would less endanger their respective denominations than the pay and patronage of the state, and that they know not how to reconcile the claim of Dr. Chalmers and others, to be considered as just and honourable men, with their determination to compel those, who differ with them in religion, to build their churches and support their ministers.

Dr. Chalmers, however, has not yet crossed the Atlantic, but Dr. Lang having done so, we now proceed to put the reader in possession of some of his facts and arguments in favour of the voluntary system.

The volume is divided into ten chapters, beginning with the origin of the inhabitants of the Atlantic states, and closing with slavery, abolition, and African colonization. Between the first and last chapters he introduces a variety of topics, states a great number of facts, repels many false charges brought against the American people, and furnishes numerous proofs of the efficiency of the voluntary system.

We have stated that we consider Dr. Lang an unexceptionable witness in the voluntary controversy, and therefore proceed to state some of his facts, well known before, but boldly and insolently rejected, both by Episcopal lay essayists and by Presbyterian partizans.

Our readers are quite familiar with the reiterated assertions of churchmen against the efficiency of the voluntary principle in America. These assertions have been disproved a thousand times, and still, with extraordinary tenacity, they hold fast their former errors, and repeat them through any kind of publication, from the four-page tract to the solemn Quarterly, and by every kind of writer, from the elegant pen and pure mind of Gathercole, to the unsophisticated and ingenuous author of "Essays on the Church!"

These very excellent people tell us that the voluntary principle has failed to supply the people of America with religious instruction, equal in amount to that which the national church of this country supplies to England. Dr. Lang shows from the number of ministers and places of worship in the New England states, how superior the supply is, to what has been furnished in Scotland by the establishment. He describes the abundance of religious instruction in the cities and towns, compared with similar places in this country. His remarks in the case of Philadelphia will apply to them all.

"There is, therefore, in the city of Philadelphia, a place of worship, and a resident pastor, for every 1562 persons, young and old, of all denominations; and it is not to be denied, moreover, that the whole of this ample provision for the religious instruction of the community has been made solely through the voluntary system; for there was never any civil establishment of religion in Pennsylvania, from the very first. Now, I appeal to the intelligent reader, whether there is any parallel to such a provision in any of the great cities of our own country. The cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow are, perhaps, better supplied with the ordinances of religion than any of the other large cities of the British empire; but knowing the state of these cities well, I am confident I speak the truth when I assert, that neither of them will stand a moment's comparison, in this most important respect, with the city of Philadelphia."

The compulsories, however, object to this showing, and tell us, that the controversy is not about the towns, for in both systems the supply may be nearly equal. Oh no! when they are driven from the towns of America, by their decided evidence against the compulsory system, they flee to the new states, and set up the shout of triumph, because in the recently cleared settlements of the western wilderness they cannot find the parish churches of England, with all their paraphernalia, and they declare the voluntary principle has failed. Is this a fair comparison? Would it not be more honourable to compare the old settled country of Scotland or England with the old settled parts of America? How can the two systems be fairly judged, unless placed in equal circumstances, as far as the state of each country will allow? Is that a good cause which leads a writer to say, "The first point concerned the question of the existence of a full and sufficient supply of religious instruction under the voluntary system, among the agricultural districts of the United States. This was the main subject in dispute. About the towns there was comparatively little contention."*

We demur to the correctness of this statement. There was no state of things in England to compare with, in order to show the difference between the two systems, if the old settlement of America are to be abandoned. It would be necessary to go to Canada, in order to see what the compulsory-the clergy reserve principle has done there.+ Will the compulsories go there for evidence? It is not truth they wish to establish, or they would do so, though it would show their principle to be worthless; it is a victory in controversy they seek, at the expense of all that is fair and honourable. Besides, what do these individuals mean by agricultural districts? Are they not aware that all the states of America are agricultural? That not more than two or three manufacturing districts exist in that great republic? That nearly all the towns of New England, with the exception of a few on the Atlantic board, are sustained by agriculture? But suppose we admit for a moment that this is the question. Suppose we compare an old settled country, with a fixed organized population, possessing abundant wealth, with a clergy liberally sustained, and in possession of power for centuries, with newly settled states, some of them having no inhabitants, when this century commenced, but the red man of the woods, and see how the two systems supply religious instruction. This is surely giving up enough for the sake of argument. Let us here introduce the evidence of Dr. Lang, and see how he meets this demand of the compulsories.

