better it was for all classes of the com. munity. And this, he contended, was the general effect of the system which the hon. gentleman proposed to set aside. Upon all these grounds he should give the motion his decided negative.

Mr. W. Smith observed, that this tax bore unequally on different persons, inasmuch as it raised a similar sum on all sorts of income, whether that income were of the value of three or of thirty years purchase. Could that be a fair tax which was equally raised from a person of 3,000l. a year, and one of only 300l.? Surely persons ought only to be called upon to contribute in equal proportion to their interest in the country, and to their means of payment. He must also insist on the extreme unpleasantness of the means resorted to in levying this tax.

Sir Robert Williams said, that he was ready to grant ministers every means of prosecuting the war with vigour and effect; but they seemed determined to extend the tax beyond the duration of the war; and this was more than he thought himself warranted in agreeing to.

Mr. Buxton said, he was a friend to the tax upon income, because it came nearest to a tax upon property, neither was it liable to the objections that were urged against a tax upon property, for it affected the produce of property, not property itself; and it moreover fell on those who were best able to pay it. He was one of those who were called the landed gentlemen, and he was ready to give up a tenth of his income not for ten, but for twenty years, nay for ever, if the remainder of his property were secured from the inroad of French pikes and French principles. Nor was the tax to be perpetual; but was only to continue till the interest on the sums raised for the prosecution of the war should be paid off.

Mr. Manning said, that he, for one was unwilling to abandon this new system without some gentleman showing him how the six millions could be levied so well by any other mode; besides which, there was every reason to expect that the amount of this tax would continue to increase.

Debate in the Commons on the Monastic Institutions Bill.] May 22. The house having resolved itself into a committee of the whole house, to consider of an act made in the 31st of his majesty, intituled "An Act to relieve, upon conditions, and under restrictions, the persons therein described, from certain penalties and disabilities to which Papists, or persons professing the popish religion, are by law subject,"

Sir Henry Mildmay said:-Sir, I shall preface the resolutions I am about to submit to the committee, with a few remarks which, from my local residence in a populous city that has lately been the residence of many of the emigrant priests and others, have occurred to my observation, and which I think it my duty to submit to the serious consideration of parliament. I am one of those who think that if there is any thing that eminently distinguishes the British character in the eventful period of the last ten years, it is to be found in the humane protection that has been extended to that unfortunate and meritorious class of men, who have preferred the sacrifice of all their temporal interests, and actual expulsion from their native country, to the abandonment of their principles and their religion, to a participation in the atheism and anarchy of republican France. Andso far as my own observations and experience have gone, the generosity that has been so liberally afforded by the country has been justified by the peaceful demeanor; by the unassuming and unobtrusive gratitude of those who have thus largely partaken of our bounty; and I am the last man who would wish to contract that bounty which has supported them, or that spirit of toleration that has admitted the Catholic emigrants to the free exercise of their religious duties, so long as they are not inconsistent with the safety of the church and state. The various asylums with which this country abounds for the reception of these unfortunate fugitives, are highly to the honour of this country; but however to our honour it may be to have afforded protection to such individuals, and to have tolerated them in the private exercise of their religious duties, I cannotconceive that it ever was the intention of

government to encourage the permanent

reestablishment of monastic institutions in this Protestant country. However to our honour it may be to have suffered those

So it passed in the negative.

individuals, who had previously bound themselves to the duties of a monastic life, to discharge, in this country, those Vows whence, in their mind, no human power could release them, I think such indulgence ought to expire with the life of the present incumbents; that we ought not to suffer the vacancies which may happen to rise in such communities to be filled up by subjects of this country, actually professed since their residence here; and that we should, on all grounds, carefully guard against the admission of any new members into these societies, whose first obligation on entering into them is subversive of those laws and liberties which the wisdom and policy of our ancestors long since introduced amongst us. It falls within my own observation to know, that, in each of the two monastic societies established at Winchester, several different persons have been suffered actually to profess themselves, and to take both veils since their residence there; and a great variety of similar instances might be produced from different parts of the country where these monastic societies have been established, I do not mean to say that these proceedings have hitherto gone to any alarming extent; but I think they are practices which ought to be checked in the bud: we may otherwise live to lament that the national humanity has been abused, and that parliament, by voting money for their subsistence, has in some degree been made a party to the revival of what seems to us the most unnatural part of the Romish faith. The resolution I mean to propose is similar to a regulation which I understand to have taken place in 1763, when the Catholic province of Canada was ceded to this country, namely, to place within the protection of the law those convents which actually existed, but to suffer, on no pretence, the admission of any new members into such societies. Another subject to which I wish to call the attention of the committee arises from circumstances which have given considerable alarm to those whose high situations in the regular church have placed the interests of the Protestant communion, particularly in their hands, namely, from the recent foundation of a great variety of Catholic schools, many of which are engrafted on, and under the immediate superintendance of their monastic establishments. To each of the two monasteries established at Winchester is annexed

