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18 18 THE PATRIOTIC CLERGYMAN. ATTRIBUTED TO Mrs BARBAULD.

On the abolition of titles in France, the clerical distinctions of their established church were likewise destroyed. Happy would it have been for that kingdom, and the best interests of the community, had the innovating hand of a revolutionary government stopt when they had liberatedthe church from its connexion with the state. But the blind fury of democracy overleaped the bounds of reason and of truth; for no sooner had they unshakled the church of France from her former unwieldly establishment, than they despised and ridiculed that religion which had been formerly the rule of their conduct. From fanatics they became athiests; and but for the magnanimous exertions of the few, who were virtuous as well as patriotic, the religion of France would have been totally annihilated. Among those brave and disinterested men, the following character will bear a distinguished rank, and his conduct deserves to be commemorated to distant ages.

A few days after the Archbishop of Paris and his Vicars had set the example of renouncing their clerical character, a Rector, from a village on the banks of the Rhone, followed by some of his parishioners, with an offering of gold and silver