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    power ; the English confine themselves to the preservation of Portugal or a slight hovering over the frontiers of Spain : and the Regency at Cadiz regulates with

    its little senate the district of the Isla , and receives occasional dispatches from the distant colonies which are willing , or from governors who are able , to communicate with it . * There is every reason to believe that Mexico is lost to the

    mother country . As to the Caraceas , their independence is not likely to be shaken , and Buenos Ayres is so far from coming back to its allegiance to the mother country , that we are more likely to hear of a * war between this settlement

    and the Portuguese Brasilians . This latter power had the imprudence to interfere in the dispute between the Spaniards on the opposite banks of jJLa Plata , which will end probably in a rooted hostility between the two governments ; and future historians will talk of the

    inhabitants of Buenos Ayres and the Brasils qemg formed by nature to cut each others throats , as in these days it is pretended by absurd writers , that such is the situation of the French and English . At home , the great topic of conversation , and subject of some debates in Parliament , has arisen from the Letter of

    the Prince and the refusal of the opposition to come into power . Public writers have descended into personalities upon this occasion which cannofbe too much reprobated , The character of the Sovereign is not to be brought into contempt , and the calamity that has befallen the nation , might have been a lesson of awe to those , who take such lib crtie ^ s

    with his representative . In both houses , however , the minister has been triumphant , and the strength of the parties will be seen in the approaching debate on the Catholic question . The number , of votes will not however be an absolute criterion , as many who support the ministerial side in general , may on this occasion exercise their own judgment and discretion , and favour the cause of a more

    enlarged toleration . Ireland seems to be unanimous nearly in its petition , and , as the people of Great Britain do not express their disapprobation of it , we cannot conceive that any danger , considered merely in a politic and still less in a religious point of view , could arise from Catholic emancipation .

    In th # house bavt been several debate * . in tn « House nave been several debate * , and it i * with pleasure we perceive that military floggings to the extent of a thousand lathes , gro less and less in

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    estimation , even with the favourers of that species of punish went . The views of the parties ha \ e been unfolded in speeches-referring to the Prince s 1-ettcr , but the silence of the Marquis of Wellesley has disappointed the public * Ireland has , as usual , afforded a topic of

    debate , but great preparations are making for the grand question of Catholic emancipation , to come on the 17 th * The favourers of it are supposed to amouwt to upwards of two hundred and fifty members , in the House of Commons , but how many will be brought into the field is uncertain : at the same

    time , it is imagined that the minister will find great reluctance in his troops , for many will vote against him , and many will stay away . The issue of th « debate Is thus made more interesting , and it is far from being absolutely certain on which side it will be carried .

    A trial has taken place in the Courts of law on a subject , which cannot easily be made a matter of argument in such a place . We have the account of it from the public papers , and if it is properly reported we stand in the peculiar situation of differing from prosecutor , defendant , judge and jury upon this occasion . The

    Attorney General filed his information against the defendant for publishing a blasphemous and prophanc libel on the holy scripture * , in other words , for dcnying the Christian religion- *—asserting that the holy scriptures were from begins ning to end a fable and an imposturethe apostles liars and deceivers— -placing

    the history of Christ on a . level with the legends of the heathen mythology . The Attorney General is said to have observed , that the object of the book was to lay the axe to the very root of religion , and this mistake se « rn& to have pervaded both his mind and that of the judge , for the author did not intend to root out

    religion , but a peculiar mode # f it , which he apprehended to be false . In consequence of this mistake , his speech appealed to the passions and feelings , not to the reason or mankind . Hie quotation from Judge Hale , that Christianity is parcel of the laws of England , led also to mistake : for Christianity cannot mak e part of any worldly laws ; it is

    founded upon love , and not one of its precepts can be sanctioned fcy temporal authority or temporal punishmenf . A civil magistrate may be member of a Christian community , but in that community - hii authority ceases : all are brethren , held together by the law of

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    206 State of Public djfairs . 1

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1812, page 206, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1746/page/70/