424 
proscription, because we dread the 
power of argument? Alas! what can 
proscription do, but enlist the pride of 
manly feeling on the side of the adver- 
sary, and fortify to obstinacy the preju- 
dices of the proscribed ? 
One word upon the Bill which has 
just been introduced into Parliament, 
for putting down the Catholic Associa- 
tion: or, as it has been styled, in deri- 
sion, the Popish Parliament—and the 
plea of necessity for such penal enact- 
ment.* What was the object of the 
Catholics in organizing this society ?— 
Why, Sir, to obtain the redress of their 
grievances. This, indubitably, is a legal, 
a constitutional, a legitimate object :— 
yet the members of that Association 
have been branded as incendiaries and 
stirrers-up of sedition. They were said 
to have delivered violent and intempe- 
rate speeches,—to have usurped the 
ii of Parliament—and to have 
interfered with the administration of 
justice. Men, Sir, who have so much to 
complain of — who feel themselves to be 
trampled and oppressed—if they speak 
at all, must speak in language which 
will be galling to the minds of their 
oppressors. Eulogy and apology will 
not do: those who smart with their 
wounds, will speak like those that feel. 
As to arrogating to themselves a 
legislatorial function, interfering with 
the administration of justice; what 
have the Catholics done to justify this 
imputation? Those who had the means 
assessed themselves,—to do what—to 
corrupt the judges—to tamper with 
the course of law? No, but to enable 
their poorer brethren to bring their case 
fairly before the tribunals of their coun- 
try. For this offence has the Catholic 
Association been strangled by a new 
law !—for this, fresh inroads have been 
made on the liberties of the people. 
It is incontrovertible, that the Catholic 
Association had done much towards the 
pacification of Ireland. But, adopting 
the hypothesis, that it was a body dange- 
rous to the peace of the country,—there 
was a safer, a shorter, a more certain 
road to its dissolution. Abolish the op- 
probrious civil distinctions which pre- 
vail in Ireland—listen to the complaints 
of the Catholics—restore to them their 
* This part of the argument comes a 
little out of time. Circumstances we could 
not controul have delayed the insertion of 
this article from month to month. It 
ought to have appeared while the Catholic 
— Bil was yet in agitation.— 
DIT. 
Catholic Claims and Oxford University. 
(June I, 
just rights,—and Catholic Association 
sinks into non-existence. This Asso- 
ciation, it has been truly said, was only 
a symptom of the disease which afflicts 
Treland, not the disease itself. Cure the 
disease, and the symptom will disappear. 
[If, however, the disease be not cured, 
the symptom will appear again in some 
new, and perhaps more dangerous 
shape.] 
But, in the feebleness of facts, hypo- 
thesis is appealed to. If the Catholic 
Association had yet done nothing that 
was evil, it was said, it was acquiring a 
power, of which hereafter it might have 
made an evil use. Agaip, we say, antici- 
pate this danger, by removing the cause 
upon which alone its power rested. Re- 
dress the wrongs of Ireland; repeal the 
iniquitous laws of stigmatizing proscrip- 
tion, you strike away the ground upon 
which that power was built, and edi- 
fice and scaffolding alike will disappear. 
Avert not a problematical danger by a 
real wrong, when an honest and effica- 
cious security is at hand. 
Such, to Ministers and Legislators, 
is the advice of, Sir, your’s, &c.—Cato. 
—a——— 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
Sir: 
iG is generally supposed that the 
University of Oxford is particularly 
hostile to the cause and claims of the 
Roman Catholics —the centre and focus 
of the No Popery cry which has so often 
yelled, and still growls, in our ears !— 
that, in short, the aggregate corporate 
body of that most Orthodox Society is 
tremblingly alive to the apprehension of 
every the slightest approach to the 
heretical tenets, errors, rites and super- 
stitions of the Old Lady of Babylon—as 
we are, of course, by law, commanded 
and obliged to call and consider the 
Papal institution of religion ! 
But, Sir, I must be excused for calling 
in question the autheuticity of this 
opinion, so generally received, with re- 
spect to that learned and most pious 
body ; and for suspecting, on the ground 
of authentic documents, that no hos- 
tility to Catholicism exists, or can exist, 
in that famous University ; but that, on 
the contrary, a lurking, or indeed a very 
strong bias of partiality, towards Papists 
and Popery, still remains in their hearts, 
and is cherished in their constitutions. 
It is true, indeed, that we, every now 
and then, hear of declamations, and read 
of petitions, from that learned body, 
against Catholic Emancipation, &c. But 
may there not be a little coquetry in 
this P 
