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of well-grounded terror, are inglorious artifices, which I have ever disdained to employ, from any desire of popularity, or any dread of reproach. I had, therefore, consoled myself with the hope, that the deliberate and explicit declaration which I published more than three years ago, of my sentiments upon the Claims of the Roman Catholics, would protect me from any unwelcome summons to engage in the opposition which is now carrying on against a very large and very meritorious body of my fellow subjects and fellow Christians. But, as "you have thought it your duty" to send me a circuJar letter, in which "the clergy of the diccese" are desired "to read, and, if they should approve, to sigu also, a petition to Parliament, agreed to by a numerous body of clergy assembled at

on the 2nd day of January, 1818," I hold myself warranted in stating to you, without reserve and without apology, that such a petition, intended for such a purpose as that which you intimate, would assuredly meet with my decided and entire disapprobation. Not to believe that the "wolf is coming" may be thought by some persons "want of grace," when the shepherds, arned with proper accoutrements, are on every side crowding together in formidable multitudes, and when their war-cry is accompanied by corre spondent notes from their faithful associates in toils, and vigils, and perils.

render ny sense of moral obligation to City, or Borough, or University addresses; nor to the tales of hireling hire pamphleteers; nor to the harangues of ministerial rhetoricians; nor to the versatile ethics of courtiers; nor to the turbulent clamours of demagogues; nor to the grave and well-meant admonitions of mitred sages; nor to the sudden recantations and professions even of sceptered alarmists for the welfare of an establishment, not less useful, Rev. Sir, nor less venerable, in my estimation, than in your own.

I presume not to claim any superiority over the clergymen assembled at in depth of knowledge, or soundness of judgment. But so it happens, that, aocording to the scanty measure of my abilities, I for several years have diligently and impartially directed my attention to the question, which now agitates the united kingdom of England and Ireland; and the result of my inquiries has been, that the resistance made to the Roman Catholics is unnecessary immediately for the safety of the church, dangerous ultimately to the tranquillity of the state, inconsistent with the best principles of our free constitution, and quite irreconcileable to the spirit of that pure and benevolent religion, in the belief of which I have never wavered, and from the defence of which I have never shrunk.

Far be it from me to arraign the sincerity or the discretion of my clerical brethren. On the contrary, I suppose

ἐν πόλεσιν δὲ κυνῶν ὑλακὴ, Θρός ἦεν ἐν ἀγροῖς ἠχήεις, θόρυβός Τε μελαινομένην ἔχε γαῖαν.

But, in addition to other dismal and portentous signs of our degenerate days, it has been observed, that, amidst all the moans of distress, all the yells of affright, and all the bustling interchanges of watch, words for danger, and signals for attack, between the pastors; their flocks remain, in some places, unconscious of an approaching foe, and in other quarters appear rather suspicious of a false alarm. As to myself, Rev. Sir, wishing well to those who agree with me, and to those who differ from me, I have not been altogether a besotted slumberer over the

prejudiced and virtuous observers will expect from an order of Christian teachers, blessed, more or less, with the advantages of a learned education; authorized from prescription to look for a wide and a strong influence upon public opinion, by their tenets and their measures; and therefore, peculiarly obliged, as well as peculiarly qualified, to speak truth, to do justice, to love mercy, and to pro mote "peace upon earth, and good will towards men." I admit, that they have called in the aid of historical and con troversial reading, upon the different periods, and different causes of those disabilities and restraints, the continu. ance of which they maintain to be ne

crisis; nor am I a bewildered "dreamer of dreams," about the motives or the consequences of human actions. Upon great and complicated subjects, involving the honour and security of the empire, and the real or possible rights of millions among my contemporaries, and their posterity, I am not accustomed to sur

pronounce to be fundamental; that they have balanced the pleas of innocence, against the proofs of guilt; that they have examined the religious and political properties of the question now at issue, separately and conjointly; that they have compared the past with the present condition of Roman Catholics, in their Dd2 relations

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of protestant inquisitors. But, whatsoever may be the probability, and whatsoever the magnitude, of those indignities, and those wrongs, I would sooner submit to them, than I would incur the perils, which, by co-operating with my clerical brethren against the dictates of my conscience, I should most assuredly call down. upon my reputation and peace of mind in this world, and upon those future interests, on the importance of which it weil becomes a man, nearly upon the verge of seventy, to meditate frequently and seriously.

