To say, therefore, what is or shall be the _object_ of a society, is no easy matter, if we mean to guard against delusion. The _real object_ will take its colour from the opinions and pursuits of those effective members who shall contrive, either by an actual majority, or an _assiduity and activity equivalent in force to the power of a majority_, to give direction to the energy of the association. Into how many Proteus forms has Jesuitism wrapt itself, upon different occasions? So the monster Jacobinism has insinuated its poison, at one time or other, into almost every species of society in Europe. It is to little purpose we use our eyes, if we see this destructive principle only in clubs and lodges, and spouting societies. This serpent has a far wider range; wherein there is a place and room to coil in, there let the passenger beware, _latet anguis in herbá_. And if your Lordship will please to call to mind, the warnings of a learned prelate of our church, you will remember that he is now in a remarkable manner, and with much aggravation of malice and impudence, detected lurking behind the cross. Your Lordship cannot be ignorant how many hundred public declarations it has set forth, to convince the world how simple are its designs, how pure its intentions! Need we be directed to consider, can we avoid considering, those several political societies of the present day, which, with the most enchanting titles, and with avowed objects of the fairest sort, have perpetrated atrocities of the foulest dye? Look into the public addresses of those societies, sometimes decorated by honourable and responsible signatures. See the printed declarations of their _reasons_, _objects_, and _principles_; then repair to the Old Bailey, or the Maidstone assizes; there compare the acts and deeds of those associations, with the plausible professions of their printed schemes and declarations, and say, my Lord, whether it be prudent, at least in this our day, to consider all as honest and true that meets our eye in print, shouldered by the well-known signatures of respectable presidents and vice-presidents?