CHURCH OF ENGLAND.-CHURCH PROPERTY. entirely dependent on the government, and restricted by wise laws; it can effect nothing but good; and is every day becoming more learned and useful. It possesses a preacher of the name of Plato, who has composed sermons which the Piato of antiquity would not have disdained. CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 301 quired in the universities, and the little commerce they have with women, generally oblige a bishop to be contented with the one which belongs to him. The clergy go sometimes to the tavern, because custom permits it; and if they get "Bacchi plenum," it is in the college style, gravely and with due decorum. That indefinable character which is ENGLAND is the country of sects; neither ecclesiastical nor secular, which "multæ sunt mansiones in domo patris we call Abbé, is unknown in England; mei?" an Englishman, like a free man, the ecclesiastics there are generally goes to heaven which way he pleases. respected, and for the greater part However, although every one can serve pedants. When the latter learn, that in God in his own way, the national religion France young men distinguished by their -that in which fortunes are made-is debaucheries, and raised to the prelacy by the episcopal, called the Church of Eng- the intrigues of women, publicly make land, or emphatically, "The Church." love; vie with each other in the compoNo one can have employment of any sition of love songs; give luxurious supconsequence, either in England or Ire-pers every day, from which they arise to land, without being members of the establishment. This reasoning, which is highly demonstrative, has converted so many non-conformists, that at present there is not a twentieth part of the nation out of the bosom of the dominant church. The English clergy have retained many Catholic ceremonies, and above all, that of receiving tithes with a very scrupulous attention. They also possess the pious ambition of ruling the people; for what village rector would not be a pope if he could? implore the light of the Holy Spirit, and boldly call themselves the apostles' successors-they thank God that they are protestants. But what then? They are vile heretics, and fit only for burning, as master Francis Rabelais says, "with all the devils." Hence I drop the subject. CHURCH PROPERTY. THE gospel forbids those who would attain to perfection, to amass treasures, and to preserve their temporal goods: 'Lay not up for yourselves treasures With regard to manners, the English upon earth, where moth and rust doth clergy are more decorous than those of corrupt, and where thieves break France, chiefly because the ecclesiastics through and steal."-"If thou wilt be are brought up in the universities of Ox-perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and ford and Cambridge, far from the corrup-give to the poor."-" And every one that tion of the metropolis. They are not hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or siscalled to the dignities of the church un-ters, or father, or mother, or wife, or ul very late; and at an age when men, children, or lands, for my name's sake, having no other passion than avarice, shall receive an hundred-fold, and shall their ambition is less aspiring. Employ-inherit everlasting life." ments are in England the recompense of long services in the church, as well as in the army. You do not there see young men become bishops or colonels, on leaving college; and, moreover, almost all the priests are married. The pedanty and awkwardness of manners, ac The apostles and their first successors would not receive estates; they only accepted the value, and, after having provided what was necessary for their subsistence, they distributed the rest among the poor. Sapphira and Ananias did not give their goods to St. Peter, but they CHURCH PROPERTY. : sold them and brought him the price 302. positions of the law of Anastasius, by his novel cxxxi. chap. vi. the five first centuries of our era were The possessions of the courch during regulated by deacons, who distributed them to the clergy and to the poor. This century, and church property was dicommunity ceased at the end of the fifth vided into four parts; one being given to the bishops, another to the clergy, a third to the place of worship, and the As soon as Constantine was upon the throne, he permitted the churches to be endowed like the temples of the ancient religion, and from that time the church acquired rich estates. St. Jerome com-fourth to the poor. Soon after this diviplains of it in one of his letters to Eustochius: "When you see them," says he, accost the rich widows whom they meet with a soft and sanctified air, you would think that their hands were only extended to give them their blessing; but it is, on the contrary, to receive the price of their hypocrisy. The holy priests received without claiming. Valentinian I. thought it sion, the bishops alone took charge of Monks possessing Slaves. What is still more melancholy, the Chartreux are permitted to have mortBenedictines, Bernardines, and even the mains and slaves. Under their domiright to forbid the ecclesiastics from re-nation in several provinces of France ceiving anything from widows and wo- and Germany are still recognisedmen, by will or otherwise. This law, which is found in the Theodosian code, Personal slavery, was revoked by Marcian and Justinian. Justinian, to favour the ecclesiastics, forbad the judges, by his new code xviii. chap. ii, to annul the wills made in favour of the church, even when executed without the formalities prescribed by the laws. Slavery of property, and Slavery of person and property. incapacity of a man's disposing of his Slavery of the person consists in the property in favour of his children, if they have not always lived with their father in the same house, and at the same table, Anastasius had enacted in 471, that The fortune of an inhabitant of Mount in which case all belongs to the monks. church property should be held by a Jura, put into the hands of a notary, beprescription, or title, of forty years' du- comes, even in Paris, the prey of those ration. Justinian inserted this law in his {who