for the upholding of Christ's kingdom in the land; another thing to say, WE must rule over you in every thing, and though not SPIRITUAL in ourselves, interfere in SPIRITUAL matters. I

"You suggested to me, I remember, that if the Church of England were no longer recognised as a part of the political constitution of the state, the sectaries might come forward to assert a claim to a share of her revenues; urging that the ministers of one persuasion have as good a right to tithes as another, when no one is the religion of the State. Very likely they might do this: they can hardly be more jealous of the property of your Church than they are already. But there are only two points to be considered: whether there would be any justice in their claim; and whether they would have power to carry it into effect. I think neither. If the revenues of the Church were, what they are not, a payment by the State, out of the public revenues, it would be most unreasonable to demand that the state should withdraw part of that payment from those who now receive it, on the ground that they would no longer recognize the supremacy of the civil power, and bestow it on others who equally refuse to admit this supremacy. If a man withholds the wages of a servant who refuses to work for him, he will surely either keep them to himself, or pay them to another who will work for him; but in reality there is no payment in the question.

"The projected London University might as well claim a share of the revenues of Oxford and Cambridge, and of the Scotch and Irish universities, (of none of which the civil magistrate is the academical, but only the civil ruler,) as the Dissenters could of the property actually in possession of the Church. As for any portion of the national wealth which might hereafter be set apart for religious purposes, by all means let any sect come forward and urge its claims, and support them by such arguments as it thinks best. But that is quite a different question.

"As for the power of the sectaries to make good such an unreasonable demand, it is to be hoped that the government of Britain will never want either the will or the strength to protect one part of her subjects from being plundered by another. She might answer, and I trust would answer to such claimants, “You have seminaries, chapels, minister's houses, and other such property for the benefit of your own religious communities; to which the Church of England lays no claim : why should you claim her property? If mere inequality of wealth is to be admitted as a ground for a re-distribution, there is an end of society. Any one of you who possesses any thing, must on that principle admit the claim of any poor man, who may urge that his neighbour has more than enough for his subsistence, and that he himself would be glad of a share: by which rule, a general pillage of the rich by the poor must ensue. Covet not, then, what belongs to another; but seek by honest means to provide supplies for your own wants."-Letters on the Church.

mention as an obvious truth, that in the constitution of the Church of England, there was the continuation of a popish abuse, and not the assertion of ancient Christian right. We all know that in the Church of Rome to this day, as well as in the Church of England, the form of an episcopal election is gone through, as enjoined by the ancient canons-but because in England the sovereign confers revenues and temporal privileges, none are allowed to be elected without leave from him; he gives his congè de elire, which is now an actual appointment, the chapters not daring to refuse to elect, and thus an ancient duty and privilege, becomes at present an idle and almost ridiculous ceremony.*

I do not desire to occupy the time of the reader, in running down the annals of the Church of England, to show the monstrous evils of the connexion between church and court-to prove that according as the court ruled it, such was our church -now Calvinist, now Arminian-now an Abbott, now a Laud

"But it may be more to the purpose to inquire, what spiritual authority the king of Great Britain actually exercises. Does he not virtually ordain bishops? And is not ordination a spiritual function?

"It may be said, that the chapter, a clerical body, are the electors of a bishop, and the bishops his ordainers; and I grant that this makes his ordination real and valid : but does not the compulsion under which this is done, imply an interference of the civil magistrate in spirituals? And is not this an encroachment on the kingdom which is not of this world? If the pope had power to determine who should, and who should not, be admitted to holy orders within these realms, would not the pope be the spiritual governor of the churches there existing? There is something, I think, strained and fanciful in the application of the term simony to the sale of benefices, since it is not a spiritual office, but a temporal endowment that is sold. But there is something that does remind one of Simon Magus, in saying, 'I will give the Church secular power and wealth, on condition that you will let me, indirectly, if you will, but in effect, ordain bishops;-if you will let me say to whomsoever I will, not immediately indeed, but by compelling another to say it, "Receive the Holy Ghost for the office of a bishop."- - He offered them, money, saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay my hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost.' Thy money perish with thee! Thon hast no part or lot in this matter.'

