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to the public injury, which were intended and nurtured for the public good. I hope you will weigh these observations, and apply them to the business of the ensuing week, and beyond that, in the common occupations of your profession: always bearing in your minds the emphatic words of the text, and often in the hurry of your busy, active lives, honestly, humbly, heartily exclaiming to the Son of God, "Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"

SPEECHES.

SPEECHES.

MEETING OF THE CLERGY OF CLEVELAND.

March, 1825.

[From the Yorkshire Herald.]

MR. ARCHDEACON, I am extremely sorry that the clergy of the North Riding of Yorkshire have abandoned that distinction and pre-eminence, which they have held over the clergy of the other two Ridings, in their abstinence from political discussion and from public meetings, on the subject of the Catholics. I sincerely wish that nothing had been done, and no meeting of any description called. As it has been called, it is my duty to attend it, and certainly I will not attend in silence. Do not let my learned brethren, however, be alarmed; I am not going to inflict upon them a speech. I never attended a public political meeting before in my life; nor have made a speech; and therefore my want of skill is a pretty good security to you for my want of length.

There are two difficulties in speaking upon the subject;-one, that the topics are very numerous, the other, that they are trite;-the last I cannot cure, nor can you cure it; and we must all agree to suffer patiently under each other. I shall obviate the first by confining myself to those commonplaces in which the strength of the enemy seems principally to consist: if they have been an hundred times refuted before, do not blame me for refuting them again, but take the blame to yourselves for advancing them!

The first dictum of the enemies of the Catholics is,

that they are not to be believed upon their oath; but upon what condition did the parliament of 1793 grant to the Catholics immunity and relief? Upon the condition that they should sign certain oaths; and why was this made a condition, if the oath of a Catholic is not credible? Or is a small subdivision of the clergy of the North Riding of Yorkshire to consider that test as futile, and those securities as frail, which the united wisdom of the British Parliament has deemed sufficient for the most sacred acts, and the most solemn laws? I am almost ashamed to ask you, (for it has been regularly asked in this discussion for thirty years past,) by what are the Catholics excluded from the offices for which they petition, unless by their respect for oaths? If they do not respect oaths they cannot be excluded; if they do respect oaths, why do you exclude them when you have such means of safety and security in your own hands? If Catholics are so careless of their oaths, show me some suspected Catholic who has crept into place by perjury; who has enjoyed those advantages by his own impiety, which are denied to him by the justice of the law: I not only do not know an instance of this kind, but I never heard of such an instance: -if you have heard such an instance, produce it; if not, give up your gratuitous and scandalous charge. But not only do I see men of the greatest rank and fortune submitting to the most mortifying privations for the sake of oaths, but I see the lowest and poorest Catholics, give up their right of voting at elections, sacrificing the opportunity of supporting the favourer of their favourite question, and suffering the disgrace of rejection at the hustings, from their delicate and conscientious regard to the solemn covenant of an oath. What magistrate dares reject the oath of a Catholic? What judge dares reject it? Is not property changed, is not liberty abridged, is not the blood of the malefactor shed? Are not the most solemn acts of law, both here and in Ireland, founded and bottomed upon the oath of a Catholic? Is no peace, is no league made with Catholics? do not the repose and happiness of Europe often rest upon the oaths and

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