lieve there have been two Catholics put to death for religious causes in Great Britain for one Protestant who has suffered; not that this proves much, because the Catholics have enjoyed the sovereign power for so few years between this period and the Reformation, and certainly it must be allowed that they were not inactive, during that period, in the great work of pious combustion.

It is however, some extenuation of the Catholic excesses, that their religion was the religion of the whole of Europe, when the innovation began. They were the ancient lords and masters of faith, before men introduced the practice of thinking for themselves in these matters. The Protestants have less excuse, who claimed the right of innovation, and then turned round upon other Protestants who acted upon the same principle, or upon Catholics who remained as they were, and visited them with all the cruelties from which they had themselves so recently escaped.

of 2000 livres. A married Protestant woman when convicted of being of that persuasion was liable to forfeit two-thirds of her jointure; she could not be executrix to her husband, nor have any part of his goods; and during her marriage, she might be kept in prison, unless her husband redeemed her at the rate of 200 livres a month, or the third part of his lands. Protestants convicted of being such, were, within three months after their conviction, either to submit, and renounce their religion, or, if required by four magistrates, to abjure the realm, and if they did not depart, or departing returned, were to suffer death. All Protestants were required, under the most tremendous penalties, to swear that they considered the pope as the head of the church. If they refused to take this oath, which might be tendered at pleasure by any two magistrates, they could not act as advocates, procureurs, or notaries public. Any Protestant taking any office, civil or military, was compelled to abjure the Protestant religion; to declare his belief in the doc. Both sides, as they acquired power, abused it; and trine of transubstantiation, and to take the Roman both learnt from their sufferings, the great secret of Catholic sacrament within six months, under the pen- toleration and forbearance. If you wish to do good in alty of 10,000 livres. Any person professing the Pro- the times in which you live, contribute your efforts to testant religion, and educated in the same, was requir-perfect this grand work. I have not the most distant ed, in six months after the age of sixteen, to declare intention to interfere in local politics, but I advise you the pope to be the head of the church; to declare his never to give a vote to any man, whose only title for belief in transubstantiation, and that the invocation of saints was according to the doctrine of the Christian religion; failing this, he could not hold, possess, or inherit landed property; his lands were given to the nearest Catholic relation. Many taxes were doubled upon Protestants. Protestants keeping schools were imprisoned for life, and all Protestants were forbidden to come within ten miles of Paris or Versailles. If any Protestant had a horse worth more than 100 livres, any Catholic magistrate might take it away, and search the house of the said Protestant for arms.' Is not this a monstrous code of persecution? Is it any wonder, after reading such a spirit of tyranny as here exhibited, that the tendencies of the Catholic religion should be suspected, and that the cry of no Popery should be a rallying sign to every Protestant nation in Europe? Forgive, gentle reader, and gentle elector, the trifling deception I have practised upon you. This code is not a code made by French Catholics against French Protestants, but by English and Irish Protestants against English and Irish Catholics; I have given it to you for the most part, as it is set forth in Burns' 'Justice' of 1780: it was acted upon in the beginning of the late king's reign, and was notorious through the whole of Europe, as the most cruel and atrocious system of persecution ever instituted by one religious sect against another. Of this code, Mr. Burke says, that it is a truly barbarous system; where all the parts are an outrage on the laws of humanity and the rights of nature; it is a system of elaborate contrivance, as well fitted for the oppression, imprisonment, and degradation of a people, and the debasement of human nature itself, as ever proceeded from the perverted ingenuity of man.' It is in vain to say that these cruelties were laws of political safety; such has always been the plea for all religious cruelties; by such arguments the Catholics defended the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and the burnings of Mary.

With such facts as these, the cry of persecution will not do; it is unwise to make it, because it can be so very easily, and so very justly retorted. The business is, to forget and forgive, to kiss and be friends, and to say nothing of what has past, which is to the credit of neither party. There have been atrocious cruelties, and abominable acts of injustice on both sides. It is not worth while to contend who shed the most blood, or whether (as Dr. Sturgess objects to Dr. Milner,) death by fire is worse than hanging or starving in prison. As far as England itself is concerned, the bal. ance may be better preserved. Cruelties exercised upon the Irish go for nothing in English reasoning: but if it were not uncandid and vexatious to consider Irish persecutions as part of the case, I firmly be.

