parity of numbers between Popery and Protestantism, we should be unwise to rest satisfied that this state of things will necessarily be permanent, and that the most strenuous efforts are not demanded in order to resist Rome's aggressions. She is not satisfied with her present strength, and some of her recent movements give evidence of her far reaching sagacity and subtlety. What she cannot accomplish by direct aggression, she will aim at by circumvention and strategy. Her recent efforts to grasp and appropriate to her own purposes a portion of the public schools fund, in various States, and to make the bishops the sole proprietors of the ecclesiastical property within their several sees, are of this nature." CHURCH ACCOMMODATION IN AMERICA. THE latest statistical returns give the following statement of church accommodation in the United States : Denominations. ration in Ireland itself. Lord Elgin seems to be somewhat of our opinion, for he did not hesitate to state to a Protestant deputation who waited on him, in his official capacity as Governor of Canada, that America had not gained by the substitution of the Irish for the red men of the woods. Our readers are all familiar with the fact, that a plan was recently proposed, in connection with the Evangelical Alliance, to send a hundred ministers to Ireland, during the month of August, who should preach the Gospel, either in churches or in the open air, as opportunity was afforded them. The object of this religious movement was not to attack directly the errors of the Papal creed, but to proclaim the doctrines of the Cross. It was supposed that the labours of these itinerant missionaries might be productive of much spiritual benefit to this poor and degraded country. The plan was entered upon with much cordiality. There were sixty ministers from England and forty from Scotland,-Mr Henderson of Park, with his usual liberality, paying the travelling expenses of the Scottish ministers. A plan of this kind could not, of course, be arranged without publicity; and the priests, alarmed at this encroachment upon their kingdom of darkness, denounced the evangelical missionaries from the altar, and stirred up their blinded votaries to deeds of violence. The Popish press breathed a similar spirit; and if one may judge from numerous specimens of newspapers now lying before us, vulgar swagger, and ruffian insolence, and mocking of divine truth, are their principal characteristics. And the consequence has been, that in Limerick, and in other towns, the savage mob attacked the missionaries, and their lives were preserved only through the intervention of the police. The mis35,075 sion, so far at least as out-door preaching 213,551 is concerned, has been abandoned in these districts, where the priests have most influence. Mr John White, a Methodist minister, resident in Cork, has set himself to answer the question, What may be the result of this visit, and universal rejection by the Romanists, of this movement of the Evangelical Alliance? The letter is judicious, and he assigns several reasons for the conclusion to which he arrives, that good will come out of it, notwithstanding its present failure, and the hatred it has evoked to the preachers of the gospel. We append Aggregate Accommodation. 2,130,878 296,050 795,177 131,986 625,231 108,605 282,823 No. of 156,682 136,367 444 205,402 326 115,347 Unitarian, Universalists, Minor Sects, 16,570 531,100 29,900 4,209,333 112,184 2,040,034 620,950 5,070 36,011 13,849,896 Total population of the States about twenty-three millions. Taking one minister to a church-and under the voluntary system more than this number will be found only in the great towns-the average is one to 640. PERSECUTION OF EVANGELICAL MISSION- THE remarks we made in the last number some extracts: "That they were mistaken, there is no doubt. It is quite plain they formed no just estimate of the state of Ireland, else they would never have dreamed of being permitted peacefully to preach the Gospel in the public streets of the towns and cities of the South and West of this land without being furiously assaulted by a populace excited by a priesthood, whose only hope of retaining their power over the people is the exclusion of Scriptural knowledge. Was it possible that the priests would quietly allow one hundred ministers of the Gospel, with that hated book-the Bible-in their hands, to stand in the streets of Limerick, Clonmel, Waterford, and the surrounding towns and villages, and proclaim in the ears of their flocks the blessed truths of the Gospel? They, in their ignorance and simplicity, thought so; but we who have to live and labour in the midst of their opposition and persecution, had reason to think otherwise; and the result has sadly proved our fears to be well-founded. They have stood up and offered the Gospel to sinners; but, instead of being listened to, they have been surrounded by mobs more like fiends than men; they have been hooted, cursed, stoned, insulted; and, were it not for the shield of God's power which he threw over them, their lives would have