been at the pains to examine them, and they may show one day to all the world, that these rebellions were not produced by toleration, but by persecution,—­that they arose not from just and mild government, but from the most unparalleled oppression.  These records will be far from giving the least countenance to a doctrine so repugnant to humanity and good sense as that the security of any establishment, civil or religious, can ever depend upon the misery of those who live under it, or that its danger can arise from their quiet and prosperity.  God forbid that the history of this or any country should give such encouragement to the folly or vices of those who govern!  If it can be shown that the great rebellions of Ireland have arisen from attempts to reduce the natives to the state to which they are now reduced, it will show that an attempt to continue them in that state will rather be disadvantageous to the public peace than any kind of security to it.  These things have in some measure begun to appear already; and as far as regards the argument drawn from former rebellions, it will fall readily to the ground.  But, for my part, I think the real danger to every state is, to render its subjects justly discontented; nor is there in polities or science any more effectual secret for their security than to establish in their people a firm opinion that no change can be for their advantage.  It is true that bigotry and fanaticism may for a time draw great multitudes of people from a knowledge of their true and substantial interest.  But upon this I have to remark three things.  First, that such a temper can never become universal, or last for a long time.  The principle of religion is seldom lasting; the majority of men are in no persuasion bigots; they are not willing to sacrifice, on every vain imagination that superstition or enthusiasm holds forth, or that even zeal and piety recommend, the certain possession of their temporal happiness.  And if such a spirit has been at any time roused in a society, after it has had its paroxysm it commonly subsides and is quiet, and is even the weaker for the violence of its first exertion:  security and ease are its mortal enemies.  But, secondly, if anything can tend to revive and keep it up, it is to keep alive the passions of men by ill usage.  This is enough to irritate even those who have not a spark of bigotry in their constitution to the most desperate enterprises; it certainly will inflame, darken, and render more dangerous the spirit of bigotry in those who are possessed by it.  Lastly, by rooting out any sect, you are never secure against the effects of fanaticism; it may arise on the side of the most favored opinions; and many are the instances wherein the established religion of a state has grown ferocious and turned upon its keeper, and has often torn to pieces the civil establishment that had cherished it, and which it was designed to support:  France,—­England,—­Holland.

But there may be danger of wishing a change, even where no religious motive can operate; and every enemy to such a state comes as a friend to the subject; and where other countries are under terror, they begin to hope.