I am per

taxation should be moderate. suaded that such a Reform will sooner or later take place; though it is possible that resistance to such a Reform occasion it to be preceded by Revolution.

may

The Bourbons, the Nobles, and the Fanatics may attempt to re-establish the ancien regime in France. They will fail. The pillars on which the fabric stood are reduced to powder. No art can again cement them into solid masses. If a Representative Government should cease to exist in France, it must be succeeded by a Military despotism.

In Spain, though the present efforts should fail, yet the Cortes, will ultimately be established.

In Germany, the intelligence of the people will probably prevail against all the efforts of the Holy Alliance; and Representative Government will be the

consequence.

Can any man suppose, that with such

be

examples under its eye, England will long submit to the usurped power of Proprietors and Patrons of Boroughs? Let it recollected, that this usurped Power is odious to Royalty, insulting to Aristocracy, and oppressive to the People.

There are among those who call themselves Foxites, men who possess both wisdom and integrity. Let them declare that their efforts are directed to obtain an object in which their Country is interested. Their Country will rally round them, and Revolution may be averted. (Note 16.)

CHAP. IX.

- On the Duration of Papal Power.

It

I SHALL consider this not as a religious but as a political subject. The doctrines of the Catholic Church may remain long after the power of the Pope is destroyed. I shall consider the question purely as it regards the duration of Papal Power. seems to me that this power cannot subsist much longer, either in France or Germany. I doubt whether it can continue much longer in Spain and Portugal: it will fall in Italy whenever that country is formed into one kingdom; an event, perhaps, not very distant and with regard to Ireland, where three out of four of the inhabitants are Catholics, the power and the influence of the Pope of Rome will be at an end, whenever the British Government has the good sense to become the pay-master of the Catholic Clergy. say it must fall in France. The wealth

I

of the Church has been swept away; and its power has vanished with its wealth. Tythes have been abolished; and having now been discontinued for more than thirty years, can never be re-established; the lands of Bishops and Convents have been confiscated; and the present possessors will never submit to be deprived of them. The officiating Ministers of the Church must henceforth receive their salaries from the Executive Government; and from that circumstance must be dependant on that Executive Government. Whenever a King of France abandons the wish of re-establishing the power lately possessed by the Clergy, he becomes really and substantially the Supreme Head of the Church; or, to use an expression applied by Nathaniel Bacon to our King Henry VIII." He starts up a King with a Pope in his belly."

No inconsiderable part of Germany remained under Ecclesiastical Sovereigns, down to the commencement of the late Revolution in France; I believe they have been every where destroyed, and their ter

the influence

:

ritories assigned to temporal Princes. This circumstance must have greatly diminished of the Roman Pontiff. Princes and Nobles no longer look up to the Church as a provision for their younger branches. branches. Intelligence must gain ground and though Catholic doctrines in Religion may remain, Papal Power must fall. In Spain, though the present efforts to re-establish a Free Constitution should fail, yet it is manifest that intelligence has gained such ground in that Country, that the Cortes, with a Free Constitution, will ultimately be established. The Papal

Power will be inconsistent with that Free Constitution ; it will fall, and probably will be accompanied with the confiscation of a large portion of the wealth of the Church. This event will produce the same advantages in Spain, as have been produced by similar confiscations in England and in France. The creation of a middle class of Land-proprietors. Portugal will follow the example of Spain. Most probably the Spanish Colonies in America will do the same.