than

Crystal Palace Company,-who will shortly open their magnificent building and grounds at Sydenham,-to grant its sanction to that great project in such a way as to confer only an implied approval even of the known intention of the Company to admit the public to the palace and gardens on the Lord's day, the facilities for its desecration by the London population will be fearfully augmented. The plea, so plausibly urged, of consideration for the health and recreation of the working classes, is hollow and delusive. It is well understood that, next to the greed for gain, the love of pleasure is the most powerful incentive to human action, and may be made successfully subservient to the payment of interest and profitable dividends on invested capital; and the prospect of that, we fear, is far more influential in producing this vaunted care for the poor man any very deep-seated anxiety for the promotion of his physical and moral welfare. Philanthropists, philosophers, physicians, and men of science and thought in every Christian age, have declared their conviction that one day's uninterrupted rest in seven is absolutely necessary to the health and happiness of man. Let the Crystal Palace Company and their numerous supporters, in the provision of recreation for the workers of the metropolis, backed, as they wish it to be believed they are, by the goodwill and influence of the government, take active measures for the emancipation of the poor oppressed bakers, and all kindred sons of exhaustive toil, and we will believe their loud professions of humanity and benevolence: let them endeavour to obtain the universal cessation of labour on the Saturday, in time to make suitable preparations for the enjoyment of a Sabbath's rest, and we may then give them credit for sincerity in their "pity for the poor." We trust that as a nation we shall not be made by our government participators in this contemplated infraction of the law of the Sabbath. Our God is a jealous God, and we earnestly pray that this glaring sin may not be added to the other causes for which he may yet enter into controversy with us.

Let us no longer boast of our good works, our glorious institutions, our religious means and privileges. Let us wait until some perceptible impression shall have been made upon the mass of our social depravity before we again laud and glorify anything with which we are attempting to penetrate and disperse the moral darkness. Our ecclesiastical and philanthropic associations are but means to an end: excellent though they be, and admirably adapted to conserve the form and give scope to the life and power of religion, they may not, without imminent danger to our salvation and the spiritual benefit of our fellow creatures, be put in the place of that full and free and simple life-giving gospel which can alone raise the degraded, the vicious, and the impure to the dignity of sons of God and heirs of eternal life.

It is not to be admitted as yet proved that the wickedness of our cities is past remedy. True, the comparative lack of success, with such an imposing array of church organisations, is calculated to dishearten the most sanguine, especially when taken in connection with the pervading pirit of covetousness, which, by its exactions, deprives men of their time,

and froestals the rest of the Sabbath;-and with the prevalent love of sinful pleasures, which, reacting upon their social condition, reduces their position in life, and degrades them to the lowest occupations. The problem is a perplexing one, and awaits solution.

If a powerful combination of arrangements for stated and imposing action, embracing every class of society, from royalty to the ragged school-boy,-in the form of houses and ministries for public worship, schools for the ignorant, missions to the outcast, Bibles and tracts for the studious, meat and clothing with instruction for the destitute, if such a combination of agency exists through a series of years, and still but little impression appears to be made on that deeplysunk, heathenish, semi-barbarous community of crime which lurks in the secret places of the metropolis, we are ready to ask in amazement, How shall the work be accomplished? What other means can be devised? What other more effective agency can be employed?

It is a point worthy of serious notice that nearly every new organisation of aggressive forces against the wickedness of the age adopts and renews some feature which marked the primitive practice of the apostolic church. The most general is that which conveys to the homes of the people, and "from house to house," some means of regeneration, of spiritual instruction, and of charitable relief. This mode of operation, instanced in our tract and benevolent societies, and such institutions as the London City Mission, is not merely temporary and spasmodic, but regular and systematic, and is now regarded as permanently subsidiary to the platform of the Christian church.

We must notice also that, though our religious edifices are calculated to possess accommodation for six hundred thousand worshippers, the probability is that not more than half that number attends with any degree of constancy and regularity; and that in proportion to the vast increase of the population (424,520 in ten years within eight miles of St. Paul's) there has been no commensurate augmentation of the number of members and worshippers of Christian churches. As one proof of the general neglect of religious ordinances it has been calculated that not one in sixty of those who employ the bakers on the Sabbath attends divine worship! In fact, turn which way we may, we find the forces of evil with shameless front ever moving on over the wrecks of human hearts and souls, while the great renovating power, which is expected to conquer every form of wickedness and overcome every obstacle, remains comparatively stationary and unsuccessful in the yet unconquered field.

