68 



LIBERTY OP REASONING 



my diflike to all that favours of the fpirit of feci:, my 

 propensity and inclination, as one without prejudice 

 and intereft in all thefe matters, are directly againft 

 every party, and my good meaning towards the com- 

 mon welfare of my country and of mankind in general > 

 has long been known among them, and doubtlefs is 

 the caufe, that my well- intended radotage on the pia 

 delideria of all honeft men is ufuaily liftened to with fo 

 much indulgence : I feel myfelf under the neceflity of 

 entirely abandoning the hope of finding accefs to the 

 two prevailing parties, for what I have already faid 

 and what 1 have yet to fay, and to conceive that I have 

 only made them the confidants of my thoughts, to 

 whom I belong more from free choice than by necef - 

 fary relation. Only this one thing — as this good op- 

 portunity is now prefent, and may not fpeedily return, 

 — may I be permitted here to think aloud in regard to 

 one improvement declared to be univerfally neceffary., 

 by all enlightened patriots and honeft chriftians ? 



I wifh all men the grace of God and every good of 

 this life and of that which is to come ; and therefore I 

 include in this wifli his papal holinefs Pius VI, and all 

 lils lawful fucceffors in the facred chair at Rome ; which, 

 though it fliould prove not to have been the blefTed 

 Peter's, yet I hold to be a very refpectable chair, — 

 and accordingly, I hope it will not be imputed to me 

 as proceeding from a fee ret grudge againft the papal 

 fanclity, or from any ill-will to the bones of the holy 

 apoftles Peter and Paul, if I admit as a phyfical poffi- 

 bility, that fpon or late, the whole city of Rome, with 

 the Bafilica at St. John in Lateran, the church of St. 

 Peter s the great obelifks, the Vatican, the Campi- 



doglio, 



