to more extensive spoliation. But if the principle, that dissenters are to be relieved from the necessity of contributing to the maintenance of that from which they dissent, is not to be conceded, in what consists the relief to tender consciences? They, to do them but common justice, have ever scorned to rest their case upon any grievance that could be alleged from the mere amount of their contribution. It was

not the payment, but the principle upon which it was required, of which they ever complained. And, if the principle is still to be maintained, what mockery is it to pretend that any relief has been given, by which they could be finally satisfied. And, on the other hand, what becomes of all Spring Rice's declamation against the voluntary system, if the principle by which alone a system of established Christianity can be maintained, is to be abandoned?

Again we would ask, is church property national or corporate? Does it belong to the ecclesiastical incorporation, or to the nation at large? If to the first, what injustice to wrest it from its present proprietors, for the purpose of sweating out of it an increased value, in order to meet expenses which have always heretofore been defrayed out of the revenues of the nation at large? If to the second, do not Dissenters still contribute to the maintenance of the established church, no matter what modification the national revenues undergo, as, upon this supposition, they are no less the property of the nation, this moment in the hands of the bishops, than they would be, in the hands of the commissioner, after their conversion in the manner proposed? What the Dissenter objects to is, the most remote implication that he is a consenting party to the maintenance of an erroneous creed; and, unless he consider himself as divested of any participation in the interest of property, which, it is yet maintained, is strictly national property, his objection upon principle, must be as strong to the allocation of any part of that property to the purposes for which it is at present required, as it can be to submitting to any tax for the furtherance of similar objects.

In truth, no mystification can blind the thinking part of the public to the obvious design of the great majority of those by whom this precious scheme has been supported. They only value it because of its obvious tendency to

Church

cashier the national religion. rates are, in themselves, no grievance. It is now obvious, from the multitude of petitions which are pouring in upon parliament, that, while they are scarcely felt by dissenters, they are cheerfully borne by the nation at large. If the mode in which they are assessed and levied could be called a grievance, an obvious remedy was suggested by Lord Althorp in 1834, when he introduced a bill by which, if it had passed, the consolidated fund would have been made chargeable with their amount. But, the secession of Lord Stanley and Sir James Graham from the government, threw the remaining

members of the cabinet more into the hands of the radicals than they were before, and that faction were no longer content with a moderate and constitutional measure of relief, by which the claims of the church, as a national establishment, would still be respected; but felt, from their commanding position, that concessions might be extorted, by which, sooner or later, the church must be overthrown. Lord Althorp's bill, accordingly, was abandoned, and the present measure concocted, which has been hailed by the faction with a fell delight, while it was introduced by their miserable tools with hypocritical asseverations of their respect and veneration for the establishment. But the wolf, on this occasion, was not able so to disguise himself in sheep's clothing as not to be detected; and he found, moreover, that he had to deal with some one more experienced in the ways of the world than the Little Red Riding Hood. Certainly, if the most glozing plausibility could prevail, Mr. Spring Rice would have been successful. He made his approaches to the church with the stealthy wariness of Reynard creeping upon a hen-roost. But it was of no avail. The bishops had unceremoniously given the alarm; and the wily marauder has encountered a species of opposition, which will make him, if we mistake not, very glad to skulk back, with his tail between his legs, rather than encounter the hostility of his now prepared and determined assailants.

But if it were possible, by any improvement of church revenues, to increase their amount, it was well shown by Sir Robert Peel, (who left not a shred of support to the financial statements of the Chancellor of the Exchequer,) that there were claims

upon it, prior both in importance and magnitude, to any that could be alleged on the part of the Dissenters. The report of the ecclesiastical commissioners stated, that there were no less than 3528 benefices, under £150 per annum; that there were 130 of these that had a population of more than 10,000; that 51 had a population

