LETTER TO G. HUNTLY GORDON, ESQ.
Rydal Mount, Thursday Night, Feb. 26. 1829.
You ask for my opinion on the Roman Catholic Question.
I dare scarcely trust my pen to the notice of the question which the Duke of Wellington tells us is about to be settled. One thing no rational person will deny, that the experiment is hazardous. Equally obvious is it that the timidity, supineness, and other unworthy qualities of the government for many years past have produced the danger, the extent of which they now affirm imposes a necessity of granting all that the Romanists demand. Now, it is rather too much that the country should be called upon to take the measure of this danger from the very men who may almost be said to have created it. Danger is a relative thing, and the first requisite for judging of what we have to dread from the physical force of the Roman Catholics is to be in sympathy with the Protestants. Had our Ministers been so, could they have suffered themselves to be bearded by the Catholic Association for so many years?
C——, if I may take leave to say it, loses sight of things in names, when he says that they should not be admitted as Roman Catholics, but simply as British subjects. The question before us is, Can Protestantism and Popery be coordinate powers in the constitution of a free country, and at the same time Christian belief be in that country a vital principle of action?
I fear not. Heaven grant I may be deceived!
W.W.[92]
56. Of the Roman Catholic Emancipation Bill.
LETTER TO THE EARL OF LONSDALE.
Rydal Mount, Wednesday.
MY LORD,