the competency of legislation to prohibit all gross and open violations of them; and to make what is already written on parchment, effectual in practice. That there will be an outcry in the camp of infidelity at any attempt to effect this great object, we must be prepared to expect; but this ought not to deter those who love God, and love their country, from making the attempt and lest it should seem as if only the poorer classes of society were affected by the enactment, we would frame the law so as to include all; we would have the fine, and an adequate fine, apply as much to the rich man who suffers fish, fruit, or poultry to be purchased for his use on Sunday, as on the tradesman who sells it; and so of all other cases, not exempting unnecessary Sunday travelling by post-horses, any more than the cheapest public carriage.

Bishop Porteus devised a plan, which we think might be of great utility at the present moment. In addition to his exertions in the pulpit, and a Pastoral Letter addressed to his clergy, he proposed at a meeting of the Society for enforcing his Majesty's Proclamation, that the higher ranks of society should be invited to bind themselves by a voluntary resolution to observe the Sabbath more strictly and religiously, and that as an example to the lower orders, the resolution should be made public. With this view, the following declaration was then drawn up and adopted: "We whose names are hereunto subscribed, being deeply sensible of the great importance of the religious observance of the Lord's-day to the interests of Christianity and of civil society, do declare that we hold it highly improper on that day to give or accept invitations to entertainments or assemblies, or, except in cases of urgency, or for purposes of charity, to travel or to exercise any worldly occupations, or to employ our domestics and dependents in any thing interfering with their public or private religious duties. And as example and a public declaration of the principles of our own conduct, more peculiarly at this time, may tend to influence the conduct of others we do hereby further declare our resolu-, tion to adhere, as far as may be practicable, to the due observance of the Lord'sday according to the preceding declaration."-Many persons signed this declaration; but, adds the bishop's biographer, Dean Hodgson, “As it always happens, when more than ordinary efforts are made on the side of religion, an outery was immediately raised by the trifling and licentious, and the most shameful misrepresentations of the objects of the society were industriously and widely circulated. Amongst other things it was confidently affirmed in the newspapers of the day, that the declaration was only a preparatory step to the introduction of a bill into parliament, in order to take away from the

common people all the usual comforts of the Sunday-to prevent them from seeing a single friend, or from taking their evening walk-to confine them rigidly in their own habitations, and to oblige them to spend the day in fasting and prayer. In all this there was not and could not be a particle of truth; yet this and other perversions of a most laudable design, but too well answered their purpose, by exciting groundless alarms and prejudices in a part of the community who would otherwise, it is probable, have had no scruple in supporting a measure, the real and the only object of which was a more rational and a more religious observance of the Christian Sabbath." Upon this point the bishop makes the following observation: "That men who wish to see, not only the Lord's-day, but the Christian religion extinguished in this country, should raise such an outcry against a measure calcu lated to preserve both, is no wonder: but that men of sense, of piety, and of virtue should adopt the same language, and join in the profane and senseless uproar, is perfectly astonishing." We should trust that such a measure might be proposed with better success at the present period; and the adoption of it would shew that the friends of religion throughout the land are really in earnest on the subject.

Another topic upon which we scruple not to say, that Christian electors, at the present moment should require a pledge, if not in words, yet in the known character of the individual, relates to the support of the public ordinances of religion, and the integrity of the Protestant faith. In addressing chiefly those, for such are the great majority of our readers, who believe that a national church-establishment is lawful and scriptural, we stand on vantage ground in this question; but we should not fear to address likewise the more candid and pious among our dissenting brethren, those who have not mixed up politics with their religion, or taken up the ultra abstractions of metaphysics rather than plain common sense and experience, and, as we think, both the letter and the spirit of Scripture. Let such men mark the progress of affairs in Ireland. Do they wish that Popery should be paid for out of the national purse? Let them look at England. Have they no fears of infidelity and radicalism injuring religion, under pretext of subverting a church establishment? Are they proof against all the anticipations of the wicked, and the alarms of the good? Is it to be their sine qua non, that their candidate shall join with Papists, Socinians, Deists, and revolutionists, to subvert the Anglican Church? If it be, (though we do not think it is, except to a very limited extent indeed, among orthodox and pious Dissent! ers,) we can only say, that there is double need for caution among those who consider the public ordinances of religion in

a land as an invaluable blessing: and who would have even our remotest colonies and dependencies provided as a national measure with the means of grace. The Dissenter who exults at the state of Ireland, and who joins the machinations of those who would subvert the Church of England, little recks the danger that betides, unless miraculously averted, which we have no warrant to expect, to our common Christianity.

