Church rule, labours to procure employment in this way, and to establish the custom of having mass celebrated periodically in this or that private house of some respectability as a matter of course; for the poor and the needy are not much taken into account in such matters, although even from them something is gleaned occasionally in the way of masses. . . . In short, the entire system at present pursued by the Irish Catholic clergy as to money matters, or matters of church finance, is to make the very most of their ministry in gross and in detail; and regardless of consequences, to render every part and parcel of religion, whether we regard the administration of sacraments, or the celebration of divine worship, subservient to considerations of self-interest.”—p. 39-41.

The same effects are naturally produced in other countries by the same cause. Thus legacies to the church are very frequent in Transrhenane Prussia, where the Catholic clergy are unendowed: in the parts of Prussia where they are endowed such legacies are almost unknown. In Amsterdam, where the Catholic clergy has been merely tolerated and not paid by the state, expensive funerals have been encouraged by the priests, and every woman of the congregation was forced to attend and pay a gulden; the men, however, being less under the influence of the clergy, refused to give their attendance.

The want of an endowment necessarily tends to induce a clergyman to use his religious influence in order to gain an ascendency over the minds of his congregation, and to use that ascendency in order to gain money. Its inevitable consequence therefore is to encourage priestcraft; to promote an illegitimate exercise of the sacerdotal authority; and to give the clergy an interest rather in cultivating the irrational fears, or stimulating the imagination and feelings of their

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hearers, than in improving their reason by judicious and temperate admonition *. The inducement afforded by the voluntary system to the development of the fanatical and superstitious perversions of Christianity may be learnt from the practices of the mendicant orders of the Church of Rome; who, however beneficial their preaching may have been at their first institution, have become the chief apostles of superstition in the Roman Catholic countries. The Jesuits were at their first institution prohibited from teaching for money, the object being that they should not accommodate themselves to the weaknesses or prejudices of their hearers. It was probably from perceiving the close connexion between the paid lessons and the shallow philosophy of the sophists that Socrates disapproved so strongly of teaching for money. On the other hand, an endowed clergyman, like an endowed ethical teacher, has no temptation to develop the worst parts of his system as being the most striking and captivating, and therefore the most gainful; he has no interest in striving after temporary applause, in producing a strong transitory influence on the feelings, or in encouraging

*For an account of the mischievous influence which a dependence on the congregation exercises on the character of the minister, see the curious and interesting work, entitled the “ Autobiography of a Dissenting Minister." Whether the work is genuine or not, whether its statements are true, is of no importance for the present purpose; it is sufficient that the adventures are probable, and such as might be naturally expected to happen in the supposed circumstances.

See Ranke's Römischen Päpste, vol. i. p. 224.

The opinions of Socrates on this point are so well known, that it is scarcely necessary to refer to Plato's Dialogue, the Sophista. Aristotle defines a sophist to be a χρηματιστὴς ἀπὸ φαινομένης σοφίας, a man who makes money by apparent, and not real, philosophy,' (Soph. Elench. ch. i.) In like manner many an unendowed clergyman might be called a χρηματιστής ἀπὸ φαινομένης εὐσεβείας,

ritual and outward observances which require the aid of the priest, but produce no change in the mind of the layman. Endowment thus gives full scope to the monitory and ethical parts of religion; and instead of religion being either a succession of outward and mechanical observances, or a means of stimulating the feelings and elevating the imagination, tends to make it a system of moral rules enforced by the strongest sanction which can be applied to the guidance of human conduct, and the regulation of the human mind. The civil magistrate may, without interfering in ecclesiastical matters, or without undertaking to decide on the comparative truth of creeds, nevertheless seek to develop and encourage that which is common to all shades of religious faith, and which is their highest principle, so far as man's temporal state is concerned, viz., the principle of pure virtue and of mutual charity inculcated by them. And this end is best attained by resorting to the method of general and undistinguishing

