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ripe for a separation-an event which can never be consummated so long as the Establishment retains its hold on the affections of the people;' and that this meeting confidently believing, that the Established Church finds no sympathy among the masses of the people, and that the immediate separation of the Church from the State would be held as a great national boon, desires that this expression of opinion shall be conveyed to Sir Culling E. Eardley."

Sir Culling E. Eardley, on the 4th of January, returned the following frank reply:

"Sir, I beg to acknowledge the receipt of the resolution of the York Branch of the Anti-State Church Association. My opinion, that the public mind is not ripe for the separation of Church and State, is one not founded on slight grounds. Whatever may be the case with the masses of the people, it is not the case with the present constituencies. I wish I could believe it were otherwise; but I hold it to be next to impossible, that while the ministry of the Establishment continues to have a hold on large congregations, the endowment of that ministry should be opposed by those who avail themselves of it. It may be, that men ought to separate the two, but they will not do so. The bulk of mankind do not philosophise-they feel. Till, therefore, by anti-scriptural ministrations, the clergy become universally unpopular, with all true Protestants, I do not anticipate that any practical change can be effected. As soon as the doctrines of the Bishop of this diocese are indorsed by the recognised tribunals of the Church of England, I shall regard it as a signal to unite with my brethren in practical efforts for the separation. In the meantime I honour those who follow their own conviction in mooting the subject, as I claim from them to bear with me in following my convictions in abstaining from prominent and general agitation of the topic. I shrink, and have shrunk from no proper opportunity of stating my views; but I am not the less decided in my opposition to Establishments, because I bide my time for their adoption by Parliament. Whatever publicity may be given to your resolution, I rely on you to give the same to this communication."

Sir Culling Eardley "bides his time," but it is obvious that his hopes are suspended upon a contingency which it is in the power of the ministers of both Establishments to avert; and consequently, if the ministers do their duty, it is plain enough, upon Sir Culling's own premises, that he bides a time that will never arrive. The unpopularity of the clergy is the indispensable pre-requisite to any practical change being effected; but the desired unpopularity of the clergy is to be brought about by their anti-scriptural ministrations. In other words, when the Church of England practically disowns her Articles, and the Church of Scotland her Confession of Faith, the fulness of time, according to Sir Culling, has come, for the complete overthrow of the Established Church. He virtually admits, that if the ministrations of the clergy continue to be scriptural, their popularity must needs be thereby perpetuated, and the stability of the Establishment necessarily secured along with it: and, surely then, all that both Churches require to do, to insure their permanency, is to act up to their own subordinate standards, which are thoroughly scriptural and thoroughly Protestant. We heartily subscribe to the opinion, that the popularity of the clergy, with all true Protestants, will be in exact proportion to

the scriptural character of their ministrations, and that their popularity will be the surest safeguard of the Church Establishment; but we can go a great way further in company with such an honourable Voluntary as Sir Culling E. Eardley. We can see as well as he, and do not scruple to confess, that "anti-scriptural ministrations" are powerfully calculated to ruin the popularity of the clergy, and to sap the foundations of the Church; and when the ministrations of the Establishment become anti-scriptural, the doom of her utter overthrow becomes as inevitable as it is deserved. We are far from being wedded to an Establishment merely as such, or irrespective of its Protestant characteristics: and at once concur cordially with Sir Culling, that when it loses these characteristics, it becomes a great national evil, that ought to be swept away. In the sister Establishment of England, certain Popish leanings have been developed, which have issued in the secession of some of their clergy to the Romish Church, and are imparting to the ministrations of many others who still remain within her pale, a very decided complexion; but these, we do think, ought, in common honesty, to be charged against-not the Establishment itself but her unfaithful sons. Notwithstanding certain discrepancies observable between her Articles and some of her Formularies, it is absurd to deny, that her constitution is entitled to be viewed as Protestant. Certain parties have endeavoured to show, by an elaborate argument, founded upon passages of the Prayer Book, Homilies, Catechisms, &c., the anti-protestant character of her constitution, but these attempts have certainly not carried conviction to the mind of the Christian public; and the English Church is still viewed as maintaining, by her Articles, a noble testimony for the soul-saving doctrines of grace on the one hand, and against the monstrous heresies of Rome on the other. When, therefore, any of her clergy lean to Popery, and employ the influence which their status lends them, to disseminate Popish doctrine, they basely betray the trust with which the Church vested them, and turn her weapons of warfare against her own breast. Let the blame, therefore, be laid upon the guilty party, and let their conduct bear the strong and indignant censure which an honest judgment must pass upon such a sample of jesuitism; but let not the Church bear the reproach and the injury at the same time. It would be more in accordance with the spirit and principles of her constitution, for her clergy to watch against the insidious seductions of Rome with sleepless vigilance, and to oppose as a barrier to their success the distinctive doctrines of our Protestant faith; and we are hopeful that the true Protestantism of the English Church is awakened to such active vitality, that the leaven of Puseyism shall ere long be thoroughly purged out. Were she thus true to her own principles, she would, most assuredly be true also to her own interests, and the fulfilment of Sir Culling Smith's anticipations would be thereby indefinitely postponed.

