adaptation; and the manner in which the Welsh Established Church has been governed furnishes another remarkable example of the mischievous influence exercised on religion by the interference of the secular power*. But these evils appear to be attributable to the system of establishment, rather than of endowment; and at any rate they are not essential parts of an endowed system. The want of adaptation is simply an abuse of endowments; and, like all other abuses, it may be removed without destroying the institution on which it has been incrusted.

We have already stated our belief, that experience has proved that religion may be safely trusted to the spontaneous support of the people; our objection to the voluntary system is, not that it does not provide sufficient religion, but that it provides a bad religion. The principal grounds for this opinion have been succinctly stated by Hume, in the well-known passage cited by Adam Smith, in his chapter on Religious Establishments, though with the admixture of reasons in which we do not concurt. We shall now state, as briefly as we can, the grounds on which we entertain this opinion.

* See this subject well explained in an Essay on the Causes of Dissent in Wales, by Mr. Arthur James Johnes. Published by Hooper, Pall Mall East.

+ For instance, Hume speaks of the expediency of “bribing the indolence" of the ministers of religion by an endowment. This is the legitimate consequence of his definition of superstition, that it is an excess of religion." But Archbishop Whately has truly remarked, that genuine religious feeling cannot be in excess; and that superstition is properly the perversion of religious feeling. So it seems to us, that the exertions of a clergyman cannot be too great or assiduous, provided that they are in the right direction. See Smith's Wealth of Nations, b. 5, ch. 1, art. iii. In like manner, Gibbon says, "To a philosophic eye the vices of the clergy are far less dangerous than their virtues.”—Vol. vi. p. 256. This is a repetition of Mandeville's doctrine of "Private vices public benefits."

The two vices to which Christianity is incident are superstition and fanaticism. The former of these prevails chiefly in the unreformed churches, viz., the Greek and the Roman Catholic; the latter in those reformed churches which have departed furthest from the Roman Catholic system. Whenever there is any circumstance, such as the interest of the clergy, or the credulity and ignorance of the laity, in the state of these religious communities which affords an encouragement to abuse, it may generally be observed that the tendency of the Roman Catholics is to slide into superstition, that of the Protestants into fanaticism*.

Now when a clergy are thrown for support upon the voluntary contributions of their flocks, they naturally insist on those parts of their respective religious tenets which produce the greatest immediate effect on the minds of the congregation, without endangering their own popularity, or touching on matters which may give offence. With this view the Roman Catholic priest encourages the superstitious observances, and dwells on the ceremonial and ritual parts of his religion, knowing that these do not sting men's consciences, and that they give him an ascendency over their wills; while the Protestant minister indulges in rapturous

* The disposition to asceticism, so strongly marked in some of the extreme Protestant churches, is, in the Catholic church, chiefly confined to the regular clergy. (On the Catholic asceticism, see Manzoni Morale Cattolica, cap. 16.) Fanaticism, likewise, whenever it has prevailed in Roman Catholic countries, has appeared in the same quarters. Bishop Lavington finds his parallels to the enthusiasm of Methodists almost exclusively among the founders or the members of religious orders, as Ignatius Loyola, St. Dominic, St. Francis, St. Teresa. The asceticism and contemplative life of convents are precisely analogous to the Methodist spirit; and the monastic life may be considered as an appendage extraneous to the Roman Catholic system, intended to provide an outlet for persons having that religious tendency.

