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most brutal ignorance, and slavery to the most contemptible and odious form of Paganism! The old Greeks and Romans, though under a blind superstition, could still enjoy a degree of liberty; but the subjects of Popery, through their superstition, are fastened down under a degrading servitude to an unfeeling combination of priests. On the other hand, it is the interest and the duty of Protestants, and of the Protestant members of the Legislature, to endeavour, in every form, to excite to fair exertion, and thereby to improve the talents and moral character of the people; and, for that purpose, to afford them the means of obtaining an enlightened and virtuous education. It is only in that way that the nation can be enabled to put forth all its powers; that is to say, it is only by bestowing on the mass of the population such a degree of literature, and of moral and religious habits, as are necessary to enable those among them, whom nature has gifted with talents, to labour under the control of the exalted and beneficent views that religion inspires-in extending the limits of every science, and the powers of every valuable art. It is the nature of Protestantism, and is consistent with an enlightened self-interest on the part of every Protestant, to endeavour to accomplish that object. It is only thus that his country, and his kindred and descendants,can become great, wealthy, and enlightened. Accordingly, Protestantism has produced that object look to Holland and to Britain from the time that Popery was banished from its government and counsels. Nay, even in France, after the Pro. testants had been removed from every branch of the public service; yet, by directing their attention to the improvement of arts and manufactures, they became the most industrious branch of the population, and the artists and enrichers of the nation. But the historical fact is well known; so utterly regardless is the Popish system of every interest but that of its own selfish ascendency, that the superstition of Louis XIV. was influenced by it to drive into exile many hundred thousands of those Protestants, by far his most valuable subjects, who carried their arts, the source of riches, to England and the Protestant part of Germany, where they peopled whole

towns. Those who did not go into exile were subjected to a cruel persecution, till, in consequence of the ascendency derived from Marlborough's victories, Britain demanded protection for them; and, in virtue of an article in the treaty of peace, the French nation had the mortification to see thousands of their countrymen liberated from French prisons in consequence of the glorious use of victory by a Protestant nation.

As it is the interest, and therefore the object pursued by Popery, to brutalize mankind, and that of Protestantism to enlighten and improve mankind, it is clear that a Legislature containing both Protestants and Papists must of necessity find itself involved in perplexity and embarrassment, at least if either the Papists be in any degree considerable in point of number, or if the Protestant factions in the state be at all divided. The Papists will necessarily pursue Popish objects, and, acting under instructions from a concentrated body of priests, the Popish members will act consistently, zealously, and with uniformity, in the pursuit of the policy and special objects dictated to them. The Protestant members being, on the other hand, left to follow their own views as individuals, and being often influenced by personal and family interests, the Protestant party will not act with that unity and consistency which, in political contests, and in a popular assembly, is so necessary to success. Hence the Popish party may do more than balance or overcome, in the eyes of the executive government—that is, in point of efficiency as a faction-double their number of Protestant members, and may easily carry with them all those of an infidel and unprincipled character.

Thus the Popish party will and must ultimately destroy the Protestant church and clergy. Nor is it possible to prevent this result, if political privilege be given to Papists. To make it a condition of their admission to the Legislature, that they shall take an oath not to injure the Protestant Church already established, is of no avail. If a man swear to do what is wrong, the crime consists in swearing and not in violating the oath. When the Papist swears he will not injure a heretical church, he does an act which in his estimation is of the same nature as if

he were to swear that he will commit murder; or that, being a soldier, he will desert to the enemy, or run away instead of standing to his post or his colours. If he have any scruple about breaking such an oath, his priest will give him absolution upon small pe

nance.

It would be more rational for the British Protestant people to receive into their House of Commons representatives of our Mahometan people of Bengal, than to receive the delegates of Popery. Our Mahometan Indians (not Gentoos) have no other prince than our own monarch, and are not the subjects of a sworn combination of priests; whereas the men who by their influence nominate the Popish members of Parliament, are subjects of a foreign power, the prince of Rome, and have combined under him to subdue mankind at whatever cost, under the domination of him and the body of which he is the head.

