NOTES
[1] See Substance of a Speech of Sir John Coxe Hippisley, Bart. published by Murray, 1815.
[2] Robertson's Charles V, vol. iii, p. 225.—To supply the malicious omission of the pamphlet writer, I will here insert the historian's report of the Jesuits in South America. "But it is in the new world that the Jesuits have exhibited the most wonderful display of their abilities, and have contributed most effectually to the benefit of the human species. The conquerors of that unfortunate quarter of the globe had nothing in view but to plunder, to enslave, and to exterminate its inhabitants. The Jesuits alone have made humanity the object of their settling there. About the beginning of the last century they obtained admission into the fertile province of Paraguay, which stretches across the southern continent of America, from the bottom of the mountains of Potosi to the confines of the Spanish and Portuguese settlements on the banks of the river de la Plata. They found the inhabitants in a state little different from that which takes place among men when they first begin to unite together: strangers to the arts; subsisting precariously by hunting or fishing; and hardly acquainted with the first principles of subordination and government. The Jesuits set themselves to instruct and to civilize these savages. They taught them to cultivate the ground, to rear tame animals, and to build houses. They brought them to live together in villages. They trained them to arts and manufactures. They made them taste the sweets of society, and accustomed them to the blessings of security and order. These people became the subjects of their benefactors, who have governed them with a tender attention, resembling that with which a father directs his children. Respected and beloved almost to adoration, a few Jesuits presided over some hundred thousand Indians. They maintained a perfect equality among all the members of the community. Each of them was obliged to labour, not for himself alone, but for the public. The produce of their fields, together with the fruits of their industry of every species, were deposited in common store houses, from which each individual received every thing necessary for the supply of his wants. By this institution, almost all the passions, which disturb the peace of society, and render the members of it unhappy, were extinguished. A few magistrates, chosen by the Indians themselves, watched over the public tranquillity, and secured obedience to the laws. The sanguinary punishments, frequent under other governments, were unknown: an admonition from a Jesuit; a slight mark of infamy; or, on some singular occasion, a few lashes with a whip, were sufficient to maintain good order among these innocent and happy people."—Charles V, p. 219.
[3] The author of the following Letters, who owed the publication of them to the liberality of the editor of the Pilot, complained of the refusal of the editor of the Times to admit into that paper a vindication of character, though he had opened his pages to the blaster of it. As newspapers in modern times have erected themselves into a kind of tribunal of the dernier resort, the editors should not forget the indispensable maxim of all courts of justice, and concede alteri parti occasionem audiri should be a standing rule with them, or they must submit to pass for the star-chambers of jacobinism, or of some other party.
[4] D'Alembert said to one of his intimates, with whom he had been to hear the celebrated sermon preached by P. Beauregard against the apostles of infidelity, "These men die hard."
[5] The passage above cited, though not published with his name, is well known to have proceeded from the pen of M. de Lally Tolendal.
[6] It is well known, that the Dutch, at this time, did every thing in their power to undermine the Portuguese in Japan, and that they fabricated tales of the Jesuits to alarm the government, which, they said, was to be subverted, the emperor to be dethroned, and the people made slaves to the pope. In consequence of these slanders, no Christian was suffered in the empire; when, to preserve their commerce, the Dutch abjured Christianity, and, in proof of their sincerity, consented to tread publicly upon the cross at certain times.
[7] Encyclopedia Britannica.
[8] Spirit of Laws, book v, chap. 14.