DG45.461661 INTRODUCTION. WHEN different religions contend for power and establishment, jealousfies are natural and will prevail: the faction that gains the afcendency feldom fails to ftigmatize their oppofers as difaffected, if not traitors to their country. This was unhappily the cafe in England, particularly during the commonwealth, and the reigns of the Stuarts. Religious fanaticism had then almost universally overrun the land: bigotry and fuperftition had ufurped the empire over reason; and every feature of candor and liberality of fentiment was loft, amidst the rage of contending parties. But that any remains of these ancient jealousies and feuds, which disgrace fo large a portion of our hiftory, fhould ftill be difcernible in the nineteenth century, after all the efforts of religion and philofophy, to disperse the clouds of prejudice and ignorance, is a subject which cannot fail to excite astonishment, as well as a deep re a gret, in every true friend of focial harmony and union. By what unhappy fate has it happened, that malevolence, rancour, and distrust, on account of the difference of religion, fhould have continued longer in this country, than in many other states, where various forms of religious worship are tolerated? In his majesty's dominions of Hanover and Canada, the catholics and proteftants live together in the greatest harmony. In Holland and Switzerland, few diftinctions are now to be difcovered and in most parts of Germany, the greatest liberality prevails. In fome inftances, Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists, hear divine service, by turns, in the fame church. That this spirit of religious tolerance in the civil intercourse of life, has not made the like progress in Great Britain, will not be denied. The contrary difpofition is so very obvious in every department of the community, that it cannot escape the notice of the moft fuperficial obferver. Now, why the British people in particular, fo juftly famed above all the nations of the earth, for candor and generofity, should still continue slaves, in a point of fo much importance, to illiberal and narrow-minded prejudices, muft originate in fome cause, which does not exist in other countries: and this caufe, in my opinion, is the licentious intemperance of the prefs upon religious fubjects. Such is the powerful action of this formidable engine, when put in motion with address, by the demagogues of faction or error, that it is able to mislead the unreflecting, even upon the most obvious questions. Its influence is by no means confined to the higher and middle ranks of fociety; it extends with increased power, to the very lowest claffes. Books of the moft dangerous tendency, both upon moral and political subjects, have acquired almost an univerfal circulation: they are frequently found in the pooreft cottages, and even in the most fequestered habitations on the wildest heaths. The poor illiterate people, unable to reafon upon any other questions but fuch as immediately affect their intereft, and accustomed in general, to believe every thing they fee in print, foon become captives to the most stupid and abfurd errors. This is strongly exemplified in the late revolution of France. It is, I believe, univerfally acknowledged, that the prefs gave birth to that tremendous phenomenon before unknown in the annals of the world; and that it nurtured, cherished, and fupported the monster, throughout every stage of its terrific and bloody reign. The leaders of that dreadful revolution, appear to have been impreffed with a juft idea of its immenfe importance to their caufe. They had ob ferved, that for many years it had regulated the public opinion upon almost every subject; that it had operated, in a fhort time, an extraordinary change in the minds of their own countrymen; and from thence conceived the poffibility, and even the diabolical plan of overturning, by its aid, every established government in the world. For this purpose, the French press was vigorously employed in multiplying publications, containing the most licentious and atrocious principles. These were circulated with the greatest activity, not only in their own dominions, but throughout every state in Europe; and eventually fhook, as is well known, the most ancient and best established governments to their very foundations. The French themselves acknowledge, that the countries, through which their armies flew with fuch immenfe rapidity at the beginning of the revolution, had been conquered by their writings, long before their legions had left their own territories. In this country, the spirit of revolutionary principles was first introduced and diffeminated by the fame means. The rapid change, which, in a fhort time, about the year 1792, was thus effected in the minds of the people, was then too obvious not to be lamented by every well-wisher to his country. If at that awful crisis, a kind and beneficent Providence (to which this nation may ever return most grateful thanks for its preservation) had not directed the counfels of a wife and vigorous administration, we fhould long fince have been involved, if not totally overwhelmed, in the revolutionary vortex. As then the ideas, opinions, and pursuits of nations, are, in a great measure, determined and regulated by the fpirit and tendency of the publications which are circulated amongst them; it is chiefly to this fource, that the illiberality which still so widely pervades this country relative to religion, is to be attributed. Scarcely is there a book published, whatever may be the subject, which makes not fome abufive and unprovoked attack upon the religious opinions of fome class of the people. To pass over the conflicts, which the heroes of religious controverfy daily fight in the field of polemics, there is a countless multitude of other champions, though not regularly trained, who boldly step forward, and affert their right of ferving in this fashionable crufade. Hence the numerous fwarm of both periodical and occafional publications, which daily iffue from the prefs, feldom fail to attack, with all the fanaticism of bigotry, fome form of religious worship. But the catholic religion is generally the object against which they exert their rage. Imposture, fuperftition, and idolatry, afford a fine field for invective. It enables them to introduce, with the happiest effect, entertaining digreffions and animated harangues, which ferve very opportunely to roufe their readers, when it is feared they begin to nod. |