All this was well understood by our Scottish forefathers, and had been impressed upon them by severe experience. They had a hard struggle with Popery. By dint of preserving ignorance among the populace, the Popish priesthood had themselves become ignorant. When directed by their superiors to prevent the Bible from being read or heard read, the historian Hume tells us that many of the Popish clergy in Scotland seriously believed that the New Testament was a heretical book, written by Martin Luther. However strange that idea may now seem, it was not utterly absurd, because, if not heretical, why was the perusal of it prohibited? These simple men, not being in the secrets of the combined Roman continental priesthood, could not suspect that the inspired Record of the Christian faith could, under any circumstances, be treated as a bad book, that would lead men to perdition.

Having succeeded in putting down Popery, the Scottish Protestants adopted measures, devised with profound sagacity, to prevent its return. Their measures encountered great interruption. Our native princes, having inherited the English crown, became independent of Scotland. In the time of Charles I., who had married a Papist, the Church of England, under the superintendence of Archbishop Laud, was led to the verge of Po

pery. In Scotland, as already stated, an attempt was made to lead the Scots back to Popery by the aid of the forms of Episcopacy; and during the reigns of Charles II. and his brother James II. (VII. of Scotland), the one a concealed and the other an avowed Papist, the Scottish Protestants, adhering generally to the Presbyterian ecclesiastical forms as remotest from Popery, were exposed to a grinding tyranny, and most sanguinary and inquisitorial persecution. They were hunted over the mountains and moors of their native land; and wherever found exercising, or suspected of having exercised, their ordinary form of worship with their ancient clergy, they were slaughtered without mercy by the royal troops. But during the intervals of weakness on the part of the government, the Protestant party in Scotland had taken those measures which rendered their extinction impracticable without an absolute depopulation of this ancient kingdom.

Being aware that the strength of the Popish system consists in fastening down a people under a cloud of superstition and ignorance, the Scottish Protestants, with great discernment, made war upon ignorance and superstition, as the fatal enemies of them and of mankind. For that purpose they made effectual provision for the education of the people;-and here, be it observed, that our forefathers never proposed to establish a board of education or a minister of instruction, with national schools supported by the general government. Their Scottish sagacity protected them from reliance on such projects. In the first place, that a people may enjoy freedom, it is necessary that they do much for themselves, and leave as little as possible to be done by government, so as to leave little pretext for the collection of a great revenue to support numerous government officers. Some things must be performed by a general government, such as the management of the Post-Office, the national defence, and the appointment of judges, with the fixing of rules or laws for their direction. But all interference by government that can be avoided, ought to be avoided by a people jealous of their liberties. By intrusting education to a minister of the Crown or a central board, it is exposed to all the effects of political intrigue and re

volutions in the national administration. Above all, it is exposed to the influence of that system of Popery which is established in the centre of Europe, and by its ramifications, intrigues, and efforts, open, secret, or disguised, is incessantly engaged in an active warfare against Protestantism. By the aid of the confessional, it penetrates into all transactions, and operates equally by the ascendency of the priest over the weakness of devout women, and the ferocity which he inspires into ignorant men against the heretic.

Education is of two kinds-intellectual and moral. To possess intellect, without moral virtue or benevolent affections, is satanic, or the character we ascribe to the spirit of evil. When a Frenchman said of the late Bonaparte, whether justly or not, that he had un téte sans entrailles-a head without a heart (bowels of compassion or affections), he represented the character of that eminent soldier as utterly diabolical. It is certain that the mere acquisition of knowledge by men, animated only by selfish passions in whatever form-ambition, avarice, sensuality-leaves the individual actually worthless, while it renders his existence a misfortune to human society. Such men, when aided by opportunity and possessed of ability, have in different ages come forth to afflict mankind, and have been well designated as more eminently the Scourges of God than famine or pestilence. Our forefathers endeavoured to educate not a part merely, but the whole of the population of the kingdom; and held education to consist of the two branches already mentioned, intelligence and morality, understanding by moral education, instruction in the Christian Protestant religion.

For the first of these purposes, they established a school in every parish to teach the whole of the youth of both sexes to read and write the English language, and also the ordinary rules of arithmetic. In villages, the teachers were required to be capable of teaching the Latin language. The proprietors of lands in the parish were required to furnish a school and schoolhouse, and a salary to the teacher, reserving to him to obtain a very moderate remuneration from the scholars.

