#^ vvV ^^^//V. %.. ^ PRINCETON, N. J. '^Pui-e^^J CA^^l Jj /) C7^./5,/^^ BX 6217 .H3 18A4 v. 2 Hall, Robert, 1764-1831. The works of the Rev. Robert Shelf... Hall, A. M. •m^ ir ^ THE WORKS REV. ROBERT HALL, A.M. WITH A BRIEF MEMOIR OF HIS LIFE, BY DR. GREGORY, AND OBSERVATIONS ON HIS CHARACTER AS A PREACHER, BY THE REV. JOHN FOSTER. PVBLISUKD UNDER TUB SIPKRI.NTENDENCK OT OLINTHUS GREGORY, LL.D. F.R.A.S. PROFESSOR or MATHEMATICS IN THE ROYAL MILITARY ACADEMY. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. IL N K W-Y O R K : HARPER i BROTHERS. 82 CLIFF-STREET. 18 39. ADVERTISEMENT In this Volume, Mr. Hall's Political Tracts are arranged in the order of their publication. To them succeeds various Tracts, which, though not strictly political, bear an obvious relation to the subjects of politics and political economy ; employing the latter term, not in its restricted sense, which regards merely the wealth of nations, but in the more extended acceptation, which embraces the momentous topics of general securitj'^, freedom, comfort, and happiness. Some of these pieces, though very extensively circulated to promote the purposes for which they were respectively written, were never issued by sale, and it is now exceedingly diflScult to procure a single copy of them. Others, which were regularly published, have been long out of print. The origin of the Fragments on Village Preaching and general Toleration I have briefly described in a prefatory note, p. 171. The Summary of the arguments on Christian Communion could not be included in the first volume without unduly augmenting its bulk ; it is, therefore, inserted in this. The Miscellaneous Pieces appeared originally in Felix Farley's Bristol Journal., and have not since been published with their author's permission. They serve, however, to show with what taste and ele- gance he could, in early life, indulge in the lighter species of compo- sition ; and what eminence he might have attained in that department of literature, had not his inclinations as well as his profession led him to devote his rich endowments to infinitely higher purposes. Ox-ixTHi's Gregory. 'Iy0l9070£ --"il^ri CONTENTS OF VOL. II. TRACTS, POLITICAL AND MISCELLANEOUS. Pa«« Christianity consistent with a Love of Freedom ... 9 Preface 11 Note by the Editor 12 SECTION I. On the Duty of common Christians in relation to Civil PoUty 14 SECTION n. On the Duty of Ministers in respect to Civil Polity ... 19 SECTION m. On the Pretences Mr. advances in favour of his Principles 26 SECTION IV. On the Test Act 32 An Apology for the Freedom of the Press 39 Advertisement to the Third Edition 41 Original Preface 43 • Advertisement to the New edition 49 SECTION I. On the Right of Public Discussion 51 SECTION u. On Associations 50 SECTION in. On a Reform of Parliament ••• 61 SECTION IV. On Theories and the Rights of Man 68 Vi CONTENTS, SECTION V. Page On Dissenters 76 SECTION VI. On the Causes of the Present Discontents ....... 84 Review of the Apology for the Freedom of the Press 93 Mr. Hall's Reply 98 Note by the Editor 106 On the Renewal of the Charter of the East India Com- pany 107 An Appeal to the Public, on the Subject of the Frame- work ICnitters' Fund 121 Advertisement 123 A Reply to the Principal Objections advanced by Cob- bett and Others against the Framework Knitters' Friendly Relief Society 135 An Address on the State of Slavery in the West India Islands 155 Fragments 169 Note by the Editor 171 Defence of Village Preaching 173 The Impolicy of Intolerance 184 On Toleration 185 On the Right of Worship 196 A Short Statement of the Reasons for Christian in op- position TO Party Communion 207 Preface 209 ARTICLES FROM THE ECLECTIC REVIEW. Foster's Essays 233 Custance on the Constitution 249 Zeal without Innovation 254 Gisborne's Sermons .... 290 Gregory's Letters 298 Belsham's Memoirs of Lindsey 318 Birt on Popery 335 CONTEXTS. vii MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. Tago Character of Cleander 343 A Revery 346 Essay on Poetry and Philosophy 354 Fragment on Popery 359 Character of the Rev. R. Hall, of Amsby 369 Funeral Oration delivered at the Interment of the Rev. H. Crabb 373 Sketch of the Character of Mrs. M. Carryer 378 Character of the late Rev. T. Robinson, Vicar of St. Mary's, Leicester 380 Fragment. — Character of the Rev. John Sutcliff 388 Memoir of the Rev. Thomas Toller 390 Preface to the Memoirs of the Rev. Joseph Freeston .... 410 Extract from Mr. Hall's rough Notes of the Funeral Sermon for Dr. Ryland 416 Addpess circulated at the Formation of the Leicester Auxiliary Bible Society 418 Speech delivered at the Second Anniversary of ditto .... 421 Speech delivered at the Seventh Anniversary of ditto .... 428 Fragment. — Speech delivered at a Meeting of ditto .... 436 Address in Behalf of the Stepney Baptist Academy .... 440 Letter to the Committee of the Baptist Missionary Society . . 444 Preface to Hall's Help to Zion's Travellers 447 Preface to Janeway's Life 454 Recommendatory Preface to Beddome's Hymns 456 Preface to Chase's " Antinomianisra Unmasked" 458 Letter to the Rev. W. Bennett 465 Extract from Dr. Johnson's Preface to Cowper's Correspondence 467 Spiritual Condition and Prospects of the Jews 468 Substance of a Charge delivered at the Ordination of the Rev. J. K. Hall, at Kettering 475 Fragment. — On the Art of Healing 484 CHRISTIANITY CONSISTENT WITH A LOVE OF FREEDOM j BEme AN ANSWER TO A SERMON, LATELY PUBLISHED, BY THE REV. -. [Published in 1791.] PREFACE. It may be proper just to remark, that tlie animadversions T have made on Mr. 's sermon did not arise from my conviction of there being any thing even of plausibility in his reasonings, but from an apprehension that certain accidental and occasional prejudices might give some degree of weight to one of the weakest defences of a bad cause that was ever undertaken. I have taken up more time in showing that there is no proper connexion between the Unitarian doctrine and the principles of liberty than the subject may seem to require ; but this will not be thought superfluous by those who recollect that that idea seems to be the great hinge of Mr. 's discourse, and that it appears among the orthodox part of the dissenters to have been productive already of unhappy effects. I shall only add, that these remarks would have appeared much sooner but for severe indisposition, and that I was induced to write them chiefly from a persuasion that they might perhaps, in the present instance, have somew hat of additions/ weight as coming from one who is not a Unitarian. Cambridge, Sept. 17, 1791. NOTE BY THE EDITOR. " Christianity consistent with a Love of Freedom," was written when Mr. Hall was twenty-seven years of age : and he never would consent to its republication. He continued to think the main principles correct and important ; but he regarded the tone of animadversion as severe, sarcastic, and unbecoming. Two or three editions have, how ever, been printed surreptitiously ; and one of them, which now lies before me, is so complete an imitation of the original edition of 1791 as usually to escape detection. It is printed with an old-fashioned type and on dingy-coloured paper, to suit its assumed age. But on comparing it closely with the genuine edition, I find that three of the capital letters, on different pages, have too modern and broad a face ; and on holding up the paper on which it is printed to a strong light, I perceive a water-mark which gives the date 1818 to the faper of a pamphlet which purports to be printed in 1791 ! If the lower class of booksellers will have recourse to such contemptible forgeries as this, an author is evidently no longer master of his intellectual property, nor can he when he pleases withdraw it from the public eye. This, though one of the earliest productions laid by Mr. Hall before the public, is, whh the exception already adverted to, by no means calculated to deteriorate his reputation. It contains some splendid passages, and the concluding four or five pages exhibit a fine specimen of that union of severe taste, and lofty genius, and noble sentiment, which is evinced, I think, more frequently in his compositions than in those of any other modern author. I have no fear of incurring blame for having cancelled throughout the name of the individual against whom Mr. Hall's strictures were levelled. Venerable for his age, and esteemed for his piety, who would >iow voluntarily cause him, or those who love him. a pang ? Royal Military Academy, June 1, 1831. CHRISTIANITY CONSISTENT WITH A LOVE OF FREEDOM, Ilo\viii2 liiiea of Po^x, or were an avoweO imitation of them, caniwt now be detvmined. Btt 24 CHRISTIANITY CONSISTENT WITH It is a pity, however, our author ia reproaching characters so illus- trious was not a little more attentive to facts ; for unfortunately for him Dr. Priestley has not in any instance displayed that disaffection to government with which he has been charged so wantonly. In his Lectures on History and his Essay on Civil Government, which of all his publications fall most properly within the sphere of politics, he has delineated the British constitution with great accuracy, and has expressed his warm admiration of it as the best system of policy the sagacity of man has been able to contrive. In his Familiar Letters to the Inhabitants of Birmingham, a much later work, where the seeds of that implacable dislike were scattered which produced the late riots, he has renewed that declaration, and has informed us that he has been pleasantly ridiculed by his friends as being a unitarian in religion and a trinitarian in politics. He has lamented, indeed, in common with every enlightened citizen, the existence of certain cor- ruptions, which, being gradually introduced hito the constitution, have greatly impaired its vigour ; but in this he has had the honour of being followed by the prime minister himself, who began his career by pro- posing a reform in parliament — merely to court popularity it is true, at a time when it would not have been so safe for him to insult the friends of freedom after having betrayed their interest, as he has since found it. Dr. Priestley has, moreover, defended with great ability and suc- cess the principles of our dissent, exposing, as the very nature of the undertaking demands, the folly and injustice of all clerical usurpa- tions ; and on this account, if on no other, he is entitled to the grati- tude of his brethren. In addition to this catalogue of crimes, he has ventured to express his satisfaction on the liberation of France ; an event which, promising a firmer establishment to liberty than any re- corded in the annals of the world, is contemplated by the friends of arbitrary power throughout every kingdom of Europe with the utmost concern. These are the demerits of Dr. Priestley, for which this political astrologist and sacred calculator of nativities pronounces upon him that he is born to vex the state. The best apology candour can suggest will be to hope Mr, has never read Dr. Priestley's political works ; a conjecture somewhat confirmed from his disclaim- ing all attention to political theories, and from the extreme ignorance he displays through the whole of his discourse on political topics. Still it is to be wished he would have condescended to understand what he means to confute, if it had been only to save himself the trouble and disgrace of this publication. be this as it may, 1 think it will be readily admitted, that the rhythm and haVmony of the passag* (n prose are decidedly superior to those in the lines of the poet : — " Envy will merit, as its shade, pursue, But, like a shadow, prove the substance true : For envied wit, like Sol eclips'd, makes known i Th' opposing body's grossiiess, not its own. When first that sun too powerful beams displays, It draws up vapours which obscure Its rays ; But e'en those clouds at last adorn its way, Bellect new glories and augment the day."— Eo A LOVE OF FREEDOM. 25 The manner in which he speaks of the Birniinghain riots, and the cause to which he traces thcni, arc too remarlvable to pasa unnoticed. W/icn led, says he, speaking of the sufTerers, hy officious zeal, from the quiet duties of their profession into the senator's province: unhaU lowed boisterous passions in others ; like their own, God may permit to chastise them. For my own part I was some time before I could develop this extraordinary passage ; but I now find the darkness in which it is veiled is no more than that mystic sublimity which haS always tinctured the language of those who are appointed to interpret the counsels of Heaven. I would not have Mr. deal too freely in these visions, lest the fire and illumination of the prophet should put out the reason of the man ; a caution the more necessary in the present instance, as it glim- mers so feebly already in several parts of his discourse that its extinc- tion would not be at all extraordinary. We are, no doubt, much obliged to him for letting us into a secret we could never have learned any other way. We thank him heartily for informing us that the Birmingham riots were a judgment, and as we would wish to be grate- ful for such an important communication, we would whisper in his ear in return, that he should be particularly careful not to suffer this itch of prophesying to grow upon him, men being extremely apt in this degenerate age to mistake a prophet for a madman, and to lodge them in the same place of confinement. The best use he could make of his mantle would be to bequeath it to the use of posterity, as for the want of it I am afraid they will be in danger of falling into some very un- happy mistakes. To their unenlightened eyes it will appear a re- proach, that in the eighteenth century, an age that boasts its science and improvement, the first philosopher in Europe, of a character un- blemished, and of inanners the most mild and gentle, should be torn from his family, and obliged to flee an outcast and a fugitive from the murderous hands of a frantic rabble ; but when they learn that there were not wanting teachers of religion who secretly triumphed in these barbariiies, they will pause for a moment, and imagine they are read- ing the history of Goths or of Vandals. Erroneous as such a judg- ment must appear in the eyes of Mr. , nothing but a ray of his supernatural light could enable us to form a juster decision. Dr. Priestley and his friends are not the first that have suffered in a public cause ; and when we recollect that those who have sustained similar disasters have been generally conspicuous for a superior sanctity of character, what but an acquaintance with the counsels of Heaven can enable us to distinguish between these two classes of sufferers, and while one are the favourites of God, to discern in the other the objects of his vengeance. W^hen we contemplate this extraordinary endowment, we are no longer surprised at the superiority he assumes through the whole of his discourse, nor at that air of confusion and disorder which appears in it, both of which we impute to his dwelling so much in the insufferable light, and amid the coruscations and flashes of the divine 26 CHRISTIANITY CONSISTENT WITH glory ; a sublime but perilous situation, described with great force and beauty by Mr. Gray : — " He passed the flaming bounds of place sud time ; The living throne, the sapphire blaze, Where angels tremble while they gaze, He saw ; but blasted with excess of light, Closed hia eyes in endless night." SECTION III. On the Pretences Mr. advances in Favour of his Principles. Having endeavoured to justify the well-timed exertions of Chris- tians and of ministers in the cause of freedom, it may not be improper to examine a little more particularly under what pretences Mr. presumes to condemn this conduct. J St. The first that naturally presents itself is drawn from those passages of Scripture, in which the design of civil government is explained, and the duty of submission to civil authority is enforced. That on which the greatest stress is laid is found in the thirteenth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. "Let every soul be subject to the higher powers ; for there is no power but of God : the powers which be are ordained of God. Whoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God ; and they that resist shall re- ceive unto themselves damnation. The ruler is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou doest that which is evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain. Wherefore ye must be subject, not only for wrath, but conscience' sake." This passage, which, from the lime of Sir Robert Filmer to the present day, has been the stronghold of the doctrine of passive obedience and non-resistance, will admit of an easy solution, by attending to the nature of Christianity, and the cir- cumstances of its professors during the period it was written. The extraordinary privileges and dignity conferred by the gospel on believers, must have affected the minds of the first Christians, just emerging from the shades of ignorance, and awakened to new hopes, with singular force. Feeling an elevation to which they were strangers before, and looking down upon the world around them as the vassals of sin and Satan, they might be easily tempted to imagine the restraint of laws could not extend to persons so highly privileged, and that it was igno- minious in the free men of Jesus Christ to submit to the yoke of idolatrous rulers. Natural to their situation as these sentiments might be, none could be conceived of more detrimental to the credit and propagation of a rising religion, or more likely to draw down upon its professors the whole weight of the Roman Empire, with which they were in no condition to contend. In this situation, it was proper for the apostle to remind Christians their religion did not interfere with the rights of princes, or diminish their obligation to attend to those salutary regulations which are established for the protection of inno- cence and the punishment of the guilty. That this only was the A LOVE OF FREEDOM. 27 intention of the writer may be inferred from the considerations he adduces to strengthen his advice. He docs not draw his arguments for submission from anything peculiar to the Christian system, as he must have done had lie intended to oppose tliat reUgion to the natural rights of mankind, but from the utility and necessity of civil restraints. " The ruler is the minister of God to thee for good," is the reason he urges for submission. Civil government, as if he had said, is a salutary institution, appointed to restrain and punish outrage and injustice, but exhibiting to the quiet and inoflensive nothing of which they need to be afraid. " If thou doest that which is evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vahi." He is an avenger to execute wrath upon him ihatdoeth evil. Christians were not to consider themselves privileged above their fellow-citizens, as their religion conferred upon them no civil immunities, but left them subject to all the lies and restraints, whatever they were, which could be justly imposed by the civil power on any other part of mankind. The limits of every duty must be determined by its reasons, and the only ones assigned here, or that can be assigned for submission to civil authority, are its tendency to do good ; wherever, therefore, this shall cease to be the case, submission becomes absurd, having no longer any rational view. But at what time this evil shall be judged to have arrived, or what remedy it may be proper to apply, Christianity does not decide, but leaves to be determined by an appeal to natural reason and right. By one of the strongest misconceptions in the world, when we are taught that Christianity does not bestow upon us any new rights, it has been thought to strip us of our old; which is just the same as it would be to conclude, because it did not first furnish us with hands or feet, it obliges us to cut them off. Under every form of government, that civil order which afTords protection to property and tranquillity to individuals must be obeyed ; and I have no doubt that before the revolution in France, they who are now its warmest admirers, had they lived there, would have yielded a quiet submission to its laws, as being conscious the social compact can only be considered as dissolved by an expression of the general will. In the mean time, they would have continued firm in avowing the principles of freedom, and by the spread of political knowledge have endeavoured to train and prepare the minds of their fellow-cuizens for accomplishing a change so desirable. It is not necessary to enter into a particular examination of the other texts adduced by Mr. in support of his sentiments, as this in Romans is by much the most to his purpose, and the remarks that have been made upon it may, with very little alteration, be applied to the rest. He refers us to the second chapter of the first Epistle of Peter. *' Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake ; "whether it be to the king as supreme, or unto governors as unto them that are sent by him, for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the praise of them that do well." Here it is sufficient to remark, all that can be inferred from this pass-ige is, that Christians are not to hold themselves exempt from the obligation of obedience on account of their 28 CHRISTIANITY CONSISTENT WITH religion, but are to respect legislation as far as it is found productive ■of benefit in social life. With still less propriety he urges the first of Timothy, " where in the second chapter we are exhorted to supplications, prayers, inter- cessions, and giving of thanks for all men, for kings, and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty." I am unacquainted with any who refuse a compliance with this apostolical admonition, except the nonjurors may be reckoned of this class, whose political sentiments are of a piece with our author's. While he pleads with so much eagerness for the duty of passive obedience, we are not, however, to suppose he wishes to extend it to all mankind. He admits, " that society, under the wisest regulations, will degenerate, and there will be periods when associated bodies must be resolved again into its first principles^ All resistance to authority, every revolution, is not in his own opinion criminal; it is Christians only who are never to have a share in these transactions, never to assert their rights. With what different sentiments did the apostle of the gentiles contemplate his character, when disdaining to accept a clandestine dismission from an unjust imprisonment, he felt a glow of indignant pride burn upon his cheek, and exclaimed, with a Roman energy, " 1 was free born !" 2d. Another reason which this author assigns for a blind deference ito civil authority is, that Christianity is " distinct from, and independent of human legislation.^^ This principle no Protestant Dissenter will be inclined to question, but instead of lending any support to the system of passive obedience, it will overturn it from its foundation ; for if religion be really distinct from and independent of human legislation, it cannot afford any standard to ascertain its limits ; as the moment it is applied to this purpose it ceases to be a thing distinct and independent. For example, it is not doubted that a Christian may lawfully engage in trade or commerce ; but if it be asked why his profession does not interfere with such an undertaking, the proper reply will be, religion is a thing distinct and independent. Should it be again inquired, why a Christian may become a trader, yet must not commit a theft, we should answer, that this latter action is not a thing distinct, or inde- pendent of religion, but falls immediately under its cognizance, as a violation of its laws. Thus it appears, that whatever portion of human conduct is really independent of religion is lawful for that very reason, and can then only become criminal or improper, when it is suffered to intrench upon more sacred or important duties. The truth is, between two institutions, such as civil government snd religion, which have a separate origin and end, no opposition can subsist but in the brain of a distempered enthusiast. The author's text confutes his doctrine, for had our Saviour annihi- lated our rights, he would have become a judge and divider over us, in the worst sense, if that could be said to be divided which is taken away. When any two institutions are affirmed to be distinct and in- dependent, it can only mean they do not interfere ; but that must be a A LOVE OF FREEDOM. 29 genius of no common size uho can infer from religion not interfering with the rights of mankind, that they cease to be, or that the patrimony over which our Lord drchned to exercise any authority he has scattered and destroyed. • 3d. Simihir to the last I have considered is that pretence for ex- cluding Christians from any concern in political affairs, taken from the conduct of our Saviour. Mr. tells us, that Christ uniformly waived interesting himself in the concerns of the then existing govern- ment ; and to the same purpose he afterward remarks, he always declined the functions of a civil magistrate. The most careless reader will remark, the whole weight of this argument rests upon a supposition that it is unlawful for a Christian to sustain any other character in civil life than that in which our Saviour literally appeared ; a notion as extravagant as was ever nourished in the brain of the wildest fanatic. Upon this principle he must have gone through such a succession of offices, and engaged in such an endless variety of undertakings, that in place of thiny-three years, he needed to have lived thirty-three centuries. On this ground the profession of physic is unlawful for a Christian, because our Lord never set up a dispensary ; and that of law, because he never pleaded at the bar. Next to the weakness of advancing such absurdity is that of confuting it. 4th. The author, in proof of his political tenets, appeals to the de- votional feelings of his hearers. " I ask you," says he, " who make conscience of entering into your closets, and shutting your doors, and praying to your Father which seeth in secret ; what subjects interest you most then ? Are not factious passions hushed ; the undue heat you felt in political disputation remembered with sorrow ?" He must be at a great loss for argument who Avill have recourse to such loose and flimsy declamation. When engaged in devout admiration of the Supreme Being, every other object will be lost in the comparison ; but this, though the noblest employment of the mind, was never intended to shut out all other concerns. The affections which unite us to the world have a large demand upon us, and must succeed in their turn. If every thing is to be deemed criminal that does not interest the attention in the very moment of worship, political concerns are not the only ones to be abandoned, but every undertaking of a temporal nature, all labour and ingenuity must cease. Science herself must shroud her light. These are notions rather to be laughed at than confuted, for their extravagance will correct itself. Every attempt that has been made to rear religion on the ruins of nature, or to render it subversive of the economy of life, has hitherto proved unsuccessful, while the institutions that have flowed from it are now scarcely regarded in any other light than as humiliating monuments of human weakness and folly. The natural vigour of the mind, when it has once been opened by knowledge, and turned towards greHt and interesting objects, will always overpower the illusions of fanaticism ; or, could iVIr, -'s principles be carried into effect, we should soon behold men returning again to the state of a savage, and a n;ore than monkish barbarity and 30 CHRISTIANITY CO.NSISTENT WITH ignorance would overspread the earth. That abstraction from the world it is his purpose to recommend is in truth as inconsistent with the nature of religion as with the state and condition of man ; for Christianity does not propose to t:ike us out of the world, but to pre- serve us from the pollutions which are in it. It is easy to brand a passion for liberty with the odious epithet of faction ; no two things, however, can be more opposite. Faction is a combination of a few to oppress the liberties of many ; the love of free- dom is the impulse of an enlightened and presiding spirit, ever intent upon the welfare of the community or body to which it belongs, and ready to give the alarm when it beholds any unlawful conspiracy formed, whether it be of rulers or of subjects, with a design to oppress it. Every tory upholds a faction ; every whig, as far as he is sincere and well-informed, is a friend to the equal liberties of mankind. Absurd as the preacher's appeal must appear on such an occasion to the devout feelings of his hearers, we have no need to decline it. In those solemn moments factious passions cannot indeed be too much hushed, but that warmth which animates the patriot, which glowed in the breast of a Sidney or a Hampden, was never chilled or diminished, we may ven- ture to affirm, in its nearest approaches to the uncreated splendour ; and if it mingled with their devotion at all, could not fail to infuse into it a fresh force and vigour by drawing them into a closer assimilation to that great Being who appears under the character of the avenger of the oppressed and the friend and protector of the human race. 5th. Lastly, the author endeavours to discredit the principles of freedom by holding them up as intimately connected with the Unitarian heresy. " We are not to be surprised," he says, " if men who vacate the rule of faith in Jesus Christ should be defective in deference and in obedient regards to men who arc raised to offices of superior in- fluence for the purposes of civil order and public good." The persons he has in view are the Unitarians, and that my reader may be in full possession of this most curious argument, it may be proper to inform him that a Unitarian is a person who believes Jesus Christ had no existence till he appeared on our earth, while a trinitarian maintains that he existed with the Father from all eternity. What possible connexion can he discern between these opinions and the subject of government ? In order to determine whether the supreme power should be vested in king, lords, and commons as in England, in an assembly of nobles as in Venice, or in a house of representatives as in America or France, must we first decide upon the person of Christ ? I should imagine we might as well apply to astronomy first, to learn whether the earth flat- tens at the poles. He explains what he means by vacating the rule of faith in Christ when he charges the Unitarians with a partial denial at least of the inspiration of the Scripture, particularly the epistles of St. Paul. But, however clear the inspiration of the Scriptures may be, as no one pleads for the inspiration of civil governors, the deference which is due to the first, as coming from God, can be no reason for an unlimited submission to the latter. Yet this is Mr. ^s argument, A LOVE OF FREEDOM. 81 and it runs thus : Every opposition to Scripture is criminal, because it is inspired, and therefore every resistance to temporal rulers is crimi- nal, though they are not inspired. The number of passages in Paul's epistles which treat of civil government is small, the principal of them have been examined, and whether they are inspired or not has not the remotest relation to the question before us. The inspiration of an author adds weight to his sentiments, but makes no alteration in his meaning, and unless Mr. can show that Paul inculcates unlimited submission, the belief of his inspiration can yield no advantage to his cause. Among those parties of Christians who have maintained the inspiration of the Scrip, tures in its utmost extent, the number of such as have inferred from them the doctrine of passive obedience has been extremely small ; it is therefore ridiculous to impute the rejection of this tenet by Unita- rians to a disbelief of plenary inspiration. It behooves Mr. to point out, if he is able, any one of tlie Unitarians who ever imagined that Paul means to recommend unlimited obedience ; for till that is the case it is plain their political opinions cannot have arisen from any contempt of that apostle's authority. As there is no foundation in the nature of things for imagining any alliance between heretical tenets and the principles of freedom, this notion is equally void of support from fact or history. Were the socinian sentiments, in particular, productive of any peculiar impatience under the restraints of government, this effect could not fail of having made its appearance on their first rise in Poland, while their influence was fresh and vigorous ; but nothing of this nature occurred, nor was any such reproach cast upon them. That sect in England which has been always most conspicuous for the love of freedom have for the most part held sentiments at the greatest remove from socinianism that can be imagined. The seeds of those political principles which broke out with such vigour in the reign of Charles the First, and have since given rise to the denomination of whigs, were sown in the latter end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth by the hand of the puritans, among whom the unitarian doctrine was then iilterly unknown. The dis- senters, descended from those illustrious ancestors, and inheriting their spirit, have been foremost in defence of liberty, not only or chiefly of late, since the spread of the socinian doctrine, but before that system had gained any footing among us. The knowledge and study of the Scriptures, far from favouring the pretensions of despotism, have almost ever diminished it, and been attended with a proportional increase of freedom. The union of Prot- estant princes preserved the liberties of the Germanic body, when they were in danger of being overwhelmed by the victorious arm of Charles the Fifth ; yet a veneration for the Scriptures, at a time when they had almost fallen into oblivion, and an appeal to their decisions in all points, was the grand characteristic of the new religion. If we look into Turkey we shall find the least of that impatience under restraints which Mr. laments of any place in the world, though Paul aud Lis epistles are not much studied there. 32 CHRISTIANITY CONSISTENT WITH There are not wanting reasons which at first view might induce us to conclude unitarianism was less favourable to the love of freedom than almost any other system of religious belief. If any party of Christians were ever free from the least tincture of enthusiasm, it is the Unitarian : yet that passion has by every philosopher been judged friendly to liberty; and to its influence, though perhaps improperly, some of its most distinguished exertions have been ascribed. Hume and Bolingbroke, who were atheists, leaned towards arbitrary power. Owen, Howe, Milton, Baxter, some of the most devout and venerable characters that ever appeared, were wannly attached to liberty, and held sentiments on the subject of government as free and unfettered as Dr. Priestley. Thus every pretence for confounding the attachment to freedom with the sentiments of a religious party is most abundantly confuted both from reason and from fact. The zeal Unitarians have displayed in defence of civil and religious liberty is the spirit natural to a minority who are well aware they are viewed by the ecclesiastical powers with an unparalleled malignity and rancour. Let the dis- senters at large remember they too are a minority, a great minority, and that they must look for their security from the same quarter, not from the compliments of bishops or presents from maids of honour.* To abandon principles which the best and most enlightened men have in all ages held sacred, which the dissenters in particular have rendered themselves illustrious by defending, which have been sealed and consecrated by the blood of our ancestors, for no other reason than that the Unitarians chance to maintain them, would be a weakness of which a child might be ashamed ! Whoever may think fit to take up the gauntlet in the socinian controversy will have my warmest good wishes ; but let us not employ those arms against each other which were given us for our common defence. SECTION IV. On the Test Act. Amid all the wild eccentricities which, abounding in every part of this extraordinary publication, naturally diminish our wonder at any thing such a writer may advance, I confess I am surprised at his declaring his wish for the continuance of the Test Act. This law, enacted in the latter end of the reign of Charles the Second to secure the nation from popery when it stood upon the brink of that precipice, is continued, now that the danger no longer exists which first occasioned it, for the express purpose of preserving the church from the inroads of dissenters. That church, it must be remembered, existed for ages before it received any such protection ; yet it is now the vogue to mag- * Some of my readers perhaps need to be informed that I here allude to Mr. Martin, who, for similar services to those Mr. is now performing, has been considerably caressed by certain bishops, who hare condescended to notice and to Tisit him. I think we do not read that Judas had any acquaintance with the high-priests till he came to transact business with them. A LOVE OF FREEDOM. 38 nify its importance to that degree that one would imagine it was its sole prop, whose removal would draw the whole fabric after it, or at least make it totter to its base. Whether these apprehensions were really entertained by the clergy who gave the signal for the commence- ment of hostilities on a late occasion, or whether they were only im- pelled by that illiberal tincture and fixed antipathy to all who differ from them which hath ever marked their character, may be doubted ; but to behold a dissenting minister joining with them in an unnatural warfare against his brethren is a phenomenon so curious thai it prompts us to inquire into its cause. Let us hear his reasons. He and many others were convinced, lie tells us, " that some of the persons who applied for the repeal were influenced by enmity against the doctrinal articles of the established church, and they could not sacrifice their pious regard to truth, though in a church they had separated from, to the policy of men who with respect to God our Saviour only consult how they may cast him down from his excellency." When we hear the clergy exclaim that their church is in danger, we pretty well under- stand what they mean ; they speak broad, as Mr. Burke says, and intend no more than that its emoluments are endangered ; but when a serious dissenter expresses his pious regard to the doctrines of the church, it is the truth of those articles he must be supposed to have in view. Let us consider for a moment what advantage the Test Act is capable of yielding them. All those who qualify for civil offices by a submission to this law consist of two classes of people : they are either persons who are attached to the articles of the church, from whom therefore no danger could accrue, or they are persons who have signi- fied their assent to doctrines which they inwardly disapprove, and who have qualified themselves for trust by a solemn act of religious decep- tion. It is this latter class alone, it should be remembered, whom the Test Act can at all influence, and thus the only security this celebrated law can afford the articles of the church is founded in a flagrant viola- tion of truth in the persons who become their guarantees. Every attempt that has been made to uphold religion by the civil arm has reflected disgrace upon its authors ; but of all that are recorded in the history of the world, perhaps this is the most absurd in its principle and the least effectual in its operation. For the truth of sacred mys- teries in religion, it appeals to the corruptest principles of the human heart, and to those only ; for no one can be tempted by the Test Act to profess an attachment to the doctrines of the church till he has been already allured by the dignity or emolument of a civil office. By com- pelling all who exercise any function in the state, from the person who aspires to its highest distinctions to those who fill the meanest offices in it, to profess that concurrence in religious opinions which is known never to exist, it is adapted beyond any other human invention to spread among all orders of men a contempt for sacred institutions, to enthrone hypocrisy, and reduce deception to a system ! The truth of any set of opinions can only be perceived by evidence ; but what evi- dence can any one derive from the mere mechanical action of receiving bread and wine at the hands of a parish priest ? He who believes thera Vol. n.— C 34 CHRISTIANITY CONSISTENT WITH already needs riot to be initiated by any such ceremony ; and by what magic touch those simple elements are to convert the unbeliever, our author, who is master of so many secrets, has not condescended to ex- plain. He will not pretend to impute the first spread of these doctrines in the infancy of the Christian religion or their revival at the Reforma- tion to any such means, since he imagines he can trace them in the New Testament. It is strange if that evidence which was powerful enough to introduce them where they were unknown is not sufficient to uphold them where they are already professed and believed. At least, the Test Act, it must be confessed, has yielded them no advan- tage, for they have been controverted with more acrimony and admitted by a smaller number of persons since that law was enacted, than in any period preceding. Were the removal of this test to overthrow the establishment itself, a consequence at the same time in the highest degree improbable, the articles of the church, if they are true, would remain unendangered, their evidence would continue unimpaired, an appeal to the inspired writings from which they profess to be derived would be open, the liberty of discussion would be admitted in as great an extent as at present ; this difference only would occur, that an attachment to them would no longer be suspected of flowing from corrupt and sinister motives. They would cease to be with the clergy the ladder of pro- motion, the cant of the pulpit, the ridicule of the schools. The futility of this or any other law, as a security to religious doctrines, may be discerned from this single reflection, that in the national church its own articles have, for a length of time, been either treated with con- tempt, or maintained with little sincerity and no zeal ; while among the dissenters, where they have had no such aids, they have found a congenial soil, and continue to flourish with vigour. On the political complexion of this test, as it does not fall so properly within my present view, I shall content myself with remark- ing, that harmless as it may appear at first sight, it carries in it the seeds of all the persecutions and calamities which have ever been sus- tained on a religious account. It proscribes, not an individual who has been convicted of a crime, but a whole party, as unfit to be trusted by the community to which they belong ; and if this stigma can be justly fixed on any set of men, it ought not to stop here, or anywhere, short of the actual excision of those who are thus considered as rotten and incurable members of the political body. In annexing to religious speculation the idea of political default, the principle of this law would justify every excess of severity and rigour. If we are the persons it supposes, its indulgence is weak and contemptible ; if we are of a different description, the nature of its pretensions is so extraordinary as to occasion serious alarm, and call aloud for its repeal. Mr. , indeed, calls this and similar laws a restraint very prudently imposed upon those who dissent from the established religion.* This restraint, however, is no less than a political annihilation, de- barring them, though their talents were ever so splendid, from mingling * Page 6. A LOVE OF FREEDOM. 36 in the counsels, or possessing any share in the administration of their country. With that naiural rcHsh for absurdity which characterizes this author, he imagines they have justly incurred this evil for dissent- ing from an erroneous religion. He tells us in the course of his sermon,* that the grand " principle of separation from the church lies in the unworldly nature of onr Saviour's kingdom." This reason for separation implies, that any attempt to blend worldly interests or policy with the constitution of a church is improper ; but how could this be done more effectually than by rendering the profession of its articles a preliminary step to every kind of civil pre-eminence 1 Yet this abuse, which in his own estima- tion is so enormous as to form the great basis of separation, he wishes to perpetuate ; and, all things considered, hopes " that which is at rest will not be disturbed." In another part of his discourse,t he asks what temporalities has the church of Christ to expect ? It is the mother of harlots which says, " I sit a queen, and shall see no sor- row." Would any one imagine this was the language of a man who, in pleading for a Test Act, has rested the support of his creed on those very temporalities he affects so much to disdain, and has committed his religion to the arms of that mother of harlots to be reared and nourished ! When speaking of the Test Act in the seventh page of his discourse, he thus expresses himself: "Surely the cross of Christ ought not to be insulted by persons eager to press into the temple of Mammon." Who could treat it with more poignant severity than is couched in this declaration ? yet this is the language of a person who desires its continuance. In truth, his representations on this subject are pregnant with such contradictions, and rise above each other in so singular a gradation of absurdity, as will not be easily conceived, and perhaps hath scarce ever been equalled. At the very outset of his sermon he declares, " Whenever the gospel is secularized it is debased and misrepresented, and in proportion to the quantity of foreign infu- sions is the efficacy of this saving health diminished." But human ingenuity would be at a loss to contrive a method of secularizing the gospel more completely than by rendering it the common passport of all who aspire to civil distinctions. I am really weary of exposing the wild and extravagant incoherence of such a reasoner. From a man wIk), professing to be the apologist of his party, betrays its in- terests, and exhibits its most illustrious members to reproach ; who, himself a dissenter, applauds the penalties which the hierarchy has inflicted a '■^prudent restraint;'''' who with the utmost poignance cen- sures a law which he solemnly invokes the legislature to perpetuate ; and proposes to secure the truths of religion by the " profanation of its sacraments,"^ by " debasing the gospel," and " insulting the cross ;" any thing may be expected but consistence and decency. When such an author assures us he was not impelled by vanity to publish,'^ we may easily give him credit ; but he should remember, though it may be a virtue to subdue vanity, it is base to extinguish shame. The tear which he tells us started from the eyes of his audience, we will ♦ Page 35. I Page 26. J Page 8. $ Page 6. C2 36 CHRISTIANITY CONSISTENT WITH hope, for their honour, was an effusion of regret natural to his friends on hearing him deHver sentiments which they considered as a disgrace to himself, and a calumny on his brethren. His affecting to pour con- tempt upon Dr. Price, whose talents and character were revered by all parties, and to hold him up as the corrupter of the dissenters, will not fail to awaken the indignation of every generous mind. Whether they were greater friends to their country whose pride and oppression scat- tered the flames of discord across the Atlantic, poured desolation into the colonies, dismembered the empire, and involved us in millions of debt, or the man who with a warning voice endeavoured to avert those calamities, posterity will decide. He gives us a pompous enumeration* of the piety, learning, and talents of a large body of his brethren who concur with him in a dis- approbation of the theological and political tenets of the Unharians. The weakness of mingling them together has been shown already ; but if these great and eminent men, whom the world never heard of before, possess that zeal for their religion they pretend, let them meet their opponents on the open field of controversy, where they may dis- play their talents and prowess to somewhat more advantage than in skulking behind a consecrated altar. ■ There are many particulars in the address and sermon of an extra- ordinar)' complexion which I have not noticed at all, as it was not my intention to follow the author step by step, but rather to collect his scat- tered representations into some leading points of view. For the same reason I make no remarks on his barbarous imagery or his style, every- where incoherent and incorrect, sometimes indecent, which cannot fail of disgusting every reader of taste. In a rude daubing peculiar to himself, where in ridicule of Dr. Priestley he has grouped together a foreigner, a ship, and cargo of drugs, he has unfortunately sketched his own likeness, except in the circumstance of the ship, with tolerable accuracy ; for, without the apology of having been shipped into Eng- land, he is certainly a foreigner in his native tongue, and his publica- tion will be allowed to be a drug. Had he known to apply the remark with which his address com- mences, on the utility of accommodating instruction to the exigence of times, he would have been aware that this is not a season for drawing off the eyes of mankind from political objects. They were in fact never turned towards them with equal ardour, and we may venture to affirm they will long continue to take that direction. An attention to the political aspect of the world is not now the fruit of an idle curiosity, or the amusement of a dissipated and frivolous mind, but is awakened and kept alive by occurrences as various as they are extraordinary. There are times when the moral world seems to stand still; there are others when it seems impelled towards its goal with an accelerated force. The present is a period more interesting perhaps than any which has been known in the whole flight of time. The scenes of Providence thicken upon us so fast, and are shifted with so strange a rapidity, as if the great drama of the world were drawing to a * Paga 6^ A LOVE OF FREEDOM. 37 close.* Events have taken place of late, and revolutions have been ef- fected, which, had they been foretold a very few years ago, would have been viewed as visionary and extravagant ; and their influence is yet far from being spent. Europe never presented such a spectacle before, and it is worthy of being contemplated with the profoundest attention by all its inhabitants. The empire of darkness and of despotism has been smitten with a stroke which has sounded through the universe. When we see whole kingdoms, after reposing for centuries on the lap of their rulers, start from their slumber, the dignity of man rising up from depression, and tyrants trembling on their thrones, who can remain entirely indiflerent, or fail to turn his eye towards a theatre so august and extraordinary ! These are a kind of throes and struggles of nature to which it would be a sullenness to refuse our sympathy. Old foundations are breaking up ; new edilices are rearing. Institu- tions which have been long held in veneration as the most sublime refinements of human wisdom and policy, which age hath cemented and confirmed, which power hath supported, which eloquence hath conspired to embellish and opulence to enrich, are falling fast into decay. New prospects are opening on every side, of such amazing variety and extent as to stretch farther than the eye of the most enlightened observer can reach. Some beneficial effects appear to have taken place already, suflScient to nourish our most sanguine hope of benefits much more extensive. The mischief and folly of wars begin to be understood, and that mild and liberal system of policy adopted which has ever indeed been the object of prayer to the humane and the devout, but has hitherto remained utterly unknown in the cabinets of princes. As the mind naturally yields to the impression of objects which it contemplates often, we need not wonder if, amid events so extraordinary, the human char- acter itself should appear to be altering and improving apace. That fond attachment to ancient institutions, and blind submission to opinions already received, which has ever checked the growth of improvement, and drawn on the greatest benefactors of mankitid danger or neglect, is giving way to a spirit of bold and fearless investigation. Man seems to be becoming more erect and independent. He leans more on himself, less on his fellow-creatures. He begins to feel a con- sciousness in a higher degree of personal dignity, and is less enamoured of artificial distinctions. There is some hope of our beholding that simplicity and energy of character which marks his natural state, blended with the humanity, the elegance, and improvement of polished society. The events which have already taken place, and the further changes they forbode, will open to the contemplative of every character innu- merable sources of reflection. To the philosopher they present many new and extraordinary facts, Avhere his penetration will find ample scope in attempting to discover their cause, and to predict their efiecta. * This glowing picture, as accurately descriptive of recent eTcnts as of those It was Intended to portray, mighi tempt us almost to fancy that, after the revolution ofa cycle of forty years, time tuii brought ua bock to the same suie oC thiogs.