Observing a pair of globes, he looked at them for some time, and astounded me by the discovery that the terrestrial represented Europe, and the celestial, America. How such men can have got ordination, seems astonishing.
July 17. N. has informed me very gravely today, that the question whether or no the Catholic religion shall be the religion of England, has been discussed in the commons, and lost only by a majority of four. From the same quarter, he has heard that in the next year an act will be passed in England, suppressing all the sects, and permitting only popery, and that the cabinets of Madrid and Vienna were treating in order to make Catholicism the universal religion. This information he has received from some priests, and all seem highly delighted with the thought. Yet this individual, on commercial subjects, is a very sensible man. Such remarks only prove the excessive ignorance that exists with respect to the nations of Europe.
July 22. A. sat with with me some time to-day, and blamed me for not confessing to the priest. I gave him my reasons for not doing it. He ended his defence of confession by saying: “But I ought not to talk with you on these subjects; it is sin. I have confessed to my priest a former conversation with you, and he tells me I ought not to enter into any controversy. The priests only
