pushed the resources of naval and commercial power. The older provinces of the kingdom are chiefly Protestant, but with an admixture of Catholics.-The recently united states are almost exclusively Catholics.-The government is vested in a limited monarch, who is a Protestant,* and in two houses of parliament. Is this a contrast or a parallel? I left no Protestant populace in disorder, terrified with the renewed danger of faggot and flame, though the memory of Alva in that country might be supposed to have the full as much influence as that of Queen Mary in this.-I left no reformed church anticipating immediate destruction-no parliament expecting to be exclusively governed by the Catholics who form a part of its body.— It was not anticipated that the Pope's bulls would supersede the law of the land, or that Leo XII, would excommunicate William I.. and take possession of his kingdom until he should return to the bosom of the church.And yet it cannot be said at least, it cannot be said with truth-that there the case is widely different.

But it may be objected, that the kingdom of the Netherlands is not the scene of remarkable

* Though the new Constititution of 1815, formed for the new kingdom, is silent on the subject of the religion of the monarch, yet there are various reasons, both personal and political, which make it next to certain that the King of the Netherlands, and his successors, will always remain Protestants.

harmony-that the Dutch and the Belgians do not amalgamate. It is, however, believed that the principal cause of discontent has been removed by attending to the claims of the Catholics; and, should a want of unanimity remain, we must look for the seeds of discord not in the religion (for in Holland, where Catholics* and Protestants are intermixed, there is perfect agreement), but in the different habits and character of two nations. The aristocratic Belgian despises the commercial Dutchman-with what justice may be determined, when we remember that the Dutch won and maintained their liber ties, whilst the Belgians lost theirs. On the other hand, the Dutchman despises the Belgian for considering high descent as an all-sufficient qualification. Each exaggerates the other's peculiarities. The nature of the two countries prescribes a totally different way of life.-The two nations dwell almost entirely apart-nor have they long had a common country as a common cause. These are the true reasons of any want of unanimity that may unhappily endure.

Neither is Belgium brought forward as an instance of the practical effects of religious equa. lization. Time is necessary to complete what enlightened legislation begins;-but Belgium may fairly be adduced as a proof that, in a country very similar to our own, it has been

* There are about 700,000 Catholics in the old United Provinces.

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considered expedient to carry the question, and the mere act of equalization has, of itself, produced quiet in the land.

But is this the only country which has outstripped us in the race of justice-which has done what we say is impossible? Alas! we are less advanced than Switzerland-less advanced than the whole of Germany-less liberal than Catholic Austria, or Catholic France.

Perhaps we shall be told that Switzerland is an exception of quite another form of government-that hated thing, a Republic-an anomaly in Europe, and only permitted to exist by reason of its insignificance. But Switzerland, at least, affords the proof that Catholics are not necessarily the enemies of freedom-that Catholics are not always directing their eyes to Rome, to the prejudice of the state of which they form a part; that Catholics are not a set of restless enthusiasts, eternally disturbing the public repose; that they can be happy without pulling down the Protestant churches in their neighbourhood: in a word, that Protestants and Catholics can, with advantage, compose the same community; and that churches of all sorts can flourish side by side, and combine to support the government by which they are protected.

From Switzerland, let us turn our eyes to Germany a vast and instructive field, contain

ing an empire, five kingdoms, several grand duchies, independent principalities and free towns; all sorts of interests, every form of religion, every modification of government. Nor can any case be more completely in point than the religious progress of Germany, from the beginning to the end-from the Reformation to the present hour. It is a country to which the eyes of Protestants will readily be directed, because it was there that the Reformation began. No country has been more the scene of religious warfare, or for a longer period. In no country have religious fervor, dissension, and confliction, been carried to a greater length; and no where might the mutual distrust and alarm, which arise from religious animosities, have been expected to endure for at longer period.

A large portion of Europe, and three centuries of experience, compose the volume which lies open for our inspection; and what does this volume contain? In its earlier pages, I fear, we find the proof, that the fires of persecution are not alone lighted by Catholic hands;* that conscientious Catholics could be driven from their homes and obliged to seek refuge in

* The last victims of persecution, in England, suffered at the command of the Protestant King, James I., in the ninth year of whose reign two Arians were burnt. The Act de comburendo Heretico was not abolished in Ireland till the 7th of William III.

foreign lands, to escape the fury of merciless Reformers-that each sect alike considered that they had a right to extirpate error by force that Luther and Calvin, and their adherents, inflicted, as far as they had the power, the same measure of punishment that was denounced against their own followers by the Church of Rome. Shall we not then admit, that it is better to bury the chapter of persecution in eternal oblivion? None of us can throw the first stone; and none of us can fear the recurrence of the danger, because it is only in times of darkness and violence that such atrocities have taken place. They are foreign to the genius of the nineteenth century.

We need not dwell on the pages which are written in characters of blood, longer than to observe what a sum of human misery arises from the indulgence of human passion. We are taught, however, that after such convulsions, much time is required before men can be cool enough to give their judgment fair play. It is long before they discover that they have mistaken the dictates of passion for those of reason—and that the fears which they still entertain, apply to circumstances which have long ceased to exist. The advocates for liberal measures should, on these grounds, be indulgent to those who have not kept pace with themselves-because the continuation of fear,