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peers, which his lordship goes on to advise. Now let any thoughtful and impartial man judge whether such a letter does not bear out all, and more than all, we have said in the foregoing paragraphs. Here is a prelate, whose chief concern it is to watch over the flock of Christ, to promote with all his efforts the glory of God and the spiritual welfare of mankind, and to inculcate on less religious and gentle spirits the duty of meekness, forbearance, and peace, publicly announcing himself a political partizan; speaking with secular asperity of" our opponents," whom he represents as either fools or knaves ("idle fears and interested hopes ") urging the much litigated measure, be it right or wrong, of exerting the royal prerogative of inundating the House of Lords with new peers to put down what he most unclerically terms "a factious opposition;" and openly avowing that his anxiety to watch over the progress of parliamentary reform prevented his attending to the duty of being in his diocese at Christmas, to hold an ordination, and superintend the spiritual concerns of the souls so lately and with so much solemnity committed to his charge. Our prelates, it is true, as members of the legislature, are expected to enter more into various matters of secular concernment than would be necessary in regard to their spiritual function; and this for a reason not adequately considered-namely, that their presence and voice should prevent the adoption of any measures prejudicial to religion or good morals; and that there may never be wanting, in the highest seat of legislation, men to stand up boldly in defence of the laws of God, and to denounce whatever is contrary to their letter or spirit. We admit that a considerable measure of secular care has thus come to be attached to the Anglican mitre; and we also do his lordship the full justice to believe, that he conscientiously considers Parliamentary Reform an excellent measure, and well calculated to benefit the public: but ought duties still more sacred to be on this account neglected? While his Right Reverend brethren were attending to the concerns of their dioceses, and candidates were waiting for ordination, and the churches demanded pastors, and the clergy required supervision, was it an available plea either at the bar of public opinion or at a higher tribunal, that his lordship was detained in London by the Reform Bill? Could no interval be snatched from this all-engrossing topic? Were the solemn duties of the episcopal office as nothing in comparison; and was the political gladiatorship exhibited in the above letter, and so much praised by the infidel and revolutionary part of the public press, exactly that which a ruler in the church of Christ ought to have exemplified? Need we add a word to shew how forcibly such an illustration of a prelate becoming a secular partizan,

points out the necessity of that mental discipline which we have urged in the case of all religious persons, more especially in the ministers of Christ, in order that while they take a due interest in passing scenes, they may not in their ardour concerning things temporal neglect those that are spiritual and eternal.

We are happy to fortify our remarks by the arguments-we wish we had space left to quote them at length of a very seasonable publication from the pen of the Rev. J. W. Cunningham, entitled, "The Political Duties of the Ministers of Religion in Times of great National Excitement." It is written with great candour, seriousness, and good temper; and is so judicious, Christian, and appropriate to the exigencies of the times, that we trust it will be extensively read, and seriously considered. The author, in addressing his Reverend brethren, exempts from his cautions the members of the ecclesiastical bench, who are called upon to discharge political duties as spiritual lords in Parliament; of whom, he adds, "it can only be desired that they should exercise their functions with dignity and independence, in the fear of God, and with the calmness, candour, and courage, and absence of party spirit, which become their office;" and which, Mr. Cunningham justly remarks-without offering any opinion as to whether or not the vote against the Reform Bill was wise-was exhibited in the speech of the Primate on that occasion. the Bishop of Chichester's widely-circulated letter appears to us to offend against the canon so well laid down by Mr. Cunningham, that we have thought it our duty to offer the foregoing suggestions.

It is because

Mr. Cunningham shews, in a most clear and convincing manner, in what sense the clergy, and religious persons in general, are concerned in politics; and in what they ought not to intermeddle with them without absolute necessity. They ought, he justly remarks, to shrink from political notoriety, from becoming engrossed in minor details, the Schedules A. B. and C. of public measures-from joining a party, or vindicating what is morally wrong: but they ought to understand and promulgate the great principles on which all true policy depends, bringing the doctrines and precepts of the Bible to bear upon all the business of life; and they ought to promote that spirit of mutual candour and kindness, in which intricate questions are best discussed, and brought to a happy bearing, If these excellent suggestions, for the filling up and working out of which we recommend our readers to turn to Mr. Cunningham's pamphlet, were more generally acted upon, most blessed would be the effect. Christianity would then begin to have practical weight in the concerns of nations; and religious persons need not be so sensitive as at

present, in fearing to promote the public to say, that too many of our public men welfare and the best interests of mankind, whether Whig, Tory, or Radical

lest their own spirits should be ruffled and injured by hostile collision.-Want of space prevents our doing justice to Mr. Cunningham's argument by quotation; but in sending our readers to his own pages, we shall better accomplish the author's object than by a fuller notice.