of from 5 to 10,000; that 251 had a population of between 2 and 5,000; and that there were 1125 having a population of between 500 and 2000. It further stated, that, even if there were to be no addition made to those having a population below 500, it would take no less a sum than £235,000 per annum to raise all the benefices having a population of between 500 and 2,000, to the annual value of £200. There were 2878 benefices on which there was no house of residence, and there were 1728 benefices, in which the houses were either unfit for residences, or in which houses did not exist at all. Surely, while wants of this kind remain to be supplied, it is worse than insulting mockery, it is wicked impiety to talk of directing any portion of the revenues to be derived from any imaginable improvement in the management of church property, to the relief of conscientious dissenters. But the report proceeds to observe, that even this is not the greatest of the exigencies, in the present condition of the country, the providing for which is imperiously demanded.

"The most prominent of those defects, which cripple the energies of the established church, and circumscribe its usefulness, is, the want of churches and ministers, in the large towns and populous districts of the kingdom. The growth of the population has been so rapid, as to outrun the means possessed by the establishment of meeting its spiritual wants; and the result has been, that a vast proportion of the people, are left destitute of the opportunities of public worship, and Christian instruction, even when

every allowance is made for the exertions of those religious bodies, which are not in connection with the Established Church. It is not necessary in this report, to enter into all the details, by which the truth of this assertion might be proved. It will be sufficient to state the following facts as examples. Looking to those parishes only which contain each a population exceeding ten thousand, we find, that, in in London and its suburbs, including the parishes on either bank of the Thames, there are four parishes or districts, each

having a population exceeding 20,000; and containing an aggregate of 166,000 persons, with church room for 8200, (not quite one twentieth of the whole,) and only 11 clergymen. There are 21 others, the aggregate population of which is 739,000, while the church room is for 66,105, (not one tenth of the whole,) and only 45 clergymen."

This demand, observed Sir Robert, is, as yet, unanswered; and most heartily do we concur in his energetic appeal to the gentlemen of England, not, for any pecuniary advantage, to sacrifice the spiritual interests of millions of immortal souls, by assenting to a project, by which the revenues of the church would be mortgaged or sacrificed, in the vain expectation of appeasing the unreasonable and hypochondriacal or hypocritical scruples of capricious dissent, instead of being husbanded for the purpose of multiplying the means and the opportunities for diffusing pure and undefiled religion.

The pretext, that, by divesting the bishops of their rights of property, they would be left more free for the due discharge of their spiritual duties, which was either ignorantly, or inso lently put forward by Lord Howick, was well exposed by Mr. Goulburn. All duties connected with their secularities were, the right honourable gentleman observed, generally performed by their law agents; and it was strange, indeed, that it should be asserted, that this Bill would leave the bishops more free for the discharge of their spiritual duties, when this very board, which the bill created for the management of their land, was to be composed of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of London, and bill, he added, deprived the clergy of other high church dignitaries. This annuitants; making them receive antheir landed property, and made them their own lands. If once this bill was nuities from the future purchasers of passed, the country would soon forget

perhaps it would forget in the course of one twelvemonth-the state of things which had existed prior to the bill being passed into a law, and, he maintained, that the prelates and the other church dignitaries, would appear to the community in a most invidious light. If the bill permitted a dissenter to purchase this land, what would be the situation of the prelate, who would have to come down to him, and claim, not a trifling church rate, but a large propor

