favour of them; and afterwards
briefly notice some of the crimes imputed to them.

In stating the results of my inquiry respecting the authorities, it may
save some trouble to begin with those on which Robertson founded his
account of the order. I am persuaded that, had he written at the present
era, his {24} authorities would have been sought in very different sources,
and his whole account of the order of Jesus would have been very different
to what it is. Far from impeaching that elegant writer with wilful
misrepresentations, or want of caution in selecting those authorities, I
readily give him credit for seeking the best he could obtain when he wrote;
and the more, from his taking some pains, in a note[9], to inform his
readers, that he believes his two principal authorities, Monclar and
Chalotais, to be respectable magistrates and elegant writers. But I
maintain, that, if he had seen them in the point of view in which they have
since appeared, as leaders on of the jacobinical philosophy, and of the
French revolution, it is not likely that he would have honoured their
fabrications with the weight of historical testimony: that their _Comptes
Rendus_ were fabrications we shall presently see. Let us first view the
list; _viz._ Monclar, Chalotais, D'Alembert, Histoire des Jesuites, the
French Encyclopedie, Charlevoix, Juan, and {25} Ulloa. As the three last
names are authorities in favour of the Jesuits, I shall not notice them at
present. D'Alembert and the Encyclopedie may go together, for he and
Diderot, who wrote the article _Jesuite_ in that work, were the chief
directors of it. To men, who have recovered from the stun of jacobinism, it
is hardly necessary to say, that the destruction of the Jesuits was of the
first importance to the success of D'Alembert and Diderot's philosophical
reform of human nature. The article written by the latter was completely
refuted by a French Jesuit named Courtois, but only the writers against the
order were read or cited. When the Jesuits first appeared in France, the
parliament hated them as friends of the pope; the university as rival
teachers. These two bodies combined to exterminate them. The university was
perpetually bringing actions against them before the parliaments, but they
found protection from the throne and the ministry. The university was
exasperated at the desertion of their scholars, who flocked to the Jesuit
schools, and at {26} the loss of their emoluments called _l