Thurloe writes to Henry Cromwell to catch up some thousand Irish boys, to send to the colonies. Henry writes

asking it is, that he means to continue the punish-
ments, privations, and incapacities of any human be-
ings, merely because they worship God in the way
they think best: the man who asks for your vote upon
such a plea, is, probably, a very weak man, who 'be-
lieves in his own bad reasoning, or a very artful man,
who is laughing at you for your credulity: at all
events, he is a man who, knowingly or unknowingly,
exposes his country to the greatest dangers, and hands
down to posterity all the foolish opinions and all the
bad passions which prevail in those times in which he
happens to live. Such a man is so far from being that
friend to the church which he pretends to be, that he
declares its safety cannot be reconciled with the fran-
chises of the people; for what worse can be said of
the Church of England than this, that wherever it is
judged necessary to give it a legal establishment, it
becomes necessary to deprive the body of the people,
if they adhere to their old opinions, of their liberties,
and of all their free customs, and to reduce them to a
state of civil servitude?
SIDNEY SMITH.

A SERMON

On those Rules of Christian Charity by which our Opin ions of other Sects should be formed: Preached before the Mayor and Corporation, in the Cathedral Church of Bristol, On Wednesday, November 5, 1828.

I PUBLISH this sermon (or rather allow others to publish it), because many persons, who know the city of Bristol better than I do, have earnestly solicited me to do so; and are convinced it will do good. It is not without reluctance (as far as I myself am concerned) that I sent to the press such plain rudiments of common charity and common sense. Nov. 8, 1828.

SYDNEY SMITH.

COL. III. 12, 13.

PUT ON, AS THE ELECT OF GOD, KINDNESS, HUMBLENESS OF
MIND, MEEKNESS, LONG-SUFFERING, FORBEARING ONE AN-
OTHER, AND FORGIVING ONE ANOTHER.'

THE Church of England, in its wisdom and piety, has very properly ordained that a day of thanksgiving should be set apart, in which we may return thanks to Almighty God for the mercies vouchsafed to this na.

back he has done so; and desires to know whether his highness would choose as many girls to be caught up; and he adds, doubtless it is a business, in which God will appear. Suppose bloody Queen Mary had caught up and transported three or four thousand Protestant boys and girls from the three ridings of Yorkshire!!!!!!

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WORKS OF THE REV. SIDNEY SMITH.

tion in their escape from the dreadful plot planned for
the destruction of the sovereign and his Parliament,
the forerunner, no doubt, of such sanguinary scenes as
were suited to the manners of that age, and must have
proved the inevitable consequence of such enormous
wickedness and cruelty. Such an escape is a fair and
lawful foundation for national piety. And it is a come-
ly and Christian sight to see the magistrates and high
authorities of the land obedient to the ordinances of
the church, and holding forth to their fellow subjects a
wise example of national gratitude and serious devo-
tion. This use of this day is deserving of every com-
mendation. The idea that Almighty God does some-
times exercise a special providence for the preserva-
tion of a whole people is justified by Scripture, is not
repugnant to reason, and can produce nothing but
feelings and opinions favourable to virtue and religion.
Another wise and lawful use of this day is an honest
self-congratulation that we have burst through those
bands which the Roman Catholic priesthood would
impose upon human judgment; that the Protestant
Church not only permits, but exhorts, every man to
appeal from human authority to the Scriptures; that
it makes of the clergy guides and advisers, not masters
discourages vain and idle ceremo-
and oracles; that
nies, unmeaning observances, and hypocritical pomp;
and encourages freedom in thinking upon religion, and
simplicity in religious forms. It is impossible that any
candid man should not observe the marked superiority
of the Protestant over the Catholic faith in these par-
ticulars; and difficult that any pious man should not
feel grateful to Almighty Providence for escape from
danger which would have plunged this country afresh
into so many errors and so many absurdities.