a school for the education of female children, which was not in existence previous to the institution of these convents, and which, till lately, from the assiduity of the advocates of this system, have considerably increased. I think it very material that the public should be enabled to ascertain the views and object of these seminaries. We cannot suppose that the members of a convent can have any natural ties to induce them to undertake such an office; and I think we may reasonably apprehend, that the intention is not merely to educate children in the common tenets of the Romish faith, but to give a total ascendancy to the minds of their pupils, to familiarize and attach them to the superior duties and seclusion of a monastic life, so as hereafter to secure a supply to fill those vacancies which may happen to arise in these monastic establishments. How far the committee will think it consistent with their duty to sanction practices which may be suspected to have these objects in view, I cannot determine, but I should not have discharged my duty if I had neglected to comply with the general voice of the public, laity as well as clergy, in submitting the subject to the attention of parliament. I am a friend to toleration in matters of conscience; but I think that, having admitted 5,000 priests into this country, of a persuasion inimical to the religion established by law, and continuing to subsist here at the public expense, it is our duty to be particularly careful to give no offence to the regular church, and to see that the interests of the Protestant communion do not suffer by our humanity and indulgence. I do not say that, in either of the two instances to which I have adverted, the children of Protestant parents have been admitted into these seminaries, though I could prove that they have been admitted elsewhere; but I do say, that such attempts have been made; and if they have not succeeded, it has been entirely owing to the strict and steady principles of those on whom the experiment has been tried. I may be told that the present laws provide against this practice. They do so, in some degree; but their provisions are not competent to the object they have in view, and it is to give energy and effect to these very provisions, without adding any new principle to our laws, that I shall submit my resolutions to the committee. Since the year 1791, when the

this country. The Alien act possessed all the power that was necessary to prevent the abuses complained of,

Mr. Pitt said, he admired the liberal principles on which the resolutions were framed. They did not infringe on the principles of toleration, sanctioned by the laws and constitution of this country. It was no part of those principles to allow the establishment of monastic institutions. It was not, however, proposed to abolish those already established by refugees from another country; but only to prohibit their being recruited by new members, natives of this country. As to the observation, that the power vested in the executive government by the Alien act was adequate to remedy the evils complained of, he could not agree that an act which enabled government to turn out of the kingdom any person whom it might suspect of designs against the tranquillity of the kingdom, could with propriety be enforced in the case under consideration. It was surely better to advertise, by an act of the legislature, these unfortunate people of what they were prohibited from doing. It would be hard to expel them from the asylum they had found, for conduct which they suspected not to be a crime.

Dr. Laurence thought the restriction contained in the resolutions too rigorous, and in some cases oppressive.

Mr. Bragge said, it was not the punish1ment of proselytism that was intended, but to guard against the continuance of an innovating principle. The object proposed did not come within the jurisdiction of the Alien act, which was a political not religious measure. Besides, the provisions of the Alien act did not apply to the native subjects of the country.

The Resolutions were agreed to.

May 23. The Resolutions being reEported,

Mr. Windham said, he thought the measure unnecessary, and consequently improper; for he was of opinion, that whatever was unnecessary was improper to be agreed to by the legislature; since it was a maxim, that the legislature did nothing in vain. He did not feel any danger to this country from popery; and, therefore, what he did not recognize as a danger, he would not provide against with any thing like a remedy. This measure had no other recommendation than that it would do no harm; but before the

House entertained it, there should be evidence that it would do some good. His objection, however, was chiefly that the measure was unnecessary; not being quite sure, by the way, that it would do no mischief, he meant by giving sanction to a jealousy which he had much rather see going to sleep, than rising up again after so long an interval of rest. He did not know that it was creditable to the church of England to acknowledge there was such a danger; he did not think that this was the way to provide against it, if there was.

now

Mr. Jones thought there was danger to be apprehended, from too many Catholic priests remaining among us; he had hopes that the measure before the House would remove the evil; but he knew the effect which might be produced by the powerful eloquence of the secretary at war: upon that subject, the House had had an instance on the Bull-baiting bill; but he hoped the right hon. gentleman would not consider this as a nun-baiting bill, and oppose it as he did the other.

