In such a country as this they are of all bad things the
worst, -worse By far than anywhere else; and they
derive a particular malignity even from the wisdom
and soundness of the rest of our institutions.
worst, -worse By far than anywhere else; and they
derive a particular malignity even from the wisdom
and soundness of the rest of our institutions.
Edmund Burke
?
PREVIOUS TO THE ELECTION.
383
I treated the petition of this city with contempt even
in presenting it to the House, and expressed myself
in terms of marked disrespect. Had this latter part
of the charge been true, no merits on the side of the
question which I took could possibly excuse me. But
I am incapable of treating this city with disrespect.
Very fortunately, at this minute, (if my bad eyesight
does not deceive me,) the worthy gentleman * deputed
on this business stands directly before me. To him
I appeal, whether I did not, though it militated with
my oldest and my most recent public opinions, deliver the petition with a strong and more than usual
recommendation to the consideration of the House,
on account of the character and consequence of those
who signed it. I believe the worthy gentleman will
tell you, that, the very day I received it, I applied to
the Solicitor, now the Attorney General, to give it an
immediate consideration; and he most obligingly and
instantly consented to employ a great deal of his very
valuable time to write an explanation of the bill. I
attended the committee with all possible care and diligence, in order that every objection of yours might
meet with a solution, or produce an alteration. I
entreated your learned recorder (always ready in business in which you take a concern) to attend. But
what will you say to those who blame me for supporting Lord Beauchamp's bill, as a disrespectful treatment of your petition, when you hear, that, out of respect to you, I myself was the cause of the loss of
that very bill? For the noble lord who brought it in,
and who, I must say, has much merit for this and some
other measures, at my request consented to put it off
for a week, which the Speaker's, illness lengthened
* Mr. Williams.
? ? ? ? 384 SPEECH AT BRISTOL,
to a fortnight; and then the frantic tumult about
Popery drove that and every rational business from
the House. So that, if I chose to make a defence of
myself, on the little principles of a culprit, pleading
in his exculpation, I might not only secure my acquittal, but make merit with the opposers of the bill.
But I shall do no such thing. The truth is, that I
did occasion the loss of the bill, and by a delay caused
by my respect to you. But such an event was never
in my contemplation. And I am so far from taking
credit for the defeat of that measure, that I cannot
sufficiently lament my misfortune, if but one man,
who ought to be at large, has passed a year in prison
by my means. I am a debtor to the debtors. I confess judgment. I owe what, if ever it be in my power,
I shall most certainly pay,- ample atonement and
usurious amends to liberty and humanity for my
unhappy lapse. For, Gentlemen, Lord Beauchamp's
bill was a law of justice and policy, as far as it went:
I say, as far as it went; for its fault was its being in
the remedial part miserably defective.
There are two capital faults in our law with relation to civil debts. One is, that every man is presumed solvent: a presumption, in innumerable cases, directly against truth. Therefore the debtor is ordered, on a supposition of ability and fraud, to be
coerced his liberty until he makes payment. By this
means, in all cases of civil insolvency, without a pardon from his creditor, he is to be imprisoned for life;
and thus a miserable mistaken invention of artificial science operates to change a civil into a criminal
judgment, and to scourge misfortune or indiscretion
with a punishment which the law does not inflict on
the greatest crimes.
? ? ? ? PREVIOUS TO THE ELECTION. 385
The next fault is, that the inflicting of that punishment is not on the opinion of an equal and public
judge, but is referred to the arbitrary discretion of
a private, nay, interested, and irritated, individual.
He, who formally is, and substantially ought to be,
the judge, is in reality no more than ministerial, a
mere executive instrument of a private man, who is
at once judge and party. Every idea of judicial order
is subverted by this procedure. If the insolvency
be no crime, why is it punished with arbitrary imprisonment? If it be a crime, why is it delivered into private hands to pardon without discretion, or to punish without mercy and without measure?
To these faults, gross and cruel faults in our law,
the excellent principle of Lord Beauchamp's bill applied some sort of remedy. I know that credit must
be preserved: but equity must be preserved, too; and'
it is impossible that anything should be necessary to
commerce which is inconsistent with justice. The
principle of credit was not weakened by that bill. God
forbid! The enforcement of that credit was only put
into the same public judicial hands on which we depend for our lives and all that makes life dear to us.
But, indeed, this business was taken up too warmly,
both here and elsewhere. The bill was extremely
mistaken. It was supposed to enact what it never
enacted; and complaints were made of clauses in it,
as novelties, which. existed before the noble lord that
brought in the bill was born. There was a fallacy
that ran through the whole of the objections. The
gentlemen who opposed the bill always argued as if
the option lay between that bill and the ancient law.
But this is a grand mistake. For, practically, the
option is between not that bill and the old law, but
VOL. II. 25
? ? ? ? 886 SPEECH AT BRISTOL,
between that bill and those occasional laws called
acts of grace. For the operation of the old law is. so
savage, and so inconvenient to society, that for a long
time past, once in every Parliament, and lately twice,
the legislature has been obliged to make a general
arbitrary jail-delivery, and at once to set open, by its'sovereign authority, all the prisons in England.
Gentlemen, I never relished acts of grace, nor
ever submitted to them but from despair of better.
They are a dishonorable invention, by which, not
from humanity, not from policy, but merely because
we have not room enough to hold these victims of
the absurdity of our laws, we turn loose upon the
public three or four thousand naked wretches, corrupted by the habits, debased by the ignominy of a
prison. If the creditor had a right to those carcasses
as a natural security for his property, I am sure we
have no right to deprive him of that security. But
if the few pounds of flesh were - not necessary to his
security, we had not a right to detain the unfortunate debtor, without any benefit at all to the person
who confined him. Take it as you will, we commit
injustice. Now Lord Beauchamp's bill intended to
do deliberately, and with great caution and circumspection, upon each several case, and with all attention to the just claimant, what acts of grace do in a much greater measure, and with very little care,
caution, or deliberation.
I suspect that here, too, if we contrive to oppose
this bill, we shall be found in a struggle against the
nature of things. - For, as we grow enlightened, the
public will not bear, for any length of time, to pay
for the maintenance of whole armies of prisoners,
nor, at their own expense, submit to keep jails as-a
? ? ? ? PREVIOUS TO THE ELECTION. 387
sort of garrisons, merely to fortify the absurd principle of making men judges in their own cause. For credit has little or no concern in this cruelty. I
speak in a commercial assembly. You know that
credit is given because capital must be employed;
that men calculate the chances of insolvency; and
they either -withhold the credit, or make the debtor
pay the risk in the price. The counting-house has
no -alliance with the jail. ; Holland understands trade
as well as we, and she has done much more than this
obnoxious bill intended to do. There-was not, when
Mr. Howard visited Holland, more than one prisoner
for debt in the great city of Rotterdam. Although
Lord Beauchamp's act (which was previous to'this
bill, and intended to feel the way for it) has already
preserved liberty to thousands, and though it is not
three years since the last act of grace passed, yet,
by Mr. Howard's last account, there were near three
thousand again in jail. I cannot name this gentleman without remarking that his labors and writings have done much to open the eyes and hearts of mankind. He has visited all Europe, - not to survey the sumptuousness of palaces or the stateliness of temples, not to make accurate measurements of the remains of ancient grandeur nor to form a scale of
the curiosity of modern art, not to collect medals or
collate manuscripts, --but to dive into the depths of
dungeons, to plunge into the infection of hospitals,
to survey the mansions of sorrow and pain; to take
the gauge and dimensions of misery, depression, and
contempt, to remember the forgotten, to attend to
the neglected, to visit the forsaken, and, to compare
and collate the distresses of all men in all countries.
HIis plan is original; and! it is. . as full of genius as it
? ? ? ? '388 SPEECH AT BRISTOL,
is of hllmanity. It was a voyage of discovery, a circumnavigation' of charity. Already the benefit of his
labor is felt more or less in every country; I hope
he will anticipate his final reward by seeing all its
effects fully realized in his own. He will receive,
not by retail, but in gross, the reward of those who
visit the prisoner; and he has so forestalled and monopolized this branch of charity, that there will be,
I trust, little room to merit by such acts of benevolence hereafter.
Nothing now remains to trouble you with but the
fourth charge against me, -the business of the Roman Catholics. It is a business closely connected
with the rest. They are all on one and the same
principle. My little scheme of conduct, such as it is,
is all arranged. I could do nothing but what I have
done on this subject, without confounding the whole
train of my ideas and disturbing the whole order
of my life. Gentlemen, I ought to apologize to you
for seeming to think anything at all necessary to be
said upon this matter. The calumny is fitter to be
scrawled with the midnight chalk of incendiaries,
with " No Popery," on walls and doors of devoted
houses, than to be mentioned in ally civilized company. I had heard that the spirit of discontent on
that subject was very prevalent here. With pleasure I find that I have been grossly misinformed. If
it exists at all in this city, the laws have crushed its
exertions, and our morals have shamed its appearance in daylight. I have pursued this spirit wherever I could trace it; but it still fled from me. It was a ghost which all had heard of, but none had
seen. None would acknowledge that he thought the
public proceeding with regard to our Catholic -dis
? ? ? ? PREVIOUS TO THE ELECTION. 389
senters to be. blamable; but several were sorry it had
made an ill impression upon others, and that my
interest was hurt by my share in the business. I
find with satisfaction and pride, that not above four
or five in this city (and I dare say these misled by
some gross misrepresentation) have signed that symbol of delusion and bond of sedition, that libel on the
national religion and English character, the Protestant Association. It is, therefore, Gentlemen, not by
way of cure, but of prevention, and lest the arts of
wicked men may prevail over the integrity of any
one amongst us, that I think it necessary to open to
you the merits of this transaction pretty much at
large; and I beg your patience upon it: for, although the reasonings that have been used to depreciate the act are of little force, and though the
authority of the men concerned in this ill design is
not very imposing, yet the audaciousness of these
conspirators against the national honor, and the extensive wickedness of their attempts, have raised persons of little importance to a degree of evil eminence, and imparted a sort of sinister dignity to proceedings
that had their origin in only the meanest and blinde'st malice.