been sacrificed. "It has also more fully developed the real spirit of Popery. To us, indeed, who live in the midst of its influence, this were not necessary; but to England and Scotland such development was necessary. How frequently have our statements respecting that system been received with distrust, and we have been charged with a want of Christian charity when we exhibited things, as far as language could paint them, as they are with us. The priests, forsooth, were not so wicked and intolerant as we represented them to be; Popery, after all, was not such a deadly system as we described it; and, as a proof of this, England grants thirty thousand pounds annually to educate priests to propagate this system, and to make it more destructive to the interests of this country. "This movement has also more clearly shown the terror the priests of Rome are in of the preaching of the Gospel, and the only weapons with which they can meet it. Argument has utterly failed them. They have been asked again and again to come forward, and show why they oppose the truth, to prove from either reason or Scripture their peculiar tenets. They have ventured to come out of their holes into the light of day, and on a few occasions have attempted to vindicate their doctrines by quibbles and sophistry; but they have cut such a miserable figure on the stage of controversy, and the light has, on those occasions, shown so much the deformity of that monstrous system, that they have retired back to their dens, and, from Cadinal Wiseman in London down to the most obscure priest in an Irish village, no man can be found to enter into a logical defence in Popery. All the arguments now left in the hands of Rome are yells, curses, stones, and bludgeons; and these she is using with all her might. And there is reason to believe that this is the death-struggle of Popery. In the absence of all argument, she may and will persecute the ministers of the Gospel, and many of the excellent of the earth may suffer, and even die in the contest; but she herself must finally expire beneath the repeated strokes of Divine truth; and the millions duped and prostrated under her dark and wicked influence shall soon arise from their degradation; the tongues now employed in cursing will then pronounce blessings on those engaged in proclaiming the unsearchable riches of Christ; and the men whom they now regard as their enemies, they will then hail as their best friends." DEATH BLOW TO CHURCH RATES-BRAIN- WE Congratulate our Nonconformist friends on the decided victory they have gained, in the famous or infamous case of the Braintree church rate. In 1841, a majority of the rate-payers in vestry refused to make a rate. The churchwardens, with a minority, then took the liberty of imposing a rate themselves, on the ground that the refusal of contumacious persons to perform their duty, should not prevent other good men from doing what was right, and taxing the community for the expenses of public worship in the Established Church. Mr Lushing ton, official principal of the consistorial court of London, declared the rate invalid, because made by a minority. Sir Herbert Fust, first official principal of the Arches Court of Canterbury, reversed his decision. The question was carried upon appeal to the Exchequer Chamber, where four judges declared that the rate was valid, and three affirmed the opposite. It was then carried by writ of error to the supreme court of appeal, the House of Lords. The decision of the inferior court was summarily reversed. The unconstitutional argument as to the competency of the minority to tax a majority, which had received the sanction of the four judges, was very successfully disposed of by Lord Truro. "As to the fact of the rates being made by a minority, there was no doubt. But then it was said that the vestry had been assembled to make a rate; that a rate was necessary for the repairs of the church; and that, under such cir- » cumstances, it was the legally imposed duty of the vestry to make the rate; that, therefore, when the vestry refused to do so, it committed a breach of legal duty, and, consequently, gave to such persons as were willing to perform the duty, the right in themselves to the performance of it; the others by their refusal having abdicated their authority. In other words, it was contended that as the persons composing the majority had refused to perform their duty, they must be treated as if they were absent; and that then it was clear that those who were preseut constituted the vestry, and might make the rate.' The question of church rates in England has thus received its death-blow. This homage of the national will to religion, as Lord John Russell phrases it, may now be looked upon as defunct. A minority can no longer impose a rate; and there are few parishes, except in the more remote and rural districts, where it will not be found a very easy matter to form a majority in a vestry meeting. The friends of an established church must henceforth defray the incidental expenses of public worship out of their own pockets. They