persons who constitute the " Company of Pastors," very few hold the orthodox faith; while the majority unite in actively opposing it. The awful consequences likely to ensue, unless a timely reformation take place, will be evident when it is recollected that Geneva is a University in which young men from various parts of Europe, and particularly from the Reformed Church of France, are educated in theology. The greater part of the students, it is feared, have imbibed the doctrines of their instructors; and by them the evil will be extensively diffused. Surely, then, national churches with fixed formularies are necessary, were it only to prevent effects like these; for it should be remembered, that the first step in this downward progress was abolishing subscription to articles and

tests.

The case of the United States of America, furnishes another strong negative example on this subject. There is nothing like a regular and adequate state provision for the Christian instruction of the people in any part of the Union; and the effects of this deficiency are but too visible in the languishing state of religion in most parts of that extensive territory. Yet, even in the UnitedStates themselves, partial legislative enactments in favour of religion have been from time to time found necessary; which enactments the

civil magistrate is bound to support, and the public purse to carry into effect. From a table drawn up a few years since, shewing the provision for religious instruction in the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Vermont, and Kentucky, it appears that ten out of fifteen of these States have, or had, no provision for the maintenance of religious instructors; but the other five have a partial or full provision. Eight have no religious creed: the others use a formal test; namely, three require a belief in God; one, faith in the Gospel; two, faith in the Old and New Testaments; four, faith in the Protestant religion. To this it may be added,

**The author believes that some alterations have occurred since this table was made; but they do not affect the present argument. Since writing the above, he has met with the following statements in a respectable journal, which appear of so much importance, not only as respects the particular point in question, but in reference to the general subject of these pages, that he cannot refrain from quoting the passage at length.

“All our readers are fully aware that in the United States of America there is no established church: but we are perfectly convinced, that were they familiar with the real situation of that extensive country in regard to the means of Christian knowledge, they would not approve of the experiment of which these federated Republics have set the

that chaplains are appointed for the army and navy, and are paid from the public purse; and

first example, of leaving that important concern to the discretion or caprice of the multitude. In some of the States, it is left entirely to the option of the people whether they shall have clergymen and churches at all; or whether, with the name of Christians, they shall live like the rudest islander in the Pacific Ocean; and it gives us pain to remark, that in the Southern parts of the Union, the Sabbath is never sanctified by a large majority of the inhabitants, and the rites of our most holy faith are scarcely ever practised. In the Northern States, indeed, there is more attention paid to the ordinances of religion than in the South. A tax for the support of a certain number of ministers and chapels, is levied in all the New-England States, the amount of which is divided among the several denominations of Christians, according to the number of churches which they keep open for public worship. It cannot fail to be observed that, in as much as this tax is compulsatory, it recognizes the principle upon which establishments are founded; namely, a power in the government to provide for religious instruction and public worship; and, which is completely at variance with the maxim maintained by Mr. Warden, [the writer whose work was under review] that religion is one of the natural wants of the human mind, and, in an enlightened age, requires no aid from the civil magistrate.' Laissez nous faire' is a good rule for practical men who preside over manufacturing and commercial industry; but, in reference to those grand institutions which are calculated to form the public mind, and to implant moral principles-to preserve the purity of our faith, and to keep the soul true to its great Author, we deem it somewhat more prudent to be guided by experience than by any abstract theory of political economy. We are borne out in this opinion too by the real condition of the United States in the matter of religion, that natural want of the human mind,' which, agreeably to the re

strict orders are issued, under severe penalties, for the attendance and decent behaviour of the

ceived views of their political science, will be plentifully supplied according to the demand for we find in Mr. Warden's own pages a statement, founded upon some investigations and calculations entered into by the Rev. Mr. Beecher, which affords the melancholy intelligence that, out of eight millions, the computed amount of the American people, five millions of persons are destitute of competent religious instruction. Setting out upon the assumption that there ought to be a clergyman for every thousand souls (the proportion in Great Britain and Ireland is one minister to eight or nine hundred souls), Mr. Beecher assures us, that in Massachusetts there is a deficiency of one hundred and seventy-eight competent religious teachers. In Marne, not more than one half of the population is supplied with religious instruction. In New Hampshire the deficiency is one third. Vermont is nearly in the same situation. In the western parts of Rhode Island, embracing a territory of fifty miles in length and thirty in breadth, and including one half of the population, there is but one regularly educated minister, and but ten in the other parts. In Connecticut there are 218 Congregational Churches, of which thirty-six are vacant; of all other denominations, sixty-eight are vacant. In New York, the actual number of pastors is about 500; the population of a million would require double the number. In New Jersey there is a deficiency of at least fifty pastors. In Pennsylvania and Delaware, the deficiency is very considerable. Virginia, with a population of 974,000, has but sixty regular ministers; consequently, 914,000 persons are without adequate religious instruction. The situation of Maryland is similar to that of Virginia. North Carolina, with a population of 555,500, which would require 550 clergymen, has but twenty. South Carolina, which with a population of upwards of 400,000, ought to have 400 pastors, has but thirty-six. The State of Georgia has but ten clergymen.

soldiers at Divine worship. Profane cursing and swearing are also punishable. Thus it appears, that the United States of America, without verbally allowing of church establishments, and though thinking it unconstitutional, it is said, even to speak of the "Divine Providence" in their united capacity, as some of the States may not acknowledge such a doctrine, yet have felt in practice the absolute necessity of acting upon some of the most contested principles upon which national church establishments are founded; and individual States have gone even further*. That there is so little religion through

"So much in proof of the maxim, that religion, being one of the natural wants of the human mind, requires no aid from the magistrate in an enlightened age.'

"As to practical morality, again, in those States of the Union, where religion is viewed not as a want,' but as a superfluity, we are told by Bristed, that a bill was brought into the legislature of Louisiana, to enforce the better observation of the Sabbath, for punishing crimes which we cannot name, for preventing the defacing of churchyards, and shutting up the theatres and stores on Sunday; and that the said bill was rejected by a large majority, on the ground that though such persecuting intolerance might well enough suit the New-England Puritans, who were descended from the bigoted fanatics of Old England, who were great readers of the Bible, and consequently ignorant, prejudiced, cold-hearted, false, and cruel, it could never be fastened on the more enlightened, liberal, philosophical inhabitants of Louisiana, the descendants of Frenchmen!"

British Review, No. xxvi. pp. 513–515.

* See the preceding note.