66 "All are equally brave and good. This is the effect of "the edict, against which you are cautioned. See how "it re-unites the royal family, restores to us our "brothers, our relations, our friends, and leads us out "hand in hand against our enemy, and makes him feel "how respectable we are for our virtue and power when "united among ourselves!" Might not some friend of the Roman Catholics address his Royal Highness in these very terms? "Favour then," might he not respectfully say to his Royal Highness," the humble prayer of the Roman Catholics! Let not the penal "code, which yet remains in force against them, con"tinue to torment such meritorious subjects. Is not our excellent constitution a system of comprehension " and humanity? Does it not prescribe, that the "genius, the talents, the valour, the industry, and the " labour of all his Majesty's subjects, should have equal openings to exertions, equal shares of rewards? This " and nothing but this, your Roman Catholic subjects "petition for. This, and nothing but this, is granted "them by the present bill." 66 66 FINIS. CHARLES Butler. Luke Hansard & Sons, APPENDIX то MR. BUTLER'S Vindication of "The Book of the Roman · Catholic Church," IN REPLY TO DR. SOUTHEY'S Preface to his "Vindicia Ecclesia Anglicana." LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET. M.DCCC.XXVI. THE first edition of Dr. Southey's "Book of the Church" contains the following relation; "On the day when Ridley and Latimer suf"fered at Oxford, the Duke of Norfolk dined "with Gardiner, and the dinner was delayed " some hours, till the bishop's servant arrived "from Oxford, post haste, with tidings that he "had seen fire set to them; Gardiner went exultingly to the Duke of Norfolk with the news, and said, 'Now let us go to dinner!' "Before he rose from table he was stricken with a painful disease, and being carried to his bed, lay there in intolerable torments for fifteen days." In the second edition of Dr. Southey's "Book of the Church," the relation is wholly omitted, and no mention whatever made of it. Both the first and second edition of Mr. Butler's "Book of the Roman Catholic Church," contain the following passage: "I have now to mention an instance, in which "tò aggravate the conduct of Queen Mary's government, and the odium which you think it "should bring upon the Roman Catholics, you "introduce a perfect fancy piece. You tell us "that, on the day on which Ridley and Latimer "suffered at Oxford, the Duke of Norfolk dined "with Gardiner; and that the dinner was de"layed some hours, till the bishop's servant "" arrived from Oxford, post haste, with tidings "l 'that he had seen fire set to them; that Gar"' diner went exultingly to the Duke of Norfolk "with the news, and said, 'Now let us go to "dinner;' that before he rose from table he (6 6 was stricken with a painful disease, and, being "'carried to his bed, lay there in intolerable torments for fifteen days!' .. and died. This "tale was quickly confuted. The author of Fox's life, in the Biographia Britannica, mentions it among the many facts, in the relation of which "Fox is not to be depended upon. • To disprove "this tragical story, it may,' says the biographer, "be sufficient to observe, that Gardiner appeared "in the House of Lords after he is reported to "have been seized with the mortal distemper'; |