— Eo. 38 CHRISTIANITY CONSISTENT WITH FREEDOM. He will have an opportunity of viewing mankind in an interesting situation, and of tracing the progress of opinion through channels it has rarely flowed in before. The politician will feel his attention powerfully awakened, on seeing new maxims of policy introduced, new institutions established, and such a total alteration in the ideas of a great part of the world, as will oblige him to study the art of gov- ernment, as it were, afresh. The devout mind will behold in these momentous changes the finger of God, and discerning in them the dawn of that glorious period in which wars will cease and antichris- tian tyranny shall fall, will adore that unerring wisdom whose secret operation never fails to conduct all human affairs to their proper issue, and impels the great actors on that troubled theatre to fulfil, when they least intend it, the counsels of Heaven, and the predictions of its prophets. AN APOLOGY FOR THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS, AND FOR GENERAL LIBERTY: TO WHICH ARE PREFIXED, REMARKS ON BISHOP HORSLEY'S SERMON, Preached on the 30/ A January, 1793< [Published in 1793.] ADVERTISEMENT TO THE THIRD EDITION. Since this pamphlet was first published, the principles it alms to support have received confirmation from such a train of disastrous events, that it might have been hoped we should have learned those lessons from misfortunes which reason had failed to impress. Unin- structed by our calamities, we still persist in an impious attack on the liberties of France, and are eager to take our part in the great drama of crimes which is acting on the continent of Europe. Meantime the violence and injustice of the internal administration keeps pace with our iniquities abroad. Liberty and truth are silenced. An unrelenting system of prosecution prevails. The cruel and humiliating sentence passed upon Mr. Muir and Mr. Palmer, men of unblemished morals and of the purest patriotism, the outrages committed on Dr. Priestley, and his intended removal to America, are events which will mark the latter end of the eighteenth century with indelible reproach. But what has liberty to expect from a minister who has the audacity to assert the king's right to land as many foreign troops as he pleases without the previous consent of parliament ? If this doctrine be true, the boasted equilibrium of the constitution, all the barriers which the wisdom of our ancestors have opposed to the encroachments of arbi- trary power, are idle, ineflectual precautions. For we have only to suppose for a moment an inclination in the royal breast to overturn our liberties, and of what avail is the nicest internal arrangement against a foreign force? Our constitution, on this principle, is the absurdest system that was ever conceived ; pretending liberty for its object, yet providing no security against the great antagonist and destroyer ef liberty, — the employment of military power by the chief magistrate. Let a foreign army be introduced into this or any other country, and quartered upon the subject without his consent, and what is there wanting, if such were the design of the prince, to complete »'ie subjec- tion of that country ? Will armed foreigners be overaw*^ by written laws or unwritten customs, by the legal limitations of power, the paper lines of deraarkation ? But Mr. Pitt contends, that though the sovereign may land foreign troops at his pleasure, he cannot subsist them without the aid of parliament. He may overrun his dominions with a mercenary army, it seems, but after he has subdued his subjects, he is compelled to have recourse to them for supplies. What a happy contrivance ! Unfortunately, however, it is foimd that princes with the unlimited command of armies, have hit upon a nearer and more efficacious 42 APOLOGY FOR THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. method of raising supplies than by an act of parh'ament. But it is needless any further to expose the effrontery, or detect the sophistry of this shameless apostate. The character of Pitt is written in sun- beams. A veteran in frauds while in the bloom of youth, betraying first, and then persecuting his earliest friends and connexions, falsifying every promise, and violating every political engagement, ever making the fairest professions a prelude to the darkest actions, punishing with the utmost rigour the publisher of the identical paper he himself had circulated,* are traits in the conduct of Pitt which entitle him to a fatal pre-eminence in guilt. The quahties of this man balance in an extra- ordinary manner, and sustain each other : the influence of his station, the extent of his enormities, invest him with a kind of splendour, and the contempt we feel for his meanness and duplicity is lost in the dread of his machinations, and the abhorrence of his crimes. Too long has he insulted the patience of his countrymen ; nor ought we, when we observe the indifference with which the iniquities of Pitt's administration are viewed, to reproach the Romans for tamely submitting to the tyranny of Caligula or Domitian. We had fondly hoped a mild philosophy was about to diffuse over the globe the triumph of liberty and peace. But alas ! these hopes are fled. The continent presents little but one wide picture of deso- lation, misery, and crimes : on the earth distress of nations and per- plexity, meris hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are conning on the earth. That the seeds of public convulsions are sown in every country of Europe (our own not excepted) it were vain to deny, seeds which, without the wisest precautions and the most conciliating councils, will break out, it is to be feared, in the overthrow of all governments. How this catastrophe may be averted, or how, should that be impossi- ble, its evils may be mitigated and diminished, demands the deepest consideration of every European statesman. The ordinary routine of ministerial chicanery is quite unequal to the task. A philosophic comprehension of mind, which, leaving the beaten road of politics, shall adapt itself to new situations and profit by the vicissitudes of opinion, equally removed from an attachment to antiquated forms and useless innovations, capable of rising above the emergency of the moment to the most remote consequences of a transaction ; combining the past, the present, and the future, and knowing how to defend with firmness, or concede with dignity ; these are the qualities which the situation of Europe renders indispensable. It would be a mockery of our present ministry to ask whether they possess those qualities. "With respect to the following Apology for the Freedom of the Press, the author begs leave to claim the reader's indulgence to its numer- ous imperfections, and hopes he will recollect, as an excuse for the warmth of his expressions, it is an eulogium on a dead friend. * Mr. Holt, a printer, at Newark, is now imprisoned in Newgate for two years, for reprinting ■verbatim. An Address to tlie People on Reform, which was sauetioaed for certain, and probaWy svrjtten, by ihe Duke of Richmond and Mr. Pitt. I ORIGINAL PREFACE. The accidental detention of the following pamphlet in the press longer than was expected gave me an opportunity before it was pub- lished of seeing Bishop Horsley's Sermon, preached before the House of Lords, on the 30th of January ; and as its contents are relevant to my subject, a few remarks upon it may not be improper. His lordship sets out with a severe censure of that '■'■freedom of dispute''' on matters of " such high importance as the origin of government, and the authority of sovereigns " in whi^h he laments it has been the "/&% of this coun- tryfor several years past" to indulge. If his lordship has not inquired into those subjects himself, he can with little propriety pretend to decide in so imperious and peremptory a manner ; unless it be a privilege of his office to dogmatize without examination, or he has discovered some nearer road to truth than that of reasoning and argument. It seems a favourite point witli a certain description of men to stop the progress of inquiry, and throw mankind back into the darkness of the middle ages, from a persuasion that ignorance will augment their power, as objects look largest in a mist. There is in reality no other foundation for that alarm which the bishop expresses. Whatever is not compre- hended under revelation falls under the inspection of reason ; and since from the whole course of Providence, it is evident that all political events and all the revolutions of government are effected by the instrumentality of men, there is no room for supposing them too sacred to be submitted to the human faculties. The more minds there are employed in tracing their principles and effects, the greater probability will there be of the science of civil policy, as well as every other, attaining to perfection. Bishop Horsley, determined to preserve the character of an original, presents us with a new set of political principles, and endeavours to place the exploded doctrine of passive obedience and non-resistance upon a new foundation. By a curious distinction between the ground of authority and of obedience, he rests the former on human compact, the latter on divine obligation. " It is easy to understand" he says, " that the principle of the private citizen^s submission must be quite a distinct thing from the principle of the sovereign'' s public title. And for this plain reason : The principle of submission to bind the conscience xf every individual must be something universally knou-n." He then proceeds to inform us, that the kingly title in England is founded on ihe act of settlement ; but that as thousands and tens of thousands 44 APOLOGY FOR of the people have never heard of that act, the principle which compels their allegiance must be something distinct from it, with which they may all be acquainted. In this reasoning, he evidently confounds the obligation of an individual to submit to the existing authority with that of the community collectively considered. For any particular jiamher of persons to set themselves by force to oppose the established prac- tice of a state is a plain violation of the laws of morality, as it would be productive of the utmost disorder ; and no government could stand were it permitted to individuals to counteract the general will, of Avhich, in ordinary cases, legal usages are the interpreter. In the worst state of political society, if a people have not sufficient wisdom or courage to correct its evils and assert their liberty, the attempt of individuals to force improvements upon them is a presumption which merits the severest punishment. Social order would be inevitably dissolved, if every man declined a practical acquiescence in that political regulation which he did not personally approve. The duty of submission is, in this light, founded on principles which hold under every government, and are plain and obvious. But the principle which attaches a people to their allegiance, collectively considered, must exactly coincide with the title to authority ; as must be evident from the very meaning of the term authority, which, as distinguished from force, signifies a right to demand obedience. Authority and obedience are correlative terms, and conse- quently in all respects correspond, and are commensurate with each other. " The divine right^^ his lordship says, '■'■of the frst magistrate in every polity to the citizen's obedience is not of that sort which it were hi^h-treason to claim for the sovereign of this country. It is a right which in no country can he denied, without the highest of all treasons. The denial of it were treason against the paramount authority of God." To invest any human power with these high epithets is ridiculous at least, if not impious. The right of a prince to the obedience of his subjects, wherever it exists, may be called divine, because we know the Divine Being is the patron of justice and order; but in that sense, the authority of a petty constable is equally divine ; nor can the term be applied with any greater propriety to supreme than to subordinate magistrates. As to " submission being among the general rules which proceed from the tcill of God, and have been impressed upon the con- science of every man by the original constitution of the world,''^ nothing more is comprehended under this pomp of words than that submission is, for the most part, a duty — a sublime and interesting discovery ! The minds of princes are seldom of the firmest texture ; and they who fill their heads with the magnificent chimera of divine right prepare a victim, where they intend a god. Some species of government is essential to the well-being of mankind ; submission to some species of government is consequently a duty ; but what kind of government shall be appointed, and to what limits submission shall extend, are mere human questions, to be adjusted by mere human reason and contrivance. As the natural consequence of divine right, his lordship proceeds to inculcate the doctrine of passive obedience and non-resistance, iu the THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. 45 most unqualified terms ; assuming it as a principle to be acted upon under governments the most oppressive, in which he endeavours to shelter himself under the authority of Paul. The apostolic exhorta- tion, as addressed to a few individuals, and adapted to the local cir- cumstances of Christians at that period, admits an easy solution ; but to imagine it prescribes the duly of the Romnn Empire, and is intended to subject millions to the capricious tyranny of one man, is a reflection as well on the character of Paul as on Christianity itself. On principles of reason, the only way to determine the agreement of any thing with the will of God is to consider its influence on the happiness of society ; so that in this view, the question of passive obedience is reduced to a simple issue : Is it best for the human race that every tyrant and usurper be submitted to without check or con- trol ? It ought likewise to be remembered, that if the doctrine of passive obedience be true, princes should be taught it, and instructed, that to whatever excesses of cruelty and caprice they proceed, they may expect no resistance on the part of the people. If this maxim appear to be conducive to general good, we may fairly presume it concurs with the will of the Deity ; but if it appear pregnant with the most mischievous consequences, it must disclaim such support. From the known perfection of God, we conclude he wills the happiness of man- kind ; and that though he condescends not to interpose miraculously, that kind of civil polity is most pleasing in his eye which is produc- tive of the greatest felicity. On a comparison of free with arbitrary governments, we perceive the former are distinguished from the latter by imparting a much greater share of happiness to those who live under them ; and this in a manner too uniform to be imputed to chance or secret causes. He who wills the end must will the means which ascertain it. His lord- ship endeavours to diminish the dread of despotic government, by observing, that in its worst state it is attended with more good than ill, and that the " end of government under all its abuses is generally answered by it.'''' Admitting this to be true, it is at best but a consola- tion proper to be applied where there is no remedy, and affords no reason why we should not mitigate political as well as other evils, when it lies in our power. We endeavour to correct the diseases of the eye, or of any other organ, though the malady be not such as renders it useless. The doctrine of passive obedience is so repugnant to the genuine feelings of human nature, that it can never be completely acted on ; a secret dread that popular vengeance will awake, and nature assert her rights, imposes a restraint which the most determined despotism is not able to shake ofl*. The rude reason of the multitude may be perplexed, but the sentiments of the heart are not easily perverted. In adjusting the different parts of his theory, the learned bishop appears a good deal embarrassed. " It will be readily admitted" he says (p. 9), " that of all sovereigns, none reign by so fair and just a title as those who derive their claim from some such public act {as the act of settlement) of the nation which they govern.''^ That there are 4d APOLOGY FOR different degrees in justice, and even in divine right (which his lor(J- ship declares all sovereigns possess), is a very singular idea. Common minds would be ready to imagine, however various the modes of injustice may be, justice were a thing absolute and invariable, nor would they conceive how " a divine right, a right the denial of which is high-treason against the authority of God" can be increased by the act of a nation. But this is not all. It is no just inference (he tells us) that the obli- gation upon the private citizen to submit himself to the authority thus raised arises wholly from the act of the people conferring it, or from their compact with the person on whom it is conferred. But if the sovereign derives his claim from this act of the nation, how comes it that the obligation of the people to submit to his claim does not spring from the same act ? Because " in all these cases," he affirms, " the act of the people is only the means which Providence employs to advance the new sovereign to his station." In the hand of the Supreme Being, the whole agency of men may be considered as an instrument ; but to make it appear that the right of dominion is independent of the people, men must be shown to be instruments in political affairs in a more absolute sense than ordinary. A divine interposition of a more imme- diate kind must be shown, or the mere consideration of God's being the original source of all power will be a weak reason for absolute submission. Anarchy may have power as well as despotism, and is equally a link in the great chain of causes and effects. It is not a little extraordinary that Bishop Horsley, the apologist of tyranny, the patron of passive obedience, should affect to admire the British constitution, whose freedom was attained by a palpable violation of the principles for which he contends. He will not say the barons at Runnemede acted on his maxims in extorting the Magna Charta from King John, or in demanding its confirmation from Henry the Third. If he approves of their conduct he gives up his cause, and is compelled at least to confess the principles of passive obedience were not true at that time ; if he disapproves of their conduct, he must, to be consistent, reprobate the restraints which it imposed on kingly power. The limitations of monarchy, which his lordship pretends to applaud, were effected by resistance ; the freedom of the British con- stitution flowed from a departure from passive obedience, and was therefore stained with high-treason '■'■against the authority of God." To these conclusions he must inevitably come, unless he can point out something peculiar to the spot of Runnemede or to the reign of King John, which confines the exception to the general doctrine of submis- sion to that particular time and place. With whatever colours the advocates of passive obedience may varnish their theories, they must of necessity be enemies to the British constitution. Its spirit they detest ; its corruptions they cherish ; and if at present they affect a zeal for its preservation, it is only because they despair of any form of govern- ment being erected in its stead which will give equal permanence to abuses. Afraid to destroy it at once, they take a malignant pleasure in seeing it waste by degrees under the pressure of internal malady. Whatever bears the semblance of reasoning in Bishop Horsley's *rHE FREEDOM OP TtiE PHESS. 4^ discourse will be found, I trust, to have received a satisfactory answer ; but to animadvert with a becoming severity on the temper it displays is a less easy tasii. To render him the justice he deserves in that respect would demand all the fierceness of his character. We owe him an acknowledgment for the frankness with which he avows his decided preference of the clergy of France to dissenters in England, — a sentiment wc have often suspected, but have seldom had the satisfaction of seeing openly professed before, " None,'" he asserts, " aC this season, are more entitled to our offices! of love than those with whom the difference is wide in points of doctrine, discipline, and external rites ; those venerable exiles, the prelates and clergy of the fallen church of France. Far be it from me to intercept the compassion of the humane from the unhappy of any nation, tongue, or people ; but the extreme tenderness he professes for the fallen church of France is well contrasted by his malignity towards dissenters. Bishop Horsley is a man of sense : and though doctrine, discipline, and external rites comprehend the whole of Christianity, his tender, sympathetic heart is superior to prejudice, and never fails to recognise in a persecutor a friend and a brother. Admirable consistency in a Protestant bishop, to lament over the fall of that antichrist whose over-- throw is represented by unerring inspiration as an event the most splendid and happy ! It is a shrewd presumption against the utility of religious establishments that they too often become seats of intole- rance, instigators to persecution, nurseries of Bonners and of Horsleys* His lordship closes his invective against dissenters, and Dr. Priestley in particular, by presenting a prayer in the spirit of an indictment. We are happy to hear of his lordship's prayers, and are obliged to him for remembering us in them ; but should be more sanguine in our ex- pectation of benefit if we were not informed the prayers of the righteous only avail mu(rh. " Miserable men,''"' he tells us, we " are in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.'''' With respect to the first, we must have plenty of that article, since he has distilled his own ; and if the bonds of iniquity are not added, it is only because they are not within the reach of his mighty malice. It is time to turn from this disgusting picture of sanctimonious hypo- crisy and priestly insolence to address a word to the reader on the following pamphlet. The political sentiments of Dr. Horsley are in truth of too little consequence in themselves to engage a moment's curiosity, and deserve attention only as they indicate the spirit of the times. The freedom with which I have pointed out the abuses of government will be little relished by the pusillanimous and the inter- ested, but is, I am certain, of that nature which it is the duty of the people of England never to relinquish, or sufler to be impaired by any human force or contrivance. In the present crisis of things, the danger to liberty is extreme, and it is requisite to address a warning voice to the nation, that may disturb its slumbers, if it cannot heal its lethargy. When we look at the distraction and misery of a neighbouring country, we behold a scene that is enough to make the most hardy republican tremble at the idea of a revolution. Nothing but an obstinate adhe- 48 APOLOGY FOR THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. rence to abuses can ever pnsh the people of England to that fatal extremity. But if the state of things continues to grow worse and worse, if the friends of reform, the true friends of their country, con- tinue to be overwhelmed by calumny and persecution, the confusion will probably be dreadful, the misery extreme, and the calamities that await us too great for human calculation. What must be the guilt of those men who can calmly contemplate the approach of anarchy or despotism, and rather choose to oehold the ruin of their country than resign the smallest pittance of private emolu- ment and advantage ? To reconcile the disaffected, to remove discon- tents, to allay animosities, and open a prospect of increasing happiness and freedom, is yet in our power. But if a contrary course be taken, the sun of Great Britain is set for ever, her glory departed, and her history added to the catalogue of the mighty empires which exhibit the instability of all human grandeur, of empiies which, after they rose by virtue to be the admiration of the world, sunic by corruption into obscurity and contempt. If any thing shall then remain of her boasted constitution, it will display magnificence in disorder, majestic desolation, Babylon in ruins, where, in the midst pf broken arches and fallen columns, posterity will trace the monuments only of our ancient freedom ! ADVERTI§J^'MENT TO THE NEW EblTION As the following pamphlet has been long out of print, the reader will naturally expect some reason should be assigned for its republica- tion. I might satisfy myself with safely affirming that I have no alternative left but either to publish it myself, or to permit it to be done by others, since the copyright has long since transpired ; and I have been under the necessity of claiming as a favour what I could not insist upon as a right. In addition to this, a most erroneous inference has been drawn from my suffering it to fall into neglect. It has been often insinuated that my political principles have undergone a revolution, and that I have renounced the opinions which it was the object of this pamphlet to establish. I must beg leave, however, to assert, that fashionable as such changes have been, and sanctioned by many conspicuous exam- ples, I am not ambitious of the honour attached to this species of conversion, from a conviction that he who has once been the advocate of freedom and of reform, will find it much easier to change his con- duct than his principles — to worship the golden image than to believe in the divinity of the idol. A reluctance to appear as a political writer, an opinion, whether well or ill founded, that the Christian ministry is in danger of losing something of its energy and sanctity by embarking on the stormy element of political debate, were the motives that de- termined me, and which, had I not already engaged, would probably have effectually deterred me from writing upon politics. These scru- ples have given way to feelings still stronger, to my extreme aversion to be classed with political apostates, and to the suspicion of being deterred from the honest avowal of my sentiments on subjects of great moment by hopes and fears to which, through every period of my life, I have been a total stranger. The effect of increasing years has been to augment, if possible, my attachment to the principles of civil and religious liberty, and to the cause of reform as inseparably combined with their preservation ; and few things would give me more uneasiness than to have it supposed I could ever become hostile or indifferent to these objects. The alterations in the present edition are nearly all of minor import- ance ; they chiefly consist of slight literary corrections, which very rarely affect the sense. It was not my wish or intention to impair the identity of the performance. There is in several parts an acrimony and vehemence in the language, which the candid reader will put to Vol. II.— D 60 APOLOGY FOR THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. the account of juvenile ardour, and which, slaould it be deemed exces- sive, he will perceive could not be corrected without producing a new composition. One passage in the preface, delineating the character of the late Bishop Horsley, is omitted. On mature reflection, it ap- peared to the writer not quite consistent either with the spirit of Christianity or with the reverence due to departed genius. For the severity with which he has treated the political character of Mr. Pitt he is not disposed to apologize, because he feels the fullest conviction ^lat the policy, foreign and domestic, of that celebrated statesman, has inflicted a more incurable wound on the constitution, and entailed more permanent and irr^iparable calamities on the nation, than that of any other minister in ;he annals of British history. A simple reflection will be sufficient to evince the unparalleled magnitude of his apostacy, which is, that the memory of the son of Lord Chatham, the vehement opposer of the American war, the champion of reform, and the idol of the people, has become the rallying point of toryism, the type and symbol of whatever is most illiberal in principle and intolcFaat ia practice. 1821. AN APOLOGY. SECTION I- On the Right of Public Discussion. iSoi >if, i'nr» celebrated legislator of Athens, wc are told, enacted a law fo. the capital punishment of every citizen who should continue neuter when parties ran high in that republic. He considered, it should seem, the declining to take a decided part on great and critical occasions an indication of such a culpable indifference to the interests of the commonwealih as could be expiated only by death. While we blame the rigour of this law, we must confess the principle on which it was founded is just and solid. In a political contest relating to particular men or measures, a well-wisher to his country may be per- mitted to remain silent ; but when the great interests of a nation are at stake, it becomes every man to act with firmness and vigour. I consider the present as a season of this nature, and shall therefore make no apology for laying before the public the reflections it has suggested. The most capital advantage an enlightened people can enjoy is the liberty of discussing every subject which can fall within the compass of the human mind : while this remains, freedom will flourish ; but should it be lost or impaired, its principles will neither be well understood nor long retained. To render the magistrate a judge of truth, and engage his authority in the suppression of opinions, sliows an inattention to the nature and design of political society. When a nation forms a government, it is not wisdom but power which they place in the ha:nd of the magistrate ; from whence it follows, his concern is only with those objects which power can operate upon. On this account the administration of justice, the protection of property, and the defence of every member of the community from violence and outrage fall natu- rally within the province of the civil ruler, for these may all be accom- plished by power ; but an attempt to distinguish truth from error, and to countenance one set of opinions to the prejudice of another, is to apply power in a mariner mischievous and absurd. To comprehend the reasons on which the right of public discussion is founded, it is equisite to remark the difference between sentiment and conduct. The behaviour of men in society will be influenced by motives drawn from the prospect of good and evil : here then is the proper department of D2 52 ON THE RIGHT OF government, as it is capable of applying that good and evil by which actions are determined. Truth, on the contrary, is quite of a different nature, being supported only by evidence, and as when this is repre- sented we cannot withhold our assent, so where this is wanting no power or authority can command it. However some may affect to dread controversy, it can never be of ultimate disadvantage to the interests of truth or the happiness of mankind. AVhere it is indulged in its full extent, a nmltitude of ridiculous opinions will no doubt be obtruded upon the public ; but any ill influence they may produce cannot continue long, as they are sure to be opposed with at least equal ability and that superior ad- vantage whicli is ever attendant on truth. The colours with which wit or eloquence may have adorned a false system will gradually die away, sophistry be detected, and every thing estimated at length according to its true value. Publications, besides, like every thing else that is human, are of a mixed nature, where truth is often blended with falsehood, and important hints suggested in the midst of much impertinent or pernicious matter ; nor is there any way of separating the precious from the vile but by tolerating the whole. Where the right of unlimited inquiry is exerted, the human faculties will be upon the advance ; where it is relinquished, they will be of necessity at a stand, and will probably decline. If we i\ave recourse to experience, that kind of enlarged experience in particular which history furnishes, we shall not be apt to entertain any violent alarm at the greatest liberty of discussion : we shall there see that to this we are indebted for those improvements in arts and sciences which have meliorated in so great a degree the condition of mankind. The middle ages, as they are called, the darkest period of which we have any particular accounts, were remarkable for two things, — the extreme ignorance that prevailed, and an excessive veneration for received opinions ; circumstances which, having been always united, operate on each other, it is plain, as cause and effect. The whole compass of science was in those times subject to restraint ; every new opinion was looked upon as dangerous. To affirm the globe we inhabit to be round was deemed heresy, and for asserting its motion the immortal Galileo was confined in the prisons of the inquisi- tion. Yet it is remarkable, so little are the human faculties fitted for restraint, that its utmost rigour was never able to effect a thorough unanimity, or to preclude the most alarming discussions and contro- versies. For no sooner was one point settled than another was started ; and as the articles on which men professed to differ were always ex- tremely few and subtle, they came the more easily into contact, and their animosities were the more violent and concentrated. The shape of the tonsure, or manner in which a monk should shave his head, would then throw a whole kingdom into convulsions. In proportion as the world has become more enlightened, this unnatural policy of restraint has retired, the sciences it has entirely abandoned, and has taken its last stand on religion and politics. The first of these was long con- sidered of a nature so peculiarly sacred, that every attempt to alter it,, PUBLIC DISCUSSIOX. 53 or to impair the reverence for its received institutions, was regarded under the name of heresy as a crime of the first magnitude. Yet dangerous as free inquiry may liave b^en lookt'd upon when extended to the principles of reUgion, there is no department where it was more necessary, or its interference more decidedly beneficial. By nobly daring to exeft it when all the powers on earth were combined in its suppression, did Luther accomplish that reformation which drew forth primitive Christianity, long hidden and concealed under a load of abuses, to the view of an awakened and astonished world. So great is the force of truth when it has once gained the attention, that all the arts and policy of the court of Rome, aided throughout every part of Europe by a veneration for antiquity, the prejudices of the vulgar, and the cruelty of despots, were fairly baffled and confounded by the op- position of a solitary monk. And had this principle of free inquiry been permitted in succeeding times to have full scope, Christianity would at this period have been much better understood, and the ani- mosity of sects considerably abated. Religious toleration has never been complete even in England ; but having prevailed more liere than perhaps in any other country, there is no place where the doctrines of religion have been set in so clear a light or its truth so ably defended- The writings of Deists have contributed much to this end. "Whoever will compare the late defences of Christianity by Locke, Butler, or Clark with those of the ancient apologists, will discern in the former far more precision and an abler method of reasoning than in the latter; which must be attributed chiefly to the superior spirit of inquiry by which modern times are distinguished. Whatever alarm then may have been taken at the liberty of discussion, religion it is plain hath been a gainer by it ; its abuses corrected, and its divine authority set- tled on a firmer basis than ever. Though I have taken the liberty of making these preliminary re- marks on the influence of free inquiry in general, what I have more immediately in view is to defend its exercise in relation to governmeuL This being an institution purely humarL, one would imagine it were the proper province for freedom of discussion in its utmost extent. It is surely just that every one should have a right to examine those measures by which the happiness of all may be affected. The control of the public mind over the conduct of ministers, exerted through the medium of the press, has been regarded by the best writers both in our country and on the continent as the main support'of our liberties. While ttiis remains we cannot be enslaved ; when it is impaired ox diminished we shall soon cease to be free. Under pretence of its being seditious to express any disapprobation of the form of our government, the most alarming attempts are made to wrest the liberty of the press out of our hands. It is far from being my intention to set up a defence of republican principles, as I am per- suaded whatever imperfections may attend the British constitution, it is competent to all the ends of government, and the best adapted of any to the actual situation of this kingdQm. Yet I am convinced there is Ko crime in being a republican, and that while he obeys the laws 54 CN THE RIGHT OF every man has a right to entertain what sentiments he pleases on our form of government, and to discuss this with the same freedom as any other topic. In proof of this I shall beg the reader's attention to the following arguments. 1. We may apply to this point in particular the observation that has been made on the influence of free inquiry in general, that it will issue in the firmer establishment of truth and the overthrow of error. Every thing thai is really excellent will bear examination, it will even invite it ; and the more narrowly it is surveyed, to tlie more advantage it will appear. Is our constitution a good one i it will gain in our esteem by the severest inquiry. Is it bad? then its imperfuctions should be laid open and exposed. Is it, as is generally confessed, of a mixed nature, excellent in theory, but defective in its practice 1 freedom of discussion will be still requisite to point out the nature and source of its corruptions, and apply suitable remedies. If our constitution be that perfect model of excellence it is represented, it may boldly appeal to the reason of an enlightened age, and need not rest on the support of an implicit faith. 2, Government is the creature of the people, and that which they have created they surely have a right to examine. The great Author of nature, having placed the right of dominion in no particular hands, hath left every point relating to it to be settled by the consent and approbation of mankind. In spite of the attempts of sophistry to con- ceal the origin of political right, it must inevitably rest at length on the acquiescence of the people. In the case of individuals it is extremely plain. If one man should overwhelm another with superior force, and after completely subduing him under the name of government, transmit him in this condition to his heirs, every one would exclaim against such an act of injustice. But whether the object of his oppression be one or a million can make no diflerence in its nature, the idea of equity having no relation to that of numbers. Mr. Burke, with some other authors, are aware that an original right of dominion can only be ex- plained by resolving it into the will of the people, yet contend that it becomes inalienable and independent by length of time and prescrip- tion. This fatal mistake appears to me to have arisen from confound- ing the right of dominion with that of private property. Possession for a certain time, it is true, vests in the latter a complete right, or there would be no end to vexatious claims ; not to mention that it is of no con- sequence to society where property lies, provided its regulations be clear and its possession undisturbed. For the same reason it is of the essence of private property to be held for the sole use of the owner, with liberty to employ it in what way he pleases consistent with the safety of the com- munity. But the right of dominion has none of the qualities that dis- tinguish private possession. It is never indifferent to the community in whose hands it is lodged, nor is it intended in any degree for the benefit of those who conduct it. Being derived from the will of the people, explicit or implied, and existing solely for their use, it can no more become independent of that will than water can rise above its source. But if we allow the people are the true origin of political power, it is absurd to require them to resign the right of discussing PUBLIC DISCUSSION. 65 any question that can arise either upon its form or its measures, as this would put it for ever out of their power to revoke the trust which they have placed in the hands of tlieir rulers. 3. If it be a crime for a subject of Great Britain to express his dis- approbation of that form of government under which he lives, the same conduct must be condemned in the inhabitant of any other country. Perhaps it will be said a distinction ought to be made on account of the superior excellence of the British constitution. This superiority I am not disposed to contest, yet cannot allow it to be a proper reply, as it takes for granted that which is supposed to be a matter of debate and inquiry. Let a government be ever so despotic, it is a chance if those who share in the administration are not loud in proclaiming its excellence. Go into Turkey, and the pachas of the provinces will probably tell you that the Turkish government is the most perfect in the world. If the excellence of a constitution, then, is assigned as the reason that none should be permitted to censure it, who, I ask, is to determine on this its excellence ? If you reply, every man's own reason will determine, you concede the very point I am endeavouring to establish, the liberty of free inquiry : if you reply, our rulers, you admit a principle that equally applies to every government in the world, and will lend no more support to the British constitution than to that of Turkey or Algiers. 4. An inquiry respecting the comparative excellence of civil con- stitutions can be forbidden on no other pretence than that of its tending to sedition and anarchy. This plea, however, will have little weight whh those who reflect to how many ill purposes it has been already- applied ; and that when the example has been once introduced of sup- pressing opinions on account of their imagined ill tendency, it has seldom been confined within any safe or reasonable bounds. The doctrine of tendencies is extremely subtle and complicated. What- ever would diminish our veneration for the Christian religion, or shake our belief in the being of a God, will be allowed to be of a very evil tendency ; yet few, I imagine, who are acquainted with history, would wish to see the writings of skeptics or Deists suppressed by law ; being persuaded it would be lodging a very dangerous power in the hands of the magistrate, and that uuth is best supported by its own evidence. This dread of certain opinions on account of their tendency has been the copious spring of all those religious wars and persecutions which are tl>e disgrace and calamity of modern times. Whatever danger may result from the freedom of political debate in some countries, no apprehension from that quarter need be enter- tained in our own. Free inquiry will never endanger the existence of a good government ; scarcely will it be able to work the overthrow of a bad one. So uncertain i« the issue of all revolutions, so turbu- lent and bloody the ^scen€s that too often usher them in, the prejudice on the side of an ancient establishment so great, and the interests in- volved in its support so powerful, that while it provides in any tolerable measure for the happiness of the people, it may defy all the efforts of its enemies^ Sa ON ASSOCIATIONS. The real clanger to every free government is less from its enemies ihan from itself. Should it resist the most temperate reforms, and maintain its abuses with obstinacy, imputing complaint to faction, calumniating its friends, and smiling only on its flatterers ; should it encourage informers and hold out rewards to treachery, turning every man into a spy, and every neighbourhood into the seat of an inquisi- tion, let it not hope it can long conceal its tyranny under the mask of freedom. These are the avenues through which despotism must enter ; these are the arts at which integrity sickens, and freedom turns pale. SECTION n. On Associations. Thk associations that have been formed in various parts of the kingdom appear to me to have trodden very nearly in the steps I have been describing. Nothing could have justified this extraordinary mode of combination but the actual existence of those insurrections and plots, of which no traces have appeared, except in a speech from the throne. They merit a patent for insurrections who have dis- covered the art of conducting them with so much silence and secrecy, that in the very places where they are affirmed to have happened they have been heard of only by rebound from the cabinet. Happy had it been for the repose of unoffending multitudes if the associaiors had been able to put their mobs in possession of this important discovery before they set them in motion. No sooner had the ministry spread an alarm through the kingdom against republicans and levellers, than an assembly of court-syco- phants, with a placeman at their head, entered into what they termed an association at the Crown and Anchor tavern, whence they issued accounts of their proceedings. This was the primitive, the metropol- itan association, which, with few exceptions, gave the tone to the suc- ceeding, who did little more than copy its language and its spirit. As the popular ferment has, it may be hoped, by this time in some mea- sure subsided, it may not be improper to endeavour to estimate the utility and develop the principles of these societies. 1. The first particular that engages the attention is their singular and unprecedented nature. The object is altogether new. The po- litical societies that have been hitherto formed never thought of inter- fering with the operations of law, but were content with giving, by their union, greater force and publicity to their sentiments. The dif- fusion of principles was their object, not the suppression ; and, con- fiding in the justness of their cause, they challenged their enemies into the field of controversy. These societies, on the other hand, are combined with an express view to extinguish opinions, and to over- whelm freedom of inquiry by the terrors of criminal prosecution. They pretend not to enlighten the people by the spread of political ON ASSOCIATIONS. 87 knowledge, or to confute the errors of the system they wish to dis- countenance : they brenthe only the hmguaoc of menace ; their ele- ment is indictment and prosecution, and their criminal justice formed on the model of Rhadamanthus, the poetic judge of Hell. Castigatque, auditqne, dolos subigilque faterl. 2. They arc not only new in their nature and complexion, but are unsupported by any just j)retence of expedience or necessity. The British constitution hath provided ample securhies for its stability and permanence. The prerogatives of the crown in all matters touching its dignity are of a nature so high and weighty as may rather occa- sion alarm than need corroboration. The office of attorney-general is created for the very purpose of prosecuting sedition ; and he has the peculiar privilege of filing a bill against offenders in the king's name, v-ithout the intervention of a grand jury. If the public tran- quillity be threatened, the king can imbody tiie militia as well as sta- tion the military in the suspected places ; and when to this is added the immense patronage and influence which flows from the disposal of seventeen millions a year, it must be evident the stability of the British government can never be shaken by the efforts of any minority whatever. It comprehends within itself all the resources of defence which the best civil polity ought to possess. The permanence of every government must depend, however, after all, upon opinion, a general persuasion of its excellence, which can never be increased by its assuming a vindictive and sanguinary aspect. While it is the object of the people's approbation it will be continued, and to support it much beyond that period by mere force and terror would be impossible were it just, and unjust were it possible. The law hath amply provided against overt acts of sedition and disorder, and to suppress mere opinions by any other method than reason and argument is the height of tyranny. Freedom of thought, being intimately connected with the happiness and dignity of man in every stage of his being, is of so much more importance than the preservation of any constitution, that to infringe the former under pretence of supporting the latter is to sacrifice the means to the end. 3. In attempting to define the boundary which separates the liberty of the press from its licentiousness, these societies have undertaken a task which they are utterly unable to execute. The line that divides them is too nice and delicate to be perceived by every eye, or to be drawn by every rude and unskilful hand. When a public outrage against the laws is committed, the crime is felt in a moment ; but to ascertain the qualities which compose a libel, and to apply with ex- actness the general idea to every instance and example which may occur, demand an effort of thought and reflection little likely to be exerted by the great mass of mankind. Bewildered in a pursuit which they are incapable of conducting with propriety, taught to suspect treason and sedition in every page they read and in every conversa- tion they hear, the necessary effect of such an employment must be to perplex the understanding and degrade the heart. An admirable 58 ON ASSOCIATIONS, expedient for transforming a great and generous people temptible race of spies and informers ! into a con- temptible race of spies For private individuals to combine together at all with a view to quicken the vigour of criminal prosecution is suspicious at least, if not illeo-al ; in a case where the liberty of the press is concerned, all such combinations are utterly improper. The faults and the excellences of a book are often so blended, the motives of a writer so difficult to ascertain, and the mischiefs of servile restraint so alarming, that the criminality of a book should always be left to be determined by the particular circumstances of the case. As one would rather see many criminals escape than the punishment of one innocent person, so it is infinitely better a multitude of errors should be propagated than one truth be suppressed. If the suppression of Mr. Paine's pamphlet be the object of these societies, they are ridiculous in the extreme ; for the circulation of his works ceased the moment they were declared a libel : if any other publication be intended, they are premature and impertinent, in pre- suming to anticipate the decision of the courts. 4. Admitting, liowever, the principle on which they are founded to be ever so just and proper, they are highly impolitic. All violence exerted towards opinions which falls short of extermination serves no other purpose than to render them more known, and ultimately to in- crease the zeal and number of their abetters. Opinions that are false may be dissipated by the force of argument ; Avhen they are true their punishment draws towards them infallibly more of the public attention, and enables them to dwell with more lasting weight and pressure on the mind. The progress of reason is aided, in this case, by the pas- sions, and finds in curiosity, compassion, and resentment powerful auxiliaries. When public discontents are allowed to vent themselves in reason- ing and discourse, they subside into a calm ; but their confinement in the bosom is apt to give them a fierce and deadly tincture. The reason of this is obvious : as men are seldom disposed to complain till they at least imagine themselves injured, so there is no injury which they will remember so long, or resent so deeply, as that of being threatened into silence- This seems like adding triumph to oppression, and insult to injury. The apparent tranquillity which may ensue is delusive and ominous ; it is that awful stillness which nature feels while she is awaiting the discharge of the gathered tempest. The professed object of these associations is to strengthen the hands of government : but there is one way in which it may strengthen its own hands most effectually ; recommended by a very venerable au- thority, though one from which it hath taken but few lessons. " He that hath clean Jiands,^'' saith a sage adviser, " shall grow stronger and Btronger." If the government wishes to become more vigorous, let it first become more pure, lest an addition to its strength should only increase its capacity for mischief. There is a characteristic feature attending these associations, which is sufficient to acquaint us with their real origin and spirit, that is the UN ASSOCIATIONS. 59 silence, almost total, which they maintain rosppcliiig political aljuseb. Had they been intended, as their title imports, merely to furnish an antidote to the spread of republican schemes and doctrines, they would have loudly asserted the necessity of reform, as a conciliatory princi- ple, a centre of union, in which llic virtuous of all descriptions might have concurred. But this, however conducive to the good of the people, Avould have defeated their whole project, which consisted in availing themselves of an alarm which they had artfully prepared, in order to withdraw the public attention from real grievances to imaginary dangers The Hercules of reform had penetrated the Augean stable of abuses ; the fabric of corruption, hitherto deemed sacred, began to totter, and its upholders were apprehensive their iniquity was almost full. In this perplexity they embraced an occasion afforded them by tlie spread of certain bold speculations (speculations which owed their success to the corruptions of government) to diffuse a panic, and to drown the justesc complaints in unmeaning clamour. The plan of associating, thus commencing in corruption, and propagated by imitation and by fear, had for its pretext the fear of republicanism ; for its object the p rpetuity of abuses. Associations in this light may be considered as mirrors placed to advantage for reflecting the finesses and tricks of the ministry. At present they are playing into each other's hands, and no doubt find great entertainment in deceiving the nation. But let them be aware lest it should be found, after all, none are so much duped as themselves. Wisdom and truth, the offspring of the sky, are immortal ; but cunning and deception, the meteors of the earth, after glittering for a moment, must pass away. The candour and sincerity of these assooiators is of a piece with their other virtues : for while they profess to be combined in order to prevent riois and insurrections, attempted to be raised by republicans and levellers, they can neither point out the persons to whom that description applies, nor mention a single riot that was not fomented by their principles, and engaged on their side. There have been three riots in England of late on a political account ; one at Birmingham, one at Manchester, and one at Cambridge ; each of which has beeo levelled against dissenters and friends of reform.