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the Bishops, in the same work', he refers to the toleration of all sects actually granted in France under Buonaparte; and says that such alliance can no more consist with the Catholic Church, than a concord between Christ and Belial. Let it always be recollected that this was in reference to an application from a sovereign on his throne, in the plenitude of his power, to a poor decrepit old man, whom he was about to carry off as a prisoner into the centre of France; that Buonaparte felt the spiritual power of the Pope, when he asked the exercise of it to confirm his own regulations for the internal government of France; and that the Pope shewed the unchanging character of his church in

Relation, tom. i. p. 42. This is founded precisely on the principles of the Protest of Innocent X. against the terms of the Treaty of Westphalia, because among other things" on permet aux heretiques qu'ils appellent de la confession d'Augsbourg, le libre exercice de leur heresie en plusieurs lieux. **" Bougeant, Traité de Westphalie, VI. 412. See Report (1816) p. 167. The unalterable mind of the Church of Rome is marked by similar expressions on the part of the last Pope in respect to the same Treaty. In an instruction to his Nuncio at Vienna, he calls it "la disastrosa pace de Westfalia;-la pace de Westfalia segna un epoca sventuramenta memorabile." Puissance temporelle des Papes. Paris, 1818, ii. 318.

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Relation, tom. i. p. 193. Instruction of Pius VII., to the Bishops: "Religion Catholique, Apostolique et Romaine *** laquelle, parce qu'elle est divine, est necessairement seule et unique, et par la même, ne peut faire alliance avec aucune autre ; de même que le Christ ne peut s'allier avec Belial, la lumiere avec les tenebres, la verité avec l'erreur, la vraie pieté avec l'impieté."

refusing, even under such extremities, to yield one jot of its intolerant assumptions.

But it may be said, that this was all in the effete and worn-out soil of Europe. Take the seedling to another world; and see what a different fruit it will produce. But stop, in the first place, and mark what fruit it did produce, when the ground was newly turned up in Spain. By the constitution of the Cortes, it was enacted in respect to spiritual liberty as follows:-" The religion of the Spanish nation is, and shall be perpetually, the Roman Catholic, the only true religion. The nation protects it by wise and just laws, and prohibits the exercise of any other." The oath of the members of the Cortes was this-" I swear to defend and preserve the Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman religion, without admitting any other into the kingdom." Is the Church of Rome here changed? Go across the Atlantic; what is the fundamental article in the constitution of the newest of the Roman Catholic states of the New World? I will not trust my recollection, but I will read a passage from the constitution of Mexico; it is nearly the same as that of the Cortes: "The religion of the state shall be the holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church. The State protects it by just and salutary laws; and prohibits the exercise of any other." This is the act not of imperial, but of republican Mexico; it is the newest specimen of that kind of

1 See both in Report (1816) No. 501. p. 343.

religious freedom which the members of the Church of Rome will admit, even when taking the greatest care of their own civil rights.

I might quote much about the Protestants in France', and the spirit of the Roman Catholic religion even there; still more about the Vaudois, against whom the king of Sardinia, on his restoration, re-enacted many of the oppressive decrees which had been repealed during their subjection to France. I might quote not less as to the spirit of the Belgian Church: but I trust, that I have already said enough to prove that the semper eadem of the Romish Church is no vain boast; that that Church is at this day as grasping, as despotic, as exclusive, as in those ages, which by an

'The whole subject of the condition of Protestants in countries in which the Roman Catholic religion is dominant, and the converse subject of the condition of Roman Catholics in Protestant countries, together furnish matter for very curious inquiry and reflection. Intolerance in one kingdom will never justify intolerance in another; but, when we are told that the Church of Rome has changed her character, I assert that she has no where changed it where she has power to manifest it; and I produce, as proofs of it, her treatment of Protestantism as such, wherever her own creed is dominant. On the second proposition I say, that the Roman Catholics of this Empire, though as such deprived of many civil advantages, do nevertheless enjoy an aggregate balance of more civil liberty than any of their creed any where else possess; and that the great difficulty of admitting them to the privileges now withheld from them in this kingdom, is in consequence of the privileges enjoyed by them already. To this subject I refer hereafter, p. 148.

unnecessary courtesy to the present, so far as Rome is concerned, we call the dark ages.

Sir, I contend, that the evidence on which this alleged change in the Church of Rome is supposed to rest, upon the proof of which change we are told to relax all our securities against its former character, is itself so little trust-worthy on many other points, that no vital alteration in the constitution can safely or consistently be made on the testimony of such witnesses. I will not exhaust the patience of the House, by comparing, at any length, the evidence of Dr. Doyle, before the committee, with his letters as J. K. L. '; or the evidence of Mr. O'Connell before the committee, with the speeches of that gentleman before the Roman Catholic Association. I will, however, quote one or two passages from Dr. Doyle, comparing them with what he had said elsewhere; and I would appeal to the honourable and learned member for Winchelsea, or to the honourable and learned member for Peterborough, whether, if they had such a witness as Dr. Doyle in the box, who had in one place professed his respect

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There is, I believe, no moral doubt that J. K. L. is the identical Dr. James Doyle, titular Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, "James Kildare & Leighlin :" but when, in the House of Lords, asked, are you acquainted with the letters which were published under the title of J. K. L.?" his only and innocent answer is, "I have seen them." In another passage, when asked whether he concurs in opinion with those letters, he says, "I think it better to make myself responsible for the answer I here give than for what is found written in those letters," p. 234.

for the Established Church', as next to his own, and his unwillingness even to touch her property if pressed on his acceptance, they would not ask him Pray, Dr. Doyle, do you not remember, in such a place, and before such and such people, saying, -that the religion of the Establishment in Ireland

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1 Evidence before the Committee, 1825. "If by the Established Church is understood a Church of religionists, professing a certain religious creed, I esteem them in that character more than any description or class of Christians in the universe, outside my own Church." P. 216. After stating in another answer, in the same page, "In a word, I have a high esteem, and the highest respect for the whole constitution of the Established Church, and even for many of its Clergy;" he adds, indeed," but the same feelings that I have for the constitution of the Church, and for many of its Clergy, and for those who profess the Creed of the Establishment, I have not towards the temporalities of that Establishment in Ireland." Nevertheless, he says, for himself and his brethren, that "were a portion of those goods" (the temporalities of the Church in Ireland)" offered to us, we would decline accepting of them." P. 221. And being asked, in the same page, "supposing the tithes now received by the Protestant Church were proposed to be transferred to the Roman Catholic Church?" He answers, "Unquestionably I would not accept of them." Admitting that this is to be believed; admitting that there is no necessary connexion between J. K. L. seeking to strip the Church of its wealth, and Dr. Doyle being unwilling to receive it; admitting that Dr. Doyle, as J. K. L., meant only that he wished the Church to be overturned, "this mighty Babylon" to be no longer "suffered to exist;" and that the same Dr. Doyle, in his proper character, did not desire himself to participate in the plunder, he gains more in competency as a witness, than the Church gains in security from him.

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