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gious worship;-I do say, that the English Parliament cannot with safety to its own religion, or without risk to the Protestant succession, take off from the hands of the Catholics those restrictions which have hitherto preserved England from falling a victim to the mysteries, intolerance, and intrigues of the Romish Church. In the late struggle between Christian Greece and barbarian Turkey, who could have supposed that the Church of Rome would not have unfurled her banners to afford protection and assistance to, and avenge the cause of insulted Christendom! Does then nought remain of those enthusiastic, those eminently Christian feelings, which in former days actuated the Romish Church to send forth the flower of Europe to fight in defence of Christianity? No:-the present is not the age of forming crusades against Mussulmen, but rather of stirring them up; of exciting them against those Christian countries who, having modelled their religi ous code on the purity and simplicity of the Gospels, do not acknowlege the supremacy and infallibility of the pope,-a crime never to be pardoned at Rome. The Greek patriarchs do not acknowlege this usurped supremacy, this self-endowed infallibility; and thus are explained the real causes of the silence and apparent inactivity of the court of Rome, and of the underhand assistance, so basely, so treacherously afforded to the Turks by those governments who are leagued with her, to oppose all reform, political, moral and religious.

I have heard it observed by persons who support the cause of Catholic Emancipation, that the day is past for apprehending any danger from the influence and intrigues of the court of Rome; from such persons I differ in toto: never was the activity of that court greater than it is at this moment; it has its agents and its writers all over Europe; it wields a sword, the handle of which is at Rome, but the point is everywhere. Europe is inundated with her missionaries, who preach openly the doctrine of the supremacy of the pope over all crowned heads; every town, every village has its religious society, which directs its movements on a nod from the court of Rome. France, Spain, Switzerland, and the Low Countries, are overrun by her emissaries, all professing the same principles, all preaching the same doctrine,-the supremacy of the pope; and to oppose this doctrine, is to be branded as impious, revolutionary, and atheistical. This is not assertion without proof. Look at the late trials of two French newspapers, le Constitutionnel and le Courier Français :-there stand exposed the facts on which I ground my conclusions-there will be found in plain intelligible characters, in language not to be misunderstood, ten times more than enough to bear out these assertions, and to prove that I have not exaggerated a tittle in my statements. And was it at such a moment, that Protestant England was to allow

herself to be influenced by the Catholic association of Ireland, which was again a point of that hundred-bladed sword which the Church of Rome brandishes over the heads of all who seek to arrest her in her progress, and in her projects of invasion and extermination? And is it at such a moment, that Protestant England is to be called on to admit Roman Catholics to participate in the direction of her affairs, to sit in her parliaments, and to assist in her counsels! If England is to fall from that pinnacle of glory to which under the favor and the blessing of Providence she has attained, by her industry at home, by her achievements abroad by sea and by land, and by that wise and prudent, and at the same time liberal system of politics which has long since been acted on by our ministers :-if, I say, England is one day or another to fall, to add another example to those that the world has already witnessed of a nation sinking into nothingness, after having reached the summit of splendor and of glory :-if England is fated to afford to the nations of the new world now raising themselves to independence and to greatness, another proof that all in this world is but vanity; at least, let her fall by the event of circumstances beyond the reach of human foresight-let her fall by the fate of war, or by any other means that Providence in its wisdom and its omnipotence may think fit to employ to effect its purposes, but let her not commit suicide on herself-let her not furnish the weapons for her own destruction, her own annihilation-let her not throw open her doors to a stranger, who comes, at least, in a doubtful shape to ask admittance, lest when he should once have crossed the threshold, he should (with the same respect to gratitude which inspired a certain Roman Catholic to declare, at the moment of our late commercial and pecuniary embarrassments, to say, that the ca lamities of the people of England were a consolation to him,) strive to become master and proprietor of that house, the doors of which were but opened to him from feelings of hospitality and charity.

