when the perfect union, when the hearty and friendly co-operation of every soul in the kingdom are called for, no salutary purpose could be answered by an administration, which should bear on it the marks of political animosity and proscription.--Thus was Mr. Pitt left to make up a ministry of his own; and thus have the hopes of the public been most cruelly disappointed. Mr. Pitt's friends contend, that no blame attaches to him. Let them take care here; for," the King can do no wrong;" his Majesty has acted under the advice of some one; and, if there be blame, the blame must attach principally to Mr. Pitt. It is said, that he used his utmost endeavours to prevail upon his Majesty to give up his ob jection with respect to Mr. Fox. It is very unconstitutional, if not seditious, to make assertions of this sort, the object of which is, to turn the public discontent aside from Mr. Pitt, and to direct it against his Majesty. It is next to impossible for us to know whether Mr. Pitt used any endeavours to remove the objection, or not: all that we can know is, that a ministry, upon a principle of proscription has been formed; and, in whatever degree the forming of such a ministry, at this time, be a blameable act, in that degree is Mr. Pitt blameable, and his having associates in the blame does not in anywise remove it from himself.--Besides, if it be true, that Mr. Pitt was, previous to the interview with the King, informed of his Majesty's objection to Mr. Fox, it is not unreasonable to ask how that interview came to take place, unless it were for the mere purpose of removing the objection; for, knowing the objection to exist, he must, as it now appears, even before he went to the King, have determined to form a ministry to the exclusion of Mr. Fox, if the objection was not to be overcome; and, with such a determination in his mind, it is not probable, that his resistance would be remarkably stout. Nay, is it not possible, that he agreed with the Lord Chancellor not to press the admission of Mr. Fox? And does not the whole look very much like an intrigue; a juggle, and that too of not the first character even for a juggle?" No promise was broken, no pledge "forfeited," say his friends. Very true. No positive promise, no specific pledge: but, are not the expectations of the public disappointed? Have not the Parliament been duped? Did not Mr. Pitt, when he was aiding in the divisions, well know what were the wishes and expectations of those who divided with him? And will he say, that the divisions would have been what they were, if the House could have foreseen

what has now come to pass?-The leaders of the New Opposition, whose conduct is the theme of unbounded applause amongst the people in general, are by the partisans of Mr. Pitt, blamed, and even abused for refusing to take part in his new administra tion, which refusal is ascribed to ambitious and selfish views; as if it were likely that they should enjoy a greater share of power and emolument by the admission of Mr. Fox and his friends, than by their exclusion! That the whole undivided malice of the partisans of the new ministry would be, for some time at least, directed against the members of the New Opposition, it was easy to perceive; but, one would hardly have expected to hear their conduct attributed to selfish motives: that seems to be the very last construction that a man of common-sense would admit it to bear: and, indeed, it would be very difficult to find out any plausible motive other than that which they have, from first to last, professed to have in view; namely, the forming of an administration upon a comprehensive plan, and upon liberal principles. The rancour which the partisans of Mr. Pitt now discover against the New Opposition, arises from their mortification at the refusal of these latter to be included in the new arrangements. This refusal was not expected: a resistance merely to save appearances was all that Mr. Pitt thought that he should have to overcome: he was stung at the rejection of his offer. It is a trite observation, that the last man in the parish who hears of a cuckoldom is the cuckold himself. The same may certainly be said of a declining minister. Mr. Pitt seems never to have imagined that he had sunk in the opinions of men; but, on the contrary, it is not at all improbable, that the flattery, with which his ears have been continually regaled by the military courtiers in the neighbourhood of Dover, might have even exalted him in his own opinion. No wonder, therefore, that he was astounded upon finding that Lord Grenville was not willing to commit to him the keeping of his honour. When he heard Lord Grenville say, that the arrangements must not include him and his, friends without Mr. Fox; at that moment it was, that Mr. Pitt learnt, for the first time, that he was become a less man than formerly.than formerly,The Lord Chancellor, George Rose, Lord Castlereagh, &c. may bug themselves in the success of their juggle; but, I should imagine, that Mr. Pitt will view the prospect in a different light. One would think, that he must perceive some part, at least, of the dangers that are before him. And yet, he has discovered