We must now turn to another topic the fearful topic of Ireland. And what shall we say of that country, torn asunder by the concussion of inflamed passions and conflicting interests? In that island we have the spectacle of a nation in which the great majority of the people are Roman Catholies, and the minority Protestants; while Protestantism is the religion established by law, and is also connected with the great mass of rank and property. The policy of former cabinets, antecedent to the Wellington, was to centre power as much as possible in the hands of the Protestants; the Wellington government gave equal rights to all: but in both cases, we fear, without the slightest reference to any higher object than a supposed secular expediency. The present government not only wish to set aside all distinctions, whether religious or political; but the system of policy on which they have embarked, combined with the spirit which extensively prevails in that country-and particularly the systematic, but most anjust and illegal, opposition to the payment of ecclesiastical dues-may, we fear, end in something very like a legislative recognition of Popery as the national, or co-national, religion of the country. We would go to the full extent of concession and conciliation where conscience is not concerned; we could even consent, if necessary, to abate somewhat of the secular splendour of a church-establishment whose ministers to their shame be it spoken till of late years, did scarcely any thing for the spiritual welfare of the bulk of the people, or even of their nominal Protestant parishioners; we could even see, without much alarm, some of the ecclesiastical wealth, which has served to tempt powerful families to make a gain of godliness, converted to the humbler purpose of planting scriptural schools throughout the demesnes from which it is derived; we could forgive, nay, hail, the labours of the Irish Tithe Committee now sitting, if, even at a considerable sacrifice in a pecuniary view, they can devise some method of remunerating the clergy equally safe and permanent with tithes, but less subject to excite ill-will and discord;-all this would grieve us little but to coalesce with the Papal church, to salary its priesthood, or, in deference to them, to keep back the word of God in a system of national education -involve points of conscientious feeling which no sound and religious Protestant can possibly consent to. But we lament

make no account of this distinction : they view Ireland as divided by two sects -one small and in power, the other large and depressed; and their object is to trim the balance, without any regard to the truth of one opinion more than another. The scheme of a system of national education constructed upon this principle, and in which the Scriptures were to be banished from the school-room, was devised some years since, and has been recommended over and over again by the commissioners of education and parliamentary advocates; and seems now likely to be adopted, unless the strong sensation excited among the Protestant body should prevent it. We fear that respectable and powerful body have not acted wisely in mixing up this question with others, not of necessity connected with it; or in again uniting Protestantism to Orangeism, marching under party flags and banners, blending their zeal for scriptural education and their hatred to the Reform-bill in the same speeches and resolutions; and giving to a high and holy question an aspect of political virulence, which will only excite new virulence-if indeed that were possible on the other side, and afford to third parties a pretext, of which they will not fail to avail themselves, to espouse the cause of the numerical majority, under the plea that religion and Protestantism mean only power, preferment, and political ascendancy. In many cases, we fear, they do not mean much more; for there are those who will fight for Protestantism, declaim for Protestantism, and get drunk for Protestantism and "the immortal memory of King William the Third," while, to all spiritual purposes, they might as well be Papists or Infidels. But very different is the feeling of a large body of pious and conscientious noblemen, prelates, clergymen, and gentlemen in Ireland, the men who are the friends of Scriptural education, who have exerted themselves to the utmost of their power for the spiritual welfare of their countrymen; who are the first to deplore that religious apathy, which for centuries rendered Protestantism but a name, a costly incumbrance, in that long neglected country; and whose opposition (be it right or wrong) to Catholic emancipation, to the Irish reform bill, the jury bill, the education bill, and other measures, is not, as secular statesmen think, a mere scramble for the retention of loaves and fishes, but an intense anxiety for the moral and Christian welfare of their beloved island; and who would rather see her fair fields and hills submerged in the ocean, than desecrated legislatively (whatever they may be practically) to popish idolatry and superstition. We earnestly trust, were it only for the sake of sound policy, that a fair attention will be paid to the arguments of this respectable