As to the Petition to be sent to Parliament from the Diocese of, I was compelled to be absent in a distant County on the day which you appointed for leaving a copy of it at

But, from motives of courtesy, and justice to the persons who may sign it, I shall endeavour to obtain an accurate transcript. In respect, Rev. Sir, to your printed circular letter, I have reflected again and again, pot only upon the contents of it, but upon the dignified situation of the writer, upon his very advanced age, upon the growing infirmities, which for some years past have prevented him from discharging, as he was wont to do most meritoriously, the duties of an archidiaconal visitation; and, upon the tendency of these circumstances, to lead away his thoughts from the intrigues and struggles of a scene, in which he has but a short time to sojourn, and elevate them to the contemplation of more interesting and more sacred objects. Be these things as they may, I shall keep that letter carefully; I shall exercise my discretionary right of publishing, or not publishing, it, at a season that may seem to me con. vement; and, at all events, I will take measures for having it accompanied with observations, which hereafter may produce more substantial good than can reasonably be expected from them in times so unquiet, and with so slender a chance of their meeting with what I might consider a sufficient number of readers, neither rash from prejudice, nor pliant from cowardice, nor officious from views of secular interests, nor perverse from party, nor obdurate from bigotry, nor cruel from intolerance. Doubtless, if my calm and impartial judgment upon the merits of some recent petitions, and the various topics connected with them, should ever be laid before the public, it will be defended by statements and arguments, which, in this my letter yourself, it were unnecessary to employ.

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I am aware, Rev. Sir, that the printed paper which I had the honour of receiving from you, was an official one; and that in directing it to be delivered to me, as well as to other clergymen of the Diocese, you did not intend to give me personally the least offence. But, after the open part which I have formerly taken in favour of the Roman Catholics, I cannot pass over in silence any cominanication, in any form, which directly or indirectly calls upon me to unite with any classes of men, however numerous, or any individuals, however respectable; while those classes, and those individuals, profess suspicions and fears which I do not feel; while they insist upon doctrinal objections, which under the relative circumstances of the parties, I for the present should not urge; and while they strenuously resist political pretensions, which, with perfect sincerity and after mature deliberation, I had endea voured to support. You will pardon me, Rev. Sir, for, trespassing so far upon your delicacy, as to believe, that, if the previous and public avowal of my opinions had occurred to your mind, you would have thought it not very likely for those opinions to be very much infiuenced by the charms of diction, the weight of matter, or the authority of signatures in any clerical petition; and might, therefore, have spared your apparitor the trouble of leaving the printed paper at my parsonage. I really should have considered such an omasion as an honourable distinction, and gladly should I have contrasted it with those contumelious slights, which it has been my lot to experience from ecclesiastical dignitaries, in various instances, and from various quarters.

Other clergymen, not approving of the petition, may be content with not signing it. But my particular situation, as I have before told you, will justify me in expressing my dissent more unequivocally and more pointedly.

In regard to yourself, Rev. Sir, I shall always look back with pleasure to the good manners, and good nature, uniformly shewn by you to the clergy at your visitations; and, as, in all probability, I shall "see your face no more," upon this side of the grave, I will con. clude my letter with expressing my sincere wishes for your health, and subscrib-. ing myself,

Rev. Sir,

Your respectful and obedient humble Servant.

To

SIR,

THE multiplicity and confusion of

our laws has been a subject of just complaint with all those who are persuaded that nothing conduces so much to the welfare of a state, as the simplicity, certainty, and promptness, of its jurisprudence. These qualities are not lessjinportant than freedom and impar. thality in the administration of it. There is a tyranny of law, as well as a tyranny against law: the intricacy and difficulty of the laws under which we live, and by which we are obliged to regulate our daily actions, is a source of injustice and op pression, though the execution of them be not only free, but rigidly conformable to the laws themselves; for it shuts out the great bulk of society from even a moderate insight into rules upon which they are at the same time to depend for the support of all their rights, and for any deviation from which they are responsible in their property or persons; thus the laws, instead of a light to guide, become a suare to entangle the feet of those who walk by them. This is not all; for wherever the system of judicature, instead of being clear, concise, and direct, adapted to the real circumstances, times and manners, to which they are applied, are darkened by antiquated regulations, incumbered by obsolete, or puzzled by contradictory, provisions, the offspring of different ages and varying customs, it is impossible that justice can be administered with that promptness which is essential to its complete character, Dilatoriness and expense becomes the necessary companion of such a system, even if all those who are concerned in administering it were as anxious to forward its speed, as they are often supposed to be the reverse. No doubt the ignorance under which ordinary men, from the causes already mentioned, must labour, as to judicial proceedings, and the consequent necessity of blindly submitting in their legal business to those who have made it their sole study, greatly contributes to the facility of throwing in unnecessary delays, and raising obstacles to the speedy progress and dispatch ofasuit, I am far from joining in the narrowminded cry against the professors of the Jaw, which supposes them to be uniformly and universally intent upon protracting its course for their own emolument; I know that no profession contains individually more honourable or disinterested men; but, where things are so consti, -tuted, that the law itself concurs with the

procrastination, instead of correcting and counteracting it, it is not to be doubted that, in process of time, this union of advantage and opportunity will produce a very considerable effect, in multiplying the delays of judicial process; an effect which all the arts of the most interested men could not have carried to such a length, without an intricacy and obscurity in the laws themselves, greatly favourable to their endeavours. This is a serious evil; for, next to positive injustice, delay in doing justice is the greatest grievance: nay, there are many cases in which it is itself productive of all the effects of positive injustice; and few, or none, in which it does not in some de gree frustrate the complete performance of it. If no other end, therefore, than that of ensuring a more immediate and ready application of the law were to be attained, by a reformation of our system of jurisprudence, and by substituting clear, decisive, and intelligible regulations in the place of intricacy and con. fusion, that end alone would compensate the means, and render the work worthy of the wisest and most enlightened le gislature.

