facturing and Mining districts, from the alarming state of ignorance and demoralization disclosed to public view by recent inquiries and events.-That the success which has attended the endeavours of the National Society, under the most unfavourable circumstances, and with very limited means, to found and support Schools in the most neglected of those districts, affords the strongest encouragement to increased exertion for this specific object. That immediate measures be taken to collect a special Fund, the whole of which shall be expended in grants towards building School-rooms, and, in certain cases, increasing or guaranteeing the salaries of teachers, for limited periods, in the Manufacturing and Mining districts." Before these Resolutions went forth to the public, the sum of 43,730l. was subscribed by 305 contributors of 50%. each and upwards; including 1000l. from the Queen; 500/. from the Queen Dowager; the same from Prince Albert; 1000l. each from the Dukes of Portland and Northumberland, and from Sir. R. Peel and Mr. A. Hope; and other large sums from the Archbishops and Bishops, and many noblemen, clergymen, and private gentlemen; and the subscription is being zealously carried on by the friends of the Church throughout the kingdom. The Committee of the National Society remark, that "Various circumstances afford encouragement to the discharge of this important duty. There is abundant evidence that education under the superintendence of the Church will be gladly received,-may be cheaply afforded,-and, with the Divine blessing, will effectually secure its object, by instilling Christian principles, the great sources of peace and order and social happiness, into the minds of our manufacturing population." The Committee add: "The experience of thirty years has produced a deliberate and growing conviction, that the effect of educating the children of the poor has already been in a high degree beneficial, and is likely to be still more so.

We

do not refer merely to the acknowledged fact, that the preservation of our political institutions depends, under God, upon the stability of our Church Esta blishment; what we especially advert to, is an important truth, too frequently overlooked, and yet universally granted by the most competent authorities, that to build churches and establish ministers is not enough, unless Church-schools be added. Hence it is that so many of the parochial clergy are such liberal contributors towards building and maintaining schools; for, to their power, we bear record, yea, and beyond their power,

they are willing of themselves to sacrifice their private means for the advancement of this great object. The time is short. If the Church delays much longer this duty to the young; if her influential, and wealthier, and more responsible members much longer hesitate to provide sound instruction for the people, the disastrous consequences of such neglect may be easily foreseen."

Ireland has continued to occupy much of the attention of Parliament. The Bill for the Registration and Marking of Fire-Arms has passed, and was clearly necessary as a precautionary measure; for of what utility are firearms to the great mass of the Irish peasantry;-men living in wretched hovels, whose only implement of labour is a spade to cut bog-turf and dig potatoes; whose wives and children are unconscious of shoes or stockings; and who could only wish for fire-arms for unlawful purposes? It is not good for themselves or for others that Mr. O'Connell's masses of organised agitators (to guard against a combined and terrific outbreak from whom, the towns are obliged to be strongly garrisoned,) should possess a species of arms which, in case of a popular outbreak, would render the life of every Protestant unsafe, and convert every hedge and wall into an ambush from which deeds of blood may be perpetrated with impunity;-and though no such outbreak has yet occurred, the present ominous, politic, sullen, abstinence from violence may at one glance from a demagogue be exchanged for active rebellion. The Duke of Wellington has not disguised his opinion that the agitation is "alarming;" as indeed his military precautions

prove.

The debates upon the Arms Bill in the House of Lords, have exhibited a characteristic illustration of the manner in which the Church of Rome teaches her disciples to deal with oaths prejudicial to her interests. The qualification oath of Roman Catholic members of both houses of Parliament, was purposely made as precise and stringent as possible, in order to prevent Romanists, admitted into the legislature under the "Emancipation Act," from misemploying their privilege for the subversion of the Protestant Church Establishment. At first some respect was paid to this solemn pledge; but soon unscrupulous partizans in the House of Commons, especially Mr. O'Connell, boldly affirmed that the oath did not apply to them in their legislative capacity-the very particular for which it was enacted— and this doctrine has now found its way

into the House of Lords, two Roman Catholic noblemen, the Earl of Shrewsbury and Lord Camoys, having avowed it. They were indignantly replied to, not only by those peers from whom such a protest might have been anticipated, but by Lord Brougham, who admitted that he had been deceived by Romanist asseverations; that those who had predicted that the oath would be violated were right, and that he was wrong; and that the insensibility shown by a Roman Catholic peer to the obligations of his oath proved the necessity of a reformation in the studies of Maynooth, the fountan of theology, casuistry, and morals for the Roman Catholic priesthood and laity of Ireland. These were pungent declarations; but not more pungent than true; and they ought not to fail of good effect upon the legislature and the country.

In the lips of Sir R. H. Inglis or Mr. Plumptre, such statements were the effervescence of fanatical bigotry; Maynooth was a hallowed seminary of piety and virtue, as well as a school for gentlemanly and clerical bearing; the outcry about Dens was uncharitable and absurd, and the Romanist priesthood of Ireland were models of every Christian grace. But even Lord Brougham now admits that the charges were true; and yet, in spite of the lurid light thus thrown upon the malpractices of Popery, Parliament is urged to make that pernicious system dominant in Ireland. One section of our legislators, including Lord Lansdowne, advocates paying the Irish priests from the national purse; another proposes ceding a portion of the revenues of the Protestant clergy to them; and another, more consistent, wishes to abolish the Irish Protestant Church altogether, as 66 a perpetual obstacle to improvement."

