and truth be triumphant. There is no half-way. Being charged to put men in the way to heaven, it cannot without sin permit some to be led the other way. If, rather than punish a few on earth, it allows many to be eternally damned for misbelief, it is manifestly culpable. Evidently it must do all, or it must do nothing. If it does not claim infallibility, it cannot in reason set up a national religion; and if, by setting up a national religion, it does claim infallibility, it ought to coerce all men into the belief of that religion. Thus, as was said, every state-church is essentially popish.

$3. 3. But there has been gradually dawning upon those who think, the conviction that a state-church is not so much a religious as a political institution. "Who does not see," inquires Locke, speaking of the clergy, “that these men are more ministers of the government than ministers of the gospel?" Probably in Locke's time there were few who did see this; but there are now many. Nor, indeed, is the fact altogether denied, as you shall hear from some politic supporter of religious establish ments during an after-dinner confidence. "Between ourselves," will whisper such an one, "these churches and parsons, and all the rest of it, are not for sensible men, such as you and I; we know better; we can do without all that; but there must be something of the kind to keep the people in order."* And then he will go on to show what influential restraints religious services are; how they encourage subordination and contentment; and how the power which the clergy obtain over their parishioners strengthens the hands of the civil ruler. That some such view widely prevails may be gathered from the acts and proposals of our statesmen. How otherwise can we understand that avowed willingness in the political leaders of

The writer has himself been thus addressed.

THE STATE-CHURCH A POLITICAL INSTITUTION. 339

all parties to endow the Roman Catholic Church in Ire .and if the religious public of England would let them? Or what but a political motive can that States' lieutenant -the East India Company-have for giving an annual subsidy of 23,000 rupees to the temple of Juggernaut, reimbursing itself by a tax upon the pilgrims? Or why else should the Ceylon government take upon itself to be curator of Buddha's tooth, and to commission the Buddhist priests? *

§ 4. Of the clergy who, on the other hand, commonly advocate a state-church as being needful for the upholding of religion, it may be said that by doing this they condemn their own case, pass sentence upon their creed as worthless, and bring themselves in guilty of hypocrisy. What! will they allow this faith, which they value so highly, to die a natural death if they are not paid for propagating it? Must all these people, about whose salvation they profess such anxiety, be left to go to perdi tion if livings, and canonries, and bishoprics, are abolished? Has that apostolic inspiration, of which they claim to be the inheritors, brought with it so little apostolic zeal that there would be no preaching were it not for parsonages and tithes? Do they who, on ordination, declared themselves "inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost," now find that they are inwardly moved only by the chink of gold? This would be called slander coming from any but themselves. And then their flocks-what say they of these? Do these care so little for the faith they have been taught, that its maintenance cannot be entrusted to them? After centuries of church-culture, has Christianity got so little root in men's hearts that but for government watering-pots it must wither away? Are we to understand that these perpetual prayers and sacraments,

*See letter of Sir Colin Campbell to Lord Stanley, May 2, 1845.

these homilies and exhortations, these visitings and scripture-readings, have not even generated as much enthusiasm as can keep itself alive? Have ten thousand sermons a week done so little that the hearers will not contribute a sum sufficient for the sustentation of a ministry? Why, if this be true, what is the system good for? These advocates do but open their briefs, and then straightway argue themselves out of court. They labour to prove either how powerless is the faith they teach, or how miserably they teach it! The sum and substance of their plea for the state propagation of this creed is, that it has failed in animating its ministers with its own spirit of self-sacrifice, and failed to arouse in its devotees a spark of its own generosity!

§ 5. It is needless, however, in this year of grace 1850, with its Gorham controversies and Puseyite divis ions, with its Romish and Rationalist secessions, with confusion inside the church, and a hostile association outside -to debate the question at greater length. Events are proving to most of the reflective-even to many of the clergy themselves-that a state-support of any particular faith is wrong, and that in England at least, it must shortly cease. For those who do not yet see this there are already volumes of argument to which addition is almost superfluous. The conclusions above come to, that the state cannot establish a religion without assuming infallibility, and that to argue an establishment of it needful is to condemn the religion itself, will sufficiently en force, for present purposes, our abstract proposition.

SHALL GOVERNMENT RELIEVE THE POOR? 341

CHAPTER XXV.

POOR-LAWS.

§ 1. In common with its other assumptions of sec ondary offices, the assumption by a government of the office of Reliever-general to the poor, is necessarily forbidden by the principle that a government cannot rightly do any thing more than protect. In demanding from a citizen contributions for the mitigation of distress-contributions not needed for the due administration of men's rights the state is, as we have seen, reversing its function, and diminishing that liberty to exercise the faculties which it was instituted to maintain. Possibly, unmindful of the explanations already given, some will assert that by satisfying the wants of the pauper, a government is in reality extending his liberty to exercise his faculties, inasmuch as it is giving him something without which the exercise of them is impossible; and that hence, though it decreases the rate-payer's sphere of action, it compensates by increasing that of the rate-receiver. But this statement of the case implies a confounding of two widelydifferent things. To enforce the fundamental law-to take care that every man has freedom to do all that he wills, provided he infringes not the equal freedom of any other man-this is the special purpose for which the civil power exists. Now insuring to each the right to pursue within the specified limits the objects of his desires without let or hindrance, is quite a separate thing from insuring him satisfaction. Of two individuals, one may use his liberty of action successfully-may achieve the gratifications he seeks after, or accumulate what is equivalent to many of them-property; whilst the other, having like privileges, fail to do so. But with these results the state has no

may

concern.

All that lies within its commission is to see that each man is allowed to use such powers and opportunities as he possesses; and if it takes from him who has prospered to give to him who has not, it violates its duty toward the one to do more than its duty toward the other. Or, repeating the idea elsewhere expressed (p. 306), it breaks down the vital law of society, that it may effect what social vitality does not call for.

§ 2. The notion popularized by Cobbett, that every one has a right to a maintenance out of the soil, leaves those who adopt it in an awkward predicament. Do but ask them to specify, and they are set fast. Assent to their principle; tell them you will assume their title to be valid; and then, as a needful preliminary to the liquidation of their claim, ask for some precise definition of it-inquire "What is a maintenance?" They are dumb. "Is it," say you, "potatoes and salt, with rags and a mud cabin? or is it bread and bacon, in a two-roomed cottage? Will a joint on Sundays suffice? or does the demand include meat and malt liquor daily? Will tea, coffee, and tobacco be expected? and if so, how many ounces of each? Are bare walls and brick floors all that is needed? or must there be carpets and paper-hangings? Are shoes considered essential? or will the Scotch practice be approved? Shall the clothing be of fustian? if not, of what quality must the broadcloth be? In short, just point out where, between the two extremes of starvation and luxury, this something called a maintenance lies." Again they are dumb. You expostulate. You explain that nothing can be done until the question is satisfactorily answered. You show that the claim must be reduced to a detailed, intelligible shape before a step can be taken toward its settlement. How else," you ask, "shall we know whether enough has been awarded, or whether too much?" Still