live in neglect of religious ordinances, is one which glories above the other counties of the state of steady habits, in its conservatism of everything that is lovely and of good report in the Puritan character, the loyalty and order of its peoplethe sanctity of its sabbaths-the prosperity of its churches. It contains no city, and only a few large manufacturing villages. If we wished to give a foreigner the best impression of primitive New England life and character we should introduce him to Litchfield county, Connecticut.

In the second place, the most aggravated instances of religious neglect and degeneracy are in towns and parishes almost exclusively agricultural, containing no villages of considerable size, and no considerable admixture of foreigners. We have taken the pains to select the ten towns or parishes in this county which present the largest percentages of nonattendants at church, and take the average of these percentages. For the benefit of those who may be acquainted with the minute geography of Connecticut, we present the result in a tabular form, as follows:

Those who are acquainted with the character of these towns and parishes will recognize them as belonging to the better class of our native-American, Puritan, farming communities. Nearly one-third of their population belongs in the class of habitual non-attendants on public worship. On the other hand, in its manufacturing towns and villages of New Hartford, Ply

mouth, Wolcottville and Winsted, the average percentage of non-attendants is 16.5, or about one-sixth of the population.

In the third place, the particular school districts which seem most utterly abandoned to ungodliness, are rural dis tricts secluded by their situation and character from the infection of great towns and of foreign immigration. Take, for example, the following from the report of the town of Har

winton:

"PARTICULAR DISTRICTS.-One is specified in extreme south of the town. Thirteen families out of eighteen are non-attendant. No foreigners. "Another in southeast part of the town. Eleven out of thirty families nonattendant. No foreigners.

"Another borders on Plymouth. Eight out of eleven families non-attendant; some of them through infirmity. No foreigners.

“Another, in the extreme west; equi-distant from Harwinton and Wolcottville. Fifteen out of twenty-five families non-attendant.”

Also the following, from the report of Kent:

"PARTICULAR DISTRICTS.-Several districts which present a marked character, are indicated below by arbitrary designations. A.; sixteen families out of twenty-nine, non-attendant. No foreigners. B.; twenty families out of forty, non-attendant. Four foreign families. The moral and religious aspect of this school district has been improving for a few years past.' C.; sixty persons out of ninety-two, non-attendants. D.; twelve families out of sixteen, nonattendant; no foreigners. E.; twelve families, including fifty-four persons, all American, NOT ONE OF THEM ATTENDANT AT ANY CHURCH!"

In the fourth place, with regard to the condition of the foreign population, although many of the towns report it in the usual terms in which we are accustomed to hear it spoken of, there are nevertheless many hopeful indications. The pastor of the church in Newtown, widely known as a man of exact and thorough observation, gives an account of the foreign population in his parish, which is made, obviously, from his personal knowledge, and which presents so interesting and encouraging a view of them that we copy it at length:

"FOREIGN POPULATION.-There are a few German families, perhaps ten, of whom I have learned comparatively little. They are chiefly engaged in the rubber factories, and are thriving. They live in, and near, Sandy Hook, and the Methodists have got a good hold upon them, and are doing them good. Several of the families attend public worship with the Methodists, and a number of

them are members of a Methodist class-meeting. Aside from these, the foreign population are, almost without exception, Irish and Catholics; though the Methodists have two Irishmen of Protestant origin, one of whom is a local preacher. Both are married to American women. The Irish Catholics (including under this head several cases of intermarriage between German and American men and Irish women, in all of which the Irish and Catholic elements carry the day) number, as I have already said, one hundred and nineteen families and five hundred and six persons; for I have not yet learned of a family of these who do not attend worship.

"There is no class of people in this community more industrious than the Irish. Eighty-one of these families own real estate, and it is a common remark, that they stand ready to buy up all the land thrown into market in the town. As fast as our American families fall into decay, and are obliged to sell their property, the Irish catch it up. They buy poor land, and by hard work improve it; and they buy good land, and keep it good. It is a constant marvel to me to see how fast they are getting on in the world. They drink, but not enough to detract noticeably from their pecuniary prosperity. I do not know one of them who can be called a low drunkard; though I presume there are some among them of that description. They are sometimes noisy on Sabbath evenings, and when returning from funerals, but seldom make any great disturbance. In 1855 they bought the Universalist meeting-house in the Center. This house has been built but a few years, and the building of it, with the attempt to sustain preaching, broke down the Universalist Society. From 1855 to the fall of 1859, the Catholics had a monthly service in the church. Last fall an enterprising, intelligent and affable young Irish priest, settled down here, and since that time, worship has been held every Sabbath. He has also purchased a parsonage property for fifteen hundred dollars, and his influence is, by common acknowledgment, beneficial to the Irish, and as good as that of a thorough policeman for the rest of us. I do not know of one of these Catholic Irish who has become a Protestant, or who is leaning that way. Their house was painted last fall. They have an organ and organist, and a choir of singers; and the priest told me in the fall that he should have a Sabbath School. He appears to be a thorough-going temperance man, and is probably doing more in that line than any other minister in town. The Catholic children attend the common schools; and, as yet, no separate school has been opened for them by the priest, though one has been talked of."

