ries of existence, but for comforts or luxuries, some of which, however, the usages of society render essential to their station. The loss of these may involve great distress of mind, and positive suffering in many ways; and the more so curiosity; almost everybody having something more lucrative or pleasant to do. In London a horseman alighting will be surrounded with claimants for the chance advantage of holding his horse; whereas in an American town, except where the inordinate influx of immigration from abroad, or the degradation of the people of colour, has overburdened the market for labour, it is difficult to find any stranger at leisure for such casual offices. Upon Miss Sedgwick's remonstrating with a woman upon seeing her and others leading this loitering kind of life, the woman replied that they had nothing to turn their hand to, and were "struggling for bread.” Miss Sedgwick says she could not understand what was meant by this terrible word "struggling;" for in her country she had never heard of persons able and willing to work not having ample means of profitable occupation; and we remember hearing an American bishop say that he had never been asked for, or had occasion to bestow, alms more than twice or thrice, and one of these instances (if we remember rightly) was in the case of an Irish settler; and the others were exceptions to ordinary circumstances. Much, however, of the loitering for casual employment which astonished Miss Sedgwick is the result of sloth, improvidence, vice, or incapability; but still it is not to be denied, that in a thickly-peopled country like ours there is a constant "struggle" in almost every class of society; every opening to profitable employment being choked up with a crowd of applicants. We see this among labourers and artisans; in trades and professions; in the army, the navy, the public offices, and the church; and in so artificial and highly-wrought a state of society, though the mass of the people, high and low, enjoy, according to their station, comforts, conveniences, and luxuries, which could not be obtained in an infant land, yet these advantages are connected with many difficulties and cares, and in case of considerable checks and reverses the extent of the calamity is proportioned to the multitudes of persons who are affected by it; so that, though it would be unjust and impolitic not to allow our merchants to take advantage of every legitimate opportunity of extending their commerce, yet no seriously reflecting person can look at the possi as the sufferers are peculiarly sensitive to whatever may alter their condition in society, and deprive them of what, with their habits and feelings, is as requisite --not indeed to actual existence, but to the enjoyment of existence-as bread and a coarse garment to the labourer. If they meet with severe reverses, they cannot live in their former station; they must quit it for one lower; and though this lower station might appear to a daylabourer to afford comfort, nay, luxury, yet it may be so unsuitable to their education and capabilities, and such a bar to the retention of their former habits and connexions, that to them it is bitterness; for distress is not to be measured by what the eye sees, but by what the heart feels. To an agricultural labourer whose average weekly wages, and his father's before him, never exceeded ten or twelve shillings, and were often much less, and who was subject to frequent dearth of employment, without any thing to fall back upon, it may seem strange that a reduced merchant or manufacturer, with something still left, should complain of poverty, and pine away; and his family seem wretched and bewildered; but to this sufferer the reverse was as mentally severe, as to the labourer the loss of a winter's employment was physically wasting. Still the pressure does not extend to so many individuals as those visitations which fall upon the general population of densely-peopled districts; nor does the calamity take the appalling form of an approach to actual starvation; and it is of masses of human beings living upon the verge of this direct physical calamity; persons whose children are ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and ill-tended; and to whom the next remove is not what is called, in the case of those above them, "a fall in the scale of society," but the want of daily bread, that we are now writing, Our conclusion then is, that, though it would not be wise or practicable to prevent a population being collected where there is a reasonable prospect of support; or to take too heavy bonds for futurity, the events of which no man can anticipate; yet that humanity, justice, and Christianity demand; first, that no false stimulus, no speculative excitement, no undue hopes should be held out; and, secondly, that provision should be made for securing those moral ble issue of this state of things without some apprehension; for we cannot secure permanent, largely-extended, and constantly-expanding trade; and if not, what is to become of the enormous population who have been fostered by it? and religious habits which may prevent future reverses, or alleviate their pressure should they arrive. Did those who "created" a population numbered by myriads in Staleybridge duly weigh this portion of their responsibility? We are not acquainted with what the mill-owners may have done towards opening schools; we will suppose, what may be the fact, that Mr. Ashworth was zealous and liberal in this matter; but we cannot forget the fact which we mentioned in September, that at Staley bridge, where the disturbances broke out, there are 1174 "heads of families" who are described in the Reports of the Manchester Statistical Society as persons who cannot be included among Churchmen or any body of Dissenters, as they "make no religious profession;" and that at Ashton, where church-rates were lately refused, there are 1293 of