class of the Irish public, and that they themselves will not allow those arguments to be weakened by political asperities. The design of providing a system of national education for the whole of the rising generation of Ireland, in the present and to future ages, is most noble ; and the bill brought in by Mr. Stanley last September, does not of necessity involve the more obnoxious plans which have been proposed, and which are matters of detail to be arranged by the commissioners. There is, however, much in the appointment of the commissioners themselves that we object to; for we see no possibility of conscientious Protestants and Roman-Catholics coalescing in such a plan of education as shall secure what the preamble of the next bill excellently sets forth as the object of national instruction; namely, that "it is the duty and interest of every state to provide for its people such a system of public education as may best tend to improve moral and religious habits, encourage industry, and insure happiness." Will the plan now projected do this? We fear not: for the Roman Catholies will not allow the free use of the inspired Scriptures in education; and Protestants dare not reject them, or garble them to render them neutral. Parts of the Bible are indeed often used in Protestant schools, but only for convenience, and not under the idea that any other part is meant to be systematically excluded. And here it is that the plan of a selection of passages, according to the proposed scheme, will be felt by the Protestants to be a concession which they cannot conscientiously make; while the Papist concedes nothing, as he does not use the Bible in ordinary education. Nor can the Protestant clergyman and the Catholic priest conscientiously go hand in hand together; and least of all, now that such incipient differences have already arisen as will pro bably render the whole scheme abortive, unless some other plan is devised than that recently proposed. The real question is, what is such an education as the above preamble prescribes; what ought a Christian state to teach its infant population? To this our statesmen reply, Reading, writing, the elements of arithmetic, and other useful branches of secular know ledge. But here we join issue with them; for we do not allow that this is of itself the education which it behoves a Christian state to bestow. Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever; and an education that does not assume this as its basis, is not a Christian education. We wish we had two or three pages to devote to the subject; but we have not, and must therefore defer the further consideration of it, and of the whole question of Ireland to our next Number. It is a subject of momentous importance.

For the same reason we must pass over

for the present various other questions of public interest: among others, the trial of the rioters at Bristol and Nottingham. The atrocious guilt of these criminals is proved beyond question; but we shudder at the spirit which has gone abroad in some quarters, as if public vengeance could not be satisfied without consigning numerous victims to the gibbet. Without pretending to decide as to each particular case, we trust that his Majesty's Ministers will continue to exercise that tenderness for human life which has hitherto distinguished their administration; and that they will not be awed into barbarity, by being charged with fraternising with political clubs, and countenancing riot and rebellion, because they refuse, unless in cases of extreme necessity, to dip their hands in human blood, even though among their accusers should be found persons whose pretensions to religion should have better taught them the duties of humanity.

The rapid progress of Temperance Societies was another point to which we wished to have adverted; but on this also we must defer our remarks. We are glad to see by a paper stitched into our last Number, that the London Temperance Society has commenced a cheap monthly publication to inform the public mind upon the question, and we trust that the efforts of the Society will be abundantly blessed. The consumption of ardent spirits by the lower classes has increased of late years beyond all precedent, and needs the strongest efforts of every Christian, and every philanthropist, to counteract the effects of this deadly poison.

Closely connected with intemperance, is another flagrant and rapidly increasing national crime--that of Sabbath-breaking. Every month brings before us some fresh device of Satan and his servants, to desecrate the holy day; and the most recent invention for committing this old crime in a new way, is by opening the reading rooms of political unions on the Sunday. The infidels and radicals of Manchester have just adopted this plan; and in London we find it proposed and carried by a Mr. Fox, to whose name the newspapers prefix the title of " Reverend," but who has plainly shewn by his unchristian conduct that to be a Socinian, is certainly no proof that a man is a Christian. wish, alas! that Socinians were the only offenders; but do we not see John Bull Sunday newspapers, even upon clerical tables; nay, in the very next column in the Times newspaper, to that which contains the speech of Mr. Fox, do we not read a letter of a London officiating clergyman, who openly states, without seeming in the least conscious of offence, that he transacts the secular business of the parish on the Lord's-day, and that on the very last Sunday he had ransacked the registers for a hundred years for an entry,

We

which might just as well have been searched for on any other day. Why blame a lawyer or his clerk for violating the Sabbath, when it is the very day which the spiritual guide of the parish fixes for their attendance at his registry. There must be a thorough reformation in this great matter of the observance of God's holy day throughout the country, among all classes, high and low, rich and poor, or we may justly expect the Divine vengeance to fall upon us.

We are glad to observe that Sir R. Inglis has moved for some papers connected with the political oppressions of the Protestant Vaudois. We brought the case before our readers as long back as October 1830, p. 649, and urged those of them who had opportunity and influence to direct their attention to it. We rejoice to see it taken up by the much-respected member for Oxford; and we trust that his interposition will not be unavailing on behalf of our much-suffering, but patient fellow-Protestants, ground down by civil and ecclesiastical tyranny.