In explaining to you the proceedings of Parliament
which have been complained of, I will state to you,
- first, the thing that was done, - next, the persons
who did it,'and lastly, the grounds and reasons
upon which the legislature proceeded in this deliberate act of puiblic justice and public prudence.
Gentlemen, the condition of our nature is such
that we buy our blessings at a price. The Reformation, one of the greatest periods of human iniprovement, was a time of trouble and confusion. The vast
? ? ? ? 390 SPEECH AT BRISTOL,
structure of superstition and tyranny which had been
for ages in rearing, and which was combined with
the interest of the great and of the many, which was
moulded into the laws, the manners, and civil institutions of nations, and blended with the- frame and policy of states, could not be brought to the ground
without a fearful struggle; nor could it fall without
a violent concussion of itself and all about it. When
this great revolution was attempted in a more regular
mode by government, it was opposed by plots and seditions of the people; when by popular efforts, it-was repressed as rebellion by the hand of power; and
bloody executions (often bloodily returned) marked
the whole of its. progress through all its stages. The
affairs of religion, which are no longer heard of in the
tumult of ou;r present contentions, made a principal
ingredient in the wars and politics of that time: the
enthusiasm of religion threw a gloom over the politics;
and political interests poisoned and perverted the spirit
of religion upon all sides. The Protestant religion, in
that violent struggle, infected, as the Popish had been
before, by worldly interests and worldly passions, became a persecutor in its turn, sometimes of the new sects, which carried their own principles further. than
it was convenient to the original reformers, and always of the body from whom they parted: and this persecuting spirit arose, not only from the bitterness
of retaliation, but from the merciless policy of fear.
It was long before the spirit of true piety and true
wisdom, involved in the principles of the Reformation,
could be depurated from the dregs and feculence of
the contention with which it was carried through.
However, until this be done, the Reformation is not
complete: and those who think themselves good
? ? ? ? PREVIOUS TO THE ELECTION. 391
Protestants, from their animosity to others, are in
that respect no Protestants at all. It was at first
thought necessary, perhaps, to oppose to Popery another Popery, to get the better of it. Whatever was the cause, laws were made in many countries, and in
this kingdom in particular, against Papists, which are
as bloody as any of those which had been enacted by
the Popish princes and states: and where. those laws
were not bloody, in my opinion, they were worse; as
they were slow, cruel outrages on our nature, and
kept men alive only to insult in their persons every
one of the rights and feelings of. humanity. I pass
those statutes, because I would spare your pious ears
the repetition of such shocking things; and I come
to that particular law the repeal of which has produced so many unnatural and unexpected consequences. A statute was fabricated in the year 1699, by which
the saying mass (a church service in the Latin tongue,
not exactly the same as our liturgy, but very near it,
and containing no offence whatsoever against the laws,
or against good morals) was forged into a crime, punishable with perpetual imprisonment. The teaching school, an useful and virtuous occupation, even the
teaching in a private family, was in every Catholic
subjected to the same unproportioned punishment.
Your industry, and the bread of your children, was
taxed for a pecuniary reward to stimulate avarice
to do what Nature refused, to inform and prosecute
on this law. Every Roman Catholic was, under the
same act, to forfeit his estate to his nearest Protestant relation, until, through a profession of what he
did not believe, he redeemed by his hypocrisy what
the law had transferred to the kinsman as the recom
? ? ? ? 392 SPEECH AT BRISTOL,
pense of his profligacy. When thus turned out of
doors from his paternal estate, he was disabled from
acquiring any other by any industry, donation, or
charity; but was rendered a foreigner in his native
land, only because he retained the religion, along
with the property, handed down to him from those
who had been the old inhabitants of that land before
him.
Does any one who hears me approve this scheme
of things, or think there is common justice, common
sense, or common honesty in any part of it? If any
does, let him say it, and I am ready to discuss the
point with temper and candor. But instead of approving, 1 perceive a virtuous indignation beginning
to rise in your minds on the mere cold stating of the
statute.
But what will you feel, when you know from history how this statute passed, and what were the motives, and what the mode of making it? A party in this nation, enemies to the system of the Revolution,
were in opposition to the government of King William. They knew that our glorious deliverer was an
enemy to all persecution. They knew that he came
to free us from slavery and Popery, out of a country
where a thiird of the people are contented Catholics
Under a Protestant government. He came with a
part of his army composed of those very Catholics, to
overset the power of a Popish prince. Such is the
effect of a tolerating spirit; and so much is liberty
served in every way, and by all persons, by a manly
adherence to its own principles. Whilst freedom is
true to itself, everything becomes subject to it, and
its very adversaries are an instrument in its hands.
The party I speak of (like some amongst us who
? ? ? ? PREVIOUS TO THE ELECTION. 393
would disparage the best friends of their country)
resolved to make the king either violate his principles
of toleration or incur the odium of protecting Papists.
They therefore brought in this bill, and made it purposely wicked and absurd that it might be rejected. The then court party, discovering their game, turned
the tables on them, and returned their bill to them
stuffed with still greater absurdities, that its loss
might lie upon its original authors. They, finding
their 6wn ball thrown back to them, kicked it back
again to their adversaries. And thus this act, loaded
with the double injustice of two parties, neither of
whom intended to pass what they hoped the other
would be persuaded to reject, went through the legislature, contrary to the real wish of all parts of it, and of all the parties that composed it. In this manner
these insolent and profligate factions, as if they were
playing with balls and counters, made a sport of the
fortunes and the liberties of their fellow-creatures.
Other acts of persecution have been acts of malice.
This was a subversion of justice from wantonness and
petulance. Look into the history of Bishop Burnet.
He is a witness without exception.
The effects of the act have been as mischievous as
its origin was ludicrous and shameful. From that
time, every person of that communion, lay and ecclesiastic, has been obliged to fly from the face of day. The clergy, concealed in garrets of private houses, or
obliged to take a shelter (hardly safe to themselves,
but infinitely dangerous to their country) under the
privileges of foreign ministers, officiated as their servants and under their protection. The whole body
of the Catholics, condemned to beggary and to ignorance in their native land, have been obliged to learn
? ? ? ? 394 SPEECH AT BRISTOL,
the principles of letters, at the hazard of all their
other principles, from the charity of your enemies.
They have been taxed to their ruin at the pleasure of
necessitous and profligate relations, and according to
the measure of their necessity and profligacy. Examples of this are many and affecting. Some of them are known by a friend who stands near me in this
hall. It is but six or seven years since a clergyman,
of the name of Malony, a man of morals, neither
guilty nor accused of anytlling noxious to the state,
was condemned to perpetual imprisonment for exercising the functions of his religion; and after lying
in jail two or three years, was relieved by the mercy
of government from perpetual imprisonment; on condition of perpetual banishment. A brother of the
Earl of Shrewsbury, a Talbot, a name respectable in
this country whilst its glory is any part of its concern,
was hauled to the bar of the Old Bailey, among common felons, and only escaped the same doom, either by some error in the process, or that the wretch who
brought him there could not correctly describe his person, - I now forget which. In short, the persecution would never have relented for a moment, if the judges,
superseding (though with an ambiguous example) the
strict rule of their artificial duty by the higher obligation of their conscience, did not constantly throw every difficulty in the way of such informers. But
so ineffectual is the power of legal evasion against
legal iniquity, that it was but the other day that a
lady of condition, beyond the middle of life, was on
the point of being stripped of her whole fortune by
a near relation to whom she had been a friend and
benefactor; and she must have been totally ruined,'without a power of redress or mitigation from the
? ? ? ? PREVIOUS TO THE ELECTION. 895
courts of law, had not the legislature itself rushed in,
and by a special act of Parliament rescued her from
the injustice of its own statutes. One of the acts authorizing such things was that which we in part repealed, knowing what our duty was, and doing that duty as men of honor and virtue, as good Protestants,
and as good citizens. Let him stand forth that disapproves what we have done!
Gentlemen, bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.
In such a country as this they are of all bad things the
worst, -worse By far than anywhere else; and they
derive a particular malignity even from the wisdom
and soundness of the rest of our institutions. For
very obvious reasons you cannot trust the crown with
a dispensing power over any of your laws. However,
a government, be it as bad as it may, will, in the exercise of a discretionary power, discriminate times and
persons, and will not ordinarily pursue any man,
when its own safety is not concerned. A mercenary
informer knows no distinction. Under such a system, the obnoxious people are slaves not only to the
government, but they live at the mercy of every
individual; they are at once the slaves of the whlole
community and of every part of it; and the worst
and most unmerciful men are those on whose goodness they most depend.
