And now, my dear Sir, if this is not a mistaken view of things, we are led to an appalling conclusion. If the popish faction, ever vigilant while others sleep, should succeed, by a _coup d’état_, in grasping the power of the Executive government, they have so stealthily and successfully prepared for the event, that a large mass of the professedly Protestant community would hail their accession to power; other important bodies would be so far neutralized as to offer no resistance; while the portion of our church and nation who remain “faithful among the faithless” will have to maintain a conflict for truth and righteousness, under circumstances of fearful inequality. I need not suggest what the power of the state _can do_, when wielded by men of unscrupulous principles, and devoted to their cause with the zeal of a morbid superstition. I do not say that this catastrophe is inevitable; but it is not impossible. The mine is prepared although it may not be sprung: but if the match should be applied, the explosion will be far more tremendous, and the desolation more complete, than even the “Gunpowder Treason” would have caused, if Providence had not detected that most foul conspiracy. The authors of that crime would have fallen, at once, victims to popular indignation; but the conspirators of the present day will have secured themselves from instant destruction by previously tampering with the public mind, and corrupting its principles. They have already carried Popish objects by Protestant agents; and when the real combat is at length to be fought, _pro aris et focis_, the dupes of their insidious policy will find themselves unarmed or in confusion on the field of battle. We may smile at popish miracles—the chapel at Loretto—the blood of St. Januarius—the healing art of the Abbé Paris—and all the low trumpery by which the pretended vicar of Jesus Christ stoops to deceive and destroy: but here is a master-stroke of policy, all but really miraculous, displaying not less of satanic skill than malice, and at sight of which the stoutest of British hearts may for a moment quail. The events of these times will supply our posterity with the most humiliating page in the history of their country—Great Britain, invincible in arms, disorganized and convulsed by the infernal arts of the Jesuits!