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    and prosper best . It is the season of difficulty which prompts men to search and to probe their principles , and which , | yy severe and heafthful exercise and discipline , invigorate &n& improve the intellectual and moral character . This

    good consequence does not , indeed , justify thfe cohdtict of persecutors , who impose thfeir respective systems under the ; sanction of pains and penalties , because th ^ y © either foresee nor intend

    any such * beneficial result , nor have tkey any right to impose fetters upon the conscience ) but it justifies the wisdom of Providence in permitting such . a state of things to exist : and , upon the whole , it leads to a conclusion favourable to the interference of

    the civil power to protect and patronize the Christian religion : a power , which , if it is exercised discreetly and judiciously , directly tends to promote the interest and success of

    Christianity ; and which , in its most injudicious and oppressive operations , is overruled by the wisdom of Divine Providence for the accomplishment of ends the most beneficial in themselves , although quite contrary to the intention or the agents employed .

    Upon the whole , therefore ., I think I may fairly assume , that the Christian religion , in the present age , is in a put-er and a better state than it would have been , either if the governing powers of Europe had been oppressors of the Church , like those of Asia and

    Africa , or , on the contrary , if being neutral , and only granting to the professors of Christianity the protection common to all other subjects , the Christian religion had been left to work its way by its own powerful energies . Whether , therefore , the discreet and

    liberal interference of the civil power for the protection and encouragement of the Christian religion , without violating the indefeasible right of private Judgment , be considered as a question of theory , or whether it be treated as a

    question of fact and experience , I think the balance is greatly in its favour . Nor do I feel myself at ail inclined or required to retract the position , that Christianity claims the patronage of * he civil power . If this doctrine places me under the

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    ban of a new host of a ^ Mr ^ fe I ^ fc not help it , but must again taWshehlr under the same consciout ? ness of Upright intention , which ; has hitherto bee ^ a refuge from those storms of anath ^ ttias which have already Tjefch fulminated With so much goodwill , and so Httie effect , upoii the devoted head of yoiir humble corifespotideiit , ' #

    T . BELSHAM . P . S . I haye read HyHs's communi , cation in your last Repository ( pp . 536—540 ) . I do not see that it re . quires any answer from me , or any alteration in the statement I have already made of mj judgment in the case . The only point iii which I differ

    from your respectable Correspondent is , in objecting to the punishment of those who blaspheme and revile the Christian religion : in the first place , as the Christian religion expressly prohibits the retaliation of evil for evil , and , in the second place , as this practice would open a wide door to

    persecution : every sect considering its own peculiar tenets as the essentials of Christianity ^ every attempt to expose their absurdity would be regaraed , especially by the ruling sect , as blaspheming and reviling the Christum religion , and therefore as an iniquity to be punished by the juclge , *

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    Sir , FTPHERE appears to me great weight JL in the sentiment which your Reviewer quotes with approbation , ( p . 549 , ) that it is necessary to make the

    poor comfortable to enable instruction to produce its proper effect upon them * The same thought is strongly Rut and wqll illustrated , in the article on Education , in the Supplement tp the Encyclopaedia B . ritannica , written by James Mill , Esq .: and for the sake , of awh of your readers as Jiave not access to this valuable work , I transcribe the passage *

    " It is easy to see a great » w «» be ^ ways in which ^ deficient quantity of fopa operates unfavourably upon the morn temper of the mind , ^ pf bjpte are reafly to sacrifice ievery thiijig ; to tfe . e obtaimM of a sufficient hiiantltv ) of food , the # * &

    of it tappfife wmM ^ m ¥ ' 9 vmrr ttot sftie , in- ' ^ mm ^' & ^ xt ^ ^ >> See a eiifto ^ l ^^ itt ^ lpn ¥ " # J subject ia $ ifflf& 0 !^ U ' <^^ \ doctribe of c |( wfiw |^ p 99 lt ® ryi p * W »**< : v 5 ¦ . ) . ' ! -m ^ f ¦' r •' ¦ ;' : ' - " ' . .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1820, page 578, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2493/page/14/