In this situation, men not only shrink from the
frowns of a stern magistrate, but they are obliged to
fly from their very species. The seeds of destruction
are sown in civil intercourse, in social habitudes.
The blood of wholesome kindred is infected. Their
tables and beds are surrounded with snares. All the
means given by Providence to make life safe and
comfo table are perverted into instruments of terror
? ? ? ? 396 SPEECH AT BRISTOL,
and torment. This species of universal subserviency,
that makes the very servant who waits behind your
chair the arbiter of your life and fortune, has such a
tendency to degrade and abase mankind, and to deprive them of that assured and liberal state of mind
which alone can make us what we ought to be, that
I vow to God I would sooner bring myself to'put a
man to immediate death for opinions I disliked, and
so to get rid of the man and his opinions at once,
than to fret him with a feverish being, tainted with
the jail-distemper of a contagious servitude, to keep
him above ground an animated mass of putrefactioni
corrupted himself, and corrupting all about him.
The act repealed was of this direct tendency; and
it was made in the manner which I have related to
you. I will now tell you by whom the bill of repeal
was brought into Parliament. I find it has been industriously given out in this city (from kindness to
me, unquestionably) that I was the mover or the see
onder. The fact is, I did not once open my lips on
the subject during the whole progress of the bill. I
do not say this as disclaiming my share in that measure. Very far from it. I inform you of this fact,
lest I should seem to arrogate to myself the merits
which belong to others. To have been the man
chosen out to redeem our fellow-citizens firom slavery, to purify our laws from absurdity and injustice, and to cleanse our religion from the blot and stain of persecution, would be an honor and happiness to which my wishes would undoubtedly aspire,
but to which nothing but my wishes could possibly
have entitled me. That great work was in hands in
every respect far better qualified tlan mine. The
mover of the bill was Sir George Savile.
? ? ? ? PREVIOUS TO THE. ELECTION. 397
When an act of. great and signal humanity was to
be done, and done with all the weight and authority
that belonged to it, the world could cast its eyes upon
none but him. I hope that few things which have a
tendency to bless or to adorn life have wholly escaped
my observation in my passage through it. I have
sought the acquaintance of that gentleman, and have
seen him in all situations. He is a true genius; with
an understanding vigorous, and acute, and refined,
and distinguishing even to excess; and illuminated
with a most unbounded, peculiar, and original cast
of imagination. With these he possesses many external and instrumental advantages; and he makes use
of them all. His fortune is among the largest, --a
fortune which, wholly unincumbered as it is with
one single charge from luxury, vanity, or excess,
sinks under the benevolence of its dispenser. This
private benevolence, expanding itself into patriotism,
renders his whole being the estate of the public, in
which he has not reserved a peculium for himself of
profit, diversion, or relaxation. During the session
the first in and the last out of the House of Commons, he passes from the senate. to the camp; and,seldom seeing the seat of his ancestors, he is always in Parliament to serve his country or in the field to
defend it. But in all well-wrought compositions some
particulars stand out more eminently than the rest;
and the things which will carry his name to posterity
are his two bills: I mean that for a limitation of the
claims of the crown upon landed estates, and this for
the relief of the Roman Catholics. By the former he
has emancipated property; by the latter he has quieted conscience; and by both he has taught that
grand lesson to government and subject, - no longer
to regard each other as adverse parties.
? ? ? ? 398 SPEECH AT BRISTOL,
Such was the mover of the act that is complained
of by men who are not quite so good as he is, - an
act most assuredly not brought in by him from any
partiality to that sect which is the object of it. For
among his faults I really cannot help reckoning a
greater degree of prejudice against that people than
becomes so wise a man. I know that he inclines to
a sort of disgust, mixed with a considerable degree of
asperity, to the system; and he has few, or rather no
habits with any of its professors. What he has done
was on quite other motives. The motives were these,
which he declared in his excellent speech on his
motion for the bill: namely, his extreme zeal to the
Protestant religion, which he thought utterly disgraced by the act of 1699; and his rooted hatred to all kind of oppression, under any color, or upon any
pretence whatsoever.
The seconder was worthy of the mover and the
motion. I was not the seconder; it was Mr. Dunning, recorder of this city. I shall say the less of
him because his near relation to you makes you
more particularly acquainted with his merits. But I
should appear little acquainted with them, or little
sensible of them, if I could utter his name on this
occasion without expressing my esteem for his character. I am not afraid of offending a most learned body, and most jealous of its reputation for that
learning, when I say he is the first of his profession.
It is a point settled by those who settle everything
else; and I must add (what I am enabled to say
from my own long and close observation) that there
is not a man, of any profession, or in any situation,
of a more erect and independent spirit, of a more
proud honor, a more manly mind, a more firm
? ? ? ? PREVIOUS TO THE ELECTION. 399
and determined integrity. Assure yourselves, that
the names of two such men will bear a great load of
prejudice in the other scale bef6re they can be entirely outweighed.
With this mover and this seconder agreed the whole
House of Commons, the whole House of Lords, the
whole Bench of Bishops, the king, the ministry, the
opposition, all the distinguished clergy of the Establishment, all the eminent lights (for they were consulted) of the dissenting churches. This according voice of national wisdom ought to be listened to with
reverence. To say that all these descriptions of Englishmen unanimously concurred in a scheme for introducing the Catholic religion, or that none of them understood the nature and effects of what they were
doing so well as a few obscure clubs of people whose
names you never heard of, is shamelessly absurd.
Surely it is paying a miserable compliment to- the religionl we profess, to suggest that everything eminent
illn the kingdom is indifferent or even adverse to that
religion, and that its security is wholly abandoned to
the zeal of those who have nothing but their zeal to
distinguish them. In weighing this unanimous conmtUrrence of whatever the nation has to boast of, I
hope you will recollect that all these concurring parties do by no means love one another enough to agree
in any point which was not both evidently and importantly right.
To prove this, to prove that the measure was both
clearly and materially proper, I will next lay before
you (as I promised) the political grounds and reasons
for the repeal of that penal statute, and the motives to
its- repeal at that particular time.
Gentlemen, America When the English nation
? ? ? ? 400 SPEECH AT BRISTOL,
seemed to be dangerously, if not irrecoverably divided, -when one, and that the most growing branch,
was torn from the parent stock, and ingrafted on the
power of France, a great tertor fell upon this kingdom.
On a sudden we awakened from our dreams of conquest, and saw- ourselves threatened with an immediate invasion, which we were'at that time very ill prepared to resist. You remember the cloud that
gloomed over us all. In that hour of our dismay,
from the bottom of the hiding-places into which the
indiscriminate rigor of our statutes had driven them,
came out the body of the Roman Catholics. They appeared before the steps of a tottering throne, with one
of the most sober, measured, steady, and dutiful addresses that was ever presented to the crown. It was
no holiday ceremony, no anniversary compliment of
parade and show. It was signed by almost'every
gentleman of that persuasion, of note or property, in
England. At such a crisis, nothing but a decided
resolution to stand or fall with their country could
have dictated such an address, the direct tendency of
which was to cut off all retreat, and to render them
peculiarly obnoxious to an invader of their own communion. The address showed what I long languished
to see, that all the subjects of England had cast off all
foreign views and connections, and that every man
looked for his relief from every grievance at the
hands only of his own natural government.
It was necessary, on our part, that the natural
government should show itself worthy of that name.
It was necessary, at the crisis I speak of, that the
supreme power of the state should meet the conciliatory dispositions of the subject. To delay protection
would be to reject allegiance. And why should it
? ? ? ? PREVIOUS TO THE ELECTION. 401
be rejected, or even coldly and suspiciously received?
If any independent Catholic state should choose to
take part'with this kingdom in a war with France
and Spain, that bigot (if such a bigot could be found)
would be heard with little respect, who could dream
of objecting his religion to an ally whom the nation
would not only receive with its freest thanks, but
purchase with the last remains of its exhausted treasure. To such an ally we should not dare to whisper
a single syllable of those base and invidious topics
upon which, some unhappy men would persuade the
state to reject the duty and allegiance of its own
members. Is it, then, because foreigners are in a condition to set our malice at defiance, that with them
we are willing to contract engagements of friendship,
and to keep them with fidelity and honor, but that,
because we conceive some descriptions of our countrymen are not powerful enough to punish our malignity, we will not permit them to support our common interest? Is it on that ground that our anger is to
be kindled by their offered kindness? Is it on that
ground that they are to be subjected to penalties,
because they are willing by actual merit to purge
themselves from imputed crimes? Lest by an adherence to the cause of their country they should acquire
a title to fair and equitable treatment, are we resolved
to furnish them with causes of eternal enmity, and
rather supply them with just and founded motives to
disaffection than not to have that disaffection in existence to justify an oppression which, not from policy,
but disposition, we have predetermined to exercise?
What shadow of reason could be assigned, why, at
a time when the most Protestant part of this Protestant empire found it for its advantage to unite with
VOL. II. 26
? ? ? ? 402 SPEECH AT [BRISTOL,
the two principal Popish states, to unite itself in the
closest bonds with France and Spain, for our destruction, that we should refuse to unite with our own Catholic countrymen for our own preservation? Ought we, like madmen, to tear off the plasters that the lenient hand of prudence had spread over the wounds
and gashes which in our delirium of ambition we had
given to our own body? No person ever reprobated
the American war more than I did, and do, and ever
shall. But I never will consent that we should lay
additional, voluntary penalties on ourselves, for a
fault which carries but too much of its own punishment in its own nature. For: one, I was delighted
with the proposal of internal peace. I accepted the
blessing with thankfulness' and transport. I was truly
happy to find one good effect of our civil distractions:
that they had put an end to all religious strife and
heart-burning in our own bowels. What must be the
sentiments of a man who would wish to perpetuate
domestic hostility when the causes of dispute are
at an end, and who, crying out for peace with one
part of the nation on the most humiliating terms,
should deny it to those who offer friendship without
any terms at all?
