OR, VULCAN S PEAK. 207 their denunciations. Unhappily, the Rev. Mr. Hornblower, who had possession of the ground, took a course which had a tendency to aggravate instead of lessening this strife among the sects. Had he been prudent, he would hive proclaimed louder than ever "Christ, and him crucified;" but, he made the capital mistake of going up and down, crying with the mob, " the church, the church !" This kept constantly before the eyes and ears of the dissenting part of the population dissenting from his opinions if not from an establishment the very features that were the most offensive to them. By " the church" they did not understand the same divine institution as that recognised by Mr. Hornblower himself, but surplices, and standing up and sitting down, and gowns, and reading prayers out of a book, and a great many other similar observances, which were deemed by most of the people relics of the " scarlet woman." It is wonderful, about what insignifi cant matters men can quarrel, when they wish to fall out. Perhaps religion, under these influences, had quite as much to do with the downfall of the governor, which shortly after occurred, as politics, and the newspaper, and the new lawyer, all of which and whom did everything that was in their power to destroy him. At length, the demagogues thought they had made suf ficient progress to spring their mine. The journal came out with a proposal to call a convention, to alter and im prove the fundamental law. That law contained a clause already pointing out the mode by which amendments were to be made in the constitution ; but this mode required the consent of the governor, of the council, and finally, of the people. It was a slow, deliberative process, too, one by which men had time to reflect on what they were doing, and so far protected vested rights as to render it certain that no very great revolution could be effected under its shadow. Now, the disaffected aimed at revolution at carrying out completely the game of " puss in the corner," and it became necessary to set up some new principle by which they could circumvent the old fundamental law. This was very easily accomplished in the actual state of the public mind ; it was only to carry out the doctrine of the sway of the majority to a practical result; and this was
