And again, on the 27th of the same month, he said: "Though we talk as sentimentally as we please, yet we should not give without consideration. I admit the merits of the Roman Catholics, and that merit makes me consent to enlarge their privileges; but I will not consent to their having any influence in choosing Members for this House."

Such were the sentiments of Mr. Flood, which the events that have followed have but too strongly shown to have been not rashly expressed or ill-founded.

It is, therefore, by no means surprising, if this nation should not, without apprehension, observe the unremitted anxiety to acquire political power manifested by the Catholic body. The question is not one that involves merely the interests or occurrences of the present day; it comprehends the fate of ages, the happiness or misery of millions yet unborn.

盒

Such is the importance of the question, on which the Hon. Author of The Considerations, and others, have endeavoured to affect the public mind with an opinion in favour of the petition of the Roman Catholics, by a publication possibly not expected after the question had been so fully debated and determined in Parliament: and still less so, that there should be so little that is new in argument, though the mode certainly entitles it to a higher estimation than any other publication of the same import which has hitherto appeared.

This publication may, however, claim attention as a comment on the petition itself, and giving a more ample view of its various objects, which, comprised as they are in the petition, in few but comprehensive

words, were less distinctly perceptible, and perhaps not sufficiently understood by the nation at large.

The arguments, that have the greatest appearance of novelty, are those suggested in favour of the doctrines of the church of Rome, as now held, upon an assumed position, that they have remained unvaried from the first ages of its introduction into this kingdom. To this suggestion, as the subject has long lain dormant, it will be necessary also to attend particularly; and, as far as may be, to point out the true origin of some of the peculiar doctrines of that church.

The report of the debates on the Catholic Question will make it less necessary to dwell on many of the author's arguments; and therefore it will be more the object of the present occasion to consider those which either are new, or may admit of further discussion.

To a Protestant it is a very new, and by no means a congenial, idea, that religion should be considered as having nothing to do with policy; still more so is it to conceive, that they who, in debating on such a question as the Catholic one, contend for the connexion of religion with policy, are not serious in so doing."

But, as the advocate of the Catholic Question represents this distinct consideration as an argument for the admission of the Catholics into places of trust, it is requisite to give it in his own statement:— *Catholics" (he says) "feel like other men;

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are influenced by all the impressions to which the mind is subject; have their apprehensions, their dislifes, and their friendships; look to their interests, and are swayed by views of preferment, honour, and common ambition. And where, it will be asked, is their religion? Their religion finds its place, as it does too much in all men, often far behind in the back ground; sometimes in a situation more advanced; but seldom is it actively employed, when worldly views come in competition with its less impressive calls."

The general course of this argument, "that men are swayed by the views of interest, preferement, honour, and ambition, so as often to leave their religion too far behind in the back ground," is frequently but too true, as to the common occurrences of life; because that men in pursuit of advantage are apt to yield to impressions, which they flatter themselves may be reconciled with their religious principles; or, satisfied with the idea of their general respect for, and attachment to, religion, conclude themselves to be within its hopes and benefits without any careful examination of their title. But men are not therefore the less sensible of its real importance; and if they are not actively employed with respect to its prosperity, it is that they suppose either its safety not exposed to danger, or its prosperity not likely to be much promoted by their efforts. For, in either of these cases, (however the sense of religion may otherwise have lain nearly dormant,) no one, who has any real regard for his religion, is likely to remain either indifferent or

inactive. It is certain that the Catholics have not

done so.

In the passage just quoted, the words less impresive seem, according to the course of the argument, to denote calls which have less influence; but, as they stand in the sentence, they may also denote calls which are of less importance, and so do not exclude the attention to its more important calls. The former sense seems the most connected with the argument, the latter with experience.

To enforce the argument, an observation is introduced of a most extraordinary nature, and as singular as it is unfavourable to those who are concerned in it, though apparently as a consequence of the principle assumed. “It is" (says the author)" really laughable, in this season of man's existence, to hear even legislators talk as if they seriously believed that religion had any thing to do with politics."

In a country, where a great part of the political institutions have arisen from religious motives and considerations, it might seem very possible that its legislators should really believe that there was a close connexion between its policy and its religion; and it might also seem rather requisite, as to respect of station, whether their arguments were, or were not, admitted to be of force, to give them credit for being serious in their assertions.

The author of The Considerations would undoubtedly feel himself little obliged to any one, who should conceive it to be really laughable to find, that he

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argues as if he seriously believed that the British constitution would receive no injury from the grant of all that the Catholics wish to obtain; as credit for sincerity on the opposite side of the question is no doubt expected.

But it is added, "The narrowness of intellect which the supposition evinces can be accounted for only by the narrow limits of the island, with which the mind in its operation sympathises, and which cuts us off from all free communication with a more improved and wiser world.”

If such a world there be, the great emporium of the world at large will, it is to be hoped, not be found destitute of the means of acquiring some knowledge of it, and from it, for the improvement of this nation, solitary and ignorant as it is here represented to be. But perhaps this more improved and wiser world is divided from us by merely the Straits of Dover. If so, with that (or any other yet known) Britain need not withdraw herself from the comparison, should she at any time condescend to enter into it.

Whether the progress of improvement and wisdom can rationally be measured by the interval that separates religion from policy, would, not many years ago, have been considered as too absurd to inquire; and may yet be doubted. The experimental proof has been too short in its duration to be very decisive; though, as far as it has gone, the results are not the most favourable to the hypothesis. It does not yet appear, that the political discarding of that

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