bring the Catholics into the daylight of the world, to the high situations of the army, the navy, and the bar, numbers of them would come over to the Established Church, and do as other people do; instead of that, you set a mark of infamy upon them, rouse every passion of our nature in favour of their creed, and then wonder that men are blind to the follies of the Catholic religion. There are hardly any instances of old and rich families among the Protestant Dissenters: when a man keeps a coach, and lives in good company, he comes to church, and gets ashamed of the meeting-house; if this is not the case with the father, it is almost always the case with the son. These things would never be so, if the Dissenters were in practice as much excluded from all the concerns of civil life, as the Catholics are. If a rich young Catholic were in parliament, he would belong to White's and to Brookes's, would keep racehorses, would walk up and down Pall Mall, be exonerated of his ready money and his constitution, become as totally devoid of morality, honesty, knowledge, and civility as Protestant loungers in Pall Mall, and return home with a supreme contempt for Father O'Leary and Father O'Callaghan. I am astonished at the madness of the Catholic clergy, in not perceiving that Catholic emancipation is Catholic infidelity; that to entangle their people in the intrigues of a Protestant parliament, and a Protestant Court, is to insure the loss of every man of fashion and consequence in their community. The true receipt for preserving their religion, is Mr. Perceval's receipt for destroying it. it is to deprive every rich Catholic of all the objects of secular ambition, to separate him from the Protestant, and to shut him up in his castle with priests and relics.

when you are breathless, and to lie down when you are fatigued. Of one thing I am quite certain: if the safety of Europe is once completely restored, the Catholics may for ever bid adieu to the slightest probability of effecting their object. Such men as hang about a court not only are deaf to the suggestions of mere justice, but they despise justice; they detest the word right; the only word which rouses them is peril; where they can oppress with impunity, they oppress for ever, and call it loyalty and wisdom.

I am so far from conceiving the legitimate strength of the Crown would be diminished by those abolitions of civil incapacities in consequence of religious opinions, that my only objection to the increase of religious freedom is, that it would operate as a diminution of political freedom: the power of the Crown is so overbearing at this period, that almost the only steady opposers of its fatal influence are men disgusted by religious intolerance. Our establishments are so enormous, and so utterly disproportioned to our population, that every second or third man you meet in society gains something from the public; my brother the commissioner, my nephew the police justice,-purveyor of small beer to the army in Ireland,-clerk of the mouth,-yeoman to the left hand, these are the obstacles which common sense and justice have now to overcome. Add to this, that the King, old and infirm, excites a principle of very amiable generosity in his favour; that he has led a good, moral, and religious life, equally removed from profligacy and methodistical hypocrisy; that he has been a good husband, a good father, and a good master; that he dresses plain, loves hunting and farming, hates the French, and is, in all his opinions and We are told, in answer to all our habits, quite English:-these feelings arguments, that this is not a fit period, are heightened by the present situation that a period of universal war is not of the world, and the yet unexploded the proper time for dangerous innova- clamour of Jacobinism. In short, from tions in the constitution: this is as the various sources of interest, personal much as to say, that the worst time for regard, and national taste, such a temmaking friends is the period when you pest of loyalty has set in upon the have made many enemies; that it is people that the 47th proposition in the greatest of all errors to stop | Euclid might now be voted down with

equity and mediating wisdom, we can trust in the worst of times; because we cannot cherish too strongly and express too plainly, that reverence we feel for men, who can rise up in the ship of the state, and rebuke the storms of the mind, and bid its angry passions be still.

He who takes the office of a Judge as it now exists in this country, takes in his hands a splendid gem, good and glorious, perfect and pure. Shall he give it up mutilated, shall he mar it, shall he darken it, shall it emit no light, shall it be valued at no price, shall it excite no wonder? Shall he find it a diamond, shall he leave it a stone? What shall we say to the man who would wilfully destroy with fire the magnificent temple of God, in which I

