ith the assassin. Are we
not all the creatures of one Creator? Does not the same sun give us
warmth? And will not _the days of the years of our pilgrimage_ be as
short as theirs? It is an offence to Religion, an injury to Providence,
to suppose That vast tract of land wholly seized by evil spirits; though
licentiousness, rapacity, ambition, and irreligion have given rulers to
it, of late, abhorrent to all humanity.

We are too apt to consider ourselves rather as a distinct race of
beings, than as merely the emulous inhabitants of rival states; but ere
our detestation leads to the indiscriminate proscription of a whole
people, let us look at the Emigrant French Clergy, and ask where is the
Englishman, where, indeed, the human being, in whom a sense of right can
more disinterestedly have been demonstrated, or more nobly predominate?
O let us be brethren with the good, wheresoever they may arise! and let
us resist the culpable, whether abroad or at home.

The world, in all its varied stores of good, contains nothing that can
vie with Philanthropy--that soft _milk of human kindness_, that benign
spirit of social harmony, that genuine emblem of practical Religion!
seeking some extenuation from goodness even amongst the fallen,
accepting some apology from temptation even amongst the sinful; lenient
in its judgments, conciliating in its awards, forgiving in its wrath!
and receiving in bosom-serenity all the solace it humanely expands.

But while to the individual we talk of alms, and plead distress,
sickness, infirmity; to the community we may be bolder, juster, firmer,
and talk of duties.

Flourishing and happy ourselves, shall we see cast upon our coasts
virtue we scarce thought mortal, sufferers whose story we could not read
without tears, martyrs that remind us of other days--and let them
perish? Behold age unhonoured, disease unattended, strangers unfed? and
not till they are no more, till the compassionating hand of Death has
closed their miseries, learn to do them justice? _then_, when we can
only lament,--not _now_, when we may also succour? Is it to that period
we must wait to enquire, to exclaim "How came they to this pass?"

Anticipate the answer, anticipate the historians of times to come: will
they not say, "These holy men, who died for want of bread, were Priests
of the Christian Religion. They had committed no sin, they had offended
against no law: they refused to take an oath which their consciences
disapp