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    bacy . All these ill * , which the worshippers , of the beast will fcemoan in- fc&te | r anguish , wijl not affect die nwn . whg hails the refcurn of liberty of conscience ^ and knows , and feels , that relie fq ^ i ? far superior to civil liberty , and that riJE all yokes , that of Christianity Is easy anp its burden is light . ¦ Portugal is affected , we are grievefl tH say » with very great calamity . * Famine has attacked it , and access to supplies {^ not easily to be obtained . To wl ^ at extent this famine reigns we have not tj * £ means of knowing , nor do we know what changes the French have made ia the government of the country . H appears to be certain , that they are complete masters of it , atid that their contributions have lain most heavy upon the church .

    No intelligence has yet arrived of the prince of Portugal , but it is hourly ex *» pected . If he carries with him his former bigotry , we must lament the state of his pew kingdom . If some of the mmoucs which are doubtful , of the French squadron could be relied on , the bigoted part of America is likely to receive some benefit from the convulsions of

    Europe . It has been said , that the Rochfort squadron has been seen far on thp Atlantic , and thence it may be conjectured , that it is proceeding to Mexico . There it will produce the same changes , as their countrymen are making in Spain , and hew anguish is prepared for the sea £ of the beast . Wonderful are the ways of

    Providence ! His ways are not our ways ; nor his thoughts our thoughts . Spanish and Portuguese America have been groaning under the most horrible tyranny . The present generation , w at any rate our successors may witness the glorious time , when South America shall be withdrawn entirely from the yoke of thq beast . At this event all must rejoice , who arc not devotees of the beast or the

    fiuse prophet . The north of Europe presents an af . fecting scene . The overthrow of another kingdom seems * to be at hand . The Russians have invaded Swedish Finland , have made considerable progress in it * and are likely to march round the Baltic and attack Sweden itself . Denmark has

    also declared war against this country , and the forces of France have been marched through Holatein to unite with the Danes in an attack on the South of Sweden . The king of the latter country has written his manifesto against those of Denmark and Russia . All parties arc

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    State &f ' Public Affairs . 3 X 7

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    tji Spain , and the king must have-foreseen thatr if the emperor came to his court , he must himself dwindle into a cypher , apd the whole power would be in the hands of the French . But the circumstance , which must most affect the true Christian , is the mode , in which the subversion of an empire once so powerful has been brought about . It is not by open war ; but a son of man , that is , in the scripture language , a person , horn in an inferior situation of life , has sent his troops into this kingdom , which have been received without any resistance , and the people seem to be entirely indifferent to the approaching change or rather to hail their deliverers . History affords nothing parallel to this extraordinary event . The court of Spain is in the utmost dismay : its grandees are at variance : no measures are taken to prevent impending evil , and the whole kingdom lies at the mercy of the

    peaceful conqueror . But why should the people take any share in this extraordinary revolution I Could there be a real attachment preserved between the governors and the governed in a country , where the horrors of the inquisition were displayed , and where liberty of conscience was

    annihilated ! Or , could it be supposed , that the Christian world was always to subsist under that load of priestly usurpation and wretched bigotry , which had degraded Spain into its present state ? The conqueror will undoubtedly change the state of the country ; and probably a short time will deprive two more of the

    race of BourbGn of the title and power of kings . Wonderful it i 3 , that the great revolution produced in France operated no change in the Bourbon cabinets . Nothing was done by them to ameliorate and improve , and enlighten the state of the people- And it is a lesson , which the perusal of the scriptures might teach every one , that the great duty of all

    states is to preserve their country as much as possible , from every infringement on the law of God , and at any rate these infringements ought not to be encouriered by it . The few Spaniards , who have in secret groaned under the

    miseries of their country , an 4 lamented the intellectual debasement into which it is sunk , will not . regret , that Buona * parts takes possession of the plate of the churches , and curtails the rent-roll of t& £ bishops and priests , and abolishes the leceptacles of male and female celi-

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1808, page 217, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2391/page/45/