But if I was unable to reconcile such a denial to the
contracted principles of local duty, what answer could
I give to the broad claims of general humanity? I
confess to you freely, that the sufferings and distresses of the people of America in this cruel war
have at times affected me more deeply than I can express. I felt every gazette of triumph as a blow upon
my heart, which has an hundred times sunk and faint,
ed within me at all the mischiefs brought upon those
who bear the whole brunt of war in the heart of their
? ? ? ? PREVIOUS TO THE ELECTION. 403
country. Yet the Americans are utter strangers to
me; a nation among whom I am not sure that I have
a single acquaintance. Was I to suffer my mind to be
so unaccountably warped, was I to keep such iniquitous weights and measures of temper and of reason,
as to sympathize with those who are in open rebellion
against an authority which I respect, at war with a
country which by every title ought to be, and is, most
dear to me, - and yet to have no feeling at all for the
hardships and indignities suffered by men who by
their very vicinity are bound up in a nearer relation
to us, who contribute their share, and more than
their share, to the common prosperity, who perform
the common offices of social life, and who obey the
laws, to the full as well as I do? 'Gentlemen, the
danger to the state being out of the question, (of
which, let me tell you, statesmen themselves are apt
to have but too exquisite a sense,) I could assign no
one reason of justice, policy, or feeling, for not concurring most cordially, as most cordially I did concur, in softening some part of that shameful servitude under which several of my worthy fellow-citizens were
groaning.
Important effects followed this act of wisdom. They
appeared at home and abroad, to the great benefit of
this kingdom, and, let me hope, to the advantage of
mankind at large. It betokened union among ourselves. It showed soundness, even on the part of the
persecuted, which generally is the weak side of ev ery
community. But its most essential operation was not
in England. The act was immediately, though very
imperfectly, copied in Ireland; and this imperfect
transcript of an imperfect act, this first faint sketch
of toleration, which did little more than disclose -a
? ? ? ? 404 SPEECH AT BRISTOL,
principle and mark out a disposition, completed in
a most wonderful manner the reunion to the state
of all the Catholics of that country. It made us what
we ought always to have been, one family, one body,
one heart and soul, against the family combination
and all other combinations of our enemies. We have,
indeed, obligations to that people, who received such
small benefits with so much gratitude, and for which
gratitude and attachment to us I am afraid they have
suffered not a little in other places.
I dare say you have all heard of the privileges
indulged to the Irish Catholics residing in Spain.
You have likewise heard with what circumstances of
severity they have been lately expelled from the seaports of that kingdom, driven into the inland cities, and there detained as a sort of prisoners of state. I
have good reason to believe that it was the zeal to our
government and our cause (somewhat indiscreetly
expressed in one of the addresses of the Catholics of
Ireland) which has thus drawn down on their heads
the indignation of the court of Madrid, to the inexpressible loss of several individuals, and, in future, perhaps to the great detriment of the whole of their
body. Now that our people should be persecuted in
Spain for their attachment to this country, and persecuted in this country for their supposed enmity to us, is such a jarring reconciliation of contradictory
distresses, is a thing at once so dreadful and ridiculous, that no malice short of diabolical would wish to continue any human creatures in such a situation.
But honest men will not forget either their merit or
their sufferings. There are men (and many, I trust,
there are) who, out of love to their country and tfieir
kind, would torture their invention to find excuses
? ? ? ? PREVIOUS TO THE ELECTION. 405
for the mistakes of their brethren, and who, to stifle
dissension, would construe even doubtful appearances
with the utmost favor: such men will never persuade
themselves to be ingenious and refined in discovering disaffection and treason in the manifest, palpable signs of suffering loyalty. Persecution is so unnatural to them, that they gladly snatch the very first opportunity of laying aside all the tricks and devices
of penal politics, and of returning home, after all
their irksome and vexatious wanderings, to our natural family mansion, to the grand social principle that unites all men, in all descriptions, under the shadow
of an equal and impartial justice.
Men of another sort, I mean the bigoted enemies
to liberty, may, perhaps, in their politics, make no
account of the good or ill affection of the Catholics of
England, who are but an handful of people, (enough
to torment, but not enough to fear,) perhaps not so
many, of both sexes and of all ages, as fifty thousand.
But, Gentlemen, it is possible you may not know that
the people of that persuasion in Ireland amount at
least to sixteen or seventeen hundred thousand souls.
I do not at all exaggerate the number. A nation to'be persecuted! Whilst we were masters of the sea, embodied with America, and in alliance with half the
powers of the Continent, we might, perhaps, in that
remote corner of Europe, afford to tyrannize with impunity. But there is a revolution in our affairs,
which makes it prudent to be just. In our late awkward contest with Ireland about trade, had religion been thrown in, to ferment and embitter the mass of
discontents, the consequences might have been truly
dreadful. But, very happily, that cause of quarrel
was previously quieted by the wisdom of the acts I
am commending.
? ? ? ? 406 SPEECH AT BRISTOL,
Even in England, where I admit the danger from
the discontent of that persuasion to be less than in
Ireland, yet even here, had we listened to the counsels of fanaticism and folly, we might have wounded
ourselves very deeply, and wounded ourselves in a
very tender part. You are apprised that the Catholics of England consist mostly of our best manufacturers. Had the legislature chosen, instead of returning their declarations of duty with correspondent good-will, to drive them to despair, there is a country
at their very door to which they would be invited,- a
country in all respects as good as ours, and with the
finest cities in the world ready built to receive them.
And thus the bigotry of a free country, and in an
enlightened age, would have repeopled the cities of
Flanders, which, in the darkness of two hundred years
ago, had been desolated by the superstition of a cruel
tyrant. Our manufactures were the growth of the
persecutions in the Low Countries. What a spectacle would it Be to Europe, to see us at this time of
day balancing the account of tyranny with those very
countries, and by our persecutions driving back trade
and manufacture, as a sort of vagabonds, to their
original settlement! But I trust we shall be saved
this last of disgraces.
So far as to the effect of the act on the interests of
this nation. With regard to the interests of mankind
at large, I am sure the benefit was very considerable.
Long before this act, indeed, the spirit of toleration
began to gain ground in Europe. In Holland the
third part of the people are Catholics; they live at
ease, and are a sound part of the state. In many
parts of Germany, Protestants and Papists partake
the same cities, the same councils, and even the
? ? ? ? PREVIOUS TO THE ELECTION. 407
same churches. The unbounded liberality of the
king of Prussia's conduct on this occasion is known
to all the world; and it is of a piece with the other
grand maxims of his reign. The magnanimity of the
Imperial court, breaking through the narrow principles of its predecessors, has indulged its Protestant subjects, not only with property, with worship, with liberal education, but with honors and trusts, both civil and military. A worthy Protestant gentleman of this
country now fills, and fills with credit, an high office
in the Austrian Netherlands. Even the Lutheran
obstinacy of Sweden has thawed at length, and opened a toleration to all religions. I know, myself, that
in France the Protestants begin to be at rest. The
army, which in that country is everything, is open to
them; and some of the military rewards and decorations which the laws deny are supplied by others,
to make the service acceptable and honorable. The
first minister of finance in that country is a Protestant. Two years' war without a tax is among the first
fruits of their liberality. Tarnished as the glory of this
nation is, and far as it has waded into the shades
of an eclipse, some beams of its former illumination
still play upon its surface; and what is done in England is still looked to, as argument, and as example.
It is certainly true, that no law of this country ever
met with such universal applause abroad, or was so
likely to produce the perfection of that tolerating
spirit which, as I observed, has been long gaining
ground in Europe: for abroad -it was universally
thought that we had done what I am sorry to say
we had not; they thought we had granted a full toleration. That opinion was, however, so far from hurting the Protestant cause, that I declare, with the
? ? ? ? 408 SPEECH AT BRISTOL,
most serious solemnity, my firm belief that no one
thing done for these fifty years past was so likely to
prove deeply beneficial to our religion at large as Sir
George Savile's act. In its effects it was " an act for
tolerating and protecting Protestantism throughout
Europe "; and I hope that those who were taking
steps for the quiet and settlement of our Protestant
brethren in other countries will, even yet, rather
consider the steady equity of the greater and better
part of the people of Great Britain than the vanity
and violence of a few.
I perceive, Gentlemen, by the manner of all about
me, that you look with horror on the wicked clamor
which has been raised on this subject, and that, instead of an apology for what was done, you rather demand from me an account, why the execution of the scheme of toleration was not made more answerable
to the large and liberal grounds on which. it was
taken up. The question is natural and proper; and I
remember that a great and learned magistrate,* distinguished for his strong and systematic understanding, and who at that time was a member of the House of Commons, made the same objection to the proceeding. The statutes, as they now stand, are, without
doubt, perfectly absurd. But I beg leave to explain
the cause of this gross imperfection in the tolerating
plan, as well and as shortly as I am able. It was
universally thought that the session ought not to
pass over without doing something in this business.