Thus, cheap education for his children was brought to every man's door,

and thousands and tens of thousands of Scotsmen have found the education received at the parish school their best and no mean patrimony. The teacher of such schools is elected by the owners of property of a certain amount. In every school the translation of the Bible made in the time of James I. is the ordinary schoolbook. Adjacent to the parish school, the parish church and a house for the minister were established. The proprietors of land in the parish were required to furnish both, and a suitable salary to the clergyman. The whole population of the parish have free access to the church; and thus provision was made in Scotland for teaching the Protestant doctrine at the expense of the landed gentry exclusively. This institution continues to this day; although, from the increase of the population, and the establishment of taxation to support the clergy in Edinburgh, and one or two of the larger towns, the institution is less effective than at its original establishment.

That there might be no relapse, and to protect the community more effectually against falling back into that corruption of the administrations of religion which had led to the pernicious institutions of Popery, care was taken to treat according to its merits the impure device on which the chief practical unity and strength of the Popish combination rests-the celibacy of the clergy. The Scottish clergy were not only permitted but encouraged to marry. Further, in the Scottish ecclesiastical establishment, a body of lay elders was in all the parishes appointed to assist the ministers-voting equally with them in all affairs of religion in the Presbyteries and Synods, and with a large mixture of them in the General Assemblies of the Church. In the parish or kirk sessions, which form the radical court, the minister presides; but has only his casting vote added to such influence as may result from his personal character and superior learning. All this was meant to guard against the Popish device of erecting the clergy into a fraternity or corporation distinct from the rest of the community, and with different interests.

The effect of these institutions was, in the first place, to enable every Scotsman, according to the measure of his ability and opportunities, to at

tain to all and every known branch of
science. Next, there was taught to
every individual of Scottish birth, in
our remotest glens, much important
truth and knowledge by the perusal
of the Bible. That book teaches
that this world was formed by a Being
of boundless intelligence and power-
that he adorned and enriched it with
vegetation of almost boundless variety,
and placed on it a multiplicity of
animals of different kinds-that he
bestowed the world, thus furnished,
upon a single human family, a man
and his wife, and their descendants in
all generations-that thus we are all
kindred of the same blood or race-
that, unhappily, by eating a poisonous
fruit contrary to a divine warning and
prohibition, our first ancestors inflicted
disease and death upon their descen-
dants, and, what is worse, a selfish,
sensual, and polluted corporeal consti-
tution, unfit for the habitation of a
pure mind-that, with boundless gene-
rosity, a high or the highest celestial
intelligence interfered, assumed our
nature, and, by suffering as a man all
that man can suffer, acquired the pri-
vilege of defeating the effect of death
by means of a resurrection-that in
the mean-while he requires us to act
towards each other with the same
spirit of beneficence with which he
acted, to cultivate the virtues that pu-
rify and elevate the human charac-
ter, and he threatens due punishment
to those that do otherwise-that he
prohibits all idolatry or worship of
saints or superstitious observances, and
all reliance on any interest or influence
but his own, and the instructions he
has given, for the safety and exaltation
of men in a future state of existence.
The result has been, that when a
Scotsman has met his countryman
in a foreign land, he believed he had
met an intelligent, religious, and trust-
worthy man, to whom he was bound,
and in safety, to give countenance
and aid. This, at least, was the priu-
ciple on which Scotsmen long acted.
An infidel Scotsman was accounted
a monster in the moral world, no
more to be looked for than a mon-
strous birth in animal nature. Other
men said of Scottish Protestants as
of the first Christians, "See, how
they love one another!"-and, ob-
taining trust from their countrymen,
they were trusted by others, and there-
by, with the aid of industry and pru-

dence, they prospered; and thus the
safeguards of Protestantism against
Popery proved a source of prosperity
to Scotland, and a profitable patri-
But our forefa-
mony to Scotsmen.
thers did not rely upon the precau-
tions already mentioned exclusively.
They added political sanctions to Pro-
testantism, apparently of the weightiest
description.

When the happy event occurred of the arrival of William, Prince of Orange, and afterwards in making a treaty of political union with England, care was taken utterly to exclude Popery and Papists from the possession of political power.