*"Essays on the Church by a Layman." Third edition, page 76.

+ In the united provinces of Canada, where the population is now nearly one million, there are not more than 100 Episcopalian ministers, and it is all agricultural. So much for compulsion!

With great indignation he says

"If an American citizen from the state of Massachusetts, the most densely peopled in the union, were to land in Great Britain, to make inquiries relative to the provision for the dispensation of the ordinances of religion in this country, and to fix his residence, with this view, in the parish of Loch Broom, in the county of Ross, in Scotland-a parish which is sixty miles in length, and forty in breadth, which is intersected by arms of the sea, and for whose thinly-scattered and small population there is only, at this moment, or at least there was till lately, only one parish minister to dispense the ordinances of religion-what would be thought either of the understanding or of the honesty of such a person, if he were to represent that parish, on his return to America, as a specimen of the manner in which the maintenance of religious worship is provided for in Scotland? Why, if he were not set down at once as a very ignorant or a very unprincipled man, he would immediately be told that Loch Broom was the exception, and not the rule, in Scotland; and that that exception had necessarily arisen from its peculiar circumstances-its great extent, and the thinness of its population. And if he ventured to reply, he would, doubtless, be silenced at once with the additional information, that, although there was but one minister in the parish of Loch Broom, there were three or four churches, in all of which he officiated by turns. And yet the very men, who will at once recognize the reasonableness of such a state of things in Scotland, will, in all likelihood, exclaim loudly against the efficiency of the voluntary system in America, because in districts of country in the United States, in which the same amount of population is scattered, perhaps, over three or four times the extent of the large parish of Loch Broom, one does not meet with parish churches and settled pastors at every turn. The vast territory that now constitutes the states of Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, and the region of Florida, was only acquired by the United States since the commencement of the present century; and had previously been possessed exclusively, and partially colonized, by the French and Spaniards. And, with the exception of the towns of this territory, which are still few and far between, the actual population is very thinly scattered over its vast extent; .. and that of Illinois, still farther to the westward, in 1818."-pp. 130, 131.

After showing how rapidly the western states had been peopled, he fixes on Illinois to illustrate the efficiency of the voluntary system:

"The last mentioned of these states comprises a territory of 53,000 square miles, that is, more than two-thirds the size of all England; and its population, at the census of 1830, was only 157,445; and yet, in the year 1835, when, allowing that the population had actually doubled itself by immigration during the interval, it could only have amounted to 314,890, the following provision had already been made for the religious instruction of the comparatively few and widely scattered inhabitants of Illinois :

Religious Denominations in Illinois in the Year 1835. Methodist Episcopal Church-61 circuit preachers; 308 local preachers; 15,097 members.

Baptists-22 associations; 260 churches; 160 preachers; and 7350 communicants. Presbyterians-1 synod, containing 8 presbyteries; 80 churches; 60 ministers; and 2500 communicants.

Congregationalists-1 association or presbytery; 12 to 15 churches; number of ministers not known.

Methodist Protestants-22 ministers; number of members not known.
Cumberland Presbyterians-2 or 3 presbyteries; 12 or 15 preachers.
Covenanters and Seceders-4 or 5 churches.

Episcopal Church-1 bishop; 8 or 10 churches; 7 or 8 ministers.

Lutherans.-several cougregations; besides smaller bodies of Moravians, Friends, Campbellites, Tunkers, and Mormons.

Roman Catholics-8 or 10 priests; with a population, however, estimated not above 6000 altogether, and consisting of old French villagers and Irish labourers on the Illinois canal.