To revise the whole body of the penal statutes was
conceived to be an object too big for the time. The
penal statute, therefore, which was chosen for repeal
(chosen to show our disposition to conciliate, not to
* The Chancellor.
I treated the petition of this city with contempt even
in presenting it to the House, and expressed myself
in terms of marked disrespect. Had this latter part
of the charge been true, no merits on the side of the
question which I took could possibly excuse me. But
I am incapable of treating this city with disrespect.
Very fortunately, at this minute, (if my bad eyesight
does not deceive me,) the worthy gentleman * deputed
on this business stands directly before me. To him
I appeal, whether I did not, though it militated with
my oldest and my most recent public opinions, deliver the petition with a strong and more than usual
recommendation to the consideration of the House,
on account of the character and consequence of those
who signed it. I believe the worthy gentleman will
tell you, that, the very day I received it, I applied to
the Solicitor, now the Attorney General, to give it an
immediate consideration; and he most obligingly and
instantly consented to employ a great deal of his very
valuable time to write an explanation of the bill. I
attended the committee with all possible care and diligence, in order that every objection of yours might
meet with a solution, or produce an alteration. I
entreated your learned recorder (always ready in business in which you take a concern) to attend. But
what will you say to those who blame me for supporting Lord Beauchamp's bill, as a disrespectful treatment of your petition, when you hear, that, out of respect to you, I myself was the cause of the loss of
that very bill? For the noble lord who brought it in,
and who, I must say, has much merit for this and some
other measures, at my request consented to put it off
for a week, which the Speaker's, illness lengthened
* Mr. Williams.
? ? ? ? 384 SPEECH AT BRISTOL,
to a fortnight; and then the frantic tumult about
Popery drove that and every rational business from
the House. So that, if I chose to make a defence of
myself, on the little principles of a culprit, pleading
in his exculpation, I might not only secure my acquittal, but make merit with the opposers of the bill.
But I shall do no such thing. The truth is, that I
did occasion the loss of the bill, and by a delay caused
by my respect to you. But such an event was never
in my contemplation. And I am so far from taking
credit for the defeat of that measure, that I cannot
sufficiently lament my misfortune, if but one man,
who ought to be at large, has passed a year in prison
by my means. I am a debtor to the debtors. I confess judgment. I owe what, if ever it be in my power,
I shall most certainly pay,- ample atonement and
usurious amends to liberty and humanity for my
unhappy lapse. For, Gentlemen, Lord Beauchamp's
bill was a law of justice and policy, as far as it went:
I say, as far as it went; for its fault was its being in
the remedial part miserably defective.
There are two capital faults in our law with relation to civil debts. One is, that every man is presumed solvent: a presumption, in innumerable cases, directly against truth. Therefore the debtor is ordered, on a supposition of ability and fraud, to be
coerced his liberty until he makes payment. By this
means, in all cases of civil insolvency, without a pardon from his creditor, he is to be imprisoned for life;
and thus a miserable mistaken invention of artificial science operates to change a civil into a criminal
judgment, and to scourge misfortune or indiscretion
with a punishment which the law does not inflict on
the greatest crimes.
? ? ? ? PREVIOUS TO THE ELECTION. 385
The next fault is, that the inflicting of that punishment is not on the opinion of an equal and public
judge, but is referred to the arbitrary discretion of
a private, nay, interested, and irritated, individual.
He, who formally is, and substantially ought to be,
the judge, is in reality no more than ministerial, a
mere executive instrument of a private man, who is
at once judge and party. Every idea of judicial order
is subverted by this procedure. If the insolvency
be no crime, why is it punished with arbitrary imprisonment? If it be a crime, why is it delivered into private hands to pardon without discretion, or to punish without mercy and without measure?
To these faults, gross and cruel faults in our law,
the excellent principle of Lord Beauchamp's bill applied some sort of remedy. I know that credit must
be preserved: but equity must be preserved, too; and'
it is impossible that anything should be necessary to
commerce which is inconsistent with justice. The
principle of credit was not weakened by that bill. God
forbid! The enforcement of that credit was only put
into the same public judicial hands on which we depend for our lives and all that makes life dear to us.
But, indeed, this business was taken up too warmly,
both here and elsewhere. The bill was extremely
mistaken. It was supposed to enact what it never
enacted; and complaints were made of clauses in it,
as novelties, which. existed before the noble lord that
brought in the bill was born. There was a fallacy
that ran through the whole of the objections. The
gentlemen who opposed the bill always argued as if
the option lay between that bill and the ancient law.
But this is a grand mistake. For, practically, the
option is between not that bill and the old law, but
VOL. II. 25
? ? ? ? 886 SPEECH AT BRISTOL,
between that bill and those occasional laws called
acts of grace. For the operation of the old law is. so
savage, and so inconvenient to society, that for a long
time past, once in every Parliament, and lately twice,
the legislature has been obliged to make a general
arbitrary jail-delivery, and at once to set open, by its'sovereign authority, all the prisons in England.
Gentlemen, I never relished acts of grace, nor
ever submitted to them but from despair of better.
They are a dishonorable invention, by which, not
from humanity, not from policy, but merely because
we have not room enough to hold these victims of
the absurdity of our laws, we turn loose upon the
public three or four thousand naked wretches, corrupted by the habits, debased by the ignominy of a
prison. If the creditor had a right to those carcasses
as a natural security for his property, I am sure we
have no right to deprive him of that security. But
if the few pounds of flesh were - not necessary to his
security, we had not a right to detain the unfortunate debtor, without any benefit at all to the person
who confined him. Take it as you will, we commit
injustice. Now Lord Beauchamp's bill intended to
do deliberately, and with great caution and circumspection, upon each several case, and with all attention to the just claimant, what acts of grace do in a much greater measure, and with very little care,
caution, or deliberation.
I suspect that here, too, if we contrive to oppose
this bill, we shall be found in a struggle against the
nature of things. - For, as we grow enlightened, the
public will not bear, for any length of time, to pay
for the maintenance of whole armies of prisoners,
nor, at their own expense, submit to keep jails as-a
? ? ? ? PREVIOUS TO THE ELECTION. 387
sort of garrisons, merely to fortify the absurd principle of making men judges in their own cause. For credit has little or no concern in this cruelty. I
speak in a commercial assembly. You know that
credit is given because capital must be employed;
that men calculate the chances of insolvency; and
they either -withhold the credit, or make the debtor
pay the risk in the price. The counting-house has
no -alliance with the jail. ; Holland understands trade
as well as we, and she has done much more than this
obnoxious bill intended to do. There-was not, when
Mr. Howard visited Holland, more than one prisoner
for debt in the great city of Rotterdam. Although
Lord Beauchamp's act (which was previous to'this
bill, and intended to feel the way for it) has already
preserved liberty to thousands, and though it is not
three years since the last act of grace passed, yet,
by Mr. Howard's last account, there were near three
thousand again in jail. I cannot name this gentleman without remarking that his labors and writings have done much to open the eyes and hearts of mankind. He has visited all Europe, - not to survey the sumptuousness of palaces or the stateliness of temples, not to make accurate measurements of the remains of ancient grandeur nor to form a scale of
the curiosity of modern art, not to collect medals or
collate manuscripts, --but to dive into the depths of
dungeons, to plunge into the infection of hospitals,
to survey the mansions of sorrow and pain; to take
the gauge and dimensions of misery, depression, and
contempt, to remember the forgotten, to attend to
the neglected, to visit the forsaken, and, to compare
and collate the distresses of all men in all countries.
HIis plan is original; and! it is. . as full of genius as it
? ? ? ? '388 SPEECH AT BRISTOL,
is of hllmanity. It was a voyage of discovery, a circumnavigation' of charity. Already the benefit of his
labor is felt more or less in every country; I hope
he will anticipate his final reward by seeing all its
effects fully realized in his own. He will receive,
not by retail, but in gross, the reward of those who
visit the prisoner; and he has so forestalled and monopolized this branch of charity, that there will be,
I trust, little room to merit by such acts of benevolence hereafter.
Nothing now remains to trouble you with but the
fourth charge against me, -the business of the Roman Catholics. It is a business closely connected
with the rest. They are all on one and the same
principle. My little scheme of conduct, such as it is,
is all arranged. I could do nothing but what I have
done on this subject, without confounding the whole
train of my ideas and disturbing the whole order
of my life. Gentlemen, I ought to apologize to you
for seeming to think anything at all necessary to be
said upon this matter. The calumny is fitter to be
scrawled with the midnight chalk of incendiaries,
with " No Popery," on walls and doors of devoted
houses, than to be mentioned in ally civilized company. I had heard that the spirit of discontent on
that subject was very prevalent here. With pleasure I find that I have been grossly misinformed. If
it exists at all in this city, the laws have crushed its
exertions, and our morals have shamed its appearance in daylight. I have pursued this spirit wherever I could trace it; but it still fled from me. It was a ghost which all had heard of, but none had
seen. None would acknowledge that he thought the
public proceeding with regard to our Catholic -dis
? ? ? ? PREVIOUS TO THE ELECTION. 389
senters to be. blamable; but several were sorry it had
made an ill impression upon others, and that my
interest was hurt by my share in the business. I
find with satisfaction and pride, that not above four
or five in this city (and I dare say these misled by
some gross misrepresentation) have signed that symbol of delusion and bond of sedition, that libel on the
national religion and English character, the Protestant Association. It is, therefore, Gentlemen, not by
way of cure, but of prevention, and lest the arts of
wicked men may prevail over the integrity of any
one amongst us, that I think it necessary to open to
you the merits of this transaction pretty much at
large; and I beg your patience upon it: for, although the reasonings that have been used to depreciate the act are of little force, and though the
authority of the men concerned in this ill design is
not very imposing, yet the audaciousness of these
conspirators against the national honor, and the extensive wickedness of their attempts, have raised persons of little importance to a degree of evil eminence, and imparted a sort of sinister dignity to proceedings
that had their origin in only the meanest and blinde'st malice.
