stitution in church and state.

You were wise enough not to

that we are always to maintain it? And then, what if of your sovereignty on the North American continent, is an anthe struggle does at last end in our favour? Is the swer practical, memorable, difficult to be accounted for, but loss of ngush lives and of English money not to be blazing as the sun itself in sight of the whole world, to the whole taken into account? Is this the way in which a na- charge of divided allegiance. At your conquest of Canada, tion overwhelmed with debt, and trembling whether you found it Roman Catholic, you had to choose for her a conits looms and ploughs will not be overmatched by the thwart public opinion. Your own conduct towards Presbytelooms and ploughs of the rest of Europe-is this the rianism in Scotland was an example for imitation; your own way in which such a country is to husband its re-conduct towards Catholicism in Ireland was a beacon for avoidsources? Is the best blood of the land to be flung ance; and in Canada you established and endowed the religion away in a war of hassocks and surplices? Are cities of the people. Canada was your only Roman Catholic colony. to be summoned for the Thirty-nine Articles, and men Your other colonies revolted; they called on a Catholic power to be led on to the charge by professors of divinity? olic Canada, with what Lord Liverpool would call her half-alto support them, and they achieved their independence. CathThe expense of keeping such a country must be added legiance, alone stood by you. She fought by your side against to all other enormous expenses. What is really pos- the interference of Catholic France. To reward and encousessed of a country so subdued? four or five yards rage her loyalty, you endowed in Canada bishops to say mass, round a sentry-box, and no more. And in twenty years' and to ordain others to say mass, whom, at that very time, time it is all to do over again-another war-another your laws would have hanged for saying mass in England; and rebellion, and another enormou and ruinously expen- her spiritual obedience to the pope, in spite of Lord LiverCanada is still yours, in spite of Catholic France, in spite of sive contest, with the same dreadful uncertainty of the pool's argument, and in spite of the independence of all the issue! It is forgotten, too, that a new feature has ari-states that surround her. This is the only trial you have sen in the history of this country. In all former in- made. Where you allow to the Roman Catholics their religion surrections in Ireland no democratic party existed in undisturbed, it has proved itself to be compatible with the England. The efforts of government were left free most faithful allegiance. It is only where you have placed and unimpeded. But suppose a stoppage in our man-allegiance and religion before them as a dilemma, that they ufactures coincident with a rising of the Irish Catho-have preferred (as who will say they ought not?) their religion lics, when every soldier is employed in the sacred du-proved by history, disproved in all states where both religions to their allegiance. How then stands the imputation? Disty of Papist-hunting. Can any man contemplate such co-exist, and in both hemispheres, and asserted in an exposition a state of things without horror? Can any man say by Lord Liverpool, solemnly and repeatedly abjured by all that he is taken by surprise for such a combination? Catholics, of the discipline of their church.-Lord Nugent's Can any man say that any danger to church or state Letter, pp. 35, 36. is comparable to this? But for the prompt interference of the military in the early part of 1826, three or four hundred thousand manufacturers would have carried ruin and destruction over the north of England, and over Scotland. These dangers are inseparable from an advanced state of manufactures-but they need not the addition of other and greater perils, which need not exist in any country too wise and too enlightened for persecution?

Where is the weak point in these plain arguments? Is it the remoteness of the chance of foreign war? Alas! we have been at war 35 minutes out of every hour since the peace of Utrecht. The state of war seems more natural to man than the state of peace; and if we turn from general probabilities to the state. of Europe-Greece to be liberated-Turkey to be destroyed-Portugal and Spain to be made free-the wounded vanity of the French, the increasing arrogance of the Americans, and our own philopolemical folly, are endless scenes of war. We believe it at all times a better speculation to make ploughshares into swords than swords into ploughshares. If war is certain, we believe insurrection to be quite as certain. We cannot believe but that the French or the Americans would, in case of war, make a serious attempt upon Ireland, and that all Ireland would rush, tail foremost, into insurrection.