* The Crown and Anchor association, as it was first in order of time, seems also determined, by pushing to a greater length the maxims of arbitrary power, to maintain its pre-eminence in every other respect. The divine right of monarchy, the sacred anointing of kings, passive obedience and non-resistance, are the hemlock and night shade which these physicians have prescribed for the health of the nation ; and are yet hut a specimen of a more fertile crop which they have promised out of the hotbed of their depravity. The opinions which they have * The conduct of an honourable mcmbor of the House of rommons, respecting the last of these, was exircnnely illiberal. He informed the house, that the riot ;it Cambridge was noiliind more than that the mob comiielled Mr. Mus^rave, one of his constituents, who had been heard lo speak seditious words, to sins God save the King — a statement in which he was utterly miwiakcn. Mr. MuHfjrave, with whom I have tlie jileasure of beipg well acquainted, was neither guilty of uttering teditious discourse, nor did he, 1 am certain, comply with the requisition His whole n ime consiNia in the love of his country, and a zeal for parliamcritary reform It would be happy for this nation, if a portuiri only of tUe iutcgnty and disinierostci virtue wjutb adorn his cbarucicr could be infused iato otir gn»i men. eo ON ASSOCIATIONS. associated to suppress are contained, they tell us, in the terms liberty and equality; alter which they proceed to a dull harangue on the mis- chiefs that must flow from equalizing property. All mankind, they gravely tell us, are not equal in virtue, as if that were not sufficiently evident from the existence of their society. The notion of equality in property was never seriously cherished in the mind of any man, unless for the purpose of calumny : and the term transplanted from a neighbouring country never intended there any thing more than equality of rights — as opposed to feudal oppression and hereditary distinctions. An equality of rights may consist with the greatest inequality between the thing to which those rights extend. It belongs to the very nature of property for the owner to have a full and complete right to that which he possesses, and consequently for all properties to have equal rights ; but who is so ridiculous as to infer from thence that the posses- sions themselves are equal ? A more alarming idea cannot be spread among the people, than that there is a large party ready to abet them in any enterprise of depredation and plunder. As all men do not know that the element of the associators is calumny, they are really in dan- ger for a while of being believed, and must thank themselves if they should realize the plan of equality their own malice has invented. I am happy to find that Mr. Law, a very respectable gentleman, who had joined the Crown and Anchor society, has publicly withdrawn his name, disgusted with their conduct ; by whom we are informed they receive anonymous letters, vilifying the characters of persons of the first eminence, and that they are in avowed alliance with the ministry for prosecutions, whom they entreat to order the solicitor- general to proceed on their suggestions. When such a society declares " itself to be unconnected with any political party" our respect for human nature impels us to believe it, and to hope their appearance may be considered as an era in the annals of corruption which will transmit their names to posterity with the encomiums they deserve. With sycophants so base and venal, no argument or remonstrance can be expected to have any success. It is in vain to apply to reason when it is perverted and abused, to shame when it is extinguished, to a con- science which has ceased to admonish : I shall therefore leave them in the undisturbed possession of that true philosophical indiflerence which steels them against the reproaches of their own hearts and the contempt of all honest men. All the associations, it is true, do not breathe the spirit which dis- graces that of the Crown and Anchor. But they all concur in estab- lishing a polhical test, on the first appearance of which the friends of liberty should make a stand. The opinions proposed may be innocent ; but the precedent is fatal, and the moment subscription becomes the price of security, the Rubicon is passed. Embohlened by the success of this expedient, its authors will venture on more vigorous measures ; test will steal upon test, and the bounds of tolerated opinion will be continually narrowed, till we awake under the fangs of a relentless despotism. ON A REFORM OF PARLIAMENT. g] SECTION III. On a Rfform of Parliament. Whatever diiTerence of opinion may take place in points of less importance, there is one in which the friends of freedom are entirely agreed, that is, the necessity of reform in the representation. The theory of the English constitution presents three independent powers! the king, as executive head, with a negative in the legislature, an hereditar)' House of Peers, and an assembly of Commons, who are ap- pohited to represent the nation at large. From this enumeration it is plain that the people of England can have no liberty, that is, no share in forming the laws but what they exert through the medium of the last of those bodies ; nor then, but in proportion to its independence of the other. The independence, therefore, of the House of Commons is the column on which the whole fabric of our liberty rests. Repre- sentation may be considered as complete when it collects to a sufficient extent and transmits with perfect fidelity the real sentiments of the people; but this it may fail of accomplishing through various causes. If its electors are but a handful of people, and of a peculiar order and description ; if its duration is sufficient to enable it to imbibe the spirit of a corporation ; if its integrity be corrupted by treasury influence, or warped by the prospect of places and pensions ; it may by these means not only fail of the end of its appointment, but fall into such an entire dependence on the executive branch as to become a most dangerous instrument of arbitrary power. The usurpation of the emperors at Rome would not have been safe unless it had concealed itself behind the formalities of a senate. The confused and inadequate state of our representation at present is too obvious to escape the attention of the most careless observer. While, through the fluctuation of human afl^airs, many towns of ancient note have fallen into decay, and the increase of commerce has raised obscure hamlets to splendour and distinction, the state of representation standing still amid these vast changes, points back to an order of things which no longer subsists. The opulent towns of Birmingham, Man- chester, and Leeds send no members to parliament ; the decayed boroughs of Cornwall appoint a multitude of representatives. Old Sanim sends two members, though there are not more than one or two families that reside in it. The disproportion between those who vote for representative? and the people at large is so great, that the majority of our House of Commons is chosen by less than eight thousand in a kingdom consisting of as many millions. Mr. Burgh, in his excellent political disquisitions, has made a very laborious calculation on this head, from which it appears that the afl'airs of this great empire are decided by the suflirages of between five and six thousand electors ; so that our representation, instead of being co-extended with the people, fails of tliis in a proportion that is truly enormous. The qualifications, 32 ON A REFORM moreover, that confer the right of election are capricious and irregular. In some places it belongs to the corporation, or to those whom they think proper to make free ; in some to every housekeeper ; in others it is attached to a particular estate, whose proprietor is absolute lord of the boroui^h, of which he makes his advantage by representing it himself or disposing of it to the best bidder. In counties the right of election is annexed only to one kind of property, that of freehold ; the proprietor of copyhold land being entirely deprived of it, though his political situation is precisely the same. The consequence of this perplexity in the qualifications of electors is often a tedious scrutiny and examination before a committee of the House of Commons, prolonged to such a length that there is no time when there are not some boroughs entirely unrepresented. These gross defects in our representation have struck all sensible men very forcibly ; even Mr. Paley, a courtly writer in the main, declares the bulk of the inhabitants of this country have little more concern in the appointment of parliament than the subjects of the grand seignior at Constantinople. On the propriety of the several plans which have been proposed to remedy these evils it is not for me to decide ; I shall choose rather to point out two general principles which ought, in my opinion, to per- vade every plan of parliamentary reform ; the first of which respects the mode of election, the second the independence of the elected. In order to give the people a true representation, let its basis be enlarged and the duration of parliaments shortened. The first of these im- provements would diminish bribery and corruption, lessen the violence and tumult of elections, and secure to the people a real and unequivocal organ for the expression of their sentiments. Were every householder in town and country permitted to vote, the number of electors would be so great, that as no art or industry would be able to bias their minds, so no sums of money would be sufficient to win their suffrages. The plan which the Duke of Rich- mond recommended was, if I mistake not, still more comprehensive, including all that were of age, except menial servants. By this means, the different passions and prejudices of men would check each other, the predominance of any particular or local interest be kept down, and from the whole there would result that general impression, which would convey with precision the unbiassed sense of the people. But besides this, another great improvement, in my opinion, would be, to shorten the duration of parliament, by bringing it back to one year. The Michel Gemote, or great council of the kingdom, was ap- pointed to meet under Alfred twice a year, and by divers ancient statutes after the conquest, the king was bound to summon a parlia- ment every year or oftener, if need be ; when, to remedy the looseness of this latter phrase, by the 16th of Charles the Second it was enacted, the holding of parliaments should not be intermitted above three years at most; and in the 1st of King William, it is declared as one of the rights of the people, that for redress of all grievances, and preserving the laws, parliaments ought to be held frequently ; ^yhich was again OF PARLIAMENT. O-g reduced to a certainty by another statute, which enacts that a new parliament shall be called within three years after the termination of the former. To this term did they continue limited till the reign of George the First ; when, after the rebellion of 1715, the septennial act was passed, under the pretence of diminishing the expense of elec- tions, and preserving the kingdom against the designs of the pretender. A noble lord* observed, on that occasion, he was at an utter loss to describe the nature of this prolonged parliament, unless he were allowed to borrow a phrase from the Athanasian Creed ; for it was, " neither created, nor begotten, but proceeding." Without disputing the upright intentions of the authors of this act, it is plain they might on the same principle have voted themselves perpetual, and their conduct will ever remain a monument of that short-sightedness in politics which in pro- viding for the pressure of the moment puts to hazard the liberty and happiness of future times.^ It is intolerable, that in so large a space of a man's life as seven years he should never be able to correct the error he may have committed in the choice of a representative, but be compelled to see him every year dipping deeper into corruption ; a helpless spectator of the contempt of his interests and the ruin of his country. During the present period of parliaments a nation may sustain the greatest possible changes ; may descend by a succession of ilL counsels from the highest pinnacle of its fortunes to the lowest point of depression ; its treasure exhausted, its credit sunk, and its weight almost completely annihilated in the scale of empire. Ruiyi and felicity are seldom dispensed by the same hand, nor is it likely any succour m calamity should flow from the wisdom and virtue of those by whose folly and wickedness it was inflicted. The union between a representative and his constituents ought to be strict and entire ; but the septennial act has rendered it little more than nominal. The duration of parliament sets its members at a dis- tance from the people, begets a notion of independence, and gives the minister so much leisure to insinuate himself into their graces, that before the period is expired they become very mild and complying. Sir Robert Walpole used to say, that " every man had his price :" a maxim on which he relied with so much security, that he declared he seldom troubled himself with the election of members, but rather chose to stay and buy them up when they came to market. A very interesting work, lately published, entitled, " Anecdotes of Lord Chat- ham," unfolds some parts of this mystery of iniquity, which the reader will probably think equally new and surprising. There is a regular office, it seems, — that of manager of the House of Commons, — which generally devolves on one of the secretaries of state, and con- sists in securing, at all events, a majority in parliament by a judicious application of promises and bribes. The sums disbursed by this honourable office are involved under the head of Secret Service Money ; and so delicate is this employment of manager of the House of Com- mons considered, that we have an account in the above-mentioned * Tlie Earl of Peierboiougli. gl4 ON A REFORM treatise of a new arrangement of ministry, which failed for no other reason than that the different parties could not agree on the proper person to fill it.* This secret influence which prevails must be allowed to be ex- tremely disgraceful ; nor can it ever be effectually remedied but by contracting the duration of parliaments. If it be objected to annual parliaments that by this means the tumult and riot attendant on elections will be oftener repeated, it ought to be remembered that their duration is the chief source of these disorders. Render a seat in the House of Commons of less value, and you diminish at once the violence of the struggle. In America, the election of representatives takes place throughout that vast continent in one day, with the greatest tranquillity. In a mixed constitution like ours it is impossible to estimate the importance of an independent parliament ; for as it is here our freedom consists, if this barrier to the encroachments of arbitrary power once fails, we can oppose no other. Should the king attempt to govern without a parliament, or should the upper house pretend to legislate independently of the lower, we should immediately take the alarm ; but if the House of Commons falls insensibly under the control of the other two branches of the legislature, our danger is greater, because our apprehensions are less. The forms of a free constitution surviving when its spirit is extinct would perpetuate slavery by rendering it more concealed and secure. On this account, I apprehend, did Mon- tesquieu predict the loss of our freedom, from the legislative power becoming more corrupt than the executive ; a crisis to which, if it has not arrived already, it is hastening apace. The immortal Locke, far from looking with the indifference too common on the abuses in our representation, considered all improper influence exerted in that quarter as threatening the very dissolution of government. " TAm^," says he, " to regulate candidates and electors, and new-model the ways of election, what is it but to cut up the government hy the roots, and poison the very fountain of public security J"' No enormity can subsist long without meeting with advocates ; on which account we need not wonder that the corruption of parliament has been justified under the mild denomination of influence, though it must pain every virtuous mind to see the enlightened Paley engaged in its defence. If a member votes consistently with his convictions, his conduct in that instance has not been determined by influence ; but if he votes otherwise, give it what gentle name you please, he forfeits his integrity ; nor is it possible to mark the boundaries which should limit his compliance ; for if he may deviate a little to attain • As I liave taken my informatiorr on this head entirely on the authority of the work called " Anecdotes of Lord Chatham," the reader may not be displeased with the following extract, vol. ii. page 121 : — "The management of the House of Commons, as it is called, is a confidential Jepart- ment nnknown to the constitution. In the public accounts it is immersed under the head of Secret Service Money. It is usually given to the secretary of state when lliat post is filled by a commoner. The business of the department is to distribute with art and policy among the members who have no ostensible places sums of money for their support during the session ; besides contracts, lottery-tickets, and other douceurs. It is no uncommon circumstance, at the end of a sesBion, for a EciUlemaa to receive ffvB hundred or a thousand pounds for his aervices." OF PARLIAMENT. 65 the see of Wincliester, he may certainly step a little larther to reach the dignity of primate. How familiar must the practice of corriiption have become wlien a philosophical moralist, a minister of religion, of great talents and virtue, in ihe calm retirement of his study, does not hesitate to become its public apologist ! The necessity of a reform in the constitution of parliament is in nothing more obvious than in the ascendency of the ari.stocracv. This colossus bestrides both houses of parliament ; legislates in one, and exerts a domineering influence over the other. It is huniiliatintr, at the approach of an election, to see a whole county send a deputation to an earl or duke, and beg a representative as you would beg an alms. A multitude of laws have been framed, it is true, to prevent all interference of peers in elections ; but they neither are nor can be effectual while the House of Commons opens its doors to their sons and brothers. If our liberty depends on the balance and control of the respective orders in the state, it must be extremely absurd to blend them together by placing the father in one department of the legisla- ture and his family in the other. Freedom is supposed by some to derive great security from the existence of a regular opposition ; an expedient which is in my opinion both the offspring and the cherisher of faction. That a minister should be opposed when his measures are destructive to his country can admit of no doubt ; that a systematic opposition should be main- tained against any man merely as a minister, without regard to the principles he may profess, or the measures he may propose, Avhich is intended by a regular opposition, appears to me a most corrupt and unprincipled maxim. When a legislative assembly is thus thrown into parties, distinguished by no leading principle, however warm and ani- mated their debates, it is plain they display only a struggle for the emoluments of office. This the people discern, and in consequence listen with very little attention to the representations of the minister on the one hand, or the minority on the other,' being persuaded the only real difference between them is, that the one i» anxious to gain what the other is anxious to keep. If a measure be good, it is of no importance to the nation from whom it proceeds ; yet witl it be esteemed by the opposition a point of honour not to let it pass without throwing every obstruction in its way. If we listen to the minister for the time being, the nation is always flourishing and happy ; if we hearken to the opposition, it is a chance if it be not on the brink of destruction. In an assembly convened to deliberate on the affairs of a nation, how disgusting to hear the members perpetually talk of their connexions, and their resolution to act with a particular set of men, when, if they have happened by chance to vote according to their convictions ratlier than their party, half their speeches are made up of apologies for a conduct so new and unexpected ! When they see men united who agree in nothing but their hostility to the minister, the people fall at first into amazement and irresolution ; till perceiving political debate is a mere scramble for profit and power, they endeavour to become as corrupt as their betters. It is not in that roar of faction which deafens Vol. II.— E 65 ON A REFORM the ear and sickens the heart the still voice of Liberty is heard. 8he turns from the disgusting scene, and regards these struggles as the pangs and convulsions in which she is doomed to expire. The era of parties, flowing from the animation of freedom, is ever followed by an era of faction, which marks its feebleness and decay. Parties are founded on principle, factions on men ; under the first, the people are contending respecting the system that shall be pursued ; under the second, diey are candidates for servitude, and are only de- bating whose livery they shall wear. The purest times of the Roman republic were distinguished by violent dissensions ; but they consisted in the jealousy of tlie several orders of the state among each other ; on the ascendence of the patricians on the one side and the plebeians on the other ; a usefid struggle, which maintained the balance and equipoise of the constitution. In the progress of corruption things took a turn ; the permanent parties whicli sprang from the fixed prin- ciples of government were lost, and the citizens arranged themselves under the standard of particular leaders, being bandied into factions, under Marius or Sylla, Cassar or Pompey ; while the republic stood by without any interest in the dispute, a passive and helpless victim. The crisis of the fall of freedom in different nations, with respect ta the causes that produce it, is extremely uniform. After the manner of the ancient factions, we hear much in England of the Bedford party, the Rockingham party, the Portland party, — when it would puzzle the wisest man to point out their political distinction. The useful jealousy of the separate orders is extinct, being all melted down and blended into one mass of corruption. The House of Commons looks with no jealousy on the House of Lords, nor the House of Lords on the House of Commons ; the struggle in both is maintained by the ambition of powerful individuals and families, between whom the kingdom is thrown as the prize, and the moment they unite they perpetuate its subjection and divide its spoils. From a late instance we see they quarrel only about the partition of the prey, but are unanimous in defending it. To the honour of Mr. Fox and ihe band of illustrious patriots of which he is the leader, it will however be remembered that they stood firm against a host of opponents when, assailed by every species of calumny and invective, they had nothing to expect but the reproaches of the present and the admiration of all future times. If any thing can rekindle the sparks of freedom, it will be the flame of their eloquence ; if any thing can re- animate her faded form, it wdl be the vigour of such minds. The disordered state of our representation, it is acknowledged on all hands, must be remedied some time or other ; but it is contended that it would be improper at j)resent, on account of the political ferment that occupies the minds of men and the progress of republican princi- ples ; a plausible objection, if delay can restore public tranquillity : but unless I am greatly mistaken, it will have just a contrary effect. It is hard to conceive how the discontent that flows from the abuses of government can be allayed by their being perpetuated. If they are of such a nature that they can neither be palliated nor denied^ and are OF PARLIAMEA'T/ 87 made the ground uf invective against the whole of our constitution, are not they its best friends wlio wish to cut off this occasion of scandal and c(»m})hiint? The thtori/ of our constitution, we say, and justly, has been the admiration of the world ^ the cavils of its enemies, then, derive their force entirely from the disagreement between that theory and its practice : nothing therefore remains but to bring them as near as human affairs will admit to a perfect correspondence. 'I'his will cut up faction by the roots, and immediately distinguish those who wish to reform the constitution from those who wisii its subversion. Since the abuses are real, the longer they are continued the more they will be known ; the discontented will be always gaining ground, and, though repulsed, will return to the charge with redoubled vigour and advantage. Let reform be considered as a chirurgical operation, if you please ; but since the constitution must umlergo it or die, it is best to submit before the remedy becomes as dangerous as the disease. The example drawn from a neighbouring kingdom as an argument for delay ought to teach us a contrary lesson. Had the encroachments of arbi- trary power been steadily resisted, and remedies been applied as evils appeared, instead of piling them up as precedents, the disorders of government could never have arisen to that enormous height, nor would the people have been impelled to the dire necessity of building the whole fabric of political society afresh. It seems an infatuation in governments that in tranquil times they treat the people with contempt, and turn a deaf ear to their complaints ; till, public resentment khidling, they find when it is too late that in their eagerness to retain every thing they have lost all. The pretences of Mr. Pitt and his friends for delaying this great business are so utterly inconsistent that it is too plain they are averse in reality to its ever taking place. When Mr. Pitt is remiiKled that he himself at the beginning of his ministry recommended parliam'entary reform, he replies. It was necessary then on account of the ca'lamitous state of the nation, just emerged from an unsuccessful war and filled with gloom and disquiet. But, unless the people are libelled, they now are still more disconteuted, — with this difi'erence, that their uneasiness formerly arose from events but remotely connected with unequal r^'pre- Bentation, but that this is now the chief ground of complaint. It is absurd, however, to rest the propriety of reform on any turn c;f public affairs. If it be not requisite to secure our freedom, it is vatn and use- less ; but if it be a proper means of preserving that blessing, tlie nation will need it as much in peace as in war. When we wish to retain those habits which we know it were best to relinquish, we are ex- tremely ready to be soothed with momentary pretences for dela)^ though they appear on reflection to be drawn from quite opposite topics, and therefore to be equally applicable to all times and seasons. A similar delusion is practised in the conduct of public affairs. If the people be tranquil and composed, and have not caught the passion of reform, it is impolitic, say the ministry, to disturb their minds by agitating a question that lies at rest ; if they are awakened, and touched with a conviction of ilw abuse, we must wait, say they, til] the ferment E2 69 ON THEORIES, AND subsides, and not lessen our dignity by seeming to yield to popnla? clamour : if we are at peace, and commerce flourishes, it is concluded we cannot need any improvement in circumstances so prosperous and happy ; if, on the other hand, we are at war, and our affairs unfortu- nate, an amendment in the representation is dreaded, as it would seem an acknowledgment that our calamities flowed from the ill conduct of parliament. Noav, as the nation must always be in one or other of these situations, the conclusion is, the period of reform can never arrive at all. This pretence for delay will appear the more extraordinary in the British ministry from a comparison of the exploits they have performed with the task they decline. They have found time for involving us in millions of debt — for cementing a system of corruption that reaches from the cabinet to the cottage — for carrying havoc and devastation to the remotest extremities of the globe — for accumulating taxes which famish the peasant and reward the parasite — for bandying the whole kingdom into factions, to the ruin of all virtue and public spirit — for the completion of these achievements they have suffered no opportunity to escape them. Elementary treatises on time mention various ar- rangements and divisions, but none have ever touched on the chronology of statesmen. These are a generation who measure their time not so much by the revolutions of the sun as by the revolutions of power. There are two eras particularly marked in their calendar, — the one the period they are in the ministry, and the other when they are out, — which have a very different eflect on their sentiments and reasoning. Their course commences in the character of friends to the people, whose grievances they display in all the colours of variegated diction. But the moment they step over the threshold of St. James's, they behold every thing in a new light ; the taxes seem lessened, the people rise from their depression, the nation flourishes in peace and plenty, and every attempt at improvement is like heightening the beauties of Para- ♦Use or mending the air of Elysium. SECTION IV. On Theories, and the Rights of Man. Among the many alarming symptoms of the present time, it is not the least that there is a prevailing disposition to hold in contempt the theory of liberty as false and visionary. For my own part, it is my determination never to be deterred by an obnoxious name from an open avowal of any principles that appear useful and important. Were the ridicule now cast on the Rights of Man confined to a mere phrase, as the title of a book, it were of hiile consequence ; but when that is made the pretence for deriding the doctrine itself, it is matter of se- rious alarm. To place the rights of man as the basis of lawful government is not peculiar to Mr. Paine ; but was done more than a century ago by men THE RIGHTS OF MAN. 69 of no less eminence than Sidney and Locke. It is therefore extremely <1isingenuous to impute tlie system to Mr. Paine as its author. Hia structure may be false and erroneous, but the foundation was laid by other hands. That there are natural rights, or, in other words, a cer- tain liberty which men may exercise., independent of permission from society, can scarcely be doubted by those who comprehend the mean- ing of the terms. Every man must have a natural right to use his limbs in what manner he pleases that is not injurious to another. In like manner he must have a right to worship God after the mode he thinks acceptable ; or, in other words, he ought not to be compelled to consult any thing but his own conscience. These are a specimen of those rights which may properly be termed natural; for, as philosophers speak of the primary qualities of matter, they cannot be increased or diminished. We caimot conceive the right of using our limbs to be created by society, or to be rendered more complete by any human agreement or compact. But there still remains a question whether this natural liberty must iiot be considered as entirely relinquished when we become members of society. It is pretended that the moment we quit a state o[ nature, as we have given up the control of our actions in return for the superior advantages of law and government, we can never appeal again to any- original principles, but must rest content with the advantages that are secured by the terms of the society. 'I'hese are the views which dis- tinguish the political writings of Mr. Burke, an author whose splendid and unequalled powers have given a vogue and fashion to certain tenets which, from any other pen, would have appeared abject and contempti- ble. In the field of reason the encounter would not be diflicult, but who can withstand the fascination and magic of his eloquence ? The excursions of his genius are immense- His imperial fancy has laid all nature under tribute, and has collected riches from every scejje of the creation and every walk of art. His eulogium on the Qveen of France is a masterpiece of pathetic composition ; so select are its images, so fraught with tenderness, and so rich with colours " dipped in heaven," that he who can read it without rapture may h:ive merit as areasoner, but must resign all pretensions to taste and sensibility. His imagination is, in truth, only too prolific : a world of itself, where he dwells in the midst of chimerical alarms, is the dupe of his own enchantments, and starts, like Prospero, at the spectres of his own creation. His intellectual views in general, however, are wide and variegated, alher than distinct ; and the light he has let in on the British consti- tution in particular resembles the coloured effulgence of a painted medium, a kind of mimic twilight, solemn and soothing to the senses, but better fitted for ornament than use. A book has lately been published under the title of " Happiness and Rights," written by Mr. Hey, a respectable member of the university of Cambridge, whose professed object is, with Mr. Burke, to overturn the doctrine of natural rights. The few remarks I may make upon it are less on account of any merit in the work itself than on accoimt of its author, who, being a member of considerable standing in the most liberal 70 OX THEORIES, AND of our universities, may be presumed to speak the sentiments of that learned body. The chief difference between his theory and Mr Burke's seems to be the denial of the existence of any riglits that can be denominated natural, which Mr. Burke only supposes resigned on the formation of political society. " The rights,^'' says Mr. Hey, "/ can conjecture [for it is but a conjecture) to belong to me as a mere man are so uncertain and comparatively so unimportant, while the rights I feel 7ny self possessed of in civil society are so great, so numerous, and many of them so well defined, that I am strongly inclined to consider society as creating or giving my rights, rather than recognising and securintr what I could have claimed if I had lived in an unconnected state."— {p. 137.) As government implies restraint, it is plain a portion of our freedom is given up by entering into it ; the only question can then be, how far this resignation extends, whether to a part, or to the whole 1 This point may perhaps be determined by the following reflections : — 1. The advantages that civil power can procure to a community are partial. A small pan in comparison with the condition of man can fall within its influence. Allowing it to be a rational institution, it must have that end in view which a reasonable man would propose by appointing it ; nor can it imply any greater sacrifice than is stricdy necessary to its attainment. But on what account is it requisite to imite in political society? Plainly to guard against the injury of others ; for were there no injustice among mankind no protection would be needed, no public force necessary : every man might be left without restraint or control. The attainment of all possible good, then, is }iot the purpose of laws, but. to secure us from external injury and violence ; and as the means must be proportioned to the end, it is absurd to sup- pose that by submitting to civil power, with a view to some particular benefits, we should be understood to hold all our advantages dependent upon that amhority. Civil restraints imply nothing more than a sur- render of our liberty In some points in order to maintain it undisturbed in others of more importance. Tlius we give up the liberty by re- pelling force by force, in return for a more equal administration of justice than private resentment would permit. But there are some rights which cannot with any propriety be yielded up to human au- thority, because they are perfectly consistent with every benefit its appointment can procure. The free use of our faculties in distin- guishing truth from falsehood, the exertion of corporeal powers without injury to others, the choice of a religion and worship, are branches of natural freedom which no government can justly alter or diminish, because their restraint cannot conduce to that security which is its proper object. Government, like every other contrivance, has a specific end ; it implies the resignation of just as much liberty as is needful to attain it; whatever is demanded more is superfluous, a species of tyranny, which ought to be corrected by withdrawing it. The relation of master and servant, of pupil and instructer, of the respective mem- bers of a family to their head, all include some restraint, some abridg- ment of natural liberty. But in these cases it is not pretended that THE RIGHTS OF MAN. 71 tlie surrender is total ; :ind why should this be supposed to take place in political society, which is one of the relations of human life ? this would be to render the foundation iiilinitely broader than the super- structure. 2. From the notion that political society precludes an appeal to natural rights, Uie greatest absurdities must ensue. If that idea be just, it is improper to say of any administration that it is despotic or oppressive unless it has receded from its first form and model. Civil power can never exceed its limits until it deviates into a new trade For if every portion of natural freedom be given up by yielding to civil authority, we can never claim any otlier liberties than those precise ones wliich were ascertained i!i its first formation. The vassals of despotism may complain perhaps of the hardships which they suffer; but unless it appear they are of a new kind no injury is done them, for BO right is violated. Rights are either natural or artificial ; the first cannot be pleaded after they are relinquished, and the second cannot be impaired but by a departure from ancient precedents. If a man should be unfortunate enough to live under tlie dominion of a prince who, like the monarchs of Persia, could murder his subjects at will, he may be unhappy, but cannot complain ; for on Mr. Hey's theory he never had any rights but what were created by society, and on Mr. Burke's he has for ever relinquished them. The claims of nature being set aside, and the constitution of the government despotic from the beginning, his misery involves no injustice and admits of no remedy. It requires little discernment to see that this theory rivets the chains of despotism, and shuts out from the political world the smallest glimpse of emancipation or improvement. Its language is, he that is a slave let him be a slave still. 3. It is incumbent on Mr. Burke and his followers to ascertain the time when natural rights are relinquished. Mr. llev is content with tracing their existence to societj', while Mr. Burke, the more moderate of the two, admitting their foundation in nature, only contends that regular government absorbs and swallows them up, bestowing artificial advantages in exchange. But at what period, it rnay be inquired, shall we date this wonderlul revolution in the social condition of man ? If we say it was as early as the first dawn of society, natural liberty had never any existence at all, since there are no traces even in tradition of a period when men were utterly unconnected with each other. If we say this complete surrender took place with the first rudiments of law and government in every particidar community, on what prin- ciple were subsequent improvements introduced ! Mr. Burke is fond of resting our liberties on Magna Charta and the Bill of Rights ; but he ought to remember, that as they do not carry us to the commence- ment of our government, which was established ages before, our fore- fathers had long ago resigned their natural liberty. If those famous stipulations only recognised such privdeges as were in force before, thev have no claim to be considered as the foundations of our constitu- tion ; but if they formed an era in the annals of freedom, they must have been erected on the basis of those natural rights which Mr. Burke 72 ON THEORIES, AND ridicules and explodes. AVhen our ancestors made those demands, it is evident they did not suppose an appeal to the rights oi" nature pre- cluded. Every step a civilized nation can take towards a more equal administration is either an assertion of its natural liberty or a criminal encroachment on just authority. The influence of government on the stock of natural rights may be compared to that of a manufactory on the rude produce ; it adds nothing to its quantity, but only qualifies and fits it for use. Political arrangement is more or less perfect in proportion as it enables us to exert our natural liberty to the greatest advantage ; if it is diverted to any other purpose, it is made the instru- ment of gratifying the passions of a few, or imposes greater restraint than its object prescribes ; it degenerates into tyranny and oppression. The greatest objection to these principles is their perspicuity, which makes them ill relished by those whose interest it is to hide the nature of government from vulgar eyes, and induce a persuasion that it is a secret which can only be unfolded to the initiated under the conduct of Mr. Burke, the great hie.ropliant and revealer of the mysteries. A mystery and a trick are generally two sides of the same object accord- ing as it is turned to the view of the beholder. The doctrine of Mr. Locke and his followers is founded on the natural equality of mankind ; for as no man can have any natural or inherent right to rule any more than another, it necessarily follows that a claim to dominion, wherever it is lodged, must be ultimately referred back to the explicit or implied consent of the people. What- ever source of civil authority is assigned different from this will be found to resolve itself into )nerc force. But as the natural equality of one generation is the same with that of another, the people have always the same right to new-model their government, and set aside their nders. This right, like every other, may be exerted capriciously and absurdly ; but no human power can have any pretensions to inter- cept its exercise. For civil rulers cannot be considered as having any claims that are coextended with those of the people, nor as forming a party separate from the nation. They are appointed by the community to execute its will, not to oppose it ; to manage the public, not to pursue diWy private or particular interests. Are all the existing authorities in state to lie then, it may be said, at the mercy of the populace, liable to be dissipated by the first breath of public discontent? By no means ; they are to b* respected and obeyed as interpreters of the public will. Till they are set aside by the unequivocal voice of the people, they are a law to every member of the community. To resist them is rebellion ; and for any particular set of men toattempt their subversion by force is a heinous crime, as they represent and imbody the collective majesty of the state. They are the exponents, to use the language of algebra, of the precise quantity of liberty the people have thought fit to legalize and secure. But though they are a law to every member of the society separately considered, they cannot bind the society itself, or prevent it, when it shall think proper, from forming an entire new arrangement ; a right that no compact can alienate or diminish, and which has been exerted as often as a free government THE RIGHTS OF mAX. 73 has been formed. On this arcoiinf, in rcsolvinj^ the right of dominion into compact, Mr. Locke appears to me somewhat inconsistent, or he has expressed himsell" with less clearness and accuracy tiian \va.« usual with that great pliilosoplier. There must have been a previous right to insist on stipulations in lliose who formed them ; nor is there any reason why one race of men is not as competent to that purpose as anollier. With the enemies of freedom it is a usual artifice to represent the sovereignty of the people as a license to anarchy and disorder. But the tracing up civil power to that source will not diminish our obliga- tion to obey ; it only explains its reasons, and settles it on clear deter- minate principles. It turns blind submission into rational obedience, tempers the passion for liberty with the love of order, and places man- kind in a happy medium between the extremes of anarchy on the one side and oppression on the other. It is the polar star that will con- duct us safe over the ocean of political debate and speculation, the law of laws, the legislator of legislators. To reply to all the objections that have been advanced against this doctrine would be a useless task, and exhaust the patience of the reader ; but there is one drawn from the idea of a majority much in- sisted on by Mr. Burke and Mr. Hey, of which the latter gentleman is so enamoured that he has spread it out into a multitude of pages. They assert that the theory of natural rights can never be realized, because every member of the community cannot concur in the choice of a government, and the minority, being compelled to yield to the de- cisions of the majority, arc under tyrannical restraint. To this rea- soning it is a sufficient answer, that if a immber of men act together at all, the necessity of being determined by the sense of the majority in the last resort is so obvious that it is always implied. An exact concurrence of many particidar wills is impossible ; and therefore when each taken separately has precisely the same influence, there can be no hardship in suffering the result to remain at issue till it is determined by the coincidence of the greater number. The idea of natural liberty, at least, is so little violated by this method of proceed- ing, that it is no more than what takes place every day in the smallest societv, where the necessity of being determined by the voice of the majority is so plain that it is scarcely ever reflected upon. The de- fenders of the rights of man mean not to contend for impossibilities. We never hear of a right to fly, or to make two and two five. If the majority of a nation approve its government, it is in this respect as free as the smallest association or club ; any thing beyond which must be visionary and romantic. The next objection Mr. Hey insists upon is, if possible, still more frivolous, turning on the case of young persons during minority. He contends, that as some of these have more sense than may be found among common mechanics and the lowest of the people, natural right demands their inclinations to be consulted in political arrangements. Were there any method of ascertaining exactly the degree of under- standing possessed by young persons during their minority, so as to 74 ON THEORIES, AND distinguish early intellects from the less mature, there would be some force in tiie objection ; in the present case, the whole supposition is no more than one oi" those cliimeras which this gentleman is ever fond of combating, with the same gravity and to as little purpose as Don Quixote his windmill. The period of minorit}', it is true, varies in different countries, and is perhaps best determined everywhere by ancient custom and habit. An early maturity may confer on sixteen more sagacity than is some- times found at sixty ; but what then ? A wise government, having for its object human nature at large, wUl be adapted, not to its accidental deviations, but to its usual aspects and appearances. For an answer to his argument against natural rights, drawn from the exclusion of women from political power, I beg leave to refer the author to the ingenious Miss Wolstonecraft, the eloquent patroness of female claims ; unless, perhaps, every other empire may appear mean in the estima- tion of those who possess with an uncontrolled authority the empire of the heart. "The situation" says Mr. Hey (p. 137), "in which any man finds himself placed when he arrives at the power of reflecting appears to be the consequence of a vast train of events, extending backwards hundreds or thousands of years for aught he can tell, and totally baf- fling all the attempts at comprehension by human faculties." From hence he concludes all inquiry into the rights of man should be forborne. " What rights this being (God) may have possibly in- tended that I might claim from beings like myself, if he had thought proper Uiat I had lived among them in an unconnected state, that is to say, what are the rights of a mere man, appears a question involved in such obscurity that I cannot trace even any indication of that Being having intended me to inquire into it." If any thing be intended by these observations, it is that we ought never to attempt to ameliorate our condition till we are perfectly ac- quainted with its causes. But as the subjects of the worst govern- ment are probably as ignorant of the train of events for some thou- sands of years back as tliose who enjoy the best, they are to rest contented, it seems, until they can clear up that obscurity, and inquire no farther. It would seem strange to presume an inference good from not knowing how we arrived at it Yet this seems as reasonable as to suppose the political circumstances of a people fit and proper on ac- count of our inability to trace the causes that produced them. To know the source of an evil is only of consequence as it may chance to conduct us to tlie remedy. But the whole paragraph I have quoted betrays the utmost perplexity of thought ; confounding the civil con- dition of individuals with the political institution of a society. The former will be infinitely various in the same community, arising from the different character, temper, and success of its members ; the latter unites and pervades the whole, nor can any abuses attach to it but what may be displayed and remedied. It is j)erfectlv disingenuous in this author to represent his adver« THE RIGHTS OF MAN. 75 fcnrles as desirous of committinles. The clamour of the fanatic rabble, the devout execration of dissenters, will remind the reader of ecclesiastical history of the excesses of pagan ferocity, when the people, instigated by their priests, were wont to exclaim, Christianos ad hones. There is the less hope of this ani- mosity being allayed from its having arisen from pennanenl causes. That Christianity is a simple institution, unallied to worldly power; that a church is a voluntary society, invested with a right to choose its own officers, and acknowledging no head but Jesus Christ ; that min- isters are brethren whose emolument should be confined to the volun- tary contributions of the people, are maxims drawn from so high an authority, that it may well be apprehended that the church is doonud to vanish before them. Under these circumstances, whatever portion of talents or of worth dissenters may possess series only to render them more hated, because more formidable. Had they merely revelled with the wanton, and drunk with the drunken,— had they been clothed with curses, they might have been honoured and esteemed notwith- • TTiis disgrace to the legislauon of a freat and free country has, at length, but not till more than a third part of a centurv had elapsed after the above reproach was penned, been flnaJly removed by an enactment for which the dissenters are esjwcially indebted to the able and jealous eaeruona of that noble example and advocate of all liberal prmciples, Lord John Ri'sskli.-^Ee. Vol. II.— F 82 ON DISSENTERS. standing, as true sons of the church ; but their dissent is a crime to£? indehble in the eyes of their enemies for any virtue ^j alleviate, or any merit to efface. Till the test business was agitated, nowever, we were not aware of our labouring under such a weight of prejudice. Confiding in the mildness of the times, and conscious that every trace of resentment was vanished from our own breasts, we fondly imagined that those of churchmen were equally replete with sentiments of generosity and candour. We accordingly ventured on a renewal of our claim as men and as citizens ; but had not proceeded far before we were assailed with the bitterest reproaches. The innocent design of relieving our- selves from a disgraceful proscription was construed by our enemies into an attack on the church and state. Their opposition was both more violent and more formidable than was expected. They let us see^ that however languidly the flame of their devotion may burn, that of resentment and party spirit, like vestal fire, must never be extinguished in their temples. Calumnies continued to be propagated, till they produced the riots at Birmingham, that ever memorable era in the an- nals of bigotry and fanaticism, when Europe beheld with astonish- ment and regret the outrage sustained by philosophy in the most eiuightened of countries, and in the first of her sons ! When we heap such excesses as these justified and applauded, Ave seem to be falling back apace into the darkness of the middle ages. The connexion between civil and religious liberty is too intimate ta make it surprising that they who are attached to the one should be friendly to the other. The dissenters have accordingly seldom failed to lend their support to men who seemed likely to restore the vigour of a sinking constitution. Parliamentary reform has been cherished by them with an ardour equal to its importance. This pan of their character inflames opposition still further ; and affords a pretext to their enemies for overwhelming the cause of liberty under an obnoxious name. The reproach on this head, however, is felt as an honour, when it appears by their conduct that they despair of attacking liberty with success while the reputation of dissenters remains undiminished The enmity of the vicious is the test of virtue. Dissenters are reproached with the appellation of republicans, but the truth of the charge has neither appeared from facts nor been sup- ported by any reasonable evidence. Among them, as among other classes (and in no greater proportion), there are persons to be found, no doubt, who, without any hostility to the present government, prefer in theory a republican to a monarchical form ; a point on which the most enlightened men in all ages have entertained very different opin- ions. In a goveniMent like ours, consisting of three simple elements, as this variety of sentiment may naturally be expected to take place, so if any predilection' be felt towards one more than another, that par- tiality seems most commendable which inclines to the republican part. At most it is only the love of liberty to excess. The mixture of mon- archy and nobility is chiefly of use as it gives regularity, order, and stability to popular freedom. Were we, however, without any proo^ OS DISSENTERS; 83 to admit that dissenters are more tinctured willi republican principles than others, it might be considered as the natural eirect of the absurd conduct of the legislature. Exposed to pains and jjenalties, excluded from all oHices of trust, proscril^ed by the spirit of the present reigny menaced and insulted wherever they appear, tliey must be more than men if they felt no resentment, or were passionately devoted to the ruling powers. To expect afl'ection in return for injury is to gather where they have not scattered, and reap where they have not sown< The superstition of dissenters is not so abject as to prompt them to worship the constitution through fear. Yet as they have not forgotten the benefits it imparted, and the protection it afforded till of late, they are too much its friends to flatter its defects or defend its abuses. Their only wish is to see it reformed, and reduced to its original prin- ciples. In recent displays of loyalty they must acknowledge themselves extremely defective. They have never plundered their neighbours to show their attachment to their king ; nor has their zeal for religion ever broke out into oaths and execrations. They have not proclairned their respect for regular government by a breach of the laws ; or attempted to maintain tranquillity by riots. These beautiful sped.'nens of loyalty belong to the virtue and moderation of the high church party alone, with whose character they perfectly correspond. In a scurrilous paper which has been lately circulated with malig- nant industry, the dissenters at large, and Dr. Price in particular, are accused, with strange effrontery, of having involved us in the American war ; when it is well known they ever stood aloof from that scene of guilt and blood- Had their remonstrances been regarded, the calamities of that war had never been incurred ; but, what is of more consequence in the estimation of anonymous scribblers, there would have remained one lie less to swell the catalogue of their falsehoods. From the- joy which dissenters have expressed at the French revo- lution, it has been most absurdly inferred that they wish for a similar event in England; without considering that such a conclusion is a libel on the British constitution, as it must proceed on a supposition that our government is as despotic as the ancient monarchy of France. To imagine the feelings must be the same when the objects are so different shows a most lamentable degree of malignity and folly. Encompassed as dissenters are by calumny and reproach, they have still the satisfaction to reflect, that these have usually been the lot of distinguished virtue ; and that in the corrupt state of men's interests and passions, the unpopularity of a cause is rather a presumption of its excellence. They will be still more happy if the frowns of the world should be the means of reviving that spirit of evangelical piety which once dis- tinguished them so highly. Content if they can gain protection, with- out being so romantic as to aspire to praise, they will continue Arm, I doubt not, in those principles which they have hitherto acted on, unse- duced by rewards, and unshaken by dangers. From the passions of F 2 81 ON DISSENTERS. their enemies, they will appeal to the judgment of posterity ; — a mofff impartial tribunal. Above all, they will calmly await the decision of the Great Judge, before whom both they and their enemies must ap- pear, and the springs and sources of their mutual animosity be laid- open ; when the clouds of misrepresentation being scattered, it will be seen they are a virtuous and oppressed people, who are treading, though with unequal steps, in the path of those illustrious prophets, apostles, and martyrs of whom the world was not worthy. In the mean time they are far from envying the popularity and applause which may be acquired in a contrary course ; esteeming the reproaches of freedom above the splendours of servitude. SECTION VI. On the Causes of the Present Discontents. We have arrived, it is a melancholy truth which can no longer be concealed, — we have at length arrived at that crisis when nothing but speedy and effectual reform can save us from ruin. An amendment in the representation is wanted, as well to secure the liberty we already possess as to open the way for the removal of those abuses which pervade every branch of the administration. The accumulation of debt and taxes to a degree unexampled in any other age or country, has so augmented the influence of the crown as to destroy the equipoise and balance of the constitution. 