the event of any one of the present dissenting bodies becoming the dominant religion. "The Presbyterians," says Hume," insisted that the least of Christ's truths was superior to all political considerations, and maintained the eternal obligation imposed by the Covenant to extirpate heresy and schism.'

As respects the Popish Church, her intolerant spirit is matter of history; it is known to make the very life-blood of her constitution, although, to the surprise of every churchman in the land, a contrary opinion has received countenance in a quarter where, of all others, it was least expected. But, indeed, it was for yielding the whole question at issue, by designating that church the Catholic Church." It was for his propitiation of the Irish priests, his encomiums of the "Catholic schools," to be supported by the confiscated tithes, his reprobation of "the Protestant Church of Ireland, as having far too abundantly partaken of a political and mercenary, rather than a religious character, the reward of those valuing the flock more for its fleece than its soul's health." It was for disseminating abstract common places and dangerous untruths about "conciliation,""redeeming our characters,"-" centuries of misrule,"-" the Reformation forced at the point of the bayonet,”—“Transubstantiation being a more harmless error than the virulent spirit with which the Romish Church is assailed." It was for backing our Whig-Radical government in the scheme of raising all sects to equal political importance on the ruin of the Establishment,though the dismemberment of the Empire be the issue, and for varnishing the conspiracy with such trashy generalities as we have just quoted, that the see of Norwich was conferred on the reverend author of "Religion and Education in Ireland." In page 10 we read, "How often do we hear it positively asserted that the lives of Protestants are in jeopardy? I doubted the fact before, but am certain now that nothing can be more false." How warped must be the headpiece of the writer of this sentence, we need not stop to remark. We only trust the Right Rev. Prelate will have read the heart-rending details of the late lingering tortures unto death in the county of Sligo. "Lives in jeopardy!" Why, my Lord, they are killing the entire body of beneficed clergymen by inches and starvation. Could you travel through the country in the year 1836, and have no eyes nor ears but for the declaration of the "respected Catholic bishop, Dr. Murray,"-no praise but for "the mildness and benevolence of those by whom education is conducted, their zeal in season and out of season," and "have only to regret, that the Protestant religion can boast of no communities so exclusively devoted to God's service?" This is all the Bishop has to regret at the

* Ireland, pp. 17, 20, 25. + Ibid. p. 35.

Ibid. p. 30.

very time that the clergy of the Protestant Church were enduring every species of invective and misrepresentation, were subjected to the most harassing legal opposition, and to outrage and intimidation of the most horrible kind. He lavishes his sensibility upon the "Catholic population," whilst the harassed spirits, ruined fortunes, disappointed hopes of a most meritorious body of men-the daily sacrifice of the broken heart-elicit not a passing ejaculation. Now, as we are not made to sympathize at once with the oppressors and the oppressed, we cannot understand how our reverend traveller, with nothing but douce humanité in his mouth, should confine all his "regrets" to the "persecution and violence to which the Catholics of Ireland, who are attached to their religion by the pardonable ties of early association, are subjected."* This is "conciliation" and justice to Ireland, in the true Whig-Radical definition of the terms; but these distorted regards were welcome to those who had the distribution of church patronage, and verily the Rev. E. Stanley hath his reward.

If, notwithstanding all that he has written (we believe from conscientious conviction), the Bishop of Norwich, now that he has gained his ends, should be of opinion (and he cannot think otherwise) that the Established Church, in her forms and discipline, is best calculated for the religious instruction and moral culture of the people,-if, upon more mature consideration, he should allow, that, under the mild sway of her authority, more happiness and toleration have been enjoyed than under that of any other ;-if he would but correct his "liberal" fancies, which, flowing from the well-spring of Episcopacy, startle sober-minded men, and would recollect, that when the sects had the ascendancy, there was no peace and no toleration, he will forbear for the future to contribute to the destruction of the Establishment, by harping upon her errors. Were he more enlightened, he would not point out, to the sneers of dissenters, whose zeal for Christianity hardly allays their hatred to the Church," the beam that is in her eye." He would not play the part of Ham, but silently, and with averted face, have laid his robes upon the destitution of a parent. What have the national clergy done, that they should be contemned? What the "High Church," that she should be "checked like a bondman; all her faults observed,"" set in a note-book, learned and conned by rote,""to cast into her teeth;" while, in the same breath, the dissenters of every varied creed, from the captious cold-hearted Socinian, that rejects the Atonement, down to the lowest driveller in theology, that preaches from a tub, are favoured and hallooed on to her subversion? If the clergy be really unsound in doctrine, the

*Ireland, p. 35.

+ Ibid. P. 14.

Bishop of Norwich should be the last man to proclaim it at his installation, instead of afterwards instituting inquiries of still greater strictness and impartiality* (if that were possible), and censure or punish as the cases may require. But if, on the contrary, as a body, they are wise and learned, diligent and faithful, "instruct in season and out of season;" if "when reviled, they bless; when defamed, they entreat; when persecuted they suffer it;"-if this be their general character, (as we are well convinced it is,) then let them not be discouraged and borne down by those who should be their natural defenders; and that, too, at a time when their path is crowded with weighty and accumulated difficulties. If, under the circumstances of danger which surround her, her mitred ministers do not see it to be their duty and their interest to stand up in the defence of the Church, to whom can she look for support? Must she apply to her own case the impassioned exclamation of the prophet, and say, "I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me." And as respects our Legislature, have they not a large debt of gratitude to pay back for all the blessings she has showered upon them? Have they not been benefitted by her picty, and instructed by her wisdom? Whatever the acuteness of the bar, the dignity of the senate, the solidity of the judgment-seat, and the sacred morality of the pulpit, have hitherto furnished, is, in a great measure, to be ascribed to the assiduous culture, correct taste, sound principle, and deep erudition, derived from the labours of this so calumniated clergy. The Bishop of Norwich cannot be insensible of those labours, though he libels, by insinuation, the unrivalled excellence from which they proceed. We mention them, not by way of ostentation, but respectfully to remind his Lordship of the substantial blessing hitherto enjoyed by the country, under the mild sway of the Establishment, and of the danger we are in in these revolutionary times of losing them.

