312 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 



and believe in what they please. In this they are 

 not only fully tolerated, but are also protected in 

 their worship, so that on this score they can have 

 nothing to complain of. But beyond this the 

 Protestant ascendancy, having all the rich church 

 livings secured to themselves, are fearful that the 

 Catholics, ever watchful, and never ceasing in 

 their struggles to be at the head of all church 

 affairs they, the Protestants, have become ex- 

 tremely jealous lest the emancipation now so 

 eagerly wished for may, if granted, be a prelude 

 to further future strides, and that the latent objects 

 the Catholics have in view is to partake in these 

 rich livings, or to get them wholly to themselves. 

 To dwell longer on these matters seems to me use- 

 less; for, so long as rich livings are set apart as 

 a provision for those whose creeds continue in 

 fashion, all the various numerous sects who dissent 

 will always be barking at them, until the purity 

 and simplicity of worshipping one God only can be 

 established, and which to a certainty will one day 

 happen. Till then, all arguments on this subject 

 may seem to be in vain. 



Having given my opinion on religious matters 

 freely and sincerely, and with the best intentions, 

 in which I do not wish to dictate, but only wish 

 mankind to think for themselves on such a mo- 

 mentous and important affair as that of their 

 present and their future eternal happiness, I leave 

 them to their own reflections, and shall only fur- 

 thermore attempt to show some of the salutary 

 effects which I suppose would follow from mine. 

 I first picture to myself that I see such a body of 

 learned, rationally religious, moral, and patriotic 

 men as this clergy spread over our already match- 



