The bad old days
Sir: I have been following your correspon- dence on anti-Catholic prejudice with some interest (`Gunpowder, treason and plot', 16 January and Letters, 23, 30 January). I have only ever heard such prejudice emanating from the mouths of crumbling tweedies but a Spectator leader I once read seemed to crystallise their views.
The anonymous author of this piece (`Don't unsettle the Settlement', 2 August 1980) seemed to believe that Catholics might still be plotting to resurrect an abso- lute monarchy in league with Rome and the Inquisition.
The Spectator went on to argue that an attempt to alter the Act of Settlement to allow the heir to the throne to marry a Roman Catholic could arouse 'deep and dormant passions . . . Not only the Protes- tants of Northern Ireland would be
greatly
agitated by a deliberate act of Parliament to weaken and imperil the Protestant suc- cession . . This may not be a particularlY religious country nowadays but it is a Protestant one.' It seems this Protestant nation was still particularly fearful of Roman Catholics because it had been `. . . Roman Catholics, not Scots, blacks, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, devil-worshippers, Mormons or atheists [who could marry the heir to the throne], . who were a constant threat to parlia- mentary sovereignty and constitutional monarchy'. Better keep these papists in their place then, for, 'that they are no threat now is in part due to the established Protestant church and the Protestant succession. Why, then, run a risk of subjecting the country to religious upheaval and subversion by letting them in through a side door?'
Subversion? I might have reflected, in a maudlin moment, how my husbands' fami- ly, and my own, have, over several genera- tions, lost a sackful of eyes and limbs, trea- sured sons and brothers and gained quite a weight of medals, including a DSO and a VC, for monarch and parliament. TheY were all Roman Catholics.
I admit I was disappointed that The Spec- tator seemed to be telling me, in the tone of Peter Simple, that treachery is my heritage. However, I suspect the author was not s° much inspired by malice as by a desperate wish to hang on to what is now melting away. As for the Act of Settlement, I simply thanked God that it protected the sweet Marie Astrid of Luxembourg from the hor- rid fate of becoming married to the Prince of Wales. How horrid I could only then have guessed at.
Leanda March Phillipps de Lisle
Osbaston Hall, Osbaston, Market Bosworth, Leicestershire.
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