after all danger is past, is only the customary temper of the human mind: but the late sleepers should be awakened at last, when reminded that the night is really past, and the sun already high in the heavens.

Having gone through the stages of violence and heat, the breaking up of elements, and the operation of central fire, we at length come to the blessed period when the waters of destruction begin to subside: but this was, as it could only be, a gradual process. After repeated hostilities, prosecuted with various fortune, equal rancour, and reciprocal devastation, the followers of each persuasion were taught the necessity of mutual concession; the pretensions of either party were equitably adjusted, and the peace of Westphalia gave comparative tranquillity to Germany. But recent contention prolonged hostile feelings, and it was long before liberality was adopted as a system. Enlightened princes became illustrious innovators in the states within their own jurisdiction. The reforms introduced by Joseph II. established the doctrine of equal rights in the empire of Austria; but it was not till the congress of Vienna (1815) that the work of emancipation was completed for the whole of Germany: it was then that tranquillity was bestowed upon thirty-eight different states with a stroke of the pen. Two lines secured the

peace and happiness of millions. We find these lines in the Federative Constitution of Germany, as agreed upon by the envoys and deputies of all the German states, at the general congress. Of that constitution, the following is the sixteenth article:

"The different Christian sects in the countries and territories of the Germanic Confederation, shall not experience any difference in the enjoyment of civil and political rights."

A sentence which deserves to be written in letters of gold; a sentence which does eternal honour to those who framed it..

This is the glorious end of the history of the religious vicissitudes of Germany. Thus was the seal affixed to the Magna Charta of religion! Thus were the followers of every sect relieved from all distinctions, and thus were all equally admitted to the privileges enjoyed in their respective countries. Protestants are thus at ease in Catholic Austria; Catholics thus emancipated in Protestant Prussia: nor can the argument here be admitted of the greater facility of the measure in one form of government than another; for, amongst the states and towns of Germany, we find every variety of government, and the conces

The celebration of the Jubilee, in memorial of the Reformation, was permitted (in 1817) at Vienna, as in other parts of Germany.

sion is made to alt, without reference to those varieties.*

How can we fail to be struck by the example of so many countries-how can we longer believe that what is actually accomplished in Holland, in Prussia, in Austria, in Bavaria, in Wurtemburg, in Hanover-in a word, in the whole of Germany-would not be safe in England? Is it not mortifying to be obliged to acknowledge that England is the most illiberal of all civilized countries?—we might wish to be the first, we are the last. Shall we continue to remain so melancholy an exception?

What has been done in Catholic France? In what manner have these dreaded and cruel Catholics conducted themselves with regard to their Protestant brethren? The most complete equality of civil rights has long been established. The Catholic and Protestant clergy are equally provided for by the State; and the allowance to the Protestant clergy is greater than that to the Catholic, because they marry. Protestants are admissible to the highest offices; and it was but the other day that this Catholic country, jealous of the possibility of Papal influence, took the education of youth out of the hands of

*Nearly half of Germany is representative: Bavaria, Wurtemburgh, Hanover, Weimar, &c. Prussia has already instituted provincial assemblies, and acknowledges the force of public opinion.

the Jesuits, and appointed a minister whose peculiar province it is to superintend the education of all persuasions.

Shall we be less liberal than those whom we charge with a narrow disposition of mind? Is it in England alone that we will not perceive that the hour of danger is past-that the circumstances of Europe are changed-that the world is more enlightened than it was-that the thunders of Rome are become innocuous as those of the theatre-and that it is time for the belligerents of every persuasion to throw down their arms?

But if any visionary fears pursue us still with the image of the slumbering lion of the Vatican; if we think that he has only to shake the terrors of his mane, and make the world tremble again, let us turn for a moment from the contempla. tion of other countries to that of other times, and observe whether the retrospect of history ought not to supply us with arguments of confidence for the future. Surely it ought; for history teaches us,

1st. That the baneful influence of Papal power was confined to an age of barbarism and ignorance.

2d. That Catholic nations are equally jealous with ourselves of Papal interference in temporal matters.

3d. That the character of religion mainly depends upon that of the government.

During the first centuries of Christianity the successor of St. Peter was only considered the first bishop of the Christian world.* It took ten centuries to raise the Papal power to a formidable height. It was not till the eleventh century that Gregory VII. succeeded in enforcing the celibacy of the clergy, and in establishing the supremacy of Rome. For three centuries, ages of violence and ignorance, public opinion sided with Papal power, and enabled the Bishops of Rome to maintain their universal empire. But, even during this period, the Emperor Barbarossa entered Rome in triumph; the Ghibelline faction was constantly at work in the Italian states; Innocent IV. was compelled to fly to France, and the Generals of Philip the Fair were able to treat Boniface VIII. as a prisoner. In the latter part of the 14th, and the beginning of the 15th century, the arrogance and exactions of the Popes, the effects of the councils, and the dawn of returning knowledge, gave a new direction to public opinion. The vices of Alexander Borgia, and the expences of Leo X. (leading to measures which Europe would no longer endure), has

* The Piedmontese dissenters assert that theirs is the primitive Catholic church, undisfigured by the superstructures of Papal invention, and please themselves with pointing out the resemblance of their mode of worship with that of the Anglican church.

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