If indeed the Dissenter will exact from his representative, that he will calmly examine into the abuses of our ecclesiastical establishments, with a view to correct them, no good churchman will find fault with his solicitude. Indeed we should ourselves be ready to urge church reform as a test, were we not quite sure that, in the present temper of the times, there will be little need to press it, as it is abundantly clear that the subject will not be lost sight of by the enemies of the church, even if it be by its friends. Our chief fear is, lest, under the name of reform, subversion should be meditated. Should the religious part of the Dissenters ever allow themselves to make common cause with those who would destroy the Church of England, they will be among the first to weep over the effects of their own unadvised proceedings. We are far from being blind to the defects which prevail in the practical administration of our Establishment, but these are corrigible; but what human arm can correct the evils of a state of things like that in France, which many persons now-a-days view as a consummation to be envied?

We have already alluded to the question of colonial slavery; and we have no hesitation in saying, that Christian electors, however averse to the system of parliamentary promises, may and should in this instance require a more than usually decided pledge; both because the subject has been so long before the public, that every man who aspires to be a legislator ought to understand it, and because in no question has there been more disgraceful shuffling and tergiversation, even after much vague and general profession of hatred to slavery, and plausible setting forth of ardent wishes to effect emancipation at some proper and befitting period, when the slaves are duly educated for freedom, and the pecuniary interest of the master is adequately secured, and the change can be brought about with all safety;-in short, in some future distant age, but not in this. Will men be the sooner fitted for freedom by being kept in bondage? To say that the slave shall not become free till he has learned to use freedom aright, is to say that a child shall not take to his feet till he can climb the Alps, or go into the water till he can swim across the Hellespont. Keep him in manacles, and the first proof he will give that he has outgrown them will be, not by imploring

liberty, but by seizing it, as the enslaved population of the West Indies are on the eve of doing, if it be not freely granted them. For how many years has every wise and good man implored the WestIndian proprietor, for his own sake, for the sake of his family, for the sake of the whole White population, as well as for the sake of justice and humanity, to liberate the oppressed and degraded fellowcreatures who toil beyond human endurance in his service, under the torture of the cart-whip? But every remonstrance is mocked and spurned; every enormity continues to be practised and defended, from the flogging of women, to the martyrdom of missionaries, and the massacre of their defenceless converts. Not many months since a disturbance, dignified by the name of a rebellion, occurred in Jamaica, which fearfully shews what will be the issue, if the planters much longer oppose the just hopes of the slaves themselves, and of their friends-the friends of equity and religion-throughout_the world. The slaves had heard that England meditated for them some great boon; which their employers in their unguarded anger declared was destructive to slavery, and as bad as emancipation; so that if the slaves, as the colonists affirm, indulged such a mistake, the Whites have themselves to thank for the issue: indeed, for years they have put themselves into the false position of appearing to their slaves as the withholders of the mercies held out by the mother country; the denouncers of education, civilization, religion, and whatever could tend to raise their brutalized victims to the dignity of man ;-in short, the sole obstacle to their enjoyment of liberty, and all its attendant blessings. Can we wonder that the slaves became discontented? And then they were mulcted of their usual Christmas holiday, the value of which, to persons in their condition, as Lord Goderich observes in one of his admirable statesman-like dispatches, can be estimated only by themselves. They refused to work on that day; they were accordingly hunted into the woods by the musket and sabre: in self-defence or retaliation they set fire to the plantations of their assailants; and how many of them perished by the sword, the halter, the musket, or, more cruel than all, the murderous torture of laceration, will perhaps never be known till the day when such deeds must be accounted for before the tribunal of Omniscient Justice. Add to all this, that almost blackest feature of the whole — religious persecution; think of the stripes and tortures of simple-hearted Christian men, whose only offence was praying to God, and who forgot not in their intercessions the authors of their miseries: think of the edifices erected for the worship of God and the instruction of the poor outcast slave, by the Christian liberality of

