at the present crisis. First, that all evangelical Protestants should form a union, for exposing the errors of the papal system, by such moral and scriptural means as local circumstances and the peculiar character of the population may render necessary. Secondly, that our ministers, in their Bible-classes, and our teachers, in the Sundayschools, should devote a part of the time allotted to religious instruction, to specific tuition on the main questions which divide the Roman Catholic from the Protestant Church. I do not mean the controversy at large, for that is not required; but those errors in Popery which are most plausible and deceptive, teaching the children to examine them by those Bible truths which effectually strike at the very root of the Popish system. If each teacher were furnished with a well-written manual on the subject, it would facilitate his labours, and render his success more probable. If no such measure be as yet practicable, surely a monthly address of a few minutes might be given by the superintendent or the pastor on some one point; such as, the right of all to read the Scriptures; auricular confession; absolution; the Romish distinction between mortal and venial sin; good works; the mass, &c. This would be information which, I fear, not one in a hundred of our children at present receives. Surely it is desirable to provide our rising population with weapons for the great struggle which is before them. This contest between truth and error is hardly yet begun; but we may lament, when too late, that we gave the enemies of truth an advantage which they eagerly seized. Every movement around us proves that great principles, affecting the very foundation of men's hopes for eternity, will be rudely, and learnedly, and jesuitically assailed. While we gird up our own minds to enter with good hope on this mighty warfare, let us do justice to our children, by preparing them for it also; for, probably, the chief struggle will be in their day. Let us not incur a censure from them, when they shall feel their inferiority to well furnished antagonists, or expose them to the charge of ignorance, on subjects which it should not be left for them to study in the midst of exciting controversy.

With regard to my first hint; I am aware that it is almost impracticable to secure the union of evangelical Protestants at the present time. Yet such a christian combination seems necessary, in publicly opposing by argument and information the assumptions and schemes of the Roman Catholics. I think I am only stating the truth when I say, that, as far as our own denomination is concerned, we are quite prepared to combine in such a movement; at least we have no church polity to prevent it,and no human authority to consult in the matter, before we give our hearts and energies to the work.

As to the second hint, we can begin at once. As the father of a family, I plead guilty of omitting a systematic attention to the instruction of my children on this specific question; and as a minister of Christ, I have not placed it before the rising generation so much as now appears necessary. My resolution is, to attend regularly and fully to the subject.

The topics now suggested deserve attention from us all in the present state of the church of Christ.

REVIEW.

First Annual Report of the Registrar-General of Births, Marriages, and Deaths in England. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of her Majesty. Folio. pp. 126.

1839. TEN years have not yet elapsed since our gifted friend, Mr. Joshua Wilson, published his forcible" Appeal to Dissenters, on their submitting to the Obligation imposed by Law, for the Religious Celebration of Marriage according to the Form prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer." This was the first vigorous attempt made to awaken Evangelical Dissenters to a sense of the dishonourable position they occupied, in submitting to the existing marriage law. That appeal was felt, and warmly responded to, and "The United Committee," for the redress of the grievances of Dissenters urged it upon the attention of Government and the country.

The disinterested opponents of this reform, whom we shall have to notice presently, embarrassed its advocates by urging many practical difficulties which, in a question of so much delicacy and detail, were quickly felt and frankly acknowledged.

After lengthened discussion, the United Committee resolved, "That we are convinced that without a uniform system of national civil registration of births, marriages, and deaths, upon liberal and enlightened principles, it will be difficult to supply effectual means of affording relief to Protestant Dissenters from the grievance of the present marriage law."

The Dissenters happily succeeded in convincing the Government of the importance of such a system, and they had the satisfaction to witness its adoption by an act of the Imperial Parliament, in August, 1836, and the new law came into operation on the 30th of July, the following year.

The highly interesting and important document which is now before us, exhibits the working of the new system during the first year of its operations, ending June 30th, 1838.

Although a large portion of the Registrar-General's Report and its ample Appendix is occupied with a detail of the preliminary arrangements, and with copies of circular letters, general rules, explanatory statements, &c. which were necessary to the organization of a national system, yet there is much, very much, to interest and inform the public in general, and to instruct and reprove Dissenters in particular.

While it is our pleasing duty to bear a prompt and grateful testimony to the ability and kindness manifested by Mr. Lister, the Registrar-General, in carrying into operation a law which had to endure the stubborn hostility of the whole ecclesiastical corps,

from the bishop to the bellringer, yet we must restrict our attention to the facts established by this Report respecting births, marriages, and deaths.

