give satisfaction to the church; that his own safety or that of the church, not to prothe archbishops, bishops, and other spiritual voke, by a fruitless opposition, the indignation dignitaries, should be regarded as barons of of a great monarch, who was resolutely bent on the realm; should possess the privileges and be his purpose, and who was determined to take subjected to the burthens belonging to that full revenge on every one that should dare to rank; and should be bound to attend the king oppose him. Becket, finding himself deserted in his great councils, and assist at all trials till by all the world, even by his own brethren, the sentence, either of death or loss of mem- was at last obliged to comply; and he probers, be given against the criminal; that the re-mised legally with good faith, and without venue of vacant sees should belong to the king; the chapter, or such of them as he pleases to summon, should sit in the king's chapel till they made the new election with fraud or reserve, to observe the Constitutions, and he took an oath to that purpose."-Hume's Hist. of England, 8vo. Lond. 1807, vol. i. p. 391. ford, and that finally presented it for Præmunire, and reducing the papal authorsignature at Runnimede. Your lordships will recollect, that, when king John had afterwards consented to do homage for his kingdom to the papal see, that the same stout champion of the honour and independence of his country, well aware that this was but a bargain of feudal supremacy on one hand, as the price of protection in tyranny on the other, boldly cast his protest on the altar, and withdrew from the disgraceful scene. And your lordships will also remember that, when this act had been visited by a bull of suspension for Langton, and of excommunication for the barons, every bell in London rang in triumph and derision. - The Edwards found no difficulty in enacting the statute of Mortmain and ity to much narrower limits: and Henry the 8th, even whilst casting off entirely the papal supremacy, and ransacking the monastic institutions, still found a quiet and peaceable submission from his Catholic subjects. and electors, which had been extremely enstatute, every person was outlawed who carcroached on by the pope. By a subsequent ried any cause by appeal to the court of Rome. "The laity at this time seemed to have been extremely prejudiced against the papal power, and even somewhat against their own clergy, because of their connections with the Roman pontiff. The parliament pretended that the the plagues, injuries, famine, and poverty of usurpations of the pope were the cause of all the realm; were more destructive to it than all the wars; and were the reason why it con"Edward 1st observed a contrary policy tained not a third of the inhabitants and comwith regard to the church; he seems to have modities which it formerly possessed; that the been the first christian prince that passed a taxes levied by him exceeded five times those statute of mortmain, and prevented by law the which were paid to the king; that every thing clergy from making new acquisitions of lands, was venal in that sinful city of Rome, and that which, by the ecclesiastical canons they were even the patrons in England had thence for ever prohibited from alienating. The op- learned to practise simony without shame position between his maxims with regard to or remorse. At another time they petithe nobility and to the ecclesiastics, leads us tion the king to employ no churchman in to conjecture that it was only by chance he any office of state; and they even speak in passed the beneficial statute of mortmain, and plain terms of expelling by force the papal authat his sole object was, to maintain the num-thority, and thereby providing a remedy ber of knights' fees, and to prevent the superiors from being defrauded of the profits of wardship, marriage, livery, and other emoluments arising from the feudal tenures. This is indeed the reason assigned in the statute itself, and appears to have been his real object in enacting it. The author of the Annals of Waverley ascribes this act chiefly to the king's anxiety for maintaining the military force of the kingdom; but adds, that he was mistaken in his purpose; for that the Amalekites were overcome more by the prayers of Moses than by the sword of the Israelites. The statute of mortmain was often evaded afterwards by the invention of Uses."-Hume's Hist. of England, (anno 1307) 8vo. Lond. 1807, vol. ii. p. 322. "It is easy to imagine that a prince of so much sense and spirit as Edward 3rd would be no slave to the court of Rome. Though the old tribute was paid during some years of his minority, he afterwards withheld it, and when the pope, in 1367, threatened to cite him to the court of Rome for default of payment, he laid the matter before his parliament. That assembly unanimously declared that king John could not without a national consent subject his kingdom to a foreign power; and that they were therefore determined to support their sovereign against this unjust pretension. "During this reign, the statute of provisors was enacted, rendering it penal to procure any presentations to benefices from the court of Rome, and securing the rights of all patrons against oppressions which they neither could nor would any longer endure. Men who talked in this strain were not far from the Reformation: but Edward did not think proper to second all this zeal; though he passed the statute of provisors, he took little care of its execution, and the parliament made frequent complaints of his negligence on this head. He was content with having reduced such of the Romish ecclesiastics as possessed revenues in England, to depend entirely upon him by means of that statute."