It is a transfer from
a judicature of learning and integrity, to one, the greatness of which
is both illiterate and unprincipled. Yet such is the force of prejudice
with some, and of the want of reflection in others, that many of our
constitutions have copied this absurdity, without suspecting it to be
one. I am glad to hear that our new constitution is pretty sure of being
accepted by States enough to secure the good it contains, and to meet
with such opposition in some others, as to give us hopes it will be
accommodated to them, by the amendment of its most glaring faults,
particularly the want of a declaration of rights.
The long expected edict for the Protestants at length appears here.
Its analysis is this. It is an acknowledgment (hitherto withheld by the
laws) that Protestants can beget children, and that they can die, and be
offensive unless buried. It does not give them permission to think, to
speak, or to worship. It enumerates the humiliations to which they shall
remain subject, and the burthens to which they shall continue to be
unjustly exposed. What are we to think of the condition of the human
mind in a country, where such a wretched thing as this has thrown the
State into convulsions, and how must we bless our own situation in a
country, the most illiterate peasant of which is a Solon, compared
with the authors of this law.
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