intestate, and no Protestant heir can be found, property to be equally divided among all the sons; or if he has none, among all the daughters. By the 16th clause of this bill, no Papist to hold any office civil or military.-Not to dwell in Limerick or Galway, except on certain conditions. - Not to vote at elections. -Not to hold advowsons. to provide Protestant watchmen;- and not to vote at vestries. In the reign of George II, Papists were prohibited from being barristers. Barristers and solicitors marrying Papists, considered to be Papists, and subjected to all penalties as such. Persons robbed by privateers, during a war with a Popish prince, to be indemnified by grand jury presentments, and the money to be levied on the Catholics only. No Papist to marry a Protestant ;- any priest celebrating such a marriage to be hanged. - During all this time there was not the slightest rebellion in Ireland. abilities of Mr. Grattan, the weakness of England struggling in America, and the dread inspired by the French revolution. In 1709, Papists were prevented from holding an annuity for life. If any son of a Papist chose to turn Protestant and enrol the certificate of his conversion in the Court of Chancery, that court is empowered to compel his father to state the value of his property upon oath, and to make out of that pro- In 1715 and 1745, while Scotland perty a competent allowance to the son, and the north of England were up in at their own discretion, not only for his arms, not a man stirred in Ireland; yet present maintenance, but for his future the spirit of persecution against the portion after the death of his father. Catholics continued till the 18th of his An increase of jointure to be enjoyed present Majesty; and then gradually by Papist wives, upon their conversion. gave way to the increase of knowledge, -Papists keeping schools to be prose-the humanity of our Sovereign, the cuted as convicts.-Popish priests who are converted to receive 30l. per annum. Rewards are given by the same act for the discovery of Popish clergy; 501. for discovering a Popish bishop; Such is the rapid outline of a code 20. for a common Popish clergyman; of laws which reflects indelible disgrace 101. for a Popish usher! Two justices upon the English character, and exof the peace can compel any Papist plains but too clearly the cause of that above 18 years of age to disclose hatred in which the English name has every particular which has come been so long held in Ireland. It would to his knowledge respecting Popish require centuries to efface such an impriests, celebration of mass, or Papist pression; and yet, when we find it schools. Imprisonment for a year fresh, and operating at the end of a if he refuses to answer. Nobody few years, we explain the fact by every can hold property in trust for a Catho-cause which can degrade the Irish, lic.-Juries, in all trials growing out and by none which can remind us of of these statutes, to be Protestants.- our own scandalous policy. With the No Papist to take more than two ap-folly and the horror of such a code prentices, except in the linen trade.before our eyes, with the conviction All the Catholic clergy to give in their of recent and domestic history, that names and places of abode at the mankind are not to be lashed and quarter-sessions, and to keep no cu-chained out of their faith,-we are rates.-Catholics not to serve on grand striving to teaze and worry them into juries. In any trial upon statutes for strengthening the Protestant interest, a Papist juror may be peremptorily challenged. a better theology. Heavy oppression is removed; light insults and provocations are retained; the scourge does not fall upon their shoulders, but it sounds in their ears. And this is the conduct we are pursuing, when it is still a great doubt whether this country alone may not be opposed to the united efforts of the whole of Europe. It is really difficult to ascertain which is the most utterly destitute of common sense, the capricious and arbitrary stop we have made in our concessions to the Catholics, or the precise period we have chosen for this grand effort of obstinate folly. London, 1802. Part the Second. Containing an Account of the Proceedings of the Society from its original Institution. London. 1804. A SOCIETY, that holds out as its object the suppression of vice, must at first sight conciliate the favour of every respectable person; and he who objects to an institution calculated apparently to do so much good, is bound to give very clear and satisfactory reasons for his dissent from so popular an opinion. We certainly have, for a long time, had doubts of its utility; and now think ourselves called upon to state the grounds of our distrust. In whatsoever manner the contest now in agitation on the Continent may terminate, its relation to the emancipation of the Catholics will be very striking. If the Spaniards succeed in establishing their own liberties, and in rescuing Europe from the tyranny ander which it at present labours, it will still be contended, within the walls of our own