been the effects of coercion? To make one half of the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth. Let us reflect that the earth is inhabited by a thousand millions of people, That these profess probably a thousand different systems of religion, that ours is but one of that thousand; that if there be but one right, and ours that one, we should wish to see the nine hundred and ninety-nine wandering sects gathered into the fold of truth; but against such a majority we cannot effect this by force; reason and persuasion are the only practicable instruments. To make way for these, free enquiry must be indulged, and how can we wish others to indulge it, whilst we refuse it ourselves. But every state, says an inquisitor, has establisded some religion. No two say I have established the same. Is this a proof of the infallibility of establishments? Our sister states of Pennsylvania and New-York, however, have long subsisted without any establishment at all. The experiment was new and doubtful when they made it. It has answered beyond conception. They flourish infinitely. Religion is well supported; of various kinds indeed; but all good enough; all sufficient to preserve peace and order ; or if a sect arises whose tenets would subvert morals, good sense has fair play, and reasons and laughs it out of doors, without suffering the state to be troubled with it. They do not hang more malefactors than we do. They are not more disturbed with religious dissentions. On the contrary their harmony is unparalleled, and can be ascribed to nothing but their unbounded tolerance, because there is no other circumstance in which they differ from every nation on earth. They have made the happy discovery, that the way to silence religious disputes, is to take no notice of them. Let us too give this experiment fair play, and get rid, while we may, of those tyrannical laws. It is true, we are as yet secured against them by the spirit of the times. I

doubt whether the people of this country would suffer an execution for heresy, or a three years imprisonment for not comprehending the mysteries of the Trinity. But is the spirit of the people an infallible, a permanent reliance? Is it government? Is this the kind of protection we receive in return for the rights we give up? Besides, the spir

it of the times may alter; will alter. Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless. A single zealot may commence persecutor, and better men become his victims. It can never be too often repeated, that the time for fixing every essential right upon a firm and permanent basis, is while our rulers are honest, and united. From the conclusion of this war we shall begin to go down hill. It will not then be necessary to resort every moment to the people for support. They will be forgotten therefore, and their rights disregarded. They will forget themselves, but in the sole faculty of making money, and will never think of uniting to effect a due respect for their rights. The shackles therefore, which shall not be knocked off at the conclusion of this war, will remain on us long, will be made heavier and heavier, till our rights shall revive or expire in a convulsion.?

I have given this religious sketch at full length, as a historical trait of the religious character of Virginia, as well as of its illustrious author. It must be remembered that the date of this paper is 1781-2, towards the close of the American Revolutionary war. It will be well remembered by all who are acquainted with the history of that age, that Voltaire and Hume were two of the most popular writers that had then appeared in France and England; and that their writings graced the shelves, and their sentiments inflated the pride, and ambition of the learned, not only in France and England, but also in America. The doctrine of" It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks

my pocket nor breaks my leg," was not peculiar to our illustrious author; it had prevailed in France from the days of Lewis XIV. and amongst the modern Philosphers of Europe; yes, and America too, down to the date of this wonderful paper; and it continued to prevail, until the government of France, passed the awful decree-" There is no God, and death is an eternal sleep." Until the same government introduced the Guillotine, instead of the bed of Procrustes, and by this new criterion of right and wrong, brought the king and queen, the mass of the National Convention, together with the clergy generally, as well as the first characters of the nation, to the standard of a head shorter, and raised up a despot to swim to empire in the bloody sea of France, and of Europe. Were such solemn, such awful effects as these, of no consequence? Effects which sprang from the religious tolerance of saying and believing "there is no God." Was no man's pockets picked, and no man's leg broken, amidst the rav ages of a twenty years war? a war in which France lost more than a million of her citizens, with the most of her navy, together with an immense treasure: a war in which the sufferings of her neighbours, were, if possible, much greater. Ask Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Prussia, and Russia; yes, and England, and America too, whether the doctrine, or sentiment of "no God," did not pick their pockets, and break their legs; but I forbear; great men will not always be wise, and our illustrious author was supported in sentiment by the greatest writers of that age, and this sentiment, which then flowed from his pen, was perfectly congenial to the spirit of the times; but the horrors which have been exhibited upon the theatre of Europe since that day; horrors which were bottomed upon this remarkable sentiment, have given an entire change to the age in which we live, and I have no doubt our illustrious author, whom I respect as

one of the first sages of this age, and who as a patriot can say with Horace of old—“ Exegi monumentum æra perennius," can also look back upon a sentiment which I have presumed thus freely to notice, and say " Tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis." This was a bloody sentiment, and it has been drenched; may I not say, quenched in blood? Yes, if blood can possess the power of extinguishing error, this must be quenched, or there can be no efficacy in blood to extinguish error: but these were the days of delusion, which "God winked at," because he suffered this sentiment, to prevail as a rod of his vengeance, to chastise the corruptions of that age; an age perhaps the most corrupt in doctrine, discipline, and manners, of any one age, since the days of the fifth, or the twelfth

centuries.

This sentiment," God winked at," because corrupt as it was, he meant it for good, to scourge the nations, as he Scourged Egypt of old, for their abominable deeds, that he might prepare the way for the advancement of that truth which he is now displaying to the world, in the spread of his everlasting gospel, throughout the whole habitable earth; but again I forbear. I shall again pursue the subject at the close of the third volume of this work. Criticism was no part of my design, in introducing this religious paper into this work, I shall therefore pass over errors of lesser magnitude, which here and there appear, as being the errors of the day, and such as have been amended by the good sense of the age in which we live, and which have, no doubt, been corrected by the wisdom and good sense of their illustrious author.

LITERATURE.

I shall close this number with a sketch of the literary establishment of Virginia by the same author.

"The College of William and Mary, is the only public seminary of learning in this state. It was founded in the time of King William and Queen Mary, who granted to it 20,000 acres of land, and a penny a pound duty on certain tobaccoes, exported from Virginia and Maryland, which had been levied by the statute of 25 of Charles II. The assembly also gave it by temporary laws, a duty on liquors imported, and skins and furs exported. From these resources, it received upwards of 3000l. annually. The buildings are of brick, sufficient for an indifferent accommodation of perhaps an hundred students. By its charter it was to be under the government of twenty visitors, who were to be its legislators, and to have a president and six professors, who were to be incorporated. It was allowed a representative in the general assembly. Under this charter, a professorship of the Greek and Latin languages, a professorship of mathematics, one of moral philosophy, and two of divinity, were established. To these were annexed, for a sixth professorship, a considerable donation by Mr. Boyle of England, for the instruction of the Indians, and their conversion to Christianity. This was called the professorship of Brafferton, from an estate in England, purchased with the monies given. The admission of the learners of Latin and Greek filled the college with children. This rendering it disagreeable and degrading to young gentlemen already prepared for entering on the sciences, they were discouraged from resorting to it, and thus the schools for mathematics, and moral philosophy, which might have been of some service, became of very little. The revenues too were exhausted, in accommodating those who came only to acquire the rudiments of science. After the present revolution, the visitors, having no power to change those circumstances in the constitution of the college, which were fixed by the charter, and being therefore confined in the number of professorships,