mighty manufacturing interest,a mighty moneyed interest, and a mighty agricultural interest. Most other nations have only two of these interests, which are disproportionate to, and cannot counterpoise, each other. To render the form of society still more perfect among us, it is in addition composed of an infinity of distinct political and religious parties. The consequences are, that while every class, interest, and party, are powerful for good, they are impotent for mischief; each throughout the whole is effectually controlled and bound to the proper line by its fellows. If the lower orders be turbulent and rebellious, the rich are so numerous and powerful, that they can generally keep them in order by moral weight and influence alone. Were the nobility to be animated with the worst views, it could accomplish nothing against the rest of the community. The rich are divided into numberless unmixable classes, and the vast majority would always oppose any portion of them that might seek unjust aggrandisement. Every class, interest, and party, is without preponderance, and the hope of obtaining it. The nobility, the country gentlemen, the clergy, the agricultural, manufacturing, and other interests, the labouring classes, the thick and thin Tories, the thick and thin Whigs, the Saints, the Methodists, the Calvinists, &c. &c., are each more or less mighty in their sphere for obtaining their due, and for purposes of general defence, but they are impotent for offensive objects of their own. The Tories are by far the most powerful party in the land, and yet they are but a regiment to an army, when weighed against the rest of the community. While this is the case, society among us is profusely supplied with ministers of religion, who teach a religion of feeling as well as form-of conduct as well as opinion. Public morals are therefore in an excellent state in every class, conscience operates powerfully; in many of our parties turpitude is punished by the party without the aid of law; and men cannot publicly offend against integrity and good principles, without being gibbetted by public opinion. This multiplicity of classes, interests, and parties, and this flourishing state of public morals, constitute, we think, a main source of our liberty and happiness. When we say this, we, however, admit, that other things aid them most essentially in producing both. They tend powerfully to give us the liberty of the immortal Burke: "That state of things in which the liberty of no man, and no body of men, is in a condition to trespass on the liberty of any person, or any description of persons, in society." This, and this alone, constitutes liberty. If ever, by any moral earthquake, any one of our parties be enabled to preponderate over all the rest, and public morals be in a great degree destroyed, we may then, in spite of our laws and constitution, bid adieu to our freedom. The struggles of the minority, and the passions, interests, and lawlessness of the majority, will combine, without anything to oppose them, to plunge us into the worst kind of slavery—that of a faction. We are free, not merely because the power of the sovereign is limited, but because the power of party and faction is limited likewise. While we admit that the constitution has largely contributed to give us this state of things, we think it is preposterous to ascribe it altogether to the Constitution. We owe much of it to our geographical situation, much to our personal disposition, much to our valour, much to our wisdom, and much to our good fortune. Our foreign possessions and trade, which the Constitution did not give us, formed, and now maintain, very many of our classes and interests. Our transmarine territories, which the Constitution did not give us, have contributed greatly to fill the country with men of fortune, and to give to the wealthy classes their numbers and power. Our country cannot be otherwise than immensely rich. We labour for a vast portion of other nations, and we monopolize a large part of the revenues of the world. The proprietors of our gigantic mass of colonies, dwell and spend their fortunes here; the numberless fortunes which are daily gleaned in these colonies, are brought here to be enjoyed, and we not only receive the rent of our own soil, but the rents of foreign estates, which, in point of extent, reduce our island to a speck, continually stream into our lap. Our people of large and moderate fortune are, of course, almost as numerous as the poor; and a mass of wealthy, independent, intelligent bodies, connect the lower orders with the nobility, render both almost powerless for evil, and bind both to the due line of conduct. So long as society was in this country what it now is in most of the continental nations-composed principally of the nobility and the lower orders, having no variety of interests of nearly equal weight, being almost wholly undivided in respect of religious and political parties, and possessing but a small part of the flood of foreign wealth, which now incessantly rolls into our coffers-so long our Constitution was rather a source of oppression than of liberty. The machine exist ed, but not the hands to give it proper operation. It was only when society among us assumed its present shape and animus, that the Constitution was put into due motion, that many of our best laws were made, that public opinion obtained circulation and power, that the community was enabled in a considerable degree to govern itself, and thus to deprive with safety the government of a large portion of its authority. It was not the Constitution that planted in this country the Protestant