is the want of liberty, and not the enjoyment of it, which has occafioned all the factions in fociety from the beginning of time, and will do fo to the end; it is because the people are not habitually free from civil and ecclefiaftical tyrants, that they are difpofed to exercise tyranny themfelves. Habitual freedom produces effects directly the reverfe in every particular. For a proof of this, look into America; or if that be too much trouble, look into human nature with the eyes of common fenfe.

When the Christian religion was perverted and preffed into the fervice of Government, under the name of the Chriftian Church, it became neceffary that its priefts fhould fet up for fupernatural powers, and invest themselves in the fame cloak of infallibility, of which they had ftripped their predeceffors, the Druids and the Augurs. This they effected by miracles; for which they gained fo great a reputation, that they were canonized after death, and have furnished modern Europe with a much greater catalogue of faints, than could be found in any breviary of the ancients. The polytheifm of the Catholic Church is more fplendid for the number of its divinities, than that of the Elcufinian; and they are not inferior in point of attributes. The Denis of France is at least equal to the Jupiter of Greece or the Apis of Egypt. As to fupernatural powers, the cafe is precifely the fame in both; and the portions of infallibility are dealt out from the pope to the fubordinate VOL. III. No. 5.

priests, according to their rank, in fuch a manner as to complete the harmony of the fyftem.

Cicero has written with as much judgment and erudition on the "corruptions" of the old Roman Church, as Dr. Prieftley has on those of the new. But it is not the church which is corrupted by men, it is men who are corrupted by the church; for the very existence of a church, as I have before defined it, is founded on a lie; it fets out with the blafphemy of giving to one clafs of men the attributes of God; and the practifing of thefe forceries by that clafs, and believing them by another, corrupts and vitiates the whole.

One of the most admirable contrivances of the Chriftian church is the bufinefs of confeffions. It requires great reflection to give us an idea of the effects wrought on fociety by this part of the machinery. Ic is a folemn recognition of the fupernatural powers of the priest, repeated every day in the year by every human creature above the age of twelve years. Nothing is more natural than for men to judge of every thing around them, and even of themfelves, by comparison; and in this cafe what opinion are the laity to form of their own dignity? When a poor, ignorant, vicious mortal is fet up for the God, what is to be the man? I cannot conceive of any perfon going feriously to a confeffional, and believing in the equality of rights, or poffeffing one moral fentiment that is worthy of a rational being.* Ꭰ

Another

For

Another contrivance of the fame fort, and little inferior in efficacy, is the law of celibacy impofed on the priefhood, both male and female, in almost all church cftablishments that have hitherto exifted. The priest is in the first place armed with the weapons of moral deftruction, by which he is made the profeffional enemy of his fellow men; and then, for fear he fhould neglect to use thofe weapons, for fear he fhould contract the feelings and friendships of ration al beings, by mingling with fociety and becoming one of its members, -for fear his impofitions fhould be difcovered by the intimacy of family connections, he is interdicted the moft cordial endearments of life; he is fevered from the fympathies of his fellow-creatures, and yet compelled to be with them; his affections are held in the mortmain of perpetual inactivity; and, like the dead men of Mezentius, he is lafhed to fociety for tyranny and contamination.

The whole of this management, in felecting, preparing and organizing the members of the ecclefiaftical body, is purfued with the fame uniform, cold-blooded hoftility against the focial harmonics of life. The fubjects are taken from the younger fons of noble families, who from their birth are confidered as a nuifance to the houfe, and an outcaft from parental attachment. They are then cut off from all opportunities of forming fraternal affections, and educated in a cloister; till they enter upon their public functions, as difconnected from the feelings of the community, as it is defigned they fhall ever remain from its intercits.

I will not mention the corruption of morals, which must refult from the combined caufes of the ardent pf

For eating meat in Lent, 55. 5d. '

fions of constrained celibacy, and the fecret interviews of the priest with the women of his charge, for the purpofe of confeffions; I will draw no arguments from the diffenfions fown in families; the jealoufies and confequent aberrations of both husband and wife, occafioned by an intriguing ftranger being in the fecrets of both; the difcouragements laid upon matrimony by a general dread of thefe confequences in the minds of men of reflection,-effects which are remarkable in all catholic countries; but I will conclude this article by obferving the direct influence that ecclefiaftical celibacy alone has had on the population of Europe.

This policy of the church muft have produced at least as great an effect, in thinning fociety, as the whole of her wars and perfecutions. In Catholic Europe there must be near a million of ecclefiaftics. This proportion of mankind continuing deducted from the agents of population for fifteen centuries, must have precluded the existence of more than one hundred millions of the human fpecies.

