holics. And
what next did he do? He ordered all the bishops to have this edict of
toleration read in the Episcopal churches. They refused to do it--most
of them. You recollect that trial of the seven bishops? That is what
it was all about; they would not read the edict of toleration. Then
what happened? A strange thing to say, and it is one of the miracles
of this world: The Dissenters, in whose favor that edict was issued,
joined hands with the Episcopalians, and raised the rebellion against
the king, because he wanted to give the Dissenters liberty, and these
Dissenters and these Episcopalians, on account of toleration, drove
King James into exile. This is the history of the first rebellion the
Church of England ever raised against the king, simply because he
issued an edict of toleration and the poor, miserable wretches in whose
favor the edict was issued joined hands with their oppressors. I want
to show you how much the Church of England has done for England. I get
it from good authority. Let me read it to you to show how little
influence the Christian church, the Church of England, had with the
government of that country. Let me tell you that up to the reign of
George I. there were in that country sixty-seven offenses punishable
with death. There is not a lawyer in this city who can think of those
offenses and write them down in one day. Think of it! Sixty-seven
offenses punishable with death! Now, between the accession of George
I. and the termination of the reign of George III. there were added 156
new crimes punishable with death, making in all 223 crimes in England
punishable with death. There is no lawyer in this State who can think
of that many crimes in a week. Now, during all those years the
government was becoming more and more cruel; more and more barbarous;
and we do not find, and we have not found, that the Church of England,
with its 15,000 or 20,000 Ministers, with its more than a score of
bishops in the House of Lords, has ever raised its voice or perfected
any organization in favor of a more merciful code, or in condemnation
of the enormous cruelty which the laws were continually inflicting.
And was not Voltaire justified in saying that "The English were a
people who murdered by law?" Now, that is an extract from a speech
made by John Bright in May, 1883. That shows what the Church of
England did. Two hundred and twenty-three offenses in England
punishable with death, and no ministe