mies but the enemies of the country; | God for a King who has derived his he did not make the memory of a quiet glory from the peace of his King a fountain of wrath; the feelings realm, and who has founded his own of the individual (where they required happiness upon the happiness of his any control) were in perfect subjec- people. tion to the just conception he had formed of his high duties; and every one near him found it was a government of principle, and not of temper; not of caprice, not of malice couching in high places, and watching an opportunity of springing on its victim. Our late Monarch had the good nature of Christianity: he loved the happiness of all the individuals about him, and never lost an opportunity of promoting it; and where the heart is good, and the mind active, and the means ample, this makes a luminous and beautiful life, which gladdens the nations, and leads them, and turns men to the exercise of virtue, and the great work of salvation. But the world passes on, and a new order of things arises. Let us take a short view of those duties which devolve upon the young Queen whom Providence has placed over us - what ideas she ought to form of her dutiesand on what points she should endeavour to place the glories of her reign. First and foremost, I think, the new Queen should bend her mind to the very serious consideration of educating the people. Of the importance of this I think no reasonable doubt can exist; it does not in its effects keep pace with the exaggerated expectations of its injudicious advocates; but it presents the best chance of national improvement. We may honestly say of our late Reading and writing are mere inSovereign that he loved his country, crease of power. They may be turned, and was sensibly alive to its glory and I admit, to a good or a bad purits happiness. When he entered into pose; but for several years of his life his palaces he did not say, "All this is the child is in your hands, and you my birthright: I am entitled to it- it may give to that power what bias you is my due-how can I gain more please: thou shalt not kill—thou shalt splendour? how can I increase all not steal-thou shalt not bear false the pleasures of the senses?" but he witness: by how many fables, by how looked upon it all as a memorial that much poetry, by how many beautiful he was to repay by example, by atten- aids of imagination, may not the fine tion, and by watchfulness over the morality of the Sacred Scriptures be public interests, the affectionate and engraven on the minds of the young? lavish expenditure of his subjects; I believe the arm of the assassin may and this was not a decision of reason, be often stayed by the lessons of his but a feeling which hurried him away. early life. When I see the village Whenever it was pointed out to him school, and the tattered scholars, and that England could be made more the aged master or mistress teaching rich, or more happy, or rise higher in the mechanical art of reading or writthe scale of nations, or be better guideding, and thinking that they are teachin the straight path of the Christian faith, on all such occasions he rose above himself; there was a warmth, and a truth, and an honesty, which it was impossible to mistake; the gates of his heart were flung open, and that heart throbbed and beat for the land which his ancestors had rescued from There are, I am sorry to say, many slavery, and governed with justice: countries in Europe which have taken but he is gone and let fools praise the lead of England in the great busi conquerors, and say the great Napo-ness of education, and it is a thoroughleon pulled down this kingdom, and ly commendable and legitimate object destroyed that army; we will thank | of ambition in a Sovereign to overtake ing that alone, I feel that the aged instructor is protecting life, insuring property, fencing the altar, guarding the throne, giving space and liberty to all the fine powers of man, and lifting him up to his own place in the order of Creation. them. The names, too, of malefactors, pared with the gigantic evils which and the nature of their crimes, are stalk over the world in a state of war. subjected to the Sovereign;-how is God is forgotten in war-every prinit possible that a Sovereign, with the ciple of Christian charity trampled fine feelings of youth, and with all the upon-human labour destroyed-hugentleness of her sex, should not ask man industry extinguished—you see herself, whether the human being whom the son, and the husband, and the she dooms to death, or at least does not brother, dying miserably in distant rescue from death, has been properly lands-you see the waste of human warned in early youth of the horrors affections-you see the breaking of of that crime, for which his life is for- human hearts-you hear the shrieks feited" Did he ever receive any of widows and children after the battle education at all?-did a father and -and you walk over the mangled mother watch over him- was he bodies of the wounded calling for brought to places of worship? - was death. I would say to that Royal the Word of God explained to him?-child, Worship God by loving peace was the Book of Knowledge opened to it is not your humanity to pity a him?