have originally embraced evangelicode; but this prince, who was continu- cal poverty at Mount Jura. The son ally changing his jurisprudence, subse- asks alms at the door of the house which quently extended this prescription to a his father has built; and the monks, far century. Immediately, several ecclesi- from giving them, even arrogate to themastics, unworthy of their profession, selves the right of not paying his father's forged false titles, and drew out of the creditors, and of regarding as void all dust old testaments, void by the ancient the mortgages on the house of which laws, but valid according to the new. they take possession. In vain the widow Citizens were deprived of their patrimonies throws herself at their feet, to obtain a by fraud; and possessions, which until part of her dowry. This dowry, these then were considered inviolable, were debts, this paternal property, all belong, usurped by the church. In short, the by divine right, to the monks. The cre abuse was so crying, that Justinian him- ditors, the widow, and the children, are self was obliged to re-establish the dis-all left to die in beggary. Real slavery is that which is effected by residence. Whoever occupies a house within the domain of these monks, and lives in it a year and a day, becomes their serf for life. It has sometimes appened that a French merchant, and father of a family, led by his business to this barbarous country, has taken a house for a year. Dying afterwards in his own country, in another province of France, his widow and children have been quite astonished to see officers, armed with writs, come and take away their furniture, sell it in the name of St. Claude, and drive away a whole family from the house of their father. Mixed slavery is that which, being composed of the two, is, of all that rapacity has ever invented, the most execrable, and beyond the conception even of freebooters. There are, then, Christian people groaning in a triple slavery under monks, who have taken the vow of humility and poverty. You will ask how governments suffer these fatal contradictions? It is because the monks are rich and the vassals are poor. It is because the monks, to preserve their Hunnish rights, make presents to their commissaries and to the mistresses of those who might interpose their authority to put down their oppression. The strong always crush the weak: but why must monks be the strongest? CICERO. It is at a time when, in France, the fine arts are in a state of decline; in an age of paradox, and amidst the degradaon and persecution of literature and philosophy; that an attempt is made to trish the name of Cicero. And who s the man who thus endeavours to throw disgrace upon his memory? It is one who ends his services in defence of persons socused like himself; it is an advocate, who has studied eloquence under that great master; it is a citizen who appears to be, like Cicero, animated by devotion to the public good. In a book entitled" Navigable Canals," a book abounding in grand and patriotic rather than practical views, we feel no small astonishment at finding the following philippic against Cicero, who was never concerned in digging canals : "The most glorious trait in the history of Cicero is the destruction of Catiline's conspiracy; which, regarded in its true light, produced little sensation at Rome, except in consequence of his affecting to give it importance. The danger existed much more in his discourses than in the affair itself. It was an enterprise of debauchees, which it was easy to disconcert. Neither the principal nor the accomplices had taken the slightest measure to ensure the success of their guilty attempt. There was nothing astonishing in this singular matter, but the blustering which attended all the proceedings of the consul, and the facility with which he was permitted to sacrifice to his selflove so many scions of illustrious families. "Besides, the life of Cicero abounds in traits of meanness. His eloquence was as venal as his soul was pusillanimous. If his tongue was not guided by interest, it was guided by fear or hope. The desire of obtaining partisans led him to the tribune, to defend, without a blush, men more dishonourable, and incalculably more dangerous, than Catiline. His clients were nearly all of them miscreants; and, by a singular exercise of divine justice, he at last met death from the hands of one of those wretches whom his skill had extricated from the fangs of human justice." We answer, that, "regarded in its true light," the conspiracy of Catiline excited at Rome somewhat more than a "slight sensation ;" it plunged her into the greatest disturbance and danger. It was terminated only by a battle so bloody, that there is no example of equal carnage, and scarcely any of equal valour. All the soldiers of Catiline, after having killed half of the army of Petreius, were killed, to the last man. Catiline pe rished, covered with wounds, upon a heap of the slain; and all were found with their countenances sternly glaring upon the enemy. This was not an enterprise so wonderfully easy as to be disconcerted: Cæsar encouraged it; Cæsar learnt from it to conspire on a future day more successfully against his country. Cicero is reproached with too frequently boasting that he had saved Rome, and with being too fond of glory. But his enemies endeavoured to stain his glory. A tyrannical faction condemned him to exile, and razed his house, because he had preserved every house in Rome from the flames which Catiline had prepared for them. Men are permitted and even bound to boast of their services, when they meet with forgetfulness or ingratitude, and more {particularly when they are converted into Scipio is still admired for having answered his accusers in these words:— "This is the anniversary of the day on which I vanquished Hannibal; let us go and return thanks to the gods." The whole assembly followed him to the Capitol, and our hearts follow him thither also, as we read the passage in history; though, after all, it would have been better to have delivered in his accounts, than to extricate himself from the attack by a bon-mot. "Cicero defended, without a blush, men