-Hume's Hist. of England, anno 1377, vol. ii. p. 492. "Meanwhile the English parliament continued to check the clergy and the court of Rome, by more sober and more legal expedients. They enacted anew the statute of provisors, and affixed higher penalties to the transgression of it, which, in some instances, was even made capital. "It was usual for the church, that they might elude the mortmain act, to make their votaries leave lands in trust to certain persons under whose name the clergy enjoyed the be nefit of the bequest; the parliament also stopped the progress of this abuse. In the 17th of the king, the Commons prayed, that remedy might be had against such religious persons as caused their villains to marry free women inheritable, whereby the estate comes to those religious hands by collusion. This was a new device of the clergy."-Hume's Hist. of England, anno 1399, vol. iii. p. 56, not too much to believe, that the same sound discriminating judgment will still guide them in these enlightened times. Queen Elizabeth never had cause to complain of any want of loyal attachment. She trusted the Catholics, and the Catholics served her with fidelity and honour.* Even the Stuarts, amidst acts of penalties, and confiscation, and bloodshed, still found Catholics fighting in their ranks, supplying them with money, and in many instances even impoverishing themselves to serve them. Shall these facts, my lords, thus running through almost the whole range of our history, go for nothing, and shall we cling rather to idle theories and old women's fears? No, my lords, England was a Catholic country for many, many generations, but her people never confounded their politics with their religion; and it is *"In Spain, in the mean time, the lord viscount Montacute layeth open before the king, the necessity of the Scottish war; clear- | ing all he can the Scots from the note of rebellion, by proofs he coldly shewed (as one that was a most devout follower of the Romish religion) that no other religion was brought into England than that which was consonant to the Holy Scriptures, and the four first Oecumenical councils, and requireth that the league of Bur-| gundy, made of old between the king of Eng. land and the king of Spain's forefathers, may be renewed."Camden's Hist. of Queen Elizabeth, fol. Lond. 1688, p. 45. | But, my lords, take allegiance in that sense in which it has been so much attempted to enforce the expression; suppose allegiance to be a term implying spiritual as well as civil submission; and what then becomes of the argument, after every thing claimed for the extent of that word has been conceded? I should be glad to hear from any of the right reverend prelates what is the nature of that spiritual portion of allegiance which they themselves are prepared to render to the Crown? If I know any thing of what is intended by the Act of "There died this year (1592) Anthony Browne vicount Mountague, sonne to sir Anthony Browne, Master of the Horse, &c. Queene Elizabeth, having had experience of this man's loyalty, esteemed very well of him, although he were a Romane Catholike; shee came moreover and visited him, for shee well knew that he was born and bred in that religion which hee professed, and not embraced it as many did, onely to further a faction.”— Darcie's Annales, 4th Book, p. 76. "But while the queen, in this critical emergence, roused the animosity of the nation against popery, she treated the partisans of that sect with moderation, and gave not way to an "This year (1592) quietly and peaceably de- undistinguishing fury against them. Though parted this life Anthony Brown, viscount she knew that Sixtus Quintus, the present Montacute (son of Anthony, Master of the pope, famous for his capacity and his tyranny, Queen's Horse, and Standard bearer of Eng- had fulminated a new bull of excommunication land), whom queen Mary honoured with this against her; had deposed her; had absolved title, because his grandmother was the daugh- her subjects from their oaths of allegiance; had ter and one of the heirs of John Neville, mar- published a crusade against England; and quiss Montacute; conferred upon him also the had granted plenary indulgences to every one Order of the Garter, and sent him to Rome, engaged in the present invasion; she would with other persons, to tender obedience to the not believe that all her Catholic subjects could see of Rome, in the name and behalf of the be so blinded as to sacrifice to bigotry their whole realm. Queen Elizabeth, having had duty to their sovereign, and the liberty and inexperience of his fidelity, held him in great dependence of their native country. She reesteem (though he were a strong Roman Catho-jected all violent counsels, by which she was lic), and a little before his death gave him a visit; for she knew that he adhered to that religion because he had been from a child bred up therein, and out of the persuasion of his conscience, not out of faction, as many others did."-Camden's History of Queen Elizabeth, fol. Lond. 1688, p. 467. urged to seek pretences for dispatching the leaders of that party; she would not even confine any considerable number of them; and the Catholics, sensible of this good usage, generally expressed great zeal for the public service. Some gentlemen of that sect, conscious that they could not justly expect any trust or authority, entered themselves as volunteers in the fleet or army; some equipped ships at their own charge, and gave the command of them to Protestants; others were active in animating their tenants, and vassals, and neighbours, to the defence of their country; and every rank of men, burying for the present all party distinctions, seemed to prepare themselves, with order as well as vigour, to resist the violence of these invaders."-Hume's Hist. of England, 8vo, Lond. 1807, vol. v. p. 337. |