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TWO NATIONS.
47

object in his impolitic manœuvres, than an impracticable scheme to blend the two churches, there is now authority to disbelieve. He certainly was guilty of the offence of sending an envoy openly to Rome, who, by the bye, was received by the Pope with great discourtesy; and her Majesty Queen Victoria, whose Protestantism cannot be doubted, for it is one of her chief titles to our homage, has at this time a secret envoy at the same court; and that is the difference between them: both ministers doubtless working however fruitlessly for the same object; the termination of those terrible misconceptions, political and religious, that have occasioned so many martyrdoms, and so many crimes alike to sovereigns and to subjects.

If James the Second had really attempted to re-establish Popery in this country, the English people, who had no hand in his overthrow, would doubtless soon have stirred and secured their "Catholic and Apostolic church," independent of any foreign dictation; the church to which they still regularly profess their adherence; and being a practical people, it is possible that they

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