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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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tbolic clergy were kept in order by the respectability and talents of their opponents . The effect © f the persecution of the Protestants was not at first seen , but it appeared in the following reign , ^ when the clergy had different opponents to deal with , and
found themselves unable to cope with the rising body of infidels . If it were allowable to speak positively on the judgments of God , we might almost say , that the Bourbon family , the emigrant nobility , and the Catholic clergy , received in the revolution the
just retribution for the atrocious acts of their ancestors in the reign of JLouis the XIV . Assuredly the rise and progress of infidelity may be attributed to this cause . The morality
of France was undermined by the expulsion of the Protestants , and we will venture to prognosticate , that the restoration of that body will be the great means of restoring better principles to the kingdom of France .
Policy might have taught the French the folly even of their persecution . Where there is a great established sect , the Dissenters from it are generally to be found in the middle walks of life , and . in them chiefly
among the most industrious and economical . If any of this class rises to opulence , his wealth soon finds its way into the establishment . It is a proverbial saying , that it is not easy to find three generations of Dissenters , who rode in coaches . The reason is
obvious ; increasing wealth brings the occupier more in contact with the higher classes . His sons and daugh * ters , by this association , gradually indulging in a little relaxation from the severe principles of the father ; or perhaps the father himself , when
settled on his country estate , may have led the way by occupying occasionally the squire ' s seat in the parish church . The nearest meeting may be too vulgar . An advantageous match may occur for sons and daughters , and to
abstain from church or customary visits , exposes to the imputation of singularity . A variety of similar circumstances , will be suggested to the mind of the reader , and lead him to reflect on our Saviour's words : " hard
is it for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven : " and perhaps it is one of the hardest trials of a parent to reflect upon the changes that Kay take place in his posterity . This ,
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however , should stimulate us . to impress most strongly on the minda of our children the importance of scrip t tural truth , not teaching them to gabble over like parrots catechisms , and
creeds , and confessions of faith , but to exercise their understandings daily in the divine word , that they may esteem the gospel as the precious jewel , to purchase which a man will part with all his substance .
The amnesty bill has passed in France , modified from that which was presented by one of the hot-headed royalists , but containing greater severity than that which had the sanction of the court . A considerable degree of discussion took place in the 1
Commonshouse , but when it was brought to the House of Peers , it was passed by acclamation , and in a manner , which in England would be deemed most unfitting and indecent . The king's consent soon ratified the
deed , which drives away from France a number of the regicides , and ex ^ poses to pains and penalties a number of persons involved in the administration , under the three months * reign of Buonaparte .
The anniversary of the execution of Louis the XVI . has been kept with great solemity , and by a very judicious regulation , instead of , a sermon , by which the passions might have been inflamed , the will of the deceased
sovereign , calculated to sooth them down , was read in all the churches . It is to be wished , that this may produce the desired effect ; but in opposition , as it were to it , a plan has been struck out , which can but be of
a very dangerous tendency . This is to have manifestos in different places , expressing detestation of the crime of regicide , and to these people are iii « - vited to subscribe their signatures . It was not considered by the framers of this measure , that more than one half
of the present population of France had nothing to do with the sentence on the late king : they were at the time of its passing , too youiitf to enter into the merits or demerits of the case * and it cannot answer a good purpose
to compel them now to examine the question . Whether kings may be justly dethroned by their subjects or not * is not a question for the multitude to decide upon . The history ., of . the world proves that , whether right or wrong , the case has frequently < m *»
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State of Public Affair * . 6 S -
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1816, page 63, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2448/page/63/
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