all that was amiable and excellent: he had chosen his course as a scholar-he would have served the cause of the Gospel by the researches which his learning and his position enabled him to make. That his zeal should have led him from a contemplative to an active life cannot, of course, be matter of wonder or blame. But his public alliance with Mr. O'Connell, and the line of argument which he adopts, are among the thousand proofs that, in the eyes of a Romanist, the end always sanctifies the means. It is not because Mr. O'Connell is a radical; it is not because he hates England, and would do all he could to destroy its power and happiness; it is not because he hates the episcopal church with the fiercest hatred, that this is said. These things, of themselves, may stamp no disgrace on the moral and religious character. We may justly hate democracy, and account it, as it is, anti-Christian; we may justly reprobate such hatred as Mr. O'Connell shows to everything English, and especially to the persons of the clergy of the episcopal church. But very great errors of opinion are often to be accounted for, and, by the strange inconsistency of human nature, do not at once produce their natural effect on the life. Dr. Wiseman, himself, may be an ultra-democrat; he may very probably be anti-English in everything; he may glow with fiercer hatred than Mr. O'Connell to the church and the clergy. But with all this, Dr. Wiseman, had he not been a Romanist, would have shrunk from an alliance with Mr. O'Connell. The exhibition which that person has made, not of his principles, but his line of acting on them,-the unpardonable offences against truth, honour, decency, and every feeling necessary for a Christian, a gentleman, or even a man, of which he has convicted himself by his speeches and his letters, are such, that no Christian gentleman, except a Romanist, could have supported the idea of an union with him. But Dr. Wiseman, the Romanist, glories in it! Mr. O'Connell has power, and can serve Romanism, and that is enough. Before this, the darkest stains which can defile the character vanish, and Satan himself would become an angel of light! On this course, Dr. Wiseman, believing the Gospel, expects a blessing, and conceives that the cause to be supported by such an alliance, can be holy and true! And, in the same spirit, by hypocritical commendation, and by statements which he is too well informed not to know to be false, he insidiously attempts to ruin the cause which by just arguments he cannot subvert! This is his course, in his review; and in his lectures, as is pointed out in another part of this number, his course is analogous. He purposely confounds all protestants together, as resting on exactly the same ground, although he knows but too well. that (right or wrong, as other protestants may deem it,) the church of England stands on ground entirely her own; he hates her because he knows that that ground is unassailable, and he tries to conceal the fact and confound the question. Alas! for Dr. Wiseman! Alas! for the Romanist, condemned, by his own choice or his church, to such practices! He may make a sensation for a moment; but trickery and artifice will not prevail long. The cloud of falsehood, with which he is trying to envelop the truth, will be blown away, and he will sink to the level which he or his church has chosen for his own character.

Why would he not remain in his own sphere of honour, of studious contemplation, and learned research?

Is it asked how all this is to be opposed? The one answer is, by the directly opposite course. Let us put the truth simply and boldly forward, in earnest faith; and God will give it victory, as he has ever done before. We can expect his blessing by no other course whatever. We must not, in argument, seek for any allies, to gain strength, except allies in principle. Some ill-informed episcopalians may seek to rest their cause on the ground of what is called common protestantism. But from that ground we shall be driven in argument; and we have no right to jeopard a cause, which by itself is perfectly strong, by attempting to defend it on weak and untenable grounds for the sake of uniting ourselves with allies from whom we must, in argument and principle, disunite, the moment we cease to fear a common enemy. There is a great mistake made on this subject. When things are in such a state as they are in Ireland-where cruel and relentless natures, such as Archbishop MacHale and Mr. O'Connell, (men who have, the one expressed his delight at the personal sufferings of his victims, and the other threatened death or popular violence to any who dared to oppose him,) lead the attack, there union against a savage and unchristian foe-union as men and fathers and husbands, for the protection of all that is dear to men and fathers and husbands, from the bullet, the fire, and the sword, from savage violence and slower torture-union rendered doubtless closer and firmer by the sacred remembrance that the violence is threatened and the cruelty meditated against the most precious rights of Christian men-such an union is a duty, and will give courage as well as strength in the day of conflict. And therefore it is that the foolish and short-sighted policy, under the auspices of Conservative, as well as Radical, liberalism, which dictated the dissolution of the Orange Societies, (the dissolution, in short, of that which, however objectionable in quiet times, in these times gave, under God, confidence to man, and safety to woman and childhood,) is deeply to be deplored. But all this has, as yet, no reference to England. We are, as yet, safe there from the influence of feelings and directions like those of Archbishop MacHale and Mr. O'Connell. The prelate cannot yet exult at seeing families die of starvation here; nor the layman erect the symbol of death, as yet, over our houses. Our fight is only as yet in argument; and it can only be fought by those who, first, know their ground well, and secondly, will not, by any vague and general notions of protestantism, be led away from it. It is much to be feared, however, that this will but too often be the case; that men of the most discordant opinions will unite, and, satisfied with the negative side of the argument-with shewing, that is, the corruptions of popery-will make a miserable display of weakness, the moment that, not only their wily opponent, but the just anxiety of the Christian heart seeks for something positive, and asks them where it is to look, not, indeed, for an infallible guide, but a competent authority to direct it.