such a want of foresight in other matters, that it is not altogether improbable he may partake in the infatuation; an infatuation which will, most assuredly, not last as many months as he was before years in the administration of public affairs.Before this sheet comes from the pre-s, it is probable that the new ministry may be formed, or rather, stuck together. The lists that have been published may be the mere creatures of conjecture: and, therefore, it would be useless, in this state of the business, to enter at any length into a particular examination of the constituent parts of the patch-work; but, I do not think it at all hazardous to say, that, if the principal offices of state are to be filled in the manner that has been stated; if the Lord Chancellor is to remain, if Lord Melville is to have the command of our fleets, if Lord Hawkesbury is still to keep the port folio, if Lord Castlereagh is to have the management of the internal affairs of the kingdom, if Lord Chatham is still to hang upon the Ordnance, if the conducting of the war is to be left to Lord Mulgrave, if the cabinet is to contain nothing but cyphers, Mr. Pitt and Lord Melville excepted, if the Roses and the Longs are again to become predominant, again, like disgorged leeches, to be fastened upon the veins of the country, if this is really to be the case, it is by no means hazardous to say, that, except as to its origin, the new ministry will be worse than the last.It is said that Lord Hawkesbury hesitates. That he demands time to consider, whether or not he ought to consent to go into a cabinet with Mr. Pitt!!! This single fact; nay, the very belief that such is the fact, is decisive as to the decline, and the fearful decline, of the character and influence of Mr. Pitt. Only three years ago Lord Hawkesbury would as soon have thought of jumping from the top of St. Pauls' as of opposing the wish of Mr. Pitt, even in the most trifling concern; and, what would the latter then have said, if any one had told him, that the time was at hand

when he would have to sue for the official aid and parliamentary support of Lord Hawkesbury? No wonder, that, under such circumstances, Mr. Canning should, as is said to be the case, have left town in disgust: no wonder that he should endeavour to avoid the shame, which must, in a greater or less degree, be experienced by every friend and every partisan of Mr. Pitt. The time will come, and it will not be long in coming, when Mr. Canning will be utterly astonished that he should ever have thought Mr. Pitt a wise and great man.- The public

consequences of the juggle may be unpleasant, at first; but, I am by no means of opinion, that, in the end, the country will have to regret that a ministry including all parties has not been formed, unless, indeed, it could have been formed without Mr. Pitt at the head of it. To have seen all the parties broken up, all their leaders, both of the first and second class, ranged under the banners of Mr. Pitt, would to me, have been a sight the most fearful that could have been conceived; and, if his being prime ininister was a sine quâ non, I heartily rejoice that the project of a combined ministry has failed. "*] am for

"the men who will save the country, be they who they may," was a sentiment which I heard expressed by a great, a wise, an upright statesman, immediately after the conclusion of the preliminary treaty with France, a sentiment which I most cordially adopted, and under the influence of which I have constantly acted from that moment to this, never having been, as far, at least, as I myself could perceive, in any one instance, seduced therefrom either by prejudice, on the one side, or partiality, on the other.I was, I believe, the first person, who publickly called for an union, in ministry, of the great men of all parties, as the only means of rescuing the country from its present disgraceful and dangerous state; and, upon an occasion more recent, I have, as the readers of this work will remember, taken some credit to myself for having so stood forward.— Those readers will, perhaps, wonder, therefore, when they now perceive me to be amongst those who are the least concerned at the failure of an union between Mr. Pitt and the leading men of the old and new opposition, and even to have entertained some alarm as to the consequences of such an union. But, it is not at the union itself that I should have been alarmed; it is at the wrong distribution of power which might have taken place amongst the persons united; it is at the probable and likely predominance of the influence of Mr. Pitt; at the consequent perseverance in all his systems; and, in short, at the sanction which his vicious and debasing principles of policy, foreign and domestic, would have received, and the strength they would have derived, from the joint countenance and responsibility of Mr. Fox, Lord Grenville, Mr. Windham, &c. which sanction, if once given, could never have been withdrawn, and which strength, if once communicated, would have given to those principles a degree of malignity, against which all the wisdom of man would never

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have been able to provide an antidote. Yes, I sincerely wished for an union of the great men of all parties; but, never have I expressed this wish unaccompanied with observations intended to impress the reader with an opinion, that, if Mr. Pitt came into such an union, he must, as a preliminary step, give up, clearly and specifically give up, the principles and system, upon which he has governed this country; and that, even with such a relinquishment, he ought not again to be prime minister, though it might be very desirable that he should be a leading In order to shew member in the cabinet. that my opinion, in this respect, has not undergone the least change, I could refer to several parts of the Register, beginning as far back as the winter of 1802, but I shall not, at present, trouble the reader with any quo tation, except from the number of the 17th December last, Vol. IV. p. 905, where, after having expressed my dissent from the opini

