it is established by law. Turning, however, our attention from the church party, let us pursue the conduct, and track the course, of the dissenters, singly and alone.

We have observed that the activity and public exertions of the dissenters, in support of religious and philanthropic objects, emanate naturally from their condition, in the state, as competitors of a powerful body-a religious corporation, nourished and maintained by the laws; and of their public exertions generally, especially those of the more popular classes, the evangelical party-the saints-we have said, "All their works they do for to be seen of men."

Hence, then, it is, that in all the public undertakings of the dissenters, an attempt has been made to fasten upon such objects as were likely, in a powerful degree, to awaken the sympathies, and engage the attention of the nation. It is impossible not to be struck with their powerful and successful efforts, in the abolition of the African slave trade; the distribution of the scriptures, at home and abroad; and the establishment of schools, for the education of the poor: each of which important objects they have the honour of having originated and commenced,

"Though Christchurch long staid prudishly away."

And, whilst we rejoice in the effects which these efforts have produced, and still more, in what they are calculated to produce; yet, the fact can neither be denied nor disguised, that each of these undertakings was eminently calculated to answer the objects of the dissenters-to increase their weight in the state, and their popularity with the people. They brought them before the public as the advocates of humanity, of liberty, and of knowledge; they became a constant theme, on which to appeal to the feelings of the nation; they favoured a perpetual display of the graces and charities of those who had put their hands to these works. The public, unaccustomed to look below the surface of things, and ever disposed to judge favourably, where humanity and good intent are assumed, saw no inconsistency in the sensitive and feeling advocates of African liberty, being careless and callous to the cause of British liberty. They saw no inconsistency in the great leader of those glorious struggles against foreign slavery, being, at the same time, the servile follower of a minister who lived, and who fell, in the inglorious task of forging chains for his country. How eloquently did this pious senator plead the

wrongs of Africa's oppressed and sooty tribe! How touching his appeals in behalf of the black! With what propriety might the Englishman, beggared and oppressed by the measures, of which this man was the constant supporterdeprived of the constitutional protection of the laws-torn from his home-manacled and imprisoned without trial, and without offence-with what propriety might the Englishman have asked-" Am I not a brother and a friend?" But so it was. In spite of this inconsistency, in spite of this unnatural union of such anomalous qualities in the same person, this political evangelist became the very genius of philanthropy, and the idol of his party!!

The operations of the Bible Societies, School Societies, Missionary Societies, Tract Societies, and all the numerous Societies, for religious purposes, occasion, as may be supposed, an immense expenditure of money; and thus many powerful interests are attached to the cause, and many opportunities occur of “ quietly influencing men by secular "motives," as might be best attested by the experience and evidence of a host of godly builders, pious printers, and spiritual scribes. The objects of these institutions are promoted by means of public meetings, called at the public. taverns; and from the composition of these meetings, and the persons of weight and influence that are frequently brought together on such occasions, one might imagine that the time had literally arrived when "the SAINTS shall judge "the earth. Merchants and bankers; senators and soldiers; peers of the realm and princes of the blood; ministers of state and members of foreign legations; are found assembled together, in honour of a religion first taught by the fishermen of Gallilee.

At a recent meeting of the "Port of London Society," for the conversion of sailors, two noble lords, the Earl of Rocksavage and Lord Calthorpe, were among the distinguished supporters of this quixotic scheme; which was described by their worthy coadjutor, Rowland Hill, as an effort to give the sailors "the poor dear things," (as he called them) "the blessings of the gospel, and to make "them obedient to King George, by becoming obedient to 'King Jesus." And second to no one on this occasion, we observed a city alderman and baronet, who, if report speaks truly, boasts that he always carries a Bible in his pocket, in which he would seem to take as much pride as, during his mayoralty, he was wont to do, in his spanish hat and white charger!

At a Bible Society meeting, held two or three years since in the city, a high city officer, who is known to be a disbeliever in the Bible, obtained, as we observed in the public prints, considerable applause, from his pious appeal in behalf of "the blessed word of God;" whilst an Irish barrister, whose eloquence equally immortalizes every subject which it touches, from the truths of the Bible to the wrongs of " the "widow Blake," electrified the audience, by invoking, in behalf of the scriptures, the manes of Bacon and of Franklin;-of Bacon, who, contrary to God's word, wrested judgment for bribes; and Franklin, the associate of Paine in the cause of infidelity! Such inconsistencies, however, are never taxed, when used in the cause of the saints; and the most ordinary occurrences, and unimportant coincidences, are seized upon as marking the finger of God, in behalf of their objects. Thus it was lately mentioned, at a public religious meeting, that the present possessor of the estate purchased by Gibbon, in Switzerland, from the profits of his writings against religion, expends a large sum annually, in promulgating that gospel which his predecessor sought to undermine. That the printing-press, at Ferney, which Voltaire employed to print his blasphemies, was now employed, at Geneva, in printing the holy scriptures; and that the room in which David Hume died, at Edinburgh, was used for the first provincial meeting of an Auxiliary Bible Society!

