or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for a redress of grievances."* Here it would appear that there was a perfect indifference in the government of the country to the establishment of the Christian, or any other religion whatever. Every thing was left to the conscience of the people, to choose their religion; and to their liberality, to raise funds for its support; and what has been the consequence? The aggregate of all the States in the Union gives the following results :

This gives about one church, and one minister to every 1,000 of the population; results which, in proportion to circumstances, no other Christian country can present. Mr. Buckingham gives many details of this subject in his valuable work on the United States, and to it I am indebted for the above statement, and for what follows. Scotland is generally considered to be as well provided with religious instruction as any country, but it must in this respect yield to the United States.

Population. Churches. Ministers.

3 Interior States 1,862,000 - 1,872 - 1,639 In 10 of the newest States lying to the Westward, there was a population of 3,641,000; churches, 3,701; ministers, 2,690.

In Scotland, there is one minister to every 1,312 of the population. In the three Atlantic States, and in the ten new

* American Constitution 1789.

ones, there is one minister to 917 and 984 persons, respectively. In the large cities there is a similar proportion in favour of America, comparing the following.

The means afforded for education, are more ample in the United States than in any other country.

Out of the whole population, there are receiving education-1 in 5 in the States; 1 in 10 in Scotland; 1 in 12 in England; and 1 in 20 in Wales. There is not space here for details of the educational system established in that country; but to convey an idea of the extent and value of it, it may be mentioned, that in the single State of New York, with a population of about 2,000,000 souls, there is spent annually, in support of the common schools alone, about one million of dollars. In the other States, there is proportionally as much expended. This sum does not include the expense of private seminaries, or academies, for the higher branches of education. In fine, there is throughout the American union, an ample provision for the religious and moral education of every person, even to the poorest in the country; and any family, who has not every member of it able to read and write, and with books in its possession, has itself to blame. This is in a country where there is no national church!

But a church establishment, supported by the nation, would be a good thing, were results, such as described, to follow from it. But, how does the matter stand in this country? It is notorious, that an amount of funds is raised every year, sufficient to endow many national churches,

and yet about half the population are Dissenters, who support their own ministers. It also stands on record, that in certain parts of Yorkshire and Wales, within the island of Great Britain, there is a class of the population who never heard of Jesus Christ, or, if they have heard of him, cannot say who he was! It is perhaps reserved for England, out of all the countries in Europe, Asia, and America, to have some of its people in a state of such gross ignorance, as not to have heard a name that fills the universe!-Yet, there is an Archbiship of York, and a Bishop of Durham, who receive princely revenues from the very counties debased by such a state of things existent in it! If such ignorance as is described exist in this country, it is happiness to be ignorant of the fact; but the knowledge of it must spread, and the parties who allowed, or profited by, or connived at, this ignorance, must sink beneath the national scorn and contempt.

But the acts of the legislature of this country display a jealousy, and even dread, of the people becoming enlightened.*

The portion of North America formerly under the dominion of Great Britain is, since the separation of the countries, the only part of the globe where the great experiment is making of leaving man entirely to his own resources, and where no one individual, no family, no section of the community, step forward to claim a preference to the public lands of the country, and still less to the right of govern

* There is in our system a blindness of intellect and an infatuation quite extraordinary in a country such as this, in affairs concerning the substantial comfort of the population. Our convicts entail on the country an enormous expense. Ignorance is at the root of all this. Were our legislators to apply arithmetic to such questions, they would find that the feeding, clothing, and safe custody, of half a dozen of criminals a year, will amount to about as much as the expense of educating four or five hundred children.

ing their countrymen. It is a most important experiment, in the success of which the whole human race is interested, and in the issue of which, the providence of the Almighty will be justified. But half a century is much too limited a period to test the experiment. The great enterprise must be carried through three or four generations of men, before experience shall have stamped its seal on it. But as far as the experiment has yet gone, we find a people, although unsettled in some things, in possession of a greater degree of personal, civil, and political liberty, than ever fell to the lot of mankind before; and we find the Christian religion, though unsupported by the State, flourishing and extending its influence; and we find throughout the wide extent of that country, no class of men, and scarcely an individual, who does not possess a sufficiency of bread.*

# 66 Christianity implies by one of its rites, too sacred to be particularized, that all the individuals of a Christian community should have at least a sufficiency of the first element of life."- From the MS. of The Economics of the Mosaic and Christian Dispensations, by the Author of this work.

CHAP. XII.

APPLICATION OF THE WHOLE ARGUMENT TO THE CONDITION OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE.

THE PRESENT STATE IS THE RESULT OF A LONG CONTINUANCE OF BAD LAWS, AND NOT THE EFFECT OF TEMPORARY DERANGEMENT OF TRADE AND FINANCE. THE GREAT QUESTIONS AT ISSUE.

For three hundred and fifty years the sovereignty of these Islands has been successively exercised by the Tudors, the Stuarts, the Oranges, and the Guelphs; and it is to be ardently hoped by every lover of his country, that the People, the Sovereign, and the Aristocracy will, in their respective spheres of action, be guided by those great lessons which the history of nations, above all, which the history of their own nation, affords.

Each and all of these parties will require to prepare themselves for great changes in the circumstances of this country, and in the balance of its interests. The country will only deceive itself, and be eventually thrown into still greater confusion, if a belief be fostered that the derangement of affairs in every department of business and finance, which has existed for several years past, is merely of a temporary nature, and that the country only waits for a revival of trade and the opening of foreign markets, to recover its energies.