to become strong; they do
not, therefore, frighten or alarm their converts by any present show of
the invariable results; but are content to bide their time, until they
shall find themselves strong enough to exert their power with triumphant
success. The Protestant cause in America is weak, from the evil effects
of the voluntary system, particularly from its division into so many
sects. A house divided against itself cannot long stand; and every year
it will be found that the Catholic church will increase its power: and
it is a question whether a hierarchy may not eventually be raised,
which, so far from _advocating the principles of equality_, may serve as
a _check_ to the spirit of democracy becoming more powerful than the
government, curbing public opinion, and reducing to better order the
present chaotic state of society.

Judge Haliburten asserts, that all America will be a Catholic country.
That all America west of the Alleghanies will eventually be a Catholic
country, I have no doubt, as the Catholics are already in the majority,
and there is nothing, as Mr Cooper observes, to prevent any state from
establishing that, or any other religion, as the _Religion of the
State_; ["There is nothing in the constitution of the United States to
prevent all the states, or any particular state, from possessing an
established religion."--_Cooper's Democrat_] and this is one of the dark
clouds which hang over the destiny of the western hemisphere.

The reverend Mr Reed says:--"It should really seem that the Pope, in
the fear of expulsion from Europe, is anxious to find a reversion in
this new world. The crowned heads of the continent, having the same
enmity to free political institutions which his holiness has to free
religious institutions, willingly unite in the attempt to enthral this
people. They have heard of the necessities of the West; they have the
foresight to see that the West will become the heart of the country, and
ultimately determine the character of the whole; and they have resolved
to establish themselves there. Large, yea _princely, grants_ have been
made from the Leopold society, and other sources, chiefly, though by no
means exclusively, in favour of this portion of the empire that is to
be. These sums are expended in erecting showy churches and colleges,
and in sustaining priests and emissaries. Everything is done to
captivate, and to liberalise in appearance, a system essentially
despotic. The sag