In explaining to you the proceedings of Parliament
which have been complained of, I will state to you,
- first, the thing that was done, - next, the persons
who did it,'and lastly, the grounds and reasons
upon which the legislature proceeded in this deliberate act of puiblic justice and public prudence.
Gentlemen, the condition of our nature is such
that we buy our blessings at a price. The Reformation, one of the greatest periods of human iniprovement, was a time of trouble and confusion. The vast
? ? ? ? 390 SPEECH AT BRISTOL,
structure of superstition and tyranny which had been
for ages in rearing, and which was combined with
the interest of the great and of the many, which was
moulded into the laws, the manners, and civil institutions of nations, and blended with the- frame and policy of states, could not be brought to the ground
without a fearful struggle; nor could it fall without
a violent concussion of itself and all about it. When
this great revolution was attempted in a more regular
mode by government, it was opposed by plots and seditions of the people; when by popular efforts, it-was repressed as rebellion by the hand of power; and
bloody executions (often bloodily returned) marked
the whole of its. progress through all its stages. The
affairs of religion, which are no longer heard of in the
tumult of ou;r present contentions, made a principal
ingredient in the wars and politics of that time: the
enthusiasm of religion threw a gloom over the politics;
and political interests poisoned and perverted the spirit
of religion upon all sides. The Protestant religion, in
that violent struggle, infected, as the Popish had been
before, by worldly interests and worldly passions, became a persecutor in its turn, sometimes of the new sects, which carried their own principles further. than
it was convenient to the original reformers, and always of the body from whom they parted: and this persecuting spirit arose, not only from the bitterness
of retaliation, but from the merciless policy of fear.
It was long before the spirit of true piety and true
wisdom, involved in the principles of the Reformation,
could be depurated from the dregs and feculence of
the contention with which it was carried through.
However, until this be done, the Reformation is not
complete: and those who think themselves good
? ? ? ? PREVIOUS TO THE ELECTION. 391
Protestants, from their animosity to others, are in
that respect no Protestants at all. It was at first
thought necessary, perhaps, to oppose to Popery another Popery, to get the better of it. Whatever was the cause, laws were made in many countries, and in
this kingdom in particular, against Papists, which are
as bloody as any of those which had been enacted by
the Popish princes and states: and where. those laws
were not bloody, in my opinion, they were worse; as
they were slow, cruel outrages on our nature, and
kept men alive only to insult in their persons every
one of the rights and feelings of. humanity. I pass
those statutes, because I would spare your pious ears
the repetition of such shocking things; and I come
to that particular law the repeal of which has produced so many unnatural and unexpected consequences. A statute was fabricated in the year 1699, by which
the saying mass (a church service in the Latin tongue,
not exactly the same as our liturgy, but very near it,
and containing no offence whatsoever against the laws,
or against good morals) was forged into a crime, punishable with perpetual imprisonment. The teaching school, an useful and virtuous occupation, even the
teaching in a private family, was in every Catholic
subjected to the same unproportioned punishment.
Your industry, and the bread of your children, was
taxed for a pecuniary reward to stimulate avarice
to do what Nature refused, to inform and prosecute
on this law. Every Roman Catholic was, under the
same act, to forfeit his estate to his nearest Protestant relation, until, through a profession of what he
did not believe, he redeemed by his hypocrisy what
the law had transferred to the kinsman as the recom
? ? ? ? 392 SPEECH AT BRISTOL,
pense of his profligacy. When thus turned out of
doors from his paternal estate, he was disabled from
acquiring any other by any industry, donation, or
charity; but was rendered a foreigner in his native
land, only because he retained the religion, along
with the property, handed down to him from those
who had been the old inhabitants of that land before
him.
Does any one who hears me approve this scheme
of things, or think there is common justice, common
sense, or common honesty in any part of it? If any
does, let him say it, and I am ready to discuss the
point with temper and candor. But instead of approving, 1 perceive a virtuous indignation beginning
to rise in your minds on the mere cold stating of the
statute.
But what will you feel, when you know from history how this statute passed, and what were the motives, and what the mode of making it? A party in this nation, enemies to the system of the Revolution,
were in opposition to the government of King William. They knew that our glorious deliverer was an
enemy to all persecution. They knew that he came
to free us from slavery and Popery, out of a country
where a thiird of the people are contented Catholics
Under a Protestant government. He came with a
part of his army composed of those very Catholics, to
overset the power of a Popish prince. Such is the
effect of a tolerating spirit; and so much is liberty
served in every way, and by all persons, by a manly
adherence to its own principles. Whilst freedom is
true to itself, everything becomes subject to it, and
its very adversaries are an instrument in its hands.
The party I speak of (like some amongst us who
? ? ? ? PREVIOUS TO THE ELECTION. 393
would disparage the best friends of their country)
resolved to make the king either violate his principles
of toleration or incur the odium of protecting Papists.
They therefore brought in this bill, and made it purposely wicked and absurd that it might be rejected. The then court party, discovering their game, turned
the tables on them, and returned their bill to them
stuffed with still greater absurdities, that its loss
might lie upon its original authors. They, finding
their 6wn ball thrown back to them, kicked it back
again to their adversaries. And thus this act, loaded
with the double injustice of two parties, neither of
whom intended to pass what they hoped the other
would be persuaded to reject, went through the legislature, contrary to the real wish of all parts of it, and of all the parties that composed it. In this manner
these insolent and profligate factions, as if they were
playing with balls and counters, made a sport of the
fortunes and the liberties of their fellow-creatures.
Other acts of persecution have been acts of malice.
This was a subversion of justice from wantonness and
petulance. Look into the history of Bishop Burnet.
He is a witness without exception.
The effects of the act have been as mischievous as
its origin was ludicrous and shameful. From that
time, every person of that communion, lay and ecclesiastic, has been obliged to fly from the face of day. The clergy, concealed in garrets of private houses, or
obliged to take a shelter (hardly safe to themselves,
but infinitely dangerous to their country) under the
privileges of foreign ministers, officiated as their servants and under their protection. The whole body
of the Catholics, condemned to beggary and to ignorance in their native land, have been obliged to learn
? ? ? ? 394 SPEECH AT BRISTOL,
the principles of letters, at the hazard of all their
other principles, from the charity of your enemies.
They have been taxed to their ruin at the pleasure of
necessitous and profligate relations, and according to
the measure of their necessity and profligacy. Examples of this are many and affecting. Some of them are known by a friend who stands near me in this
hall. It is but six or seven years since a clergyman,
of the name of Malony, a man of morals, neither
guilty nor accused of anytlling noxious to the state,
was condemned to perpetual imprisonment for exercising the functions of his religion; and after lying
in jail two or three years, was relieved by the mercy
of government from perpetual imprisonment; on condition of perpetual banishment. A brother of the
Earl of Shrewsbury, a Talbot, a name respectable in
this country whilst its glory is any part of its concern,
was hauled to the bar of the Old Bailey, among common felons, and only escaped the same doom, either by some error in the process, or that the wretch who
brought him there could not correctly describe his person, - I now forget which. In short, the persecution would never have relented for a moment, if the judges,
superseding (though with an ambiguous example) the
strict rule of their artificial duty by the higher obligation of their conscience, did not constantly throw every difficulty in the way of such informers. But
so ineffectual is the power of legal evasion against
legal iniquity, that it was but the other day that a
lady of condition, beyond the middle of life, was on
the point of being stripped of her whole fortune by
a near relation to whom she had been a friend and
benefactor; and she must have been totally ruined,'without a power of redress or mitigation from the
? ? ? ? PREVIOUS TO THE ELECTION. 895
courts of law, had not the legislature itself rushed in,
and by a special act of Parliament rescued her from
the injustice of its own statutes. One of the acts authorizing such things was that which we in part repealed, knowing what our duty was, and doing that duty as men of honor and virtue, as good Protestants,
and as good citizens. Let him stand forth that disapproves what we have done!
Gentlemen, bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.
In such a country as this they are of all bad things the
worst, -worse By far than anywhere else; and they
derive a particular malignity even from the wisdom
and soundness of the rest of our institutions. For
very obvious reasons you cannot trust the crown with
a dispensing power over any of your laws. However,
a government, be it as bad as it may, will, in the exercise of a discretionary power, discriminate times and
persons, and will not ordinarily pursue any man,
when its own safety is not concerned. A mercenary
informer knows no distinction. Under such a system, the obnoxious people are slaves not only to the
government, but they live at the mercy of every
individual; they are at once the slaves of the whlole
community and of every part of it; and the worst
and most unmerciful men are those on whose goodness they most depend.
In this situation, men not only shrink from the
frowns of a stern magistrate, but they are obliged to
fly from their very species. The seeds of destruction
are sown in civil intercourse, in social habitudes.