There are, however, many who, though strongly impressed with the good effects which would result from such a measure, are yet inclined to despair of the possi bility of accomplishing it; and, when they survey the vast bulk of our laws, the growth of above nine hundred years, heaped together at different times, under every variety of governments, and under the most opposite systems of policy and legislation, a jumble of British, Roman, Saxon, Danish, and Norman usages; of enactinents, sometimes in the spirit of absolute monarchy, sometimes in that of the freeest democracy; of rules derived from a state of property and manners long since obsolete, which nevertheless are so intimately interwoven with others of indispensable benefit, that it is difficult to know what to alter, and what to retain. When they contemplate this immense and undigested mass, they are apt to conclude that it would be impossible to extract from it any system which should at once be free from its defects, and yet retain its benefits; and, therefore, that it is better to submit to this state of confusion, as the necessary and inevitable consequence of the lapse of time, and the change of hunan affairs, than to aweep away the whole fabric at once, in order to raise an entirely new edifice in its place, and thereby set aside ak the advantage

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advantage to be derived from the wisdom and experience of many centuries. This is the only alternative which they conceive practicable, for they consider the adficulty of reducing the present body of laws into a reasonable order, and of reforming the system without altering the foundation, as un insurinountable bar to the exccution of such a project.

I torbear at present any observations upon the manner in which our laws have gradually reached their present state, and the causes that have been instruinental in producing that complex system, which all acknowledge the inconvenience of. I shall find an opportunity of touching upon this part of the subject, when I come to notice the changes that appear to me to be desirable, and the principles upon which those changes ought to be gone about; but at present it is my design to shew, that, whatever difficulties oppose the execution of such a work, experience most decisively proves, that they are not such as are invincible. A work of the same kind has already been effected under more unpromising circumstances, and more discouraging ob. stacles; and that work remains both as an incontrovertible proof of the practicabilite of such a reformation as I have spoken of, and as a guide and pattern to direct the execution of it. It is at once a monument and a land-mark; and no legislature who keeps it in view, need either despair of attaining the end, or lose its way in the pursuit of it. The work I allude to is, that which immor. talizes the name of Justinian; who by oue great effort redeemed the imperial laws from a state of confusion, more per plexed than even our own can furnish us with any idea of; and neither deterred by the immensity of the undertaking, nor the failure of former designs of the same kind, extracted from a mass not Jess heterogeneous than vast, a system at once so good and so comprehensive as to command not only the esteem, but the obedience, of the greater part of European nations. Instead of a chaos of laws, little less grievous than the total want of them, he created a body of jurisprudence, which, while it embraced all the wisdom of the laws already existing, acquired such superiority from being digested into a regular system, that it was eagerly received by much the greater part of the most civilized portion of the world; and allowed to supersede, in a great measure, their own usages and Customs. Such, and so well understood by all mankind, are the advantages of a

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positive, clear, well-organized, code, over the unreformed inass which the laws of every country, after the lapse of, many ages, must necessarily present. I should exceed the limits of your publication, if I were to enter farther into this view of the subject; and I shall only, therefore, in proof of what I have before advanced, lay before your readers a succinct view of that stupendous work. It is, by no means, my design to extol the civil law, as distinguished from the common law of the land, much less to extol it by depreciating the latter, but merely to in culcate, by the evidence of fact and experience, the advantage of an uniform di digested code of laws, purged from the perplexity, confusion, and deformity, which will inevitably grow up with time; and to prove the practicability of cor. recting those faults, by the success of an undertaking, exactly similar in its kind, and indisputably more arduous in its accomplishment, than the reformation of our own laws, which it is my object to recommend.

I shall not detain you therefore with any of those panegyrics upon the Laws of Justinian, so largely, though not unjustly, bestowed upon them by the most enlightened writers, who have demonstrated, that the general reception of the body of imperial laws contributed, in a most important manner, to the revival of letters and civilization in Europe. I need only observe, for the purpose of the present discussion, that this effect is attributable at least, as much to the necessary consequence of establishing a digested and systematic code, as to the intrinsic wisdom of its regulations.

To establish the truth of what I have advanced, that the reforination of the law, by Justinian, is an example of the practicability, as well as advantage, of a similar one in our own; and, a sufficient answer to the objections arising from the difficulties of the undertaking, we most begin with a cursory view of the state he found those laws in, (without which, we cannot well apply the example to our own case,) and then proceed to observe what he effected, and the means by which this great work was brought to a successful issue.

When Justinian assumed the government of the Roman empire, the Roman laws had been accumulating for a period of near fourteen hundred years, and had been successively composed under the limited monarchy of the first kings, under the Republican constitution, and under the despotic government of the emperors,