worship, are nevertheless counted, not with the non-attendant, but with the churcb-going families.

6. Then follow illustrative remarks gathered from the district and town reports, and arranged chiefly under these heads: "particular districts," means used," "Bibles," "foreign population."

We give now a few specimens of representative towns in Connecticut, as exhibited in the Report. And to begin with, we take the good old country town of Sharon, in Litchfield county, the home of the patriot-pastor, Rev. Cotton Mather Smith, and of his more illustrious son, Gov. John Cotton Smith, first president of the American Bible Society:

SHARON-ESTIMATED POPULATION, 2,517.

POPULATION REPORTED,

Number of churches in the town, six, to wit: in Sharon parish four, Congregational, Methodist, Episcopal, Roman Catholic. SITTINGS,

2,325

1,350

458

1,808

575

200

775

In Ellsworth parish, two, Congregational and Methodist. SITTINGS,
TOTAL SITTINGS,

The town is unequally divided into two parishes, Sharon and Ellsworth. The latter was set off in 1801. The statistics of the two will be given separately.

SHARON PARISH.-Supposed to contain about two-thirds of the population. There is a considerable Irish element in the population, employed partly in agriculture, and partly in the iron works.

NOTE." Several families are so divided that it is difficult to classify them. Some who attend, wander from church to church. Others who are reported as attending, are not found in the house of God oftener than once in two, three, or four weeks;-some not so often."

PARTICULAR DISTRICTS.-The irreligious districts seem to be, in every

instance, on the frontier of the parish. In three districts specified, "probably not one-fourth of the inhabitants go habitually to church."

MEANS USED.-Sabbath evening meetings sustained by the pastor and brethren of the Congregational Church at four or more outposts. In some cases these are largely attended. Similar labors are prosecuted by the Methodist and Episcopalian ministers. The latter has also a semi-monthly Sabbath School at an out-station.

FOREIGN POPULATION.-Estimated at three hundred,-chiefly Irish. "They are generally industrious, and as they accumulate means, seem inclined to buy land and own a homestead. Chiefly Roman Catholics. Some few are intemperate.

BIBLES.-There is a local Bible Society in effective operation.

PASTOR'S NOTE.-"I propose to spread some of these facts before my own people, that they may see the desolation, and feel the necessity for action."

ELLSWORTH PARISH.-Contains no considerable village, the people American farmers.

PARTICULAR DISTRICTS-In one district thirteen families out of eighteen are reported as non-attendant. "This district is from two to three miles away from any place of worship. Some may be non-attendants for want of conveyance, but probably most from choice."

MEANS USED.-The circulation of the papers of the American Tract Society. These go into most of the families accessible to the Congregational pastor.

FOREIGN POPULATION.-Very small,-consists of French and Irish. "The Irish are Catholics. The French, if Catholics, have but little of the bigotry of that sect; they are generally quiet, peaceable inhabitants, but not attendants on public worship."

We give this as the specimen of a farming town.

Now as

a representative of the manufacturing towns, let us take a flourishing town in Hartford county, to wit:

MANCHESTER-ESTIMATED POPULATION, 3,500.

One of the greatest manufacturing towns in the state. Contains five villages.

The factory operatives are nearly all foreigners. Seven-eighths of these foreigners are Irish.

Six churches. Two Congregational, two Methodist, one Episcopal, one Roman Catholic. TOTAL SITTINGS,

Aggregate ordinary congregations,.

2,470

1,490

NOTE-The above figures are exclusive of the First Methodist Church, which is not reported. The Episcopal meeting-house is open only occasionally, and then at a different hour from the other churches,-so that their congregation (of forty) is not a clear addition to the number of church-goers.

POPULATION REPORTED, six districts,

1,487

per cent.,

32

33

3-68

16

2

Spiritualists,

Non-attendants,

MEANS USED.-" About a year ago a systematic church visitation was made;-visiting and religious conversation through the day-neighborhood meetings in the evening. Great good was accomplished. More than fifty were added as permanent members of the congregation, and some of them united with the church."

In 1851, the church divided, and the Second Congregational Church was organized. Each of the new societies seems to be stronger than the old one; and in Union Village twenty-one heads of families, who before took little interest in the church, are now active members.

As the best parish presented in the Report, we give the statistics of the old "Judea Society," in the town of Washington, Litchfield county:

PASTOR'S NOTE.-"We are not cursed with a dram-shop, and almost every

man is temperate and sober in his habits."

MEANS USED.-From "Davis's Hollow" it is reported: 66 Α prayer meeting has been sustained in this district for nearly five years, at which nearly all the inhabitants attend, even some of the non-attendants on public worship."

And for the worst town (statistically) in the Report, we give the following pitiable record of the town of Weston, Fairfield county, and ask the people of Connecticut to look at it:

WESTON-ESTIMATED POPULATION, 1,060.

The people are mostly farmers, though there are some manufacturers. Churches-Congregational in Weston Center, and Episcopal at Lyon's Plain.

"Devil's Den" is a Sodom without a Lot-not a soul is reported as attending church regularly. This district, with the Upper Parish and Egypt, or The Forge, is in a most deplorable condition, morally and religiously.

MEANS USED.-In Upper Parish, Congregationalists and Methodists hold meetings alternately. At The Forge, the Baptists and Methodists hold meetings once in four weeks; Universalists once in six weeks.

The statistical sketches of which we have given the above random specimens, are more or less complete froin one hundred of the one hundred and seventy towns in the state. The specimens which we have given show that many points were aimed at in the inquiry, and are exhibited in the result. The Committee say that they have gathered information on still other related topics, which they have not yet embodied. But the main point, and the one to which our remaining remarks will be chiefly directed, is,

The proportion of the families of the population which are habitually non-attendant on public worship.

Taking the returns from a single county, that of Litchfield,

as the basis of our calculations, we find in the twenty-five towns of Litchfield county, that, on an average, about twentythree per cent. of the population is included in families that do not attend public worship. We do not mean that twentythree out of every one hundred individuals do not attend church; but that, counting with the church-going population the "halt and maimed," the aged, sick, and infants, and those detained habitually at home by domestic duties, so long as they belong to families who attend church, there still remains nearly a quarter of the population belonging to families that habitually neglect public worship.

But what is the nature of this non-church-going population?-and where is it to be found?

The prejudice and vain conceit of our people is at no loss for an answer. "Of course we must expect to find such things in the cities and large towns,--those 'sinks of iniquity,'--those festering places of vice and immorality.' The large towns are no doubt foci of evil influence by which the surrounding country is more or less affected. But the state is sound. The aspect of cur quiet country Puritan towns, with their "church-going bells' and heavenward pointing spires, and their frequent school-houses, is a sufficient witness for this. And then as for the nature of this population,it is to be supposed at once that it is made up of immigrants of various European nations, who have brought over with them their papistical or infidel old-world habits, and of such of our own children as may have been corrupted by their evil communications. It is quite out of the ques tion to think that our New Englanders have forsaken their steady habits and forsworn their religious character. To be sure, these foreigners, and especially these Roman Catholics, have a great deal to answer for in bringing reproach on our virtuous New England communities."

Such, for substance, is the explanation we have all heard, again and again, of the indications of prevailing irreligion in New England. Now what say the facts and the figures?

In the first place, the county which we have named, and in which we find that twenty-three per cent. of the population