setts?"

It is however worthy of remark, that those States that have _enforced_
religion and morality, and have punished infidelity, [Miss Martineau
complains of this as contrary to the unalienable rights of
man:--"Instead of this we find laws framed against speculative atheists;
opprobrium directed against such as embrace natural religion otherwise
than through Christianity, and a yet more bitter oppression exercised by
those who view Christianity in one way over those who regard it in
another."] are now the most virtuous, the most refined, and the most
intellectual, and are quoted as such by American authors, like Mr
Carey, who by the help of Massachusetts alone can bring out his
statistics to anything near the mark requisite to support his theories.

It is my opinion that the voluntary system will never work well under
any form of government, and still less so under a democracy.

Those who live under a democracy have but one pursuit, but one object to
gain, which is wealth. No one can serve God and Mammon. To suppose
that a man who has been in such ardent pursuit of wealth, as is the
American for six days in the week, can recall his attention and thoughts
to serious points on the seventh, is absurd; you might as well expect
him to forget his tobacco on Sunday.

Under a democracy, therefore, you must look for religion among the
women, not among the men, and such is found to be the case in the United
States. As Sam Slick very truly says, "It's only women who attend
meeting: the men folks have their politics and trade to talk over and
havn't _time_." Even an established church would not make people as
religious under a democratic form of government as it would under any
other. [Mrs Trollope observes, "A stranger taking up his residence in
any city in America, must think the natives the most religious people
upon earth." This is very true; the _outward_ observances are very
strict; why so will be better comprehended when the reader has finished
my remarks upon the country. The author of Mammon very truly observes,
that the only vice which we can practise without being arraigned for it
in this world, and at the same time go through the _forms_ of religion,
is _covetousness_.]

I have yet to point out how slander and defamation flourish under a
democracy. Now, this voluntary system, from the interference of the
laity, who judge not only the minister, but the congregation, gives what
appears to be a legitimate