had not been applied to the foundation of institutions, such as might easily have been devised, retaining all that was good in the former establishments, without any of the alloy.

From the time of the abolishment of the Regulars the ill consequence of having diminished the number of religious instructors has been felt. It was more glaringly manifest in the capital. Before the vote for building fifty churches in the metropolis was past, in Queen Anne's reign, Burnet says that there were in the suburbs of London about two hundred thousand persons more than could possibly worship God in the existing churches. This had been partly owing to the Fire, eighty-four churches within the walls out of ninety-seven having been destroyed in that tremendous visitation but many had been rebuilt, and several of the smaller parishes had been united, so that it was not in the city of London itself that the want was felt, so much as in Westminister which had then joined it, and in the suburbs which were every year becoming more extensive. In 1696 Evelyn complained of the increase of buildings about what he called this already monstrous city,' wherein, he says, he was credibly informed that one year with another, about eight hundred houses were erected. St. Martin's and St. Giles's were then no longer in the fields, but Mary-le-bone was still a village, and cattle were pastured upon the site of New Bond Street and Hanover Square. Of the proposed fifty churches only eleven were built, so grievously was this good intent frustrated in the performance. But if the necessity of such an augmentation was acknowledged then, how much more is it required at the present time, after the interval of more than a century, during which the metropolis has been doubled in extent and in population !If even then there were parishes which, as Captain Graunt said, were grown madly disproportionate,' what should be said in these days when those parishes have increased twenty fold! when it appears that, in the metropolis, there are seven parishes containing each from twenty to thirty thousand inhabitants more than their respective places of worship can contain,-six wherein the excess amounts to from thirty to forty thousand; two in which it is from forty to fifty thousand, and one parish, that of Mary-le-bone, which has not room in its church and chapels for nine thousand out of a population of seventy-five!-Nor is this deficiency confined to the metropolis. In Liverpool, out of 94,000 inhabitants only 21,000 can be accommodated in the churches; in Manchester, only 11,000 out of seventy-nine. In the diocese of Winchester accommodation is wanting for 265,000 persons, more than four fifths of its whole population; in that of York for 580,000; in that of Chester for 1,040,000. The deficiency is greatest in growing towns and cities,

the

the very places where religious instruction is more peculiarly required it is an evil which has arisen with the commercial prosperity of the country and keeps pace with it. Our forefathers built convents and cathedrals,-the edifices which we have erected are manufactories and prisons, the former producing tenants for the latter.

Upon this subject Mr. Yates has entered into a full inquiry, and has stated with great force the tremendous result. It appears from the official documents which he has collected and compared, that within the small circle of ten miles round London, no less than NINE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-SEVEN THOUSAND Souls are shut out from the common pastoral offices of the National Religion! Shut out,' says Mr. Yates, from the pale of the church, from all participation in its benefits, they are necessarily driven to join the ranks of injurious opposition, either in dissent and sectarian enthusiasm, or in the infinitely more dangerous opposition of infidelity, atheism, and ignorant depravity.' Well may be add that 'such a mine of heathenism, and consequent profligacy and danger, under the very meridian (as it is supposed) of Chistian illumination, and accumulated around the very centre and heart of British prosperity, liberty and civilization, cannot be contemplated without terror by any real and rational friend of our Established Government in Church and State; and is surely sufficient to awaken the anxious attention of every true patriot, every enlightened statesman, every sincere advocate of suffering humanity, and every intelligent and faithful Christian.'

The ecclesiastical, as well as the civil institutions of England, were originally accommodated in many points to local circumstances which have long ceased to exist. Thus when bishoprics were first established among our Saxon ancestors, the dioceses had the same limits as the respective kingdoms of the heptarchy, in which they were founded. In like manner, the limits of a parish were determined by those of the manor, or estate, of the person who founded the church; and thus, not upon any system, nor with any regard either to the extent of ground, or number of souls, but according to the accidental extent of particular properties, the present division of parishes was generally fixed before the time of Edward the Confessor.

Mr. Yates has given tables and calculations, whereby it appears that the average proportion of population to one church, is 640, in those parts of the country where inhabitants are not crowded together for the purposes of trade and manufactures. Though parishes certainly were not determined by any considerations of this kind, it is sufficient for his argument that, in prospective measures for removing a great national evil, reference must be had to

some

some such scale of fitness. Assuming it as a fact, that villages have generally been reduced in proportion as overgrown towns have increased, he is of opinion that a somewhat larger numerical average may be considered as the standard at and before the Reformation. But he seems not to have taken into his account the great general increase of population which has more than doubled itself since that time. In our judgment, the average parochial population must have been considerably less three centuries ago than it is now. Be that as it may, the number of religious instructors was far greater: for the regulars, the auxiliary force of the Church, were undoubtedly more numerous than the secular clergy. That they interfered with the parochial clergy in many respects, and lessened their utility by diminishing their influence, is undeniable: but so long as they existed, there was no lack of religious instruction, such as it was; and in extensive parishes, and thinly peopled countries, the itinerant friars performed those duties which a stationary minister could but imperfectly discharge.

