concerned in the subversion of the throne of the Stuarts. Yet have the memories of these men been assailed by the senseless cry of “hypocrites and fanatics,” in every age, by writers who were too timid or too passionate to take a sober view of their motives and actions: and yet in reality they were “men of whom the world was not worthy:”--philanthropists whose piety and genius broke open the sealed fountains of truth and happiness, long denied by the despotism of princes and the artifice of priests, to a suffering world;--but which thence issuing from Britain, have irrigated the world with their majestic streams, and carried beauty and fertility into regions apparently doomed for ever, to the sterile dreariness of slavery and superstition. That they were _enthusiasts_ may be granted: but to denounce enthusiasm in the cause of religion and liberty, (those great interests so intimately connected with the real glory and welfare of mankind,) is to imagine the overthrow of virtue, and to join in confederacy against the true dignity of human nature. Such conduct in the bulk of mankind, is as becoming as if the tortoise were to impeach the character of the noble courser, because in the strength of his power, he makes the earth to shake beneath him as he scours along the plain, and overleaps in his might the enclosure which circumscribes _his_ limited vision. It is the cant of despotism and infidelity to decry enthusiasm in the cause of religion and liberty: they dread its vivifying effects, as they detest the principles which give birth to its spirit; and therefore seek to render that contemptible in the eyes of their fellows, which puts to shame their own pretensions. What, it may be asked, was there in the degrading frivolity,--in the cold and cheerless scepticism introduced among Englishmen, at the restoration of the second Charles, which could kindle in the breasts of men enthusiasm? or compensate in any degree for the lofty hopes and generous darings of the Puritan heroes?--nothing!--absolutely nothing!--all feeling, except malevolence and voluptuousness, became congealed in the heart of man: and the nation presented the melancholy spectacle, of a people stricken with a general blight. It then became the fashion to ridicule the enthusiasm of the bye-gone days,--and to brand the reformers and their principles with terms of obloquy and reproach:--they were called “hypocrites,”--“fanatics,”--“visionaries,” and “enthusiasts.” That the leaders of them were sincere, is abundantly proved by their general character for integrity, and the sacrifices they made to the cause in which they had engaged;--that they were not “fanatics” is proved as far, at least, as respects the _Independents_, the true Republicans, by the liberality of their sentiments respecting religious toleration:--that they were not altogether visionary in their plans of government, may be demonstrated from the fact that the broad outline of policy marked out