A new source of disquietude and war has lately risen in Ireland. Our saints are evangelical people, or serious people, or by whatever name they are to be des ignated, have taken the field in Ireland against the Pope, and are converting in the large way. Three or four Irish Catholic prelates take a post-chaise, and curse the converters and the converted. A battle royal ensues with shillelas: the policeman comes in, and, reckless of Lambeth or the Vatican, makes no distinction between what is perpendicular, and what is hostile, but knocks down every body, and every thing which is upright; and so the feud ends for the day. We have no doubt but that these efforts will tend to bring things to a crisis much sooner between the parties, than the disgraceful conduct of the cabinet alone

his strait-waistcoat, and been out of Bedlam three Can any man who has gained permission to take off weeks, believe that the Catholic question will be set to rest by the conversion of the Irish Catholics to the Protestant religion? The best chance of conversion will be gained by taking care that the point of honour is not against conversion.

'We may, I think, collect from what we know of the ordinary

feelings of men that, by admitting all to a community of benefits, we should remove a material impediment that now presents itself to the advances of proselytism to our established mode of worship; particularly assuming, as we do, that it is the purest, and that the disfranchised mode is supported only by superstition and priesteraft. By external pressure and restraint, things are compacted as well in the moral as in the physical world. Where a sect is at spiritual variance with the established church, it only requires an abridgment of civil privileges to render it at once a political faction. Its members become instantly pledged, some from enthusiasm, some from resentment, and many from honourable shame, to cleave with desperate fondness to the suffering fortunes of an hereditary religion. Is this human nature, or is it not? Is it a natural or an unnatural feeling for the representative of an ancient Roman Catholic family, even if in his heart he rejected the controverted tenets of his early faith, to scorn an open conformity to ours, so long as such conformity brings with it the irremovable suspicion that faith and conscience may have bowed to the base hope of temporal advantage? Every man must feel and act for himself: but, in my opinion, a good man might be put to difficulty to determine whether good or harm is not done by the example of one changing his religion to his worldly advantage, than good by his openly professing conformity from what we think error to what we think truth.-Lord Nugent's Letter, pp. 54, 55.

Is it for the

'We will not be bullied out of the Catholic question.' This is a very common text, and requires some comment. If you mean that the sense of personal danger shall never prevent you from doing what you think right-this is a worthy and proper feeling, but no such motive is suspected, and no such question is at issue. Nobody doubts but that any English gentleman would be ready to join his No-Popery corps, and to do his duty to the community, if the govern ment required it; but the question is, Is it worth while in the government to require it? general advantage that such a war should be carried 'It is a charge not imputed by the laws of England, nor by on for such an object? It is a question not of person. the oaths which exclude the Catholics: for those oaths impute al valour, but of political expediency. Decide seriousonly spiritual errors. But it is imputed, which is more to the ly if it is worth the price of civil war to exclude purj ose, by those persons who approve of the excluding oaths, the Catholics, and act accordingly; taking it for grantand wish them retained. But to the whole of this imputation, ed that you possess, and that every body supposes you even if no other instance could be adduced, as far as a strong to possess, the vulgar attribute of personal courage; and remarkable example can prove the negative of an assumption which there s not a single example to support-the full and but do not draw your sword like a fool, from the unsufficient, and incontestible answer is Canada. Canada, which, founded apprehension of being called a coward. until you can destroy the memory of all that now remains to you

would do.