In this position of affairs, it is our solemn conviction, that we need to return more completely and unniversally to the simple, naked, unrestricted, primitive plan of the apostles-that of carrying the gospel by word of mouth to the people in the streets and squares, the markets and justice rooms, the homes and the workshops of our overgrown cities and towns with their overflowing populations:-not a mere organised system of paid agency; that is being tried, ever and always, day by day, and week by week. There wants the voluntary going forth of every man

who believes himself called of God to carry out the seed of the gospelwithout fee or reward-without set forms and creeds-without waiting to settle the question whether they "who preach the gospel should live of the gospel," and without permitting himself to be turned from his purpose by any questions of ecclesiastical propriety or order. With their lives in their hands, with their living dependent upon their own handlabour or upon such supplies as the providence of God might place in their path, and their reputation at stake, for wisdom, for sobriety, and even for sanity, the original preachers went forth to all the world and to every creature; and it must be, we are persuaded, by a return to the same practice that the subjects of the manifold wretchedness and spiritual destitution of the present and every other age and of all climes and classes are to be effectually reached, impressed, and saved.

It seems to us that the simple provision of Christ to make known his gospel, has never yet been put to its ultimate trial. Some form of will worship, man worship, image worship, or other corrupt type of religion, has been ever rising up slowly and stealthily to divert from its legitimate course the true evangelical action commenced, at the command of Christ, eighteen centuries ago; and the great experiment remains comparatively untried, whether the preaching of the gospel by his messengers in his simple way and with his one object, uniformly kept in view, is sufficient to extinguish the misery and vice of our dense populations, and conquer for our race an unbroken holy day of rest. If men will turn aside from this great work in order to construct organizations and polities, sects and parties, they must submit to be likened to the mechanician, who, to move a block of granite, throws away his lever, and expects to accomplish his purpose by tracing furrows among the superincumbent dust and surrounding debris with his finger-nails.

No class of men seems so fitted for the work that is wanted to be done as the Wesleyan Local Preachers. None take a deeper interest in the welfare of the working man or in the Sabbath question; and now that many of them have been freed from their ecclesiastical fetters, it would seem-as if providentially prepared for such an emergency-that the present opportunity is especially applicate to their training, their habits, their talents, their vocation, and their position, and that, to enter upon such a course as that we have hinted at, would be the prelude to greater achievements than ordinary, and the accomplishment of immense good to society in general.

Our subject is too large for our space. We have only glanced at a few of the thoughts which trouble us, and we commend the matter, so partially treated, to the serious meditation and prayers of our readers.

ORDER and obedience, morality and power, are all in Britain connected with the observance of the Sabbath. Amidst the activity which pervades all things, the bustle of the towns, and the energy with which the inhabitants pursue their earthly callings, what would become of them if they had not a day's rest in which to recruit themselves, and laying aside things temporal, which are seen, to look forward to things eternal, which are unseen?-Dr. Merle D'Aubigné.

POPISH AGGRESSION AND PROTESTANT DUTY.-PART II. 1. MORTMAIN.-2. SUPERSTITIOUS USES.-3. CHARITABLE USES. No. XIII.

Ar what period laws in restraint of charitable donations and bequests in land were first introduced to this country, it is impossible to say. It is certain that they formed a part of the Roman jurisprudence long before the Christian era, and as Britain was treated by the Romans rather as a colony than a conquered country, it is highly probable that, according to the law of nations, the colonists brought those amongst others of their laws with them. No doubt it would be as necessary to guard against the too liberal endowment of heathen temples and institutions in Britain as it had been in Rome.

That such laws were known amongst our Saxon ancestors is certain, from which it may be inferred that alienations of land for religious purposes had been practised to a very considerable extent at an early period of our history. The learned Selden states, that among the Saxons a licence from the crown was necessary for the alienation of land for such purpose at least sixty years before the conquest.