The name of the new bishop for India is not yet announced; nor is any thing said of an immediate addition to the episcopate. We have before us a letter of peculiar interest and importance, from

the late Bishop of Calcutta to a friend in England, in which that excellent man, not many months before his death, states most explicitly his sentiments on this subject. We regret that we are obliged to postpone the insertion of the substance of it till our next Number. The brief memoir of the bishop in our Appendix has been printed separately, for cheap or gratuitous distribution (price 3d, or 100 copies for 1.) to assist in inviting public attention to the question.

The pestilential disorder in the North has extended to several towns and villages, but its ravages have hitherto been mercifully restricted within comparatively narrow limits. We are in the hands of God, and let us feel it to be our consolation that we are so. Our readers, we trust, will not have been uninterested in the historical and ecclesiastical papers on pestilential visitation in our Appendix, and which are continued in the present Number. They are replete with admonitions adapted to the present exigency. We feel grateful that the public authorities have determined to appoint a day of public humiliation and prayer. May the national supplications be heard and answered!

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

LAICUS; J. L.; A VERY OLD CORRESPONDENT; S.; B. A.; A CANDID INVESTIGATOR; R. C.; J. F.; A CONSTANT READER; PAULINUS; T. G.; G. J.; E. B.; A DEVON CURATE; G. H.; VINDEX; P. B.; C. E. G.; N. T.; CLERICUS; U. W. O.; DELTA; T. M. W.; K. L. M.; are under consideration. If we have printed any mistatement relative to Mr. Drummond, we shall rejoice to correct it upon its being pointed out; but we cannot admit a paper to re-assert that those who differ from his opinions are deliberately" dishonest." We may apply nearly the same remark to Mr. Haldane. If there has been any mistatement relative to himself we will correct it; but we are not bound to re-print his censures upon the Bible Society, in which we neither admit his facts nor his inferences. In supplying the omitted names of the speakers at the formation of the Sackville-Street Bible Society we had not the slightest intention of representing him as infected with " Regent-Square leaven." We meant only what we distinctly specified. We beg leave to thank both Mr. Drummond and Mr. Haldane for the obliging and Christian tone of their communications.

SUPPLEMENT TO RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

We have only space to add, without comment, the Monthly publications of the
BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY, and the
ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY:

but we must not delay announcing the gratifying fact, that the Bible Society is by special request sending out ten thousand New Testaments to Lyons, under the sanction of the French Minister of Instruction; it having been at length discovered in France, what some are backward in learning in England and Ireland, that the word of God is the best solace for the poor in their affliction, and the best promoter of order and public tranquillity. A more remarkable fact is not on record in the annals of the society. Let us be humble, thankful, persevering.

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these magnificent fabrics, to which his youthful imagination had been looking forward, and which had

A RECENT article in the Quar- seemed to rise before his eyes over

terly Review was opened with the question, What does an American on landing in England immediately hasten to see? The Reviewer answers, Our cathedrals. We should be happy to think that the taste of all our trans-atlantic brethren were as pure and elevated as the Reviewer supposes; and that the many active, money-seeking andmoney-making individuals who disembark on our shores brought with them feelings so much in harmony with the institutions of the olden country, and minds so conversant with the history of their forefathers, as to taste the exquisite and exalted pleasure which imagination has prepared for them in these magnificent edifices; and a mere vote for the increase of the sum of human enjoyment, however decided and by whomsoever tasted, would lead us to desire that every American in visiting England might be capable of combining the feelings with which a man of education explores the ruins of Rome or Greece, with the not less powerful emotion which in this case arises from the consciousness of a common origin, a common history, and common associations. But if we are really to suppose that such is the feeling with which the American traveller begins the tour of the land of his ancestors; what would his feelings be if he were to hear on landing that it was a question whether CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 362.

the blue horizon of the ocean he had been crossing, should be maintained any longer. What would be his surprise if he heard that the richest country in Europe, a country which contracted six hundred millions of debt during the last war, as a slight incumbrance on its future income; and which has accumulated within its bosom the greatest quantity of personal accommodation and luxury that was ever realized, is hesitating whether it is possible to support those edifices which the poverty of our Norman kings constructed. In a word, that Great Britain, at a time when the sun never sets upon its empire, when its home population approaches thirty millions and its tributary population approaches a hundred, when the revenues of some of its nobility exceed those of its early kings, is doubting the possibility of repairing and supporting fabrics which were raised from the ground and magnificently endowed by the zeal of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries.

We need not trust ourselves with imagining the remarks which this intelligence would produce. We may safely suppose, that, if the feelings of our American visitor should be such as they are represented, he would return to America and propose a subscription among the men of taste and sentiment on that side of the water, to rescue K

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