We are not without evidence that Sir Culling is right, when he affirms that the English Establishment is popular with the constituencies, and that the York Branch Association are wrong when they deny that it finds any sympathy with the masses of the people. We have before us the strong testimony of the London Correspondent of the

Warder, that dissent, in England, is undeniably and seriously on the decline a fact which, while deeply lamenting it, he is reluctantly compelled to admit. The direct cause of this, he imagines, and not without reason to be, the practice of Dissenting Clergymen in intermeddling with politics, a practice now become general, and always followed by the same result. When the political element is once suffered to invade a Christian community, its tendency is to eat out the spirit of religion, the clergymen begin then to rely upon something else than the purity of their faith and practice, for their acceptability with the people; they begin a career of political agitation, wherein their popularity can only be kept up by incessant progress, and wherein the further they advance, the more surely do they grieve away the spirituallyminded from their communion. Many occurrences, on the other hand, have recently taken place, to show that the English Church possesses a stronghold upon popular sympathy, and that too in localities where the popular mind might be expected to be wholly alienated from so stately and conservative an institute. For example, the Lancashire Educational Association, who have recently produced a general scheme of secular education, which they are desirous to see adopted by the legislature, resolved to submit the question to a public meeting of the inhabitants of Manchester. The Mayor of Manchester consented to call a meeting and preside. They proposed to the large assemblage that met, agreeably to the Mayor's summons, the adoption of a petition, embodying their peculiar views, on this, among other grounds, "that any system of public schools likely to be generally acceptable to the people of this country, and to meet the complicated difficulties of the question, must be supported by local rates, and managed by local authorities, elected by the rate-payers especially for that purpose, with right to free admission to all, under suitable regulations, and without religious distinctions." The whole petition was artfully contrived ad captandum vulgus: but the Rev. Hugh Stowell moved as an amendment," that after the word, showeth,' the following be substituted for the remainder of the petition :- That your petitioners, deeply impressed with the importance of religious education, and deeply anxious that national education should be diffused throughout the land, humbly pray your Honourable House not to sanction any system of general instruction, in which the Christian religion is not the basis."" The original motion was supported by the Dissenting ministers generally; the amendment by the Wesleyan superintendant of the Manchester circuit. A discussion ensued, which lasted five hours, and when a show of hands was taken, the Chairman declared the amendment carried. Every thing considered, this result is very remarkable. The point at issue was the propriety of adopting and entertaining a religious test in public schools, a point essentially involved in the controversy between Churchmen and Voluntaries; the place selected for the trial of strength was Manchester, the most radical city in the three kingdoms; and yet in a fair, open, public meeting, the question was determined in the affirmative, which may, with perfect justice, be construed as a popular decision in favour of the principle of Establishments. It is of no use to exclaim," O, but the Euglish Church is confessedly strong in Man

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chester; it was greatly in her favour that that locality was chosen for the contest." Let him explain how it comes to pass that the Church should be "strong" in Manchester, more than in any other and far more likely localities. Will he account for it by the conservative leanings of the inhabitants, or by the predominance of aristocratic influence, or by the indifference of her Voluntary foes? No; the real secret is, that the Church happens to be there well represented by clergymen thoroughly devoted to their great office, heartily opposed to every shade and form of Popery, and sincerely zealous for the improvement and happiness of the whole people and since the popular sympathy has been elicited in such a place as Manchester, we may safely conclude, that throughout England, a like agency would, under God, secure for the Church, not only "popularity with the present constituencies" but also "sympathy with the masses of the people." It is not by a bigotted exclusiveness-nor by lofty pretensions to Apostolical succession,-nor by high claims of a certain mystical virtue for Priest, Church, and Sacraments, that the English Establishment will maintain a successful warfare with her foes;-nay, if she is to meet them with success, she may not rely upon her academic renown alone; the pride of scholarship, which seems naturally to infect the members of that community which can boast such names as Taylor, Hooker, and Barrow, will not be greatly respected, if no more impressive front can be presented in the hour of her danger and, indeed, nothing will be found adequate to the crisis but a sound Protestant spirit, and laborious exertion in the cause of truth and popular education. According to all human appearance, such a course as this would be thoroughly successful, and the clergymen of the English Church ought to thank God heartily, that the path of consistency and solemn obligation is also the path of safety and honour.

