THE CONTROVERSIALIST 167 



bishops opposed the measures for the abolition of 

 theological tests for public offices, for the removal of 

 disabilities on Roman Catholics, Jews, and Dissenters ; 

 in the abolition of slavery in British possessions, and 

 in the reform of the incredibly horrible state of 

 prisons, and of the inhuman treatment of lunatics in 

 this kingdom, she took no initiative; she fought 

 against unsectarian elementary education ; she still 

 wages bitter war to enforce the teaching of her dis- 

 credited dogmas ; and, to her even greater shame, 

 fans and fosters the spirit of militarism in temples on 

 whose walls are inscribed, " On earth peace, and 

 goodwill towards men." And, withal, trading on the 

 ignorance of the multitude, her ministers have the 

 audacity to claim credit for the removal of unjust and 

 brutal measures from the statute-book of the realm, 

 and for the general spread of humanitarianism ; 

 whereas it is solely to the development of sympathy 

 born of knowledge that these are due. The Church 

 has tardily followed where these have led. For these 

 reasons, written clear on the page of history, Huxley 

 called the " ecclesiastical spirit the deadly enemy of 

 science." 



But for the confusion which men make between 



which had come into his possession in consequence of his having 

 been employed in the General Post Office as a sorter of letters. 

 . . . The jury found the prisoner — Guilty — Death. — Times, 

 Nov. I, 1 80 1. The death-sentences were sometimes commuted. 