We have great hopes of the Duke of Clarence.→→→

Whatever else he may be, he is not a bigot-not a per- | son who thinks it necessary to show respect to his royal father, by prolonging the miseries and incapacities of six millions of people. If he ascends the throne of these realms, he must stand the fire of a few weeks' clamour and unpopularity. If the measure is passed by the end of May, we can promise his royal highness it will utterly be forgotten before the end of June. Of all human nonsense, it is surely the greatest to talk of respect to the late king-respect to the memory of the Duke of York-by not voting for the Catholic question. Bad enough to burn widows when the husband dies-bad enough to burn horses, dogs, butlers, footmen, and coachmen, on the funeral pile of a Scythian warrior-but to offer up the happiness of seven millions of people to the memory of the dead, is certainly the most insane sepulchral oblation of which history makes mention. The best compliment to these deceased princes, is to remember their real good qualities, and to .orget (as soon as we can forget it) that these good qualities were tarnished by limited and mistaken views of religious liberty.

ferent as possible. It is always presumed, that sects holding opinions contrary to the establishment, are hostile to the establishment; meaning by the word hostile, that they are combined, or ready to combine, for its destruction. It is contended that the Catholics would not be satisfied by these concessions; meaning, thereby, that many would not be so—but forgetting to add, that many would be quite satisfied-all more satisfied, and less likely to run into rebellion. It is urged that the mass of Catholics are indifferent to the question; whereas (never mind the cause) there is not a Catholic plough-boy, at this moment, who is not ready to risk his life for it, nor a Protestant stableboy, who does not give himself airs of superiority over any papistical cleaner of horses, who is scrubbing with him under the same roof.

They are forming societies in Ireland for the encouragement of emigration, and striving, and successfully striving, to push their redundant Population into Great Britain. Our business is to pacify Ireland—to give confidence to capitalists-and to keep their people where they are. On the day the Catholic question was passed, all property in Ireland would rise 20 per cent.

The Irish were quiet under the severe code of Queen Anne-so the half-murdered man left on the ground bleeding by thieves is quiet; and he only moans, and cries for help as he recovers. There was a method which would have made the Irish still more quiet, and effectually have put an end to all further Persecuting gentlemen forget the expense of perse- solicitation respecting the catholic question. It was cution; whereas, of all luxuries, it is the most expen-adopted in the case of the wolves. sive. The Ranters do not cost us a farthing, because they are not disqualified by ranting. The Methodists and Unitarians are gratis. The Irish Catholics, supposing every alternate year to be war, as it has been for the last century, will cost us, within these next twenty years, forty millions of money. There are 20,000 soldiers there in time of peace; in war, including the militia, their numbers will be doubled-and there must be a very formidable fleet in addition. Now, when the tax paper comes round, and we are to make a return of the greatest number of horses, buggies, ponies, dogs, cats, bullfinches, and canary birds, c., and to be taxed accordingly, let us remember how well and wisely our money has been spent, and not repine that we have purchased, by severe taxation, the high and exalted pleasures of intolerance and per

secution.

It is mere unsupported and unsupportable nonsense to talk of the exclusive disposition of the Catholics to persecute. The Protestants have murdered, and tortured, and laid waste as much as the Catholics. Each party, as it gained the upper hand, tried death as the remedy for heresy-both parties have tried in vain.

Protestants admit that there are sectaries sitting in Parliament, who differ from the Church of England as much as the Catholics; but it is forgotten that, according to the doctrine of the Church of England, the Unitarians are considered as condemned to eternal punishment in another world-and that many such have seats in Parliament. And can any thing be more preposterous (as far as doctrine has any influence in these matters) than that men, whom we believe to be singled out as objects of God's eternal vengeance, should have a seat in our national councils; and that Catholics, whom we believe may be saved, should not?