Sir Culling Eardley's remarks are likewise applicable to the Scottish Establishment, although, perhaps, not to the same extent. When Sir Culling affirms, that "the bulk of mankind do not philosophise-they feel," he does, without doubt, affirm a general truth: yet this can be said of the English nation with more strictness than of the Scotch. The latter are certainly disputatious and fond of controversy; and in all religious disputes such is their jealous tenacity of principle, that no attachment to men will be found capable of subduing it, if the two elements cannot be made to harmonize. They are a hard-headed, argumentative, and ingenious race, characteristics brought out in great breadth by their religious education, and more especially by their thorough imbument with the Shorter Catechism. A few years ago, a venerable divine expressed his belief, that our Scottish children are born with a predisposition to the Shorter Catechism; and a phrenologist affirms, that the framers of that admirable little system of divinity must have studied to model it according to a correct measurement of Scottish bumps. Their love of theological discussion, and their metaphysical turn, are apt, however, to carry them to extremes. Their hair-splitting niceties are argued with such resolute good-will, that they are not deterred from advancing by the dread of promoting schism, or rending the Church into fierce, and conflicting sections. Were there such a plague-shot as Puseyism on our Scottish Establishment, it would

certainly cease to command the least measure of popular sympathy, and the force that would be brought to bear against it would be of power enough to sweep it for ever away. But the "Headship" controversy turned wholly upon the limits of Civil and Ecclesiastical authority; it was a dispute not about a kingdom, or even a province, but concerning the exact border-line between two confessedly distinct and co-ordinate powers. The charge brought by the Free Church against the Establishment of denying and trampling upon the Headship and Crown rights of Christ, is rebutted by every minister and member of the Establishment with extreme horror; and no one can regard such a charge in any other light than as a railing accusation, if he bear in mind the exceedingly narrow ground to which the whole controversy was confined. It was determined by the Court, instituted for the righteous interpretation of the statute law of the realm, that the Church had overstepped the limits within which she consented to confine herself; and immediately thereupon Dr. Chalmers, acting upon the impulse of his own enlarged Christian wisdom, proposed to repeal the Veto Act, or to retrace the only step which the Church had as yet taken beyond the ascertained boundary-line. It was a peculiar and very remarkable feature in the moral organization of that great man, that he could, and often did, with perfect sincerity plead both sides of a question. Such was the manifest and intense earnestness of his nature, that not even his opponents thought of imputing time-serving unworthy motives, when they heard him direct the full vehemence of his eloquence against a course which a few weeks, or even days, before, he had himself warmly recommended. The genuine impulses of his nature were always generous, noble, and conciliatory; but he was singularly open to be influenced by other and far inferior men. Like a steam engine, the mighty intellectual and emotional power of Chalmers could be directed and governed by a skilful touch from without, while in what direction soever it moved, the same enthusiasm and sincerity were apparent; and to this idiosyncracy must be ascribed the fact, that the same man who proposed to repeal the Veto Act, pronounced at a later period the famous "retract no, not a hair's breadth" speech. The Church, rather inconsistently, refused to accept the decision of the very Court which she herself had chosen for the trial, and which, ipso facto, she recognised as the appropriate tribunal: and carried her own interpretation of the statute before Parliament, in the view of obtaining from the Legislature its sanction to her claims. The Legislature refused to alter the law, but consented to pass a declaratory act to remove doubts upon the points involved in the controversy; and by this final exposition of statute-law, it turns out that the two principles which the Free Church claims as the two peculiar pillars of her constitution, are recognized as appertaining to the Establishment, and consequently are fenced around with all the sacredness of constitutional sanction. Our Church, whatever our Free brethren may aver, possesses a spiritual jurisdiction distinct and absolute, to which the State has paid homage, not only by recognizing it, but especially by guarding it on every side with its own peculiar and appropriate bulwarks. Within the limits of her own province, that is, upon all matters strictly spiritual, the deci

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