I hope, in this condemnation of the Catholic religion
(in which I most sincerely join its bitterest enemies),
I shall not be so far mistaken as to have it supposed
that I would convey the slightest approbation of any
laws which disqualify or incapacitate any class of men
from civil offices on account of religious opinions. I
regard all such laws as fatal and lamentable mistakes
in legislation; they are mistakes of troubled times, and
All Europe is gradually emerg-
half-barbarous ages.
This country has lately,
ing from their influence.
with the entire consent of its prelates, made a noble
and successful effort, by the abolition of some of the
most obnoxious laws of this class. In proportion as
such example is followed, the enemies of church and
state will be diminished, and the foundation of peace,
order, and happiness be strengthened. These are my
opinions, which I mention, not to convert you, but to
guard myself from misrepresentation. It is my duty,
-it is my wish,-it is the subject of this day to point
out those evils of the Catholic religion from which we
have escaped; but I should be to the last degree con-
cerned, if a condemnation of theological errors were to
be construed into an approbation of laws which I can-
not but consider as deeply marked by a spirit of intol-
erance. Therefore, I beg you to remember that I re-
cord these opinions not for the purpose of converting
any one to them, which would be an abuse of the priv-
ilege of addressing you from the pulpit ; not that I at-
tach the slightest degree of importance to them
because they are mine; but merely to guard myself
from misrepresentation upon a point on which all
men's passions are, at this moment, so powerfully ex-
cited.

What you choose to do, and which way you incline
| charity are general, and of universal application.
upon any particular question, are, and can be, no
concern of mine. It would be the height of arrogance
and presumption in me, or in any other minister of
God's Word, to interfere on such points; I only en-
deavour to teach that spirit of forbearance and chari-
ty, which (though it cannot always prevent differen
ces upon religious points) will ensure that these dif.
ferences are carried on with Christian gentleness. I
have endeavoured to lay down these rules for differ-
ence with care and moderation; and, if you will at
tend to them patiently, I think you will agree with me,
that, however the practice of them may be forgotten,
It would always be easier to fall in with human pas
the propriety of them cannot be denied.
sions than to resist them; but the ministers of God
must do their duty through evil report, and through
good report; neither prevented nor excited by the in-
terests of the present day. They must teach those
general truths which the Christian religion has com-
mitted to their care, and upon which the happiness
and peace of the world depend.

In pressing upon you the great duty of religious
charity, the inutility of the opposite defect of religious
violence first offers itself to, and, indeed, obtrudes it-
self upon my notice. The evil of difference of opinion
must exist; it admits of no cure. The wildest vision-
ary does not now hope he can bring his fellow-crea-
tures to one standard of taith. If history has taught
us any one thing, it is that mankind, on such sort of
subjects, will form their own opinions. Therefore, to
it hardens error and provokes recrimination; but it
want charity in religious matters is at least useless;
does not enlighten those whom we wish to reclaim,
nor does it extend doctrines which to us appear so
clear and indisputable. But to do wrong, and to gain
nothing by it, are surely to add folly to fault, and to
proclaim an understanding not led by the rule of rea-
son, as well as a disposition unregulated by the Chris-
tian faith.

Religious charity requires that we should not judge any sect of Christians by the representations of their enemies alone, without hearing and reading what they have to say in their own defence; it requires only, of course, to state such a rule to procure for it general admission. No man can pretend to say that such a the ordinary concerns of rule is not founded upon the plainest principles of jus tice upon those plain principles of justice which no one thinks of violating life; and yet I fear that rule is not always very strict. ly adhered to in religious animosities. Religious hatred is often founded on tradition, often on hearsay, often on the misrepresentations of notorious enemies; without inquiry, without the slightest examination of opposite reasons and authorities, or consideration of that which the accused party has to offer for defence or explanation. It is impossible, I admit, to examine every thing; many have not talents, many have not leisure, for such pursuits; many must be contented with the faith in which they have been brought up, and must think it the best modification of the Chris tian faith, because they are told it is so. perfect acquaintance with religious controversy, though not blameable when it proceeds from want of tification of violent and acrimonious opinions. I would power, and want of opportunity, can be no possible jus say to the ignorant man, 'It is not your ignorance I blame; you have had no means, perhaps, of acquiring knowledge: the circumstances of your life have not If you are unacquainted with the led to it-may have prevented it; but then I must tell you, if you have not had leisure to inquire, you have no right to accuse. it is not upon you the task devolves of exposing the opposite arguments,-or, knowing, can balance them. I shall, therefore, on the present occasion, not inves- errors, and impugning the opinions of other sects.' If tigate generally the duties of charity and forbear- charity is ever necessary, it is in those who know ac ance, but of charity and forbearance in religious mat- curately neither the accusation nor the defence. If ters of that Christian meekness and humility which invective,-if rooted antipathy, in religious opinions. is prevent the intrusion of bad passions into religious ever a breach of Christian rules, it is so in those who, concerns, and keep calm and pure the mind intent not being able to become wise, are not willing to beupon eternity. And remember, I beg of you, that the rules I shall offer you for the observation of Christian |