In those days too, the task of the clergy was comparatively easy: half the work was done for them by the manners of the age, and the effect of surrounding circumstances. Entirely ignorant as the peasantry and populace in Catholic countries are of the true nature of Christianity, they are every where habituated to a strict and regular observance of its forms: and although they are precluded from the use of the Bible, they are nevertheless made familiar with the great and leading facts of Gospel history, by means of images and pictures, which have truly been called the books of the ignorant. It was as natural for our forefathers to respect their church as to love their country. Its symbols were always and every where before their eyes. In infancy they played with the rosary while at the breast, and in age they dropt asleep with the unfinished beadstring in their hands. A relic, an agnus Dei, or some such memorial, was worn at once for a trinket and an amulet. In case of disease they applied to the Saints with more faith than to the physicians, certainly with less danger, and perhaps with more sucA fashionable shrine was more frequented in those days, than a fashionable watering-place in these; and any medicinal properties which a spring might possess were ascribed to the celestial patron who was invoked there, and who was believed to have endued the waters with their healing virtue. Some reference to the usuages of religion was made in almost all the ordinary business of life; the time of day was familiarly denoted by the names of the canonical hours; the quarterly pay-days by the festivals which occurred at those seasons. The regular recurrence of fast-days made it necessary that every housewife should order her table with regard to appointed observances: but the Romish Church was too

cess.

wise

wise in its generation not to perceive how impolitic it would be if these observances related to privations alone; it had, therefore, its feasts and merry-makings also; and the greater holydays were distinguished by some junket for the table, or sport for the day, some of which, in spite of the war which the Puritans declared against them, continue, generally or locally, to keep their ground. In many provinces the village wake still evinces by its name, that the annual season for revelry and joy was connected with the festival of the patron Saint; and perhaps, though such assemblages are seldom or never altogether innocent, the kind of religious sanction under which they were held, imposed upon them some restrictions of decorum, and rendered them less injurious to good morals than they have been since they were wholly secularized. Every thing, indeed, in those ages, tended to impress upon the people, a feeling of the dignity and importance of their Church Establishment. The clergy were then ostensibly as well as actually one of the three estates of the realm. A sense of stability and of protection was felt by those who resided upon their estates. They were the best landlords, and in times of civil war, their tenants were seldom called upon to take part in the danger, like those of the turbulent barons. Feelings of kindness and good will toward the members of this great and powerful body were equally experienced by those who bestowed their bounty upon the mendicant brother, believing that whatever was thus given would be carried to account in their stock of good works, and by those who received a portion of alms at the convent gate, or partook within of its libcral hospitality.

We shall not be suspected of insidiously setting forth the advantages of the old Catholic establishment; nor of overlooking, or unfairly keeping out of sight, the superstitions and frauds and immoralities which were connected with it. Our opinions upon that subject have been too often and too explicitly declared, for any such misconception of our meaning to be possible. The observation of every intelligent person who has travelled in Catholic countries, may safely be appealed to in proof that we have not exaggerated the effect which is produced upon the popular mind by the forms and discipline of the Catholic Church. The general tone of morals among the vulgar may be in some main points far below what it is among the English populace, and in others not above it; but the lowest of the vulgar are not abandoned to a state of utter irreligion. They may have their jest against the priest, and their tale or their proverb against the friar; but this levity leaves no leaven of infidelity behind, it passes as it comes, and the principle of faith remains unaffected. Great evil unquestionably arises from the confidence with which they look to the church as a sanctuary.

from

from the pursuit of justice, and to the confessional as a place where a long score of sin may be wiped off; still there exists a deep and rooted reverence for religious things. The spirit is kept alive by habitual attention to the forms. At whatever hour you enter a Catholic place of worship, some persons will be found, at one or other of its altars, on their knees, abstracted in solitary devotion, whether the church be full, or crowded with spectators. At the hour of vespers you hear the evening hymn from every house in a village; and in the streets of a busy and a populous town, at the sound of the vesper bell, the passengers uncover their heads, and halt, or utter a prayer as they pass on. And who knows how many holy thoughts and healing influences may at such times have entered the heart! how often a check may have been given to temptation; how often wretchedness may have received consolation; and weakness and frailty may have been admonished where to look for and to find support! Comparing the state of mind which is thus produced with that of our own town populace, if the populace alone were considered, we might almost wish that they had still been suckled in a creed outworn.'

Looking back, therefore, upon England, as it was before the Reformation, we find that the population did not, in all probability, reach to a fourth part of its present amount; that the number of religious instructors was at least twofold of what it now is (though the methodist ministers, and the dissenting clergy of every denomination be taken into the account), and that the religion of the country, by means of its forms and ceremonies, was interwoven with the whole business of life. The habits of the people were not migratory at that time. A peasant, perhaps, scarcely ever went thirty miles from the place where he was born, unless he were called away upon military service. There were then no overgrown cities, and the few manufactures which existed were carried on upon a small scale, and in a manner which was neither incompatible with private comfort, nor with public peace and safety.

But even in those parts of the country which are merely agricultural, and where the parochial population continues nearly at its old standard, the influence of the clergyman over his parishioners, for many reasons, never can be what it was in former times, unless there be an extraordinary degree of zeal on his part. Formerly the routine and mechanism of the church did the greater part of the work for him he must now do every thing for himself. The Romanists, persuading themselves that their church service is an actual sacrifice, are persuaded also that the value of that sacrifice can, in no degree, be diminished by the incapacity or unworthiness of the minister by whom it is performed: whoever, therefore, may officiate, the Romanist has the same satisfaction in attending mass,

and