132

ment must be swept away. It is a strong bulwark I know; it has gathered round it the patronage, the wealth, and the power of ages; and it will struggle hard before it gives over the conflict. But it is now drawn into the field, and there is no retreat from the final battle; neither is the issue doubtful. For a spirit has been awakened in our times among the masses, which has always in past times been confined to a few,-a spirit which will not brook the despotism that has hitherto controlled the world, a spirit that clamours for change, because change is necessary to the advancement of the race; a spirit which has given birth to the grand improvements which have marked the progress of modern civilization, and which is determined to blot out every vestage of that vast prisonhouse, in which humanity has slumbered in darkness and chains for six thousand years.

The simple reasons which induce me to the crisis of the Established Church is at hand, are say that two. First, the well known and acknowledged fact, that it is a system of corruption, aristocracy, and oppression. Of corruption, in that the hierarchy riot on the millions wrung from the labourer, and the ecclesiastical emoluments being in the patronage of political men, are very often bestowed upon persons destitute either of piety or morality. Of aristocracy, in that the bishops are ex-officio members of the House of Lords; peers of the realm, and of consequence, identified with them in all their interests, feudal tastes, and overbearing

pride;—and of oppression, in that they receive immense revenues from the people, and roll in wealth, while the flock to which they are overseers, pine in want and poverty. Secondly, that all this is for the first time being understood in its true character by the middle and lower classes of England.

A lie may long survive if it is believed to be a truth: but a known lie must be overthrown. The Church of England then as it stands, connected with the civil government, constituting part of the oppressive system that bears so heavily on the multitude, and with whose fate seems interwoven the fate of the government, claims our particular attention. For the person who wishes to understand the workings of the social system in England, and ascertain with what accuracy he can, the probable issue of the crisis England is approaching, must not overlook in his estimate an institution of such enormous power-one so intimately allied with the civil and social structure of the nation as the established Church.

The assertions I have made above, in regard to the church, I shall attempt to prove from her constitution and practise. It started in sin.` Henry the VIII. was, its founder; and if "a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit," we should not expect any thing but evil from such a stock. The history of the rupture between England and Rome misnamed the Reformation, is a curious affair; and into it we shall not go very minutely. It is perfectly understood by all parties, that this

rupture was merely the effect of an amorous passion on the part of the English monarch. In other countries the Reformation originated with the people; but Henry, under pretext of scruples of conscience, (says Rotteck, the keen-sighted German historian) wished to separate from his wife, Catharine of Arragon, the widow of his brother Arthur, who was growing old, in order to marry the beautiful Anne Boleyn, whose favour he was unable to obtain at a lower price. The Pope, chiefly from love to Charles V., opposed the divorce, which Henry then caused to be pronounced by his pliant clergy. This step was followed by the Papal excommunication, and a complete rupture with Rome. Such was the origin of the Church of England; and as if it were not incongruous enough to have a church start from such a source, the first grand article in it constituted the king its head. A Henry VIII., a Charles II., a George IV., the representative of Christ on earth! The greatest murderer that ever escaped the gallows; the most corrupt libertine that ever filled the royal palace with courtezans; the most profligate and heartless scoundrel of his times; the representative of the immaculate Son of God! Nominating all the bishops, possessing a thousand livings; and convoking and dismissing synods at his royal pleasure! From such bold encroachments in the outset on the simplicity and purity of the Apostolic Church, we should expect to find a secular, selfish establishment, acting not for the poor

but the rich; not for the elevation of man, but his more complete subjugation. Commencing in pride and lust, it would necessarily live by extortion and end in oppression. The extortion of the church is seen in its enormous REVENUE.

Not long after the passage of the Reform Bill, an invesigation into the condition and revenue of the church, was so loudly demanded by the people, that a commission on church revenues was appointed by the king, to inquire into the matter, and present their report. The king being the head of the church, was the last person in the kingdom who should have had any thing to do in the appointment of this commission; this was proved by the result-for there was not a man on that commission who was not deeply interested in concealing from the people the real amount of church revenue. Their report was subjected to the severest scrutiny, and all parties were satisfied that they kept back every thing they were not compelled to disclose. And yet this report, dated June 16, 1835, stated that the permanent gross annual revenue of the church on the average of the three years ending 1831, was £3,750,000, or $18,187,500.

But this estimate, as the Report acknowledges, did not embrace the vast sums derived from Glebes, fines paid on the renewal of leases of bishops' and other lands, Church Rates, Easter Offerings, fees on marriages, births, and burials, and grants of Parliament for Church extension, which

must have vastly swelled the aggregate. No certain knowledge of the amount of Church Revenues can be derived from a report thus made out; not because the King's commission did not tell the truth, but because they only told a part of it. "This Report is incomplete," say the Commissioners, "in that it does not embrace all the items which would be considered in a complete table of the Revenue." So it appears; for instance. The entire annual Revenue of all the Arch-Episcopal and Episcopal Sees of England and Wales, according to the Report, is less than $900,000, while the London Times, which is usually not far from the truth in such matters, said in 1835, that the annual income of the Bishop of London was $100,000, independent of fines imposed on the renewal of leases," which occasionally happened to amount to a hundred thousand pounds at a single windfall," as it is called, and that "the income of the Bishop of London will soon be sixty thousand pounds or $300,000 per annum."

These statements I find in Colton's Four Years in Great Britain, a work written with great candor and ability, and little liable to any error caused by prejudice, since the author is himself a clergyman of the Episcopal Church. Mr. Colton also quotes some valuable facts from J. Marshall's Analysis for 1835, the latest and best authority, where we find the following. "The single parish of Paddington, in the see of London, yielded in

1834, from $60,000 to $75,000, at the disposal