I have said that, at this moment, all men's passions are powerfully excited on this subject. If this is true, it points out to me my line of duty. I must use my endeavours to guard against the abuse of the day; to take care that the principles of sound reason are not lost sight of; and that such excitement, instead of rising into dangerous vehemence, is calmed into active and useful investigation of the subject.

come charitable and modest.

But this im

Any candid man, acquainted with religious contro

versy, will, I think, admit that he has frequently, in | tion,-this silent antiquation of doctrines,-this real the course of his studies, been astonished by the force of arguments with which that cause has been defended, which he at first thought incapable of any defence at all. Some accusations he has found to be utterly groundless; in others the facts and arguments have been mis-stated; in other instances the accusation has been retorted; in many cases the tenets have been defended by strong arguments and honest appeal to Scripture; in many with consummate acuteness and deep learning. So that religious studies often teach to opponents a greater respect for each other's talents, motives, and acquirements; exhibit the real difficulties of the subject; lessen the surprise and anger which are apt to be excited by opposition; and, by these means, promote that forgiving one another, and forbearing one another which are so powerfully recommended by the words of my text.

Let us also ask ourselves, when we are sitting in severe judgment upon the faults, follies and errors of other Christian sects, whether it is not barely possible that we have fallen into some mistakes and misrepresentations? Let us ask ourselves, honestly and fairly, whether we are wholly exempt from prejudice, from pride, from obstinate adhesion to what candour calls upon us to alter, and to yield? Are there no violent and mistaken members of our own community, It would be religiously charitable, also, to consider by whose conduct we should be loath to be guided,-by whether the objectionable tenets, which different sects whose tenets we should not choose our faith to be profess, are in their hearts as well as in their books. judged? Has time, that improves all, found nothing There is, unfortunately, so much pride where there in us to change for the better? Amid all the manifold ought to be so much humility, that it is difficult, if not divisions of the Christian world, are we the only almost impossible, to make religious sects abjure or Christians who, without having any thing to learn recant the doctrines they have once professed. It is from the knowledge and civilization of the last three not in this manner, I fear, that the best and purest centuries, have started up, without infancy, and withchurches are ever reformed. But the doctrine gradu-out error, into consummate wisdom and spotless perally becomes obsolete; and, though not disowned, fection?

ceases in fact to be a distinguishing characteristic of To listen to enemies as well as friends is a rule the sect which professes it. These modes of reforma. I which not only increases sense in common life, but is

310

WORKS OF THE REV. SIDNEY SMITH.

highly favourable to the increase of religious candour. | religious disputes which appear to be coming on in the
You find that you are not so free from faults as your world. If you choose to perpetuate the restrictions
friends suppose, nor so full of faults as your enemies upon your fellow-creatures, no one has a right to call
suppose. You begin to think it not impossible that
you may be as unjust to others as they are to you;
and that the wisest and most Christian scheme is that
of mutual indulgence; that it is better to put on, as
the elect of God, kindness, humbleness of mind,
meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, and
forgiving one another.