Parliament, that the Catho- Though it were clear that individual Les cannot fulfil the duties of social informers are useful auxiliaries to the life. Venal politicians will still argue administration of the laws, it would by that the time is not yet come. Sacred no means follow that these informers and lay sycophants will still lavish should be allowed to combine, — to upon the Catholic faith their well-paid | form themselves into a body,—to make abase, and England still passively a public purse, and to prosecute under submit to such a disgraceful spectacle a common name. An informer, whether of ingratitude and injustice. If, on he is paid by the week, like the agents the contrary (as may probably be the of this society. -or by the crime, as in case), the Spaniards fall before the common cases, is, in general, a man numbers and military skill of the of a very indifferent character. So French, then are we left alone in the much fraud and deception are necesworld, without another ray of hope; sary for carrying on his trade - it is and compelled to employ, against in- so odious to his fellow-subjects, -- that ternal disaffection, that force which, no man of respectability will ever unexalted to its utmost energy, would in dertake it. It is evidently impossible all probability prove but barely equal to make such a character otherwise to the external danger by which we than odious. A man who receives should be surrounded. Whence comes weekly pay for prying into the transit that these things are universally ad-gressions of mankind, and bringing mitted to be true, but looked upon in servile silence by a country hitherto accustomed to make great efforts for its prosperity, safety, and independence? PROCEEDINGS OF THE SO- - them to consequent punishment, will always be hated by mankind; and the office must fall to the lot of some man of desperate fortunes and ambiguous character. The multiplication, therefore, of such officers, and the extensive patronage of such characters, may by the management of large and opulent societies, become an evil nearly as great as the evils they would suppress. (E. REVIEW, 1809.) The alarm which a private and disguised accuser occasions in the neighStatement of the Proceedings of the Society bourhood, is known to be prodigious, for the Suppression of Vice, from July not only to the guilty, but to those who to November 12, read at their General Meeting, held November 12, 1804. With may be at once innocent, and ignorant, an Appendir, containing the Plan of the and timid. The destruction of social Society, &c. &c. &c. London. 1804. confidence is another evil, the conseAn Address to the Public from the Society quence of information. An informer for the Suppression of Vice, instituted in gets access to my house or family, OF VICE. 9 not a society for punishing people whe have been found to transgress the Law, but for accusing persons of transgressing the law; and that before trial, the accused person is to be considered as innocent, and is to have every fair chance of establishing his innocence He must be no common defendant. however, who does not contend against such a society with very fearful odds; the best counsel engaged for his opponents,-great practice in the particular court and particular species of cause, witnesses thoroughly hack -- - worms my secret out of me,-and then betrays me to the magistrate. Now, all these evils may be tolerated in a small degree, while, in a greater degree, they would be perfectly intolerable. Thirty or forty informers roaming about the metropolis, may frighten the mass of offenders a little, and do some good: ten thousand informers would either create an insurrection, or totally destroy the confidence and cheerfulness of private life. Whatever may be said, therefore, of the single and insulated informer, it is quite a new question when we come to a corporation of in-neyed in a court of justice, and an formers supported by large contribu- unlimited command of money. It by tions. The one may be a good, the no means follows, that the legislature, other a very serious evil; the one legal in allowing individuals to be informers, the other wholly out of the contempla- meant to subject the accused person tion of law, which often, and very to the superior weight and power of wisely, allows individuals to do, what such societies. The very influence of it forbids to many individuals assem- names must have a considerable weight bled. with the jury. Lord Dartmouth, Lord Radstock, and the Bishop of Durham, versus a Whitechapel butcher or a publican! Is this a fair contest before a jury? It is not so even in London; and what must it be in the country, where a society for the suppression of vice may consist of all the principal persons in the neighbourhood? These societies are now established in York, in Reading, and in many other large towns. Wherever this is the case, it is far from improbable that the same persons at the Quarter or Town Sessions, may be both judges and accusers; and still more fatally so, if the offence is tried by a special jury. This is already