"But it may be said, the chapter or the bishops may refuse to listen to the royal recommendation. True, and I hope they will, if ever the king should recommend an improper person: but they are punishable for it by law. They have no legal power to refuse. A Protestant in Spain may defy the pope, if he is willing to be burnt for it.-Letters on the Church.

-Whig under William, Tory under Anne-latitudinarian under the two first Georges, anti-latitudinarian under the two last. I need not stop to remind the reader what a difference there is, and must be, between a bishop appointed by a Pitt, or a Wellington, and one set up on high by a Brougham or a Grey. I need not descant upon the lamentable want of union that has existed, and must continue to exist, between prelates, the nominees of conflicting ministers, in matters vitally connected with the well being of the church and religion. I need not do more than allude to the deplorable disunion that existed in our bench on the Catholic Relief Bill and the Reform Bill-I need not do more than point to the fatal disparity of opinion that exists between a Grey bishop and a Wellington bishop, on the establishment of the New Education Board.

If the evil were to stop here, it would be bad enough; but how could an evil stop?-did it ever stop? No; when the crown of the head is diseased, the sore must, in due time, reach to the sole of the foot-when the whole head is sick, the whole heart must be faint. I desire not to say any thing concerning those persons whom the State has advanced to the prelacy. It may be the case-and I would rejoice to be assured that it was so -that the friend of this cabinet minister, the brother of another, the tutor of another, the son or cousin of this powerful lord, was a pious devoted man, fit to rule the flock of Christ, and while desiring his high office, studying to prove himself blameless. But I only ask, may not this felicity of adaptation sometimes fail, and may not a latitudinarian politician-a deist-a hater of Christsometimes prefer a man who would subscribe, while not believing in ANY, to EVERY creed and every formula that was required.

And what may be what has been the consequence of these political advancements? Here we have in Ireland, not only the 150 benefices in the immediate gift of the crown, but we have also 22 bishops appointed by its influence, who have, perhaps, 800 more in their gift; so it may be said fairly, that, in Ireland, the whole church property is at the bestowal of the state. And what is the consequence? Why, that there is a lamentable deficiency in the adaptation of men to their duties. Things, in this respect, are avowedly better, thanks to public opinion; but still the evil exists, and must exist. I would be glad to know how a lord lieutenant, generally, as he is a military man, sometimes not the most moral of men, and surrounded, as he is, by officers, and politicians, and intriguing expectants, how he can be a judge of a fit minister for an important parish? No; he knows he cannot properly discriminate; therefore it is, that some young nobleman's son-some friend, creature, or WORSE of a manœuverer about the Castle, is often put to fill an important ministerial station, and a beardless boy is elected over the heads of curates who have been working for years, until their heads are grey and their hands falter -dying daily under that sore sickness of the heart, hope deferred. Reader and I don't care who you are, but if you are honest and

unprejudiced, you must agree with me, that there are such practices; and you must wonder how any church could stand so long or hold possession of the affections of a people when submitted to such a destructive process.