Some men cannot understand how they are to be zealous if they are candid in religious matters; how the energy necessary for the one virtue is compatible with the calmness which the other requires. But remember that the Scriptures carefully distinguish between laudable zeal and indiscreet zeal; that the apostles and epistolary writers knew they had as much to fear from the over-excitement of some men as from the supineness of others; and in nothing have they laboured more than in preventing religion from arming human passions instead of allaying them, and rendering those principles a source of mutual jealousy and hatred which were intended for universal peace. I admit that indifference sometimes puts on the appearance of candour; but though there is a counterfeit, yet there is a reality; and the imitation proves the value of the original, because men only attempt to multiply the appearances of useful and important things. The object is to be at the same time pious to God and charitable to man; to render your own faith as pure and perfect as possible, not only without hatred of those who differ from you, but with a constant recollection that it is possible, in spite of thought and study, that you may have been mistaken-that other sects may be right, and that a zeal in his service, which God does not want, is a very bad excuse for those bad passions which his sacred word condemns. Lastly, I would suggest that many differences between sects are of less importance than the furious zcal of many men would make them. Are the tenets of any sect of such a description, that we believe they will be saved under the Christian faith? Do they fulfil the common duties of life? Do they respect property? Are they obedient to the laws? Do they speak the truth? If all these things are right, the violence of hostility may surely submit to some little softness and relaxation; honest difference of opinion cannot call for such entire separation and complete antipathy; such zeal as this, if it be zeal, and not something worse, is not surely zeal according to discretion.

The arguments, then, which I have adduced in support of the great principles of religious charity are, that violence upon such subjects is rarely or ever found to be useful; but generally to produce effects opposite to those which are intended. I have observed that religious sects are not to be judged from the representations of their enemies; but that they are to be heard for themselves, in the pleadings of

you bigoted; if you choose to do them away, no one
has any right to call you lax and indifferent; you have
done your utmost to do right, and whether you err, or
do not err, in your mode of interpreting the Christian
religion, you show at least that you have caught its
God, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-
heavenly spirit-that you have put on, as the elect of
suffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one
another.

I have thus endeavoured to lay before you the uses
and abuses of this day; and, having stated the great
mercy of God's interference, and the blessings this
country has secured to itself in resisting the errors and
follies, and superstitions of the Catholic Church, I
have endeavoured that this just sense of our own supe
riority should not militate against the sacred principles
of Christian charity. That charity which I ask for
others, I ask also for myself. I am sure I am preach-
ing before those who will think (whether they agree
with me or not) that I have spoken conscientiously,
and from good motives, and from honest feelings, on
a very different subject-not sought for by me, but
devolving upon me in the course of duty;-in which I
should have been heartily ashamed of myself (as you
would have been ashamed of me), if I had thought
only how to flatter and please, or thought of any thing
but what I hope always to think of in the pulpit-that
I am placed here by God to tell the truth, and to do
good.

I shall conclude my sermon, (pushed, I am afraid. already to an unreasonable length,) by reciting to you a very short and beautiful apologue, taken from the rabbinical writers. It is, I believe, quoted by Bishop Taylor, in his Holy Living aad Dying.' I have not now access to that book, but quote it to you from memory; and should be made truly happy if you would quote it to others from memory also.

'As Abraham was sitting in the door of his tent. there came unto him a wayfaring man; and Abraham gave him water for his feet, and set bread before him. And Abraham said unto him, "Let us now worship the Lord our God before we eat of this bread." And the wayfaring man said unto Abraham, "I will not worship the Lord thy God, for thy God is not my God, but I will worship my God, even the God of my rose up to put the wayfaring man forth from the door fathers." But Abraham was exceeding wroth; and be of his tent. And the voice of the Lord was heard in the tent,-Abraham, Abraham! have I not borne with this man for three score and ten years, and canst thou not bear with him for one hour?'

