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Although I am myself, I trust, a sincere Christian, yet reading and observation have taught me that Religion, be the particular creed what it may, is a sentiment of the human mind, more or less profound according to the idiosyncrasy of the individual. Apart from its moral teachings,—which have very widely differed in different ages, and among the various races of the world,—it has no temporal power whatever; it deals exclusively with the interest of man beyond the grave; and though men have constantly presumed to pronounce upon the future fate of their fellow mortals, it is certain that the final judgment will be rendered by the Omniscient, who alone cannot err. The necessary and logical deduction from this peculiarity of the religious sentiment, has been, that, from the very earliest ages, and under every system of faith that has prevailed, the teachers have been compelled to seek from the Civil powers, the authority to enforce their doctrines.
The Christian form of religious belief, and its teachings, as developed by men, have, in the course of nineteen centuries, followed precisely in the same steps. We shall search in vain for a period when human power, human law, and Civil government, have not been grasped at by the Church as a means of compelling obedience to their dogmas. It is thus clear, that unless Civil society chooses to wield the weapon against itself, the "spiritual sword" of the priesthood will be powerless to wound.
These observations are, I suppose, trite enough, but I think they will not be considered out of place, when they are intended to preface my appeal to all good citizens, whether Catholic or Protestant, to resist the present attempt of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy to control the Local G-overnment of Quebec.
The State—whether rightly, Protestants as gene-
