And what has here been found true of these two northern counties, the strongholds, be it remembered, of a multicoloured dissidence, is true, orly in a more emphatic degree, of every other portion of our insular empire. Take as an instance, the case of the metropolis, as exhibited in the following tables : Now compare with these totals the statistics of the Metropolitan Diocese. And here it must be observed that the number of benefices does not exhaust the number of churches, and other episcopal places of worship; but upon the other hand falls in many instances considerably short of that number. But even supposing that this were not the case in the diocese of the metropolis, yet, besides the fact that the Established Church has a majority of working clergy of not less than 492, the 324 benefices give an aggregate majority of sittings over the 372 chapels, of not less than 183,118. And here, as the amount of Church Accommodation is in question, a few other facts may not inappropriately be adduced. Observe, then, that there are in the diocese of Ripon alone more church-sittings by 54,892 than there are Congregational chapel-sittings in the whole of the principality of Wales!!! And in the two dioceses of York and Ripon, that is to say in Yorkshire alone, there are more church-sittings by 67,490 than there are chapelsittings in all the Congregational and Baptist chapels in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, together with the Orkney and the Shetland Isles, Guernsey, Jersey, and the Isle of Man. Dissent it has been said flourishes mostly among the town populations. The more sparsely populated districts offer little to these ecclesiastical adventurers. Take, as an illustration, the diocese of Lincoln, which is co-extensive with the two counties of Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, having a population of 706,026. Subtract, now, from the totals of the diocese of Lincoln, the totals of the two denominations, or of voluntaryism H proper, and there will be majorities in every specification for the church of England, as will appear in the following tabular statement: But as a further demonstration of the fact that Dissent is essentially mercantile in its spirit-that it only preaches the gospel to those who can pay for it,—and that it does not create the demand for the truth as it is in Jesus, but mercenarily waits until such demand has been already made, before it adequately, or even earnestly although inadequately attempts its supply, the following figures are deserving careful consideration :* *The reader is also recommended to take into his consideration, in this connexion, the important statistical and other statements contained in the note to p. 85. It will there be seen to what expedients Voluntaryism is compelled to have resort in order to secure, as Mr. Horace Mann has expressed it-"an adequate pecuniary return. |