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 thoughts about the Rambler, and the manner in which I purpose to carry out what you have entrusted to me. I have thought and read a good deal upon political subjects, and have read a great lot of the famous writers, to try to find out a clear view which I could rely on in public life. I will endeavour to turn these studies to account and to pursue them farther in the service of our common undertaking, (1) Now the first point about it is that I am very far from agreeing with any of the more famous Catholic writers, or with any of the political parties in England. But I think that there is a philosophy of politics to be derived from Catholicism on the one hand and from the principles of our constitution on the other a system as remote from the absolutism of one set of Catholics as from the doctrinaire constitutionalism of another [the Correspondent etc.] I conceive it possible to appeal at once to the example and interest of the Church and to the true notion of the English constitution. I am not on this account an admirer either of all Catholic governments or of all constitutional governments, but I think that the true notion of a Christian State, and the true latent notion of the constitution coincide and complete each other. In this way it is possible to obtain a singular repose and confidence in judging