religion, that divided the followers of this religion into such a number of bodies, and that prescribed to the Dissenters their severe discipline in respect of morality. Public morals, to a large extent, are indebted for nothing to the Constitution and laws, save neutrality. The Constitution existed for centuries before a seat in Parliament was an object of much ambition, before a sufficient number of proper candidates could be found, and before our variety of political parties was known. If the candidates for seats in Parliament were not so numerous, rich, intelligent, and well-principled as they are, we fear the House of Commons would produce as many evils as benefits. The history of the House, at any rate, justifies this apprehension. In saying this, we wish not to detract from the Constitution; we think it the best that the world ever saw, or ever will see. We wish merely to point out the distinction between the machine, and the power that gives it due motion, in order that while the one is guarded, the other may not be abandoned to destruction, and that the Ally fools may be silenced, who imagine that wherever a constitution is set up, general liberty must be its fruit. While we readily admit that it would be possible to set up a constitution in any of the continental nations, we believe, from what we have advanced, that it would yield worse consequences than their present absolute governments in many of them. In very many of these nations we can find scarcely any of the great primary causes which give to our Constitution its value; but, on the contrary, we find many things that, if they existed here, would frequently render it useless, and not seldom highly mischievous. We are, however, qualifying these nations for the attainment of liberty as rapidly as we can. We are revealing to them our secrets of trade, giving them our best workmen, enabling them to obtain our machinery, admitting them into our monopolies, giving them our manufactures and commerce, sinking ourselves to their level, and attacking with all our might the bonds that unite us to our foreign possessions to serve them. If this do not in due time make them, not merely our equals, but our superiors-if it do not transfer to them a large portion of what we at present possess-if it do not make them whatever it may make ourselves, rich and great, and then free-what can? The generosity of all this, old as the world is, is unquestionably without example, but the wisdom of it is another matter. If one system have made us so wealthy, great, and glorious, we may surely be pardoned if we think that, by the laws of nature, an opposite one will make us the contrary. So vitally connected as public morals are with general liberty, we are compelled to think that the Dissenters, by contributing so greatly to the former, contribute very essentially to the political interests of the nation. They provide a vast additional number of religious teachers and places of worship, their discipline jealously watches the moral conduct of every member, and punishes the most trifling irregularities of life, and they operate principally among the lower classes, over which the regular clergy have the least influence. A monopoly over the consciences of a whole nation, can scarcely fail of establishing ecclesiastical tyranny. This makes almost as wide inroads on individual rights and liberty as civil tyranny, and it almost inevitably leads to it. A clergy has its worldly interests as well as its spiritual duties; it is but a body of men, and, like all other bodies of men, it will ever strive to aggrandize itself to the utmost, and to render its authority as great as possible. To insure success, it will even lay the greatest number of fetters upon its followers practicable. Ecclesiastical tyranny and civil liberty are natural enemies, and the former is never secure until it renders-which it generally easily can do-the government despotic. Those who control the conscience can commonly guide the actions; religious influence and authority can generally be converted into political influence and authority at pleasure. The zealous churchmen, the Catholics, the Methodists, Calvinists, Unitarians, &c., almost to a man follow their ministers in politics. In truth, every religious creed links itself to a political one, and the adoption of the one is almost constantly the adoption of the other. The mass of men think but little even of interest when they are inflamed with party zeal, and led to believe that their escape from perdition depends on their obedience to their religious teachers. At this moment the great body of the Catholic laity in Ireland is, in submission to its church, fighting in the maddest manner against its own highest interests. If, therefore, a clergy possess exclusive control over a nation's conscience, it will possess overwhelming political influence in that nation; its favour will be the first object of courtship in the eyes of the civil ruler; it will be enabled to dictate to him in matters relating to its own interest; its command will be, establish despotism, and the command will be too palatable to be obeyed with anything but alacrity. Such a clergy will in reality possess the actual sovereignty, and it must render the civil ruler & despot, to be a despot itself. The continental governments were at one time almost all of them of a limited form. The Popish Church obtained a monopoly in matters of religion, it then established ccclesiastical tyranny, it then obtained the chief portion of political power, and it then rendered the governments despotic. These things, we think, followed each other as matters of