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 No G. 
 
 A SPEECH 
 
 DELIVERED BY 
 
 T/te Mevd. JOIIN DENNIS, AH. 
 
 V » ■* 
 
 A^ A 
 
 ■, ■ / •.' 
 
 MEETING HELD AT TEIGNMOUTIl/ 
 
 Qft^ T/iitrsddt/, Mat/ 24th 1827/ 
 
 FOR THE PURPOSE OF PETITIONING BOTH HCJUJSr:?^ 
 OP PARLIAMENT, TO GRANT NO FURTHER <JdN CESSIONS 
 TO THE 
 
 
 ROMAN CATIIOLrcs. 
 
 
 ta 
 
 TEIONMOUTH r 
 
 PRINTED AND SOLD At THE PUBLIC LIBRARY, 
 
 BY E. CROYDON. 
 
 1827. 
 
 A 
 

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 * • • 
 
 A SPEECH. 
 
 Mr. chairman, 
 
 I Feel a peculiar degree of pleasure and 
 satisfaction in offering to the consideration of this 
 respectable meeting of the Inhabitants of Teign- 
 mouth and its vicinity, the petition which I now 
 hold in my hand, because in doing so, I am con- 
 sious that I am discharging a sacred duty, which I 
 owe to myself, my family, my country, and my 
 God. In a free state, and under a mixed govern- 
 ment, such as that of Great Britain and Iceland, 
 whenever any important measure is discussed in 
 the Senate, it is the privilege of free-born Britons 
 to present petitions either for or against the mea- 
 sure. To prove that the decisions of our ^oiiators 
 are influenced by petitions, I need only appeal to 
 the journals of both Houses of Parliament .; I dis- 
 tinctly recollect, when a bill was brought into Par- 
 liament a few years since by Lord Sidmouth, which 
 in a very slight degree affected the Dissenting in- 
 
terest, it was immediately withdiawn in conse- 
 quence of the numerous petitions which were pre- 
 sented against it. But why need 1 appeal to the 
 journals of the two Houses of Parliament, when 
 the fact is sufiicientlv of3vious to all who now hear 
 
 nie, that 1 should not have had an opportunity of 
 
 addressing the inhabitants of Teignmouth and its 
 vicinity a second time upon the subject of Roman 
 Catholic Emancipation, had not the prayer of our 
 last Petition been attended to in tlie House of 
 Lords ? 
 
 I congratulate the gentlemen here present, 
 that in some respects we are met this day under 
 more auspicious circumstances, than when we last 
 had occasion to meet for a similar purpose. At 
 that time the question had been carried in the pre- 
 ceding Session in the House of Commons, and it 
 was about to be brought forward by one of its 
 warmest advocates, with the most confident hope 
 of ultimate success, A new parliament has since 
 been called, the question has now been negatived 
 by the Commons, and *it is intended to be brought 
 forward in the House of Lords by one of its most 
 decided opponents, for the express purpose of 
 setting it at rest for ever Under those circum- 
 stances every petition Avhich is presented against 
 
 * The author was n t avvcire when he delivered this speech, that the 
 Earl of iNanstield had withdrawn his notice of a motion on the Konmn 
 t'athulic Uuestiuu on the Uh of June. 
 
 
 h 
 
 ^ 
 
 the measure, will strengthen the hands Of the noble 
 Lord who intends to bring it forward, by convincing 
 both Houses of Parliament, that the sentiments of 
 the great majority of the people are decidedly 
 against it. 
 
 Sir, I ara persuaded that when the Emperor 
 Theodosius went down to the Roman Senate, 
 and proposed for them to determine, whether the 
 worship of Christ or of the Heathen Deities should 
 in future be the established religion of the Roman 
 Empire, he did not bring forward a more important' 
 measure, than that which is intended to be brought 
 forward by the Earl of 3IansJield, on the seventh 
 of June. 
 
 The subject of Rornan Catholic Emancipation, 
 is viewed in a very diflerent light by the Pro- 
 testants in England, and the Protestants in Ire- 
 land. 
 
