his or her notions, or according to the dictation of some interested counsellor or ecclesiastic, is so revolting to human prudence and discretion, that we cannot imagine how such institutions can be endured by any people any longer than they have not power to repudiate them. Indeed, these old relics of less enlightened and less favored ages, are, from present indications, annually becoming more and more obnoxious to the vengeance of oppressed millions, who are asserting, and will still more loudly assert, their own rights and the wrongs of the despotism that has impoverished and degraded them. Queen Victoria, as a woman and a Queen, is as respectable and popular as any woman in her station could be. But as the head of the church, as creator of Bishops and Archbishops, and as supreme arbiter of Christian faith and Christian discipline, when dogmatically propounded, who could either respect or admire her? She has her Theatre, and is much better qualified to be head of that and of the pastimes of the nobility and gentry of the island, than to be head of Christ's church. The inconsistencies and contradictions in these assumptions becoming annullly more and more apparent, are, indeed, most abhorrent to a Christian's conscience and moral feeling. The head of Christ's church the patron of the fashions and amusements of the world! First at the altar, the theatre, the toilet, and the court, and first in all the pomps and pageants of the age! What an inconsistency! What an insult to the Author and Founder of the Christian Institution! It may, indeed, yet be a question undecided amongst the wise men and those better acquainted with the internal and suppressed spirit of the dissidents of all orders of the empire than I am, or could possibly be, Whether the growing disaffection to the English hierarchy by remonstrance through the press and the liberties of public discussion, be able to create and develope a public opinion so strong and so efficient as to abolish it without violence and a bloody revolution. If I were to judge from two indications that seem to be manifest to all spectators and auditors of passing events, I should incline to the more acceptable opinion, that it can be effected by the triumph of reason and truth, without blood and carnage. These, and the constant yielding, more or less, to popular opinion on the part of the government, and the consequent increasing boldness and courage of remonstrants and petitioners in urging their demands. The more the government yields, the more it has to yield; and the more the people gain, the more they are likely to demand. Add to this constantly growing tendency of things for almost half a century the recent revolutions and commotions of European governments, and one might hope that possibly, for once in the annals of the world, a great nation might be wise to give up old encroachments and usurpations at war with the enlightened morality and policy of the age. But yet the history of the past furnishes not much encouragement for such an honorable movement on the part of those in power. Men part with power as they part with life. Its charms, its magicpotency, what heart of man can resist! History furnishes but a few, a very few, illustrious examples of this kind; and of these not a moiety are free from ambiguity and all suspicion. But England is a nation sui generis, a nation of its own modelling. The freedom of Englishmen is but a shade behind our own in all that pertains to the tongue and the press. I heard but one political speech of one of the candidates of Yorkshire for a seat in Parliament. It was delivered in Huddersfield, and was as bold in its review of some critical portions of English history, and as strong against the aristocracy of the empire as any speech I have heard in America against any alleged encroachment upon the rights of the people. In giving his views of the extent of that reform for which he would pledge himself to his constituents, if elected, he said, in sense and meaning,'Gentlemen, I am willing to push the question of reform to the very centre of the aristocracy of this empire. I think the time is almost come when even the titles by which our nobles hold their rich baronies, or rather baronages, should be thoroughly canvassed. They have long since ceased to pay the consideration on which this kingdom was partitioned among them by the Norman Conqueror, William, as many of you know, and all may know, who will be at the pains to examine the subject. I say, William rewarded his particular friends and distributed his realm amongst his nobles and distinguished chiefs on certain conditions. Amongst these the most essential are now and long have been unfulfilled. The Barons accepted the grants from the King on condition that they would, out of the tenantry of these estates, raise certain proportions of soldiers and be at all the expense of training, arming, clothing, and satisfying them for their services in fighting all the King's battles, and in preserving the safety and integrity of his kingdom. Such was the King's liberality, preceded indeed by an unprecedented rapacity. Thus tyrannically were * * The allusion here is to the fact that William of Normandy, the conqueror of England in the latter half of the 11th century, after seizing the principal estates of the ancient nobility and gentry of England because of their insubordination to the King, gave or sold them out to his Norman superseded the old and venerable Barons of England and most of their prelates and dignified clergy, by a new race of Norman chiefs and Norman prelates, whose tenure was based upon the sword of William and their allegiance and support of his throne. According to the records in Doomsday Book, during his reign he had the whole kingdom surveyed and distributed amongst his nobles. But only a few years passed away, and one or two short reigns, till these Barons had ingenuity to legislate themselves out of their obligations to pay the consideration on which their estates were conceded them; and to roll off themselves upon the nation at large the expense of all national wars. I think, then, gentlemen, the time is almost come when this matter should be examined, and that either the Barons should pay the expenses of our wars, or give back their estates to the nation.' Certainly this is bold enough for America, said I to myself; and it in an English assembly of enlightened subjects, and within hearing of some of these self-same Barons, these words of a candidate, who came within some twenty or thirty votes of being elected, could be heard with acclamation, amidst cries of