That Frenchmen would follow precedents so horrible as these, in punishing English insurgents, is perhaps more than we have reason to apprehend; but the example proves, that dreadful severities would be used; for we should certainly be, in comparison with other subjected nations, what the Koromantyns are, in comparison with other Africans, when carried into slavery by our merchants. The plea of necessity will be found here, as well as in Jamaica; for when a whole people is reduced to slavery, the more abhorrent to nature that condition is, the more fatal would be the effects of unsubdued resistance.

A French government too, would naturally form exaggerated notions of the danger arising from any effervescence of popular discontent.

Under the old regime in Paris, mobs were sometimes raised in the Fauxbourgs, during a scarcity of bread; when, instead of turning out the constables, reading a riot act, or even giving warning to disperse on the arrival of a military force, a troop of horse coolly rode in among them, and used the sabre, till the streets were cleared, at the expense of many lives.

Since that period, the Parisian mobs have furnished some apology for their having been formerly controuled by such sanguinary means; and so far is Buonaparte from being disposed to brook the smallest demonstration of popular discontent, that he lately told the citizens of Berlin, their sovereign had deserved to be dethroned, because he had not taken vengeance of them for breaking the windows of an obnoxious minister.

The British multitude would have a new lesson to learn therefore, or would be fatally misunderstood by their new masters. They would have to renounce their hisses, their cat-calls, their Green men, and broad faced orators, and must be careful how they even huzzaed too loudly, should they still find any subject of applause. A tenth part of the tumult of the late Westminster election, would be enough to cover our pavements with the dead or wounded, and tinge our sewers with blood.

The clubs, and numerous associations which now abound among

him know that I was present, but I could not understand what he said in return. I remember that both he and his fellow-sufferer laughed immoderately at something that occurred: I know not what. The next morning one of them silently expired, as did the other on the morning of the ninth day." (History of West Indies, vol. 2, book iv, chap. 3.)

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our middle and lower classes, would also be liable to dangerous misconstructions.

They would, no longer, indeed, have any of those interesting objects of union, the forming funds for mutual support in sickness, old age, or temporary loss of employment, the securing reversionary interests to surviving relatives, or any of the various other useful purposes, to which our national taste for clubs has been made subservient. The wreck of our funds, would have ruined all these humble but beneficent establishments; and the prudence of the poor, disappointed in its present confidence, would no more be listening to the advice of the benevolent, so as to provide, by timely sacrifices, against the ordinary evils of their situation. But convivial, and other private motives, of union, might still draw men together in numbers alarming to the jealousy of a foreign government; the ignorance or malevolence of a spy might misrepresent their intentions; and Englishmen, might soon find it dangerous to assemble beyond the limits of a family circle, though they should abstain from the consolation of lamenting together over their wrongs, and the sorrows of their country.

Our appetite for public news, and our propensity to political discussion, would give further occasion of frequent offence to the ruling powers, and often provoke the scourge of a rigid police, till we had learnt the hard lesson to forget the liberty of speech, as well as the freedom of the press.

But it would be endless to anticipate all the instances, in which our present civil happiness, would then become a source of preeminent misery. Every distinguishing feature of our national character, would be offensive, or alarming to our new masters. An entire revolution in our manners, our feelings, and opinions, must be effected, before we could have such rest as the prostration of habitual servitude affords. Meantime if France has chastised other nations with whips, she would punish us with scorpions.

Among the direct and comprehensive modes of oppression, to which rich and poor would be equally subjected, military conscriptions are of course to be reckoned. It cannot be imagined, that our conqueror would treat us in this respect better than his other provinces: and as compulsory service in foreign countries, has been hitherto unknown to us, we should feel this species of tyranny also, more keenly than our neighbours. The flower of the British youth, of all ranks, would soon be compelled to take up the musket, and to bleed and die, in distant climates, for the glory of the great nation. But this is a subject which I shall have occasion to reconsider, in

one of its most striking relations; I will not therefore enlarge upon it now.

Sect. 9. Subversion of our religious liberties.

Servants of God, sincere professors of the religion of Jesus, suppose not that in this rapid and imperfect sketch of the calamities with which French conquest would overwhelm our country, I have forgotten, or mean to pass unnoticed, the grand interests of piety and virtue.

On these, however, I need not much insist; for men who know how to value them, are not among the listless or careless observers of the scourge that is impending over us. Neither need they in general to be taught, how closely the cause of religion is associated with the liberty and independency of our country.

The church of Christ, indeed, is "built upon a rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." The word of omnipotence is pledged for its security; and it may therefore defy the floods of civil revolution, and the conflagrations of conquest. But it pleases divine providence, to accomplish its purposes in human affairs, chiefly by human hands; and though true religion has never been propagated by arms, yet the defensive courage of nations, has sometimes been employed as the instrument of its protection. Witness the glorious reign of our own Elizabeth, and the contemporary triumphs of religious liberty in Holland.