It would be improper, in this place, to pass over the services of the other sex, in behalf of the evangelical cause. The ladies, we observe, constitute, at least, three-fourths of the meetings such as we have been describing. Busy, bustling, bountiful ladies, full of pride and piety, with much leisure and little diffidence, so regular a set, and so much of a class, as to have the appearance of being supplied, by contract, to the meeting. The speakers are too polite to overlook this interesting portion of the auditory; and, after much flattery, they are sent away with an injunction to urge the objects of the meeting upon their husbands and friends.

It is not among the least evils of this system of religious affectation and display, the change that it is producing in the female character:-gentle, modest, and retiring; unsuited to public business; shrinking from the touch of impurity; casting upon her lord the burthen of commerce with the world; we seek for the woman in the retirement of private life-in that sacred, domestic circle of which she is the solace and the joy; that happy hearth of which she is the

constant ornament, and around which she dispenses a nameless, tranquil delight! Coincident with this sketch of the female character is the apostolic exhortation: "Teach "the young women to be sober. -to love their husbands "to love their children-to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands." But how these qualities are to be preserved, and these duties performed, we have a difficulty in conceiving, when our religious females are brought into immediate contact with the most low and disgusting scenes of vice; when their time is occupied with complicated plans of public reformation; their attention withdrawn from their families, and devoted to the improvement of the discipline, or the reform of the morals, of a prison; and their days spent in the successive engagements of public religious meetings. At the head of this holy sisterhood stands the celebrated Mrs. FRY; and, though one of the sect of Quakers, a sect who affect to disregard the praise of this world, and to do their good deeds in private, yet it does so happen that the benevolent efforts, and unceasing labours of this good lady, for the public cause, are noised abroad in the world, and even the senate resounds with her praises.

The following language, in reference to Mrs. Fry, and her female committee, was used by Sir James Macintosh, in his speech on the criminal code, during the last session of parliament:

"We have all heard a great deal of the benevolence of a community of females in certain catholic countries, called by the affecting name of 'Sisters "of Charity.' It is their task to visit hospitals, to attend the sick, and to perform other offices of a charitable and benevolent nature. But those catholic Sisters of Charity are bound by certain vows; they are under the controul of peculiar religious obligations; they have previously relinquished all the duties of social life. Our protestant Sisters of Charity are bound by no vows; they are not under the controul of any peculiar religious obligations; and, in discharging the various duties of social life, they afford examples of all the domestic virtues, and yet they go a step further than their illustrious catholic models. Not content with visiting hospitals-not content with administering to bodily disease and infirmity—we behold the purest and most virtuous of their sex voluntarily engaged in the daily contemplation of depravity and wickedness, in their most hideous formthat of a profligate and abandoned woman. When engaged in their benevolent occupation I have visited them in company with females of distinguished ability, of keen observation, and of a strong sense of the ridiculous. By those females all their actions have been closely watched and remarked; and the result has been that, although prepared to witness benevolence and humanity, they have been utterly astonished at the calm good sense-at the repugnance to any exaggeration-at the steady prudence and caution invariably manifested. Never could my friends sufficiently express their admiration at seeing those who were engaged in a work that might naturally tempt display, conduct themselves with a modesty that at once evinced an

unwillingness to receive even the reward of approbation. The energetic, benevolence of their character was easily excited by the exhibition of distress, but their equanimity was incapable of being disturbed by vanity. Sir! it was impossible to quit such a scene without a strong feeling of selfcongratulation, at the consciousness of belonging to the same species as the inestimable individuals engaged in it."

Sir James is a very eloquent man, and peculiarly happy at a compliment. The learned gentleman, however, does suffer it to escape that these pious Quaker ladies are engaged in "a work that might naturally tempt display;" and he seems not to have been without his suspicions, from the circumstance of his having taken with him, to the Newgate school of morality, ladies" with a strong sense of the "ridiculous." All this, however, is to be regarded as the art of the orator, who, aware of the weak parts of his case, candidly thursts them forward, in order to disarm criticism, and introduces himself rather as an unwilling witness than an avowed advocate in such a cause.

We do confess, notwithstanding the judgment of this distinguished orator, that we do not understand that delicacy of mind which can induce this good lady to keep such bad company; and, whilst she may insure the admiration of Sir James, whilst performing her gratuitous occupations in favour of thieves and prostitutes, to our taste she would appear, at least, equally interesting whilst engaged in her incumbent duties to her husband and family; for Mrs. Fry, we understand, has a family of nine children, most of them young; she has also a husband; although no one seems to suspect that there exists in the world such a person as Mister Fry. For ourselves, indeed, we have yet to learn how the multifarious public engagements of this female Howard, as she has been called, can, by possibility, be reconciled with the anxious and unceasing duties required from the mother of a numerous family! And here it may be remarked, as to the "Catholic Sisters of Charity," to whom our female philanthropists have been likened, in the above quotation, they were unmarried women; and, consequently, were relieved from the discharge of the domestic duties."

The Quakers, as a body, have been accustomed to exhibit an indifference to the opinions and praises of the world; if this was not mere affectation they have, certainly, of late, broken through the modesty of their former habit. This, however, is explained by Mr. Brougham, another of the panegyrists of this sect; who, with unaffected simplicity, appears to consider the publicity that has been given to their good works, as distressing to the meekness of their nature. At a late meeting of the "African Institution,"