fame lucrative ends. Tefts of this kind can never be too feverely reprobated, nor too foon repealed and finally abolished. They are more calculated to make men atheists than confcientious conformifts to any church on earth. Nor are they more profane than impolitic. Why thefe fhould ever have had a place in the conftitution, or be impofed upon English Protestant Diffenters, which were originally intended for the exclufion of Papifts, thofe who are difpofed to vindicate the other abfurdities and reliques of antichriftianifm in that land can beft tell. That they fhould alfo be continued in Ireland, where they were in like manner furreptitiously introduced; where there are fuch a large body of Proteftant Diffenters, in fome places a majority of the Proteftant inhabitants; where it is become a national grievance, tending only to weaken the Proteftant intereft there; especially after a bill had past the highest legislature of that kingdom for a repeal, is alfo a moot point, that will require all the fineffe of the minifter and his friends to clear up, and all the addrefs they are mafter of, to make an apology for. As another bill is now faid to have past the Irish parliament for abolishing the facramental teft, it is hoped the English miniftry, upon fecond thoughts, will fee proper to treat it in another manner than the former claufe to that effect. They can no longer pretend that it is a tack to the Popish bill in order to destroy it. But that ever Scotland fhould have fubmitted to fuch unequal and unreafonable terms, whereby Prefbyterians are legally incapacitated for performing every office, or enjoying every poft, in the empire, in common with their Epifcopal friends; and that their representatives fhould not be even admitted to a feat in the legislature, without taking oaths not entirely confiftent with their principles; that she should, in this fhameful manner, have refigned the independence of her church, and the freedom of its members; and that they fhould tamely fubmit to wear thefe fhackles ftill, is far more extraordinary; though indeed none

that

that make confcience of their religion ever will do fo for all the honours and golden profpects which England can prefent. It cannot be expected, that those who can thus play with religion, and proftitute the most facred things, will ever approve themfelves fteady and zealous Proteftants. A Prefbyterian conformist to the church of England is already got half way to Rome. Let Scotland then take care, who are appointed to maintain the national honour, religion, and rights. If her reprefentatives are few, let them be, at leaft, well chofen. Henceforth let all bribery, corruption, and undue influence, be banished from elections; and let the merit of the candidates alone obtain the fuffrages of a free people. Let every attempt to bribe, or otherwife influence the votes, be held as odious as it is pernicious, and accounted in itself a fufficient difqualification; for he that can give a bribe will take one. Let none but true patriots, if fuch are to be found, be affigned the important tafk;-gentlemen of knowledge, honour, integrity, experience, religious principle, and private virtue, without which patriotism is but a farce, and public virtue an empty name;-no filly fops, no trifling maccaronis, no men of pleafure; no infidels or adiaphorifts, who will be either ignorant or afhamed of the religion of their country; no greedy hungry placehunters; no court fycophants, who will betray their trust for a poft; no profane Efaus, who for a mefs of meat, or a fip of pleafure, will fell their birthright;-no duellifts, or fashionable murderers; no flaves to party; no minions of a minister, who will follow him as the Satellites of Jupiter do that huge unwieldy planet, through all his changeable movements and revolutions.

It remains now, that the people of Scotland fhould be watchful against any attempts that may hereafter be made for weakening the fecurities of the Proteftant religion; and not refign themselves to fecurity, or indifference about the general intereft, because their laws remain yet untouched.

And

And it will now be needful, perhaps more than ever, to guard against the defigns, and obferve the practices of Popish priests and their adherents, who now, on account of the protection afforded them every where around, will become as active, and affume as much liberty, as if the repeal had been extended to Scotland, unlefs deterred by a prudent exertion of the laws. Ought they not to keep up the force and authority of laws, the exiftence of which they have been fo folicitous to preferve? If they must expire, fhould they expire firft in the magiftrate's hands? Ought they not rather to die, like Sampfon, exerting their strength, and avenging themselves upon their enemies? If the public had been more vigilant, and the judges more active in doing juftice this way, the ftreets of the cities had not been difturbed and difgraced with mobs, attemp ting, in an illegal manner, to do what the magiftrates, by way of prevention, ought legally to have done *.

