ENGLAND. \9$ 



the penal laws against papists in England appear at first to be 

 severe, yet they are either not executed, or with so much lenity that 

 the Roman-catnolic feels himself under few hardships. The papists 

 now seem to be convinced that a change of government, instead of 

 bettering, would hurt their situation, because it would increase the 

 jealousy of the legislature ; which must undoubtedly expose them 

 daily to greater burdens and heavier penalties. This sensible con- 

 sideration has of late made the Roman-catholics to appear as dutiful 

 and zealous subjects as any his majesty has. Scarcely any English 

 papists, excepting those who were bred or had served abroad, were 

 engaged in the rebellion of the year 1745 ; and though those at home 

 were most carefully observed, few, or none of them, were found guilty 

 of disloyal practices. 



As England has been famous for the variety of its religious sects, 

 so it has also for its Free-thinkers ; but that term has been applied 

 in very different senses. It has sometimes been used to denote op- 

 posers of religion in general, and in particular of revealed religion j 

 but it has also been applied to those who have been far from dis- 

 believing Christianity, and who have only opposed some of those 

 doctrines which are to be found in public creeds and formularies, 

 but which they conceive to be no part of the original Christian sys» 

 tern. As to those who are truly deists or infidels, there is abundant 

 reason to believe that this class of men is much more numerous in 

 some popish countries than in England. Nor does it appear that th£ 

 writings of the deists against Christianity have been of any real dis- 

 service to it : on the contrary, they have caused the arguments in its 

 favour to be used with greater force and clearness, and have been 

 the means of producing such defences of it, as all the acuteness of 

 modern infidelity has been unable to overthrow. 



Literature, and the arts. ...England may be considered the 

 seat of learning and the Muses. Her great Alfred cultivated both, in 

 the time of the Saxons, when barbarism and ignorance overspread the 

 rest of Europe ; nor has there, since his time, been wanting a conti- 

 nual succession of learned men, who have distinguished themselves 

 by their writings or studies. These are so numerous, that a bare 

 catalogue of their names, down to this day, would form a moderate 

 volume. 



Even in the dark ages, England produced that prodigy of learning 

 and natural philosophy, Roger Bacon, who was the forerunner in 

 science to the great Bacon, lord Verulam, as the latter was to sir 

 Isaac Newton. Among the curious works written by this illustrious 

 man, we find treatises upon grammar, mathematics, physics, the flux 

 and reflux of the British sea, optics, geography, astronomy, chrono- 

 logy, chemistry, logic, metaphysics, ethics, medicine, theology, phi- 

 lology, and upon the impediments of knowledge. As many of the 

 English clerery had different sentiments in religious matters at the 

 time of the Reformation, encouragement was given to learned fo- 

 reigners to settle in England. Edward VI, during his short life, 

 greatly encouraged these foreigners, and showed dispositions for 

 cultivating the most useful parts of learning, had he lived. Learning, 

 as well as liberty, suffered an almost total eclipse in England, during 

 the bloody bigoted reign of queen Mary. Elizabeth, her sister, was 

 herself a learned princess. She advanced many persons of consum- 

 mate abilities to high ranks, both ia church and state ; but she seems 



