The Orsini 1858. gitimists and Orleanists alike abhorred the French republic of 1848 and the revived empire of 1852. But all were safe under the broad shield of England. Every political sentiment, every discussion short of libel, enjoyed freedom. Every act not prohibited by law, however distasteful to other states, was entitled to protection. Nay, more: large numbers of refugees, obnoxious to their own rulers, were maintained by the liberality of the English government. This generosity has sometimes been abused by aliens who, under cover of our laws, have plotted against friendly states. There are acts, indeed, which the conspiracy, laws could only have tolerated by an oversight; and in this category was that of conspiracy to assassinate the sovereign of a friendly state. The horrible conspiracy of Orsini, in 1858, had been plotted in England. Not countermined by espionage, nor checked by jealous restraints on personal liberty, it had been matured in safety; and its more overt acts had afterwards escaped the vigilance of the police in France. The crime was execrated; but how could its secret conception have been prevented? So far our laws were blameless. The government of France, however, in the excitement of recent danger, angrily remonstrated against the alleged impunity of assassins in this country.1 Englishmen repudiated, with just indignation, any tolerance of murder. Yet on one point were our laws at fault. Orsini's desperate crime was unexampled: planned in England, it had been executed beyond the limits of British jurisdiction: it was doubtful if his confederates could be brought to justice; and certain that they would escape without adequate Conspiracy punishment. Ministers, believing it due, no less to murder bill, Feb. to France than to the vindication of our own laws, 8th, 1858. that this anomaly should be corrected, proposed a measure, with that object, to Parliament. But the Commons, resenting imputations upon this country, which had not yet been repelled; and jealous of the apparent dictation of France, 1 Despatch of Count Walewski, Jan. 20th, 1858. under which they were called upon to legislate, refused to entertain the bill.1 A powerful ministry was struck down; and a rupture hazarded with the Emperor of the French. Yet to the measure itself, apart from the circumstances under which it was offered, no valid objection could be raised; and three years later, its provisions were silently admitted to a place in our revised criminal laws.2 A just protection of political refugees is not incompatible with the surrender of criminals. All nations have Extradition treaties. a common interest in the punishment of heinous crimes; and upon this principle, has England entered into extradition treaties with France and the United States of America, for mutually delivering up to justice persons charged with murder, piracy, arson, or forgery, committed within the jurisdiction of either of the contracting states.* England offers no asylum to such criminals; and her own jurisdiction has been vastly extended over offenders escaping from justice. It is a wise policy, conducive to the comity of civilized nations. 1 Mr. Milner Gibson's amendment on second reading. - Hans. Deb., 3d Ser., cxlviii. 1742, &c. 2 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, § 4. 8 Treaty with France, 1843, confirmed by 6 & 7 Vict. c. 75; treaty with United States, 1842, confirmed by 6 & 7 Vict. c. 76. Provisions to the same effect had been comprised in the treaty of Amiens; and also in a treaty with the United States in 1794.- Phillimore, Int. Law, i. 427; Hans. Deb., 3d Ser., lxx. 1325; lxxi. 564. CHAPTER XII. Relations of the Church to Political History:-Leading Incidents and Consequences of the Reformation in England, Scotland, and Ireland: Exaction of Conformity with the State Church: Sketch of the Penal Code against Roman Catholics and Nonconformists:- State of the Church and other Religious Bodies on the Accession of George III.:— Gradual Relaxation of the Penal Code:- History of Catholic Claims prior to the Regency. the church In the sixteenth century, the history of the church is the history of England. In the seventeenth century, Relations of the relations of the church to the state and society to political contributed, with political causes, to convulse the history. kingdom with civil wars and revolutions. And in later and more settled times, they formed no inconsiderable part of the political annals of the country. The struggles, the controversies, the polity, and the laws of one age, are the inheritance of another. Henry VIII. and Elizabeth bequeathed to their successors ecclesiastical strifes which have disturbed every subsequent reign; and, after three centuries, the results of the Reformation have not yet been fully developed. A brief review of the leading incidents and consequences of