n. As, however, the Romish is
not yet the dominant religion, and the clergy of the English
establishment have some patronage to bestow, the churches are not quite
deserted by the lower classes; yet, were the Romish to become the
established religion, they would, to a certainty, all go over to it; you
can scarcely imagine what a self-interested set they are--for example,
the landlord of that public-house in which I first met you, having lost a
sum of money upon a cock-fight, and his affairs in consequence being in a
bad condition, is on the eve of coming over to us, in the hope that two
old Popish females of property, whom I confess, will advance a sum of
money to set him up again in the world.'

'And what could have put such an idea into the poor fellow's head?' said
I.

'Oh, he and I have had some conversation upon the state of his affairs,'
said the man in black; 'I think he might make a rather useful convert in
these parts, provided things take a certain turn, as they doubtless will.
It is no bad thing to have a fighting fellow, who keeps a public-house,
belonging to one's religion. He has been occasionally employed as a
bully at elections by the Tory party, and he may serve us in the same
capacity. The fellow comes of a good stock; I heard him say that his
father headed the High Church mob who sacked and burnt Priestley's house
at Birmingham, towards the end of the last century.'

'A disgraceful affair,' said I.

'What do you mean by a disgraceful affair?' said the man in black. 'I
assure you that nothing has occurred for the last fifty years which has
given the High Church party so much credit in the eyes of Rome as
that,--we did not imagine that the fellows had so much energy. Had they
followed up that affair by twenty others of a similar kind, they would by
this time have had everything in their own power; but they did not, and,
as a necessary consequence, they are reduced to almost nothing.'

'I suppose,' said I, 'that your Church would have acted very differently
in its place.'

'It has always done so,' said the man in black, coolly sipping. 'Our
Church has always armed the brute population against the genius and
intellect of a country, provided that same intellect and genius were not
willing to become its instruments and eulogists; and provided we once
obtain a firm hold here again, we would not fail to do so. We would
occasionally stuff the beastly rabble with horseflesh and bitter ale, and
then