'I'he original design of the funding sys- tem, which commenced m the reign of King William, was to give stability to the revolution by engaging the moneyed interest to embark on its bottom. It immediately advanced the influence of the crown, which the whigs then exalted as much as possible as a countervail to- the hiterests of the pretender. The mischief of this short-sighted policy cannot be better described than in the language of Bolingbroke. " Few men," says he, " at that time looked forward enough to foresee the consequences of the new constitution of the revenue that was soon afterward formed, nor of the method of the funding system that immediately took place ; which, absurd as they are, have continued since, till it has become scarce possible to alter them. Few people, I say, foresaw how the multipli- cation of taxes and the creation of funds would increase yearly the power of the crown, and bring our liberties, by a natural and necessary progression, into a more real though less apparent danger than they were in before the revolution ; a due reflection on the experience of other ages and countries would have pointed out national corruption as the natural and necessary consequence of investing the crown with the management of so vast a revenue ; and also the loss of liberty as the natural and necessary consequence of national corruption."* If there be any truth in these reflections, how much must our appre- hensions be heightened by the prodigious augmentation of revenue and ♦ Letter 11. on the Study of History. rHE PRESENT DISCONTENTS. 85 debt since the time of George the First ! What a harvest has been reaped from the seeds of corruption then sown ! — The revenue is now upwards of seventeen milUons, arid tliough nine are employed to pay the interest of the national debt, this is small consolation when we reflect that that debt is the remnant of wasteful, destructive wars, and that till there is a change in the system we arc continually liable to similar calamities. The multiplied channels through which seven- teen millions of money must flow into the treasury, the legion of officers it creates, the patronage its expenditure on the several branches of the administration supplies, have rendered the influence of the crown nearly absolute and decisive. The coiitrol of parliament sinks under this pressure into formality : the balance of the diflerent orders becomes a mere theory, which serves to impose upon ignorance and varnish corruption. There is no power in the state that can act as a suflicient antagonist to the silent irresistible force of royal patronage. The influence of the crown, by means of its revenue, is more dan- gerous than prerogative, in proportion as corruption operates after a more concealed manner than force. A violent act of prerogative is sensibly felt and creates an alarm ; but it is the nature of corruption to lay apprehension asleep, and tp eflect its purposes while the forms of liberty remain undisturbed. The first employs force to enslave the people ; the second employs the people to enslave themselves. The most determined enemy to freedom can wish for nothing more thau the continuance of present abuses. While the semblance of rep- resentation can be maintained, while popular delusion can be kept up, he will spare the extremities of liberty. He aims at a higher object, that of striking at the heart. A fatal lethargy has long been spreading among us, attended, as is natural, with a prevailing disposition both in and out of parliament to treat plans of reform with contempt. After the accession, place and pension bills were frequently passed by the commons though rejected by the lords ; nothing of that nature is now ever attempted. A stand- ing army in time of peace was a subject of frequent complaint, and is expressly provided against by the Bill of Rights : it is now become a part of the constitution ; for though the nominal direction be placed in parliament, the mutiny bill passes as a matter of course, the forces are never disbanded ; the more completely to detach them from the com- munity, barracks are erected ; and martial law is established in its utmost severity. If freedom can survive this expedient, copied from the practice of foreign despots, it will be an instance of unexampled good fortune. Mr. Hume terms it a mortal distemper in the British constitution, of which it must inevitably perish. To whatever cause it be owing, it is certain the measures of adminis- tration have, during the present reign, leaned strongly towards arbitrary power. The decision on the Middlesex election was a blow aimed at the vitals of the constitution. Before the people had time to recover from their panic they were plunged into the American war — a war of pride and ambition, and ending in humiliation and disgrace. The spirit of the government is so well understood, that the most violent even 86 ON THE CAUSES OF of the clergy are content to drop their animosity, to turn their affections into a new channel, and to devote to the house of Hanover the flattery and the zeal by which they ruined the race of Stuart. There cannot be a clearer symptom of the decay of liberty than the dread of specu- lative opinions, which is at present carried to a length in this nation that can scarcely be exceeded. Englishmen were accustomed till of late to make political speculation the amusement of leisure and the employment of genius ; — they are now taught to fear it more than death. Under the torpid touch of despotism the patriotic spirit has shrunk into a narrow compass ; confined to gaze with admiration on the proceedings of parliament, and listen to the oracles of the minister with silent acquiescence and pious awe. Abuses are sacred, and the pool of corruption must putrify in peace. Persons who a few years back were clamorous for reform are making atonement for having been betrayed into any appearance of virtue by a quick return to their natural character. Is not the kingdom peopled with spies and in- formers I Are not inquisitorial tribunals erected in every corner of the land ? A stranger who, beholding a whole nation filled with alarm, should inquire the cause of the commotion, would be a little surprised on being informed, that instead of any appearance of insurrection or plots, a pamphlet had only been published. In a government upheld ijy so immense a revenue, and boasting a constitution declared to be the envy of the world, this abject distrust of its own power is more than a million lectures on corruptions and abuses. The wisdom of ages, the masterpiece of human pohcy, complete in all its parts, and that needs no reformation, can hardly support itself against a sixpenny pamph- let, devoid, it is said, of truth or ability ! To require sycophants to blush is exacting too great a departure from the decorum of their character ; but common sense might be expected to remain after shame is ex- tinguished. Whoever seriously contemplates the present infatuation of the people and the character of the leaders will be tempted to predict the speedy downfall of liberty. They cherish the forms while they repress the spirit of the constitution ; they persecute freedom and adorn its sepul- chre. When corruption has struck its roots so deep, it may be doubted ivhether even the liberty of the press be not of more detriment than advantage. The prints which are the common sources of information are replete with falsehood ; virtue is calumniated ; and scarcely are any characters safe from their blast, except the advocates of corruption. The greater part no doubt are in the pay of ministry or their ad- herents. Thus delusion spreads, and the people are instructed to con- found anarchy with reform, their friends with their oppressors. Who can hear without indignant contempt the ministers' annual eulogium on the English constitution ! Is the parliament so ignorant, then, that it needs to go to school every session to learn those elements of political knowledge which every Briton understands 1 Or is the nature of the Brhish constitution a secret in the breast of the ministry, to be opened with the budget 1 Indisputable excellence wants no en- comium ; but this flattery is intended to bury in an admiration of its THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS. 87 »nent all remembrance of its defects. Whatever remains of beauty or "vigour it possesses are held in no estimation but as they produce an actjuiescenre in abuses. It is its imperfections only ministers admire, its corruptions that solace them. The topics of their encomium are as absurd as the purpose is infamous. The flourishing state of trade and manufactures is displayed in proof of the unequalled excellence of the British constitution, without reflecting that a temporary decay will support with equal force an opposite conclusion. For if we owe our present prosperity to the nature of tlie government, our recent calamities must be traced to the same source, and that constitution which is now affirmed to be the best, must be allowed during the American war to have been the worst. That there is a connexion between commercial prosperity and the nature of a government must be admitted ; but iis operation is gradual and slow, not felt from year to year, but to be traced by the comparison of one age and country with another. But allowing that our wealth may increase along with the increase of abuses, the nation we hope is not so sordid as to look upon wealth as the supreme good ; however well that idea may cor- respond with the views of a ministry who seem determined to leave us no other. Freedom, as it animates industry by securing its rewards, opens a path to wealth ; but if that wealth be suffered to debase a people and render them venal and dependent, it will silently conduct them back again to misery and depression^ Rome was never more opulent than on the eve of departing liberty. Iler vast wealth was a sediment that remained on the reflux of the tide. It is quite unneces- sary to remind the reader how all this at present is reversed, and that the unbounded prodigality of Mr. Pitt and his successors in the con- duct of the war, which the corruption of parliament enabled them to maintain, has plunged the nation into the deepest abyss of poverty and distress. It is singular enough, but I hope not ominous, that the flattery be- stowed by the poets of antiquity on the ruling powers resembles, in every thing but its elegance, the adulation of modern sycophants. The extent of empire, the improvement of arts, the difl'usion of opulence and splendour, are the topics with which Horace adorned the praises of Augustus : but the penetration of Tacitus developcs, amid these flattering appearances, the seeds of ruin. The florid bloom but ill concealed that fatal malady which preyed upon the vitals. Between the period of national honour and complete degeneracy there is usually an interval of national vanity, during which examples of virtue are recounted and admired without being imitated. The Romans were never more proud of their ancestors than when they ceased to resemble them. From being the freest and most high-spirited people in the world, they suddenly fell into the tamest and most abject submission. Let not the name of Britons, my countrymen, too much elate you ; nor ever think yourselves safe while you abate one jot of that holy jealousy by which your liberties have been hitherto secured. The richer the inheritance bequeathed you, the more it merits your care for its preservation. The possession must be continued by that spirit with 88 ON THE CAUSES OF which it was at first acquired ; and as it was gained by vigilance, it will be lost by supineness. A degenerate race repose on the merit of their forefathers ; the virtuous create a fund of their own. The former look back upon their ancestors to hide their shame ; the latter look forward to posterity to levy a tribute of admiration. In vain will you confide in the forms of a free constitution. Unless you reanimate those forms with fresh vigour, they will be melancholy memorials of what you once were, and haunt you with the shade of departed liberty. A silent stream of corruption poured over the whole land has tainted every branch of the administration whh decay. On your temperate but manly exertions depend the happiness and freedom of the latest posterity. That assembly which sits by right of representation will be little inclined to oppose your will expressed in a firm decisive manner. You may be deafened by clamour, misled by sophistry, or weakened by division, but you cannot be despised with impunity. A vindictive ministry may hang the terrors of criminal prosecution over the heads of a few with success ; but at their peril will they attempt to intimidate a nation. The trick of associations, of pretended plots, and silent insurrections, will oppose a feeble barrier to the impression of the popular mind. The theory of the constitution in the most important particulars is a satire on the practice. The theory provides the responsibility of ministers as a check to the execution of ill designs ; but in reality we behold the basest of the tribe retreat from the ruin of their country, loaded with honours and with spoils. Theory tells us the parlia- ment is free and independent ; experience will correct the mistake by showing its subservience to the crown. We learn from the first that the legislature is chosen by the unbiased voice of all who can be supposed to have a will of their own ; we learn from the last the pretended electors are but a handful of the people, who are never less at their own disposal than in the business of election. The theory holds out equal benefits to all, and equal liberty, without any other discrimination than that of a good and bad subject : its practice brands with proscription and disgrace a numerous class of inhabitants on account of their religion. In theory the several orders of the state are a check on each other ; but corruption has oiled the wheels of that machinery, harmonized its motions, and enabled it to bear, with united pressure, on the happiness of the people. The principal remedy for the diseases of the state is undoubtedly a reform in parliament ; from which, as a central point, inferior nnprove- ments may issue ; but as I have already treated on that subject at large, I shall not insist on it here. I cannot close this pamphlet, however, without adverting for a moment to a few of the principal objects which well merit the attention of the legislature. On the abuses in the church it is to little purpose to expatiate, as they are too numerous to be detailed, and too inveterate to be corrected. Unless it be a maxim that honesty will endanger her existence, her creeds ought in all reason to correspond with the sentiments of her mem- bers. The world, it is to be feared, will be little edilied by the example THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS. gg of a church which, in compelling its ministers to subscribe opinions that few of them believe, is a discipline of fraul. Nor is the collection of tithes calculated to soften the odium. As a mode of union with the parishioners, they are frniifid of contention ; as a restraint on the improvement of land, impolitic and oppressive ; as a remnant of the Jewish law, superstitious and absurd. True magnanimity would instruct the clerory to recede from a claim which they will probably be com- pelled shortly to relinquish. But no reform, it seems, must take place in the church any more than in the slate, that its corruptions may keep pace with the projrress of its ally. The condition of the poor in this country calls for compassion and redress. Many of them, throuorh the want of mental improvement, are sunk almost beneath the level of humanity ;* and their hard-earned pittance is so diminished by taxes, that it is with the utmost difiicnlty they can nourish their children, and utterly impossible to aflbrd them education. The poor laws enacted for their relief, by confining their industry- to a particular spot, and denying them the privilege of residing where they may exert it to the greatest advantage, are an accumulated oppression. Were industry allowed to find its level, were the poor- laws abolished, and a small portion of that expense which swells the tide of corruption, the splendours of the great, and the miseries of war, bestowed on the instruction of the common people, the happy effects would descend to the remotest posterity, and open a prospect which humanity might delight to anticipate. In England, we have been adding wheel to wheel, and spring to spring, till we have rendered the machine of government far too complicated ; forgetting, in the midst of wars, negotiations, and factious disputes, that the true end of civil polity is the happiness of the people. We have listened to every breeze that moves along the surface of Europe, and descried danger from afar; while, deaf to the complaints of the poor, we have beheld ignorance, wretchedness, and barbarity multiply at home, without the smallest regard. Is it possible to behold with patience the number- less tribe of placemen, pensioners, and sycophants who are enriched at the public expense ; a noxious sjtawn engendered by the corruptions of government, and nourished by its diseases. Were our immense revenue conducive to the maintenance of royal dignity, or proportioned to the exigences of the state, it would be borne with pleasure ; but at present it bids fair to be the purchase of our servitude. Our laws, in order to become a proper rule of civil life, much want revision and amendment. They are moreover never promulgated. For this omission Judge Blackstone assigns a very curious reason : "That being enacted by our representatives, every man is supposed, in the eye of the law, to be present in the legislature." It would be an improvement on this delegated knowledge of the law, if the penalty were also delegated, and criminals punished by representation. The • The change in this respect sine* the finrt publication of the " Apolopj-" Is of the most eratifying kind. All ranks of aocicty, anil all persuasions of Christiai.a, hnve vied wiih each other In their efforts to give religious and other useful instruction to the children of Itie poor. Still there rermins much to be done, and we ere in this jwint of the general education of the lower classes very Ihr behind the Americans, especially those in the stale of Now-York.— Er>. so ON THE CAUSES OF laws in their present state are so piled into volumes, encumbered with precedents, and perplexed with intricacies, that they are often rather a snare than a guide, and are a fruitful source of the injustice they are intended to prevent. 'J'he expense is as formidable as the penalty ; nor is it to any purpose to say they are the same to the poor as to the rich, while by their delay, expense, and perplexity they are placed on an eminence which opulence only can ascend. The commendation bestowed so liberally by foreigners on English jurisprudence was never meant to be extended to our municipal code, which is confused, perplexed, and sanguinary in the extreme ; but to the trial by jury, and the dignified impartiality which marks the conduct of judges. For want of gradual improvements, to enable it to keep pace with the progress of society, the most useful operations of law are clouded by fictions.* These are a few only of the maladies which indicate a bad habit of the political body : nor can a true estimate be made of our situation so much by adverting to particular evils as by an attention to the general aspect of affairs. The present crisis is, in my apprehension, the fullest of terror and of danger we have ever experienced. In the extension of excise laws, in the erection of barracks, in the determined adherence to abuses displayed by parliament, in the desertion of pretended patriots, the spread of arbitrary principles, the tame subdued spirit of the nation, we behold the seeds of political ruin quickening into life. The securities of liberty, as was long since remarked by Dr. Price, have given way ; and what remains is little more than an indulgence, which cannot continue long when it ceases to be cherished in the affections of the people. The little of public virtue that still subsists is no match for disciplined armies of corruption. The people are perishing for lack of knowledge. Disquieted by imaginary alarms, insensible to real danger that awaits them, they are taught to court that servitude which will be a source of misery to themselves and to posterity. Deplorable as the prospect is, a precarious hope may be founded, perhaps, on the magnitude of abuses. There is, it has often been remarked, an ultimate point both of elevation and depression in the affairs of kingdoms, to which when they arrive they begin to turn of their own accord and to fall back into their ancient channels. We are certainly entitled to all the comfort that consideration is capable of affording. Taxation can hardly be more oppressive, representation more venal and inadequate, the influence of the people more extin- guished, or falsehood and deception more triumphant than they are at present. There is also another circumstance attending the present crisis which, if we are wise enough to improve it, may be of the utmost advantage. Of the numberless political parties which have hitherto distracted our attention and divided our attachment there now remain but two, — the patrons of corruption and the friends of liberty ; they who are waiting for the disorders of government to ripen into arbitrary power, and they who are anxious to bring back the constitution to its original • See an exrellMjt publication on this subject, entitled "Juridical Essays," by Mr. RandalL THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS. 91 principles. The colours by which they are distinguished are too bold and strong to be ever contoiHuled ; or if there could be any possible embarrassment in the choice, the ministry have condescended to remove that obscurity, by pursuing an interest, not only distinct from, but directly opposed to, that of the people. The clamour of whigs and tories hath happily subsided ; and pretended patriots are at length so kind as to unmask before the people, and stand fortli in their native character, the objects of just detestation. We cannot wish for belter lessons of public virtue than is furnished by the contrast of their vices. On the present war, until the views of the ministry are more unfolded, it behooves me to speak with tenderness and reserve. It nothing more be intended than the maintenance of national honour and the faith of treaties, it will merit the warmest support of every well-wisher to his country. But if the re-establishment of the ancient government of France be any part of the object ; if it be a war with freedom, a confederacy of kings against the rights of man ; it will be the last humiliation and disgrace that can be inflicted on Great Britain ; and were there any truth in tales of incantation, to behold us engaged in such a cause were enough to disturb the repose of our ancestors and move the ashes of the dead ! The steps preparatory to the war, the inflamed passions and the character of our allies, afl^ord an ill omen of the temper with which it will be conducted. The pretence respecting the Netherlands certaiidy entitles the ministry' to the praise of consistence. It is quite of a piece with the candour and sincerity which affirmed the balance of Europe to be destroyed by the seizure of Oczakow, but denied it was endangered by the conquest of Poland and the invasion of France. The French revolution, we cannot but remember, was from the first an object of jealousy to ministers. There needed not the late unhappy excesses, the massacres of September, and the execution of Louis, to excite or display their hostility. It appeared in the insult and derision of their retainers, from the highest to the lowest. If they meant fairly to the interests of general liberty, why that uneasiness at the fall of despotism in a neighbouring country? Why render parliament a thea- tre of abuse on a revolution whose commencement was distinguished by unexampled mildness and tranquillity I But this part of their con- duct was likewise consistent. Intent on the destruction of liberty in one country, they were disconcerted at seeing it revive in another ; and before they ventured lO extinguish the dying taper, waited for the sur- rounding scene to be shut up in darkness. I am perfectly aware that to speak in terms of decency and respect of the French revolution is to incur, in the prevailing disposition of the times, the last of infamies. If we dare to rejoice at the emancipation of a great people from thral- dom, it must be at the peril of the foulest imputations that imagination can invent or malignity apply. In contempt, however, of these calum- nies, I am free to confess the French revolution has always appeared to me, and does still appear, the most splendid event recorded in the annals of history'. The friends of liberty contemplate the crimes and 92 ON THE CAUSES OF THE PRES£i^ r DISCONTENTS disorders with which it has been stained* with the deepest regret, but they still hope that they will in the result be more than compensated by the grandeur of its principles and the beneficence of its effects. Instead of wishing for a similar event in England, they are intent on reform chiefly to avoid that necessity. Under every form of govern- inent they know how to recognise the divine aspect of freedom, and without it can be satisfied with none. The evils of anarchy and of despotism are two extremes which they equally dread ; and between which no middle path can be found but that of effectual reform. To avert the calamities that await us on either side, the streams of corrup- tion must be drained off, the independence of parliament restored, the ambition of aristocracy repressed, and the majesty of the people lift itself up. It is possible to retreat from the brink of a precipice, but wo to that nation which sleeps upon it ! * The execution of the king was certainly a most cruel and unjustifiable transaction, alike repug- nant to law, order, and humanity. Without being conducive to any views of policy whatever, it seems to have been merely a gratification of the most detestable passions. The treatment of the beautiful and unfortunate queen and of the royal family is barbarous and unmanly in the extreme When we look at their sufferings, humanity weeps, and pity forgets their crimes. REVIEW OF THE APOLOGY FOR THE FREEDOM OF THE TRESS, PUBLISHED IN THE CHRISTIAN GUARDIAN; AND MR. HALL'S REPLY. [Published in 18sI3.J REVIEW MR. HALL'S FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. Extracted from the Christian Guardian for Jan. 1822. " The political principles of the Bible are simple, distinct, and plain. The sacred writers enter into no niceties, draw no lines of exact demarkation, meet no involved cases of civil casuistry ; but, speaking of mankind generally as alike depraved and unruly', and of governments as the creations of God's providence, they inculcate, without qualification, reservation, or restriction, the obvious and indispensable duties of submission, honour, and obedience. " It has been, however, very much the fashion of late to get rid of these unplea- sant and ' degrading^ injunctions by pleading 'he change of time and circumstances, and the difference between the laws and system of government under which we are privileged to live and those of the apostolic days. Now, as to the general duty of obedience, it is obvious that it must apply rather more than less strongly to those who live under a paternal government than to those who live under a tyrannical one. At the same time we are ready to allow, that the system of freedom which, in this country, gives to the people a share in the legislature and an influence over the government, renders the submission due from them less implicit and uninquiring, at the same time that it increases the obligation to its cheerful payment. " But although it be conceded that under a constitution which renders the people a party to their own government, it is lawful and proper for laymen to interest themselves intimately in political concerns, and even to a certain extent to partici- pate in political contests, there is one body of men whom we could ever wish to see taking no other part in these matters than as moderators, instructers, and peacemakers. *• The ministers of the gospel must, in the discharge of their duty, — they must, if they will ' declare the whole counsel of God,' sometimes touch upon those passages of Scripture which inculcate the duties of subjects. While St. Paul, in the days of Nero himself, was led by the Holy Spirit to write, ' Submit to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake;' and to pronounce, without hesitation, 'fie that re- sisteth the power,' tyrannical as it was in the extreme, 'resisteth the ordinance of God ;' and while similar passages abound in the inspired volume, it cannot be thought consistent with the character of a preacher of the gospel to maintain an absolute silence on these topics. But there is one rule which, in our opinion, ministers would do well to follow, and that is, to go no further than the Bible will carry them. The war of parties and factions, the continual struggle of political leaders, the various questions of constitutional casuistry, are subjects which lie beyond this boundary, and with which they would do well not to embroil them- selves. The servant of the Lord is exhorted ' not to strive,' but ' to cut off occasion * In order that the propriety of Mr. Hall's reply maybe fairly estimated, it has been thought right to reprint the original article that called it forth.— Ed. 96 REVIEW OF THE APOLOGY FOR from them which desire occnsion :' and, assuredly, he will find thai the hare dis- charge of his plain duty in these things will expose him to sufficient obloquy and reproach. " Entertaining this view of the subject, it is with sorrow that we observe the Republication, under his own immediate sanction, of Mr. Hall's 'Apology for the Freedom of the Press.' This work was first given to the world about thirty years ago, and has been long since forgotten, or remembered only as one of the sins of its author's youth. Since its disappearance Mr. H. has so much better employed his time and his great talents, that he may now be considered as standing in the very first rank among the non-conformists of the present day. And is it not a lamentable thing to see such a man stepping forward, in the ripeness of his years and at the height of his well-earned reputation, to obtrude himself on the public in the degraded character of a violent party-scribe : — and yet, in what other light can we consider the man who, in so uncalled-for and gratuitous a manner, and at so comparatively peaceful a period, sends into the world, with the sanction of his- name, and of his latest corrections, a new edition of such a pamphlet as this ] " He indeed states, as an excuse for the republication, that the term of copyright being expired, it was no longer in his power to prevent the reprinting of this work. The law, however, is not so ; the power of perpetuating its oblivion lay still in his hands. But had he even been correct on this point, where was the necessity for his- being an active agent in this reappearance 1 " To characterize the tract before us appropriately we need only observe, that the principal topics discussed by this ' minister of the gospcP are, the right of public discussion, the propriety of political associations, parliamentary reform, the rights of men, the character of dissenters, the present discontents. The work is ex- tremely personal, and great bitterness is shown towards the late Bishop Horsley, Mr. Burke, and Mr. Pitt. We shall not imitate Mr. Hall's example by entering into a discussion on the subject of Mr. Pitt's political character; but we should have hoped that the reflection of his undoubted integrity and of that perfect devotion to his country which led him to sacrifice even life itself, in its service, might have spared him, at the distance of sixteen years from his death, a new volley of bitter reproach from one whose vocation is ' the gospel of peace.' "As to the character of Bishop Horsley, it is now placed far beyond the reach of his adversaries ; and the Christian world will know how to appreciate invectives against such a man from one who is at the same time the eulogist of Priestley and Price, the Socinians, and of Mary M''olstonecraft, the female libertine and Deist. " Looking, then, upon this work as one of which a critical analysis would be ill placed in the pages of the Christian Guardian, we shall conclude with a specimen or two of the political creed of Mr. Hall, and of the manner in which he sup- ports it. " He is, then, as far as professed doctrine can make him, plainly and clearly a radical reformer. He pleads for ♦ annual parliaments,' for universal suffrage, for the unfettered publication of every kind of blasphemy, for the exclusion of the rela- tives of noblemen from the House of Commons, for the overthrow of all ecclesiastical establishments, and for 'the sovereignty of the people.' In what part of the sacred volume he has discovered the least sanction for any one of these notions we are at a loss to imagine. "In fact, the whole pamphlet is' an argument in favour of the supremacy and infallibility of the people, and of the necessity of paying the most implicit obedience to the least expression of their will. Now, could these notions have been carried into practice at the time they were written (soon after the Birmingham riots), and could a legislature have been formed upon Mr. H.'s universal suffrage plan, the necessary and inevitable consequence would have been, that as the feeUng of the multitude ran violently against all the friends of the French revolution, Mr. H. and most of his fellow-labourers and admirers would have been silenced, banished, or hanged. So much for the effects which might be expected to follow Mr. Hall's plan. And as for the principles upon which that plan is founded, we find him broadly stating in the latter end of this work, with admirable consistency, that 'calumny and reprpach are usually the lot of distinguished virtue,' and that ' the vnpopularitij of a cause im rather a prcsumpticm of its excellence'* Now, if the fact THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS, 07 b€ 80, it cannot be for the good of the people that this perpetually erroneoas crite- rion should govern the affairs of tho state. "Mr. Hall concludes his priti\cd advertisement vrith the hope 'that the reader will recollect, as an excuse for the warmth of his expression, that the work is an exdogium on a dead friend;^ which is asserting, in other words, that the press is enslaved and its liberty departed. And, having written this some years since, he now coolly republishes it, after witnessing the acquittals of Hone and Wooller, and while the wretched Carlile is braving every effort that can be made to stop the torrent of blasphemy which has so long issued from his warehouse. "Again, Mr. H. assured us, thirty years since, that we had then * at length arrived at that crisis when nothing but speedy and effectual reform could save U9 from ruin.' Now, since the first publication of this prediction we have maintained a contest of long duration with the greatest conqueror of modem times, and have fairly subdued him. We have immensely augmented the extent of our empire, and increased its ratio of population. We have tripled our commerce and our revenue. We have improved, it is to be hoped, the state of our internal population by the establishment of schools and the increase of places of worship ; and we have made some progress in the commencement at least of the great work of evangelizing the whole world. "And after all this, Mr. Hall comes forward with much admirable simplicity to tell us of this wonderful prophecy of his, delivered only the third part of a century since, that without imirudiale rcforvi in parliament, ruin was then inevitable. Now, it is certain that this same immediate reform has not yet taken place, although one whole generation has passed away since the promulgation of this prediction- Has the dreadful alternative then fallen upon us? Have we been crushed by this inevitable ruin ? " The present comparatively prosperous and improving circumstances of th^ kingdom answers No I to this question. The general state of the country, the average condition of the great mass of the people, is better, and not worse, than at the time when Mr. Hall first published this direful presage. " If there be any exception to this state of general improvement, it is to be found in the depression of the agricultural interest of the country. But we are told by those who ought to be judges that the evils which threaten these classes have arisen from the want of sufficient legislative protection. And do we not know from the conduct of the mobs of 1815 that a reformed parliament, a universal suffrage par- liament, according to Mr. Hall's plan, would have withheld even the partial protection which has hitherto been granted, and would have thereby made what is now distress and perplexity, absolute ruin and destruction] So much for the necessity and the efTects of reform. " It is with the most painful feelings that we are thus compelled to animadvert on this uncalled-for and altogether unnecessary republication. We repeat, that the general principle upon which we disapprove of it is, that a minister of the gospel will always best consult the interests of his flock and the dignity of his own character by abstaining from any political discussion which transgresses the bounds prescribed 'n the Holy Scriptures. Mr. Hall has overstepped these limits, and has plunged into the thickest of the war of party politics. He has also chosen, we apprehend, the side which is generally found in most direct opposition to the Scripture injunc- tions of peace, quietness, and obedience. And as the weight of his character and the authority of his nan>e render error from his pen trebly dangerous, we have felt only the more imperatively called upon to enter our protest against the principles which he has endeavoured to lay down, and to unmask the sophistry of the argu- ments by which he has attempted to support them." Vol, IL— G MR. HALL'S REPLY. To the Editor of the Leicester Journal. Sir, A VIOLENT attack on my character having appeared in your paper a few weeks since, contained in an extract from a periodical work entitled the Christian Guardian, I rely on your impartiality for per- mitting me to repel the accusation through the same medium. If the misrepresentations which I have to complain of had been confined within the bounds of decency, I should have consulted my ease by remaining silent : but the writer, whoever he is, has availed himself of the impunity attached to anonymous communications so unsparingly that I might be justly charged, not only with a criminal indifference to character, but with being accessary to the delusion of the public, were I to make no reply. The amount of my oflence consists in uttering a new edition of a political pamphlet, which made its first appearance many years since, and passed through several editions. This writer says I might have suppressed it ; but the contrary is the fact. The term of copyright is well known to extend to fourteen years, after which any one is at liberty to republish a work without the consent of the author. More than that time had elapsed since the last edition, and as it was at the option of any bookseller to reprint it, so I was assured from various quarters that whether I consented or not it would certainly be repub- lished. The only alternative that remained was, either to sufller it to come forth in a form perhaps most incorrect and mingled with foreign infusions, or to publish it under my own eye, and with such alterations and corrections as the author might deem proper. The latter was preferred, and for this a torrent of invective has issued from the Christian Guardian. It certainly is very unusual for a writer to suppress his own publica- tions, unless he has recanted the principles they contain. To perse- vere in doing so naturally exposes him to the suspicion either that he has renounced his former opinions or that he is afraid to avow them : f but neither of these situations is mine. I have changed no principle and I feel no fear. Why then should I act in such a manner as must render me perpetually liable to either of these imputations ? For a considerable time, indeed, after loud and repeated importunitiesj I Mil. HALL'S REPLY TO THE REVIEW, gg declined a compliance with the M'islies expressed for republiraiion, from a sincere reluctance to engaij^e in political controversy. By one party, in the inean while, it was my fortune to l>e so unequivocally claimed as a convert, and by the other so assailed with reproachc as an apostate, that I was convinced by experience there was no other way of putting an end to the misrepresentations of both but to repub- lish the original pamphlet. Had I never written it, the same motives which made me reluctant to reprint might probably have prevented my writing it ; but since there is not a principle in it which I can con- scientiously retract, and my silence has occasioned numerous mis- representations and mistakes, the fair and manly part was doubtless to republish it. An ingenuous mind is not less ashamed of receiving praises it is conscious it has not deserved, than indignant at re- proaches which are not merited. But a minister of the gospel, it seems, is on no occasion to meddle xvith party politics. How exactly this maxim was adhered to at the commencement of the late war, when military banners were conse- crated, and the people everywhere summoned to arms " By putpit, drun ecclesiastic, Beat wltb llsl Instead of a sUck," must be fresh in the recollection of my readers. The men who in the garb of clergymen bustle at electioneering meetings, forsooth, are not really such, but merely assume the dis- guise of that holy order, since it would be uncandid to suppose they can so universally lose sight of what is befitting ministers of the gospel. The venerable bench of bishops who sit in the House of Lords either attend in silent pomp without taking any part in the deliberations, or they violate the character of ministers of the gospel. We must have been grossly imposed upon by the public prints, which informed us of the clergy of a whole archdeaconry, or diocess, meet- ing to petition parliament against the Catholic claims, since they could never, with one consent, depart so far from the decorum of ministers of the gospel ! The plain state of the case is, not that the writer i« offended at my meddling with palitics, but that I have meddled on the wrong side. Had the same mediocrity of talent been excned in eulogizing the measures of ministers, his greetings would have been as loud as his invective is bitter. But it was exerted to expose public abuses, to urge the necessity of reform, and lay open the tergiversation of the heaven-born minister and Simday duellist, who, after devoting the day of rest to deeds of blood, has by a strange fatality obtained a sort of political beatification. Hinc illm lachrymtB ! Another head of accusation is, that I have censnred the character of Bishop Horsley, whose character, the reviewer tells ns, " is far removed beyond my attack, while I have eulogized Dr. Price and Dr. Priestley, Socinians." To this it is sufficient to reply that Dr. Price was not a Socinian, but an Arian ; he wrote professedly in confutation of Bocinianism ; and though I disapprove of his religious principles, I G5 Oa MR. HALL'S REPLY feel no hesitation in affirming, in spite of the frantic and unprincipled abuse of Burke, that a more ardent and enUghtened friend of his country never lived than that venerable patriarch of freedom. Such were the sentiments of the worshipful corporation of London, who in token of their esteem presented him with the freedom of the city in a golden box ; such was the judgment of Mr. Pitt, who long professed himself his admirer, and condescended to seek his advice on questions of finance. Dr. Priestley, it is acknowledged, was a Socinian ; but it was not under th^ character that he was eulogized. It was as the friend of liberty, the victim of intolerance, and the author of some of the most brilliant philosophical discoveries of modern times, for which he was celebrated throughout Europe, and his name enrolled as a member of the most illustrious institutions ; so that my eulogy was but a mere feeble echo of the applause which resounded from every civilized portion of the globe. And are we suddenly fallen back into the darkness and ignorance of the middle ages, during which the spell of a stupid and unfeeUng uniformity bound the nations in iron slumbers, that it has become a crime to praise a man for talents which the whole world admired, and for virtues which his enemies confessed, merely because his religious creed was erroneous? If any thing could sink orthodoxy into contempt, it would be its association with such gothic barbarity of sentiment, such reptile meanness. What renders the wretched bigotry of the reviewer the more conspicuous is, that the eulogy in question was written almost immediately after the Birming- ham riots, that disgraceful ebullition of popular phrensy, during which a ferocious mob tracked his steps like bloodhounds, demolished his house, destroyed his library and apparatus, and advancing from thence to the destruction of private and public buildings, filled the whole town and vicinity with terror and dismay. What sort of a Christian Guardian the reviewer would have proved on that occasion may be easily inferred from his passing over these atrocities in silence, while he discharges his malice on their unoffending victim. The maxim De mortuis nil nisi honum admits of exceptions ; and as I am vilified for censuring Bishop Horsley, whose character, it is affirmed, "is far removed beyond my attack," while I praised Priestley, the Socinian, justice compels me to remark (what the reviewer prob- ably knows well enoogh), that in the virtues of private life Dr. Priestley was as much superior to his antagonist as he was inferior in the cor- rectness of his speculative theology. From the principles avowed in the Apology, this writer asserts that it is evident I am to be classed to all intents and purposes with radical reformers. This charge is grounded on my recommendation of annual parliaments and universal suffrage. Now he either knows that Mr. Pitt, in conjunction with the Duke of Richmond, presided at public (meetings in which annual parliaments and the extension of the right of suffrage to all householders were recommended, or he does not. If he pleads ignorance of the fact, what presumption is it for a man so uninformed to write upon the subject ! If he knows it, let me ask, was Mr. Pitt a radical reformer at the time he recommended those TO THE REVIEW. 101 measures T If he \ras, I plead guilty to the charge ; but if he was not, the recommendation of a similar plan is no evidence of my being a radical. For my own part, I feel the utmost contempt of the charge of radicalism. A radical reformer, if we attend to the nnportof words, is one that goes to the root of the evil, that proposes not merely to paUiate, but to extirpate it. And what is that reform worth that pro- poses less ? He who labours under an inveterate malady wishes for radical cure : he would put little value on a remedy that should miti- gate the pain without reaching the source of the disorder. If the appellation of radical reformer is intended to denote a revolutionist, it is most absurdly applied to the advocate of annual parliaments and universal suffrage, because the first of these measures is merely a revival of the ancient practice, and the latter most consonant to the genius of a free constitution, which presupposes the extension of the elective franchise to all who can be presumed to have a will of their own : the exercise of this right, coupled with the practice of voting by ballot, would in my humble opinion be the best expedient for securing the freedom and tranquillity of elections. Be this as it may, a sincere proposal of reform must differ essentially from the proposal of a revo- lution. If by styling me a radical reformer this writer intends to im- pute revolutionary views, I say it is a calumny and a falsehooG ; and I challenge him to produce a single sentence in my publications which sustains such a charge, or which convicts me of hostility to the exist- ing order of things, as consisting of king, lords, and commons. But if he means that I am for such a reform as will cut up corruption by the roots, I feel no inclination to disavow it. He wishes, it is evident, to fix the impression that I am hostile to the regal branch of the con- stitution, but shrinks from making the assertion, and endeavours to convey the venom of his accusations through the subtle vehicle of a dark and ambiguous phraseology. For what purpose but that of exciting hatred and horror he has thought fit to couple my name with the mention of Hone and Cariile it is not easy to conjecture. The blasphemy of their publications is quite as disgusting to me as to himself; but I am at a loss to conceive the justness of that reasoning which would infer that no political cor- ruption however enormous, no maladministration however flagrant, must be exposed to animadversion until these men have ceased to exhale their impieties. Let this principle once be admitted, and we shall never want Hones and Carliles in abundance ; to remove a shield so easily purchased and so effectual in the protection of every abuse might be deemed an infatuation. " He (the author of the Apology) pleads," says the reviewer, " for annual parliaments, for universal suffrage, for the unfettered publication of every kind of blasphemy, for the exclusion of the relatives of noble- men from the House of Commons, for the overthrow of all ecclesiastical establishments, and for the sovereignty of the people. In what part of the sacred volume," he adds, " he has discovered the least sanction for any one of these notions we are at a loss to imagine." The fatuity of this remark baffles all description. For why may I not retort his 02 MR. HALL'S REPLY own language, and say, This author pleads for septennial parliaments, for limited suffrage, for the admission of the relatives of noblemen in the House of Commons, and for the support of ecclesiastical establish- ments ; but in what part of the sacred volume he finds the least sanction for them I am at a loss to imagine? But when did I plead for the publication of blasphemy, fettered or unfettered ? To plead for the liberty of divulging speculative opinions is one thing, and to assert the right of utteriug blas})heTiy is another. For blasphemy, which is the speaking contumeliously of God, is not a speculative error ; it is an overt act ; a crime which no state should tolerate. In relation to the question of ecclesiastical establishments, since I am challenged to pro- duce any passage from Scripture which sanctions my opposition to them, I beg leave to refer him to our Lord's declaration, Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up. That national churches, or exclusive establishments of religion by the civil magistrate, are one of these plants will not be denied ; since nothing of that kind, it is universally allowed, existed during the three first and purest ages of Christianity, and not being authorized by the great Head of the church, it must, if we believe him, be rooted up. I have used the term great Head of the church, by way of distinction from that little head* which the Church of England has invented, and on which, whether it be a beauty or a deformity in the body of Christ, the Scriptures are certainly as silent as on universal suffrage and annual parliaments. It may not be improper in this place to notice a curious argument which the reviewer adduces in support of his darling tenet of passive obedience and non-resistance, from the prevailing and inherent depravity • of human nature. He reminds us that mankind are represented in Scripture as " alike depraved and unruly," and from these premises, attempts to enforce that interpretation of Scripture which would annihi- late the liberties of mankind, and reduce them, without " restriction or reservation," to a passive submission to their political superiors. On another occasion I have sufiiciently rescued the sentiments of the inspired writers from such a detestable imputation, by showing that their design is merely to inculcate the general duty of obedience to government, as the ordinance of God, while they leave the just bounds of authority, and the limits of obedience, to the regulation and adjust- ment of reason and experience ; a task to which they are perfectly adequate. But how does the depravity of human nature evince the necessity of passive obedience and non-resistance, unless it is contended that the ruling part of mankind are not depraved ? That mankind are naturally "depraved and unruly" affords a good argument for the existence of government itself; but since they are *' alike depraved and unruly," since governors partake of the same corruption as the people, aggravated too often by the possession of power, which inflames the passions and corrupts the heart, to allege the depravity of human nature as a reason for submission to arbitrary power, involves the absurdity of supposing that the cure of one degree of wickedness is to be obtained * 1 know of no passage in the works of our author which presents. In my Judgment, so gross a violation of good taste as is here exhibited.— Ed. TO THE REVIEW. 103 by affording unlimited license to a greater Retrace the annals of all times and nations, and you will find in the triumph of despotism the triumph of wickedness ; you will find that men have been virtuous, noble, and disinterested, just in proportion as they have been free. The reviewer affects to triumph over me, on account r"" the supposed failure of the prediction, that ruin would speedily ei.bue unless pre- vented by reform. " Has this dreadful alternative," he asks, " fallen upon us ? The present comparatively prosperous and improving circumstances of the kingdom, answers No. The general state of the country, the average condition of the great mass of the people, is better and not xL-orse than at the time when Mr. Hall first published this direful presage." I am at a loss to reply in suitable terms to a writer who seems to glory in setting truth at defiance. Let me ask the reader, whether he thinks there is a single person to be found in the nation who really believes our condition as a people is improved within the last thirty years ? Where is this improvement to be found ? Is it in the augmenta- tion of the national debt to three times its former amount; in the accumulated weight of taxes ; in the increase of the poor-rates ; in the depression of land to less than one-half of its former value ; in the ruin of the agricultural interest ; in the tliousands and tens of thousands of farmers who are distrained for rent, and they and their families reduced to beggary ? Has this writer already forgotten the recent distress of the manufacturing class, who, from failure of employment and the depression of wages, were plunged into despair, while numbers •of thfim quitted their homes, and sought a precarious and scanty relief, by dragging tlirough the country loaded wagons and carts, like beasts of burden ? Is it in the rapid and portentous multiplication of crimes, by which our prisons are glutted with malefactors ? If these are indications of increasing prosperity, we may justly adopt tlie language of the liturgy, from such prosperity, " Good Lord, deliver us." To do the writer justice, he has the grace to admit something like an exception respecting the agricultural interest, though he expresses himself with the diffidence becoming the solution of so difficult a problem. " If any exception," he says, " can be found, it is in the agricultural interest ;" but he adds, " If those are to be believed who might to be judges, this is to be ascribed to the want of legal protection." Now, two corn-bills have been passed of late years for the express protection of the agriculturist ; the last of these in open contempt of the sentiments and wishes of the people. Previously to the passing of these bills, agriculture was in a comparatively flourishing state ; since these laws were enacted it has experienced a depression beyond all example ; and in the face of these facts, this writer has the assur ance to inform us, that in the opinion of those v)ho ought to be judges, the evil is wholly to be ascribed to the want of legal protection. But who are these highly-privileged mortals, who are to be implicitly believed because "they ought to be judges?" If there is any class of persons whose opinion on these questions is entitled to deference and respect, they are undoubtedly political economists, men who have 04 MR. HALL'S REPLY aiade the sources of national wealth the principal .