these nondescript heads of families. Mr. Ashworth, as a Quaker, disapproving of established churches, and of course of church-rates, we fear is accountable for some portion of this lamentable "Nothingarianism." He has drawn together a large population (we speak of an individual only as an illustration of the system, and not meaning any personal offence) and yet has provided no church or clergyman; and can we wonder at the results? When we reflect how fearfully the population in the manufacturing districts has outgrown the means of religious instruction, it is only surprising that the existing evils in the state of society are not greatly aggravated. What but religion-what but the grace of God shed abroad in the heart by the power of the Holy Ghost, can purify it, or overcome the world, or excite to the love of our neighbour, or ensure a conscientious and cheerful discharge of our private, relative, social and political duties; and as affliction is more or less the lot of all men, what but this can console the wounded spirit, and enable the sufferers to rejoice, amidst the trials of life, in the prospect of death, and in hope of the glory of heaven? Godliness is "profitable for all things," it has the promise of the present life as well as that which is to come. It moderates the desires, abates inordinate care, shews the comparative insignificance of this world, and the infinite importance of eternity; and enables the Christian in the exercise of faith and hope to say from his inmost heart, "Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat, the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." Such is the practical blessedness of true religion; but faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God; and how shall men hear without a preacher? Is it not then-for we return to our position-the duty and the wisdom of the nation, and the special obligation of each man of wealth in his own locality-to provide for the spiritual instruction of the people? It is a portentous fact, that the large bodies of offenders who conducted the trade combinations of which we were speaking, should have been able for so many weeks to obtain subsistence without working; and that funds large beyond all precedent should have been supplied to carry on their nefarions proceedings. It is to be hoped the legisla ture will institute a searching inquiry into the manner in which these enormous sums of money were raised and appropriated. The peaceable workman, not less than his employer, ought to be protected against such oppressive machinations. The law now allows workmen as much as masters to confederate for their own interests; but in relaxing the old restrictions which forbad this, sufficient care was not taken to prevent trade confederacies becoming an instrument of tyranny to coerce the well-disposed workman, and often a cause of great alarm to the public. Masters may be, and often are, unjust; but their combinations to depress wages do not assume the form of direct coercion, for they cannot force persons to work for them; and in the end, if the market price of labour is higher than the wages which they have combined to offer that is, if the supply of labour falls short of the demand-their own personal interests will lead them to compete among themselves for "hands "a very significant word—and the object of the confederacy will be frustrated; for nineteen capitalists cannot long prevent a twentieth giving higher wages if he finds it to his advantage to do so; which he will if the returns will allow it, in order that he may have good operatives and avail himself of orders. But when the workmen combine in large numbers, they do not usually allow matters thus to take their natural course; they do not merely abstain from working themselves, leaving others to follow their own volitions; nor are they even always content with the more decided measure, of collecting voluntary donations to support the unemployed, thus enabling them to stand out till their masters agree to their demands; but they attempt to carry their plans by violent coercion; for in addition to misrepresentation, and appeals to passion and interest, they force We now turn to another matter, the Bishop of London's Charge, which has been a subject of widely-extended discussion, and also of fierce newspaper controversy. We need not wonder at this, treating as it does, and with the Right Reverend author's distinguished ability, of the Oxford Tract schism; for it is a very ancient proverb, Chronica si penses, cum pugnent Oxonienses, Post aliquot menses, volat ira per Angligienses; been so widely circulated, not only in his 66 sen the quaint translation of which we read injunction, and not forbidden by the in Fuller, "Mark the chronicles aright, When Oxford scholars fall to fight, Before many months expired, England will with war be fired." The contents of his Lordship's Charge are highly important; but they have rubric, has acted wrong, unless his own bishop has determined otherwise, in which case his path of duty is clear. So again the administration of Baptism after the Second Lesson has been urged in our pages as rubrical; and in many respects edifying; but still we fear attended with some practical inconveni ences, at least in populous parishes, which justified individual clergymen in continuing the ordinary custom, unless directed by their bishop to consider the rubric as not allowing of any discretion. Bowing at the name of Jesus is also directed by the Canons, but may they not be sufficiently obeyed by the bowing at the mention of the name of Jesus in the Creeds, without the unusual and inconvenient observance of a constant obeisance? As to the bowing towards the East, and "to" the altar, (as Dr. Pusey phrases it) there is no authority for it in our canons. The custom however has prevailed in colleges, cathedrals, and in many churches; and the Bishop of London quotes the Canons