The blood of wholesome kindred is infected. Their
tables and beds are surrounded with snares. All the
means given by Providence to make life safe and
comfo table are perverted into instruments of terror
? ? ? ? 396 SPEECH AT BRISTOL,
and torment. This species of universal subserviency,
that makes the very servant who waits behind your
chair the arbiter of your life and fortune, has such a
tendency to degrade and abase mankind, and to deprive them of that assured and liberal state of mind
which alone can make us what we ought to be, that
I vow to God I would sooner bring myself to'put a
man to immediate death for opinions I disliked, and
so to get rid of the man and his opinions at once,
than to fret him with a feverish being, tainted with
the jail-distemper of a contagious servitude, to keep
him above ground an animated mass of putrefactioni
corrupted himself, and corrupting all about him.
The act repealed was of this direct tendency; and
it was made in the manner which I have related to
you. I will now tell you by whom the bill of repeal
was brought into Parliament. I find it has been industriously given out in this city (from kindness to
me, unquestionably) that I was the mover or the see
onder. The fact is, I did not once open my lips on
the subject during the whole progress of the bill. I
do not say this as disclaiming my share in that measure. Very far from it. I inform you of this fact,
lest I should seem to arrogate to myself the merits
which belong to others. To have been the man
chosen out to redeem our fellow-citizens firom slavery, to purify our laws from absurdity and injustice, and to cleanse our religion from the blot and stain of persecution, would be an honor and happiness to which my wishes would undoubtedly aspire,
but to which nothing but my wishes could possibly
have entitled me. That great work was in hands in
every respect far better qualified tlan mine. The
mover of the bill was Sir George Savile.
? ? ? ? PREVIOUS TO THE. ELECTION. 397
When an act of. great and signal humanity was to
be done, and done with all the weight and authority
that belonged to it, the world could cast its eyes upon
none but him. I hope that few things which have a
tendency to bless or to adorn life have wholly escaped
my observation in my passage through it. I have
sought the acquaintance of that gentleman, and have
seen him in all situations. He is a true genius; with
an understanding vigorous, and acute, and refined,
and distinguishing even to excess; and illuminated
with a most unbounded, peculiar, and original cast
of imagination. With these he possesses many external and instrumental advantages; and he makes use
of them all. His fortune is among the largest, --a
fortune which, wholly unincumbered as it is with
one single charge from luxury, vanity, or excess,
sinks under the benevolence of its dispenser. This
private benevolence, expanding itself into patriotism,
renders his whole being the estate of the public, in
which he has not reserved a peculium for himself of
profit, diversion, or relaxation. During the session
the first in and the last out of the House of Commons, he passes from the senate. to the camp; and,seldom seeing the seat of his ancestors, he is always in Parliament to serve his country or in the field to
defend it. But in all well-wrought compositions some
particulars stand out more eminently than the rest;
and the things which will carry his name to posterity
are his two bills: I mean that for a limitation of the
claims of the crown upon landed estates, and this for
the relief of the Roman Catholics. By the former he
has emancipated property; by the latter he has quieted conscience; and by both he has taught that
grand lesson to government and subject, - no longer
to regard each other as adverse parties.
? ? ? ? 398 SPEECH AT BRISTOL,
Such was the mover of the act that is complained
of by men who are not quite so good as he is, - an
act most assuredly not brought in by him from any
partiality to that sect which is the object of it. For
among his faults I really cannot help reckoning a
greater degree of prejudice against that people than
becomes so wise a man. I know that he inclines to
a sort of disgust, mixed with a considerable degree of
asperity, to the system; and he has few, or rather no
habits with any of its professors. What he has done
was on quite other motives. The motives were these,
which he declared in his excellent speech on his
motion for the bill: namely, his extreme zeal to the
Protestant religion, which he thought utterly disgraced by the act of 1699; and his rooted hatred to all kind of oppression, under any color, or upon any
pretence whatsoever.
The seconder was worthy of the mover and the
motion. I was not the seconder; it was Mr. Dunning, recorder of this city. I shall say the less of
him because his near relation to you makes you
more particularly acquainted with his merits. But I
should appear little acquainted with them, or little
sensible of them, if I could utter his name on this
occasion without expressing my esteem for his character. I am not afraid of offending a most learned body, and most jealous of its reputation for that
learning, when I say he is the first of his profession.
It is a point settled by those who settle everything
else; and I must add (what I am enabled to say
from my own long and close observation) that there
is not a man, of any profession, or in any situation,
of a more erect and independent spirit, of a more
proud honor, a more manly mind, a more firm
? ? ? ? PREVIOUS TO THE ELECTION. 399
and determined integrity. Assure yourselves, that
the names of two such men will bear a great load of
prejudice in the other scale bef6re they can be entirely outweighed.
With this mover and this seconder agreed the whole
House of Commons, the whole House of Lords, the
whole Bench of Bishops, the king, the ministry, the
opposition, all the distinguished clergy of the Establishment, all the eminent lights (for they were consulted) of the dissenting churches. This according voice of national wisdom ought to be listened to with
reverence. To say that all these descriptions of Englishmen unanimously concurred in a scheme for introducing the Catholic religion, or that none of them understood the nature and effects of what they were
doing so well as a few obscure clubs of people whose
names you never heard of, is shamelessly absurd.
Surely it is paying a miserable compliment to- the religionl we profess, to suggest that everything eminent
illn the kingdom is indifferent or even adverse to that
religion, and that its security is wholly abandoned to
the zeal of those who have nothing but their zeal to
distinguish them. In weighing this unanimous conmtUrrence of whatever the nation has to boast of, I
hope you will recollect that all these concurring parties do by no means love one another enough to agree
in any point which was not both evidently and importantly right.
To prove this, to prove that the measure was both
clearly and materially proper, I will next lay before
you (as I promised) the political grounds and reasons
for the repeal of that penal statute, and the motives to
its- repeal at that particular time.
Gentlemen, America When the English nation
? ? ? ? 400 SPEECH AT BRISTOL,
seemed to be dangerously, if not irrecoverably divided, -when one, and that the most growing branch,
was torn from the parent stock, and ingrafted on the
power of France, a great tertor fell upon this kingdom.
On a sudden we awakened from our dreams of conquest, and saw- ourselves threatened with an immediate invasion, which we were'at that time very ill prepared to resist. You remember the cloud that
gloomed over us all. In that hour of our dismay,
from the bottom of the hiding-places into which the
indiscriminate rigor of our statutes had driven them,
came out the body of the Roman Catholics. They appeared before the steps of a tottering throne, with one
of the most sober, measured, steady, and dutiful addresses that was ever presented to the crown. It was
no holiday ceremony, no anniversary compliment of
parade and show. It was signed by almost'every
gentleman of that persuasion, of note or property, in
England. At such a crisis, nothing but a decided
resolution to stand or fall with their country could
have dictated such an address, the direct tendency of
which was to cut off all retreat, and to render them
peculiarly obnoxious to an invader of their own communion. The address showed what I long languished
to see, that all the subjects of England had cast off all
foreign views and connections, and that every man
looked for his relief from every grievance at the
hands only of his own natural government.
It was necessary, on our part, that the natural
government should show itself worthy of that name.
It was necessary, at the crisis I speak of, that the
supreme power of the state should meet the conciliatory dispositions of the subject. To delay protection
would be to reject allegiance. And why should it
? ? ? ? PREVIOUS TO THE ELECTION. 401
be rejected, or even coldly and suspiciously received?
If any independent Catholic state should choose to
take part'with this kingdom in a war with France
and Spain, that bigot (if such a bigot could be found)
would be heard with little respect, who could dream
of objecting his religion to an ally whom the nation
would not only receive with its freest thanks, but
purchase with the last remains of its exhausted treasure. To such an ally we should not dare to whisper
a single syllable of those base and invidious topics
upon which, some unhappy men would persuade the
state to reject the duty and allegiance of its own
members. Is it, then, because foreigners are in a condition to set our malice at defiance, that with them
we are willing to contract engagements of friendship,
and to keep them with fidelity and honor, but that,
because we conceive some descriptions of our countrymen are not powerful enough to punish our malignity, we will not permit them to support our common interest? Is it on that ground that our anger is to
be kindled by their offered kindness? Is it on that
ground that they are to be subjected to penalties,
because they are willing by actual merit to purge
themselves from imputed crimes? Lest by an adherence to the cause of their country they should acquire
a title to fair and equitable treatment, are we resolved
to furnish them with causes of eternal enmity, and
rather supply them with just and founded motives to
disaffection than not to have that disaffection in existence to justify an oppression which, not from policy,
but disposition, we have predetermined to exercise?
What shadow of reason could be assigned, why, at
a time when the most Protestant part of this Protestant empire found it for its advantage to unite with
VOL. II. 26
? ? ? ? 402 SPEECH AT [BRISTOL,
the two principal Popish states, to unite itself in the
closest bonds with France and Spain, for our destruction, that we should refuse to unite with our own Catholic countrymen for our own preservation? Ought we, like madmen, to tear off the plasters that the lenient hand of prudence had spread over the wounds
and gashes which in our delirium of ambition we had
given to our own body? No person ever reprobated
the American war more than I did, and do, and ever
shall. But I never will consent that we should lay
additional, voluntary penalties on ourselves, for a
fault which carries but too much of its own punishment in its own nature. For: one, I was delighted
with the proposal of internal peace. I accepted the
blessing with thankfulness' and transport. I was truly
happy to find one good effect of our civil distractions:
that they had put an end to all religious strife and
heart-burning in our own bowels. What must be the
sentiments of a man who would wish to perpetuate
domestic hostility when the causes of dispute are
at an end, and who, crying out for peace with one
part of the nation on the most humiliating terms,
should deny it to those who offer friendship without
any terms at all?