«-iH ict of their iiquiry : and where will he find one, from Adam Smitli to the present ame, who has not reprobated the interference of legislature with the price of corn ? To say nothing of the reasoning of that great philoso- ;)her, which is unanswerable, common sense will teach us, that laws »o raise the price of produce are unjust and oppressive taxes upon the whole community, for the exclusive benefit of a part. There is a description of men who are accustomed systematically to yield up iheir understandings to others, who in their view " ought to be judges :" it is needless to add, that the present writer is evidently of this servufn pecus, this tame and passive herd ; and that his knowledge of the subject is just what might be expected from one who thinks by proxy. These men, forgetting, or affecting to forget, that the exercise of power, in whatever hands it is placed, will infallibly degenerate into tyranny unless it is carefully watched, make it their whole business to screen its abuses ; to suppress inquiry, stifle complaint, and inculcate on the people as their duty a quiet and implicit submission to the direction of those who, to speak in the vocabulary of slaves, " ought to be judges." These are the men by whom the constitution is endangered ; these the maxims by which free states are enslaved. If that freedom which is the birthright of Britons is destined to go down to succeeding genera- ions, it must result from the prevalence of an opposite spirit ; a lofty enthusiasm, an ardent attachment to liberty, and an incessant jealousy of the tendency of power to enlarge its pretensions and extend its encroachments. The reviewer asserts, that " my whole pamphlet is an argument in favour of the supremacy and infallibility of the people, and of the necessity of paying an implicit obedience to the least expression of their will." This, I must assure the reader, is a gross and wilful misrepresenta- tion. In no part of the pamphlet have I pleaded for any such doctrine. All that I have asserted is, that in proportion as the House of Comfnons is in unison with the people, animated by the same sympathies, and affected by the same interests, in the same proportion will it accom- plish the design of its functions as a representative assembly ; and that a reform is absolutely necessary, in order to restore it to that conjunc- tion of interests and of feelings on which its utility, as the popular branch of the legislature, depends. The necessity of such a union between the people and their representatives is manifest from the very meaning of the terms, for it were quite needless for them to be at the pains of choosing men who, in consequence of a foreign bias, are prepared to contradict their sentiments and neglect their interests. A House of Commons which should chiefly consist of court sycophants and tyrants would exhibit nothing more than the mockery of repre- sentation. By artfully transferring what I have said of one branch of the legislature to the whole, and presenting even that in an exagge- rated form, he has represented me as reducing the government to such an immediate and incessant dependence on the popular will as never TO THE REVIEW. 106 entered my thoughts, and would be utterly incompatible with the genius of a limited monarchy. Having already trespassed on the patience of my readers, I shall close with one remark on the eulogium pronounced by the reviewer on the character of the late Mr. Piit. He appears to be extremely shocked with the freedom and severity of my strictures on his conduct, as implying a forgetfulness of his singular disinterestedness, and his " perfect devotion to his country." As this has become a favourite topic with the admirers of that celebrated minister, it is necessary to remind them that there are other vices besides the love of money, and other virtues besides that of dying poor. It may be easily admitted, that the ambition which grasps at the direction of an empire, and the pitiful passion for accumulation, were not the inmates of the same bosom. In minds of a superior order, ambition, like Aaron's rod, is quite sufficient to swallow up the whole fry of petty propensities. Far be it from me to wish to withhold an atom of the praise justly due to him. That he devoted much time and a considerable portion of talent to the affairs of his country is undeniable. The evils which he has brought upon us were not the production of an ordinary mind, nor the work of a day, nor done in sport ; but what I contend for is, that, to say nothing of his unparalleled apostacy, his devotion to his country, and, what was worse, its devotion to him, have been the source of more calamity to this nation than any other event that has befallen it ; and that the memory of Pitt will be identified in the recollection of posterity with accumulated taxes, augmented debt, extended pauperism, a de- basement and prostration of the public mind, and a system of policy, not only hostile to the cause of liberty at home, but prompt and eager to detect and tread out every spark of liberty in Europe ; in a word, with all those images of terror and destruction which the name imports. The enthusiasm with which his character is regarded by a numerous class of his countrymen will be ascribed, by a distant age, to that mysterious infatuation which, in the inscrutable counsels of Heaven, is the usual, the destined precursor of the fall of states. I am. Sir, Your humble servant, Robert Haix. Leicester, Feb. 5, 1822. NOTE BY THE EDITOR. Some excellent persons who did not know Mr. Hall often express great concf:rn that so good a man should have suffered his thoughts to be so mucr. engrossed in politics as they suppose must have been the case. The truth, however, is, that few men gave themselves less to political matters than Mr. Hall. At the deeply-interesting period in which he wrote his political tracts, the whole world was absorbed in the contemplation of political events and the discussion of political principles. Among the disputants of the two great parties into which this country was divided, clergymen and other ministers took a most active part, and the class denominated evangelical were by no means the least active. Some of the most eminent of them, indeed, engaged in that sad and then frequent profana- tion of holy places and things, the consecration of the colours of a volunteer corps in a parish church ; and one even put on a military cockade in order to incite his parishioners to come forward in the public cause. The genuine principles of our admirable constitution were thought by many to be in imminent peril ; yet all who wrote in their defence were exposed to obloquy. A learned prelate asserted in the House of Lords that "the people had nothing to do with the laws but to obey them," and his sentiment was loudly applauded. In a kindred spirit, during the trials of Muir and Palmer for " leasing-making," or sedition, in Scotland, one of the lords of justiciary declared that " ?io man had a right to speak of the constitution unless he possessed landed property ;" and another affirmed, that " since the abolition of TORTURE there was no adequate punishment for sedition." In such a season of violent excitement, when upright men of every shade of opinion thought the most valuable principles at stake, no wonder that heats and animosities prevailed, and that all expressed themselves with vehemence, — often with acerbity. Mr. Hall, then under thirty years of age, was of too ardent and generous a spirit to be quiescent in that signal crisis of public affairs. He discharged what, in the exigency, appeared to him an imperious duty, and then remained silent, until after an interval of many years, at the entreaty of his friends, he broke the silence in a brief effort of self-defence against anonymous misrepresentation. For some years, indeed, so great was his indiffarence to political concerns that he scarcely ever read a newspaper, or did more in conversation than advert for a moment, if at all, to public measures. His political principles, however, remained the same through life, with those simple modifications which the lapse of time and the occurrence of new events were calculated to produce in the breast of a considerate man. Though he thought them important, he uniformly regarded them as subordinate to others. He cherished with delight the anticipations of a new and better order of things among mankind ; but he looked mainly for the realizing of his hopes to the operation of a higher class of principles than the politics of this world can supply, — principles of heavenly origin, which, flowing from religious truth, and acting at once upon the spiritual part of our nature, change and improve the mass of society by transforming the characters of the men who compose it. Some of the following pieces yield ample proofs of the prevalence of these sentiments. That there are occasions on which pious men not only may, but must, if they act fully on scriptural principles, censure public men and public measures, has been clearly shown by one of the gentlest as well as most excellent of men — Granville Sharp — in his essay on " The Law qf Passive Obeddence." AN ADDRESS TO THE PUBLIC, ON AN IMPOBTANT SUBJECT, CONNECTED WITH THE RENEWAL OF THE CHARTER OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY. [Published in 1813] AN ADDRESS. As the subject of the renewal of the charter of the East India Company is shortly to come before parliament with a view to a final decision, it is presumed that it will not be deemed impertinent to invite the attention of the legislature to a particular connected with that subject which is judged of high importance. The point to which we refer respects the propriety of inserting a clause in the new charter authorizing the peaceable dissemination of Christian principles in India.* For want of such a provision, the missionaries who have lately visited that country have been under the necessity of going there by the circuitous route of America, besides meeting with con- siderable obstructions in their attempts to settle, and being exposed to much vexation and interruption in tlieir quiet efforts to plant the Christian faith. It must surely be considered as an extraordinary fact, that in a country under the government of a people professing Christianity, that religion should be the only one that is discounte- nanced and suppressed. That the most complete toleration shoulJ be extended to the various modes of belief prevailing in those remote dependencies of our empire, and that none of the inhabitants should be subjected to the slightest ijiconvenience on account of their adherence to the religious system of their forefathers, is readily admitted ; nor would any event give more serious concern to the writer of this address, than an interference with that right of private judgment which he deems an inalienable prerogative of human nature. But for a Christian nation to give a * The object for whicli Mr. Ilall and many other pious men so earnestly pleaded, was accom plished, at least as to its practical results; though there is still room to mterpose obstructions if met* in power should be inclined to present Iheni. The act which passed in 1813, " lor continuing ir» •he East India Company or a farther term the possession of the British territories in India," contains four clauses (viz. 33, 34, 35, 36) which relate to " persons desirous of going lo India for the purpose of promoting the religious and moral improvement of the natives." The nature of this part of the enactment will be understood from the subjoined brief official abstract: — " If the court of directors think fit to refuse the applications for permission made in behalf of such persons, they are lo transmit the applications to the board of commissioners, who, if they see no valid objection to granling the permission, may authorize the said persons lo prrweed to any of the company's principal settlements, provided with a certificate of sanction from the directors. The court uf directors, however, may make representations concerning such persons to ihe board of com- missioners : and iho.xe persons on arriving in the East Indies are to be subject to Ihe regulations of the local governnienls. Further, the governments in Indi* may declare Ihe cerlifloales and licenses of such persons to l>e void, if they shall appear by cheir conduct lo have forf'-ited their claims lo protection." Besides these clauses there are others, from 49 lo 54 inclaoire, which relate lo a " church estal)' lishment in India. A bishop and three archdeacons to be appointed; their salaries are specified ; the episcopal jurisdiction is to be limited by letters-patcrtt from the Iting ; pensions lo be allowed after fifteen years' service." Of the bishops who have been appointed since the passing of this act, three, viz. Middleton, Htber, and James, have been already brought by the climate of liidiB to a premature grave.— Ed. no ADDRESS IN REFERENCE TO decided preference to polytheism and idolatry by prohibiting the dis- semination of a purer faith, and thus employ its powers in suppressing the truth, and prolonging the existence of the most degrading and deplorable superstitions, is a line of conduct equally repugnant to the dictates of religion and the maxims of sound policy. 'J'o oppose by force the propagation of revealed truth from any worldly considerations whatever is such a sacrifice of right to expediency as can be justified on no principles but what will lead to the subversion of all morality and religion. If Christianity be a communication from heaven, to oppose its ex- tension is to fight againat God ; an impiety which, under every possi- ble combination of circumstances, must expect a severe rebuke ; but the guilt of which is inconceivably aggravated when the opposition proceeds from the professors of that very religion. We have no exam- ple in the history of the world of such a conduct ; we have no prece- dent of a people prohibiting the propagation of their own faith ; a species of intolerance exposed, not only to the objections which lie in common against all restraints upon conscience, but to a train of absurdities peculiar to itself, at the same time that it imposes a char- acter of meanness on the ruling powers, by the virtual confession it mcludes that they have either no religion or a religion of which they are ashamed. As the equality of all religions, the distinguishing tenet of deism, is alike repugnant to the dictates of reason and the oracles of truth, so it is ill calculated to conciliate the esteem of eastern nations, on whom it can have no other effect than to desecrate the British name by depriving it of the veneration which nature, unso- phisticated by impiety, has inseparably connected with sentiments of religious belief. Powerfully impressed as they are with religious principles and prejudices, however erroneous, we can scarcely adopt a more effectual expedient for securing their contempt and abhorrence than an avowed indifference to whatever concerns that momentous subject. It is an undeniable fact that no persons have been so popular in India as the men who have exerted themselves with the most steady and persevering zeal in the dissemination of Christian principles ; of ■which we have a striking example in the excellent Schwartz, for many years a missionary on the coast of Coromandel, who by his wise and benevolent conduct rendered on various occasions the most essen- tial service to the British interests, and became the object of the enthu- siastic attachment of the natives.* The attempt to propagate Christianity in India is not a new experi- ment ; it has been now tried for more than a century : it received the warmest support of George the First, of illustrious memory, as well as of the then archbishop of Canterbury ; and in the hands of Ziegenbal- gius and his successors was crowned with distinguished success.f Similar attempts have been more recently made in Bengal and the • See the Reports of the Society at Bartlett's Buildings, for promoting Christian Knowledge. t See the excellent letters from his majesty and the archbishop, addressed to Ziegenbalgius, ia Buchanan's Ecclesiastical Researches CHRISTIAN MISSIONS TO INDIA. HI adjacent provinces ; and several Christian societies have been planted by the labours of missionaries in those parts of India. It deserves particular attention, that no inconvenience, not even the slightest, has arisen from these enterprises ; and that whatever agitation has been witnessed among tlie natives at different times, the propagation of Christianity has never been the cause or even the pretext. When intelligence of the insurrection of Vallore reached England, there were not wanting persons who endeavoured to ascribe it to the jealousy and uneasiness excited by the efforts of missionaries ; but no attempt could be more unsuccessful, since, in the course of a most accurate investigation of the circumstances connected with that event, we have it on the authority of Lord Teignmouth that not even the name of a missionary was mentioned. It arose from causes totally distinct. Thus have we the experience of more than a century to jjstify the conclusion that nothing is to be feared for the tranquilhty of India from the operations of missionaries, subject as they must ever be to the control of the constituted authorities. The number of natives who profess Christianity is not small nor inconsiderable. The disciples of Schwartz and his successors on the eastern side of the peninsula amount to fifty thousand, and the Syrian Christians on the coast of Malabar to several hundred thousands ; the greater part of them converted from the Brahmins and the higher classes. They have subsisted there from the fifth century, are in possession of one hundred and nineteen churches, some of them sumptuous and splencHd edifices ; and their superior elevation of character and purity of manners are attested on the most respectable authority to be such as the possession of the Christian faith might be expected to inspire.* In addition to this, translations of the New Testa- ment in almost all the vernacular dialects of India have been recently circulated, and a considerable number of the natives are assiduously and constantly employed in preaching the gospel ; so that it is too late to think of checking its career : the possession it has taken of the public mind will necessarily render all such attempts impracticable. The onlv question which remains to be decided is, whether its further propagation shall be left solely in the hands of natives, or whether intelligent and respectable Europeans, who come more immediatelv into contact with the British government, and in whose prudence and experience greater confidence may be reposed, shall be allowed to superintend its movements. The good seed having struck its root too deep ever to be extirpated, the only alternative is either to leave it to its spontaneous growth, aided by the labour of Hindoos, or to place it under a more skilful and enlightened cultivation. Though strangers to the theory, the inhabitants of Hindostan have been long familiarized to the practice of toleration. In no part of the world is there a greater variety of sects, or more contrariety in the modes of religious belief, subsisting without the slightest disturbance ; * See the interesting narrative of Dr. Buchanan's visit to the Syrian Christians, in his Eccle8ia» tical Researches. 112 ADDRESS IN REFERENCE TO even the grand division of the natives into Hindoos and Mahometan* jsas continued for ages, without interruption to the public harmony. But if nothing is to be feared from the dissemination of Christian onnciples in India, the advantages resuUing from it, whether we con- sult the interest of the natives or our own, are too obvious to require « be enumerated, and too important to be overlooked. With respect to Us aspect on the natives, will it be contended that a more powerful mstrument can be devised for meliorating and raising their character, tnan grafting upon it the principles of our holy religion, which, wherever It prevails, never fails to perfect whatever is good, and to correct what- ever is evil, in the human constitution, and to which Europe is chiefly mdebted for those enlightened views and that high sense of probity and honour which distinguish it so advantageously in a comparison with Asiatic nations? The prevalence of Christianity everywhere marks the boundary which separates the civilized from the barbarous or semi-barbarous parts of the world ; let but this boundary be ex- tended, and the country included within its limits may be considered as redeemed from the waste, and prepared to receive the precious seeds of civilization and improvement. Independently of eternal prospects, it may be safely affirmed that polytheism and idolatry draw after them such a train of absurd and dismal consequences as to be quite incom- patible with the due expansion of the human intellect, and necessarily to prevent the operations of reason from reaching their maturity and perfection. Wherever Christianity prevails mankind are uniformly progressive ; it communicates that just manner of thinking upon the most important subjects which, extending its influence thence to every department of speculative and moral truth, inspires a freedom of in- quiry and an elevation of sentiment which raise the disciples of reve- lation immeasurably above the level of unassisted nature. The Hindoo superstition is characterized by a puerile extravagance of conception, as hostile to the cultivation of reason as the enormity of its practices is revolting to humanity. It oppresses the former by its gigantic absurdities ; it extinguishes the latter by the cruelty of its rites. The annual destruction of female infants in Guzerat and Kutch is estimated at fifteen or twenty thousand.* Till latel)% it had been the custom, from time immemorial, to immolate, at the island of Saugor, and at other places esteemed holy, on the banks of the Ganges, hu- man victims, or to destroy them by sharks. From a late investigation, it appears that the number of women who sacrifice themselves on the funeral pile of their husbands, within thirty miles of Calcutta, is on an average upwards of tvvo hundred annually. f A multitude of courte- sans are uniformly attached to the principal temples, and the most obscene symbols exhibited to inflame the passions of their votaries. ;}: While the history of all times and nations evinces the inseparable alliance of impurity and cruelty with the worship of idols, is it con- sistent with the dictates of humanity, not merely to witness these enor- * See Moore's Hindoo Infanticide. f See Buchanan's Memoir, p. 96, Appendix. In a letter lately received from Dr. Carey, he est) mates the whole number of women annually sacrificed throughout India at ten thousand. i See Sonnerat'b Voyage aux Indes ct i la Chine, p. 219. CHRISTIAN MISSIONS TO INDIA. 113 tnities without attempting to correct them, but to oppose (he commnrvi- calion of the only remedy wliic-h is capable of efTccting a cure! The base venality, together with the spirit of artifice and int'^gte, which distinguish the natives vi' Ilindostan, have rendered it the theatre of perpetual revolutions, robbed its native governments of every principle of stability, and rendered poisonings, assassinations, and treachery expedients so constantly resorted to by the parties in conflict, that it is impossible to peruse its history without shuddering. To affirm that there is nothing in their superstitions calculated to cor- rect these vices is saying little, when in fact they derive a powerful sanction from the maxims of their religion, and from the character of their gods. There is not one of their deities portrayed in their Shas- ters whose moral character is tolerably correct. How much Chris- tianity is wanted to exalt the sentiments and purify the principles of this corrupt and effeminate race is too obvious to need to be insisted orj. That their conversion is practicable is ascertained beyond contro- versy by the success which has already attended the experiment ; that no apprehensions are to be entertained for the permanence of British power in consequence of the attempt is manifest from experience ; that to consult the welfare of the subject is the first duty of the sove- reign, and the chief distinction between the exercise of legitimate authority and the operation of lawless tyranny, will not be disputed in an enlightened age ; and that the Christian religion is the greatest blessing we have received, the most precious boon we can bestow, none but infidels will deny. It surely will not be asserted that we are under less obligation to comnmnicate a good because that good may be traced to the immediate interposition of Heaven, or because it contains the seed and germ of eternal felicity. He who believes the Bible must know that the heathen are to be given to Christ Jb/ h.j. inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession, and that therefore to yw/:.«t/ his being preached to the gentiles that they may be saved is an attempt to contravene the purposes of the Most High, equally impotent and presumptuous. Let the podherds strive against the potsherds of the earth, but wo unto him who strivcth against his Maker. Such conduct, persevered in, must infallibly draw down the judgments of God on the people to whose infatuated counsels it is to be ascribed. Whoever considers the aspect of the times must be invincibly prejudiced not to discern the symptoms of a peculiar crisis, the distinguishing features of which are, the rapid subversion of human institutions and the advancement of the kingdom of God. The stone cut out without hands has already fallen upon the image, and made it like the chaff of the summer threshing-floor : the next event we are to look for in the order of Providence is its enlarging itself, till it becomes a great mountain, and fills the whole earth. If there ever was a period when the propagation of the true religion might be resisted with impunity, that period is past ; and the Master of the universe is now addressing the greatest potentates in the language of an ancient oracle : — Be wise now, ye kings ; be instructed, ye judges of the eqrth. Encompassed as we are with the awful tokens of a pre Vol. n.— H il4 ADDRESS IN REFERENCE TO siding and avenging Providence, dissolving the fabrics of human wis- dom, exlinguishing the most ancient dynasties, and tearing up king- doms by their roots, it would be the height of infatuation any longer to oppose the reign of God, whose purposes will pursue their career in spite of the efforts of human policy, which must either yield their eo-operation, or be broken by its force. All that is desired on this occasion is simply that the word of God may be permitted to have free course. Whether it be consistent with sound policy for the British government to employ any part of its resources in aid of the cause of Christianity in India is a question which it is not necessary to discuss, while its friends confine their views to a simple toleration, and request merely that its teachers may not be harassed or impeded in their attempts to communicate instruc- tion to the natives. Before such a liberty can be withheld, the prin- ciples of toleration must be abandoned ; nor will it be practicable to withhold it without exciting a sanguinary persecution, where men are to be found who will eagerly embrace the crown of martyrdom rather than relinquish the performance of what appears to them a high and awful duty. And what a spectacle will it exhibit, for a Christian gov- ernment to employ force in the support of idolatry and the suppression^ of truth ! Instead of dwelling on the necessary effects of such a measure, let us consider for a moment the beneficial consequences likely to result from an opposite mode of conduct. On that improvement of character which the cordial reception of revealed truth cannot fail to operate, it will be easy to graft some of the best habits and institutions of Euro- pean nations, advancing gradually through an interminable series of social order and happiness. Under the fostering hand of religion, reason will develop her resources, and philosophy mature her fruits. Nor will the advantages accruing to the British interests from a change so salutary be less certain or less important. The possession of the same faith will occasion such an approximation of the habits and sentiments of the natives to our own, as will render the union firm, by rendering it cordial. While a total opposition in their views on the most important points subsists between the sovereign and the subjects, — while objects adored by the one are held in contempt and abhor rence by the other, they may be artificially connected, but it is im possible they should be unhed : it is rather a juxtaposition of inanimate parts, than a union of minds. In such a situation the social tie wants that cementing principle which is requisite to give it strength and stability ; it is a strained and unnatural position, in which things are held contrary to their native bent ; in which authority is upheld merely by force, without deriving support from that sympathy of congenial sentiment which forms its truest basis. Hence the precarious tenure by which European states have successively held dominion in India, 'where all has been submitted to the arbitration of the sword ; where the moment force has been withdrawn or relaxed authority has ceased, and each in its turn has gained a transient ascendency, none a firm and tranquil possession. CHRISTIAN MISSIONS TO INDIA. H6 In order to obviate the mischiefs arising from such a state of things, it is extremely desirable, providing it be practicable, to impart to our subjects in the East some piinuiple whieb shall draw them into closer contact with the ruling power ; and what principle equally operative and efficient with the possession of a common religion ? Though the universal diffusion of Christianitv over India will probably be a work of time, its influence in strengthening the social compact, by augmenting the attachment of the natives, will be uniformly progressive ; and while external tranquillity is secured by the superiority of our policy and our arms, we shall every year be making our way into their hearts : we shall be establishing an interior dominion, and may confidently reckon on the unshaken fidelity of every Christian convert. This is not mere conjecture : for in all the trying vicissitudes experienced by the British interests in India, the Hindoo Christians have invariably approved themselves our firmest friends and abetters. Though the writer of this address is afraid of being tedious, there is another consideration connected with the present subject which he deems of too much importance not to be mentioned. The posses- sion of India, it is well known, is an object to which our enemies are looking with eager desire, accompanied with jealousy at that splen- dour which the vastness of our oriental empire confers on the British name and character. No efforts will they deem too great, no sacrifices too expensive, to rob us of so bright a jewel. What events may arise hereafter to facilitate the accomplishment of their wishes it is beyond the power of human sagacity to conjecture : one thing is certain, that nothing will oppose a more formidable obstacle to their designs than the diffusicm of Christianity. They who have received that inestima- ble blessing will infallibly cling with ardour to the people to whom they are indebted for it. They will feel more than a natural affection to the country which has opened to them the prospect of 'mmortality, and nourished them with the bread of life. In all the struggles to retain or to acquire doininion in the East, the Christian portion of the population will, to a man, be the zealous partisans of Great Britain ; a firm and immoveable band, whose devoted attachment will in some measure compensate for their inferiority of number. In this species of policy too, in this most unexceptionable mode of conciliating esteem, we shall have nothing to apprehend from the intrigues of our rivals, who are equally indisposed and disqualified to engage in such an enterprise. If we consider what may be the probable intention of Providence in opening so extensive a communication between Europe and the most ancient seats of idolatry, and more especially of subjecting such im- mense territories in the East to the British arms, we can conceive no end more worthy of the Deity in these momentous changes than to facilitate the propagation of true religion. Our acquisition of power there has been so rapid, so extensive, and 80 disproporiioned to the limits of our native empire, that there are jivr events in which the interposition of Providence may be more dis- tinctly traced. From the possession of a few forts in different parts H2 116 ADDRESS IN REFERENCE TO of the coast, which we were permitted to erect for the protection of our commerce, we have risen, in the course of less than half a cen- tury, to a summit of power whcnoc wc exert a direct dominion over fifty millions, and a paramount influence over a hundred millions of men. By an astonishing train of events, a large portion of the popu- lation o( the oriental world has been subjected to the control of an island placed in the extremities of the west of. Europe. Kingdoms have fallen after kingdoms, and provinces after provinces, with a ra- pidity which resembles the incidents of a romance, rather than the accustomed order of political events. It is remarkable, too, that this career of conquest has uniformly directed its steps towards those parts of the earth, and to those only, which are the primeval seats of pagan idolatry ; forming an intimate connexion between the most enlightened of Christian nations and the victims of the most inveterate and deplo- rable system of superstition mankind have ever witnessed. As we must be blind not to discern the finger of God in these transactions, it behooves us to consider for what purposes we are lifted to so high a pre-eminence. It is certainly not to be ascribed to a blind predilection, which aims at no other object than to gratify ambition, by extending the power and augmenting the grandeur of Great Britain ; a motive too puerile to satisfy the requisitions of human reason, much more to limit the views of an eternal mind. The possession of sovereignty over extensive kingdoms is a sacred trust, for which nations are not less responsible than individuals, a delegation from the supreme Fountain of power ; and as the unalter- able laws of nature forbid us to confound men with things, or to forget the reciprocal obligations subsisting between the sovereign and the sub- ject, we can scarcely be guilty of a greater crime than to consider the latter as merely subservient to the interests of the former. Every individual of the immense population subjected to our sway has claims on our justice and benevolence which we cannot with impunity neg- lect : the wants and sufferings of every individual utter a voice which goes to the heart of humanity. In return for their allegiance we owe them protection and instruction, together with every eflbrt to meliorate their condition and improve their character. It is but fair to acknow- ledge that we have not been wholly insensible to these claims, and that the extension of our power has been hitherto highly beneficial. But why, in the series of improvements, has Christianity been neg- lected 1 Why has the communication of the greatest g\;od we have to bestow been hitherto fettered and restrained ; and while every modification of idolatry, not excepting the bloody and obscene orgies of Juggernaut, has received support, has every attempt to instruct the natives in the things which belong to their peace been suppressed ? It . will surely appear surprising to posterity, that a nation, glorying in the J purity of its faith as its highest distinction, should suffer its transac- tions in the East to be characterized by a spirit of infidelity, as though it were imagined the foundations of empire could be laid only in apos- tacy and impiety ; at a moment, too, when Europe, convulsed to ita CHRISTIAN MioSIONS TO IND/A. 117 centre, beholds tliese frantic erections swept with the besom of de- struction. Their astonishment will be the more excited when they compare our conduct in this instance with the unprecedented exertions this principle the makers of stockings must be supposed to understand their own interest best ; they have had a long and severe training in the school of adversity ; and they are unanimously of opinion that the establishment of a fund out of their own earnings, hi aid of such as are out of employ, is the most efficient expedient for maintaining an adeq.'ate rate of wages. Having learned from experience that no agreement with their masters M'ill stand unless it is protected by such a provision, they have made it chiefly from their own resources, assisted by those parishes whose interest is deeply implicated in their support. As far as the fund is supported by the voluntary contributions of the men and of the parishes, both actuated solely by a view to their own interest, the whole proceeding is perfectly consonant to the principles of polhical economy, correctly interpreted ; and for the voluntary con- tributions of the public, they are to be considered as entirely pro- visionary, to be continued no lontjer than is necessary to give stability to an infant institution ; in which light they are abundantly justified by the principles of humanity, which are paramount to every other. The total want of candour or of information in Mr. Cobbett is apparent in his neglecting to advert to the voluntary contributions of the framework knitters. The reader of his coarse invectives would be led to conclude that the men contributed nothing, that it was merely a project of the public to aid the operative class in a particular manufac- ture ; when in fact the whole afli'air originated with themselves, by whom it has all along been chiefly supported, and on whose exertions, aided by the parishes which are deeply interested in its preservation, its permanence entirely depends. As our opponents, there is little doubt, " hissed for this fly," it is probable he was not put in possession of a circumstance which forms the nerves and sinews of the Union, but supplied with that information only which best suited their purpose. A serious alarm must have been felt to prompt them to have recourse to such an ally. " Flectere si neqneo superos, Acheronta movebo." The omission of this fact enables him to invest the whole business with an air of ridicule for which a just statement of the case would have furnished no pretence. An extensive combination of the public to assist the framework knitters may, considered by itself, appear somewhat romantic ; but when it is viewed in the light of a temporary support to an insthuiion which has to struggle with difficulties arising from the ignorance of some and the self-interested perverseness and prejudice of others, it assumes a diflferenl character. The public have, in my humble opinion, displayed both hum^ity and wisdom in lending 143 REPLY TO CQBBETT AND OTHERS their aid to a plan which has already effected much good, and promises in its fuller development to accomplish much more ; but their assistance^ however meritorious, must be considered as provisionary, while the permanence of the plan wholly depends on the exertions of the work- men and the parishes. It is on the principle of an appropriation of a part of their earnings to their mutual assistance, and as a means of enabling parishes to alleviate a numerous class at the least possible expense, that its merits must be tried and its advantages estimated. The " Observer" asserts that it has done httle or nothing towards alleviating the general distress. The truth of this assertion, however, mny be safely left to the discernment of the public. Let them say whether the situation of the workmen has not been materially im- proved during the two years that the Union has subsisted. When its effect has been to raise wages at least one-third, is it possible to doubt whether such an augmentation has been productive of a proportionable increase of comfort ; or what but an experience of its advantages could have prompted men not remarkably gifted with self-denying habits, to persist so long in making such a sacrifice 1 Cobbett loudly and repeatedly asserts that the manufacturers cannot afford to give higher wages, referring to the conduct of those Nottmg- hamshire and Derbyshire houses which continue to stand out, as a decisive proof of his position. " If the price," he says, " can be afforded, why do not those hosiers in most extensive business give it? If they aver that they can afford it, why do they not give it 1 Mind,, it is the hosiers m most extensive business that aver this, and yet they do not give the price."* It is a sufficient reply to these triumphant interrogations, that the most respectable hosiers do give it, and that they who do not find by experience that they can procure their work to be done on lower terms ; the reason of which is a surplus of labour in the market, whose operation in causing a universal depression has been already described. It is the opinion of the most judicious manufacturers the writer has had the opportunity of consulting, that the demand for hosiery was little, if at all, diminished at the period immediately preceding the greatest depression of wages, nor was the number out of employ pre- viously to its taking place more than ordinary. The system of depres- sion in this county, it is a matter of public notoriety, did not originate in a decreased demand, nor did it proceed in any assignable proportion to that supposed diminution ; it originated entirely in a vicious competition among a few individuals for the monopoly of the London market. It was the eagerness of certain individuals to undersell each other in that market which gave birth to the system, and to all the unspeakable calamities which have resulted from it. The process by which it was effected has been already explained so often tliat I am afraid to repeat it : it was brought about through the medium of .such as were out of employ, who by offering themselves on inferior terms afforded an opportunity eagerly embraced of gradually reducing the rest to the same leveL^ The hosiers must surely be allowed to be the best judges what wages. * Cobbett, p. 70. ON THE FRAMEWORK KNITTERS' FUND. 113 they can afford, a groat majority of wliom liave recorded their jiidjj ment on this subject by a voluntary agreement to give the statement price signed and attested by their own hand. Ask any one of them who may have departed from it why he did so ? and if the reason he assigns is fovmded on a decreased demand, and the consequent neces- sity of depressing wages, I would ahnost consent to yiehl 10 our oppo- nents the whole question at issue. No : this is not the answer, the writer of this can aver from his own knowledge it is not : it is always a reference to some other person, who is affirmed (whether truly or not signifies notliing) to get his work performed at a cheaper rate. In answer then to the question urged with so much exultation by Cobbett, " If the manufacturers can adbrd to give higher wages, why are they not given ?" suffice it to say, that men are often little disposed to give what it is iii their power to withhold ; and that what is abated in wages is either added to profits or goes to enable them to undersell their competitors, and by that means command a more extensive trade. Could it be proved that the stateincnt had produced a glut in the market by exceeding the demand, there would be some plausibility in Mr. Cobbett's representation ; as it is, nothing can be more futile. With a rudeness congenial with his habits, he grossly insults the aiionymous writer who styles himself " Huraanus," for asserting that men of little or no capital have compelled the superior manufacturers to depress the wages of their workmen in order to prevent themselves from being excluded from the market. This he represents as the greatest of all absurdities ; telling him that he ought to have styled himself fool or hypocrite for hazarding such a statement. If insolence were the proper corrective of folly, Mr. Cobbett would of all men be best qualified to administer the cure, though on that supposition his interference would be impertinent in the present instance. His confident assertion of the impossibility of a fact which is known to exist by all intelligent men in the county is a specimen of his ignorance of the trade on which he so dogmatically decides. Men of little or no capital are incapable of bearing stock ; they must dispose of their article at whatever price they can get, without waiting for a more favourable season. Hence they are the first to make sacrifices, to diminish the extent of which, and to enable them to sell immediately without abso- lute loss, they are under peculiar temptations to beat down the wages of their workmen, temptations from which the more opulent rnanufac- turer is exempt ; and when there is any considerable number out of employ they easily find the means of effecting their object. A system, it is well known to all who reside in this county, is established by which an extensive trade in hosiery is conducted by persons of little or no capital. Their bills, v/cekly drawn on London, are accepted, which is equivalent to a weekly supply of capital ; and the inducement to afford this accommodation is the extremely low price of the goods which are manufactured under the statement. Is there a hosier in Leicestershire who will venture to deny the justice of this statement ? In fact, this system has been carried to such an extent that the most opulent hosiers have of late succeeded worst, old-cstabli-^hcd houses J 44 REPLY TO COBBETT AND OTHERS have quilted the business in disgust, and the trade has been gradually transferred to those who have profited by the gradual depression of wages. If the Framework Knitters' Union is dissolved, it is universally allowed they will sink and lower, nor can any limits be assigned to vvhicli they may not descend. Before its formation nearly half the subsistence of the workmen was drawn from the parishes, or in other words from the public. But what can be conceived more monstrous than a manufacture carried on at the public expense, but not for the public benefit, where all the profits are appropriated to one description of persons, while the public are taxed to an enormous amount to enable a few individuals to secure to themselves those advantages ? Is there an anomaly in the social system more prodigious than this, or more pregnant with the most alarming consequences ? Is it a greater enormity, let me ask, to be compelled to support a numerous herd of sinecurists, pensioners, and " eaters of taxes," to use the elegant phraseology of Mr. Cobbett, than to pay half the wages of an exten- sive manufacture, without deriving from it one farthing of profit, while it swells out a putrid stream of pauperism which overflows the land ? Mr. Cobbett perhaps sees nothing in such a state repugnant to his feelings : in the despair of the poor, and the utter incapacity of the parishes to relieve their wants, he seems to exult, as the infallible prognostic of some great convulsion ; but there are those, and I hope not a few, who will contemplate such a prospect with horror. He is anxious to impress the belief that the distress of the frame- work knitters is to be ascribed to the accumulation of taxes, and to no other cause. This, from beginning to end, is his darling theme. It is far from my intention to deny that the general decay of trade and commerce is intimately connected with the enormous weight of taxation : or that it is in vain to expect a return to national prosperity, utdess some efficient means are devised to lightentheir pressure. It is equally certain, however, though the exhausting effect of excessive taxation may have prepared a way for the evils we deplore, that a system has been adopted in the hosiery trade which has aggravated the calamity of the working class far beyond the necessary operation of that general cause. The taxes are the same in the west of England as in the midland counties ; but the wages in the clothing districts have not been reduced : the manufacture of cloth has been all along adjusted to the demand. The weight of taxes is as heavy in the Staffordshire potteries as here ; but the remuneration of labour has remained steady and imiform. Less work is given out in proportion as the demand slackens ; and I have it from the best authority, that the earnings of the workmen are at this moment abundantly adequate to their means of subsistence. , They are three times as high as those of the stocking-makers were before the formation of the Union. By the system pursued in these branches, the evils resulting from a decreased demand are kept within their natural limits ; no adventitious ingredient is infused into the cup, no artificial aggravation added to their sufferings. But in the hosiery manufacture it is just the reverse : the calamity indirectly inflicted on the industrious poor by means of such as are out of employ is incalcu- ON THE FRAMEWORK KNITTERS' FUND. 145 lably greater than that wliioh results from the failure of employment ; and the destitution of a part becomes, in skilful hands, a mighty engine for the destruction of the whole. What is the remedy proposed by our opponents? "The only effectual relief," Humanus says, " for the distresses of the framework knitters, is for a great part of the present hands to leave the trade, and that not for a season, but entirely and for ever." We needed not the information of this sagacious adviser, that the root of the mischief lies in a redundancy of hands, that it is devoutly to be wished that parents ■would cease as much as possible to train up their children to this calling, that masters would take fewer apprentices, and some method could be discovered to lessen the number engaged in this branch of manufacture. This is all very desirable. But what is to become of the existing generation ? To what employ can they turn with advantage who have acquired no other craft, and whose habits totally disqualify them for agricultural labour, were it to be procured ? Under these circumstances, to advise them to "retire entirely and for ever," is to recommend suicide and death. Is not the general decay of trade and manufacture the topic of universal complaint, and must not the greatest difficulty be encountered where all the ranks of employment are dense with population and crowded to excess, in attempting to open a fresh career for their industry ? Unless something more practicable and definite is suggested, to bid them retire because they are not wanted, is not 10 advise, but to mock them. The formation of a fund towards the support of such as are incapable of procuring work but upon such terms as are ruinous to every descrip- tion of their brethren, presents a specific remedy for the existing disorder, and the only one which is equivalent to a cruel mockery of their woes. Tlie principal sophism which pervades the strictures of Mr. Cobbeit and others on this subject, is a vicious generalization, in consequence of which he imagines he has sufliciently accounted for the wretched state of the workmen in a particular manufacture, by referring it to the cause which has produced a declension in the state of trade and manu- facture in general ; whence he infers that he is entitled to pour ridicule and contempt upon every expedient which is distinct from the removal of that cause. But along with the general source of a decline in commerce there are a number of particular circumstances v/hich must be noticed, in order to account for that state of depression in which some branches are found, in comparison with others. As far as our political embarrassments alone are concerned, their operation must be equally disadvantageous to every species of productive labour, to every kind of trade and manufacture whatever. But these are not all equally depressed, which they must have been if the political statt of the nation was alone sufficient to account for all tlie phenomena. The fact is, that while every department of manufacture is probably injured by our pecuniary embarrassments, the working classes in some are found to be in a much more favourable situation than in others. The remuneration of labour, for example, in the western clothing districts, in the Staflbrdshire potteries, I might add in no part of the kingdom, Vol. II.