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subordination of the state to the church is yielded, the recusants are to be thrust forth as heretics from the Catholic fold.
The religious question I have no intention to discuss, but the foregoing dogmas laid down by the Bishop affect the political rights which I enjoy, and is therefore open to criticism. It is not consistent with the good government, the peace, and the prosperity of the country, that any portion of our population should be held in such bondage, and though, as a Protestant, it does not reach me, still as a citizen my rights are impugned, and my civil liberty impaired.
Our constitution provides for government by the majority;—if that majority be elected in obedience to the dictum of the Hierarchy, what possible hope will there be for the Protestant minority to preserve their dearest interests?
One of our cherished safeguards is the possession of certain specified constituencies, which cannot be changed, except by their own votes; but there are many Roman Catholics in every one of these constituencies, and our safety hitherto has lain in the political divisions among them, if these are to vanish at the commands of the Hierarchy, our security is at once and for ever gone.
I do not hesitate to say that I think our thanks are due to Mr. Huntingdon for his outspoken remarks in the County of Argenteuil. They were, perhaps, politically distasteful to some of his friends, but they embodied a most serious truth, in declaring that the attitude of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy is antagonistic to the principles of civil liberty, and