There is a curious pas"William," (the Conbattle, which the Danes

By our ancient law, owners of land were compellable to furnish men of war, horses, and warlike material for military service, according to the extent and value of the land which they held. It would lead us too far away from our immediate subject to enter into an extended explanation of the different tenures by which land was held under the obligation to furnish military service, but, inasmuch as land in the hands of ecclesiastics was held by them freed from such obligations, the prevention of such alienations in undue quantity would naturally form one great object of those who claimed such service from their vassals, and would become an object worthy the attention of the state. sage in Speed (441, 6,) which well illustrates this point. queror) "demanding why he conquered the realm by one could not do by many, Frederick, Abbot of St. Alban's, answered, that the reason was, because the land, which was for the maintenance of martial men, was given and converted to pious employers, and for the maintenance of holy votaries. To which the Conqueror said, that if the clergy were so strong that the realm was enfeebled of men for war, and subject by it to foreign invasion, he would aid it. Therefore, he took away many of the revenues of the abbot, and of others also." To understand the subject clearly, it will be proper to premise that there are three kinds of alienation of property by which the general objects of such institutions were promoted, namely,-1. Alienations in Mortmain, strictly so called. 2. Gifts, alienations, and donations for superstitious uses; and 3. Charitable uses. We will briefly endeavour to define these in plain terms, such as may be understood by unprofessional readers.

1.-Alienations in Mortmain.-The term "Mortmain" is said to be derived from two French words, mort, dead, and main, hand, implying that a dead hand has no power to relinquish its grasp of that which it holds. The French derived the term from the Latin manus mortui, meaning the same thing. To understand in what the "dead hand" consists, requires some further explanation. Among the Romans, from whom we derived the institution, there existed certain bodies, sometimes of many persons united, sometimes of one person only, for purposes either political, civil, or religious. There was a mode by which a succession of these bodies, or persons, was perpetually kept up, so that on the death of one, another was chosen to supply his place. All successors were to hold the property these bodies or persons possessed in their official character, for

the same purposes as before, so that if they were possessed of land, for instance, the land did not on a death descend or be disposed of as the absolute property of others, but was taken in succession, still to be preserved for its original purpose for ever. These bodies and persons were, and still are, called Corporations. If consisting of more than one person, as the Mayor and Commonalty of a town, or the Dean and Chapter of a cathedral, or the like, it was called a corporation aggregate; if of one person, as a bishop, a rector, a vicar, and the like, it was a corporation sole. Corporations, for many purposes, are extremely useful, particularly those of a municipal kind; on the other hand, many were very pernicious, and not only impeded the due administration of good government, but threatened, and sometimes even effectuated its absolute destruction.

It will be seen from the above explanation, that all religious houses, as they were called, as monasteries, abbeys, as well as other societies of a like kind, were corporations; that whatever land or interest in land they could acquire, they held never to part with again, but retained it to increase their power and influence. Land, or any interest in land vested, whether by gift or purchase in any such bodies, having perpetual succession known to and acknowledged by the law, was said to be held in mortmain,—was locked up, so that it could not change from hand to hand,—was, in fact, taken out of the market of the country. Such was, and still is, land held in "Mortmain."

2.—Superstitious uses may be distinguished from gifts and alienations in mortmain by their being in general an appropriation of the proceeds of money or of land, and not the very land itself, though, no doubt, alienations in mortmain might be, and sometimes were, made to serve superstitious uses. An instance of a superstitious use may be given in the case of Sir Richard Cloudesley, who, having devised some landed estate, directed that one portion of the proceeds should be paid for the ringing a bell at certain times for the safe passage of souls to another world-another portion to pay for prayers for his soul, and several other things of a like kind. Uses of this kind were common, and rose to a prodigious amount in former times, and embraced almost every possible kind of religious superstition to which such payments could be applied. Ecclesiastical persons and monks were the general administrators of this kind of charity, and of course had a direct interest in promoting it to the greatest possible extent; and at one period few indeed were the death beds of those possessed of worldly estate which were not besieged with importunity to increase the never ending list of donors.

A modern instance which well illustrates the nature of superstitious uses, is found in the case of Roger Troutbeck. A decayed branch of the great family of that name had migrated from Cumberland to Wapping. There Roger engaged himself as a sailor on board an Indiaman bound for Calcutta. The ship was wrecked on the coast of India. Many perished, but Roger was among the survivors. He applied himself to business, and amassed a very large fortune. Cut off from his kindred, with whom he had held little or no communication since he embarked, and without any immediate relations of his own, he left his immense property to build a church and found an hospital in Wapping, but he accompanied the gift with so many conditions self-laudatory and vain, that his intention was set aside by the Court of Chancery, as coming under the denomination of a superstitious use. To prevent misconception, it may be observed, that a gift by will of mere money simply to build a church, or an hospital, would not even now be void if land could be otherwise lawfully procured whereon to build. In Roger's case, the whole was so inseparably mixed up with his superstitious notions, that the whole was tainted by them, and so void.

3.—Charitable uses.-The subject of charitable uses takes a wider range than either of the others. It does not necessarily imply the permanent locking up of