We are not now menaced by a Philip the second; but have a far more dangerous enemy; and if any man suppose that he would long spare our religious, after trampling on our civil freedom, he must have examined very carelessly the character, and the policy of Buonaparte.

That this man of blood, this open apostate from Christianity, is not what he has the impious grimace to affect to be, a truly penitent son of the Roman church, and zealous for her superstitions, I fully admit. Beyond doubt he still is, what he was by education, a despiser of revealed religion in all its forms; and probably, as such men commonly are, profoundly ignorant of its nature.

But that as, an engine of state, he sets a high value upon the Romish faith, has been evident from his conduct, ever since he first seized upon the sovereign power in France. He perceived that the influence of the priesthood, and the authority of an infallible church, might be made useful supporters of his throne; since by their aid, he might remove from the minds of the pious, the horror they felt

at his usurpation; and even transfer to himself, the benefit of those religious sanctions, which bound them to their lawful sovereign.

But though he could entirely govern the pontiff, as well as the bishops and clergy, there was one great drawback on the immediate effect of this policy, in the general infidelity and ignorance of the people; for while Popery and Christianity had been subverted together, in the minds of multitudes who were once believers in the gospel, few among that great part of the nation which had been born or educated since the revolution, had been at all instructed in religion of any kind. He had in great measure, therefore, to rebuild that engine of Popish superstition, with which he was desirous to work.

To this end he has long assiduously laboured; and, among other means, has lately procured a new catechism to be drawn up, and established by the papal authority, for the use of the French church, in which all the old errors and superstitions of Popery are strongly inculcated, and maintained, by such miserable sophistry, as is contmonly used in their support. In this respect it is well adapted to the capacities of boys, and of adults in the lower ranks of society ;*

I have not room for any long specimen of its stile; but the following extracts, of some of the propositions of faith, may suffice to prove that Napoleon's popery, has not at all degenerated from the standard of Leo the 10th. Q. What is the sacrament of the Eucharist?

A. The Eucharist is a sacrament which contains, really and substantially, the body, blood, soul, and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, under the forms or appearance of bread and wine.

Q. Why after having spoken to God, do you address the holy virgin?

A. That she may offer our prayers to God; and that she may assist us by interceding with him for us.

Q. Is it good and useful to pray to the saints?

A. It is very good, and very useful, to pray to them.

Q. Why do you add the satisfaction of the saints, to that of Jesus Christ?

A. Because of the goodness of God, who is willing, on the behalf of his most pious servants, to forgive the other.

Q. Why besides?

A. Because the satisfaction of the saints are united to that of Jesus Christ, whence they derive all their value.

Q. When did Jesus Christ give the priests the power of remitting sin?

A. When he said to them in the person of the apostles, "receive the Holy Ghost;" sins shall be forgiven to those to whom you shall remit them, and they shall be retained to those, to whom you retain them.

Q. Do you believe only what is written!

A. Ibelieve also what the Apostles have taught by word of mouth, and which has always been believed in the Catholic church.

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and on the whole, a more ingenious composition for his purpose could not have been framed. With the solemn sanction of the pope's bull, an archiepiscopal mandate, and an imperial decree, in its front, is now carefully circulated, and assiduously taught, in every parish of the empire.

If it were possible, on a contemplation of Buonaparte's general conduct and character, to question whether superstition, or policy, had kindled his zeal for restoring the faith, he has, by the spirit of this curious instrument, removed all doubt on the subject. A gentleman who has just published an English translation of it, justly remarks, that "the moral duties which it specifies, are all on one side; that what inferiors owe to their superiors, is minutely detailed, and sternly enjoined; but that what superiors owe to their inferiors, will be sought for in vain; for not a word on the subject is to be found."*

Q. How do you call this doctrine?

A. I call it the unwritten word of God, or tradition.

Q. Why is the Catholic church called Roman?

A. Because the church established at Rome is the head, and the mother of all other churches.

Q. Why do you ascribe this honour to it?

A. Because at Rome the chair of St. Peter was established, and of the popes his successors.

Q. What do you understand by the words, "I believe the church?"

A. That the church may always continue; that all it teaches must be believed, and that to obtain eternal life, one must live and die in its bosom.

Q. Why must we believe all that the church teaches?;

A. Because it is enlightened by the Holy Ghost.

Q. Is the Catholic church then infallible?

A. Yes; and those who reject its decisions are heretics:

Q. What does faith teach us concerning indulgences?

A. That the church has received from Jesus Christ the power of granting them, and that the use of them is very salutary to Christians.

Q. Why are indulgencies so salutary?

A. Because they are established to moderate the rigours of the temporal pains due to sin.

N. B. This is explained by another article to relate to purgatory.

Q. Is it necessary to know precisely how this rigour is moderated ?

A. No; it is sufficient to believe that a good mother like the church, gives nothing to her children, but what really serves to relieve them in this world and the next.

Introduction to this catechism by Mr. Bogue.