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reforming doctors in Paris. Perhaps they were (like those whom they opposed) rather more than could be wished under the influence

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spirit; but they were most sincere believers; men of the most fervent and exalted piety; ready to die (as fome of them did die) like true heroes in defence of their particular ideas of chriftianity; as they would with equal fortitude, and more chearfully, for that stock of general truth, for the branches of which they contended with their blood. These men would have disavowed with horrour those wretches who claimed a fellowship with them upon no other titles than those of their having pillaged the perfons with whom they main tained controverfies, and their having despised the common religion, for the purity of which they exerted themselves with a zeal, which unequivo cally bespoke their highest reverence for the fubstance of that system which they wished to reform. Many of their defcendants have retained the same zeal, but (as less engaged in conflict) with more moderation. They do not forget that justice and mercy are substantial parts of religion. Impious men do not recommend themselves to their communion by iniquity and cruelty towards any de scription of their fellow-creatures.

We hear these new teachers continually boafting of their spirit of toleration. That those perfons should tolerate all opinions, who think none

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to be of estimation, is a matter of small merit. Equal neglect is not impartial kindness. The spe. cies of benevolence, which arises from contempt, is no true charity. There are in England abundance of men who tolerate in the true spirit of toleration. They think the dogmas of religion, though in different degrees, are all of moment; and that amongst them there is, as amongst all things of value, a just ground of preference. They favour, therefore, and they tolerate. They tolerate, not because they despise opinions, but because they respect justice. They would reverently and affectionately protect all religions, because they love and venerate the great principle upon which they all agree, and the great object to which they are all directed. They begin more and more plainly to difcern, that we have all a common cause, as against a common enemy. They will not be so mifled by the spirit of faction, as not to diftinguish what is done in favour of their fubdivifion, from those acts of hoftility, which, through some particular description, are aimed at the whole corps, in which they themselves, under another denomination, are included. It is impossible for me to say what may be the character of every description of men amongst us. But I speak for the greater part; and for them, I must tell you, that facrilege is no part of their doctrine of good works; that, fo far from calling you into their fellowship fellowship on fuch title, if your professors are ad. mitted to their communion, they must carefully conceal their doctrine of the lawfulness of the proscription of innocent men; and that they must make restitution of all stolen goods whatsoever. Till then they are none of ours.

You may suppose that we do not approve your confifcation of the revenues of bishops, and deans, and chapters, and parochial clergy poffefsing independent estates arifing from land, because we have the fame fort of establishment in England. That objection, you will fay, cannot hold as to the confiscation of the goods of monks and nuns, and the abolition of their order. It is true that this particular part of your general confiscation does not affect England, as a precedent in point: but the reason applies, and it goes a great way. The long parliament confifcated the lands of deans and chapters in England on the fame ideas upon which your affembly set to fale the lands of the monaf tick orders. But it is in the principle of injustice that the danger lies, and not in the description of persons on whom it is first exercised. I see, in a country very near us, a course of policy pursued, which fets justice, the common concern of mankind, at defiance. With the national assembly of France, poffeffion is nothing, law and usage are nothing. I fee the national assembly openly reprobate

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probate the doctrine of prescription, which one of the greatest of their own lawyers* tells us, with great truth, is a part of the law of nature. He tells us, that the positive afcertainment of its li.. mits, and its fecurity from invafion, were among. the caufes for which civil society itself has been instituted. If prescription be once shaken, no fpecies of property is secure, when it once becomes an object large enough to tempt the cupidity of indigent power. I see a practice perfectly correfpondent to their contempt of this great fundamental part of natural law. I see the confiscators begin, with bishops, and chapters, and monafteries; but I do not fee them end there. I fee the princes of the blood, who, by the oldeft ufages of that kingdom, held large landed estates, (hardly with the compliment of a debate) deprived of their poffeffions, and in lieu of their stable independent property, reduced to the hope of fome precarious, charitable pension, at the pleasure of an affembly, which of course will pay little regard to the rights of penfioners at pleasure, when it despises those of legal proprietors. Flushed with the insolence of their first inglorious victories, and preffed by the difstresses caused by their luft of unhallowed lucre, disappointed but not difcouraged, they have at length ventured completely to fubvert all pro

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perty of all defcriptions throughout the extent of a great kingdom. They have compelled all men, in all transactions of commerce, in the disposal of lands, in civil dealing, and through the whole tommunion of life, to accept as perfect payment and good and lawful, tender, the symbols of their speculations on a projected fale of their plunder. What vestiges of liberty or property have they left? The tenant-right of a cabbage-garden, a year's interest in a hovel, the good-will of an alehouse or a baker's shop, the very shadow of a constructive property, are more ceremonioufly treated in our parliament than with you the oldest and moft valuable landed poffeffions, in the hands of the most refpectable perfonages, or than the whole body of the monied and commercial interest of your country. We entertain a high opinion of the legislative authority; but we have never dreamt that parliaments had any right whatever to violate property, to over-rule prescription, or to force a currency of their own fiction in the place of that which is real, and recognized by the law of nations. But you, who began with refufing to fubmit to the most moderate restraints, have ended by establishing an unheard-of defpotifm. I find the ground upon which your confifcators go is this; that indeed their proceedings could not be supported in a court of justice; but that the rules of prescription cannot bind a legiflative

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