elt upon at tolerable
length in the text, and has likewise been handled with extraordinary
power by the pen of the gifted but irreligious Volney; moreover, the
_elite_ of the Roman priesthood are perfectly well aware that their
system is nothing but Buddhism under a slight disguise, and the European
world in general has entertained for some time past an inkling of the
fact.

And now a few words with respect to the motives of the writer for
expressing a hatred for Rome.

This expressed abhorrence of the author for Rome might be entitled to
little regard, provided it were possible to attribute it to any
self-interested motive. There have been professed enemies of Rome, or of
this or that system; but their professed enmity may frequently be traced
to some cause which does them little credit; but the writer of these
lines has no motive, and can have no motive, for his enmity to Rome, save
the abhorrence of an honest heart for what is false, base, and cruel. A
certain clergyman wrote with much heat against the Papists in the time of
. . ., who was known to favour the Papists, but was not expected to
continue long in office, and whose supposed successor, the person,
indeed, who did succeed him, was thought to be hostile to the Papists.
This divine, who obtained a rich benefice from the successor of . . .,
who during . . .'s time had always opposed him in everything he proposed
to do, and who, of course, during that time, affected to be very inimical
to Popery--this divine might well be suspected of having a motive equally
creditable for writing against the Papists, as that which induced him to
write for them, as soon as his patron, who eventually did something more
for him, had espoused their cause; but what motive, save an honest one,
can the present writer have for expressing an abhorrence of Popery? He
is no clergyman, and consequently can expect neither benefices nor
bishoprics, supposing it were the fashion of the present, or likely to be
the fashion of any future administration, to reward clergymen with
benefices or bishoprics, who, in the defence of the religion of their
country, write, or shall write, against Popery, and not to reward those
who write, or shall write, in favour of it and all its nonsense and
abominations.

"But if not a clergyman, he is the servant of a certain society, which
has the overthrow of Popery in view, and therefore," etc. This
assertion, which has been frequently made, is incorrect, e