LETTERS,

their best writers, not in the representations of those On the subject of the Catholics, to my Brother Abraham,

whose intemperate zeal is a misfortune to the sect to
which they belong. If you will study the principles
of your religious opponents, you will often find your
contempt and hatred lessened in proportion as you are
better acquainted with what you despise. Many reli-
gious opinions, which are purely speculative, are
without the limits of human interference. In the
numerous sects of Christianity, interpreting our religion
in different manners, all cannot be right. Imitate the
forbearance of God, who throws the mantle of his
mercy over all, and who will probably save, on the
last day, the piously right and the piously wrong,
seeking Jesus in humbleness of mind. Do not drive
religious sects to the disgrace (or to what they
foolishly think the disgrace) of formally disavowing
tenets they once possesed, but concede something to
human weakness; and, when the tenet is virtually
given up, treat it as if it were actually given up;
and always consider it to be very possible that
yourself may have made mistakes, and fallen into
erroneous opinions, as well as any other sect to
which you are opposed. If you put on these dispo-
sitions, and this tenour of mind, you cannot be guilty
of any religious fault, take what part you will in the

who lives in the country,

BY PETER PLYMLEY.

LETTER I.

A worthier and better man than yourself does not DEAR ABRAHAM— exist; but I have always told you, from the time of our boyhood, that you were a bit of a goose. Your parochial affairs are governed with exemplary order and regularity; your are as powerful in the vestry as Mr. Percival is in the House of Commons, and, I must say, with much more reason; nor do I know any church where the faces and smock-frocks of the con gregation are so clean, or their eyes so uniformly directed to the preacher. There is another point upon which I will do you ample justice, and that is, that the eyes so directed towards you are wide open; for the rustic has, in general, good principles, though he cannot control his animal habits; and, however loud he may snore, his face is perpetually turned towards the fountain of orthodoxy.

Having done this act of justice, I shall proceed, according to our ancient intimacy and familiarity, to

explain to you my opinions about the Catholics, and to reply to yours

In the first place, my sweet Abraham, the pope is not landed-nor are there any curates sent out after him--nor has he been hid at St. Alban's, by the Dowager Lady Spencer-nor dined privately at Holland House-nor been seen near Dropmore. If these fears exist, (which I do not believe,) they exist only in the mind of the chancellor of the exchequer; they emanate from his zeal for Protestant interests; and though they reflect the highest honour upon the delicate irritability of his faith, must certainly be considered as more ambiguous proofs of the sanity and vigour of his understanding. By this time, however, the best informed clergy in the neighbourhood of the metropolis are convinced that the rumour is without foundation; and, though the pope is probably hovering about our coast in a fishing-smack, it is most likely he will fall a prey to the vigilance of our cruisers; and it is certain he has not yet polluted the Protestantism of our soil. Exactly in the same manner, the story of the wooden gods seized at Charing Cross, by an order from the Foreign Office, turns out to be without the shadow of a foundation: instead of the angels and archangels, mentioned by the informer, nothing was discovered but a wooden image of Lord Mulgrave, going down to Chatham, as a head-piece for the Spanker gun-vessel; it was an exact resemblance of his lordship in his military uniform; and therefore as little like a god as can well be imagined.

Having set your fears at rest as to the extent of the conspiracy formed against the Protestant religion, I will now come to the argument itself.

lishment in any shape; but what have I to do with the speculative nonsense of his theology, when the object is to elect the mayor of a country town, or to appoint a colonel of a marching regiment? Will a man discharge the solemn impertinences of the one office with the less zeal, or shrink from the bloody boldness of the other with greater timidity, because the blockhead believes in all the Catholic nonsense of the real presence. I am sorry there should be such impious folly in the world, but I should be ten times a greater fool than he is, if I refused, in consequence of his folly, to lead him out against the enemies of the state. Your whole argument is wrong; the state has nothing whatever to do with theological errors which do not violate the common rules of morality, and militate against the fair power of the ruler: it leaves all these errors to you, and to such as you. You have every tenth porker in your parish for refuting them; and take care that you are vigilant and logical in the task.