An important caution to be given is, that we should not rely on any books, or make ourselves responsible for them. The Romanists are

truly adroit in this respect. If it is convenient to them to use a book like "Bossuet's Exposition" (see "C. E. G.'s" excellent letter in this number) for purposes of conversion, they do so without hesitation. But the instant that the adversary refers to it, they disclaim everything but authoritative documents. We may imitate their wisdom, in the latter respect, with advantage, while we avoid their dishonesty in the former. Mr. Bickersteth, for example, puts forward Usher. Some persons, again, are inclined, at present, to make Fox a sort of cheval de bataille. Now, to respect and value Fox's book, to refer to it with that confidence with which we refer to every other historian of approved character, (and every inquiry has tended to establish that of Fox,) is quite right. But it is quite another thing to make any book our great weapon of war. To use a very rare quotation-" Hoc Ithacus velit." Nothing will please Dr. Wiseman and his friends better than for us to pledge ourselves for Usher or for Fox, and thus to give them an occasion of charging every error, in fact or opinion, occurring in the writings of the great prelate, or in the three folio volumes of the good martyrologist, on our cause. * Nothing will please them better, again, than being able to say that it is in the highest degree illiberal to charge the cruel feelings of old times on them now. They who have read Archbishop MacHale's and Bishop Abraham's letters, &c., will not at all hesitate to avow their conviction that there is but too much reason to do this; not, indeed, in all cases, but in too many. But what the Romanist mainly wishes is, the power of appealing to pseudoliberal feelings against apparent illiberality, &c., &c. For a cry is everything now, and the foundation for it nothing. If Dr. Wiseman and his friends can say that their opponents, instead of combating their arguments, only talk of the former cruelties of the Romanists, it is of no consequence whether the charge may be true or not, they will gain one of their greatest objects-viz., they will make an impression in favour of their own party, as ill used; and no one can answer, in such times, how much injury this may do. We have ground from which we cannot be driven if we will adhere to Scripture and catholic antiquity, and avoid connexion, in argument, with protestants who do not stand on the same ground as we do, and reliance on books for which, whatever may be their general merit, we cannot undertake to be wholly answerable.

SPIRITUAL DESTITUTION OF GREAT CITIES.-THE BISHOP OF LONDON.

THE readers of this Journal will remember how often their attention has been called to this all important subject. The moment has now arrived when the Bishop of London feels that he can come forward to promote an object which has long been next his heart, and call on the

* Messrs. Seeley have advertised a republication of this most valuable and interesting work, with a vindication of Fox by Mr. Townshend, who will write such an essay with a spirit and force which no one can exceed. It is only to be regretted that this was never done before, as its coming out now looks as if the book were relied on as a great engine of controversy. (See, on this, "Notices to Correspondents.")

inhabitants of the enormous metropolis over which he presides to consider its fearful condition as to spiritual things. When the call is made from such a quarter, and in such a spirit, it would be presumption in anonymous writers to substitute their own feeble arguments or exhortations. The Bishop's proposal is therefore submitted to the Christian reader; and every Christian reader is called on to give heed to this most serious call, made, in the most earnest spirit of Christian love, by one authorized and qualified in every way to make it.

Let those, especially, who are making or have made great fortunes in London, and employing, directly or indirectly, large masses of their brother men in accumulating wealth, consider whether they have done their duty to those poor instruments of their fortunes,-whether they, who alone (in the sad destitution of this great city) could advise, warn, control, or comfort their poor dependents, have said what they ought to them respecting their moral and religious being, or done what they ought to promote their moral and religious improvement. Let the luxurious and the wealthy again remember how many there are who minister to their luxuries, and let them consider how they have discharged their own responsibilities in this great matter. God has tied the high and low, the rich and poor, together, in one body, that each part may discharge its office to the other. It is the office of the hands to minister of the head to guide, and advise, and direct, and warn. He who has assigned the several duties, and the several stations, will require one day a fearful account at our hands of the way in which they have been discharged. May those who have hitherto neglected these serious duties take this occasion of reforming their neglect, and of contributing with an unsparing hand the money which may assist in supplying to their poor dependents the blessing and comfort of Christian instruction!