Should the reader be difpofed on this remark to liften to the reply which is fometimes made, that Europe is fufficiently populcus; I beg he would fufpend his decifion, till he fhall fee what may be faid, in the courfe of this work, on protected industry; and until he fhall well confider the effects of liberty on the means of fubfiftence. That reply is certainly one of the axioms of tyranny, and is of kin to the famous with of Caligula, that the whole Roman people had but one neck.

The French have gone as far in the deftruction of the hierarchy as could have been expected, confidering the

habits

habits of the people and the prefent circumstances of Europe. The church in that country was like royalty, the prejudices in its favour were too frong to be vanquished all at once. The molt that could be done, was to tear the bandage from the eyes of mankind, break the charm of inequality, demolish ranks and infallibilities, and teach the people that mitres and crowns did not confer fupernatural powers. As long as public teachers are chofen by the people, are falaried and removeable by the people, are born and married among the people, have families to be educated and protected from op

preffion and from vice,-as long as they have all the common fympathies of fociety to bind them to the public intereft, there is very little danger of their becoming tyrants by force; and the liberty of the prefs will prevent their being fo by craft.

In the United States of America there is no church; and this is one of the principal circumstances which diftinguish that government from all others that ever exifted; it enfures the un-embarraffed exercife of religion, the continuation of public inftruction in the fcience of liberty and happinets, and promifes a long duration to a reprefentative government.

Fall the men I ever knew, Charles Sedley was the most cautious in the grand affair of choofing a wife; and after mature deliberation, difcovered that fashionable women were vain, and accomplished women affected. He therefore married the daughter of one of his tenants, with no charm excepting a little health and freshness, and no acquirements beyond thofe of a country boarding fchool; being perfuaded that because she was ignorant, the must be humble, and because low born, unexpenfive. But of both these inferences he lived to experience the falfity; for his cara porfa foon be. came intoxicated by the poffeffion of pleasures of which he had till then entertained no idea, entered with eagernefs into every fpecies of fashionable diffipation. and paid fmall regard to a husband, for whom he felt lit tle gratitude and lefs affection.

It was in vain he arguel, implored, and threatened; too weak for reafon, too obftinate for intreaty, and too paffionate for remonftrance, fhe heard him with the vacant laugh of folly, or anfwered him in the pert

virulence of vulgar invective; the only part of her country education which the never forgot.

After battling it in vain for fome months with an enemy to whom he was a very unequal antagonist, he fubmitted to an evil which he could not remedy, and is content to be ruined by the expences, and tormented by the follies of a vulgar Termagant, for the fake (as he fays) of PEACE and QUIETNESS.-Very different was the opinion and the fate of his brother Edward.-Determined not to be made miferable by a low born Vixen, he early attached himself to Lady Caroline Almeria Horatia Mackenzie, who inherited together with the blood, the fpirit, and the pride of a long line of North British nobility.-After a long and tedious courtfhip, in which he took care to make him completely fenfible of the honour done to him, her ladyship obligingly condefcended to give him her hand; and ftill more obligingly introduced to his acquaintance and his house, fomething more than a dozen of her great relations, who have ever fince taken up their abode with him.

After

After this, it is needlefs to fay, how much he is mafter in his own family: fince every fubject of conjugal difcuffion is immediately laid before this impartial jury; who inftantly pronounce judgment on the cafe, and exhort him to pay proper regard to a woman of Lady Caroline's underftanding, accomplishments, and rank. So that he pofleffes no other advantage over his brother, than the privilege of being made miferable in the very beft company.

"The two Sedleys," faid my old friend, Frank Blunt, on entering my room the other morning, "were a couple of filly fellows, and are defervedly punished for their folly.He who fets out in a wrong road, muft not wonder if he does not reach his journey's end. Had I followed their example, I fhould have been as miferable as they are-but I have chofen wifely, and am happy-very happy.I have married a woman of the gentlest manners and the sweetest difpofition. I wish, my dear friend, you would come over and take your mutton with us to-day, and you fhall be convinced, that when a man chufes well, marriage is the happieft ftate upon earth."As I love to fee my friends happy, I readily accepted his invitation, and accompanied him to his houfe, which is an eafy ride from Oxford.--The lady received us in the most gracious manner, and teftified the highest fatisfaction at fecing any friend of her husband's,-giving him at the fame time a gentle rebuke, for having fo much out-flaid his time, and expofed her to all thofe uneafy fenfations which he always felt in his abfence. He excufed himfelf in the molt tender manner, and they both left the room, in order to prepare either the dinner or themfeles. I, of courfe, took up a bock; but whether the author was particularly ftupid, or whether I was in a bad humour for reading, I know not, but I foon flung it down, and began to

