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the fundamental principles of the English Constitution: for those principles are favourable to their plea; and the just operation of them would remove the grievance.

I cannot forbear hinting here, that by whatever religious tests the clergy may think proper to bind themselves, yet that, in cases purely civil, it is not congenial to the spirit of our Constitution, properly understood, to introduce doctrines of theological import: they make no part of Magna Charta-no part in the Act of Settlement. For the introduction of doctrinal matters, as tests for the members of our universities, we are indebted to the sole authority of James I.* who made so free with our constitutional liberties; and the Corporation and Test Oaths were not originally aimed against the Protestant dissenters, though afterwards applied to them.

And here it should be acknowledged that the dissenters have not been defectiye in promoting the principles of the English Constitution: their churches are often founded on principles not 'congenial with intellectual or religious liberty; but, as individuals, the dissenters are generally found favourable to civil.

This observation might be illustrated from the writings of the Puritans, who, from their first rise down to the Revolution, when they thought themselves aggrieved, were in the habit of appealing to the principles of the English Constitution: thus Barrow, who suffered death in Queen Elizabeth's reign, for publishing a book called The Discovery of False Churches, maintains in it, that "the High Commission Court was prejudicial to the prerogative of the Prince, to the jurisdiction of the Royal Courts, to the liberty of the free subject, and to the Great Charter of England ;" and, after the Revolution, more to the same purpose may be seen in Mr. Pierce's Vindication, the second part of which goes exactly on Mr. Locke's principles of Civil Government. From the Revolution to the present times, the public discourses of dissenters from the pulpit, as well as, their other writings, have displayed their great zeal in propagating the same principles of the English Constitution; as witness the Berry-street and Lime-street Sermons, together with the numerous writings of Priestley, Price, and Robinson. Dr. Priestley wrote largely on the subject; Dr. Price's Essay on Civil Liberty was, some years ago, in almost every body's hands; and of Mr. Robinson's Political Catechism I should naturally take notice (I have already alluded to it), did not other of his writings breathe the same spirit.

As it is the duty of dissenters, in common with churchmen, to feel an interest in the fundamental liberties of their country, so from the constitution of their churches their ministers are fitted to disseminate them in the most deliberate, effectual, yet constitutional

* Stat. Academiæ Cantab. Literæ Regiæ.

tutional way. And those who call themselves Evangelical Dissenters, in opposition to others who call themselves Rational, as they have an equal reason of attachment to their civil rights, have shewn an equal zeal (and it is their duty) to propagate them. And they very lately saw the happy effect of that spirit which unites them: I allude to the combination of ministers of all denominations-Calvinists, Arminians, Socinians, and Me thodists, for the purpose of maintaining one civil right, that of teaching their own doctrines according to their own pleasure, Here they united; and, with the support of the leading men both in church and state, they carried their point.

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The ministers among the Quakers do not allow themselves to allude to political matters in their public discourses. But William Penn, if I am not mistaken, was a preacher, no less than a legislator and politician: his writings, at least, aim to propagate the purest principles of English politics,* And, on considering that the Quakers enjoy some privileges peculiar to their own sect, and beyond what the other dissenters enjoy, they are laid under greater obligations. Let me add, that the peaceable deportment of the Quakers renders them peculiarly fitted for the propagation of the fundamental principles of our Constitution:† for those principles are opposed to oppression and slavery, in all forms; their operation would unite different interests by one common tie, and in all their directions tend to promote liberty and peace pure perennial springs, "the streams whereof," to borrow the language of the Psalmist, "would make glad the city of God."

Ought we, ought we, to overlook the Catholic clergy? or, while calling on them for the discharge of duties, should we be unprepared to do justice to their principles? The British Cathe lics of the present day differ as much in their politics from Bellarmine, Parsons, or Allen, the papists of former times, as the present clergy of the established church from the clergy in the reign of King James: and as the latter no longer hold the jure divino, the divine right of Kings, neither do the former, the right of the Pope to dethrone kings, or to interfere in affairs of state. Their obedience to the Pope relates wholly to religious concerns. They are as hearty friends to the civil establishment of religion as the English established clergy; and though differ ing from the dissenters as to the spiritual authority of the Pope, they agree with them in the separation of religious from civil power. These doctrines, though formerly maintained by the school divines, are now universally disclaimed by all schools of Catholics: nor do the British Catholic clergy hold any doctrines

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See his Political Tracts in his Select Works,

as

+ Barclay, in his Apology for the Quakers, lays great stress on this argument in his Address to the King,

as catholics, which unqualify them for the propagation of the fundamental principles of our Civil Constitution, as Britons.

Indeed, for promoting those principles the Catholics not only have many reasons in common with others--they possess some peculiar to themselves: they are influenced by considerations of conscience, beyond any other part of the community. Their ancestors bound themselves by oath to these principles at the Revolution: fifty thousand Catholics, with the bishops at their head, have pledged themselves to the principles of the Revolution in 1688 and that revolution was grounded on those fundamental principles, not those principles on the revolution.

Dr. Alexander Geddes's political sentiments, intermingled with his biblical and theological writings,* are those generally avowed now by the English Catholics. Mr. Plowden has more professedly unfolded those principles in his Jura Anglorum, or Rights of Englishmen; and in his Church and State, or his Enquiry into the Origin, Nature, and Extent of the Ecclesiastical and Civil Authority, with reference to the English Constitution,+ he has discussed the whole Catholic controversy (he is a catholic himself) on the subject; he has dilated on the fundamental principles of the English Constitution; and has unanswerably proved, that the Catholics, both clergy and laity, are bound to them both from choice and by oaths.

