opinions, in more strict conformity with the tenets of the Catholic Church than with the principles of the Reformation. Those opinions have been adopted by laymen highly born and bred, remarkable for their proficiency in literature, for the gracefulness of their minds, and their persuasive manners. The new, or rather the revived doctrines have made great way among the clergy, who have begun to display the zeal, the energy, the devotedness and enthusiasm by which the missionaries of that church to which they have approximated, are distinguished. As yet these tenets have perhaps made no considerable progress among the mass of the people, but for the people those tenets possess great allurements. If Protestantism, says Madame de Staël, appeals to the understanding, Catholicism addresses itself to the heart. How largely have the Puseyites borrowed from that portion of our religious system, whose truth exalts, consoles-which raises us above the sphere of ordinary thinking, chases despair from anguish, restores to us "the loved, the lost, the distant and the dead," pours into minds the most deeply hurt the most healing balm, ministers to the loftiest hope, and awakens those imaginings, which, to use the Miltonian phrase, "brings all heaven before our eyes." Aware of the attractiveness of our tenets, those who regard them as a delusion, not unnaturally conceive that against these allurements, more than ordinary caution is necessary, and tremble at the influence which may be exercised with so much facility at a period of life when the first and the most permanent impressions are confessedly made in the inculcation of doctrines for which they conceive that no scriptural sanction can be adduced. It may be said that their appre hensions are ill founded, and that care will be taken by the Prime Minister that no heterodox ecclesiastic shall be raised to the episcopal dignity; but, Sir, we must bear in mind that proof is almost every day afforded us of the appositeness of Lord North's remark, that "the firs thing a bishop does is to forget his maker." Witness Dr. Daly, who was named a bishop in Ireland the other day, and immediately after poured out an anathema against the government scheme of education in Ireland. But even with regard to the prime minister's nomination, what security have the Dissenters got, beyond such intimations as a cheer affords? Among the supporters of the right honourable baronet, are there not men distinguished by their talents, with more than a leaning to the new theology? Nay, was not Lord Morpeth himself sternl reproved on one remarkable occasion for railing at the Oxonian Profes sors, by a distinguished gentleman, who is favourable to freedom in trade, but a monopolist of truth? And if it be thought that I ought not to refer to an incident so remote, and before the honourable gentlemar was in office, let me be permitted to ask, whether not many nights ago, there were not remonstrances addressed to the member for Kent of a very significant sort, by gentlemen whom the cheering of the Prime Minister did not deter from a confession of their creed? The fact is, it as hard to know who is, cr who is not a Puseyite. I have even heard it made a question whether the representative of Oxford himself does not to a certain extent, and more especially on the eve of a dissolution sympathise with the divines, by whom so great and just an influence is enjoyed in the learned localities where their talents and their devotion are pre-eminently displayed. I have heard it said that he must have a most difficult card, which few but himself could play; for my part, I dc not believe that he is a Protestant in one college, and a pseudo-Catholic in another; I do not believe that he adopts any of those amenities for which a celebrated order in the Catholic Church, distinguished by their genius and erudition, are supposed to have had recourse for the advancement of truth: my opinion is, that while he adheres to the principles of genuine Protestantism, he is forgiven on his canvass for the sake of certain associations with Popery, which are irresistibly suggested by the honourable baronet. But whatever may be the religious predilections of the representative of Oxford, of the inclinations of Oxford itself there can be little doubt. Can we wonder then that the Dissenters should object to a surrender of their schools to the church, when the church itself derives its own instruction from what Dissenters consider a contaminated source? It is from these considerations that the fears of the Dissenters originate, and to those considerations we must ascribe the extraordinary excitement which has been manifested through the country, and the enormous mass of petitions with which your table has been loaded. The church-rate agitation was not comparable in its fervour, to that which we have lately witnessed. The Dissenters were far more disposed to give you up their money than their creed. Besides the payment of church-rates is an abuse which the law has long sanctioned, which time has consecrated, and which, if not venerable, is at all events hoary: but in the present instance you propose an innovation against the liberty of conscience, and utterly at variance with the spirit of modern legislation. This is a relapse into tolerance. Before the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, it might have been reasonable enough-no it would never have been reasonable, but it would have been consistent enough to have claimed this exclusiveness for the church:-but now it is anomalous indeed. The Tory party resisted the repeal of the Test and Corporation Act as long as they could: at length in 1828 the right honourable baronet at the head of her Majesty's government gave way, and passed a measure which was the precursor of emancipation. Having passed that measure, why does he upon a collateral question adhere to a policy wholly inconsistent with it? But on the part of the Home Secretary, the incongruity is still more glaring He was not driven into the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts: he supported the noble lord on his first introduction of the bill. You wil tell me, perhaps, that the Test and Corporation Act has nothing to do with this bill. I answer that the great principle on which it was founded, of removing every obstruction which religious differences had created, is in direct antagonism to the basis of your scheme, and that it is most absurd that Dissenters should be admissible to this house, to every office of dignity and of influence under the crown, to the highest place in the cabinet itself, and yet should be excluded from all influence in those schools which are to be sustained by rates raised from those very Disrenters, upon whom this most offensive disqualification is to be inflicted. The schools are local, are to be supported by a local rate and not a national fund-the district, not the state, is to be taxed for their main. jenance; is it not monstrous, then, that in those localities where these Dissenters constitute a majority, they should be made the object of this wanton legislative affront? You don't pursue