The following Table exhibits an abstract of Births registered in the four quarters of the year ending June 30th, 1838:

Upon this Abstract Mr. Lister observes

"There is undoubtedly some deficiency in the Registration of Births, even for the quarter ending June 30, 1838, but the deficiency is less than that which has long existed in the Registration of Baptisms. The Preface to the Population Abstract for 1831, shows that the mean average annual Registration of Baptisms for the years 1821 to 1830, both inclusive, was 375,349; and by application of the same method of calculation which has been employed with respect to Deaths, it will appear that the number of Baptisms registered in the year 1838, bearing the same proportion to the probable population of that year, would be 444,589. Now, the registered Births of the fourth quarter were 121,781, which multiplied by four, would exceed by more than 40,000 the estimated number of registered Baptisms for the same period. I am, therefore, justified in stating that, although the Registration of Births has not approached so nearly to completeness as that of Deaths, it has, since the commencement, made a considerable and progressive advance, and during the fourth quarter of the first year attained a superiority in point of numbers over the average Registration of Baptisms. Among the counteracting causes which affected it in the commencement, I may here mention the novelty of the measure—some indifference to the advantages which it conferred-much ignorance and misapprehension as to its character and objects—and an extensive and stubborn opposition. I need only point to the great increase in the number of entries in the third and fourth quarters of the first year, in order to show that those impediments to Registration have not continued to prevail against it, but that it has been attended with progressive success-a success which I attribute mainly to the diffusion of a true knowledge of the beneficial tendencies of the measure, and to the diligence and intelligence of the local officers by whom it is carried into execution."--pp. 13, 14.

Our readers will observe, that we have marked in italics some of the counteracting causes, because they merit the reprobation of every friend to national, improvement. Can it be a matter of surprise that much misapprehension should prevail, when the clergy throughout the land, who are bound to use their utmost influence to give

efficiency to the enactments of the State, allowed themselves, not only from the pulpit, but also from the press, in the form of official notices, to assail the new law with the utmost bitterness. Throughout the country, and in the metropolis also, notices like the following were to be seen placarded on the church doors, and which, indeed, betray" a stubborn opposition"-" No persons are obliged to Register their children with the public Registrar, or to give information of the birth of a child. But all persons, and especially the poor, are reminded that they may take them to church and have them baptised and registered without any fee, as the custom has always been."

Yes, they might be registered, without any fee, but were there no fees for baptism? Take up the "Return of Surplice Fees and Parish Register Fees" from the clergymen and parish clerks of the metropolis, printed by order of the House of Commons, August 4th, 1834, and then the secret will be disclosed. Here it will be seen that from fees paid at baptisms, marriages, and funerals alone, the clergymen and clerks of large parishes receive a handsome stipend. We present our readers with a list of the best of them, to explain the disinterested character of that opposition which the ecclesiastical authorities have raised against this national measure.

How can the clergy dream that with such facts as these before them, shrewd intelligent Englishmen will give them credit for purity of intention in their bitter hostility to the law?

From an able and interesting letter of Mr. Finlaison, Actuary of the National Debt Office, addressed to Mr. Lister, and inserted in the Appendix, we make the following extract respecting the proportions of Baptisms within and without the established church.

"The population of this country who solicit baptism according to the rites of the Established Church, are of two classes :

"1st. The vast majority who are professedly members of the Church. "2nd. A minority of Protestant dissenters of the Methodist connection, and perhaps some other sects.

"The population who reject baptism in the Established Church are also of two classes:

"Ist. Religious dissenters, especially Roman Catholics, who baptise in their own chapels, and the no less respectable societies of Baptists, of Friends, &c. "2nd. A number far from inconsiderable, who are reckless of baptism, and devoid of all concern for religious rites.

To those who feel any interest in considering the relative amount of dis

senters in general to the members of the Church, it may be desirable to speculate how far the last class of the first sub-division is, or is not, balanced by the last class of the second. I shall only proceed to show the relation between those who solicit and those who reject baptism in the Established Church. But among the infants of the former there is a proportion well ascertained who do not live to the age of baptism,-little blossoms which fall to the ground almost as soon as they see the light, much the larger part being males. "In the decade ending in

“From this it would appear that the number who rejected baptism in the Established Church was almost the same during the first twenty years, but was somewhat on the increase between 1821 and 1831.

"We shall see whether the marriages and the baptisms kept the same proportion in each of these three periods; observing that the marriages should be increased by 1 per cent. for those which escape registration, such as marriages on the borders of Scotland, in foreign places, between English persons, and among the Quakers, Moravians, and Jews.

"In the decade ending in

"Here it is evident that the baptisms and the marriages were in the same proportion to each other from 1811 to 1831, while at the same time the births which were not baptised in the Church was in the last decade on the increase. Whether this is owing to the gradual influx of Irish Roman Catholics who marry at home, but give birth to children in England who are baptised in their own chapels; or whether it be owing to the gradual increase of an irreligious popu lation which neglect marriage and baptism both together, is matter for serious speculation."--pp. 61, 62.

We have little doubt that under the operation of the new law the number of baptisms will continue to decrease, for it has been one of the mischievous results of connecting a legal record with a divine ordinance, that the multitude have observed the latter for the advantage of the former, and have blindly submitted to a religious rite to secure for their offspring a civil benefit.

In 1653, Cromwell's short Parliament enacted some regulations to secure a faithful record of "marriages, births, and burials," and ordained that in every parish the inhabitant householders should