_spiritual_, or _civil_ liberties of this realm. No, _not they_, not _one_ of them. Both the _Parliament_ and the _Public_ heard _all_ this, either with _approbation_, or with _indifference_. Judge, then, with what scorn the Catholics, hear themselves charged with insidiousness, and aggression. Insidiousness! Why, the leaders of the two great portions, in the state (for who stood _higher_ with the _Tories_ than _Lord Lyndhurst_, and among the _Whigs_, than _Lord John Russell_), and yet, these _two_ leaders, _actually_ encouraged, and invited the Catholics _to do_, what they _have_ done. I repeat, they not only claimed for the Catholics the _right to do_ them, but _encouraged_ them _to do_ them. After the Catholics had _thus_ been encouraged, and backed by two of the first leaders, _one_ of the Whigs, and _one_ of the _Tories_, after they had received the sanction of the _public_ by its silence, or indifference on these points, the Catholics at last received the Hierarchy from the Pope's hands; when lo! Lord John Russell, immediately writes a flaming philippic on the subject, suddenly and unjustly rouses the indignation of the people; and the Protestant clergy immediately head the crusade against the Catholics, for _doing_, what they had been encouraged, and invited _to do_ by two of the first ministers of the land, and _for doing_, what the English _public_ had _already_ sanctioned, by its silence, or by its indifference. Really, gentlemen, was not this a "most extraordinary and presumptuous movement" on the _rights_ of your Catholic fellow subjects? And, _this_, in the _nineteenth_ century, when the march of intellect, and of civil, and religious liberty, have been making such rapid progress in the British Empire. But what have I to say to Lord John Russell's late letter? I answer, it is not _my_ business to reconcile Lord John Russell's _former_ declarations, with _his present late_ proceedings, they are as _marvellous_ and _unaccountable_ in the _eyes_ of the _public_, as they are in _mine_. He will shortly have to give an account of his stewardship, before the Parliament, in whose _presence_, he made the _declarations_, which I have _quoted_. If he _means_ to continue a _Champion_ of _civil_ and _religious_ liberty, he must _retrace_ his steps--but if he chooses to _abandon_ the _sacred_ cause, _then_, he will dwindle into a _most insignificant_, and _contemptible_ statesman: and will not be _permitted long to direct_ the government of a _free_ and _liberal_ people. Thus you see, gentlemen, that the words of Lord John Russell, and of Lord Lyndhurst, the opinion of Joseph Hume, Esq., and that of the learned Protestant Bishop of St. Davids, plainly shew, that the late acts of the Pope, have been in keeping, with the present spirit of the English law.