* given a security for their allegiance, with which our greatest statesmen of the most opposite parties, Pitt and Burke, as well as Fox and Grattan, were perfectly satisfied; we still mark as a degraded and hostile people, that great and respectable body, who amount to nearly one-fifth of our whole population, and who compose more than the half of our army and navy. 0ther nations, where it was less to have been expected than in England, have acted more generously; we should rather say, more justly and more prudently. In Prussia and in Hungary there is no political difference between the Catholics and the Protestants; all the offices of the State are equally open to both parties:-and thus both parties are equally well affected to a Government, by which both are equally protected and encouraged; and the public peace is no longer disturbed by the disgraceful and dangerous animosities of religion. In the United States of America no inconvenience whatever has arisen from opening all the public honours and emoluments to citizens of every sect. And it must not be forgotten, that we have never had reason to regret our liberal treatment of Canada, where the Church of Rome is established by the British Parliament. On the contrary, we experienced the good effect of it on a most memorable occasion, when all our Protestant colonies in America formed an alliance with a Catholic kingdom, and declared their independence, while Canada alone remained faithful to England. May we not hope, then, that the time is not distant, when we shall do justice to our Catholic fellow-subjects in Britain and Ireland? They are at least as interesting as the Canadians; their feelings and comforts are at least as much entitled to our attention; and their friendship is of infinitely greater importance. We are encouraged in this hope, when we attend to the manner in which the spirit of intolerance is gradually moderated in the course of human affairs. Religious intolerance is the result of selfishness and pride, and mistaken notions of duty. But it may be expected, that civilization will restrain our selfishness and pride, and direct them to proper objects, while increasing knowledge corrects our false notions of duty, and opens more distinct and enlarged views of the real interests of nations. It must be observed, however, that although refined and profound reasonings may produce a due impression on superior minds, and although they may be employed even by a person who does not understand them, in support of principles which he has already adopted, yet they are extremely feeble weapons when op * See the article on Sir John Hippisley's Speech, in the 17th volume of this Journal, p. 1. posed to inveterate habits, to adverse passions, and adverse interests: And it is in a more homely way that the progress of civilization and knowledge subdues the spirit of intolerance, both in the people and in their rulers. In fact, we conceive, that the first great check to religious intolerance, a check which continues to operate to this day, is the experience or apprehension of the evil consequences of persecution, when employed against a numerous party. A vigorous Prince may sometimes, without much difficulty, though seldom or never without much cruelty, suppress a sect in its first rise, particularly before it has planted itself in different parts of his dominions. But, when it has become organized and numerous, neither its extermination nor conversion are possible; persecution both inflames its zeal, and multiplies its numbers, and, moreover, is pernicious to the nation, and perilous to Government. It was by an obstinate perseverance in the design of suppressing all dissent from the established church, that Philip the Second lost the Low Countries, and that France bled so long and so miserably under the civil wars of the League. The persecutor finding it impossible, or unsafe, to discharge his sacred duty in its full extent, is constrained to adopt less decisive but more practicable measures for the support of orthodoxy, if it cannot be rendered universally triumphant, and for the discouragement of error, if it cannot be completely extirpated. Perhaps the secret conventicles of the heretics or schismatics, though prohibited by law, are connived at by Government; but they are kept in awe by the occasional martyrdoms of obnoxious individuals; or, if it be hazardous to shed blood, the more lenient punishments of exile, fine and imprisonment, and the pillory, are substituted for the stake or the gibbet. Perhaps Government may find it necessary, for the public peace and its own safety, to indulge the sectaries with the exercise of their offensive worship; but all the honours and emoluments of the State are reserved for the orthodox, while the sectaries, perhaps, are not allowed to educate their own children, and may even be liable to be stript of their inheritance by the nearest relation who chuses to conform to the Established Church. In short, the friends of the truth, that is to say, of the predo minant faith, conceiving themselves under the highest obligations to guard this most precious of all possessions, will make as hard a bargain as possible with its enemies: But the most despotic governments, and the most bigotted ecclesiastics, will be constrained to abate the fury of their intolerance, when they have to struggle against a numerous party. We have a remarkable instance of this respect to the numbers of a religious party, in the establishment of the Presbyte There is also at rian Church in Scotland at the Revolution. present another notable and extremely curious instance, in the distinction which has been made between the Catholics of Ireland and of Great Britain. The Catholic Clergy of Ireland have received certain temporal endowments from Government: The Catholic Laity of Ireland are now admitted to all civil and military offices, with the exception of little more than forty of the higher stations; and yet, by the Corporation and Test acts, the Catholics of England are still excluded from every public honour and emolument. But the fury of persecution has been allayed, not only by the prudence, but also by the humanity of modern times. The mitigation of cruelty in the legal punishments which were devised by barbarous ages, is a natural consequence of civilization; and accordingly, even in the case of those heresies where the professors were too few to be formidable, it has come to pass that the horrible statutes of the good old times were first left unexecuted, but retained in terrorem, and at last repealed and replaced by laws which were not so very shocking to the lukewarm habits of less savage Christians. The Church of England was established in its present form in the reign of Edward the Sixth; and in this reign, and by the pious vigilance of this Protestant Church, a