ncommon talent and erudition. Frederic afterwards sent for him,
and asked where he was settled. 'Unfortunately, Sire, I have had no
opportunity of being installed anywhere: I have never had a living
presented to me.' 'But what is the reason?--you preach an excellent
discourse, and appear to be an active young man.' 'Alas! Sire, I have no
uncle.' 'Then I'll be your uncle, said Frederic. And he kept his word:
the next vacancy in the ecclesiastical appointments was filled up with
the name of his adopted nephew."

"But, Aunt," said Harry, "I can't see what his having no uncle had to do
with it."

"You know that in most other parts of Christendom, where the stars and
the stripes do not float in the breeze, what we call the voluntary
principle in church maintenance and government is not the rule at all.
Here, people choose their own clergymen, and of course it is their
business to support them. But in nearly the whole of Europe, rulers are
so very paternal as to take that trouble and responsibility off the
shoulders of the people: they are kind enough to do all their thinking
for them. The subjects pay very heavy taxes; and from these, and from
old endowments, all the expenses of the national establishments are
discharged. They look at it in the same light as your parents do, when
they pay your school-bills--it's a duty they owe you to see that you are
properly taught; but it would be very weak in them to consult you as to
which teacher you preferred, and what school you chose to go to--they're
the best judges, of course."

"But, Aunt Lucy! you surely don't mean to say that the governments are
the best judges as to what church the people shall attend, and what
ministers they shall have?"

"I do not mean to say that is my opinion, of course--that would be
rather anti-American, and not at all Aunty-Lucyish. No, no; I stand up
for the rights of conscience, and approve of treating grown men, and
children too, as if they had reason and common sense; and then they will
be far more likely to possess it, than if they are always kept under an
iron rule. But, on the other side of the water, they have not so exalted
an opinion of the mass of the people as we have; and the government, in
some form--either through ecclesiastical boards, or inspectors of
churches, or members of the aristocracy--exercises the power of filling
vacant churches. This is the reason why it is important to have an
uncle; in other words, some influential perso