practically, that by far the larger portion of Christians do in their spirits feel the blessedness of being able to repose on something that is positive, and in not being driven here by doctrines in one pulpit, and there by doctrines in another pulpit: and it is this feeling which is the true cause of all the conversions to the Church of Rome which have recently taken place, particularly amongst women, and those half-instructed clergymen from Oxford; the constant expression with such persons being, "Oh, it is such a comfort to find something fixed at last!"

A strange attempt has been made by some to detach the Church of England from the Papacy, by pretending a genealogy direct from the Oriental Churches, instead of from the Western. It is probable, from the differences respecting Easter, that the first British Christians along the shores of St. George's Channel, in Cornwall, Ireland, Wales, and Scotland, albeit a very small body, were converts of missionaries from the Eastern Churches; but the whole, for centuries before the Reformation, had come under the dominion of Rome; and it would be difficult to shew that the other inhabitants of these islands, who were converted at a subsequent period, did not receive their Christianity from missionaries sent direct from Rome, such as Austin and others. To speak, therefore, of an Anglican Catholic Church as a parallel to the Papacy, is

more absurd than to speak of a Roman Catholic Church. The Church of England never can be Catholic she is limited by her name, and by the very laws and charter of her existence, to the British Isles; so that it was once a question whether she could lawfully extend herself even to the British Colonies. This doubt is the only excuse which can be made for the total neglect of our Colonies for centuries by the English bishops, out of which neglect they were at length shamed by the voice of the laity,—another example of that stimulus which contains within it the seeds of death.

If the bishops were determined to remedy the evil condition of the Church; if they were agreed amongst themselves in doctrines and rites; if they would petition the Crown for liberty to call a Council of the Church, and if, on being refused by the lay power, they would still meet, cast the lay oppressor out of the Church, and be content to abide his utmost wrath, they would commence a work which might avert the doom of the Establishment for a season. Nothing short of this will be of any avail; but, as there are so many contingent "if's," it would be a useless waste of time to discuss the consequences of such a step. Not only is the taste for martyrdom become as obsolete as that for daily communion and a cross upon the altar, but there is not left enough of principle in any class to

risk pecuniary or personal danger for its maintenance. So that, whether the Church be contemplated from within or from without, her situation appears equally remediless. How long the secular power may find it advantageous to use a certain number of votes in the House of Lords (and of the loss of this the bishops were threatened only last year), or how soon it may be found necessary to give up her wealth to revolutionary plunderers in Ireland, in order, by so doing, to continue some few months longer the expiring tenure of the faction in power at the time, matters little; as a body, she is dead, without means of independent action, or the power of shewing one sign of life,-abandoned by her heads to the mob to cry up, or to cry down, whatever doctrines and rites they please.

The disparity between the incomes of different priests in the same diocess, as well as the pluralities held by some of the opulent clergy, have constantly produced in the Church of England loud and repeated expressions of indignation: to these expressions, however, the bishops have ever turned a deaf ear, and, at last, the secular Parliament bestirred itself to remedy the abuse. Attempts are making to increase the number of churches, whereas that which is needed is a greater number of priests, and a greater division of, and multiplication of services. To these real reformations the bishops

never attend, whilst they encourage the building and endowing of churches, the ecclesiastical appointment to many of which are to be at the disposal of those who hire pews in them; there being but a very inadequate space allotted to the poor, who are effectually precluded from approaching "a man with a gold ring."

Now, as on the breaking out of an epidemic, the first deaths which occur are a warning to all who are attacked with the same malady that it must not be neglected at its commencement, and indicate the nature of the termination to be expected if it is, so did Independency, which appeared at the commencement of the Protestant Reformation, point out the end which awaited every church affected with that schismatic malady, unless the greatest care was taken by the bishops to prevent it. The spirit of political freedom, which roused the nation at length to repel with indignation and violence the insolent pretensions of an Italian bishop, was sufficient to show that the English people would never again submit to lawless, ecclesiastical tyranny; and the only danger to be apprehended was, that the people, not having distinguished between the unjust political, and the just ecclesiastical, jurisdiction, in wisely rejecting the one, had rashly rejected the other also, would henceforward continually resist all hierarchical order and rule whatever. This is, in

fact, just what has taken place; and there is at this present moment less deference in most clergymen for the authority of their bishop than there is in Scottish ministers for the judgment of their presbytery. The Church of England has fallen into Independency, and has thereby become a mere hollow shell, with some of the external lineaments, but with scarcely one of the internal characteristics of a church.

Whilst the clergy of the Church of England have been trampled upon by the laity, they have been as cruel as others of their class, and as unjust towards those who have differed with them. In some countries, such as Italy and Spain, the Romish Clergy at once exterminate all Dissenters; but in others, such as France, Hungary, Bohemia, and the northern states of Germany, they have been unable to do so: nevertheless, the Romish Clergy have gone to as great lengths as they could. But in none of these countries have they proceeded with greater and more unmitigated injustice than have the clergy of the Church of England. The following passage is from one of themselves, quoted by a supporter of the Government measures for the relief of Roman Catholics in Ireland, in the House of Commons:

"There are a vast number of instances in my own parish, where one poor man, whose whole tithes