The folly of these propositions is only equalled by their impiety. The latter objection, we fear, a large number of our public men do not regard; and this causes an insuperable difficulty in duly impressing upon their minds the most solid arguments for the perpetuation of the Protestant Church in Ireland, and the withholding legislative patronage from Popery; for if religious truth or falsehood is not heeded in national concerns; and if the Protestant Reformation was not a matter of spiritual obligation; then Ireland might without guilt be handed over to the Bishop of Rome as a province of his usurped dominions. But even then the folly of the proceeding would be obvious, and we will add, the injustice; for Great Britain is essentially a Protestant empire; its best interests are Protestant; Popery is

its bitterest enemy; and in Ireland, though the numerical majority of the people are Romanists, the potential majority, the moral majority, the mass of the landowners, and the best-ordered of the people, are Protestants; and the tithe is paid chiefly from Protestant property.

But if even these added considerations are not sufficient, our legislators may derive a useful warning from Mr. O'Connell's undisguised avowal of his ulterior objects; namely, the total abolition of the tithe rent-charge; the abolition of poor-rates; extinction of grand-jury cess; vote by ballot; manhood suffrage; and “an equitable arrangement of the relation between landlord and tenant." These, he says, are but a few of the many glorious advantages which would be secured to this country by the restoration of her native parliament. He is right in linking these things together; for if the Protestant Church is allowed to be subverted, all the other effects will follow.

Whether the Queen's ministers have acted wisely in merely preparing for defence or attack, as may be necessary, without attempting to prevent Mr. O'Connell's inflammatory and dangerous proceedings, time will shew. They have, however, unequivocally expressed their determination to oppose Mr. O'Connell's designs, and to preserve to Ireland its union with England, and its Protestant Church Establishment. The Protestants also of Ireland are preparing themselves for a struggle, should this be forced upon them; and a considerable number of influential gentlemen among them have convened a meeting to organize the Protestants of Ulster to resist the repeal of the Union. In their address they say: "The repeal of the Union is but a covert name for the dismemberment of the empire, the extinction of the Protestant religion, the destruction of Protestant property, and the ruin of the Protestant people of Ireland. Though we have hitherto refrained from giving public expression to them, lest we should contribute to produce alarm, or disturb public confidence; yet, considering the manner in which the agitation is now carried on-the masses of the people that are marshalled in military order-the reiterated boasts of their irresistible power-the inflammatory speeches by which they are excited-the seditious papers that are circulated amongst them-the seductive promises of agrarian allotment by which they are deceived, and which the emissaries of Repeal know to be as fallacious as they are impracticable-and the hatred which, under the appellation of Saxons, is directed against all Protestants-we feel

it a duty we owe to our religion, to the throne, and to our country, to give an open expression of our opinions as to the ultimate designs of the agitators."

"While under these alarming circumstances, we can confidently repose in the power and preparation of the Government we feel that there are efforts for public safety which no Government can make, and which require the unanimous and perfect confederation of the parties endangered, to guard against the machinations of those by whom they are threatened; and we feel persuaded that, if, under the providence of God, anything can preserve the peace of the kingdom, it will be through conviction of the restless agitators of Repeal, that their Protestant fellow-subjects, who desire nothing so much as to live in peace, are yet fully prepared and united for purposes of self-defence."

The

The doctrine that all religions, so called, ought to be regarded by the State with equal eye, is essentially antiscriptural; for legislators, as well as other men, ought to have a conscience; nor is it bigotry for a British statesman to declare, that he upholds Protestantism in Ireland upon principle; and not from political partizanship, or predilection for a blind system of conservancy. popular declamations against proselytism, and so forth, are based upon broad scepticism or infidelity. A truly religious man will be just, tolerant, and charitable; but in proportion as his faith and love are active, he will be influenced by a missionary spirit. Christianity is characteristically proselyting; it teaches us to desire the salvation of all men, and with that view to endeavour to guide them from error to truth.

We retain our conviction that the passing of the Scottish National Church Bill leaves no pretext for secession, except the question whether a certain portion of the inhabitants of a parish shall have an obsolete arbitrary veto, or whether they shall be obliged to assign reasons for their disapproval of a candidate, the validity of which shall be decided upon by the presbytery. We cannot think that any principle is here involved so sacred and fundamental, as for it to justify seceding from a church which a person believes to be scriptural in its doctrines and discipline. We feel indeed intensely

for that most respectable body of pious and self-denying men who have made costly sacrifices for conscience sake; but when in future days, after the present effervescence has subsided, it comes to be inquired for what purpose the secession is kept up, we do not think that they, or their successors, will be able to give any reasonable or scriptural reply, unless they coalesce with their new allies, the "dissenters upon principle," in the doctrine which they now disclaim, of the unlawfulness of all national church establishments.

The commission of the General Assembly, we are glad to find, has received the late enactment with approbation; the only exception alleged, being that it is too popular in its spirit, since it obliges the presbytery to consider not only the objections made to a candidate, but "the character and number of objectors;" as if meaning that an objection urged by a large number of persons of good charac ter, even though not weighty in itself, or not proved, ought not to be overlooked, in determining the fitness of a candidate for a particular locality. The Seceders, however, are not satisfied, nor are they likely to be so with any measure which could be devised short of delegating the choice of the pastor wholly to the heads of houses, or the male communicants, or some other body whom they prefer to the present patrous. We lament to add that many of them are acting in a very bitter spirit. The church which they have left is worse than "Babylon;" even black prelacy' is not so bad; and all the faithful are exhorted to bid Farewell to Egypt." And for what? The Scotch Church in the boasted days of 1690, said nothing of the claim of the people to unqualified power;-only of the presbytery to judge, and the people to "object." The charter of 1592 expressly saved the rights of patrons; and the Act of 1712, in which the church acquiesced, abolished even the limited right which the people had in 1690. Total non-intrusion they never had; and the law just passed gives them more than they ever before enjoyed or claimed.

Parliament has been prorogued. The Queen's speech will furnish us with heads for some remarks in another Number.

ANSWERS TO