this course in Irelandwhy? Because the majority of the people are Catholic. But in the districts where local schools are to be supported with local imposts, the ajority are, in many instances, Dissenters. The church, therefore, cannot insist that in right of their general tutelage of the national mind, they are entitled to the control which is given them by this bill; and I am at a loss to discover what they conceive it will profit them to exer cise a power so invidious as that which they are now seeking to obtain. What have they to dread from the imaginary influence of dissent in the schools which it is proposed to establish? Let them consider the bulwarks by which the church, in reference to national instruction, is already sustained, and let them dismiss their fears of any evil effect which these schools can have on its stability. Is not Cambridge, is not Oxford theirs? In Durham have they not gained an university? Are not all the great seminaries in which the gentry of this aristocratic country are educated, in their keeping? Have they not a direct masterdom over almost every place of public instruction, where the men, who are to will the destinies of England receive the elements of instruction? Do not a vast body of the middle classes draw their first intellectual nutriment from the bosom of the church, and can you turn your eyes to any part of this great kingdom, in which you do not find the church already exercising an influence over education, which it is impossible to distrust? With these vast advantages is not the church contented, but must she needs, after having herself most reprehensibly neglected the education of the poor, when a measure is proposed to rescue the infant operative from the degradation and the depravity of ignorance, is she to come forward with her pretensions, and claim, as a matter of ecclesiastical prerogative, the instruction of the factory infants, on whom she never cast a thought away before? What has the church to dread? Has she reason to tremble at the influence of dissent among the lower classes of the manufacturing population? If in the possession of the truth, wherefore does she not manifest the security which the consciousness of its possession should inspire? If built upon a rock, why should she dread that the gates of Gehenna shall prevail against her, and as she has retained so much of the old religion (the Americans call England the old country, you should call the Catholic. the old religion), as she has retained so much of its doctrines, and prefers the title of Anglo-Catholic to any other designation, why does she not copy her great predecessor in that attribute, which a convert from your establishment, and one of the greatest ornaments of your literature, so well ascribed to her? "Without unspotted, innocent within, If there be any danger which she has cause to apprehend, it is that which must result from the hostility which she will produce among all classes of Dissenters by the unjust assumption of authority, who will, beyond all question, be arrayed against her, if she has the misfortune to succeed in her unjustifiable pretensions. She will embody and array together all those sects which have now no common bond of union, and even among the Wesleyans, who are supposed to adhere to her by some sort of ligament or other, she will produce an antipathy which it is most unwise to create. I have often heard the Wesleyan Methodists made the theme of Conservative panegyric. The most distinguished Tories, especially at the eve of a general election, have been lavish in their encomiums on this powerful body: what a mistake it is to ente into a quarrel with them upon what is a mere point of punctilio with the church? Instead of trespassing upon their rights, why does not the church follow their example, and become their honourable competitor in the work of education? If it be of importance that the lower orders should cling to the church, has not the church some better expedient for the retention of its adherents than the invasion of religious freedom: Monopolies in religion are like all other monopolies they retard improvement. It will do no harm to put the Church upon the necessity of exertion, and teach her that instead of relying on any unjust predominance, she should resort to more legitimate endeavours, to secure an honourable influence among the humbler classes of the people. It is by piety, by benevolence, by zeal, by meekness, and by humility, by the association in the primitive doctrine of primitive practice, that an influence most useful to the country and most honourable to the establishment will be extended. Let the church herself with the opportunities, incalculably great, which her affluence affords her let her prelates-be distinguished for munificence: let them look on the noble structures which the bishops of the olden time have left as monuments of their pious disinterestedness through the length and width of all the Land; let them in raising many a great moral edifice emulate that generous example; let her priests become the associates, the friends, the auxiliaries, the protectors, the consolers of the afflicted, the humble, and the poor; let them not only by their persuasiveness, allure to brighter worlds, but let them by their example "lead the way." Lel religion be recommended by the practice of the church, and in the Christian assemblage of persuasive virtues let the Protestant Propaganda be found; but let not the church, from a sacerdotal passion for ascendancy, from a love of clerical predominance, thwart the great work of education, and incur the awful responsibility of becoming instrumental in the propagation of all the vices, which ignorance has spawned upon the country. At the conclusion of the very remarkable speech in which the Secretary for the Home Department introduced the measure which was so ably propounded by him, he called on us to "raise up our hearts," and to rise above all lowly prejudice in the achievement of a great moral purpose. It is to the church itself that this "sursum corda," this invo cation, taken from the ancient ritual of Catholicism, should be addressed; he should abjure the body over which he exercises so great and natural an influence, and for which he has made great sacrifices, to ascend above every inferior consideration, and to regard the instruction of the people as paramount to every other object. The right honourabie daronet Las again, and again protested his strong anxiety to render his measure acceptable to the great mass of the community, and to introduce such modifications as should meet all just objections. I trust that his professions may be realized, and as he told us that he would send forth his bill in the hope that it would receive the public sanction and indicate that the "waters of strife had subsided," let me be permitted to hope that he will associate with that image another incident connected with the primeval history of mankind, and bear in mind that every colour was united in distinctness without predominance, that token of peace which God set in the clou:l, as a covenant of his reconciliation with the world. |