Probably this description is not a fair account of the Irish population at large, through the state and country. But it suggests the doubt whether careful and thorough personal observation would not tend, anywhere, to correct the "wholesome prejudices" of those who, in their zeal for the honor of the New England character, are fond of imputing the prevalence of vice and irreligion to "large towns," "foreign population," and "Jesuits."

Mark this. In this town of Newtown, (Fairfield county,) forty-two per cent. of the population is reported as belonging to the class of neglecters of public worship. Of this percentage the large foreign population of the town contributes no appreciable part. The Congregational pastor "has not learned of a family of these who do not attend worship." Deducting from the total population of the town the Irish Catholic element, it appears that of the remainder, ONE-HALF (estimating by families) are neglecters of public worship. Such facts as these contain food for reflection for Pastors, and Home Missionary Societies, and " American " politicians.

Not to enlarge further on the details of this report, we insert, as worthy of the thoughtful attention of Christian patriots, some paragraphs in which the Committee sum up a part of these results for their labor:

"We simply indicate, as a subject of study, certain comparisons which we should be glad to elaborate, but lack the time.

"1. Comparison between the religious condition of cities and large villages, and that of rural districts. It is certainly the popular impression, that the largest proportion of irreligion and immorality is to be found in cities and villages, and that the exclusively farming towns are comparatively pure and godly. The Committee do not wish to make any assertion with regard to this matter; we ask all persons to look at the figures.

"2. Comparison between the central and border districts of parishes. The mere abstracts which we have presented in tabular form, of the School District Reports, give no opportunity for making this comparison. But it is sufficiently evident to the Committee, that in most instances, in proportion as the districts recede in distance from church-centers, they are more irreligious. It is also evident, that there is a steady process of centralizing the Christianity and heathenizing the frontiers of our country parishes. The Christians living remote from church sell their farms and buy nearer the church. The farms thus sold fall into the hands of those to whom the distance from the church is no consideration that affects the price. Or the church-going father bequeaths the place to a son who excuses himself from public worship on the ground of distance, and, for lack of some system that should put every family into the field of labor of some church, there grows up a family of godless children. Thus it has come about, that almost every town has its Hardscrabble' district or region. The Hardscrabbles' have a tendency to increase.

"3. Comparison between the irreligion of the native and that of the foreign population.

“Of course it would be vain to pretend that the condition of the foreign,— especially of the Irish,-population of Connecticut is not far inferior to that of the natives in almost every respect, and most of all in respect to religion. And to this

most of the returns give witness. Nevertheless, it gives us great pleasure to put on record the frequent testimony of pastors and others, to the high and hopeful degree of worldly and moral prosperity attained by the foreign population of many towns. The returns give the impression that the Roman Catholic population do not often sink to so low a grade of heathenism as the irreligious native-born population. They do not entirely abandon some thought of God, and some respect for their own religious observances. Just as an apostate Christian is the most irreclaimable of sinners; just as 'a shameless woman is the worst of men,' so a broken down, godless Connecticut Yankee is the most abject of heathen. Uniformly, the districts most utterly given over to desolation are districts occupied by a population purely native American.

"4. Comparison of various towns and regions as historically and geographically affected. It had been under advisement of the Committee to prepare some notes on this topic,-a very instructive but delicate task. It would give some useful lessons to us, bearing on the contemplated work, if taking the representative towns, we could show the causes that have prevailed in some of them to their decline, and in others to their elevation in the scale of moral and religious character. For instance, in Litchfield county are two adjoining towns, Washington and Kent, not essentially unlike, at first view, in situation and circumstances, but singularly different in religious character. The old parish of 'Judea Society,' in Washington, presents such a record as, perhaps, no parish in Christendom besides can show. Within its territorial precincts, only five per cent. of the population can be counted as habitual neglecters of public worship. In this measurement, no other parish in the state approaches it. In Kent, the percentage of non-attendants is thirty-eight. It might be invidious, but it would surely be instructive, if we could trace the causes that have wrought this differWe commend the study to others.

ence.

"5. Comparison of the size of the ordinary congregation, with the number of the population which reports itself as 'habitually attending' with that congregation. This comparison would be of great value, if founded on a sufficient number of instances. We have the materials, but not the time, for making it.

"6. The supply of Bibles to the community. It had been gravely suspected, before the beginning of this work of inquiry, that with the exception of (at the most) a score or two of towns in which there are Bible Depositories,' the population were without opportunity of purchasing Bibles; that by some strange anomaly, an article not only of universal necessity, but (in this state) of almost universally felt necessity, was not kept for sale by country merchants, nor made in any other way accessible to purchasers. The question, 'Is there any place in your town where Bibles can be bought?' was put to many (not all) of the towns which we have explored, and the answers received are such as fully to confirm the suspicion above stated.

"The cause which has operated to bring about the present strange condition of

* We ask special attention to an interesting statement on this subject, in the report from Newtown.

We find a similar return from North Guilford parish, in New Haven county. Of the substantial accuracy of the report from Washington, however, we have assured ourselves, by special inquiry.