I do not yet see what the jurisdiction of
bishops over their subordinates is to be, or whether they are to
have any jurisdiction at all.
In short, Sir, it seems to me that this new ecclesiastical
establishment is intended only to be temporary and preparatory to
the utter abolition, under any of its forms, of the Christian
religion, whenever the minds of men are prepared for this last
stroke against it, by the accomplishment of the plan for bringing
its ministers into universal contempt. They who will not believe
that the philosophical fanatics who guide in these matters have long
entertained such a design are utterly ignorant of their character
and proceedings. These enthusiasts do not scruple to avow their
opinion that a state can subsist without any religion better than with
one, and that they are able to supply the place of any good which
may be in it by a project of their own- namely, by a sort of
eduction they have imagined, founded in a knowledge of the physical
wants of men, progressively carried to an enlightened self-interest
which, when well understood, they tell us, will identify with an
interest more enlarged and public. The scheme of this education has
been long known. Of late they distinguish it (as they have got an
entirely new nomenclature of technical terms) by the name of a Civic
Education.
I hope their partisans in England (to whom I rather attribute very
inconsiderate conduct than the ultimate object in this detestable
design) will succeed neither in the pillage of the ecclesiastics,
nor in the introduction of a principle of popular election to our
bishoprics and parochial cures.
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