624 The Wellington and the Grey Administrations. [ DEC. 



t'ngly raised. The parishes have declared that its expense is, in all 

 instances, seriously greater than that of the former watch ; in some 

 instances four times as great. But the objection equivalent to all, is 

 that it is the introduction of an unconstitutional force, which might 

 be used for the most hazardous purposes. The late French revolution, 

 by shewing the power of the people, has relieved us of some of our 

 alarms on the subject. But we have no desire to see ourselves driven 

 to so desperate a remedy ; and think that a nation worthy to enjoy 

 liberty, will shew its value for the possession in the best way, by 

 observing with the keenest vigilance every approach to its injury. * 



As to the trivial answer, that the streets are better watched, we say 

 that they may well be better watched, at three and four times the 

 former expense ; but we say also that they would be still better watched, 

 if there were a soldier planted at every two feet, and a battalion en- 

 camped in every square of London. The truth is, that the police were 

 capable of purposes of a very different nature from watching the city 

 of London ; and well may we rejoice that the ministry is crushed, 

 which created such a force. 



But the Catholic Question involved a higher evil than the degrada- 

 tion of public character in a set of slaves, who valued character only 

 for its weight in the beggar-barter for place. It is impossible for any 

 man, dispassionately comparing Popery with Christianity, not to see, 

 what our great reformers saw, that the religion of Rome is a tremendous 

 corruption of the religion of the Apostles ; that the head bowed down 

 in homage to a statue or a picture, and the voice lifted up in prayer 

 to St. Peter or the Virgin, is a total perversion of the purposes of 

 Christianity, is a total departure from its spirit and, as such, must 

 involve all the fatal results consequent on that departure. It is equally 

 undeniable that in every country Protestantism has been the origin and 

 nursing mother of Liberty, of Peace, of Morality, and even of earthly 

 opulence. While Popery has been always characterized by its in- 

 separable connection with slavery, sloth, impurity, and the suppression 

 of Knowledge ! It is not less known to those who study the Scriptures, 

 and study them with the reverence due to the words of the Eternal 

 Judge of man, that terrible judgments are denounced upon the holders 

 of this apostate faith ; and that the only security against either its 

 corruptions, its blandishments, or its punishments, is by keeping aloof 

 from any share in its system. The slightest glance at our own history too 

 will shew that the purity of our Protestantism has been invariably our 

 national strength, and that our contact with Popery has been always 

 publicly fatal, visited with great misfortunes, and continually so visited 

 until the evil contact was no more, and the old wall of partition again 

 separated the pure religion from the impure. 



We altogether disdain the sneer with which such opinions are sure 

 to be received by the superficial, and the scorner. This is not the 

 place for either asserting or defending our belief; but we must look 

 upon the understanding as wretchedly narrow, and the mind deplorably 

 and calamitously dark, which, in speaking of the general course of 

 events, does not recognize the action of a Providence ; in alluding to 

 the Scriptures, does not render the deepest tribute of the heart to their 

 holy and supernatural wisdom ; or, in speaking of religious things, is 

 ashamed to acknowledge itself an humble and willing believer in the 

 high and glorious truths of God's revealed will. 



