that they should be placed in the best condition to perform their duties in the most useful and efficient manner." Lord Monteagle has said: "I must enter my protest against any affirmation of the Voluntary Principle, in any shape or modification whatever. When gentlemen can shew me that the country at large can be defended; that the army and navy can be supported; or the administration of justice maintained, on Voluntary Principle; then, and not till then, will I consent to leave religion to be so supported." Mr. Macaulay has also spoken out

States there were ministers of various religious sects who were supported by the Voluntary Principle; yet even by those men was the cruel, unchristian, and accursed system of slavery upheld. And why was this? Because they were dependent upon the popular voice for their maintenance. Now this could not be the case, if they were placed in a position that would make them independent of their flocks."

Aptly with the above, does Mr. Gladstone write in an able work: “Endowment does but ill harmonise with the very nature of dissent, because it introduces something of independence into the religious institution itself, and libe. rates it, at least in part, from the dominion of those successive wills which are too apt to revel in its absolute control."-The State in its Relations with the Church. Chap. III. page 108.

strongly against the Voluntary System, and chiefly on the ground that although it might provide religion for the rich man, it would be ineffective as regards the poor: "That was one objection," he says, "to the Voluntary Principle, that it imposed this burden on the poor man; whereas a religious establishment did not in reality exist for the exculsive use of the Duke or Earl, or the rich city merchant, but for the religious instruction of all classes of the community." Certainly, of the Church Establishment only, can it be said, that the Gospel is provided without money and without price; that it is essentially and emphatically the poor man's Church; because even tithes are not paid out of the landlords, or the tenants, pockets, inasmuch as they have not belonged to the former for many hundreds of years, and never have belonged, or could belong, to the latter. Neither do they tend to raise the price of produce, and thus bear on the consumer. In short, no one feels the payment of tithe, because no one pays it, as it were, of his own.*

*For an extended view of this argument, see The Primitive Church in its Episcapacy, page 269. Also Speeches of Lord Monteagle, Lord Brougham, Mr. Roebuck, M.P., &c.

But, let a poor man, on the Voluntary Principle, pay but one shilling a month to a religious sect, and that shilling is his own payment, it comes out of his own earnings, and is a charge on account of his profession of religion.

If the Voluntary System be out of the question, and the European plan of endowments not to be disturbed, let us see what are the opinions of our leading statesmen in respect to the endowment of the Roman Catholic religion in Ireland: for, depend upon it, whatever movement they commence a leadership of, will be progressive until it rests in the completion of its object.

Sir Robert Peel, in a speech on the Maynooth question, with proper caution stated that he saw great difficulties in the way of Roman Catholic endowments, (partly from a Romanist avowal of non-acceptance.) "But I

do not think," he continues, "any person has a right to call on me to give a public opinion that these difficulties can never at any future period be overcome. I do not think that it would be fair, for the purpose of purchasing any relaxation of the opposition to this measure, to place on record any declaration of the kind -a declaration which might fetter the

action of those who may succeed me. I will not hamper nor embarrass any future government by a declaration, now that the difficulties in the way of endowing the Roman Catholic Clergy are not altogether insuperable."

Sir James Graham stated, "There was an unwillingness on the part of the Irish to accept an endowment, neither was there a willingness on the part of the British public to pay; but, in his own private feeling and judgment, he had no such religious scruples as would prevent such an arrangement."

The Hon. Sidney Herbert has anticipated general legislation on the subject, for he said, "He had long held it to be his duty to assist in the erection of Roman Catholic Chapels and Schools, and to give every encouragement to the religious instruction of the people in their national faith: and he felt it to be his duty to take advantage of the Charitable Donations and Bequests Bill, and he hoped soon to find in every part on his estates an endowed Roman Catholic Church."

Lord John Russell, (April 23, 1845.) "My opinion is, that a Protestant Establishment ought to be maintained in Ireland: it is not only a matter upon which the Act of Union

speaks: but I think that the actual and practical union of the two countries is favoured by that establishment. But what I wish to see is, a Church Establishment suited to the number of the Protestants—and, likewise, an Establishment suited to the Roman Catholics."

Lord Palmerston, "That question,” the endowment of the Roman Catholic Clergy," was one which would force itself, by its own gravity, practically upon the attention of Parliament at no distant period, for it was quite impossible that the present state of things in Ireland-the effects of the existing division of sects in that country-could continue untouched much longer. Whatever might be the feeling of the House and the people of England, he maintained that a provision for the Catholic priesthood of Ireland was a measure of justice, and that the Government and the House would be compelled, at no distant period, to make one for that body of clergymen."

Lord Brougham, "For his own part, he had ever been of opinion, and he was now more than ever convinced of its propriety, that it was a circumstance to be deeply regretted, that they had not, at the period of the Union with