o religion as indifference, which is, at least, half infidelity. As
long as men hold charity and justice to be essential integral parts of
religion, there can be little danger from a strong attachment to
particular tenets in faith. This I am perfectly sure is your case; but I
am not equally sure that either zeal for the tenets of faith, or the
smallest degree of charity or justice, have much influenced the
gentlemen who, under pretexts of zeal, have resisted the enfranchisement
of their country. My dear son, who was a person of discernment, as well
as clear and acute in his expressions, said, in a letter of his which I
have seen, "that, in order to grace their cause, and to draw some
respect to their persons, they pretend to be bigots." But here, I take
it, we have not much to do with the theological tenets on the one side
of the question or the other. The point itself is practically decided.
That religion is owned by the state. Except in a settled maintenance, it
is protected. A great deal of the rubbish, which, as a nuisance, long
obstructed the way, is removed. One impediment remained longer, as a
matter to justify the proscription of the body of our country; after the
rest had been abandoned as untenable ground. But the business of the
Pope (that mixed person of polities and religion) has long ceased to be
a bugbear: for some time past he has ceased to be even a colorable
pretext. This was well known, when the Catholics of these kingdoms, for
our amusement, were obliged on oath to disclaim him in his political
capacity,--which implied an allowance for them to recognize him in some
sort of ecclesiastical superiority. It was a compromise of the old
dispute.

For my part, I confess I wish that we had been less eager in this point.
I don't think, indeed, that much mischief will happen from it, if things
are otherwise properly managed. Too nice an inquisition ought not to be
made into opinions that are dying away of themselves. Had we lived an
hundred and fifty years ago, I should have been as earnest and anxious
as anybody for this sort of abjuration; but, living at the time in which
I live, and obliged to speculate forward instead of backward, I must
fairly say, I could well endure the existence of every sort of
collateral aid which opinion might, in the now state of things, afford
to authority. I must see much more danger than in my life I have seen,
or than others will venture seriously to affirm that they see, in the