One of the lords of the Treasury has joined in this fearful combination, and remains a member of a government which declares that it is not hostile to the reformed church! Doubtless we are bound to believe them, but will the poor Irish peasantry believe that they are not acting in full accordance with the wishes of government, when they are taking the same line as one of its own members?

Since last month, a fresh subscription for the distressed Irish clergy has been opened, and filled with a rapidity which is doubly gratifying. It is gratifying, from the testimony which it gives to the character of the Irish clergy, and yet more gratifying because it shews clearly that there is a feeling left in England on this momentous subject. It clearly rests with the English people at this moment, whether the reformed religion shall be trampled under foot, and, in the words of the Bishop of London, (whose eloquent speeches on this occasion, and in the House of Lords, deserve an expression of warm gratitude,) starved out of Ireland. The case is quite a clear one. From the time that the Roman priests in Ireland have had a glimpse of power, they have clearly resolved that the popish and the reformed faith should not subsist together in Ireland. The obvious increase of the latter probably stimulated them to more active measures-and in order that they might themselves give the practical proof that their corrupted form of religion is indeed unchanged, they have begun to use all its former weapons-curses, threats, famine, and the sword-against their unfortunate victims, and to take the most effectual measures for extirpating the religion by the murder, ruin, or banishment of its preachers. Till the present moment the law has been powerless, the government has given no protection to the oppressed, and the persecutors, who have begun the work of blood and destruction, exult, with a fiend-like malice, in the achievements of their own cruelty. Archbishop Mac Hale, when he hears of the reformed clergy starving, says in public and private, "They will learn to fast now!" and when he hears of families broken up from want and famine, declares "that they will now learn the virtue of celibacy." One of their party, who should have been of a better mind, and who went to the meeting for the Irish clergy at the Freemasons' Tavern, declared, that though he was sorry that any body should suffer, he felt a proud consciousness in being probably the only person in that assembly who could trace, in the sufferings of the clergy, as described by the Bishop of London, the just retribution of Providence, which is paying back, to the ministers of a false religion, the evil which it has done to Ireland! When such is the resolution taken by those who have the physical force, when these are their dreadful feelings, when the government will give no aid, but in a great degree appears to countenance the popish priests, where is the reformed religion to look, except to the voice of those in England who care for religion? They,

The "Patriot," which declares itself to be one of the organs of the dissenters, has shewn a spirit just as bad. It is really high time, if, as is said, there are many dissenters who are not political dissenters, to avow themselves, and shame such people. But the Northamptonshire dissenters, who, as is said, to a man, voted for Mr. Hanbury, are not likely to disavow the "Patriot!"

and they only, can settle the question with the popish priests, and say whether the reformed religion is to subsist in Ireland, or whether popery is to expel it by force, and to reign alone. "No nation," as an able friend of the writer said, the other day, "was ever condemned till it had deliberately chosen evil. The choice," he added, " is now offered to the English nation. Will they, or will they not, chuse a corrupted form of Christianity as the sole form for Ireland, and chuse that it should achieve its triumph by fiend-like cruelty, and then exult with fiend-like malice? Will they, in a word, deliberately, and with their eyes open, chuse Barabbas ?" The answer is not, and cannot be doubtful. The ready answer to the call for the Irish clergy, and many political events, shew that the English heart is awakening; and when it is fully awakened, even the present House of Commons, and the Government, will listen to its voice, because they must.

The history of the meeting at Brighton is a very instructive one. The weapons used by those who oppose the cause for which Mr. O'Sullivan went to plead are curiously characteristic. They prepared for the attack by placards,uttering the grossest falshoods and personalities -they got possession of the room by forged tickets-they preferred a radical hairdresser as chairman, instead of an educated gentlemanand, besides trying to interrupt Mr. O'Sullivan by every kind of indecent noise and expression, at last, in their passion at finding that all was in vain, and that truth and right would have its way, even near them, they resorted to blasphemy of the lowest and most revolting kind. Are these the persons who are hailed as allies by gentlemen, by religious Romanists, by religious dissenters? Will Englishmen long

tolerate such men as these?

DESTITUTION OF GREAT TOWNS.

