fXXXn. PROLEGOMENA. 



/ 



in everybody's mouth, while cant is heard in every 

 pothouse from the lips of the worst of sinners. 

 Gaols however continue to fill, and crimes to in- 

 crease, juvenile delinquency is become proverbial, 

 trade declines from failures too, often the result of 

 cupidity, and the mass of the population is dis- 

 united, bej^garly, and unhappy. And this is the 

 upshot of the " Protestant Reformation," and the 

 boasted right of private judgment. I am no 

 longer young, and may perhaps view things 

 through the coloured medium of old prejudices, 

 but when I return from foreign countries, where 

 comparative order and comfort prevail, and view 

 the degraded condition of England, I feel 

 sorry and ashamed for my country, which was 

 once the cradle of catholic virtues, and might 

 still be so, but for that mistaken course of policy 

 which has brought it into its present condition. 

 What we may have to endure next is known only 

 to God, whose mysterious policy directs all 

 things, scourges as well as blessings; but of 

 this every loyal, patriotic, and religious man, 

 whose mind is not warped by prejudice, must 

 feel assured, that the way to render people happy 

 is not to burst asunder the bonds of religious 

 obligation, by which all ranks are held in pro- 

 gressive subordination to the law of God ; and 

 that heresy and the right of private judgment iii 

 religious matters, from its close connection with 