* Mr. Bentham, in his Treatise on Rewards, speaks of the advantages of placing a well-instructed clergyman in every parish, who would combat the prejudices of the uneducated classes, and raise them to his level. "Alors (he says) dans les bornes étroites de chaque paroisse, dans les provinces les plus reculées, dans les lieux les plus pauvres et les plus sauvages, il se trouverait au moins un homme de confiance, instruit de tout ce qu'il importe le plus de savoir. . . . D'ailleurs, plus les prêtres pourraient tirer leur influence et leur considération de vrais services, moins ils seraient portés à la chercher dans des moyens dangereux. Ces connoissances, qui sont la gloire et le salut de d'esprit humain, les préserveraient du fanatisme, qui en est la honte et la fléau. Placés au milieu de leurs paroissiens, comme de bons pères de famille, leurs guides et leurs oracles dans toutes les circonstances difficiles, ils s'appliqueraient à rectifier les préjugés nuisibles; ils combattraient leurs funestes habitudes dans l'éducation physique et morale de leurs enfans."-Théorie des Peines et des Récompenses, tom. ii. p. 254. Conduct such as this could only be expected from an endowed clergy; a clergy dependent on the voluntary subscriptions of their parishioners could not afford to run counter to their prejudices.

The most favourable opportunity for the voluntary system would be, that the religious communion should contain as large as possible a proportion of wealthy and educated persons, inasmuch as it might be expected that their contributions would be large, and regularly paid, and that the character of the clergy would not be lowered by their resorting to unworthy acts for the collection of their incomes. For this reason, there is probably no religious body among whom this system could be tried with a better prospect of success than among the Episcopalian Protestants of Ireland, as they possess at least nine-tenths of the land, while they form only onetenth of the population. On the other hand, there cannot be a less favourable field for the voluntary principle than where the religious communion is numerous, and consists in great measure of the poorer classes. Such is the case with the Irish Roman Catholics; forming eight-tenths of the community, they probably do not own one-hundredth part of the land, and Ireland is not a manufacturing country. The same is likewise the case with the dissenting churches of England and Wales; their members are chiefly to be found in the middle and poorer ranks*. The voluntary system has not a fair

* 66 I feel unable," says the author of the work on the Voluntary System, "to give a decided opinion; but certainly I am inclined to think that during that period (the last forty years) Dissenters have increased in a ratio somewhat greater than that in which the population in general has increased. But whether they have numerically increased or not, it seems to me quite certain that in two things they have decreased — in piety and in wealth. . . . . Of their piety it is not at present my business to speak; and as to the second point, I shall give better authority than my own assertion. The Eclectic Review tells us, The dissenting interest has been extending itself with an overgrowing population, but it has lost ground in the higher and middle ranks.' And again, 'Orthodox dissent has almost entirely disappeared from the higher classes. Evangelical Dissenters no longer form a phalanx in the legislature; nor, as formerly, are they found prominent in all the great commer

trial, while there is already in existence an endowed church to which the richer classes chiefly belong. In order that it should have a good chance of success, the society should be split down, not across, by the division of sects, so that each should have an equal or nearly equal share of each rank, instead of all the rich belonging to the endowed, and all the poor to the unendowed persuasion. In Ireland, moreover, not only are the majority of the Roman Catholics poor tenants and labourers, but the few who belong to the wealthy class, being probably less under the influence of the priests, contribute sparingly to their support. "It may be right to observe," says Mr. Croly, "that, in the present defective state of things, the rich Catholics contribute in general but little to the support of their clergy. They pay nothing in proportion to their rank and means. They are extremely deficient in this respect, so that the whole burden of the priesthood, as to their support, rests, it may be said, on the shoulders of poor, industrious, labouring classes. There might be some honourable exceptions, but the general proposition is true."-p. 31.

the

The difficulty of providing for the worship of the Irish Roman Catholics on the voluntary principle is peculiarly evident in the case of chapels, as in order to

cial companies of the metropolis, and proprietors of all the principal manufactories of the country. The professional classes have also, with few exceptions, deserted the ranks of nonconformity. And even among the middle classes, so far as our observation extends, the rising youth of England are not being trained up within the communion of dissenting churches.-The Voluntary System, by a Churchman, p. 275. 'The Rev. W. J. Rees,' says the author of the Essay on the Causes of Dissent in Wales, has declared, that our poorer countrymen (in Wales) look upon the church as never intended for them, but meant only for the rich."-p. 68.