142] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



medy. When I think of the rea- 

 diness with which persons are apt 

 to call for the interference of the 

 house, I consider it as one of the 

 evils of the times. The courts be- 

 low keep up their price. There 

 we find no frivolous applications ; 

 the experiment is too costly. Par- 

 liament only is cheap. The legis- 

 lature is as accessible as the parish 

 pump: it may be worked by the 

 first man who puts his hand to it. — 

 This alone is a sufficient reason why 

 the vote of the house should put a 

 stop to the farther progress of a bill 

 so nugatory and useless." — The ar- 

 guments of Mr. Windham were re- 

 plied to by sir H. Mildmay, who 

 contended still, that if circumstan- 

 ces respecting popery had arisen, 

 which were not sufficiently far, 

 from not having been in the con- 

 templation of the legislature, which 

 had caused alarm, and apprehen- 

 sion in the public mind, it was a 

 very full reason for correcting and 

 amending them, and for giving such 

 additional powers to the arm of the 

 executive government, as would 

 enable it to meet the emergency of 

 the present danger. 



Mr. T. Jones said, that, as the 

 age of chivalry was gone, so the 

 age of popery had commenced. 



Mr. D. Ryder said, that if the bill 

 passed into a law it would not ha- 

 rass the Roman catholics, but ope- 

 rate as a protection to them, and 

 reconcile the minds of the clergy 

 and populace to their residence in 

 Britain. The monastic life, he 

 said, was pretty generally con- 

 demned, even in Roman catholic 

 countries, and he had, by no means, 

 expected to hear that defended in 

 the house of commons, which was 

 contrary to our religion, hostile to 



our laws, and destructive of our 

 prosperity and opulence. 



Mr. Hobhouse, in the course of J 

 a very pertinent and able speech, \ 

 remarked an important distinction 

 between Roman catholics and pa- 

 pists : the former renouncing, the 

 latter asserting the supremacy of 

 the pope in afiairs temporal as well 

 as ecclesiastical. 



Sir W. Scott observed, that mo- 

 nastic institutions were not neces- 

 sarily connected with the Roman 

 catholic religion, as it might sub- 

 sist, in its full force, without them. I 

 If then they were not necessarily 

 connected with toleration, they 

 were institutions which, in this 

 protestant country, should be dis- 

 countenanced, as unfriendly to its 

 religion. 



Mr. Erskine supported the bill, 

 because it gave encouragement, in 

 some respects, to those who were 

 the objects of it, by securing them 

 against penalties to which, in cer- 

 tain cases, they would otherwise 

 be subject, while it put them under 

 regulations which appeared to him 

 to be necessary. 



Mr. Sheridan considered the 

 question to be really this : " Whe- 

 ther there does exist, at this moment, 

 in the conduct of the catholics of 

 this country, any ground to blame 

 them.^ Whether any body could 

 impute any blame to them what- 

 ever?" And he concluded a long 

 speech with the proposition "That 

 the house do appoint a committee 

 to inquire into the state of the mo- 

 nastic religious houses in England, 

 and proceed no farther until it had 

 some evidence on which to delibe- 

 rate," for which purpose he would 

 move, " that this examination be 

 adjourned to Monday next." 



I 