"It had been to be wished," says one who has already addressed the public on the subject in the pages of this Magazine, "that the Bishop could have been entitled so to calculate on the Christian feeling of that great metropolis, that he could have claimed at once out of its enormous wealth, its comforts, its luxury, its vanities, its nothingnesses,— from the amusement or the show, or the animal gratifications of an hour, what might have regenerated a Christian city, and converted the abodes of discord and misery, and lust, and strife, and blasphemy,the types of hell,-into joy, peace, and love, the outposts of heaven. Fearful of asking too much, he applies but for something more than one-sixth of what is needed for the entire removal of the actual destitution for 50 new churches, where 279 would be required, if one church, on an average, were provided for each 3000 persons. It remains for us to shew, that we are in some degree alive to what is the common concern of us all-the spiritual provision for our metropolis, "that great city," and its million five hundred thousand souls. Should such support be offered as might encourage the Bishop to undertake the whole of this great task, besides the incalculable blessing to the metropolis itself, (a blessing which would be felt through the whole land,) there would be set an example and a pattern, which might increase the efficiency of our whole church beyond even the

farthest hopes of those, now most sanguine. Would that persons in this their day could see, what they will one day see, and what, in the abstract, they are ready to acknowledge, the utter insipidity and worthlessness of those momentary things wherein they employ the money committed to them, compared to the contributing the means whereby one human soul may be restored to, or preserved in, our Redeemer's fold."

PROPOSALS FOR THE CREATION OF A FUND TO BE APPLIED TO THE BUILDING AND ENDOWMENT OF ADDITIONAL CHURCHES IN THE METROPOLIS.

BY CHARLES JAMES LORD BISHOP OF LONDON.

IN directing the attention of the public to the spiritual wants of the metropolis, and to the duty and necessity of making a combined and vigorous effort to supply them, through the medium of the Established Church, I avail myself of the following statement, contained in the Second Report of the Church Commissioners, which has been recently laid upon the tables of both Houses of Parliament.

"The most prominent of those defects," &c.-See this statement, already printed in British Mag. for April, p. 427, and the abstract below, p. 679.

It is true, that during the last twenty-five years much has been done towards that end, partly by the aid of parliamentary grants for the erection of new churches, partly by parochial contributions, and partly by_the_exertions of individual benevolence, and the efforts of associated churchmen, through the medium of the Incorporated Society for the Building and Enlargement of Churches and Chapels. In sixteen of the parishes above referred to, which are in the diocese of London, thirty-three new churches have been erected within that period, and additional accommodation provided for 54,000 persons. But the numbers given in the Report of the Church Commissioners represent the actual state of things at the present time, after all that has been done to lessen the fearful disproportion which exists between the population of this vast city, and the provision made by the church for its religious instruction. At this moment there is in the metropolis, and its suburbs, omitting all notice of those parishes which contain less than 7,000 inhabitants, a population of not less than 1,380,000, with church-room for only 140,000, or little more than one-tenth of the whole.

In a Charge, delivered to the Clergy of the diocese of London, in the year 1834, it is said, that" in the eastern and north-eastern districts of the metropolis, there are ten parishes, containing together a population of 353,460 persons. In these parishes there are 18 churches and chapels, served by 24 incumbents and curates: the average being not quite one church or chapel for every 19,000 souls, and one clergyman for every 14,000.”

The evils, which flow from this state of things, and which must continue to increase, unless some remedy be speedily applied, are such as cannot be contemplated without grief by those who desire to bring into the fold of a scriptural church the thousands who are now destitute of pastoral care and instruction; nor without the most serious apprehension, when it is considered in how great a degree the stability and prosperity of a country are dependent upon the principles and habits of those classes which form the basis of the social fabric.

It is a work of prudence, not less than of charity, to impart to the multitudes, who are now scarcely acquainted even with the first principles of Christianity, a knowledge of its duties and consolations, its motives and restraints; and the most hopeful method of effecting this, is to send more labourers into the Lord's harvest; to increase the numbers of churches and clergymen; to bring home, to the very doors and hearths of the most ignorant and neglected of the population, the ordinances, the solemnities, the decencies, and the charities of our apostolical Church; to divide the moral wildernesses VOL. IX.-June, 1836. 4 s