on,

done, had he become minister in March, 1803, he would now have done, had he been at the head of a powerful cabinet, or, that cabinet must have been broken up.--I have for my part, long been fully persuaded, that Mr. Pitt is not a person fit to be at the bead of the affairs of a nation, particularly in times like the present. His system of political economy must be destroyed, or, it must destroy the monarchy; and, such is his pertinacity, with regard to that system, that, it is much to be feared, he would risk the monarchy for its sake. How dangerous, then, would it be for such a person to be at the head of the government, to unite under him, and thereby to silence and neutralize at least, all the leaders of all the parties, leaving no one to oppose his projects? I am not supposing, that he would have been able easily to induce his colleagues to adopt every thing that came athwart his mind. They would, doubtless, never have consented to any further alienation of the real property of the Church, much less would they have yielded to the seizure of the tithes, or any such measure; but, for harmony's sake, they would, when once in, have yielded to a great del; and, I must confess, that I should have been cruelly mortified to see Lord Grenville, Mr. Fox, and Mr. Windham lending their names and countenance to the execution of plans conceived by Lord Carrington or George Rose. In such a state of things the country would have been left without hope. The monarchy would, in such case, have come to an end in the hands of Mr. Pitt, as the French monarchy did in the hands of Mr. Necker: the former, like the latter, would have presented his "Compte Rendu," and have left it to be settled by the Sovereign People. While there are men of great talents and character in the Opposition, the projects of Mr. Pitt never can be carried to this destructive length.

BANK DOLLARS.-In the former part of this sheet, there are two communications, one respecting BANK DOLLARS, and the other respecting the SINKING FUND. It will be perceived, that they contain opinions opposed to mine, on those subjects. There is not room left here to enter into an examination of them; but, I am by no means afraid to leave them a week unanswered.

Whether GEORGE ROSE is to succeed Lord Redesdale, as Lord High Chancellor of Ireland, or whether he is to have the first vacant Bishoprick that falls, has not yet been finally settled.

VOL. V. No. 20.]

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LOYALTY OF ROMAN CATHOLICS.

But

SIR,-The cager impatience of your correspondent C. R. to find in your Register a defence of Lord Redesdale, or a refutation of the British Observer, naturally attracted my attention. When I found, by reading a few lines of his letter, that he had himself undertaken the task, I own, Sir, I did expect some justification of that noble lord on religions on political grounds, or something like a reply to my own remarks. these expectations, however rational, have been completely disappointed. The author of the letter brings before us an unconnected series of trite objections against the Catholic religion, objections which have repeatedly been made, and as often fully refuted. After a late discussion of these topics between two eminent divines of the church of Rome, and of the Establishment, it is somewhat surprising, that the patience of the Public should be so soon put to a second trial. As knowledge and discrimination are not widely diffused among the bulk of mankind, as many deem an objection un answerable, because it receives no answer, as all do not possess that sense and liberality, which are necessary in such a discussion, I think it highly advisable to correct the misstatements of your correspondent, and to rectify his errors. As his representation of Catholic doctrine and practices can have no tendency but to excite alarm, it appears to me, that the man who steps forward to allay this uneasiness, by correctly stating, what is evidently misrepresented, is a benefactor to his country.- -Your correspondent can didly acknowledges, that he is little skilled in the history of popery. In this sentiment we both most perfectly agree; and of the truth of this acknowledgment every sentence offers a confirmation. It is stated, that the public professions of loyalty made by the Catholic bishops are contrary to the autho rised doctrines of their church, the acts of their Popes, the explanations of their doctors, and the continued practice of people,

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priests, and princes. How these formidable charges are substantiated the reader will be Curious to learn. As to the avowed doetrine of the Catholic church on the subject of loyalty, the 3d chapter of the 4th council of Lateran is referred to as conclusive evidence. It is extremely unpleasant, Sir, ta tell a gentleman, who, perhaps. like myself, may have devoted his days and nights to literary pursuits, that he who'y miscon ceives the meaning of the canon and that he shews a complete ignorance of the cir-, cumstances of the time in which it was framed. About the close of the 12th, and the beginning of the 13th centuries, heretical opinions of the most angerous uature and tendency were rapidly gaining ground, and spreading the utmost disorder in several countries of Europe. The errors assumed a variety of forms, and were propagated by leaders of different denominations. Such were the Waldenses, the Cathari, the new Arians, the new Manicheans. The most dangerous of these sects was, onquestionably, that of the Albigenses, who, besides disturbing by their disorders the religious establishment of their country, broached doctrines hostile to all government, and to the very existence of civil society. Among a dark catalogue of errors, they condemned matrimony, but indulged in excesses of the most indelicate and the most atrocious nature. Against these pestiferous members of society, the civil power had frequently proceeded with the utmost severity, but without eff ct. To repress their disorders in the most encacious manner, the 4th counel of Lateran was called in the year 1215, and a his assembly as sisted, not only the usual proportion of bishops and dignified clergy, but amba-sadors from almost every sovereign in Europe. Those of the Emp-ror, of the King of France, England, Hungary, and Ariagon are particularly mentioned in the acts of the council. On that occasion it was decreed to excommunicate the heretics of the time,

