242 A DISCOURSE ON SCREECH OWLS. 



terwards act upon it, from the conviction of his own 

 mind no one can complain of. But that he should 

 endeavour to produce the evil he predicts, by instilling 

 distrust, dismay, and dissatisfaction amongst all around 

 him is a procedure that deserves castigation, and the 

 reprehension of all good men. 



The mode of proceeding of these Screech-owls is, to 

 avail themselves of any propitious moment to sound 

 their melancholy forebodings ; like their prototypes, 

 from the corner of some church yard, at the approach 

 of darkness in a stormy night ; and then, in each 

 prolonged hoot, to predict the fall of all true religion, 

 all legitimate government, all social order, all honesty 

 of purpose, and all sobriety of demeanour. 



Every proposition for a change in the forms or dis- 

 cipline of our venerable church is to end in its subver- 

 sion and annihilation, as if there were no difference be- 

 tween the two stages ; and that the adoption of one must 

 ^necessarily incur the infliction of the other. Every 

 suggestion of amendment in the laws of our political 

 system must end in their destruction, and the institution 

 of a republic is to be the sure consequence of an Au- 

 ditorship of the Exchequer being done away with, as 

 if there ever had been a time, since the days of Run- 

 nymede, in which our much and deservedly admired 

 constitution had not been changing, and wisely adap- 

 ting itself to the habits and manners of the ever-varying 

 state of society it is designed to govern. Every attempt 

 to raise and elevate the condition of the lower classes 

 from the degraded one, in which some of them exist, 

 alike discreditable to the country as a Christian com- 

 munity, as a free state, or as a rational society of men ; 

 is to end in their total disorganization, as if this were in 

 the power of man to effect. God has designed that there 

 shall be different grades in society, and if the French 

 revolution has taught us any thing, we must have learnt 

 this ; that we may remove by violence the individuals 

 who form a particular class of men, but we cannot 

 prevent a higher class of men existing, we may as well 

 attempt to contioul those elements that surround us, 

 which we know are not under the controul of man. 