— K 146 RFPLY TO COBBETT AND OTHERS has been depressed as it has been here. The reason of this has been again and again explained ; it has arisen from the ilUberal advantage which has been taken of a surplus of labour ; while in the districts just referred to, that practice has not been adopted, less work is given out when less is demanded, and the earnings are sufficient to procure all the necessaries, and some of the comforts of life. As the distemper is local and specific, the remedy must be of the same description. The list of prices agreed upon is considerably less than is sufficient to maintain the condition which honest industry ought ever to occupy, decidedly less than might be affiirded in a more prosperous state of the country. It is such, however, as the great body of the masters have declared themselves able to give, while they affirm they can do no more. Since their conviction of their ability to do this is a deliberate recorded opinion, let the reader judge of the audacity of Mr. Cobbett in the following assertion : " He, Humanus," says Mr, Cobbett, " affirms that the hosiers in the most extensive business aver they can affi)rd the statement prices. We might treat this as nothing, we might call it a falsehood, because it is against reason, and because the averment is not produced and attested ; we have the bare word of an anonymous writer for it ; that is all, and that is nothing." " We might call it a falsehood ;" Certainly Mr. Cobbett might, who displays throughout such an infinite familiarity with the " father of lies ;" but let us hope no other man could be found who would stigmatize as a falsehood the assertion that such is the averment of the manufacturers, after they had signed and attested it with their own hand. This recorded opinion is an unanswerable confutation of the assertion so often repeated by our opponents, that the hosiers cannot affiard the statement price ; for surely they will not be so absurd as to impute to them a formal reso- lution of giving wages which they were conscious at the time they could not well affi3rd. It may therefore be assumed as a fact, placed beyond all dispute, that the statement proposed is such as will leave a reasonable rate of profits to the hosiers, — from whence we adduce two conclusions ; first, that the assertion of those who maintain that the statement, were it adhered to, would be ruinous to the trade, is a false- hood, because it is formally contradicted by the persons who must be allowed, in what immediately concerns their own interest, to be the best judges : secondly, that besides the operation of taxes in deterio- rating wages, other causes, of a more specific nature, have contributed to produce that effect, and that consequently the whole argumentation of Mr. Cobbett, which proceeds upon the denial of this, falls to the ground. It is repeatedly objected by the "Observer," that the proposed statement can never become permanent, because it is impossible to induce the masters to adhere unanimously to their agreement. To this I answer, that such unanimity is not contemplated, nor is it ne- cessary. The principal, perhaps the only benefit of the agreement is, that it stamps a legal character on the proceedings of the men, which might otherwise expose them to the penalties of combination. If they become sufficiently enlightened to their awn interests, to afford an adequate support to the fund, the surplus labour will be disposed of, and it will no longer be in the power of those who may be disposed to ON THE FRAMEWORK KNITTERS' FUND. 147 convert it into an instrument of universal depression. The list of prices agreed upon at Nottingham, in the year 1819, to which the " Observer" refers, produced no permanent effect in Nottinghamshire nor in Derby- shire, because no fund was established in those counties to support it ; in Leicestershire the same agreement was followed by the most efficieni consequences, because it received that support. And this is the reason, and the only reason, that every thing reverted so soon to its former state ; not, as this writer affirms, in consequence of a diminu- tion of demand produced by the statement ; for had this been the cause, the effect would have been felt in Leicestershire equally, but it was not, solely because the surplus of labour was removed by the provi- sions of the fund. The " Observer" further remarks, that " it borders on the ludicrous to talk of men plunged in the very depths of despair, from their scanty earnings raising a fund for their unemployed associates ; and unless they can do this, their project must fail." This writer forgets that he had before represented these very men in a tolerably comfortable state, referring us for proof to the price of provisions in the Taunton market. It suited the scope of his argument then to elevate their condition, whom he now, for a similar purpose, ^^ plunges into the very depths of despair.'''' T*he reader wilt, in a moment, perceive what credit is due to a writer who is entangled in such contradictions, who attributes to the same persons comfort and desjrriii, juat as it suits liis conveni- ence. But passing these inconsistencies, the reply is obvious, that if the manufacturers in the neiglibouring counties imitate the example of this, their men, no longer plunged into the very depths of despair, will be incomparably more able to subscribe sixpence a week to the fund, than to procure subsistence in their present circunrstances. The " Observer" must be aware that their competence to contribute their quota is as- sumed only on the supposition of the statement being given ; and he must not be permitted to change suppositions backwards ami forwards, with the same dexterity that he converts comfort into despair. Since it is allowed by our opponents, that where no fund exists, the workn>en are " in the depths of despair," the only question is, what must be done ? How is the intolerable load under which they are groaning to be alleviated or removed ? Mr. Cobbett's grand panacea is, recourse to the parishes ; not that he is so ignorant as to suppose it possible they should afford effectual relief, but that he foresees other effects resulting from it, which he is evidently much more anxious to realize. "But," says he, " are you to have no redress? Are you to starve, in short T No : no man, woman, or child is to starve ; the law says so, and rely upon the law A man works constantly ; he is sober, he wastes nothing. His master can or will give him no more ; and with what he gets he is starving, with his family. Now what says the law ? "Why, that he shall be relieved, that he shall share out of the common stock, out of that which was originally one man's as well as another's ; out of that which God gave for all — out of the land.'"* But is he not aware that the pressure of parish rates is already almost intolerable ; • Cobbett. p. er. K2 248 REPLY TO COBBETT AND OTHERS that they are levied on thousands who are themselves on the brink of pauperism ; and that in many parts of the country, they have re- duced the value of land to such a state, that even were they occupied free of rent, the farmer could hardly subsist by the produce ? It is true they may not have reached the point which Mr. Cobbett triumph- antly contemplates, the utter ruin and extinction of landed proprietors ; but they have already attained a portentous magnitude, which no lover of his country can contemplate without dismay. This seems to be the proper place for noticing a monstrous position advanced by this writer, with a confidence which can only be surpassed by its falsehood. " Viewing the thing in its true light," he says, " what is the nation, and particularly the landed j)roprietor, to gain by an additional sum being given to you in wages? What is he to gain by a million of money paid to stocking weavers more than is now paid to them ? Is there not a million less to be laid out by somebody else I If the labourer pays a crown a year more for stockings, has he not a crown less to lay out in bread and beer 1 If indeed, the additional rnillion paid to you were to be expended by you, or flung into the sea ; or if the additional million were to drop down into your hands from tlie clouds, in either of these cases there might be some sense in Humanus's argu- ment : as the thing is, it is nonsense."* This is the reasoning, be it remembered, of the man who in the same pamphlet ascribes all our calamities " to so large a poiliun being taken from those who labour, to be given to those who do not labour, "t If the above reasoning is correct, it will follow that the value of land would not be diminished, though the stocking weavers earned nothing at all, but were entirely supported by the parish. On this supposition, it is true they would have no wages, but some other persons possess them, or, which is the same thing, their amoiuit, which if they had not, they would be less able to pur- chase the produce of tlie soil, in exact proportion to that amount. More error and absurdity, I will venture to assert, were never penned within the same compass than are contained in the paragraph j\ist quoted. It proceeds on the following extraordinary assumptions ; First, That all the purchasers of hosiery are also purchasers of the other parts of the produce of the British soil, and that in the same proportion. For if this is not the case ; if they either do not purchase the other parts of our produce at all, or not in the same proportion, how will it follow that they must necessarily buy just so much less of our corn, and of every other article which the land produces, because they buy more of our hosiery ! Look at foreign nations : our stockings make their way into a large proportion of the habitable world ; but are all the inhabitants of the regions into which they penetrate accustomed to purchase equal proportions of the other branches of our rude produce I The far greater part, it is well known, /purchase none of these, and few if any in the same proportion. Secondly, It assumes for granted that all who purchase hosiery expend to the utmost extent of their income, so that if they give tive shillings a year more for hosiery, they must necessarily lay out five shillings less in other articles of consumption. " They have, it seems, ♦ r-hbett, p. 91. t Ibid. p. 117 ON THE FRAMEWORK KNITTERS' FUND. I49 just so much that they can lay out upon sstockings."* It must be evidejit to the intelligent reader that this mode of reasoning presup- poses an exact equality of expenditure and of income, and that conse- quently it is applicable only to sudiAvhose circumstances oblige them to practise in every instance the strictest and most rigid economy. But the chief purchases of manufacture arc made by consumers of a very different description ; by persons whose situation enables them to sustain a much greater advance of price than is here mentioned, with- out the necessity of abridging themselves in other modes of indulgence. If Mr. Cobbett's reasoning were just, the demand for every article, at distinct periods, would be exactly proportioned to its price ; but experience shows the contrary, that the demand is not regulated solely by the price, but by many other concurrent causes, which it is need- less at present to specify. He forgets the " eaters of taxes," the nobility, the gentry, the landed proprietors, the opulent merchants, the thriving tradesmen, together with the myriads of others, who are in easy circumstances and live within their income, all of whom wear stockings, and can well afford an advance of a few shillings on that head, without a proportional diminution in every other branch of expenditure. Though this class of the community may not be the most numerous, it cannot be doubted that they are the chief purchasers of manufacture. Thirdly, His argument goes upon the supposition, that it is of no consequence to the public where wealth is deposited, provided it is not " thrown into the sea." Admitting the truth of this, how can the taxes be the cause of our calamities, as he asserts, " by taking from those who labour, and giving to those who do not labour ?"t and how unrea- sonable and absurd his violent outcry against the landholders, pen- sioners, and sinecurists ! To the accumulation of wealth in their hands he attributes all our distresses, who yet are as little disposed, we presume, as any men " to throw it into the sea." May they not retort upon him and oay, " You ascribe the ruin of the nation to the transfer of its wealth into the hands of those who do not labour from those who do. But our money is employed either in loans or in consumption. The capital we lend is employed by merchants and manufacturers in maintaining productive labour, while the money we consume tends immediately, by taking off the produce, to keep up the value of land ; and it is certain, considered under ehher mode of operation, that were it transferred to others, we, its present possessors, should have so much less to employ or to spend V I am far from supposing this reasoning would be correct ; but I have no hesitation in affirming it is the legitimate consequence of his principle, which is, that the landed proprietor would not be benefited by the improved condition of the working classes, nor injured even by the extinction of wages, unless " they were thrown into the sea." The operative part of the people, those we mean who are immediately employed in productive labour, probably compose much less than a moiety of the whole nation : the remaining part of the population must, as far as the present argument is concerned, be classed with those who • C/ftbeK, j>. fla t Cobben, ». «. 150 REPLY TO COBBETT AND OTHERS do not labour. Suppose the wages of the stocking weavers were universally depressed so as to be totally inadequate to their support, which was actually the case before the late regulations ; in consequence of the competition among the manufacturers, a correspondent abate- ment of the price of the article would be the necessary consequence ; hosiery would be just so much the cheaper, and the deduction from the wages being subtracted from the price would be in fact given to the purchasers. A very large proportion of these however, consist of such as do not labour. Here then we have an example of the transfer of property from " those who do, to those who do not labour," which Mr. Cobbett represents as the root and origin of all our evils ; yet, strange to tell, this same writer affirms that the process by which this is effected is productive of no injury to the public. A portion of the wages withheld would, in consequence of the abatement of price, pass into the hands even of the placemen, pensioners, and sinecurists them- selves. Let me ask whether this would not, on his own principles, be a direct transfer of so much money from those " who labour to those who do not ?" yet is he guilty of the absurdity of saying that an arrangement which he asserts to be so destructive to the whole nation in every other instance, would in this produce no inconvenience what- ever, either to the public or to the landed proprietor. The reader is probably by this time weary of attending to the pal- pable contradictions of this arrogant and superficial declaimer : suffice it to remark that it requires little or no penetration to perceive that the extinction of wages, and the consequent absolute pauperism of the working classes, would effect the deepest depression of the value of land in every manufacturing district ; and that no remedy would be found in the decreased price of the article, since the saving arising from it would be reaped, not by the landholder, but by the public, in minute and almost invisible portions through all its diversity of ranks, and by foreign nations. Mr. CobbcTi, with muoh oonfidoncc and equal exultation, predicts Uie destruction of the landed interest as the certain, the inevitable consequence of the present crisis. Whatever probability may attach to these dismal forebodings arises chiefly, if not wholly, from the alarming increase of poor-rates, and this latter from the inadequate remune- ration of labour. For what is it else, except in time of sickness, which drives a poor man to have recourse to parish relief? Were the rates of wages sufficient to procure with facility the means of human subsistence, is it possible to doubt that the parochial burdens would be most essentially alleviated, that the farmer and the householder would find it much easier to pay the ordinary rent ? The ingenuity of Mr. Cobbett, however, has enabled him to discover that were a million a year added to the wages of labour, the landed proprietor would not derive the advantage of a farthing. These and such like extravagances will be quite sufficient to satisfy the reader that he is a popular declaimer, not a philosopher ; a firebrand, not a luminary. He emits fire and smoke in abundance, like a volcano, but the whole effect is to desolate, not to enlighten. His principal artifice consists in the exhibition of a few specious and bold generali- ON THE FRAMEWORK KNITTERS' FUND. 151 ties, which he ilhistrates and confirms hy a few prominent facts culled for his purpose, without the slightest attempt at that patient induction and inquiry which alone lead to solid and useful results. Shrewd, intemperate, presumptuous, careless of the truth of his representations and indifferent to th«ir consequences, provided they make an impression, he is well qualified, it must he confessed, hy his faults no less thaa his talents, by his inflammatory style and incendiary spirit, for the office he assumes, to scatter delusion, to excite insurrection, the Poly- phemus of the mob, " the one-eyed monarch of the blind." His strictures, however, on the topic under consideration are pregnant with instruction it was not his design to communicate. "Whatever the inhabitants of this county may think of the Framework Knitters' Union, /le plainly foresees in the consequences of its failure, the materials of ferocious delight ; he sees without the aid of inspiration an inundation of miseries to follow, paupers crowding by thousands to the doors of overseers, parishes dismayed and perplexed, the poor clamouring for bread which cannot be given them, and rushing upon the point of the bayonet to avoid a more cruel antl lingering death ; the commencement of that tempest, in a word, which he boasts having crossed the Atlantic to witness, which is to shake all that is stable, to prostrate all that is great, and to accumulate a pile for the elevation of future demagogues- Rome trembled when Cataline rejoiced. Let the friends of peace and order then, let the landed proprietor especially, take warning ; they stand upon the brink of a precipice, from which, if they suffer them- selves to be precipitated, it will he no small aggravation of their calamity to perceive the ease with which it might have been pre- >'ented ; together with the contemptible agency, and the flimsy sophistry which accelerated their overthrow. If it is some consolation to th« fallen to have perished by a noble hand, the indignity of being baffled and deluded by the author of the Political Register must be more humiliating than words can express. Having extended these strictures beyond my original design, and exhausted, it is to be feared, the patience of my readers, it is my intention to detain them no longer than whiie I notice im objection to the Union, more plausible than any of the preceding, though, for the reasons which follow, entirely destitute of solidity. It is alleged by its opponents, that the provision of a fund for the support of such as are out of employ affords a direct encouragement to idleness, the most baleful habit a [)0or man can contract. This ob- jection, could rt be sustained, would undoubtedly be weighty ; whether it can or not, must depend upon the previous question, Will the num- ber out of employ be permanently greater if the statement continues, than on the contrary supposition ? That it may have that effect for a short time, we are not disposed to deny: the manufacturers having suspended their operations to a considerable degree, some hoping for the dissolution of the society, others from an apprehension of that event, it is probable the moment it were announced, all hands would be set to work. A spirit of vigour and activity would seem for a moment to pervade the trade. But look a step or two further. The jnimber employed in manufacturing, the strained exertions they would 152 REPLV TO COBBETT AND 0THER8 be necessitated to make to compensate for the lowness of their wages, and the deteriorated state of the article would combine to produce a glut, which reacting both in the wages and the price, would eventu- ally, and at no great distance neither, produce a greater surplus of labour than exists at present. As my opinion on such a subject may be deemed of little value, I must be allowed to add, that it perfectly coincides with that of the most intelligent men in the trade, and is strongly corroborated by the fact, that there were as many out of work at the time when wages were the most depressed, as at other seasons. Many of them wrought sixteen instead of twelve hours a day ; the fabric produced was also of a deteriorated quality, incapable of being vended in foreign markets, insomuch, that I am credibly informed, that in different parts of Europe, in Germany particularly, its being known to be British is a sufficient reason for refusing it. The demand for labour then, there is every reason to believe, would not be permanently augmented by returning to the former system, and consequently the number out of employ not diminished. For reasons already specified, it is almost certain the reverse would be the case, and the surplus labour keep pace with the redundant superfluity of manufacture. The project of raising it by lowering wages has been tried, and found unavailing ; and whatever attempts are made to renew it, will resemble the labour of Sisyphus ; it will be rolling a stone which will for ever fall back. The sum proposed to be paid from the fund to such as are out of work, is, at the most, six shillings and sixpence a week, sufficient indeed to preserve them from lying utterly at the mercy of their mas- ters, but certainly not such as to render their situatio.i attractive, nor greater than the parishes would be under the necessity of paying shortly to a much greater number, were the society abolished. While it provides a remedy for the existing evils, it leaves sufficient induce- ment to seek out other channels for their industry, whenever the state of society shall afford them. We are far from contending that the system which it is our object to recommend is one of unmingled perfection, productive of good only, without the least alloy ; for such is not the condition of human institu- tions, or of human affairs. The possibility of perversion and abuse inseparably adheres to every conceivable plan for ameliorating the con- dition of mankind ; and he who refuses his approbation to every thing short of perfection, must stand still in hopeless inactivity and despair. If it has been shown that the plan adopted in Leicestershire provides the only remedy for an evil which is progressive and intolerable, that the inconveniences attending it bear no proportion to its advantages, and above all, that the principal objections urged by its opponents will apply with equal force to every other mode of proceeding, and most of all to that which they recommend, every reasonable demand is sat- isfied. Whether this has been accomplished or not, must be left to the decision of an enlightened public ; nor let it be deemed presump- tuous to say, that if such had not been the firm persuasion of the author, these pages had not appeared. U he. should be thought to have treated Mr. Cobbett with too much ON THE FRAMEWORK KNITTERS' FUND. 153 severity, he wishes it to be clearly understood that his censure is in no degree founded on the professed atlachnient of that writer to the cause of reform. Educated in the principles of Mr. Fox, and in those of the earliest and best days of Mr. Pitt, to whicii advancing years and expe- rience mive increased his attachment, it is impossible he should enter- tain a doubt that an important reform in our representation is essentially connected with the freedom, the glory, and the happiness of the British empire. But he sees in Mr. Cobbctt what the intelligent part of the public will at once discern, a design to push the industrious classes of the communitv to despair, and to aggravate their distresses, in order to accelerate the catastrophe he contemplates ; whellier it involves the preservation of the consthution, or a total subversion of the existing order of things, must be left to the judgment of the reader. On the most favourable supposition, " to do evil that good may come," to wish to see the industrious part of the population couched under a supernumerary weight, that they may become instrumental in effecting some great and undefined revolution in public affairs, is a policy which he shall ever detest ; nor can he sufficiently deprecate the infusion of political venom into the discussions which the present Union has produced. Let those who, from interested motives, or from motives of a still worse description, concur with Mr. Cobbett in vilifying and exploding the present plan, propose something better, unless they are determined to exemplify that malignant potency of evil by which " one sinner de- stroys much good." It is surely not too much to demand, before they proceed to dilapidate the only asylum offered to the industrious me- chanic, that instead of exposing him houseless and shivering to the inclement blast, they should provide some better accommodation in its room. Other expedients have been devised ; a large subscription was raised, and many thousands advanced in Nottinghamshire, with a view to employ the indigent framework knitters in public works. But the scheme, as might have been foreseen, proved abortive. The exertion could not be continued, a succession of public works is not easily found ; and after alleviating the distress of a single winter, every thing returned back to its former channel. A similar plan, the writer is informed, is in contemplation for this county, and as far as it is adopted to relieve the pressure of the fund, we shall rejoice in its success ; but if it is intended to supersede it, or to withdraw that support which the difficulties atteuding an infant institution may demand, it will, in my humble opinion, be unspeakably injurious. That it will produce no permanent relief to the existing distress, is evident from the exam- ple of Nottingham ; and however praiseworthy the motives of its projectors, it is but the part of candour to warn the workmen and the parishes, that if their dependence upon it tempts them to relax their present exertions, they will discover, when it is too late, that they have lost the substance by grasping at a shadow. The evil required to be remedied originates in permanent causes, such as will mock the ope- ration of all temporary expedients. With respect to the apprehension which some have professed to en- tertain, of the removal of the manufacture to the neighbouring counties. 154 REPLY TO COBBETT AND OTHERS. or to some distant part of the kingdom, little requires to be said. Man is the same in every county, and the energy which has been displayed by the Leicestershire weavers M'ill, there is no doubt, be successfully imitated elsewhere, and produce the same results. In Nottingham- shire we are happy to find, from the latest intelligence, that the most numerous and respectable part of the hosiers have already acceded to the statement, and little doubt is entertained of the speedy concurrence of the rest. This apprehension, therefore, if there ever was any ground for it, the event has dispelled. Had it been otherwise, are the operative classes in this department to starve or reduce to ruin every other description, by ineffectual efforts to support them, in the contem- plation of a remote contingency, and for the sake of securing a manu- facture, which, upon such terms, can only be considered as an epidemic disease, an imposthume, a source of misery to all who are employed in it, and of embarrassment and distress to the whole community? The competition for such a manufacture is a competition for ruin. Before I conclude, let me be permitted to remind the reader that there is such a sin as oppression ; that it consists not in that gross vio- lation of justice which is cognizable by law, and against which the wisdom of all civilized nations has provided ; but in taking such an advantage of the weakness and necessity of the poor as converts them into mere instruments of a superior power, the victims of selfish emolument, with no other consideration than how far their physical exertions may be rendered subservient to the gratification of an un- feeling rapacity. He is the oppressor who is not restrained by the dictates of humanity from pushing, to its utmost extent, the natural superiority which riches everywhere possess over poverty ; and the stratagems by which this may be effected are too numerous and too subtle to fall within the cognizance of any earthly tribunal. When the Scripture denounces, with such awful severity, the doom of such as " withhold their hire from those who reaped the field,"* we must not supf>ose it refers so much to a violation of compact, an offence which the laws of no civilized country would permit, as to the inadequacy of the recompense itself. In the eye of Heaven, wages may justly be said to be withheld from the labourer, when they are totally inadequate to his subsistence, and such as nothing but helpless indigence could induce him to accept. Instead of inquiring how much of this species of guilt may be justly chargeable on a certain class of manufacturers in this town and county, which would only suggest matter for irritating reflection and fruitless recriminations, let us rather rejoice that a new scene has opened, and a plan been adopted, which, we trust, will cut of^ the opportunity from the bad, and the temptation from the good, of renewing a system which should be consigned to eternal oblivion.f In this view, we have no hesitation in asserting that the perpetuity of the Friendly Society is intimately connected with the interest of both worlds, since it is no less the dictate of humanity and of justice, than of sound policy. • James v. 4. t See -" Leiters to Buxton," published by Longman and Co. which breathe throughout the elo- quence of the heart, und in which the cause of humanity is pleaded, and the sufferings of the indiw- trions classes painted with a pathos it is impossible to resist PROCEEDINGS. At a meeting of persons, inhabitants of the town of Leicester and its vicinity, neld the 17th of December, 1823, THOMAS BABINGTON, Esq. in the Chair ; Resolved, 1. That the individuals composing the present meeting are deeply impressed with the conviction that the state of slavery is repugnant to justice, humanity, and sound policy, to the principles of the British constitution, and to the spirit of the Christian religion ; and that they cannot consider the legal perpetuation ol slavery, in principle, more defensive than the slave-trade itself. 2. That they call to mind, with sorrow and shame, that there are eight hundred thousand persons in a state of personal slavery in the colonies of Great Britain, deprived of those civil privileges and religious advantages to which, as our fellow- subjects, they are entitled. . 3. That although a hope was long indulged that the abolition of the slave-trade would have produced most beneficial consequences to the slave population in the colonies, no effectual steps have been taken, during the sixteen years which have elapsed since that event, for mitigating in any material degree the evils of negro bondage, or for putting an end to a system which outrages every feeling of humanity. 4. That the House of Commons having, during the last session of parliament, tmanimously passed the following resolutions, viz. " 1. That it is expedient to adopt effectual and decisive measures for melio- rating the condition of the slave population in his majesty's colonies ; "3. That, through a determined and persevering, but judicious and temperate enforcement of such measures, this House looks forward to a pro- gressive improvement in the character of the slave population ; such as may prepare them for a participation in those civil rights and privileges which are enjoyed by otlier classes of his maj^'sty's subjects ; "3. That this House is anxious for the accomplishment of this purpose at the earliest period that may be compatible with the well-being of the slaves, the safety of the colonies, and with a fair and equitable con- sideration of the stat» of property theiein ;" the individuals present feel themselves called upon to promote these objects to the utmost of their power by all prudent and lawful means. f>. That for this purpose a society he now formed in Leicester and its vicinity, as an auxiliary to the Society {or the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery throughout the British Dominions. 6. That subscriptions be received by the treasurer, at the bank of Messrs. Mansfield «fc Co., and by the secretary ; and that all persons subscribing annually 158 LEICESTER ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. to the society be members of it, and be entitled to attend and vote at all geners! meetings. 7. That all persons subscribing ten shillings or upwards yearly, or five pounds at one time, be governors of the society. 8. That the business of the society be conducted by a president, a treasurer, a secretary, and a committee, consisting of not less than fifteen governors, and that five constitute a quorum; and that the president, treasurer, and secretary be, ex-officio, members of the committee. 9. That the committee meet once every two months, and at such other times as they may fix, and call general meetings of the subscribers when they shall judge it reriuisite ; and that any five members of it be authorized to direct the secretary to summon a special meeting of the committee, giving three days' notice thereof. ADDRESS. That slavery is the most deplorable condition to which human nature can be reduced is too evident to require the labour of proof. By subjectuig one human creature to the absolute control of another, it annihilates the most essential prerogative of a reasonable being, which consists in the power of determining his own actions in every instance in whicli they are not injurious to others. The right improvement of this prerogative is the source of all the virtue and happiness of which the human race is susceptible. Slavery introduces the most horrible confusion, since it degrades human beings from the denomination of persons to that of things ; and by merging the interests of the slave in those of the master, he becomes a mere appendage to the existence of another, instead of preserving the dignity which belongs to a rea- sonable and accountable nature. Knowledge and virtue are foreign to his state ; ignorance the most gross and dispositions the most de- praved are requisite to reduce him to a level with his condition. But degrading as slavery is in its mildest form, that species of it which prevails in our West India colonies* is of the very worst de- scription, far less tolerable than that which subsisted in Greece and Rome during the reign of paganism. It would be difficult to find a parallel to it in any age or nation, with the exception of those unhappy persons who are carried captive by the piratical states of Barbary. Scourged, branded, and sold at the discretion of their masters, the slaves in our West India islands are doomed to a life of incessant toil for the benefit of those from whom they receive no recompense what- ever : they are indebted for their principal subsistence to the culti- vation of small portions of land allotted them under the name of provision grounds : and the only time ordinarily allowed for that pur- pose is the day which the laws of all Christian states have devoted to rest. On that day, instead of being assembled to listen to the oracles of Gk»d, and to imbibe the consolations of piety, they are necessitated to work for their living, and to dispose of the produce of their labour at the public market ; the natural consequence is, that the far greater * The following aatborized summary of the number of glares in the British colonies, in June, 1830, mav be interesting to some readers. Antigua, 29,639. Bahama Isles, lO.Ml. Barbadoes, 81,902. Berbice, 21,319. Bermuda, 4.608. Cape of Good Hope, 35,509. Demerara and Esse(]uibo, 69,467. Dominica, 15,392. Grenada, 34,343. Jamaica, 331,119. Mauritius, 76.774. Montserrat, 6,262. Nevis, 9,259. St. Christopher's, 19,310. St. Lucia, 13,661. 8t. Vincent, 23,589. Tobago, 12,723. Trinidad, 24,452. Virgin Islands, 5,436. Total number of slaves in the British colonies, 825,804. Free blacks in the British colonies, about 51,000. Hk Slave populauoQ ol the United States of .America, in 1328, unoanied ttiJ'^ ' ''■^— Eo. 160 ADDRESS ON WEST INDIA SLAVERY. part of them are as ignorant of the first principles of Christianity as though they had remained in the land of their forefathers. They are driven to the field by the cart-whip.* They are followed * Since this address was written, the persevering efforts of ihe Anti Slavtrj- Society, and other associaiions formed fur the attainment of the same admirable object, have led lo some diminution of the evils under which (he slaves iii tlie West Indian isles nave so long groaned. Inihe jear I823, Ihe House of Conmions passed the following resolutions : — " 1. That It is e.\ pcdieril to adopt ctTeciual and decisive measures for mehorating the condiiion of the slave popul^jtioii in his majesty's colonies. " 2. That, through a delenrjined and per^evcrinp, but at the same time judicious and temperate enforcement of -such measures, this Huu.'ly satisfactorily to these questions, we will then acquit llie former of the charge of cruelly, and the litter of having outraged common sense, by declaring that lie 'acted very projieriy in correcting his negroes as he did 1' •' Mr. Harvey went round, on the Saturday, to the different wharfs from which his vessel, the Judith Farmer, had to take goods, and requested those goods to be left on the bridge of the wharf, so as to enable hirn to employ his negroes on Sunday in taking them off. and therewith loading his vessel ! In order to avoid what they very properly considered a hardship, namely, loading the vessel on Sun- day, the negroes went away, and did not return until si.x o'clock the following morning. For this hetti'/us crime two of these men received ihirty-nine lashes each, and were handcutTetf to the chain cable of a vessel in Kingston harbour, until liberated by a magistrate ; and yet this is the kind of conduct thai Mr. James Smith and Mr. John ^'elhersole attempt to justify, and to examine and de« cide utxin which they, as magistrates, meet and award jus i ick by di^iiiustiiiii; ilie complaint." — Eu. Vol. II.— L 162 ADDRESS ON WEST INDIA SLAVERY. pressed, the claims of justice studiously defeated, and the redress of the most atrofnous injuries rendered next to impossible. There is another particular in the state of the laws respecting nec^roes too remarkable to be passed over in silence. It is the obvious dictate of justice, and the practice of all civilized states, that, till guilt is proved, innocence shall be presumed ; and that the onus probandi, the obligation of adducing evidence, shall rest with the accuser in the first instance. In the West India islands the reverse of this is estab- lished, and every negro, or man of colour, though free, is presumed to be a slave, and liable to be treated as such, unless he can furnish docu- mentary evidence of his freedom. It is enacted that the presumption shall always be taken against him : so that if he loses his certificate of freedom, or it is stolen from him, it is at the option of any person to claim him, and replunge him into the horrors of slavery. By this means many are daily deprived of their freedom ; and the danger of incurring that calamity is constantly suspended over the heads of the innocent. It is no small aggravation of the cruelty of this system that its unhappy victims have not been exposed to it as the punishment of crime, but by the violence of ruffians, who, having traversed the ocean in quest of human prey, forcibly tore them from their native shores and the embraces of their dearest relatives, in order to expose them to sale in a distant quarter of the globe. The forms of judicial inquiry, the examination of witnesses, the proof of guilt, and the sentence of a judge were not the precursors of this most dire calamity ; it was the assault of brutal violence on helpless weakness and unsuspecting innocence — it was the grasp of the marauder and the assassin hurry- ing away his victims amid shrieks of horror and the piercing accents of despair which prepared these scenes of wo. These and the descendants of these are the persons who compose the black popula- tion of our islands. Their number is computed at present at 800,000 ; and if we direct our view to that portion of the British dominions, we behold the shocking spectacle of nearly a million of our fellow-subjects, with no other imputation than that of a darker skin, doomed to a con- dition which, vi^ere it assigned as the punishment of the greatest guilt, would be accused of immoderate severity. We behold these children of nature, for the purpose chiefly of supplying us with the ingredieni which sweetens our repasts, compelled by men who call themselves Christians to exhaust to its dregs a more bitter cup than is usually allotted to the greatest adepts in crime. It is confidently asserted by advocates of slavery that the situation of the negroes in our islands is preferable to that of the labouring classes in England. But the falsehood of this assertion is sufficiently proved by the numerous elopements which take place there : on re- ferring to a very recent Jamaica paper, we observe a list of more than a hundred runaway slaves ; so that admitting this to be a fair speci- men of what usually occurs, the number of slaves who attempt to escape from their masters in one island only amounts annually to five or six thousand. It appears that the far greater part were branded. ADDRESS ON WEST tNDiA SLAVERY. igj Wany of them in different parts of the body, and not a few are design nated by their wounds and sores, the effects of immoderate punishment. A moment's reflection must convince us that the condition must be intolerable from which such numbers daily attempt their escape at the hazard of tortures and of death. We are in possession of a religion the communication of which would aff"ord some compensation for the injuries we have indicted, and let in a ray of hope on the benighted mind. To say that no effectual provision has been made for this purpose is to assert the smallest part of the truth. The religious instruction of the negroes has not only been neglected, but such regulations introduced as renders it nearly impracticable. The attempts of this sort whicli have been made have not resulted from any legislative enactment, but merely from the zeal of private individuals exposed for the most part to the utmost opposi- tion and obloquy ; nor will it admit of a doubt that but for the season- able interference of the government at home all such proceedings would long since have been suppressed. The colonial legislatures have displayed nearly as much aversion to the religious instruction of the slaves as to the extension of their civil immunities; and, judging from Iheir conduct, we should be tempted to infer they were no less careful to exclude them from the hope of heaven th;m from happiness on earth. It would be natural to suppose such a system could have few charms for the spectator, that the presence of such a mass of degradation and misery would be a source of continual annoyance, and that no exertion would be spared by those who have it most in their power to diminish its pressure and lighten its horrors. On the contrary, the West India planters view it with the utmost complacency ; in their eyes it seems to be a most finished and exquisite specimen of social order, a master- piece of policy, the most precious legacy bequeathed them by their ancestors, which they are bound to maintain inviolate in every part, to defend at the greatest risk, and to transmit unimpaired to future gene- rations. They anticipate with the utmost confidence the perpetual duration of the system, and reprobate every measure which has the remotest tendency to endanger its existence as the offspring of inde* scribable folly and wickedness. To such a degree are their moral perceptions vitiated, that they really believe they have a prescriptive right to be guilty of injustice, to trample on the image of their Maker, to erase his superscription, and to treat that portion of their species which fortune has subjected to their power as mere beasts of burden, divested of the essential characteristics of humanity. In this instance impious speculations have been resorted to in palliation of practical enormities ; nor have there been wanting those who avow their per- suasion that the negro is more nearly allied to the orang-outang than to the human kind. Hence it appears that a state of slavery is in its operation as mis- chievous to the master as to the slave. If its effects on the latter are more visible in his corporeal structure, in his debased pliysiognomy, his dejected countenance, his lacerated skin, and not unfrequently in his " wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores," its cfTects on the mind 'L2 184 ADDRESS ON WEST INDIA SLAVEllY of the former are not less perceivable in the most inveterate prejudice, a pride which spurns the restraints of justice, a violence which is deaf to the dictates of compassion — in a word, in a capricious and uncon- trollable self-will, which lays waste all the finer sensibilities of the soul, and renders its possessor too often a rebel to his God, a torment to himself, and'a terror to his fellow-creatures. Sixteen years have now elapsed since the abolition of the slave- trade,* and during this period few or none of those improvements have taken place in the treatment of slaves which were expected to result from that measure. At that time it was generally contended that as the planters would be necessitated thenceforth to keep up the number of their slaves without the aid of fresh importations, this itself would draw after it such an amelioration in the management of them as would ensure the happiest results without legislative interference. The in- terest of the proprietors, it was supposed, would so obviously coincide with the dictates of humanity as to give these the force of law. It is too manifest, however, from the event, that in forming this conclusion we did not take sufficiently into account the short-sightedness of rapa- city, the force of habit, the contagion of example, and the incurable propensity of human nature to abuse absolute power, in whatever hands it is placed. The enormities which formerly characterized the slave system have suffered little or no abatement ; all its most odious pecu- liarities are retained, while by the just retribution of Providence the planters are reduced to the utmost embarrassment and distress. After witnessing such an obstinate adherence to a system equally injurious to the negroes and to themselves — after every suggestion of improvement has been indignantly rejected, and not a single eflbrt made in behalf of the slave population, if we except a few verbal enactments passed with no other view, it is evident from the event, than to elude inquiry and silence complaint — it would be more than vain, it would be foolish and preposterous, to look for any substantial redress from colonial legislators. They are the aggressors, they are the authors of the evils we complain of; and how can it be expected they should legislate agamst themselves ? To leave the slaves in their hands, what is it less than to recommend the lamb to the protec- tion of the wolf? Slavery, considered as a perpetual state, is as incapable of vindica- tion as the trade in slaves: they are integral parts of the same system, and in point of moral estimate must stand or fall together, if it be unjust to sell men into slavery who are guilty of no crime, it must be equally so to retain them in that state ; the last act of injustice is but the sequel and completion of the first. If the natives of Africa were originally despoiled of their freedom by rapine and violence, no man is entitled to avail himself of the condition to which they are reduced, by compelling them to labour for his benefit ; nor is it less evident that they could not possibly transmit the forfeiture to their children of those rights which they never forfeited for themselves. Thus it appears * The resolution of the House of Commons for the abolition of tlie slave-trade passed in Juna 1806.— Ed. ADDRESS ON WEST INDIA SLAVERY. 155 that the claims of the planters to hold their ne^oes in perpetual bondage is vitiated in its origin ; and having commenced in an act of injustice, can never acquire the sanction of riglit. But here we are most anxious to guard against the misrepresenta- tion of our sentiments. Convinced as we are that negro slavery is most iniquitous in its origin, most mischievous in its effects, and dia- metrically opposite to the genius of Christianity and of the British constitution, we are yet far from proposing a sudden revolution. Uni- versal experience shows, that in the body politic, no less than in the natural, inveterate diseases admit only of a slow and gradual cure ; and we should deprecate an immediate emancipation almost as much as the planters themselves, from a full conviction that the debasing operation of slavery long continued disqualifies its subjects for per- forming the functions and enjoying the immunities of a free citizen. Our object is, in the first place, to produce such an amelioration of their treatment as shall soften the rigour of their bondage ; and in the next, that provision for their moral and religious instruction, which by developing their faculties and improving their character may ultimately qualify them for the possession of the freedom of which they have been cruelly deprived. With this view we wish to see the competency of negro evidence established as the only efficient check to wanton barbarity ; the employment of rewards as well as punishments ; the instruction of the slaves in the principles of the Christian religion ; the uninterrupted enjoyment of the Sabbath ; the institution of marriage and the inviolability of its rights firmly established ; the exclusion of the cart-whip from the field of labour ; together with the repeal of that abominable law which renders thein liable to be sold in execution for the payment of their master's debts. If in addition to these most wholesome regulations facilities Avere afforded for the purchase of their freedom similar to those which have been adopted in the old Spanish colonies with the happiest effect, freedoms would be gradually ob- tained in such proportion and in such numbers only as would perfectly consist with the security and tranquillity of the colonies. Thus a race of freemen fitted by their constitution and their habits for the employ- ments of a tropical climate, united with us by civil and religious ties, would rise up in the room of the present wretched victims of oppres- sion,— a race that, having a country to preserve and rights to defend, would be a source of national strength instead of inspiring terror and distrust. The superiority of free labour, in point of emolument, to the labour of slaves, having been demonstrated by such an ample induction of facts that it may be safely classed with the most established maxims of political economy, the practice of gradual emancipation would be of essential benefit to the planters, and greatly augment the value of our West India possessions. Indeed, there cannot be a more cogent proof of the folly of pertinaciously adhering to the present system, than the acknowledged inability to sustain a competition with the growers of sugar in the East Indies. In order to raise the price of East India produce so as to enable the planter in the west to keep the market, an 166 ADDRESS ON WEST INDIA SLA VERT. extra duty is imposed to a large amount, and the people of Englan*? are obliged to pay upwards of two millions a year more for that articl-^ than would be necessary if a fair competition were allowed ; in other words, the inhabitants of Great Britain are assessed to the amount of more than two millions annually, for no other purpose than to maintain the slave system in the West Indies ; and in opposition to the dictates of humanity, the precepts of religion, and the principles of political economy and impartial justice, we contribute more to perpetuate our own disgrace, than it would be deemed prudent to bestow in the pur- chase of the greatest blessing. All our plans of domestic improvement, joined to all the efforts which we make for the diffusion of religion and virtue in- foreign nations, our scliools, our Bible societies, and our missions, justly considered as the peculiar glory of the age, cost us a mere scantling compared to what is annually devoted to that very pious, and benevolent object the perpetuation of slavery in the West Indies ; we throw mites into the treasury of the sanctuary, and heap ingots on the altar of Moloch, And why, it is natural to ask, why is it necessary to load the import- ation of sugar from the East Indies with such heavy duties, in ordey to enable the growers of the same article in an opposite quarter of the globe, at not one-third the distance, to sustain a competition 1 Purely because the East India sugar is produced by the labour of freemen, the West India by the labour of slaves. The industry of the former is animated by hope, that of the latter depressed by despair ; one is. sustained by the energies of nature, the other extorted by the mechanical operation of the lash ; the former labour for themselves, the latter for their masters ; and such is the distinction between these two species, of industry, that it more than annihilates the local difference between three or four, and twelve thousand miles. Surely the good sense of the nation will at last awake to a perception of this flagrant enormity,, and expresi? its impatience at the ignominy and injustice of such an assessment, in that firm and constitutional tone which the legislature- will not despise. Let us not be discouraged if in this great enterprise otir attempts are not immediately crowned with success. The slave-trade, be k remembered, was long upheld by a combination of private interests, in opposition to the remonstrances of reason, humanity, and religion ; but it fell at last. Such unquestionably will be the fate of slavery. It may, like its twin-brother, be supported for a time by that grand obstruction to all enlightened legislation, the opposition of interested individuals, who may obscure truth by sophistry, and intimidate justice by a formidable array of influence ; but it is one of the felicities of a free country that nothing can be permanent which will not sustain the ordeal of inquiry and the shock of discussion. We indulge a hope.,, though the measures of administration during the last session of parliament fell far short of our wishes, that it was from a want of resolution more than of good intention ; that they have formed on the whole a correct view of the subject, and that they are not unwilling to, receive that support from the expression of the public mind which a com-w ADDRESS ON WEST INDIA SLAVERY. 157 blnation of private interests rentiers necessary. Be this as it may, as we are always answerable for the evils which it is in our power to prevent, and some of the greatest disorders in society have been corrected by the interference of the public through its constitutional organs, we cannot continue passivespectatorsof a system which inflicts interminable degradation and misery on eiglit Imndred thousand of our fellow- subjects, without deeply partaking of its guilt. The scene of their suflfering is distant indeed, but not so remote as to exempt them from the operation of our laws : they form an integral part of the British dominions, and wo to that nation which extends its power to those from whom it withholds its justice ! That distance which did not secure them from spoliation and captivity w-hile in Africa should not be allowed for a moment to intercept our attention to their welfare and commiseration of tljeir sufferings, now that they are trans- ported to the West Indies. Through the aid of the public voice, the government of the day carried triunipliantly in 1807 the great question of the abolition of the slave-trade. Let us endeavour by a simulta- neous movement to strengthen the hands of the present administration if, as we hope, they are well disposed, to stimulate them if they are sluggish, and to propel them at all events in the right direction, by such a firm and unanimous display of the public sentiment and feeling on this great occasion as no free government will think it proper to neglect ; that we may, though late, make some reparation for the accumulated injuries of ages that are past, and signalize our connexion with Africa by other characters than those of rapine, violence, and blood. We cannot suppose for a moment that government will suffer the extraordinary conduct recently displayed by the local authorities of Jamaica to have any influence in preventing its adoption of such measures for the amelioration of the present system as justice and humanity may dictate. To be bearded and insulted by persons in their situation would be mortifying enough, if the ridicule attached to their proceedings did not interfere with more serious emotions. To say that government has nothing to fear from the West India islands would be scarcely correct, for we have much to fear ; but it is not from their strength, but their weakness, which is such, that were we to withdraw our support they would fall like ripe fruit into the lap of the first invader. They are so much accustomed, it seems, to proceed by the method of intimidation, as to forget their absolute dependence on Great Britain for protection, as well from domestic as from foreign dangers ; nor could we wish them a more cruel revenge than to leave them to their own resources. If, by adopting such regulations as the humanity and wisdom of parliament shall prescribe, they can make it clearly appear that their pecuniary interests are aflected (which in our opinion will be impossible) let them by all means receive a suitable compensation ; but let us be permitted at the same time to express our hope that government will not be diverted from its course by the growl- ing of a tiger which refuses to quit its prey. The interference, then, of an enlightened public to circulate informa- 168 ADDRESS ON WEST INDIA SLAVERY. tion, to strengthen the hands and second the movements of govern- ment in this most just enterprise, is imperiously demanded. We cannot sit still, year after year, silent spectators of the most enormous oppression exercised within the limits of the British dominions, without partaking of its guilt. We cannot remain silent and inactive, without forgetting who we are, and what we have done ; that we are the coun- try which, after a tedious struggle with a host of prejudices arrayed in support of opulent oppression, have overthrown the slave-trade, torn it up by the roots, and branded in the eyes of all nations the sale of human flesh, as the most atrocious of social crimes. We must forget that we are the countrymen of Granville Sharp, who, by incredi- ble exertions, succeeded at length in purifying the British soil from this its foulest pollution, and rendered it for ever impossible for a slave to breathe its air. We must sever ourselves from all alliance of spirit with a Wilberforce and a Clarkson, who looked forward to the final emancipation of the negro race as the consummation of their labours, and were sustained in their arduous contest by the joy which that prospect inspired. We must lose sight of still more awful considera- tions, and forget our great Original, " who hath formed of one blood all nations of men, lo dwell on all the face of the earth." FRAGMENTS. DEFENCE OF VILLAGE PREACHING HINTS ON TOLERATION, THE RIGHT OF WORSHIP, &c. [Written in 1801, 1802, and 1811.] NOTE BY THE EDITOR. 