THE following table and remarks on this momentous subject are due to the kindness of the same friends who supplied the invaluable information in the last number :

"Having, in a former paper, given examples of the utter destitution of some of our large towns, as respects church-room, and noticed some of those methods of calculation which have been adopted with the view of ascertaining what proportion of a given population may reasonably be expected to require sittings in places of public worship each Sunday, it may be not uninteresting to inquire what principle seems to have been recognised in olden time, by the church of England, in a matter of so great importance.

"Previously, however, to entering on this inquiry, one remark may be made, which will be obvious from the table which is given this month. It is, that, in our cathedral towns, the church-room, if not absolutely sufficient, is much more nearly adequate to the population than in other places of about the same magnitude. In Carlisle, indeed, the proportion of sittings to population is only one-fifth, but in most of the others, it varies from one-half to one-third, while in other towns the proportion seems generally to run from nearly one-fourth to one-tenth, except in some extreme cases. Let those who sneer at our cathedral establishments remember this fact, and remember that the sense of obligation diffused from these, as centres of religious principle and feeling, has induced either the members of the chapter, or those whom they could influence, to provide adequately for their own and for succeeding generations. Let those who cast the first stone at them, say how far they are superior themselves.

"To proceed, however, with the investigation now undertaken. If we select those counties in which the population has not been greatly augmented during a long series of years, and divide the number of inhabitants in each county by the number of parishes which it contains, we shall approximately ascertain the numbers of persons for whose use one church was formerly considered to be sufficient. The time occupied in compiling these tables has not admitted of an examination of the last Population Returns in reference to this particular; but the calculation having been already made in 1815, by the industry and public spirit of Mr. Yates, to whom the church of England is indebted for two able pamphlets,* this gentleman's results will be made use of, under the persuasion that the present state of the counties referred to

"The Church in Danger," &c. London: 1815. And, "The Basis of National Welfare," &c. 1817. By the Rev. Richard Yates.

VOL. IX.-Jan. 1836.

M

does not materially differ from that of 1815. Mr. Yates, then, ("Church in Danger," &c. pp. 35–43,) takes the case of counties, forming a circle of about 100 miles round London, and in which the population has not materially increased during the last 200 years; he ascertains the amount of the population, the number of houses, with the number of parishes, hamlets, and liberties, in each county, and thence deduces the average number of persons and houses which, as regards the whole of these counties, are attached to one church, and assigned to the care of one clergyman. Exclusive of London and Middlesex, this average, at the time at which Mr. Yates wrote, was about 106 houses, and 604 persons, for each church throughout the whole of seventeen counties. So far, therefore, as those counties, in which the population has remained, in a great measure, stationary, may be taken as examples, it would appear, that, 200 years ago, 106 houses and 604 inhabitants were considered of sufficient importance to have a church provided for their use, and a clergyman to look after their spiritual and temporal welfare. When, however, the legislature contemplated the building of fifty new churches in and about the suburbs of the cities of London and Westminster, it is presumed that no inquiry was made as to the ancient practice of the country, for it was agreed by a committee of the House of Commons, in 1711, that 4750 souls might very well be assigned to one church, and be efficiently served by one clergyman.* And well, indeed, would it have been if even that scanty supply of churches had been provided for the almost heathen population of the metropolis; but the acknowledgment that fifty churches were absolutely necessary ended in the building of only twenty, and legislators were then, as now, content to die and meet their God without having made any adequate efforts to provide religious instruction for the many thousand souls whom they had solemnly recognised as perishing for lack of knowledge. It may seem that this is spoken strongly, and what but strong language can suit such an occasion? Is there anything in the spirit or the letter of God's word to warrant the idea that a nation, in its legislative capacity, can be held guiltless for regarding the population of a country as so many brute machines, to be used merely for the political advantages of some party in the state, or to swell the commercial produce of the land, and not rather as so many immortal spirits, "for whom Christ died," and for whose spiritual, as well as temporal, welfare the rulers of the nation will be held responsible at the judgment-seat of Christ ?"

The preceding tables and remarks must surely be enough to impress every Christian with a sense of the deplorable condition of our great towns, and an earnest wish to remedy it. How much is it to be deplored that attempts, in which it is impossible for consistent and reflecting men to join, are made to remedy these evils, and thus difficulties are thrown in the way of finding remedies of a sounder and better kind. Within these few days, we have seen the establishment

• "Church in Danger," pp. 160, 161.