ONE,
TO THE GENTLEMEN OF WHITBY,
WHO SIGNED THE REQUISITION, CALLING A MEETINGTO ADDRESS THE QUEEN, ON THE LATE (SOCALLED) AGGRESSION OF THE POPE:
AND THE OTHER, TO
THE PROTESTANT CLERGY.
BY
The Catholic Priest of Ugthorp.
WHITBY:
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY HORNE AND RICHARDSON:SOLD BY RICHARDSON & SONS, LONDON AND DERBY.
ONE SHILLING.
1851.
The following pages are humbly, and gratefully Dedicated, tothe Catholic Noblemen and Gentlemen of Yorkshire, by theCatholic Priest at Ugthorp.
Noblemen and Gentlemen,
Many of you, lately appeared boldly, and manfully on theplatform at York, in defence of our holy religion. Consciousof the justice and innocence of our cause, you feared neither thesneers, nor the insults, nor the shouts, nor the threats of its enemies,but, like your illustrious ancestors, shewed that you consideredyour religion, as your best inheritance, and held it more dear thanlife itself; whilst, on the other hand, like your illustrious ancestors,you shewed that you yielded to none, in your loyal allegiance toyour temporal sovereign, and to the state. Now it would beungrateful, nay even base, in us Catholic clergymen, not to secondyour manly, and zealous exertions in defence of our ancient, andholy faith. To you, therefore, I most humbly, and gratefullydedicate the following pages. I hope you will find, that I havenot advanced in them, anything that is inconsistent with the principlesof truth, of justice, and of honour. To have acted otherwise,would, I am sure (for I have the honour to be personally acquaintedwith most of you), be most insulting to your noble, and liberalfeelings, and would only have served, to confirm the hostility ofthe Protestant, and to loosen the attachment of the Catholic, tothat cause, which I had undertaken to defend.
Noblemen, and Gentlemen, when the Catholic looks back onthe past, he will learn to hope well of the future. He will observe,that the irritating objections of former times, are now almost shamedout of Parliament, and can hardly support their credit, even amongthe most suspicious, and least informed Protestants. He will see,that our opponents have uniformly been compelled, to shift their[Pg iv]ground from position to position, and after pertinaciously defendingeach, have ended by abandoning it, and retreating to another. Atfirst, the Catholics were accused of favouring the claims of theStuarts, but the extinction of that family, has put an end to thatcharge. We were then told, that the Catholics, could not be boundby oath, though oaths, had been wisely devised as the best safeguards,against their supposed perfidy. Next, the fathers of thegreat Council of Latern, were marshalled against us; as if menwere to be punished at the present day,