1 KB disquisition of which the interesting Fragments now presented to the frubhe are alone preserved was commenced in 1801. About that time the late iishop Horsley advanced the opinion in various charges and sermons (extracts from one of which are subjoined in a note)* that the dissenters and Methodists, in their attempts to introduce the preaching of the gospel in villages where the evan- gelical doctrines were not taught in the established church, were actuated by what were then termed "Jacobinical" motives, and by a desire to overthrow the episco- palian form of church government. This opinion, repeatedly announced in the oracular tone too often assumed by that learned prelate, obtained an extraordijiary * Extracts from Bishop Horsley'« Charge, published in 1800. After obsprvins that the laiiy of Englami have as little relish for socinianism as for atheism, and that they think much alike of him who openly disowns the Son and of hiin who denies the Father, insomuch that the advoi-ates of this blasphemy have preached themselves out of all credit with the people, he proceeds as follows : — " Still the operations of the enemy are going on — still going on by stratagem. The stratagem still a pretence of reformation. But the reformation the very reverse of what was before attempted. Instead of divesting religion of its mysteries, and reducing it to a mere philosophy in speculation and a mere morality in practice, the plan is now to affect a great zeal for orthodoxy— to make great pretensions to an e.xtraordinary measure of the Holy Spirit's influence — to alienate the minds of the people from the established clergy by representing them as sordid worldlings, without any concern about the souls of men, indiftcrent to the religion which they ought to teach, and to which the laity are attached, and destitute of the Spirit of Grid. In many parts of the kingdom conventicles have been opened in great numbers, and congregations formed of one knows not what denomination. The pastor is often, in appearance at lea.st, an illiterate peasant or mechanic. The congregation is visited occasionally by preachers fV-om a distance. Sunday-schools are opened in connexion with these conventicles. There is much reason to suspect that the expenses of these schools and conventicles are defrayed by associations formed in different places: Ibr the preachers and schoolmasters are observed to engage in expenses for the support and advancement of their institutions to which, if we may judge from appearances, their own means must be altogether inadequate. The poor are even bribed, by small pecuniary gifts from time to time, to send their children to these scliools of they know not what, rather than to those connected with the established church, in which ihey would be bred in the principles of true religion and loyalty. It is very remarkable that these new congrega- tions of nondescripts have been mostly formed since the jacobins have been laid under the restraints of those two most salutary statutes commonly known by the names of the Sedition and Treason bills, — a circumstance which gives much ground for suspicion that seiiilion and atheism are the real objects of these institutions rather than religion. Indeed, in some places this is known to be the case. In one topic the teachers of all these congregations agree, — abuse of the established clergy, as negligent of their flocks, cold in their ])reaching, and destitute of the Spirit. In this they are joined by persons of a very different cast, whom a candour of which they on their part set but a poor example is unwilling to suspect of any ill design, though it is difficult to acquit them of the imputa- tion of an indiscretion in their zeal, which in its consequences may be productive of mischief very remote, I believe, froi.i their inienlion. It is a dreadful aggravation of the dangers of the present crisis in this country, that per.sons of real piety should, without knowing it, be lending their aid to the common enemy, and making themselves in effect accomplices in a conspiracy against the I.ord and against his Christ. The jacobins of this country, I very much fear, are at this moment making a tool of Methodism, just as the illuminies of Bavaria made a tool of freemasonry ; while the real Methodist, like the real freemason, is kept in utter ignorance of the wicked enterprise the counterfeit has in hand."— P. 18-20. In page 25, &c. the bishop corrects a misrepresentation of a sjieech delivered by him in the House of Lords, and gives the Ibllowing as a faithful statement of it. "I said," says he. " that schools of Jacobinical religion and jacohinical politics, that is to say, schools of allieism and disloyalty, abound in this country — schools in the shape and di-guise of charity — schools and .Sunday-schools in which the minds of the children of the very lowest orders are enlightened, ilia', is to say, taught to despise religion, and (he laws, and all subordination. This I know to he the fad. Bui ihe proper antidote for the poison of the Jacobinical schools will be schools for children of the same class, under the management of the parochial clergy: — Sunday-schools Iherelbre under your owamspectioa I would adTise you to encourage."— P. 20. 172 NOTE BY THE EDITOR, currency ; and there was every reason to fear that some strong legislative measures for the prevention of these encroachments (as they were regarded) upon the func- tions of a parish minister would be adopted. The necessity of such measures was urged again and again with the utmost violence and intolerance in several of the daily and other periodical publications ; so that considerable apprehensions were naturally entertained that these exertions of Christian benevolence would be alto- gether checked or greatly restricted. In such a state of things Mr. Hall commenced this essay, but the public ebulli- tion subsiding, he relinquished his design of publication, and indeed destroyed a portion of what he had written. In the years 1810 and 1811 the friends of village preaching by dissenters, and of Sunday-schools under their superintendence, were again alarmed by a fresh attempt to restrain their operations, though not undertaken in a hostile spirit, in an act brought into parliament by Lord Sidmouth. His lordship proposed some new restrictions upon persons who wished to qualify as dissenting teachers and others, either by separate license or by some other method thought to be appropriate, on itinerant preaching. He also proposed to deprive lay-preachers of certain exemp- tions which had hitherto been granted. Against these measures petitions were sent to parliament from all parts of the kingdom ; and the bill, being opposed by Lords Grey, Holland, Erskine, Liverpool, Moira, Stanhope, by Dr. Manners Sutton, then Archbishop of Canterbury, and by Lord Chancellor Eldon, was lost May 21st, 1811, on the motion of Lord Erskine, which was agreed to without a division. The minds of those classes of the public that were interested in the diffusion of evangelical knowledge among the poor were, however, agitated by this question for several months. In such a state of things, Mr. Hall determined to revise anc complete what he had formerly begun ; but the failure of Lord Sidmouth's plac induced him again to lay aside his pen, and again to destroy great part of the manuscript. The portions which escaped destruction have been found since Mr. Hall's death. They want the advantage of entire continuity, as well as of the author's finishing touch ; and being composed at distant periods, and in part evi- dently rewritten to suit the modification of the general purpose occasioned by the later attempts at restriction, they exhibit a slight repetition of sentiment. It has, however, been thought right to preserve the whole of them, as they unfold and place in different lights some valuable principles of general application. For a full account of the proceedings on Lord Sidmouth's bill, the reader may advantageously consult " A Sketch of the History and Proceedings of the Deputies appointed to protect the Civil Rights of the Protestant Dissenters." FRAGMENT ON VILLAGE PREACHING. • * * Where they beheld the papal power overturned, they were ready to imagine the season was approaching, so clearly foretold, when true religion should emerge from tlie clouds of superstition which environed her, and enlighten the world. Who will say that these hopes indicated depravity in the minds of those who cherished them too fondly 1 It was surely not very criminal to rejoice at the prospect of the extinction of evil, and the universal prevalence of justice, peace, and happiness ; or to mistake " the times and seasons which the Father has put into his own power." Good men were, of all others, least likely to suspect that their hopes would be blasted by a wicked- ness of which the world aflbrded no example. Whatever of this delusion, however, might have prevailed heretofore, the virtuous part of the public are completely recovered from it ; nor has it had the smallest influence in stimulating the exertions which it is the purpose of this publication to defend. The only shadow of argument on which Bishop Horsley founds his accusation that village preaching has a political ol)jeiit is, that it has been chiefly prevalent since the Pitt and Grenville bills, as they are styled, were passed ; which put a stop to political meetings. Hence he infers that it is only a new channel into which the old stream is directed. Here, however, he is entirely mistaken. Tlie true source of this increased activity is to be found in the missions, the first of which was established some years before the Grenville bills were passed. The attention of the religious public was strongly excited on that occasion to the indispensable necessity of " preaching the gospel to every creature," and the result was, a resolution to exert more zealous and extensive efforts to diffuse the knowledge of saving truth at home than had before been employed. Agreeable to this it wdl be found, on inquiry, that those who most distinguished themselves in political debates have had the least share (if they have had any) in promoting these measures ; and that the invariable effect of engaging in these plans has been to diminish the attention bestowed on political objects. This indeed could not fail to be the consequence : for as the mind is too limited to be very deeply impressed with more than one object at a time, a solicitude to promote the hiterests of piety must insensibly diminish the ardour for everj^ thing that is not necessarily involved in it ; not to say, that the spirit of devotion which such designs imply and promote is peculiarly incompatible with the violence and acrimony of political passions. He who is truly intent on promoting the etemaJ 174 FRAGMENT ON VILLAGE PREACHING. happiness of mankind must look on futurity with so steady an eye, that he is in more danger of falling into indifference to the spectacle that is passing before him than of suffering himself to be too much inflamed by it. He is under more temptation to desert his proper rank in society, to undervalue the importance of worldly activity, and to let opportunities of exertion slide through his hands, than to indulge tur- bulent and ambitious views. Hence we find in the first ages of the church, heathens made frequent complaints of the inactivity of Christians, but never accused them of turbulence ; and that while many fled into deserts, from austerity and devotion, not one, during the prevalence of paganism, endured the chastisement of the laws for sedition or treason. The pious of every age have been among the quiet of the land. If our legislators are aware (as I hope ihey are) of the inconceiv- able benefits which are derived, in a political view, from the diffusion of pure and undefiled religion, no fascination of great talents or of high rank, no fear of misrepresentation or calumny, will tempt them to be guilty of a legislative suicide, by exerting their authority to suppress it ; since nothing can ever give equal efficacy to the laws or stability to the government. The law of itself can only address fears ; religion speaks to the conscience, and commands it to respect that justice on which the law is founded. Human law can only arm itself with penalties which may be averted, despised, or endured ; religion presents, in the displeasure of our Maker, an evil that can have no bounds. Human laws can only take cognizance of disorders in their last stage, proposing only the punishment of the delinquent, without attempting to prevent the crime : religion establishes a tribunal in our own breast, where that which is concealed from every other eye is arraigned, and the very embryo of crime detected and destroyed. If we examine the sources of crimes, we shall perceive the chief temptation to violate the principles of justice and humanity arises from a discontent with the allotments of Providence : men are apt to attach an importance to what they see another possesses. But what can be so sovereign a cure for this discontent as religion, which teaches that all things are under the disposal of infinite Wisdom ; that life is but a passage to an eternal condition of being ; that every thing the world admires is passing away, and that he only who " doeth the will of God abide th for ever?" Religion must infallibly promote obedience to the laws, by subduing those violent passions which give birth to crimes. As our hopes and fears must all turn on the present scene, or on futurity, it is plain that a principle which throws an infinite weight into the latter scale must greatly diminish the influence of the former. On this account, real piety must ever be an enemy to intemperate enjoyments and to ex- travagant hopes. In addition to this, Christianity enforces obedience to civil rulers with the utmost clearness and under the most solemn sanction, adopting the duties of a citizen into the family of religion, and commanding its disciples to revere civil government as the ordinance of God ; and to be " subject, not chiefly for wrath, but for conscience' riL\GMENT ON VILLAGE PREACHING. 175 sake." Who are so likely to be loyal subjects as those who consider lawful princes, in the exercise of their functions, as the representatives of the Supreme Ruler, and judges as the dispensers of the portion confided to them of eternal justice ? Tiie public may be assured, that as nothing is more remote from the views of those who are most active in promoting village preaching than an intention to promote political discontent, so nothing is more removed from the practice of the preachers. That there may be an imprudent or an unprincipled individual who profanes the function of a preacher by introducing political remarks (a practice too common with those who are loudest iii the condemnation of dissenters) is possible, though it has never been my lot to hear of any among our village preachers ; but that such instances are extremely rare, and when they occur never fail to be discountenanced in the strongest manner, both by dissenters and Methodists, may be affirmed with the utmost confidence. There is no maxim more constantly inculcated by all who have any influence in these measures, than that of scrupulously abstaining from every, even the remotest, allusion to politics. They have preached liberty indeed, but it is that liberty which Jesus Christ proclaimed at Nazareth, that holy and divine liberty with which the Son makes his followers free ; not that liberty whose thrilling accents awake nations to arms, but that which is enjoyed in the highest perfection in the quiet of the sanctuary, where all is still ; as in the temple of Solomon the sound of the lifted hammer was not heard. They propose a revolution, but it is that by which men are translated from the kingdom of Satan to the kingdom of God and his Christ. They propose great innovations, but such as consist in exhorting men to newness of heart. His lordship expresses his approbation of Sunday-schools, provided they are placed under the inspection and control of the clergy. If the clergy will take the trouble of forming and inspecting Sunday-schools, they may confer a great benefit on the public, and gain much honour to themselves : whether the nation will tamely submit to have the business of education exclusively in the hands Of any one set of men remains to be tried. The attempt to support an ecclesiastical establish- ment, by invading the freedom of education, resembles more the policy of a Julian than the gentleness of Christ. To invade the freedom of charity is a stretch of tyranny still more odious. To control the movements of benevolence, and construe the impulse of compassion into a crime, is such an outrage as can only be paralleled in the dark- est ages, and in the most barbarous minds. Of what crimes have the dissenters been convicted we will boldly ask ; of such infamy that even the exercise of benevolence in them must wear the aspect of guilt ; and that they must be degraded, not only beneath the rights of citizens, but the possibilities of virtue? What have these helots of England done to deserve this more than Spartan cruelty ? In the name of eternal justice, I invoke the injured majesty of our common nature to repel an attack so injurious, founded on aspersions so foul and detestable. It is asserted that these revolutionary designs are carried on under pretences of superior piety. It is matter of accusation that the 176 FRAGMENT ON VILLAGE PREACHING. dissenters make these pretences. If the dissenters, however, profesa to have more piety than the members of the established church, it will be shrewdly suspected to arise from a very plain reason, namely, that they have more. Hypocrisy is the vice of individuals, not of numerous bodies of men, who can have no motive sufficiently extensive in its operation to engage them to submit to its restraints. The same con- clusion results from another consideration. Nothing but a conscientious preference can, generally speaking, incline a man to a mode of religious profession which in the mildest times is unpopular, and at some seasons not exempt from danger and disgrace. Without contending for any superiority in the principles of dissent, the very circumstance of becoming a dissenter, or of continuing such, at some expense of worldly reputation and advantage, indicates a mind over which religious con- siderations have great influence. They who never scarcely think of religion at all, or who abandon themselves to the tide of opinion and fashion, are safely conducted into the haven of the established church. To be content with merely being tolerated, instead of sharing the honours and emoluments of an opulent establishment, to have all the avenues which lead to greatness shut against them, is a sacrifice which nothing but conscientious piety, however mistaken, can prompt them to make. In addition to which, it may be remarked, that a religious minority, from a conviction that their conduct will be exposed to a severe scrutiny, and that nothing can sustain them against the contempt of the world but superior correctness of morals, have a motive for cherishing the spirit of their institution which others want. On these accounts it will not, we hope, be deemed presumptuous if we take it for granted that the dissenters, and especially that class of them who have signalized their zeal for the religious instruction of the poor, have really more piety than falls to the share of the great body of the people of England. But how is it possible for pious men to enter into a conspiracy to overturn the constitution of their country, and to overwhelm every thing in anarchy ? For this purpose they must unite themselves intimately with the infidel faction : they must make common cause with those detestable monsters whose pestilential breath has blasted, in other countries, every thing cheering to the eye or refreshing to the heart. They must forget the infinite contrariety of principle which divides them ; they must forget the daggers of these assassins, which, after destroying their enemies, they never fail to turn against their associates, impelled by an insatiable eagerness for de- struction. They must put their fortune, their character, their life, in the hands of men with whom it would not be safe to trust themselves in a room. There is nothing more opposite than the spirit of piety and the spirit of faction. There enters into the composition of faction a meddlesome and mischievous activity, blended with a callousness of heart. Devotion softens the temper ; faction knows no delicacy in the choice of its society. It wants no other qualities in its associates than turbulence and discontent, a conscience which no crimes can startle, and an impudence which no detection can confront. Devotion, alarmed at wickedness, and disgusted with folly, is apt to carry the FRAGMENT ON VILLAGE PREACHING lyj pfinciple of selection too far. Faction tlclights in scenes of tumult and noise ; devotion in solitude and retirement. Faction busies itself with forming external movements, and values itself only on the change it produces in the situation of external objects ; the treasures and conquests of religion are internal. Faction draws its nourishment from an overweening conceit of superior wisdom, accompanied with a proportionable contempt of the understanding and virtue of other men ; the solid foundation of piety is laid in humility, or a deep conviction of our sinfulness and fallibility. I will not say that men of real piety have never been betrayed into factious enterprises, or have not on some occasions pushed their opposition to government loo far ; but it may be safely affirmed, that whenever they have done so it must have arisen from an extraordinary concurrence of circum- stances ; generally from the oppression which makes a wise man mad * that it is most foreign to their general character, and that nothing is a more effectual antidote to political turbulence than the prevalence of piety. Before we proceed further, I must be permitted to lament that pro* pensity to credit and propagate the most liideous calumnies which seems to have arisen to an unprecedented height in this age. It may answer a temporary purpose, but it is well if it does not recoil on those who employ it. It resembles the policy of insurrections and riots, which, though they may occasionally punish or crush an ob* noxious sect, no wise government will adopt, for fear of a reaction. To fdl the minds of the public with hatred, jealousies, and suspicions is to poison the fountains of public security. When this spirit is once awakened among a people, the character and conduct of its rulers seldom fail, ui the long run, to be injured by it. Under disasters which the utmost wisdom cannot prevent, under burdens which the strictest economy may impose, government presents a plain, a pal- pable, and permanent pretext of discontent and suspicion. Misery finds a sort of relief in attributing its sufferings to the conduct of others, and while it soothes its anguish by resentment and clamour, it fastens on the object that first presents itself. This object will natu- rally be the rulers of the nation. Nor is there any thing with respect to which men are more liable to be mistaken than the share which the imprudence or misconduct of civil government has in the produc- tion of public calamities. So various, so subtle, so complicated in their operation are the causes which conduct to prosperity or decline in the affairs of nations, that it is a matter of the utmost delicacy to determine what share is to be assigned to human agency, and what to contingencies and events. This obscurity furnishes infinite scope for the exercise of candour in the well disposed, and for the indulgence of suspicion and discontent in the factious. In scenes so complicated, and when the steps are so numerous and so untraceable between the «rst movement and the last, it is equally difficult to form a right esti- mate of events when we are very remote or when we are very near them. If we attempt to survey a remote era, we are lost in naked generalities ; when we turn our eyes on the scene before us, our atten* Vol. II.— M 178 FRAGMENT ON VILLAGE PREACHING. tion is apt to be limited to detached parts ; we are apt to confound proximate with remote causes, to mistake casual coincidence for natural connexion, and to give a disproportionate importance to what- ever we immediately feel. Let them who have any doubt of the dreadful effects of calumny look at what took place in France, where they will find it was the principal engine employed by the Brissotines to overturn the monarchy, and afterward by Robespierre to deluge that devoted country with blood. By inspiring everlasting jealousies and unbounded fears, he contrived to extirpate every remain of tenderness and pity, and to preserve the minds of the people in constant agita- tion, like the sea in a storm. It was this that whetted the daggers of assassins. It was the withering blast of this spirit that destroyed every thing amiable and noble in that unhappy kingdom, resigned to the desolating sway of selfishness and revenge. Nothing can be more fatal to public repose ; nothing can tend more immediately to quicken the seeds of convulsion. That this malignant leaven should be infused into the public mind by any hands must be matter of deep regret ; that it should be mingled and prepared by those hands from which the world is wont to look for benedictions and blessings seems awful and portentous. Let not this, however, be understood to intimate that there is any room to apprehend the dissenters may be provoked to verify the sus- picions and calumnies to which they are incessantly exposed. The writer would be understood to speak merely of the tendency of such infusions on the nation at large ; not at all of their influence on the dissenters or Methodists. Their loyalty is of too fine a texture to be affected by the efflux or influx of public opinion. While they enjoyed the countenance of the public their loyalty was sustained by a higher motive than popularity, nor will any discouragement tempt them to forfeit it. In the mean time they place a firm reliance, first on the protection of Heaven, the judge of their innocence, next on the impar- tial justice and parental kindness of their gracious sovereign, to pre- vent them from being overwhelmed and swallowed up by the reproaches of their enemies. Enough has been said on this head, I trust, to satisfy every unpre- judiced person that nothing is more remote from the design of these institutions than the promotion of seditious or revolutionary plans. It is time to proceed to a distinct charge, which is that of hostility to the Church of England. It is confidently asserted by the prelate to whom we have so often had occasion to allude, that it is the con- stant practice of itinerant preachers to calumniate the clergy, by repre- senting them as a set of hirelings, destitute of the spirit of piety, and utterly indifferent to the welfare of their flocks ; by which artifices they alienate the affections of the people from the established pastors, and prepare them for becoming dissenters ; or what, in the dialect of the learned prelate, is the same thing, schismatics. Although it is extremely disagreeable to be obliged to contradict a positive assertion in a manner equally positive, yet truth compels us on this occasion to declare, that the statement here made is without FRAGMENT ON VILLAGE PREACHING. 179 any sort of foundation in truth. 'J'lie prarlice of vilifying the estab- lished clergy is so far from being commonly adopted in the discourses either of dissenters or Methodists, that it may be safely aflirmed, if there are any instances of conduct so highly improper, they are ex- tremely rare, and that where the dissenters oflend in this particular once, the established clergy are guilty of it ten times. It is a prac- tice which the late Mr. Wesley discouraged, in his connexion, to the utmost ; nor are the dissenters, as a body, less scrupulous and deli- cate on that head. Still, however, it will be said, a princii)le of hos- tility to the established church seems inseparable from these exertions ; the tendency of preaching in the parishes of authorized ministers must be to alienate the people from the established mode of worship, and, in the issue, to endanger the existence of the national church. As this objection wears a more plausible appearance than any other, and has been urged in a great variety of forms, the author must beg the patience of the reader, while he gives it a full and distinct ex- amination. 1. The objection we are considering seems to imply, on the part of those who urge it, an inattention to the true genius and design ot a religious establishment. We must distinguish between the design of religion itself and the design of that support which is given to it by- human laws. The design of religion itself is to discipline the mind and prepare the heart for the happiness of heaven. 'I'he design of supporting a particular form of religion by law is much less exten- sive ; it is to derive from it that security which it never fails to confer on the interests of civil society. This may be termed the indirect benefit of religion ; with a view to which the policy of legislation has thought it right to incorporate it with human laws. The establish- ment of a religion is not to be considered as a final end. In respect to importance it is never to be confoimded with religion, or even to be placed on a level with the peace and good order of society, to which it ought ever to be in perfect subordination. It aims at nothing further than to secure such a prevalence of religion as shall make men con- scientious and upright. By whatever means this is accomplished, the true design of every religious establishment is answered. From the indisposition of mankind to direct their thoughts to a futurity ; from their proneness to immerse themselves in present and sensible objects, and the ignorance which follows of course, it has been thought neces- sary to set apart a particular order of men to inculcate its truths and to exemplify its duties. Laws will not be obeyed, harmony in society cannot be 'maintained, without virtue ; virtue cannot subsist without religion. The sentiments of religion, it is thought, will be effaced from the mind by the influence of worldly passions and pursuits, "H- less it is recognised by the sovereign, and public teachers appointed by tlie state. Whoever attends to this must perceive that the establishment was intended, not to correct an excess, but to supply a defect ; not ^o F^^ vent men from becoming too devout, but to preserve them from falling into irreligion and vice. It was not because men are too much dis- M2 180 FRAGMENT ON VILLAGE PREACHING. posed to be religious, but because they are too apt to forget it, thai our forefathers thought proper to give it a legal establishment. On a similar principle universities were established and colleges endowed, to stimulate literary ardour and facilitate the means of acquiring knowledo-e ; and not that it might be made a crime to receive instruc- tion in any other place. If peculiar privileges and honours were con- fen-ed on these seminaries, it was not with a view to limit, confine, and discourage, but to animate the exertions of literary talent. If they seemed to narrow the stream, it was only with a view to deepen the current. To attempt to restrain the prevalence of religion, to suppress the efforts of good men for the promotion of piety, under pretence of guarding the established church, is to lose sight of the design of all reli- gion, and to counteract the purpose for which the establishment of it in particular was made, it would be to found the security of the church on the ruins of religion. 2. They who urge the objection seem not to have reflected suffi- ciently on the prodigious advantages which the Church of England possesses for securing its existence and prosperity. The large por- tion of property it holds gives it a great national weight and import- ance. The regular gradations of authority and rank cement its several parts closely together, and prepare it on all occasions to act with the utmost promptitude and unanimity. Its ministers, vested with legal authority and character, are tlie natural objects of a vene- ration of which nothing but personal misbehaviour can deprive them. Mankind are apt to be strongly prejudiced in favour of whatever is countenanced by antiquity, enforced by authority, and recommended by custom. The pleasure of acquiescing in the decision of others is by most men so much preferred to the toil and hazard of inquiry, and so few are either able or disposed to examine for themselves, that the voice of law will generally be taken for the dictates of justice. Nor is it the weakness only of mankind that inclines them to look with a favourable eye on what is established ; some of the most amiable propensities of the heart lean the same way, — deference to superior wisdom and to great names ; the love of quiet, and the dread of confusion and disorder. These considerations will prevail over minds which are too virtuous to be moved by a gross self-interest. Further, the religion of the state will ever be the religion of the vain and aspiring. A degree of ridicule never fails to be attached to a religious minority. In all the efforts of churchmen, their movements are facilitated by the current of public opinion, while dissenters are On every occasion obstructed by public prejudice. Thus churchmen set out with a partiality on their side which nothing but neglect and misconduct can destroy ; dissenters, with a weight of suspicion and dislike which nothing but discreet and exemplary behaviour can remove. If we contemplate, in connexion with the subject we are upon, the manners and institutions of the British nation, we shall perceive that the established church in these kingdoms possesses such pledges of FRAGMENT ON VILLAGE PREACHING. jgi its safety as are not to be found in any Protestant community besides. A finished English education is, in all its stages, clerical ; the public seminaries of instruction, together with the two tmiversities, being almost entirely under the conduct of ecclesiastics ; by which means a reverence for the church is im!)il)rd with the first clenienls of know- ledge. Its splendid literary establishments, its magnificent libraries the accumulation of ages, and, above all, the great and illustrious names it has produced in every department of genius and of learning, the glory of the world ; who have confen-cd dignity, not so much on their profession as on their species ; gives it, in a literary view, a de- cided superiority, and in popular opinion an exclusive esteem. The policy of modern times has, in addition to this, confided to its minis- ters more and more of the administration of laws, in which they are become the immediate organs of justice to the people; and the claims of spiritual authority are hence enforced by the habits of civil submission. Freed from the fetters of celibacy, which, if they augment its zeal, must narrow its influence in popish countries, it strikes its roots deep into the social soil, and forms numerous alliances, so that there is scarcely a considerable family in the nation which is not immediately interested in its support. A popish clergy, secluded from the enjoy- ments of domestic life, may be expected indeed to have a more eager ambition for the advancement of their order in consequence of their passions being all directed to one point; but as their manners must be less amiable, so from this insulated condition they are liable to fall without a struggle and without pity. They are a loose appendage of the state, not a part of its growth and substance. With respect to the English clergy it is quite otherwise. As they are continually receiving supplies from the mass of the community, so they are continually restoring to it in the persons of their sons and daughters what it has lost. By these means a continual communication is maintained with the body of the people, manners are assimilated, and the ties of tender- ness and attachment extended. The gradations of rank also whicli are established in it contribute to the same purpose, and exhibit an image of the political constitution planted in every corner of the kingdom and mingled with every order of the state ; while its inferior members propagate its influence among the commonalty, it allies itself on the side of its dignitaries with all that is august, basks in the smile of monarchs, and shares in the splendour of courts. A society which has such numerous pledges for its security, which so many motives concur to favour, so many passions to support, must be guilty of some extraordinary misconduct before it can forfeit the attachment of the people. It is evident it can only fall under the weight of its own abuses. 3. It is possible indeed to conceive a degree of secularity and dis sipation which may first greatly impair its influence and finally en- danger its existence. In an age not remarkable for credulity or superstition, as the conduct of ecclesiastics will have more weight than their pretensions, nothing can long secure them from popular contempt but exemplary morals axid diligence. 182 FRAGMENT ON VILLAGE PREACHING. To invest idleness and dissipation with the privileges of laborious pietv is an impracticable attempt. For by a constitution more ancient than that of any priesthood, superior degrees of sanctity and of exer- tion will gain superior esteem as their natural reward. . We must not wonder to find the public forget the reverence due to the sacred pro- fession when its members forget the spirit and neglect the duties on which that reverence was founded. The natural equity of mankind will not sufl'er the monopoly of contradictory goods. If the people are expected to reverence an order, it must be from the consciousness of benefits received. If the clergy claim authority, it must be accom- panied with a solicitude for the spiritual interest of their flocks, and labour sustained. To enjoy at once both honour and ease never fell to the share of any profession. If the clergy neglect their charge, if they conform to the spirit of the world, and engage with eagerness in the pursuits of ambition or of pleasure, it will be impossible for any human policy to preserve them from sinking in the public esteem. 4. As far as the attachment of the people to their established minis- tei-s is diminished in consequence of misconduct on their part, it will not be remedied by excluding other instructers. To deprive them of every other means of information may make them heathens, but will not make thein churchmen. The established ministers arc either equal to others in zeal and diligence, or inferior. If they are equally laborious and exemplary, what have they to fear, while they have every advantage in their possession which superior learning, a legal character, and the countenance of their superiors can confer? To assert that the same degree of diligence and piety in a clergyman will not produce an equal effect as when they are exerted by a dissenter is to yield the cause of the establishment at once ; for it is to affirm that there is a source of weakness in the very nature of an establish- ment which prevents equal means in other respects from being equally influential; an extraordinary assertion, which the friends of the estab- lished church would be, we should suppose, the last to make. The policy of an establishment is founded on a supposition that it is the most effectual mode of inculcating some degree of religion, and of impressing sentiments of piety on the minds of men. But if, on the contrary, it be found that exertions merely equal made in any other form produce more powerful effects, that supposition is invalidated, and the structure raised upon it falls to the ground. To give religion a legal subsistence, it seems by this reasoning, is so far from arming it with superior energy, that it is of all the modes under which it can appear the most disadvantageous, and ignorance and fanaticism gain an easy triumph over it. If the other supposhion be taken, that the established ministers are inferior to others in diligence and exertion, and that on this account their popularity is endangered, to give them the monopoly of religious instruction is to violate every principle of reason and equity. It is punishing the innocent for the faults of the guilty. It is to reward a breach of trust with an enlargement of power. Instead of quickening indolence or correcting abuse it is conferring impunity on both. The FRAGMENT ON VILLAGE PREACHING. jgg natural remedy for whatever inconveniences are experienced or appre- hended from established abuses is the institution of discipline and the exercise of wholesome correction by the rulers of the church, who are invested with adequate power for that purpose. To look out and ask for an external force td repel the consequences of an inward disease, — to demand the interposition of the legislature to protect tliem from the effects of their own abuses while they refuse the proper remedy, is repugnant to every maxim of justice. They ought at least to wait until the abuses they complain of are remedied — until the internal resources of reformation are employed. With little propriety or grace can they complain of impertinent intruders who are inaiteniive to the duties of their allotted station. In the report of the Lincolnshire clergy* it is frankly acknowledged that much of the decline of religion is to be imputed to the neglect of the clergy ; and yet almost in the same breath they express a desire that the legislature would give them power to expel intruders from their parishes. It has usually been ex- pected that superior claims should be founded at least on the pretence of superior merits. But here the order of things is reversed. At the very moment they are asking for an increase of power, they confess themselves unworthy of it, by having abused or neglected to emj)loy the power already intrusted into their hands. Not content to escape with- out punishment, they ask to be rewarded for a breach of ecclesiastical trust and the want of clerical virtues. Whatever we may think of their delicacy, we cannot but commend their prudence in not putting their names to such a paper. 5. It deserves to be considered what effect the prohibition of other instruction is likely to have on the conduct of the clergy themselves. Is it likely to diminish or increase the frequency of non-residence, or the extent of secular and dissipated habits 1 Will it tend to augment their professional diligence and zeal, the surest support of an ecclesi- astical order? Will the monopoly of religious instruction fail to pro- duce the effect of all other monopolies ? While men are accustomed to compare rival pretensions, while emulation continues to be classed among human passions, these questions will admit of but one answer. A generous competition is the animating spirit of every profession, without which it droops and languishes. If we look around us we shall perceive tliat all the discoveries which have enriched science, and the improvements which have embellished life, are to be ascribed to the competition of nations with nations, of cities with cities, and of men with men. From causes too obvious to need explanation, there is less of this spirit in the clerical profession than in any other, which is the principal reason of the talent of preaching having been so little cultivated. It is easy to see, then, what will be the consequence of extinguishing the small remains of emulation or jealousy, call it by what name you please, which springs from the complete toleration of a diversity ot sects. If the dread of intrusion (as it is called) into their parishes is not sufficient to prevent some from neglecting their pastoral duties, this • Circulated in 1901 or 1602— Ed. 184 FRAGMENT ON VILLAGE PREACHING. neglect will be much more profound when there is nothing to disturb their repose. When the minister fears no rival, and the people despair of any remedy, the inattention of the one and the ignorance of the other will increase in equal proportion. THE IMPOLICY OF INTOLERANCE. There is another objection frequently urged against village preach- ing which will deserve our attention. It is alleged that the gross fanaticism which distinguishes the self-appointed teachers of religion tends to bring Christianity into contempt, and threatens the most serious mischief to the cause of enlightened piety. That fanaticism is an evil, and that a considerable portion of it may frequently be blended with those efforts to revive religion for which we are pleading, will not be denied. A little reflection, however, may convince us that the danger from this quarter is not so alarming as might be apprehended at first sight Fanaticism, as far as we are at present concerned with it, may be defined, such an overwhelming impression of the ideas relating to the future world as disqualifies for the duties of life. 1. From the very nature of fanaticism, it is an evil of short duration. As it implies an irregular movement or an inflamed state of the pas- sions, when these return to their natural state it subsides. Nothing that is violent will last long. The vicissitudes of the world and the business of life are admirably adapted to abate the excesses of religious enthusiasm. In a state where there are such incessant calls to activity, where want presses, desire allures, and ambition inflames, there is little room to dread an excessive attention to the objects of an invisible futurity. A few rare examples of this kind might perhaps be found by diligent inquiry, over which infidelity would triumph and piety drop a tear. It is not uncommon, however, to find those who at the commencement of their religious course have betrayed symptoms of enthusiasm become in the issue the most amiable characters. With the increase of knowledge the intemi)erate ardour of their zeal has subsided into a steady faith and fervent charity, so as to exemplify the promise of Scripture, that " the path of the just" shall be " as the shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day." As the energy of the religious principle is exerted in overcoming the world, so that variety of action and enlarged experience which the business of life supplies serves to correct its excesses and restrain its aberrations. There are some who, proscribing the exercise of the afl^ections en- tirely in religion, would reduce Christianity to a mere rule of life ; but as such persons betray an extreme ignorance of human nature as well as of the Scriptures, I shall content myself with remarking, that the apostles, had they lived in the days of these men, would have been as little exempt from their ridicule as any other itinerants. If the supreme love of God, a solicitude to advance his honour, ardent desires after ON TOLERATION. 186 happiness, together with a comparative deadness to the present state, be enthusiasm, it is that enthusiasm which animated the Saviour and breathes throughout the Scriptures. 2. In admitting that a portion of enthusiasm may possibly be blended with the efforts to revive serious religion alluded to, we are far from meaning to insinuate that that is their distinguishing character ; or that those who exert themselves in that way can, as a body, be justly classed with fanatics. The far greater part are men of good natural sense united to fervent piety. If not possessed of the advantages of a learned education, they are by no means ignorant. They have living knowledge. Familiarly conversant with the Bible, they are men of devotional habits and of exemplary conduct. The insulting epithets applied to such men might naturally provoke retaliation, and lead to an inquiry how far the learning so ostentatiously displayed is connected with religious knowledge ; when it would perhaps be found that some of their revilers are better able to solve a geometrical problem than a theological difTiculty, and are better acquainted with the epistles of Horace than those of St. Paul. But as it is my wish strenuously to avoid whatever might awaken angrj- passions, I forbear to press these inquiries. Enthusiasm is an evil much less to be dreaded than superstition. The latter is a disease of opinion, which may be transmitted with fresh accumulation of error from age to age. It is the spirit of slum- ber in which whole nations are immersed. Placing religion, which is most foreign to its nature, in depending for acceptance with God on absurd penances or unmeaning ceremonies, it resigns the understanding to ignorance and the heart to insensibility. No generous sentiments, no active virtues ever issue from superstition. Superstition is the disease of nations, enthusiasm that of individuals ; the former grows more inveterate by time, the latter is cured by it. We hope the remembrance of popish cruelties is not so far effaced from the minds of our countrymen as to permit them to see the forge of the giant without terror. ON TOLERATION. We have arrived at the last part of our subject, which relates to the expediency and justice of legal interference in the suppression of these attempts. And here I feel a solicitude lest I should give a wrong touch to the ark of religious liberty, and injure the cause which I wish to promote. 1 . Toleration of a diversity of worship has now been legally estab- lished and uninterruptedly practised for more than a century ; during which we have enjoyed a degree of internal peace and prosperity unexampled in any former age. This, which was the thing most wanted to perfect the constitution, has softened and harmonized the 186 FRAGMENT ON VILLAGE PREACHING. spirits of men, has mitigated the fierceness of religious factions, and has made them of one heart and mind in the love of their country and attachment to its sovereign. The national wealth has been augmented, commerce extended, arts invented or improved, and society embellished with an additional portion of elegance and humanity. The resources of public strength have been enlarged, and the nation has become more formidable in war and more respected in peace. The struggles of party produce no other effects than clamorous invective and intrigue ; and public rumour, instead of being occupied with the horrors of civil com- motion, announces the intelligence of the fall of the ministry, or some new arrangement in the cabinet. This toleration has materially advanced the interest of the established church itself, by abating the acrimony of its adversaries, and affording room for the display of talent in other communities, the surest prevention of indolence in its own. The principles of toleration also harmonize with that refinement of thinking and spirit of research which has distinguished the last cen- tury ; in consequence of which this important advantage has been reaped, that the opinions of the speculative, which always have ulti- mately great effect, coincide with the practice of the constitution. Hence it is that England may be considered as the native soil of bold original minds ; nor is there any danger of our being reasoned into a dislike of the constitution. And shall we endanger the loss of all these advantages by adopting a new course of policy? What security will they afford us who invite us to tread in new and perilous paths T What security will they afford us, that the same tranquillity and the same prosperity will accompany us in so great a change ; when the very essence of the constitution shall have been altered, and the very words which Eng- lishmen were proud to pronounce expunged from the vocabulary ? A dread of innovation has hitherto prevented the correction of some flagrant abuses ; yet it is rather extraordinary that some of those who profess to have most of that dread are among the most clamorous for an innovation in the toleration act. But is not this a most serious innovation ? Must we then understand these men to mean that they are only enemies to such innovations as are on the side of liberty, and that they are prepared to trample on the most fundamental laws, to promote persecution and tyranny ? With such men it is to little purpose to expostulate ; we leave them to the enjoyment of that calm sunshine which must fill the hearts of men of so much purity and benevolence. To others it may be proper to suggest, that if innovations are dan- gerous, they are not equally so, and that there is a great difference between innovations which favour the spirit of a constitution and those that contradict it. The former may be compared to the natural growth of the human body, the latter to the violent dismemberment of its parts. The former completes an imperfect analogy ; the latter de- stroys just proportions. The former is the removal of an obstruction which prevents the equable motion of the machine ; the latter occa- sions the collision of interfering principles. When oppressive laws ON TOLERATION. 187 are ingrafted on ;i free constitution, the contrast of liberty and tyranny will make the oppression to be doubly fell. In such a situation, the free and undaunted spirit which the constitution has cherished suflers violence. The precedents of past times, the examples of their ances- tors, the fundamental principles of the constitution, have taught them to consider themselves as free. By the proposed laws they are in- structed to look upon themselves in a new light. They are commanded to unlearn all that they have learned, to descend from the dignity of freemen to the abject condition of a slave. Slavery may exist wliere freedom is unknown, without endangering the public tranquillity ; in some countries perhaps without destruction of public happiness. But the slightest invasion of the liberties of a free country awakens a jealousy and resentment which are not easily appeased. Let those then who are alarmed at the danger of innovation seriously reflect on the possible consequences of an innovation so momentous. A free and a despotic state may both be compatible with liberty ; but who ever would voluntarily make the transition from one to the other ? 