I love the church as well as you do; but you totally mistake the nature of an establishment, when you contend that it ought to be connected with the military and civil career of every individual in the state. It is quite right that there should be one clergyman to every parish interpreting the Scriptures after a particular manner, ruled by a regular hierarchy, and paid with a rich proportion of haycocks and wheatsheafs. When I have laid this foundation for a rational religion in the state-when I have placed ten thousand well-educated men in different parts of the kingdom to preach it up, and compelled every body to pay them, whether they hear them or not-I have taken such measures as I know must always procure an immense majority in favour of the established church; You say these men interpret the Scriptures in an but I can go no farther. I cannot set up a civil inquiunorthodox manner; and that they eat their God.-sition, and say to one, you shall not be a butcher, beVery likely. All this may seem very important to cause you are not orthodox ; and prohibit another from you, who live fourteen miles from a market town, and, brewing, and a third from administering the law, and from long residence among your living, are become a a fourth from defending the country. If common kind of holy vegetable; and, in a theological sense, it justice did not prohibit me from such a conduct, comis highly important. But I want soldiers and sailors mon sense would. The advantage to be gained by for the state; I want to make a greater use than I quitting the heresy would make it shameful to aban now can do of a poor country full of men; I want to don it; and men who had once left the church would render the military service popular among the Irish; continue in such a state of alienation from a point of to check the power of France; to make every possible honour, and transmit that spirit to the latest posexertion for the safety of Europe, which, in twenty terity. This is just the effect your disqualifying laws years' time will be nothing but a mass of French have produced. They have fed Dr. Rees and Dr. slaves and then you, and ten thousand other such Kippis; crowded the congregation of the old jewry to boobies as you, call out,' For God's sake, do not think suffocation; and enabled every sublapsarian, and sup of raising cavalry and infantry in Ireland! ralapsarian, and semipelagian clergyman, to build They interpret the Epistle to Timothy in a different himself a neat brick chapel, and live with some distant manner from what we do! They cat a bit of resemblance to the state of a gentleman. water every Sunday, which they call their God!'. You say the king's coronation oath will not allow I wish to my soul they would eat you, and such rea-him to consent to any relaxation of the Catholic laws soners as you are. What! when Turk, Jew, Heretic, -Why not relax the Catholic laws as well as the Infidel, Catholic, Protestant, are all combined against laws against Protestant dissenters? If one is contrary this country; when men of every religious persuasion, to his oath, the other must be so too; for the spirit of and no religious persuasion; when the population of the oath is, to defend the church establishment; which half of the globe is up in arms against us; are we to the Quaker and the Presbyterian differ from as much stand examining our generals and armies as a bishop or more than the Catholic; and yet his majesty has examines a candidate for holy orders? and to suffer repealed the Corporation and Test Act in Ireland, and no one to bleed for England who does not agree with done more for the Catholics of both kingdoms than you about the 2d of Timothy? You talk about the had been done for them since the Reformation. In Catholics! If you and your brotherhood have been 1778, the ministers said nothing about the royal conable to persuade the country into a continuation of science; in 1793* no conscience; in 1804 no conthis grossest of all absurdities, you have ten times the science; the common feeling of humanity and justice power which the Catholic clergy ever had in their then seem to have had their fullest influence upon the best days. Louis XIV., when he revoked the Edict advisers of the crown; but in 1807-a year, I suppose, of Nantes, never thought of preventing the Protest- eminently fruitful in moral and religious scruples, (as ants from fighting his battles; and gained accordingly some years are fruitful in apples, some in hops,)-it some of his most splendid victories by the talents of is contended by the well paid John Bowles, and by his Protestant generals. No power in Europe, but Mr. Perceval (who tried to be well paid), that that is yourselves, has ever thought, for these hundred years now perjury which we had hitherto called policy and past, of asking whether a bayonet is Catholic, or Pres- benevolence! Religious liberty has never made such byterian, or Lutheran; but whether it is sharp and a stride as under the reign of his present majesty ; nor well tempered. A bigot delights in public ridicule; is there any instance in the annals of our history, for he begins to think he is a martyr. I can promise where so many infamous and damnable laws have you the full enjoyment of this pleasure, from one ex- been repealed as those against the Catholics which tremity of Europe to the other." have been put an end to by him; and then, at the

I am as much disgusted with the nonsense of the Roman Catholic religion as you can be; and no man who talks such nonsense shall ever tithe the product of the earth nor meddle with the ecclesiastical estab-armed volunteers.

* These feelings of humanity and justice were at some periods a little quickened by the representations, of 40,000