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THE

LITERARY PANORAMA,

AND

National Register:

For AUGUST, 1815.

NATIONAL and PARLIAMENTARY | although under that very obedience he

Notices,

PROSPECTIVE AND RETROSPECTIVE,

BRITISH and FOREIGN.

OFFICIAL PAPERS

RELATING TO REGULATION OF THE

ROMAN CATHOLICS.

No. 1. Ordered to be printed, May 1814.
No. II. Ordered to be printed, July 1814.

himself may suffer controul, or incur a slight and temporary detriment.

Distinct communities, as institutions merely, have no radical obligation toward each other; but are in the state of men absolutely free. Neither has any one a natural right to reduce others to the condition of subjugation. Nevertheless, all civilized communities pique themselves on consulting the good of the whole connection, of which they form a part; they willingly relinquish, or rather exchange, a portion of their abThat there is an honest sense in solute rights, to receive the same acwhich "all men are equal," may frankly commodation from others, their equals be allowed. In fact, it never was de- in the eye of reason, honor, and virtue. nied by the judicious and steady op- Hence originates what is usually denoposers of that prolific source of misery, minated the "Law of Nations: " meanthe proclamation of Liberté et Egalité, ing, regulations assented to for general the curse of Gallic infatuation, soi-di- benefit; rules for the conduct of mutual sant "The Rights of Man." By na-intercourse, not enforced by the law of ture no man is superior to his fellow the strongest, but protecting the weakman; but, contemplated as a social be- est against the most powerful. ing, the relations of life vary the com- These principles are obvious and unparative state of every one, and he may deniable :-but, the existence of a combe either superior, inferior, or equal. munity within a community, is an obBecome a component part of a com-ject of a totally different kind: at once munity, the citizen has relinquished a portion of the enjoyments attached to a state of absolute liberty, and, instead of consulting his own individual benefit, ex animo, according to the im pulse of his own heart, or the decisions of his mere will, exclusively, he now is bound, to admit the welfare of the community into his contemplation, and to seek his own advantage in conformity to the general laws which extend their protection over the whole. For, it is evidently much better for mankind,-it is an incalculable gain to the race at large, that the whole association should be greatly benefited by his obedience;

VOL. II. Lit. Pan. New Series, Aug. 1.

dependent and independent: national, yet alien: governed by the same laws, yet governed also by laws of its own, it is a solecism of that heterogeneous nature, which can only be endured, in a well-governed state, under very peculiar and favourable circumstances. It may be admissible, or it may not be admissible; it may be innocent, or it may be noxious: it may be weak and inert, or, on the contrary, it may be active and powerful. In proportion as it is weak and inert, it is safe to the general interest: in proportion as it is strong and active, it is dangerous and unmanage able.

A community that professes obedience, to a power without the general community, is dangerous to the state; for, who will insure that this community shall never receive injunctions diametrically opposite to those which the general community has thought proper to adopt-And, if it be dangerous to the state, it is no less distracting to the individual; for who will give him that counsel which shall guide his actions? shall he adhere to this, or to that? shall he violate his obedience here, or there What a situation, at once pitiable, and embarassing !_to an ingenuous mind, how anxious! how distressing!

The PANORAMA has, on all occasions, raised its voice for liberty; for religious liberty: neither a Mussulman, nor a Jew, has it so much as despised, much less persecuted; never has it, with the Holy Inquisition, cried out, as at an Auto da Fé, "Let the Dogs' beards be singed!"

community within the National Community, we should be the first to recommend to observation: for what conscience has a community, as such? Where are its rights defined ? Where are its powers limited? Who is to check the operations of this community, if they overleap the bounds of propriety? Who is to suppress the extravagunzas of this community, if they encroach on the rights of its neighbours? Individuals may be brought to justice; or they may be enlightened by reason: but who shall bring to justice a community; or who shall hope to enlighten a formidable body without a rational soul?

These, and such like considerations have led the potentates of the earth to view with extreme jealousy whatever communities in their dominions acknowledged obligations of obedience to any foreign power. If those obligations were political, they expressly allowed such institutions to settle in their counNever may such exclamation stain its try only on certain terms, and on wellpages! Nevertheless, if the number defined conditions. Perhaps, no nation of Mahometans, or of Jews, in our counhas at this time a greater number of try, amounted to millions ;-if they profactories in foreign parts than our own : fessed obedience to the mandates of a but, which of these is not the creature Mufti, or a Kadi-el-Esker, at Constan- of convention? and why? because those tinople, or of a High Priest established admitted to conduct them profess obeat Jerusalem;-if they formed one body dience to a foreign power. But, if animated with the same sentiments, di-those obligations were religious, the rected by the same head, capable of the same movement as to object, as to time, as to means,-we should think common prudence would justify the country in taking proper measures for securing the public peace, in proportion to the possible power of these people, and to the extent of their connections. Their number, so far from becoming an argument in their favour, should they demand certain privileges, no matter of what kind, acts in a manner directly the reverse, and demonstrates the propriety, rising to necessity, of national vigilance and firmness.

laws;

duty of the Government has not been therefore annulled every Government has found its safety in superintending its own rights; in supporting its own in exerting, as occasion demanded, its own force, in order that it might be enabled to maintain its own peace and dignity, and to be really, as well as nominally, independent, as well of religious as of political foreigners.

On the subject before us, it is wise to consult the conduct of neighbouring sates. The Pope, as a religions person, the head of the Church upon earth, the Vicar-General of the Son of God, assumes Do we mean by this, to interfere with the power of governing the conscience of their religious sentiments,-to detract every individual Catholic to whatever state in any measure from the free exercise he may be politically subject. Before such of their worship, to diminish the an one, he sets the terrors of eternal damrights of conscience? No the rights nation in case of disobedience;-of miof conscience appertaining to each indi-sery infinite in duration and degree, in vidual, we would be the last upon earth that state to which every son of Adam to diminish; but the motions of this is hastening with all the rapidity of

time-whereas, his Prince can only set | all concerned, yet of maintaining their before such an one, the pains and peInalties of the life that now is; a life that every day draws nearer to its close, and diminishes the power of the Prince as it shortens the certainty of its continuance. By that disproportion which exists between time and eternity, is the incalculable difference of impulse between the injunctions of the Pope, and the enactments of the Prince.