Republicanism. It is perfectly true that a church constituted on
the Calvinistic model will not strengthen the hands of the
sovereign so much as a hierarchy which consists of several ranks,
differing in dignity and emolument, and of which all the members
are constantly looking to the Government for promotion. But
experience has clearly shown that a Calvinistic church, like
every other church, is disaffected when it is persecuted, quiet
when it is tolerated, and actively loyal when it is favoured and
cherished. Scotland has had a Presbyterian establishment during a
century and a half. Yet her General Assembly has not, during that
period, given half so much trouble to the government as the
Convocation of the Church of England gave during the thirty years
which followed the Revolution. That James and Charles should have
been mistaken in this point is not surprising. But we are
astonished, we must confess, that men of our own time, men who
have before them the proof of what toleration can effect, men who
may see with their own eyes that the Presbyterians are no such
monsters when government is wise enough to let them alone, should
defend the persecutions of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries as indispensable to the safety of the church and the
throne.

How persecution protects churches and thrones was soon made
manifest. A systematic political opposition, vehement, daring,
and inflexible, sprang from a schism about trifles, altogether
unconnected with the real interests of religion or of the state.
Before the close of the reign of Elizabeth this opposition began
to show itself. It broke forth on the question of the monopolies.
Even the imperial Lioness was compelled to abandon her prey, and
slowly and fiercely to recede before the assailants. The spirit