 Through the kind Providence of God, the Pro- 
 testants in both countries at present enjoy the free 
 and unrestrained exercise of their holy religion. 
 But as a man who is blessed with perfect health, 
 can scarcely persuade himself that he shall ever 
 lose it: so the Protestants in England can scarcely 
 Jbelieve it possible that they shall ever be deprived 
 of the privileges which they now enjoy. But not 
 so the Protestants in Ireland. They see tlie dan- 
 ger of granting Roman Catholic Emancipation, 
 
6 
 
 because its baneful effects have been already anti- 
 cipated. They are aware that the Roman Catho-4 
 lies think themselves so sure of obtaining eman- 
 cipation, that their priests have made out a list of 
 the property which formerly belonged to the Ro- • 
 mish Clmrch, in the confident hope of ultimately 
 obtaining possession of it. They are aware that in 
 every Diocese in Ireland^ where there is a Pro- 
 testant Bishop, Dean and Chapter, there is a cor- 
 respondent Roman Catholic Bishop, Dean and 
 Chapter : and whenever any member of these 
 Cliapters dies, the Roman Catholics surreptitiously 
 obtain admission into the Cathedral, and actually 
 install a priest of their own communion into the 
 vacant stall. And above all they are aware of the 
 persecution, and in one instance the I martrydom, 
 to which the recent converts to the Protestant faith 
 have been subject. 
 
 Sir, the greatest statesman w hich Europe or the 
 world ever produced, was aware of the danger 
 which would await the Protestant Churcli, if 
 Emancipation were granted. To guard against 
 the danger he proposed certain securities. These 
 securities were rejected by the Roman Catholics, 
 although the Pope had granted them permission 
 to accede to them : and they acted both honestly 
 and honourably in doing so. But I am astonished 
 
 X In Ireland, a recent convert to Protestantism was lately hung by 
 his own relatives who were Uouian Caihclics. 
 
 rv» 
 
 at the blindness of Protestants in not seeing- the 
 reason why these securities were rejected. I am 
 astonished that Protestants did not perceive that 
 the Roman Catholics threw off the mask, and by 
 their actions declared "We do not wish to deceive 
 you : we will not give you any securities'for the 
 preservation of the Protestant Church, because we 
 intend to effect its destruction, as soon as he 
 power is put into our hands." Sir, the Prulu^J i is 
 of Ireland are aware that the train is alreadv it! I 
 to blow up the Protestant Church, and th i iLe 
 concession of Roman Catholic Emanripation is 
 looked up to as the match which will fire the 
 train. This is strong language : but I am auth >« 
 rized to use it by Dr. Doijles recent letter to Lord 
 Farnham, in which he says, **I think the Church 
 Establishment must fall sooner or later": *'the 
 concession of the Catholic Claims, he continues, 
 "would hasten this desirable result." 
 
 It is deeply to be lamented that from the n )v< 1 1 v. 
 of language, the same Avord is frequently used in 
 different senses, since much confusion aad 11115- 
 apprehension h^vebeen the necessary consequence. 
 There are two classes of subjects in his Majestv r. 
 dominions, the emancipation of whom has occupied 
 the attention of the legislature for more than a 
 quarter of a Century : I mean the negroes in the 
 West Indies, and the Roman Catholics in England 
 and Ireland, If a stranger who was acquainted 
 
with the situation of the negroes, but who knew 
 nothing of the state of the Roman Catholics were 
 told, that the Emancipation of the RomanCatholics 
 ivas brought forwaid in the British Parliament w ith 
 as much earnestness and zeal as the emancipation 
 of the negroes, he would naturally conclude, that 
 both these classes of his Majesty's sul)jects were 
 siznilarlv circuna^itanccd, and that the Roman 
 Catholics in England and Ireland were equally as 
 mach slaves as the negroes in the West Indies. 
 
 But how great would be his surprize, when he 
 found, that the Roman Catholics enjoy both civil 
 and religious liberty, and that the only power 
 w liich is withheld from them is tliat of fdling such 
 offices, as would enable them to deprive tjie Pro- 
 testants of this United Kingdom of their religious 
 liberty. 
 
 Perhaps I may be thought to have used too broad 
 an expression in saying tliat the Roman Catholics 
 enjoy l>oth civil and religious liberty ; but Dr. 
 Moylan, the titular Bisliop of Cork, as long since 
 as 1798, acknowledged this important fact. He 
 said to the Roman Catholics of his Diocese. 
 ^'Certain privileges excepted, you enjoy the ad- 
 vantages of the constitution, you have the comfort 
 of exercising your holy religion witliout controul/' 
 
 There is something so fascinating in the idea of 
 liberty, that our judgments are frequently warped, 
 
 9 
 
 and our understandings receive a false bias from tlie 
 contemplation of it. The abstract proposition, 
 that every class of his Majesty's subjects ought to 
 enjoy an equal degree of liberty, is too self evident 
 to require a single argument to support it. But 
 liberty, in the fullest sense of the word, can only 
 be enjoyed in a savage state. Civil society is an 
 infringement of liberty; but the advantages of civil 
 society, more than counterbalance the loss of abso- 
 lute liberty. What then is civil ; and w hat is 
 religious liberty ? The former consists in the pro- 
 tection of our lives and property, b) the laws of 
 the Country in which we live ; the latter in the free 
 and unrestrained exercise of religion. 
 
