24 On Party-Prejudice. 
prejudice, among the members of free states, and 
the mischiefs resulting therefrom are much to be 
deplored. Religious bigotry may so far inflame 
the passions of subjects, even of despotical and 
monarchical governments, as to establish’ parties, 
filled with the most rancourous prejudices against 
each other; and also induce them to depose the law- 
ful monarch from the throne. * 
If we consult the pages of Davila, and other 
writers on the war of the League (a war carried on 
for the avowed purpose of extirpating liberty of con- 
science, and establishing a bigotted and persecuting 
system of religion throughout France), we shall find 
as many instances of party-prejudices destroying 
the happiness of individuals, and distracting the 
state with factions, as ever disgraced the annals of 
the most licentious democracies. Indeed when we 
contemplate the fanatical bigotry, refined malice, 
and blood-thirsty dispositions of the priests who ap- 
plauded, and the prince who executed the mas- 
* The fate of Henry the 4th of France, and the tran- 
sactions of religious parties during the civil war, previous 
to his being crowned, are sufficiently known. Sully, in 
his memoirs, relates an anecdote of his aunt, Madame de 
Mastin, which strongly exemplifies the power of religious 
Prejudice. The reason she gave for disinheriting her ne- 
phew, was—“ because he neither believed in God nor his 
saints, but worshiped the Devil.’”? This was the notion 
she had received of protestants from her confessor. 