most notoriously the case in societies for the preservation of game. They prosecute a poacher; If once combination is allowed for the suppression of vice, where are its limits to be? Its capital may as well consist of 100,000l. per annum, as of a thousand its numbers may increase from a thousand subscribers, which this society, it seems, had reached in its second year, to twenty thousand and in that case, what accused person of an inferior condition of life would have the temerity to stand against such a society? Their mandates would very soon be law; and there is no compliance into which they might not frighten the common people, and the lower orders of tradesmen. The idea of a society of gentlemen, calling themselves an Association for the Suppression of Vice, would alarm any small offender, to a degree that would make him prefer any submission to any resistance. He would consider the very fact of being accused by them as almost sufficient to ruin him. -the jury is special; and the poor wretch is found guilty by the very same persons who have accused him. If it be lawful for respectable men to combine for the purpose of turning An individual accuser accuses at informers, it is lawful for the lowest his own expense; and the risk he runs and most despicable race of informers, is a good security that the subject will to do the same thing; and then it is not be harassed by needless accusa- quite clear that every species of wickedtions, a security which, of course, he ness and extortion would be the consecannot have against such a society as quence. We are rather surprised that this, to whom pecuniary loss is an no society of perjured attorneys and object of such little consequence. It fraudulent bankrupts has risen up in must never be forgotten, that this is this metropolis for the suppression of would give great dignity to their proceedings; and they would soon begin to take some rank in the world. vice. A chairman, deputy-chairman, [ aid of law and government. At this subscriptions, and an annual sermon, rate, there should be a society in aid of the government, for procuring intelligence from foreign parts, with accredited agents all over Europe. There should be a voluntary transport board, and a gratuitous victualling office. There should be a duplicate, in short, of every department of the State,-the one appointed by the King, and the other by itself. There should be a real Lord Glenbervie in the woods and forests, and with him a monster, a voluntary Lord Glenbervie, serving without pay, and guiding gratis, with secret counsel, the axe of his prototype. If it be asked, who are the constituted authorities who are legally appointed to watch over morals, and whose functions the Society usurp ? our answer is, that there are in England about 12,000 clergy, not unhandsomely paid for persuading the people, and about 4000 justices, 30 grand juries, and 40,000 constables, whose duty and whose inclination it is to compel them to do right. Under such circumstances, a voluntary moral society does indeed seem to be the purest result of volition; for there certainly is not the smallest particle of necessity mingled with its existence. It is true that it is the duty of grand juries to inform against vice; but the isw knows the probable number of grand jarymen, the times of their meeting, and the description of persons of whom they consist. Of voluntary societies it can know nothing,— their numbers, their wealth, or the character of their embers. It may therefore trust to a grand jury what it would by no means trust to an unknown combination. A rast distinction is to be made, too, between official duties and voluntary duties. The first are commonly carred on with calmness and moderation; the latter often characterised, in their execution, by rash and intemperate zeal. The present Society receives no members but those who are of the Church of England. As we are now arguing the question generally, we have a right to make any supposition. It is equally free, therefore, upon general principles, for a society of sectarians to combine and exclude members of the Church of England; and the suppression of vice may thus come in aid of Methodism, Jacobinism, or of any set of principles, It is hardly possible that a society for however perilous, either to Church or the suppression of vice can ever be kept State. The present Society may perhaps within the bounds of good sense and consist of persons whose sentiments on moderation. If there are many memthese points are rational and respect-bers who have really become so from a able. Combinations, however, of this sort may give birth to something far different; and such a supposition is the fair way of trying the question. feeling of duty, there will necessarily be some who enter the Society to hide a bad character, and others whose object it is to recommend themselves to their We doubt if there be not some mis- betters by a sedulous and bustling inchief in averting the fears and hopes quisition into the immoralities of the of the people from the known and public. The loudest and