course, and we doubt that the governments could have regained lasting arbitrary power, after being once deprived of it, by any other means. Every religious creed, as we have said, links itself to a political one. The ministers of each of our sects go in a body with their followers to one or another of our political parties, but they do not divide themselves between two. The regular clergy have powerful inducements to divide themselves between the Whigs and the Tories; but still, though many of them support the former, as a body they support the latter. With regard to their flocks, almost every zealous churchman, particularly in the classes below the upper ones, is a Tory. A body of religious teachers has generally a sufficiency of distinct political interests of its own, to render it reasonably unanimous in politics; and, in addition, religious unanimity, and the party bonds and spirit of a religious society, can scarcely fail of producing political unanimity. We therefore think, that if the Dissenters did not exist, and the regular clergy possessed a virtual monopoly, one of our parties would preponderate over the rest of the community, and put our liberties, to say the least, in imminent danger. It matters not though this might be the Tories, for parties are governed by anything rather than their principles, when they are flushed with conquest, and irresistible. We believe the clergy to be as admirable a body as could be formed; but still they are but men ; and we therefore think they would use monopoly as it has hitherto been always used by a clergy. As we think that society could not be sufficiently divided into manageable bodies, and that dangerous preponderance could not be kept from one or another of them without the Dissenters, we of course think that on these points the Dissenters render most important political benefits to the nation. It is said, that the Dissenters regularly range themselves with the Whigs; but this is not the fact. Our dissenting population consists chiefly of the different kinds of Calvinists, and the Unitarians on the one hand, and the Whenever we use this term, we must be understood to mean only such of our Dis. senters as profess the tenets of Calvinismi, Methodists on the other. These are fiercely opposed in religion, and perhaps this is one cause why they are opposed in politics. The former are Whigs, the latter are moderate Tories; and the Methodists are a sufficient counterpoise, in weight and numbers, to the other sects. If we could divide the Dissenters between our political parties at our pleasure, we would alter nothing. The Whigs should have half of them, but they should have the half that consists of a number of distinct bodies. The Opposition must be powerful to be beneficial; but, irresponsible and lawless as it is, it ought not on any account to be composed solely of one compact body, animated only by personal interest or political zeal. It should consist of many bodies, and not a few of them should be perfectly independent of it, should be without any desire for political aggrandizement, and should have a manifest interest in abandoning it, whenever its conduct might militate against the public good. It is of the first importance that the Opposition Members should be, as far as possible, elected by conscientious men, by religious men, by men having neither interests nor propensities to lead them to abuse the elective franchise. It is likewise necessary that the Opposition and its followers should be plentifully supplied with religious teachers, holding its political opinions. In other states, where the clergy have a monopoly, the party opposed to the government is composed chiefly of deists. The clergy support the government, and therefore they are hated as political enemies, and deserted by those who oppose it. There are no other religious bodies for the latter to court or to attach themselves to, and they almost naturally become infidels. An Opposition that stands upon deism, may be powerful for a moment, but it will only be a public plague, and it will then vanish into air, or dwindle into a despicable shadow. It is indispensable for the preservation of public morals, that the two grand parties which our smaller ones form, the one as well as the other, should have a direct personal party interest in the maintenance of religion. We are well aware that it is possible for the dissenting preachers to propagate the most pernicious doctrines from the pulpit-that it is possible for VOL. XVI. them to produce such a combination of religious and political fanaticism as would have the most fearful consequences; but their own interest, and the moral checks with which they are surrounded, render it highly improbable that they should do this. Almost all the more valuable parts of our system are as well able to destroy it as the Dissenters. The House of Commons could ruin us, and yet we must have it. The Opposition, for some years before the last session, was little better than a public curse, and yet no one will say that it ought to be put down. Every valuable thing that we possess, produces minor evils with its benefits. The sun scorches us, the rain drenches us; but what do they not do beside? Despotism is a plant so hardy as to require but little care, and to be almost indestructible; but Freedom is a tender, fragile exotic, which must have a mixture of almost every kind of compost to nourish it, and which can only be kept alive by culture equally skilful, costly, and hazardous. What we have said will, we think, only apply to a populous nation. If a population be small, it can rarely be divided into more than two parties; these