Part 42 (1/2)

Amongst those who profess Christianity it has been remarked, by all who have travelled, and who have had an opportunity of observing it, that agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, flourish most in Protestant countries. Even where there are different sects of the Christian religion in the same country, arts, manufactures, and commerce, appear to have flourished most amongst the Protestants.

The [end of page #264] cruelties of the Duke of Alva, and the absurd bigotry of Louis XIV. drove the most industrious inhabitants from the Netherlands, and from France, merely because they happened to be Protestants, which is a proof that there is a connection between that branch of the Christian religion and industry. The Protestants were the most industrious.

The Protestants appear also to be the most attentive to preserving a good form of government, and to set a greater value upon liberty than people of any other religion. In this, England has an advantage that is inappretiable. {203}

The reformation in religion, and the establishment of manufactures in England, date from nearly the same period; it was about the same time, also, that the spirit of liberty began to break out first in Scotland, and then in England, which terminated in the revolution. There are, therefore, many reasons, from experience, for believing that the Protestant religion is particularly favourable to industry and freedom.

There are other reasons, likewise, that arise from a consideration of the subject, that would lead one to the same conclusion, even if there were no experience of the fact.

Whatever frees the human mind from useless prejudice, and leads it to pure morality, gives dignity to man, and increases his power of becoming a good and useful member of society.

The Christian religion not only contains the most pure moral code, but the best, most useful, and simple rules for conduct in life are

{203} The great influence, founded on attachment to her person, and the feeling of the long happiness they had enjoyed, under Queen Elizabeth: her great authority, supported by esteem, and confirmed by long habit, restrained the spirit of freedom which so soon after tormented her successors. James had had full experience of that spirit before he left Scotland; and, when he mounted the English throne, was known, frequently, to exclaim against presbytry, as the enemy of monarchy. He, as was very natural, thought that the difference of religion caused the superior love of freedom in Scotland, for he was not sensible of the different effects produced by the calm, steady, and dignified deportment of Elizabeth, and the unsteady conduct of his unhappy mother, Mary. He also confounded hatred for arbitrary prerogative in kings, with hatred for kings themselves; and considered monarchy, and his own sort of monarchy, as essentially the same. Had he lived in our days, he would have experienced the difference, and not have considered the church of Scotland as being a greater enemy to kingly power than that of England, or as being more favourable to liberty.

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there promulgated. The Roman Catholic faith was clogged, in the early days of the church, with a great number, both of dogmatical and practical errors, that tend not only to fetter the mind, but actually embarra.s.s the business of human life.

In a former chapter, we had occasion to speak of the encroachments made by public bodies on the general ma.s.s of the people, but none ever was so pernicious in its effects, so grasping, and so well calculated to retain, as the Roman Catholic church.

Their celibacy took away from the clergy every disposition to alienate even personal property, while the practice of auricular confession, and the doctrine of the remission of sins, gave them an opportunity of besieging the human mind in its weakest moment, and the weakest place, in order to rob posterity, and enrich the church. In the moment of weakness, when a man's mind is occupied in reflecting on the errors, and perhaps the crimes, of a long and variegated life; when his ties to this world are loosened, and his interest in eternity becomes more lively, and near; a religion that enables a zealous or interested priest (aided by the casuistry and argument of centuries) to barter a promise of everlasting bliss, for lands and tenements bequeathed to the church, provides amply for the acquisition of earthly treasure, for its ministers, and those devoted to a life of religious pursuits. It is, indeed, wonderful, that, with such means, the church, in Roman Catholic countries, did not become more wealthy than it was. {204} With a continual means of acquiring, and none of alienating, it appears well qualified for absorbing the whole landed property of a nation. Such an encroachment on the public wealth, and industry of a people, is a sufficient reason for the Protestant countries (where the clergy have not the same means) becoming more wealthy and industrious.

It would not be difficult to prove that there is an effect produced on the minds of individuals in Protestant countries, that is favourable to industry; but a discussion of this nature might seem displaced in a book of this sort. It is sufficient that we see, from experience and

{204} In France, before the revolution, the revenues of the clergy, in lands, tythes, &c. were reckoned to amount to 25,000,000 L. sterling per annum. The number of feasts and fasts was also a great drawback on industry.

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reason, that, of all religions, the Christian is the most favourable to the prosperity of a people, and that of its different branches, the Protestant, or what is termed the Reformed Religion, is again the best.

It is the religion established in Britain.

Another source of hope arises from a circ.u.mstance of very great importance, and very peculiarly favourable to Great Britain.

It has been observed, that the colonies in the West, and conquests in the East, cost a great deal and produce little; that, in short, their possession is of very doubtful advantage.

The possession of the North American provinces, now the United States, were a great burthen to England, from their first settlement till about the year 1755, when their trade began to be of advantage to this nation; but, in twenty years after, the revolt took place, and cost England a prodigious sum.

To enter into a long detail on this subject it is not necessary; but no sooner were the hostilities at an end, than the American states bought more of our manufactures than ever. Their laws and manners are similar to our own, the same language, and a government evidently approaching as near to ours as a republican well can to a monarchical form. There is not, at this time, any branch of trade, either so great in its amount, or beneficial in its nature, as that with the United States; with this farther advantage, that it is every day augmenting, {205} and as no country ever increased so fast in population and wealth, so none ever promised to afford so extensive a market for our mannfactures =sic= as the United States. This market is the more secure, that it will not be the interest of the people who have got possession of that immense tract of country to neglect agriculture and become manufacturers, for a long period of time.

The greatest project, by which any nation ever endeavoured to enrich itself, was certainly that of peopling America with a civilized race of inhabitants. It was a fair and legitimate mode of extending her means of acquiring riches; but Britain failed in the manner of obtaining her object, though not in the object itself, and

{205} By this is not literally meant, that the trade every year is greater than the preceding, but that it continues to increase.

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