soul I feel, that if the present proceedings against her majesty be not amicably settled, the whole British empire will feel the arm of his desolating vengeance." growth, transplanted into the hotbed of the Milan commission, and now flourishing luxuriantly in Cotton Garden, under the watering-pot of the attorney general, for the moral gratification of the wives and daughters of England. The catholics have been forced by law to swear against the supposed papal power of depos ing excommunicated princes; yet the established church had excommuni from the liturgy, and the house of lords were now proceeding to depose her. "What!" said the speaker, "on the whole bench of bishops was there no Nathan to go to David, and say: Thou hast sinned against the Lord?' Wasthere no Baptist to lay down his head on Herod's charger, in defence of matrimonial rights? Was there no Fisher to mount the scaffold, and with his expiring blood cry out: He then proceeded to notice the peculiar reasons why the catholics, as a religious body, ought to address ber majesty. The barbarities of Harry the eighth gave rise to that religious welfare, which, now in blood, now in bigotry, had wagedcated the queen, by erasing her name for near 300 years, by which protestant liberty has been abridged, and the catholics reduced to slavery. The conspiracy of Titus Oates, (the prototype of the queen's enemies, by whose perjuries catholic priests and nobles were executed, and the whole catholic body deprived of all their civil rights in the reign of Charles the second,) had been got up by Shaftsbury, the minister of his day, in order to bring the then reigning Harry, it is not lawful for thee queen to the block, because she to put away thy wife? No! cursed was a catholic. Ought not catholics servility of church to state! This therefore to feel peculiar sympathy it is that betrays the monarch in his for her majesty as a fellow-sufferer? counsels, sacrifices the queen, and It was also necessary for the catholics revels on the liberties of the country. to redeem their religion from the It had been said that the catholics aspersions cast upon it by the Italian would injure the cause of emanciwretches, who were taken from a patiou, if they addressed her mamong the professional robbers, perju-jesty; but I despise an emancipation rers, and assassins of that country. He had personal opportunities of ascertaining that these wretches had never attended the catholic service in this country, or in Holland. He had been at Rome when her majesty was there; she was received with the highest respect; the delight and admiration of the rich, and the benefactress of the poor; her first inquiry upon arriving in any city, was about charitable institutions and persons in distress; and both were the objects of her boundless and unostentatious benevolence. When in Italy, he had heard the charges against her, but he had always been able to trace them to an English source. They were shoots of home | which I must purchase by the sacrifice of every manly, moral, and catholic feeling. Such an emancipation would be but the extension of slavery and corruption in the catholic people, nobility, and clergy. Besides, the hope of emancipation, under the present system, is an empty dream. Is it by cringing to the vices of their oppressors that slaves obtain their freedom? What have we ever got from the justice, or even the gratitude, of our oppressors ? The little we have, we recovered from their fears. The American war gave us the relief of 1778; and to the French revolution are we debtors for the bill of 1793. And we must now be more than blind, we shall deserve divine institution; she admits of divorce under no circumstances whatso ever, not even in favour of the injured party does she deviate from the indis. what God has joined let not man pensable law of the Divine Redeemer, separate;" a law, which her majesty's enemies are now invading for the gratification of profligacy and the oppres sion of innocence. to die slaves, and I pray God that we may, if we expect emancipation from any thing but parliamentary reform, which, founded on the broad basis of civil and religious liberty, shall restore their long lost freedom to every class of his majesty's subjects. I state these things as historical facts, and not with a view, God forbid, to excite intimidation." 5. That as catholic subjects of this This address was frequently interrealm, deprived of our civil rights, we sympathise with her majesty as a rupted by the warmest plaudits and fellow sufferer, persecuted by the same the rev. gentleman sat down amidst vile means by which we have been enthusiastic testimonies of applause. persecuted ourselves. The act of a The following resolutions were servile parliament, in divorcing the inthen moved, seconded, and sepa-rine of Arragon, led to the horrors nocent and exemplary queen Catharately submitted to the decision of which disgraced the country under an the meeting, which unanimously aadulterous, bigoted and bloody tyrant, dopted them with acclamations: who sent his wives from the bridal bed to the scaffold, and who condemned catholics aud protestants to burn at the same stake. 1. That we congratulate her most gracious Majesty on her return to the country of which she is the lawful queen, and that we sincerely condole with her in the heartrending affliction she has sustained by the untimely death of her beloved daughter the princess Charlotte, and by the loss of her venerable father and faithful protector, our late lamented sovereign. 6. That the present conspiracy against our beloved queen recalls to our indig nant recollections the conspiracy of Titus Oates, the Non mi ricordo of his days, by whose perjuries, in the reign of Charles the second, eighteen innocent catholic priests, with lord viscount 2. That as men and as British sub- Stafford a catholic nobleman, were mur jects we view with equal disgust, indig- dered under the mask of law, and the nation and horror, the present atrocious whole of the catholic body were excludconspiracy against her Majesty's cha-ed from office, from elections, and from racter, dignity and legal rights; a con- parliament. spiracy hatched by malice diabolical, matured by bribery the most barefaced, supported by self-refuted perjury, and now attempted to be carried into execution under the mask of justice, by an ex post facto law, in a court, where her accusers sit as her judges and her jurors. 