Part 9 (1/2)

------------ SENLIS.

------------ ANGERS.

------------ DIGNE.

------------ AUTUN.

------------ VENCE.

------------ EVREUX.

The coadjutor of STRASBOURG.

The bishop of LEICTOURE.

------------ TROYES.

------------ NANTES.

_General Agents for the Clergy._

M. l'abbe DE BROGLIE.

M. l'abbe DE JUIGNe.

{373}

_A Copy of the Letter of the Archbishop of Paris, dated January 1, 1762._

MOST GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN,

If, in company of the other prelates, I did not add my name to the answer which they had the honour to present your majesty, it was not that I differed in the least from their judgment as to the four articles, which your majesty was pleased to propose to their examination, concerning the usefulness, the doctrine, the conduct, and the government of the Jesuits. I am very sensible that, in point of virtue and learning, there is no bishop in the nation to whom I ought not to give the precedency; and, in this view, would willingly have subscribed after all my brother bishops: but there is a regard due to the dignity of the see, to which your majesty has graciously been pleased to call me, and I must not take a step, that may interfere with those prerogatives, which, after the example of your august predecessors, you think it your duty to maintain. No other consideration could have prevented my setting my hand to a testimony so much to the advantage of the Jesuits of your kingdom: and, whilst I have the honour to a.s.sure your majesty of my entire adherency to that solemn act, I once more beg leave to implore your justice and supreme authority in behalf of a religious body, {374} eminent for learning and piety, and well deserving your royal protection, for the great services, which, during the two last ages, they have rendered both to church and state.

(Signed) CHRISTOPHER, Archbishop of PARIS.

THE END.

C. WOOD, Printer, Poppin's Court, Fleet Street.

NOTES

[1] See Substance of a Speech of Sir John c.o.xe Hippisley, Bart. published by Murray, 1815.

[2] Robertson's Charles V, vol. iii, p. 225.--To supply the malicious omission of the pamphlet writer, I will here insert the historian's report of the Jesuits in South America. ”But it is in the new world that the Jesuits have exhibited the most wonderful display of their abilities, and have contributed most effectually to the benefit of the human species. The conquerors of that unfortunate quarter of the globe had nothing in view but to plunder, to enslave, and to exterminate its inhabitants. The Jesuits alone have made humanity the object of their settling there. About the beginning of the last century they obtained admission into the fertile province of Paraguay, which stretches across the southern continent of America, from the bottom of the mountains of Potosi to the confines of the Spanish and Portuguese settlements on the banks of the river de la Plata.

They found the inhabitants in a state little different from that which takes place among men when they first begin to unite together: strangers to the arts; subsisting precariously by hunting or fis.h.i.+ng; and hardly acquainted with the first principles of subordination and government. The Jesuits set themselves to instruct and to civilize these savages. They taught them to cultivate the ground, to rear tame animals, and to build houses. They brought them to live together in villages. They trained them to arts and manufactures. They made them taste the sweets of society, and accustomed them to the blessings of security and order. These people became the subjects of their benefactors, who have governed them with a tender attention, resembling that with which a father directs his children.

Respected and beloved almost to adoration, a few Jesuits presided over some hundred thousand Indians. They maintained a perfect equality among all the members of the community. Each of them was obliged to labour, not for himself alone, but for the public. The produce of their fields, together with the fruits of their industry of every species, were deposited in common store houses, from which each individual received every thing necessary for the supply of his wants. By this inst.i.tution, almost all the pa.s.sions, which disturb the peace of society, and render the members of it unhappy, were extinguished. A few magistrates, chosen by the Indians themselves, watched over the public tranquillity, and secured obedience to the laws. The sanguinary punishments, frequent under other governments, were unknown: an admonition from a Jesuit; a slight mark of infamy; or, on some singular occasion, a few lashes with a whip, were sufficient to maintain good order among these innocent and happy people.”--Charles V, p.

219.

[3] The author of the following Letters, who owed the publication of them to the liberality of the editor of the PILOT, complained of the refusal of the editor of the TIMES to admit into that paper a vindication of character, though he had opened his pages to the blaster of it. As newspapers in modern times have erected themselves into a kind of tribunal of the dernier resort, the editors should not forget the indispensable maxim of all courts of justice, and _concede alteri parti occasionem audiri_ should be a standing rule with them, or they must submit to pa.s.s for the star-chambers of jacobinism, or of some other party.

[4] D'Alembert said to one of his intimates, with whom he had been to hear the celebrated sermon preached by P. Beauregard against the apostles of infidelity, ”These men die hard.”