Catholics, then, are bound to be in earnest on this subject; their exclusions from offices of trust and public utility should in'crease their zeal: arguments arise on all sides for their enforcing the claims, and for our giving them a full hearing. They have repeatedly proved themselves both capable, as they are willing, to give the state a civil test, however they may choose, by a religious one, to bind themselves to the head of their church; for in Magna Charta, in the Act of Settlement, and in their Oath to the Protestant Succession, there is nothing that can enslave (and this only is the feeling concerned in religion) their conscience. In the Catholic claims now making there is a voice which will be heard, and felt: whatever be its immediate tendency, its ultimate end must be, to help forward the cause of civil liberty, the fundamental principle, of the English Constitution.

2 But after all, let us not mistake:-not as Churchmen, or Dissenters, or as Quakers, or as Catholics, simply considered, do men take the impulse of Civil Liberty: it is by knowing, by feeling their just rights, as men and citizens. Some of all parties are favourable to them; many know nothing about them, or are enemies

* 1 allude here only to the political opinions of Dr. G. as having been a Catholic clergyman: his religious opinions are not concerned in this question. + Book i. chap, 9.

enemies to them. Theological opinions, too, we see, divide them into parties: it is therefore well ordained, that they should have common civil interests-some rallying points, round which all men should meet, and consult together for the public good.

Lord Bacon observes, concerning Government,-" It is a part of knowledge secret and retired, in both those respects in which things are deemed secret: for some things are secret, because they are hard to know; and some, because not fit to utter. We see all governments are obscure and invisible.

"Totamque infusa per artus

Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet.

"Such is the descriptions of governments."-So again: "Even unto the general rules and discourses of policy there is due a reverent and reserved handling." *

What he meant, and why he said it, is clear from the paragraph that follows. But, without discussing his meaning, the observation is not applicable to those fundamental laws on which depend the laws, liberties, and rights of Englishmen: there is nothing in them naturally mysterious, or necessarily inscrutable; they cannot be too clearly stated, nor too generally understood.

It is observable of Hobbes's book, alluded to above, that, according to him, the Natural and Moral Law, the Divine and Christian Law, are one and the same: notwithstanding, therefore, his system does not allow men to discuss the laws, and the religion of the citizen must be the religion of the state, yet, if a teacher is to explain the divine law, he must necessarily, in consequence of this union, unfold the law of nature; that is, ac'cording to his own ideas, the fundamental laws of civil society. So much at variance are political theorists with themselves!

2. Next with respect to the Nobility. The dignified station, the superior privileges, and extensive property of the Nobles, tie them, by a link of interest, to the laws and constitution of their country they are called to the discharge of the highest duties of public life. But as a larger circle includes the less when drawn from the same center, so do the higher duties of life those of the lower. Nobles are only privileged citizens; and their zeal for the rights of citizens should be of a wider range than that of zeal for the mere privileges of an order. Fundamental laws are paramount to accidental advantages and nominal distinctions. The noblest feelings of Nobles are, to sympathize with the people feelings they owe of magnanimity, not of self-degradation; feelings to which Patriotism gives the impulse, and of which the result is Liberty: not, I own, quite in harmony with Xenophon's adage (with which Montesquieu's sentiments seem to have corresponded)

*On the Proficiency and Advancement of Learning, Book II. Ch. 3.

responded)" The nobles are favourable to nobles; the people take care of themselves."

As the Nobles compose an estate of parliament, the House of Lords is the sphere in which their principal exertions are seen, but not that to which only their influence extends. And how wide and how deep may that influence be spread, for purposes either bad or good! For let it be observed, that as by Nobles I here mean more particularly the House of Peers, so in that house I include such as sit there as Peers of the realm, and those who sit there as Counsellors in matters of law; such as the Judges of the Courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas, with other law-officers; together with such as sit there, whether it be as Lords of Parliament, or by the courtesy of parliament, I mean the Bishops.

And here it is not intended to notice such as have used their influence for bad purposes; who, by encroaching on the rights of the people, have discredited their own order, or have undermined that palladium of our liberties, which it was their duty to have supported; but a few only of those who, in accordance with their great rank, have had great feelings; and who, speaking from a high sphere, have given a dignity to their sentiments. Such men are examples, and will be here introduced as motives, being philosophically, no less than politically, nobles.*

Trial by a Jury of their Peers, is a right which belongs to all members of the community alike, Lords as well as Commons: in this, as in a public bank on which all may draw, all possess an equal interest; and while so many have conspired to corrupt it, it is pleasing to contemplate some of high rank, who have shewn zeal to preserve its purity. For though its excellence depends not on their authority, yet the testimony of great men carries weight in cases, which are often perplexed by artifices, or over-ruled by power. The duties and powers of Jurors have been well ascertained; their powers and boundaries clearly marked out, by men of superior abilities, in our own times; and here and there, in different periods, we meet with noblemen who have, rising like flowers over a spacious meadow, given fragrant testimony in favour of this fundamental of the English Constitution. On this point Lord Somers distinguished him. self, both by his public professions and occasional writings. On the same subject, Lord Camden bore a noble testimony to that side of the question which may be called the popular, and which is certainly the true side-I mean, which determines the right of a Jury to determine on matter of law as well as fact, and which takes in the intention. In our own time also, Lord Stanhope

and

* Putchrius multo parari, quam creari Nobilem. See Selden's Titles of Honour, p. 854.

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