To Lord Viscount Sidmouth.

MY LORD, THERE is a noble quality, even in the thirst of power, when sought and cherished for the public good:in such a cause ambition shall find favour, and pride he sanctioned, since its aim is virtue. Such was the feeling we indulged when you, my lord, forsook the sphere, wherein you ever held deserved distinction, to climb the dangerous steep of court preferment and fill the highest offices of state. We, who had long beheld and valued the mild and gentle vir tues of an Addington, though bred and fostered in the school of Pitt, could not so far mistrust our own belief or his consistency, as to regard his exaltation with suspicion, or rank him with the venal and the vicious. All men bore testimony to your worth, although they wondered at your temerity: they knew and understood the extent and value of your abilities and qualifications, whence they drew the omen of a reign of peace rather than of enterprise; of conciliation and content, rather than of sehism, rancour, and intolerance. These were our hopes, my lord, this our dependance. To you we looked for consolation, for safety, unity, and social order. Your piety was more than conspicuons, it

[VOL. I.

was proverbial, and men received it as a pledge of your philanthropy, of the liberality of your heart, the expanded generous impulse of the Christian and the man. These were the properties we hailed as harbingers of your good will to all the country hailed them, and the Catholic shared in the general expectation.→→→→ We saw, or thought we saw, the hand of temperance supporting the balance which poised the fate of mil

ons, yet none appeared to dread the decision, for none expected to arraign its justice. How, then, my lord, have you replied to our desires, how have you answered our expectations? Do we not read the fatal truth in the dejected looks, the loudbreathed murmurs, the bitter execrations of the despairing multitude ?—Does not the Catholic stand foremost to demand a prompt attention to his claims, a full alleviation of his griev ances and wrongs? while, with bold and eager reprehension, he dares to tax you with duplicity, to thwart and circumvent his earnest, endeavours,to plot the ruin of his cause, yet wear the face of candour in the contest,— to seem the generous adversary, yet secretly destroy his hopes ? - He asks you, my lord, whether it were not dastardly and base, beneath the dignity of man, because beneath his hohour, to wear the mask of liberality,

and yet adopt or countenance deceit ; -to cry, "let the cause rest upon its real merit; let it be fully and fairly tried; let the influence of reason not of interest decide, the voice of power shall not be heard in the decision; no man shall risk his safety, for none shall give offence, by his vote or his opinion; it is the general cause, the cause of all, involving every interest, every feeling, the safety of posterity, the preservation of the empire!"and, after all this outward seeming, employ the double means of power and influence to undo his efforts, to thwart his views, seduce his friends, supplant his advocates, and render all his hopes and wishes void?-May it not be asked, why did your lordship and your colleagues in office advise the unexpected and unnecessary dissolution of the late Parliament, at such a time and under such circumstances? -Was it not because you knew them pledged to give their grave and solemn attention to our appeal?and was it that you dreaded that appeal, and did not dare to trust the question, or to meet it on fair and solid ground, divested of that offical interference, which you publicly professed to withhold?-My lord, it may indeed be said, you justly feared the issue, and did not dare to leave it to the decision of the public voice; but meanly sought to avoid a certain defeat by a recurrence of so glaring an expedient. It is feared, my lord, you have but too well succeeded. In the late general Election, the cause of the Catholic has for the most part been forgotten, at least by the people, if not by your lordship and your friends in office; on your side, my lord, there has been indeed no lack of industry to circumvent our wishes and our interests, by the rejection, as far as possible, of every real or fancied friend to emancipation.-Against all other measures which opposed

your views, there appears no fear of triumph; but here, my lord, you felt your weakness, and dared not stand the trial.-Nor is it in this lat ter instance alone that the Catholic perceives and feels your power:-have not the vile emissaries of intolerance been most assiduous in promoting schisms and alarms among the Catholic Body in every part of the enpire, but more particularly in Ireland ?

Have they not been most sedulous and anxious to foment a general spirit of disunion among us, to divide our power and discredit our exertions?Have they not stolen, like the hateful Judas, into our councils and conferences, to mislead our judgments, distract our measures, and pervert our meanings; and, after playing on our credulity, betrayed us with the kiss of friendship?-Have they not watched the least appearance of irritation to take advantage of the heated spirit to fan the impatient embers into flame, that it might consume our hopes and drive us to despair? Has not this been done, my lord, and under the sanction of authority? And will you still tell us of official liberality and ministerial forbearance ?-My lord, you have thrust yourself and your prejudices upon us; take heed they do not prove as dangerous as they are disgustful. The Catholic, too, has his prejudices, but they are directed against oppression. Your ambition has placed you near the throne, let your gratitude teach you to support it; which may not be so readily or firmly done as by the means of conciliation and the general protection of the subject. These are not times for internal fermentation or disunion; look to it, my lord, for much depends upon your earnest care. to guard the ear of your prince against the people's grievances, they are not the worst evils he should dread, for they may obstruct his glory. The

Think not

Catholic will be heard, nor can your lordship's art or power prevent it.→ Obstruct us then no more, deal fairly, my lord, deal justly; we would not bias your judgment, but we expect your justice. CATHOLICUS.