more dishonourable, and incalculably more dangerous, than Catiline !"Was this when he defended in the tri-crimes. bune Sicily against Verres, and the Roman republic against Anthony? Was it when he exhorted the clemency of Cæsar in favour of Ligariùs and King Deiotarus? or when he obtained the right of citizenship for the poet Archias? or when, in his exquisite oration for the Manilian law, he obtained every Roman suffrage on behalf of the great Pompey? He pleaded for Milo, the murderer of Clodius; but Clodius had deserved the tragical end he met with by his outrages. Clodius had been involved in the conspiracy of Catiline; Clodius was his mortal enemy. He had irritated Rome against him, and had punished him for having saved Rome: Milo was his friend. Cicero, in the same manner, excited the admiration of the Roman people, when, on the day in which his consulship expired, being obliged to take the customary oaths, and preparing to address the people as was usual, he was hindered by the triWhat is it in our time that any one { bune Matellus, who was desirous of inventures to assert, that God punished Ci-sulting him. Cicero had begun with cero for having defended a military tribune these words "I swear,"-the tribune called Popilius Lena, and that divine { interrupted him, and declared that he vengeance made this same Popilius Lena would not suffer him to make a speech. the instrument of his assassination! No A great murmuring was heard. Cicero one knows whether Popilius Lena was paused a moment, and elevating his full guilty of the crime of which he was ac- and melodious voice, he exclaimed, as a quitted, after Cicero's defence of him short substitute for his intended speech, upon his trial; but all know that the "I swear that I have saved the country." monster was guilty of the most horrible The assembly cried out with delight and ingratitude, the most infamous avarice, enthusiasm, "We swear that he has and the most detestable cruelty, to obtain spoken the truth." That moment was the money of three wretches like himself. the most brilliant of his life. This is the It was reserved for our times, to hold up true way of loving glory. the assassination of Cicero as an act of divine justice. The triumvirs would not have dared to do it. Every age, before the present, has detested and deplored the manner of his death. I do not know where I have read these unknown verses : Romains, j'aime la gloire, et ne veux point m'en taire Ce n'est qu'en vous qu'il la faut acheter Romans, I own that glory I regard human toil the only just reward; Placed in your hands the immortal guerdon lies, And he will ne'er deserve who slights the prize. Can we despise Cicero, if we consider his conduct in his government of Cilicia, which was then one of the most important provinces of the Roman empire, in consequence of its contiguity to Syria and the Parthian empire. Laodicea, one of the most beautiful cities of the east, was the capital of it. This province was then as flourishing as it is at the present day degraded under the government of the Turks, who never had a Cicero. He begins by protecting Ariobarzanes, King of Cappadocia, and he refuses the presents which that king desires to make him. The Parthians come and attack Antioch in a state of perfect peace. Cicero hastily marches towards it, comes up with the Parthians by forced marches at Mount Taurus, routs them, pursues them in their retreat; and Arsaces, their general, is slain, with a part of his army. Thence he rushes on Pendenissum, the capital of a country in alliance with the Parthians, and takes it, and the province is reduced to submission. He instantly directs his forces against the tribes of people called Tiburanians, and defeats them, and his troops confer on him the title of Imperator, which he preserved all his life. He would have obtained the honours of a triumph at Rome, if he had not been opposed by Cato, who induced the senate merely to decree public rejoicings and thanks to the gods, when, in fact, they were due to Cicero. Gods," are the two noblest works that ever were written by mere human wisdom; and that his treatise "De Officiis," is the most useful one that we possess in morals; we shall find it still more difficult to despise Cicero. We pity those who do not read him; we pity still more those who refuse to do him justice. To the French detractor we may well oppose the lines of the Spanish Martial, in his epigram against Anthony (book v., epig. 69, v. 7.)——— Quid prosunt sacre pretiosa silentia linguae? See, likewise, what is said by Juvenal (sat. iv., v. 244)— Roma patrem patriae Ciceronem libera dixit. CIRCUMCISION. WHEN Herodotus narrates what he was told by the barbarians among whom he travelled, he narrates fooleries, after the manner of the greater part of travellers. Thus, it is not to be supposed that he expects to be believed in his recital of the adventure of Gyges and Candaules; of Arion, carried on the back of a dolphin; of the oracle which was consulted on what Croesus was at the time doing, that he was then going to dress a tortoise in a stew-pan; of Darius's horse, which, being the first out of a certain number to neigh, in fact proclaimed his master a king; and of a hundred other fables, fit to amuse children, and to be compiled by rhetoriIf we picture to ourselves the equity cians. But when he speaks of what he and disinterestedness of Cicero in his has seen, of the customs of people he has government; his activity, his affability-examined, of their antiquities which he two virtues so rarely compatible; the has consulted, he then addresses himself benefits which he accumulated upon the to men. people over whom he was an absolute sovereign; it will be extremely difficult to withhold from such a man our esteem. If we reflect that this is the same man who first introduced philosophy into Rome: that his "Tusculan Questions," and his book "On the Nature of the "It appears," says he, in his book Euterpe," that the inhabitants of Colchis sprang from Egypt. I judge so from my own observations rather than from hearsay; for I found that, at Colchis, the ancient Egyptians were more frequently recalled to my mind, than the ancient |