Jenks's Portland gazette., 1802-06-07


IN FRANCE.
PARIS, APRIL 7.
ON Monday the csneoydasar was iubnittcd to the
leg flative.Body.
Citizen Portals fpoke. He 6rff recalled the
laws repe6ting worihip at the period of the 9th
Hrumalre, aud the intention of Government TO ef-
tablih religions Peace.--However advanced, faid
he, may b the perfection Of the people, they
crnnot DC without morals, and coniequen.ly tnofe
who are TO teach them.
The idea of univerfa Leg lature is necef
fary TO the Intelligent as 10 the phyEcal world.
There in iocety rewards and punfhments,
becaufe men are naturally difpofed TO fear and to
obey. The law only apply itfelf to one ac-
ton. Religion embrates the whole life of citi
zen. The multitude are more fTiCkcn by what
is given them, than by what is proved TO them.
The minds Of men need to b. fixed, and thisis
the adyant ge that poftive religions poileis by their
maxine. They have practices and rights which
form new tie, for men are not to be led by alb
fractions and cold calculating precepts. There
mutt be dfcipline by morality, as well order by
ideas. If there was nothing TO unite thofe who
profefs the fame principles we ihoud iocp Zee
vsft diverhy of religious fyitems.
1t is the intereit of Government 10 p ote6 reii-
gous Inffitutons, fince il is by them that the mott
effrntial truths torn from the fpirt of fyAem,
a'd become the public confidence. The psftve
religions, far from encouraging fuperittion and
fanaticfm, as has been thought, put an end to fu-
perifiton. Men are necefEated TO become believ-
trs thar they may never be credulous. The PHI
lofopher, well the multitude, has need of
courage 10 De ignorant, as well as of wifdom TO
believe, for be cannot know every :hing. 1t is to
poitve religion we owe the Civilization OF the hu-
man race. Cite hngle founder of Empires who
has not called in religion To his aid. Nn,na made
Rome jaerea city, TO render it an immortal city.
IL region which conioles the inequality of ranks
and fortunes, and all our diiappointments and
mferes. In the country the religious temples are
.heplaces where the villagers come to repofc from
their fa;igues.
Why, !, will be fsid, has no one thought Of
religion more fuited to our meafures and our ideas
of liberty (! IF the force Of law arifes from what
we fear, .hat of religion fprings from what
believe.-Human laws may change, becauic they
rettify abufrs. It is not 70 with religion their
belief is itrorg, as their origin is remote. Wfdom
then preicribed TO Government TO adopt religion
which exits, and which is fanetioned by time,
and the refpetf of the people. The Catholic and
the Protefsnt Religion are only two branches Of
Chriftianity. which 5as bad 70 iautsry an Influence
on the manners of Europe, and of other countries
and it may be fad, that if the compaf has opened
the Univerfe, Chrifisnty has rendeerd it focisble
lit rctards not the progrefs of the human mind
il allies itelf with all the arts. II is in the tenn
pies of religion, that mulc has had her birth the
tbsfd cnprs5 of painting bave therebeen depo6ted.
1t is religion which has produced our greatef Or
ators. Who could abjure worihip which has
produced Bo1uet and Feneion.
Ii affects no particular mode or government.
Zee in Chrfanity, not the religion of nation,
but that of men; not the religion of a fate, but
that OF the world. Let her have Pfcthood; let
ali the nomiaation be taken from her, and her
rinifters are nothing more than the min,tfers of
peace and morality Religious Iatitutons might
be left to their own force, or we might fix them
by rules. The hrf part was irreconcilable to phi
icfophy and politics. Toierstion whichis virtue
between man and man, becomes in the fytem OF
public right, fupport OF the guarantee which the
government owes TO be governed, by the objects
of its veneraton. The government ought then TO
have this power In its hand, TO terminate the
fchfm which reigned in the Church of France. II
necehary either 10 make the Chief OF the
State, Chlet Of the Religion, or 10 make nation
al Patriarch thus would have been created dan.
eerous political Manicheifm.
u was then Decefary TO have recourfe to the
head of the Univerfsl Church, whole voice makes
itfelf heard from afar, and who, foreign Sove-
reign, can give inquietnde, having only the ref
pee niplted by bis temporal weakeis, aud by re-
Hgion.
In fayine that the Catholic religion was the re-
Igion of the three Confns, il is not meant that ii
is the religion of the State, but only fbe religion of
:hofe who govern. In Saxony, the chief is Catho-
hc--the people Lutheran
Another claufe Rates that the acquirers of na-
siona domains are ncommutable proprietors. It
was not thought poilible for the Pontiff of Rome
re-affule the acqurers of It's property.
The miniffry Of the Church requiring an affidu-
ous and confant labor, it has not been thought
compatible with the embarradmrnts of family.
The celbacy of the clergy is therefore maintained.
1t is a reProach upon the Catholic Church, that
Ale crrfcs all thofe who not within her fold.-
Portals replied, by citing from Montefquia, I" that
religion which gives us an idea of the choice
made by the Divinity, aud Of difinct;on between
thofe who profeis it, and tnofe who profefs it not,
attaches us frongy to it,"
Regnaab de 81. Jean d Assely then cad the Con-
vent.on paaed at Paris, On the asth Me1idor, and
exchanged on the a3d lat Fruetidor. 1t tates,
that the French government acknowledged that
the Catholic religion is the religion of the great
majority of the French. His Holinefs equally
acknowledges that this religion has with
drawn, and new waits for the grand eclat of the
eftablifhment of the Catholic worthip in France,
and of tAe particular profefioh of is be made by
she CoDluls. In contequence It is proper that the
Romi.h religion .bal be freely and publicly exer-
cited in France, in conformity to the regulations