and to which we gave free expression in our preceding Numbers. Whilst we were yet meditating on the danger, to our great gratification we were presented with the rules of a new society, and every prospective difficulty was at once cleared before our mental gaze. The question lies within a very narrow compass. The working tools of the Church Pastoral Aid Society are not fitted to the difficult operation they have in hand, because not made of the right material. On the other hand, the instruments of the society under our notice would seem to consist of the best and purest metal, and to be nicely adapted to the important work they are destined to accomplish. In the first place, this institution received the patronage of our late sovereign. He had notified his will to become an annual subscriber of 3001. It may be truly said in such a case, that "the king's name is a tower of strength, which they upon the adverse faction want." The archbishops of Canterbury and York, and bishop of London, have each put down their names for annual subscriptions of 2007. Secondly,-and in this essential attribute consists the main distinction between the two societies-the assistants or agents must have been already ordained, and so will be qualified to preach the glad tidings of salvation. Their being in orders is a sufficient answer to all our objections, and is a guarantee against those dangers which we unwillingly found ourselves compelled to point out in the machinery of the Pastoral Aid Society. The state of spiritual ignorance in which many districts throughout the country are plunged is awful to contemplate, and would seem to enforce a liberal subscription to compass the objects of this society. We are well aware that it is the duty of the State to put an end to such lamentable destitution; and it has been objected, that government should rather be urged to fulfil its obligations in this particular, than an association, supersede the necessity of its exertions. But an exhibition of public feeling-such an evidence as a liberal subscription will afford of our countrymen being alive to the urgency of the case the covert censure thereby implied on the government's dereliction of its duty, cannot fail to impress ministers with some sense of the responsibility involved in their high offices, and must tend to accelerate the period when they will take the work into their own hands. "The additional Curates' Fund" has already ascertained an income of 30,000l., and we entertain not a particle of doubt, but that this most efficient mode of improving the condition of the people will receive a support commensurate with its high claims on the public patronage. It is the cause of christian philanthropy, of enlarged benevolence, of enlightened patriotism, of kind and genuine humility. The cause of truth against infidelity and atheism, of knowledge and virtue against ignorance and crime, of christian precept and principle against actual hea thenism in the midst of our native land. It would be to libel our fellow-countrymen to question for an instant the promise of such a society. It must succeed; it must flourish; and it can only close its labours by the zeal of government being awakened in the same holy cause, and so superseding its necessity.* CHURCH RATES. WE apprehend that the reading public by this time are cognizant of all that can be offered, pro and con, on the question of church rates. What with pamphlets and speeches, delivered in and out of parliament, the subject is worn thread-bare. We have no wish to make a resumé of the article upon the history and origin of this impost which appeared in our last Number. Since then ministers have been twice defeated (we mean virtually) in their endeavour to coerce the good sense of the people of England. In the first instance the majority was twenty-three; on the next occasion, the opposition gaining an accession of fourteen, and ministers falling short by four, their majority was only five. If the House of Commons had really represented the feelings and opinions of the English nation, the result would have been still more triumphant. As it is, deducting those members who hold office and their accomplices, together with those who are under the direction of O'Connell, neither of which section of the house ought, by rights, to count on such a question, it will be seen that Government (so called) were outvoted on their antichurch rate measure, a circumstance, by the by, which, in the olden time, must have necessitated their downfall. We have little doubt that ministers felt themselves emboldened to the compassing of this act of sacrilegious spoliation, in the plain face of facts, reason, arithmetic, and all the authority, parts, and eloquence in the kingdom, by the example of the payment of the cess in Ireland having been supplied from the reserved surplus income of that church. But there is a wide difference in the relative circumstances of the two cases. In the Irish vestries, the vast bulk of the parishioners, namely, the Roman Catholics, had no voice; which might be fairly admitted as a valid reason for abolishing church rates in that kingdom; but in England dissenters are not excluded from the vestries; so that the same principle of legislation is not applicable to the two countries. For weeks previous to the discussion a vast number of petitions were presented against the ministerial measure; and it is worthy of notice, as being, we believe, an unexampled thing in this or any other country, that such numerous petitions should * The Rev. W. J. Rodber will act provisionally as Secretary; and all communications may be addressed till further notice to "The Additional Curates' Fund," No. 4, St. Martin's-place, London. have emanated from all classes of his late Majesty's subjects, not for the repeal of an obnoxious tax, but to have the liability of payment continued upon them. One circumstance in the debate we would briefly point out to the indignation of our readers. When Mr. Borthwick, in the course of his speech, brought home against the dissenters the argument, that our Saviour himself had paid a similar tribute, and to that end had wrought a miracle-when every member not insensible to religion deeply owned the force and cogency of this example, how did the feelings of ministers correspond with the sense of the house, or what was the consistent decency of their behaviour? Were they impressed with the awful censure of their proceedings implied in this reference to our Lord and Saviour? Alas, no! They chose that opportunity to indulge their mirth. They laughed long and loud at the citation, and the reasoning of the honourable member, as if, in their opinion, their introduction was not only irrelevant, but absurd. Mr. Borthwick at the time remarked, that "he did not envy them that laugh;" but, for ourselves, we are glad that the disgraceful scene, so significant a feature of the times we live in, and so characteristic of a sacrilegious and reckless ministry,-we say, we are glad that it occurred. We needed it not, for