If it should please God to give to the allies the means of restoring peace and order in that focus of war and confusion, I would, as I said in the beginning of this memorial, first replace the whole of the old clergy; because we have proof more than sufficient, that, whether they err or not in the scholastic disputes with us, they are not tainted with atheism, the great political evil of the time.  I hope I need not apologize for this phrase, as if I thought religion nothing but policy:  it is far from my thoughts, and I hope it is not to be inferred from my expressions.  But in the light of policy alone I am here considering the question.  I speak of policy, too, in a large light; in which large light, policy, too, is a sacred thing.

There are many, perhaps half a million or more, calling themselves Protestants, in the South of France, and in other of the provinces.  Some raise them to a much greater number; but I think this nearer to the mark.  I am sorry to say that they have behaved shockingly since the very beginning of this rebellion, and have been uniformly concerned in its worst and most atrocious acts.  Their clergy are just the same atheists with those of the Constitutional Catholics, but still more wicked and daring.  Three of their number have met from their republican associates the reward of their crimes.

As the ancient Catholic religion is to be restored for the body of France, the ancient Calvinistic religion ought to be restored for the Protestants, with every kind of protection and privilege.  But not one minister concerned in this rebellion ought to be suffered amongst them.  If they have not clergy of their own, men well recommended, as untainted with Jacobinism, by the synods of those places where Calvinism prevails and French is spoken, ought to be sought.  Many such there are.  The Presbyterian discipline ought, in my opinion, to be established in its vigor, and the people professing it ought to be bound to its maintenance.  No man, under the false and hypocritical pretence of liberty of conscience, ought to be suffered to have no conscience at all.  The king’s commissioner ought also to sit in their synods, as before the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.  I am conscious that this discipline disposes men to republicanism:  but it is still a discipline, and it is a cure (such as it is) for the perverse and undisciplined habits which for some time have prevailed.  Republicanism repressed may have its use in the composition of a state.  Inspection may be practicable, and responsibility in the teachers and elders may be established, in such an hierarchy as the Presbyterian.  For a time like ours, it is a great point gained, that people should be taught to meet, to combine, and to be classed and arrayed in some other way than in clubs of Jacobins.  If it be not the best mode of Protestantism under a monarchy, it is still an orderly Christian church, orthodox in the fundamentals, and, what is to our point, capable enough of rendering men useful