We must now hasten to a conclusion. What we have said has been wrung from us by the necessities of our vocation. Let the Bishop of Norwich (and we trust that he will) employ henceforward all his energy, and all the resources of his diocese, to discountenance sectarian principles, which have no foundation in holy writ; then will be forgotten the discreditable means whereby he has attained his elevation. On such a conduct in the Right

*The impartiality of our orthodox Prelate may be judged of by the following two passages which occur in pages 16 and 17 of "Ireland." "The pamphlet of the highly talented and amiable Dr. Pye Smith, a dissenter, with whom most Christians would hold it an honour to be acquainted."—"A book by a Rev. Mr. Gathercole, which claims a sort of notorious preference." And such is the bias of the Clerk of the closet to our unsuspecting sovereign!

Rev. Prelate, many lovers of the Church might, in their gratitude, confess, that if there was no other way for his Lordship * to become a prop to a tottering church, then the pamphlet, it has been our painful duty to "show up," might be forgiven him: it might be regarded even with toleration, whilst in the writer they recognised a sympathizer with his brethren, who, in the sister kingdom, are doomed to suffer under the cruel persecution of this awful day,.. whilst they beheld him taking, under the broad shield of Episcopal protection, the devout, the loyal, the orthodox clergy and laity of the important diocese of Norwich. Indeed, when we recollect the stringent obligations of his Lordship's station, we entertain no doubt, that, in the words of the last exhortation pronounced by the Archbishop, when he placed the Bible in his hands, he will henceforward "TAKE HEED UNTO HIMSELF AND HIS DOCTRINE."

ART. XII.-Domestic Prospects of the Country under the New Parliament. London: Ridgway. 1837.

ON the first night of the Session of Parliament, 1837, the following Notices of Motions were given:

A Bill to introduce the Ballot.

A Bill to repeal the Septennial Act.

A Bill to amend the Marriage Act.

A Bill for the Repeal of the Corn Laws.

A Bill for the Reform of the House of Lords.

A Bill for the Household Franchise.

A Bill to abolish the Law of Primogeniture.

A Bill for the Exclusion of the Bishops from Parliament. A Bill to abolish the system of Plural Voting in Vestries. A Bill to repeal that part of the Reform Bill which requires the Payment of Rates and Taxes before voting at Elections.

A Bill to examine into the State of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

Subsequently were added Notices of a Bill for the Abolition of the Standing Army; and a Bill for abolishing the Qualification of Members of Parliament.

Our publication is a religious one, and we have no desire to change its character. But in times like ours, when every great maxim of the constitution becomes matter of debate; when some of the great institutions have already fallen, and all are assailed; and when all the assaults converge on the religion of England,-what can be more natural, than that those who regard

* "At si non aliam venture fata Neroni," &c.

religion as the supreme source of national strength, should take alarm; or more justifiable, than that they should exhibit their sense of the danger in the promptitude of their defence. It is even scarcely extravagant to say, that the man who has regulated his mind and his objects by the high rules of our common faith, is almost the only one who can take a true view even of human interests. Without being a partisan, he has the right to an accuracy of judgment, which no measure of ability can give where personal motives intervene. Keeping aloof from the conflict of the passions, he is least likely to be blinded by the dust that clouds the field. He has the largest stake in the discovery of the truth, while he regards it as involving hopes and purposes beyond the level of human life, and calculates consequences that may act on the expanded scale of more illustrious and enduring stages of existence. If "truth is powerful and will prevail," sincerity is almost secure of finding its track, and sharing in its successes: leaving the slow and shifting navigation by which prejudice and interest cling to the coast, and suit their sail to every passing wind, it strikes forward into the open sea, carries its guide within itself, and, alike through light and darkness, fixing its eye above, casts anchor in the new and noble region which had been so long prohibited to the tardy and circuitous pilotage of other times.

The State is now governed by parties, and of those we must judge, not by their own avowals, but by facts; and those facts we must interpret by their principles. Whiggism now takes the lead it constitutes the nominal government; but it holds the sceptre only by compromise: its existence is prolonged only by the alms of radicalism and popery; and every hour at once exhibits the precariousness of those alms, and the humiliation to which it stoops for them. Taunted with its subserviency to both factions, it only takes refuge the more openly with both. The menial proves his independence only by mingling the livery of both his masters, and wearing it in the face of day.

A bolder spirit would disdain alike the service of either; fling off with one hand the red cap of the Jacobin, and with the other the domino of the Jesuit; call the empire to its assistance, and be free and British again. An honester spirit would disdain to exist by the tenure of perpetual duplicity. The Whig of the Revolution of 1688 would have swept the traffickers for place, and the traffickers for privilege, alike out of the temple of the constitution, and, having thus purified the worship, would have let in the people. The Whig of the Revolution of 1832, himself turns the temple into a gaming-house, keeps the tables, invites both factions to the game, and lives on what he can make by cheating them together.

But this condition of things is ruinous to all the great objects of empire. Ministers, to be useful to a country, ought to be