I would ask, would the army or navy of England, when engaged to contend against a world in arms, if officered in the political way the church has been, have fought the battle so manfully,,and crowned the nation with the glory of a triumphantly waged war, and the security of a permanent peace? Would the Peninsular war, if still committed the management of a Sir H. B., instead of to Sir Arthur Wellesly, have ended as it did? Would the battle of Aboukir have terminated so splendidly, if some old hanger-on of the Admiralty, instead of Nelson, had been sent to grapple with the Jacobin fleet? No, assuredly not. And is the Church alone to be submitted to such an agency, when called on to militate in this her day of rebuke and blasphemy? No; she must not any longer submit; if she does, she WILL leave herself without a friend; the laity will desert her, and cease to look up to a CORPORATION that is alone able to uphold itself as a state engine; that reposes on the king's bayonets, and not on the devotedness of its faithful, unbought adherents. I would, in this respect, desire to provoke my brethren, both lay and clerical, of the Church of England to jealousy, by the contrary conduct of the Church of Rome, which, with the wonderful power ske possesses of adjusting herself to circumstances though assuming infallibility in doctrine, and unchangableness in ritual-yet has so far learned from experience as to adapt herself to all exigencies; and, therefore, though still continuing, in exclusively popish countries, all her corrupt practices, even in discipline, yet in Ireland and England, on her mission amongst heretics, she has called on the Roman court to forego its power, and allow the church, in its militant state, to act unincumbered and circumspectly. Thus, in Ireland, the Pope has ceased to nominate to the vacant sees; and either the bishops in synod, or the clergy of the vacant dioceses, elect a certain number of fit and proper persons, from which the Pope selects. Moreover, in the filling of vacant benefices, the coadjutors to the parish priest may POSTULATE, or, in plain words, claim a right to the vacant preferment; and the bishop must show some good grounds why the postulation is not attended to. Now, leaving, for the present, the question of doctrine and ritual out of sight, let us look to the adapting power of the two churches.

Mr. EXAMINER, I assume to know somewhat of Ireland, and I think I can see all over the island a mighty difference in the effective organization of the two parties. I go to a town and I hear that there is a college of Jesuits established in the vicinity; nay more, that there also is a house of lay monks, and another of nuns. The Jesuits are occupied in educating the better and middling classes; the lay monks are forming a monopoly of se⚫veral handicraft occupations, and have charge of the lower or der; the nuns and sisters of charity are occupied in parish schools,

and work Popery into every girl's sampler, they engrain the future mothers of the land in bigotry; and a linking chain stronger than adamant is forged around the hopes and fears, the hearts and intellects of the people, by means of confraternities, and rosaries, and scapularian associations which are ever watchful, and whose vigilance few can escape. Now let us see the powers of adaptation on the other side-we will suppose a prelate appointed by my Lord Grey, or the Duke of Wellington, it matters little as to this point which he is the college tutor of some great lord, or the son or brother of some other man who has influence with the minister; he comes over to Ireland, accompa nied by sundry nephews, children, &c. &c., a benefice becomes vacant, perhaps in such a town as we have just alluded to; does the bishop call together his clergy, and ask his presbytery (who ought, according to the ancient canons, to be his assessors) who is the person in the diocese or out of the diocese who is able best to undertake the arduous duty, and do battle for Christ against his foes? No. Well, does he listen to the claims put forward by the curate, in which his long and unremitting services are urged? No such thing: but an answer, cold, cutting, and reprehensive is returned to the poor expectant, who is in formed that his lordship has claimants amongst his own relatives, whom it is criminal to neglect.* Yes, far be it from him to become amenable to the charge of being worse than an infidel, in not taking care of his own: and what is the consequence? a young inexperienced minister is inducted into the preferment, ignorant of the ways of the place, ignorant of the wiles of Popery, prejudiced against evangelicals, and saints, and methodists; an enemy to lay co-operation, and perhaps content that the common routine duties, and the Sunday services are performed, as he of course will say, decently and in order. It is easy to divine how things will go on in this parish; how Popery will ascend, and Protestantism will go down. I could adduce many deplorable instances of this total contempt of adaptation in our Church. I could shew where men of eloquence, power, and piety are sent to parishes where there are not twenty Protestant parishioners;

Augustine thought otherwise, for in his Sermon 21st," ad fratres in Eremo," he has this passage:-" I have kindred who call themselves noble, and they come to me, being a bishop, one while threatening, another while flattering me, and say-Father, give us somewhat, for we are your kin; and yet, by God's grace, I do not remember that I have ever enriched one of them."

It is in the the 76th Apostolical canon, that a bishop ought not to give preferment to gratify his brother, or his son, or any other kinsman, nor to let human affection interfere in his dispensing the goods of the Church, nor to confer ecclesiastical goods on his heirs: if he do so, the ordination is void, and the bishop himself is to be excommunicated. Vide Constitutiones Othonis, ne indigni promoveantur.