At the conclufion are fome additional notes and an appendix, which, among other things, contains General Suvarof's Military Catechifm, a fingular curiofity. The reader will alfo find an account of the state of English Commerce in the Black Sea, by a Member of the Levant Company, a very curious extract from the log book of a Venetian brigantine, giving an account of a voyage in the Black Sea; a lift of the plants collected by the author in his different journies in the Crimea; a regifter of the temperature of the atmosphere during Dr. C.'s Travels, with a correfponding statement of temperature in London at the fame period; and finally, the names of places vifited in the author's route, with their "diflances from each other in Ruffian verfts and English miles. ART. VIII. The Petition of the English Roman Catholics confidered: in a Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocefe of. Gloucefler, at the triennial Vifitation of that Diacefe in the Month of June, 1810. By George Ifaac Huntingford, D.D. F.R.S. Bishop of Gloucester, and Warden of Winchester College. 8vo. 58 pp. 25. Cadell and Davies. 1810. FAR AR be from us any propenfity towards bigotry, the fmalleft inclination to abridge or control the freedom of religious fervice and fentiment, or to impofe undue and harsh restraints upon those who differ from ourfelves. But alike zealous does it become us to be in the vindication of our proper duties, in repelling attacks alike earnest and unprovoked, in expofing the infinuations of artifice, and in refenting the afperfions of calumny. We have lately heard of a confiderable number of individuals in Ireland, fome of whom have met with due punish. ment from the laws of their country, calling themselves Defenders, and affembling and confederating, under the fanction of a folemn oath, to destroy all HERETICS! We fhall be told, perhaps, that these ignorant and mifguided people do not, by any means, meet with the countenance either of their fuperiors, or of the great body of the Roman Catholics. We hope they do not: we indeed believe they do not; but ought we not vigilantly to place centinels round the tree which produces such pernicious branches and deleterious fruits ? The learned, pious, and venerable Bishop of Gloucefter, urged by a fenfe of duty, in the exertion of which we ftrongly Arongly participate, has made the petition of the Englif Roman Catholics to the Houfe of Lords the subject of a charge delivered to his clergy. His Lordship has moft clearly as well as forcibly demonftrated, that this fame petition exhibits complaints which are unreafonable, reproaches which are unmerited, claims which are inadmiffible, and principles which are untrue. The petition itself is fubjoined, and animadverted upon very temperately, but with great ability. The learned prelate begins by remarking, that the whole, of the petition proceeds on three fallacies : "1. That laws made for the protection of fome, muft in themfelves be acts of oppreffion towards others. "2. That every member of civil fociety has an unconditional and unqualified claim to power. "3. That the legiflature is to be indifferent, whether the candidate for power entertains principles favourable or unfa vourable to the conftitution." But it is obferved, that nothing founded in reason, justice, and duty, can be oppreffive; that whoever is born in civil fociety is fubject to the laws of that fociety; and, finally, the legiflature would be inftrumental to its own harm, if it alike encouraged those principles which are favourable, and thofe which are adverfe, to every part of the conflitution. After thefe general remarks, which are unanfwerable, the bifhop examines more particularly the allegations of the petition, and the whole of what he fays will be found highly impreffive and argumentative; but what Proteftant can perufe the following obfervations without feeling the peremptory obligation of not conceding that which, if the condition of the parties was reverfed, we know, would be rejected by them with infolence and fcorn: and happy might we efteem ourselves if we fo efcaped? It is in anfwer to that part of the petition which reminds us that the creed of the Petitioners was that of those who founded British liberty at Runnymeade, and who conquered at Crefly, Poitiers, and Agin court. "The mention of Runnymeade, Creffy, Poitiers, and Agin court, will always excite the most lively fenfations in the hearts of Englishmen. It was not therefore without good judgment, that the petitioners brought thofe places to our recollection. We fhall never cease to honour the memory of thofe illuftrious perfons, who there fignalised themselves. Nor can we ceafe to ve acrate nerate their creed, fo far as we acknowledge it to be founded, on Scripture. Beyond that we cannot, we dare not hold it in veneration. We cannot, we dare not approve of thofe excrefcences, which grew out of tradition and decrees, and which in procefs of time were fuperadded to the principles of faith received by Chrife. tians at an early age. "It is fcarcely poffible for any one, who is acquainted with the hiftory of the Church of Rome, to confider the Romanift creed, and at the fame time detach from his mind all remem. brance of opinions and proceedings connected with that creed. Taken with all its combinations, does that creed fuggeft no other ideas, than fuch as are favourable to Proteftants? The creed profeffed by the Catholics petitioning, was indeed that of their forefathers, who in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth cen turies, acted nobly at Runnymeade, Creffy, Poitiers, and Agin. court. But we cannot forget; it was alfo the creed of those who mafiacred the Proteftants on the day of St. Bartholomew; a day, fo tragical and fo foul, that the father of Thuanus applied to it thefe lines of Statius: Excidat illa dies ævo, nec poftera credant Sæcula; nos certè taceamus, et obruta multâ • Nocte tegi noftræ patiamur crimina gentis.' "It was the creed of Mary, who on principles of confcience devoted Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, and Bradford, to the flames. It was the creed of thofe, who at one explosion would have facri. ficed the three eftates of