But if I was unable to reconcile such a denial to the
contracted principles of local duty, what answer could
I give to the broad claims of general humanity? I
confess to you freely, that the sufferings and distresses of the people of America in this cruel war
have at times affected me more deeply than I can express. I felt every gazette of triumph as a blow upon
my heart, which has an hundred times sunk and faint,
ed within me at all the mischiefs brought upon those
who bear the whole brunt of war in the heart of their
? ? ? ? PREVIOUS TO THE ELECTION. 403
country. Yet the Americans are utter strangers to
me; a nation among whom I am not sure that I have
a single acquaintance. Was I to suffer my mind to be
so unaccountably warped, was I to keep such iniquitous weights and measures of temper and of reason,
as to sympathize with those who are in open rebellion
against an authority which I respect, at war with a
country which by every title ought to be, and is, most
dear to me, - and yet to have no feeling at all for the
hardships and indignities suffered by men who by
their very vicinity are bound up in a nearer relation
to us, who contribute their share, and more than
their share, to the common prosperity, who perform
the common offices of social life, and who obey the
laws, to the full as well as I do? 'Gentlemen, the
danger to the state being out of the question, (of
which, let me tell you, statesmen themselves are apt
to have but too exquisite a sense,) I could assign no
one reason of justice, policy, or feeling, for not concurring most cordially, as most cordially I did concur, in softening some part of that shameful servitude under which several of my worthy fellow-citizens were
groaning.
Important effects followed this act of wisdom. They
appeared at home and abroad, to the great benefit of
this kingdom, and, let me hope, to the advantage of
mankind at large. It betokened union among ourselves. It showed soundness, even on the part of the
persecuted, which generally is the weak side of ev ery
community. But its most essential operation was not
in England. The act was immediately, though very
imperfectly, copied in Ireland; and this imperfect
transcript of an imperfect act, this first faint sketch
of toleration, which did little more than disclose -a
? ? ? ? 404 SPEECH AT BRISTOL,
principle and mark out a disposition, completed in
a most wonderful manner the reunion to the state
of all the Catholics of that country. It made us what
we ought always to have been, one family, one body,
one heart and soul, against the family combination
and all other combinations of our enemies. We have,
indeed, obligations to that people, who received such
small benefits with so much gratitude, and for which
gratitude and attachment to us I am afraid they have
suffered not a little in other places.
I dare say you have all heard of the privileges
indulged to the Irish Catholics residing in Spain.
You have likewise heard with what circumstances of
severity they have been lately expelled from the seaports of that kingdom, driven into the inland cities, and there detained as a sort of prisoners of state. I
have good reason to believe that it was the zeal to our
government and our cause (somewhat indiscreetly
expressed in one of the addresses of the Catholics of
Ireland) which has thus drawn down on their heads
the indignation of the court of Madrid, to the inexpressible loss of several individuals, and, in future, perhaps to the great detriment of the whole of their
body. Now that our people should be persecuted in
Spain for their attachment to this country, and persecuted in this country for their supposed enmity to us, is such a jarring reconciliation of contradictory
distresses, is a thing at once so dreadful and ridiculous, that no malice short of diabolical would wish to continue any human creatures in such a situation.
But honest men will not forget either their merit or
their sufferings. There are men (and many, I trust,
there are) who, out of love to their country and tfieir
kind, would torture their invention to find excuses
? ? ? ? PREVIOUS TO THE ELECTION. 405
for the mistakes of their brethren, and who, to stifle
dissension, would construe even doubtful appearances
with the utmost favor: such men will never persuade
themselves to be ingenious and refined in discovering disaffection and treason in the manifest, palpable signs of suffering loyalty. Persecution is so unnatural to them, that they gladly snatch the very first opportunity of laying aside all the tricks and devices
of penal politics, and of returning home, after all
their irksome and vexatious wanderings, to our natural family mansion, to the grand social principle that unites all men, in all descriptions, under the shadow
of an equal and impartial justice.
Men of another sort, I mean the bigoted enemies
to liberty, may, perhaps, in their politics, make no
account of the good or ill affection of the Catholics of
England, who are but an handful of people, (enough
to torment, but not enough to fear,) perhaps not so
many, of both sexes and of all ages, as fifty thousand.
But, Gentlemen, it is possible you may not know that
the people of that persuasion in Ireland amount at
least to sixteen or seventeen hundred thousand souls.
I do not at all exaggerate the number. A nation to'be persecuted! Whilst we were masters of the sea, embodied with America, and in alliance with half the
powers of the Continent, we might, perhaps, in that
remote corner of Europe, afford to tyrannize with impunity. But there is a revolution in our affairs,
which makes it prudent to be just. In our late awkward contest with Ireland about trade, had religion been thrown in, to ferment and embitter the mass of
discontents, the consequences might have been truly
dreadful. But, very happily, that cause of quarrel
was previously quieted by the wisdom of the acts I
am commending.
? ? ? ? 406 SPEECH AT BRISTOL,
Even in England, where I admit the danger from
the discontent of that persuasion to be less than in
Ireland, yet even here, had we listened to the counsels of fanaticism and folly, we might have wounded
ourselves very deeply, and wounded ourselves in a
very tender part. You are apprised that the Catholics of England consist mostly of our best manufacturers. Had the legislature chosen, instead of returning their declarations of duty with correspondent good-will, to drive them to despair, there is a country
at their very door to which they would be invited,- a
country in all respects as good as ours, and with the
finest cities in the world ready built to receive them.
And thus the bigotry of a free country, and in an
enlightened age, would have repeopled the cities of
Flanders, which, in the darkness of two hundred years
ago, had been desolated by the superstition of a cruel
tyrant. Our manufactures were the growth of the
persecutions in the Low Countries. What a spectacle would it Be to Europe, to see us at this time of
day balancing the account of tyranny with those very
countries, and by our persecutions driving back trade
and manufacture, as a sort of vagabonds, to their
original settlement! But I trust we shall be saved
this last of disgraces.
So far as to the effect of the act on the interests of
this nation. With regard to the interests of mankind
at large, I am sure the benefit was very considerable.
Long before this act, indeed, the spirit of toleration
began to gain ground in Europe. In Holland the
third part of the people are Catholics; they live at
ease, and are a sound part of the state. In many
parts of Germany, Protestants and Papists partake
the same cities, the same councils, and even the
? ? ? ? PREVIOUS TO THE ELECTION. 407
same churches. The unbounded liberality of the
king of Prussia's conduct on this occasion is known
to all the world; and it is of a piece with the other
grand maxims of his reign. The magnanimity of the
Imperial court, breaking through the narrow principles of its predecessors, has indulged its Protestant subjects, not only with property, with worship, with liberal education, but with honors and trusts, both civil and military. A worthy Protestant gentleman of this
country now fills, and fills with credit, an high office
in the Austrian Netherlands. Even the Lutheran
obstinacy of Sweden has thawed at length, and opened a toleration to all religions. I know, myself, that
in France the Protestants begin to be at rest. The
army, which in that country is everything, is open to
them; and some of the military rewards and decorations which the laws deny are supplied by others,
to make the service acceptable and honorable. The
first minister of finance in that country is a Protestant. Two years' war without a tax is among the first
fruits of their liberality. Tarnished as the glory of this
nation is, and far as it has waded into the shades
of an eclipse, some beams of its former illumination
still play upon its surface; and what is done in England is still looked to, as argument, and as example.
It is certainly true, that no law of this country ever
met with such universal applause abroad, or was so
likely to produce the perfection of that tolerating
spirit which, as I observed, has been long gaining
ground in Europe: for abroad -it was universally
thought that we had done what I am sorry to say
we had not; they thought we had granted a full toleration. That opinion was, however, so far from hurting the Protestant cause, that I declare, with the
? ? ? ? 408 SPEECH AT BRISTOL,
most serious solemnity, my firm belief that no one
thing done for these fifty years past was so likely to
prove deeply beneficial to our religion at large as Sir
George Savile's act. In its effects it was " an act for
tolerating and protecting Protestantism throughout
Europe "; and I hope that those who were taking
steps for the quiet and settlement of our Protestant
brethren in other countries will, even yet, rather
consider the steady equity of the greater and better
part of the people of Great Britain than the vanity
and violence of a few.
I perceive, Gentlemen, by the manner of all about
me, that you look with horror on the wicked clamor
which has been raised on this subject, and that, instead of an apology for what was done, you rather demand from me an account, why the execution of the scheme of toleration was not made more answerable
to the large and liberal grounds on which. it was
taken up. The question is natural and proper; and I
remember that a great and learned magistrate,* distinguished for his strong and systematic understanding, and who at that time was a member of the House of Commons, made the same objection to the proceeding. The statutes, as they now stand, are, without
doubt, perfectly absurd. But I beg leave to explain
the cause of this gross imperfection in the tolerating
plan, as well and as shortly as I am able. It was
universally thought that the session ought not to
pass over without doing something in this business.
To revise the whole body of the penal statutes was
conceived to be an object too big for the time. The
penal statute, therefore, which was chosen for repeal
(chosen to show our disposition to conciliate, not to
* The Chancellor.
