which they pronounce decrees, the execution of which they can compel by the laws of the land, as they at prefent ftand: yet it is equally true, that they have tribunals, vicars general and officials, who do make and pronounce decrees in what they call fpiritual matters, and in matrimonial caufes efpecially, which highly affect the temporal concerns of the fubjects of this realm; and that they have ways and means of enforcing,and do enforce,the effectual execution of fuch decrees, of which I have within thefe few years come to the knowledge, in many inftances: and although fuch their proceedings are forbidden by the laws of the realm under fevere penalties, yet they continue the practice, have feals of office, and levy no inconfiderable fums on the fubject for licenfes, difpenfations, and other incidents of epifcopal jurifdiction. If Romanists fhould be admitted to a fhare of the fupreme authority of the State,and if any attempt should be made to carry the laws into execution against fuch illegal practices, what loud complaints fhould we hear of perfecution! and what harangues of Romifh orators would be pronounced in the Senate on the score of the obstruction of the jurifdiction of their Bifhops, liegemen of the Pope, in matters very intimately connected with the temporal interests of the fubject and how inceffant would their endeavours be to procure the repeal of fuch wholefome and reftrictive ftatutes!

This author obferves, that the Statute of Magna Charta, the foundation of civil liberty, and the Statute of Præmunire (2d of Richard the Second), which fe'cured ecclefiaftical liberty,were acts of Roman Catholic Parliaments.' It is to be noted, however, that the Statute of Magna Charta eftablished all the ufurpations of the

Romish Church as they then food (See chap. i. xxxiii. xxxviii. of it: 2d Coke's Inftitutes, page 2. 68. 76.), and only repreffed and abolished prerogatives claimed by the Crown, which bore hard on an Aristocracy, clerical and lay, at that time of mighty power; and that the ftatute of Richard the Second only went to reftrain the introduction into the kingdom of the Pope's bulls which touched on the King's Crown and Regality, or his realm, and the execution of fuch: the Popedom at that time claiming, and attempting to exercife, an unlimited temporal authority within the realm, and ufurping all the prerogatives of the Crown, which abuses it had princi→ pally introduced in the reign of King John. The ftatute did not abrogate, or attempt to abrogate, the fupremacy of the Pope in fpirituals, and in all temporal matters incident to such spiritual fupremacy: the authority of the Pope in fpirituals and in temporals infeparably connected with them, remained unimpaired in the realm, and was executed therein either by his own or the Bifhop's officers, or by the officers of the Sovereign, notwithstanding that statute, as may be learned from our hiftories, till the time of Henry the Eighth Richard's Parliament not designing to curtail, what they, being Romanists, believed to be the just portion of temporal power incident to the Pope's acknowledged fupremacy in fpirituals. Till the reign of Henry the Eighth appeals to Rome, though illegal before, had been always connived at. (See 4th vol. Black ftone's Commentaries, page 114.)

The concluding argument of this author for the admiffion of Romanifts into the Senate, and into all places of truft and confidence within the realm, to wit, a fimilar practice in many other States, he introduces with an affecta

tion of great politeness: his politenefs indeed is much of the fame kind with that of fome modern men of nice honour, who affect all kind of ceremonious delicacy in their conduct, preparative to a premeditated quarrel, and mean to procure an excufe for fhooting a man through the head, or running him through the heart, with the moft perfect good breeding: he thus addreffes the gentleman whose arguments he has undertaken to anfwer: I am almost

afraid of being accused of impolitenefs by adducing no'torious facts, which may look like grofs and blunt contradictions of the affertions of a gentleman, who ought to have fuch good information upon the subject he treats.' Before I proceed to the examination of the inftances of the practice of other States, in refpect to the indifcriminate diftribution of honours, emoluments, and confidential offices in the civil and military departments, on Proteftants and Romanists(inftances almost all confined to Germany), which are adduced by this foi-difant well-informed writer, I must remark, that the Government of every one of them is defpotic, and either in the hands of a single person, or in thofe of an oligarchy; and that the people at large have no share in the fupreme power of the ftate; that is, their Governments have no democracy intermixed with them no affembly, elected by the people for a certain term, and whofe members at its expiration become part of the mafs of the people, forms part of the fovereignties; and no arguments deduced from the practice in fuchStates in the particulars above-mentioned will apply to a Government partly democratic, and the most efficient part of which is fuch a popular affembly as above described. In fuch States any particular religious tenet held by a part of the people, hoftile to the principles of Government, can have but a very small mischievous effect: many civil and

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all military offices may be difpofed of by fuch defpotic governments to any perfons they may think capable of ferving them, without regard to their religious perfuafions, and without inconvenience to the fyftem of government; for fuch officers can have no fhare or influence in the government, except through the medium of their defpotic mafters, who can difmifs them at their plea fure. In a Romish defpotic government, the employment of Proteftants in great and confidential offices can be of no public inconvenience, as well for the before-mentioned reafon, as because there is no tenet of the Proteftant religion which teaches the perfecution of all Chriftians, princes and people, differing from Proteftants in point of doctrine, as heretics, with fire and fword; no tenet which teaches them to overturn the government which does not share its fovereignty with a foreign tribunal. It is much fafer for a Romish State to employ Proteftants in great offices, than for a Proteftant State to employ Romanifts.

The Saxon State oeconomy this author produces with a fort of triumphant exultation, as a decifive proof of the truth of his deductions; he ftates it to be a Roman Catholic government in a Proteftant country, the very reverfe of Ireland: to make the contraft complete, Proteftant and Catholic enjoy every privilege without dif'tinction. The revenue of the Church, fmall but adequates is given to those who do the fervice of it in either way. The peasantry are without any exception the happieft, 'moft comfortable, and moft contented in the world; 'the higher ranks remarkable for their martial and honourable spirit, the Sovereign is a father of all his fub'jects. But a stronger and more extraordinary fact re'mains,

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'mains, to confound the friends and abettors of religious jealoufy and animofity. The Proteftants of Germany, ⚫ certainly not indifferent to the interefts of their religion, ❝ could not find a properer person to entrust them to, than to this very Roman Catholic Prince, who is felected by themselves to be the chief of the Proteftant Union, and to watch over the treaties made in their favour.

But this well-informed author, notwithstanding the amazing extent of his knowledge, feems to be totally ignorant of the specific differences of the conftitution of the British Empire from that of any other country in the world, and the neceffary political effects of fuch differences in the internal regulations of a State, one efficient part of whose sovereignty is a popular affembly, when contrafted with the internal political regulations of a defpotic government. The Elector of Saxony is as def potic a Prince as any in Europe within his own territories; his fubjects, in a political fenfe, are complete flaves; there is no spice of democracy mingled with his power: in his State the Sovereign may be truly called the father of his people, in the fame sense that the author of Killing no Murder,' gives that title to Cromwell. Your • Highness,' fays he,' is the true father of your people, for we have nothing during your life that we can call our own.' If the fubjects of this Elector, the higheft ranks, as well as the peafantry, are the happiest and most contented in Europe, as this author ftates, it must follow that abject political flavery is productive of the greatest happiness to the fubject; a doctrine which will not be relifhed by the fubjects of the British Empire: God preferve us from fuch happiness! I remember an inftance of the Elector of Saxony's mild government of his fubjects, which was

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