the realm. It was the creed of those infurgents, who in the reign of Charles the Firft went far towards obliterating the name of Englishmen in the kingdom of Ireland; and who, against Proteftants, exercifed cruelties which, an eminent hiftorian afferts, would fhock the leaft delicate + huma nity.' It was the creed of the fecond James, who, under the femblance of mildnefs and of equality in privileges to all his fubjects (the very plea now urged by the advocates for Romanists), difpenfed with laws, imprifoned bishops, and filled the highest departments with men of his own perfuafion. It was the creed of thofe, who not ninety years fince, occafioned thirty thousand <<*See the Life of Thuanus,' by the Rev. Mr. J. Collinfon, p. 10; Sully's Memoirs, vol. i., p. 26: English translation in 1761. The fkilful hand of Vaffari was employed to perpetuate the memory of this tranfaction. See the Hiftory of the Helvetic Republics,' by F. H. Naylor, Efq. vol. iv. p. 500. Note." + See Hume's Hiftory of England,' vol, vi., p. 373A.D. 1641." "See the Bill of Rights."" Proteftants Proteftants to withdraw from Saltzburgh; and who inflicted pu. nishments of a barbarous nature on the Proteftant magiftrates and people of Thorn. It was the creed of thofe who, but fifteen years before the reign of his prefent Majefty, within this kingdom encouraged a war, which had for its object the total over throw of the Proteftant government, and the utter exclufion of the Proteftant fovereign then exifting, on whofe head a price was fet by the foreign + enemy whofe caufe they favoured. It was the creed of thofe who, within our own memory, within the fhort period of eleven years paft, in Ireland inftigated a rebel lion, which a writer of that country declares to have been eminently destructive; and which, he affirms, maffacred, with out mercy, all Proteftants, men, women, and children.' "My brethren, can we advert with indifference to the several facts recalled to your memory? Can we lull ourselves into a blind, a fatal fecurity, in full conviction that fimilar caufes will never again produce fimilar effects? In other words, can we poffibly believe, that if opportunity be given, the Romanift creed will not be enforced on Proteftants, if not by fanguinary, yet by all other most compulfive means? If there are thofe, who are fo perfuaded, to them fhall the manly, eloquent, and pathetic Sherlock thus fpeak :→→ "Our fathers, who lived under the dread of popery and arbitrary power, are most of them gone off the ftage; and have car. ried with them the experience which we, their fons, ftand in need of, to make us earnest to preferve the bleffing of liberty and pure religion, which they have bequeathed us. O that I had words to reprefent to the prefent generation, the miferies which their fathers underwent; that I could deferibe their fears and anxieties, their reftless nights, and uneafy days; when every morning threat. ended to usher in, the laft day of England's liberty. Had men fuch a sense of the miferies of the time paft, it would teach them "The banishment from Saltzburgh was in 1732; the executions at Thorn were in 1725. Arch-Bishop Secker alludes to thofe events in his volume of nine Sermons, p. 87, fermon iv. The facts are detailed in a work, entitled the Hiftorical Register,' vol. x., p. 42, and vol. xvii., p. 51. The occurrences at Thorn are related in vol. x., those at Saltzburgh in vol. xvii. See also A complete System of Geography,' ed. folio, vol. i., p. 668 and 989." "See Smollet's Hiftory of England,' p. 160, vol. iii., ed. 1796." 66 See the Nature and Extent of the Demands of the Irish Roman Catholics fully explained.' By P. Duigenan, LL.D. and M.P. Published in 1810. Pages 7, 11, 122, 132, 133.” what 1 what confequences they were to expect from any fuccefsful at. tempt against the prefenteftablishment." P. 23. After thus begging the queftion, with respect to their inte. grity and their creed, the petitioners proceed humbly to pray what? Why, to fweep away at once the whole body of Atatutes enacted for the fecurity of the king's prerogative in ecclefiaftical concerns; to demolish, at once, the fyftem eftablifhed, on the king's fupremacy, in the external circumftances of the Church. We agree with the right reverend writer, that it is difficult which moft to admire, the want of moderation or the want of reafon in this requeft; and we alfo agree with his lordship in the perfuafion, that the day which fhall fee the petitioners enter the Houfe of Commons as legiflators, and at the fame time profeffed Catholics, will be the day from which we are to date the degradation of the Proteftant religion in the British empire. How unreafonable fuch a request is, is clearly demonftrated from hiftory, which teaches us that tefts and oaths conftitute no novelty in politics, and were fanctioned by thofe ufages of ancient nations which we are most accustomed to venerate. Confult the hiftories of Rome and Greece, of modern France, of America, all of which nations compelled their citizens, and do ftill compel them, to fwear they will fupport the conftitution to which they feverally belong. Having gone through all the claims and requests afferted in the petition, the bishop comes to this unavoidable conclufion, that beyond the rights which the petitioners at this period enjoy, it is neither compatible with expediency, nor reconcileable with confcience, to make any addition. We are reminded of thefe facts, which can neither be palliated nor denied: the petitioners not only vilify the tranflation of the Holy Scriptures, used in our churches, but by vitiating the confecration of a metropolitan, at the beginning of the reformation, endeavour to deffroy the foundation upon which the validity of our facerdotal functions must reft. A popular tract pronounces this judgment of Catholics upon Proteftants: 3 "We are convinced that they are fchifmatics, by feparating «See A Difcourfe preached on June 7, 1716, in the volume of Difcourfes preached on feveral Occafions,' by Bp. Sherlock. Of whom, and Bp. Butler, it may be faid without fear of contradiction, that of all our English writers, few have equalled, none have excelled them, in close reasoning." themfelves |