tion, perhaps, a fifth of the full value of the property. This is, practically, as important a point as was urged during the whole debate. In what, in the case supposed, would consist the relief to the conscientious dissenter? Would he find it in an aggravation, perhaps one hundred fold, of his preexisting burden? Or, would he stultify himself, by consenting to call that no grievance now, which was before so loudly complained of, because, truly, he was only dealing with the church, for value received, as he would with any other proprietor? This is, no doubt, the true view of the case; and if he only consent to adopt and to act upon it at present, he will, we can assure him, have found a more ready and a more satisfactory mode of dealing with his own scruples, than any suggested by the present bill, which, nevertheless, we do not blame him for setting a very high value upon, because of its very inconsistencies and contradictions. He knows very well that it must lead to that which it would seem to deprecate; and he is satisfied, for a season, to give to ecclesiastical establishments a semblance of support, in order, the more effectually, to ensure their destruction. But the speech which attracted most attention was that of Lord Stanley, because of the vigour and ability with which he replied to the miserable jargon of his majesty's attorney general. Never was chastisement better inflicted or more richly deserved. Indeed the wretched tool of faction, who then writhed under his lordship's lash, was too much honoured by receiving his punishment from such hands. The praises of O'Connell or of Joseph Hume would have been more suitable to his deserts. But doubtless he will never forgive, and the house will never forget the laceration which he provoked, when Lord Stanley rose to exhibit to the indignation of the house, his meanness, his inconsistencies, and his tergiversation; his utter ignorance, or his gross falsification of what has been always recognized as established law; and his readiness, for his own purposes, to lend himself to the views of any administration.

And yet, in dealing with this subject, Lord Stanley had a difficult task to perform; and, it is our belief, the ministers would never have ventured upon the measure which they proposed, had they not conceived that he would have been embarrassed in opposing them, by his advocacy of the church

temporalities bill for Ireland. We have never concealed our opinion, that, in the concoction of that measure, Lord Stanley was carried too far; and that his desire to conciliate led him to such an extreme of concession as to endanger the principles of which he yet would be thought a zealous defender. In using his pruning knife, he cut too near the quick of the establishment, not to leave its vitality exposed; and the very use that has been made of the precedent which he then set, ought, at least, if it has not, to convince him, that modifications, such as he attempted, can rarely be made, without involving more of evil than of good; and that, what is thus done for purposes of peace, becomes, too frequently, a cause of discontent, and a source of discord.

No admirers of

Lord Stanley can be more convinced than we are, of the honesty and the high-mindedness by which he has always been distinguished; and which never, probably, was more conspicuous than when he lent his powerful aid to the reform ministry, in the accomplishment of changes which have given a great and an undue preponderance to the democratic element in our constitution. And if the mischiefs which these changes threaten are to be averted, we do believe, that, humanly speaking, the noble Lord is that individual by whom a consummation so desirable may yet be accomplished. The wound in our body politic can only be healed by the same weapon by which it has been inflicted. And we confess that our worst fears for the results of the reform bill are least sensibly felt, when we read the effusions of this gallant and high-souled nobleman, without whose aid it never could have been enacted.

But, in the case before us, he fully succeeded in showing, to the satisfaction of every honest man, that his conduct with respect to the Irish church furnished neither precedent nor apology for the conduct of ministers in introducing such a measure as that to which he now objected. The church in Ireland was discriminated from that in England, by features too obvious to require to be specified; and which were abundantly sufficient to render any reasoning from the one to the other, in the cases proposed, most unfair; and the measures were, themselves, discriminated, by the recog nition of the principle of a church establishment, and the justice and

equity which were observable in the one, and the rejection of that principle, together with the injustice and the iniquity which may be charged upon the other. The noble lord was quite triumphant in pressing this view of the matter upon the attention of the house; and left his antagonists utterly foiled in their attempts to expose his inconsistency.

We know very well that speculatists, like ourselves, are very likely to undervalue the difficulties which beset the practical men, who have to deal with those important questions in the imperial parliament. But we cannot, nevertheless, help thinking, that too much is sometimes done for the sake of conciliating unreasonable opponents. Nay, we are of opinion, that if less was sometimes attempted in that way, more would be accomplished. In our judgments, every real grievance should be met by a real remedy. If the dissenter had any thing whereof he might fairly complain, we would not stand for one moment in the way of its removal. On the contrary, if we did not anticipate, we would be aiding him therein, by our fullest and most cordial cooperation. But, admitting this, we do not admit that every quasi grievance should be met by a quasi remedy. We never knew any good to come of that prac

