Burton, E: Substance of Two Speeches, Delivered in Convocati

Excerpt from The Substance of Two Speeches, Delivered in Convocation, on Thursday, February 26, 1829

Before We proceed to the poll, I wish to offer a few remarks concerning the extraordinary crisis which has brought us together within these walls. The contest, let it be remembered, is not between the two individuals whose names have been now announced to us, but it is between the Roman Catholic and the Protestant religions, which have long been struggling for the mastery. It is vain and idle to conceal from our view, that if Roman Catholics are admitted to political power, the Bri tish Constitution is destroyed, and the Popish re ligion is exalted upon the ruins of the Protestant. The Established Church of Ireland will shortly be overthrown; the Ecclesiastical Property in that country will fall into the hands of the Romish priests; the Irish Members will be principally, if not wholly, Roman Catholics and the little leaven will Speedily ferment and swell, till it has pervaded B 2the whole mass. Reverend Gentlemen, both lay and clerical, may smile at' what I am saying: but perhaps this is the last effort which our pure and reformed religion will make to stem the torrent, which is now ready to overwhelm it. Oxford has done her duty: she has presented her petition, perhaps for the last time, resolutelytthough' re spectfully and I doubt not, that if circumstances should demand it other Ridleys and Latimers will be found, who W111 march fearlessly to the stake, and seal their testimony with their blood. But though the petition recently presented may be the, last; though the constitution of this University may soon be changed by the same spirit of inno vation which has levelled our political barriers, there is still one course remainingfor us: there is. One last and desperate effort to be made, by which we may arrest the demon of desolation, by which we may be able to stand between the dead and the living, and to stay the plague. The result of the contest, which begins to-day, will proclaim to the. Parliament and to the world, whether the Uni versity of Oxford is changed; whether she still.

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