and impassioned discourses, and stimulates the feelings of his hearers with the various arts and resources of religious enthusiasm. In either case the doctrinal and moral parts of religion are sunk in the shade, and more prominence is given to other practices or tenets, according to the spirit of the particular religious system*. Hence we have the revivals, the camp-meetings, and the "anxious seats" of the United States; contrivances for quickening the languid pulse of devotion which probably would never have occurred to, at least never been practised by, an endowed clergy; by a clergy who had not a pecuniary interest in the results of the enthusiasm which these means are used to excite. Hence, likewise, we see that in Ireland the system of payment tempts the Roman Catholic priests to encourage the superstitions for which their system furnishes too many opportunities; that the mere ritual and mechanical parts of the religion, those parts which the Reformation has sheared from Protestantism, are the most lucrative to the priesthood. Without intending to cast general reflections on classes of persons, in whom all varieties of character are doubtless to be found, we may be permitted to ask whether, when a large body of men are placed in circumstances in which it is their direct and obvious pecuniary interest to follow a certain course, it is not to be expected that the majority of them will, in the long run, follow that course? On the tendency of the voluntary system to encourage superstitious observances in the Church of Rome, we have the statements of Catholics themselves, whose testimony is

* On the spirit of the religious system of the English Methodists, see the severe, though on the whole not unjust, remarks of the Edinburgh Review, vol. xi. p. 357-9.

the more valuable on account of their acquaintance with the subject, and their freedom from sectarian animosity. Thus, Count dal Pozzo, once First President of the Imperial Court of Genoa, in his interesting work on Catholicism in Austria, bears witness to the mischievous effect of subjecting the Catholic clergy to this pecuniary temptation.

"To play off miracles;" he says, " to publish extraordinary favours, obtained by means of some image, or of some religious external performance; to create new modes of devotion; to feed the credulous spirit of the vulgar with superstition, and to overwhelm it to the utmost with spiritual terrors; to extol the marvellous effects of indulgences, corporal penances, offerings to the church, &c., have always been a source of much emolument to the Catholic clergy. How can poor curates always abstain from such means?"-p. 172.

The pamphlet on the Ecclesiastical Finance of the Irish Catholic Church, published in 1834, by Mr. Croly, himself at that time the priest of a parish in the county of Cork, has thrown much light on the working of the voluntary system in Ireland; and it has attracted such general attention, that a mere reference to it might perhaps be sufficient. It may, however, be desirable to cite one passage which illustrates the view which has been just taken of the influence of the voluntary system on the character of the priesthood, and the religion which they administer. After having stated that the revenue of the parish priest is derived from confession dues, marriage dues, baptism dues, mass dues, dues for anointing, and also occasionally from fees paid for attendance at funerals, he gives the following account of mass dues :

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Masses, too, are priced like other rites of religion. A person is said to get a mass, or to have mass said for him, when special mention is made of him by the celebrating priest, or when he is especially recommended to the Almighty at a particular part of the canon of the mass assigned for recommendations of the kind. This is supposed to produce great spiritual, and perhaps temporal, benefit to the person so recommended. This recommendation is also supposed to benefit departed souls—that is, such as are detained in the prison of purgatory; and this is the reason why it is said that the mass is offered for the living and the dead. . . . The general notion is, that masses are beneficial in some way: no one being able to define exactly in what this benefit consists. But the general idea of their efficacy in the visible and invisible world augments considerably the revenue of the church. This matter is particularly insisted on at a particular season of the year, the Commemoration of All Souls, the second of November. Every effort is then made to interest the faithful in behalf of the souls in purgatory, in order to increase the customary contributions for mortuary masses. Doctrines are frequently advanced on those occasions, prompted by cupidity, not very consonant to reason or the Scriptures, and the congregation is led into error in order to replenish the coffers of the priest. The love of filthy lucre has done much mischief of this kind in the church. Is not the present dependent state of the priesthood in question a stimulus to these extravagancies and abuses? . . . The scantiness of clerical emoluments, or eagerness to increase them, has reduced to a dead letter the canons of the church respecting private masses. The canons require that mass, except in very rare instances, should be always celebrated in the parish church or public place of worship; which indeed is set apart and consecrated for that special purpose. Private masses, or masses in private houses, are occurrences of a very rare description wherever these canons are in force. This is not the case in Ireland, and for obvious reasons; on account indeed of the emoluments arising. The priest, more attentive to his private interest than to the observance of