that momentous event will serve to elucidate The church the later history of the church and other religious Reformation. bodies, in their relations to the state. before the For centuries, the Catholic church had been at once the church of the state and the church of the people. All the subjects of the crown acknowledged her authority, accepted her doctrines, participated in her offices, and worshipped at her consecrated shrines. In her relations to the state she approached the ideal of Hooker, wherein the church and the commonwealth were identified: no one being a member of the one, who was not also a member of the other.1 But under the shadow of this majestic unity grew ignorance, errors, superstition, imperious authority and pretensions, excessive wealth, and scandalous corruption. Freedom of thought was proscribed. To doubt the infallible judgment of the church was heresy, - a mortal sin, for which the atonement was recantation or death. From the time of Wickliffe to the Reformation, heresies and schisms were rife: 2 the authority of the church and the influence of her clergy were gradually impaired; and at length, she was overpowered by the ecclesiastical revolution of Henry VIII. With her supremacy, perished the semblance of religious union in England. The Reformation. So vast a change as the Reformation, in the religious faith and habitudes of a people, could not have been effected, at any time, without wide and permanent dissensions. When men were first invited to think, it was not probable that they should think alike. But the time and circumstances of the Reformation were such as to aggravate theological schisms, and to embitter the contentions of religious parties. It was an age in which power was wielded with a rough hand; and the reform of the church was accompanied with plunder and persecution. The confiscation of church property envenomed the religious antipathies of the Catholic clergy: the cruel and capricious rigor with which every communion was, in turn, oppressed, estranged and divided the laity. The changes of faith and policy, - sometimes progressive, sometimes reactionary, which marked the long and painful throes of the Reformation, from its inception under Henry VIII. to its final consummation under Elizabeth, left no party without its wrongs and sufferings. 1 Book viii., [2] Keble's Ed., iii. 411. Bishop Gardiner had already expressed the same theory; "the realm and the church consist of the same persons; and as the king is the head of the realm, he must, therefore, be head of the church." — Gilpin, ii. 29. See also Gladstone's State and Church, 4th Ed., i. 9-31. 2 Warner, i. 527; Kennet's Hist., i. 265; Collier's Eccl. Hist., i. 579; Echard's Hist., 159; Burnet's Hist. of the Reformation, i. 27. Toleration and liberty of conscience were unknown. Catholics and Protestants alike recognized the duty Toleration of the state to uphold truth and repress error. unknown. In this conviction, reforming prelates concurred with popes and Roman divines. The Reformed church, owing her very life to the right of private judgment, assumed the same authority, in matters of doctrine, as the church of Rome, which pretended to infallibility. Not to accept the doctrines or ceremonies of the state church, for the time being, was a crime; and conformity with the new faith as with the old, was enforced by the dungeon, the scaffold, the gibbet, and the torch.1 Elizabeth. The Reformed church being at length established under Elizabeth, the policy of her reign demands espe- Policy of cial notice. Finding her fair realm distracted by the religious convulsions of the last three reigns, she insisted upon absolute unity. She exacted a strait conformity of doctrine and observance, denied liberty of conscience Civil disto all her subjects, and attached civil disabilities to abilities. dissent from the state church. By the first act of her reign,2 the oath of supremacy was required to be taken as a qualification for every ecclesiastical benefice, or civil office under the crown. The act of uniformity, enforced, with severe penalties, conformity with the ritual of the established church, and attendance upon its services. A few years later, the oath of supremacy was, for the first time, required to be taken by every member of the House of Commons.1 faith asso The Catholics were not only hostile to the state church, but disaffected to the queen herself. They con- The Catholic tested her right to the crown; and despairing of ciated with the restoration of the ancient faith, or even of tol- treason. eration, during her life, they plotted against her throne. Hence the Catholic religion was associated with treason; 1 "A prince being God's deputy, ought to punish impieties against God," said Archbishop Cranmer to Edward VI. - Burnet's Hist., i. 111. 4 5 Eliz. c. 1. 2 1 Eliz. c. 1. 8 2 Eliz. c. 2. |