The only argument which has any appearance of weight, is the question of divided allegiance; and geA distinction is set up between civil rights, and nerally speaking, we should say it is the argument political power, and applied against the Catholics: the which produces the greatest effect in the country at real difference between these two words is, that civil large. England, in this respect, is in the same state, comes from a Latin word, and political from a Greek at least, as the whole of Catholic Europe. Is not the one; but if there is any difference in their meaning, allegiance of every French, every Spanish, and every the Catholics do not ask for political power, but for Italian Catholic (who is not a Roman,) divided? His eligibility to political power. The Catholics have king is in Paris, or Madrid, or Naples, while his highnever prayed, or dreamt of praying, that so many of priest is at Rome. We speak of it as an anomaly in the judges and king's counsel should necessarily be politics; whereas, it is the state and condition of al Catholics; but that no law should exist which pre- most the whole of Europe. The danger of this dividvented them from becoming so, if a Protestant king ed allegiance, they admit, is nothing, as long as it is chose to make them so. Eligibility to political power confined to purely spiritual concerns; but it may exis a civil privilege, of which we have no more right to tend itself to temporal matters, and so endanger the deprive any man than of any other civil privilege, safety of the state. This danger, however, is greater The good of the state may require that all civil rights in a Catholic than in a Protestant country; not only may be taken from Catholics; but to say that eligi- on account of the greater majority upon whom it bility to political power is not a civil right, and that might act; but because there are objects in a Catholic to take it away without grave cause, would not be a country much more desirable, and attainable, than in gross act of injustice, is mere declamation. Besides, a country like England, where Popery does not exist, what is called political power, and what are called or Ireland, where it is humbled and impoverished. civil rights, are given or withholden, without the least Take, for instance, the freedom of the Gallican reference to any principle, but by mere caprice. A Church. What a temptation to the Pope to infringe right of voting is given-this is political power; eligi- in rich Catholic countries! How is it possible his hobility to the office of alderman or bank director is re-liness can keep his hands from picking and stealing? fused-this is a civil right: the distinction is per- It must not be imagined that Catholicism has been petually violated, just as it has suited the state of parties for the moment And here a word or two on the manner of handling the question. Because some offices might be filled with Catholics, all would be: this is one topic. A second is, because there might be inconvenience from a Catholic king or chancellor, that, therefore, there would be inconvenience from Catholic judges or serjeants. In talking of establishments, they always take care to blend the Irish and English establishments, and never to say which is meant, though the circumstances of both are as dif

any defence against the hostility and aggression of the Pope: he has cursed and excommunicated every Catholic state in Europe, in their turns. Let that eminent Protestant, Lord Bathurst, state any one instance where, for the last century, the Pope has interfered with the temporal concerns of Great Britain. We can mention, and his lordship will remember, innumerable instances where he might have done so, if such were the modern habit and policy of the court of Rome. But the fact is, there is no court of Rome, and no Pope. There is a wax-work Pope, and a wax

than we should of all the efforts of the Pope. As so much evil is supposed to proceed from not obeying the king as head of the church, it might be supposed to be a very active office-that the king was perpetually interfering with the affairs of the churchand that orders were in a course of emanation from the throne which regulated the fervour, and arranged the devotion, of all the members of the Church of England. But we really do not know what orders are ever given by the king to the church, except the ap pointment of a fast-day once in three or four years;nor can we conceive (for appointment to bishoprics is out of the question) what duties there would be to perform, if this allegiance were paid, instead of being withholden. Supremacy appears to us to be a mere name, without exercise of power-and allegiance to be a duty, without any performance annexed. If any one will say what ought to be done which is not done, on account of this divided allegiance, we shall better understand the magnitude of the evil. Till then, we shall consider it as a lucky Protestant phrase, good to look at, like the mottos and ornaments on cake,--but not fit to be eaten.