and to deliver them up to the civil power to receive the punishment due to their crimes. Then follows the clause coptaining the objected words: "If any temporal lord shall not obey, within a year, it shall be signified to the Pope, who shall from that time absolve his subjects from their fidelity, and give up his country to the possession of the Catholics." The statement of this transaction shews, that it was not an ecclesiasti cal usurpation of civil power, but a joint effort of church and state to repress disorders destructive to the interests of both. Such is the observation of Fleury, a writer by 10 means partial to the civil pretensions of the Popes. The church," says he, "would ap66 pear by this canon to invade the civil

power; but we must recollect that at this council many sovereigns were represent"ed by their an bassadors, who admitted "these decrees in the names of their masters" (Hist. Ecclesias. Tom. X. Liv. 77. § 47) Ideed it requires not the learning of Feury to answer the proposed objection. If your correspondent had taken the pains to turn to the 42d chapter of the same council, he would have found an explicit avowal of the independence both of the c.vil and spiritual powers The words are

remarkable and deserve to be transcribed. "Sicut volumus ut jura clericorum non

a.

usurpent laici, ita velle debemus ne clerict jura sibi vindicent laicorum." As this 42d canon contains an acknowledgment of the power of sovereigns, and as the 3d canon relates only to a co-operation of the civil and ecclesiastical powers for the purpose of repressing crimes punishable by the laws of this and of every civilized country, I expect from the candour of your coirespondent a formal retractation of a rash and unfounded opinion. (See Concil Edt. Lble Paris 1671. Tom. IV. p. 118, 240; also Fleury's Hist. Eccles. Tom XVI. Liv. 76 and 77). As your corespondent has failed in establishing the "precept," let us see whether he will succeed better in prov ing the " practice." Pe a scris, that Pius V. issued a Lull abs ving Elizabeth's subjects from their allegiance, and ferbidding obedience to her uncer pain of excomnunication. The fact is undoubtedly tive, but let us examine whether it will authorise the conclusion which he has thought proper to draw The hen an Pontifis have always claimed a spiritual power and a soprene jurisdiction over the whole Catholic church, and Catholics are obliged by their religion to sada it the cla Sone Popes have been found to exceed the Inits of the spiritual power, and to interfere in the civi

concerns of sovereigns, but their pretensions have been as often resisted by Catholics themselves. Of what kind is this act, by which the Pope attempted to deprive Eliza beth of the crown? Unquestionably of the laster description. Had his Holiness con fined himself to the sentence of excommunication, he would not have exceeded his duty; for as he can inforce obedience in maiters relating to faith, morals, and disci pline, it certainly is in his power to declare who are members of his church, and who deserve to be removed from the pale of his communion. But when that Pontiff attempted to deprive Elizabeth of her temporal right, he certainly proceeded to a deed not within the limits of his jurisdiction, and not justified by the example of the most eminent ad most illustrious of his predecessors; This solitary instance, therefore, cannot be produced as an example of the practice of ike Popes, much less of the authorised usages of the Catholic religion, no more than the attempts of Charles I. to raise money without the consent of Parliament can be referred to as a practice permitted by the British constitution. Besides, let it be remembered that the Popes never proposed to the fanhtul the acknowledgment of th s pretended right, as an essential terin of communion, that for many ages it has been disćer tinued, and has grown obsolete, and that Catholics never thought the admission of it a matter of conscientious obligation. It is a notorious fact, that at the present day, the Catholics of the United Kingdom have formally disavowed it by a sok mu appeal to the Almighty. (See the ith Gath, 1774, and the English of 1778 and 1791).-le loyal conduct of the English Catholics during the peried to which your correspondent aliudes, is a proof of the purity of their religi cus doctrine. Leth mexemne heir behavi cur with a critical ye at a period when the kingdom was breated with nvasion by a powerful Ca hobe sovereign, comin and ng the whole force the Spanish n onarchy; let him bear in his n in, tha heywere su arting under the severest sufferings; that they were in a state of persecution for professing the religion of their fathis; exposed to fines, imprison ment, exile, and death; that the scaffold was perpetually flowing with the blood of their clergy, one hundred and forty of whem suffered death during this reign on account of the exercise of their priestly functions. (Mem. Miss. Pr. Vol. J. and II. passim. Dodd's Church Hist. Vol. II Art. Elizabeth).Let him likewise reflect on the tenor of the bull to which he has referred, and then de termine what could have given birth to an