Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Section II.— The Union is condemned by the Parental Relation. Mr. Gladstone, as well as other advocates of the union, has much insisted on the analogy between the nation and the family—between the functions of the State and those of the parent.1 Hence, he adds, " I argue that the State when rightly constituted is eminently competent, by intrinsic as well as extrinsic attributes, to lead and to solicit the mind of the people, to exercise the function, modified indeed, but yet real, of an instructor, and even of a parent."2 Bishop Wilson adds, " Though an Establishment is not essential to Christianity itself, it is essential to every Christian government which desires to discharge its highest obligations toward the people committed to its care. A connection between Christianity and the rulers of a Christian country is imperiously required to fulfill the duty of the Parent Of The State to his vast family." -1 The doctrine grounded on this analogy is that, as a parent must provide Christian instruction for his family, go the State must provide Christian instruction for the nation. Both the analogy and the doctrine founded upon it are false. The State being composed of Queen, Lords, and Commons, among which three estates the House of Commons having now so much influence that its decided and permanent judgment determines ultimately every public question, we must consider that House as being especially the depository of the State's parental authority. But if the House of Commons is the parent of the nation, the difference between the father of the nation and the father of the family is1 so considerable as to make their respective duties exceedingly distinct. 1. Children being placed under the authority of their parents through their weakness and ignorance, without any choice of ... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.