Hitherto I have not witnessed among the French, either here or in the prison-ship, a single trace of divine worship. The _Decadis_ are indeed distinguished by a more than ordinary chanting of republican songs, a display of the tri-coloured flag on the tops of the churches in the town, and by a party of officers going on shore to the play. Thus, it seems, liberty wants perpetual resuscitation, while the adoration, or even the confession, of a Deity, is left to the unassisted operations of the human mind. From the pompous flimsy reports and orations on this subject made in the convention; from the _condescension_ of Robespierre, who _decreed_ the existence of a Deity, to the hardy denial of Dupont, who proclaimed himself an atheist; must I deduce all I know of the present state of religion in France. It is, however, worthy of remark, that a book, intitled “The Republican Catechism,” which is in universal circulation, and expressly composed for the instruction of the youth of the community, does not once acknowledge, or even hint at, the being of a God; and the public instructor of the prison-ship assured me, that, although the minds of men be now somewhat returning to their former biass, six months ago an inculcation of this principle, so far from being prescribed by the legislature, would have subjected the teacher to punishment. God forbid! that, on such slender _data_ as I profess, I should stigmatize all Frenchmen with the horrid appellation of atheists, or even suppose that a belief in revelation is universally subverted: it were almost to affirm that it had never existed. I have, indeed, in many conversations, had the misfortune to hear innumerable blasphemies uttered, and innumerable sarcasms thrown on all worship; but as they have proceeded from none but weak and ignorant men (to the honour of my friend the schoolmaster, he always reprobated them) who possibly take this method of recommending their republican zeal; I shall be very cautious, until able to acquire better information, of asserting what are the general sentiments of the French on this head. Whenever the subject is started, the people, among whom I am condemned to live, fasten immediately upon some of the monstrous absurdities of the Romish church, and the impositions of the priesthood, which in truth offer but too secure a hold for derision and contempt. This trick, of attempting to confound the impositions of knaves, and the reveries of fools, with the spirit of Christianity, is too stale and despicable to deserve confutation. I will not even quote the noble and decisive simile of Hamlet, which seems to have been conceived on purpose to expose it. Tremble not, therefore, for the faith of your friend, from such puny opponents. He will not yield his assent to new systems, until he has, at least, scrutinized and weighed their effects upon those who inculcate and practise them; and if upon this test, he finds the professors of