us nature, that appears to be more humiliating than the use we
are disposed to make of those sad examples which seem purposely marked
for our correction and improvement. Every instance of fury and bigotry
in other men, one should think, would naturally fill us with an horror
of that disposition. The effect, however, is directly contrary. We are
inspired, it is true, with a very sufficient hatred for the party, but
with no detestation at all of the proceeding. Nay, we are apt to urge
our dislike of such measures as a reason for imitating them,--and, by an
almost incredible absurdity, because some powers have destroyed their
country by their persecuting spirit, to argue, that we ought to
retaliate on them by destroying our own. Such are the effects, and such,
I fear, has been the intention, of those numberless books which are
daily printed and industriously spread, of the persecutions in other
countries and other religious persuasions.--These observations, which
are a digression, but hardly, I think, can be considered as a departure
from the subject, have detained us some time: we will now come more
directly to our purpose.

It has been shown, I hope with sufficient evidence, that a constitution
against the interest of the many is rather of the nature of a grievance
than of a law; that of all grievances it is the most weighty and
important; that it is made without due authority, against all the
acknowledged principles of jurisprudence, against the opinions of all
the great lights in that science; and that such is the tacit sense even
of those who act in the most contrary manner. These points are, indeed,
so evident, that I apprehend the abettors of the penal system will
ground their defence on an admission, and not on a denial of them. They
will lay it down as a principle, that the Protestant religion is a thing
beneficial for the whole community, as well in its civil interests as in
those of a superior order. From thence they will argue, that, the end
being essentially beneficial, the means become instrumentally so; that
these penalties and incapacities are not final causes of the law, but
only a discipline to bring over a deluded people to their real interest,
and therefore, though they may be harsh in their operation, they will be
pleasant in their effects; and be they what they will, they cannot be
considered as a very extraordinary hardship, as it is in the power of
the sufferer to free himself when he pleases, and th