498 Cn Priests in general, and QNov. 



please, and that they thereby relinquish the right of objecting to an 

 anomalous jurisdiction, which, agreeably to the terms of the servitude, 

 may push its tyranny to the extremity of all human endurance. Once 

 grant that priests are empowered to control the laity by the provisions of 

 an imaginary code which can never be brought in evidence against them, 

 which they can never be proved to have violated, and with the conditions 

 and purport of which the laity must, of necessity, be unacquainted, and 

 the usurpation of the ghostly functions over the natural, civil, social, and 

 moral liberties of the laity is complete. And this is precisely the nature 

 of the Romish ecclesiastical government. It is perfectly irresponsible. 

 It is above and beyond appeal — almighty and omniscient — at once legis- 

 lative and executive ; the senator and the beadle ; the very Star-Chamber 

 of divine and human polity. Can it be matter for surprise, therefore, to 

 find the administrators of this extraordinary despotism governors amongst 

 the enslaved, and agitators amongst the free ? Can it be surprising that 

 the subjects of this unlimited monarchy should be either blinded by the 

 awful superstition, or tennfied by the super-human denunciations of their 

 tyrants .'' Can it be surprising that one portion of the Catholic people 

 should be weak enough to regard that as a sacred institution which com- 

 bined such irreconcileable elements ; and that the remaining portion 

 should not dare to avow the doubts that involuntary comparison and 

 instinctive reasoning had forced upon their minds ? 



Not satisfied with the enforcement of the general principle, the priests 

 wield the elementary thunders of the church in their individual persons. 

 They lay claim to miraculous powers, and divine attributes ; they assert 

 the possession of virtues that do not belong to humanity, and assume a 

 purity which the grosser nature of man could not sustain. Thus 

 embodying an ambiguous mission, and robed in more than mortal might, 

 they dispense blessings, sell the favours of Paradise, inspire recusants 

 with the dread of their spiritual office, and effectually wind themselves 

 into the secret economies of the domestic^ as well as the political exist- 

 ence of their followers. Where they have succeeded in establishing their 

 sway, their domination is unboimded — and where they could not shake 

 the previous order of things, they disturb the harmony of the people, 

 and sow dissensions in the heart of society. They must either domineer 

 over the settled forms and usages of men, or labour to break them up. 

 There is no medium for them between limitless authority, and revolution. 

 They cannot amalgamate with peaceful customs; they cannot glide into 

 the ordinary habitudes of life, and preach the precepts of charity and 

 goodwill ; no, it is the inherent vice of their order, and the necessity of 

 their calling, that they must bind all hands, or failing, cast the curse of 

 division around their footsteps. 



The most solemn belief of a true Catholic is, that his church is the 

 only trtie church, and must at last become the on(y church. The business 

 of the priests consists in urging the one maxim, and accelerating, by every 

 available means, the realization of the other. Hence the inroads upon 

 inter-national courtesies — the constant feuds — the iniquitous robberies — 

 the sacerdotal criminalities, that crowd upon and blacken the pages of 

 European history. Kingdoms were given away like toys, monarchs 

 deposed, and the very crown of heaven bartered in duplicate, to promote 

 the promised universality. Hence, too, the furious anathemas, the fierce 

 controversies, the indecent chicanery, and impious pretence of the revived 

 miracles of our own day. Hence Prince Hohenlohe's charlatanerie--' 