English missionary institutions, by the hard-earned savings and costly sacrifices of many of the poor of this world rich in faith, pulled down or burned down by White mobs, affecting to be entitled to the name of Englishmen and Christians, solely lest, in these little Goshens of peace and piety, while the oppressed slave heard of a higher liberty than man can give, he might chance to become so elevated in spirit, as to ask by what law of God he was justly held the thrall of man ;think of Christian missionaries for no offence but their faithfulness to their Divine Master, and their zeal for immortal souls for whom He died, dragged to the drum-head or the dungeon, and within an inch of the gibbet, from which they were rescued only because, as in the case of Him who is the example of every faithful missionary, even false witnesses could not be persuaded so to testify against them as to make their witness agree; or because their persecutors were too cowardly, or too wise to their selfinterest, to perpetrate the murder within the sight and the displeasure of the mother country;-think of these things; -things not of mere newspaper report, but of recent undeniable official document,--and then say, is it wonderful that the slaves are discontented? must they not be more or less than men to be otherwise? And is it wonderful also that the abettors of this system of unmitigated evil find neither in government, parliament, or their fellow-countrymen, any countenance, except among those who are ignorant of its enormities, or biassed by selfish interests to cloak them?

The colonial party begin already to feel the unpopularity of their cause upon the hustings, and are striving to hide its deformity under the specious names of "ships, colonies, and commerce: " as if any man of common information could be made for a moment to believe that any one of these would suffer by the abolition of slavery, any more than when the same outcry was raised, thirty or forty years ago, against Mr. Wilberforce. True it was that Liverpool lost the use of slave ships in supplying slave colonies with the living victims of slave commerce; but is Liverpool ruined? Look at her docks, her rail-roads, her warehouses, her shipping, and compare them with her days of slavetrading. Is she absolutely ruined? Every statesman, every intelligent merchant, knows, and the details are easy of proof, that "ships, colonies, and commerce would all benefit by the introduction of a better system into our West-Indian possessions; but even were the fact otherwise, who that is just, or honest, or humane, would think a few ounces of gold in the one scale a counterpoise for the ocean of tears and blood that presses down the other?

We are obliged by our limits for the present to quit this subject: but we have not

done with it, especially the persecution of the missionaries, respecting which we have a mass of most astounding facts; nor has the nation done with it. Use what artifice, and lavish what bribes the West-Indian interest may, at the ensuing elections, slavery must speedily fall; and we feel assured it must fall before the next parliament shall have sat many sessions, unless in the mean time it be wisely abolished by the local legislatures, or be extinguished with fearful destruction of property and of life by the slaves themselves. The colonists admit with trembling, that the slaves will not long remain in their servile condition, unless the mother country coerce them,and that even coercion cannot last long. Why not then let justice and humanity do their righteous work without bloodshed, and every estate present a happy band of industrious, intelligent, Christian villagers, working for their employers for honest wages, instead of being driven under the lash, and deprived of the greatest blessings which mankind can enjoy for time or eternity? Let Christian electors, as in duty bound, seriously reflect upon these things, and then ask whether they can in conscience give their vote to any candidate who is not prepared to remedy them.