3. That we congratulate her majesty on the complete failure of the case against her, and in common with an unbiassed and impartial world, before we have even heard her Majesty's defence, we pronounce the charges of her enemies to be upon their own shewing, unfounded in fact, incredible in proof, and impossible in nature. 4. That as christians and as catholics, we peculiarly protest againt the irreligious attempt to violate in her majesty's person the solemn contract of matrimony. The catholic church ranks matrimony among the sacraments of 7. That for the sake of public justice we hope to see her Majesty's enemies punished like the infamous Oates, who, after a prosperous career of villainy was at length condemned, pilloried and whipped as a convicted perjurer. 8. That while we observe, that se veral of the Italian witnesses brought forward against her majesty, are denominated Roman catholics, we at the same time remark, that neither the Douglases and the others employed in 1806 to swear away her majety's life, nor the Demon's and Krantzes now arrayed against her, are of that persuasion; and that these Italian witnesses being wretches devoid of every religious principle, any invidious allusion to the tenets of catholicism must therefore fall to the ground. 9. That we cannot forget that the cry of "No Popery" was rung from one end of the country to the other, under the nefarious administration of that man, who bartered her majesty's interests for place and profit, who became a traitor to her best hopes, by suppressing from the public eye those documents, which would have exhibited her enemies in the hideous colours in which we now behold them; and who at the same time, equally hostile to catholic rights, brought forward his venal majorities, to hold in slavery six millions of his majesty's subjects. 10. That were we placed as jurors in a case of petty larceny, we would not convict upon so unblushing and conta. minated a piece of evidence as that of the Italian witnesses against the queen, the leader of whom appeared to recollect minutely every transaction that might militate against her majesty during the time he remained in her service; but to above three hundred questions, which he dreaded might implicate his own testimony, his universal answer was "Non mi ricordo." 11. That the persecutions of her majesty, the degradation of the throne, the slavery of the catholic body, and the oppression of the people at large, are to be traced to the want of an honest representation in the commons' house of parliament, a thorough reform of which house, is the only remedy for the unparalleled sufferings of the country; and that the enemies of that reform, are the enemies of the queen, the king, the catholics, and the whole empire. for his general support of the cause of civil and religous freedom. Mr. Thomas Murphy, on moving the 5th and 6th resolutions, addressed the meeting as follows: Before I read to you the resolutions It would be superfluous in me to make any observations upon the sacred institution of matrimony, after the very clear and able manner in which that subject has been dwelt upon by the rev. chairman; but I cannot help observing, that it was the attempt on the part of a tyrannical monarch to violate this sacrament, which first gave rise to the persecutions of our catholic ancestors; from that attempt may be traced the catholics, and from the effects of all the oppressive laws enacted against which we are still suffering. From our pulpits we have it constantly laid down to us, that part of the with the distressed, to condole with the duties of a christian are, to sympathize vici-afflicted, to visit and comfort the sor 12. That an humble and loyal address, embracing the substance of the foregoing resolutions and signed by the catholics of the metropolis and its nity, be presented to her majesty. (The address being read.) 18. That the address now read be adopted by this meeting. 14. That the committee do form a deputation to present the same. 15. That the grateful and respectful thanks of this meeting be presented to Matthew Wood, esq. for his zeal and services in her majesty's cause, his benevolent attention to the education and wants of the catholic poor, and his uniform support of catholic rights as a magistrate, an alderman and a member of parliament. 16. That the thanks of this meeting be presented to the rev. Richard Hayes, for his kindness in taking the chair and ORTHOD. JOUR. VOL. VIII. rowing and oppressed. Now, will any man deny that our present queen is distressed, afflicted, sorrowing, and oppressed? Will any man say, that, even supposing her to be as guilty as her infamous enemies would wish to make her appear, (though I believe her to be as pure and as innocent of the vile charges imputed to her as the child unborn) yet admitting, I say, for the sake of argument, that she be guilty, will any man say, that, under all circumstances, even then she would not be deserving of our common sympathy and condolence? Therefore, as christians and as catholics, it is our duty, particularly as we are the first christians, and should shew example to all others, 3 G it is our duty to sympathize and condole, to visit and comfort her, under all her aggravated afflictions, sufferings, and wrongs. There is another reason why catholics should stand forward on the present occasion, and that is, that should the infamous bill of pains and penalties, now in progress, pass into a law, it is another among the many outrages which protestant hands have made on that noble fabric, which has been justly the envy of surrounding nations-I mean the British Constitution. To whom, I would ask, is protestant England indebted for that constitution? Is it not to our catholic ancestors ?The foundation of that constitution was laid by a catholic monarch, by the great Alfred, that brilliant luminary in the horizon of political freedom, to whom all monarchs, wishing for the security of their thrones, or the happiness and prosperity of their people, should look as to their polar star. It was matured by a catholic free people, and was at length consummated by catholic bishops, catholic barons, leading a catholic people. Justly, therefore, ought catholics to be jealous of any attempt to violate that constitution, which declares, that even the slave, when he sets foot on British ground, becomes free. It was protestant touch that first gave a blow to that