AN ARGUMENT RESPECTING MORAL DUTY IN LEGISLATION: AN HUMBLE ATTEMPT TO SERVE THE HONOURABLE HOUSE OF COMMONS, AT THE PRESENT CRISIS, AUGUST 1, 1836. BY THE REV. PETER BLACKBURN, M.A. And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; knowing that of the LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. G. & F. RIVINGTON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, AND WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL. 1836. 440. AN ARGUMENT, &c. THE Conduct of the House of Commons, in resolving to send up to the House of Lords another measure relating to the Established Church in Ireland, embracing the very same principle from which a large majority of the latter House has before declared its unqualified dissent, is a matter that calls for very serious notice. It challenges our attention, not merely because the settlement of an important question is thereby in danger of being postponed, and the harmony of the Legislature partially interrupted, but chiefly because it discovers the grievous fact, that a considerable number of our public men do not duly consider what Christian morality requires of them in respect of their political conduct. The consequence of this must be, that the business of legislation will still be liable to repeated embarrassments, dissensions in the State will be perpetuated, A 2 and men's minds in private life drawn off from the calm and steady pursuit of the duties belonging to them, through a disturbing apprehension of what the issue of this state of things may be. In reflecting on the very serious nature of these evils, the conviction has been very strongly impressed on my mind that nothing can be more proper, or is more wanted at the present moment, than a remonstrance humbly and respectfully addressed to those honourable persons whose conduct has evinced this inconsideration in the instance referred to, in the hope of inducing them, by the solicitation of truth, to reconsider their way, and amend the error into which they have fallen and, in case of its unhappily failing to produce this effect, that it should then be followed up by that course of conduct towards those who refuse to be better advised, which Divine wisdom has recommended to be used when we would reclaim brethren who are guilty of wilfully disregarding the rule by which they ought to walk. "If any man," says St. Paul to the Thessalonians, obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed: yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother." 66 To act according to the spirit of this injunction appears to me to be the remedy that should be tried for the evils of the present time, if, unhappily, remonstrance should prove in vain. And I now humbly appeal to every one of the nobility, gentry, and clergy, who shall agree with the observations which I am about to make, manfully to do his part in putting this remedy to the proof. The course to which I now presume to direct the attention of my fellow-countrymen will undoubtedly be felt to be painful; and in some instances it may require a magnanimous disregard of private feelings and private interests in order to adopt it. But extraordinary evils require unusual remedies. And I venture to predict, from partial experience of what I now recommend, that if, in reliance on the wisdom of the Apostolic direction, we should resolve to keep ourselves at a distance from those in private life, who, in their public conduct, will persist in unjustifiable courses whilst seeking to give effect to political projects which they know we regard with abhorrence, as being, in our opinion, of evil omen to our country and ourselves, we shall not miss the result we desire to find, if only we are careful to act in a right spirit, making it manifest that we could wish, no less for our own sake than for theirs, to live on terms of social intercourse and good neighbourhood with them, but that we feel they have imposed on us the painful necessity of doing otherwise. I cannot doubt the general result of such a course of proceeding. I shall now, then, address myself to the task of shewing, that those honourable members of the |