In the claim of right (Scots Acts of Parliament, 1689, c. 13), by which the Estates of the kingdom of Scotland declared the crown forfeited by King James, and made an offer of it to William and Mary, the nephew and eldest daughter of the deposed monarch, one of the chief, or rather the chief, ground on which the Estates proceeded, was the attempt to which James had been incited by the Popish priests to assume absolute power, in order to establish their ascendency. The claim of right contains the memorable declaration, "That by the law of this kingdom, no Papist can be king or queen of this realm, or bear any office whatever therein."

By this declaration, the Estates proceed to claim, as matter of right, that certain acts complained of, including expressly the attempt to support Popery, committed by King James, shall be held illegal, and on these conditions the Estates offer the crown to William and Mary.

Thereafter, in 1707, when a treaty was made incorporating the kingdoms of England and Scotland, the second article of the treaty declared, "That all Papists, and persons marrying Papists, shall be excluded from, and for ever incapable to inherit, possess, or enjoy the imperial crown of Great Britain, and the dominions thereunto belonging, or any part thereof; and in every such case, the crown and go. vernment shall from time to time descend to, and be enjoyed by such person, being a Protestant, as should have inherited and enjoyed the same, in case such Papists, or persons marrying Papists, were naturally dead." By the same treaty, a Scottish statute intituled, "Act for securing of the Pro

testant religion and Presbyterian Church Government," was in the treaty of union "expressly declared to be a fundamental and essential condition of the said treaty of union in all time coming."

The Scottish Act here referred to (1706, sec. 6), confirms a former Act, "Ratifying the Confession of Faith, and settling Presbyterian Church government, with the haill other Acts of Parliament relating thereto, in prose cution of the declaration of the Estates of the kingdom, containing the Claim of Rights." The same statute ordains, concerning teachers or office-bearers in any university, college, or school, "That, before or at their admission, they do and shall acknowledge and profess, and shall subscribe to the foresaid Confession of Faith as the confession of their faith."

In consequence of these stipulations, and of the concurrence of the English nation in the deeply-rooted conviction, that it is impossible to conduct with success the affairs of a Protestant people if political power is to be granted to adherents of Popery, not only were the doors of Parliament shut against Papists, but the royal line of succession to the crown was altered. It was settled, on failure of the issue of Queen Anne, on the family of Hanover, as being Protestants descended in the female line from James VI. (I. of England), to the exclusion of Popish descendants of the same prince, and the descendants of his son, Charles I., because the latter, although nearer heirs, were all Papists.

Man could do no more; and well may we talk with pride of the enlight ened sagacity of our ancestors. Look back through the records of past ages, and every memorial of departed time the ponderous magnificence of ancient Egypt the beautiful statuary and splendid eloquence of Greece-the military toil of the Roman legions, by which they were enabled to grind down the nations and their own people into servitude,-all are mere monuments of superb and strenuous

selfishness and folly, compared with that wisdom from above, which looks over this earth as a nursery-ground employed in rearing immortals to their distant home in eternity, and regards all the business, the interests, the arts, and the toils or inventions and improvements in this life, as a mere training of themselves and their descendants to a high destiny hereafter. So our Protestant forefathers thought, and on such principles they acted. The result was, that Superintending Beneficence granted a visible reward in the face of the nations. The British nation, and certainly Scotland, in proportion to its extent, was enabled to rear what is most valuable in the universe—a multitude of virtuous and enlightened minds, men active, bold, and persevering, and humane. Above a hundred years of still augmenting prosperity, riches, aggrandisement, and terrestrial glory succeeded, and terminated in so exalting Protestant Britain, that although in territory and population not the fourth of the nations of Europe, yet it rose to such a height of ascendency, that in the tremendous contest which ended in 1815, the other European monarchs generally submitted to receive the pay of Britain, and scarcely retained their thrones except by its support and patronage. The navy of Britain ruled every island and every shore of the ocean-one hundred millions of people were her subjectsher agriculture and every science and subordinate art were improved-her warriors were skilful and brave; and while other lands had been wasted by contending and hostile armies, no enemy had encamped within her European territory.

But while the tree flourished thus fair, and spread abroad its branches, a canker-worm had found access to its root-to that root, its Protestant character, to which it owed its health and beauty, of the transcendant value of which so many in our days have appeared unconscious.

Author of "Political
Fragments, 1830."

NO. CCLXXXVI. VOL. XLVI.

N

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