work court of Rome. But Popes of flesh and blood | Mr. William Smith, member for Norwich, the head of have long since disappeared; and in the same way, the Unitarian Church? Is not Mr. Wilberforce the those great giants of the city exist no more, but their head of the Clapham Church? Are there not twenty truculent images are at Guildhall. We doubt if there preachers at Leeds, who regulate all the proceedings is in the treasury of the Pope change for a guinea of the Methodists? The gentlemen we have mentionwe are sure there is not in his armoury one gun which ed are eminent, and most excellent men; but if any will go off. We believe, if he attempted to bless any thing at all is to be apprehended from this divided albody whom Dr. Doyie cursed, or to curse any body legiance, we should be infinitely more afraid of some whom Dr. Doyle blessed, that his blessings and curses Jacobinical fanatic at the head of Protestant Votaries would be as powerless as his artillery. Dr. Doyle* is-some man of such character as Lord George Gordon the Pope of Ireland; and the ablest ecclesiastic of that country will always be its pope-and that Lord Bathurst ought to know-most likely does know. But what a waste of life and time to combat such arguments? Can my Lord Bathurst be ignorant? Can any man, who has the slightest knowledge of Ireland, be ignorant, that the portmanteau which sets out every quarter for Rome, and returns from it, is an heap of ecclesiastical matters, which have no more to do with the safety of the country, than they have to do with the safety of the moon-and which but for the respect to individual feelings, might all be published at Charing Cross? Mrs. Flanagan, intimidated by stomach complaints, wants a dispensation for eating flesh. Cornelius Oh Bowel has intermarried by accident with his grandmother; and finding that she is really his grandmother, his conscience is uneasy. Mr. Mac Tooley, the priest, is discovered to be married; and to have two sons, Castor and Pollux Mac Tooley. Three or four schools-full of little boys have been cursed for going to hear a Methodist preacher. Bargains for shirts and toe-nails of deceased saints-surplices and trencher-caps blessed by the Pope. These are the fruits of double allegiance-the objects of our Nothing can be more unfair than to expect, in an anincredible folly. There is not a syllable which goes cient church like that of the Catholics, the same to or comes from the court of Rome, which, by a judi- uniformity as in churches which have not existed for cious expenditure of sixpence by the year, would not more than two or three centuries. The coats and be open to the examination of every member of the waistcoats of the reign of Henry VIII, bear some recabinet. Those who use such arguments know the semblance to the same garments of the present day; answer to them as well as we do. The real evil they but, as you recede, you get to the skins of wild beasts, dread is the destruction of the church of Ireland, and, or the fleeces of sheep, for the garments of savages.through that, of the Church of England. To which In the same way, it is extremely difficult for a church, we reply, that such danger must proceed from the re- which has to do with the counsels of barbarous ages, gular proceedings of Parliament, or be effected by in- not to be detected in some discrepancy of opinion; surrection and rebellion. The Catholics, restored to while in younger churches, every thing is fair and civil functions, would, we believe, be more likely to fresh, and of modern date and figure; and it is not the cling to the church than to Dissenters. If not, both custom among theologians to own their church in the Catholics and Dissenters must be utterly powerless wrong. 'No religion can stand, if men, without reagainst the overwhelming English interests and feel-gard to their God, and with regard only to controversy, ings in the house. Men are less inclined to run into shall take out of the rubbish of antiquity the obsolete rebellion, in proportion as they have less to complain and quaint follies of the sectarians, and affront the maof; and, of all other dangers, the greatest to the Irish jesty of the Almighty with the impudent catalogue of and English church establishments, and to the Protes- their devices; and it is a strong argument against the tant faith throughout Europe, is to leave Ireland in its proscriptive system, that it helps to continue this present state of discontent. shocking contest. Theologian against theologian,If the intention is to wait to the last, before concess- polemic against polemic, until the two madmen defame ion is made, till the French or Americans have landed, their common parent, and expose their common reliand the holy standard has been unfurled, we ought to gion.'-Grattan's Speech on the Catholic Quastion, 1805. be sure of the terms which can be obtained at such a A good-natured and well-conditioned person has crisis. This game was played in America. Commis- pleasure in keeping and distributing any thing that is sioners were sent in one year to offer and to press good. If he detects any thing with superior flavour, what would have been most thankfully received the he presses and invites, and is not easy till others paryear before; but they were always too late The rapid ticipate; and so it is with political and religious concessions of England were outstripped by the more freedom. It is a pleasure to possess it, and a plearapid exactions of the colonies; and the commission- sure to communicate it to others. There is something ers returned with the melancholy history, that they shocking in the greedy, growling, guzzling monopoly had humbled themselves before the rebels in vain. If of such a blessing. you ever mean to concede at all, do it when every concession will be received as a favour. To wait till you are forced to treat, is as mean in principle as it is dangerous in effect.

