1821 Oct. 31 + C

To Toreno

3 o

Letter VII Religion

1

Discard?

In regard to the priestly order, the part you have to act you must be still more acutely sensible of it than I can be, is an extremely difficult one. For the present your situation on this account /ground/ can now[?] not but be full of danger: nor can the danger easily be made to cease without giving place to {actual not to say fatal mischief} /a permanent and much more serious danger/. When on this occasion I speak of mischief, it is of mischief /this less immediate danger, the danger I meant is that/ to the subject many not to the rulers mischief to the people /subject many/ through the profit /subject many/ to their rulers.

The immediate danger is from their hostility to government: and in so far as the interest of the government coincides with the interest of the people, from their hostility to the people But in proportion as their hostility to government ceases, which it will do as the present incumbents die off, and others nominated by the Government take their places, and alliance of the priesthood with the Government takes place: and an alliance between an established and richly beneficed priesthood on the one part and the Government on the other is an alliance offensive and defensive against the people.

By /From/ no such alliance you will say can any mischief to the people be produced but in so far as the dispositions of the Government are hostile to the interests of the people. True: but the alliance circumstanced on the priestly order is, is of itself sufficient to place and keep the Government in a state of hostility to the people.