May the same noble, the same high-minded feelings, that on all great constitutional questions have always actuated the upper house of Parliament, continue to influence her ever in her debates, in her counsels, and in her decisions. May the peers of the realm ever bear in mind, that it is on them that the eyes of Protestant England are directed to guard her from being exposed to the shock of those heavy calamities which cannot fail to befall her, if the question of Catholic Emancipation be ever carried in the affirmative through their house.-May they ever continue to be firm and independent as a body, as they are as individuals; and may they ever recollect that on their votes, on their decisions on this grave, this momentous, this pregnant question, the FATE OF ENGLAND DEPENDS!!

CONSTITUTION

DE L'ANGLETERRE,

ET DES CHANGEMENS PRINCIPAUX QU'ELLE A ÉPROUVÉS, TANT DANS SON ESPRIT QUE DANS SA FORME,

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AVANT-PROPOS.

La seule ambition d'un homme qui s'exprime dans une langue étrangère doit être de se faire entendre le plus clairement possible. Il faut qu'il renonce à l'espoir d'attirer l'attention du public par les agrémens du discours. Si ceux qui me liront conviennent que quelques-unes de mes idées sont justes, que quelques-uns des faits que je rapporte étoient peu connus, le but de mon travail sera rempli.

Elevé en Angleterre, et ayant passé une grande partie de ma vie en France, j'ai été mieux placé que beaucoup de gens pour connoître et comparer les institutions de ces deux pays. Ni mes voyages ni mes lectures n'ont été entrepris dans la vue d'en publier les résultats. J'ai étudié les hommes et les livres pour satisfaire ma curiosité seulement; et si je me suis trompé dans mes observations, ce n'est pas le temps qui m'a manqué pour les bien faire. Je suis loin d'avoir le talent de ceux qui dissertent avec assurance sur des usages et des institutions dont ils se sont occupés seulement une quinzaine de jours.

Je pourrois faire parade d'érudition, si je citois les ouvrages que j'ai consultés relativement à l'histoire politique de la France et de l'Angleterre ; mais si mes observations ne sont pas justes, on ne me saura aucun gré de mes lectures; et je sais que le vrai savoir dépend de la manière dont on a lu, et non pas du nombre de livres qu'on a feuilletés. Les auteurs français ou anglais qui ont des systèmes si opposés sur des événemens importans de l'ancienne histoire de leurs pays respectifs, ont probablement consulté les mêmes originaux. Quand on voit un homme aussi éclairé que Robertson citer à l'appui de ses opinions, des auteurs qui ne les appuient pas du tout, il faut se méfier des citations.'

Voyez son Introduction à l'Histoire de Charles-Quint, où, d'après le système de quelques auteurs français, il veut que le peuple fût admis dans les parlemens ou conseils nationaux de la France sous la première et la seconde race, tandis que ses propres citations démentent ses assertions.

Il y avoit une très-grande ressemblance anciennement entre les institutions de la France et de l'Angleterre. Aussi, quand on trouve quelque point obscur dans l'histoire ancienne d'un de ces pays, le meilleur moyen de l'éclaircir est de consulter celle de l'autre. Mais loin d'employer ce moyen, la plupart des auteurs anglais et français semblent le dédaigner, soit que ce dédain vienne de leurs préjugés nationaux, soit plutôt de leur ignorance respective des usages du pays qui leur est étranger. Voilà pourquoi on trouve tant d'erreurs dans leurs recherches sur les institutions de

leur pays.

Quant aux faits modernes que je cite relativement à la Constitution de l'Angleterre, ils sont connus de tous les Anglais, et je ne crois pas avoir commis la moindre erreur en les rapportant.

Je finis en déclarant que le seul amour de la vérité m'a engagé à publier ce petit écrit: de quelque manière qu'il soit traité par les hommes des différens partis politiques qui agitent maintenant la France, je n'ai aucun intérêt de plaire aux uns plutôt qu'aux autres; car, par ma position comme par mon caractère, personne ne peut influer sur mon sort.

[The London Editor has followed the second Paris edition, with the exception of a few corrections made by the author himself, on a copy sent by him to one of his friends in London. “ Though the work was published anonymously, it is no secret in Paris, where it produced a great effect in the political world, that it is written by Mr. Frisell, an English gentleman well known in that capital, where he has chiefly resided for more than thirty years. We may add, that this little work has been much approved of by several of the first political characters in England."]

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