—Or am I, the fountain of mercy, beggar by giving him food or raiment the nursing-mother of my people, to I can do that; that is the charity send a forsaken wretch from the streets of the humble and the unknownto the scaffold, and to prevent by un-widen you your heart for the more exprincipled cruelty the evils of unprincipled neglect?" panded miseries of mankind — pity the mothers of the peasantry who see their sons torn away from their families— pity your poor subjects crowded into hospitals, and calling in their last breath upon their distant country and their young Queen-pity the stupid, frantic folly of human beings who are always ready to tear each other to pieces, and to deluge the earth with each other's blood; this is your extended humanity—and this the great field of your compassion. Extinguish in your heart the fiendish love of military glory, from which your sex does not necessarily exempt you, and to which the wickedness of flatterers may urge you. Say upon your deathbed, "I have made few orphans in my reign—I have made few widows Many of the objections found against the general education of the people are utterly untenable; where all are educated, education cannot be a source of distinction, and a subject for pride. The great source of labour is want; and as long as the necessities of life call for labour, labour is sure to be supplied. All these fears are foolish and imaginary; the great use and the great importance of education properly conducted is, that it creates a great bias in favour of virtue and religion, at a period of life when the mind is open to all the impressions which superior wisdom may choose to affix upon it: the sum and mass of these tendencies and inclinations make a good and virtuous people, and draw down upon us-my object has been peace. I have the blessing and protection of Almighty God. used all the weight of my character, and all the power of my situation, to check the irascible passions of mankind, and to turn them to the arts of honest industry: this has been the Christianity of my throne, and this the gospel of my sceptre; in this way I have striven to worship my Redeemer and my Judge." A second great object, which I hope will be impressed upon the mind of this Royal Lady, is a rected horror of war -an earnest and passionate desire to keep her people in a state of profound peace. The greatest curse which can be entailed upon mankind is a state of war. All the atrocious crimes com. I would add (if any addition were mitted in years of peace-all that is wanted as a part of the lesson to spent in peace by the secret corrup- youthful royalty), the utter folly of all tions, or by the thoughtless extrava-wars of ambition, where the objec gance of nations, are mere trifles com- sought for if attained at all Bishop.-Sir, I do not enter into your reasons, but tell you plainly, if you continue to go there you shall be silenced. The young man did go, and was silenced; and as Bishops have always a great deal of clever machinery at work of testimonials and bene-decessits, and always a lawyer at their elbow, under the name of a secretary, a Curate excluded from one diocese is excluded from all. His remedy is an appeal to the Archbishop from the Bishop: his worldly goods, however, amount to ten pounds: he never was in London: he dreads such a tribunal as an Archbishop he thinks, perhaps, in time the Bishop may be softened if he is compelled to restore him, the enmity will be immortal. It would be just as rational to give to a frog or a rabbit, upon which the physician is about to experiment, an appeal to the Zoological Society, as to give to a country Curate an appeal to the Archbishop against his purple oppressor. The errors of the bill are a public concern the injustice of the bill is a private concern. Give us our patronage for life. Treat the Cathedrals all alike, with the same measure of justice. Don't divide livings in the patronage of present Incumbents without their consentor do the same with all livings. If these points be attended to in the forthcoming bill, all complaint of unfairness and injustice will be at an end. I shall still think, that the Commissioners have been very rash and indiscreet, that they have evinced a contempt for existing institutions, and a spirit of destruction which will be copied to the life hereafter, by Commissioners of a very different description. Bishops live in high places with high people, or with little people who depend upon them. They walk delicately, like Agag. They hear only one sort of conversation, and avoid bold reckless men, as a lady veils herself from rough breezes. I am half inclined to think sometimes, that the Bishop-Commissioners really think that they are finally settling the Church; that the House of Lords will This has now been given to "s Caligat, nubem eripiam. It is ominous for liberty when Sydney and Russell cannot agree; but when Lord John Russell, in the House of Commons, said, that we showed no disposition to make any sacrifices for the good of the Church, I took the liberty to remind that excellent person that he must first of all prove it to be for the good of the Church that our patronage should be taken away by the Bishops, and then he might find fault with us for not consenting to the sacrifice. I have little or no personal nor