Then, how many thousand Protestant Dissenters are there who pay a double allegiance to the king, and to the head of their church, who is not the king? Is not

* 'Of this I can with great truth assure you; and my testimony, if not entitled to respect, should not be utterly disregarded, that papal influence will never induce the Catholics of this country either to continue tranquil, or to be disturbed, either to aid or to oppose the government; and that your lordship can contribute much more than the Pope to secure their allegiance, or to render them disaffected.'-Dr. Doyle's Letter to Lord Liverpool, 115.

M

France is no longer a nation of atheists; and therefore, a great cause of offence to the Irish Roman Catholic clergy is removed. Navigation by steam renders all shores more accessible. The union among Catholics is consolidated; all the dangers of Ireland are redoubled: every thing seems tending to an event fatal to England-fatal (whatever Catholics may foolishly imagine) to Ireland-and which will subject them both to the dominion of France.

Formerly a poor man might be removed from a parish if there was the slightest danger of his becoming chargeable; a hole in his coat or breeches excited suspicion. The churchwardens said, ' He has cost us nothing, but he may cost us something; and we must not live even in the apprehension of evil.' All this is changed; and the law now says, ' Wait till

you are hurt; time enough to meet the evil when it comes; you have no right to do a certain evil to others, to prevent an uncertain evil to yourselves.' The Catholics, however, are told that what they do ask is objected to, from the fear of what they may ask; that they must do without that which is reasonable, for fear they should ask what is unreasonable. 'I would give you a penny (says the miser to the beggar), if I was quite sure you would not ask me for half a crown.'

the moment it suits their purpose, will consent to
emancipation of the Catholics, and leave you to roar
and bellow No Popery! to vacancy and the moon.
To the No-Popery Rogue.

A shameful and scandalous game, to sport with the serious interests of the country, in order to gain some increase of public power!

To the Honest No-Popery People.

We respect you very sincerely-but are astonished

'Nothing, I am told, is now so common on the continent as to hear our Irish policy discussed. Till of late the extent of at your existence. the disabilities was but little understood, and less regarded, partly because, having less liberty themselves, foreigners could not appreciate the deprivations, and partly because the pre-eminence of England was not so decided as to draw the eyes of the world on all parts of our system. It was scarcely credited that England, that knight-errant abroad, should play the exclusionist at home; that everywhere else she should declaim against oppression, but contemplate it without emotion at her doors. That her armies should march, and her orators philippize, and her poets sing against continental tyranny, and yet that laws should remain extant, and principles be operative within our gates, which are a bitter satire on our philanthropy, and a melancholy negation of our professions. Our sentiments have been so lofty, our deportment to foreigners so haughty, and we have set up such liberty and such morals, that no one could suppose that we were hypocrites. Still less could it be foreseen that a great moralist, called Joseph Surface, kept a "little milliner" behind the scenes, we

too should be found out at length in taking the diversion of private tyranny after the most approved models for that amusement.'-Letter to Lord Milton, pp. 50, 51.

To the Base.

Sweet children of turpitude, beware! the old antipopery people are fast perishing away. Take heed that you are not surprised by an emancipatng king, or an emancipating administration. Leave a locus pœnitentia!-prepare a place for retreat-get ready your equivocations and denials. The dreadful day may yet come, when liberality may lead to place and power. It is the safest to We understand these matters here. be moderately base-to be flexible in shame, and to be always ready for what is generous, good, and just, when any thing is to be gained by virtue.

To the Catholics.

