I indeed discussed it fully and conclusively. therefore will no longer intrude on the attention of the House. I admit, with the honourable member for the county of Armagh, in his eloquent and influential speech on a former occasion, that we have only a choice of difficulties; every path is beset with dangers; but I think that it is the part of wisdom to keep, in such circumstances, to the path along which we have hitherto travelled, leading, as it has led us, to the greatest public freedom, and the greatest private happiness, which have ever been combined, rather than to deviate into any other path, which, even on the admission of the guides who pretend to know it best, may lead us further and in a very different direction, from that in which we desire to go. For these reasons, Sir, and having heard nothing which has induced me to change the opinions which, for many years, I have held in private life on this question, I shall vote against the third reading of this bill. APPENDIX. WHEN I made this reference to the Index librorum prohibitorum, I was not aware that any similar use of it had already been introduced in argument on the Roman Catholic Question: but I have since seen, that, in the Letters on the revival of Popery, by the late William Blair, Esq. 8vo. 1819, I had been in this point anticipated. The passage is in is in p. 96-110. The "Index librorum prohibitorum" is sometimes confounded with the "Index Expurgatorius." They are entirely distinct: in Bishop Jeremy Taylor's celebrated Dissuasive from Popery, Part II. Book I. § 6. there is a curious chapter, "of the Expurgatory Indices in the Roman Church," Works, x. p. 495-506; see also x. p. 135-6: but the whole subject of the “Indices of the Church of Rome," both expurgatorii, and also librorum prohibitorum, is laboriously and satisfactorily treated, in a distinct work under the above title, by the Rev. Jos. Mendham, A.M. 1826, 8vo. The object of this part of my Speech being to shew the precise state of the Church of Rome from her present acts, her animus to-day, by her words to-day, I did not refer to any of her earlier proceedings not directly renewed and re-enforced by the reigning anthorities: but, in the history of an "infallible Church," it is curious to see what of her former declarations in this matter still remains uncancelled and undenied. "How far the evil of this did proceed, may easily be conjectured by what was done by the Inquisition in the year 1559, in which there was a catalogue of 62 printers; and all the books which any of them printed, of what author or language soever, prohibited; and all books which were printed by printers that had printed any books of heretics; insomuch that not only books of a hundred, two hundred, three hundred years ago, and approbation, were prohibited, but there scarce remained a book to be read. But by this means they impose upon men's faith and consciences, suffering them to allow of nothing in any man, no not in the fathers, but what themselves mark out for them, not measuring their own doctrines by the ancients, but reckoning their sayings to be or not to be catholic, according as they agree with their present opinions."-Taylor, x. 503-4. In reference to a different subject, but still directly connected with literature, Jeremy Taylor proves interpolations as well as omissions in works subjected to the Roman press: one most remarkable alteration is the following, which occurs in a book printed eight times before, and therefore likely to have some influence, and to be worth pressing into the fullest service of the Church of Rome : it is the work of a Roman Catholic, Ferus on St. John's First Epistle, and contains this passage: "Scriptura sacra data est nobis ceu certa quædam regula Christianæ doctrinæ," but in the Roman edition, 1577, the words are changed thus: "Sacra Scriptura et traditionobis data sunt ceu certa quædam regula Christianæ doctrinæ."-Taylor, x. 499. It may be said, after all, that the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, which I have quoted, is not received in Ireland. No question, I think, was put to any witness on the subject; but of the Index Expurgatorius Dr. Murray states, that it has no authority whatever in Ireland, and is not even received in Spain 1. To say that the Index (I may add of either kind) "the recorded judgments of the Church of Rome, has no authority in Ireland, is to say that Ireland is free to dissent in doctrine from the Roman See; and thus opinions may be condemned as heretical in that city which is termed the centre of Catholic unity, and these opinions may be patronized by Drs. Murray and Doyle, and may be learned and embraced by their subjects 2." 1 Commons' Evidence, 1825, p. 654. 2 Digest of the Evidence, I. p. 232-3. 3 It may be true, as the Right Honourable John Trevor, the last Viscount Hampden, formerly Minister at Turin, stated, that “the very book containing the list of books prohibited by the Pope, is itself prohibited in Piedmont"," though I believe that it is correct in this sense only, viz. that it is not authoritative unless confirmed by the Government: it is equally true, however, that I saw the newest edition of it in a convent in the States of the same Sovereign in 1826. It is true, that by a decree of the Emperor Joseph, 14th May, 17812, it was provided that no other prohibitions were to be regarded except those of the Imperial Censors; it is true also that by the Enchiridion Juris Ecclesiastici Austriaci it is laid down, that the Index Librorum Prohibitorum has no force of law in the Austrian States, unless expressly admitted and lawfully promulgated therein: but it will be recollected that this very work is itself as expressly condemned by the Pope'; and therefore whatever the relative force of the parties may be, it is perfectly clear that the spirit of the Church of Rome remains unchanged; and that she will, to the last, prohibit where she can the circulation of the books which she has once condemned. It is true also, that the introduction of Indices Expurgatorii was vehemently opposed by the King of Portugal, 2d of April, 17685: and it is true, that the Roman Index has been rejected in the same way by different Kings of Spain: but, according to the successive details in Mendham, not from their love to literature, but solely from the unlucky introduction of some Spanish Friar, whose name the Court of Spain omits, and then reprints the collection. A charge of prohibiting the best works in literature, which I made against the Church of Rome, is sustained equally, whether those works are prohibited by the Pope at Rome, or by the Inquisition at Madrid. 1 Report, 1816, p. 254. 3 Report, 1816, p. 74–120. 5 Report, 1816, No. 501, p. 377. 2 Report, 1816, p. 89. 4 Index Libr. Prohibit. See ante, p. 23. 6 Mendham, P. 63-70. |