times. And again, independent of all this, what has religion to do with politics?--why do you middle with a science that is so entirely unconnected with your professional sphere ?"

Here the Major concluded; had he not interrogated Henry, it is very probable that his wise and liberal observations would have passed without any other reply than the assent and acknowledgments they so well deserved. But as Henry had meddled with politics to a very alarming extent, he felt it incumbent on him to account for his conduct, and to reply to his father in these

terms:

"The first principle tending to demonstrate the real interest of a people is their religion. This, in fact, is the light in which the great Revolution, effected by the wisdom. of our ancestors, deserves peculiarly to be considered, but it is the light in which it does not appear sufficiently to have engaged the attention of the public. The question of religion is, unfortunately, not understood

to

But it

to be a question of politics, and yet it should be known, that this august principle is the most powerful spring of human conduct. It addresses itself to all the hopes and fears of man. When openly adopted as the guide of action, it has a might which no power can subdue, no difficulty counteract; and it is the only subject on which some species of opposition to the commands of temporal authority are expressly sanctioned by the will of Heaven. only triumphs openly; it often operates unseen and unacknowledged. It is often the prime mover of the heart, and when combined with some subordinate principle, the great effects which it produces are falsely attributed to the inferior parts of the machine. Nor is it too much to assert, that most of the stupendous revolutions which have astonished the world since the great æra of the christian faith, may be traced to a fervent zeal either for or against some system of religion, as their ultimate cause. "This appears to have been the case at B 6

the

the time of the Revolution. Great Britain had long thrown off the galling yoke of popery, and established a national church on the basis of a purer creed.

But the state of Europe was not such as to encourage a confident assurance of its permanency, or to remove all anxious care for its preservation. The country had oscillated between popery and protestantism. It had bled under Mary-it had triumphed under Elizabeth. In the succeeding reigns it had seen the national religion patronized and supported in union with the high claims of royal prerogative, and afterwards trodden down for a while by an exasperated and tortured people. With the restoration of the monarchy, the church revived; and though the people, disgusted with pharisaical hypocrisy, ran into the opposite extremes of licentious indulgence, yet the sincere votaries of the protestant faith rejoiced in mingling the effusions of loyalty with the dictates of religion. Towards the close of Charles the Second's reign, a danger of a different

nature

nature appeared to threaten the stability of the church. The false policy of that monarch, his religious tenets, or his sentiments of gratitude, had induced him to maintain an inglorious peace with France, and to aban don the interests of the protestant party on the continent. There was no power to withstand the wide-wasting ambition of Louis the Fourteenth, and the reformed states and covenanted parties were threatened to be borne down by the torrent of his victorious army. At this crisis the Roman Catholies in England were treated with indulgence. It was generally understood that the heir to the crown was a professed papis; and it was feared, lest the feelings of loyalty, exalted by democratic madness to the highest pitch of effervescence, among a numerous portion of the people, should be rendered subservient to the demolition of those legal barriers, which wisdom and conviction had erected against the returning tide of papal domination. Under the influence of these sentiments, the Exclusion Bill passed

passed the House of Commons. It was defeated by the power of the crown; but the danger to be apprehended from a popish successor was made known to the country, and indeliably printed on the minds of the protestants. JAMES, notwithstanding, came peaceably to the throne. He was acknowledged as a lawful monarch, and he succeeded in quelling a dangerous rebellion. It was not till he had thrown off the mask, and done obeisance to the pope, that his title to continue on the throne of his ancestors began to be questioned. Then, indeed, the two houses of parliament thought it necessary to guard against the danger. The seven bishops, in the ancient spirit of man yrdom, refused to sacrifice their faith to the will of the monarch. They were imprisoned, tried, and acquitted. The nation lamented, suffered, and exulted with them. The king persisted in the same unpopular and indefensible measures. He disdained to govern according to the laws, or in conjunction with the other orders of the state.

He