 Now, Sir, I would ask, are not the lives and 
 property of his Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects 
 equally as much protected by the laws of this 
 United Kingdom, as the lives and property of hi« 
 Majesty's Protestant subjects? And do not the 
 Roman Catholics in Ireland enjoy a privilege, from 
 which the Protestants of England and Scotland 
 are debarred, I mean exemption from all assessed 
 taxes. 
 
 As to religious liberty, I am not aware that they 
 do not enjoy the free and unrestrained exercise of 
 their religion, except in two instances in England, 
 -and one in Ireland. In England the Roman Catho- 
 lics are .certainly not allowed to call their con- 
 gregations together by the tolling of a bell : but in 
 
10 
 
 Ireland they enjoy this privilege, which is granted 
 to no other class ot iiissenters. But both in Eng- 
 land and Ireland they are not allowed to carry a 
 f morsel of bread through the streets under a canopy, 
 and to require every one who meets it to fall down 
 and worship this vegetable God, in the same man- 
 ner as the Egyptians of old worshipped leeks and 
 onions. 
 
 Perhaps it may be thought unwarrantable in me 
 to compare the idolatry of the Roman Catholics 
 with that of the heathen : but it is a notorious fact, 
 that the same image, which was worshipped at Rome 
 as Jupiter, is now by the addition of a ruff turned 
 into an image of St. Peter, and the Pope himself 
 kneels down before it and prays. A gentleman, 
 on whose veracity I can depend, assured me that 
 wlien he was travelling a few years since in a 
 Popish country, he had a desire to ascend a high 
 mountain, for the purpose of enjoying the exten- 
 sive prospect which it commanded. To effect this 
 purpose he hired some mules for himself and his 
 companions : but unfortunately the mules grew 
 tired, and were unable to proceed, and the muli- 
 teer, instead of giving them some corn, as a 
 Protestant would have done, prayed to their pa- 
 tron saint, St. Nicholas, to assist them. IVow, 
 Sir, I would ask, what difference can be discover- 
 
 t The consecrated wafer. 
 
 il 
 
 ^d i3etween the conduct of this muliteer, and that 
 of the man who prayed to Hercules for assistance, 
 when his cart was stuck fast in a ditch? Both 
 Hercules and St. Nicholas were dead men, and 
 incapable of hearing or answering prayers. 
 
 The Roman Catholics attempt to vindicate their 
 worship of ^this little ivory God, w lich 1 h<M m 
 my hand, by saying that they do not mean to 
 worship the image itself, but only the Divine 
 Being which it represents. Why, Sir, this is the 
 Tery same apology which the heathens ofiejed 
 for their worship of idols. But what excuse can 
 they make for worshipping saints and angels, as if 
 the creature were equally entitled to divine wor- 
 ship with the Creator? Sir, the Roman Catholics 
 exceed the heathen in idolatry: for tliey not only 
 worship men when they are dead, but they w or- 
 ship a man when he is alive, 1 mean the Pope. 
 
 It may not be generally known, that at the 
 inauguration of every newly elected Pope, his 
 chair is placed upon the high altar in St. Peter's 
 i .Church at Rome, where, in exact fuUHment of the 
 prediction, and in complete accordance with the 
 description of Antichrist given by St. Paul,|| 
 
 *4ie, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, shew- 
 ing himself that he is God." And then the 
 
 § A Crucifix. 
 
 li 2 Thess. 2. v. 4. 
 
12 
 
 Cardinals fall down and worship him, which they 
 call the act of adoration. 
 
 But this is not the only occasion on which the 
 Pope receives the adoration of his subjects. For 
 when the ceremony of blessingall the nations upon 
 earth takes place, all the nobility, the military, 
 and the people of Rome, are assembled in the area 
 in front of the Church of St. Peter's. On the 
 tolling of a bell, the Pope comes out from the up- 
 per part of the Cliurch on a self-moving throne, 
 with incense fuming around liim, in imitation of 
 the Almighty on Mount Sinai. Immediately on 
 his appearance, the assembled multitude falj 
 prostrate on the ground, while he pronounces the 
 blessing. 
 