"And yet this is one of the states of which Captain Marryat speaks, when he tells us that,' With the exception of certain cases to be found in western Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio, the whole of the States to the westward of the Alleghany mountains, comprising more than two-thirds of America, may be said to be either in a state of neg. lect and darkness, or professing the Catholic religion.**

"Of the religious denominations enumerated above, the Presbyterians are only the third in point of number; the Methodists and Baptists being considerably more numerous. And yet, in a state still more recently formed than that of IllinoisI mean the state of Missouri, to the westward of the Mississippi-the Presbyterians have for several years past had a college for the education of ministers of religion of their own denomination for that state. I saw one of their ministers, who had come as a delegate from Missouri to the General Assembly, at Philadelphia, in the end of May last, a distance of about 1600 miles. Captain Marryat's statement is, therefore, utterly unfounded: the Protestants of America have not neglected the west. They have not left it either in darkness or popery.

"In the older states of Indiana and Ohio, the provision for the support of the ordinances of religion is still better than in Illinois, and the churches are in a more settled condition."

But with a wise and good man, whether churchman or dissenter, the question will not simply regard the number of ministers provided. Will he not inquire, if he learns that in the agricultural county of Norfolk or Suffolk there are 600 parishes, and as many clergymen-how many of these ministers preach the Gospel? Who can answer the question? But do we not go beyond the truth if we allow that one-sixth of the number preach the Gospel? Are we in a matter like this, which forms the very essence of the question, to evade such an inquiry, and overlook the character of the ministry and the nature of the instruction given? By no means; it is very convenient to write by thousands the clergy as educated men; we have no dispute on that point; but we do not admit that, according to our views, more than a sixth part of them preach fully, faithfully, that Gospel of Christ, by the belief of which men are to be saved. Of the ministers referred to in the above extract, it is not too much to say that nine-tenths are good men, and faithfully make known that Gospel.

Dr. Lang meets other objections with equal force. He shows plainly that the voluntary system raises the character of its ministers, making them active and devoted; and that they are well supported. From the number of schools and colleges he proves that the principle is favourable to education. In the number and efficiency of religious institutions he sees the strengthening of the benevolent affections. He also produces

*Diary in America, American edition, p. 219.

evidence to show that Unitarianism and other errors are sinking under the voluntary system. That though numerically the Roman Catholics are increasing, it is not by proselytizing, but by immigration from Ireland, France, and Germany.

Dr. Lang is not orthodox on the slavery question. He is too favourable to colonization, and does not judge quite correctly of its working in America. If he had been more conversant with its injurious influence on the free coloured population, he would not have written as he has done about abolition and colonization. Neither are his opinions correct respecting the polity of the Congregationalists of New England. But we shall recur to that question on another opportunity.

We had begun to hope that circumstances were so changed, since first we advocated the voluntary principle in these pages, that it would have been by this time quite unnecessary to occupy them with additional evidence in its support. It will be recollected by our readers, that when the controversy commenced, we avowed the same sentiments which we express now-that we never questioned for a moment, either the Scriptural character, the justice, or the expediency of the voluntary principle; or that the compulsory method of supporting religion was equally unscriptural, unjust, and impolitic. We asserted that if the pious members of the endowed churches would but try our plan, they would find it more efficient than the worn-out machinery of state support.

This they have wisely done; and how numerous and important are the results! The old societies of the Church of England for Christian Knowledge and the Propagation of the Gospel have been invigorated and greatly extended, while the Church Missionary Society has augmented its resources from year to year. National Schools have multiplied, and the Society for the Enlargement, Building, and Repairing of Churches has been incorporated, and local societies for the same object have been formed in several dioceses. Then came the Pastoral Aid, the Curates' Aid, and, lastly, the Bishops' Aid Society, all established to render their ecclesiastical organization more complete and effective. "The Missionary Schemes" of the Church of Scotland for Home, the Colonies, and Foreign Parts, also illustrate the potency of the voluntary principle beyond the Tweed. Did space allow, a comparison might be made in a few moments which would prove that the last twenty years have witnessed a sort of resurrection in the established churches, both of the north and south. Had it not been for the aggressive movements of the restless voluntaries, the apathy and indolence of drowsy churchmen had continued still. Those have alarmed them in their very citadel; but all the rousing influences came from without; within, there was nothing in those palmy days but what fostered spiritual slumber and self-satisfied repose. The public purse was ever open to furnish the expenses of church architecture, as often as an archdeacon or a bishop required it; churchwardens were then in all their