constitution, in depriving their catholic countrymen of their privileges as British subjects, and subjecting them to the most oppressive, bigoted, and persecuting laws. The catholic alien is entitled to privileges in this country which the catholic native is deprived of; and thus it becomes the peculiar duty of catholics to protest against any further infringement of that constitution, which each successive protestant parliament has so defaced and abridged, that we can scarcely now see the shadow, and are obliged to look back to the history of catholic times to know its original composition, or even 10 form an idea of the beauty of its structure. But, thank God, times are now altered: the enlightened people of England no longer despise a man on account of his religious creed; and though the laws mark us out as objects of sus picion, dangerous to the state, and unfit to be trusted, there is no minister dares in these times to put those laws into force. They remain as dead let. ters on the statute-book, only serving to remind us what protestants have done to destroy freedom in this country. There is no man would now point his finger at us, as we walk the streets, and say, "There goes a catholic." No, the people of England no longer look upon their catholic countrymen with suspi ciou. I mix a great deal in general so ciety, and whether amongst reformers, moderate or radical, or any other body of individuals, I always make them understand that I am a catholic, and D do not find that I am less respected on that account. Last Monday I attended a dinner in this house, (if not digressing too much from my subject) which gave me infinite pleasure as a catholic. It was a dinner to celebrate the con summation of political freedom in ca tholic countries; and I was proud as a catholic to find all the speakers on that occasion boasting of the example which catholic countries were now setting to the world. It shewed that catholics would and knew how to be free, and that too without shedding the blood of their fellow-creatures. No one on that evening could boast of protestant countries being at this moment free. I feel proud as a catholic at a comparison between catholic Spain and protestant Prussia, not to speak of home, where perhaps the comparison would be still more degrading; and yet I am not proud at the state of Prussia, or any of the other protestant countries, now groaning under the iron and tyrannic hand of despotism and slavery; for as a man, I must always feel it a subject of regret and mortification to see any portion of people subjected to slavery and oppression. I therefore repeat again, it is our duty as christians to sympathize with our unfortunate and persecuted queen; as catholics, to protest against the violation of the sacrament of matrimony; and as British subjects, deprived of our civil rights, to condole with her majesty as a fellow-sufferer, and to do our utmost to prevent the said bill passing into a law." Mr. M. concluded his address by moving, that the resolutions be adopted. . oath according to the spirit, the sense, and the meaning of the proposer, with out any mental reservation on their own parts; and knowing that it is at all times a solemn appeal to the Almighty," no matter in what form, or according to what custom, so long as a solemn appeal is made to the all-seeing Provi dence to witness that what you state. is the truth, it is always binding to a catholic, in the meaning in which it is proposed, without any kind of mental reservation being allowed." Mr. M. then related a story, which seemed to have no relation to the sub time since, in one of the courts, found it necessary to ask an explanation, the oath proposed bearing a double interpretation, and he feeling it his duty to take it according to the meaning of the proposer. But, said Mr. M. it will shortly be found, that respectable catholic and Italian testimony will be brought forward in favour of her ma for him to appear a second time before them; particularly, being unaccustomed to public speaking. What he did say was usually from the momentary impulse of his feelings; and he therefore again trusted to their indulgence while he offered a few observations arising from a perusal of the resolution. It had been said that catholics could go and perjure themselves, and afterwards go and receive absolution, after confession to their priests. Into this illiberal and uncharitable assertion many of the best conducted papers had led themselves, and even Mr. Denman seemed to concur; for it was alleged, that ca-ject, except to shew that he had a short tholics did not consider an oath binding, unless taken in a particular form. Now all this arose from an ignorance of the doctrines of our religion: for while they state that we can go to con fession to our priests, and receive absolution for our sins, they forget that there is another requisite, without which absolution is null and void, and that is satisfaction. "If (said Mr. M.) Ijesty, which will at once give the lie to go to my confessor, and accuse myself of having stolen from my neighbour, the first question will be, Have you returned the property stolen? If I answer in the negative, he will immediately answer, Go then and do so, and then come to me for absolution. If I deprive my neighbour of his character, or take away his good name, either by falsely calumniating him in a court of justice, or in any other place, before I can obtain absolution, I must give him satisfaction; that is to say, I must take the same means and all others in my power to remove the false accusations, and replace his reputation in the same good light in which it stood before I calumniated him; and then, and not till then, could I receive absolution and should I have obtained it by concealing this fact, my confession and the consequent absolution would be of no avail. It is illiberal, therefore, in the friends of the queen to charge our religion with the perjuries of the Italian witnesses against her majesty. A catholic looks upon an oath in a very serious light, and our religion enjoins that we should take no unnecessary oaths; and indeed it recommends that they should not be taken, unless where the truth cannot be got at any other way. Catholics are bound to take an : those illiberal and uncharitable conclu as an The reverend chairman returned thanks for the honour conferred on him, and the meeting dispersed, Wednesday, the 18th, for receiving |