CHAP. XII.] FUTURE VARIATIONS IN CREEDS. 167 



not be gifted with such foresight as to enable him to know 

 beforehand in what manner, and subject to what conditions, his 

 wealth may be best distributed among his descendants, several 

 generations hence, for their own benefit or that of the community 

 at large. Whether, in ecclesiastical matters, also, there should 

 not be some means provided of breaking the entail without resort 

 ing to what is termed in Scotland &quot; a disruption,&quot; so that devia 

 tions from theological formularies many centuries old, should not 

 be visited with pecuniary losses or disgrace whether it be ex 

 pedient to allow the Romanist or Calvinist, the Swedenborgian 

 or Socinian, and every other sectary to enforce, by the whole 

 power of the wealth he may bequeath to posterity, the teaching 

 of his own favorite dogmas for an indefinite time, and when a 

 large part of the population on whom he originally bestowed his* 

 riches have altered their minds, are points on which a gradual 

 change has been taking place in the opinions of not a few of the 

 higher classes at least. Of this no one will doubt who remem 

 bers or will refer to the debates in both Houses of the British 

 Parliament in 1844,^ and the speeches of eminent statesmen of 

 opposite politics when the Dissenters Chapel Bill was discussed. 

 But whatever variety of views there may still be on this sub 

 ject in Europe, it is now the settled opinion of many of the most 

 thoughtful of the New Englanders, that the assertion of the 

 independence of each separate congregation, was as great a step 

 toward freedom of conscience as all that had been previously 

 gained by Luther s Reformation ; and it constitutes one of those 

 characteristics of church government in New England, which, 

 whether approved of or not, can not with propriety be lost sight 

 of, when we endeavor to trace out the sources of the love of pro 

 gress, which has taken so strong a hold of the public mind in New 

 England, and which has so much facilitated their plan of national 

 education. To show how widely the spirit of their peculiar 

 ecclesiastical system has spread, I may state that even the 

 Roman Catholics have, in different states, and in three or foui 

 cases (one of which is still pending, in 18489), made an appeal 

 to the courts of law, and endeavored to avail themselves of the 

 * See the Debates on 7 & 8 Viet., ch. xlv, A D. 1844. 