have, of late, been getting some good lessons on the voluntary principle. This is another; and we hope the time is not far distant when they will understand that tithes and church rates occupy the same footing, and that neither of them can be defended upon the ground of religious freedom and impartial taxation. THE WESLEYAN CONFERENCE. The Wesleyan Conference has just concluded its meeting at Bradford. The members of this ecclesiastical conclave are putting the best face they can on the distractions of their denomination; but it is quite clear, they are far from feeling that their position is secure. The sort of blustering tone, the apparent recklessness of consequences, remind one at times of the schoolboy walking through a church-yard at night, afraid of ghosts, but "whistling aloud to keep his courage up." Every effort has been made to increase their funds, and their appeal has been well responded to in some cases; but the large donations of opulent persons, under a temporary stimulus, can never take the place of the regular and smaller contributions of the great body of the people. And we apprehend that the deficiencies are much greater in the local funds than they appear in the general. During the last year there has been a loss of ten thousand members, not to mention the defections of former years. A large party are dissatisfied; and unless considerable concessions be made to their reasonable demands, a more formidable secession will unquestionably take place. There has been less of the coarse work of ministerial expulsion this session than usual; but there has been something more ominous, there has been the voluntary resignation of a number of ministers of high standing and character. They feel, that liberty of speech and of action is denied them in their present connection; and conscious of this degradation, they cannot but act out their convictions. Examples of this kind are apt to become contagious. Methodism, we have ever acknowledged, has been of eminent service in the spiritual improve ment of the humbler classes of England. But its close system is not suited for an in. telligent community. Whether it can be adapted to the circumstances of the present age without the sacrifice of some of those peculiarities which constitute the secret of its strength, is a question on which we do not enter. But unless it can thus be modelled, the Wesleyan polity will ere long become a melancholy memorial of departed greatness. EDINBURGH ANNUITY-TAX BILL. WE go to press so early, that the " Magazine" was all in type last month before the intelligence reached us of the defeat of the Annuity-Tax Bill, in the House of Commons. The subject, however, is so important in the eyes of Scottish Dissenters, that though it appears somewhat out of date, we cannot allow it to pass unnoticed. The simplest statement of the nature and character of this impost is enough to awaken righteous indignation. A tax of six per cent is levied upon house property within the ancient royalty, and as this district of the metropolis has only a population of sixty thousand souls, it follows that a hundred thousand escape this burden altogether. From this ecclesiastical tax, the members of the College of Justice, including all the judges, solicitors and advocates, are completely exempted. These form the aristocracy of Edinburgh; and were this opulent class to pay in the same proportion as others, the amount would be nearly L.1700, and the impost would be reduced from six to five per cent. The tax at present yields a revenue of L.10,000, and from a return made by Mr Lefevre, it appeared, that of this sum, L.8000 was paid by persons who had no connection with the Established Church. It is divided among eighteen ministers, who officiate in fifteen churches. The plan proposed in the Bill was the following: Uncollegiate the three parishes, when vacancies occur, and you thus have a permanent staff of fifteen ministers. Three stipends are thus saved. Let the present ministers have L.600 a-year, and their successors L.550. Abolish the exemption of the members of the College of Justice. Appropriate the revenue of the Chapel Royal Deaneries as the leases drop, which will give you about L.1500 per year. Impose a municipal tax of three per cent., and, from all these sources, a sum would be raised which meets the expenses of the reduced Establishment. Such was the scheme proposed by the Lord Advocate, and which met with the approval of almost all the members for Scotland. It did not, however, please the ministers of Edinburgh, though it would have saved them from all unhappy collisions with the rate-payers. The house was ready for a decision. Mr F. Scott rose up, and spoke against time. The clock strikes four as the honourable gentleman is enunciating his miserable platitudes to an impatient auditory. The Speaker leaves the chair. The House adjourns; and as there is no other day on which the measure can be brought forward this session, it is accordingly lost. It is lost by a disreputable trick. The measure would undoubtedly have been carried, had a vote