I will adduce one instance more of the disingenuousness of this writer. Speaking, _exclusively_, of the Jesuits, he charges _them_ with "rendering Christianity utterly odious in the vast empire of Japan[6]," and with "enormities in China Proper." To have implicated other priests would not, as Voltaire observed, answer the purpose: the Jesuits, as before, must be isolated to be recrushed. Now, in this, as in the other accusations, we shall find the anti-catholic writers including other orders. Let us see what one of these writers says upon this occasion: after speaking of the pride, avarice, and folly of the clergy, he tells us of an {19} execution of twenty-six persons, "in the number whereof were _two foreign Jesuits_, and several other fathers of the _Franciscan_ order." And a little after, the same writer says, "some _Franciscan_ friars were guilty at this time of a most imprudent step: they, during the whole of their abode in the country, preached openly in the streets of Macao, where they resided; and of their own accord built a church, contrary to the imperial commands, and contrary to the advice and earnest solicitations _of the Jesuits_[7]." The authority of the Encyclopedia Britannica will not be objected to by the enemies of the catholics; nor, I presume, will that of Montesquieu, who gives a very different reason for the Christian religion being so odious in Japan: "We have already," says he, "mentioned the perverse temper of the people of Japan. The magistrates considered the firmness which Christianity inspires, when they attempted to make the people renounce their faith, as in {20} itself most dangerous: they fancied that it increased their obstinacy. The law of Japan punishes severely the least disobedience. They ordered them to renounce the Christian religion: they did not renounce it; this was disobedience: they punished this crime; and the continuance in disobedience seemed to deserve another punishment[8]." As to the enormities in China, we shall find, upon inquiry, that the Jesuits were not more responsible for those. The following is an extract from a geographical account of China: "P. Michael Rogu, a Neapolitan Jesuit, first opened the mission in China, and led the way in which those of his order that followed him have acquired so much reputation. He was succeeded by P. Ricci, of the same society, who continued the work with such success, that he is considered by the Jesuits as the principal founder of this mission. He was a man of very extraordinary talents. He had the art of rendering himself agreeable {21} to every body, and by that means acquired the public esteem. He had many followers. At length, in 1630, the Dominicans and Franciscans took the field, though but as gleaners of the harvest after the Jesuits; and now it was that contentions broke out." This is not the place to enter particularly into the charges brought against the order; all I here mean to