Story of Catholic Treachery.
SIR,

I Lately observed a paragraph in
a pamphlet of an illiberal tenden-
cy, entitled, An Appeal, &c. which
calls upon all Protestants to con-
tradict that they were the friends of
emancipation; urging, that this fact
should be published from every pul-
pit and public place throughout the
kingdom. Such may be the san-
guine view and wishes of the author
of that paragraph; but with respect
to my experience, it is adverse. I
very well know, that, even in a
matter of interest, a contrary ten-
dency has prevailed. When an
edition of Fox's Book of Martyrs,
lately printed in 12mo, and abridged,
for the purpose of cheap sale, was
offered among some of the Pro-
testant booksellers, it was refused to
be sold by one gentleman, though
an article of trade, unless the dedi-
cation to the late Mr. Percival were
expunged; from a consideration that
neither he nor any other minister
'could be a friend to his country, if
not the friend of emancipation. A
liberal bookseller, of the society of
Friends, declined selling it at all,
from a conviction that it tended to
keep alive remembrances that would
be better buried in oblivion, since
neither the veracity of the facts,
nor the motives which had caused
the compilation, would bear honest
investigation. The book is of a
shape and price that may spread
the venom of its poison very wide.
However, I really think it would be
a virtuous act in some of your cor-
respondents, to detect and impose
the many vulnerable parts of that
book, and thus illuminate the un-

derstanding of the prejudiced Protestant reader. On the other hand, Mr. Editor, I perceive, so far from Protestant booksellers opposing the sale of the Catholic Magazine, that it is regularly supplied to my friends by the most considerable houses in the trade, while it has been refused by Catholic booksellers, merely from the circumstance of a letter having once appeared, addressed to Bishop Milner, on the Veto. As the bishop has expressed himself liberally on that occasion, and the letter has been ably refuted, I trust that the Catholic Magazine will no longer find opponents, where it should find only friends. While it continues to maintain sound orthodoxy, and expose error, without malevolence, it may rest assured of my support.

I take this opportunity to mention a circumstance, which may explain the sources of much of the bigotry and mistrust we find prevalent among timid and puritanical Protestants. During the time of the riots, in 1780, a convenient opportunity occurred, to fabricate a strong and plausible story against the Catholics.

--

The title I have forgotten, but it was something similar to Catholic Treachery. A Scotsman, of the name of Hastings, (the author of the Unfortunate Caledonian in England,) wrote the pamphlet, which was published by J. Wade, of Fleet-street.-The outline of the story was that of two friends, who were remarkably intimate, and attached to each other.-Events causing them to separate, one went to reside in a Catholic country, became a convert, was made a monk, and held a superior power in the monastry. Some years had elapsed, when his Protestant friend visited that town, in company with one who had a party of soldiers under his command. He mentioned to the officer his intention of visiting his old friend, now become a rigid monk

one point, in which, not only twelve, but twelve thousand persons might be unanimous; and that was that all the world would be desirous of eating and drinking. This then was made the basis whereby to obtain unanimity on other points, and, till they become unanimous on the minor object, that is, the question of jus tice, which they were summoned to decide, they were not to be allowed to indulge in the major object, that, upon which, there is never any disagreement but in which, all unani mously take delight.

It may here, perhaps, be objected that a man's life may often then depend upon the greater or less time that the desire of replenishing exhausted nature can be controuled; and that he who is extremely eager to get to the roast beef, must yield to him whose appetites are more under his command.-Then any fellow of a different description might soon make his opponents right or wrong; bend their unanimity to his, only by the capacity he has acquired of resisting, for a so much greater length of time, the magnetic powers

of a well. covered table.

From these considerations I infer, that as our ancestors have been thus careful of the lives of the community, shall we then suppose our souls to be of less value or import ance? Will Catholics, will Protestants be unwilling to place a determination for the life of the soul upon a foundation less decisive, less infallible, than that of the body?-Will the Protestants agree to have all their differences with the Catholics settled by the unanimity of an equal number of deputies from each body, appointed to meet and determine upon points in dispute upon the same terms, and under the same restrictions as a jury? I much fear, that the test have now proposed will

be considered as much too severe by the friends to the good things of this world; and I am more than apprehensive, that since the Protestants have ceased to observe the fasts as well as many of the festivals of the Church instituted by their fathers, they will wish to decline this proposed settlement of their differences by a jury, for fear, lest their opponents in consequence of the habits they have retained, should be able to carry their point by mere dint of abstinence.

AMICUS.

Dr. Newton, late Bishop of Bris tol, and the present Bishop of Norwich.

SIR

AT Bristol, no later than 1782,

Dr. Newton, the Protestant Bishop of that diocese, had the satisfaction of persecuting a number of Roman Catholics. These Catholics

of Bristol, it seems, had been guilty of the crime of opening a chapel. Having appointed the priest and the at the house of the mayor, his lordship proprietor of the chapel to meet him there explained to them the heinous that to presume upon opening a pub.. ness of their offence. He told them, lic mass-house in such a place, was such a daring affront, so conauthority, that no government would, temptuous a defiance of all law and or could, endure it; and he declared to them, that "if they should still persist in their purpose, he was authorized by the minister to declare unto them, that he would employ the whole force of government, and prosecute them to the utmost severity of the law." These are the Bishop's own words, as recorded by him in his life, which was written by himself, and published in 1782. His lordship's threats produced their natural effect. Those who had the audacity to form the design of pub