May it not be now reasonably hoped, that parliament will fee proper not only to defift from pufhing farther fuch an unwife and difagreeable measure at prefent; but alfo lay, afide entirely the idea of reviving it; efpecially codering that the alarms of the people only fubfided upon the faith of a fort of ministerial promife, and in the firm confidence of hearing no more of that matter. The fpirit of oppofition was only roufing, and spreading with rapidity through every corner, when fome court water was feasonably brought, and caft on it, to allay the flame, and check its progrefs. But if advantage is taken of this confidence, to

Query; Would it not be an expeditious and humane way of ridding North. Britain of Papifts, with whom they live in fuch bad neighbourhood, to make a compliment of them to England, where they are fure of a peaceable retreat, while the laws continue there as they are? A transportation over the Tweed would not furely be accounted a great feverity, which fo many of their fellowcountrymen continually pass, making themselves voluntary exiles; nor woult they thank any for a liberty of returning. This would fave the trouble of framing a new bill, and, by this means, all parties might be pleafed.

accomplish

accomplish the odious defign, difcontents must neceffarily arife with increafed violence. It is indeed not a little furprifing, confidering the nature of the bill, and, after all that hath already fallen out, that any should have proposed, in parliament, to rush forward to take further steps in that affair; more efpecially that fuch propofals fhould comé from gentlemen, who had, in the strongest manner, cenfured government for tolerating the Roman-Catholic religion in Canada, and for impofing and inforcing the unpopular acts in the colonies, in contempt of the general opinion and inclination of the inhabitants, whofe rights are more uncertain, and their grounds of refiftance more problematical, than in the prefent cafe; forgetful, likewise, of their own doctrine of the neceffity of accommodating laws to a people, and not forcibly moulding down a people to the laws. Can fuch conduct spring from honourable principles, or be directed to any good end? Doth it not give but too much reason to suspect, that some of them have not yet got above little national antipathies; or that they delight, like the porpoife, to foretel a ftorm, and to swim in troubled waters; and that they adhere to no fyftem fo ftrictly and invariably as that of oppofition to adminiftration?

Upon the whole, it may now be humbly fubmitted, whether the legislature hath not already gone too far, and whether, inftead of going on to finish the pernicious scheme, and making new acts in favour of Popery, it ought not feriously to think of revising, and speedily repealing the whole of thofe already made; that fo Britain may be totally dif engaged from Rome, and ever maintain féparaté interests

*“ In effect, to follow, not to force the public inclination; to give a direction, a form, a technical drefs, and fpecific fanction to the general fenfe of "the community, is the true end of legiflature. When it goes beyond this, its “authority will be precarious, let its rights be what they will." Burke's Eetter on the affairs of America, p. 5.

from

from her; and that she may still account it her chief glory, as it is her highest duty, to appear among the nations, at the head of the reformation; and not now cherish the dying remains of Antichristianism, and protect Rome's zealots, exiles, and vagrants, when every Popish country begins to appear tired of her yoke, and is attempting, piece by piece, to pull down the old fabric. It is prefumed none of the late acts will prove as the laws of the Medes and Perfians which altered not; and many are not without hopes of feeing the repealing act becoming in England another Jew bill, that must be ftrangled by the fame hands that gave it birth. It can hardly be fuppofed, that the people, who were so warm and zealous in their oppofition to the latter, fhould remain wholly torpid and infenfible to the mischievous confequences of the former, when the danger, to fay the least, is equal. We hope the religious patriotifm of the English has not all flashed away, and expired on that occafion. Now is the time for fhewing what of it yet remains among them. When a dark cloud of Popery was hovering over and benighting the land, fome faint luminous appearances fprung up in the north; which begin now to fpread and move fouthward, as has been the cafe fometimes before.

The Jews are a sect neither so numerous nor formidable as the Papists. They have no worldly monarchy; acknowledge no common head whofe abfolute authority they are implicitly to obey; (for what they call the head of the captivity cannot properly he confidered as fuch an one); ascribe no infallibility to their priesthood; teach no doctrines for the fubverfion of commonwealths, or the depofition of kings: in the matters of religion they make no pretences to catholicism; infift not on compulfion and bloody perfecution; they hold no principle obliging them to extirpate and defroy their neighbours; have no fuch zeal for profelytifi; befides, their fyftem is lefs infnaring, and their rite of initiation too painful and opprobrious to be voluntarily fubmitted to by many. Wherefore, the Naturalization bill which threw the English nation into fuch a ferment, however otherwise improper and impolitic, had no fuch threatening afpect upon the Protestant religion, nor carried in it fuch immediate appearances of danger to the government, and the liberties and privileges of the British na tion, as the growth of Popery, and the act for removing legal incapacities from Papists doth.