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avowed infidels, to whom the argument equally applies,) instruction in the doctrines of religion as we hold them: nor could we teach religion as a bare abstraction, to be accommodated by each to the varying shades of his own belief: nor yet would it be fitting, or decent, or profitable to any, to have those of a different faith from ourselves living among us without religious instruction of any kind. Indeed it is impossible that conscientious Dissenters should desire this. They surely cannot either wish their sons to be without religious instruction, or to send them to be educated under the care of clergymen of our church: and such the general body of college tutors must necessarily be. Protestants do not wish to consign their children to the care of the Romish priests at Maynooth. Can sincere Roman Catholics, with their exclusive creed, desire to commit their sons to the proselytizing influence of ministers of the established church?[1]
- ↑ Since the above pages were written I have met with the following passage in a lately published letter of one of the most eminent Dissenters of the present day, Dr. Pye Smith, which fully bears out the view I have taken above. He is speaking of the admission of Dissenters to the universities, and is expressing his thanks to Dr. Lee, Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge, for the part he had taken on the subject. He says, "My gratitude is not the less because I think that the most dubious and difficult of all the subjects referred to. Since my attention has been drawn to a more minute examination of the argument, my opinion
