heart, by which I have ever regulated, and hope I ever shall regulate my conduct. But this was not an application for liberty of conscience, and freedom of religious opinion and religious worship. The truth is, it is an application for political power; and that power I, for one, am not disposed to grant them because, I believe that it would be difficult to produce a single instance, where they have possessed political power in a Protestant country, without using it cruelly and tyrannically. And this indeed follows necessarily from the very doctrines of their church, several of which are well known to be hostile not only to the Protestant Religion, but to a Protestant Government. It has been said, indeed, that these are not now the tenets of the Church of Rome; that they may be found perhaps in some old musty records,' but that they are now grown otestant country; and at this me I articularly so, considering he real t state of the Eman Fuf solute vassalage in the Zameror o This ariment 12 he hearts and al matters, with grea ne al concerns. be Rom CES statsuline cum the day may w; at he w paston tholics o tells his implicitly church as and confin celebrated Mr. Plowden cils The ther at they the grown obsolete and invalid, and are held in utter detestation by the whole body of Roman Catholics both in England and Ireland. But those musty records,' in which these doctrines appear, are nothing less than the decrees of general councils confirmed by the pope; and Dr. Troy, Titular Archbishop of Dublin, in his pastoral instructions to the Roman Catholics of his diocese, published in 1798, tells his flock that they must adhere implicitly to decrees and canons of the church assembled in general councils and confirmed by the pope;' and the celebrated lay Roman Catholic writer, Mr. Plowden, in his Case stated,' published in 1791, maintains the same doc+ trine, and the infallibity of general councils. These therefore are unquestionably at this day the tenets of their church; they have never been renounced or disavowed; avowed; and, till they are so disavowed by authority, every good Catholic is bound to obey them. "It is true, that they have been renounced by the Petitioners from Ireland: but they can renounce them only for themselves; they cannot renounce them for the whole body of Catholics in that country; and this renunciation besides comes unaccompanied by any competent authority. It is neither authorized by the pope, by a general council, by their bishops or by their clergy. On the contrary, it is very remarkable, that not one of the latter signed the petition; and one cannot therefore help fearing that the same thing may happen in this case that happened in 1793, when the Lords Petre, Stourton, and many other Roman Ca+ tholic gentlemen, on applying to Parlia ment for further indulgence, made the same |