HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
and constitute the true grandeur of 
nations. 
The solemnity of this day, and 
the hopes it inspired, that a renewal 
was at hand of the arts and occupa- 
tions of peace, filled the public with 
the highest satisfaction. Discerning 
people observed, on this occasion, 
that the liberty of thinking and 
publishing, so carefully fettered un- 
derthe former government, Was an 
advantage of much more conse- 
quence than the generality seemed 
to perceive. Exclusively of those 
apprehensions for personal safety, 
which were now removed, remune- 
rations would flow in equal propor- 
tion to persons of all religious per- 
_ Suasions, and neither dignity nor 
income would be appropriated to 
any particular seét. This would at 
once destroy all other motives, inthe 
investigation of truth, than that of 
arriving at a discovery. While the 
champions of only one set were 
salaried for maintainingits doctrines, 
and all others precluded from op- 
posing them, by the severest penal- 
ties, with what face could any man 
pretend to assert their reétitude ? 
It was solely by freedom of disqui- 
sition that truth was discoverable : 
~ and the most valuable consequence 
of the revolution was the abroga- 
tion of that exclusive privilege, 
which ignorance and imbecility had 
conferred upon the clergy of the 
established church, that of silencing, 
without any other argument than 
threats and terror, all those who 
dared to dissent from their opinions. 
The faét, at this period, was, that 
though a ‘prodigious mass of the 
French nation still remained en- 
ssiaved to the Romish tenets, muiti- 
tudes in all ciasses had imbibed a 
propensity to think and speak on 
subjeéts relating to religion, with 
; principle. 
[iss 
the most boundless restraint : as 
these latter had been experimentally 
found the staunchest friends toliber- 
ty, and the former its most inveterate 
foes, it was natural to conclude, 
that the ecclesiastics, adhering to the 
church of Rome, who were the 
spiritual guides of these, were also 
the instigators of this rancour. 
Hence the striétness and severity 
with which they were constantly 
watched. Hence too the averseness 
of the constituted authorities, to per 
mit any species of authority to re- 
side in any ecclesiastical body, lest, 
as the experience of all times had 
invariably shewn, it should gradually 
obtain an influence over the minds 
of men incompatible with the rights 
of government. 
The spirit that bfought about the 
revolution was in direét opposition 
to those claims of implicit belief,on 
which all spiritual authority is 
founded. While the monarchy con- 
tinued part of the constitution, find- 
ing the priesthood, either from inter- 
est or bigotry, its most “faithful and 
firmest supporters, it repaid theiras- 
sistance with its own. It was this 
alliance, between the church and 
the crown, that finally ruined both; 
and induced their destroyers to con- 
sider them as inimical, from their 
very essence, to political liberty 5 
and inadmissible, on this account, 
into any system founded on that 
After the king’s death, 
the clergy underwent the severest 
persecution, those only excepted 
who had taken the oaths of tidelity 
tothe republic. During the stormy 
and tyrannical government of Ro- 
bespi-rres the civil establishinent of 
the Galilean church was formally 
anuulled, and even those eccletase 
tics, who aitered tothe repubiican 
government, were deprived of the 
[N 4] regular 
