THE UNIVERSITIES AND THE DISSENTEKS. 653 



such a time the mere ascendancy of any political party ceases to be 

 of importance, and every other consideration is absorbed in that of 

 the general safety. 



It is with this feeling we view the present question between the 

 Universities, the Church, and the Dissenters. 



With the highest veneration and the warmest attachment for our 

 national establishment, and with the sincerest respect for the zeal, 

 the sincerity, the talent, the persevering exertions of the Dissenters, 

 it cannot be concealed that both are in error. In fact, extremes 

 seldom or never are found to be either theoretically or practically 

 just. In the philosophy of life, as in the philosophy of science, there 

 is one certain point of right, and it is equally a mistake to fall short 

 of as to transgress that limit. He is the wisest and best man who 

 regulates his actions so as to bring them the nearest to it. In the 

 present case the one demands too much, the other concedes too little. 

 And is there no means cf satisfying the legitimate claims of the one, 

 without touching on the just rights of the other ? We hope, we be- 

 lieve, this might be accomplished. But the difficulty lies not in com- 

 posing the real differences which exist between the conscientious 

 Dissenters and the members of the Church, but in healing the 

 wounds which have been unnecessarily inflicted on either side, not 

 indeed by those who are substantially interested in the decision of the 

 question, but by violent partizans and self-interested factionists. Of 

 these, some oppose every concession from a mistaken fear of innova- 

 tion and a bigoted attachment to antiquity. With these, every thing 

 which is new is dangerous that which is old is hallowed to their 

 use so that it is almost sacrilege to polish off the rust with which it 

 is incrusted. Others, and they the most dangerous as the most spe- 

 cious, are they who, to serve their own purposes and to effect their 

 own aggrandizement, would willingly involve the whole country in 

 anarchy and confusion. These are the loudest clamourers for liberty 

 of conscience and equality of rights ; the brawlers at public meetings, 

 who gull the senseless mob with words which they cannot under- 

 stand with promises they never mean to perform : who have re- 

 corded their vows of cowardice under which to shelter their insolence 

 and meanness : whose deeds of disinterested patriotism are rewarded 

 from the very life-blood of a starving people: whose honesty is in- 

 delibly chronicled in the annals of the Stock Exchange, or whose 

 legal ingenuity will never be forgotten till fraud ceases to be a crime, 

 till breach of trust presents no bar to public honours or private 

 esteem. 



" Hie niger est, hunc tu Romane caveto." 



Sincerely do we wish that the present Ministry had avoided any 

 connection with men of this class. Sincerely do we wish they had 

 trusted themselves to the good sense and good feeling of the country 

 that they had not excited a clamour which they now cannot still. 

 We cannot conceal from ourselves that by this association they have 

 shaken the confidence of the country, without securing the fidelity of 

 their allies. They have created a Praetorian Guard, whose insolence 



