erprising spirit with
which they seek for fortune. If the mind of the Americans were free from
all trammels, they would very shortly become the most daring innovators
and the most implacable disputants in the world. But the revolutionists
of America are obliged to profess an ostensible respect for Christian
morality and equity, which does not easily permit them to violate the
laws that oppose their designs; nor would they find it easy to surmount
the scruples of their partisans, even if they were able to get over
their own. Hitherto no one in the United States has dared to advance the
maxim, that everything is permissible with a view to the interests of
society; an impious adage which seems to have been invented in an age of
freedom to shelter all the tyrants of future ages. Thus whilst the law
permits the Americans to do what they please, religion prevents them
from conceiving, and forbids them to commit, what is rash or unjust.

Religion in America takes no direct part in the government of society,
but it must nevertheless be regarded as the foremost of the political
institutions of that country; for if it does not impart a taste for
freedom, it facilitates the use of free institutions. Indeed, it is
in this same point of view that the inhabitants of the United States
themselves look upon religious belief. I do not know whether all the
Americans have a sincere faith in their religion, for who can search the
human heart? but I am certain that they hold it to be indispensable to
the maintenance of republican institutions. This opinion is not peculiar
to a class of citizens or to a party, but it belongs to the whole
nation, and to every rank of society.

In the United States, if a political character attacks a sect, this may
not prevent even the partisans of that very sect from supporting him;
but if he attacks all the sects together, everyone abandons him, and he
remains alone.

Whilst I was in America, a witness, who happened to be called at the
assizes of the county of Chester (State of New York), declared that he
did not believe in the existence of God, or in the immortality of the
soul. The judge refused to admit his evidence, on the ground that the
witness had destroyed beforehand all the confidence of the Court in
what he was about to say. *e The newspapers related the fact without any
further comment.

[Footnote e: The New York "Spectator" of August 23, 1831, relates the
fact in the following terms:--"The Cou