There are many other subjects on which Christian electors should be well acquainted with the principles of those who solicit their suffrages; or rather would we say that they should not allow their suffrages to be solicited where a candidate is what they wish, but press forward to support him without his personal and often painful application. We intend to allude to some of these points on a future occasion, having already outstretched our limits. Need we mention the licentious state of the press; our criminal laws, civil and military; Ireland (what a volume is in that one word); the church and church property; education; intemperance; domestic and international peace; India, and the questions religious and commercial which pertain to it; and various other points? The general view which we wish to impress on ourselves and our readers is, that religion and the things that concern religion, are vital matters in the affairs of a nation; that the Christian is not justified in overlooking them; and that in using his privilege as an elector, he is bound, so far as his opportunity extends, to assist men who will act in the fear of God, making his word their guide, and endeavouring to promote his glory. Our earnest prayer is, that the efforts of all who set up this standard, whether representatives or their constituents, may be abundantly blessed; and that by the blessing and direction of God, the consultations of the next parliament may tend to the advancement of His glory, the good of His church, and the safety, honour, and welfare of our sovereign and his dominions; and that all things may be so ordered and settled by their endeavours, upon the

best and surest foundations, that peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, may be established among us for all generations.

We lament to state, that the malady which has so greatly perplexed the nations, has spread with considerable violence during the last few weeks in various parts of the United Kingdom. At the moment at which we are writing, it appears to be abating; but its ravages are so mysterious and uncertain, that we can only commit the matter, in faith and hope, to Him who is infinitely wise and good. Death is ever near at hand, whether we think of it or not; and those visitations, severe as they may seem, are merciful, which, being sanctified, lead us so to number our days as to apply our hearts unto wisdom. If we truly feel that to live is Christ, and to die gain, we are proof against those shocks which alarm men who make this world their home, and may safely and cheerfully commit ourselves and all we have to the wisdom and love of our heavenly Father.

We know not where to begin or end, if we touch upon the alarmingly critical state of Ireland, regarded in a religious and Protestant view. The first of Mr. Stanley's three bills, namely, that for effecting the compulsory and permanent composition of tithes, is proceeding through parliament but the efforts of the O'Connell party have prevented the progress of the other two, namely, that for appointing a corporation in every diocese for collecting the tithes by public authority, so as to shield individual clergymen from hostile contact with their parishioners; and also that for the redemption of tithes by the landlord. It will be time enough to discuss these plans, should the bills be revived next session. The people now declare they will not pay tithes in any shape; and combinations the most unjust and illegal are every where at work for their suppression; and a system of terror has been introduced, under which any person who receives or pays tithes is civilly excommunicated, and cannot so much as procure a peasant to mow his grass, or reap his corn, or tend his cattle. The RomanCatholic party now openly ask that Popery should be the established religion of Ireland, and the Infidel party join in the cry. Unless the British public bestirs itself in a manner equal to the exigency,

a few months may witness not only the downfall of tithes in Ireland, but of rents and every other species of property. We could have wished that the Established Church in both countries would have been induced to foresee these things, as long since predicted, and to have provided against them. For how many years has the timely settlement of the tithe question been one of the constant themes of our own pages, but to this hour nothing is done; and who that loves our venerable church, believing it to be a blessing of unspeakable magnitude to the civil and religious interests of the land, does not tremble at the prospect? If even twelve months ago our ecclesiastical authorities could have been induced to bring in a bill for a general composition, connected with an equitable plan of redemption or commutation, tithes might have been saved. They may even yet-we mean in England; but may they twelve months hence?

We rejoice to state, that the privy council rejected the appeal for the restoration of the burning of women in India. This may furnish new ground of hope to those who are zealously seeking to effect the abrogation of the cruel and unchristian sanction given by the EastIndia Company to idolatry in that empire.

We have no room for foreign affairs. Don Pedro has landed at Oporto, in the name of his daughter, the young Queen of Portugal; but nothing has yet occurred.-The diet of Frankfort has issued a proclamation, intended to repress the eagerness of the states of Germany for more liberal institutions than they now enjoy ; but the measure appears most ill-judged, and likely to precipitate the very results intended to be prevented.A warm discussion has taken place in the House of Commons, on the conduct of Russia towards Poland. We are glad, however, that while our statesmen, almost without exception, reprobate the unjust and cruel proceedings of Russia, they have agreed, by large majorities, to continue the payments guaranteed to her at the conclusion of the European war, notwithstanding the union between Belgium and Holland, on which it was contingent, is dissolved, that dissolution being acknowledged by England. This is a noble specimen of national honesty and justice.