Dutchman was burned in England for Arianism, and Joanna Bocher was condemned to the same death for maintaining a new Theory of the Incarnation, which was unintelligible indeed, but perfectly harmless,—and if not exactly the true Theory, nor supported by Scripture, yet was not visibly inconsistent either with Scripture or with the orthodox faith. Every body knows that the warrant for this execution was extorted from the young and reluctant prince by the urgent remonstrances of Cranmer, the Protestant Primate, who by a just retribution suffered martyrdom himself as a heretic in the succeeding reign. It ought also to be remembered, that the law which condemned heretics to the flames was retained by the Protestant Church of England during one hundred and thirty years. Two Arians in the reign of James the First, seem to be the last persons who suffered under it; but though these barbarities had become so odious to Englishmen that it was not thought expedient to execute the law, yet it was not till the year 1677 that it ceased to disgrace the code of a civilized people. And although the zealous Churchmen were no longer allowed to inflict on the Antitrinitarians the punishment which they deserved, yet these heretics were by no means left at liberty to publish tenets, which though perfectly consistent both with good morals and the public peace, were directly contradictory to the standards of the Church. These tenets were regarded as blasphemous, in which light they are still considered by the learned Dr Burges the present bishop of St David's, and consequently were liable to be checked by the existing laws. But to make so important a business surer and easier, the Legislature, in King William's reign, thought proper, in its wisdom, to enact (9th and 10th of William III.) that an Antitrinitarian Christian, upon the first conviction. of professing his peculiar doctrines, should be disqualified from enjoying any cffice civil or military, as well as ecclesiastical; and that upon a second conviction, he should moreover be put out of the protection of the law, by being disabled to sue, prosecute, plead or use any action or information:' He was also upon this second conviction disabled from being guardian of any child, or executor or administrator of any person, or capable of any legacy or deed of gift ;'-and, lastly, (which could hardly fail to convince him of his errors, if he was not a perfect reprobate), he was to suffer imprisonment for the space of three years. But Englishmen became so effeminate, that even this mild law could not well be executed, and was only retained in terrorem, till at last it was repealed in the year 1813, to the regret of the worthy prelate already mentioned. * And unless the Antitrinitarians are punishable as blasphemers, there remains nothing to check these daring heretics but the disqualifications of the Corporation and Test acts, which with admirable political sagacity are still kept in reserve for the support of the truth, ready to spring forth as occasion may require, whenever the country is so far regenerated as to call for their execution. If, however, such times should return, there is a fact which may deserve the attention of the most zealous churchmen; namely, that under the weight of far severer laws, and under the never ceasing anathemas of the Established Church, the Antitrinitarians have grown into a sect considerable both for their numbers and their learning. Here we cannot help remarking, that the struggle between the zeal of Highchurch-men and the general civilization of the country, has produced a curious enough inconsistency between our laws and our practice. By the laws, the Irish Catholics are in a better situation than any of the Protestant Dissenters; for these last are legally excluded from all civil and military offices; whereas the Irish Catholics are now legally eligible to all these offices, with the exception of about forty of the higher stations. But the practice is extremely different. In fact, all the offices ** See his Lordship's Brief Memorial on the Repeal of the 9th and 10th of William III. of the State, civil and military, even the highest, are open to Presbyterians, to Independents, to Anabaptists, to Methodists, to Arians, to Socinians, and even to the avowed disbelievers of Christianity. It is our Catholic countrymen alone who suffer from the intolerant statutes; the Catholics are the only subjects of this realm who are actually molested and degraded on account of their religion. While this ungenerous treatment of our Catholic fellow-subjects in the present state of civilization, is naturally disgusting even to those who dislike their peculiar tenets, there is also another effect produced by civilization, extremely unfavourable to. intolerance, namely, the familiar intercourse between all the different sects.-That any person of decent conduct, and inoffensive behaviour, should be banished from the courtesies of social life, because he attends the Mass or the Dissenting Chapel instead of the Established Church, would be a specimen of barbarous manners, which cannot subsist in humaner times. We know the abhorrence which the Catholics and Protestants, the Episcopals and Presbyterians, nourished against each other in the days of intolerance; but it is impossible for us now to shut our eyes, or our hearts, to the virtues which we find very equally diffused among all denominations of Christians. Fools and knaves, and tiresome proselytists, spring up in every sect, but ought not to be considered as a fair sample of any. A person, who has been confined in the choice of his companions to a particular church, may be brought to conceive, that whatever is best and most amiable, can be found only among those who are happy enough to believe its peculiar doctrines; but such notions. appear ridiculous to any body who lives, and in this country almost every body lives, in a friendly intercourse with persons of different persuasions. Catholic bigots may reserve salvation for their own church exclusively, and Protestant bigots may consign Catholics to perdition as idolaters; but a Protestant and Catholic, who live happily together as husband and wife, entertain far other sentiments; and so do the young Protestants and Catholics, who are equally cherished by both their parents. An eloquent Unitarian preacher, of Priestley's school, has very lately declared his persuasion, that the doctrine of the Trinity is the parent stock of all that system of error which has branched out into the various forms of reputed ortho'doxy, darkening with its deadly shade the brightness of the Divine character, and shedding its poisonous influence upon the best charities of human nature. Another eminent Divine, * * Madge's Sermon, on Wednesday, May 17, 1815, before the Supporters of the Unitarian Fund, p. 13. |