Wait. Do not add to your miseries by a mad and desperate rebellion. Persevere in civil exertions, and concede all you can concede. All great alterations in human affairs are produced by compromise.

1803.)

We sincerely hope-we firmly believe it will never happen; but if it were to happen, why cannot England be just as happy with Ireland being Catholic, as it is with Scotland being Presbyterian? Has not the NECKAR'S LAST VIEWS. (EDINBURGH REVIEW, Church of England lived side by side with the Kirk, without crossing or jostling, for these last hundred years? Have the Presbyterian members entered into Dernières Vues de Politiques, et de Finance. Par. M. Neckar any conspiracy for mincing bishoprics and deaneries into synods and presbyteries? And is not the Church of England tenfold more rich and more strong than when the separation took place? But however this may be, the real danger, even to the Church of Ire land, as we have before often remarked, is the refusal of Catholic emancipation.

It would seem, from the frenzy of many worthy Protestants, whenever the name of Catholic is mentioned, that the greatest possible diversity of religious opinions existed between the Catholic and the Protestant-that they were as different as fish and flesh -as alkali and acid-as cow and cart-horse; whereas it is quite clear, that there are many Protestant sects whose difference from each other is much more marked, both in church discipline and in tenets of faith, than that of Protestants and Catholics. We maintain that Lambeth, in these two points, is quite as near to the Vatican as it is to the Kirk-if not much nearer.

An. 10, 1802.

Ir power could be measured by territory, or counted by population, the inveteracy, and the disproportion which exists between France and England, must occasion to every friend of the latter country the most serious and well-founded apprehensions. Fortunately however for us, the question of power is not only what is the amount of population? but, how is that population governed? How far is a confidence in the stability of political institutions established by an experience of their wisdom? Are the various interests of society adjusted and protected by a system of laws thoroughly tried, gradually ameliorated, and purely administered? What is the degree of general prosperity evinced by that most perfect of all criteria, general credit? These are the considerations to which an enlightened politician, who speculates on the future destiny of nations, will direct his attention, more than to the august and imposing exterior of territorial dominion, or to those brilliant moments, when a nation, under the influence of great passions, rises above its neighbours, and above itself, in military renown.

Instead of lamenting the power of the priests over the lower orders of the Irish, we ought to congratulate ourselves that any influence can affect and control them. Is the tiger less formidable in the forest than If it be visionary to suppose the grandeur and safety when he has been caught and taught to obey a voice of the two nations as compatible and co-existent, we and tremble at a hand? But we over-rate the power have the important (though the cruel) consolation of of the priest, if we suppose that the upper orders are to reflecting, that the French have yet to put together encounter all the dangers of treason and rebellion, to the very elements of a civil and political constitution; confer the revenues of the Protestant church upon the that they have to experience all the danger and all Catholic clergy. If the influence of the Catholic clergy the inconvenience which results from the rashness upon men of rank and education be so unbounded, why and the imperfect views of legislators, who have cannot the French and Italian clergy recover their every thing to conjecture, and every thing to create ; possessions, or acquire an equivalent for them? They that they must submit to the confusion of repeated are starving in the full enjoyment of an influence which places (as we think) all the wealth and power of the country at their feet-an influence which, in our opinion, overpowers avarice, fear, ambition, and is the master of every passion which brings on change and movement in the Protestant world.

change, or the greater evil of obstinate perseverance in error; that they must live for a century in that state of perilous uncertainty in which every revolu tionized nation remains, before rational liberty becomes feeling and habit, as well as law, and is written in the hearts of men as plainly as in the letter of the statute; and that the opportunity of beginning this immense edifice of human happiness is so far from being presented to them at present, that it is extremely problematical whether or not they are to be You are made use of by men who laugh at you, and bandied from one vulgar usurper to another, and redespise you for your folly and ignorance; and who, | main for a century subjugated to the rigour of a mili

We conclude with a few words of advice to the different opponents of the Catholic question.

To the No-Popery Fool.