been taken. For our own parts, we are not sorry that the measure has been defeated. At least, we are bearing the discomfiture with tolerable composure. We did not find fault with the proposed scheme as a compromise, for this was inevitable, our objection was rather that the compromise was too much upon one side. There are honourable men in the Town Council, who, for the sake of public peace, made concessions on this question, of the propriety of which their own minds were scarcely satisfied, and which have exposed them to the serious charge of being indifferent to the great principle of religious freedom which they hold. If they have gone too far in this direction, it is an error with which we can sympathise, and upon which we will pronounce no severe censure. But it is an error not to be repeated; and, after the manner in which their exertions have been met, by those who had the deepest interest in an amicable settlement, there is little danger of a similar blunder being committed a second time. Concession has been carried to its extremest point by Dissenters; and probably the best plan for them is to keep their hands clean, for a considerable time, of all measures for the adjustment or modification of this obnoxious impost. The Established clergy have chosen their path-let them pursue it, and learn, by a personal experience, whither it may lead them. We have a strong suspicion, that even now they are disturbed by the unhappy consciousness that it would have been better for them to accept the generous terms that were offered them. Certain it is, that the loud shoutings of victory are not heard in their camp, and that their main anxiety is to protect themselves from public scorn, by declaring that they are not to blame for the rejection of the Bill. We do not envy them their position. It cannot be a pleasant reflection for a pious minister of the Established Church in Edinburgh, even when he has no scruples of conscience as to its justice, that the tax which supports himself and his family is paid with a grudge by the Dissenter, and with a curse by the Infidel. There is a significance in the words of Macaulay, in the discussion in the House of Commons, which will probably be better understood in the future, than it has been in the past,—“ He need not remind the House of the disastrous events which had already taken place in consequence of the existence of this tax. Could anything be conceived more painful to the name, and to the reverence due to religion, than that ministers should be compelled to call in the aid of the soldiery in order to enforce the payment of their income? Consider how widely the unpopularity of this tax differed in its essential nature from the unpopularity of other taxes. A police or an army might be unpopular, still the one preserved our property from the midnight attack of the dishonest, and the other from the aggressions of a foreign foe. A coastguard might be hated, still it did its duty, and protected us from illicit frauds. But a church which was hated was worse than useless; and if it inspired feelings opposed to affection and respect, better that it should not exist at all." The ministers of the Established Church may take to themselves the consolation, that there will never be proposed to their acceptance a measure so favourable to them as that which they have lately been so imprudent as to reject. They shall never get such a good bargain again. The tide is setting in against ecclesiastical monopolies, as well as against all others; and it is time for them to be setting their house in order. There is an old story about the Sybilline books, which it would do them no harm to remember. The Sybil came offering her books for sale; but they were rejected. Each time she came back she had fewer books preserved, and a higher price was set upon them. The Roman legend has numerous modern applications. And, in fine, there is another topic of peculiar gratitude, which we commend to their meditations. They have secured to Edinburgh, for some time longer, the eminence of being the head-quarters of Scottish Voluntaryism. From the character of its inhabitants, and from the nature of their pursuits, one would expect Glasgow, not Edinburgh, to be the centre of Voluntary agitation. And Edinburgh would never have earned this proud distinction, had it not been for the pleasant irritation of the Annuity-Tax. The body-politic in Edinburgh has a slight tendency to repose; but the annual visit of the ecclesiastical publican, knocking at our doors for his six per cent., is as stimulating as the rubbing of croton oil upon the chest of the patient, and imparts a healthy activity to his system. Thanks, then, to the Edinburgh clergy, that they have defeated the Annuity-Tax Bill. They have done more good than they expected. Printed by THOMAS MURRAY, of 2, Arniston Place, and WILLIAM GIBB, of 41, York Place, at the Printing Office of MURRAY and GIBB, North-East Thistle Street Lane, and Published by WILLIAM OLIPHANT, of 21, Buccleuch Place, at his Shop, 7, South Bridge, Edinburgh, on the 26th of August 1853. |