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constantly kept in view.

The inferences are obvious. The

Christian who goes into a Pagan country and there attacks the existing religion, exposes the character of the false gods, and instigates the people to throw off their yoke, acts laudably and well. The unbeliever, on the other hand, who goes forth among our Christian population, assaults their faith, speaks evil of the Son of God, and aims to overthrow his worship, acts wickedly, and against the law of God. The magistrate who restrains and coerces, or punishes the first of these characters, opposes himself to God, and is a persecutor. The magistrate who restrains, coerces, or punishes the second, obeys the command of God, and is not a persecutor. So entirely are these matters governed by this one simple and eternal truth-that there is but one revelation of the will of God, and of the way of salvation; that such revelation is published to all mankind, with abundant evidence of its verity; and that to it universal obedience is due*."

This doctrine (which would clearly justify the massacre of St. Bartholomew and the Spanish Inquisition) proceeds upon the supposition that the members of your persuasion have rights against the rest of the community, but no duties; that the members of other persuasions have duties towards you, but no rights. This difference arises from your religious creed being true, and their religious creed being false; of which truth and falsehood you are the sole judge. "The doctrine," (says the Edinburgh Review)" which, from the very first origin of religious dissensions, has been held by all bigots of all sects, when condensed into a few words, and stripped of all rhetorical disguise, is simply this: -I am in the right, and you are in the wrong. When you are the stronger, you ought to tolerate me, for it is

* Essays on the Church, by a Layman, (second edit., 1834,) p. 22. It is clear that the writer, although he limits his argument to Paganism, means it to apply to all difference of faith.

public worship of all heterodox sects; or a member of the legislature, as such, has no cognizance of the truth of creeds; and he may in that capacity, without violence to his conscience, extend the favour of the state to the clergy of all persuasions.

The conscientious scruples of which we hear so much when a state provision for the Irish Roman Catholic clergy is in question, seem singularly capricious and uncertain, for they are never aroused by other causes which seem equally well calculated to excite them. Nothing is said of the wickedness of an Episcopalian Protestant government maintaining a Presbyterian church in Scotland, and also in Ireland; of the wickedness of a Protestant government maintaining a Roman Catholic church in Lower Canada and Malta; of the wickedness of a Christian government countenancing and protecting Mahometan and Pagan worship in Hindostan and Ceylon. On these subjects the consciences of our Protestant majority are as dull and callous as they are tender and sensitive on the question of assisting in the maintenance of the Irish Roman Catholic clergy. But the religious canon of civil government, if good for one difference of creed, is good for all; and if it is violated once, it may as well be altogether abrogated. If rulers may sacrifice their religious duties to the temporal interests of their subjects in one case, they may as well make the sacrifice consistently, and determine in all cases, when acting as civil rulers, to consider only the temporal, and not the eternal welfare of the community.

While the civil ruler ought to abstain from intermeddling in ecclesiastical matters, he ought nevertheless not to be blind to the difference of moral and tem

poral results produced by different forms of religious. faith. When indeed any religion sanctions or encourages acts which are manifestly mischievous in this life, (as, for instance, human sacrifices,) it is not only the right, but the duty of the state to interfere; in other words, the state should prohibit all pernicious acts, whether recommended by the name of religion or not. For the same reason that the civil magistrate ought to strike those who offend in the name of God, he ought likewise to be aware of the various moral effects of the several religious persuasions in the community; and with this view it is desirable to consider what foundation there may be for the assertions often made as to the connexion of Catholicism with turbulence and laziness, and of Protestantism with tranquillity and industry. That the disposition to outrage in Ireland springs from causes wholly independent of religion has been shown in a former part of this volume; and it is evident that, in general, Catholicism cannot be said to lead to crime and disturbance, as the tranquil and contented state of the peasantry in many Catholic countries amply proves. The other part of this question, viz., the tendency of Protestantism to promote commercial activity, is well discussed in the following remarks extracted from a recent pamphlet

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There exists, apart from all intolerant or party feelings on the question, a cause, and we believe a primary one, of the retrograde position, as compared with England and Scotland, in which we find Ireland at the present day, in the circumstance of the Roman Catholic religion being the faith of its people. Let us not be misunderstood; our business does not lie in polemics, and far be it from us to presume to decide which mode of worship may be most acceptable to the great Author of our being. We wish to speak only of the tendency

public worship of all heterodox sects; or a member of the legislature, as such, has no cognizance of the truth of creeds; and he may in that capacity, without violence to his conscience, extend the favour of the state to the clergy of all persuasions.

The conscientious scruples of which we hear so much when a state provision for the Irish Roman Catholic clergy is in question, seem singularly capricious and uncertain, for they are never aroused by other causes which seem equally well calculated to excite them. Nothing is said of the wickedness of an Episcopalian Protestant government maintaining a Presbyterian church in Scotland, and also in Ireland; of the wickedness of a Protestant government maintaining a Roman Catholic church in Lower Canada and Malta; of the wickedness of a Christian government countenancing and protecting Mahometan and Pagan worship in Hindostan and Ceylon. On these subjects the consciences of our Protestant majority are as dull and callous as they are tender and sensitive on the question of assisting in the maintenance of the Irish Roman Catholic clergy. But the religious canon of civil government, if good for one difference of creed, is good for all; and if it is violated once, it may as well be altogether abrogated. If rulers may sacrifice their religious duties to the temporal interests of their subjects in one case, they may as well make the sacrifice consistently, and determine in all cases, when acting as civil rulers, to consider only the temporal, and not the eternal welfare of the community.

While the civil ruler ought to abstain from intermeddling in ecclesiastical matters, he ought nevertheless not to be blind to the difference of moral and tem

poral results produced by different forms of religious faith. When indeed any religion sanctions or encourages acts which are manifestly mischievous in this life, (as, for instance, human sacrifices,) it is not only the right, but the duty of the state to interfere; in other words, the state should prohibit all pernicious acts, whether recommended by the name of religion or not. For the same reason that the civil magistrate ought to strike those who offend in the name of God, he ought likewise to be aware of the various moral effects of the several religious persuasions in the community; and with this view it is desirable to consider what foundation there may be for the assertions often made as to the connexion of Catholicism with turbulence and laziness, and of Protestantism with tranquillity and industry. That the disposition to outrage in Ireland springs from causes wholly independent of religion has been shown in a former part of this volume; and it is evident that, in general, Catholicism cannot be said to lead to crime and disturbance, as the tranquil and contented state of the peasantry in many Catholic countries amply proves. The other part of this question, viz., the tendency of Protestantism to promote commercial activity, is well discussed in the following remarks extracted from a recent pamphlet:

"There exists, apart from all intolerant or party feelings on the question, a cause, and we believe a primary one, of the retrograde position, as compared with England and Scotland, in which we find Ireland at the present day, in the circumstance of the Roman Catholic religion being the faith of its people. Let us not be misunderstood; our business does not lie in polemics, and far be it from us to presume to decide which mode of worship may be most acceptable to the great Author of our being. We wish to speak only of the tendency

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