pecuniary interest in these things, and have made all possible exertion (as two or three persons in power well know) that they should not come before the public. I have no son nor son-in-law in the Church, for whom I want any patronage. If I were young enough to survive any incumbent of St. Paul's, my own preferment is too agreeably circumstanced to make it at all probable I should avail myself of the opportunity. I am a sincere advocate for Church Reform; but I think it very possible, and even very easy, to have removed all odium from the Establishment, in a much less violent and revolutionary manner, without committing or attempting such flagrant acts of injustice, and without leaving behind an odious Court of Inquisition, which will inevitably fall into the hands of a single individual, and will be an eternal source of vexation, jealousy, and change. I give sincere credit to the Commissioners for good intentions. How can such men have intended anything but good? And I firmly believe that they are hardly conscious of the extraor dinary predilection they have shown of which bears so strongly and inti. mately upon the happiness of a whole people. : struggle of parties, looks to it as a source of permanent improvement. A great object of her affections is the preservation of peace; she regards a state of war as the greatest of all human evils; thinks that the lust of conquest is not a glory, but a bad crime; despises the folly and miscalculations of war, and is willing to sacrifice everything to peace but the clear honour of her land. Though I deprecate the bad effects of fanaticism, I earnestly pray that our young Sovereign may evince herself to be a person of deep religious feeling what other cure has she for all the arrogance and vanity which her exalted position must engender? for all the flattery and falsehood with which she must be surrounded? for all the The patriot Queen, whom I am soul-corrupting homage with which painting, reverences the National she is met at every moment of her ex- Church-frequents its worship, and istence? what other cure than to cast, regulates her faith by its precepts; herself down in darkness and solitude but she withstands the encroachments, before God-to say that she is dust and ashes-and to call down the pity of the Almighty upon her difficult and dangerous life? This is the antidote of kings against the slavery and the baseness which surround them: they should think often of death-and the folly and nothingness of the world, and they should humble their souls before the Master of masters, and the King of kings; praying to Heaven for wisdom and calm reflection, and for that spirit of Christian gentleness which exalts command into an empire of justice, and turns obedience into a service of love. A wise man struggling with adversity is said by some heathen writer to be a spectacle on which the gods might look down with pleasure: but where is there a finer moral and religious picture, or one more deserving of Divine favour, than that of which, perhaps, we are now beginning to enjoy the blessed reality? A young Queen at that period of life which is commonly given up to frivolous amusement, sees at once the great principles by which she should be guided, and steps at once into the great duties of her station. The importance of educating the lower orders of the people is never absent from her mind; she takes up this principle at the beginning of her life; and in all the change of servants, and in all the and keeps down the ambition natural to establishments, and by rendering the privileges of the Church compatible with the civil freedom of all sects, confers strength upon, and adds duration to, that wise and magnificent institution. And then this youthful Monarch, profoundly but wisely religious, disdaining hypocrisy, and far above the childish follies of false piety, casts herself upon God, and seeks from the Gospel of his blessed Son a path for her steps, and a comfort for her soul. Here is a picture which warms every English heart, and would bring all this congregation upon their bended knees before Almighty God to pray it may be realised. What limits to the glory and happiness of our native land, if the Creator should in his mercy have placed in the heart of this Royal Woman the rudiments of wisdom and mercy; and if giving them time to expand, and to bless our children's children with her goodness. He should grant to her a long sojourning upon earth, and leave her to reign over us till she is well stricken in years! What glory! what happiness! what joy! what bounty of God! I of course can only expect to see the beginning of such a splendid period; but when I do see it, I shall exclaim with the pious Simeon,-"Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." A PRAYER. own force and direction the energy of a free People! May he grow in favour with God, by holding the Faith in Christ fervently and feelingly, without feebleness, without fanaticism, without folly! As he will be the first man in these realms, so may he be the best;-disdaining to hide bad actions by high station, and endeavouring always, by the example of a strict and moral life, to repay those gifts which a loyal people are so willing to spare from their own necessities to a good King." |