A Christian Judge in a free land, should not only keep his mind clear from the violence of party feelings, but he should be very careful to preserve his independence, by seeking no pro-am now preaching? Far worse is he motion, and asking no favours from who ruins the moral edifices of the those who govern or at least, to be world, which time and toil, and many (which is an experiment not without prayers to God, and many sufferings danger to his salvation) so thoroughly of men, have reared; who puts out confident of his motives and his con- the light of the times in which he lives, duct, that he is certain the hope of and leaves us to wander amid the dark. favour to come, or gratitude for favour ness of corruption and the desolation past, will never cause him to swerve of sin. There may be, there probably from the strict line of duty. It is often is, in this church, some young man the lot of a Judge to be placed, not who may hereafter fill the office of an only between the accuser and the ac- English Judge, when the greater part cused, not only between the complain-of those who hear me are dead, and ant and him against whom it is com- mingled with the dust of the grave. plained, but between the governors and Let him remember my words, and let the governed, between the people and them form and fashion his spirit: he those whose lawful commands the people cannot tell in what dangerous and awful are bound to obey. In these sort of con- times he may be placed; but as a tests it unfortunately happens that the mariner looks to his compass in the rulers are sometimes as angry as the calm, and looks to his compass in the ruled; the whole eyes of a nation are fixed storm, and never keeps his eyes off his upon one man, and upon his character compass, so in every vicissitude of a and conduct the stability and happiness judicial life, deciding for the people, of the times seem to depend. The best deciding against the people, protecting and firmest magistrates cannot tell how the just rights of kings, or restraining they may act under such circumstances, their unlawful ambition, let him ever but every man may prepare himself cling to that pure, exalted, and Chrisfor acting well under such circum-tian independence, which towers over stances, by cherishing that quiet feeling of independence, which removes one temptation to act ill. Every man may avoid putting himself in a situation where his hopes of advantage are on one side, and his sense of duty on the other such a temptation may be withstood, but it is better it should not be encountered. Far better that feeling which says, "I have vowed a vow before God; I have put on the robe of justice; farewell avarice, farewell ambition: pass me who will, slight me who will, I live henceforward only for the great duties of life my business is on earth, my hope and my reward are in God."

the little motives of life; which no hope of favour can influence, which no effort of power can control.

A Christian Judge in a free country should respect, on every occasion, those popular institutions of Justice, which were intended for his control, and for our security; to see humble men collected accidentally from the neighbourhood, treated with tenderness and courtesy by supreme magistrates of deep learning and practised understanding, from whose views they are perhaps at that moment differing, and whose directions they do not choose to follow; to see at such times every dis

position to warmth restrained, and every tendency to contemptuous feeling kept back; to witness the submission of the great and wise, not when it is extorted by necessity, but when it is practised with willingness and grace, is a spectacle which is very grateful to Englishmen, which no other country sees, which, above all things, shows that a Judge has a pure, gentle, and Christian heart, and that he never wishes to smite contrary to the law.

culprit, the moral weakness of the culprit, the severity of the law, the error of the law, the different state of society, the altered state of feeling, and above all, the distressing doubt whether a human being in the lowest abyss of poverty and ignorance, has not done injustice to himself, and is not perishing away from the want of knowledge, the want of fortune, and the want of friends. All magistrates feel these things in the early exercise of their judicial power, but the Christian Judge always feels them, is always youthful, always tender when he is going to shed human blood: retires from the business of men, communes with his own heart, ponders on the work of death, and prays to that Saviour who redeemed him, that he may not shed the blood of man in vain.

May I add the great importance in a Judge of courtesy to all men, and that he should, on all occasions, abstain from unnecessary bitterness and asperity of speech? A Judge always speaks with impunity, and always speaks with effect. His words should be weighed, because they entail no evil upon himself, and much evil upon others. The language of passion, the language of sarcasm, the language of satire, is not, on such occasions, Christian language: it is not the language of a Judge. There is a propriety of rebuke and condemnation, the justice of which is felt even by him who suffers under it; but when magistrates, under the mask of law, aim at the offender more than the offence, and are more studious of inflicting pain, than repressing error or crime, the office suffers as much as the Judge the respect for Justice is les-light of the world, who adorns human sened; and the school of pure reason becomes the hated theatre of mischievous passion.

A Christian Judge who means to be just, must not fear to smite according to the law; he must remember that he beareth not the sword in vain. Under his protection we live, under his protection we acquire, under his protection we enjoy. Without him, no man would defend his character, no man would preserve his substance: proper pride, just gains, valuable exertions, all depend upon his firm wisdom. If he shrink from the severe duties of his office, he saps the foundation of social life, betrays the highest interests of the world, and sits not to judge according to the law.

The topics of mercy are the smallness of the offence-the infrequency of the offence. The temptations to the

These, then, are those faults which expose a man to the danger of smiting contrary to the law a Judge must be clear from the spirit of party, independent of all favour, well inclined to the popular institutions of his country; firm in applying the rule, merciful in making the exception; patient, guarded in his speech, gentle, and courteous to all. Add his learning, his labour, his experience, his probity, his practised and acute faculties, and this man is the

life, and gives security to that life which he adorns.

Now see the consequence of that state of Justice which this character implies, and the explanation of all that deserved honour we confer on the preservation of such a character, and all the wise jealousy we feel at the slightest injury or deterioration it may experience.