 Sir, if we look at the efforts which are makinsr 
 on the one hand to effect Roman Catholic Eman- 
 cipation, and at the efforts which are making on 
 the other hand to prevent it, in a relief loits point 
 of view, it is nothing else but a struggle between 
 Christ and Antichrist. If we contemplate them in 
 a political point of view, it is in reality a struggle 
 (and I am surprised that the idea has never been 
 suggested in Parliament,) it is a struggle between 
 our Protestant King, and the lineal heir to the 
 throne ofGreat Britain and Ireland, who is aRoman 
 Catholic. I am surprised that the question has 
 never been asked either in the House of Lords, or 
 in thellou^e of Commons, whether it be possible 
 
 13 
 
 in the nature of things, if Roman Catholic 
 Commoners are admitted into the House of Com- 
 mons, and Roman Catholic Peers into the House 
 of Lords, *they wid be contented to suffer tl e 
 lineal heir to be excluded from the throne because 
 he is a Roman Catholic ? 
 
 I have hitherto abstained from alluding to the 
 change which has lately taken place in the Cabinet, 
 because I wish to prove the necessity of petitioning" 
 against Roman Catholic Emancipation not from 
 that change, but from the duty by which all Pro- 
 testants are bound to oppose the growth of Popish 
 superstition and idolatry. I cannot however con- 
 clude this address without making a few remarks 
 
 * It seems to have been entirely forsrottcn by politicians both in, and 
 out of Parliament, that, *'The act of succession gave umbrage to all the 
 Popish Princes who were more nearly alUed to the Crown than this Lady, 
 (the Princess Sophia Duchess Dowager of Hanover,) whom the Parliament 
 liad preferred to all others : ihat. The Duchess of Savoy, grand-daughter to 
 Kiiig Charles I. by her mother, ordered her Ambassador, Count Mafiei, to 
 make a protestation to the Parliament of England, in her name, against'all 
 resohitions and decisions contrary to her title, as sole daughter to the Princess 
 Henrietta, next in succession to the Crown of England, after Ring WiUiam 
 ?ind thQ Prinrpss Anne of JOenmark:"— that, "Two copies of this protest 
 Watiei sent in letters to the Lord Keeper and the Speaker of the Lower 
 House, by two of his gentlemen, and a public notary to attest the delivery ; 
 but no notice was taken of the declaration." C^ee Smollett's Continuation 
 of Hume, p. 401 ; And why was no notice taken of this declaration ? Be- 
 cause both Houses of Parliament were at that time composed of Protestants 
 only. But should Roman Catholics be admitted into both Houses of Par- 
 liament, anil should the King of Sardinia (the linoal heir) assert his riglit 
 to the Crown, would not this right be enforced by all the Roman Catholic 
 piembers upon the principle of justice i 
 
14 
 
 on this subject. If we look into the natural worlds 
 we find that a violent storm is frequently preceded 
 by a dead calm. If we consider the circumstances 
 attending a sea fight, we see that previous to the 
 commencementof the action themost awful silence 
 obtains. And may we not upon the same principle 
 explain the cause, why the loudest advocates for 
 Roman Catholic Emancipation are hushed into a 
 sudden and mysterious silence ? Mav we not con* 
 elude that they are only waiting for a convenient 
 opportunity to strike the deadly blow? We must 
 however leave the result in the hands of the great 
 Disposer of all events. But should the Protestant 
 Churches of England and Ireland eventually sufl'er 
 persecution through the ascendancy, which will be 
 acquired by the Uonian Catholics, in the event of 
 Emancipation being granted to tliem, we shall have 
 the satisfaction of recoUectiiig, that we have availed 
 ourselves of the privilege, which the Constitution 
 allows us, of petitioning to avert that persecution. 
 
 ft 
 
 Vide p. 10. — Are those Prr testants, who advocate the cause of Roman 
 Catholic Emancipation, aware, that shouhl it be granted, the host will he 
 carried in procession throujiU tJie streets, and ihcy and all who uieei ii, will 
 be required to tail down and worship it i 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 CKOYDOiN, PKIMEK, 6.C. TEiGiNMOLTH.