A LETTER TO THE

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that even in arbitrary states,* where the rights of the subject lie more withinthe reach of the sovereign, than they can ever be placed by flic British constitution,your religion may defy alike the pressure of power and of opinion, and flow on,like Aretlmsa, untinged by the mass of heterodoxy around it. **

It requires, indeed, but little range of history to teach us, that, however adifference of religion may have exasperated the fends of mankind, it has seldombeen, of itself, the sole originating motive of hostility. The power connected withcreeds is always much more obnoxious than their errors, and Faith may wear hermantle of any hue she likes, as long as she is not suspected of hiding a sceptre un-der it. So little, in general, have states and sovereigns been guided in their move-ments by mere spiritual considerations, that we find them, as worldly policy dic-tates, combining in such motley alliances of creeds, as seem almost to realize therambling dreams of scepticism. We see the cross united with the crescent againstChristians; we find Catholics assisting Protestants to cast off a Catholic , yoke,"’and, still more extraordinary, perhaps, within, a very few years, we have seen pa-pal badges about the necks of British , dragoons, f as a reward for having defendedthe Pope, in his own capital, against Papists. Indeed, through all the difficultieswith which the Court of Home had to struggle, during the warning events whichpreceded the French revolution, her chief consolations and aids were administeredby liereticsand schismatics; and while theEmperor Joseph, f lie L rami I hike ofTns-eany, and the King of Naples, were weakening and degrading the Pontiff by everyspecies of encroachment and insult; while France , the eldest child of the Church,was already preparing “images of revolt and flying-olf, ” the King of Sweden wason a visit of friendship at Borne, the great Frederic maintained a cordial intercoursewith the Holy See, and protected its best supporters, tiie Jesuits , in his dominions;while Catherine, beside the interest which she evinced towards her Homan Catho-lic subjects in White Russia, proposed, and, I doubt not, with much sincerity, toestablish a concordat between the Creek and Latin churches, jf

Having satisfied ourselves, therefore, that a mere diflerencc in creeds is, ofitself, insufficient to provoke hostility, without an adequate mixture of political con-siderations, let us consider whether it would he the interest of the British govern-ment, after admitting you to a full participation of the constitution, to follow upthe boon by attacking or undermining your religion, and thus cancelling the onlysecurity which they can have for the morals of the people with whom they haveshared so valuable a deposit. The very statement of such a supposition is, 1 think,a sufficient exposure of its absurdity. “Religion (says Montesquieu ), though false,is the only guarantee we can have for the probity of men;” and can you seriouslythink that the power which you are asked to vest in the Crown, will be premedita-tedly employed towards the extinction of this guarantee? or that the religion,which alone has made you trust-worthy, will be conspired against as soon as thetrust has been confided to you?

That there are some persons, even in these reasoning times, who are ignorantand weak enough to dread and hate y our church — who would, for ever, excludeyou from all political rights, and who, as long as your interests are separate fromtheir own, would feel a pleasure in loosening your moorings of rectitude, and cast-ing you adrift into those vices and irregularities which might give them some pre-text for wronging and tormenting you — that there are a few such malicious bi-gots, I acknowledge with shame and astonishment: but to suppose that even those

* “The Calvinistic states of the United Provinces regulated their conduct, with respect tntheir subjects of the Roman communion, on similar principles. The nomination even of a Core(or Parish Priest) was certified by the Arch-Priest to the provincial magistrate, and, if objectedto, another was appointed." — Sir John Cox 11 : 1 'CI'LEV on the Catholic Question.

** Belle Arethuse y ainsi ton onde for turn'dHoule au sein furieux d’ Amphitrite etonnee,

Un cristal toujours par, et des jlots toujours clairs ,

Que jamais ne corrompt Vamertume des mere.

»» . .... La IIenkuhe.

thus Innocent XI. assisted the great champion of Protestantism , William, With the moneyr ’ U T, nfpOiust the Papist Prince, his father-in-law. Indeed, so little were the inter-ests ot the Church considered, in this instance, that when James sent the Karl of Castlemaine,Ambassador Extraordinary to Rome , to make submission of the Crown of England to the Pope,tne court ot Rome received him with repulsive coldness, and refused a cardinal’s hat, whichu» e K'nff solicited tor Father Pctre.

t, 12th, or Prince of Wales’s Light Dragoons.

, * b A " erc nothing which excites more regret than the failure of every effort like this;

towards reconciling the great schisms of the Christian world. The forbearance of Melanchthon ,anct otners, at the Reformation, in admitting several points as adinnhora, ought to have led toa more cordial adjustment of differences, instead of adding to the many absurd quarrels ofnian-Kind tne preposterous instance of a helium adianhoristicum. The speculations of the Eirenists,too, tor reconciling the Protestant and Catholic churches, were all put an end to by the bullLJnigeiiitus. Ihe plan which Eabricius proposed for this desirable object, may be found inllei-uegger s cue of that able Professor, at the end of his workB. It is impossible, however, toread the sarcasms against Popery, in the “Encfides Catholicus" of Fabricius (published underue assumed name ot Eerrarius), without suspecting that he was but indifferently qualified t° rhe dispassionate duties of an arbitrator,

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