will push party spirit to a pernicious height, and the one will generally be the tyrant of the other. It is especially inapplicable to our West India colonies. When the inhabitants of an island amount only to a few thousands, and have but little to divide them in politics, they ought to be, if possible, preserved from religious divisions. It is, in our judgment, greatly to be lamented, that the dissenting missionaries have entered the West India islands. The masters will cleave to the Church, the slaves will cleave to the Dissenters; the distinctions of rank and colour will be rendered more striking by the distinctions of religion, and the animosity which now rages will be reinforced by religious animosity, while religious unanimity would have softened the bad feelings on both sides, and contributed powerfully to produce that state of things in which only it will be possible to abolish slavery. Having said so much in favour of the Dissenters, we must now say, that we are not among those who place all religions on an equality, and who seem to think that all bear alike upon government and public good. Putting 3 F our church out of sight, our other religious bodies may be divided into three classes: One labours merely for proselytes, and entertains no wish for the overthrow of the Church; another, without professing to covet the Church's possessions, holds that no national church should exist; and a third labours to destroy the Church and to seize its possessions. The two first profess warm attachment for civil and religious liberty; the last insists upon monopoly, wars against popular liberties, and allies itself with despotism. It is impossible even for the mere politician to place these on an equality; he must regard the first with favour, the second with jealousy, and the last with hostility. What we have said in favour of the dissenting bodies, must be understood to apply to such of them ONLY as hold no religious principles hostile to Christianity, and no political ones hostile to the Constitution. Our limitation necessarily excludes the Catholics. As it is understood that a mighty effort will be made in the approaching session to give to this body political power, we will state more fully the reasons which will not suffer us to number it with the beneficial dissenting bodies. Every religious body, as we have already said, has its political, as well as its religious creed; and it clings about as unanimously and tenaciously to the one, as to the other. This is more especially the case with the Dissenters, from their being so highly organized as bodies, from their having so many enemies, and from their being, unlike the Church, almost the only guardians of their own interests. In giving power, therefore, to any religious body, its political creed must be as strictly scrutinized as its religious one. We must look for this creed not among a few moderate members of the body, but among the leaders and the vast mass of the followers; and we must, moreover, seek it, not in professions, but in general conduct. The Catholic Church on the Continent is at this very moment, not in one country, but in almost every country, taking the most decided part in politics, and is zealously labouring not only to put down deism and democracy, but to preserve monopoly to itself, and absolute power to the civil ruler. This Church is the most bitter and active enemy that liberty, civil and re ligious, has in the world. This is not matter of conjecture or dispute; the proofs are overwhelming, and they are before every one. That the overwhelming mass of the laity follows the clergy, is equally beyond controversy. To this Church the Catholics of these realins belong; with its head they are in constant communication, and to this head they give supremacy. The Catholic Church in Ireland is, we believe, called among the Catholics, the Irish mission; that is, it stands in much the same relation to the Church of Rome as the Methodist mission in Demerara stands in to the parent and controlling society in England. The new Pope has proved himself to be a furious bigot, and to be bent upon maintaining the worst pretensions of the Catholic Church, to the utmost of his ability. If there were nothing whatever to quarrel with in the conduct of the Irish Catholics, this alone would be sufficient to cover them with jealousythis alone could be sufficient to render the removal of the disabilities a matter of most doubtful policy. But, alas! their conduct will warrant anything rather than the belief that they disagree with their foreign brethren with their Head, in political creed. While they clamour so loudly for what they call liberty for themselves, they cast from them with disdain the liberty of the press, the liberty of discussion, the liberty of opinion, and almost the whole of popular liberty. To protect and extend the bondage which the Clergy have established, the Laity would gladly overthrow our free constitution. At this very time the heads of the Laity, men who are rich, well educated, and who move in the best society, are investing the clergy with the attributes of God, resisting the distribution of the Scriptures, and straining every nerve to protect their more humble brethren from the inroads of just knowledge and real liberty. Although the Irish Catholics held themselves to be so much oppressed, and professed so much animosity towards the government, they would not support the Radicals, or the Queen, anxiously courted as they were by both; and they never would join our popular parties in any struggle, however just, in favour of popular rights and privileges. It matters not who fights for |