noisiest supconstituted authorities of the country to pressors will always carry it against the those self-created powers;-a Society more prudent part of the community; that punishes in the Strand, another the most violent will be considered as which rewards at Lloyd's Coffee-house! the most moral; and those who see the If these things get to any great height, absurdity will, from the fear of being they throw an air of insignificance over thought to encourage vice, be reluctant those branches of the government to to oppose it. whom these cares properly devolve, and It is of great importance to keep whose authority is by these means as-public opinion on the side of virtue. sisted, till it is superseded. It is sup- To their authorised and legal correctors, posed that a project must necessarily be mankind are, on common occasions, good, because it is intended for the ready enough to submit; but there is something in the self-erection of a voluntary magistracy which creates so much disgust that it almost renders The violent modes of making men vice popular, and puts the offence at a good, just alluded to, have been repremium. We have no doubt but sorted to at periods when the science of that the immediate effect of a volun- legislation was not so well understood tary combination for the suppression as it now is; or when the manners of of vice, is an involuntary combination the age have been peculiarly gloomy or in favour of the vices to be suppressed; fanatical. The improved knowledge, and this is a very serious drawback and the improved temper of later from any good of which such societies times, push such laws into the back may be the occasion; for the state of ground, and silently repeal them. A morals, at any one period, depends Suppressing Society, hunting everymuch more upon opinion than law; where for penalty and information, and to bring odious and disgusting has a direct tendency to revive ancient auxiliaries to the aid of virtue, is to ignorance and fanaticism,—and to redo the utmost possible good to the enact laws which, if ever they ought cause of vice. We regret that mankind to have existed at all, were certainly are as they are; and we sincerely wish calculated for a very different style that the species at large were as of manners, and a very different degree completely devoid of every vice and of information. To compel men to infirmity as the President, Vice-Presi- go to church under a penalty appears dent, and Committee of the Suppressing to us to be absolutely absurd. The Society; but, till they are thus regene- bitterest enemy of religion will necesrated, it is of the greatest consequence sarily be that person who is driven to a to teach them virtue and religion in a compliance with its outward ceremonies, manner which will not make them hate by informers and justices of the peace. both the one and the other. The greatest In the same manner, any constable who delicacy is required in the application hears another swear an oath has a right of violence to moral and religious sen- to seize him, and carry him before a timent. We forget, that the object is, magistrate, where he is to be fined so not to produce the outward compliance, much for each execration. It is imposbut to raise up the inward feeling, sible to carry such laws into execution; which secures the outward compliance. and it is lucky that it is impossible,— You may drag men into church by for their execution would create an main force, and prosecute them for infinitely greater evil than it attempted buying a pot of beer,—and cut them to remedy. The common sense, and off from the enjoyment of a leg of common feeling of mankind, if left to mutton; and you may do all this, themselves, would silently repeal such till you make the common people hate laws; and it is one of the evils of these Sunday, and the clergy, and religion, societies, that they render absurdity and everything which relates to such eternal, and ignorance indestructible. subjects. There are many crimes, Do not let us be misunderstood: upon indeed, where persuasion cannot be the object to be accomplished, there waited for, and where the untaught can be but one opinion;-it is only feelings of all men go along with the upon the means employed, that there violence of the law. A robber and a can be the slightest difference of sentimurderer must be knocked on the head ment. To go to church is a duty of like mad dogs; but we have no great the greatest possible importance; and opinion of the possibility of indicting on the blasphemy and vulgarity of men into piety, or of calling in the swearing, there can be but one opinion. Quarter Sessions to the aid of religion. But such duties are not the objects of You may produce outward conformity legislation; they must be left to the by these means; but you are so far general state of public sentiment; which from producing (the only thing worth sentiment must be influenced by exproducing) the inward feeling, that you | ample, by the exertions of the pulpit and incur a great risk of giving birth to a totally opposite sentiment. |