of 1640 as recommending it; but as his Lordship does not refer to those Canons as authoritative, he leaves the matter to each individual's own opinion. Our feeling is, that as the custom arose from superstition, and is continued (Dr. Pusey himself being our witness) upon the ground of certain notions respecting the "altar" and the "real presence of Christ upon it,-which notions the Bishop of London repudiates,—it were well to avoid a ceremonial which our Prayer-book and Canons significantly negatived, and which may be a stumbling block and rock of offence. We may say the same of "candles on the altar;" respecting which the bishop only directs that if they are placed there they shall be lighted only when wanted. Upon the important question of Baptism, his Lordship says that "he cannot understand how any clergyman ean deny that in some sense or other it is the laver of regeneration." Assuredly not; the only question is in what sense. Our view is that it is in the sense in which the infant makes its answers and stipulations; in which, in answer to the question "Wilt thou be baptized in this faith," the unconscious babe says "I will;" all this being explained in the Catechism in reply to the question, "Why then are infants baptized ?" Thus taking the service as a whole, it comports with Scripture and with facts; while all opinions which sever actual faith from actual justification and actual sanctification, oppose both. Bishop Burnet accounted the doctrine of sacramental justification the worst error of Popery; and upon infant baptism he says, treating of the twenty-seventh Article, "The office for baptizing infants is in the same words with that for persons of riper age; because infants being then in the power of their parents, who are of age, are considered as in them, and as binding themselves by the vows that they make in their name. Therefore the office carries on the supposition of an internal regeneration; and in that helpless state the infant is offered up and dedicated to God; and provided, that when he comes to age he takes those vows on himself, and lives like a person so in covenant with God, then he shall find the full effects of baptism." This seems to us satisfactory; and perhaps the Bishop of London does not mean otherwise; but the Oxford Tractarians are availing themselves of his words, as being, they say, all that is requisite for the basis of their whole system. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. J. T.; C. L.; H. L. W.; GULIELMUS; A. S.; W. F.; AMOR ECCLESIÆ; ONE WHO BLESSES GOD FOR THE REFORMATION; CHRISTOPHILUS; and several CONSTANT READERS; are under consideration. We had drawn up some remarks, as proposed, upon the dedication of a church at Leeds to "St. Cross;" but having written more than enough on kindred topics in our present Number, we defer them. A Correspondent says that Mr. Alison did not deny that "the Articles of faith of the Anglican and other branches of the Catholic Church" assert the doctrine of original sin, or, as that writer expresses it, of an "inherent taint descended to the human race from the fall of our first parents, independently of their own actings as free agents;" but only that "no authority for such doctrine can be found in the Bible;" and that we ought to have "demonstrated" that the ninth Anglican Article is scriptural. We considered we had done so by referring to such passages as Romans v. 12-20; and if our correspondent cannot see that these texts justify the doctrine set forth in "the Articles of faith of the Anglican and other branches of the Catholic Church," no comment of ours upon them can avail. The text is plainer and stronger than any human demonstration. IN my last paper, I invited attention to the feelings of tenderness : 66 and commiseration with which our Lord ratified the sentence of reprobation which the accumulated sins of the Jewish people had extorted from Him and which, by departing from the temple, He actually commenced to execute. To apply the principle which these facts involve, and to bring it home to ourselves, let us remember that the Jewish was a type of the Christian Church: that the temple was a type of the individual soul. St. Paul asks, "Know ye not that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost which is in you?" And again, "Know ye not that ye are the temples of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him will God destroy: for the temple of God is holy; which temple are ye." Just then as Christ's departure from the Jewish temple was not merely the type and forerunner, but the seal and substance of its desolation; so, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His." If Jesus Christ be not in him he is reprobate; exposed to the incursions and ravages of the great enemy of his soul. If the strivings of conscience be effectually resisted,—if the Spirit of God be grieved; the Divine Visitant will pronounce, as once at Jerusalem, those awful words, "Let us depart hence!" Then "the God of this world,”—“ that spirit which now worketh in the children of disobedience,"-finding the soul empty; abandoned of its Guide, its Guardian, and its God, will take possession of that desecrated shrine from which the glory of the Lord has departed: "he will take unto him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and enter in, and dwell there." And soon will he desolate the soul of every serene and happy temper; every holy disposition; every affection which would tend to heaven: will inflate its vanity and pride; fret and irritate its angry tempers; will poison with deadly and heart-corroding venom its malignant, jealous, and revengeful feelings will kindle in it the unhallowed fire of lust, to burn to the deepest hell will blind it with the fumes of sensuality, and the veil of unbelief, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should shine CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 60. 4 X |