The most obvious and important use of this perfect Justice is, that it makes nations safe: under common circumstances, the institutions of Justice seem to have little or no bearing upon the safety and security of a country, but in periods of real danger, when a nation surrounded by foreign enemies. contends not for the boundaries of empire, but for the very being and existence of empire; then it is that the advantages of just institutions are

discovered. Every man feels that he the storms of the world, and why we has a country, that he has something did not fall. The Christian patience worth preserving, and worth contend- you may witness, the impartiality of ing for. Instances are remembered the judgment-seat, the disrespect of where the weak prevailed over the persons, the disregard of consequences. strong one man recalls to mind when These attributes of Justice do not a just and upright judge protected end with arranging your conflicting him from unlawful violence, gave him rights, and mine; they give strength back his vineyard, rebuked his oppres- to the English people; duration to the sor, restored him to his rights, publish- English name; they turn the animal ed, condemned and rectified the wrong. courage of this people into moral and This is what is called country. Equal religious courage, and present to the rights to unequal possessions, equal lowest of mankind plain reasons, and justice to the rich and poor; this is strong motives why they should resist what men come out to fight for, and to aggression from without, and bind defend. Such a country has no legal themselves a living rampart round the injuries to remember, no legal murders land of their birth. to revenge, no legal robbery to redress: There is another reason why every it is strong in its justice: it is then wise man is so scrupulously jealous of that the use and object of all this the character of English Justice. It assemblage of gentlemen and arrange-puts an end to civil dissension. What ment of Juries, and the deserved other countries obtain by bloody wars, veneration in which we hold the is here obtained by the decisions of character of English Judges, is under- our own tribunals; unchristian passtood in all its bearings, and in its sions are laid to rest by these tribunals; fullest effects: men die for such things brothers are brothers again; the Gospel - they cannot be subdued by foreign resumes its empire, and because all conforce where such just practices prevail. fide in the presiding magistrate, and beThe sword of ambition is shivered to cause a few plain men are allowed to pieces against such a bulwark. Nations decide upon their own conscientious fall where Judges are unjust, because impression of facts, civil discord, years there is nothing which the multitude of convulsion, endless crimes, are think worth defending; but nations do spared; the storm is laid, and those not fall which are treated as we are who came in clamouring for revenge, treated, but they rise as we have risen, go back together in peace from the hall and they shine as we have shone, and of judgment to the loom and the die as we have died, too much used to plough, to the senate and the church. Justice, and too much used to freedom, to care for that life which is not just and free. I call you all to witness if there be any exaggerated picture in this: the sword is just sheathed, the flag is just furled, the last sound of the trumpet has just died away. You all remember what a spectacle this country exhibited one heart, one voice- one weapon, one purpose. And why? Because this country is a country of the law; because the Judge is a judge for the peasant as well as for the palace; because every man's happiness is guarded by fixed rules from tyranny and caprice. This town, this week, the business of the few next days, would explain to any enlightened European why other nations did fall in

The whole tone and tenour of public morals is affected by the state of supreme Justice; it extinguishes revenge, it communicates a spirit of purity and uprightness to inferior magistrates; it makes the great good, by taking away impunity; it banishes fraud, obliquity, and solicitation, and teaches men that the law is their right. Truth is its handmaid, freedom is its child, peace is its companion; safety walks in its steps, victory follows in its train: it is the brightest emanation of the Gospel. it is the greatest attribute of God; it is that centre round which human motives and passions turn: and Justice, sitting on high, sees Genius and Power, and Wealth and Birth, revolving round her throne; and teaches their paths and

marks out their orbits, and warns with tion was happy, if ever a nation was visibly blessed by God-if ever a nation was honoured abroad, and left at home under a government (which we can now conscientiously call a liberal government) to the full career of talent, industry, and vigour, we are at this moment that people — and this is our happy lot.-First the Gospel has done it, and then Justice has done it; and he who thinks it his duty to labour that this happy condition of existence may remain, must guard the piety of these times, and he must watch over the spirit of Justice which exists in these times. First, he must take care that the altars of God are not polluted, that the Christian faith is retained in purity and in perfection: and then turning to human affairs, let him strive for spotless, incorruptible Justice; praising, honouring, and loving the just Judge, and abhorring, as the worst enemy of mankind, him who is placed there to "judge after the law, and who smites contrary to the law."

a loud voice, and rules with a strong arm, and carries order and discipline into a world, which but for her would only be a wild waste of passions. Look what we are, and what just laws have done for us: a land of piety and charity;—a land of churches, and hospitals, and altars;-a nation of good Samaritans ;-a people of universal compassion. All lands, all seas, have heard we are brave. We have just sheathed that sword which defended the world; we have just laid down that buckler which covered the nations of the earth. God blesses the soil with fertility; English looms labour for every climate. All the waters of the globe are covered with English ships. We are softened by fine arts, civilised by human literature, instructed by deep science; and every people, as they break their feudal chains, look to the founders and fathers of freedom for examples which may animate, and rules which may guide. If ever a na