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had then been published. He had read it with general satisfaction; but the manner in which the Roman Catholic system is there spoken of, had given him some displeasure, for though of the reformed religion, he had been bred a Romanist. In the hope of discovering that I had misrepresented or exaggerated the facts, he traced me to my authorities, which in Brazil he had an opportunity of doing. They are given with great exactness, as the plan of such a work required; and the result of the inquiry convinced him so entirely of my perfect fidelity as an historian, that he wrote to tell me what he had done; and added that, having thus put my accuracy to the test, he had collected some materials, manuscript and printed, in the hope they might prove useful to me in the completion of the work. They were eminently so; and to this circumstance I am indebted for something more than the acquaintance of a gentleman whose attainments and character I equally respect.

Sir, if I wrote for party purposes, and merely with temporary views, I should be more solicitous to please some, and more careful not to offend others. My desire, as an historian, has ever been to represent all persons and all parties in the truest light, not in the strongest; neither dissembling the errors nor palliating

the offences of those whom I consider as entitled on the whole to the esteem and gratitude of posterity, nor withholding any thing that may abate our abhorrence for those who have rendered themselves infamous. I have always allowed full weight for those motives, however fallacious, by which good men are sometimes led astray, and even bad ones not unfrequently deceive themselves. Judging of actions by the immutable standard of right and wrong, I have endeavoured to judge of men according to the circumstances of their age, country, situation, and even time of life, glad to discover something which may extenuate the criminality of the agent, even when I pronounce the severest condemnation of the act. With this purpose, and in this temper, the Book of the Church was composed. But never will I affect a reputation for candour, (as that term is now abused,) by compromising principles of eternal importance; nor is that current liberality to be expected from me, which, if it does not act like a palsy upon the heart, taking from it all sense of indignation at what is base and atrocious, all feelings of admiration at what is virtuous and exalted, perverts its perceptions so as to make evil appear good and good evil.

4.7

LETTER I.

DIFFUSION OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC RELIGION.

THE object of your first letter, Sir, is to display "the* general diffusion of the Roman Catholic religion over the habitable globe, and the immense numerical superiority of its members over those of any Protestant Church, and even over those of all Protestant churches in the aggregate." Supposing that the survey on which your estimate is founded, were accurate†

* Page 15.

+ Dr. Milner's geographical view of the Roman Catholic Church, on which Mr. Butler relies, will bear scrutiny as little as some other of the Vicar Apostolical's statements. He talks of many millions of converted Indians in South America. Where are they to be found? The Paraguay Reductions, in their most flourishing state, never contained 100,000 souls, and those of the Chiquitos did not reach to a fourth part of that number. He says that "the whole population of the Philippine Islands, consisting of two millions of souls, is all Catholic." This is easily said, and not so easily contradicted, because the means of information are not generally accessible. But I happen to know, on the authority of P. Fr. Juan Francisco de S. Antonio, the chronicler of the Barefooted Franciscans in that

48 DIFFUSION OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC RELIGION.

in all points, what would it prove?...only that Seneca spake wisely when he said, non tam bene cum rebus humanis agitur ut meliora pluribus placeant. Argumentum pessimi turba est. You will yourself perceive how empty is this boast of a majority, if you call to mind that Mahommedanism extends over a wider portion of the earth than Popery, exceeding the Romish population more than that exceeds the Reformed; and that the heathen nations outnumber all together more than twice told.

But I intreat you, Sir, cast your eye again upon the statement which you have adopted, and ask yourself if Dr. Milner's exhibition of Siamese, and Tonquinese, and Chinese, and Cochin-Chinese converts,....of his Zanguebar and Monomotapan churches,.. with his Algerine, and Persian, and Ethiopian Roman Catholics, is not much in the style of the representation of the human race, as got up by their orator Anacharsis Clootz for the National Convention? But let this folly pass, and take those nations in the list which, as you say, are "in the highest

province, whose work was printed in his convent at Manila, in 1738, that there were at that time Moorish states in these islands under Moorish kings, and Pagans of as many kinds as shades of colour. And since that time the Spaniards have been in no condition either to extend their dominion or their faith.

state of intellectual advancement, and abound with persons from the very highest to the very lowest condition of life, of the greatest honour, endowment, and worth." Take, Sir, Italy and Spain, and Catholic Germany and France, and weigh them in the moral and intellectual balance with Great Britain, and the Protestant Swiss Cantons, and the North of Europe! And let not the Vaudois be forgotten, our elder brethren in the gospel,.. poor though they be, and few in numbers, yet by no Protestant to be remembered without admiration, nor mentioned without respect and gratitude.* Nor must our younger brethren beyond the Atlantic be overlooked, who are now co-operating with us in the great work of extending Christianity among the heathen, and spreading those Scriptures upon which it rests. Look, Sir, at the different scales! and see what have been the effects of the Romish and of the Protestant religion in their bearings upon public prosperity and upon private life. We of the Church which calls itself Reformed, and knows itself to be so, may,

* If the Protestant reader has not seen Mr. Gilly's " Narrative of an Excursion to the Mountains of Piemont, and Researches among the Vaudois," it will do his heart good to peruse that most interesting volume.

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