“Because mankind are governed by interest, and patriotism is little more than a cloak.  The benefits to this country, by the alliance with England, are very great, especially in a commercial point of view, and therefore you will find no want of patriots; but to England the case is different; it is not her interest to be involved and mixed up in continental wars and dissensions, which must now inevitably be the case.  Depend upon it, that posterity will find that England will have paid very dear for a Protestant king; religion is what everyone is willing to admit the propriety and necessity of, until they are taxed to pay for it, and then it is astonishing how very indifferent, if not disgusted, they become to it.”

“Why, Ramsay, one would never imagine you to be such a warm partisan of the present government, as I believe you really are, to hear you talk this morning,” replied Wilhelmina.

“My public conduct, as belonging to a party, does not prevent my having my private opinions.  To my party, I am, and ever will be steadfast; but knowing the world, and the secret springs of most people’s actions, as I do, you must not be surprised at my being so candid with you, Wilhelmina.  Our conversation, I believe, commenced upon the character of King William; and I will confess to you, that estimating the two characters in moral worth, I would infinitely prefer being the exiled and Catholic James than the unnatural and crowned King William?”

“You will say next, that you would just as soon be a Catholic as a Protestant.”

“And if I had been brought up in the tenets of the one instead of the other, what difference would it have made, except that I should have adhered to the creed of my forefathers, and have worshipped the Almighty after their fashion, form, and ceremonies?  And are not all religions good if they be sincere?—­do not they all tend to the same object, and have the same goal in view—­that of gaining heaven?  Would you not prefer a good, honest, conscientious man, were he a Catholic, to a mean, intriguing, and unworthy person, who professed himself a Protestant?”

“Most certainly; but I should prefer to the just Catholic, a man who was a just Protestant.”

“That is but natural; but recollect, Wilhelmina, you have seen and heard, as yet, but one side of the question; and if I speak freely to you, it is only to give you the advantage of my experience from having mixed with the world.  I am true to my party, and, as a man, I must belong to a party, or I become a nonentity.  But were I in a condition so unshackled that I might take up or lay down my opinions as I pleased, without loss of character—­as a woman may, for instance—­so little do I care for party—­so well balanced do I know the right and the wrong to be on both sides—­that I would, to please one I loved, at once yield up my opinions, to agree with her, if she would not yield up hers to agree with mine.”

“Then you think a woman might do so? that is no compliment to the sex, Ramsay; for it is as much as to assert that we have not only no weight or influence in the world, but also that we have no character or stability.”