2. The liberty of worshipping God in that manner which the con- science of every individual dictates, provided nothing be introduced into worship incompatible with good morals, may be justly claimed as an inalienable rii;ht. The relation which subsists between man and his Maker, and the consequent obligation to worship him, is prior to the civil relation between magistrates and subjects. It is a more im- portant relation, since all the good a creature can enjoy is derived from it, and all his reasonable hopes of happiness on the goodness of the Almighty. It differs, too, from every other in that it is invisible, perpetual, and eternal. A man may or may not be the member of a civil community, but he is always the creature of God. For these reasons, political duties, or those which result from the relation of the subject to the prince, must, in their nature, be subordinate to religious. When the commands of a civil superior interfere with those which we conscientiously believe to be the laws of God, submission to the former must be criminal ; for the two obligations are not equipollent, but the former is essential, invariable, and paramount to every other : " Whether it be right," said the apostles, " to obey (Tod or man, judge ye." But if an active obedience in siich circumstances be criminal, to prescribe it cannot be innocent, since it would be absurd to affirm that exercise of authority to be right to which it is wrong to submit. Rights and duties are correlatives. A right to command necessarily implies the en- forcing that which is right with respect to those to whom the duty of submission belongs. Nor is it to any purpose to allege that the worship prescribed is rational and scriptural, and far more excellent than that which is prohibited. For if we remember that worship is no other than the outward expression of the love and fear of God, we must perceive, that to become acceptable it is above all things necessary that i. be such as approves itself to the mind of the worship- per; such as he sincerely believes will be pleasing to God. It is impossible to please God without a sincere intention to please him. We may hope, from him who knows our frame, for a merciful indul- 188 FRAGMENT ON VILLAGE PREACHING. gence to the imperfections which spring from involuntary ignorance or latent prejudice. It agrees with his benignity to suppose he will graciously accept that worship which is not the best in itself, pro- viding it be the best we know how to present. But to worship with those rites and ceremonies which our conscience does not approve, however excellent in themselves, is an insult to the Deity. A Jew, for example, who joined in the worship of a Christian church, while he retained the incredulity which distinguishes his nation, would be guilty of the highest impiety ; nor would it be any extenuation of his fault to allege that the worship in which he assisted was founded on Scripture, and commanded by God, while his conviction was contrary. He who is utterly careless of the favour of God, and without any solicitude respecting a future world, will naturally follow the stream of authority or fashion, and adopt any mode of religion which happens to have the ascendency. But the sincere worshipper of God will find it impos- sible to comply with any religious injunctions which appear to him to interfere with the will of God. Besides, as is urged with great force by Mr. Locke, if the magis- trate of one country has a right to impose his religion under pains and penalties, the magistrates of all other countries must have an equal right. Religious truth will vary with the boundaries of nations ; and ■with equal justice the pope will be revered in Spain, Mahomet in Turkey, and Brahma in India. It is easy to see to what those princi- ples tend which imply tliat there is nothing determinate, nothing sacred in religion, and that all modes of worship are equally pleasing to God, and equally useful. The principles of persecution, pushed to their just consequence, terminate in Hobbism.* It is worth while to consider what is likely to be the effect of en- acting coercive laws in religion. If the men at whom they are aimed are conscientious, they will still persevere. They will reply to the injunction of silence what the apostles did to the chief priest, " whether it be right to obey God or man, judge ye." They will still persist in tlieir attempts to evangelize the poor. This will necessitate the exer- cise of greater severities, the failure of which will be considered as a demand for punishments still heavier, until the magistrate has pro- ceeded to banishment, confiscation, and death. For it is the inconve- nience attending persecution that it is necessarily progressive. Small punishments only irritate. It commences with an intention of sup- pressing error ; baffled in its first attempt, and stung with disappoint- ment, it soon loses sight of its original design ; it soon degenerates into a settled resolution to subdue contumacy, and strike terror. It becomes a fearful struggle between power and fortitude ; the power of inflicting suffering, and that of enduring, which shall wear the other out. Let those, then, who are advocates for coercive measures, not con- tent themselves with contemplating those mild expedients which may first present themselves to theu aiinds, but prepare for the consequences, * It is curious that Mr. Hall and his distinguished friend Sir James Macintosh should, unknown to each other, at different times and by a different course, arrive at a coincident result not likely to occur to ordinary minds. Sir James, in his valuable " Preliminary Dissertation," Ekcv. Britan. p. 319, says, " A Hobbist is the only consistent persecutor. "—Ed. ON TOLERATION. 18© and lay their accounts with being impelled to the exorcise of the last severities. Let them expect to see dungeons crammed with prisoners, and scaffolds streaming with blood. Will any thing but the most unre- mitting vigilance, the most unrelenting system of espionage, prevent every class of dissenters and Methodists from fleeing from such a country, and seeking an asylum in a foreign land ? It is not easy to conceive the wound which this will inflict on the population and prosperity of the empire. That the dissenters are, as a body, an industrious and sober people, their enemies will not deny ; and that the commercial prosperity of a country is closely involved in the preservation of such a class of people is equally undeniable. The loss sustained by France in the exile of a million of Protestants, by the repeal of the edict of Nantes, has never yet been repaired. Nor was there ever a period when the hazarding such a loss would be more impolitic than the present ; when the flourishing state of trade and commerce is essential to the stability of the government, and in a manner to the national existence. For the diminution of revenue, and the disorganization which a considerable failure in the produce of the taxes would occasion, we shall meet with a miserable compensation in a forced and hypocritical unifuniiity in worship. "Non tali aaxilio nee derensioribos istis Tempus cgel" Virffil. Will they whose pride and violence have produced this be able to remedy the mischief? Will lofty pretensions to unity, will tragic declamations on the sin of schism, and abandoning dissenters to the uncovenanted mercies of God ? The consequences of such an event deserve also to be considered in another point of view. It surely requires but little candour to acknowledge that the deprivations and discredit to which dissenters are exposed make it probable that, however in the judgment of their opponents they are erroneous, they are at least conscientious. What- ever may be imagined of the caprice, the levity, or obstinacy of indi- viduals, nothing but a sense of duty, it may be fairly presumed, could prevail on numerous bodies of men to place themselves in that situa- tion. In every country, it is no impeachment of the national estab- lishment to suppose that many of those who continue out of its pale, and decline its emoluments, are men of serious piety. If we may form any conjecture of the dissenters of the present day from those of former times, it is obvious that my last remark will apply to them with peculiar force. As the loss of virtue is the greatest loss a nation can sustain, so the expulsion of those who have been distinguished by possessing a superior degree of piety is an ill omen, an alarming ad- vance towards a general corruption of morals. Men of true piety, in whatever communities they are found, " are the salt of the earth." Their example corroborates the sentiments of virtue, and preserves from degradation the standard of morals. Vice, naturally mean and cowardly, is abashed and confounded before the majesty of virtue. 190 FRAGMENT ON VILLAGE PREACHING. The efficacy of good examples in the formation of public opinion is incalculable. Though men justify their conduct by reasons, and some- times bring the very rules of virtue to the touchstone of abstraction, yet they principally act from example. Metaphysical reasons have, in reality, had as little to do in the formation of the principles of morals, as rules of grammar in the original structure of language, or those of criticism in the formation of orators and poets. ****** * * * * ****** * * * * But if the influence of example is so extensive, and if it be admitted that the dissenters, as a body, are exemplary for industry, sobriety, and a serious sense of religion, the sacrifice of so large a portion of national. virtue must be confessed to be an evil of the first magnitude ; to say nothing of the justice of the Divine administration, which is wont to make the departure of the pious from among a people the signal for pouring out its vials upon guilty cities and nations. Though such an event is alarming at all times, yet the peculiar complexion of the present renders it more so than ever. To every impartial observer it must be obvious that the present times are distinguished by an un- exampled relaxation of manners ; or such levity and indifference to every thing serious as threatens an open revolt from Christianity. That rapacity and luxury, a love of pleasure, together with an open disdain for the duties of religion, have rapidly advanced within the last twenty years, can as little be denied. And is this a season in which we can safely sacrifice a large portion of public virtue and piety? I am aware that the dissenters are con- sidered as a precise and narrow-minded people, whose minds have not expanded with the growing improvements of the age, and that not a little ridicule has attached to them on that account : but may not this unyielding austerity, and these recluse manners, be a useful corrective to the dissipation of the age? "While the polished manners of one class of society contribute to its embellishment, may not the severer virtues of another be equally beneficial in affording it stability and strength ? Refinement may point the spire, but it is the plain princi- ples of virtue which alone form the basis of the social fabric. It will not be thought a digression from the present subject to remark the consequences which followed in France from the repeal of the edict of Nantes ; to which the measures in question bear a strong resemblance. By that event France deprived herself of a million of her most industrious subjects, who carried their industry, their ■arts, and their riches into other countries. The loss which her trade and manufactures sustained by this event was no doubt prodigious. But it is not in that view my subject leads me to consider the ill conse- quences of that step. She lost a people whose simple, frugal manners, and whose conscientious piety, were well adapted to stem the growing corruption of the times, while the zeal and piety of their pastors were a continual stimulus to awaken the exertions of the national clergy. If France had never had her Saurins, her Claudes, her De Plessis Mornays, her national church had never boasted the genius of Bossuet ON TOLERATION. 19| and the virtues of Fenelon. From that fatal nioinont she put a pcrioil to the toleration of the Protestants, the corruptions of the clergy, the Jtbuses of the church, the impiety of the people, met with no check, till infidelity of the worst sort pervaded and ruined the nation. When the remote as well as immediate elfccts of that edict which suppressed the Protestants are taken into the account, — when we consider the careless security and growing corruption which hung over the Gallican church in consequence of it, it will not be tliought too much to affirm, that to that measure may be traced the destruction of the monarchy and the ruin of the nation. He who considers what it is that constitutes the force of penal laws will find it is their agreement with the moral feelings which nature has planted in the breast. When the actions they punish are such, and only such, as the tribunal of conscience has already con- demned, they are the constant object of respect and reverence. They enforce and corroborate the principles of moral order, by publishing its decisions and executing its sanctions. Thev present to the view of mankind an august image of a moral administration, — a representa- tion in miniature of the eternal justice which presides in the dispen- sations of the Almighty. We behold nothing of the passions of men; we forget their agency, and seem to see nothing but justice and order appearing for a moment on the earth, to restore the tranquillity and correct the disorders of society. The sentiments of morality and the sanctions of law maintain, in such a situation, a reciprocal influence over each other. The former derive additional autliorily from public opinion, and the latter appear sacred and venerable in consequence of their coincidence with the dictates of conscience. AVhen criminal law thus concurs with the maxims of private morality, by corroborating the dictates of conscience and inspiring the love of justice, tranquillity, and order, and the advancement of the public good, every umocent person becomes interested in maintaining their authority and promoting their execution. Every sentiment of the mind, the sense of security, the love of the public, the sentiment of justice, the abhorrence of crime, are leagued on the side of the laws, and are so many securities for their due execution. It has been found by experience, as the result of these principles, that laws become feeble and relaxed, not only when they punish innocent objects, but when the punishments they assign are disproportionate to the offence. The want of harmony between the decision of the public and the private tribunal interposes an invariable obstruction to their observance ; for crimes must be de- tected and punishments inflicted by men who will not lend their aid to enforce what they secretly condemn. Hence laws which are enacted with precipitance and passion, or under the influence of party motives, when they come to be executed will have to encounter a perpetual friction, arising from their repugnance to the manners and sentiments of the public. By these means public opinion, which is nothing but the aggregate of the sentiments of individuals, often limits, ha])pily for mankind, the assumed omnipotence of legislation. They are framed in one element, they are executed in another ; they must live in a dif- ferent atmosphere from that in which they are born. 192 FRAGMENT ON VILLAGE PREACHING. But admitting that the efforts of zeal and the vigilance of government supply this defect, and secure the punishment of those who transgress these laws, it deserves to be considered in what manner their punish- ment will impress the public. With what feelings will they contem- plate the ruin or imprisonment of virtuous men for the exercise of what they esteem the rights of conscience ! Will the condign punishment of their countrymen, not for disturbing the public peace or for the vio- lation of property, but for a well-meant endeavour to diffuse the prin- ciples of piety and the blessings of religion, augment their reverence for the laws 1 or rather will it not produce in some an indignation against such flagrant injustice, in others confuse the distinction of right and wrong? When they see atrocious crimes and eminent virtues pursued and punished with the same severity, it must tend to destroy all respect for legislation. They will be no longer solicitous to mani- fest their innocence, but to secure their impunity ; and to the honour of obeying will succeed that of evading the laws. Nor is this all. In the detection of these artificial crimes the assistance of the profligate and abandoned alone can be expected, which will complete the triumph of wickedness over piety and innocence. To the alliance between church and state we are already familiarized ; but an alliance, under pretence of securing the church, between the ministers of religion and a detestable spawn of spies and informers will appear surprising ; nor is it difficult to foresee what ideas it will impress of that religion which stands in need of such aid, or of those ministers who stoop to employ it. Until by some strange revolution all the traces of genuine Chris- tianity and all the history of its propagation are effaced from the mind, it will be impossible for men to mistake this for the religion of Jesus, — • a religion which grew up in the midst of suflferings, and whose only weapon is love. In such proceedings they will look for the marks and signs of the true church, and instead of the successors of the apostles, they will imagine they behold a Jewish sanhedrim solemnly commanding the illiterate disciples of Jesus to " teach no more in that name." It is more than probable that a similar reply will be made to that of the apostles on a similar occasion, " Whether it be right to obey God or man, judge ye." Under a full conviction that they are in the path of duty, and promoting the eternal happiness of mankind, it is not easy to see how they can desist. Whatever political superiors may imagine, he who conceives himself implicated in the command to " preach the gospel to every creature" will find it morally impossible to yield active obedience to any contrary command. " We cannot," saith the apostle, " but speak the things which we have heard and seen." To nominal Christians, who may rather be said to comply with the religion of their country than to believe it, on such a subject it is in vain to appeal ; but they who are impressed with the importance of eternal things, and know " the gospel to be the power of God unto salvation," will feel no hesitation how to determine in this case. In perfect consistency with a cheerful submission to the civil au- thority of their superiors, they will consider it a duty resulting from ON TOLERATION. I93 their allegiance to Jesus Christ to persist in their endeavours to convert mankind. That coercive measures will tend to ferment a spirit of division in the kingdom can admit of little doubt. Many, it may be reasonably expected, will feel a generous concern for the oppressed, though they may ridicule the cause in which they suffer ; while men of enlarged minds, and who are thoroughly imbued with the love of liberty, will perceive in any one act of oppression, however insulated, a precedent most dangerous to freedom. The mischief in itself may appear little, and tlie merit of the sufferers inconsiderable in their eyes ; but thej'' Avill consider it as an experiment on the public mind, calculated to pre- pare them for other acts of oppression ; they will consider every thing as alarming that impairs the integrity of freedom, from a conviction that a vessel may be sunk by the smallest leak. Thus two formidable parties will probably be produced in the king- dom, inflamed with mutual animosity and suspicion. Of the parliament which assembled in the year 1640, on the eve of those commotions which afterward broke out into a civil war and issued in such fatal extremities, the puritans formed but a small part. The majority of the number consisted of persons attached to the established church, but who felt indignant at the oppression* of the puritans and the cruelties of Laud. Their attachment to liberty taught them to identify them- selves with the sufferers, and to discover in the severities of the Star- chamber and the High-commission Court an exertion of an arbitrary power utterly incompatible with the security of a free people. Although many causes, it must be confessed, contributed to the ruin of the unfortunate Charles, no single one had so much influence as that religious intolerance which was so unhappy a feature in his character ; as, on the other hand, nothing contributed so much to support the pre- carious authority of Cromwell, and to produce an artificial calm in the midst of so many raging factions, so many stormy elements, as a general liberty of conscience. This, as is remarked by the celebrated Bishop of Meaux, was the great secret of his policy. The policy of Charles, instead of making him regarded as the com- mon father of his subjects and the guardian of their welfare, providing for the happiness of every part with parental care and impartial solici- tude, made him to become the head of a party while he lent himself as the instrument of gratifying its mean and sanguinary passions ; by which means he became the idol of a faction, but lost the hearts of his people. The policy of Cromwell mitigated resentment, conciliated prejudice, and made those acquiesce in his pretensions and concur to maintain his authority who agreed in nothing else. How precious must that liberty of conscience be, and how fearful the resentmciU of its loss, which could prompt a great people to suffer their native prince to wander in exde and subsist on the alms of rival courts ; and reconcile them to the yoke of a master whose power was not supported by the smallest shadow of justice ! If such effects followed from invading liberty of conscience at a time when its right had never been ascer * Clarendon, vol. i. p. 184 Vol. II.— N 194 FRAGMENT ON VIT.LAGE PREACHING. tained, what may we not apprehend from its violation after an uninter- rupted possession of it for a hundred years? — when it has become familiar to our laws, habits, and manners, and the apprehension of its danger has been succeeded by an experience of its advantages. What will be the ultimate issue, should Providence in its infinite wisdom suffer our adversaries to prevail and the cruelties of persecution to be renewed, it belongs not to me to conjecture : but it maybe granted me to express my humble hope we shall stand firm in the day of trial, — not forgetting that persecution and sufferings have been the lot of the most eminent of God's servants ; that in walking in this path we are encompassed with " a cloud of witnesses ;" with apostles, prophets, and evangelists, whose words will teach, whose examples will encourage us to adorn that cause by our sufferings which we are no longer permitted to aid by our exertions. Having, executed to the best of my ability the plan I proposed, my freedom, I trust, will be pardoned if I suggest a few hints of advice to those who are employed in disseminating the knowledge of Christianity in villages. 1. To abstain from political reflection and from censuring either the constitution of the church or the clergy, is a part of prudence on which I ever would hope it is needless to insist. 2. Though I am convinced that those who attempt to evangelize the poor do not fail to inculcate the morality of the gospel, it may yet be doubted whether this is done with sufficient distinctness and detail. A notion prevails among some that to preach the gospel includes nothing more than a recital or recapitulation of the peculiar doctrines of Chris- tianity. If these are firmly believed and zealously embraced, they are ready to suppose the work is done, and that all the virtues of the Christian character will follow by necessary consequence. Hence they satisfy themselves with recommending holiness in general terms, without entering into its particular duties ; and this in such a manner as rather to predict it as the result of certain opinions than to enforce it on the ground of moral obligation, which tends to disjoin faith and virtue by turning all the solicitude of men to the former, while the latter is left to provide for itself, and to make them substitute the agitation of the passions and the adoption of a speculative creed in the room of that renovation of heart and life which the Scriptures render necessary. Some apology, it is true, ought to be made for those who have leaned to this extreme from the circumstances in which they have been placed. Having been called to preach to people who were ignorant of the very first truths of religion, they have supposed it necessary to employ them- selves in laying the foundation. On the supposition we were to address an audience that was not acquainted with the primary doctrines, it would be necessary to begin with relating the facts and teaching the doctrines which are the basis of the Christian dispensation. The credenda, or things to be believed, must necessarily precede the facienda, or tilings to be done. But thoua:h things must proceed in this order. FRAGMENT ON VILLAGE PREACHING. 195 no durable separation should be made of the doctrines from the duties of Christianity, lest the people shouKl acquire a corrupt taste, and, satisfied with their first altainmenls and impressions, neglect to culti- vate that " holiness wilhoJit which no man shall see the Lord." When they have been long detained in the elementar)' doctrines, they are not unfrequently found to acquire a distaste for the practical parts of Scrip- ture,— an impatience of reproof, — a dislike, in short, of every thing but what flatters them with a favourable opinion of their character and their state. Proud, bigoted, disputatious, careless of virtue, tenacious of subtleties, their religion evaporates in opinion, and their supposed conversion is nothing more than an exchange of the vices of the brute for those of the speculator in theological difficulties. The best method of preventing this fatal abuse of evangelical doctrine is to inculcate in immediate connexion with it those virtues of the Chris- tian character by which faith must be tried, frequently, distinctly, and fully. Instead of recommending practical religion only in general terms, under the phrase of holiness or any other, let us, in imitation of inspired preachers, explain in what that holiness consists. When John came preaching " repentance because the kingdom of heaven was at hand," he did not satisfy himself with barren and general abstractions : in reply to the inquiries of those who asked him what they must do, he entered into details, he imparted specific advice, and enjoined specific duties corresponding to the diflerent conditions of men and their rela- tion to each other in society. Had he contented himself with merely reiterating the command to repent in general terms, as, it is to be feared, is too often the case, his hearers might have mistaken a transient com- punction, a vague sensation of uneasiness, for the duty demanded : but by that particularity of application he adopted, the conscience was informed and the necessity perceived of "bringing forth fruits meet for repentance." The conscience is not likely to be touched by general declamations on the evil of sin and the beauty of holiness without delineation of character : they may alarm at first, but after a while, if they be often asserted merely as general truths which involve ihe whole human race, they will supply no materials for self-examination or painful retrospect. They will in process of time be regarded as doctrinal points, and pass from the conscience into the creed. He must know little of human nature who perceives not the callousness of the human heart, and the perfect indifference with which it can contemplate the most alarming truths when they are presented in a general abstract form. It is not in this way that religious instruction can be made permanently inter- esting. It is when particular vices are displayed as they appear in real life, when the arts of self-deception are detected, and the vain excuses by which the sinner palliates his guilt, evades the conviction of conscience, and secures a delusive tranquillity — in a word, it is when the heart is forced to see in itself the original of what is described by the apostle, and, perceiving that " the secrets of his heart are made manifest, he falls down and confesses that God is among us of a truth." The reproof which awakened David from his guilty slumber, and made N2 196 FRAGMENT ON THE RIGHT OF "WORSHIP. him weep and tremble, turned, not on the general evil of sin, but on the peculiar circumstances of aggravation attending that which he had committed. The sermon of Peter on the day of Pentecost, which pro- duced such decisive effects, was not a general declamation on the evil of sin, but it contained a specific charge against his hearers of having rejected and crucified their Messiah. When Paul was called before Felix, being well acquainted with his character he adapted his discourse accordingly, and " reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judg- ment to come," until " Felix trembled." The delineations of character and the injunctions of Scripture on practical points are not couched in general terms ; they are diversified and particular ; nor can it justly be doubted that the more of individuality, if I may be allowed the expres- sion, our pictures of human nature possess, the more impressive will they become. It is in this department of public instruction there is scope for endless variety — for the highest exertions of intellect, and the richest stores of knowledge. The doctrines of Christianity, though of infinite importance, are yet few and simple, capable of few combinations, and of little variety of illustration ; too precise to leave any thing for the understanding to invent ; too awful to permit the imagination to embellish. It is not in the statement of Christian doctrines, considered in themselves, that experience, talents, and knowledge find scope for their exertion. ON THE RIGHT OF WORSHIP.' Worship consists in the performance of all those external acts, and the observance of all those rites and ceremonies, in which men engage with the professed and sole view of honouring God. It is consequently in a pre-eminent manner the concern of conscience ; for, as God is the supreme master and legislator, it is impossible for a conscientious man, in compliance with human injunctions, either to omit any part of that worship which he apprehends God'to require, or to perform any which he has forbidden. In worship the creature has to do only with his Creator. There are, unquestionably, some regards due to God, some expressions of our reverence to him and our depend- ence upon him, which it is our duty to render ; and the duties which have God immediately for their object must be in their obligation paramount to every other ; that is, such that the commands of no human superior can discharge us from it. It remains only to be consid- ered by what criterion these duties are to be ascertained. Among the different modes of worship which prevail in different countries, and in the same country, to what standard are we to appeal ? by what principle is the solution to be made ? Either the mere will of the magistrate or the conscience of the individual must decide in * This appears to have been written in 18] 1 ; the prece'^ing t^vcnty-three pages in ISOl ana 1802 FRAGMENT ON THE RIGHT OF WORSHIP. 1Q7 this case. I say the mere will, because if the promulgation of his will be enforced by arguments and reasons, these arguments are necessarily submitted to the judgment of the subject ; and consequently, as far as they are concerned, he is still left to his conscience. But if such a power as this be vested in the magistrate, it is highly ne- cessary to examine the consequences to which it will lead. It will legitimate all the persecutions which the heathen emperors inflicted on the primitive Christians, as well as the more recent popish cruelties. For from what principle did those persecutions flow, but that the magistrate possessed a right to determine and prescribe the religion of his subjects, and that a refusal to comply with his authority involved political guih? The just pretensions of magistracy in this respect are surely equal ; nor can any reason be assigned for denying that authority to heathen or popish princes within their dominions wliich will not equally apply to Protestant princes. The dominion of God over his creatures is original, inalienable, and supreme ; so that men must be contemplated as the subjects of God, before we ronsider them as members of a civil community. The formation of states and the enaction of laws are operations which regard man in his transient and local situation as the inhabitant of the present world. There is, on the principles of Theism, above and beyond these, an original and fundamental moral law which unites him to his Maker, and oblieres him to fear, serve, and obey him as his superior Lord. That this law is more original and comprehensive than any other is evident from this consideration, that it comprehends sovereign as well as subjects ; that it regards men in those invariable, essential qualities in which they all agree ; and that it can never be suspended by time or change. As men are the creatures of God originally and essentially, and continually accountable to him, whatever laws are established for the government of particular societies are in the nature of hy-lavs, with relation to the duties which intelligent creatures owe to God; and whenever civil magistrates interfere with these, they are guilty of the same absurdity as a particular corporation would be who formed municipal regulations inconsistent with the law of the land. No particular society has a right to make rules for its regulation which interfere with the general law« of that kingdom of which it is a part ; for this would be to introduce an imperium in imperio, a multitude of legislatures, and a confusion and uncertainty in the principles of justice. In like manner, no human power can justly make laws which shall interfere with those duties which are previously due to God. As a necessary consequence of this, it follows, that whatever right men possess to worship God after the dictates of conscience, in a state of nature, is not diminished or impaired by entering into society. If seditious purposes be concealed under the pretext of assembling for religious worship, let the severest laws be eiiaf-ted for their punish- ment. Let the claims of liberty of conscience be permitted as a cover for notliing which does not belong to it. 198 TRAGMENT ON THE RIGHT OF WORSHIP. There is loss reason, however, for entertaining any alarm on this head in tolerating v/orshipping assemblies than any other ; for they are always public. They invite inspection. Who would be so in- fatuated as to attempt to connect treasonable or seditious designs with assemblies which are open to every one, and whose time and place of meeting are universally known ? Besides, the very business of worship is at the greatest distance possible from every thing tending to inflame political passions. Directed to a spiritual and invisible Being, it withdraws the mind from the world, and turns the thoughts into a channel the most remote from those affections which disturb the repose of society. It would be strange indeed if those exercises which have the most direct influence in tranquillizing the heart, and reducing all earthly things to comparative insignificance, must be forbidden, from an apprehension of their becoming engines of insurrection and tumult. They cannot be perverted in the smallest degree, to this purpose without their danger being perceived; and it will then be soon enough to apply remedies. This reasoning does not apply against the magistrate selecting some one particular sect, or some one set of religious opinions, and bringing them under his exclusive patronage and encouragement ; in other words, the erection of a religious establishment. Whatever the advantages or inconveniences may be which result from religious establishments is foreign to the subject in hand, which regards only the free and full toleration of different sects, as long as they contain themselves within the limits of civil submission. It will be alleged, that on these principles a multitude of ignorant enthusiasts and wild fanatics will start up, and under the pretence of preaching the gospel, bring religion into contempt, and thence eventu- ally open a door for profaneness and impiety. That this may in some instances be the consequence of unlimited toleration of Christian worship cannot perhaps be denied ; as little can it be denied that this is a great evil. It is much to be lamented that any should engage in the functions of a Christian minister who, in addition to an unblemished character, is not possessed of a competent measure of ability. But this inconvenience may be only one instance, among an infinity of others, of a partial evil connected with a principle productive of the greatest good. Pure and unmixed good is not the portion of earth. We cannot specify a single law in the natural or moral world, which falls within the sphere of our observation, which is not productive (along with permanent good) of occasional evils. This mixture of partial evil with the source of general happiness seems to be an essential part of the imperfections of the present state. If the magistrate is invested with the power of suppressing all whom he thinks incompetent to the office of a preacher, there can be no liberty and no tranquillity. But it is surely of more consequence to a state to preserve the most valuable portion of its liberty, than to preserve a perfect exemption from fanaticism. The care of the former falls within the proper province FRAGMENT ON THE RIGHT OF WORSHIP. jgg of a magistrate. The latter is consistent with a high degree of national prosperity. Religious enthusiasm becomes dangerous to a state only when it is the subject of oppression. There is in it an elastic quality which repels rigorous coercion. The vivid impressions of religious objects which it includes rather tend to sink, the value of all earthly interests, to annihilate the world and all its concerns, and to produce a conduct which, tiiough it may be wild and incoherent, yet if left to itself will be mild, inoffensive, and benevolent. Besides, enthusiasm, consisting in a preternatural state of exaltation, has a strong tendency to subside in a short time, and with the increase of knowledge to purify itself until it settles into calm enlightened piety. It is not, like superstition, a permanent evil. The enthusiast is impatient of control in his religious concerns, but does not aspire after dominion. In pro- portion as the passions are strongly possessed by invisible objects, the interests of the present state lose ilieir ascendency, and the enraptured enthusiast is more in danger of becoming indoleui ihau factious. The most effectual way of transporting such characters into political ex- cesses is to inflame them by oppression, — when they naturally learn to consider their enemies as the enemies of God, and throw the whole weight. of their religious prejudices and passions into the scale of political opposition ; while, on the other hand, a complete toleration is the most effectual remedy for their intemperance ; leaving them leisure to reflect, and affording room for the ordinary motives and principles of life to resume their ascendency. In the history of those sects which have been the most justly branded with enthusiasm, we shall uniformly find that while they were exasperated by persecution they were fierce and wild, and their fanaticism continued unsubdued ; but no sooner were they left unmo- lested than those features in their character which excited alarm gradually wore off, and thev ceased to be formidable. The history of the Baptists who rose, in the sixteenth century, in Germany, and of the Quakers in England, confirm the truth of this remark. Though the tyrannical measures pursued by Charles the First, at the beginning of his reign, naturally excited alarm and awoke opposi- tion, it seems evident the civil war could never have been kindled but for the intolerable cruelties inflicted by Laud on nonconformists, which cemented the various sects, and made them unite in a vehement oppo- sition to the government of Charles, while tlieir tenets were too dis- cordant to permit them to unite in any thing else. The magnitude of eternal interests and the mighty force of religious passions were superadded to the causes already existing of political contention, and by their union kindled those flames of war which consumed the land. Cromwell, on the other hand, whose usurpation was supported by no law, and who had to contend with the whole weight of virtuous pre- judice in favour of the constitmion he had overturned, and the family he had expelled, practised an opposite policy, and contrived to retain in subjection three kingdoms, by granting to the rival sects a general toleration, and balancing their />ower against each other. The impor- 200 FRAGMENT ON THE RIGHT OF WORSHIP. tance of this expedient in the preservation of his power has been au- knowletlged, both in England and on the continent, by the most invete rate enemies of that extraordinary man. The eloquent Bishop of Meaux, in his funeral oration for Henrietta of France, ascribes his success principally to this measure of his administration. Since the revolution, at which a universal religious toleration took place, amid all our calamities and reverses, an unexampled duration of domestic peace has been enjoyed, with two very short interruptions from occa- sions foreign from the topic under present consideration ; and during this protracted period, the mild spirit of legislation has communicated itself to all sects, and in a very eminent degree mitigated the acrimony of religious zeal. A species of religious fanaticism, it is confessed, made its appear- ance in the sixteenth century in Germany, and in the next century in England, which was of a highly political complexion, and struck immediately at the root of civil power, tlie distinctions of rank, and the offices of magistracy ; but even the history of the Baptists in Germany, and of the Fifth-monarchy men, supply reasons for tolera- tion, since we see that the obnoxious tenets which distinguished them soon disappeared, and that under milder treatment their successors have retained only some peculiarities of the most harmless kind. The extravagant flights of fanaticism, its visionary spirit, which might tempt its possessors to trample upon the rules of society, can never last long or extend far ; for the principles of self-preservation, the physical wants of the lower orders especially, who are most obnoxious to such impressions, the spirit of imitation, the habit of submission to superiors, together with the ordinary occupations of life, are prin- ciples of perpetual operation, the influence of which will soon sur- mount the strongest feelings, which operate only occasionally and by starts, and will consequently force the mind back into its proper ele- ment. For the same reasons it can never extend far. Minds only of a peculiar texture will feel its impression. A vast majority of every community will be too wise, too busy, too sensual, or too phlegmatic, to be transported into dangerous excesses by causes which operate on the imagination, and which have no relation to the more ordinary sources of pain and pleasure. No fanaticism of this kind has made its appear- ance at present, nor is there any room to presume it will. Some degree of enthusiasm, perhaps, generally accompanies religious im- pressions in uncultivated minds, at their commencement. Enthusiasm may be defined, that religious state of mind in which the imagination is unduly heated, and the passions outrun the understanding. But when persons are first deeply impressed with the infinitely momentous concerns of a future life, and are thereby introduced, as it were, into a new world, it is too much to expect their religious affections shall be perfectly regulated, or their conduct, under circumstances so novel, be consistent with the exactest rules of propriety. New situations, whether resulting from a moral and internal change, or from outward circumstances, make it necessary for some time to pass before those who are led into them know perfectly how to adjust their behaviour to FRAGMENT ON THE RIGHT OF WORSHIP. 201 them. But if the profession of piety be sincere (and of hj-pocrisy we are not at present speaking), it will eventually secure, together with the essential moral virtues, a regard to decorum and to all the minuter properties of social intercourse. In the mean time, where the love of God and man predominates, it will ill become the governor of a Chris- tian country, and still less the governor of a Christian church, to sufl'er himself to be so much offended at the intemperate effusions of honest zeal as to disregard the substance of religion because it may be defi- cient in some of its more amiable appendages. • If we adopt the maxims of a profane and careless world, we shall be taught to look upon all zealous Christians as enthusiasts or hypo- crites ; for when have they not, by a majority of mankind, been repre- sented in that light ? To men of the world it appears so strange that men should be affected by the consideration of invisible realities in any degree proportioned to the influence of present objects, it is so utterly remote from all their practical estimates, that they have no means of accounting for it without imputing it to a partial insanity or deliberate hypocrisy. But this is only one among numberless glaring inconsistencies of human conduct. For these very persons, it is prob- able, have never formally renounced the authority of Jesus Christ, who commands us to " seek first the kingdom of God," nor the certainty of an eternal state, in comparison of which the interests and prospects of the present are annihilated ; and yet they are surprised to find that good and evil should be estimated with regard to their respective mag- nitude, and that any should be weak enough to credit the declarations and obey the precepts of our common Lord. Such is the fascination of the world, and so complete its triumph in effecting a total divorce of the speculations from the practical belief of professed Christians. If the truths which religion reveals, and the hopes it inspires, respect an infinite good, and the present life be, as we know by experience, short and transitory, it must be the truest wisdom to be deeply solicitous to attain that good, and to be disposed to make any sacrifice of present pleasure and convenience with a view to it ; and when this is the habitual state of tlie mind, it will imprint some traces of itself in the external deportment, which the irreligious part of mankind will be sure to brand with the name of hypocrisy or fanaticism. The primitive Christians encountered this reproach, and their suc- cessors must expect it in proportion as they tread in their steps. That world to which we arc hastening will determine who are justly chargeable with folly, — they who treat eternal things according to their true nature, who, making the service of God their supreme con- cern, pass the time of their sojourning here in fear ; or they, the lan- guage of whose conduct is, " let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." To suppose that that religious state of mind in which devout affec- tions are highly [raised]* is enthusiastic, is a most pernicious mistake, and would in its consequences utterly extirpate religion, and expunge * Whenever a word U placed thus between brackets, it is supplied coDJecturaliy, the manasoiipt being illegible— Ed. 302 FRAGMENT ON THE RIGHT OF WORSHIP. a great part of the Scriptures. The smallest acquaintance with the New Testament must convince every one that the apostles and primi- tive Christians were no strangers to the strongest religious emotions. We read of a" joy unspeakable and full of glory," of a "peace that passeth all understanding," with innumerable other expressions of a similar kind, which indicate strong and vehement emotions of mind. That the great objects of Christianity, called eternity, heaven, and hell, are of sufficient magnitude to justify vivid emotions of joy, fear, and love, is indisputable, if it be allowed we have any relation to them ; nor is it less certain that religion could never have any power- ful influence if it did not influence through the medium of the affec- tions. All objects which have any permanent influence influence the conduct in this way. We may possibly be first set in motion by their supposed connexion with our interest ; but unless they draw to them- selves particular affections, the pursuit soon terminates. The cool calculation of interest operates only at times ; we are habitually borne forward in all parts of our career by specific affec- tions and passions ; some more simple and original, others complicated and acquired. In men of a vulgar cast, the grosser appetites, — in minds more elevated, the passions of sympathy, taste, ambition, the pleasures of imagination, — are the springs of motion. The world triumphs over its votaries by approaching them on the side of their passions ; and it does not so much deceive their reason as captivate their heart. It is in this way the love of the world must be rej>elled. As it is not chiefly by imposing on the understanding, or misleading the rational assent, that the world triumphs over its votaries, so the mere inculca- tion of religious truth on the intellect, without forming deep and last- ing impressions on the heart, will never be sufficient to emancipate us from its control. The difficulties which accrue in a religious career, especially at its outset, are so many and formidable, that unless we are deeply interested as well as convinced, perseverance is impracti- cable. In that victory over tlie world which is promised to faith, it is necessary to oppose feeling to feeling, and pleasure to pleasure. The intemperate attachment to sensual pleasure must be subdued by the fear of punishment ; the vain and extravagant hopes which present scenes inspire must be effaced by hopes more solid and more animat- ing; and to wean us from the breasts of earthly, we must be led to the breasts of spiritual consolation. The world amuses, enchants, transports us ; how shall religion teach us to triumph over it, if it present nothing but speculative con- clusions, and if the views of a rational self-interest which it displays were not intimately associated with objects adapted to engage and fill the heart? Would the primitive Christians have X'dken joyfully the spoiling of their goods, because they had in heaven a more enduring substance? Would they not only have felt calm and resolute, but accounted " it all joy when they suffered divers persecutions," if the objects of eternity had not occupied a large share of their affections ? The familiar acknowledgment, Video meliora, proboque deteriora sequor, — the frequency with which men act contrary to the most mature FRAGMENT ON THE RIGHT OF WORSHIP. 203 convictions of reason and conscience, shows how inefficacious is a mere speculative conviction when opposed to inveterate habits and passions. What is the defect here experienced, but a want of the correspondent feelings and impressions from which that state of desire results which impels to virtuous action I As the objects of religion are infinite and eternal, if the mind is duly affected by them at all, they have a tendency to enlarge and propagate their correspondent affections more and more ; and will probably tend ultimately to absorb and extinguish all other hopes and fears. Though good men are continually approaching nearer and nearer to this state, it is neither possible nor desirable they should reach it in this life. The multitude of pains, difliculties, and perplexities with which they have to encounter are continually drawing their attention to present objects ; and the duties of the present state could not be performed in that exalted state of spirituality. An eminent degree and vigour of the religious affections, then, ought not to be denominated fanaticism, unless they arise from wrong views of religion, or are so much indulged as to disqualify for the duties of society. Within these limits, the more elevated devotional sentiments are, the more perfect is the character, and the more suited to the destination of a being, who has, indeed, an important part to act here, but who stands on the C(m- fines of eternity. He may justly be styled a fanatic, who, under a pretence of spirituality, neglects the proper business of life, or who, from mistaken views of religion, elevates himself to an imaginary superiority to the rules of virtue and morality. Whatever other kind of fanaticism, real or pretended, [exists,] seems not to fall, in the smallest degree, under the conduct of the civil magistrate ; nor is there any danger of immorality being inculcated under any corruption of the Christian doctrine. Many religious systems, considered in their theory, may seem to fend to the encouragement of vice ; they may, in their speculative consequences, set aside the obligations of virtue ; but the uncorrupted dictates of conscience, the general sentiments of mankind respecting right and wrong, and the close alliance between devotion and virtue will always counteract this tendency, so far that the same persons will be more moral with very erroneous religious opinions than without religion. A practical disregard to piety is the prolific source of vice. We shall find the minds of every sect of Christians who are zealous in religion superior to those who are careless and profane. Whatever tends to draw tlie attention to God and eternity tends to destroy the dominion of sin. Under the varied forms of religious belief which have prevailed among the different parties of Christians, little variation has taken place in the rule of life. In the first age of Christianity, the church was accused, by the malice of its enemies, of the most shameful and unnatural practices ; which it disclaimed, but, at the same time, very injudiciously insinu- ated that the Gnostics were guilty of the crimes which were alleged; but the result of the more calm and dispassionate investigation of latet times has been a growing conviction that these surmises had do ^04 FRAGMENT ON THE RIGHT OF WORSHIP. foundation in fact. The doctrines of our holy religion may be wofuUy curtailed and corrupted, and its profession sink into formality ; but its moral precepts are so plain and striking, and guarded by such clear and awful sanctions, as to render it impossible it can ever be converted into an active instrument of vice. Let the appeal be made to facts. Look through all the different sects and parties into which professed Chris- tians are unhappily divided. Where is there one to be found who has innovated in the rule of life, by substituting vice in place of virtue ? The fears entertained from this quarter must be considered as chi- merical and unfounded, until they are confirmed by the evidence of facts. In those districts in which the dissenters and Methodists have been most zealous and successful in village preaching, are the morals of the people more corrupted than in other places 1 Are they distin- guished by a greater degree of profligacy, intemperance, and de- bauchery than the inhabitants of other parts of the country? The advocates of rigorous measures will scarcely have the temerity to put the question upon this issue ; and until they do, all their pretended dread of the growth of licentiousness from village preaching will be considered as nothing but artifice. To contend for the legal monopoly of religious instruction, under pretence of securing the morals of the people, is a similar kind of policy with that of the papists, who withhold the Scriptures from the common people lest they should be betrayed into heresy. We all per- ceive, the design of the papist in this restriction is to prevent the difiusion of knowledge, which would be fatal to ghostly dominion. Is it not .equally evident that the prohibition to instruct the populace in the principles of Christianity originates in this jealousy of power ? We must at least be permitted to express our surprise at the pro- found sagacity of those who can discover a design to destroy morality by inculcating religion, and a purpose of making men vicious by making them serious. Plain men must be excused if they are startled i>y such refined and intricate paradoxes. It highly becomes those who are the advocates for the interference of government to restrain the efforts of Methodists and dissenters to