The Resolutions were agreed to by the house, and a bill was ordered to be brought in pursuant thereto. The bill was brought in by sir Henry Mildmay on the 5th of June, and read a second time on the 11th.

June 23. On the order of the day being read for going into a committee on the bill,

Mr. Windham rose to oppose the motion. His objections, he said, did not extend to the whole of the bill, though from the nature of the measure in general it was difficult for him to select the parts that in any respect met his approbation. Had a less objectionable bill been brought in, it would probably have received his support, but the inquiry proper for the House to enter on on this occasion, waswhy bring in any bill at all? He had looked around him much upon the world

he had observed the journey and progress of society-he had made the condition of the people and the state of religi ous opinion his study-he had strained his eyes in search of the crying evil that was said to call loudly for the present bill, but he had no where discovered an adequate cause for the alarm betrayed by some gentlemen. It was not a very distant period, when the just and well-founded apprehensions of many excellent persons,

concerning the progress of certain political opinions, procured to those persons the title of alarmists, and he was himself considered a pretty good alarmist. But whether it was that his fears for religion were absorbed in his fears for other institutions held sacred among men, or whether he was dull of apprehension, assuredly he had no alarms, no fears for religion arising from the existence in this country of a few monastic institutions. After what had taken place already in the civilized world; after the revolutions in different nations in Europe; but, above all, with the example of the French revolution, which had been a standing monument for these ten years of the utter impracticability of giving entire dominion to the Roman Catholic Church, what well-founded reason was there for believ ing that a handful of priests, neither intriguing or ambitious, would all at once alienate its members from the Protestant church? Could it be believed, that, at the present moment especially, when the powers of Europe were trembling in the scale, awaiting the decision of a day, perhaps an hour, when the next dispatch, perhaps, will bring accounts of some battle, on the issue of which may depend the fate of revolutionary France: at a moment when those priests, from whom some gentlemen appear to dread so much, are looking eagerly forward to the near approach of their delivery, and of their return to their native soil, to take possession of all their honours; was it in such a moment that the House of Commons of Great Britain thought fit to apprehend serious danger to the religious faith of the people of England, from the progress of Catholic opinion? But probably it was rather to be traced to another cause. There did at one time prevail a fashion of ascribing every evil to popery, insomuch, that one might say it seemed to be almost a received doctrine, that "from popery you came, and to popery you shall return." It was said too, that the spread of popery was peculiarly dangerous, as being one of the principal causes of atheism. This opinion originated from those who fancied that unbelievers became such in consequence of the errors of the Church of Rome; but could any one suppose that the Voltaires, the D'Alemberts, the Condorcets, were made Free-thinkers by what they had seen of the errors of popery? Were Mr. Hume and Mr. Gibbon of the same sentiments with those cele

brated Frenchmen, from the fears of the progress of Popery? These last were born and educated in Protestant countries, and wrote under the influence of a habit of energetic, bold investigation, in which if they erred, they still always erred plausibly. This notion that popery was the cause of every moral evil, reminded him of what he had read of the sect of philosophers known by the name of Peripatetics, who held, that cold generated heat, and vice versa, which led to the lines of the poet,

"Th' antiperistasis of age,

"More inflamed his amorous rage." It was true, there were always taking place in the world changes in the state of human affairs. The re-action and retrogradation of the business of communities and nations were continually re-producing events, which, from the regularity of their return, men had been accustomed to regard as certain and necessary. It was a

pretty true saying, that war produced poverty, and poverty peace. But, with respect to the present bill, when he looked at the state of Europe, it was natural to ask, what particular circumstance required such a law? He knew that i might be answered: we have here a phenomenon, such as was never seen before, namely, four or five thousand French priests. Undoubtedly that argument taken by itself, as far as it went, was a good one, but the House ought to see more than this mere fact. He had read in some old book a boast of a Northern writer in honour of his country. This writer exulted that the Romans never could subdue the Northern tribes of the part of the kingdom now called Scotland, and the reason he gives is, that the Roman arms would never penetrate beyond Agricola's wall. Now, the proof was the other way; for it was obviously the effect of the superiority of the Romans that they extended their conquests so far northward. application of this historical incident was, that those who now saw so much danger in permitting a few thousand priests to say mass in this country, appeared to forget, that they were but the wreck of two or three hundred thousand, who formerly existed in great power and relative splendor, in a country wholly Catholic, and under the reign of a prince distinguished for his attachment to the popish church. Would, then, any man say, that the mere wreck of that church, that miserable portion of those who performed the

The