we all along knew the men we have to deal with; but it may, perhaps, tend to open the eyes of others, who, arguing from the past, find it hard to believe that public characters can in this country be so utterly lost to shame, as the conduct we have spoken of above necessarily implies. The people of England are not wanting in feeling, though they have not foresight; and this single mistimed exhibition of mirth, by outraging their holy impressions and associations, may do more to alienate their confidence from administration than a series of political mistakes and fallacies, and the evidence of total incapacity have hitherto been able to effect. The upshot is, that the settlement of the question is left contingent upon a committee appointed for the express purpose of quashing the whole business. The demoralizing scenes that have broken the peace of numerous parishes throughout the kingdom, will be repeated with an increase of irreligious exacerbation, and another year will probably be added to the already aggravated dilapidation of our churches. This must go on till the country shakes off the incubus which weighs upon her energies. It cannot now be long before Sir Robert Peel will be called upon, by general acclamation, to'guide the helm through so difficult a navigation as lies before the vessel of the State. "Incumbat si turbidus Auster, et unda, We run no risk in affirming, that surrounded as we are with difficulties of every species, nothing but the strongest and most uncorrupt sense of duty could prevail upon any set of men to undertake the recovery of the nation from the effects of the Melbourne nostrums. However, this country does not want a State physician, whose principles, whose maxims of policy, and whose personal character, can administer a remedy. Within a few months of his taking office, the vexatious question of church rates will be settled by the Right Honourable Baronet. It is probable that the consolidated fund will, after all, be the source whence a portion of revenue adequate to the exigencies of the case will be drawn. This would secure the just principle of compelling all to pay for what contributes to the benefit of all; but we would, with deference, submit to the Right Honourable Baronet, that he should avert, by anticipation, future contests and disputes, within and without the walls of Parliament. Let there be no ground left for disagreement upon details hereafter; the whole question should be brought to a definitive settlement. The expense inevitable on ascertaining what each parish will annually require, and in making estimates, establishing methods of payment, &c. should be foreseen and provided for in the first instance, and not left to contingencies. The house of Commons must be called upon to vote a certain sum, not merely as a substitute for the rate, but for the interest and principle of mortgages raised upon the security of it, for the purchase of burial grounds, and for the building, rebuilding, and reparation of many of the parish churches. The bill that shall repeal the existing law, as respects church rates, should contemplate all minutiæ, so as to leave no loophole for sacrilegious opposition to creep through, in after years. The amount of the fund must suffer no diminution, nor the principle of a church establishment be in any sense invalidated. O'CONNELL AND THE VOLUNTARIES. THE member for all Ireland would fain delude the people of England, by taking under his protecting wing the voluntary principle, the adoption of which he knows must in this country compromise the existence of the Established Church. He gives out, and would have us believe, that the Romish religion in Ireland is upheld and maintained by voluntary contributions. Never was there such a fallacy passed upon the world for truth. But circumstances reduced him to a dilemma, in which it was not possible for him to reconcile his political interests with fact. With his usual spirit he preferred his interest to any other consideration, and with his usual jesuitism he must have founded his assertion upon some mental reservation best known to himself. However, there is not a Roman Catholic above the condition of a serf in the sister kingdom, who, from his own experience, might not contradict the learned agitator. But the statement is intended to afford a prop to the tottering fabric of the Melbourne administration at the present juncture; and what scruple is such an individual as Daniel O'Connell likely to entertain in making it? A feeble-minded person would, indeed, have hesitated, lest the falsity were too palpable, and might be too easily exposed. But Mr. O'Connell, however, is not a man to be disturbed by any apprehensions. It was enough that the untruth answered his temporary purpose; and, we presume, he thought that an additional teint upon his veracity would tend not a jot to heighten his peculiar character with the public. To lay on a deeper shade upon his sable scutcheon were all one as to paint the lily, or throw a perfume on the violet." The voluntaries may be obliged to him for the good will he seems to bear them in taking their cause in hand; but we cannot help thinking him a very inconsistent advocate, because the enforcement of an ecclesiastical impost would be not only more agreeable to his general principles, but more in accordance with those doctrines of the Romish church with which he is deeply imbued. That church has engrafted upon the laws of the Almighty a certain number of commandments peculiar to herself, with one of which only we are immediately concerned. We refer to the command obligatory on true believers, "to contribute to the support of their pastors," and "neglect not tithes to pay."* And how, it may be asked, are these commands obligatory? Because in the Roman catechisms we meet with the following questions and answers:-Q. "Do the commands of the church oblige under pain of mortal sin? A. Yes. Q. Where shall they go who die in mortal sin? A. To hell for all eternity." Now, our readers will doubtless agree with us that this "order in council," to pay tithes and contribute to the support of the priests," is backed by as stringent a penalty as any mere human punitive enactment; and as they would be inclined to infer à priori, so is it shown in the event. We believe were government so lost to all sense of decency and duty, as to offer to take the Romish priests and hierarchy into the pay of the State, that the proposition would be rejected with disdain by those parties, since they would lose, by the most liberal arrangement, a sum greater than the whole revenue of the Protestant Church in Ireland. In affirming this we are not speaking out of the record. Such is the voluntary system boasted of by Mr. O'Connell ;-such are its wonderful effects. And those tithes which he pretends the Romish church in Ireland would decline receiving are actually commanded to be paid in those identical catechisms, wherein the Roman Catholic children are instructed by the National Board of Education. * Reilly's Catechism. |