tice. Religious or political hypochondriacism has never yet, in any single instance, been cured by bread pills. And our course in such a case would be, simply, to assert the groundlessness of the complaint; and to treat, either as malingerers, or worse, those by whom it was hypocritically paraded. The man who calls church rates a grievance because he dissents from the church, is not more reasonable in his opposition to them, than would be the republican, who should refuse to pay taxes, because he prefers a republic to a monarchy; and no concession which might not be made to the latter, should, in our judgment be made to the former, by those who would preserve inviolable the connection between church and state, or oppose any effectual resistance to the introduction of a principle, by the prevalence of which our national Christianity must be abandoned.

But we must conclude. We know not whether the result of this discussion may not relieve the country from the incubus administration. It might, perhaps, be desirable, that they continued in office a little longer; but, if they think otherwise, we must even be content. Sir Robert Peel is, we believe, in good heart, and the materials of a better cabinet are abundant.

Ar the conclusion of our last chapter we left our quondam antagonist, Mr. Beamish, stretched at full length upon a bed practising homoeopathy by administering hot punch to his fever, while we followed our chaperon, Doctor Finucane, into the presence of the Reverend Father Brennan.

The company into which we now, without any ceremony on our parts, introduce ourselves, consisted of from five and twenty to thirty persons seated around a large oak table, plentifully provided with materials for drinking, and cups, goblets, and glasses of every shape and form. The moment we entered the doctor stepped forward, and, touching Father Malachi on the shoulder, for so I rightly guessed him to be,-presented himself to his relative by whom he was welcomed with every demonstration of joy. While

their recognitions were exchanged, and while the doctor explained the reasons of our visit, I was enabled, undisturbed and unnoticed, to take a brief survey of the party.

Father Malachi Brennan, P. P. of Craignaholt, was what I had often pictured to myself as the beau ideal of his caste; his figure was short, fleshy, and enormously muscular, and displayed proportions which wanted but height to constitute a perfect Hercules; his legs so thick in the calf, so taper in the ancle, looked like nothing I know except, perhaps, the metal balustrades of Carlisle-bridge; his face was large and rosy, and the general expression, a mixture of unbounded good humour and inexhaustible drollery, to which the restless activity of his black and arched eye-brows greatly contributed; and his mouth, were it not for a character of sensuality and voluptuousness about the nether lip, had been actually handsome; his head was bald, except a narrow circle close above the cars, which was marked by a ring of curly dark hair, sadly insufficient, however, to conceal a development behind, that, if there be truth in phrenology, bodes VOL. IX.

Ireland, a Poem in Ten Cantos.

but little happiness to the disciples of Miss Martineau.

66

Add to these external signs a voice rich, fluent, and racy, with the mellow “doric" of his country, and you have some faint resemblance of one every inch a priest." The very antipodes to the bonhommie of this figure, confronted him as croupier at the foot of the table. This, as I afterwards learned, was no less a person than Mister Donovan, the coadjutor or "curate;" he was a tall, spare, ungainly, looking man of about five and thirty, with a pale ascetic countenance, the only readable expression of which vibrated between low suspicion and intense vulgarity: over his short, projecting forehead, hung down a mass of straight red hair ; indeed-for nature is not a politicianit almost approached an orange hue. This was cut close to the head all round, and displayed in their full proportions a pair of enormous ears, which stood out in "relief," like turrets from a watch-tower, and with pretty much the same object; his skin was of that peculiar color and texture, which not all "the water in great Neptune's ocean" could impart a look of cleanliness to, while his very voice, hard, harsh, and inflexible, was unprepossessing and unpleasant. And yet, strange as it may seem, he too, was a correct type of his order; the only difference being that Father Malachi was an older coinage with the impress of Douay or St. Omers, whereas Mister Donovan was the shining metal fresh stamped from the mint of Maynooth. While thus occupied in my surveillance of the scene before me, I was roused by the priest saying