consciences of all monarchs, and of all their grandees; that they ruled
courts; that they were every where trusted, respected, and employed? They
enjoyed this credit during two hundred years, in all catholic countries,
and, if we must believe you, in all countries not professedly catholic,
that is, in protestant countries; and yet you require us to admit, that all
the sovereigns, prelates, and magistrates of those nations, had neither the
discernment to discover, nor the power to control the course of their
wickedness. Indeed, Sir, the best refutation of your fable would be, a
comparison of the state of religion, morality, order, and subordination in
catholic countries, while Jesuits, as you tell us, were their teachers,
preachers, and directors, with the face of public morals, after their
enemies had accomplished their destruction. Another complete refutation of
your inconsistent charge arises from the remarkable circumstance, that, in
all the countries where Jesuits were consigned to jails, exile, infamy, and
beggary, not a crime could be alleged or {268} proved against a single
Jesuit; not one was ever interrogated or suffered to plead his cause.
Horrid to tell! they were all everywhere condemned, everywhere punished
unheard, untried. This is a fact of public notoriety[96].

It is curious to observe, how your accusations turn to the credit of the
Jesuits. The strict obedience, which was enjoined and practised in their
society, is with you their crime; with every man of sense, it is their
commendation. It was, in fact, the bond, which cemented them together,
which supplied the place of monastic restrictions, incompatible with their
various duties. Without it, they would soon have fallen into disorder, they
would have been contemned; but they would not have been employed, nor
trusted, nor even persecuted. {269} Another of their crimes is their
_ardent attachment to their order_. I allow it was singular. They had a
tender feeling for the good reputation of their society, and they all well
understood, that it depended upon the good conduct of every individual[97].
But who cannot see, that this {270} admitted fact stands in direct
contradiction to that other crimination, where you execrate their
government, as _perfect and unexampled despotism_? It is not possible, that
a large body of well educated men should be enamoured of slavery. It is a
truth, that the government of the Jesuits was the most gentle, and yet the
most ef