Hear! Hear! this people cannot complain on the ground of a restrained liberty of speech. Free discussion seems to me to be as much the order of the day in Britain as in the United States. Still there may be more constructive abuse of speech under that government than under this. But the great question is, Whether the hierarchy of England shall fall by the tongue or by the sword. Fall it must; because it cannot be sustained by argument; because it has become obnoxious to all religious dissenters; because it is hated by all, sceptics and infidels; because it is an outrage against the King of Kings; and especially because its overthrow is foretold and delineated by the pen of Inspiration. It was overthrown in America by all the means named, except that of a predicted end. All these means are now conspiring against it in the Old World. It, therefore, seems to me most probable that the sword must be unsheathed before this PROTESTANT MAN OF SIN shall come to his end. He is a part of the Magna Charta of Great Britain, and a change of so essential an item in that document is not to be expected but through a revolution. That the three estates of that empire-King, Lords, and Com Barons who had fought his battles, for small considerations in hand, under the condition of not only in person aiding the King, but also in raising and maintaining troops to fight the King's battles-which was, indeed, but to defend their titles to their own estates. mons-will, in full assembly met, sever the State from the Church, and demonstrate their conviction that "Christ's kingdom is not of this world," would be one of the most improbable political events that I could imagine. I do not, indeed, say, in this age of revolutions, that such an event is impossible; but I do say that it is superlatively improbable. These downy, pampered Bishops, Archbishops, and Primates, feasting on a quarter of a million of dollars per anuum, neither will nor can die easy in any way of dying we can imagine-naturally, politically, or ecclesiastically. They are, indeed, as I believe from Daniel and John, doomed to a violent end. But we must leave the event to future developement and proceed. I am not far from subscribing to the following views of John Wesley, which I quote from the "Gospel Banner,” on this unnatura} and monstrous union of Church and State: "I have long been convinced, from the whole tenor of ancient history, that this very event, Constantine's calling himself a Christian, and pouring the flood of wealth and honor on the Christian church, the clergy in particular, was productive of more evil to the church than all the ten persecutions put together. From the time that power, riches, and honor of all kinds, were heaped upon the Christians, vice of all kind came in like a flood, both in the clergy and laity. From the time the Church and State, the kingdom of Christ and of the world, were so strangely and unnaturally blended together, Christianity and heathenism were so thoroughly incorporated with each other, that they will hardly ever be divided till Christ comes to reign on earth.” In Scotland, Presbyterianism in one form sits near the throne; but not being fed at such a sumptuous board, does not exhibit so much of the epicure as the prelatic brotherhood of England. Still the sword temporal and the sword spiritual are both employed by the "High Kirk o' Scotland," as the case may be, and have done good service in maintaining her high and royal position. She believes that Kings and Queens may, in a spiritual sense, yet become nursing fathers and mothers to the church, and yet feed her with royal dainties. She, therefore, perseveringly prays for the speedy arrival of that glorious age. She seems not yet to have learned that this promise began to be fulfilled eighteen hundred years ago, when the Gentiles were brought into the church of Christ. Kings and Queens then and since have raised multitudes for the kingdom of the Messiah-not, indeed, intending it, but nevertheless effectually doing it. But leaving the Church and State position of Great Britain, I must just advert for a moment to the condition of her laboring and effective classes. But this I must make the subject of another letter. -Your affectionate Father, A. CAMPBELL. LETTERS FROM EUROPE—No. XXXV. My dear Clarinda-GREAT BRITAIN is, indeed, an agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial nation; but she derives her power, wealth, and glory incomparably more from her manufacturing and commercial pursuits, than from her agricultural resources. Although her agriculture is superior to that of any nation or country in Europe, it nevertheless is inadequate to supply the wants of her own population. Her agriculturists find a home market, the best in the world,'for all that they can grow. Her granaries, however, annually require a large supply from the Baltic, or from this side the Atlantic. Consequently provisions are high. Being overpopulated, and having created more than twenty-five millions of wooden, iron, and brazen men, that neither eat, nor drink, nor sleep, nor wear apparel, animated by steam, their "breath of life," and made comfortable by oil, scientifically toil for little or no wages; having thus displaced some ten times their number of human operatives, men and women have become so cheap and worthless that they would not bring fifty dollars per head were they offered for sale in London, Manchester, or Liverpool, with the understanding that their owners were to feed, clothe, and comfort them in health and in sickness, pay their physician, and find them a hillock or a mound in which to deposit their bones. The operation of this system has for time immemorial tended to make the rich richer, and the poor poorer, until we find more opulence in a few persons, more magnificence, more riches and grandeur, associated with squalid poverty and abject wretchedness in Great Britain than were ever seen in America or in any nation or country possessing civilization in the world. When we learn that heads of families in various and numerous branches of manufacturing and mining operations are receiving oftener less than above three dollars per week, out of which to feed, clothe, house, and warm theme selves-where bread-stuffs, meats, fuel, and house-rents are much higher than in this country, we are at a loss to comprehend how human beings can so live and feel that they are in social rank and privilege at all elevated above the beasts that perish. This is not a verbal definition of degradation, but a definition in fact. Nor does it appear that there is any cure for it. We of the |