amufe myself with my own reflections. They were, however, foon interrupted by a dialogue, not of the moft tender kind, between the master and miftrefs of the houfe, which the thinness of the partition fuffered me to hear with tolerable correctness."Indeed, my dear Mr. Blunt, I wonder you could think of bringing your friend here to-day, when you know there is nothing in the house but a breaft of mutton, and fome minced chicken for the children's dinner; befides, the fervants are all ironing-But you men have no fort of contrivance."-" Indeed, my dear," replied the husband, "I am very forry it fhould be inconvenient to you to receive him, but really Mr. is fuch a particular friend that I could not avoid inviting him."-" Lord, you are always bringing fome particular friend or other from Oxford with you, and I fuppofe this particular friend means to fleep here tonight, but I am fure I don't know where to put him : the worst bedchamber has been just washed, and I fhall certainly not let him go into the chintz-room with his dirty-boots. If he does flay, he must fleep in the green garret: I dare fay he has been ufed at college to fleep without curtains, and I believe the glazier mended the windows yefterday."-Sorry am I to fay, that I heard no more of this curious altercation, and the more fo as I may poffibly never again have fuch another opportunity of making myself acquainted with the regulations of domeftic economy: but the fervant juft then unluckily entered to make preparations for dinner, and made fuch a clattering with his knives and forks, that I totally loft Mr. Blunt's anfwer, and could only dif cover that (whatever it was) it was fpoken in a low and fubmiffive tone of voice.

Soon after this, the mafler and mistress of the houfe, the breaft of mutton,

mutton, and the minced chicken, all made their appearance, and we fat down apparently in high good humour with each other!--Nothing further, worth notice, paffèd during the vifit, and I returned to Oxford

in the evening, (in fpite of their earneft and fincere endeavours to detain me,) where I furveyed my own firefide with peculiar complacency, and thanked my stars, that I had escaped the honours of the green garret.

ETU

and the amiable and beloved Felicia, to experience the hardships and dangers attendant on war. Their parting was of the most affecting nature, and even their little children feemed, to fympathize with them in their feelings.

Felicia indulged herselfin folitude, having chofen for her place of refidence an ancient Gothic caftle; which had defcended through a fucceffion of ancestors to her husband.

Artifex, whom this happy pair efteemed as their common friend, was a witness to their parting; and the laft words of Petulantus to his friend, when he bade adieu to him and to Britain, were," Befriend my Felicia and my children." Artifex, with many proteftations, promifed to protect them as his own, and the feparation of these friends feemed to be void of the leaft taint of hypocrify.

Felicia had not been long in her retirement, when Artifex paid her a vifit, and acquainted her that he intended to take a houfe in the neighbourhood, in order the better to fulfil the promise he had made to Petulantus. Felicia, unwilling to put him to any inconvenience on her account, in point of expence, and looking on him, from his clofe intimacy with her husband, as little lefs than a brother, offered him apartments in the caftle. Artifex caught at this offer of Felicia, and immediately took up his lodgings under the hof pitable roof of his fair friend.

Three months elapfed 'ere Felicia heard of Petulantus. During this tedious interval, Artifex ufed but

fears. At length a letter came, but not in that warm stile of affection which was wont to mark the epiftles of Petulantus to Felicia, even when absent but a few days from her: while another received by Artifex, was replete with his usual kindness.

Artifex, in order to procure a fight of Felicia's letter, put that written to him into her hand: the read it, and could not fupprefs the agitation of her mind, on finding in its contents ftrains of kindness far more warm than those dictated to her.Artifex, who kept his eye conftantly upon her paffions, did not fail to fee that refentment was no ftranger to her mind; he foon procured from her a fight of Petulantus's letter. He had no fooner read it, but he gravely faid, "Petulantus, no doubt, was on bufinefs of the greatest importance to the welfare of his country, otherwise he never would have been fo laconic in writing to a woman of your beauty and merit. If it was not fo, it is unpardonable." He then made a long defcant on the changes that the frailty of our nature renders us fo very liable to.

It was not long after this, by the means of his villainy in fuppreffing the leaters of Petulantus to Felicia, that he had it in his power to hold up to her the bafenefs of men in general; and which fhe, from not having for feveral months heard from her husband, any otherwife than by the army returns, which ferved only to aggravate her ideas of his neglect, fell but too readily into a belief of.

Felicia