law, I feel persuaded that we are
strong enough to repel any outward attacks. The liberty of Protestantism
has been enjoyed too long in England to allow of any successful attempt
to impose a foreign yoke upon our minds and consciences. No foreign
prince or potentate will be permitted to fasten his fetters upon a
nation which has so long and so nobly vindicated its right to freedom of
opinion--civil, political, and religious.

Upon this subject, then, I will only say, that the present state of
the law shall be carefully examined, and the propriety of adopting
any proceedings with reference to the recent assumption of power
deliberately considered.

There is a danger, however, which alarms me much more than any
aggression of a foreign sovereign.

Clergymen of our own church, who have subscribed the Thirty-nine
Articles, and acknowledged in explicit terms the queen's supremacy, have
been the most forward in leading their flocks, "step by step, to the
very verge of the precipice." The honour paid to saints, the claim of
infallibility for the church, the superstitious use of the sign of the
cross, the muttering of the liturgy so as to disguise the language in
which it is written, the recommendation of auricular confession, and the
administration of penance and absolution, all these things are pointed
out by clergymen of the Church of England as worthy of adoption, and
are now openly reprehended by the Bishop of London in his charge to the
clergy of his diocese.

What, then, is the danger to be apprehended from a foreign prince of no
great power, compared to the danger within the gates from the unworthy
sons of the Church of England herself?

I have little hope that the propounders and framers of these innovations
will desist from their insidious course; but I rely with confidence on
the people of England; and I will not bate a jot of heart or hope
so long as the glorious principles and the immortal martyrs of the
Reformation shall be held in reverence by the great mass of a nation
which looks with contempt on the mummeries of superstition, and with
scorn at the laborious endeavours which are now making to confine the
intellect and enslave the soul.

I remain, with great respect, &c.,

J. Russell.

Downing-street, Nov. 4.

Whether the noble writer of this letter was sincere in the feelings
he expressed was doubted by few at the time, although his subsequent
turning and time-serving justified the public in belie